Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[Rainbird]

Good result on the o-ring swap by the sounds of it.

With regards to the coil heatshield, is it just a case of opening up the initial bend such that the rear edge goes up a little more vertically in order to clear? I've forgotten quite how they mount so may have the wrong thing in mind, but stupid as it sounds I've had success with similar bends (ie a circa 90*, straight bend) in between a door and its frame - even has the added bonus of a nice long lever to help depending which way you're bending. Wouldn't advise using a softwood door though... (they were always steel edged on board!)

Edit: Something like this?

I also replaced the lower fitting with the drain tap whilst I was down there as that too had started weeping recently!

Never ends with these cars!

How dare your 20 year old car need a small plastic part replacing. The cheek of it!

 

[Prawn]

That's exactly the cover I've got, and I've already made the marked cut (so it doesn't cover the coils and trap heat in), and increased the angle of the bend at the back, but now it just sits facing upwards and looks like a really bizzare edge in the engine bay.

It either needs to be much much smaller, just like a little 30mm lip at the back, or I need to roll the main body of the cover more so it curves over towards the top of the coils a little more.

Will continue to experiment this evening!

Great shout on the door frame too. I'll take it to site tomorrow and use the steel doors on the welfare containers instead of risking the wooden doors at home!

 

[Rainbird]

Rolling it to a tighter radius would be nice, but a little less straightforward to DIY. Would look cleaner though which is always nice.

Worst case you could always put a sharper crease partway up, but I suspect that'd look a bit odd.

 

[Stuart B]

Just use a bread bin lid to cover the coil pack wiring.

 

[Prawn]

Rainbird asks, I provide!

The 1 old coil cover, and cut it in half.

Doesn't fit.

Take 2 hand clamps, and 2 parts of an old Clarke jack handle:

Cut a bit of wood that sits in the middle nicely:

Push firmly but evenly, and see what you get!

Hmmmmmm, I wonder if that'll work!

That'll do Pig. That'll do.......

 

[scotty_24]

So much Love for this car man, its all in the finer details.
Some cars on track gonna get a HUGE shock when a 20 year old wrong wheel drive A3 comes by them like the Millennium falcon ha ha ha

 

[Prawn]

So much Love for this car man, its all in the finer details.
Some cars on track gonna get a HUGE shock when a 20 year old wrong wheel drive A3 comes by them like the Millennium falcon ha ha ha

Cheers Scotty, I'm stupidly excited too mate!

It was good before at ~350bhp, with 330mm 4 pots, atb diff, soft suspension and 235 tyres. I'd say it was quicker than it really had any right to be when compared to other things we came across on trackdays.

Everything suggests that with >450bhp, 368mm 6 pots, plate diff, proper spring rates, damping more suited to it's use and 265 tyres, it really should be MUCH quicker than ever before, assuming the driver is capable of actually using it all (I'm really not sure I am currently!)

Just how much quicker in terms of numbers is something you couldn't ever know, will it be 0.5s per lap faster? Or maybe 2-3s per lap faster? I just don't know.

All I really hope is that it's faster than it was, reliable, and above all, fun!



Oh, I finished it last night too, runs beautifully!

Test drive this evening once I've cleared the huge stack of tyres that are blocking it in just out of shot!

 

[Golfyste]

Top quality job as always man! .

I’m sure it will be amazing when it hits the track!

 

[desertstorm]

Looking Good, Will the silicon hose on the outlet of the turbo need any heat protection ?. A bit of heat reflective wrap as It's a black hose it's a good absorber of radiated infra red heat.

 

[Prawn]

I'm not sure on that one Karl. It' further away than a k04 fitment and this runs a lot colder, but it's still fairly close I guess.

Will perhaps look into a nomex version or maybe even just carry a spare!

Test drive this evening once little man is down to bed.

8 days until we are on the dyno!

 

[Madmax199]

Excited for you!

 

[Madmax199]

Cheers Scotty, I'm stupidly excited too mate!

It was good before at ~350bhp, with 330mm 4 pots, atb diff, soft suspension and 235 tyres. I'd say it was quicker than it really had any right to be when compared to other things we came across on trackdays.

Everything suggests that with >450bhp, 368mm 6 pots, plate diff, proper spring rates, damping more suited to it's use and 265 tyres, it really should be MUCH quicker than ever before, assuming the driver is capable of actually using it all (I'm really not sure I am currently!)

Just how much quicker in terms of numbers is something you couldn't ever know, will it be 0.5s per lap faster? Or maybe 2-3s per lap faster? I just don't know.

All I really hope is that it's faster than it was, reliable, and above all, fun!

Should be noticeably faster, at least a couple seconds faster per lap. What was your lap time before in the dry at a track like Caldwell?

 

[Prawn]

Should be noticeably faster, at least a couple seconds faster per lap. What was your lap time before in the dry at a track like Caldwell?

I've actually not managed to venture as far North as Cadwell yet!

Lap times wise, I've got down to a 1:15.x at Castle Combe on the old setup, and Bills Ibiza by comparison (similar power) has done a 1:12.8 on an AD08R road tyre, I'm pretty sure the TT Bill races with (also similar power) has got into the 1:11's on slicks, so 2s per lap is probably a reasonable estimate!

Just going to need to retrain the driver to deal with it all!

 

[Prawn]

Excited for you!

Me too Max! How's the EFR build coming along?

 

[Prawn]

Friday is fun day!

Hunting French tat down in Southampton:

Look, Obeying the speed limits! (well done Prawn)

Boosty! (please note instagram filters used to make this look MUCH brighter than it was )

 

[Stuart B]

why on earth is it called a hotside?

 

[Prawn]

I think it's ironic

 

[Prawn]

Fun morning with the little Bear at the Ergen Motorsport breakfast meet.

Now, does anyone know of any LEGAL way I can put Oliver on the front of the a3?

 

[hydro s3]

Ha I don't think there is any legal way of doing that unless your going to weld a seat some how to the bonnet and put him in that. That's if that way would even be legal

 

[Tj 0785]

Ha I don't think there is any legal way of doing that unless your going to weld a seat some how to the bonnet and put him in that. That's if that way would even be legal

Don’t see it being a problem if a seat belt was fitted aswell

 

[Stuart B]

not sure about road legal - but on private land I cannot imagine the authorities getting involved

 

[Prawn]

Thanks for that Stuart, I think

Another successful Sunday drive yesterday:

I mainly just drove it for once, although I couldn't resist a little messing on the laptop!

Here's a little test I did with 4th gear spooling up, holding the speed back on the brake:

1.64 bar at 4242rpm, doesn't seem bad at all! definitely into the early stages of Surge there though making that much that soon, but good to know it can do it if asked.

And this is just a pull from very low revs through 4th gear:

Boost at a fairly consistent 1.6 bar, AFR running mid 11's across the board, and around 18-19 degrees timing.

On the road it feels lovely. it's not as explosive as the 064 was, but when it gets going to covers ground at an astonishing rate of pace. 3rd gear on the 235 eagle F1's struggles for traction badly, and even 4th needs the very best smooth roads to avoid wheelspin, but when it hooks up it really does fire you down the road!

I can't wait for Friday now, so excited to find out what it does!

 

[bigal 1]

Do not forget, I will be bringing 10 freshly ****** ( out of the oven at 0900) Cornish Pasties, up for the boys. ETA 1300hrs. Whahoo. Plus I have an oven to keep them warm.. Yahoo. TREAT???

 

[badger5]

food?

 

[antwan64og]

If the tyres don’t slip on the rollers you know it needs more boosts!

Your freakish engines have always swallowed plenty of timing, curious to see what direction this goes on Friday

 

[Prawn]

If the tyres don’t slip on the rollers you know it needs more boosts!

Your freakish engines have always swallowed plenty of timing, curious to see what direction this goes on Friday

It's currently at ~19 degrees for 1.64 bar without a single hint of knock, and I've not turned the meth on at all yet either. so it's probably safe to say this will happily swallow a happy amount of timing

Hopefully things like the port matching to the inlet manifold will all help with VE too. I'm hoping it's those little touches that will ensure a decent result for it's spec, given that I've not added cams or a decent inlet yet. I'm saving those for later if I want more!

 

[Rainbird]

*when

 

[bigal 1]

Pasty delivery ETA NOTIFICATION!!!

Revised ETA is now 1130hrs.

I have been informed that Tuffty must leave by midday.

No pasty=unhappy chappie. And we can't have that.

 

[Prawn]

Good work BBD! PT should be pleased.

How's this for a Throw Back Thursday?

Exactly 10 years ago to this day! On the dyno at JKM in Portsmouth:

225.6bhp!

Fingers crossed for more than doubling that tomorrow!

 

[antwan64og]

That 10 year investment strategy went well mate lol.

Hope there’s live updates tomorrow

 

[Rainbird]

The fact it's been a completely homegrown, progressive and iterative build means there's going to be a huge amount of satisfaction and pride leaving Stonehouse tomorrow. Hope all goes well gents

 

[Stuart B]

With the temperature so hot today, will your peek figures be more accurate for everyday driving?

 

[Prawn]

You will generally see lower figures on a really hot day yes Stuart.

What it does mean though is that if it makes power safely in this heat it should be pretty safe in any weather conditions I'm likely to encounter!

That's one risk of mapping in cold winter conditions. A larger degree of safety has to be left to be sure the car will still perform safely in hot conditions

 

[Prawn]

As requested, a running report!

I set off at 0630 for the 2 hour drive to Badger 5

Far earlier than I needed to be, but I wasn't happy with my map sensor calibration so hooked up a test rig last night and found it was over reading by 2psi at 20 psi gauge.

I spent about an hour trying different range values until a 5psi change in the gauge gave me 5psi change on the ecu, then tweaked the offset until we had 000 at atmospheric pressure.

I then tested it at 5psi increments right up to 30psi and its now reading bang on.

What this does mean is that it's thrown my fuelling off again as it did when I first setup the 4 bar map.

With this in mind I charged the laptop and set off an hour early to allow me some tweaking time on the road up.

As expected fuelling was slightly off, and also the 1.65 bar I was logging previously was in fact a shade under 1.5, which is what my boost gauge had been reporting.

Haooy that the map sensor was now giving a true reading I started by tweaking the fuel again to get it back to where I want.

2% was added from 4-8k, then a further 1% added from 5-7 brought it nicely back in line just below 12:1.

I then set about removing the little boost spike that's seen on spool up on my logs to create that progressive boost profile that works so well with FWD.

After several runs and tweaks I've got it spooling to 1.4 bar at 4400rpm, tapering up to 1.7bar at 7k.

That's as far as I'm going to take it myself, at this point it's just too fast to map on the road!

Time for some fuel:

Now, call me daft, but when I was 6 years old, someone asked me what my favourite number was.
Id never been asked that before, but being 6 myself, the answer was easy!

I parked up quietly at the corner of the shell station, and waited for pump 6 to come free:

Ridiculous? Completely! But we all have our own unique oddities don't we?

With the car fuelled up it was just me left to fill, and one of Ronald' finest mcmuffins took care of that beautifully.

Just a make shift coffee holder left to fashion:

Next stop: STONEHOUSE!

 

[scotty_24]

Love it, keep it coming

 

[antwan64og]

Street tune on the way to the dyno, I like where this is going.....

 

[superkarl]

Why have you been concerned with tweaking the tune when inevitably Bill is going to work his own magic?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[desertstorm]

I think it's great to know what you are doing tuning your own engine and understanding how small changes affect power, driveability, reliability etc. I am sure as you say Bill will do a great job getting the most out of the setup and this will be a great baseline. But there will be more tweaks I am sure and when the weather isn't as hot as today it's nice to be able to add a little more boost or a bit more timing.
Tuning high power cars on the road is not the best idea really, places like Bruntingthorpe are good for that apparently.

 

[Stuart B]

I suppose "no news is good news" we are all waiting the the delivery suite prawn.

 

[george_seamons]

F5...F5...F5...F5...F5