Project Road2Race - Come join us

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 7, 2012

Hi everyone, we would like to introduce you to a new project we recently started called Project Road2Race:

The idea is simple, take a road car and turn it into a race car. Not just a race car, but a competitive race car. The difference with this project is that we wanted to show that it could be done on a relatively low budget, a budget not too dissimilar to that of a big turbo conversion and engine build.

Some people might not be interested in going the whole hog and actually going racing, however they might be interested in seeing how to prepare a car properly for the track and seeing once again that you neednât remortgage your house in order to give some of the big boys at track-days a run for their money.

We will be building 2 Seat Leons and competing in them at the SuperPro VAG Trophy Championship. The Championship was designed as a series for tuning and track enthusiasts to get involved with on a bit of a budget, whilst ensuring you still get the adrenaline rush that only comes with competitive racing.

There will be updates posted 3 times a week on the progress of the cars, so click through to the Facebook page and 'Like' to check out what we've already done and stay up to date. You can also follow us on Twitter.

www.facebook.com/pages/Road2Race/283724695068593
https://twitter.com/road2race

Motors TV have now confirmed they will be broadcasting the documentary following the progress of the project. So stay tuned and enjoy the snippets of the documentary as we make it from Road 2 Race, the definitive guide on how to #GoFaster.

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Car Choice - Seat Leon Sport 2.0

We have chosen two Seat Leon Sport models, both purchased for under £4000. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly we are VW Audi Group specialists and the championship the car will be entered into is the V.A.G Trophy, so the vehicle has to be a VW, Audi, Seat or Skoda. We went for the Sport over the higher FR and Cupra models, as the engine and chassis are exactly the same, the only thing they differ by are bumpers and interior. We suggest a few things to keep in mind when looking for a car to convert. The most important thing is that the chassis is not bent or distorted in anyway. so if youâre looking at a CAT C or CAT D car, make sure you know exactly what damage was done to the car.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - The real work has begun

The transformation is underway and as you can see we've been busy stripping out all the unnecessary parts such as every plastic piece of trim, soundproofing, carpets, dashboard, heater boxes and any wiring or electronics we simply don't need.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Stripping the interior

There are a few other reasons for removing virtually all the interior apart from the obvious weight advantages. One is the fire risk from soundproofing material, carpets and anything that could potentially catch fire or absorb fuel. Having a well fitted roll cage is always going to be a struggle if you have negated to remove certain trim and dashboard panels before attempting to fit it.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Weight Reduction

Weight Reduction - Having a well fitted roll cage is virtually impossible to obtain with certain trim and panels in situ. Interior components also add weight, and as you can see from the picture, the components stripped out of the Leons quickly add up, infact it totals over 135 KG. Thatâs roughly the same as 2 average UK males being removed from the car!

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Weight Reduction - Heater Matrix Removed

Don't forget the cage will be welded in situ, so heat sensitive items must be well away from the weld in cage securing locations. Melted fuse boxes and wiring are only going to take more time and effort to find and repair at a later point in the build. Finally we removed all the metal bracketry that was no longer used for trim panels, rear seats, seat belts etc. This was done with a simple spot weld drill kit, a laborious and tricky job to do well.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Sell unwanted parts

Since stripping most of the items out of the Leons we've been able to sell most of the unwanted interior parts on ebay. Of course the better condition your interior is in when you purchase it, the more money you will be able to recoup. The interiors with door cards sold for around £200, the airbag and steering wheel were around the same. Even the plastic trim panels, roof linings and the electric window motors went for £50 each. By the time all the parts have been sold the total amount will be in region of £800 per car, that is some serious re-numeration. This will fund the essential plumbed in fire safety systems we will cover at a later date.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Remove Soundproofing

We've been busy removing all the soundproofing out of the Leons, and as you can see, there is much more weight to be saved than you may think. Some may see this as an insignificant weight saving, but when you consider that you are eventually going to be looking for that all-important advantage over your rivals, it makes total sense to do it. How much do you think we saved in total from removing the soundproofing? Stay tuned and we'll tell you in an upcoming post.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 13, 2012

Project Road2Race - Metal Bracket Removal

After you have stripped the interior, there will be many metal brackets left that are no longer attached to anything and therefore no longer serve any purpose apart from slowing you down. Once again, by drilling the spot welds holding them in place, these can be removed to continue the weight savings. Whilst this task may seem like a laborious one, you will soon see the importance of your efforts once you start to weigh the unwanted metal brackets. Once the brackets are removed, the material left around the spot weld is ground down to make a smooth flat surface ready for painting. Watch out for a post in the near future where we will reveal the actual weight savings made by removing the soundproofing and metal brackets. If you want to get involved, have a guess at how much weight we saved!

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 14, 2012

Project Road2Race - Weight Reduction - Door Panels

Since we have removed the door panels and electric windows, we no longer have any need for the metalwork that held all the components in place, so obviously it would make sense to get rid of it all together. We carefully marked out the ideal cutting line, making sure to leave enough metal for the light weight door panels to be secured to, and went to work with the circular metal disc cutter. As you can see there was quite a bit of work involved in getting all of the superfluous metal out of the car, but when you look at how much has been removed, you know it will all pay off come race day.

www.facebook.com/pages/Road2Race/283724695068593
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 16, 2012

Project Road2Race - Off to Tornado Motorsport

Now the cars have been stripped and prepared for their trip to have the rollcages fitted, it was time to visit Tornado Motorsport to speak to Dave Billings and pick his brains about the finer details of his work. Tornado have an excellent reputation in the industry, evidenced by their continual involvement with the SuperPro VAG Trophy Championship. So much so that most of the cars racing in the series have been through Tornado's gates at some point.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 22, 2012

Project Road2Race - Bending, Notching, Fitting & Welding

We looked long and hard at various cage designs that have evolved over the last few years. This was made considerably easier for us due to the large amount of Seat Leons being used in Race Championships over the last few years. After many hours of discussion with Dave of Tornado Motorsport ltd we decided on a fairly sophisticated 8 point design. There are two reasons for this, firstly Tornado have exceptional attention to detail and vast experience in both designing and manufacturing FIA compliant cages, so we felt it only fair to let them show what they could do. Secondly this design of rollcage adds exceptional amounts of rigidity to the shell whilst also providing great driver protection.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 22, 2012

Project Road2Race - Further weight reduction â Final part

Weâve now removed all the nonessential wiring such as wiring for the electric rear boot handle, electric windows, heater motor sensors, rear wash wipe, central locking, air conditioning, stereo, speakers and seat belt warning lights. Whilst we were there we decided to retain but modify the original factory heater box purely because we wonât be able to make anything that would be significantly lighter or de-mist the windows as effectively. We managed to half the weight of the heater box by removing the nonessential motors, cables and flaps associated with it. In the end we made a saving of 6kg on the wiring and 3kg on the heater box.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Aug 28, 2012

John Hillon - The man behind the VAG Trophy

We recently took the opportunity to catch up with John Hillon; the main man behind the scenes at the SuperPro V.A.G Trophy Championship. As a day job, John works in the Oil Industry but his real passion is in racing. There is no doubting his pedigree having owned more than 20 Golf GTIs. His first was a very early Mars red Mk1 1600 registered in July â79. Since then he has owned another Mk1 GTI 1600, a Mk1 Oettinger 2000E, a modified Mk1 GTI 1800 bought at Chelmsford car auctions for £600, a Mk2 GTI 8V, a Mk1 GTI (1900 8V on 45 DCOE Webers) as well as many, many others. Look out for snippets of his interview coming soon to the Road2Race Facebook page.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Sep 6, 2012

Project Road2Race - Richard Fearn â The man behind SuperPro

It was always our intention to show you more than simply the car build in this project, we also wanted to show you some of the wonderful people involved in the SuperPro V.A.G Trophy Championship. With this idea in mind when we had an opportunity to talk to Richard Fearn about his industry leading SuperPro Suspension products we just couldnât resist. âWe are delighted to be supporting the VAG Trophy for a third seasonâ, said SuperPro General Manager/Director Richard Fearn. âOur wide range of suspension products includes applications for the vast majority of VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda cars. Therefore, this is an ideal championship for us, as it highlights the performance benefits of our products and helps promote them to VAG car owners, trade outlets and race teams.â Stay tuned to the Facebook page for exclusive snippets of the video interview coming soon.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Sep 6, 2012

Project Road2race - Competition - Guess the weight

To thank you all for your continued support in this project we are running a competition to guess the weight of all the metal brackets recently removed from one of the Seat Leons in our Road2Race project. We have a bag of Custom-Code and JBS Auto Designs goodies including Tshirts, Keyrings and Sticker Packs to give away. To be in with a chance of winning these awesome prizes simply reply to the post on our Facebook page (not on this forum) with your guess of the weight to the nearest 0.1 of a KG. You must also like our Road2Race Facebook page and share the post to successfully qualify for winning. Furthermore, each individual may only enter once. We will be running the competition for a week, so we will select the winner next Tuesday 11th September and announce it on our Facebook page. Good luck everyone!

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Sep 11, 2012

Check out some of the highlights of our recent interview with Petronas Oil and SuperPro V.A.G Trophy's main man John Hillon in this new video we shot at JBS Auto Designs. We're all very excited about the progress of the project so far, and it looks like John feels the same! Follow the project and keep a look out for more interviews, competitions and video edits on the official Road2Race Facebook page:

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

Custom-Code HQ · Sep 21, 2012

Project Road2Race - Lightweight Dashboard Support Installation

Now we have the roll cage fitted, it's time to trial fit the new lightweight heater/blower box and dashboard support. You will need to trim the heater box to clear the cage bars. This is a case of trial and error, remember you can always cut more off, but putting it back on is not so easy. Once the heater box and dashboard support brackets are all fitted and lined up, we can look at trimming the dashboard to fit around the cage.

Road2Race | Facebook
https://twitter.com/road2race

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