Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

No wonder you got strange looks at Sainsbuggers. The wing is to small.!!!
 
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Your list will just get longer and longer if yours is anything like mine . With the wife to be adding to it every day .
 
In todays episode of 'Track cars going shopping', we visited the Co-Operative....



:laugh: :racer: :laugh:

might as well use it when i can :)
 
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Of all the posts I never expected that one Nick…we visited the Co-op :lmfao:
 
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Well, what an entertaining evening!

driving home, having a blast, car going fantastically. I was 300 yards from home, just about to nip into sainsburys to grab some beers and wine before Big Al came up for the evening, when the coolant low warning came on.

Strange!

As I slowed down, I noticed steam comming from the bonnet and the temp guage started climbing, I dived into the carpark and killed the engine.

At this point there were clouds of steam, so I popped the bonnet to take a look:



As the steam subsided, I could see everything was soaked, it had dropped ALL it's coolant.

The cause was pretty obvious!



The cause is pretty horrid:



Somehow, the clip that holds the sensor in has literally rusted away!



I'll admit I've never touched them, as the car has always been 100% reliable on that front and never needed new sensors at all. Looking back, all the hose clips on the coolant system are really scabby, so they'll all be up for replacement now to avoid anything like this happening again!

I abandoned the car and walked home to get some water and some emergancy bits to bodge it back together, came back to the car, and who should appear but James, Sportstractor of ASN fame!



Pretty mad considering he lives 200 miles away in Devon! And even more bizzarely, he had a clip in his van which fitted the sensor perfectly! So I popped that in, and job done :) I was on my way again.

What a legend.

I jumped in the fiesta, to drive that home then walk back for the A3, and of all the things that could happen, I dropped my key, and it managed to find its way down a tiny gap behind the handbrake and vanished into the centre console!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm in sainsburys, with a car full of bikes, laptops, and tools, and unable to lock it.

James being the hero he is offered to wait, so I drove the A3 home, parked it up, grabbed the spare key for the fiesta, and a handy tool to try and get my key back!



Only to get this text message as I'm running back!



You really could not make this stuff up! What a mad evening.

Massive thanks to James, awesome to see you again chap, and thanks for helping out!
 
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You really are one of those guys that can fall in s#$t and come out smelling of roses arent you!!
Odd that your clip rusted away i recently changed my cts and the new clip came with it was plastic!?
Glad it wasnt a disaster tho.
 
It's a really odd one yea Daz, I feel I'll be be chasing the effects of 'epic damp 2014' for quite some time to be honest.

Certain parts of the car have really taken a beating this winter, none of those clips looked THAT bad last year. I think it's a combination of horrific road salt coating in the engine bay, and possibly moisture being trapped in when I kept the car covered to prevent leaking over winter.

Still, just something else to improve :)
 
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Yep. One of the joys of our climate!
It has been very wet and for a long time.
I do hate little surprise problems like those. That split second feeling when you see steam or whatever. It sucks!!
 
yea! I'll be honest, when I saw steam, and pulled the bonnet catch, my honest thoughts were towards the new alloy radiator. I mean, the rest of the system has been ultra reliable for years, I'd only changed the rad recently, so surely that would be the problem?

Was actually quite relieved to find it was just a clip and a sensor popped out, and even more relieved when James pulled up, and somehow pulled out a part for a boiller that fitted and held the sensor in place perfectly!
 
Mate, just a heads up but pretty sure that thing is supposed to stay in the hose.

But yea seriously our cars are getting pretty old now, i would recommend to most people to rip out the majority of the coolant system and replace it with new hoses or silicone. I've had a couple old dubs that both had serious engine failures due to the cars dumping all their coolant with the old rubber hoses split. Not going to say it's a necessity but for the price of the hoses vs the price of a new engine + labor in fitting it. Probably me just being paranoid to be honest :p

And those spring clips are just s**t
 
Atleast it's sorted now! Tbh it's driven hard at times, it's held pretty good!
 
Glad it happened there dude and not like mine where we were on our yearly club run and 800km from home when mine decided to F*#+ out and like 60km from the nearest road sign net alone a town!

Luckily had my old VR6 water sensor in the side of my door that I was suppose to drop off by a mate but forgot about it and it had a o ring and the clip on it! Was damn lucky! And then took drinking water from the other drivers to fill the lines lol
 
Random little evolution of photos of the A3 from start to present :)

Much has changed in 8 years :)

 
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Well...I've just finished reading this thread. I honestly thought that come the end of it I'd find that you were moving the car on or selling up but I'm so relieved that it's still going and still improving! It's been an emotional rollercoaster at work for the last 2 weeks (since I've owned my a3) with something breaking, then reading that it's going better than ever haha.

Firstly: Prawn and Bigal; what a job. Great inspiration and thankyou and everyone involved for filling my work day and my head with information I can't comprehend. I'm in awe.

Sencondly: I'm annoyed that I now live in Gloucester as opposed to Bracknell as Basingstoke is quite close! I would have totally asked permission to come and look at the car/ :drool:

Thirdly: What am I suppposed to do at work now!? Although I need to watch some of the vids and pics etc as can't view at work. I really hope I can see this car and all the other members cars in action at ADI this year, I'm hoping to get my car on track by then too ideally.

Toooo many questions but lots of respect! :anbet:

Keep up the good work guys :arco:
 
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Thanks Nath, that's really apprecaited mate :) I can't believe you've read it all! I think I've contradicted myself more than just a few times as the thread has progessed!

You should definitely have come and said hello! If ever you're back around this way give me a shout!

I know it sound daft, but if you're really bored at work, you could try doing some work :laugh:

Make sure you say hello at ADI :) I'll be there for sure.

:racer:
 
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It most definitely took a lot of motivation on my part I admit but hey it was worth it haha.

I don't get paid enough to work :nyah: ( orrr I get it done quick and blag that it takes longer )

Thanks! I'd definitely like to see the car but I'll let you know when I'm around if you could ever fit me in.

The one thing I'm going to add though issss.... Bigger (gayer) rear wing - little further back and tad lower, perhaps more btcc style :rockwoot: (anything btcc is cool :rock:)
 
Nath1790 said:
The one thing I'm going to add though issss.... Bigger (gayer) rear wing - little further back and tad lower, perhaps more btcc style :rockwoot: (anything btcc is cool :rock:)
Click to expand...

That's exactly what we'd like too! It's just finding one suitable, or a way of adapting one to suit that's tricky!

Anything and everything BTCC is amazing. That's partly why I love the direction the car has taken, as I can drive on the same tracks, and get a realistic idea of just how insanely quick they are. I'll get there one day :laugh:
 
0308ht 13zHonda Civic Type RRear Spoiler

Hope that pic worked but something like this springs to mind plus a subtle diffuser :drool: Soo awesome to even be thinking about this kind of areo, I hope to be in your position with my car one day Mr Prawn :salute:
 
So do you have any way of actually measuring how much downforce you have added to the car?
 
If anyone reads Volkswagon driver i'm told there are a few pics of us and a very brief mention on the recent CGTI Trackday report :)

The main article pic is a pic of Dad driving, me passenger, chasing down our very own Vorhees (Jason) in his gorgeous edition 30!



Going to try and buy a copy at lunch time :)
 
daz-20vt said:
Wow i didnt realise you had such conclusive methods!!
Click to expand...


Oh yea, nothing but the very best here :laugh:

In theory, if you had more mathematical inclination that I do, and were fairly brainy (I'm looking at RobinJI here), it would be possible to rig up a series of map sensors at the base of the of the air dam, and using the pressure variation mesuresed, and the area of the splitter, you could come up with some sort of theoretical figure for the front end down force created.

this wouldn't take into account how the splitter effects airflow over and under the whole car though, and would be far more effort than I'll ever bother with!

Without masses of money and access to a wind tunnel, all you can do it mimic as closely as possible, those that are known to work on the likes of BTCC and such things, and then just drive the thing to get a feel for it.

it's very safe to say the aero stuff really had changed the car dramatically though, my confidence in it, and the lap times are vastly improved, and everyone comments on just how stable and planted it looks on track too :)
 
If its increased your confidence alone it was worth it. Did you find the car planted at speed before the splitter?
 
It was very skittish when braking hard from high speed. The back straight at Hullavington is about 120mph before the left hander and under hard braking the back felt as though it wanted to break loose. Just the fitting of the rear wing cured that and the other BIG difference was the splitter. We have an alloy diffuser but haven't got around to fitting it yet. One day soon???
The car was a little lively before the aero. It is so well planted now that altering the wing might not produce anything better. The grass is not always greener on the other side. However we might experiment in small doses just to see what happens. A slightly deeper wing is available from the same source so that could be a starting point.
 
daz-20vt said:
Pmsl. Ive no idea if your serious or not
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As Dad said really.

The car was always fairly 'loose' before, and it suited my driving style, but as the tracks got faster, and the car got more powerful, and stiffer, it changed from 'playfully loose' to 'easily crashable'

I found this out the hard way, and Dad had a not too dissimilar incident ending in a 115mph spin at Goodwood a month later.

High speed stuff over 100mph became very skittish, and coming off the power at speed wasn't fun at all. Perhaps the car wasn't getting any worse, but it certainly knocked my confidence to push on.

Since adding the aero it's SO much more stable at speed it's unreal, even in a dead straight line the difference is hugely noticeable, it just fills you with confidence now where it didn't previously.
 
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A simple yes would have been fine.
Joking aside thats very interesting to hear actually. Mad how different its made it!!
 
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