Nurburg4Nowt.co.uk Mk2 Jetta Trackday Car

Hello!

I been a member here for a while, mainly asking questions, thought it was about time I showed what the questions were for.

Also id like to say before I forget. This really is a brilliant site, so impressed but all the work you guys do, total dedication and most work done by the you, the owners instead of just paying a garage...makes for a far more interesting and useful read. Really has been an inspiration.

2006

This is a look back at the project that my brother Adam and I started so we would be able to take a trip the Nurburgring without risking our daily drivers. We wanted to do it as cheaply as possible, hence the Nurburg 4 Nowt named website. The site kept a track of the project.

We looked hard for a cheap hot hatch, Golf GTI, 309 GTI, AXGT ect etc. Sadly at the time these cars were 400+ without an MOT, too much!!

Started to search ebay daily with buy it now sorted low to high. A 100 motor cropped up near us with an 8 month MOT. Seemed too good to miss we went for it and were pleased for the price!







The car drove well so work to get it slightly track worthy moved quickly.





With the car stripped out we worked on many different small aspects of the car. I dont have too many pictures for back then so will just show the major developments.

Next up was a 50 set of alloys from the previous owner





Sparco buckets were 56 from ebay, the seller even threw in a Willans harness We also got the Luke set free from a friend who races.

Ebay was turning out to be the main source of second hand parts and cheap motorsport bits

Another ebay bargain 11 for this steering wheel



We couldnt really afford any serious engine mods. A bolt of K&N for 20 and a bay clean up is as far as it went really



We wanted some stickers to make the car a bit more track like. This gave us the idea to try and raise awareness for out charity CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young. we gave GSF car parts a ring. They were very helpful so we were happy to slap on a few big GSF stickers!





The car was lowered on a full set of second hand spax adjustables for 60. Sorry I cant find the pictures them being fitted.

These are the final pictures before we set of for our first Nurburgring trip. Its all stickerd up. Thanks to Nolan at work and Adams old school for that as no company wanted to help make the CRY stickers. GTI brake set up and larger master cylinder from GSF, some ebay gauges, fat front splitter and lots of weight lost.











The car made it to Germany and did some good laps ( got to www.nurburg4nowt.co.uk for full story) Our Dad managed to get a screen shot of it on the ring web cam.





It also made it home in one piece.



We may not have set any lap records but with our 600 trackday car we experienced the ring and had a amazing time! We had been bitten by the bug and set on upgrading the car as soon as we got back!

 

2007

New addition to the VW family. A donor GTI 8v. We decided this was the cheapest way of getting more pace out of the Jetta. The car was 100.



We borrowed a hoist from our friend, thanks Terry.



Gti lump out



It ran ok but didnt look in great condition. Needed a clean up.



Didnt want to do any really i depth engine work as still wanted to keep costs down. We did most of the jobs what have mentioned to do when the engine is out

New clutch



Cleaned up gearbox. New clutch release bearing, bush and seal.



New polished exhaust manifold, I polished the inlet manifold, new cambelt, sprayed rocker cover, cheap ebay chip, lots of new gaskets, cleaned up inside and out.



Out with the old, in with the new!



Loom time. Swapped the lot over. Below, inside waiting for GTI loom and clocks



Cant remember if this was new or old loom keeping dry in the boot



Quite some time later the engine was in and running



The Golf GTI had served it purpose and went to the scrap yard in the sky



With the extra power sorted I was reading more on here about handling. Decided poly bushes were the way forward. Powerflex were very helpful so we got pretty much a full set for the Jetta.

Got some great tips from here and set about swapping the bushes over. After seeing the old ones I was pleased we decided to change them



Cleaned up front wishbone with bush ready to be pushed in



The old rear bushes were a nightmare. We decided the beam had to come off as it was coming off we might aswell swap to a GTI rear discs and lose the non race looking drums!

The beam was much easier to work on away from the car. I burned the rubber middle out of the old bushes the cut a grove and bashed the sleeve out



We saw a rear eibach ARB on ebay and after the reviews decided it was worth a few quid.
This is the beam, cleaned up, painted, new discs, pipes poly bushes and arb fitted.



We also went for a uprated from ARB. A front g60 ARB was another second hand Ebay buy. This is it next to the old arb



Writing this now makes this all sound very easy but work on the engine change started in october and we got it started in december. The beam and other work has been off and on since then to present.

 

The car is now nearly ready for this years trip. Below is it cleaned up a few weeks ago. A few bits not before mentioned are Powerflow full system, GTi Badges , 15inch alloys that came with the golf painted matt black, a few new VDO gauges and DRE Shift light.



















For more info on the trip and project check out www.Nurburg4Nowt.co.uk
For more info on CRY check out www.c-r-y.org.uk

Thanks for looking and may see some of you at the Ring end of May

Rich and Adam

 

I can really appreciate what you`ve done !
Well done. Shows you can do a cheap project and still have fun.

 

You guys are utter legends! What a fantstic read! One question though, how hard was it to do the gti rear axle swap as I'm thinking of doing this on my Jetta soon!

 

Nice thread their mate, looks like the golf turned out to be a great buy.

 

threads like this are great. Make me want to get off my **** and work on mine. Good luck with the rinf this year.

andy

 

Thanks for all the nice comments. Helps make it feel even more worthwhile.

The craig, the axle swap wasnt too bad. Got the GTI beam from the scrappy just 4 bolts need removing. You can cut the brake lines and handbrake cable (on scrappy one) keep the handbrake cable if it looks ok

Once we got it home. Fitting the new discs and wheel bearings in straight forward. The hard bit was getting out the old bushes. I found the best way was to melt/cut out the rubber centre then cut a groove into the metal sleeve. After that just smack it out with a big hammer and chisel. Nige has a good guide 2/3rds of the way down this thread http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126104

If you are fitting poly bushes they should just press in, I used a screw jack and piece of wood pushing from the back of the other hub. After that you may want new brake lines flexi and rigid, my local garge made up the rigid ones for 20. If your car is the 1.8 it should have the rear brake valve fitted if not fit the one from the GTI beam. You will need some more new rigid brake lines made up if you dont already have the bias valve.

After all that it should just lift bake into place and connect all up
Hope that helps

 

good job !!!. very impressed. youve given me ideas....

 

After the fitting the new GTi engine the car hasnt really been running too well and didnt feel that quick. We have tried everything so decided it had to be taken somewhere for a tune.

We chose Gerald Dale Motorsport near Battle, East Sussex (01424 893903)

Just got back from there now and am very happy with the results

Gerald did a 1st run to see where we were. We wernt expecting much and were right "well its not very powerful!" Oh dear has the GTi swap been a massive waste of time?!
The first figure was very low!

82.5bhp
97.1 lb ft

A handful of runs and tweaking later and after asking if it was going well he said yeah that was 100bhp. A bit happier with that.





A few more runs and we had reached an optimal result. We had timed the car spot on the marks but apparently the marks cant always be trusted. Gerald had to use small adjustments to the timing on each run.

Here are the final before and after print outs:

Torque



130.7 lb ft @ 4729rpm

Power



127.8 bhp @ 5421rpm

We are overjoyed with the result. It has totally transformed the car....its actually quick now!!!! Really recommend Gerald Dale Motorsports and any rolling road if they can transform the car as he has. Well worth the cash!

Rich & Adam

 

Didnt do too much today. Managed to get the front of the car in the dry so fitted the OMP strut brace.

Went on ok after cutting a bit of sealant. Havent taken it for a test drive yet as the weather was horrid and I had my dose of bumpy driving from the 50 mile round trip to the rolling road!

Ill let you know how it feels when I next drive it.





Adam

 

top stuff!

 

You blokes are an inspiration! everything you've done so far has restored my faith that fun cars can be built on a sensible budget. The fact that you've gotten so far with little (or no?) experience makes me want to whip my spanners out.....

So, enough from me, I'm off to ebay to find a suitable VW.

Well done Guys!

 

quality mate, brilliant stuff. Whats the running total of the Jetta now?

 

fantastic mate glad to see you are having fun do it all yourself and getting rewarded at the end of it

if u do a search on here im sure you would come across this car again because the old owner posted it up b4 when he had it slammed on the deck

 

Cheers for the advice guys! Cant wait to hear more on her journey!

 

Arrgh just wrote a long post and lost it all!!! try again!

The car in a track car but not that quick standard for last years trip was 601.08
(including car)

We felt we proved that the ring was possible on a budget so loosened the purse strings for this years trip. We also felt the ring may not have such a novelty to it second time around and it may be frustrating going again with the same power.

Getting the car to go quicker was always going to cost a bit more than the changes for last years trip. Bellow is a few of the more expensive bits.

Golf GTI 100

Bits and bobs for the engine e.g
Gaskets
Fuel Pipes
Engine Mounts
Push Rod Seal
Cambelt & tensioner
Starter Motor Bush
Studs....all added up to 140 ish

Clutch Kit 49.51
Polished Exhaust Manifold 41
Powerflow exhaust 50
GTi Drive Shafts 140
GTi Rear beam, pipes, Disks etc 140
Eibach Rear arb 77
Powerflex Bushes 110
MOT 50
Rolling road 105

All in all it is now creeping up to 2k. We are still pleased with this, as the standard the car now drives is well above that of last year and no one item has been more than 140. The spreadsheet did make surprising reading with it getting close to 2k but that is between 2 of us over 2 years and includes the 600 for first years car + mods.

Hope it doesn’t put anyone off. It really can be done even cheaper than that. On a fair few occasions lately we have just got carried away....like DRE Shift light, gauges and other racy things we wouldn’t have done last year when we really watched the pennies

Thanks again for all the positive comments.
Rich and Adam

Edit: Ben, We found some threads from the previous owner. It was really funny to see it on here after buying it so randomly. He really did it up well, got it looking cool and kept it in good nick. Shame he took off the springs and wheels to sell it to us!!

 

excellent thread! do you like how it drives?

 

Do after the rolling road!!

It corners brilliantly. The rear eibach on the GTi beam made a huge difference, we didnt even have a rear arb till then. That has been the best improvment to the handling out of anything. The poly bushes have helped the general feel also. Test drive with the strut brace didnt seem too different really.

I really inst a daily driver, especially with the state of our roads! Infact it is nice to return to our comfy cars for the day to day drive. If you want a quick blast its fantastic and hopefully it will be on the track too.

Richard

 

loving your tread, its great to see your car transform and on a nice budget too!!

so what are your plans for the future or are you just goin to enjoy the car as it is