Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....

Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....

Author
Discussion

wackojacko

8,581 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th April 2011
quotequote all
Fantastic thread ! very amusing to watch/see the inside front rise up on the twisties hehe

poo at Paul's

14,116 posts

174 months

Wednesday 6th April 2011
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
Classes? Virtually anything right from caged production cars up to spaceframe kevlar clothed beasties. There's pretty much a price point for anyone to play at some level, the format is a competetive safari - think laps of rally stage but across country (well, rough tracks and forest jaunts anyway), try marches4x4, awdc.co.uk, norc.co.uk amongst others for regulations. The BCCC and the AWDC (which we run in) are both national championships, the BCCC is the MSA recognised british championship but is run to a slightly different format - less aggressive tyres, smoother stages, etc.

Best bet is just to come along and chat to everyone on the day for a few events, you can see the range of what competes then, and get an idea of the various locations, and there's plenty of people who know where there's an old car or buggy sat in a shed already prepped/caged....biggrin

Like I've said before, if anyone does fancy it, they are more than welcome to jump in the co-drivers seat for a lap if all's going well. Just need to join the awdc on the day (for insurance) and have an MSA-spec helmet (or a Medium head so it'll fit mine...hehe ).

Failing that we'll probably be at some trackdays over the winter again!


Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 5th April 00:28
This sounds so good. I was too old and fat for competitive MX in recent years,races, but still did some "hare and hounds" stuff, 3 hour x country events and was pretty good at them as I could nurse the bike, and stay on board (ie not crash)!

So these car events sound quite similar. Definately going to have a butchers at this, get something road legal to do it in though!

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Wednesday 6th April 2011
quotequote all
Whereabouts are you based? I'll let you know what the nearest events are and when, might be a few people nearby that'll let you look over their cars and give advice if you're lucky. smile

jhfozzy

1,345 posts

189 months

Wednesday 6th April 2011
quotequote all
Phil, will you be at Myherin on the 16/17th of April? As we're going up to spectate on Sunday and will keep an eye out for you if you are.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Wednesday 6th April 2011
quotequote all
BCCC Pikes Peak round?
Might be along to spectate and see how Karl's car goes after the mods, don't know yet - depends how many repairs the buggy needs after Waterbeach! biggrin

I'm not sure if Guy's doing the BCCC with the V10 or sticking with the AWDC now he's won one, might go down with him if he's switching to the British.


We can't really run the buggy in the BCCC because the all terrain tyres would kill us - what with the car being 2wd and not having a LSD in there, there wouldn't be much grip at all - there'd be places where we'd be struggling just to keep it going, n'mind racing.
There's one in the pipeline now thankfully but the race budget is a bit tight at the minute, we'll have to have a whip 'round, who's got a fiver spare? hehe


Edited by PhillipM on Wednesday 6th April 11:36

poo at Paul's

14,116 posts

174 months

Thursday 7th April 2011
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
Whereabouts are you based? I'll let you know what the nearest events are and when, might be a few people nearby that'll let you look over their cars and give advice if you're lucky. smile
I'm in the Midlands area / Bucks.

Definitley come and have a watch of one if there is one not too far off.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Thursday 7th April 2011
quotequote all
poo at Paul's said:
I'm in the Midlands area / Bucks.

Definitley come and have a watch of one if there is one not too far off.
One on the airfield @ Waterbeach on the 25th of this month biggrin

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Monday 18th April 2011
quotequote all
Well, I took a few photo's of some lovely shiny red new parts for you lot tonight smile

Unfortunately, must have had some grease/oil on the lens of the phone camera as they're all blurry as hell, sorry!
I'll try and get some tommorow!

Anyway, all the new suspension is one and setup - the dampers want some valving changes but we're waiting on the new sets of rear springs (for some reason, Demon tweaks and Rally Design don't keep 24" long coilover springs in stock, hehe ), so I'll leave those until I know precisely how it behaves on those. There's also another 20mm travel available with the new parts so I'll need to alter the stops in the dampers anyway.

Waiting on a new paddle clutch arriving (mullered the centre in yet another one), before we can put the engine in and rear cage/bodywork, etc, on though, so going to be some long nights this week!

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Well, the firm that were looking at the clutch don't look like they can make a centre now, so last minute rush around to weld a centre in the old plate and hope like hell that it:

a) Holds up
b) Is ready before friday!

Last minute rush again!
Anyone know a clutch firm that could possibly do a very short notice rush job on a custom drive plate?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Friday 22nd April 2011
quotequote all
Well, springs are here biggrin

Brake pads are here biggrin

Nice clutch firm sent us some new splined centres out for free because they couldn't do us a plate, which are being machined to fit the old paddle plate as we speak biggrin

And the engine is still sat in the corner and half the frame and bodywork is on the floor, 's gonna be a looong day today!


PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Saturday 23rd April 2011
quotequote all
Well, shiny red new arms, casing and rose joints:





Shiny red new XP10 brake pads:



And new damper mounts to allow twin springs so the torsion bars can be chucked:



hehe


Got a final review on the Carbotech XP8 brake pads here too I wrote for another forum, in case someone is looking around for pads:

PhillipM said:
- Initial bite and outright power has been the most consistant (and the highest) of any pad I've ever tried on the car.
- No hint of fade even with the discs glowing red (we use steering brakes, so the inside wheel gets the brake dragging all the way through a corner after braking)
- No undo squealing, in fact, they've been completely silent.
- Modulation and feedback has been good too - it's not often you can consistantly hold a car on the point of lockup even over rough and changing terrain/grip levels, we reeled so many cars in on the brakes last year I thought about sticking a 'Gone Fishing' sign on the car.


- Pad and disc wear is exceptional, I know the pads are a touch more money than most of the competition (although Ian is kindly providing us with some discount to help us out :smthumbup), but the pads have lasted 9 events, 10 test sessions, and a trackday. They'd probably do another 1/2 events if needed.
Previous set of race pads lasted an event and a half, and ate a set of discs every other event.
Disc wear on XP8's is so low I haven't even been able to measure it!

- Work superbly even in cold water and mud - not often a race pad can cope with cold water and a bit of mud, nice to see these held up.

Downsides?
Well, unless they're a bit dusty (pass, wheels are filthy 10s after the start anyway), none, absolutely nothing, bar the steering brakes make them wear a bit faster than the ones up front (which are still only 1/4 worn).

So, this weekend, out went the XP8's and in went these, XP10's.




Oh, and the disc 'wear' after ~15 months of racing abuse.



That'd be, errr, none then.
Just about ready to give it a quick run in the morning to bed the brakes in and then load up and head to Waterbeach, hopefully I'll see a few fellow PHer's there?

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 23 April 01:30

poo at Paul's

14,116 posts

174 months

Saturday 23rd April 2011
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
poo at Paul's said:
I'm in the Midlands area / Bucks.

Definitley come and have a watch of one if there is one not too far off.
One on the airfield @ Waterbeach on the 25th of this month biggrin
Sod's LAw, I am in Hong Kong this weekend!!

But good luck Monday!!

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Saturday 23rd April 2011
quotequote all
24th even, Sunday hehe
Slight calender error smile

edit, you can just about see all the new radiator/pipes/brackets in one of those pictures too.

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 23 April 09:27

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Sunday 24th April 2011
quotequote all
Well, the weather was fantastic, the course was nice - albiet a bit of an outright power course - lots of fast stuff, the engine didn't explode, the temperatures stayed reasonable, all the wheels stayed on, new brake pads feel like someone threw a brick wall in the way, the new suspension held up just fine and the car rides the rough stuff like a bloody magic carpet with a rocket up it's arse hehe

Unfortunately, we had the Curse Of Waterbeach return in an exact re-run of last year the bloody throttle cable snapped just before the finish on the last lap!
After burning our hands and removing a few yards of skin trying to wedge it open to trundle the last straight to the finish in first, we had to give up and take a maximum, a little unfortunate as it was feeling pretty quick all day.

See what we were doing when the run times come through on Tuesday (issue with the timing printer/computer), car was much easier to drive with the new suspension though.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Monday 25th April 2011
quotequote all
Right, the drill and hammer has been out and she now sports 2 throttle cables, take that yer swine hehe

Rear dampers are apart to give a little more damping to match the new spring rates, and the driveshafts have been tweaked to give us another 20mm of rear suspension travel. Next job is to pull the front suspension apart and replace the worn bearings and bushes (again), and perhaps some tweaks to the side scoops to flow some more cool air around the gearbox as the oil is getting a bit warm.

And beat all the dents out of the skid pans with a sledgehammer hehe

Edited by PhillipM on Monday 25th April 13:21

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2011
quotequote all
I think we could use this suspension setup, ideal for Santa Pod...
Either that or fit neons and go scraping around town on a Friday night...



Really must stay off the pies.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Tuesday 3rd May 2011
quotequote all
Definately less pies.


PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Wednesday 4th May 2011
quotequote all
You can see the modified front dampers on that one too - the old Bilstien canisters and floating pistons hooked up with some braided hose to an adaptor running into the original gas-emulsion (well, they're not emulsion now the canisters are on) Fox dampers.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,515 posts

188 months

Thursday 5th May 2011
quotequote all
And another biggrin


gretsch drummer

622 posts

156 months

Thursday 5th May 2011
quotequote all
If you kept those windows shut I bet you could have gone 0.004 of a second faster.

Just a thought next time aye...