Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

adapter is some form of mild steel.

Studs are evil VAG sourced unobtanium!

I am confident this can be drilled out. I'm just not confident I can do it myself with average drill bits.

engineering shop and proper drill bits required I think.
 
Yeah, shouldn't be much of a task with the proper tools. Still working my way through this thread, so not sure how common these spacers are, but deffo not worth risking damage to it.
 
You tried some fresh carbide drill bits?

Will have to be gentle but should be able to get something like a 3mm going then increase in sizes?
 
Some nice carbide 3 and 4 mm bits and an easy out should do the trick Nick. Can't understand why your welder couldn't get fusion with the nut and stud. Is it just a small hobby plant?
 
craigt1985 said:
Some nice carbide 3 and 4 mm bits and an easy out should do the trick Nick. Can't understand why your welder couldn't get fusion with the nut and stud. Is it just a small hobby plant?
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It's a Clarke 150 amp Mig Craig. hardly huge but it has the power to melt through 3mm steel etc, so it really SHOULD fuse to a little stud.

Whatever the stud is made of it just wouldn't weld to, no matter how well I cleaned it up etc. I am awful with a welder which obviously doesn't help :laugh:

Given my lack of pillar drill or high quality drill bits I'm just going to have a pro sort it for me to avoid any risk.
 
Yeah should be more than man enough, they aren't inconel or something daft?

Must kit out garage! Pillar drill is next on my list of toys to buy for mine.
 
audi upgrades
Even if they're plated it can cause issues with fusion, some oxides (aluminium oxide is a good example) melt at much higher temperatures than the clean metal would do, so if it's plated (or even heavily alloyed) with something it could stop the metals fusing properly with a mig kit.
 
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Nick, if you speak very nicely to Chris Carse he has some interesting Nissan studs we use on ours. I wizzed ours out recently, and whilst a lot less mileage than yours they all came out cleanly and quickly.

 
Cheers Mark, I'll ask him.

Went down to machine shop today. boss was away, no news on adapter plate.

To be honest, I've decided to stock up on some brownie points instead, so I've started work on the garden now and put the car to one side.

To be continued, one day....
 
He got a sensible* diesel estate and double glazing.

This will be back soon enough I'm sure, once the current chaos of stag/weddings, work, house stuff etc blows over

*Or at least intended to until it are itself then he made a mess if fixing it
 
superkarl said:
http://www.ftdmotorsports.com/?page_id=47

So they're a future product still in development.
Madmax takes a hell of an analytical approach to chassis modifications so i'm sure what hes developing will be sound. Would be good to get his input in here
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ProjecTTrack said:
I don't know what your front and rear motion ratios are on the A3, but i'm running 500lbs fronts 800lbs rears... with the TT's motion ratio (0.97 front 0.63 rear) this gives a wheel rate of roughly 500lbs front and back. The stiffest off the shelf options i could see were about 350lbs so this is quite a decent improvement over even the upgrades!

Apparently this is soft, I've seen someone else mention running 800/1300!

Are you going to have the dampers re-valved to suit when the time comes?
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superkarl said:
http://www.ftdmotorsports.com/?page_id=47

So they're a future product still in development.
Madmax takes a hell of an analytical approach to chassis modifications so i'm sure what hes developing will be sound. Would be good to get his input in here
Click to expand...

I know this is old, but just playing catch up on this great thread. The roll center correction kits were succesfully tested on my car, but I decided to not go through with production. There were better options/approaches (in terms of geometry alteration) coming out for the platform, so I didn't continue with the project of offering them to the masses. The tubular subframes (one of them that I helped with development) have the roll center and bumpsteer angles corrected to improve the roll couple. Therefore pointless to have roll center correcting ball joints.

As Nick G said, the spring rates are super low for a track car (possible that they were revised later in the thread). For example I run 850 lbs/in front and 1,300 lbs/in rear springs on my TT (deleted front ARB and modified 14mm rear ARB). The higher rates, not only controlled body roll without the negative effect of the front ARB, but also allowed me to setup my front control arms towards pro-lift (which also acts as anti-dive). Something that further helps traction while on track.

Pic of the tubular subframe with corrected roll center and bumpsteer, that made pursuing production of my kit obsolete.
image_42.jpeg


Pro-dive that the higher spring rates allowed me to afford on my tubular control arms:
image_29.jpeg

image_28.jpeg
 
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badger5 said:
the pro-lift is to achieve what exactly?
looks mighty low in the subframe and binding on droop?
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Pro-lift is anti-dive (just in reverse)! So by adding pro-lift geometry, you make the car less prone to diving under throttle lift and breaking. Pro-lift also helps load the rear tyres when you apply throttle exiting a corner. Therfore a win/win situation for a track car with sorted rear spring rate that can counteract the extra squatting from the improved rear loading.

That pic is already with the suspension at full droop and there is no contact. You know me Bill, it wouldn't be implemented if there was safety/clearance issue. The shimming was done to add just enough pro-lift while still having clearance at full droop. No issue throughout the range of motion and even catching air. ;)
 
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Madmax199 said:
Pro-lift is anti-dive (just in reverse)! So by adding pro-lift geometry, you make the car less prone to diving under throttle lift and breaking. Pro-lift also helps load the rear tyres when you apply throttle exiting a corner. Therfore a win/win situation for a track car with sorted rear spring rate that can counteract the extra squatting from the improved rear loading.

That pic is already with the suspension at full droop and there is no contact. You know me Bill, it wouldn't be implemented if there was safety/clearance issue. The shimming was done to add just enough pro-lift while still having clearance at full droop. No issue throughout the range of motion and even catching air. ;)
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interesting.
thanks max
 
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just got to say this thread is amazing , i have got upto page 97 so far after reading for the last 3 evenings , total respect .
 
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Prawn said:
yea, being alloy the collar weighs almost nothing, and brake cable as you know is reasonably stiff along it's length, so holds it there perfectly!

154g/s is good going for a stock car mate, many stage 1 maps are only in the 160's. Sounds like a good strong car :)

Just time for one last slightly controversial mod before bed time.



Can you see it? :laugh:

I'm undecided on this one fully. Since the crash I've been 100% sure the car needs something doing about the rear end, which gets incredibly light at high speeds (100mph+) and doesn't inspire confidence always. It's more probably down to the 65/35 weight distribution, which without adding lead in the back, isn't likely to change dramatically.

It's just an experiement really, and may well be removed for road use and just added for trackdays, but initial impressions are that it doesn't look as bad as I expected it to, but I'm not sold 100% on if I like it or not.









Part of me wonders if it's too big and looks chav, or whether I get away with it because of the rest of the car, Dad wonders if it's too small, he expected a bigger one :laugh:

How much difference it'll make remains to be seen, but we'll be trying it at our next track day for sure, and hopefully, it'll regain some of the high speed stability that the car always had as a full weight road car.

Who knows, we'll see how it goes!
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i love it, been looking at them myself , where did you get it from ?
 
MICHAEL PARKER said:
i love it, been looking at them myself , where did you get it from ?
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That one was from eBay Michael. It served me well to test if there was any point in a rear wing, and I found there was most definitely a benefit.

It's since been replaced by something a little more developed:

 
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Prawn said:
Yes mate, everyone has asked this :laugh:

The closest anything will get to the screen is about 4mm at the top, where there will be minimal downward loading, and 10mm at the bottom where all the load will be taken :)

With this system the top mount is effectively a pivot point and will resist the drag forces from the wing. Any downward loading (hopefully downforce!) will be seen at the lower mounts at the bottom of the glass.



Not sure if I posed this already. But it won't hurt to repeat it:

Due to the angles involved, a small cut out is needed in the 'back leg' like this:





The depth of that notch is around 10mm.

With that rear stay effectively being the main load bearing member, I didn't fancy having it thinner than the others due to the cut out, so I asked Robin to beef it up internally from 30-40mm.

We did think about having the bulge in the outside of the rear leg, but it somehow didn't look right.





I also projected the roof line onto the bracket template I sent to Robin, and he's sweetened that top line so it flows with the roof line and curves up to the wing now instead of a sharp change like my template.

I compared the bracket to my MDF template last night, and given that it took Robin about 30 mins to draw from scratch, I'm amazed that it replicates the template perfectly, even though the template was just a rough free drawn shape. I wish I could use CAD that well!

I'll have a test fit this weekend, and make the final holes for the turn buckle and get everything bolted up. Mum and Dad are coming to stay on Tuesday evening, so I'll have it fitted for when Dad comes here so he can see it and we can go for a drive, then I'll whip it all off and hopefully have it all powdercoated next week ready for final fitment :)
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Can these be made to order at all buddy , if so do you have a contact number for the company ?
 
MICHAEL PARKER said:
Can these be made to order at all buddy , if so do you have a contact number for the company ?
Click to expand...

I could potentially have more of the main large ally brackets cut out, but they would need finishing and painting still.

the brackets that mount those to the tailgate I made myself though, and wouldn't have the time to replicate I'm afraid!


I'm really rather hopefully that I'll have a worth while bit of good news about the car in around 8 hours time.

Fingers crossed for a positive update this evening :)
 
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Traded it in for a Dacia Sandero.
 
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Lavis89 said:
Hopefully part of the good news will be your attendance to ADI :p
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Sadly not Carl! As much as I'd love to, that's not about to happen!

So, this evening, I met up with @Nathan Barnes in Winchester (pleasure to meet you Nathan!), who very kindly let me have a drive of his hybrid powered S3.

As many will know, Nathan is breaking the car.

A deal was done, and I am now the 3rd Audi-sport member to own this engine (4th if you include @jojo pre rebuild) :racer:

The engine has AGU pistons, in a honed block, sat on top of IE Tuscan rifle drilled rods. It had new Mains and big ends when rebuilt, so should be good to go for another good long while in my hands.

The main attraction though, was the valve train. Originally owned by Gops, and built by Andrew at ALD, it has Supertech valves on both exhaust and inlet side, along with supertech valve springs and retainers. So plenty of safety there for track use.

There is one small oddity, in that only 8 of 12 supertech inlets are currently installed, but I'll be lifting the head to give it all a thorough check over anyway, and will install the missing valves at the same time.

It's also a small port head, which will be a change for me. Not necessarily a bad change though. From my brief test drive tonight the engine felt very responsive and eager, and it certainly wasn't lacking in power at all :)

I think this is the best out come for the car at the moment. I wasn't 100% sold on fitting a stock engine, and the funds just arnt available to build the top spec 1900 I'd like at the moment, so this is an excellent alternative :racer:

A deposit was paid, and Nathan has now gone back to Wales in the car, where it'll be stripped and broken for parts over the coming weeks. Then at some point hopefully next month I'll have a trip to Cardiff to collect it :)

Just need to chase up this adapter plate at the machine shop now and things can get moving again :racer:
 
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Good news! looking foward to seeing some updates when the car is back on the road :)
Shame about ADI but it was wishful thinking, i'll just have to drool over tuftys car instead, hope he's got plenty of wax on it!
I love my replacement but miss the a3... think i'll be looking at getting myself another one purely to track once i've sorted out a new house. Dont have the stones to track my s4!
 
Nice to know the engine is going into another epic build! That engine is famous, it featured on fifth gear :)
 
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The funny thing was Jojo sold me that car/engine with only 2WD. Now it's destined for a FWD car! It's like he knew hahaha
 
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Sorry guys.

I left Erik out. I feel bad :laugh:



Thanks for letting me know it was up for grabs Erik :racer:
 
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