Crouching gti, hidden dragon

[Water Boy]

Such an awsome engine bay.

Have you had the car on a dyno?

[abreut]

Have you had the car on a dyno?

I haven't dyno-ed this motor yet. I really should before the next track day just to check there isn't any detonation going on that I can't hear.

[Dub Toffee]

great to asee a thread in place mate, thats a proper idea to get the right pistons for the job in, nice work on the steering column and your clutch set up.
hope the next big day out ends happily this time

[abreut]

hope the next big day out ends happily this time

Thanks mate so do I! I plan to head down for the VW supersprint in May, but I'm trying to get down before then as well. Reliability is the name of the game and this motor still needs to be baptised.

[gldgti]

Thanks mate so do I! I plan to head down for the VW supersprint in May, but I'm trying to get down before then as well. Reliability is the name of the game and this motor still needs to be baptised.

Any ideas about other outings before then? I'd be keen aswell, want to get more value out of the CAMS license than just hte one supersprint per year

[abreut]

Any ideas about other outings before then? I'd be keen aswell, want to get more value out of the CAMS license than just hte one supersprint per year

I haven't seriously looked into it yet but there should be some CAMs trackdays run by other clubs which we should be able to enter, probably just have to pay a small fee for a one-day membership.

I have also gone to private non-cams trackdays which are held frequently, but they tend to be more expensive so it kind of cancels out the benefit of having the cams licence. The last one I went to was poorly organised with way too many cars on the track and there was actually 2 accidents. Someone was telling me about one private group which is quite good though. $250, but there is an instructor available and you even get lunch included and heaps of track time. Its usually on a weekday though. I will start looking into it, I'll let you know if I'm planning on heading down to one.

[mikinoz]

I haven't seriously looked into it yet but there should be some CAMs trackdays run by other clubs which we should be able to enter, probably just have to pay a small fee for a one-day membership.

I have also gone to private non-cams trackdays which are held frequently, but they tend to be more expensive so it kind of cancels out the benefit of having the cams licence. The last one I went to was poorly organised with way too many cars on the track and there was actually 2 accidents. Someone was telling me about one private group which is quite good though. $250, but there is an instructor available and you even get lunch included and heaps of track time. Its usually on a weekday though. I will start looking into it, I'll let you know if I'm planning on heading down to one.

That sounds like an MRT track day. I have done one before and really thought it was good value especially as they had 3 instructors. It was at Marulan, but they do them at EC and Wakey.

[abreut]

So I haven't updated here in ages. Nevertheless the mk1 has seen quite a bit of activity.

I did 2 trackdays at Wakefield, the last one being the VW supersprint in May. I managed to knock a second off my previous best time which I was quite happy with. The car did not have any issues. All the temps were good, the coolant never went past halfway on the gauge.

But I did nearly burn the car to a crisp! After the last session the car was parked and I forgot to open the bonnet to let it cool down. The turbo was so hot it loosened a zip tie running along the top strut bar above and a vacuum line sagged down and rested on the turbo hotside. I caught it before anything bad happened, but it finally motivated me to make a heat shield:

2mm aluminium with a second shiny sheet underneath, spaced with washers so there is a 2mm air gap in between the two skins.



I should check it out with one of those IR laser temperature guns to see how well it works. Should keep the inlet plenum a bit cooler too.

[abreut]

Here's some in-car from the last VW supersprint at Wakefield. I only managed to get footage of the first session unfortunately, still making some silly errors like a missed gear change, but hey.. Anyway here's a 1:12 from the first session. Everyone seemed to get their best times in the 3rd and 4th sessions when the track temp was good.

[abreut]

The mk1 had its big annual day again at the VW supersprint on the weekend. Due to last minute circumstances it ended up being double-entered as well with a mate also driving. So it REALLY was a big day for a 32yo car with nearly 3 times its original power, and it also had to drive all the way back to Sydney as well.

My goal was to try to break through the 1:10 barrier, into the 1:09’s. In the end I finished with a 1:10.1. The 1:09’s were within reach though, but we cooked the brakes halfway through the day, and after that they were only working at about 75% of their effectiveness. Also, some decent tyre flat-spotting didn’t help either. But, still, not a bad time for a mk1, and it was pumping out 1:11’s/1:10’s throughout the day. My greatest satisfaction however was with the reliability of the car. I never would have previously contemplated double-entering it, and really, it handled the abuse very well. Coolant temp never went over half, oil temp never went over 115C.

But it needs some brake ducting in the future which will be easy to run off the new front airdam. The only other problem I had was some CV grease escaping out of the CV boot and on the straight at high speed it would flick onto the downpipe creating a puff of smoke from under the car. It was a relief to find out that’s all it was.

Here’s a 1:10.1 lap:


Here’s the vid I posted in the supersprint thread where I am being hunted down by the time-attack charade which was the quickest car of the day.


So, I think I might give the mk1 a bit of a rest for a while. Despite hardly ever updating here, I am almost constantly tweaking and improving this car. But for now, I need a good break from it