BIGASH/FF-Racing X85 Clio Cup Racer Project

[shiftspark]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Well originally the idea was just going to be plain black, but then we (Matt and I) thought black would be a bit boring so then moved onto the usual red or blue. Then Matt started investigating the different paint type options and found that we can use any type of undercoat but finish off with a two-pack hard-wearing flexible clear coat so it was Matt who then suggested metallic orange to match all the AST parts.

So you’ve seen it here first – metallic orange is the new black!

Unfortunately I’m only 5.8 so I’d barely be able to reach the floor in your seat let alone the pedals!

This needs a project thread !!

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Well originally the idea was just going to be plain black, but then we (Matt and I) thought black would be a bit boring so then moved onto the usual red or blue. Then Matt started investigating the different paint type options and found that we can use any type of undercoat but finish off with a two-pack hard-wearing flexible clear coat so it was Matt who then suggested metallic orange to match all the AST parts.

So you’ve seen it here first – metallic orange is the new black!

Unfortunately I’m only 5.8 so I’d barely be able to reach the floor in your seat let alone the pedals!

Haha legend I can't wait to see it in orange! Don't leave it at TDF too long Mark or I might end up stealing your rear beam

Damn ! mine goes in on the 20th so I will miss both cars , cant you leave them there another week ? i could have a go in both

Mine might still be there Colin just depends if it needs any tweaking after Donington Oooooo what are you having done??

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Mini Update:
Spoke with Matt earlier today and progress with the car is good and just applying the finishing touches ready for Donington on the 17th Feb. The car has had a false floor fitted to the drivers side in Alloy and then covered with grip tape, we have also done a few other small changes since the shakedown test so will get some photos when I'm next with the car.

I have just today managed to sort out a trailer for the season and my patience seems to of paid of as I managed to get a really good mid 2008 Clubman trailer that drives really well so picked it up this evening from Canterbury

 

[Tony Hunter]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Trailer looks spot on, said it would be worth waiting for one of these to come along.

 

[Space Cadet]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

This needs a project thread !!

I know!!, wish I’d started one at the beginning, but have done tooooo much now, plus I don’t want to steal James’ thunder!

Haha legend I can't wait to see it in orange! Don't leave it at TDF too long Mark or I might end up stealing your rear beam

Ha ha…… well I’ll swap my orange rear-beam for your Alcons!?

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Trailer looks spot on, said it would be worth waiting for one of these to come along.

Yes thanks again for the advice Tony this one is pretty much the same size as yours!

Ha ha…… well I’ll swap my orange rear-beam for your Alcons!?

Haha I'm afraid I will never let my Alcons get away Mark I love them too much they are pretty mental

 

[Space Cadet]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Haha I'm afraid I will never let my Alcons get away Mark I love them too much they are pretty mental

What about if I include my orange heat-shrinked front ARB?!

(If I hadn’t got the Willwood callipers on already and recently upgraded to the AP Racing 295mm discs I think I probably would’ve gone for a set of the Alcons. Too much money to start again unfortunately.)

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

What about if I include my orange heat-shrinked front ARB?!

(If I hadn’t got the Willwood callipers on already and recently upgraded to the AP Racing 295mm discs I think I probably would’ve gone for a set of the Alcons. Too much money to start again unfortunately.)

Nice try lol

Sounds like you have already got a really good setup Mark and as you say once you have committed to going down one route it is an expensive game to change your mind!

 

[Cupman29]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Mini Update:
Spoke with Matt earlier today and progress with the car is good and just applying the finishing touches ready for Donington on the 17th Feb. The car has had a false floor fitted to the drivers side in Alloy and then covered with grip tape, we have also done a few other small changes since the shakedown test so will get some photos when I'm next with the car.

I have just today managed to sort out a trailer for the season and my patience seems to of paid of as I managed to get a really good mid 2008 Clubman trailer that drives really well so picked it up this evening from Canterbury

Nice trailer, thinking of getting one myself. Just wondering what tow vehicle you are using?

Love the project by the way.

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Nice trailer, thinking of getting one myself. Just wondering what tow vehicle you are using?

Love the project by the way.

Thanks , I was really surprised by how well it drove I did 12 hours of driving to collect it and it wasn't tiring in the slightest I had to keep reminding myself it was even on the back of the car. The tow car is a BMW E92 325D coupe auto but was remapped by Paul at RS tuning to circa 300bhp with bags of torque so it is great for towing aswell and really good fuel consumption.

My advice if your looking to buy one would be to check the inner edges of tyres as a lot of the trailers have been bashed into curbs and this can bend the axle's and cause the geo to be out and it isn't a cheap fix! Other than that just try to make sure you know the history and check that the trailer plate is in place and matches with the chassis VIN

 

[Jonny1*2]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Alternatively you can rent trailer reasonably cheap. Nice to have your own though i'd imagine James

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Yes Jonny you can do and I looked into it but normally the rental trailers are quite a lot bigger than you need them to be so a bit of a pain for driving, they are also normally commercial so weigh a lot which means my car wouldn't be able to tow it. For a weekend it was £90+vat so by the end of the year I would of easily spent as much on hire as buying one and they don't really loose that much value if you look after them so a decent asset Only drawback is storing it and hoping it doesn't get nicked but once it comes back from its service at BJT then I will be getting it insured and data tagged so hopefully should be okay!

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Mini Update:

Heard from Matt earlier on Today and the car is making good progress just got a couple more wires to add in that I asked him to do today for an intercom so that I can speak to an instructor, passengers etc. The dash has come back from being flocked and apparently looks great, false floor on drivers side all fitted so now its time to go out and play again .

We are going to be at Donington on Friday (17th) so if anyone is around feel free to pop in and say hi!

After Donington the car will be all mine (as long as I don't break it ) and I will be taking it home Friday evening! No doubt I will be sleeping in the garage and keeping watch over it for the first few weeks

I will update the thread with details and pictures when I get back from Donington.

Thanks,
James

 

[Tony Hunter]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

I'll be there, Iv'e booked it off.

 

[Gray]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

I've swapped shifts at work with somebody for tomorrow, if not I would of popped over too see you... I am only 15 minutes from Donnington!

 

[frenchthing]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Niiiiice.. i'm in at matts this afternoon, do you want any pics of it James?

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

I'll be there, Iv'e booked it off.

Will see you tomorrow

I've swapped shifts at work with somebody for tomorrow, if not I would of popped over too see you... I am only 15 minutes from Donnington!

Swap back lol, It will be at Donington quite often as its my favourite track and one of my closest so pop down next time if your free

Niiiiice.. i'm in at matts this afternoon, do you want any pics of it James?

Hey Stu, I would of been at Matt's also this afternoon but he has saved me the trip and offered to go and collect my trailer for me! Thanks for the offer mate very kind but I must refrain until tomorrow Hows yours doing?

 

[Nafoff]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Pics of the false floor would be great,
need to sort this in mine and would be good to see how you have elevated it.

great progress again. (NICE TRAILER)

 

[Space Cadet]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Hi James, ditto the request for the pictures of the false floor - something i've been thinking about doing to mine.

 

[Nafoff]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Hi James, ditto the request for the pictures of the false floor - something i've been thinking about doing to mine.

i was thinking waffle carbon floor like the X85 BTCC clio matt had.... but sadly i am a couple of GGG's down...ha

 

[Silent_Scone]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

I think pretty much even the door bolts were worth more than my car on that BTCC car.

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Pics of the false floor would be great,
need to sort this in mine and would be good to see how you have elevated it.

great progress again. (NICE TRAILER)

Yes no prob's Neil I will get them up at some point over the weekend Thanks!

Hi James, ditto the request for the pictures of the false floor - something i've been thinking about doing to mine.

Will do Mark

i was thinking waffle carbon floor like the X85 BTCC clio matt had.... but sadly i am a couple of GGG's down...ha

Yes we had a chat about the various options but I just went with alloy and we have put a sheet of grip tape on it to make it easier to get in and out

 

[Chip-mk1]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Hope all goes well tomorrow at Donno

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Thanks Chip

 

[frenchthing]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Hey Stu, I would of been at Matt's also this afternoon but he has saved me the trip and offered to go and collect my trailer for me! Thanks for the offer mate very kind but I must refrain until tomorrow Hows yours doing?

Its looking gooooooooooood!

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Just got back home after Donington! Had a really good day in the car got lots of time out on track and I have plenty of pictures of the day so I will get a report up tomorrow at some point when I finish work but right now my bed is calling and I have to be up at 5.30 for work!

 

[frenchthing]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Haha glad it went well mate.. Dario said a scoob wiped itself out?? Glad yours came back the same shape as when it arrived there!!

 

[Jonny1*2]

Glad it went well mate. Long day by the look of it did you have track support yesterday?

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Haha glad it went well mate.. Dario said a scoob wiped itself out?? Glad yours came back the same shape as when it arrived there!!

Thanks Stu Yes it was quite a big one unfortunately, he came out of the esses and had a bit of a tank slapper then ended up hitting the wall on the entrance to the pits straight on which then span him round and get spinning repeatedly so every corner of the car was knackered luckily the driver seemed to be okay as it was a big old hit and it was a stock road car so no additional protection!

Glad it went well mate. Long day by the look of it did you have track support yesterday?

Thanks Jonny, Yes it certainly was mate although we did go back over to the workshop after and then we went out for dinner/pint with Matt and Alan

Yes we did yesterday and we also had Tony Hunter come along and he was a great help too with his vast knowledge of running such a similar car, he is a really nice guy and I owe him some beers at some point! I am going upto Anglesey on the 11th March and supporting myself but I am confident that we now have a safe setup on the car and the changes we made to the geo from Snetterton have worked well and also (touch wood) the car seems very reliable so hopefully we should get on okay and I can do all the basics

 

[NorthloopCup]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Was nice to meet yourself and Tony yesterday! The car is a real credit to you and testament to the workmanship of TDF. I have some pictures of that impreza as well!

 

[Nafoff]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

sounds like its all come together nice, great to hear
nice of tony to help also.... top bloke

 

[daveski]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Saw this today at TDF (& what I assume is Space Cadet's phase 1 with the orange bits?) Looked awesome

 

[Jay Payne]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Drove it in and out of the workshop at TDf today.............. Man you must be 8ft tall

 

[Tony Hunter]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

nice of tony to help also.... top bloke

I am

 

[frenchthing]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Drove it in and out of the workshop at TDf today.............. Man you must be 8ft tall

hahahaha yup.. When i welded in the seatrails i did ask matt several times "are you sure" compared to my 106 thats there i feel short...

 

[Jay Payne]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

sat right on the edge of the seat and only just got the clutch down, Lol.


Your motor looks fun mate

 

[frenchthing]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

sat right on the edge of the seat and only just got the clutch down, Lol.


Your motor looks fun mate

First time i bolted the seat in and sat in it i honestly thought "f**k me, peter crouch owns a clio"... Haha..

The pug should be a giggle once done, matts doing some trick stuff on the loom, some of which i think james now has on the clio

 

[Jay Payne]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Some clever s**t on James' car, that 95% of people on the forum wont appreciate/understand

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Was nice to meet yourself and Tony yesterday! The car is a real credit to you and testament to the workmanship of TDF. I have some pictures of that impreza as well!

Great to meet you too Mark and thanks for coming along! Next time you should come out in the car if you fancy Thanks for the kind words much appreciated!

sounds like its all come together nice, great to hear
nice of tony to help also.... top bloke

Thanks yes its all going better than I could of expected with the car

He really is, I can't thank him enough!

Saw this today at TDF (& what I assume is Space Cadet's phase 1 with the orange bits?) Looked awesome

Thanks mate

Drove it in and out of the workshop at TDf today.............. Man you must be 8ft tall

sat right on the edge of the seat and only just got the clutch down, Lol.

Haha sorry Jay, I am fairly hefty and 6 foot 3 so its not even a stretch for me

 

[BIGASH]

Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He

Donington 17[SUP]th[/SUP] Feb:

On Friday we went down to Donington for the day to try and get some more miles on the car and do a bit more of a rigorous shakedown test. The first shakedown test at Snetterton was to make sure everything was working as it should and to check everything stayed where it needed to. Today was more about turning up the pace a bit more and seeing what the car could do and also to try and see how the few modifications had worked such as the PAS tank.

We ended up doing the day at Donington due to convenience and also the fact that I know the circuit quite well. We went on a Goldtrack day which I thought would be fairly quiet due to the extortionate price which I really begrudged paying and also the fact that it was mid week so thought everyone would be at work, I even asked goldtrack about this and explained that I wanted to attend a fairly quite day to get some good running in and they said on Thursday it wouldn’t be an issue and that it wasn’t a very busy day. Upon arrival it looked as though we had arrived into a mixture between the BTCC paddock and a collection of supercars! This ‘Trackday’ looked set to be more of a testday. My mistake really though as for some reason I hadn’t even thought about race teams! (blonde moment)

TDF were supporting me again to ensure the car ran smoothly and they did a great job as always! Alan arrived nice and early to ensure we got a garage and then got the car ready for the day, I went and signed on and then due to the volume of race teams attending the organizers didn’t even bother with sighting laps and just sent us out straight away. We went out first thing and although the circuit was damp and drizzling it wasn’t too bad and it was giving me an opportunity to feel where the limit of grip was without having to be doing the higher speeds that you would in the dry.

We had altered the geo on the car since Snetterton and taken a little front camber off along with taking a little off the toe-out. These changes seemed to really help and were making the car feel a lot more stable. Once we got the R888’s warmed up we kept coming back into the pits to drop the tyre pressures as they were getting too hot and the car was washing out. Once we got the tyres down to a stable 30psi hot pressure the car felt very good and it was feeling like a nice safe setup.

Tony Hunter had come along to see how we got on for the day and as I mentioned in my earlier posts his experience of running the Burpspeed clio was invaluable. Tony helped out with managing and monitoring the tyre pressures and temperatures as well as giving setup advice. He was also able to give advice on my rather ropey and rusty driving technique that I need to work on Both Tony and Mark (Northloop Cup) came along and it was great to meet them both and they are both great guys. It was nice to have a good chat about the cars and take in some of their experience.

Apart from coming in occasionally to check over the car and make sure everything was okay the car spent most of the day out on circuit and it was happy just going round and round which I think was seriously impressive and a great demonstration as to how reliable the car is that TDF have built. The enlarged PAS tank that Matt fitted has done the job beautifully we had no more issues with it even though the car spent a lot longer out on track than it did at Snetterton. The false floor has also worked really well and puts my feet in a great position for the pedals.

The actual trackday itself was a little frustrating as there were a lot of serious race cars such as Ferrari 458’s, Carrera cup’s, BTCC car and lots more so down the straights some of them were monstrous so it was nice to get chance to go down a straight without having to let them past. There were also a few times were they didn’t want to wait until the next straight and on a couple of occasions they came dangerously close to a few cars mine being one of them but luckily I kept my eyes on the mirrors and could see what they were doing.

This time out luckily I didn’t go exploring the scenery like I did at Snetterton so I am gradually improving The development of myself is now the biggest stumbling block between me and getting the car into competition. I am going to really try and work on this over the next couple of months and get upto speed. I will be getting out in the car as often as possible building up experience and trying to develop my driving skill to do some justice to the incredible car that TDF have built for me!

I did plan to take the car back home after Donington but we took it back to the workshop as there are a few little jobs that need to be done such as a worn CV joint that I thought would have been okay from the stock car but has now decided to give up. We also need to play around with a few other bit’s and pieces but I will do another update after my next visit to the workshop later this week.

After a successful day we decided it was only right to go and have a nice bite to eat and a beer which the guys definitely deserved and it was a shame Tony wasn’t there as I owe him a few drinks also! It was a nice way to end a very enjoyable day.

I have attached some photo’s from the day that one of my friends took but there are a lot more here http://s1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb349/BIGASHOPR/Donington 17th Feb 12/?albumview=slideshow

Thanks for reading,
James