VR6 Trackday car - advice

[pookyvr6 0]

I am now fortunate enough to have the VR as a "2nd" car and its not getting much use now. I've been toying with the idea of making some modifications to make the car more spritely going round Knockhill.

 

Given its a 2nd motor I do not want, or feel that I need to make radical imrovements to the performance. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do?

 

Comfort is not an issue so the suspension's been dropped by 30mm with Billi's on it. I'm thinking abour doing away with rear seats, carpets, speakers etc. and wondered if anyone has done this and if a significant enough amount of weight is lost to make it worthwhile? Anyting else that can go?

 

Any suggestions apprecaited.

 

Mark

'94 Black VR

[dr_mat 0]

Everyone always complains that the VR lump is too heavy, so why not rip that out and put a 1.8T in instead... :roll: ;)

[PhatVR6 0]

see my sig......the gearbox is all important, and will make more difference out on thrack than £2000 of engine mods ever will, believe me.

 

also, the TAS top mount and added castor really helps too.

 

as for dr mat's comments, if I didn't know that it was all toungue in cheek and deliberatley a wind up, I'd have to threaten to rip his head off and sh1t down his neck. lucikly, it seems we both have a sense of humour....

[olly elworthy 0]

trackday car? ya need a mk1 or 2 golf!! properly sorted they are the muts nuts!!

not exactly helpfull i know, but a vr is a bit expensive for a trackday car,,,

[Kevin Bacon 5]

as for dr mat's comments, if I didn't know that it was all toungue in cheek and deliberatley a wind up, I'd have to threaten to rip his head off and sh1t down his neck. lucikly, it seems we both have a sense of humour....

 

FBLOL! :lol:

[PhatVR6 0]

A good mate of mine used to track his corrado. Daz Ashby, you may know the car, it was the only nugget yellow vr6 in the country (started out as a g60), which is now owned by coxylaad off here.

 

anyway, all that had was a home made CAI, a cheap suspension kit, powerflex bushes, and a stripped interior with a single recaro A8 seat and a stock passenger seat. and later in it's life it got the 312mm brakes.

 

anyway, he used to regularly come in the top 3 on the clubgti trackdays at blyton, curborough, etc, and I managed to blag a ride out in in myself around curborough and was so impressed I decided to buy one myself!

 

At donnington, he was regularly outrunning 400BHP cosworths, and even out breaking the westfields! the impreza guys were getting seriously left behind.

 

so, all in all, even when pretty standard the corrado vr is a serious contender as a track car, and certianly a good base to build on. just look at Ken Lark's VW cup racer, it's well up there with the top 5 cars in the championship.

 

get yourself along to curborough next saturday and watch me out on track, and see how close I come to cars with twice the power. you'll be surprised.........

 

cost of panels is the only downside.....

[coullstar 0]

Taking the rear seats etc out will help but not too much as they are reasonably light in the first place. Spare wheel makes a difference. Weight saving plus chassis mods is the way to go. Big brakes are always a plus on the track but match them to the car. No point in having huge brakes that lock up as soon as you look at them.

[pookyvr6 0]

Nice one phat.

 

Dummies question, did the 3.94 final drive come with the six speed box or did you have to modify the box to get the drive? Does the 6-speed box (I assume from a Golf or Passat) swap straight in? Are there any "full lock" issues?

 

Finally, a further dummies question but what is the castor?

 

Recently, my bog standard VR has been keeping good company at Knockhill. Boxsters are no competition (The S will pull ahead slightly uphill on the straight), M3's (and other BMW's and Mercedes) are easily kept up with as they have to tip-toe more round all the corners. Only thorn in the side are the Elise's and Caterhams which lets face it are built for that sort of stuff. Suspect the gearbox might help that though!

 

To respond to a previous suggestion, there is no way a standard MK1 or MK2 golf is better on the track than the VR! Not even worth debating.... :twisted:

[dr_mat 0]

as for dr mat's comments, if I didn't know that it was all toungue in cheek and deliberatley a wind up, I'd have to threaten to rip his head off and sh1t down his neck. lucikly, it seems we both have a sense of humour....

 

I'd rather you ripped the head off all the people that genuinely DO believe my original statement....

 

And anyway, as it says in the .sig. SARCASM and IRONY... :)

[PhatVR6 0]

Nice one phat.

 

Dummies question, did the 3.94 final drive come with the six speed box or did you have to modify the box to get the drive? Does the 6-speed box (I assume from a Golf or Passat) swap straight in? Are there any "full lock" issues?

 

Finally, a further dummies question but what is the castor?

 

Recently, my bog standard VR has been keeping good company at Knockhill. Boxsters are no competition (The S will pull ahead slightly uphill on the straight), M3's (and other BMW's and Mercedes) are easily kept up with as they have to tip-toe more round all the corners. Only thorn in the side are the Elise's and Caterhams which lets face it are built for that sort of stuff. Suspect the gearbox might help that though!

 

To respond to a previous suggestion, there is no way a standard MK1 or MK2 golf is better on the track than the VR! Not even worth debating.... :twisted:

 

the final drive is a genuine VW item, you can buy them new from VW.

 

the 6 speed is a vw motorsport item, not an 02M like in the modern vw's. and the tyres clear it on full lock.

 

castor is the angle the front struts lean back from vertical, the more castor you have, the more camber you get as you turn the wheel. the idea being that you keep the tyre contact patch as flat as possible to the road during cornering, rather than running on the outside 2" of the tyre and wearing it out.

[pookyvr6 0]

Can you simply pop them in place of the std VR 5-speed?

[PhatVR6 0]

is is a standard 5 speed vr6 casing, with a gemini/vwmotorsprt 6 speed kit. (well, mine has a VR6 syncro bellhousing on it, but that's another story)

 

I will stress again, it's NOT an 02m 6 speed like in the TT, 4motion and anniversary golfs and Cupra's R's

[Si B 0]

I always lose the back seats and spare wheel as well as anything else that will come out easily for a track day. It does make a difference but as coullstar says the seats are marginal. Bear in mind that you are losing all the weight from the back of the car so it does make the back end a little more lively (no bad thing on the track).

 

Whatever mods you go for do not do anything that will massively compromise reliability. The car gets a good work out on track so anything that is over stressed (such as your passengers .....LOL) will break.

 

Don't blow all your budget on big mods but save some for running costs and maintenance such as frequent tyre and brake changes etc. Stick to 15 inch wheels cos £40 a corner is a lot easier to swallow than £60+ a corner when you change tyres every three track days (or maybe its just the way I drive!).

 

My old Mk2 track car was nice and simple (1.9 8v) and flew round the track all day without missing a beat. It would spend almost the entire day racing round in circles whilst porsche owners were worying about tyre bills and scooby owners were worrying about their paintwork etc....... big spending does not always equal a bigger grin when it comes to track days

 

Have a look at http://www.matey-matey.com as I have written an article about track day preperation which you might find useful.