4722 replies to this topic

[MAXR]

Nev, Why don't you take Nipper to MBR for a check over, geo & setup? I'm sure he won't mind you staying and watching to see what he does? It may be a far quicker learning curve?

[Nev]

Yesterday I managed to pop over to Castle Coombe to try out my new super duper camera on moving objects. They had a "6th Gear Experience" event with rather a lot of top end road cars and a couple of track specials, being driven somewhat slowly by old ladies and teenagers. I had to look the company up, £80 to drive a Jaguar XF around for 4 laps - that makes running a VX seem cheap!

 

This was the only thing that really caught my eye, but you can only psx ride in it, £50 for 1 lap (but you do get a free certificate with it)!

 

Edited by Nev, 09 April 2016 - 07:13 AM.

[Matthew Bentley Racing Ltd]

Nev, Why don't you take Nipper to MBR for a check over, geo & setup? I'm sure he won't mind you staying and watching to see what he does? It may be a far quicker learning curve?

 

Will never happen.

[2GOOD]

Yesterday I managed to pop over to Castle Coombe to try out my new super duper camera on moving objects. They had a "6th Gear Experience" event with rather a lot of top end road cars and a couple of track specials, being driven somewhat slowly by old ladies and teenagers. I had to look the company up, £80 to drive a Jaguar XF around for 4 laps - that makes running a VX seem cheap!
 
This was the only thing that really caught my eye, but you can only psx ride in it, £50 for 1 lap (but you do get a free certificate with it)!
 

I think you'll find that a member on here does some work for 6th Gear. Not in a driving capacity mind

[Duncan VXR]

Wife has been out as pax in radical and s/c atom (today ) different company but previous time in the radical was £25 for 2 laps and same today. £50 bit too much for couple of hot laps In fact my 5 year old almost went out but in the atom but refused as I was not driving lol. Having gone in the atom it really stirs my thoughts of a 2-11 vx220 copy with vag power.....especially as I have a 5 pot tt RS lump option in the unit But then it pishes it down this evening and think as a road car at least a screen makes sense. In fact a gtr makes for almost 40 sensible fast car (until the atom that was lol) The track beast is screen less and exposed and fear the wet of which I must get over 😊 I would never want to drive a road legal version on the road DG

[Nev]

Put some 350 Lb springs in the front of the car today with the Nitrons clicked up by 1 notch and went on a rather congested short test. It felt a bit more compliant, though the initial turn in was less agressive as you might expect. To be honest, the noticable effect of reducing 100 Lb from the old 450 Lb springs wasn't as much as I expected.

 

Anyway, I will see how it goes with the current 350f/600r setup for a couple of hundred miles or so and maybe increase the anti rollbar tension a notch to compensate for the wide front/rear spring rate difference. After that I might stick some 450 Lb springs on the rear and see if that improves matters.

 

I also hand tested the rebound rate of the bad coilover on the bench today, it wasn't as bad as it looked (compared to the healthy coilover), though I have asked Nitron for a refub quote.

 

Basically I would like it "tuned" to bumpyish/rolling B-road bashing, as that is where I have my fun usually. The old setup was harsh really, so reducing spring rates seems a good place to start, especially as they are quite cheep. Got the latest 4 new springs for £40 for the lot of MopeyTitan on here (thanks Al).

 

All good learning for me

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nev, 10 April 2016 - 07:34 PM.

[Nev]

I also forgot to say, I have now changed my brake vacuum config. I have plumbed in the aux vac pump to "push" it's air into the vacuum pipe from the engine inlet manifold. In effect this means the pump can operate more efficiently (it is after all a differential pump and pushing air into 1 Bar atmosphere is harder for it than push into a partial vacuum). Lastly, this config is also a great safety feature, as if the vac pumps fails for any reason the engine vac is able to get past the pump bushes and the servo still sees full engine vacuum.

 

I now see -26 Inches Hg vacuum at the servo (I've got a gauge plumbed into the cabin dash to help with diagnosis). I think this is bit more than vacuum than a normal VXT makes with standard cams + valves, ie the servo is able to do more work, which in turn means the brake pedal needs less pressure to operate and can exert more braking force for the same leg pressure.

 

The brakes feel more reassuring now as a conseqence and can lock out easily at 60 leptons and probably at a lot higher speed (though I havent tried yet). BTW, my ABS works well (completely OEM setup) as I have taken care to maintain the same front + rear rolling circumferances within about 0.5% of each other when the tyres are new, and maybe 2% when one axle has fully worn tyres compared to the other axle.

 

I have still to fit a pressure switch and vac reservoir, this will allow me to stop running the vac pump at 100% duty cycle and it will simply trigger on pressure demand, just like any modern diesel car. The final vaccuum config will be:

 

Inlet manifold --> one way valve --> vac pump --> one way valve --> vac reservoir --> servo

 

 

I inspected the front 330 discs today and the RC6 pads have barely even started to make any wear lips (0.2 mm). My rear discs and pads however are not so good, but my long term plan is to completely rework the rear brakes once I have come to a solution on changing the geometry back to near OEM height (currently lowered by 35mm)

 

 

 

Edited by Nev, 10 April 2016 - 08:08 PM.

[Nev]

Yesterday I gave the car a bit of welly with the high torque map for the first time in ages and discovered that the power suddenly dropped dramatically at around 7000 RPM. This is almost certainly due to the 4" corrugated inlet pipework collapsing. I was hoping this wouldn't happen, but I think I'm going to have to take the clam off again and route an extra 4" pipe

 

Edited by Nev, 11 April 2016 - 06:09 PM.

[Nev]

Today I had to take the rear clam off and on in order to install the secondary 4" inlet pipe to the airbox. 4 hours of hard work and it's done.

 

It looks a bit industrial and there is no usable boot space now, but will at least allow a free passage of relatively clean and cool air into the filter box.

 

Looking at the top of the 4 week old airbox you can see just how much dust gets syphoned through the engine bay and rear clam cut outs. However this policy of free moving air means I don't get any heat issues.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nev, 12 April 2016 - 12:07 PM.

[Nev]

Wow, just been out and discoverd that I've got a lot of horses back, maybe even 100 at the top end. It never ceases to amaze me how important big pipework is.

 

According to my calcs, with the single 100mm inlet pipe the air was trying to travel at 168 KPH down the pipework. With dual 100mm inlet pipes the air is now just moving at 1/2 that. The new pipes are aluminium this time and are hence structurally stronger too, so there is no chance of collapse.

 

I am also really liking the return to softer springs on the front; I'll stick softer ones in the rear next.

Edited by Nev, 12 April 2016 - 02:24 PM.

[cookster501]

My intake pipework is 125mm so hopefully its upto the job just struggling to mount the filter housing even removing the boot floor hasn't really helped

[Nev]

My intake pipework is 125mm so hopefully its upto the job just struggling to mount the filter housing even removing the boot floor hasn't really helped

 

Wow, thats seriously wide: 5", it can only help

 

Whats your engine spec and how much power are you hoping to make?

[cookster501]

1.8t agu vag engine Gtx3071 hoping for 450bhp ish

[Nev]

hoping for 450bhp ish

 

Shhh, don't the soupercharged kids know or they'll get eggy !  

[siztenboots]

depending on the housing, you can make use of large diameter compressor ambient air inlet, but the compressor air discharge will still be quite narrow.

 

[cookster501]

Could do with updating my thread now I'm back working on the vx just got to stop buying distractions with 4 wheels

[cookster501]

Where abouts do the end of your pipes go to?

[Nev]

Where abouts do the end of your pipes go to?

 

N/S ear.

[tibby]

Nev, i realy hope i can meet you one time....

Your car is a true inspiration for me.

Also a passengerdrive would be nice to see the powerdelivery etc....

 

[tibby]

double post...

 

Edited by tibby, 12 April 2016 - 03:21 PM.