Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....
Discussion
And a little video here from the return of the Suspension Cam 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSjgk2R0Mw4
Can't see a lot as it's pointing sideways but you can watch the front wheel dangling in the air at the chicane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSjgk2R0Mw4
Can't see a lot as it's pointing sideways but you can watch the front wheel dangling in the air at the chicane
Right, no, we haven't just locked it in a shed and forgot about it.
(Well, alright, maybe we did, for a bit. Beer got in the way over christmas, and new year)
However, it looks like the diff. isn't going to be ready for the first event, which is a pity, but the little elves in the workshop have been busy, we've ditched the rear torsion bars and the housings/bushes they ran in on the rear suspension, because they wore pretty rapidly and it gave really vague toe settings at the rear, which made it a bit in-consistant to drive after a few events.
So, the fabrication-fairies have been in, and kindly made new spring plates at the rear, that now terminate in a rose joint, that bolts into a new bracket made to clamp up to the original rear beam, which keeps the suspension geometery and load paths the same, but shouldn't wear as quickly (same sealed system as my joints on the 306's wishbones) and is a damn sight more precise as the bearing is metal-to-metal now.
At the risk of turning into cheque-book racers, we've also just sorted out some new Fox replacements for the rather tired old Bilstien dampers at the rear too (they are 30 years old now, they deserve a rest!), which means they're on my kitchen table looking incredibly clean and shiny.
They twin rate coilovers with a stop for the tender so they should give us much more options for the rear spring rate and the steps/progression that occurs over the travel too.
And we can't have that, so as usual when I get something shiny, I'll be tearing them to pieces tommorow and changing the valving and oil to my own special-brew...;)
The new radiator and cowling is all welded up and fits beautifully, so when Demon Tweeks get their arse in gear and send us a 60* silicone hose out (Yes, see, even more shiny new stuff, we'll be paying someone to put the kettle on too at this rate. Or we would if we hadn't nicked the wire out of it to run the fans in a last minute repair a few months ago...) the cooling upgrade should be all sorted ready the advent of boost sometime later this year.
Few pictures soon, write-ups are no good without lots of pictures, I know, sorry!
(Well, alright, maybe we did, for a bit. Beer got in the way over christmas, and new year)
However, it looks like the diff. isn't going to be ready for the first event, which is a pity, but the little elves in the workshop have been busy, we've ditched the rear torsion bars and the housings/bushes they ran in on the rear suspension, because they wore pretty rapidly and it gave really vague toe settings at the rear, which made it a bit in-consistant to drive after a few events.
So, the fabrication-fairies have been in, and kindly made new spring plates at the rear, that now terminate in a rose joint, that bolts into a new bracket made to clamp up to the original rear beam, which keeps the suspension geometery and load paths the same, but shouldn't wear as quickly (same sealed system as my joints on the 306's wishbones) and is a damn sight more precise as the bearing is metal-to-metal now.
At the risk of turning into cheque-book racers, we've also just sorted out some new Fox replacements for the rather tired old Bilstien dampers at the rear too (they are 30 years old now, they deserve a rest!), which means they're on my kitchen table looking incredibly clean and shiny.
They twin rate coilovers with a stop for the tender so they should give us much more options for the rear spring rate and the steps/progression that occurs over the travel too.
And we can't have that
, so as usual when I get something shiny, I'll be tearing them to pieces tommorow and changing the valving and oil to my own special-brew...;)The new radiator and cowling is all welded up and fits beautifully, so when Demon Tweeks get their arse in gear and send us a 60* silicone hose out (Yes, see, even more shiny new stuff, we'll be paying someone to put the kettle on too at this rate. Or we would if we hadn't nicked the wire out of it to run the fans in a last minute repair a few months ago...) the cooling upgrade should be all sorted ready the advent of boost sometime later this year.
Few pictures soon, write-ups are no good without lots of pictures, I know, sorry!
Edited by PhillipM on Monday 14th March 00:06
Well, due to having 4 million other things to do we didn't actually get the new trailing arms on in time, although we mounted the new, wider tyres and new rear dampers, plus some modified fronts, and bled the new cooling system through - just about managed to throw the car back together by 5:30pm on Saturday, and head off to Walters Arena for the first event.
Haven't even got this years stickers yet so had to make some temporary numbers up from electrical tape too
Got there at 9.30 after traffic from hell, went to sleep, up at 5:30 and walked around 7.5 miles of muddy Welsh hills
Not the best thing to do in a morning before the racing! Cue two knackered northerners running around like nutters trying to unpack the car, get setup, scrutineered and signed on in the 30 minutes before the drivers briefing....
In a shocking distortion of reality it was actually bloody sunny in Wales for once, which dried most of the standing water up pretty quickly, so apart from going steady for a few laps due to rough riding and a horrible knocking noise, the car ran well all day, no trouble with traction, although it could do with a gear between 2nd and 3rd on some of the steeper uphill slogs!
The horrible noise and rough riding was due to throwing the torsion bars back on in a rush on Saturday and the car sitting on it's suspension like a stilt walker - the rear was running on the droop stops, but altering it would have taken far too long and the new dampers were keeping it in check enough to give us another 1st in class and 7th overall. No problems with the car for once* so we'll get the new suspension on for the next event (Waterbeach) and spend some time setting it up properly. Hopefully we might achieve our aim of a top 5 overall finish this year, it wasn't far away this time.
The good news is the new dampers on the rear and the revamped fronts have got the car handling jumps and ditches far better, I might do a little tweak to the rears but even I'll be struggling to make them much better now, without fabricating some 2/3 way adjusters for them - I'm thinking about it....
Some more good news came over the weekend as Tom from Gripper gave us a ring, who has one of the old differentials to look at with the aim of having a plate-type limited slip made, and after some studying he thinks it's definately possible to drop a unit in that's robust enough for our abuse, so we should have that soon, for some much needed traction
I think that'll have to go in during the summer break when there's a free month between races so we can take our time to build a good gearbox up out of all our spares.
So, a good start to the season with 100pts in the bag, here's hoping the rest goes as well and we can concentrate on making the car faster rather than repairing it for a change!
Haven't even got this years stickers yet so had to make some temporary numbers up from electrical tape too
Got there at 9.30 after traffic from hell, went to sleep, up at 5:30 and walked around 7.5 miles of muddy Welsh hills
Not the best thing to do in a morning before the racing! Cue two knackered northerners running around like nutters trying to unpack the car, get setup, scrutineered and signed on in the 30 minutes before the drivers briefing....
In a shocking distortion of reality it was actually bloody sunny in Wales for once, which dried most of the standing water up pretty quickly, so apart from going steady for a few laps due to rough riding and a horrible knocking noise, the car ran well all day, no trouble with traction, although it could do with a gear between 2nd and 3rd on some of the steeper uphill slogs!
The horrible noise and rough riding was due to throwing the torsion bars back on in a rush on Saturday and the car sitting on it's suspension like a stilt walker - the rear was running on the droop stops, but altering it would have taken far too long and the new dampers were keeping it in check enough to give us another 1st in class and 7th overall. No problems with the car for once* so we'll get the new suspension on for the next event (Waterbeach) and spend some time setting it up properly. Hopefully we might achieve our aim of a top 5 overall finish this year, it wasn't far away this time.
The good news is the new dampers on the rear and the revamped fronts have got the car handling jumps and ditches far better, I might do a little tweak to the rears but even I'll be struggling to make them much better now, without fabricating some 2/3 way adjusters for them - I'm thinking about it....
Some more good news came over the weekend as Tom from Gripper gave us a ring, who has one of the old differentials to look at with the aim of having a plate-type limited slip made, and after some studying he thinks it's definately possible to drop a unit in that's robust enough for our abuse, so we should have that soon, for some much needed traction
I think that'll have to go in during the summer break when there's a free month between races so we can take our time to build a good gearbox up out of all our spares.
So, a good start to the season with 100pts in the bag, here's hoping the rest goes as well and we can concentrate on making the car faster rather than repairing it for a change!
- Well, apart from catching a car up, hitting the horn, and the car in front promptly rolling over onto it's roof....cue muggins here running up a welsh hillside in overalls and helmet waving like a nutter to attract a marshall.
Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 15th March 00:22
It's on the 24th, although most of the cars will be there by the 23rd so they can be scrutineered.
Only problem with waterbeach is being a flat airfield there's not much in the way of jumps or forest/rough terrain, so tends to be straights followed by 90's to keep the average speeds down.
However, having said that, being flat and half concrete/gravel means it's a lot easier to walk around and watch on, and the weather is usually good too.
If you spot us come over and say hello, don't worry if it looks like were busy, we tend to tweak all-sorts between every run, just pre-flight checks
If you have an MSA legal helmet (or my medium'll fit you), and 30 quid spare to join the club for insurance, then we'll strap you in the seat for a run...
Only problem with waterbeach is being a flat airfield there's not much in the way of jumps or forest/rough terrain, so tends to be straights followed by 90's to keep the average speeds down.
However, having said that, being flat and half concrete/gravel means it's a lot easier to walk around and watch on, and the weather is usually good too.
If you spot us come over and say hello, don't worry if it looks like were busy, we tend to tweak all-sorts between every run, just pre-flight checks
If you have an MSA legal helmet (or my medium'll fit you), and 30 quid spare to join the club for insurance, then we'll strap you in the seat for a run...
Edited by PhillipM on Thursday 24th March 13:33
Right, no, we haven't been spending all our time in the pub (more's the pity), just haven't had much time with the photos due to pulling the engine/gearbox/etc all back out again so we could change the clutch (cracked the plate and worn yet another splined center out), and weld in the upgraded suspension bits:
As you can see, the torsion bars have been removed, along with the frankly knackered bushes and spring plates (they wear out rapidly from all the grit that gets in, then the back wheel toes in and out of it's own accord and the car steers where it likes!), the bushes are about £120 a set and when they're dying after an event and knackered after a few it's a bit tiring.
Anyway, if you look, the whole thing has now been replaced with a chromoly rose joint, clamped in double shear between those plates (the gap will be plated over and welded between the pegs to stiffen the whole thing up at the front).
In case you are wondering, the gap between the plates is that large as the rose joint runs side spacers - these serve two purposes - one, they allow me to wrap the joint in a neoprene sealing boot to keep the mud and water out (which will also be packed with grease to reduce the heat and wear in the joint).
In addition to that, the gap should allow the mud to drop out of the back of the plates, to prevent damage to the boot - seems a little backwards having a larger opening for the mud to get in there to start with I know, but with a small gap all you need is one small stone/clump of mud to stick and then all the muddy slop/stones build up behind it.
More pictures soon, I promise
I'll have to as Rob over at www.gtechniq.com has kindly donated some more products that will now work on the side polycarbonate windows, some of their P1 polish, and dirt repellent coating for both the paintwork and the mudguards in an effort to keep the buildup of mud off the car and the stickers visible - seems a little tarty for us I know, but it's not uncommon to scrape 30-40kg of mud off the car if it's a wet event, that's a fair chunk on a light car such as ours.
Personally I think Rob's sitting at home laughing his tit's off at me having to polish this thing, it's gonna take a tub of elbow grease the size of a swimming pool!
Edit: You can also see the upper secondary torsion bar there - the one that runs across the back above the beam - it's attached via rocker arms and rose-jointed droplinks, and can be set as either a secondary spring that lifts the spring rate at a certain point in the travel, or stiffened up and set to use a softer version of a bumpstop to prevent the chassis hitting the floor, depending on the course.
As you can see, the torsion bars have been removed, along with the frankly knackered bushes and spring plates (they wear out rapidly from all the grit that gets in, then the back wheel toes in and out of it's own accord and the car steers where it likes!), the bushes are about £120 a set and when they're dying after an event and knackered after a few it's a bit tiring.
Anyway, if you look, the whole thing has now been replaced with a chromoly rose joint, clamped in double shear between those plates (the gap will be plated over and welded between the pegs to stiffen the whole thing up at the front).
In case you are wondering, the gap between the plates is that large as the rose joint runs side spacers - these serve two purposes - one, they allow me to wrap the joint in a neoprene sealing boot to keep the mud and water out (which will also be packed with grease to reduce the heat and wear in the joint).
In addition to that, the gap should allow the mud to drop out of the back of the plates, to prevent damage to the boot - seems a little backwards having a larger opening for the mud to get in there to start with I know, but with a small gap all you need is one small stone/clump of mud to stick and then all the muddy slop/stones build up behind it.
More pictures soon, I promise
I'll have to as Rob over at www.gtechniq.com has kindly donated some more products that will now work on the side polycarbonate windows, some of their P1 polish, and dirt repellent coating for both the paintwork and the mudguards in an effort to keep the buildup of mud off the car and the stickers visible - seems a little tarty for us I know, but it's not uncommon to scrape 30-40kg of mud off the car if it's a wet event, that's a fair chunk on a light car such as ours.
Personally I think Rob's sitting at home laughing his tit's off at me having to polish this thing, it's gonna take a tub of elbow grease the size of a swimming pool!
Edit: You can also see the upper secondary torsion bar there - the one that runs across the back above the beam - it's attached via rocker arms and rose-jointed droplinks, and can be set as either a secondary spring that lifts the spring rate at a certain point in the travel, or stiffened up and set to use a softer version of a bumpstop to prevent the chassis hitting the floor, depending on the course.
Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 5th April 13:10
This is excellent and I want to have a go at this, having been forced to give up my off road bike racing due illness now.
So what race series is this. What classes of cars are able to race? Just miss the mud and that Tuesday morning feeling after a weekend when you cannot move without EVRYTHING hurting like hell due to having been thrown about like a rag doll!
So what race series is this. What classes of cars are able to race? Just miss the mud and that Tuesday morning feeling after a weekend when you cannot move without EVRYTHING hurting like hell due to having been thrown about like a rag doll!
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....
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... ).
Failing that we'll probably be at some trackdays over the winter again!
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....
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...
).Failing that we'll probably be at some trackdays over the winter again!
Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 5th April 00:28
And a bit of makeshift modifications to the arms to space the rear dampers apart so that we can run springs on both pairs of coilovers, it also grabs the shock in double shear instead of single - as the bumpstops are on the dampers rather than the body now it makes it less likely to bend a bolt on a big impact.
Not the best arm design in the world due to the cut and shut but it's more than functional, we'll probably make a couple of lighter, stiffer ones during the break in the race come summer.
The open area to the right you can see will be plated in with some drilled/pressed 1.2mm steel sheet to tie the upper and lower tubes together, which will stiffen up the connection between the inner damper and the hub without adding much in the way of weight.
In other news, the Bay of E has turned up trumps with a brand new half-decent TIG welder without breaking the racing budget, picking it tomorrow, so lots more formed alloy components and brackets to save weight will be appearing through the year after a bit of practice, hopefully!
Not the best arm design in the world due to the cut and shut but it's more than functional, we'll probably make a couple of lighter, stiffer ones during the break in the race come summer.
The open area to the right you can see will be plated in with some drilled/pressed 1.2mm steel sheet to tie the upper and lower tubes together, which will stiffen up the connection between the inner damper and the hub without adding much in the way of weight.
In other news, the Bay of E has turned up trumps with a brand new half-decent TIG welder without breaking the racing budget, picking it tomorrow, so lots more formed alloy components and brackets to save weight will be appearing through the year after a bit of practice, hopefully!
Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 29th October 13:48
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