Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

630's R'bird :)

Not the most refined of injectors, but idle stability and the like are not a concern for me!
 
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That wmi stuff is far too fussy I think you should remove it
Mine lost power with the 2nd nozzle
****** stuff.

Anyway you happy with how the session went?
 
Always been on 440's yea. Too small and been borderline for a long time.

Wmi is important and worth while. It's negative impact in this case is directly related to an already sub optimal setup that's already too rich and unable to adapt.

Use it properly and there are gains to be had.

Result is exactly what I hoped for more in many ways.

Low enough that I know there are worthwhile gains to come.

High enough that I'm confident the engine is still in reasonable good health, even if perhaps not as fresh as it was when built 17k miles ago!

Looking forward to the mini engine bay make over and ecu change :)
 
With injectors that won't be maxxed out and going mental it should be much more controllable and give you plenty of room to get things running properly whilst squeezing a little more out of the setup :)
 
antwan64og said:
Bill just curious, what the most you have seen from a ko4-064 on your dyno albeit from a 2.0 TFSI engine?

Just having closed loop boost control and closed loop wideband fuelling will be a novelty on the Prawn mobile
Click to expand...

My Leon. 373bhp max I've had from it. On a TFSi dyno day I did a few years ago, with cars from revo/apr/independant there, none made higher power than mine, but all the APR cars made significantly more torque from the higher boost levels their maps run. REVO's in the main made a little more power than the APR's, not a lot in it, but revo torque was a lot lower (as mapped). This was 2 years ago I might add. What those two companies do currently I've not run. We did a stage2+ on a leon cupra a couple of weeks ago and it made 355bhp/350lbft badger torques (406lbft on happier dynos).. Similar boost levels of the APR's to achieve this. Running the car at lesser boost made more top end power but lost torque. Customer wanted the "hit of torque" one... but for me in 2wd knowing what my leon is like for traction would = muchos tyre smoke.. lol 8P S3 would love it in comparison tho.
 
Thats the bug bear though, if you tune for the WMI its awesome..... but if the WMI fails its melted piston party time unless the failsafes kick in quick enough to cut boost/pull timing/increases fuelling.

Prawns only 20hp down and 200cc's less displacement and is running rich on a blind ecu.


I think someone needs to invest in some quality fuel.....
q16.jpg
 
antwan64og said:
Thats the bug bear though, if you tune for the WMI its awesome..... but if the WMI fails its melted piston party time unless the failsafes kick in quick enough to cut boost/pull timing/increases fuelling.

Prawns only 20hp down and 200cc's less displacement and is running rich on a blind ecu.


I think someone needs to invest in some quality fuel.....
q16.jpg
Click to expand...

nope, not at all.
Depends how its tuned does'nt it
Leave margin for corrections, why would it destroy itself without meth...

tuned to 11/10th like some folks want to and you have eroded all margins for all matters..
Circuit use is much higher sustained loads for example than road use, and not the same as drag use... so tune accordingly.
 
Push to pass button should hopefully give you the ability to get 110% safely for a short period of time, you need to connect it to an actuator on the rear spoiler to flatten it down as well, then you will have DRS :) .
 
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desertstorm said:
you need to connect it to an actuator on the rear spoiler to flatten it down as well, then you will have DRS :) .
Click to expand...

Now THAT Would be cool! I wonder if if you be set to work both ways and raise the wing angle under braking to act as an air brake too :laugh:

I'm pretty sure any form of 'active aero' would completely outlaw me from any potential race series in Europe though :racer: haha.

Looking at the results again, I'm very happy with how the car performed.

On the road, it feels pretty quick currently, it pulls REALLY hard compared to what I've been used to, and if it didn't gain at all, I don't think I'd mind.

The fact that I should almost certainly see some gains, as well as added safety and control is just a huge bonus.

As always, getting to Bills on Sunday wasn't QUITE as plain sailing as is first hoped.

From prior knowledge of Bills dyno I knew I'd have to remove the splitter to get on the dyno.

No huge deal, I parked the car over the pit, and 20mins later the splitter was off:



Oddly, I absolutely HATE how it looks now without splitter. How did I go 7 years without one? I'm ashamed to take it out without it looks so wrong :laugh:

Whilst under, I thought I'd check out a tiny rattle / resonance I'd had for a few weeks.

I've kept my rear exhaust hangers wired for the last few years, so stop them sagging and to hold the exhaust positively exactly where I want it. It's VERY tight over the rear beam with a full 3" system.
I assumed one of these wires had broken, and it'd be a 2 minute fix......

Obviously, this wasn't to be!

:sign unfair:

On investigation, the rear/mid hanger at the forward end of the back box had torn away from the exhaust, leaving a fairly large hole in the pipe.



A quick pic from above showed it was gone about 90% of the way round sadly:



Rattling the exhaust confirmed the rattle, it was the broken hanger trying to remove itself :(

With the going right over the top, and the relatively close proximity to a full tank of fuel, I decided to remove the system to weld it up.

Having fitted it 3 years ago, many of the bolts were happy where they were. And the joints were fairy happy staying together too, so this took a bit longer than I'd have expected, but i got there in the end!



Despite being fairly clean under the car, this didn't stop me looking like the usual chimney sweep impersonator:



15 mins later, it was wire brushed, clamped back into place, welded up (don't be nasty about my welding :laugh: ) and zinc primed to try and keep the rust at bay.




The pit was an absolute godsend when it came to refitting. I'd had to loosen off all the clamps the whole way to get it out, so took my time lining it all up again to ensure a 'knock free' fit:



The rest is pretty much documented in the previous posts about the day.

I REALLY don't like how it looks with no splitter, it's lost it's identity!



We arrived at Bills to the usual friendly faces of Bill and Paul, and after a cup of tea and a catch up, we strapped the car to the dyno:




I took a chance for a cheeky pic of the brakes behind a spinning wheel:



Fans were positioned, contact spray was applied, and the deed was done!



For the sake of completeness in one post, here are the plots again:







In a near identical state to how it was 2 years ago pre mapping. Making good power despite some clear fuelling issues.

Last time it was in this state, it went on to make an additional 20bhp when tuned, so there is hope for 360ish certainly id like to think :)

Roll on the K6! :racer:
 
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I had the EXACT same thing happen to my exhaust. Literally in the identical place. I also used cable ties to compress the hanger to pull it up a touch higer, haha
 
Yours wasn't that old was it George?

I'm impressed with mine to be honest, 3 years of hard track abuse and it's been brilliant :)


So, better late than never, but due to a last minute change of plans, and an ever helpful gentlemen at a well known tuners near Gloucester, my plans for ADI are back on, and I will be attending and on track all day as per the previous 2 years :)

Of course, having previously thought my track time at ADI was off, I'd not bothered to have the worn through slicks on my white rims changed yet.

Thankfully, I was only minutes away from my secret tyre storage facility when the message about ADI came through, so I diverted the van and picked up the white Rotas, and a fresh set of slicks from my selection, and headed on about my business.

I needed them fitted to be able to attend, but I was absolutely not prepared to pay the £60 extortion charge asked by Kwik Fit (Kwik Mug!)

I'd been told about a local mobile guy before by Sam, so at 2pm I dropped him a text on the off chance he could do them before the weekend.

I got a very speedy reply again he could do them today, and better still, he was less than half a mile from my work!

At 4pm I headed over to meet Liam, the man behind 'Fast Tortoise Tyres' in Eastleigh

https://www.facebook.com/fasttortoisetyres

Liam was very welcoming and chatty, he showed me around his awesome Mustang, then got cracking stripping down the slicks.



It's a nice mobile setup he's got in the van, and very handy so close to home for me!

The pile ready for swapping:



I was particularly keen on his logo too, dad will like it as it's involves a Cobra :racer:



It's good to find a decent tyre man locally who doesnt charge the earth for swapping over part worn track tyres. It's a contact I'd strongly recommend and will be using again for sure :)

Back at home I spent the evening in the garage. Another of those 'simple jobs' refitting the splitter turned into a few hours. The main job is always easy, but I found that both of my arch fences were broken, and it looks all wrong without, so I ended up making new ones.



I was going to leave them, but @Erikn89nl would get upset :laugh:
 
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With the amount of time you are messing with the car I would invest in some gloves. I never bothered but they are cheap and really protect your hands from most of the crud as well as cuts and stuff. You can also work on hot stuff that you wouldn't normally be able to pick up. And they keep your hands warm when it's cold.
I bought some of these a few months ago and they are great.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arco-Esse...172409?hash=item3d043ded79:g:Cx0AAOSwDk5T9iZW
 
I loves this car :)

Can't come adi now :( house has sucked my wallet dry!!
 
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audi upgrades
Looking forward to seeing this and catching up tomorrow. Even more so now I know it'll be being used as intended.
 
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Mate how was Saturday? ?
Any footage due?
I appreciate it was only the weekend but I wanna see some!!!
Also last track with me3.8??
End of an era :)
 
We went.

Car went very well.

Got in some trouble for no good reason - ********!

Did some more laps

Car broke

Legendary company got it sorted.

Drove home,

Went to bed.

All in all an awesome day.



Pic by PT
 
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Car looks amazing as ever, just looks so right on track.

Will be watching the progress with the ECU as I am soon to wire in a K3 to AGU engine.

Keep up the amazing posts!
 
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So, it's about time I wrote something about ADI, as I'll forget it soon if I don't get something written!

Mum and Dad arrived back from Holiday on Friday night, and spent the evening with us.

Last week I'd had the garage roof done :)

I didn't post on here, as Mum and Dad were traveling back across europe, and I wanted it to be a surprise when they arrived!

I enlisted some help, and after a solid days work, I had a roof covering!

The single ply membrane is laid out and glued down across the whole roof:



This is then heat welded at the joints, and a metal upstand trim coated in the plastic membrane covering is screwed down around the perimeter. the trim around 3 sides have a 25mm kerb upstand to keep water on the roof, then the lowest rear edge of the roof has a flat trim to allow water to run off into the gutters.



After this, a 100mm wide tape of memebrane is welded over the joint to weatherproof the whole lot. I didn't get pictures of this, it's not that interesting :laugh:



By the end of the day, the whole lot was looking like a roof!



Roof lights still to go in, but it's water tight now at least!

It looks much smarter from the neighbours side too:



I put the car back in the garage, and took a picture, as I always do with the car in it at every stage :)

 
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Moving on to audi Driver, I loaded up the car, and Dad and I set off at 7am, to meet Bill, Tuffty, and Rich at Combe bright and early around half 8.



We got to Combe just after half 8, and joined the que already forming on the way in.



Once in, we met up with the guys, and quickly signed on and sat through the usual drivers briefing.

We then noise tested the car, which returned a healthy 94dB. It's usually 92-93, but it had been allowed to cool for a while during the briefing and that usually results in a marginally higher result.

We then unloaded the cars in our little pit area.

These pics courtesey of Chris Eyre (Thanks Chris) : https://instagram.com/christopher_eyre/







 
Having driven to Combe on the Khumos, we decided to go straight onto slicks and not even do a sighting session on the khumos.

We swapped to slicks, and headed down to the pitlane to go out for a first session.

Leaving the pitlane, and accelerating up Avon Rise, I tugged at the steering wheel, both left and right, to see how the car felt.

Immediately, something felt 'odd' It wasn't how I was used to it feeling.

The slighest bit of steering input resulted in a very sharp change of direction.

I pondered this for a few seconds as we cruised up the rise, then turned right as we entered the famous Quarry, and suddenly it dawned on me....

Sidewalls!

The Khumos, have proven to be a fantastic road tyre for me. They're tall and squishy, and make the ride far more comfortable, and they hook up really nicely even from low speeds too and offer pretty good traction.

Track tyres though, they are not. For a road car that sees maybe 1-2 trackdays a year, then they're a great option, but for an all out track car, they're just too soft.

There was no issue, it was simply the insanely precise feel of the fresh set of slicks that had made me feel a bit strange.

It took around a lap to get used to, feeling the grip in each corner, and realising that you could add an additional degree of lock at the wheel and it'd make a marked difference to the line of travel.

We pressed on for another lap or two, pushing slightly more each time, but all the while remaining on low boost. The car was feeling very good. Even on low boost it was feeling considerably quicker than it had done at the recent forge action day, and the Vmax up avon rise of 138mph on actuator pressure would indicate this was more than just a placebo.

Welly headed out in those first sessions, whilst the white Rotas were still half clean, and took these shots:#







Then it was Dads turn to jump in for a drive. Dad hadn't driven the car on track in about 12 months, and has only driven around 20 miles in the car this year, so it was yet another baptism of fire for BBD, who I'm proud to say did brilliantly as always :)

Queing in the pitlane:



Joe and Chris were a few cars behind us, with Phil behind them too:



Dad had a good first session, and enjoyed getting to grips with the car again, which was probably feeling both quicker, and considerably sharper than the last time he drove it!

Pics courtesey of Alex Mauruschat:





Bill was also out in the Badgerwagen V2, going very well for a softly sprung road car, showing up plenty of far far more track focused cars on the day!



Also out was Rich, who usually maintains this gorgeous TT for Tony who drives it in the Castle Combe Saloons. On Saturday Rich was driving the car for a change, and like Dad, he hadn't driven it for 12 months, so it was a pretty exciting first few sessions for him!

 
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I jumped in for a second session, and decided it was time to get back to business, and opted for high boost from the start. I left the pits behind a very nicely prepared orange 1.8T polo race car, and had a very enjoyable 2 laps behind him before he pulled over and indicated for me to pass.

I upped the pace a little, and the car was feeling really good. So much better than it did at the Forge day (Engine wise), and the fresh slicks were really showing their worth over the tired set I had worn out a few weeks ago.

Sadly, I'm having camera / editting issues at the moment, and can't get any of the vids I took to render properly in Movie maker. That said, being so unprepared, I didn't actually have that much footage to upload anyway!

What I can report though, is that on just the first clear lap of the second session of the day, I was straight onto 1:17.0 laps, which matches my previous PB when chasing Bill 2 years ago.

That's with Dad on board, and nearly a full tank of fuel, so whilst days like this are not about lap times at all, it's good data to relate back, and suggests to me that performance wise, the car is very much as good as it's ever been. All this still on the stock ECU of course.

Later in the day, Dad had another great session, with a few fun laps with Rich in the TT, before moving over and then trying to tag onto the back of the TT also:





More of BigAl, this time by Welly:





And again, seen here, by EuroCartel ( https://instagram.com/eurocartel/) talking to Robin of Autometix in the pitlane:



Martin (Eurocartel) also got a few cool pics of me driving:





Later in the day, I ran out of fuel. The station on site had closed down, and we were on slicks, unable to drive to another station.

Enter Rich - who very kindly offered to top up the TT, and let me have the rest of his 1 1/2 Jerry cans of fuel! (Photo by Chris E)



We filled up with all of Richs remaining fuel, and then sent out my tame pit crew and chef - Mum - to the petrol station for 2 jerry cans of super unleaded :)
 
Lunchtime came, and it was Dads turn to drive.

To get a jump on the que, we parked the car right at the front of the pitlane entrance ready to be first on track after lunch :)



Dad headed out and had a decent session after lunch, and the car was feeling good.

We came back in, and Dad decided to take a break. I tried to get @<tuffty/> to come out for a passenger ride, but unfortunately he was washing his hair at that precise moment (or scared like a little girl - you decide :laugh: )

Dane and Ali had been nearby chatting to us for a while, and whilst @Dane has been out in the car before, Ali hadn't, so she jumped in for a passenger ride.

Ali and I had a brief but random chat about weddings, and how such expense could be better used to go racing, then headed out onto the track ( if Victoria reads this, I'm OBVIOUSLY joking about the wedding bit :laugh: )

We had a fairly decent session, although we were unfortunately held up by a few of the Tuner cars who were there doing passenger laps for the public. I understand that if you have a paying member of the public in the pax seat, you don't want to lose face, but as said countless times in the briefing, if a car appeared in your mirrors that wasn't there before - it's faster than you - move over.

Luckily, nothing appeared in my mirrors all day, so this wasn't a rule I had to worry about too much, although I'd like to think I'm fairly pro-active at moving over on the infrequent occasions when something quick does appear in my mirrors :racer:

About a lap before the end, I felt something wasn't 100% right. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, maybe the car was getting a bit hot? Who knows, but I decided to retire from the session a lap early and give the car a quick check over.
 
After a brief look over, everything seemed OK.

We let the car cool down a tad, and adjusted the seats and harnesses for Dad, and headed back out onto the track.

Following a steady warm up lap, Dad picked up pace through camp and up avon rise on the first full lap of the session.
We had an orange big turbo TT behind us, followed closely by another pretty handy silver TT in chase.

We braked into Quarry, mirrors full of TT that were already up to full pace. As Dad hit the throttle at the Apex of Quarry, I immediately heard a bad sound. A rotational knocking sound that could ONLY be a mechanical failure.

Dad didn't hear it at first, concentrating on the cars behind and nailling the apex, but he soon heard it, and we pulled off the track at the entrance to the esses and parked up behind the tyre barriers.

We limped back into the pits, able to move despite some pretty horrendous sounds, and got the car jacked up to work out what had happened.



Everyone had a look, and at first, nothing was immediately apparent.

There was noticable back lash in the wheels, more so in the left hand front, but the outer shaft seemed to be OK from holding the shaft and rotating the wheel.

After a while of looking at it, @RobinJI noticed whilst looking from above, that the left hand side shaft bolts had come loose!

Suddenly, it all made sense.......

At Curby I'd blown that same shaft. Sourced a replacement from a mate locally, and refitted it, in a field, using the old bolts again, with the wrong tool, so they couldn't be torqued down properly.

This was all starting to look like my fault. - D'oh!

WIth this problem found, we borrowed an 8mm tripple square bit from Rich, tightened up the shaft, and headed out again.

Sadly, this didn't work out so well for us.

Towards the end of our out lap, I said to Dad that I could feel a slight vibration through the wheel.

We rounded camp, and onto the start straight, and as I applied the power, there was a huge BANG, followed by the most disturbing rotational destruction sound I've heard in a while!

We came to a stop near the top of Avon Rise, and sadly, despite pulling onto the grass, due to where we had stopped the session had to be red flagged. D'oh!

The marshalls came out, and I explained that the car couldn't be towed all the way round due to fear of further damage, but that I could turn around and limp it backwards down the track and into the pit exit to clear the track asap.

They agreed, and what followed was akin to the walk of shame. Everyone staring at us, limping backwards down Avon rise at about 1.5mph, with the car making some utterly horrific noises!

********! :laugh:
 
It was pretty clear this point that whatever had failled, had really ****** failled this time, and it wasn't a minor issue.

All the bolts were still tight, but the play in the driveshaft was enormous.

I asked Bill and Rich to have a good look at it, and after some consultation, the problem was officially diagnosed as 'excessive jiggyness'



Thinking at this point that I was camping in the hotel-A3 that evening, I was feeling pretty sad.

Bill had shafts at the workshop, but even that meant almost a 2 hour round trip before Mum and Dad could bring back a shaft, and it was fast approaching 6pm already.

Then, as if by Magic, RIch suggested 'I may have a shaft in the van'

What were the chances? Or all the different varitations of all the shafts possible for the VAG range, how likely was it that the ONE shaft rich had spare might just possibly work?



Would you ****** believe it? It was EXACTLY the shaft I needed!
 
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I always look forward to reading this thread , anyone else would have gave up after the first thing broke , you fixed it :racer: , it broke again and instead of thinking it's the end of play , you fixed it again , I would have been on the phone to the AA to pick it up from the front gate and heading to the pub lol:sob:
 
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The tools came out, and I made a start on removing the shaft.mall was going well, until it came to removing the outer CV from the hub. It didn't want to go, and despite the wealth do tools we DID have, do you think we had a hammer? :laugh: no. Of course we didn't.
A quick run around the pits of the few at were left, and I was able to find a hammer to borrow, and the shaft was out. By this time. It was well past 6pm, and there were very few people left in the paddock.

Rich, Bill, Tuffty, and Alex were about the only people left, and they stayed with me the whole time until they knew the car would get me home. We all worked as a team to get it sorted as quickly as possible.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate support like that, knowing that there are people like that there with you that will do anything to help adds such a great feeling to the whole event, it's what turns **** luck and an unfortunate day into an adventure and a story to be looked back on fondly. I can't thank you guys enough :)

Special thanks also has to go to Mum and Dad, they were as always awesome to have along on the day :) it was great to see Dad back in the seat after a very quiet year, and it was awesome to have Mum along for the one day a year she joins us on.

Without the support of Mum and Dad, and the idea to even start this project 5 years ago, none of this would ever have happened :)




A final mention has to go to @jojo for providing me with dinner!

After a fairly hectic day, when I finally came to leave Combe at around 18:30 I was absolutely starving.

Out from the trackday tent, mum pulls 2 large boxes of chicken fried rice from Joes legendary Chinese takeaway!

I have no idea how or why this started. But every time I've seen how for the last 3 years. He's always bought me a chicken fried rice :laugh: and it's SERIOUSLY good!

So thanks for dinner Joe:



Top Man :racer:
 
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You are getting pretty handy changing out those driveshafts Nick. I would see if there are uprated parts available, What's it going to be doing when the engine is fully sorted?.
Great write up, I bet you were Mr Popular reversing up the track at walking speed.
 
I love how when your car breaks on track everyone chips in and you get it fixed but when we were at bedford and my head gasket went you wasn't even prepared to try to fix it.
Unreal!!
 
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daz-20vt said:
I love how when your car breaks on track everyone chips in and you get it fixed but when we were at bedford and my head gasket went you wasn't even prepared to try to fix it.
Unreal!!
Click to expand...

he doesn't have a hammer... can't fix a headgasket without a hammer... :)

<tuffty/>
 
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