Prism7guy's track car

[Prism7guy]

Not updated this thread for a while but the project hasnt died out yet.
Over winter i made some adjustable tubular wishbones, they saved some weight and gave me most caster - win win!








I also got a steering rack off an xsara. The seller sold it as a ph1 model but the old ram had the same fittings as the std gti6 ram which lead me to believe it may be from a ph2. Either way with the old gti6 ram attached to limit the lock its around 1 full turn either direction to get to full lock.
I ditched the power steering too, but i'm beginning to think this was a bit of a bad idea so it may return over winter, the quick rack, extra caster, removal of PAS and semi slicks doesnt half make driving at slow speed a nuisence!





As well as the above, i've given the car a good service, fuel & oil filter, fresh oil and cambelt kit. I also bought a new gearbox but mullered that as the old clutch had seen better days so had to buy a third gearbox and fitted that with a new clutch. Drives nicely again now.

I got back from this years Nurburgring trip a couple of weeks ago, the weather was very hit and miss and getting a clear lap was almost impossible due to weather and others crashing. My last lap of the weekend on the sunday evening wasnt too bad though and managed to get an 8:31 BTG.
http://youtu.be/1xuh_pUMInc

That's all for now, i'm hoping to get a trackday in at Cadwell and Oulton park in the next few months before christmas, hopefully more updates then.

[Eeyore]

Shortest aux belt setup ever! haha

[procta]

good drive that was! are you getting fibre glass parts? also I am sure you can get a front heated window screen too if you wanted that.

[allanallen]

Good effort young man! Looks a bit of a handful on the rougher bits, I know I tell you this everytime i see you but........ it's gonna rip your feckin arms off when you get the plated diff in

Oh and I think you need more caster

[Prism7guy]

I've started my collection of fibreglass parts, so far it's just a single skin tailgate.
I want a thermoformed polycarbonate rear screen to fit to it before it gets fitted to the car, but the thought of ~£250 for a bit of plastic hurts when i think of it so i keep putting that off, plus i could use that money for other go faster bits first.

It has a heated front windscreen fitted, but i seem to have blown almost all the elements, so it's not so great anymore, and i'm reluctant to buy/fit another incase the same happens again as it ended up being about £300 all in. It was good for the few weeks that it lasted mind!

Don't worry Allan, i'll be fitting epas over this winter, it's a real menace to drive now and i must lose about 3 stone in sweat after each lap of the nordschleife.

[adam b]

Having fitted/struggled/bodged a non-thermo screen on to my car I can only recommend never ever doing it.
One word sums it up and it rhymes with funt

[procta]

I've started my collection of fibreglass parts, so far it's just a single skin tailgate.
I want a thermoformed polycarbonate rear screen to fit to it before it gets fitted to the car, but the thought of ~£250 for a bit of plastic hurts when i think of it so i keep putting that off, plus i could use that money for other go faster bits first.

It has a heated front windscreen fitted, but i seem to have blown almost all the elements, so it's not so great anymore, and i'm reluctant to buy/fit another incase the same happens again as it ended up being about £300 all in. It was good for the few weeks that it lasted mind!

Don't worry Allan, i'll be fitting epas over this winter, it's a real menace to drive now and i must lose about 3 stone in sweat after each lap of the nordschleife.

that's a bit of a bastard that, for 300 quid, id have expected that to last! not for a spate of 3 weeks!
I was thinking on dropping a one on the rover from the 6R4, but if they are not going to last then f*ck that.

[Prism7guy]

I suspect that my alternator kicks out a bit too much voltage, i had a few electrical problems shortly after fitting it.
The screen itself worked great whilst it lasted though.

[Prism7guy]

I've not updated this thread for a while so i'd best bring it up-to-date for those that havent seen it on the gti6 forum

Since the last update i've fitted electric power steering, makes it much easier and nicer to drive now.
The pump sits down near the crossmember infront of the gearbox.


I then took it to Cadwell park, had a pretty successful day there but the alternator decided to pack up during the last session, and early in the day one of the rear anti roll bar end plate bolts decided to go walkies, so i spent the day driving it without a rear anti roll bar essentially. Oh, and i seemed to be missing the ball on the gear selector so i kept missing gears.
Final session of the day, the other videos are on youtube too but i don't want to fill this update with the earlier sessions, although if my memory serves right there was a bit of a moment in session 1 with the oversteer on the damp track, though the camera angle doesnt do it justice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxNu4GyINZM
A mate took his Boxster S along too, and got a bit of footage following me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sS8uuWaHzo
Without the rear anti roll bar, my nsf tyre took a bit of a battering, even with 3 degrees of negative camber

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After Cadwell i SORN'd the car for winter and started the next stage in its development.







I started working on fitting an Eaton M62 that i'd had sitting around for a while.

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New ECU


AEM Wideband lambda.


Single skin kevlar bonnet.

[Prism7guy]

Theres more of a write-up on the gti6 forum, including many of the failings that i had such as writing off two eaton m62's, the first ecu that i bought was dead and various other little niggles.
Not pictured is the new Tial Q dump valve, i'm using this to sort out boost rather than how i tried initially with two throttle bodies, i hadnt got that setup perfected and thats what was killing the superchargers. In the end i gave up on that idea and rely purely on the throttle body on the manifold and allow the dump valve to clear the constant boost.

When getting the car mapped i was seeing 6psi of boost around 4000rpm (from memory) but that tails off to around 4psi by 7000rpm. I suspect that some of that is due to belt slip or similar. I'm now looking at finding a way to fit an auto tensioner to hopefully make sure that that isnt an issue, but this was all done in the early days of getting the car running and mapped with the dual throttle body setup.
Ideally the car could do with an hour on the rollers again to tweak the current map, but i've got two smaller pullies that i can fit to the 'charger to get more boost if i want it, they will also need the map tweaking to suit them. To be fair the car is more than powerful enough as it is until i fit a proper diff, it will spin up through the first 3 gears on road tyres on a damp road if i let it.
On the rollers it was getting 170bhp at the wheels even with the boost getting lower with revs, so thats probably somewhere in the lost 200bhp at the fly area.

For those that want a bit of whine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUhGKRi158U

I took the car to Blyton park for its first trackday of the year, plenty of videos on youtube but once again, just a couple of clips in this post.
Drive-by:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrFZMrNL8c

Last session, the Alfa driver got black flagged for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2WB9wr7yQI

That's it for updates as far as i can think. I did fit a new Satchshift kit when the engine went back in but i forgot to add photos of that. The car is once again SORN'd and sat in the garage for the winter. No major winter plans for it this year as supercharging it has killed me financially :lol
The small things i would like to do to it are sort the cooling issues, the oil is reaching 130+ on track, and coolant gets above 100c. I think i may add an air-oil cooler fitted before the laminova and make more of a shroud for the radiator so more air is forced through it.
I'd like a proper diff for it too, but that will have to wait until im a bit flush again.
Thanks for reading.

[Matt]

That charger set up looks mean!! I love it

[Iaitoo]

Don't understand half of it, but it looks amazing!

[Dazecoop]

Just read the whole thread, awesome! I love the custom fabrication / CNC work, nice work!

[Prism7guy]

Update time again.

Due to oil temp issues at the last trackday i decided to go overkill and get a 30 row oil cooler for christmas.




I've plumbed it in so that the oil goes: Sump>Pump>30 row cooler>Laminova>Remote filter>Engine>Sump.
That way the oil should be quite cool before going though the laminova where that will then hopefully stick some heat back into the oil before its filtered then fed back into the engine, this should also help bring the coolant temp down a bit too as that had started creeping above 100c at the last trackday.

To help combat the coolant temp issues i decided to make a shroud around the radiator to force more air through.











I've also made a shroud for the oil cooler but didn't take any photos of that, basically any air that goes through the grille or foglight opening on the offside of the car pretty much has to go through that cooler. The clearance between the tyre and cooler is pretty minimal, but there shouldnt be any contact under any conditions - I've checked that

The latest supercharger sounded a bit rough by the end of the last trackday, i wasnt sure on the cause but it sounded like it was grinding.
I've removed that and stripped it down, i can't see any evidence of it trying to hit itself so i'm putting that down to worn bearings, the clearances all measured as they should.
In order to try and be a bit kinder to the superchargers i've decided to fit an auto tensioner and also add a polyurethane coupler to the drive pulley to help damp out any crank vibrations etc.





















I've also made some special locating spacers to try and hold the rear mounting point of the wishbones more securely to the subframe, once again i forgot to take pictures of them though.

Next project was to try and salvage the previous two superchargers. I stripped them down, decided that i'm not in a position to replace the rotor pack bearings under ideal circumstances without having to get some parts laser cut (which would mean minimum order charge and make it unaffordable, and also require some work on the rotor pack housing which i'm also not in a position to do at the moment). In an ideal world i'd have replaced all 4 bearings and two seals, but hey-ho.
I cleaned 0.2mm off the end of the damaged rotors (inlet end), and removed the burrs from the internals of the housing.

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Rebuilding the 'chargers:







Did a little porting on my inlet for the 'chargers, much smoother than before hopefully getting slightly better airflow.







I noticed at the last trackday that my header tank had almost emptied itself, and left evidence of coolant splattered around the engine bay. I'm assuming its because it was running so hot causing expansion. To combat this i've decided to add a small expansion tank. By this point i was running a little low on cash so had to improvise





Also bought and fitted a cheap nasty boost gauge to see whether my dump valve isnt able to clear enough boost at high revs which could cause a pressure spike and force the supercharger rotors down into the housing at the inlet end.



And all back together.



I managed to get all the above done in preperation for the PSCUK sprint day at Curborough, a few pics from the day:









I was having issues with my GoPro so ended up with loads of photos and only one in-car video, and a few drive-by videos recorded by my mates. It was a good day out and the car performed pretty well to say i was just using the Pilot Sport 3's i'd drove there on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_L-HL72...e=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW3A9kw8...e=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIqJtHQ-...e=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it67eZSo...e=youtu.be

That's about it for updates for now i think, I'm in the process of sorting out a proper heater for inside the car to stop it steaming up so badly when it rains, and i've got some new wiper blades with washer jets built in as the tubing leading to the jets in the bonnet keeps melting and just generally being a pain to live with when wanting to remove the bonnet on my own. I also want to try and sort some of the knocking noises coming from various suspension bits, think most of the joints are getting worn now.

Next day out for the car will be Cadwell park on the 22nd

[Dum-Dum]

Your workmanship is stunning

[MY95]

Amazing build/project, so whats the current spec list then? Your car looks so competent on track!

[Prism7guy]

Thanks guys

Spec list would be along the lines of:

Engine/power:
Engine internals all standard
RichW billet flywheel
Baker BM large round lower engine mount bush with custom Nylon smaller bushe in the fork
Custom almost solid top engine mount
BakerBM gearbox mount
Eaton M62 supercharger (running ~6psi boost at 4k rpm, then dropping off to 4psi to redline)
RMD intercooler
Tial Q blow off valve
30 row air-oil cooler
Laminova C43-332
Fuchs Pro S 10W50
Pipercross Viper air filter
Magnex de-cat with Pro flow centre box with standard exhaust manifold
Facet low pressure lift pump
2 litre swirl pot
Walbro high pressure fuel pump
Direnza 205 aluminium radiator
Powervamp racing 25 battery
Custom aluminium crank, alternator and supercharger pullies to suit 8 rib belt
DTA S40 ECU
440cc injectors

Suspension/handling:
KW V2 Inox coilovers
Bridgecraft Motorsport adjustable top mounts running around 3* negative camber
Custom tubular wishbones with extra caster set
Std front ARB
~10 minutes toe in up front
15" Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's - Michelin PS3's for road use, Toyo R888 GG for track use
21mm torsion bars
30mm anti roll bar (rear)
Solid beam mounts
Standard rear arms
Citroen Xsara 2.4 rack with gti6 ram
Peugeot 106 electronic PAS pump (from memory)
Seam welded subframe
Phillipm/rippthrough lower strut brace

Brakes:
AP Racing CP5200 callipers up front
Carbotech XP8 pads up front
310mm rotors up front
Standard rear callipers with Yellow stuff pads
Removed ABS
Wilwood lever style bias valve
New brake lines throughout, with braided flexi hoses where needed
ATE Super Blue brake fluid

Weight saving/misc:
OMP TRS bucket seats
Stripped interior
PhillipM/rippthrough weld in roll cage tieing in rear beam mounting point and front struts, with rear X, door X's, dash bar and roof bar.
OMP 4 point harnesses
3mm thick Lexan windows in front doors and rear sides
Single skin kevlar bonnet
Dashboard cut in half
VDO Oil pressure gauge
AEM Wideband lambda sensor & gauge
Smaller Alternator
Slimline 10" radiator fans
Satchshift gear linkage setup

I think that pretty much covers most of the basics of the spec.

[Piggy]

This thread had been missing in my life!!!

Wonderful work! I need to sort radiator shrouding too!

[maxaret]

Just caught up with this thread - lovely workmanship and enthusiasm - excellent

[Prism7guy]

I've not updated this thread for a while so i'll just give a brief update, mostly pictures.

I had issues with the locknuts vibrating loose on the wishbones, causing some knocking noises, i had tried spring washers which were a waste of time. In the end i decided to resort to a couple of tacks to hold the nuts in place.


Next up, i decided to measure what sort of bump steer i was getting as the car would turn in much more once i'd loaded the suspension up when turning into a corner meaning i'd have to let off some lock to compensate. Theres more info on how i did this in the project thread on the gti6 forum, it'll take too long to explain it from scratch here, although for anyone interested there are several useful sources on the internet to read up on if it does interest you.




Above is basically just plots in different colours for the various sizes of spacer used between the upright and the track rod end, after a lot of trial and error i decided to go for a 4mm spacer with my setup as there is very little bump steer at this setting.


The new spacers.

The new settings are a big improvement over what i had previously.

Next issue was oil weeping from the take off area. As you can see below the design of the 'charger bracket meant it was difficult to nip up the take off plate, so i made a new mount that sits between that plate and the 'charger, it also means it's much easier to secure the 'charger down now as trying to get your fingers in to the back of that plate to hold a nyloc in place was a nightmare, the new bracket has been drilled, tapped and helicoiled so i just need to put a bolt through the 'charger and screw it into the helicoil now.
I also ordered new jic fittings which came with the correct size dowty seals, which i'd been struggling to source elsewhere. Since doing this there are no more signs of oil weeping out.





The next issue was the single skin bonnet flapping about at higher speeds. I bought some aluminium flat bar, spent a few hours slowly bending it into the correct profile (harder than it sounds!). After that i bonded them on with some epoxy resin.



I also bought a fresh set of tyres, Nankang AR-1's. I'm very impressed with them especially for the price, and i'll choose these over R888's from now on.



I took the car to Cadwell for a trackday, it performed pretty well all day.



The only real issue was one of the aluminium strips coming off the bonnet, so i remedied this when i got home by bonding some extra kevlar over them. Much stiffer now!




After the successful day at Cadwell i took the car to the nurburgring for a long weekend.









Unfortunately the weather was pretty terrible all weekend, and on the rare occasions that it did dry out a little there would be a rush of people going round and inevitably several crashes causing the track to close for another few hours, in which time it would rain again and start of the vicious cycle.

The two best laps that i managed are linked below, the top one is a 9:10BTG with three yellow flags, i also slow down for a corner which had had a fluid spill on it a few minutes earlier when i was passengering in a mates car, so i thought it best to take steady just incase it was still slippy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k_by1gWAB0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnVe-KzwmK4

The video above was my final lap of the weekend, as you may be able to hear early on i had some issues.
Two of the bolts that hold the supercharger bracket to the engine bracket sheared, causing the 'charger to twist on the two remaining bolts. This caused the pulley damper setup to rub on the inner wing as it slowly destroyed itself.







I didnt have any spares for this with me (although i did have a spare 'charger haha), so i fitted a short aux belt just to run the alternator, removed some of the boost pipework and stuck the air filter on the throttle body so i could run it n/a to get me home, which it did.

Since then i've made a start on making the new damper parts and made a couple of design improvements too, this time i'm using two pieces of aluminium flat which have been drilled, tapped and helicoiled to make use of the six mounting holes in the engine bracket, which are now using high tensile bolts to hold it, and also using high tensile bolts to hold the supercharger bracket down to these spacers. The previous setup just used long stainless bolts and four tubular spacers relying on the clamp force to keep everything in place.
I also made a spare of each damper component too, just incase i have more bad luck in the future!







And finally i made a small bracket that sits under the inlet manifold to hold a coolant hose securely out of the way of any harm, that hose runs from the thermostat take-off to the header tank.

That's the car up to date for now i think, i'm just waiting for some more high tensile bolts to arrive so i can finish mounting the 'charger and reconnect the boost pipes.
This winters job will be to buy a plate diff and look at re routing the boost pipe between the intercooler and throttle body. I might even fit a smaller 'charger pulley and get it remapped depending on whether funds allow.

[td_dan]

Love that dash

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

[Eeyore]

So much great work and cool bits in this project. Keep it up. We love hearing about it on here!

[Matt-Rallye]

Wow how have i never seen this thread before!?

Cracking engineering going into this build A properly built car and definitely alot of good innovations i shall be taking inspiration for my own builds.

[Prism7guy]

Small update time, took the car to Brands Hatch last weekend for a trackday. The car got me there, took a day of abuse and got me home with no issues at all.
The day started off wet and icy, the track was gritted during the briefing and was insanely slippy for the first few hours. By dinner dry lines were starting to form in sections.
It was mostly dry by around 3pm when it decided to rain again, so the last session i just decided to mess about with oversteer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVyDKJsXZUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzKSNf7yI0o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpjkZWvBzls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtCheUnxqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11QykzAUdtg

The car will be in hibernation for winter now, hopefully a couple of changes will occur and make it better for next years trackdays.