Mk2 Golf IHI track car... Rear body work and door catches

If you do that, just remember the oil pick up is at the front.

 

Also bare in mind your sump will already be very close to the gorund due to the drop chassis.

 

Most racing series allow you to move the engine within 50mm of original postition. But worth checking regs for future reference if your going to compete in it!

 

Hows is Curtis these days havent seen him in ages. A top man he is he was working on my suspension for the Audi Race car.

 

I have tried in the past to rotate the engine back a bit but was limited by clearance with the master cylinder. If I find the funds to get the pedal box I want this will be on the cards for sure! Do you mean equal weights of the car or the engine?

Check
Need to baffle the sump anyway so I'll have a look at the pick up pipes location and see if I can optimise it in any way.

Sump will be aprox 90-100mm above ground level, I think the diff will cause the biggest problem by hitting the subframe.

I'll have to see what the clearance is like but I dont think I've got a lot in any direction that will benefit me. I was thinking of racing it next year but I'm not sure what it would be eligible for. VAG trophy maybe???

Still yet to talk to Curtis, I've just sent him a couple of emails with regards to the changes I've made to the turrets. I'll give him a ring tomorrow to see how he's getting on as I'm a bit stuck now until I get it back on its wheels.

 

Fitted the o/s/f corner back on today to get an idea on the arch work I need to do. This is where the car will be at ride height and it's also fitted with over size tyres to give me a bit of a safety margin.





I still need to check for steering lock and amount of travel but I would prefer to do this with the suspension fully installed to reduce the element of surprise!

 

I mean the weight distribution while in dynamic situation (i.e. not in static position). I would do that at this point, as you are about to calculate the CoG and engine location will play crucial role in CoG. You have all the tools to build a new redesigned subframe or even redesign the sump.

At the point you are now, allow me to share with you some aspects that i think they should also be considered
- if you are in a good mood and not tired, measure the unsprung weights that will help you when you reach the point of choosing the frequency (Hz) you want to run on each corner of your car and then set your shocks. Bear in mind that your track and KPI is not OEM. So,Motion Ratios of suspension and Wheel Rates should be recalculated. Your chassis now is stiff enough to take all the good performance of a serious slick tire and convert it into traction, thus even frequencies close to 3Hz shouldn't be a surprise.

- you are about to set the roll center (in relation to the CoG). Similar to choosing ride frequencies for bump travel, a roll stiffness must be chosen together with your spring rate (expressed in degrees of body roll per “g” of lateral acceleration). A lower roll gradient (which is the normalized roll stiffness number) produces less body roll per degree of body roll, resulting in a stiffer vehicle in roll. Typical values are listed below:
•0.2 – 0.7 deg/g for stiff with high downforce
•1.0 – 1.8 deg/g for stiff with low downforce

- if you will stay on OEM hub/spindle and set the height your car will race, you should consider the travel of your suspension and measure/correct the bump steer at this specific travel. A redesigned subframe with new/correct control arm mounting points is starting to sound a good idea

I follow your updates every time you post and i think that the job you are doing is very serious to leave even the smallest detail out of play. So, don't accept nothing than perfect

 

like this thread, good info mk2sp

I was thinking along similar lines, you're doing quite major structural work here and have the tools and skills to make BIG improvements, would be a shame not to get the geometry nailed down now and have to revisit later. I'd drop and tilt the engine as far back as possible, mount type has no effect on weight distribution.

when you moved the top mounts up that would have been a good opportunity to gain caster, which we really need on macpherson struts, I would have moved the strut tops rearwards and inwards to give more caster and KPI.

Don't take that the wrong way though,not trying to be negative, the car and workmanship look top notch, just want to see it reach its potential I have lots of ideas but don't mind admitting I lack the fab skills and kit to do it. [:^(]

 

Exactly!

So, come on, your good start needs a fantastic ending point!
I wish i will be there and watch you the moment you will go out in the track!

 

This is shaping up to be the best and most techincial track build clubgti has ever seen

 

I've got a note pad that I'm collecting ideas, information, settings, formulas ect ect in and this has been added to the " to do list" section!

One reason for not moving the engine was that it creates loads of extra work and I was hoping to get the car out for the early half of this year. This doesn't look like it's going to happen now so rather than rush it I'm going to sort it out properly!

I did consider moving the top mount location in a little but it would have made life a little bit more tricky. I'll still gain caster and kpi with the new top mounts so it's not all bad. I'll defo be doing that on the next one I build though!

No pressure then

Cheers for your time and your comments guys

I'll do my best and try not to disappoint you all!

 

Started weighing parts for the unsprung weight tonight...

Wheel with tyre - 19kg
Front hub assembly - 17kg
50% Damper + spring assembly - 3.25kg
50% Wishbone - 1.75 kg

Just need to weigh the driveshafts and I should be there for the front end.

 

Have to agree about Curtis. Top fella and really helpful. Car looks fabulous.

What are you going to do for windscreen wipers with the cross brace in the way?

Cheers

Mike

 

Cheers Mike

Still haven't had a chance to chat to Curtis yet as I've been too busy

I thought about this problem before I fitted the brace so I fitted it low enough to clear the linkage. I did think about using a wheel box and putting the motor in the passengers footwell so I could raise the brace a little. The only thing is that I would have to run a small single wiper so I decided to go for the safer option and just lower the brace a little.

 

I decided to take on the good advice from mk2sp and mec82 and move the engine down and tilt it back slightly.

After a bit of time deliberating on a plan of attack I came up with a number of possible options in which to achieve this.

Make new mounts for the engine and gear box
Lower the whole sub frame with the OE mounts (not really an option as it affects wishbone angle)
Make a whole new sub frame
Modify the OE sub frame

With the ground clearance I’m going to be running I won’t have much room to drop the engine/box by much as the bell housing /diff casing will be less than 100mm from the ground. There is also no point in fitting a dry sump either because I still wouldn’t be able to drop it any further because of the gearbox.
With this in mind I have decided to go for the last option and modify the sub frame. This will accomplish the task of lowering and tilting the engine back with the minimum amount of work. Doing what I have done also keeps more parts OE which will be easier for when I break something in the future.

Here is what I've done so far...






I've removed both mounts and removed a 20mm section from both sides. The gearbox mount was quite easy as this is at 90 degrees to the subfame but the engine side is another story. The two bolts that hold the mount to the sub frame are at 30 degrees to verticle and needed to be spot on to make sure the mount sat on the sub frame. After a little tweaking it is ready to be welded and tried back in the car.

I also decided to optimise the handling performance of the engine hoist...




and to see how much the engine and gearbox weighs...




Was expecting it to be a little more what with the IHI setup and the Quaife

 

power to weight of your engine hoist is going to be epic

 

Is around 5800 bhp/ton

 

Not much in the way of progress lately due to fitting out two BMW E36s with roll cages plus corner weighing / setting geometry on one of them ready for the khumo cup this year.

I did have enough time spare to get the engine back in and level though.




I have also been making some progress with getting the AST suspension sorted and should be ordering it next week if all goes to plan.

 

After getting the BMWs out of the way, I've had a chance to spend a few hours on the Golf this week.

I started making the new front inner wheel arches...





The arch is a little low at the mo but you get the idea of how it will look. I also still need to cut the back out as well but it's looking good so far. I'm quite tempted to invest in a plasma cutter as there's a lot of cutting to do and it will speed up the process no end but I've got suspension to buy so it will have to wait for now.

 

A great looking car/project, good luck with the racing