Pastywagon Sprint Dates 2011 - more aero work

[RobT]

Morning all

Following on from our Championship Winning Year in 2010, its time to get cracking for 2011! (thats what a bit of sun and the start of the F1 does for enthusiasm)

2010 can be seen here:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=248592&page=9

Its been a bit of a slow winter car-wise, due to arrival of pit crew number 2 at the end of last year - Henry (aka H-bomb)

Right now havenot even started the car up since September so probably just going to give it a wash, change the oil and get out there.

Have a few mods part way through that could go on though if I pull my finger out. Still getting some engine movement on hard launches so have an engine stabiliser to fit. Also have a new exhaust manifold in progress. More details soon.

Possible dates so far:

April 30 - Aintree
May 1 - Anglesey
June 11/12 - Anglesey
June 25 - Aintree
July 10 - Curborough double lap
Aug 21 - Olivers Mount
Sept 3 - Aintree
Sept 4 - Anglesey

Also need to get a trailer sorted out as are not going to have the car road legal any more - its just too much to drive on the road now with shorter gearing, and quite deafening. Will also make going to the races easier with 2 children in-tow.

Quite fancy one of these:

http://prgtrailers.co.uk/index.php/trailers/lodeck-beavertail

or maybe

http://www.fstrailers.co.uk/brian-james-2600kg-call-01480-best-price-p-365.html

Need one at least 6ft wide so can get the car on without having to change the front wheels.

More as it happens

Ave it

Rob

 

[m0rk]

Olivers Mount looks like fun!

 

[RobT]

Left it too late to get an entry to Aintree but went along anyhow and had a cracking day spectating and catching up with people. Weather was nice and sunny but with a really annoying strong wind blowing all day.

Very large entry given it is a round of the Caterham Academy, and Club Lotus were there in force.

Class 3b was rather undersubscribed with only 3 cars entered - an XR2, a Citroen Visa GTI, and a Mk2 Golf GTI of mate David Reade. David has recently upgraded his engine to throttle bodies and was ironing out the creases still. But fair play he set 2x PBs on the day. Unfortunately he was narrowly beaten by the Citroen by 4 tenths.

Regular 3b runner John Moxham (205 GTI) was trying something a bit different, double driving the newly purchased ex-Andy Platt Dallara F397 F3 car, with a 300+hp Vaux Redtop running methanol. This is a well known F3 car that has been converted into hillclimb spec with Gould wings amongst its mods. Looked a bit scarey to me, and will take some getting used to after a 205....

I think there was a new sports libre record set by this awesome Juno

(note also the black full race Westfield-8 behind it)

and this amazingly prepared SBD westie was something else to watch

Best looker of the day was a tossup between this beautiful Lotus, and the Fezza, which had the most enormous carbon ceramic front brakes

Great day out

Ave it

Rob

 

[m0rk]

Wow at that Lotus.

 

[old 'uns]

Lotus for me.....

hopefully be at Curby, should be back from Le Mans by then!

 

[RobT]

Solid rear suspension topmounts arrived today - very nice - custom job through a friend (Cheers!). Weld in items.

These will enable the fitment of some nice new dampers on the rear, with spherical bearings on both ends of the shock, thus eliminating the big rubber topmounts that are currently fitted.

I am thinking of using Maxton for some new rear shocks as they are close to where I live and have an awesome reputation in the motorbike racing world - currently world sidecar champions as it happens. They are going to come out to see my car and suggest suitable items

http://www.maxtonsuspension.co.uk/

Formula 1/2 sidecar shocks:

Ave it

Rob

 

[RobT]

Finally got round to getting a proper exhaust manifold made - old one had been fine for engine in lower states of tune but I have suspected for some time it was holding the engine back in its more fruity state. No suitable 'off the shelf' item seemed to be available so bit the bullet and had this beauty made

All joints are 'slip' type to allow the system to grow when it gets hot, and to aid assembly/disassembly. Normally there are springs across the tabs in the photo. This is based on a Skoda Super 2000 manifold, with a few adjustments. Its a very long 4-2-1 design as seen also on touring cars and the like, and many well developed hillclimb Caterfields. Thinking being that it gives both the torque of a conventional 4-2-1, and the top end of a 4-1.

We shall see when it hits the rollers.

Well chuffed with how its turned out. Just needs ceramic coating now as its a bit close to the steering rack, bulkhead floor, and inner UJ boot.

Big thanks to Matt at Simpson Race Exhausts for doing a top job.

http://www.simpsonraceexhausts.com/

 

[m0rk]

Very nice. Super long primaries there!

That's got to be a very cosy exhaust tunnefit?l now. Do you have to drop the rear subframe out to

 

[RobT]

There is 'plenty' of room in the tunnel, its just tight where the pipes go over the steering rack they are close to the rack and the underside of the floor. Larger tube would be hard to fit. But they do fit, just.

The whole lot will come out with engine in situ, and without undoing anything. Very nice design. Took me 15mins tops today to take the whole lot off the car.

Edit: 2008 Polo S2000 manifold

Super touring manifold

Very rapid sprint SBD-westfield manifold

 

[old 'uns]

yummy, yummy!

will Ceramic coating cause any issues if repairs/welding needed?
B-in Laws old driver had ex Prodrive Kankunnen car with Ceramic, basically scrap if damaged, 3-4k's worth !

 

[RobT]

Have run the same manifold for past 6yrs which was ceramic coated and its neither broken or had any issues with ceramic. Would expect this one to be the same - no reason why not. Hillclimb cars dont get beaten the same as rally cars I guess.

 

[andyj]

Only just spotted this thread Rob.......



Pickle's coming along nicely this year. New manifold looks awesome!

 

[RobT]

Cheers chaps, dropping the mani off for coating this week so should be able to get it fitted and tried out v.soon

 

[GTi T]

How did the car fair this season Rob?

manifold all good after coating?

Tom

 

[RobT]

Got the manifold back from Camcoat after ceramic coating - well nice! This is the race spec coating which is one layer internally, and 3 layers externally. Colour is like a dark anthracite grey.

http://www.camcoat.com/main/site/

Now for some mapping to see if this brings some power and torque benefits, and hopefully unlock the 48s.

As an aside, went to the Promenade Stages Rally last Sat, on New Brighton sea front at Wallasey - fantastic event - stage rallying on the public roads on the sea front. Apparently this is the only event of its type that is not part of the WRC calendar. Some pics:

6R4 always fantastic, and great sound

Event winners in WRC Scooby

Fantastic Mk2 Escort with Honda S2000 engine

'WRC' fiesta

And Mick Gilman and his WRC Escort - my local rolling road man and top bloke - eventually 6th overall which was a good result given the strong entry

 

[RobT]

Another job that needed doing was to lengthen the steering arms. A while back I had some nice bits made for the front suspension and part of those mods was a steering arm pin to allow the steering arm to be moved up and down to see what effect this had on bump steer. Can be seen here top right with a M14x1.5 female rod end attached. Also enables quick removal of steering arm without need for balljoint separator.

This female rod end screwed straight onto the end of a std VW part, tie rod from a 88-96 Passat (2L 16V with power steering). This is longer than the std Ibiza steering arm by 23mm (342mm vs 365mm) and nicely accomodated the wider track on my car, and the fact that the female rod end is shorter than a standard ibiza rod end.

Alls fine while I was running crossply tires which require little negative camber.

Then I switch to radials which need to be run at -2 to -3 degrees negative camber.

Due to the design of the upright on these cars, adding negative camber causes the car to toe-out. This means that to get back to zero toe (straight ahead wheels), the track rod (which is on the rear of the wheel) needs to get longer. Problem. Run out of thread to safely extend the rack rod any more......hmm.

So simples....need a longer tie rod. Passat one is 365mm with M14x1.4 theads on rack end, and wheel end. Bit of internet trawling and down to German and Swedish to measure some parts up.

Possibles: VW Transporter (79-92) 385.5mm
VW Golf 3 (91-97, GTIs) 371.5mm

Golf 3 would fit fine but still not long enough. Transporter is right on the cusp of being long enough, with correct threads, but not quite enough thead where it fastens into the rack, and it would give no room for further lengthening should I want to add even more camber.

Nothing else with the right threads long enough. Bottom.

So next idea - get a really short tie rod and make a turnbuckle link.

VW Sharan - 183mm long, correct threads

Design we are going for

Extension tube will have M14x1.5 right hand thread on inside (to mate with Sharan inner tie rod) and M14x1.5 left hand thread on outside (to mate with M14x1.5 left hand thread rod end). This arrangement makes toe adjustment very easy by screwing the connector tube one way or the other.

Tube inserts and rod ends available from McGill Motorsports

http://mcgillmotorsports.co.uk/

Tubing will be CDS tube, 2.5mm wall thickness, TIG welded.

Pictures soon.

 

[m0rk]

Nice engineered solution there.

Look forward to the pics

 

[RobT]

Bits coming together. Male high perf. rod ends arrived as have theaded tube inserts. Shopping now for 26 or 27mm OD CDS 2 or 3 steel tube.

1. Top steering arm is off car the length that it was when fitted.

2. Middle is std Ibiza / Golf 2

3. Bottom is new one with rod ends set to mid adjustment both ends. For same length as (1) tube needs to be 212mm long.

Interestingly there are several makes of Sharan inner tie rod. The GSF ones are not that great. Delphi ones off Ebay much better quality and only £17 apiece.

 

[RobT]

Looks like 1" 16swg tube will do the trick - inserts are 22mm OD and tube will be 22.14mm ID with a 1.62mm wall thickness.

£12 for 1.4M. Sorted.

Engineering shop down the road primed to TIG em together.

 

[RobT]

Looks like they did something very similar on the Ibiza kitcar - referred to as 'steering drumsticks' - on the left of the photo