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

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

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Discussion

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
Here you go, best I could do - mid swapping the front suspension back from the mockup new stuff back the old on the other side:


shalmaneser

5,952 posts

197 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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That looks pretty serious!

Do the front trailing arms have any advantages in an off road situation or are they just an artifact of the car's more humble origins?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
A bit of both - it's the Beetle origins, but there is also an advantage when hitting rough terrain as the wheel swings backwards in an arc, which effectively reduces the impact into the chassis and slows down the vertical acceleration of the unsprung parts.

Making a double wishbone mimic it would require the wishbones to be canted back at quite an angle, although you'd probably get more front end grip out of a wishbone setup at the expense of that, at the minute it's rather rear limited anyway.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
And I've just realised those axle stands need pushing back a bit hehe

leglessAlex

5,513 posts

143 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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Gosh, I do love this thread very very very much.

I absolutely cannot wait until this thing is finished. I would really like to see it in the flesh someday.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
You and me both!
Although now we've ironed out the issue we've all got a second wind at the minute so parts are flying back on - a lot of the brackets came off for some lightening work with extra speed holes and zinc plating - on the upside the front is so light now you can lift it with one hand....probably why the axle stands are in the wrong spot hehe

New firmware today has fixed the issues we were having with the dash too so it's literally bolt everything back on and find a decent dyno and we're good.
Maybe some paint.

leglessAlex

5,513 posts

143 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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Oh, actually I meant to ask something but forgot. Seeing as it's been a while since you started the build, will the spec still be competitive?

You say the front end is super light but the car is arse engined, will that imbalance cause problems? Or is it nothing some suspension tweaking can't sort out?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
The competition is getting quicker, there's a few v6 engined 2wds floating around now, quite a few faster 4wds, but I think we'll still make a step forward pace-wise. Time will tell.
If we can't beat all the new 2wd's after a bit of tweaking this year to get everything working I'll be pretty upset/surprised, put it that way biggrin

The rear bias is deliberate to try to generate as much traction as possible - this verion of the car should actually be better balanced than the previous one as all the engine, gearbox, etc, has been pushed forwards to reduce the inertia in yaw (I.E - the engine won't be as much of a pendulum swinging around out there).
If I can get a LSD adapted for the 'box to boost rear traction a bit I might push some weight forwards and retweak the suspension to suit - but for the minute traction is king.

Edited by PhillipM on Thursday 28th March 17:44

Hashtaggggg

1,856 posts

71 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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I have watched you thread for a long long time, when did it last run in a competition?

Great to watch what you are doing. I wish I had 10% of your skills.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
Hashtaggggg said:
I have watched you thread for a long long time, when did it last run in a competition?
Please don't make me count, I'm fairly happy at the minute, are you trying to make me cry? hehe

Long enough that I need to find money to buy a new helmet and hans device frown

leglessAlex

5,513 posts

143 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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2012 I believe...












Sorry Phillip, plz plz still let me come and see it when it's done biggrin

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
You're banned from this thread.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
Almost forgot, but whilst on the subject of limited slip diffs - I do now have an option for one with a little bit of machining, at last.

Unfortunately it's going to be about 600 quid for it, so it's going to have to be dyno and sundries to finish it, buy new helmets and hans devices, and then see what's left over when we're done looking at our wallets and crying hehe

Edited by PhillipM on Thursday 28th March 19:45

leglessAlex

5,513 posts

143 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
PhillipM said:
You're banned from this thread.
cry



I'm just going to go and sit in the corner then getmecoatboxedin

lufbramatt

5,370 posts

136 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
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PhillipM said:
Here you go, best I could do - mid swapping the front suspension back from the mockup new stuff back the old on the other side:

Reminds me of



Been following this build for years love seeing updates :-)

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Thursday 28th March 2019
quotequote all
That's pretty much what it was originally based from!

seefarr

1,493 posts

188 months

Friday 29th March 2019
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I also wanted to check in to say I love this thread! Some lovely enginerding in here - keep up the great work.thumbup

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Friday 29th March 2019
quotequote all
seefarr said:
lovely enginerding.
Oh oh, engineering jokes. Where's the next guy that says he likes this thread but prefers Whitworth?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Saturday 30th March 2019
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Thought I'd let you at least hear a couple of thousand revs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbZXmzDnYQQ&fe...

Throttle response is a little slow currently, but I think it's mainly down to the idle mapping running a bit lean - it stumbles a touch when you first touch the throttle from 1k.
I need to check my changes to the cold start settings I've been making today when she cools off enough, and then I can hopefully richen the idle area and lean the main map out a bit to perk it up.
Got the coils/injectors back up and running in sequential mode as I turned everything to dumb group fire when diagnosing, so timed in the cam trigger wheel and I've done a bit of work on the low-load transients so it picks up nice and cleanly everywhere bar around idle.

Need to get it to the dyno then to get it spot on - it's deliberately tuned on the rich side with a bit of timing pulled at the minute to protect it until then - but basically everything else is setup in the map ready to go.
I'm not sure it'll have any exhaust packing left by then though, it's covered the workshop in it...I got a bit more enthusiastic with the throttle later on as I got it a bit crisper hehe

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,524 posts

191 months

Sunday 31st March 2019
quotequote all
Timed it back in again today because - as I thought earlier - it was off a bit from the previous issues....times the above video by two for how rude it sounds! I got the vast majority of the low down fuelling and timing tweaked a lot closer too as the cold start settings yesterday turned out to be nigh-on perfect - no more stumbling - it certainly picks up on the throttle now!

My grin is getting bigger by the day hehe


Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 31st March 19:55