The Astra Nurburgendy
Discussion
Thought you might be intrested/laugh at mine and my mates "project", this was written by the owner will and myself and copied from northloop
The year is 2008 and a mate suggests going to Nurburgring and would I like to come? 5 of us wanted to head over and see what all the hype is about so the with 2 of the 5 being a couple, me and two mates decided to take my spare car I had which was mainly used by me to drive to town and abandon when I go for a few drinks. Little did we know it would begin one of the silliest things we've done for a while anyway.
Enter the Vauxhall Astra CDX
In all her glory, 1.8 capacity, 16 whole valves, aircon, traction control, electric everything and a sunroof.
Three of us went to the ring in it, it did the job, it did a scary lap and got us home. For the trip we stuck aload of stickers on cause it seemed right at the time:
She did the lap
it had smashed through northern europe last time, did an unofficial 10.25 lap, and got us home, but this time we wanted a sub 10, the mission was on :!
We started off with some choice mods, eibach springs, whiteline rear anti roll bar and I then took it to James' house to ruin it forever:
This is how she started (note: stickers were removed )
then on Saturday, at precisely 11.17 am, the project began, sponsored by pg tips and some bacon rolls, Me, James, Fad, Warren and James' brother luke did this
now with a plain canvas, the corbeau's from James' corsa were installed, along with some very nice omp 4 points
onto the tyre front, the 195/5 15s wer'nt going to cut it, so we bought these, and some yoko semi slicks from Lee The Legend
we then remeberd the astra was 5 stud, so sold them again, and bought these and mounted them up
and some sexy looking spares (cheers warren)
obviously such delights as the wooden trim and gear knob have stayed for strength reasons (wood lowers the c.o.g)
and the sort of finished article
Days before the trip some more bits got bolted on, not wanting to worry James' that we wouldnt have a car I decided to send him this:
I also managed to put on some braided brake hoses, fluid change, and some cool Astra GSI air ducts that attach to the lower arms and cool down everything.
Our third ring visit was coming up and this was the second time the Astra was returning to Germany, but this time it was prepared for some action. She did over a thousand miles and did 8 laps between Me and James, James managed a 9.45 BTG and was happy with that
After our ring trip we decided we had to go back, we had too many laps that we would waste and who can deny themself another visit? Our last visit was 7 days in duration but the Weekend TF sessions were just too busy and crashy. But we had read about there myth-like quiet TF days that only existed between Monday and Friday, so we planned another visit from Saturday to Thursday.
But before our trip we had to run the WeekendRacer.co.uk stand at Castle Combe's performance action day, so we decided to (Oops I said the F word) about with the Astra some more.
Take one engine bay
Remove aircon
Take some cheap Gaz coilovers (big thanks to Pickford for sorting these out for me!) to sort out the 10 year old dampers and lowering springs.
And fit them like so
Coilovers were fitted on the Friday morning before Combe so I decided to pop down to Mark Fish Motorsport who is just outside of Harlow for him to set the car up and do the tracking for me. After various cups of teas later I went back out to get home and pack my bags for Combe!
The Astra did really well at Combe, felt alot more planted in corners and a little bit faster on the straights which I think was mainly down to the big service it got last week (belt, cam pully sensor, fuel filter, air filter, plugs, oil, oil filter and rebodged the exhaust to fit again)
With the track sessions been and gone I was REALLY excited about Nurburg, the semi slicks were getting to the end of their life, Me and James were planning to get the last out of them!
Nurburg came and went, two amazing sessions of week day TF and we got on the GP track which seemed like whacky races, no sign on, hardly any flags, no helmets needed.
GP
At Karin's apartment
Lining up on Monday
Not found any pics of us on the Ring on our last visit.
Hope you enjoyed reading.
The year is 2008 and a mate suggests going to Nurburgring and would I like to come? 5 of us wanted to head over and see what all the hype is about so the with 2 of the 5 being a couple, me and two mates decided to take my spare car I had which was mainly used by me to drive to town and abandon when I go for a few drinks. Little did we know it would begin one of the silliest things we've done for a while anyway.
Enter the Vauxhall Astra CDX
In all her glory, 1.8 capacity, 16 whole valves, aircon, traction control, electric everything and a sunroof.
Three of us went to the ring in it, it did the job, it did a scary lap and got us home. For the trip we stuck aload of stickers on cause it seemed right at the time:
She did the lap
it had smashed through northern europe last time, did an unofficial 10.25 lap, and got us home, but this time we wanted a sub 10, the mission was on :!
We started off with some choice mods, eibach springs, whiteline rear anti roll bar and I then took it to James' house to ruin it forever:
This is how she started (note: stickers were removed )
then on Saturday, at precisely 11.17 am, the project began, sponsored by pg tips and some bacon rolls, Me, James, Fad, Warren and James' brother luke did this
now with a plain canvas, the corbeau's from James' corsa were installed, along with some very nice omp 4 points
onto the tyre front, the 195/5 15s wer'nt going to cut it, so we bought these, and some yoko semi slicks from Lee The Legend
we then remeberd the astra was 5 stud, so sold them again, and bought these and mounted them up
and some sexy looking spares (cheers warren)
obviously such delights as the wooden trim and gear knob have stayed for strength reasons (wood lowers the c.o.g)
and the sort of finished article
Days before the trip some more bits got bolted on, not wanting to worry James' that we wouldnt have a car I decided to send him this:
I also managed to put on some braided brake hoses, fluid change, and some cool Astra GSI air ducts that attach to the lower arms and cool down everything.
Our third ring visit was coming up and this was the second time the Astra was returning to Germany, but this time it was prepared for some action. She did over a thousand miles and did 8 laps between Me and James, James managed a 9.45 BTG and was happy with that
After our ring trip we decided we had to go back, we had too many laps that we would waste and who can deny themself another visit? Our last visit was 7 days in duration but the Weekend TF sessions were just too busy and crashy. But we had read about there myth-like quiet TF days that only existed between Monday and Friday, so we planned another visit from Saturday to Thursday.
But before our trip we had to run the WeekendRacer.co.uk stand at Castle Combe's performance action day, so we decided to (Oops I said the F word) about with the Astra some more.
Take one engine bay
Remove aircon
Take some cheap Gaz coilovers (big thanks to Pickford for sorting these out for me!) to sort out the 10 year old dampers and lowering springs.
And fit them like so
Coilovers were fitted on the Friday morning before Combe so I decided to pop down to Mark Fish Motorsport who is just outside of Harlow for him to set the car up and do the tracking for me. After various cups of teas later I went back out to get home and pack my bags for Combe!
The Astra did really well at Combe, felt alot more planted in corners and a little bit faster on the straights which I think was mainly down to the big service it got last week (belt, cam pully sensor, fuel filter, air filter, plugs, oil, oil filter and rebodged the exhaust to fit again)
With the track sessions been and gone I was REALLY excited about Nurburg, the semi slicks were getting to the end of their life, Me and James were planning to get the last out of them!
Nurburg came and went, two amazing sessions of week day TF and we got on the GP track which seemed like whacky races, no sign on, hardly any flags, no helmets needed.
GP
At Karin's apartment
Lining up on Monday
Not found any pics of us on the Ring on our last visit.
Hope you enjoyed reading.
Edited by jr@ on Sunday 11th October 17:12
many thanks on the replies
no the car has been ruined for ever now with current spec so no more pub visits
in regards to power, on the last trip i did a 9.27 btg, few mistakes, but the lack of power is really noticable now with grip etc
i want to put a 2.5v6 in it, easy 200bhp, will has a C20LET laying around (he also has a 2.1 C20LET dry sumped corsa C, whilst i have a 2.0 C20XE corsa on throttle bodies beeing built) so between us we'll combine vauxhall bits and do something
no the car has been ruined for ever now with current spec so no more pub visits
in regards to power, on the last trip i did a 9.27 btg, few mistakes, but the lack of power is really noticable now with grip etc
i want to put a 2.5v6 in it, easy 200bhp, will has a C20LET laying around (he also has a 2.1 C20LET dry sumped corsa C, whilst i have a 2.0 C20XE corsa on throttle bodies beeing built) so between us we'll combine vauxhall bits and do something
pincher said:
jr@ said:
onto the tyre front, the 195/5 15s wer'nt going to cut it, so we bought these, and some yoko semi slicks from Lee The Legend
http://corsasport.co.uk/carimages/3999/hpim3170.jp...
we then remeberd the astra was 5 stud, so sold them again, and bought these and mounted them up
http://corsasport.co.uk/carimages/3999/astra_012.j...
Have a http://corsasport.co.uk/carimages/3999/hpim3170.jp...
we then remeberd the astra was 5 stud, so sold them again, and bought these and mounted them up
http://corsasport.co.uk/carimages/3999/astra_012.j...
OwenK said:
Where did you get the structure wheels from? They actually look quite good and I'm finding myself fancying a set if they aren't too dear.
Obviously Vauxhall themselves could supply them but I think they'd probably be pretty expensive - and they don't seem to come up on ebay or on the web anywhere...
We borrowed them from a mate who works at vauxhall when one of the customers had alloys fitted to a allready stocked car iircObviously Vauxhall themselves could supply them but I think they'd probably be pretty expensive - and they don't seem to come up on ebay or on the web anywhere...
borrowed in obviously the loosest term
A c&p from the co builder of the astra
[quote]Originally posted by willay
SOOOOO I got some goodies in the post in the last few days with some more to come, I decided seeing as it was valentines days I'd treat one of my loves to some attention.
First off I decided to fit the steering wheel, once you have the boss n ting everything seems rather straight forward, until i found THIS!!
after scratching my head and drinking tea wondering is this important? I removed it anyway and BOOM fitted the wheel, heres the pics
another pic
this is what it looks like from jr and I's point of view
oh another!
Next up was a job I wasnt really looking forward to after much internet research but turned out to be easy peeeeasy! Removing the sound deading, I started from the back and finished the area where rear seats go, still need to do round the spare wheel well, and both foot wells/under the seats
Tools
Scratching paint is a must
and a big bag of crap to weigh in at the end! Always good to know what i've removed and added weight wise for this experiment.
Thats it for today! alot more to remove but I've got a day off tomorrow so I may dedicate a few hours to the car instead of promising myself I'll go to the gym to work on my other weight reduction project :lol:
Plenty of things coming up before I take it out on track again, I've got some special bucket seats coming next week hopefully and I've also put down an order for a custom cages CL4 club cage. Oh and them all important front plastic windows to f
k off james. thanks for reading :wave:
[Edited on 14-02-2010 by willay]
[/quote]
[quote]Originally posted by willay
SOOOOO I got some goodies in the post in the last few days with some more to come, I decided seeing as it was valentines days I'd treat one of my loves to some attention.
First off I decided to fit the steering wheel, once you have the boss n ting everything seems rather straight forward, until i found THIS!!
after scratching my head and drinking tea wondering is this important? I removed it anyway and BOOM fitted the wheel, heres the pics
another pic
this is what it looks like from jr and I's point of view
oh another!
Next up was a job I wasnt really looking forward to after much internet research but turned out to be easy peeeeasy! Removing the sound deading, I started from the back and finished the area where rear seats go, still need to do round the spare wheel well, and both foot wells/under the seats
Tools
Scratching paint is a must
and a big bag of crap to weigh in at the end! Always good to know what i've removed and added weight wise for this experiment.
Thats it for today! alot more to remove but I've got a day off tomorrow so I may dedicate a few hours to the car instead of promising myself I'll go to the gym to work on my other weight reduction project :lol:
Plenty of things coming up before I take it out on track again, I've got some special bucket seats coming next week hopefully and I've also put down an order for a custom cages CL4 club cage. Oh and them all important front plastic windows to f
k off james. thanks for reading :wave: [Edited on 14-02-2010 by willay]
[/quote]
Darkslider said:
The thing you broke behind the steering wheel is the clock spring/switch. It just connects the steering wheel controls to the rest of the car and normally includes the airbag control as well. Only needed if you've got a wheel with buttons on, i.e horn button or radio controls, but as you've now got neither you shouldn't need it!
indeed i have told will this QUOTE]Originally posted by willay
New year, new plans.
While the Corsa goes through its own personal problems I decided to focus on the Astra, so far its been a award winning platform for fun in Germany and this year I'd like to improve on that and take it to some UK track days.
First mod of the year is plastic windows, decided to start off with the rears only and see how it goes. Lee303 inspired me for the idea and gave me the push for it so big thanks to him.
we used polycarb 4mm thick from the builders, no one does a kit for a mk4 5dr astra funny enough...
Once fitted it was sealed
Lee made a fannytastic bracket
the final weigh in
Thats it for now, next on the todo list:
buy and fit steering wheel (hi rally design!)
remove carpets
remove sunroof
stiffen the shell up abit.
cheers :wave:
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Originally posted by willay
SOOOOO I got some goodies in the post in the last few days with some more to come, I decided seeing as it was valentines days I'd treat one of my loves to some attention.
First off I decided to fit the steering wheel, once you have the boss n ting everything seems rather straight forward, until i found THIS!!
after scratching my head and drinking tea wondering is this important? I removed it anyway and BOOM fitted the wheel, heres the pics
another pic
this is what it looks like from jr and I's point of view
oh another!
Next up was a job I wasnt really looking forward to after much internet research but turned out to be easy peeeeasy! Removing the sound deading, I started from the back and finished the area where rear seats go, still need to do round the spare wheel well, and both foot wells/under the seats
Tools
Scratching paint is a must
and a big bag of crap to weigh in at the end! Always good to know what i've removed and added weight wise for this experiment.
Thats it for today! alot more to remove but I've got a day off tomorrow so I may dedicate a few hours to the car instead of promising myself I'll go to the gym to work on my other weight reduction project :lol:
Plenty of things coming up before I take it out on track again, I've got some special bucket seats coming next week hopefully and I've also put down an order for a custom cages CL4 club cage. Oh and them all important front plastic windows to (Oops I said the F word) off james. thanks for reading :wave:
[Edited on 14-02-2010 by willay] [/QUOTE]
New year, new plans.
While the Corsa goes through its own personal problems I decided to focus on the Astra, so far its been a award winning platform for fun in Germany and this year I'd like to improve on that and take it to some UK track days.
First mod of the year is plastic windows, decided to start off with the rears only and see how it goes. Lee303 inspired me for the idea and gave me the push for it so big thanks to him.
we used polycarb 4mm thick from the builders, no one does a kit for a mk4 5dr astra funny enough...
Once fitted it was sealed
Lee made a fannytastic bracket
the final weigh in
Thats it for now, next on the todo list:
buy and fit steering wheel (hi rally design!)
remove carpets
remove sunroof
stiffen the shell up abit.
cheers :wave:
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Originally posted by willay
SOOOOO I got some goodies in the post in the last few days with some more to come, I decided seeing as it was valentines days I'd treat one of my loves to some attention.
First off I decided to fit the steering wheel, once you have the boss n ting everything seems rather straight forward, until i found THIS!!
after scratching my head and drinking tea wondering is this important? I removed it anyway and BOOM fitted the wheel, heres the pics
another pic
this is what it looks like from jr and I's point of view
oh another!
Next up was a job I wasnt really looking forward to after much internet research but turned out to be easy peeeeasy! Removing the sound deading, I started from the back and finished the area where rear seats go, still need to do round the spare wheel well, and both foot wells/under the seats
Tools
Scratching paint is a must
and a big bag of crap to weigh in at the end! Always good to know what i've removed and added weight wise for this experiment.
Thats it for today! alot more to remove but I've got a day off tomorrow so I may dedicate a few hours to the car instead of promising myself I'll go to the gym to work on my other weight reduction project :lol:
Plenty of things coming up before I take it out on track again, I've got some special bucket seats coming next week hopefully and I've also put down an order for a custom cages CL4 club cage. Oh and them all important front plastic windows to (Oops I said the F word) off james. thanks for reading :wave:
[Edited on 14-02-2010 by willay] [/QUOTE]
New seats turned up!
Time to pop over to Lee's for fitment!
Lee was already busy spraying some strange poles pink
playground frame
Lee made some brackets
Seat looks awesome! makes it feel faster lol - and yeah the harnesses need to be mounted properly....
Outside view!
Roof lining is out... now to look at the sunroof.
Had a look at how the cage sat.. without looking at the instructions so this is actually the wrong position!
The seat felt lovely but it just wasnt secure enough, I've ordered some Corbeau sidemounts to fit it properly!
Next up was to get the dash out seeing as the cage wanted to go through it
Adult took over with the big boys tools
GONE!
Removed, weighed a ton.
Hope we don't have any screws left
Drove it home that night with most of the stuff cable tied in, was very interested lol! Cage on the weekend and hopefully the rest of the plastic windows. Should be interesting
Time to pop over to Lee's for fitment!
Lee was already busy spraying some strange poles pink
playground frame
Lee made some brackets
Seat looks awesome! makes it feel faster lol - and yeah the harnesses need to be mounted properly....
Outside view!
Roof lining is out... now to look at the sunroof.
Had a look at how the cage sat.. without looking at the instructions so this is actually the wrong position!
The seat felt lovely but it just wasnt secure enough, I've ordered some Corbeau sidemounts to fit it properly!
Next up was to get the dash out seeing as the cage wanted to go through it
Adult took over with the big boys tools
GONE!
Removed, weighed a ton.
Hope we don't have any screws left
Drove it home that night with most of the stuff cable tied in, was very interested lol! Cage on the weekend and hopefully the rest of the plastic windows. Should be interesting
[QUOTE]Originally ripped off from Lee's thread
so , a fun packed day at the garage today, felt just like old times tbh, caging up a slightly inappropriate yet brilliant car loll
then, we got on with fitting the cage!!
stripped the dash bar out, cut out some brackets, then started mocking up the foot plates
then lots of removing the cage, fitting the cage, getting git in the right place,
then welded the plates fully, and started proper welding
then just carried on with al the bits and bobs
then i tackled the dash bar, seemed easiest to do this
then got on with fitting the seat properly now e have side mounts, and there was much frivolity involing the ant and dec of the car modding world...
so, a pretty good day, will be finishing off tomorrow and hopefully fitting the front plastic windows and passenger seat, and fitting the dash back in
stickered the nova a touch more today too, just to show it some love…
love it...
[/QUOTE]
James did something!!!
Few cage shots few
Even Lee had a go
So yeah cage is pretty much there, tomorrow has the finishing touches inshore swell as the second seat, headlock of a dash installation, plastic front windows and give it a clean with some fairy liquid.
Big thanks to Lee for sorting out the cage using his man skills which he has developed by hanging around with a bunch of drive-thru nova owners.. I also had a go of the welding for the first time thanks to Lee and you can defiantly tell which bits are mine :lol: good fun though! Time for some much needed rest.
so , a fun packed day at the garage today, felt just like old times tbh, caging up a slightly inappropriate yet brilliant car loll
then, we got on with fitting the cage!!
stripped the dash bar out, cut out some brackets, then started mocking up the foot plates
then lots of removing the cage, fitting the cage, getting git in the right place,
then welded the plates fully, and started proper welding
then just carried on with al the bits and bobs
then i tackled the dash bar, seemed easiest to do this
then got on with fitting the seat properly now e have side mounts, and there was much frivolity involing the ant and dec of the car modding world...
so, a pretty good day, will be finishing off tomorrow and hopefully fitting the front plastic windows and passenger seat, and fitting the dash back in
stickered the nova a touch more today too, just to show it some love…
love it...
[/QUOTE]
James did something!!!
Few cage shots few
Even Lee had a go
So yeah cage is pretty much there, tomorrow has the finishing touches inshore swell as the second seat, headlock of a dash installation, plastic front windows and give it a clean with some fairy liquid.
Big thanks to Lee for sorting out the cage using his man skills which he has developed by hanging around with a bunch of drive-thru nova owners.. I also had a go of the welding for the first time thanks to Lee and you can defiantly tell which bits are mine :lol: good fun though! Time for some much needed rest.
[quote]Originally posted by SVM 286
righty, so a bit more shonky fun today, got 99% of the stuff done, just needs some finishing touches now
fitted a harness bar...
and yes, i know they aint quite level with each other, but the cope i did by eye fitted the cage so well it seemed stupid to redo it just for the sake of 5mm lmao
also got the dash back in, its probably not 100% where it was before, but it fits!! lmao
then got on with some sliders and front plastic, once willay had removed the mechanisms and glass
and fitted both the seats
and then it was off for a drive, willay said he noticed how much stiffer it was immediately(wahay!!!) i had a go and it feels pretty good, a few tweaks may be on the horizon though, as ever once you do big changes you find things you'd like to do to make them slightly better...
did sticker it up though!!:thumbs:
so, a brilliant weekend all together
:lol:
righty, so a bit more shonky fun today, got 99% of the stuff done, just needs some finishing touches now
fitted a harness bar...
and yes, i know they aint quite level with each other, but the cope i did by eye fitted the cage so well it seemed stupid to redo it just for the sake of 5mm lmao
also got the dash back in, its probably not 100% where it was before, but it fits!! lmao
then got on with some sliders and front plastic, once willay had removed the mechanisms and glass
and fitted both the seats
and then it was off for a drive, willay said he noticed how much stiffer it was immediately(wahay!!!
) i had a go and it feels pretty good, a few tweaks may be on the horizon though, as ever once you do big changes you find things you'd like to do to make them slightly better...did sticker it up though!!:thumbs:
so, a brilliant weekend all together
:lol:mark_mcd said:
Awesome thread. Just shows you can make almost anything a decent track tool with a bit of thought. Can I ask what you've spent on it roughly so far?
edit: and have you weighed it yet?
ermm Will has spent recentlyedit: and have you weighed it yet?
Edited by mark_mcd on Tuesday 30th March 22:05
£600 on seats
£500ish on cage
under £100 on plastic windows
then before hand
tyres and wheels were under £250
suspension around £400
whiteline arb £150ish
braided lines and brakes £150
getting on for 2k easiley but it really is quite a capable car
Edited by jr@ on Tuesday 30th March 22:44
DougieMc said:
You Boys are Mad
I remember the initial Ring Trip that you joined up with us in the Tunnel
Glad shes still going
NUTTERS
are you keeping the Walnut trim which back them was THE MOD
and I always said I thought the numberplate read SH!T3
fI remember the initial Ring Trip that you joined up with us in the Tunnel
Glad shes still going
NUTTERS
are you keeping the Walnut trim which back them was THE MOD
and I always said I thought the numberplate read SH!T3
king hell its dougie :!offcourse its still present, mainly as you said we must keep it
are you out at the ring this year ?
whats the weight difference then and now? Xenocide said:
What happened at (is that?) combe then?
we'd been playing around with the rear suspension settingsbefore it was farrr to hard, and also managed to oversteer everywhere, but could carry a rediculous amount of corner speed
soften'd it off, tried carrying same speed trying to hunt my mate down in his golf, hoped, then gripped and then just carried on going right, we changed it again after that
Xenocide said:
jr@ said:
Xenocide said:
What happened at (is that?) combe then?
we'd been playing around with the rear suspension settingsbefore it was farrr to hard, and also managed to oversteer everywhere, but could carry a rediculous amount of corner speed
soften'd it off, tried carrying same speed trying to hunt my mate down in his golf, hoped, then gripped and then just carried on going right, we changed it again after that
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