Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

As Sam said, skate shops Bill :) on eBay is easiest

don't go for the cheapest ones though, they're terrible. Buy a known brand like Jessups.

I buy mine listed for a Long board, as its 10" wide instead of 8". A 4ft roll costs me about £10 delivered
 
Anyone ever tried 'bed liner' ?

You can get versions that have a pretty high grip level and it is spray on and fairly indestructible.

Watch Mythbusters to see for yourself :p
 
Without getting slated here, have you ever thought of sending off a couple pics to magazines like fast car and have this thing featured? Just don't polish it for the pics, its a track car after all. Would be good to get some real recognition, apart from this thread, for your handiwork.
 
You should see the beauty that is the Mini, I think that was supposed to be featured but it never really got followed up.

Prawn is a pretty shy person, he doesn't shout about what he does. He lets the results do the talking. Glossy mag features aren't really his thing. The respect and recognition on Northloop is all the praise Bob should need :p It's a race car, and people that know...know.

If you know what I mean :)

Obviously I'd buy it if it was featured though haha. It is more worthy than most.

Also featuring a car in a mag gives it an expectation; people will EXPECT it to be awesome. And won't be shocked when they get blown away by some dumpy A3. Which is over half of the fun.
 
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I've seen photos of and heard about the mini and i do know what you mean Jardo, Just thought it'd be an awesome thing to add to the history of this beast as this thing if it could talk would have a few stories to tell.

Maybe one day huh, this has got to be one of the quickest AGU's in the country though right? i'd say thats pretty awesome and worthy of a feature
 
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smurfworth said:
Without getting slated here, have you ever thought of sending off a couple pics to magazines like fast car and have this thing featured? Just don't polish it for the pics, its a track car after all. Would be good to get some real recognition, apart from this thread, for your handiwork.
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That's a really cool idea man, and it has certainly crossed my mind. The mini was going to be featured a few years back, but at the time I had plans to turbo it, and declined the feature until it was finished. I eventually gave up on the turbo plans for the Mini and built the A3 instead, so that never went ahead. I'm sure I could make that happen though if I chose to chase it up!


16Klappe said:
Prawn is a pretty shy person, he doesn't shout about what he does. He lets the results do the talking, and people that know...know.

If you know what I mean :)
.
Click to expand...


Jardo has it kind of right, personally, I'm not even the slightest bit shy myself, and whilst I write an awful lot about the car on here and document everything, I tend not to shout and rave about it elsewhere too much, I'm of the opinion that IF it's any good, people will know that without me needing to tell them, and if it's not, they'll soon tell me :laugh:

Cheers though dude, much appreciated!
 
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smurfworth said:
this thing if it could talk would have a few stories to tell.
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You're not wrong there mate! 7 years in my ownership, over 100k miles, we've been everywhere and done everything in this car, daily drive, roadtrips galore, load lugger, Rugby World cup trip, cycling holidays, slept 4 people in the back in Paris, Ring trips, trackdays, crashed it, rebuilt it, improved it etc etc

Long may the story continue :racer:
 
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made up some brackets to move the wing back slightly, and also rubbed it down and gave it a coat of paint:



Not too intrusive:



Needed some ally to make up new end plates.

Found this:



Sorted!



Cut to shape:



And all painted and fitted:







 
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audi upgrades
Needs some fat s3 rear arches :laugh:

its definitely better now. Although I'm still not 100% convinced on the looks. I think the ultimate goal still has to be an s3 spoiler with a small lip, and a flat floor and diffuser. But that will take time, and much planning.
 
Prawn said:
Needs some fat s3 rear arches :laugh:
an s3 spoiler with a small lip, and a flat floor and diffuser.
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That just sounds sexual

When you say an S3 spoiler with a small lip....do you mean like the BMW E46 CSL style?
 
Thats a duck tail...

End of the day you just need a fcn S3
 
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Does it work?

How do you know its not lifting the back end or acting as a massive wind brake?


Either way, it has a better paint job than jardo's bumper. :)
 
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ScottB5 said:
Does it work?

How do you know its not lifting the back end or acting as a massive wind brake?
Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised if it's generating any extra lift, given it's angle that'd be pretty difficult. The obvious answer is that we can only go by feel. Does car feel better? If so, then it's doing something. How much it's doing is not measurable without obscene expense, so we'll never know.

As far as acting as a massive wind brake goes, I'm fine with that. if it does anything to increase high speed stability, then any trade off in drag is well worth it. As arrogant as this sounds, I've got 350bhp, so I can afford a bit of extra drag! it doesn't FEEL any slower to 130mph at present, so I don't think it's a worry.

kwistof said:
Anyhow....can I just clear something up with all of this aerodynamic talk...are you going for a wing or a spoiler Nick? Previous page is mostly discussing a wing...and now you are saying you'd like to finish of with a spoiler and lip :think:
[/QUOTE

Good question :)

This is a wing. It's an experiment to see if it works, but ultimately, I'm still not 100% convinced on how it looks, so until it's tested on track the jury remains out.

Ultimately, to give both looks AND function, i'd prefer to not have this wing, but to have an S3 tailgate spoiler with a small E46 style gurney style lip, and a flat underside to the whole car, with a functional splitter and diffuser setup.

Maybe, if the wing and diffuser are found to work well together, I'd like a second tailgate, and be able to swap them over, as I'd still prefer not to run this on the road all the time, but I'm more than happy to have it there in the interests of testing.

We're on track next Friday at Hullavington, so we'll see how it feels there. it's a track we've done several times before, so hopefully any improvements will be noticeable.
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When I fitted a spoiler to my previous car I could feel the back end squat down a little bit over 100.
I assumed it was working.

Be cool to see it in a wind tunnel.
 
Cool video scott!

Just a shame it doesn't show the one area I want to see the direction of flow around! The top of the tail gate!"

As you say, science and numbers are impossible in this case, so it's just a matter of trying it and seeing if we can feel a difference. On initial impressions though, it does SEEM more stable above 100, the big test will be when Dad drives it though, I change things so regularly and tweak and develop things as I go that I often can't notice small changes, where the big changes between each time dad drives it seem much more noticable :)
 
ScottB5 said:
How long till you smooth the underside and fit some front splitter/wing thing?
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As soon as I'm able to mate. that's the ideal situation.

I currently have a few too many fingers in a few too many Pies if you know what I mean with so many little on-going bits. I've got a big trip to Spa coming up in october, and this TFSI turbo swap coming up very shortly.

If I'm doing underbody work, it'll be the full deal. flat floor, splitter, some form of side skirts, and a diffuser, which means creating custom jacking points, exhaust rework, and body mods to remove the wheel well also, so it's a fairly involved job!
 
audi upgrades
Your modification of that 40mph speed sign gives a whole new meaning to breaking the speed limit and is about the coolest thing you could have utilised to fab the end pieces of your spoiler. The Master.:rock:
 
wild willy said:
Your modification of that 40mph speed sign gives a whole new meaning to breaking the speed limit and is about the coolest thing you could have utilised to fab the end pieces of your spoiler. The Master.:rock:
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I think using the smashed Armco from that infamous Ring trip would have topped it ;)
 
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Westy said:
I think using the smashed Armco from that infamous Ring trip would have topped it ;)
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Now I missed that, i'll search through the thread to find it LOL. Very inventive is Mr Prawn it would appear. Dragons Den here we come.
 
Some serious engineering thought has gone into this beauty.....

Extremely custom and available in many different colour options :)
 

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Prawn said:
If I'm doing underbody work, it'll be the full deal. flat floor, splitter, some form of side skirts, and a diffuser, which means creating custom jacking points, exhaust rework, and body mods to remove the wheel well also, so it's a fairly involved job!
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Indeed, you'll be needing another dozen speed limit signs for that :p

Just a quick one - Dave Marshall of trials fame is relatively "in charge" of a wind tunnel or two, isn't he? That's not to say they're big enough or accessible enough to fit an A3 in, of course, but it might be worth having a bit of a chat with him about the effects of your wing/what he thinks of it all. Again, unless you can get the car in a proper test situation it'd only be hypothetical but he's undoubtedly clued up and may be able to shed some knowledge on the whole deal.
 
im not sure how it is that side if its the same as us, but the seat ibiziz cupra and the polo gti 9n3 have plastic covers on the bottom of the chassis and when its jacked up they looks like they cover everything. is that maybe not an option for you bud?
 
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