Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Yeah there's no runoff whatsoever. The only place where you could come off and be ok is the exit of the first left hander (which is where I ran wide) and the exit of the 2nd right hander that's bordered by Armco but on the exit if you loop it you will come around onto grass.
There were 3 pretty decent offs. One of those mid engine MGF's looped it across the finish and slid down into the gully and crashed over the embankment - in that vid you can see the marks where they went off as the guy comes over the finish line on his 3rd run maybe. That's where my mate went off but went further left and his car stopped a papers width from the concrete. The second incident was an mx5 that got sideways over the line, over corrected and then put the nose of his car up the wall on the right hand side and then came crashing back down flat in the braking area and somehow pulled it up. The big one was at the end though. The guy who was easily fastest all day in a 6cyl powered gemini coupe sports sedan went straight on at the top of the hill before you drop left into that downhill carousel and punched the wall head on. His car was destroyed, he was ok, but said it'd be a long time before we see him again.
Guys in cars like ours will maybe just grab third across the top if they have a 6 speed but 5 speed cars will stay in 2nd. But because of the walls/trees being so close it actually feels really fast. So I change into second just before the first corner and it stays there the rest of the way. Its the tightest track on the state circuit but I love it because it suits the car as you're always in a corner, its very unforgiving - one mistake and you loose your flow. You just have to put the walls and trees out of your mind. A couple of times I don't think I took a proper breath until I was back over the finish line. Its a good rush.

[sambb]

the top 20 or so out of 60 cars at the end of run 1.
final results. fastest times of day after 5 runs.
breakdown of my 5 runs with each split.
the track from the viewing area
the twins getting the anti heatsoak treatment

EDIT: full results here - https://www.mgcarclub.com.au/wp-cont...2A-Results.pdf

[metalhead]

Well done! I've loaded a couple of vids my wife took of the car, but didn't have the gopro set up in the car for this event. Unfortunately I slowed up a bit after my brother had his off in the MGF, but was happy to drag my whale of a street car around as quickly as I did, particularly as I'm still running regular street tyres. I was in the Vette, ran a 61.99 on my second run (https://youtu.be/UTnd6oS4otM). You're getting impressive times out of that Polo!

[sambb]

Thanks buddy. yeah I remember you. I was with my mate up on the hill watching your car get around. That things handles man. I couldn't believe how tidy and agile it was for such a big car. Coming down the hill to the bottom kink I was thinking how the hell are you going to get that turned in and it just darted through- good driving. So whats the go with the MGF. Fixable?

[metalhead]

Thanks! It gets around pretty decent for a big car, they handle alright once you work out how to drive them, though I'm still working on that... I'm still on factory springs (shortened) and bars too (though admittedly my car had the factory 'gymkhana' suspension option with stiffer springs and bars), it's mostly just poly bushes, good shocks and an aggressive alignment. The engine is a fair way from stock though, it was a slug when I bought it. It's purely a street car, I'm just out having a good time.

Yeh, the F was remarkably ok, he drove it home. New blinker, tyre, and bumper and it'll be as good as ever. Amazing really, a metre or two to either side of where he ended up and it could've been a very different story.

I'll have to go back and read through your thread for what's done to your car, I was very impressed at how quick you were. What tyres are you running on?

[sambb]

Man I'm surprised. I didn't see it go into the embankment. I just heard the screech, the silence (so I knew it was on the grass) and then a dull thump. I didn't go over 'cos I hate gawking at accidents - could be me one day. I saw it afterwards and thought for sure the suspension would be bent so sounds like he came out of it ok.
I'm on Yokohama R spec Semi's A050. I'm only on 195/55/15 in G/S soft compound. I stayed with 15's and narrow to keep the rotating weight down and just rely on the compound to do the gripping. In contrast that Megane was on 19in 235's medium compound R888's. The rims are mk3 VR6 - I'm constantly hunting for something light and forged but no joy yet. Once my fronts wear out i'll go with 205/50/15 fronts and put the 195/55's on the back.

[metalhead]

Yeh, very lucky. I know what you mean about accidents and "it could be me"... Nothing bent underneath except the bashplate under the centre (that the car finished up sitting on). Probably a good thing it's mid engined, radiator and that sit a bit back from the front of the car. The car actually lifted up the front and got beached up over the drain.

Sounds good, the A050s seem a popular choice. Yeh, I know Steve's on the R888s, and he's quick too, that's part of why I was so impressed that you were right with him on times. I'm on 285/40R17 Continental ExtremeContact Sports - a great tyre and plenty of it, but with a treadwear of 340 it's certainly not a semi! I am very impressed with them, but I might have to consider a second set of wheels with some semislicks at some point, as much as anything so that I'm not tearing up my road tyres so fast. A set of 18" wheels would probably be better for that - better availability of cheapish wider semis.

[sambb]

To be honest I'm not sure how the pricing of r specs goes once you get up into 17's and 18's. I would have thought that r specs for 17's would be cheaper than 18's though. Once you get out of the yoko A050, toyo, kumho V70A's $$$ brands you might be able to pick up some slightly cheaper Nitto NT01's. I'm pretty sure they are an R spec, although not as sticky as the yoko's you can get them in medium compound, they have a continuous groove running around them which makes them 100% NSW road legal and sometimes you see them on ebay stores for much less than street contis/goodyears etc. Depending on the kays you do you could maybe just run them all the time and it may work out cheaper than street tyres but be better for the track - they'll howl like banshees on the concrete freeway up there though.
found these if you go 18's. still big money but to put it in perspective the motorsport tyre dealers down here want $330 for a single yoko A050 205/50/15: 2X 275/35R18 NITTO NT01 TYRES NEW 275-35-18 2753518 SEMI SLICK DRAG RACE TYRES | eBay

[metalhead]

275/40R17 semis are quite available and reasonable, but there doesn't seem to be much else in (wide) 17" sizes, and my 285/40s are already a bit too short (1" shorter than stock), so I wouldn't consider the 275/40R17s for street use (track would be fine). That means I'd need an extra set of wheels regardless. That being the case, a set of relatively cheap off the shelf 18x10 wheels will fit easy, and there's lots of 265/275/285/295 18" Kumho/Nitto/Nankang semis around for $2-300ea. I do drive the car a lot, it shares daily duties and has racked up nearly 15,000km since Christmas, so I'm not sure that a semi as my only tyre is the right choice just yet anyway.

Anyway, I should probably stop hijacking your thread!

[sambb]

yeah it s tough one with tyres. They make probably the biggest difference to your times but cost so much and bloody wear out!! No worries re hijack - its good to chat to someone who was there. Plus I saw your tee shirt and can see you have very good musical taste - its so rare these days ha ha. I'll be up at Tamworth for the state round and there at Ringwood again at the state round in August so maybe we'll cross paths again eh.

[sambb]

Righto so this was my after hours job on the shifter that I've just (well kind of) completed:
this is what you'll see when you lift the stock gaiter and cut off the o ring clamp underneath the shift knob. Don't be afraid to take this little clamp off as you just need a hose clamp of a matching size to go back on afterwards. You can see that there is an indented strip that runs down the shaft from the top. There is also a band of knurling that runs circumfrentially around the base of the stick and below that is another band that is indented.
This is the forge short shift fitted. The pin can be set to the shortest possible throw ie close to the pivot or stock ie away from the pivot. I set mine to the shortest but with the stock height gear stick I thought it was too notchy and liable to cause synchro crunch if you weren't quick and accurate.
So this was my answer. I found a steel powder coated rod with the exact 12mm ID for a tight sliding fit down the shaft. I had to ream the bottom 15mm out to 12.5mm ID so it would be an interference fit over the knurling. I then drilled and tapped for a 4mm grub screw that fits into the groove below the knurling so the stick can never slide up. I also drilled and tapped for a 3mm grub screw that fits exactly into the elongated ridge in the top of the shaft to prevent twist. This was probably overkill as it as tight as but good insurance - you never know what will happen when things warm up.
This is it fitted up. The standard gear knob sits below 140mm. I had had an earlier go with a stick sitting at 245mm, but even with the short shift on its shortest setting it was still a little long in the throw. I settled on 200mm height in between.The OD of the rod I used was 16mm so I had to drill out/ream the insides of the gear knob for soething just under that so it'd be a really tight press fit onto the steel rod. The forge quick shift takes away all the pendulum action/counterweighting off the shift mech which is why it feels so notchy and rifle bolt like. To make it so that you actually get a good gear stick flow from gate to gate that works well with the gate springing you need (or at least I find you do) to add weight to the gear knob. It dulls down the notchiness and sort of automatically flows into the next gate whereas without it you've got to take it all the way there. I hammered about an ounce of fishing lead sinker balls up into the guts of the gear knob before I reamed it to size and pressed it onto the higher stick. This is the finished product. The top of the gear knob is now level with the A/C pushbutton. The throw is a tad shorter than a stock height shifter with no short shift mech on the gearbox. But you get all the benefits of the higher knob eg closer to the wheel, falls to hand rather than the gorilla reach you need to be comfortable with the oem position knob. It looks stock done this way too.
If you had an even shorter throw(maybe the diesel geek ones are shorter) then you can take the knob even higher wrc style and all you need to do is put a 15 degree bend in the tube above the oem stalk and its a good position. Tried that already but like I said at 245mm high the throw gets a bit long again with the forge short shift.
If you do want to go higher than what I've done (200mm) you are at the limit of what can be done with the stock boot/gaiter. When I go into 4th the boot nearly goes tight so i'll probably have to unpick the staples holding the leather on and reseat the leather 5mm higher at the front of the gaiter frame.
Driving it around it feels great and only thing I'm thinking is that I probably could have added a bit more weight to the knob but all up pretty happy with it.

[metalhead]

yeah it s tough one with tyres. They make probably the biggest difference to your times but cost so much and bloody wear out!! No worries re hijack - its good to chat to someone who was there. Plus I saw your tee shirt and can see you have very good musical taste - its so rare these days ha ha. I'll be up at Tamworth for the state round and there at Ringwood again at the state round in August so maybe we'll cross paths again eh.

Yeh exactly, that's why I've compromised and stuck with the one set of street tyres to date. But I've run about 6,000km and 3 events on these Contis, they're probably half worn, I'd hoped they'd last a bit longer than that. Cool about the music. I haven't run any state rounds, but I have been running the Tri Challenge events, and as many of the multiclub hillclimbs at Ringwood as I can. I'm also trying to run the khanacrosses at Ringwood - you can enter just the tar events and they do all different layouts on the hillclimb track. Cheaper than a hillclimb and you get more track time...

Nice work on the shifter, looks factory. I have heavy shift knobs on a couple of my cars (Vette is a solid metal ball, I also have an old truck with an actual 8 ball), and I like the feel it gives too.

[sambb]

VW / Audi / Seat / Skoda | Haltech - Engine Management Systems

Hello - look at this. It says for AWP 1.8T's. anyone have the lowdown on AWP versus BJX. might have to get in contact with them about this.

sam

[sambb]

hmm its $2400 bucks though.

[metalhead]

What are you using for ecu at the moment? The Haltechs are good. Going to run the Hillclimb at Ringwood at the end of the month?