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Novice Saxo VTS Track car - Donny style



  1.2 clio dynamique
I noticed the bit about heat wrapping and the idea behind it is; obviously keeps under bonnet temps down but also hotter gasses move quicker than cold gasses, so keeping the heat in the manifold should mean the gasses can escape quicker. I very much doubt you'd notice this in actual driving though.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
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Believe that's you at Blyton? Was there with my mate in his Megane and got that shot which Facebook proceeded to screw.

Lolz yeah that's me. My old man had a few goes as well. What megane were you in? Post a picture up.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Still going strong I see.

Let me know if your doing any more trackdays and I will try to come along and give abuse and what not!!

Now then me old fruit.

Getting better chief! Well at least I think so.
Might have an interesting update this weekend too.

Blyton again I think, either driving or spectating dude. Check the track section, old Kenneth is sorting.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Im gonna book some time off to get a few bits done on the paxo. But in the meantime, I've purchased a few parts cheap from eBay.

First up is a set of spax adjustable rear dampers. £29. They are spax psx jobs and look pretty new!

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The spare door (to replace the gashed drivers one) arrived too, so I stripped it down last night and the neighbour prep'd it for me:

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Clayed, polished and the top half waxed.

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Mint!

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Just need to extract the key barrel and handle - will hopefully have the door swapped at the weekend in any case.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Glad to see it will finally have a new door!!

I was going to get a silver one from eBay for it but couldn't be arsed swapping the locks etc

Its a little easier when there's no doorcards and poly windows. A bit more space for my spade hands. But having said that, the door lock and handle are right in the corner of the door and you need an access lamp or decent torch to help you out. I'm not looking forward to that bit, tbh.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Update

After Cadwell and the wash out, I thought that would be the last trackday for 2012. A rare opportunity has arisen to do an invite only day at Blyton and rather than turn it away - I dusted off the wallet.

I went round to see the car after it had been sat for a bit. I started first time though. The remains of stripping the door down before swapping it are clearly visible.


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I purchased a door for £20 and me and the old man installed the poly and mounted it.

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No more dent. Got the neighbour to run over it with the polishing thing and the trim is now back on as well.

Rear quarters and rear window polys also installed.

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I had won some adjustable rear dampers on ebay for £29. Appears they were cheap for a reason - one of them would not compress. I was 2 days over the claim period on EBay :( so they came off.

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Aerial blank installed - just a gimmick thing really, but allowed the wiring etc to come out.

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A few weeks ago, I went a bit mad. The following parts were collated after a short search:
- AT Power Throttle bodies
- 708 cat-cams
- Standard ECU unlocked and mapped for the above bodies and cams + 421 and decat
- Cambelt and Aux belt + water pump
- GMC 160lb springs (not fitted - potentially wont be)
- Bilstein Group N Tarmac shorterned dampers (haven't arrived yet)

The long term plan is to use faulkner springs and I got the GMC's just because they were cheap and available - but having done some research, they only lower it about 5mm, so might go for the more popular faulkners and up the lb rating to 200 or so.

Anyhow, on with the interesting bits:

Top taken off, ready for removing the standard inlet arrangement.

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AT power kit ready to go on, but cams and belts first:

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standard cams in place - ready for removal:

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Belts and pulleys off, new cams in. Tightening the ladders

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Unaware that the inlet cam wouldn't rotate fully at this point :(
Belts back on, timed and ready :)

Only to manually crank the engine and it locked :(

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Turns out the inlet cam was scoring the casting. Out came the dremel.

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..and the resident mechanic!

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With the cams in place and rotating freely, the belts back on and everyting sealed, it was throttle body time

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The AT power unit uses the standard throttle cable (although you have to trim it + mine was missing a brass nipple which allows you to trim and then re-fit the cable at the desired length), injectors and fuel rail, FPR, air mass and the OEM throttle position sensor - although wires need extending for that. After a day to sort some connectors and the throttle nipple, the only remaining issue was the vaccum line to aid braking - the normal one wouldn't fit, so need to source one ASAP.
Although a bit fiddly (for the old man - I was watching for most of it!) the bodies went on and the air filter to boot.

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Found a bit of rot starting under the ECU tray - seems common on these. Slapped a boat load of grease on there, to try halt it for this year.
ECU isntalled (after unlocking my old one by pulling out the immobiliser when it was running LOL - these cars are really simple) and the moment of truth was in the key turn.

She fired up first time - Idling was a bit rough to start, but the oil got round and the cold start map switched (at least I think it was mapped for a cold start by chipwizards...) and off she went.

Now, I confess to driving it without servo assistance on the brakes - not wise. But as it was 10.30 at night, I got away with it for a quick blat.

The noise is just immense, will hopefully get a vid of it later this week.

Disappointed to hear the clutch is making a noise... will have to tackle that next year, bites fine, but makes a funny rubbing/scraping noise when it first starts up - thought it might have been the belts - but alas, no.

A few bits still to resolve:

-Fit passenger side poly - currently I've stripped the door and removed the glass
-Reconnect carbon canister solenoid
-Drop oil and change filter
-Find and fit a pipe for the servo
-Re-fit the upper strut brace

-Clean it.
 
Love where this is going and the fact it's on a budget.


I'd send the spax off to get rebuilt, it's not that much iirc.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
And we were doing so well!!!!! Arrrrgggh.

Went for a spin after resolving most of the niggles and could smell burning rubber or plastic. And the suspected clutch noise was getting worse! It didn't seem to matter whether the clutch was in or out either!

Popped the bonnet with the engine running and saw the crank shaft pulley on the pi$$! It was all over the place and had pushed the alternator belt into the plastic crank casing. It was happily sawing it in half as we stood there in silence.

At least it wasn't the clutch! Whoop.

Bad news is I need a new crank pulley damper wheel thing.

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I think it has a rubber centre which has perished. So the inner wheel is just spinning and the outer one is doing what it wants.
At least it didn't happen on track.
It's been noisy when Starting since I got the car from Matt.

Another job to do!
 
  MX5 Elise111s
And we were doing so well!!!!! Arrrrgggh.

Went for a spin after resolving most of the niggles and could smell burning rubber or plastic. And the suspected clutch noise was getting worse! It didn't seem to matter whether the clutch was in or out either!

Popped the bonnet with the engine running and saw the crank shaft pulley on the pi$$! It was all over the place and had pushed the alternator belt into the plastic crank casing. It was happily sawing it in half as we stood there in silence.

At least it wasn't the clutch! Whoop.

Bad news is I need a new crank pulley damper wheel thing.

aba5areg.jpg


I think it has a rubber centre which has perished. So the inner wheel is just spinning and the outer one is doing what it wants.
At least it didn't happen on track.
It's been noisy when Starting since I got the car from Matt.

Another job to do!
Race against time! Why do we all book the track day then take the car to bits?

This should be ballistic. Put me down for a ride on Sunday.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Race against time! Why do we all book the track day then take the car to bits?

This should be ballistic. Put me down for a ride on Sunday.

I know!!! what a fool, I do it every time.

You are more than welcome to take it out on Sunday Ken - Its a single seater, so you'll have to be brave and go out on your own!
 
Good work, nice upgrades too - the damping pullies seem to be a common thing these days. Replaced them on 320d, Mondeo, Transit and Pug not so long ago, good idea for the engine but asking to be a weak link as they get older IMO.
 

Donny_Dog

ClioSport Club Member
  Jim's rejects
Last updated in October of last year :( where has the time gone.

UPDATE!

Well, I spent some time in October getting the car ready for a charity track day. After driving there and getting excited, it was called off :( It was too foggy. So that was that for 2012. I parked the car up and put a rain cover on it, outside the parents house - planning to revive it in the spring.

We moved house the week before xmas and so the Saxo came too - I finally got a garage, whoop.

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The car sat there for most of January - whilst we moved in and got settled. I then started buying the odd bit off EBay in anticipation of this years track calendar.
Just as it was getting comfy in the garage, the 'fogged off' track day was re-scheduled for February and I thought I should pull my finger out.

My Xmas present consisted of some custom Faulkner springs for the front. Went for 230mm free length and 250lb rating. I matched them with some Group N Bilstein shortened dampers that I'd purchased last year. Once installed, it does look a bit high at the front, so maybe 210 or 220mm might have been better, but I was worried about unseating of the spring when unloaded... hey ho. They are as stiff as Jimmy Saville in a hospital though - very well made indeed.

Len_beach was very kind and bought me a little cage thing for my Odessey battery that I bought last year. I was a bit worried that the little thing wouldn't be worth pi$$ing on, but after a slow charge it registered enough voltage to rise a smile and I started on the relocation.

Removed old battery + tray (the thing was massive and very heavy) - then replaced the old connectors with one from a BMW: Ebay FTW.

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The dash was getting in the way, so cut half of that out. Will do the rest when a cage is purchased.

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Could also get better access to the loom + alarm etc, so removed them as well. Drilled a hole for the new battery cable and put the new battery just where the rear of the passenger front seat would be. After a worrying few days of the car not starting (ffs), I traced the issue to a crap gearbox to chassis earth and then she was alive.

Borrowed Len's heat gun to get rid of the footwell tar (1.5kg in total).

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I also took off the old wing mirrors for some 'M3' style plastic EBay efforts from Taiwan!

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Scientifically weighed them against the old mirrors from Citroen and saved 3Kg in total. Not bad, even if they are sh!t.

Also, whilst I had Len's heat gun, I took to the vinyl on the doors - they had all wrinkled, so took them off.

Before:

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After:

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Then I managed to strike a deal with a chap on the saxo forum for the following:

- Powerflex lower gearbox mount
- Group N top gearbox mount
- Group N top engine mount
- Wishbones with solid nylon rear bushes and powerflex front bushes

Here are the first 3:

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And the wishbones:

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Ball joints were shagged, so bought some new ones and had a local garage press them in + press out the old lower gearbox mount.

New lower gearbox mount in:

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Dropped the gearbox oil out whilst I was in that region. Didn't look like it had been changed since new. 12 years ago.

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Fitted the wishbones around helping Len get his car fixed. Bloody wreck.

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And then it was time for Blyton (again...) for the charity day.
I don't have any pictures of it, was too busy chatting crap and laughing.

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We pretty much had the entire track to ourselves for 70% of the day. Only about 12 cars in total.

I did have a chinese/taiwan/other-oriental-based-nation camera mounted on the side of my seat - although from 70+ laps it recorded 3!!!! A complete load of poo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o5W7QcsvwE

Thats the fastest one of the 3 - which is not that fast. The iPhone did get me doing a 1:18 (which is still not fast) but the video is a 1:20 I think.
What a difference track temperature makes though. In the summer of 2012 (without cams or throttle bodies + carrying more weight etc) the car would do 1:17's!

Blyton has added some kerbs over the winter and they are concrete (and not very nice). One kit car hit the kerb and cracked its sump, spilling oil over the track. Its the only negative I could find for the day, however.

Paxo performed great - but future mods to come for the summer. I have got a fibreglass bonnet that needs a bit of work + the sunroof to remove. There is then the issue of rear dampers to address + a bit of welding :( well, potentially. I've just slapped a load of grease on the suspect sections for now.
I've also bought a top radiator hose from a 106 GTI. This is in preparation for installing an Oil cooler. The VTS uses a heat exchanger (sandwich plate) before the oil filter and it feeds into the water/coolant system via a T-Pieced hose (you can see it clearly on the pic 2nd from the top in front of my gloves) that sits between the radiator and thermostat. The GTI didn't run this setup, so the hose is useful as an oil cooler replaces the stock sandwich plate.

Rolling road at RS tuning next month, so we'll see what she puts out! With the wrong map for the wrong bodies and on stock cam timing, I reckon it'll be less than 100bhp....

Was good to see Mr JohnPacey1 turn up for an hour. Hopefully he will help convince Leeds_182 to buy a track car and join the club.
 


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