with some later cars the glass helps the structure rigidity, this may counteract the weight advatage to some degree...
Sounds like making your car more and more track orientated Gary? Making all of these mods for the all important aspects of track work will be beneficial. Looking back at my old bus for ultimate track times I should have trailered the car to and from trackdays then stripped it out, roll cage, close ratio box Leda springs rose joints would have got me better times for sure (plus slicks) but unfortunately it would have turned the car into a play thing only and a costly excersise at that(with 020 boxes). For track and road it's always a compramise. Looking at some of the cars at the VW/Audi days such as RS4's etc..........blindingly quick road car but suffers the weight penalty on track even though they can muster 380bhp. I recently tempted into an S4 Avant already modded to 340 and 400lbs suspension,brakes etc all done but even that would have been slower than my MK2 and have very high running costs. Best I stick to my MKIV and develop it a bit further ready for 2006.
That's just it Ian, I don't want to spend a lot of money on the car itself anymore,ok they have their running costs and maintainence as we all know. Anything that's going to make the car quicker on track than it already is,will cost more than I have or want to spend. Unless we have any suggestions. I would much rather spend money on doing the actual track days especially at new and interesting circuits. That's what it's all about at the end of the day, so many people can get wrapped up in spending 1000s of pounds on the car and then do feck all with them. My main point of the thread was just to try and see how or if this hard core stripping of anything and everything from an occasional (one a month) track day car is actually worth the extra noise and discomfort for the rest of the time.
if it's a daily car, I wouldn't bother. stripped cars are not nice to live with on a daily basis. just take your back seat and tool kit. spare wheel out on the day of the race.
Gary, On the thread topic only I agree with PhatVR6. On your use of the car (number & type of events) I would seriously consider some SAFETY mods - when funds allow. I started out with a road / event car (Mk1) in similar trim to yours but the more events I did the more I saw the need for the safety kit. Cheers
That's another good point actually. Roll cage has been on my list for 3 years or so, each time I'm ready to buy one something else crops up and it's put down the list again, which never seems to stop me doing events at track with little run off (Cadwell etc) I would like to think I drive with a bit of reserve but I suppose you never know what might happen.
i use to drive a stripped mk2 for about a year and it wasnt that bad only thing in it was the dash and 2 front seats and it wasnt that bad i had to drive about 15 miles each way to work and it wasnt that bad the back eng was a bit lighter there was some cheap raceland suppension kit on it but i found it was ok on a whole drove it on quite a few long distances too
I drove my stripped out mk2 for 6 months, I even went all the way up to kames in it! my missus was well pleased when it overheated and all the manky coolant came gushing through the holes in the buolkhead and floorpan all over her handbag! had some great fun in it, but it was a nightmare in cold.wet weather (no heater or blower). After my ban was up, I couldn't wait to get back int he car, I drove it to work, and decided there and then that i hated it and I'd never drive it again. i bought my corrado that very smae day, and stripped the mk2 of all my decent parts and sold it.
Taking the above into consideration, what are the times people have experienced with their Golfs at Coombe? I had the chance to do a session in an RS4 (MTM tuned) at the recent Audi day (see the pic of me driving it in Audi Driver mag )and whilst I didnt give the car absolute death I was in the 1.24's or 1.26's (I cant remember which) - just wondering how comparable to a MK2 for instance
ok xmas eve & a bit tipsy so excuse any rambling! In the summer with a totaly empty Coombe & a mate sat beside me we did some lap timing & 2 up running on road tyres & with shagged (EBC yellow cack) pads the quickest I could muster was into the 1.26s I wasnt going mental but not hanging about & was 2 up I didnt think personally with decent pads & bigger cahonies I could have wiped more than a second or so off tho. Solo running & track rubber I lap a heck of a lot quicker, im usually a gear higher & at the same revs at most bends on sticky rubber for example, anyway Ive never timed on them, but my seat of pants-o-meter guestimates it at an easy 4-5 secs a lap quicker & maybe more. A mate was there that day & getting 1.16s in properly track set up M3CSL (on data log) & obviously he was faster, but I was just passed in style rather than utterly decimated, so 5 secs or so behind would make some kind of sence? Only trouble with that theory is it would put me at similar times to the Badger Bill beasty who recently posted times of (i think) 1.19 recently, and my old thing is nippy, but flippin eck bills thing is an animal with over double my power & similar weight so dunno really? (altho I think that time was on road rubber? so my estimate track rubber time might not be too far off actually if so?) Think the Reeves beasty Mk1 has done 1.14 at Coombe? For a saloon car time to beat tho= last Porsche open race there tho, 1.07 was the time to beat! he did lap the entire field except mr 2nd place man, took about 700 bhp to do it tho! Ok ramble over
Seem to remember Ian B saying he's done a 1:22 at Combe. Seem to remember mad20v doing 1:19 on A048s with his mk1 (200bhp at the wheels 8500rpm 20v NA motor) So, recalculate your 5 secs for slicks Al!!!! Fecking boring track imo. Edited by: GVK
