OPEN Still Rambling on

Hi ya. I've posted on here before quite a while back.
I didn't quite get back to anyone properly. I feel a little rude but it wasn't intended.
I've had 3 brain ops in the last 3 years and wasn't quite myself for a while. Anyway that's enough of the sob story. It was about the blueprint engine i posted ages ago.
The company who built the engine are worth billions. They develop wind farms, zero emission vehicle technology and are working on the first emission free cargo cargo ships and so on. They helped Bugatti design the drive train for the Veyron and still produce them and design and develop all sorts of supercar stuff like everything cool.
Here's the point, back in 1990 they used 3 mk2 golfs to develop new technology in the field of emissions and economy. I think they used 3 others vehicles which were something like Nissan cherry's or the like.
My Golf is one of the three mk2's they used.
The company is called Ricardo and latest they have announced on their website is that they are working to deliver the first truly green passenger airliner.
They have recently received a 89million dollar contract to supply ABS to army vehicles.
I've all the lab results for my car. Maybe an inch and a half of A4 paper and a few hand written notepads and so on.
Please google their Shoreham Ricardo website to see what you think.
Would you steer me to the correct place on this forum to ask some advice please. I could be sitting on a fortune maybe??

 

What did they do to it exactly?

 

Hi,
They used it to help develop mpg against economy. The engine was built to the finest tolerances and balanced. The car was 'run in' using a rolling road for a few thousand miles i seem to remember. The oil and water were intravenously fed at exactly the right temperatures and loads more. The engine was tested on a dyno here and there. There are a few extra plugs i presume for diagnostics.
Anyway i managed to get hold of the lab technician who tested it etc. and he said he will email me the final reports.
When he sends it i shall put a few exerts on here.
He remembered the car and told me he was very fond of it.

 

I meant mpg against emissions !!

 

I have just checked my email and the technician has sent me this. I thought he was going to send all the data by email but it was 30 odd years ago the tests were done.
I have all the paperwork and test results filed at my parents so will have to go and get them.

Anyway this is what he has just sent me..


Hello. I run a 1990 Mk2 GTi Golf 1.8 8v which was bought by Ricardo Consulting Engineers in Shoreham for fuels research, as an example of open loop fuel injected gasoline technology of the time. The engine was taken out and put on a test bed, run on a whole range of simple fuels (eg toluene, toluene/isooctane blend, isooctane/butane...etc etc) for hours and hours to look at both regulated and unregulated emissions (CO,CO2,HC, NOx etc and speciated hydrocarbons/aldehydes/ketones - all esoteric stuff). Then the engine went back into the car so we could do ECE and Federal drive cycle emissions testing on a rolling road. The car was never driven on the road but did 2000 miles on the rolls. Then it was abandoned in a field for several years. Seized to the ground, I was asked to "get rid of it" in 1999. "Do you mind where it goes?" I asked. No. OK. So I got it trailered home where I fuelled it up with regular pump fuel, put a new battery on it and turned the key. It fired up first time!!! The brakes were crap (but good enough to get an MOT later with no work whatsoever. Later, new discs and pads all round brought them back to spec.). The testing was done using an outboard motor fuel tank to make changing fuels easier but the fuel return line went straight to the onboard (original) tank. This caused the main fuel system to be shot to bits, mainly because of the toluene fuel we had used in it rotted the intank pump and the accumulator. That was all that was wrong with it despite the ill-treatment and the neglect. A few quid was spent on new fuel components, the feed line re-attached to the main system and away I went.

So that's its history. Since then I have done 65000 miles in it with total reliability and nothing more than routine maintenace has been needed. It's the most solid, reliable car I've ever owned. It would most certainly be a hard act to follow! I know little about modern VWs but my girlfriend had a used and abused Golf 3 (1.8 CL) which had to go to the scrappy through rust! not a patch on my mark 2. Mine still has not a speck of rust on it despite the fact that I don't really look after it. I do service it reularly but I clean it only very occasionally just to remind myself that it was once white!!!


Have VW lost the plot? I hope not but, if they have I think it began about the time of the Mk 3 Golf!!!

 

I was changing the exhaust pipe the other day. I noticed that there was no fuel pump. I haven't run it for around 5 years because of my epilepsy.
I cannot remember removing the fuel pump. The area under where it fits should be cleaner if i had removed it.
Maybe there is a more powerful pump in the tank.
I didn't quite (shit, just spilled my beer) understand the part about the outboard and onboard tank and return etc.
I'm a hoarder so wouldn't have thrown the pump away if i had taken it off.
Is a more powerful swirl pot lifter pump thing possible rather than two separate pumps?
Who knows. I'll find out, but what are your views in the mean time?

 

I know i keep going on about it but it was one of three vehicles they used. One was my GTI and there was a Fiat Tipo Turbo ! Remember them, and a Citroen AX thing. They bought it from Wadham Kenning. First they stripped the engine and blueprinted it.
I't came with the original receipt.
It fascinates me. This must a keeper ???
So is it special ??

 

Tbh, it's more of a curiosity than a valuable item in my honest opinion.
If it was a TSR, BBR, Drake, Sorg Motorsport etc engine with chassis or body upgrades I'd say it's certainly more desirable, but it appears it's no more powerful, or economical than an ordinary one, and it doesn't appear it led to Ricardo doing anything extraordinary based on what they learned from it... So I don't think it will add much to the value.
I hope you don't mind my honesty.

 

I realise what you say Tristan. I agree i think.
I'm not into it for the money really. As you say it is interesting. Good talking point.
I'll love it whether it is special or not anyway.

 

I had one of the prototype development ERA minis about 23 years ago, was a rare beast then, and I knew of the original car that was thrown together to scare rover execs into building them.
Found out last year that no1 had been broken for parts and engine sat in a barn, first few had Richard longman engines in, mine included. But when I had to sell it back then it was not worth any more than a standard one, and a pain to get the one off parts for!
But not all prototype stuff is all singing,all dancing desirable. Dont think me rude, it's a minefield with vehicles.
Dont get me wrong, fascinated with oddities and the background, and things are worth what people are willing to pay for them, one of the eco mk3s with start stop etc, an early bluemotion experiment by vw came up for sale recently, £500 on the road.
And Alec Issigoniss' own bmc9x, one of 3 they built was about to be scrapped, by land rover jaguar, and luckily someone i know happened upon it and got given it, so its now sat in a Wiltshire museum. They also have an electric Peugeot 106.

Enjoy the car for what it is, great story with it, now if you could find Tim Stiles old black mk1 supercharged golf, with the bonnet scoop made from a fish and chip tray, well...

Get some photos up, would be good to see, highlighting the differences.

 

Nice one guys. It's nice to have some interest. I'll get under it when the weather is a little better.
I will also try and get all the test results from my parent's house as soon as posible.
It was a while back when I bought the car.
I didn't understand a fair bit of the results. I'll get some info on here as soon as I can. I'm quite slack so will make an effort this week.
Im moving my Rallye this week to a new garage. the rallye is at my parent's so will pick up the results. It would be fascinating to see the results especially if different fuels helped improve the bhp no matter the emissions or economy.

 

Hi Dodgy.
I love the old mini's. There is one down the road from me and always reminds me of the old days !!
I'm getting old I think. I'll soon be saying 'I remember when this was all fields you know
I think my golf engine was more of a benchmark than a prototype.
The engine just had to be built to the finest tollerances to become the benchmark.
So I suppose it's nothing special and may have even been upset by the rolling road.
I think maybe it may have been run in 3rd gear just below cruising speed to strain the engine at some point in the testing.
I've been putting in a new gearbox for about a year now.
It's been changed once before by the last owner I think.

 

Anyway please don't scorn at me but I've let it go to rat shit a bit.
4-5 ish years with no licence due to epilepsy I lost enthusiasm.
I've been seizure free for over a year now from correct medication, and also the last company I worked for kicked me out. A lot less stress !!
I'm seeing my neurologist at the beginning of May, so maybe he'll let me drive again.
It's bloody so not fair. Everyone remembers me from my old golfs I used to drive.
just a quick pic from my window of the poor car.
Anyway just had to let that out x

 

Aye, it's odd in work, I'm 48 and then next oldest is 28, so none of them know what it was like before mobile phones!!
Weather holds everything up, but glad your holding up well on the medication, my mate was similar had episodes and nearly back to getting licence and then setbacks several times.
The mini was my 29th, and it was good to get one again, but with all the problems I had, I sort of regretted getting it after 17 years of not having one.
Then my wife got the green mk2 and then found the white one, so got 2 now.

 

I suppose it's like hanging on the past.

I may move on and let it go and get a nice low mileage either red or blue mk5 r32.
They're going to be the next best classics I recon.
Anyway I'm diverting from the subject.
I'll get some info on here soon as I can.
I'll shut up now too

 

oh and I boyed the car grill. I'll put that back to normal

 

I've taken a really bad picture of the underside.
The car is on axle stands on the passenger side as I've been putting on a new exhaust pipe.
So I'm laying on the ground under the passenger side while I took this photo with a really bad phone camera. I'll get some decent shots once I've finished the exhaust. I can jack up the pump side and remove the wheel.
You can just about see the black and blue hose's are snipped and I'm not sure whether the hose on the left of the photo is normal.
The pump must have been either stolen or bypassed. I think if it was stolen then I would have thought there would be a cleaner area where it was mounted before removing. Do the mounting studs give anything away.
I'll will get better pictures as I could do with some more help. If the new clutch was in then I suppose it would be as simple as firing it up !

 

Oh, hose on the left must be the handbrake cable !

 

While I'm here I've got two connectors I'm unsure about, I know one is for the knock sensor but the other one, Is it for power steering ?