Mk1 A3 - Race Car Build Thread

John Lindsay

John Lindsay

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Evening All,

Thought I'd post this on here to keep you up to date with something we're working on. Compiled from posts on other forums, so timescales may not be exact for the first few posts!

Bought it a few weeks ago (read that as June time) as a completely standard 150hp road car with a brake binding issue:





Stripped out the interior, sorted the brakes (or so we thought) and took it to it's first Track night at the Dreadnought night at Knockhill:









The night started well, got on track, starting to get a feel for things and the car started shuddering as the brakes begun to bind on again, pulled into the pits in a cloud of smoke to investigate it and it sat there for about half an hour with the brakes seized solid. It eventually would move again so we got it out into the paddock and loosened off the nuts on the master cylinder which seemed to free the brakes off again so we got back out for another run.

Again after 5/6 laps we ran into problems with the clutch slipping very badly. Decided we would call it a night after that.



Despite the few problems we had it was a brilliant night, and we were much more impressed with the car in standard form than we expected to be.

Managed to source a cheap set of wheels, with Federal RSR595's on them, good thing is these clear the brakes we have lined up for the car!



Then had them refurbished in a suitably eye catching colour! Awesome work by Wheel Wizards Scotland - http://www.wheelwizardsscotland.co.uk







So with the clutch being goosed it seemed like to ideal time to upgrade to the stronger 6 speed box, collected that last night and have all the other bits required sorted so that's the current job.

Also have seats and a roll cage on order, and that's us pretty much up to date.

John
 
Time for a wee update here.

Wheels on - Big thanks to http://www.wheelwizardsscotland.co.uk:



Thought it felt a bit 'wishy washy' on track first time out, this might explain that a bit... Got a new subframe sitting, along with cast arms and quick rack etc from a Leon Cupra R to go on now though.



Looking pretty bare:



No more horrible heavy, sticky sound deadening!







Started stripping back the loom:



Brother Allan showing how there's So much more room for activities!!





This aint no 'Grocery Getter':









And all packed up to go get the cage installed:

 
audi upgrades
So while that was going on I started collecting parts for when it comes back:

OMP Targa 330



Motacorsa Quick Release Boss



OBP Pedal Box



Fire Extinguisher



Mirco RTS Seats



Lightweight Alloy Sidemounts



Stud Conversion



Lightweight Battery



Adjustable Top Mounts



 
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Reactions: Scullies and Essflee
Prawn does love this!

Have been following since day 1 :) can't wait to see how this comes out!

We're in great danger though John, if yours turns out to be any good then the secret will slowly get out that a3's can be great track cars! Then every ****** will start building them!
 
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Reactions: Vex182
Wow quick progress. Keep up good work guys. Maybe when we have all done ours we can show the s3's a thing or two or three (mostly our rear ends dissapearing)
 
pffft you all bought cars with an A where an S should be.
nice try on the race car build fella shame you've already hit your first handicap.




joking!!
great to see another track car being done. love the look of having no dash. are you putting it all back in?
 
Dash mounts on the cage suggest yes.

I ****** well hope so anyway :laugh:

Now, hurry up, all of you! I'm lonely!
 
Got one week tomorrow till ours is in France currently no wheels on and can't put any on front atm. Looks like your progress is much quicker tho.
 
no dash ftw!!!!
whoop whoop!!! defo loving all these threads though. keep them up ya'll!!!!
 
hmmm theres a thought.
well looking good. your next outing will be a whole different expirience with those new seats
 
audi upgrades
Who knows when the next outing will actually be though...

It's only ever been out once, and then it was a bog standard 150hp road car, with no back seats, a slipping clutch, and binding brakes on road tyres.

I'm expecting to notice a few more differences than the seats!! :laugh:
 
pmsl. well when you put it like that!!!
 
Not completely sure yet, Nick.

Priorities were/are making it light, safe and conform to the regs of the series' we fancy competing in, next we'll sort out handling and brakes. I have a spare set of LCR Brembo's and some KW V1's for starters on that front.

We'll map it of course since that's essentially free power and then have a serous think about what to do power wise.

When I picked up the 6 speed box the guy also had a 1.8T engine which he believed had suffered from a little bit of oil starvation, so I took that off his hands free of charge... That's in the garage waiting to be stripped down and assessed for damage and if all is good we'll build it from there.
 
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Reactions: StaceyS3 and superkarl
This is annoyingly awesome! :anbet:

What's this series you guys want to get into? I'd love to do Trackday Trohy or something one day......

Keep up the good work though guys! I'm thinking I need to get the horrid sound deadening out of mine, mostly for asthetic reasons lol.
 
On the note of sound deadening what did you find best to get it off?
 
Nath1790 said:
This is annoyingly awesome! :anbet:

What's this series you guys want to get into? I'd love to do Trackday Trohy or something one day......
Click to expand...


One or the other, (or both) of these, plus anything else we fancy or can afford!

www.superlapscotland.co.uk

www.scottishmotorracingclub.co.uk


Nick_sheep said:
On the note of sound deadening what did you find best to get it off?
Click to expand...


Dry Ice is really the ideal way to remove the sound deadening - have a search on YouTube for that, works perfectly.

However when we decided to do it I couldn't get a hold of that on time so went at it with a scraper and heat gun, get it nice and melty enough and it comes off like sliding a hot knife through butter. This leaves a sticky residue behind which is easily lifted with any good tar remover. HTH
 
Fantastic write up so far, look forward to reading more John. Keep us up to date when your on track and some of us will pop by to spectate. Keep up the good work. :) x
 
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Reactions: John Lindsay
what does that horrible sticky sound deadening actually weigh? Is it quite substantial?

ive seen a bloke on PH remove his and replace for a sticky light foam, all in the quest for weight saving whilst still retaining some quality feel/sound.
 
should be a very interesting build! will be keeping an eye on this!

i couldnt tell from the pictures but is the cage tied into the rear suspension or just to the wheel wells?
 
superkarl said:
what does that horrible sticky sound deadening actually weigh? Is it quite substantial?
Click to expand...


Again, I've not actually weighed it but it was surprisingly heavy. Needed a double black bin liner to carry it. Ours certainly won't be replaced with anything.


azzzah said:
i couldnt tell from the pictures but is the cage tied into the rear suspension or just to the wheel wells?
Click to expand...


Cut through the inner skin and it is as close to the rear shock mounting positions as possible.
 
Looking good John, good choice of wheel too!

Will you be giving this a proper diff too when the time comes, rather than an ATB of some type?
 
Oh, and where's Garry? Shouldn't he be joining in the party too on ASN's new busiest thread? :laugh:
 
Yeah I really do like the wheel, this arrived today too, since it'll soon be winter... Don't want the poor thing getting cold y'know!!



Need to decide what harnesses to go for and that'll be everything we need for the interior... Probably.

Diff hasn't even been thought about, I briefly considered it when the box was out but decided there were other things needed first. We'll probably look at that when it's coming back out to get the clutch uprated.

Prawn said:
Oh, and where's Garry? Shouldn't he be joining in the party too on ASN's new busiest thread? :laugh:
Click to expand...


He'll be around somewhere I'm sure, just keeping quiet which is unlike him! I'm just back from his house and I know he's not where he should be... Which is in the garage - putting the leon back together! :lick:
 
So the car is finally home from having the cage fitted... Not Scott's fault, it's lay there ready for months and I've never got round to going for it. I have no new pictures of it, it looks exactly the same as it did in the previous photos but a bit rustier!!

In other news, this arrived today:





 
I've also bought some new brakes which should be here this week:







Already have Brembo's from a Leon waiting to go on, but with these being the GT Senior kit with 2 piece discs they should hopefully be a step better again.
 
All of this used to be part of the loom... I'd say there's now more in a pile on the garage floor than what's left in the loom, with still more to come out.



A few more photos of the tidy up in progress:





 
where did you get the heater matrix from mate? would work well in my track mk2 golf.
 
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