Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

sounds good :)

There's a fair bit of rivalry between Andy and I at the moment, to the point, where he has bought and build that red volvo specifically for this trip! On the road there's almost nothing between them!

Sounds like this could all end in tears!
 
It's true both, Welly and Prawn have mad me giggle like a little school girl! lol
 
Fantastic thread Prawn - always one of the first things I check when I come on the forum.
Looks awesome with the cage etc, though I hope you never need it.

Nuff respeck.
 
I'll probably go halfs with someone on a 25 lap ticket and then use a few of them for passenger laps.

Wouldnt mind coming along with you guys if thats cool? vw though so no 4 O's on my grille lol

how much is 25 laps? more than enough I rekon?
 
So, a day of mixed feelings in the Prawn Camp.

On the up side, I've ordered 3 bottles of RBF660 brake fluid from Bill, so that's cool.

Also, my first 3 Ring Cards arrived, so that's raised the excitement for the trip a little:

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But to bring the mood down again, Mini Prawn has been kidnapped, and is being held at Ransom by the commercial department :(

I returned to my desk this morning to find this note:

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Hahaha brilliant. We did something similar with a winnie the poo toy a few years back. He was blind folded and holding a miniture copy of the days news paper to prove he was still alive lol.

Where did you order the tickets from? I always get mine when I'm there.
 
I've been buying Ring cards from people who've been out there and not used them all up. Bought 12 from a mate who had an off midway through his trip so called it a day and came home early, and bought 8 for Dad this week from a guy who had misfire troubles on his supercharged MX5, so came home a bit early.
 
Prawn you really dont hang about. I mean really!!

When we go to the ring in May are we tanking the Euro tunnel or ferry? Also can you PM me dates on when you want to go and hotel details so I can book myself in aswell?

Cheers
 
not sure on Dates for May just yet, we can't decide on dates until the track opening time table comes out in January sadly! I'm hoping to do one trip in May, one in July, and one in september as usual :)

I thought you ment you were going to come with us in 2 weeks time! Go on, make a last minute decision and come on this trip!
 
lool your a bad influence.

i really wish i could but i got a trip to Dam end of the month, then off to trinidad in oct so need all the cash i can get for that. nevermind though, im still in for may and hopefully july aswell
 
Have just read your thread all the way through and you've had plenty of headaches which makes me feel a bit better lol

You've done a brilliant job on this car mate, and put plenty of sweat and blood into it

And will definately have to take you up on the offer and join you for a passanger lap after watching your vids, you certinally know how to handle that car :applaus:

Chances of mine being ready are looking extremely slim after having issues with getting rods after a supplier messed Bill about and there seems to be an all round shortage of them, think he is trying to get them from all corners of the globe so hopefully will turn up shortly? :sob:

But it should still be an epic trip and will be good to meet everyone :beerchug:
 
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Will still be awesome mate, even without your S3!

What's the alternative car you'll be bringing?

If it's not something worth taking around the track, perhaps look at Renting a car for a few laps?

2 of my mates are going over in a leon cupra, but to avoid putting too many laps on the car, they've rented a stage 2 Swift Sport for the Sunday morning, fully caged / harnesses / buckets / R888's. They've hired it out for 6 laps.

Could be worth seeing if they have any other rentals available that weekend:

Nurburgring race car rentals. Info and prices | Rent4Ring

We rented one on my last trip, and it was an absolute blast!
 
I tend to run 32psi cold for road use, and aim for 30psi hot for track use. This typically means about 24psi cold when at the Ring, as it instantly warms up to 30psi when warm.

As you know, I had the huge cockup last ring trip where I was 45psi cold, and over 50psi hot! Had no grip at all! absolute nightmare.

I've not tried running any softer yet, but might give it a shot some time.

What tyres are you running? Im assuming toyo or yoko track tyres?

On 205/xr2 and other tin top stuff we tend to aim for 26/28psi hot - which on a hot (for the UK) day usually means starting with 20 front, 22 rear (ish). Obviously these things vary from car to car, the tin tops I have run on these tyres are all 750kg ish, I would have thought you still weigh in higher than that and I have no idea how hard you or the car works its tyres.

The problem with setup at the ring is the lap is so long there just isnt enough time in the day to fiddle properly - but I would say take a stab at starting a couple of psi lower

Hope this helps!
 
Cheers for the advice Eddie, the car currently weighs 1100kg all up now the cage is in.

Tyres on the car are Federal 595 RS-R in 225/45/17, we went for these over R888's as they have a much longer life, yet almost as much grip. Treadwear on these is 140, so still very soft.

Do you not get issues with Squirm as low as 26psi? (excuse the non technical term!)

I know what you mean about the ring being so long though! I tend to set them to 24psi at the start of teh day, then check them after each lap and try and keep it at 30psi hot.

May try a few PSI lower this time.
 
Im not sure how much spuirm you will have, generally speaking track tyres have stiffer sidewalls for this reason, you can lower the pressure and retain rigidity.

Since the car is heavier (but with smaller sidewalls) than the cars I have run then I would punt at trying to get 28psi hot - dont take this as gospel you might prefer keeping them at 30.

Do you have even tyre wear? Does the outer edge or centre wear significantly faster? The principle with slightly lower pressure (and stiffer sidewall) is that even when leaning hard on the tyre it wears evenly, not just destroying the outer inch like road tyres do.

Like you said before, just play with it and try lowering pressures slightly - I wouldn't recommend going any higher!
 
I'll give it a shot I think,

Last time on track I was running 205/50's, which seemed to like 30psi hot, anything less and the tall narrowish tyres started to move about a bit.

The RS-R's seem to have a much stiffer sidewall, and are lower profile, and considerably wider too, so I reckon I can definitely try them at a lower pressure.

The tyres have only done a ef hundred road miles, and are yet to be used on track, so I don't know how they are going to wear just yet. I'll have an experiment when we get there!

Thanks again
 
I'll give it a shot I think,

Last time on track I was running 205/50's, which seemed to like 30psi hot, anything less and the tall narrowish tyres started to move about a bit.

The RS-R's seem to have a much stiffer sidewall, and are lower profile, and considerably wider too, so I reckon I can definitely try them at a lower pressure.

The tyres have only done a ef hundred road miles, and are yet to be used on track, so I don't know how they are going to wear just yet. I'll have an experiment when we get there!

Thanks again

We'll have a tyre pressure check every morning dude :icon_thumright:
 
Anything I can do to help - I'm still learning the niggles on owning an A3 but race cars is the department where I have some knowledge....
 
Haven't got another car I'm afraid mate been sharing the misses Ka sport at the mo and don't think she will appriciate me leaving her with no transport lolMy planned passenger is going to drive in his TT so will be spectating as such but will look into renting but might just save everything for the next trip 
 
Had another day on the car today finishing off little bits and bobs,

Started off by changing the thermostat, a job I've been putting off for months due to the difficulty of access.

Turned out to be pretty easy, and took me just 30 mins :)

Then I pulled the injectors out:

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Initial impressions are that they were pretty grim looking!

The injector seats and inlet wern't looking much better:

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And the injectors just looked horrid:

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The injector seats cleaned up fairly well:

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Standard 231cc injectors next to my new Genesis 550's:

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Quite a size difference, the injector seats in the inlet need to be changed to suit the smaller bodied Genesis injectors:

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I also removed the fuel rail, and the FPR, and stuck the injectors and FPR into my ultrasonic cleaner.

I used James SeaClean solution in the bath, and gave them 3 cycles of 6 minutes. After the first two cycles the water was still pretty dirty, but after the 3rd and final cycle, the water was still clean at the end. Job done.

I dried them all out and refitted, and also threw on a new fuel filter for good measure.

Turned the key, and it instantly sounded much smoother, a much more constant idle speed, and it seemed to pick up nicer than before.

Did the grip tape in the footwells too:

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Fitted the fire extinguisher too:

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Dan popped round mid day, and delivered me some spare pads for the trip, and a Ring card with 12 laps that I'd bought from him :)

Also, as a bit of laugh for the trip, I stuck our names on the car. Not entirely serious, but I had some spare vinyl, and some spare time, so I thought 'Why not!'

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Andy was round in the volvo too, fitted a new boost guage to that, and also fitted an oil temp sender and wired up the guage:

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All in all, a really good day, I think the car is actually completely ready
 
Gotta say am absolutely loving this car especially the cage and the orange and black contrast

Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh in less than 2 weeks ;)
 
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Cheers dude, I'm happy with how it's turned out now too! Just a brake fluid change to do when it arrives from Bill, and I'm all set :)

Sam: It the rocker cover gasket does need doing really. I'll get round to it at some point!

The pic above is from over 200 000 miles worth of deposits. they really were properly ****ty!
 
Sweet, cheers Bill :)

Will bleed them up tomorrow night if it arrives :)

Done 1 ring trip and 1 trackday on the brakes so far, and the pedal has dropped a little on the halfrauds 5.1 fluid, but not too much really.
 
So, no real update I'm afraid chaps, just a few pics from our interesting Ring trip this weekend.

Sadly we only got 8 laps in total, 5 for me and 3 for Dad, due to closures, accidents, and constant rain!

Shame really, but still a good weekend, and a massive thumbs up for the car. 1000 miles, 8 laps of the Ring, and not once did it see a spanner or tool at all. it was 100% faultless the whole time.

Not bad for a track car on 207k.....

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No decent lap times set at all sadly :( Only timed the first two, best of which was 09:20, so about a minute off where I wanted to be!

Still, I've never seen so much traffic in my life, the 09:20 lap had about 6-7 accidents on the way round, 4 of which we were down to a 1st gear crawl, plus around 20s for the route through the pits at T13.

Still, a great test for the car, which proved to be amazing the whole time
 
1000 miles, 8 laps of the Ring, and not once did it see a spanner or tool at all.

Apart from the one in the driving gloves in this pic' -

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All joking aside, the car looks fit as **** now. Properly!
 
It will happen dude.....

I'm actually desperate for others to come in the beast, so you can see how cool it is.

then, one day, people might actually believe me!
 
I all ready believe you prawny ;)
 
car looks wicked in those pics Prawn!
Wish i could have joined you on this trip.
 
Long time since I updated this, and no news really I'm afraid!

Car is going perfectly still, and I even used it daily for 2 weeks after our recent Ring trip, as i didn't want to get back into my daily driver!

Took the car to work today for a change, and stuck the beacon on the roof and took it out on site.

Got some very funny looks from the lads, who are not used to seeing anything other than an astra van in blue and white!

Sat on the bend of the Devils Punch Bowl, on what used to be the main A3 from London to the south coast:

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Amazing how different the punch bowl looks now we're taking the road away.

This point is directly above the old A3, only it's under a few metres of fill now:

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Just need to hose it down now to get all the dust off!
 
That stretch of road has quite some history to it. Apparently it was the reason the national speed limit was created, because E Types were crashing along there. Not sure how true that is?

What's the plan with that road then?
 
That stretch of road has quite some history to it. Apparently it was the reason the national speed limit was created, because E Types were crashing along there. Not sure how true that is?

What's the plan with that road then?

The story goes that the national speed limit was brough in to effect because AC were testing Cobras on the first stretch of motorway.
This isn't true, it was actually the AC/Shelby Daytona Coupe I believe.
 
Car went well at Combe, really happy with it, considering the turbo is absolutely shot, and it's got no power left at all!

Massive thanks to Jojo for organising such a top event, and also to Mark and Stacey for some really awesome pics of everyone! here's just a few of the great pics they got of me on track:

(if you guys would prefer I didn't post these on here please say and I'll remove them)


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Little vid clip here, first time past folly, second session. Dane commentating.

ADI 2011 - track session 2 clip 2 - YouTube

the Federal RS-R's seem to be wearing OK so far too, 3.5mm left on them now after a Ring trip and 2 trackdays, plus a few thousand miles of road use. they're gripping fairly well, although i still think i could benefit from some R888's, or possible federal FZ201's next time around

All in all, still really happy with how the car is going, booking Hulavington on November soon for another open pitlane day, and hopefully booking Rockingham in march when I get paid!
 
looking good dude! I cant wait for the next stage :)
 

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