Astravan Z20LET Turbo - sleeper
Discussion
Hi all
As some of you would've previously seen on PH, RAW Motorsport had built a turbo astra van and decided it was time to move it on ;
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'd always been semi infatuated by the TWR built, XJ220 engined transit van that currently belongs to Goodward house and had previously been on top gear.
The TWR XJ van exchanged hands at around 100k and this was obviously out the question as a fun toy, so when this 'significantly cheaper version' appeared on PH, I just had to have it.
Several emails and a visit to Southampton later, and we agreed on a price, exchanged cash/shook hand, and it was bought.
Van arrives at my house ;
The full spec of the van is as follows ;
z20let engine
Regal stage 3+map 316bhp@ 0.9bar. Can be pushed to 1.4 if needed
Fully rebuilt engine with ;
Total seal rings
ACL race bearings
ARP rod bolts, stud and nut kit
New LEH pistons
Polished exhaust ports,3 angle valve seats and cut down guides.
Balance shaft delete kit
New oil pump
Inlet cam retard pully
VXR turbo technics Hybrid turbo turbo
Courtney Front mount intercooler
Milltek exhaust system with 100cell cat (custom welded std looking tailpipe)
Itg filter in CDTI air box
Courtney inlet elbow
Hard pipe kit
225 in tank fuel pump
Suspension
Billstein B8 shocks
Eibach springs
Astra coupe 5 stud set up
Rear antiroll bar kit
Wheels and tyres
Vectra 7x16 steel wheels
New Uniroyal tyres all round
Brakes
Astra coupe brakes with mintex racing front pads and Ap fluid
Not your normal van driver information ;
I'll keep this post updated, but the idea is to keep it as sleeper looking as possible, so first job this week has been to source a roof rack and get some aluminium drainpipes that I'll bolt/jubilee clip onto the rack so they're super secure.
Next job is to fit some made up graphics - I'm thinking along the line of these as follows ;
Also, I'll glue a coke can and an old copy of the sun to the passenger side of he dash and maybe get some fluffy dice
After that I'll get a few track days in and use it for sports car baiting
I've put a few hundred miles in already over the last few days and early impressions are great
It generates a decent amount of grip considering its producing 312bhp at the wheels. First gear, obviously, needs to be applied carefully and I've found short shifting into second a quicker way of getting off the line
Corner grip is better than I expected, but it's still a van with all the weight over the front, so it unsurprisingly has a tendency to try and plough straight on into the corners. Still, t's a lot of fun and once on the move, it'll scare some pretty serious sports cars (remember it only was approx 1180kgs I think)
It's hard to compare it to anything as its naturally a very different beast to either my RS4 or TVR, but baiting sports cars this year on the road and a handful of trackdays, I feel is going to be a lot of fun
I'll keep this thread updated as we go along
Cheers
Graeme
As some of you would've previously seen on PH, RAW Motorsport had built a turbo astra van and decided it was time to move it on ;
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'd always been semi infatuated by the TWR built, XJ220 engined transit van that currently belongs to Goodward house and had previously been on top gear.
The TWR XJ van exchanged hands at around 100k and this was obviously out the question as a fun toy, so when this 'significantly cheaper version' appeared on PH, I just had to have it.
Several emails and a visit to Southampton later, and we agreed on a price, exchanged cash/shook hand, and it was bought.
Van arrives at my house ;
The full spec of the van is as follows ;
z20let engine
Regal stage 3+map 316bhp@ 0.9bar. Can be pushed to 1.4 if needed
Fully rebuilt engine with ;
Total seal rings
ACL race bearings
ARP rod bolts, stud and nut kit
New LEH pistons
Polished exhaust ports,3 angle valve seats and cut down guides.
Balance shaft delete kit
New oil pump
Inlet cam retard pully
VXR turbo technics Hybrid turbo turbo
Courtney Front mount intercooler
Milltek exhaust system with 100cell cat (custom welded std looking tailpipe)
Itg filter in CDTI air box
Courtney inlet elbow
Hard pipe kit
225 in tank fuel pump
Suspension
Billstein B8 shocks
Eibach springs
Astra coupe 5 stud set up
Rear antiroll bar kit
Wheels and tyres
Vectra 7x16 steel wheels
New Uniroyal tyres all round
Brakes
Astra coupe brakes with mintex racing front pads and Ap fluid
Not your normal van driver information ;
I'll keep this post updated, but the idea is to keep it as sleeper looking as possible, so first job this week has been to source a roof rack and get some aluminium drainpipes that I'll bolt/jubilee clip onto the rack so they're super secure.
Next job is to fit some made up graphics - I'm thinking along the line of these as follows ;
Also, I'll glue a coke can and an old copy of the sun to the passenger side of he dash and maybe get some fluffy dice
After that I'll get a few track days in and use it for sports car baiting
I've put a few hundred miles in already over the last few days and early impressions are great
It generates a decent amount of grip considering its producing 312bhp at the wheels. First gear, obviously, needs to be applied carefully and I've found short shifting into second a quicker way of getting off the line
Corner grip is better than I expected, but it's still a van with all the weight over the front, so it unsurprisingly has a tendency to try and plough straight on into the corners. Still, t's a lot of fun and once on the move, it'll scare some pretty serious sports cars (remember it only was approx 1180kgs I think)
It's hard to compare it to anything as its naturally a very different beast to either my RS4 or TVR, but baiting sports cars this year on the road and a handful of trackdays, I feel is going to be a lot of fun
I'll keep this thread updated as we go along
Cheers
Graeme
Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 28th April 19:37
Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 28th April 20:39
Japveesix said:
Nice van, would love to see vids of it on the move at some point especially seeing how it compares to anything else "quick" on the road/track
I'll get something sorted soonIn terms of performance comparison, then in a straight line from say 30-90 (2nd/3rd), then it's comparable to my 07 RS4 Avant, but feels quicker due to sheer drama and controlling wheelspin
Not sure I mentioned before, but it revs to 8.5k too (a bit like the Audi, but not as melodically, certainly)
graeme4130 said:
I'll get something sorted soon
In terms of performance comparison, then in a straight line from say 30-90 (2nd/3rd), then it's comparable to my 07 RS4 Avant, but feels quicker due to sheer drama and controlling wheelspin
Not sure I mentioned before, but it revs to 8.5k too (a bit like the Audi, but not as melodically, certainly)
Might sound daft, but a friend has the same engine in a Astra gsi with the rev limited upped and it didn't go any quicker. It just sounded pain-full and the turbo was running out of puff. In terms of performance comparison, then in a straight line from say 30-90 (2nd/3rd), then it's comparable to my 07 RS4 Avant, but feels quicker due to sheer drama and controlling wheelspin
Not sure I mentioned before, but it revs to 8.5k too (a bit like the Audi, but not as melodically, certainly)
What is yours like?
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