Crouching gti, hidden dragon

[Mk1@4Motion]

Have never done a track day with a car or a motorbike, but just going to give some constructive criticism. If you turn half a second later and keep it as smooth as possible instead of jolting side to side to keep it on the track I reckon you might be able to hit 1.09 or even 1.08

Like I said never done it before and I think you did really well. Just something to think about for next time.


Only The Good Die Young 45

[alex g]

Seriously???

Great results pal. A true testament to your build quality , and beautifully welded manifold, that it survived the days punishment and performed so well.
Great work , keep flying the mk1 flag.

[Tommie]

The mk1 had its big annual day again at the VW supersprint on the weekend. Due to last minute circumstances it ended up being double-entered as well with a mate also driving. So it REALLY was a big day for a 32yo car with nearly 3 times its original power, and it also had to drive all the way back to Sydney as well.

My goal was to try to break through the 1:10 barrier, into the 1:09’s. In the end I finished with a 1:10.1. The 1:09’s were within reach though, but we cooked the brakes halfway through the day, and after that they were only working at about 75% of their effectiveness. Also, some decent tyre flat-spotting didn’t help either. But, still, not a bad time for a mk1, and it was pumping out 1:11’s/1:10’s throughout the day. My greatest satisfaction however was with the reliability of the car. I never would have previously contemplated double-entering it, and really, it handled the abuse very well. Coolant temp never went over half, oil temp never went over 115C.

But it needs some brake ducting in the future which will be easy to run off the new front airdam. The only other problem I had was some CV grease escaping out of the CV boot and on the straight at high speed it would flick onto the downpipe creating a puff of smoke from under the car. It was a relief to find out that’s all it was.

Here’s a 1:10.1 lap:
[youtube]ZUMpF8gvJ50[/youtube]

Here’s the vid I posted in the supersprint thread where I am being hunted down by the time-attack charade which was the quickest car of the day.
[youtube]dcXxG-ero7o[/youtube]

So, I think I might give the mk1 a bit of a rest for a while. Despite hardly ever updating here, I am almost constantly tweaking and improving this car. But for now, I need a good break from it

Looks like great fun mate. I like how he can't pull away from you on the main straight!

[abreut]

Thanks guys. Alex I still love the beautifully welded manifold.

Mk1@4Motion, you better tell the WTAC charade driver his lines are wrong too, what a coincidence we’re both making the same mistake!

[h100vw]

Mk1@4Motion, you better tell the WTAC charade driver his lines are wrong too, what a coincidence we’re both making the same mistake!

You wouldn't believe how quick this Mk1 is from the outside. In car cameras don't really give the right impression of speed. Torque steer and sliding under brakes is the main reason for the squirrelly looking video. Half a second later braking would have you off the track without a doubt.

#impressedwiththespeedofit

[Mk1@4Motion]

Not braking half a second later, just turn a little later and try pick a line and stick to it. Thats all I am trying to get to. But like I said, your times are fast and would have loved to see it live. But just something to think about.


Only The Good Die Young 45

[abreut]

Thanks h100vw.

Mk1@4motion, what you are seeing jumping around in the 1st video is the forward facing camera itself, it’s not the car. The camera was shaking a lot. As for when to turn in, if you don’t know the track, how could you possibly know the lines? Now I posted these videos to show my car doing what I built it for. If you want to critique my driving, at least look at the back camera view, that camera is not bouncing around (and funnily enough, neither is the car!). Better still, post up some footage of you cracking 1:10 in your mk1, showcasing this ultra-late-apex-super-steady driving technique you speak of. Now that actually would be constructive. Just something to think about..

[abreut]

So at the last track day I discovered that my brakes are getting towards their limit. They definitely got too hot, and I had to get the front discs machined as they were glazed. So it was time to set up some ducting to get a bit of air-flow into the front brakes.

After some investigation it seems the go is to get air flow right into the inside hub part of the rotor as much as possible. The vented rotor acts like an air pump, pumping from the centre and outwards through the vanes of the rotor, so you want to get as much fresh air in there as possible. Seeing as though our calipers are at the front of the wheel hub there isn't much room left, and after my first attempt of routing piping to the rear section of the brake backing plate failed, I was forced to re-try going into the front, just above the calipers. There is just so much movement going on in this area, suspension articulation, struts turning, sway bars, brake lines, wheels swinging, you just cannot get past all of this with decent sized ducting. I was forced to route to the front, so I went from 3" down to 2.5" ducting to suit the biggest pipe I could get into the area.

Here is a modded backing plate. The larger 3" hole was my first attempt. I decided to keep the hole there as this will help vent some of the heat from the inside face of the disc, which tends to get hotter than the outside which gets more airflow through the wheel.


Here it is mounted, you can see a lot of air can get right into the inside of the hub


I had to do some fibreglass mods on the front air dam to create 2 openings.


Here is the routing on the passenger side. I'll eventually get rid of the zip ties and come up with something better


After some test drives, no rubbing at all! If you look closely though you can spot the orange ducting in the wheel well, and in some light it stands out. That should get a few observant spotters wondering what the hell is going on in there

[GeorgeMK1]

Awesome work mate! Have never really seem anything like that before. My track civic actually has the same issue you're describing, let me know how you go with the new mods at your next track day!

[abreut]

Awesome work mate! Have never really seem anything like that before. My track civic actually has the same issue you're describing, let me know how you go with the new mods at your next track day!

I'll let you know shortly as I plan to go down to wakefield in the next couple of weeks. One of the better DIYs guides in my searches was actually a Honda S2000 guy who set it up and tracks his car a lot. He reckoned it prolonged pad/rotor life, and performed noticeably better. It can be the difference between keeping your pads in their optimal heat range, or getting out of that range. My current wilwood pads drop off torque at about 370-400C. I have no idea how hot I am getting them, but it must be more. Mind you last time my car was double entered so it had less time to cool. You can get a paint that you put on the edge of the disc which discolours according to max heat which would be useful.

[abreut]

The gti has come out of hibernation.



I have been living in Japan for a little while. But the gti was not forgotten, and I returned with a little j-spec goodness for it.



This was built at the Kaaz factory just in the next prefecture from me. Kaaz are a bit of a strange company, famous for hardcore motorsport differentials, and lawn mowers. A strange combination! I wanted to pick it up in person and see the factory but they wouldn’t let me. Wouldn’t want those top-secret edge trimmer designs getting leaked..They delivered it for free though.

So, time to build up an 02J to house this baby. I found a DBZ which has the 3.68 FD ratio that best suits my setup. Apparently it had a lazy 1st-2nd syncro so it will be getting brand new syncro’s as well as new bearings. Not to mention a fancy new diff.




The Kaaz LSD is a 1.5 way clutch style LSD. It is more extreme than the current torque-biasing Peloquin I use. Much more motorsport oriented. The clutch style diffs get a bad rap for being noisy, but this one is the new “Special Q” unit which apparently go through a bedding-in and hardening pre-treatment so that chattering noise is cut right down. You don’t even have to do the figure 8 bed-in procedure like you normally do. The 1.5 way aspect is something I am really looking forward. There is partial lock-up under decel. Apparently this really stabilises the car and tends to give you more confidence to brake later into corners. We will see.. Also, no more open diff when the inside wheel gets too unloaded (which did happen at Wakefield)

[abreut]

I took the mk1 down to Marulan for the first time on the weekend. It’s a very tight track so you don’t get to really open it up for that long. But you have to work hard with all of the corners, and a bit of sprinkling rain throughout the day added to the challenge.

I used the opportunity to figure out which of the 2 front sway bars I have works the best for me. After changing the sway bar during the lunch break it was crystal clear to me which one was the best. A track like this was perfect for testing sway bars.

[youtube]X618JORPtLE[/youtube]

[sports racer]

Let me guess, you went with the thinner front bar?

[abreut]

Let me guess, you went with the thinner front bar?

Nope, I went with the bigger bar

25mm vs 20mm. But the 25mm bar is hollow.

[abreut]

Here’s another session from the weekend at Marulan. I’m following a red, apparently 300kw, commodore. It was quite nimble for such a large car. He was using slicks from the Porsche cup series, one of which ended up being destroyed by a lip on one of the concrete verges.

[youtube]bxHITNG7s6M[/youtube]