Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[wild willy]

Superb results Prawn. Testament to your hardwork and determination.
Good to hear the V2 mani is still going strong too. I trust your aren't going to rest on your laurels though as 370 bhp is availble with the right tweaks.

 

[Prawn]

To a degree yes mate, but the standard lever is centrally sprung, and I've heard it can feel odd without.

Plus I like a challenge.

 

[Lewis583]

Ahh, I understand. I just wondered because the lever in my 8L just flops about lol as did the one in my MK2.

Those VWMS shifters are ace, not only do they improve gear change, they look epic.
How big was the change when you went from early o2j shift tower to late shift bud? Mine has the early but I'm considering upgrading to the later ball type. Also which towers are compatible?

 

[chaz20vt]

Hey Chaz,

Engine mods are relatively simple to be honest, just a good and well thought out spec.

AGU stock engine, rebuilt with new rings and shells, and DM forged rifle drilled rods
Relentless manifold and downpipe
B5 V2 80mm TIP
CR turbo's ko4 hybrid rebuilt by Beachbuggy, B5/BB ported hotside, RS6 turbine clipped 7 degrees, 2283 comp wheel, 1 bar actuator
Wellycooler core with custom 2.5'' pipework
Bosch 440's with VR6 MAF
And the R-tech custom mapping.

I think that's all that's gone into the power side of things, it's got a paddle clutch and an LSD to cope with it, but that won't alter output, just how much of it I can use

Thankyou for this prawn

 

[Prawn]

Those VWMS shifters are ace, not only do they improve gear change, they look epic.
How big was the change when you went from early o2j shift tower to late shift bud? Mine has the early but I'm considering upgrading to the later ball type. Also which towers are compatible?

Towers from an later 02J will work mate, and the shifter in car and cables, and you're away.

I have a spare tower in the garage if you're interested, and will have the shifter as well when I remove it today

 

[badger5]

duh he has got quattro.....

4 coils you mean

 

[S3 Paul]

The injectors you have... 440cc.
What it the skope on these for say a bigger turbo at a later date?

 

[Prawn]

To be honest, I wouldn't have thought a huge deal more Paul, I think 350 is getting towards their upper limit. I'm still on a 3 bar reg at the moment though, so when I fit an uprated fuel pump (in a few weeks time), if needs be I have scope to add a 4 bar reg and get 15% more fuel

 

[Lewis583]

Pm'd you Prawn

 

[Prawn]

Weather is HORRIBLE today! so I'm doing what I can in the garage, which sadly, isn't much

I stripped the shifter down this morning to make the self centring spring, it's got really simple bearings at each end, so should be very easy to rebuild if it ever developes play:

Got the spring in place, secured under a washer on the base rather than drilling holes I don't need to, and a single hole drilled in the main pivot body:

Then I forgot to take any more pictures, and finished off the centring bit, and it works!

Vw Motorsport shifter- centering spring - YouTube



Happy with that, right first time too. I was worried i'd get the alignment wrong and it's self not-centre

Then I got the flap wheel out and took to the dodgy welding on the tower:

Then forgot pictures again, and spent an hour sanding it down to be as smooth as possible.

Cleaned it up, and gave the inside a coat of primer, which is currently drying before I paint the outside in primer

 

[mylo]

only one word for that shifter. PIMP !!!

 

[Rainbird]

Pure attention to detail. Sweet.

 

[ReDBull]

It's going to look good in orange.

 

[badger5]

self centre BOTH ways dude?

 

[Prawn]

It does Bill yes, but it's stronger centering from 1st to centre than from 5th to centre. Main worry was it not popping across to the middle when exiting second. If I go straight down from 5th by mistake there's nothing there to mechanically over rev it like a lower gear.

I might look into a stronger spring still, but I'm happy with this for the minute. We'll see how it feels

tower smoothed and primed:

 

[Prawn]

The Volvo cables have some really simple blocks on the ends, which makes them ideal to build into a custom setup, as the cable end stays are really easy

Drew up a little template as started cutting, N for nick

Basic shape cut:

Trimmed up and trial fitted on the cable ends:

two cable ends finished, ready to be welded onto a base plate for bolting into the car when I get it all fitted:

They will of course, be painted orange!

 

[Prawn]

Modified the cable bracket on the box this morning to accept the volvo cable ends:

A little slot cut in the top:

And the volvo ends drop down in nicely, and are a really good fit.

Box end complete and ready to go on, modified cable bracket, modified volvo S40 shift cables with ball joint ends onto 02J shift arms

Very happy with this so far.

Now it's time to rip all the old stuff out and get making things again!

 

[Prawn]

Please excuse the poor quality, just a little clip to show that when dry, even second gear hooks up perfectly

 

[ReDBull]

Very impressive the way it picks up speed. I wish I had a private road that long.

 

[Prawn]

I wish I had a private road that long.

Believe it or not, thanks to having a fair bit of power now, I only need a very short runway to test on

this shifter is taking much longer than I expected, but I think it'll be worth it

old shifter before removing:

New tower offered into place:

and a sneak peak of how it might end up

 

[vfr800]

Is there a button for the ejector seat? You also now have space for the tracking display and a proper tape deck. :thumbsup:

 

[slappy_dunbar]

Please excuse the poor quality, just a little clip to show that when dry, even second gear hooks up perfectly

Is that video 2 ---> 3 or 3 ---> 4? Sorry for the dopey question but I'm unfamiliar with the 5spd gearbox.

 

[Prawn]

Second and third Doug. Second hits the limiter around 75mph, 3rd hits the limiter at 115. Limiter at 7400

 

[Rich196]

Excuse my ignorance, but is this shifter the same as the odd one we were looking at in the guys car at Goodwood?

 

[bigal 1]

Hi Rich, not exactly the same but along the same theme. His was a home made interpretation along the same lines. I believe it took ages to build but what a professional job he did of it. I think awesome would describe it.

 

[Prawn]

yup, this one was entirely home made, and looks amazing!

 

[Sam_]

Are you going to try and mount it a bit higher, closer to the wheel? Like this...

I had a BTCC shifter (along with loads of other bits) for use with an Xtrac box but flogged all the bits when I moved. Gutted I never got to use it, was a work of art.

 

[Prawn]

A bit higher might be nice yea Sam, but that'd require a new alloy tower to be made, so for now it'll stay as it. it's already about 6'' higher than standard

 

[Jason.s]

Loved my "knob extender" on the A4. Brought it up to roughly the height and distance of the picture above. Nice just to have it close so you barely have to move your hand from the wheel to change gear.

 

[Prawn]

Where did you get it from Jason? I wouldn't mind this a touch higher, and as the throw is fully adjustable so I could shorten the lever throw to make up for the additional movement added by an extension

Are these things usually an M12x1.5 thread?

 

[Jason.s]

My mate made it for me when he worked at Hewland Engineering.

I tried to find one off the shelf and only managed to find them in america i think it was in that thread size. Most of them in this country and for jap cars so are different thread. When i mentioned it to a mate he made one in a few minutes and used a Hewland knob that they fit on their semi sequential systems which is about £55 on its own lol. Didnt cost me anything.

 

[Prawn]

aaaaaaaaaaaah. I wants. Will have to find someone with a lathe who can knock one up for me

 

[Sam_]

Quaife sell decent nylon gear knobs like that. Or there's eBay ...

 

[Prawn]

I have a Quaife nylon copy already Sam, And now a billet one too. Just the extension I want

 

[Jason.s]

Its a shame the S3 has a stupid gaitor and knob combined so i cant use this

Its sat in the garage doing nothing other than looking pretty at the minute. I`d pass it on to get good use but theres part of me that feels bad eventhough he probably wouldnt care lol.

 

[Prawn]

Well, of you decide to want it to go to a temporary home in exchange for some temporary beer tokens then let me know

 

[Rich196]

Also sad to see the ring taken out of the thread title!!! This project it mental! When is it getting back out on track?

 

[Prawn]

The nurburgring chapter is over. I've been there, done that, got obsessed with it, chased lap times knowing I shouldn't, done an 08:20 lap, went out for 'one last lap' then crashed it and lost ALL my savings. I have no interest in going back there to drive TF ever again, I think/hope Dad shares these views, but if he doesn't, tough

Every time I look at it it reminds me that I crashed and makes me sad, I park it tight up against a fence so I never have to look at the pass side, I hate it. The bodywork is being done in a few weeks time, almost everything else is new in the car since the crash apart from the shell and the roll cage, so it's time to put that chapter behind me.

It's odd how we think nothing of spending £500 each and traveling for 11 hours to do maybe 6-8 laps of the ring over a whole weekend, yet when someone suggests a trackday at Donnington or similar, we decide not to go because it's 4 hours to drive there and £200?

When you take off the rose tinted specs, it just isn't worth it any more.

Uk Trackdays, and lots of them next year I hope. I'd like to do at least one full day a month next year, and don't see any reason why we wont.

I'm very excited about it too

 

[MIGGZ]

thats hectic im obbsessed with the ring, iv prob gone over 500 times around it in forza and my one day dream is to go there in person. i hate that i am 13 000km away

 

[Rich196]

The nurburgring chapter is over. I've been there, done that, got obsessed with it, chased lap times knowing I shouldn't, done an 08:20 lap, went out for 'one last lap' then crashed it and lost ALL my savings. I have no interest in going back there to drive TF ever again, I think/hope Dad shares these views, but if he doesn't, tough

Every time I look at it it reminds me that I crashed and makes me sad, I park it tight up against a fence so I never have to look at the pass side, I hate it. The bodywork is being done in a few weeks time, almost everything else is new in the car since the crash apart from the shell and the roll cage, so it's time to put that chapter behind me.

It's odd how we think nothing of spending £500 each and traveling for 11 hours to do maybe 6-8 laps of the ring over a whole weekend, yet when someone suggests a trackday at Donnington or similar, we decide not to go because it's 4 hours to drive there and £200?

When you take off the rose tinted specs, it just isn't worth it any more.

Uk Trackdays, and lots of them next year I hope. I'd like to do at least one full day a month next year, and don't see any reason why we wont.

I'm very excited about it too

I hope to get in on one or two of those! still can't decide whether to run the TT into the ground or go for a RS4 or 911. If the TT is about track days will be alot more financially viable.

I guess for you can me the ring as two different purposes, you go chasing lap times because you have skill and equipment to do it. I want to go as its a good lads weekend, full of laughs and beer and some nice metal.