So, it works, and I made it to JKM!
Had a bit of a mini Northloop meet at JKM, m0rk's ibiza left, and Robbobs Leon on the right:
And of course AndyP in the volvo: bonnet up shocker!
Ran the car on the rollers:
Roughly 10% down on 3 years ago, previously it made 226bhp / 290lbft. Today it made 208bhp / 264lbft.
To be honest, considering the thrashing it's had, the mileage, and the horrific state of the turbo, I'm fairly happy with that. it also means there's more to gain when the hybrid goes on, as I'll now be gaining almost 100bhp!
Will post the graphs later when JKM upload them to their site.
Andys volvo went on:
So low it only just got on.
Something very strange happened to the volvo on the rollers though. For some reason it ran stupidly rich, and didn't boost properly, and only recorded 199bhp / 240lbft.
We know something was wrong, because on the road it occasionally logs a system too lean fault code. and it's a heavier car than my A3, yet can pull away from it on the motorway, so it definitely makes more power when out on the road compared to the dyno.
My A3 on the other hand, seems to make less boost on the road than it was on the dyno, so who knows what's going on!
Morks ibiza went on last, very strange little thing, 1.4 TFSI I believe it's called, supercharged and turbo'd. it made 203bhp, so pretty ****** impressive!
After the rolling road, we headed over to Andys, to finish off the cage.
We decided to tie the cage into the roof structure with a few plates, as it's not like it's ever going to come out again anyway!
the main hoop was tied into the B pillars, right by the standard seatbelt top mounting, so we know it's a strong area:
Then the front legs are tied into the A-pillar with a fairly long strip that covers both the upright, and the fore-aft members of the cage, and a 4'' seam weld into the A-pillar.
Now I just need to paint the ****** thing!
the car feels SO solid now it's unreal. Rear wheel lifts off the ground comming into my garage court yard:
Thankfully we shouldn't find such extreme camber changes on the Ring, so hopefully it'll keep all 4 wheels planted.