Very budget track build

[Clarkj93]

I really do not understand the point in progressive springs, they just seem to ride like crap and give less performance.

Yup! Exactly why I was less than thrilled by the Racingline kit. Every aftermarket progressive spring I've tried has been sh1te. OEM ones are far better, but still not ideal. Linear all the way 

Is that harness tape the OEM style soft felt type stuff? If so it's really good 

yeah mate the oem style, trying to keep  as neat and tidy as possible.

[Clarkj93]

Removed heater core and got a 180 degree ally tube re-route it. I still need to get another jubilee clip and some foil tape and secure it though.



blank silicone plug too



Full setup looks like this to delete the entire heater core and AC:



started gathering wiring. its very scary to start getting it ready to remove and hoping nothing breaks dramatically but a good learning point. I have heard of some other cars of similar age ditching over 10kg from just wiring... I don't think we will ditch that much as its still going to be mot worthy but I will be happy with half that frankly.

[pudding]

Blimey, it's on a proper diet!  Nifty heater bypass 

[Clarkj93]

Been quite a long break! A trip to London, another to Amsterdam, a skiing holiday and working from dawn to dusk every day meant no time whatsoever to keep up to date. I've been trying to force myself to get back into it the last 2 weeks after losing a lot of motivation, good news is I've done some stuff for a change!

Sealed off the firewall, 2mm aluminium plate riveted down and using a heat resistant sealant, then just used some foil tape as a bit of extra thermal resistance to keep the cabin cooler.







Lightened the dash and made it generally easier to install/remove by getting rid of the brackets that are not needed anymore. 1.5kg saved overall which is nothing to be sniffed at considering its free and makes it easier to fit now.





Went in so much easier, took all of about 3 minutes to fit.



Made a new control panel, ABS sheet with carbon look to it.





Lots of little jobs to do and need to do a test of some of the electrics but aiming to book it in within a month. Been doing a bit of reading on what I want/can justify the cost of and what designs I will get value out of. Gussets on A and B pillars  for example look great but the cost to take windshield and side windows out and back in and the labour/material cost would be quite an increase on the overall cost. A rear strut brace and dash bar between the A pillars are simple to add but add a lot of rigidity so great value. Not sure what I am going to do about paint yet though! Definitely want to keep the cost low for paint, as long as it protects it from rust and does not look terrible I'm okay with that.

[pudding]

Good stuff having a break as you don't want car fatigue setting in!

Love that picture of the angle grinder next to the dash with chunks on the floor    Not normally a part you see people attacking with a grinder 

You must be running out of things to remove/lighten? 

[Clarkj93]

Good stuff having a break as you don't want car fatigue setting in!

Love that picture of the angle grinder next to the dash with chunks on the floor    Not normally a part you see people attacking with a grinder 

You must be running out of things to remove/lighten? 

haha yeah almost all of the free weight savings mods done now :(

[Clarkj93]

Battery relocation done!

Trimmed the battery bracket so I could use it to mount a transfer box for the starter cable and the positive cable


Placed the battery then behind the passenger seat. Opted over the boot for a few reasons... simpler install, less cable required, closer to the moment of inertia so can help rotation. Should also help the cross weights a little. Its just a cheap 50 quid mobility scooter battery, starts up fine though! There is a lot removed now though, including the comfort pack so really not many electric modules or features still left to manage.




MOT man mentioned the bearings were going... had a bit of wheel wobble too. Its been sat for a while so I just took all the wheels off sanded down the hubs really well, re-greased and torqued wheels back up and got the tyre pressures right and its fine now! I wonder how many people fall into a false negative and end up paying 200+ quid in part for bearings or double getting the garage to do it.

Also car is officially booked in for the cage  lots planned, lotta money too

I've done a bit of research on cages to get it booked in. So gone for the Production GTI Spec cage that Retro Resus provide with some tweaks so overall its a 6 point cage with a rear strut brace, dash bar, rear X, hoop X and driver seat weld in mounts. The rear strut brace and dash bar make a big improvement to rigidity, have gussetts on A + B pillars do too but not to the same level after some research, they do look awesome though but that would add quite a good chunk of cost to overall build so I left that for now.

This gives you an idea what the outcome will be, these are some retro resus Production gti built cars





They're also going to strip out unnecessary brackets, and trim the boot, and ditch the crash bars and excess metal in the doors themselves and replace front windows with polycarb ones. So after all that it should negate the weight of the cage or be very close anyway. No idea what to do about paint yet Although it will be done at a warmer and dryer time of year so no manic rush to get that sorted.

They're also going to fit Aerocatches to the boot, and strip out the massive chunk of leftover wiring, and then its a geo setup and good to go!

[pudding]

Good work    I wanted to relocate the battery on mine as well, to make room for the much bigger TTS air box, but never got around to it!

[Clarkj93]

Sneak peak today. Went in for a seat fitting so they can weld in the seat mounts in the best location for me. Unfortunately I took terrible photos but looks great so far. Tubing is as close to the chassis as possible, welds look beautiful and the bends are super smooth rather than sharp and weak. Still lots to do of little jobs but the big job is done, need to start working out my paint strategy now. If I lived somewhere hot I would probably leave it as its a shame to cover up such lovely welds and beefy looking steel tubing, but as with everything here it will rust...







I have seen a couple of mk5's out there with the tubing welded to the floor instead of rear turrets which seems either a massive oversight or juts a cheaper/easier way to do it. Not sure why you would leave the opportunity to link the rear turrets together and attach the cage to a stronger parter of the car as opposed to what I presume it double skinned flat sheet steel..

[Mekaniko]

So with the cage in we can say that now it's a proper tracktool, isn't it? haha

Love it and all the build, maybe I should had followed this pad with mine some time ago instead of a OEM restoration...

[Clarkj93]

Now the Mk5's are getting older I really appreciate a perfectly restored mk5 though I must say.

So 2 months later and the golf is back... I almost forgot I had a golf to be honest










I love the back of it now...

The doors have been lightened quite drastically and so has the bootlid but I forgot take a pic of that along with majority of brackets ditched.

So within an hour I decided to start taking it all apart again time to prep for paint! Also you can see the cage a bit better here







I am not sure what colour yet still... I'd love to leave it as bare steel but that is not practical. Currently I'm thinking red to match-ish or go for a grey/silver.

I do have a couple jobs to do before taking it out again. Most Importantly the top mounts... Retro Resus told me they really do not like the Compbrake top mounts on there because they do not engage the strut with enough threads and said they did not think they were a quality product at all. They've advised ground control (obviously, everyone raves about these but £££) or Silver Projects which I was surprised at as they're quite inexpensive I assumed maybe not the best quality but they said they reliable and well made and consistent so I'll be ordering these in soon.

We got to talking about dampers too, I was considering getting GAZ later down the line but they advised against these and said the quality is poor and its not something they would ever advise to fit. They mentioned their favourites for the mk5 were KW Clubsports, Ohlins, AST etc. which you could have probably guessed as these are some of the widely known top performers, otherwise they said they also rate the ST XTA dampers, aside from those they said there are not many others they would recommend and said you won't be gaining much by ditching the bilsteins for other similarly priced dampers typically and the b14/b16 are dampers they like recommended sticking with them.

So that means ditching the front linear springs :( the rears can stay though which I am currently debating whether to go back to  bilstein springs or keep the rear 450 pound springs  which are as stiff as the fronts or thereabouts but are linear. I guess I'll need to do some testing if I want to keep them in the rear.

[Clarkj93]

Had the car at Combe recently:









The inside wheel in this one is just about off the ground if you look closely enough



Golf was super reliable and rapid all day. The pace is really coming along now.

Running around -2.8 degrees front camber/rear camber -2 degrees and 1mm toe out on front and 3mm toe out on rear. It had great corner entry but it still washes out on the fronts when the temps start to rise, despite less grip it has a nicer balance when the tyres are cold. That is the max front camber it can run currently, still deciding whether to change coilover or just fit new top mounts. Tom at Retro Resus told me about using "droop straps" on the rear of the car to reduce droop and lift the inside rear wheel to help rotation, its a cheap mod so something I will be picking up soon.

The brakes 100% need attention though, it is so twitchy on the rear currently when applying brakes. I am sure it is because the mk7 golf R brakes use a larger master cylinder so the rear brakes get applied a fraction before the fronts. I'm currently investigating the idea of fitting a mk7 golf r master cylinder instead and seeing if this fixes the issue.

[Clarkj93]

So as advised by Tom at Retro Resus... Droop Straps!







Its not as easy to adjust as I hoped as its such a tight fit it takes a few attempts to limit the droop to the exact figure you have in mind, you kind of need to just adjust the strap, let the damper release and hope it reaches the correct travel range. If not, jack the damper up again, take out a bit more slack from the strap and hope for the best.

My only concern currently is having to move away from the VAG stretch bolts, as I will need to undo and re-use these bolts multiple times so don't fancy the price tag of multiple VAG bolts or letting them snap after too many uses. I've paint marked them so I will have to monitor how they cope with road and track environments.

As you can see I've also marked the damper just so I can document what settings work well etc and make sure that both dampers are set equally by just eye-balling it.

[Marticus]

Great work, looks awesome glad to see it out on the track. I'm watching with great interest as I have my first track day coming up at the end of the month.

[Clarkj93]

Great work, looks awesome glad to see it out on the track. I'm watching with great interest as I have my first track day coming up at the end of the month.

Nice! Good quality tyre pressure guage, lots of water, lots of sweets and a camping chair are definitely the top things to bring! A notepad and pen is a bonus too, just to make notes from each session of things that went well, things that didn't and things you want to explore next time.