Mark 4 VW 1.8T GTi Build - RallyCross - MF Class

If he was trying to push his stuff on you in the first place

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paperpaper
If he was trying to push his stuff on you in the first place

When he called and described the courses and surface I did like most of the time for Grass-o-cross guys who call:
I said you don't need my stuff and indeed it would be a disadvantage in function and in cost...

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingham
OI! speaking of parts and junk, since ya brought it up, my parts still sitting happy down in the shed? You checkin' up on 'em..Makin sure that have some food and water...Is it just the housing and 2 actuators of did I get 2 housings? let me know, Mod, eh.

(PS I think you're just jealous cause you doan haz no 7.5 x 17 wheels..HA! Gotcha ya cheek sod! Gonna be doing anything with da bikes soon?

Your parts are safe. I've got them safely tucked under the computer table in a box, and at this very moment I'm using said box as a footrest. Looks to be two actuators, a bit of cast exhaust manifold, and the other day a piece of what looks like a gearstick arrived.

I ain't jealous of poxy little 17" rims. I'm rolling 26" on my mtb and they are doing the business against the young uns that think only 27.5 or 29 wheels work! Plus it gets worse for the magpie consumers when they discover I also manage to get by without a rear shock... Suspension is sooo over-rated y'know.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

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danster

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john vanlandingham
OI! speaking of parts and junk, since ya brought it up, my parts still sitting happy down in the shed? You checkin' up on 'em..Makin sure that have some food and water...Is it just the housing and 2 actuators of did I get 2 housings? let me know, Mod, eh.

(PS I think you're just jealous cause you doan haz no 7.5 x 17 wheels..HA! Gotcha ya cheek sod! Gonna be doing anything with da bikes soon?

Your parts are safe. I've got them safely tucked under the computer table in a box, and at this very moment I'm using said box as a footrest. Looks to be two actuators, a bit of cast exhaust manifold, and the other day a piece of what looks like a gearstick arrived.

I ain't jealous of poxy little 17" rims. I'm rolling 26" on my mtb and they are doing the business against the young uns that think only 27.5 or 29 wheels work! Plus it gets worse for the magpie consumers when they discover I also manage to get by without a rear shock... Suspension is sooo over-rated y'know.

Mountain bikes! Fawk me that sounds like work...! Where's the old Suzuki?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I will say though that this is giving me the urge to find some 13" rally tires and a Duratec and throw them at the warmed over IT class RX-7 shell I have parked and go grass-o-crossing. If I didn't have other stuff to do.

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danster

I only posted the diff info link because I could see earlier in the thread the mention of a potentially turbo powered 275bhp FWD car with an open diff on grass. That's plain crazy talk.

Understood. Which is why I started thinking LSD while everything is out of the car... Appreciate the link.

Regarding safety and a cage for grassocross use, a standard Mk4 platform vehicle is a seriously strong and safe shell to be sitting in when compared to earlier Mk1,2 and 3 vehicles.
An un-caged mk4 shell is probably safer than a caged Mk1 as it has properly designed crush zones to absorb and dissipate impacts.

The Mk. 4 is definitely much safer than earlier variants. 20+ years of developmental R&D will do that to a chassis. I've dealt a lot with Mk. 1 and Mk. 2 cars. And the 4 is so much different, that only the DNA remains to see the lineage. The Mk.7 which I DD is so much closer to the 4, than the 4 is to the original Rabbit GTi's I first drove and raced.

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danster

I only posted the diff info link because I could see earlier in the thread the mention of a potentially turbo powered 275bhp FWD car with an open diff on grass. That's plain crazy talk.

I know someone with a Golf with an apparent 250bhp engine. I don't want to sound like I'm speaking for him, but my observation is that if it wasn't overheating, it was shredding transmissions or axles. Lots of axles. I haven't seen it on course for a very long time, too, which tells me something.

OTOH, my car also hasn't been on course for over a year now, it is putting out 230-300bhp depending on whose math you believe... and it took a lot of time to get it to the point where it doesn't overheat (much), but transmissions are still short lived and the reason it hasn't been regularly on course since *2014* is axle failures. And it's a solid axle RWD, not something that tries to run power through CV joints.

And it's still on par with a mostly stock 1.8 Miata as far as raw times are concerned, on short/tight courses. Which kinda sucks, but what can you do? The compromises made to be able to put power down mean it doesn't like to change direction much. Undo those compromises and it becomes undrivable without far finer mind-throttle linkage than I could ever hope to achieve...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

A friend of mine used to stage rally an MK4 Golf with a 1.8t. Made 230 hp to the wheels at modest boost. Broke axles left and right. Mostly in tighter slow speed corners.

At Maine one year his Stack dash was recording wheel spin in 5th and 6th gear with this relatively modest power.

15" rally tires and AP calipers and rotors were more than enough, and this was one of the fastest group 5 rally cars out there at the time.

I can't imagine trying to channel 250-275 hp thru slow 1st and 2nd gear corners.

And big brakes are certainly not required for dodging cones.

I hope I'm not coming across as too harsh, but as I was the guy swapping the axles more often than not, I'm just trying to save you some grief.

Good luck.

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Opel is a 4-letter word...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10498579@N07/sets/

what ever happened to production class?

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

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Ascona73
I can't imagine trying to channel 250-275 hp thru slow 1st and 2nd gear corners.

(rained and rained and rained, finally we said fuck it, make a short course, it's getting late let's make some runs so we can get packed up before dark... NOT the usual long hi-speed 2 minute long powerslide we usually do)

Now for extra fun I could have posted videos of me driving a friend's Miata, running 8 pounds of boost on a BP engine... power delivery was either "waiting for boost" and "tire spin" as far as I could ever manage to do. Mad props to the owner for pedaling that car around as hard as he does, at much higher boost. I had turned it down from ludicrous to crazy to compensate for my lack of talent. My driving was comically bad, somehow managed to mostly keep up with the steering but barely.



For extra fun, most of the time I drove it, the diff was held in by a chain around the powerplant frame through the subframe, because the aluminum diff support uterus thingy had broken at some point and I found out a day or two before I was to drive it to Michigan. Good times...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2016 08:24PM by Pete.

Bob;

Is there any chance you are still in touch with your friend that had the Group 5 car? Sounds like hes already been through most of what I am trying to accomplish; and on a much higher level.

Thanks for the input.

The TT finally arrived at the shop. Hopefully within the next week, I can start stripping and inventorying what parts to use. I know I will be using the Audi aluminum subframe, aluminum front lower control arms, Audi 225 AMU code engine, 2.5:1 steering rack, steering knuckles, and rear vented brakes. The "Maybe" list includes the transmission, and various rear suspension pieces. As its a Quattro, I am thinking right now that only the rear brakes will be able to be swapped over.

With this set-up, stock at the crank was 225 set up for Quattro driveline. With FWD, and only FMIC, intake, and exhaust done; I will still have 200+ to the wheels. I may run a full season like that, to see where my weak links will be, and once those are addressed, do the tune to 280+, with around 250 at the wheels. One thing I remember was once your weak links are taken care of in a race car, you only end up finding the next set of weak links.

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"Talk about drugs. Driving a car like that, going that fast, it’s like all the drugs at once." - Tommy Byrne

"Now, Pinky, if by any chance you are captured during this mission, remember you are Gunther Heindriksen from Appenzell. You moved to Grindelwald to drive the cog train to Murren. Can you repeat that?" - The Brain

Pic of standard Golf shaft.




Pic of up-rated driveshafts capable of handling 280bhp.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

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john vanlandingham
Mountain bikes! Fawk me that sounds like work...! Where's the old Suzuki?

For sure it takes a bit of effort to get up the hills, but it's really just about tuning the body to be able to do it through simple training. It's good fun coming down my local steep technical trails.

The Suzukis are in the shed. Trouble we have here is gaining access to land to be able to ride motorbikes offroad. It's generally all private estates owned by sirs and lords. In Scotland we have the right to roam on foot, horseback, or bicycle, but motorised vehicles are not allowed without permission.
That being the case, unless you have friends with land it is really only sanctioned events where you get the opportunity to blast around on a offroad motorbike.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass