Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

:) The main reason for not wanting a ko3 hybrid, is that I want to run a turbo which is nowhere near it's maximum power output, to keep it ultra reliable, given that it'll be thrashed to death every single time it's used, unlike a road car.

To do that safely on a ko3 kybrid, I'd be looking at about 240bhp max, so there's just no point in doing it.

Basically, I want a turbo capable of BIG numbers, so I can run it at 70-80% of it's potential output and still get a really decent figure, around 300bhp I'm hoping.


Made a start on the interior today, and my god. it's 10x as much work as I thoughbt it'd be!

I decided to start stripping out the bitumen sound proofing in the front footwells, it was cracked and tatty, and had been cut away in places for the cage, so it it had to go.

I wish I'd never started the job to be honest, it was a nightmare!

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Using a heat gun and a paint scraper, it came off fairly easily, but as always, the residue was horrid.

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Getting there!

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After that, I started grinding out some of the tabs and brackets from the rear of the car that were no longer used. That turned into a nightmare job too, as I only have a cordless drill, and the battery seems to last about 10 mins tops! Plus the spot weld drill bit I had broke half way through, leaving me with a hammer, chisel, and grinder to finish it all off.

After almost a full days work, at 6pm, you could see almost NO difference!

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Finally masked it up this evening, and put a first coat of paint in there:

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The finish isn't as good as I'd like, but once it's all finished I'm sure it'll look spot on. It'll look so much better just having all the inside the same colour!

Not sure if I'll get the cage in colour tomorrow as well though.....
 
You planning on doing anything with the wiring loom Nick? was fishing around for a connector plug the other day in the box Bill has the Badgerwagons old loom in... jeez that things heavy!!! 35kg iirc...

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I'd absolutely love to strip the loom down Paul, but I honestly don't have a clue about electrics, and hate them with a passion!

George Seamons with the silver 4 door A3 track car is a sparky, and he stripped his down and took out over 20kg of wire!

I'd love to do similar, but for now, it'll have to wait. Currently all I could really remove is the airbag stuff, and the rear wiper feed. Apart from that, it's all still in there! Even got the front and rear interior lights zip tied onto the cage!
 
Took more than 20kg out Nick! I have literally NO loom in mine, apart from the instrument cluster. It was a bit of a challenge, I must admit. But to be honest, I could have done it without being an electrician, nothing I do in my day to day job was of ANY relevance to car electrics!
 
Nice work Nick. That sticky glue stuff for the carpet is a pain. I helped my mate do his M3 shell.

I'd never really thought about how much all the wiring would weigh. 20kg just from wiring is impressive. All the motors must weigh a bit too! I also know that removing the AC make a huge difference :whistle2:
 
how about those door bars now you have a cage ??? also regarding clutches how do you find the single mass flywheel on your daily ??? do they rattle on tickover as i've read ???
 
What door bars dude? The cage already has door bars, they're just remove for painting.

As for the SMF, the one in the daily is standard weight, and doesn't make any sound at all. Not a hint of it.
The one in the track car is lightened from 10kg to 6kh, and makes the tiniest faint rattle on idle, although it's never bothered me at all :)
 
Prawn - on the turbo upgrade your getting, does it come with the standard k04 manifold or an uprated one. im struggling to find a decent manifold for the k04?
 
I think he's using Wellys old XS one. Hopefully there might be some manifolds coming soon!
 
Next time any ones removing bitumen sound proofing might be worth wiping diesel or brake fluid over it as it will brake down the binder.
 
He's getting a shiney new xs power manifold with a suitable dent, that I got from Welly and never used for obvious reasons. looks good dude I dont blame you for not wanting to sort the loom out, it sounds like an epic job.
 
Looks like you getting to complete package them Prawn. Isnt the XS manifolds mads of stainless steel? I though a cast manifold would be more durable? let me know if Im wrong.
 
Welly used the XS manifold for about 10k apparently, at 22psi, and it didn't crack. I won't be running anywhere near that boost, so it should be an issue I'm hoping. Also, as Bill says, there isn't really a decent alternative out there!

So, onto the cage!

well, 2 10 hour days, a **** load of blisters, and 14 (yes - fourteen) cans of paint, 80m of masking tape, and about 50m of 18'' brown paper roll, and the interior has been fully painted, both floorpan, roof, and cage! and I did the seat side mounts too for good measure!

Can't believe how much paint it's taken to get a decent finish.

4 cans of satin black blitzed on the interior, baring in mind I've done inside all the pillars, the roof skin, inside the rear quarters, everywhere. That brings us up to last nights update.

So, starting today:

I went to the paint shop this morning, and bought another 2 cans of satin black, an extra can of white primer, and an extra can of laquer to be safe.

Back to the house, and I finished off painting the interor. an extra two coats in the front footwells to combat wear from shoes, and a decent coat over the inside of the roof skin which was still in primer from the factory. so that's 4 cans of paint gone into it so far.

I gave that a while to dry, and then I started masking up the car:

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I couldn't believe how long it took to mask up everything, it was almost 1pm before I had it all masked.

I cage the cage a quick rub with with scotch brite, and then wiped it all down with meths to make sure it was clean.

Then the primer went on, it took 3 500ml cans to get a good even coating over the entire cage. 7 cans of paint down so far!

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3 cans did about 2 decent coats over the whole lot, just enough to not look patchy any more

With that done, I moved onto the orange, and applied the first coat :) a light dust coat at first, then after 10 mins, a first proper coat:

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Such a good feeling to finally see it going into colour! 1 full coat of the cage took 2 400ml cans of base coat to get a decent coverage. 9 cans used now.

1 coat of orange done, I left it to dry for 30 mins. Whilst that was drying, I rubbed down the seat side mounts, and gave them a coat of primer:

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I then moved onto a second coat on the cage. No pics of this stage, because it looks the same! another 2 cans, up to 11 cans of paint so far!

WIth that done, I stuck a few coats of orange onto the side mounts whilst the cage was drying, just enough left from the last can to do these:



Then finally onto the laquer, 2 decent coats of laquer over the cage. each coat took a full can, so that's 13 cans of paint to get to this point!


Then finally, one more can of laquer started for the side mounts, didn't use it all, but it brings the paint can total for this work up to a whopping 14 cans!

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Left it to dry for a bit, then started taking the masking tape off:

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Really happy with how it's starting to look :)

I really like the contrast inside with the black and orange. I've got one or two bits of overspray that I'll sort at some point:

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Looks much smarter with the inside of the roof painted:

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Just got the door bars and harness bar to refit, and put the seats back in on the new orange side mounts, and make the sliders work, and she's Ring ready!
 
that cage looks 100x better in orange and even looks a lot better now without the orange wheels :D
 
that looks wicked! would love to do the same!

I need to pull my finger out and start prepping for the N-ring!
 
:D proper happy with it actually, I went to look at it this morning before work, it looks wicked!

Just got to put the OMP stickers on the cage now :)

Got some 12.9 grade bolts for the harness bar too to replace the 8.8's

Going to try and get the sliders mounted for the seats too, although in a slight change to the norm, the adjusting lever will be behind the seat, as the cross member gets in the way in front of the seats because of how low they are. Shouldn't be an issue though, I've tested it out, and it's dead easy to reach around and pull the lever.
 
:applaus: Very impressed Nick. I know how time consuming it is to mask and spray paint something of that size so my hat is off to you mate.

What else needs doing before the ring trip? 3 weeks tomorrow :yahoo:
 
I need to refit the seats on runners, which shouldn't be too hard, and I need to change the thermostat.

other than that, it's actually just about ready!

Although I would like a 'you know when you've been tango'd!' sticker to go on the bottom of the bootlid!
 
haha that sticker will finish it off nicely!!

Prawny I think you should do this for each track you've been on:

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I've also seen it done on the side skirts which looked quite good.

Also have you seen any cars with a huge ring sticker that covers 1 corner of the car? One in Orange would look good. I have a photo of a black Renault Megane with a red sticker somewhere I'll try and find it.

EDIT, here it is:

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Last edited:
Prawny I think you should do this for each track you've been on:

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I've also seen it done on the side skirts which looked quite good.

Also have you seen any cars with a huge ring sticker that covers 1 corner of the car? One in Orange would look good. I have a photo of a black Renault Megane with a red sticker somewhere I'll try and find it.

EDIT, here it is:

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Like the little stickers, not that keen on the massive ring sticker, looks like a child has been let loose with a crayon
 
love the car, love the work thats gone into it, looks like you've done a proper job....

love the ring (lucky enough to have been taken round it in some tasty, and unexpected cars by proper drivers)

Am i allowed to say i dont love the orange cage? its just a bit too much for me, i would have stuck with black and kept it subtle...
 
You're more than welcome to say that Eddie :) Each to their own!

I've wanted a black / orange theme on this car since the beginning, and if you look back, I originally had orange wheels and mirrors, and to be honest, it just looked WAY over the top, and a bit garish.

I had already bought the Northloop graphics, and stuck them on the car anyway to give it a dash of colour, and I now really like the subtle orange highlights.

That's why I went with the orange cage really, I know it's a safety feature first and formost, but I also feel a cage is the one main distinguishing factor of a proper track car, there it goes from a road car with no back seats, to a real track car.

Also, having spent SO much money on the cage, I didn't want to paint it black so it couldn't be seen at all. This isn't a car that's used on the road for any purpose, other than driving to trackdays, and the occasional sunday afternoon blast! So I don't mind it being none too subtle :)

Onto this evening!

and it was a very disappointing evening here for a change!

Was supposed to be refurbing a mates rota wheel for his civic this evening, but the rain started lightly, so I decided to crack on with the first sider on the drivers seat.

Offered the runners up, and worked out where I needed to drill them to fit my existing seat rails. With that done, I bolted it all up and offered them into place:

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Bolted the seat in, and it seems to fit great:

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And it has plenty of forward adjustment to help Dad get more comfy:

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However, that's where the good news ends.

They're only 20mm higher than before, but they just feel FAR too high to me now, although I'm prepared to live with that to make it better for Dad to drive.

However, I am not prepared to live with this:

Sparco seat runners- huge play - YouTube

There's so much play in the runners it's a joke. Not happy with that at all, and I certainly won't be sticking with them.

Sadly, as much as I'd like to have sliders, I don't think it's going to happen.

These arn't cheap sliders either, they're the sparco double locking ones from Demon Tweeks at £50 per seat!

Anyone else had similar issues?
 
that's how they were before Paul, I loved how solid they were, truly part of the car!

I wanted to put them on sliders to make it easier to adapt for Dad driving, but sadly, there's no way we can live with this much movement in the seat. it just doesn't feel safe!
 
Nah, nice idea Dave, but I'm not buggering around with seat fixings. They'd need 2 bolts to hold them solid, at which point I may as well remove the seat and move the side mounts forward instead!

The runners are going, and it's being bolted in solid, which I'd prefer if I'm honest anyway.

Nice idea in theory, shame the sliders are gash :(
 

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