Very budget track build

[Clarkj93]

Yeah they showed them in one of their videos, I couldn't tell you which one though    I saw that and though what an epic idea. I think they bought them in. They didn't mention it being something they made at least. I think they switched to the mega bucks Verkline subframes and arms after that.

I also watched one of REPerformance's videos recently where Ryan took his MK5 down to their dyno as it's a track certified one. Apparently a lot of folk were complaining his MK5 is too fast, so must be cheating by running more power    Sore losers 

Anyway, yeah the forces have to go somewhere when running track suspension and tyres....and when everything else stops breaking, the bodyshell itself then takes the brunt 

Yeah they've cracked a couple of those Verklin subframes mind you. I think some of the btcc cars eithe before or currently didn't even have subframes, just control arms mounted directly to the chassis.

Yeah I did see that actually. Tbh I don't think anyone does as much R&D as Darkside and Area motorsports which is why it's always one of them winning each round and everyone is else trying to grass them up for somethin that's why I'm glued to all their videos to try and get little nuggets of development info.

[Clarkj93]

Ditched the ECS tuning silicone pcv hoses and opted for the genuine ones. The ECS ones were not great frankly - they were very slimey oddly just to touch and the upper one started to tear where the clamp was on. R Tech told me they were not convinced by them too. None of the big power cars have issues with oem ones so going to stick with oem now, think it's really just a case of go full catch can or keep entire pcv system oem.



Bought a 2nd set of 18 inch Monza's, but over ebay online and tbh they're in a right sh*t state. Corrosion everywhere, very annoying. I have learnt my lesson though never buy cheap wheels on the internet  I'll be refurbing them with flap discs and wire wheels to get corrosion off and then just sanding down and doing a quick paint job. These will be the dedicated track tyre set.



It got dropped off yesterday at Retro Resus. God its horrible to drive on the road now I'm sure its great up the brecon beacons and equivelant driving roads but on the m4 it's horrid

They're going to:
Delete the air conditioning
Remove majority of air bags
Shot blast and paint the rear subframe and control arms and install all SP bushes
Corner weight
Set alignment to max front camber,  O.5 degrees less rear camber, 1mm front toe out and 2mm rear toe out

I also noted on the way down the seat is way too high and too far forward despite being as far back as it will go and as low as it will go so hoping they can find a way to fix that too. I also asked for the total weight to be reported so that will be interesting to find out - my guess is about 1250kg

[pudding]

Yeah keep the PCV system OEM as it works spot on    Maybe the ECS hosing isn't oil and fuel rated as it shouldn't be slimy and tear apart easily. Proper industrial Oil/fuel rated silicon hosing is generally far more expensive than regular silicon as it has a special lining in the bore. I say 'fuel' because PCV gases have a lot of unburnt fuel in them, and petrol is a solvent to silicon, which destroys it far quicker than OEM rubber and plastic hoses.

I remember in my very naughty days of dumping the PCV gases to atmosphere via a long regular grade silicon hose pointing at the ground.....yeah....the hose turned to mush after about 6 months 

Deleting the A/C is a quality move, not sure about deleting the air bags though 

[Clarkj93]

Yeah agreed, surprising as I always thought of ECS as the king of VAG tuning and that it was a shame they're only US based with a small amount of their stock making it over here but it is quite dissapointing really.

haha never considered doing that actually, I will try my best to refrain from that approach

Well AC is staying for now... there was some confusion when it was booked and time restraints meant they're going to leave it for now, not that bothered as the bill is large enough already so I might have a crack myself later in the year, just thought if I had to have it de-gassed they must as well do the whole thing. The idea of a blower and some ducting have entered my mind as replacement like this one https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/demon-tweeks-in-line-blower-fans-242248/ so swapping a heavy front end 10kg unit that hurts temps and replacing with a 4 inch electric blower aimed directly at the driver, logistics of that is for another time however.

I still have not picked it up yet as I've been busy but its sat waiting currently for next weekend for me. Hopefully they made a note of total weight as I forgot to ask the other day over the phone.

Josh who set it up last time and who I ran into at Pembrey last year mentioned they cannot adjust the seat as it will hurt the integrity of the seat base so they've left it for now and advised to find some universal side mounts that will have far more extreme options in terms of height available. All air bags are now gone though, they mentioned they can leave the steering wheel one in but it would never go off as the front air bags work off the oem seat belt which is now gone so may as well ditch. I know what you're saying about air bags but with a helmet no air bags is supposedly safer anyway and the amount of road miles will be very small until the car is caged with a harness anyway.

They've put the idea in my head of taking it racing, hillclimbs/sprints will definitely be on the cards for next year but they were mentioning they got have some good links in a few close to home series and can assist in getting to that point... would love to but budget is not there just yet, maybe in a couple of years. It will definitely be going in for a welded up roll cage however next year to meet regs for sprinting and they did mention they can ditch the oem seat mounts and weld in a new base thats custom fit for me so I can try and get it as far back and low as possible that is still drive-able for me and without having to re-engineer the entire pedal and steering wheel position.

I need to stop faffing about with my trying to find extra performance here and there and just focus on getting it to meet regulations, even if its slow in its class at least it is eligibile and being used rather than a fast car that sits on a private piece of land year in year out

So the focus right now and over the next 12 months will be only very cheap and free mods asside from repairs and maintenance to raise those funds which will be things like:
Build up better brake ducting
Remove any weight possible without cost that allows it to remain road legal
Any cheap/easy/free mods to allow better cooling (that actually work!)
Relocate battery
refurb 2nd set of wheels
try again to convert to solid top mounts and linear springs

Anything else is just not needed right now so I need to pull my finger out

Bit boring to have no pics I know but I have been reading and watching a lot of Julian Edgar recently on aerodynamics and would highly recommend to anyone, its made me realise just HOW MUCH can be improved on the golf and how many quite mainstream mods out there are probably hurting drag, IAT's, cooling and lift. He shows just how easy you can test this stuff yourself with about 50 quids worth of equipment, its pretty cool.

[Marticus]

Looks like you're making good progress. Regarding brake ducting, this is something I'm currently playing with.

As there is not much off the shelf I'm playing with 3d scanning and am hoping to eventually have something in carbon fiber pulled from 3d printed molds.

I'm fairly confident that it's achievable, but I'm having to climb a steep learning curve with the 3d design part of things as the scans I took are too big and details for the simple program I was using in the past.

Anyway give me a shout if you have any ideas or want to coordinate, this isn't something I'm trying to profit from I'm hoping to eventually have some designs that anyone can get 3d printed directly in abs, or print molds for carbon / fiberglass.

[Clarkj93]

Looks like you're making good progress. Regarding brake ducting, this is something I'm currently playing with.

As there is not much off the shelf I'm playing with 3d scanning and am hoping to eventually have something in carbon fiber pulled from 3d printed molds.

I'm fairly confident that it's achievable, but I'm having to climb a steep learning curve with the 3d design part of things as the scans I took are too big and details for the simple program I was using in the past.

Anyway give me a shout if you have any ideas or want to coordinate, this isn't something I'm trying to profit from I'm hoping to eventually have some designs that anyone can get 3d printed directly in abs, or print molds for carbon / fiberglass.

Very cool stuff. So my understanding is, with a caliper that requires an adapter like the ttrs calipers and porsche stuff this creates a larger gap from the hub to the caliper allowing more freedom in terms of brake ducting design. This is how it appears in pictures anyway so that is worth noting.

Byc have an interesting idea attaching a bracket to the guide pins here
https://bycdesigns.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=100

Also any alloy hub from a s3/passat/TT will have a sort of wider hub making brake ducting even more difficult to design than with the std gti one.

 I think a duct to the gap between the hub and caliper is probably the best option if possible.

I do have a TT hub in the shed though so I can test fit stuff quite easily and if I need to get hold of a dust shield or cheap caliper to trial it should be inexpensive and quick to check so happy to help.

For the meantime I will jam a double skin duct to the caliper and protect it with silicone tape, it will get crushed on full lock and will need to be maintained but should be an OK temporary solution.

[Marticus]

Good information there thanks, thats a cool product as well.

I havent got to the hub end yet, i had the idea that i could create a modified dust sheild with the ducting exiting there, with maybe some right angle off the back to allow for clearance but that will need some more investigation.

I hadnt even considered different brake types either which is especially short sighted as im in the process of upgrading. But its not going to be a fast process anyway an the good thing about digital design and 3d printing is that its easy enough to modify and change things.

Right now im focused on the intake side and was planning on replacing the current foglight panel with a proper duct, with the possibility of having the intake on the left side split to provide fresh air to an induction kit for example.

Issue is that there are a few obstructions directly behind the bumper there so the intake will have to snake its way around those, again another advantage of 3d printing, but no so easy on the design side.

Anyway like i said, nothing will be ready soon but i will probably make a thread here once i have something more solid to show for my work and to get some feedback from everyone.

[bobby_fodge]

I had that ECS pcv hose and it collapsed when the engine ran. Stuck the original plastic one back on and kept a spare for when it gets brittle and cracks.

[Clarkj93]

Good information there thanks, thats a cool product as well.

I havent got to the hub end yet, i had the idea that i could create a modified dust sheild with the ducting exiting there, with maybe some right angle off the back to allow for clearance but that will need some more investigation.

I hadnt even considered different brake types either which is especially short sighted as im in the process of upgrading. But its not going to be a fast process anyway an the good thing about digital design and 3d printing is that its easy enough to modify and change things.

Right now im focused on the intake side and was planning on replacing the current foglight panel with a proper duct, with the possibility of having the intake on the left side split to provide fresh air to an induction kit for example.

Issue is that there are a few obstructions directly behind the bumper there so the intake will have to snake its way around those, again another advantage of 3d printing, but no so easy on the design side.

Anyway like i said, nothing will be ready soon but i will probably make a thread here once i have something more solid to show for my work and to get some feedback from everyone.

Duct3d have a product for the fog light hole, it looks decent quality. https://www.duct3d.co.uk/shop/p/vauxhall-astra-h-vxr-foglight-adapters-in-black-53y3f-xdwg2-4r3fk

The real challenge is getting it to the centre of the disc and not the disc face while still clearing the drive shaft, it is going to require some funky looking reducing cylinders welded to some sort of bracket I think so that's why I kinda given up on that idea. If my current idea is not enough I'll probably just install an additional set of ducts.

You can definitely heat up the washer bottle and bend it out the way and also the horns brackets they are mounted to are easy to modify with a hammer to allow you to re-position them out the way.

I've actually today ditched my intake duct today, don't think its required. After reading up on some aerodynamics stuff lately the oem intake slot is in a high pressure zone already so adding another duct probably just adds drag and nothing else. But if you just like the look/idea of it then I won't judge

[Clarkj93]

I had that ECS pcv hose and it collapsed when the engine ran. Stuck the original plastic one back on and kept a spare for when it gets brittle and cracks.

I've heard that happen on others before but I definitely believe it could happen on the ECS ones too.

[Marticus]

Duct3d have a product for the fog light hole, it looks decent quality. https://www.duct3d.co.uk/shop/p/vauxhall-astra-h-vxr-foglight-adapters-in-black-53y3f-xdwg2-4r3fk

The real challenge is getting it to the centre of the disc and not the disc face while still clearing the drive shaft, it is going to require some funky looking reducing cylinders welded to some sort of bracket I think so that's why I kinda given up on that idea. If my current idea is not enough I'll probably just install an additional set of ducts.

You can definitely heat up the washer bottle and bend it out the way and also the horns brackets they are mounted to are easy to modify with a hammer to allow you to re-position them out the way.

I've actually today ditched my intake duct today, don't think its required. After reading up on some aerodynamics stuff lately the oem intake slot is in a high pressure zone already so adding another duct probably just adds drag and nothing else. But if you just like the look/idea of it then I won't judge

Haha, interesting, sounds like you're way ahead of me in this process! Good point about the aerodynamics, I had wondered if its possible to get a proper 3d scan of a golf v to do some digital wind tunnel testing on these kind of changes.

The only other option is a lot of track time and real world testing, which could get costly fast.

Outside of the brake ducting this month I was planning on buying aa cheap diy(ish) tempurature monitoring solution with five thermometers for monitoring the intake pathe to the engine, to see where improvements can be made.

It's getting a bit over the top for me who hasn't even had the car on track yet lmao.

[Clarkj93]

Duct3d have a product for the fog light hole, it looks decent quality. https://www.duct3d.co.uk/shop/p/vauxhall-astra-h-vxr-foglight-adapters-in-black-53y3f-xdwg2-4r3fk

The real challenge is getting it to the centre of the disc and not the disc face while still clearing the drive shaft, it is going to require some funky looking reducing cylinders welded to some sort of bracket I think so that's why I kinda given up on that idea. If my current idea is not enough I'll probably just install an additional set of ducts.

You can definitely heat up the washer bottle and bend it out the way and also the horns brackets they are mounted to are easy to modify with a hammer to allow you to re-position them out the way.

I've actually today ditched my intake duct today, don't think its required. After reading up on some aerodynamics stuff lately the oem intake slot is in a high pressure zone already so adding another duct probably just adds drag and nothing else. But if you just like the look/idea of it then I won't judge

Haha, interesting, sounds like you're way ahead of me in this process! Good point about the aerodynamics, I had wondered if its possible to get a proper 3d scan of a golf v to do some digital wind tunnel testing on these kind of changes.

The only other option is a lot of track time and real world testing, which could get costly fast.

Outside of the brake ducting this month I was planning on buying aa cheap diy(ish) tempurature monitoring solution with five thermometers for monitoring the intake pathe to the engine, to see where improvements can be made.

It's getting a bit over the top for me who hasn't even had the car on track yet lmao.

I would highly recommend this book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modifying-Aerodynamics-Your-Road-SpeedPro/dp/1787112837 he talks about how you can measure efficiency of an intake, and any ducting/cooling via a magnehelic guage and some tubing to a high level of accuracy, all can be had for £35 or so.

Its also worth looking at the old BTCC parts that you can still buy here https://absmotorsport.co.uk/product-category/vw-2/golf-mk5/ because AmD who built a mk5 TCR car would have very likely wind tested it and tested thoroughly cooling efficiency. Not that their design can't be improved mind you, as they only used basic bonnet louvre vents for example, but now the modern VAG tcr stuff all use those plus a big vent in the middle of the bonnet with the intercooler completely re-located from the normal front position to at angle pointed out of the middle vent almost on top of the engine.

[Clarkj93]

Back from Retro Resus! Although the throttle body starting mis-behaving on the way back which will need some attention as it almost did not make it home! I'll do a TB alignment and see, if it happens again I'll just stick another 2nd hand one on.



Now fully polybushed front and rear with SuperPro. Interestingly, the ride is substantially smoother which I didn't expect, those old bushes must have just been that bad! I did notice they replaced one of the control arms so it was corroded that bad so it was in quite a state in the end. Another unexpected surprise was the car is much more fuel efficient, a quick 20 minute drive across the motorway to home and 1 or 2 hard pulls so not driving economically really saw over 40mpg on average, nice surprise that!

I did have a chat with the owner Tom at Retro Resus about a cage for next year, got a rough estimated quote for a drive-in/drive-out weld in Production Gti championship spec cage. So next spring hopefully that will get sorted.

As all air bags are now out I forgot I actually have no horn now So I will have to wire in a button soon for that.

Max'ed out front camber (somewhere around -2.3/-2.5 degrees) and 0.5 degree less camber with 1mm toe out on front and 2mm toe out on rear. Looking forward to testing at Castle Combe sometime soon.

Checked cam follower today, I do check it every it about twice a year or so as it doesn't take long once you've worked out how to do it quickly. Still like no wear at all, they do last much longer than a lot people say for sure



Stripped out some wiring from the fog lights too being as they are no longer on the car anyway so may as well cut out



Hard to get a good picture but here are some snaps of the rear end fully powdercoated:

[Clarkj93]

Started refurbing the second set of wheels, damn they were corroded badly. Wire-wheeled/sanded out any corrosion and have started painting. Its a bloody rough job but they're only track wheels so not too bothered.











Attached some brake ducting, got it as close to the centre of the disc as I could with some beefy cable ties trying to angle it, it fouls the duct on full lock but only slightly so not too worried.











I road tested this, with one side with the duct taped up and one side open. No difference though in temps. The disc was about 230 degrees and the caliper about 95 degrees, I usually see double this on circuit so it may not be totally useless yet. I'll have to test this at Combe soon to be 100%, if it still does shows no progress then I will probably get the MQB ducts and modify them to fit the mk5 and leave it at that... https://www.akstuning.co.uk/shop/home/425-genuine-audi-rs3-8v-brake-ducts-retro-fit-for-other-mqb-vehicles.html

Its still only a 2.25 inch duct, 3-4 inch is well written about as the ideal size of a brake duct if required but its hard to find clearance, it can be done though with some strategic modification with a hammer on heat gun I'm certain of it.

I was at Combe just yesterday to watch the racing. Nick Vaughn's Audi A3 was there and is seriously impressive in person. But the Production Gti championship was there too which I was eager to see. Talking about brakes, they use an R32 caliper, but none of the cars I saw were running any brake ducting at all interestingly, they weigh about 1300kg too so not light either. So its very possibly running the golf r caliper with semi-slicks and MQB ducts at the most is more than enough if a similar setup works for those cars and considering Combe is a very tough circuit on brakes too.

So aiming to visit Combe at 7th or 21st July and do some testing, mainly monitoring various engine temps, brake temps and finding the correct hot tyre pressures. My assumption is somewhere between 34 and 30 psi hot.

[pudding]

Yeah agreed, surprising as I always thought of ECS as the king of VAG tuning and that it was a shame they're only US based with a small amount of their stock making it over here but it is quite dissapointing really.

haha never considered doing that actually, I will try my best to refrain from that approach

Well AC is staying for now... there was some confusion when it was booked and time restraints meant they're going to leave it for now, not that bothered as the bill is large enough already so I might have a crack myself later in the year, just thought if I had to have it de-gassed they must as well do the whole thing. The idea of a blower and some ducting have entered my mind as replacement like this one https://www.demon-tweeks.com/uk/demon-tweeks-in-line-blower-fans-242248/ so swapping a heavy front end 10kg unit that hurts temps and replacing with a 4 inch electric blower aimed directly at the driver, logistics of that is for another time however.

I still have not picked it up yet as I've been busy but its sat waiting currently for next weekend for me. Hopefully they made a note of total weight as I forgot to ask the other day over the phone.

Josh who set it up last time and who I ran into at Pembrey last year mentioned they cannot adjust the seat as it will hurt the integrity of the seat base so they've left it for now and advised to find some universal side mounts that will have far more extreme options in terms of height available. All air bags are now gone though, they mentioned they can leave the steering wheel one in but it would never go off as the front air bags work off the oem seat belt which is now gone so may as well ditch. I know what you're saying about air bags but with a helmet no air bags is supposedly safer anyway and the amount of road miles will be very small until the car is caged with a harness anyway.

They've put the idea in my head of taking it racing, hillclimbs/sprints will definitely be on the cards for next year but they were mentioning they got have some good links in a few close to home series and can assist in getting to that point... would love to but budget is not there just yet, maybe in a couple of years. It will definitely be going in for a welded up roll cage however next year to meet regs for sprinting and they did mention they can ditch the oem seat mounts and weld in a new base thats custom fit for me so I can try and get it as far back and low as possible that is still drive-able for me and without having to re-engineer the entire pedal and steering wheel position.

I need to stop faffing about with my trying to find extra performance here and there and just focus on getting it to meet regulations, even if its slow in its class at least it is eligibile and being used rather than a fast car that sits on a private piece of land year in year out

So the focus right now and over the next 12 months will be only very cheap and free mods asside from repairs and maintenance to raise those funds which will be things like:
Build up better brake ducting
Remove any weight possible without cost that allows it to remain road legal
Any cheap/easy/free mods to allow better cooling (that actually work!)
Relocate battery
refurb 2nd set of wheels
try again to convert to solid top mounts and linear springs

Anything else is just not needed right now so I need to pull my finger out

Bit boring to have no pics I know but I have been reading and watching a lot of Julian Edgar recently on aerodynamics and would highly recommend to anyone, its made me realise just HOW MUCH can be improved on the golf and how many quite mainstream mods out there are probably hurting drag, IAT's, cooling and lift. He shows just how easy you can test this stuff yourself with about 50 quids worth of equipment, its pretty cool.

ECS are great, I just wish we had companies like them, Shop DAP and FCP Euro in the UK. I've used ECS several times over the years and they're always easy and quick. They've been good for my Bimmer as well in getting stuff that just isn't available in Europe    The Americans have special tools and fixes for just about everything    Think I might move there 

Anyway, yeah I'm not a big fan of silicon hoses, no surprises there    They do the job but they're nowhere near as hardy as the stock hoses.  I've always viewed them more as engine dressing than anything else    But we try these things and move on to the next thing, so no dramas, it's all good experience 

Dumping the A/C was on my todo list as it's crap anyway, even when working properly, and you can feel at idle the engine doesn't like the extra load of it. It's easy to remove, get a non-AC drive belt from AKS tuning and you're golden    It also frees up more air flow to the intercooler 
I think you just need to put a load resistor on the pump connector and low and high side pressure sensors to stop the HVAC module moaning.

I'm not sure that 4" fan would do a whole lot if you've got a helmet on tbh.  Probably better than nothing though 

Hillclimbs and sprints look like fun. You would probably benefit from a Wavetrac diff to help accelerate you out of the more technical corners, especially the very tight uphill ones.  It's a good circuit for dialling suspension as the car has to change direction much more quickly than a bigger track, which should help on regular track days 

Definitely move the battery to the boot if you can be bothered. The arse end could do with more weight over it.  You could use an R32 size rear silencer and fit the oem R32 battery cubby hole panel? It sits the battery nice and low, which has centre of gravity benefits.  You can also grab an R32 battery harness from a scrappy and wire it all in as per oem, which will prevent any weird electrical fault codes 

So yeah, weight reduction, and also weight redistribution rearwards is the order of the day