More work on the little black GTI...

looks great Paul.. good job.  8)

Just a mini-update really. During/after the Oulton Park trackday on 19th December, the car developed a few minor faults:

1. Speedo stopped working
2. Strange electrical/charging issue - battery light came on at 6000rpm
3. Brakes have gone very soggy

1. Was easily fixed - the speedo cable had come loose at the back of the dash. So that was a 5 minute fix.

2. I did a bit of research and found out that pretty much all Bosch alternators have the same voltage regulator/brushes module. I had an old 35A alternator on the shelf, and on taking the reg out, found its brushes were almost new. So I swapped this into my car and now its fine.

3. Was a little more of an issue. I took apart the rear drums to have a look and give a clean up - no issues here. Then I looked at the fronts, the "show special" ?6 pads I'd bought and fitted approx 1? years ago were glazed. The discs were fine, a little bit of scoring but not serious enough to need replacement. Also by chance, I had a set of Ferodo DS2500 pads just sitting around unused, so I have fitted these. Also I carefully bled the brakes and put enough fluid in, to be a fluid change. The brakes are still a little soft but I think that's partly down to the new pads needing to be 'bedded in' to the existing discs. Also they're high performance ones and need a little bit of warming up before they grip better. So, I'll have to keep my eye on this. Maybe upgrade the discs too? I'll be keeping to 239mm so I can fit my 13" wheels over it.

paul,ive got 239 discs and there fine with good pads,ive got mintex extreme or green stuff to fit,not shure what to try first???
Bert

Bert said

paul,ive got 239 discs and there fine with good pads,ive got mintex extreme or green stuff to fit,not shure what to try first???
Bert

Mintex Extreme! EBC pads are "cheapo" performance stuff and there's enough horror stories, of the pad friction material coming away from the backing plate, to put me off. Basically, their quality control leaves something to be desired! (Some people have been lucky).

http://www.clubgti.com…m/showthread.php?t=180965

I guess when you brake as hard and late as possible, from 100 to 40 to do a chicane, and lap-after-lap you try to 'test yourself' by going closer and closer to the limit, you find out how good the brakes really are! I only missed the chicane once, I locked up and there was another car right on my arse, so I took the safety runoff through it….

oh,extreme it is then,ive got standard pagid in now,i took them off to do something and i noticed they were crumbling away,the green stuff ones were ?5 off ebay so no loss,i didnt know they were so poor quality  :?  
i will let you know when i fit the extreme pads  :wink:
Bert

pads what are they :mrgreen:

just swapped my metal ones for some pagid :wink:

bens_cab said

pads what are they :mrgreen:

just swapped my metal ones for some pagid :wink:

Pagid Fast Road?

yes only till the 16v setup goes on next week :wink:

what coilovers you running paul as it looks nice and low, also whats the ride like

Weitec coilovers around -80mm. The ride is terrible.

i wont get them then, are you going to keep them or change.

Jase said

i wont get them then, are you going to keep them or change.

The ride's terrible cos its lowered 80mm, if its a bit higher, the dampers are less stiff and it could be okay. Weitecs are some of the better around, but all coilovers are quite harsh (apparently). They're 2 years old and lasting well.

Little update…



Thanks to GAMMYGOLFGTI for the video! This is the car at Oulton Park on 8th Feb. The car has been a good compromise between drag racer and track day car, with an eye on practicality too, for occasional on road use (it is my 'spare car' if the daily driver breaks down or is being looked at).

Now I need to decide which direction to go, since more mods to make it better, will compromise the other. My choices are:

Drag racing
- Peloquin 80% shim kit
- New front wheels and slicks
- More lightening (plastic windows and maybe carbon fibre panels)

Trackdays
- Poly bushes all round
- Lower front, upper front, rear strut braces
- Stiffer anti roll bars
- Possibly, bigger brakes and larger wheels/tyres (although the Yoko Advan 032R are great as-is!)

Road use
- Carpets, rear seats, trim back into the car
- Reattach the bumpers


Its back home and I need to investigate a hot start issue, which might be due to a worn out battery.

Would be good to see it as a drag racer.

Would the VR6 be better for drag racing? Black one should make good track car

With the MoT coming up not too far away, its time to attend to a couple of issues. Main one is the left hand sill:

A common issue, the sill has been crushed due to corrosion/weakening of the inner sill area and inappropriate jacking:


Ready to work on, jacked up and wing removed:


Misshapen area of the outer sill is cut away, to gain proper access to floor and inner sill area:




Note the poor condition of the floor and inner sill:


And from inside:


Floor and inner sill also neatened/cut away




A previous repair was done in this area and also if its removed, allows good access to the inner sill here:


You can see how the repair patch over rusty existing metal, has coped:

paul_c said

Trackdays
- Poly bushes all round
- Lower front, upper front, rear strut braces
- Stiffer anti roll bars
- Possibly, bigger brakes and larger wheels/tyres (although the Yoko Advan 032R are great as-is!)

Would be my choice. I would not bother with the rear brace though and bigger brakes/wheels would be first on my list.

What panels are you going to use or making something yourself?

Just on a catch-up here. The sill repair was completed and the car sailed through its MoT test, thanks to plenty of pre-test checking and sorting of minor items.

I went to the Curborough Sprint Track on Saturday, the car started and drove off the trailer fine, but once left running, stopped after 5 mins, unable to restart. The diagnosis was a failed distributor/hall sender. So, with the nearest GSF an hour away, I set off and purchased another and fitted it; then timed up the ignition trackside. I was able to get an afternoon's sprinting in, 6 runs or so.

Curborough is a very small and tight track, so it exposes handling weaknesses and also the sprint nature means that the tyres never got up to proper temperature. So I need to look at this aspect next.

Also, Curborough has revealed the 1600 box is a little too short geared (although part of that is small tyres) because there is one straight(ish curve) which I was running out of revs in 2nd and needed to use 3rd eventually. A similar thing happened at Oulton Park (the fastest section there, I ran out of revs in 4th and ideally need to change to 5th) so I might go back to the 1800 box (with 3.67FD, compared to my current 3.89FD). Kinda crying out for an LSD now anyway (needs it on slow corners, at the moment I have to go easy on the throttle otherwise I just get inside wheel spin on the exit of the corner) so I might incorporate both into one job/upgrade.

The other option I've been toying with is to transfer the engine and associated stuff, and coilovers, to the Mk1 Scirocco (together with handling upgrades) since naturally being lower, the Scirocco would handle better. Then the 1800 engine, stock suspension and some other bits could go back onto the Golf, then the interior, trim and bumpers all refitted to return it more/less back to stock. Decisions…..

hmmid leave it all in the black car paul perhaps look at building a gearbox using a 1.8 parts so you get the best of both worlds also you could save on a diff and just shim the standard on egive you about 40% difference on the original diff from what i can make out :wink:

I didn't take any pics at the event but there's lots of people who did. Here's my favs:









Lots of oversteer!!!

Credit goes to PhatVR6 for the pics.