Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

yea, it's good stuff.

Getting excited about Hullavington now, can't wait to get back on track!

Target is to cover at least 200 miles on track during the day if possible! want as much time out there as possible!
 
Prawn said:
Target is to cover at least 200 miles on track during the day if possible! want as much time out there as possible!
Click to expand...

Really? That's a lot of track miles? And besides - do you think you're quick enough to manage 125 laps in a day :moa:
 
I dunno, it's 4 hours of track time at an average speed of 50mph, and I'm sure I was averaging over 50mph in the Mini even!

4 hours track time through the whole day, assuming you drive for 30 minutes of each hour, should just about be possible. if it's 1m30 for a lap, then it's only 3 hours track time....

Ok, perhaps not QUITE that much, but as much as is possible!

Hullavington was great in the Mini in July, but I don't think we made the best use of the open pitlane format, partly because the brakes couldn't cope with more than 5=6 laps, and partly because it feels so wrong to thrash the mini so hard for extended periods.
 
So, took the car to Brands Hatch yesterday with Dad to watch the Britcar Into the Night race, which was awesome!

I ment to get some shots of the car in the ground at Brands, but totally forgot whilst watching the Racing.

I whipped the splash guards off the front brakes today to aid cooling, why I didn't do this sooner I have no idea. I had planned to install some ducting to the front brakes, but due to the ARB position, the duct I have isn't flexy enough, so I'm going to need to get some more flexible stuff, so I've left that for now.

All that was left to do was make up a decent camera mount for the cam corder.

I made the mount out of bits of scrap I found in the skip at work, a random steel plate from something, and a fencing clamp.

e1548d9e.jpg


11c08ff6.jpg


067b34cd.jpg


Just needs a thumb screw in 1/4 UNC to attach the camera properly.

I also lined the jaws with foam to stop it damaging my lovely orange paint:

958ba36c.jpg


Went for a little test drive with it all just hand tight, and it looks promising. When I get a proper UNC thread to tighten the camera down, I'll tighten the other nuts and see how it comes out :)
 
Lool is there anything you havent thought of haha

btw when you recoreded your last trackday on mobile,what lap timer app did you use and will it work on a htc :)
 
Paradox1 said:
Lool is there anything you havent thought of haha
Click to expand...

I'm unable to answer this question sadly, because if I havn't yet thought of it, then I won't know that I havn't thought of it either! it's a vicious circle!

Rockingham Raceway booked for March 17th next year with Circuit days, Christmas present from Mum to Dad and I, thanks mum!

Rockingham looks pretty awesome:

rockingham4041-L.jpg
 
Nice, Rockingham is a great fast track, if your brakes over heat atleast you have a run off from going 130 towards the hair pin after the first bend :)
 
haha, brilliant! Is that first banked corner 100% flat out in most cars?

I'm yet to have a problem with these brakes overheating at all, they've been fantastic to date, I was looking at adding ducting to them just to further cool them. Even though I don't suffer from fade at all I can't help thinking cooler is better!
 
Just carry a picture of me around Bob, anything that I am in is instantly cooler ;)
 
How much was it Nick? We'll see how Friday goes and I'll decide if I ever want to be on the same track as you again....
 
Andy P said:
How much was it Nick? We'll see how Friday goes and I'll decide if I ever want to be on the same track as you again....
Click to expand...

£120 with the NL discount, open pitlane 9-5, free additional drivers, free pax, free tuition! result.

You will want to be back on track with me again, whether it's to try and regain some dignity after I thrash you, or if you're quicker, to prove the point that it wasn't a one off! I'm looking forward to this one!

Westy said:
Have you lads done Hullavington yet?
Click to expand...

Friday! If andy gets his car finished in time!

Some stupid tit decided to start fitting a custom home built roll cage just 11 days before the TD! nutter.
 
Prawn said:
£120 with the NL discount, open pitlane 9-5, free additional drivers, free pax, free tuition! result.

You will want to be back on track with me again, whether it's to try and regain some dignity after I thrash you, or if you're quicker, to prove the point that it wasn't a one off! I'm looking forward to this one!



Friday! If andy gets his car finished in time!

Some stupid tit decided to start fitting a custom home built roll cage just 11 days before the TD! nutter.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying you'd be quicker than me, it could just be that the two of us on the same bit of tarmac (or wanting to use the exact same bit of tarmac!) at the same time might get a bit...hmmmn, we'll see eh? :p

And the cage will be done, the 6 pots will be on, the black dash will be in and everything will work spot on, all in time for a track trashing. Probably.
 
I did say either outcome is possible!

To be honest though, I don't think either will be clearly faster, and it'll be a repeat of every other time and there's nothing in it!

what are we going to do with these 6 pots? I can't get time off work, so I need to get them to you somehow!
 
The cage will be finished tonight :unsure:... So tomorrow night I'll meet you? Or another lunch meet tomorrow? Then I can fit them tomorrow night.

Oh, I've also got to fit the tow strap, and make and fit another lexan window... And secure the one I've fitted, as its just sat in there at the moment.. And fix the ABS... And the speedo.... And make some brake ducts... And make an exhaust bung, and fit the new air filter, block off the recirc.... I'm sure there's more.
 
So, camera mount is made and finished, i glued some rubber to various parts of it yesterday to stop it wobbling loose, and to stop vibration a bit too.

Dad's picked up the wheels from Jardo, so that's some rubber to shread 'care free'

Car is all ready, needs a wipe down, and the tools packing, along with spacers to fit tomorrows wheels, then we're set :)

Andy on the other hand, currently has a volvo with no dashboard that doesn't start from what I can gather! So it sucks to be him right now¬!

Full report to come after the event :)
 
Prawn said:
haha, brilliant! Is that first banked corner 100% flat out in most cars?

I'm yet to have a problem with these brakes overheating at all, they've been fantastic to date, I was looking at adding ducting to them just to further cool them. Even though I don't suffer from fade at all I can't help thinking cooler is better!
Click to expand...

I can't really remember that bit much to be honest but I'd say you would be able to go flat out with a sorted suspension, I don't think I had the balls to in my little French tin. They sometimes change the circuit though so you get routed onto the inner corner rather than going round the the bowl so to speak. It will probably be this layout to slow you down a little bit.
 
think i saw the volvo last night in b'stoke (if not saw a red volvo on white wheels)
 
I'm liking the idea of aero! When's the K04 going on?
 
Last edited:
Andys Volvo is properly awesome. Budget track slags FTW, by the sound of things with Andy at the wheel it was as quick as Prawns car yesterday, even if it did rape two sets of brake pads and get black flagged for its brakes being on fire!

393626_10150414174153895_510548894_8172799_758803548_n.jpg


These pads had 6mm on them yesterday, and he got through two sets!

381405_10150414171313895_510548894_8172784_171436823_n.jpg


Come on Bob, get out of bed and do a write up!
 
audi upgrades
**** off :p this is my build thread, of you want to keep bumming volvos then I suggest you book a flight to Sweden....
 
It was properly awesome mate! Car was, as always, perfect all day, and really quick. Will do a full write up once andys finished using my laptop to find new pads for his stupid **** brakes
 
So, a small report from Hullavington, I'm afraid the photos are lacking, because it was a bit hectic, and we were just trying to get as much track time as possible.

Andy came up on Thursday night, having just finished his cage and fitted his willwood 6 pots, we had some grub, then went out to bed in his new brakes. Once that was done, we went to the carwash to make the ovlov look half presentable.

ce5189e1.jpg


Job done, lots of cider was consumed, then bed.

Up at 6am to enjoy a hybrid blend of 3 pasta and sauce between us for breakfast.

7am and we hit the road, 80 miles to travel to Hullavington:

a983f6d8.jpg


Passed this piece of tat on the A34.....

03cc2b4b.jpg


Heard reports of a lovely A3 heading in the same direction too, (shame the camera man appears to be still drunk)

dda7d70a.jpg


We arrived at 0820, nice and early. There were just a few other cars there:

43cd5e31.jpg


The brake pedal was feeling low on the volvo, so we whipped the wheels off to bleed them

18ee4778.jpg


We noticed at the time that the brake pads looked fairly worn compared to when they were fitted yesterday. we bled the brakes, signed on, attended the drivers briefing, and headed out for the sighting laps.

With those done, we headed out for out first session.

The A3 was going amazingly, running on the federals in the morning, they felt fairly good, and warmed up fast, conditions were a bit damp, but it was drying out slowly. the brakes felt amazing, with the new Mintex 1177 pads working a treat.

Had a really good play with a red exige, we caught him after a few laps, and were sticking to him really well for a few laps, he then let us pass, and I was amazed to find we could pull away from him, the bloke came up to us after that session, and was amazed to find out we only had ~200bhp, he admitted that he'd never thought an A3 could be faster than his exige :)

Dad and I stayed out for 12-15 laps, although we noticed after 6-7 laps that Andy had vanished. We came back in and found that Andys pads had totally vanished!

393626_10150414174153895_510548894_8172799_758803548_n.jpg


ohps. that's not ideal. After many phone calls, a place was found nearby that stocked all sorts of pads, so Andy jumped in Dads A4 and went off to find some new pads.

Dad and I did a few more sessions, and at lunch time we swapped the A3 onto the Seat cupra wheels with Pirelli P-zero Corsas:

69b4644e.jpg


I still think it looks pretty mean on these. when the P-zeros are down to the chords, I'll have my clio cup slicks fitted and give them a try.

Andy returned about 90 minutes later, with a set of subaru brake pads, the same length as his willwoods, that he'd taken to a garage and redrilled the holes for the ped retention pins.

Annoyingly, the pads turned out to be too thick to fit in the calipers!

Nobody had a grinder on site, so we had to improvise to grind them down:

3e90b7c2.jpg


Yup, that really is Andy leaning out of the passenger door, dragging the brake pad on the tarmac whilst I drive around the paddock in cirlces. about 5 minutes per pad had them ground down far enough to go in, and amazingly, Andy still has all 10 fingers!

5d9d8489.jpg
 
With the brake pads back in, Andy was finally able to hit the track, looking EXTRA cool in this shot:

GOPR0583.jpg


At this point, I'm afraid my pictures fail totally!

We had a great afternoon, Dad and I swapped over regularly and each did loads of laps, Andy was out on track bedding in his brakes, and did get black flagged once because they caught on fire!

There was one fast left hander near the end of the lap that Dad wasn't enjoying at all, although I think this is partly down to me having a few 'moments' on several laps requiring a bit more than the usual 'dab of oppo'. There was an arkward surface change (and massive grip change!) just on the turn in which really thew you.

We eventually got a few close laps in with Andy, and found that just as on the road, there really is nothing between us at all.

With Andy in front, we were evenly matched until the braking, at which point he was holding us up, then on the straights he'd pull away again, then with me in front, Andy would stay a constant distance behind for a lap or two whilst his brakes were working, then as they'd start to fade he'd fall back. Conclusion is, neither one of us is quicker at all, it really is THAT close, if andy had proper brakes, I think we'd have been dead level all day long.

Dad was flying yesterday too, he had a few good laps in front and behind Andy, pushing on really well, we both found that the car was better on the P-zeros than it was in the morning on the federals, and we stiffened the rear ARB 1 notch for the afternoon as well, which helped no end on the tight technical sections.

At about 3pm it started to rain, we carried on lapping, and with warm tyres we were amazed at how much pace you could maintain in the wet, braking points obviously took a while to re-assess, but generally, it was great fun in the rain, and a little more challenging. the track was also just about empty, as most people packed up and left when it started raining!

There is a bit more to come, but it's dependant on me being able to edit some of the HD footage we took during the day, so I'll try and add that in later :)


one final pic, all packed up and heading home:

decc3471.jpg


What a cracking day!
 
I forgot to add, in total we covered 130 miles on track yesterday, and the car was 100% faultless.

I've now done the Nurburgring trip, which was 1500 miles, Audi Driver international at Castle Combe, and now 130 miles on track at Hullavington, and aside from replacing consumables (front brake pads) I've not had to touch a single thing on the car! I've not even topped up the oil, and it's just been absolutely perfect.

I think this, above all else, is a true credit to the development of the car and how far it's come from the unreliable wreck it was 1 year ago.

Laptimes and BHP figures aside, I'm more proud of the abuse it takes constantly without letting me down, this thing is just awesome!

The fact that it seems to be crazy quick on track is just a massive bonus I guess!
 
audi upgrades
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
A3/S3 Track car...
Replies
26
Views
8K
Prawn
Prawn
jsmotorsport
audi a3 8L track car
Replies
6
Views
4K
Prawn
Prawn
Marzo_NO
My A3 quattro track car
Replies
10
Views
4K
badger5
badger5
Sootpig
Sootpig's A3 track/drag car
Replies
166
Views
20K
Erikn89nl
Erikn89nl
M
S3 or A3 Track car?
Replies
40
Views
4K
Murf
M
Top
Back