My A3 Quattro

Discussion in 'Members Gallery' started by sparrow, Aug 29, 2015.

  1. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Nope, mine are definitely only 312mm.
     
  2. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    This arrived today:
    [​IMG]

    Which contained these:
    [​IMG]

    Thanks @Prawn

    These will be going on instead of the Seat Leaon APs. Bigger and better, and known to be working.

    I'll get them on the car this week, and see if that fixes the brake problems.
     
  3. notenoughtime

    notenoughtime Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2014
    Likes Received:
    511
    Location:
    Essex
    Very nice
     
  4. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    I fitted these just before Christmas, but was still unable to get a pedal. This could only mean the master cylinder had failed.
    I ordered a new one, and it lay there for 4 weeks.
    I gave up trying to make time and took it down to Stealth Racing, along with the brake bias valve. They fitted that, then found the brake servo had been changed at some point in the car's past, so the MC didn't fit. They tracked down the correct one, so I now have working brakes. Yay.

    Next up, the car is going to have the alignment and corner weighting done, and then I need to fit a new silencer as the car was 108dB on drive by at Donington. I'm going to try to fit in a test day in the next couple of weeks.
     
    Sirguydo likes this.
  5. notenoughtime

    notenoughtime Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2014
    Likes Received:
    511
    Location:
    Essex
    Is it all exhaust or intake/wastegate noise also
     
  6. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Pretty sure it's all exhaust, as there are a number of similair builds with no problems. Time will tell. :thumbup:
     
  7. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    I wasn't happy with how the car had handled on any of the outings so far, it just felt horrible. Turning in was an exercise in "guess how much oversteer will happen this time", I just couldn't get any confidence in the car.

    I decided to take it to a local company called Spires Tuning, which is run by ex-JLR suspension designers, so they know a thing or two.
    I arranged to drop the car of with Matt yesterday after work. He put it on the ramp, and looked at a few things, and made some comments.
    Matt: "Front rebound is way too high, that will be source of the understeer".
    Me "Er, it oversteers. A LOT"
    Matt: "That's not possible, it should be understeering massively."
    Me: "It feels like it's on ice. I'm sure the springs are too hard."
    Matt: "What are they"
    Me: "Can't remember, what KW specced. Hard though, around 800lb front, and something less on the rear"
    Matt: "That sounds too hard, let's check"

    So we checked the springs.
    The fronts are 140/140 (so 140Nmm (800lbs)/140mm long).
    The rears are 80/180 (so 80Nmm (500lbs)/180mm long).

    Or not. I have the values the wrong way around. The rears are actually 80mm long, and 180Nmm, so over 1000lb rear springs!! What on earth KW used to calculate that I have no idea. I can only assume they missed the bit about removing the Haldex, but even then they are too hard.
    That would explain why the rear of the car just skated everywhere.

    Matt's working out all the ratios and weights, and I'll get some new springs. He'll then also set the camber, caster and toe (front and rear) to something where the car should be neutral.
    No rear ARB for now either.

    He will also be sorting out a new rear silencer, and is confident we can get under any track day limit with just a bigger silencer.

    He's hoping to get it back to me by the end of the week, but it depends on lead times for springs and the back box.
     
    1.8T_mk2 and jamesa like this.
  8. notenoughtime

    notenoughtime Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2014
    Likes Received:
    511
    Location:
    Essex
    The black S3 has a setup that Im very happy with at the moment if you want me to send you the details?

    Obviously haldex removed on the rear also
     
    sparrow likes this.
  9. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Anything as a comparison would be useful. :thumbup:
     
  10. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Time to get up to date.

    After a few email conversations with Matt, things progressed.

    Matt weighed the car, and it is currently 1096kg, 687kg at the front, 409.6kg at the back. So 63% at the front, 37% at the rear.

    The fronts were almost identical, slightly softer, but also slightly longer.
    The rears were MUCH softer. I will admit, I was skeptical at this point, this seemed too soft, based on what everyone else was running.
    However, Matt will have forgotten more than I'll ever know about suspension, so went with it.

    When the new springs arrived, Matt found the rears were to short. Matt quickly realised why.
    With the old hard springs, the rear of the car was only compressing the springs 3mm! No wonder I was struggling.
    This explained something else. When the KWs were first fitted, the rear was far too high. No wonder, when the correct spring rates were fitted, the car settled much more.

    Corner weighting was also done, with a perfect 50/50 diagonal set up achieved.
     
  11. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Next up, noise reduction.
    I'd supposedly hit 108dB on drive by at Donington. While that's very unlikely, the car was loud.

    Thanks to yoof, who put me in touch with a contact of his, I had a repackable silencer made up and sent over.
    I dropped the car off at Stealth to get it fitted. Unfortunately my measuring was less than ideal (OK, it sucked), so the silencer didn't fit where I wanted it.
    Stealth did the best they could with what I'd provided, but had to modify it to make it fit. As always, they did a fantastic job.

    This meant the car was ready, but I had no usable treaded tyres. The AO48s resembled 50p pieces after Donington.
    I decided to treat myself to a new set of boots, but couldn't justify new DZ03s or the new AO52s, so went with some R888Rs all round.
    I managed to get them fitted on Saturday morning, which meant I could book on a track day with some confidence. Not much, but more than before.
     
  12. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    So, to Bedford we go. All ready:

    28828630_10155143312480826_2299406177807494261_o.jpg

    I set off in torrential rain. Perfect weather for a first test of brakes and suspension. Not. :thumbd:

    Nothing I could do about it, so I got there, signed on and went for noise testing. 96dB/97dB, the same as my noise meter I'd bought. Higher than I'd like, so I'll have to look at that again.
    After drivers briefing, I went over to the pits, unpacked and went on the sighting laps.

    Which immediately raised an issue. I have no demister.2 slow laps, and I couldn't see where I was going. I need to order some RainX.
    I did some brake tests, and was able to modulate well enough, but it was very slippery. This also meant I was able to test the traction control, which worked well.

    I came in, wiped down the interior, and propped open the passenger side window half an inch.

    Back out, and this worked well enough. I did a few laps, exploring the conditions, working out where the grip was, and where I could brake. I spent most of the day braking far too early, but wanted to drive it back on to the trailer.

    First impressions.
    Matt at Spires knows suspension. The car behaved exactly as I'd asked him for. It's neutral, but I can induce the rear out if I want to.
    This thing is ludicrously fast. It was too fast for the conditions today. I managed 130mph at half throttle!

    graph.jpg

    The bottom graph is the traction control working. That's a pull down the back straight, from second to sixth. Yes, the traction control is stepping in at 120mph in sixth over the bumps! :p
    The traction control works really well. As it was wet, I've set it to be super restrictive. I was able to roll on to the throttle, looking for the limit of adhesion.
    However, when it broke traction, instead of having to get out of the throttle again, I simply held it and let the ECU keep things under control.
    Then repeat until I had to brake for the next corner.

    Mid corner traction was immense. I could barely get the tyres warm, but never really felt short of lateral grip. If the rear started to go, it gave plenty of notice, and was easy to control.
    The front was rock solid on turn in, and coped with the power well on corner exit. The traction control obviously helped.
    I was even able to lift mid corner when someone spun in front of me, without any real drama.

    Braking was a little trickier, but a large part of that is me still getting over the previous issues. The good news is the fronts now lock before the rears. A cone is testament to this.

    I managed 4 good sessions this morning, and wasn't passed once. I passed quite a few others, so was happy enough with that.

    I ended up leaving at lunch time to get back to the office.

    I'm hoping to get to Rockingham this Sunday, as the sprint series I'm entering has it's first meeting of the year there on the 25th.

    Future Plans
    Redo exhaust system so that I can do some proper testing at a track day. Although I'm probably OK for most tracks now, I'd like a safety margin.

    I want to do some proper driver training, so I can start to use the potential of the car, and learn more.

    I need to get the cage redone, as Bill has condemned this one.

    I have an SQS Shifter, which will allow clutchless upshifts in conjunction with the ECU.
    If I'm also able to fit our E-Shift unit, I'll have clutchless up and down shift via paddle shifting. Otherwise I still have the MME pneumatic system, which will give me the same.
     
    notenoughtime and jamesa like this.
  13. vw_singh Events Team Paid Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2003
    Likes Received:
    793
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Brilliant! Sounds like everything has taken a step in the right direction!

    Gurds
     
    sparrow likes this.
  14. jamesa Forum Junkie

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2003
    Likes Received:
    301
    Location:
    Abz
    Not used myself but http://catdrivertraining.co.uk/ have been recommended.
     
    sparrow likes this.
  15. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    A massive step, I'm really pleased. I can now start getting used to the car.

    Exactly who I'm probably going to. I know a number of people who have used them, and recommend them.
     
  16. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    Scanning through the logs for work related, I spotted something that's given me some more confidence in the brakes.
    I locked up twice under braking in the log I was looking at. On both occasions, only the front wheels locked, never the rears.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Sirguydo

    Sirguydo Fastest milkman in the West Paid Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2012
    Likes Received:
    1,203
    Location:
    Bolton
    My mates qualified to teach F1 drivers and just turned down a mega job at Ferrari if you want some serious coaching .
     
  18. sparrow Paid Member Paid Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Likes Received:
    741
    Location:
    Leamington Spa
    I suspect he'll be a little out of my budget! lol
     
  19. Sirguydo

    Sirguydo Fastest milkman in the West Paid Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2012
    Likes Received:
    1,203
    Location:
    Bolton
    Mates rates , do you supply any of your gear to F3 teams as he currently runs one as well as formula ford cars .

    Ive known him since we were kids so maybe we could share him for the day at Oulton Park as hes a specialist there and at Spa .
     
    sparrow likes this.
  20. notenoughtime

    notenoughtime Moderator Moderator

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2014
    Likes Received:
    511
    Location:
    Essex
    Brilliant updates bet you look forward to some dry days to really get a feel :thumbup:
     

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice