Prawny Baby

car sounds fantastic adam, head issues all sorted now I assume? Very jealous of all the track time you're getting feck off. I'd offer you a race, but I imagine the westy will have more power:weight than me still!

OK, sure, in which you're a muppet for accelerating to 7k and then just sitting there for about 3 seconds.....

very happy for you jardo, but you don't half talk some bollocks at times, it brightens up my day Reeeeeeaallllly? I wouldn't say that video shows limitless traction

It's really feeling good robin, in gear acceleration is pretty awesome, but what's most crazy is when you take it to 7.5k, then change gear and go again, you're falling right back onto 345lbft at 5k and its just out of this world. Changing into 4th from 3rd at 115mph and staying flat out, it really does feel like its pulling harder than the ko3s used to in second from 40mph!

well, VW motorsport reckon it's not needed, it's just an additional idea of mine to make it a bit slicker Had the chance to take it out in the dry this morning, and I'm surprised to say that even second gear hooks up really well

in theory, depending on the required throw, it could be made to work on most things with a cable shift yes. It's expensive though, so you'd need a good reason to try it! Self centering complete

I bought a VW Motorsport Billet alloy shifter It won't make the car any faster, or lighter, but it will make me smile every single time I use it, because it's just so damn cool. It's something I have wanted for YEARS since I first saw one on a race car many years ago. The unit seems really nicely made, both the pivots are on bearings, and it has an awesome little lift collar to engage reverse. The only complaint I could find about these, was the lack of self centring on the lever from left to right, so I decided to try and come up with a solution. That's where a tractor brake pedal return spring comes in. it'll be fitted over the main shaft like this: But in between the unit body, and the main left-right pivot body, with 2 small dowel holes drilled for the tangs: With careful placement, that should see the lever springing back to centre nicely. The reverse lock out is also really cool. In normal operation, you push left for first, the these adjustable stops hit this pin like so: Then you pull this little lift collar: Which pulls this bike gear cable: And the pin slides back, allowing you to move further left for reverse! The welding on the alloy tower supplied seems strong enough, but it's not very pretty, so I'm going to attack it with a flap disc and some wet n dry, and paint the tower Porsche 8C6 orange to match the cage and things. Cable wise, I've got a set of shift cables from a volvo S40 which are longer to allow me to position the lever where I want it, and I'll be making up custom cable stays from 3mm plate, and of course, painting them orange too. The ball joints I showed earlier, will go on each end of the new cables, so it'll be solidly mounted at each end of the cables for a really tight shift without any rubber in there. Taking the volvo cables, and cutting the ends off, you can run an M6 die down the rod end and cut on an M6 thread like so: Then with the aid of an M6-M8 adapter, I can convert the cable ends to an M8 thread: Then screw on my ball joints: Sorted! If I need to extend the cables ends at all due to stay placement or anything like that, I also have some M8 threaded sleeves, so I can fit a sleeve to the M8 male end on the cable end, then use some M8 stainless thread bar to get the ball joint exactly where I want it and lock it out with lock nuts. It's a complete experiment, and I'm sure it'll feel rubbish at first, and take considerable setting up to get it right, but I just love these shifters so much, so here goes!

As always, I think weight is the enemy here, a stock E46 M3 weighs just short of 1600kg's I believe, which is just FAAAARRR too much for a flagship sporty model. Epic GT cars yes, but the fact that a 225bhp Renault hatch back is faster round just about any track, wet or dry, would suggest they've got something wrong if outright pace were the only goal. E36 for me all day long, I love them to bits!

Cheers folks. Mike: I don't get mates rates as such, it's erm, different to that Bodywork will be lovely when it's done, I've missed having the car looking smart. Ticcy: bring a booster seat at new years boyo, we'll go for a play

So, a pretty wicked few days for me I must admit. After the drama of epic vibrations on Saturday afternoon, and spending most of sunday changing bits and test driving to no avail, I eventually pulled out the one bit it couldn't be, and found the NEW pass side shaft had a failled inner CV. Luckily, Bobby found me a pair on ebay in London, and a 3 hour round trip saw me with a pair of new shafts. result. I fitted the new pass side shaft on Monday morning, then decided to go on an extended test drive to see Gareth at Ace Engineering so I could use his corner scales to weigh the car and see how close my home setup had been on the corner weights. I left home, and put enough fuel in to take it to just over half a tank, in the hope that I'd arrive at Gareths with exactly half a tank for the weigh in. Lucikly, with a bit of frugal driving for the last 20 miles, I was pretty much bang on half a tank when I arrived. it's a 54L tank, so half a tank being 27L. Specific gravity of petrol is 0.737, so 27L of fuel weighs 19.9L, or I'll assume 20 in this case I arrived at Gareths, and parked up amongst the fleet of Northloop cars: We got the car into position and setup the corner weight ramps ready to drive the car on: And up onto the scales: And the results: it's a bit heavier than I expected, but the diagonal cross didn't seem too bad considering it'd just been levelled with a tape measure: And with me in the diagonal weight slightly the other way: Still, not too terrible for something that's never been setup before. I've got a few more things to move around then change, and about another 2 stone to lose myself, then I'll invest in a proper setup and corner weighting session. Big thanks to Gareth for being able to fit me in at such short notice, we only arranged it that morning as I had a day off I hadn't really planned. Good to see you again sir With that done, I helped Gareth deliver a customers car, then headed home to complete my 100 miles extended test drive, and was all set for R-tech on Tuesday! Since the day I picked the car up back in February, Niki and I have been talking about sticking rods in it, and bringing it back to see what it can really do. Finally that day came, and the car was booked into R-tech for a map tweak on Nov 20th. R-tech being 130 miles away, I was up early, and had my standard 'day out' breakfast of a hybrid Pasta n Sauce, 1x Cheese and Broccoli hybridised with 1x Cheese leak and ham pasta n sauce. Properly awesome combo. And we're off! All was going well as I headed up the A34, with the car feeling good. Until I got to oxford and everything just seemed to stop. I was due at R-tech at 0930, so wasn't too impressed with this: Quick stop in a petrol station for another coffee I arrived at R-tech at 09:35, and went to drive up onto the ramp, only to find my splitter caught the ramp and it wouldn't go on, so the bumper had to come off: And onto the ramp it went: Trying to load the car onto the dyno, it was sitting FAR too low in the rollers, so really annoyingly, after checking all the corner weights just the day before, I had to raise the coilovers at the front to be able to get it strapped down properly I took measurements, and will reset the coilovers to the same height as near as I possibly can. It was much colder at R-tech this week compared to Badger 5 last weekend, just 12 degrees inside the unit. Niki also has the benefit of a back door, with a few strategically placed fans to draw fresh cold air in from outside, rather than sucking in the warmer air from inside the workshop. so, with almost ideal atmospheric conditions for the dyno (cold and wet), a base line run was done, with some really quite surprising results! 318bhp and 310lbft, exactly as it arrived. Very promising indeed. On the old engine with this very same map, it previously made 291bhp at R-tech in feb, so the new engine is 27bhp up on the old one in similar conditions. This was at the original 18psi of boost. The guys always use a bit of WD40 type spray to help the car get traction on the rollers, but after the first run, we noticed the rollers had gone black. Jim and Niki both said they hadn't seen that before, there was like a layer of rubber coated on the rollers from my RS-Rs! Sticky!! After a few issues (Niki had to pop out to attend his daughters school where she was ill - all OK now thankfully), Niki and Jim got to work with doing some load testing and making alterations to the map: Nikis concentration face: Strapped down with the fans in place: The new ECU live emulator Niki has is absolutely fantastic, they load a copy of my map onto the emulator ECU, and run it on this, which can then be live mapped whilst the car is running on the dyno. So different to the old fashioned bench flash / change and re-flash method that used to be necessary with the ME3.8 ECU. Adam Hobden popped in to say hello and was proudly showing off his new T3/4 monster turbo, having realised his ko4 hybrid was never going to beat mine Niki carried on mapping, without the help of the water meth at first. it went up to 325bhp/318lbft first, then a few more tweaks saw 331bhp / 327lbft, with the car swallowing up LOADS of ignition advance and not pulling any corrections at all. Boost was kept at a peak of 21psi, which we both agreed we didn't want to go above. Just before lunch, a few more tweaks saw us at 344bhp and 343lbft, still on the smallest meth nozzle, rated by AEM to 200bhp. Still seeing very little heat produced, and no corrections to the timing at all. After lunch, Jim fitted the medium sized meth nozzle, which we had always planned to end up on, and Niki ran the car again, similar results again, 344bhp with 21 degrees ignition advance, 2-3 degrees pull in the midrange after some very heavy brake testing (out of a possible 12), but still no pull at all at the top end. Niki decided to try dialing some more timing in above 4500rpm, and the grin on his face after the first run said it all! A bit more testing, and a few more runs, and Niki found that the car would happily take 27 degrees of timing at the top end without any CF's at all, and was making amazing power. We settled on 25.5 degrees of timing from 4500rpm to the limiter at 7500rpm, which resulted in final figures of 353bhp and 345lbft, still at 21psi peak boost. It's still not pulling any timing at the top end, AFR is 11.9:1, and despite repeated load testing and brake testing on the dyno, right after the 353bhp run, the inlet manifold was ice cold to touch, and even the cam cover was cool enough that you could hold your hand on it, so that's where it stayed, at the full fat 353bhp. A few other hyrbids have come close to this, one making 352bhp, and one making 348bhp, but these have both needed lots of boost to make this figure, and have been generating crazy heat, with the results not being sustainable, so Niki has pulled them all back to around 330bhp for the road. Unlike these, mine is making 353bhp with less heat than you'd usually see at 330bhp, the way it flows is just amazing. The car feels absolutely incredible to drive, with over 330bhp held from 5000-7000rpm, and torque holding above 300lbft from 3500-6400rpm. a very broad spread indeed 3rd gear when it hooks up, from 5-7.5k rpm, is absolutely ballistic, proper hold on tight roller coaster stuff if I'm honest. Actuator pressure remains very smooth and sensible, with 287bhp and 276lbft at 15psi. All in all, I could not be happier with the result at all, I owe Niki, Jim, and ben a HUGE thank you for spending so long on the car, the guys cleared the diary for the whole day for me, and had no other customers all day long, just Niki and Jim, all day on my car getting it right, with Ben manning the phone and sorting out anyone who came to speak to Niki. The drive home was entertaining in the rain, and pretty scary when I did try full boost in the wet. I'm really looking forward to getting it out on the open road on a dry day. One last cheeky flame pic:

it's an Alot TB. can't you see that

Cheers lads To be honest Alex, it feels utterly mental in yesterdays weather! Although on low boost at 290bhp it was fine in the wet still as the torque isn't there. I can't wait to try it in the dry though. D'oh! You guessed it! First Pull it lights the wheels up at 80. Second pull is clean from 65-90mph believe it or not, then traction breaks at 90mph and the speedo shoots to 110 it really does feel pretty bonkers. We love this Alot!

Oh hai guyzzzzz That'll do pig, that'll do....

Alex, I love the M3 as you know, it looks seriously quick, but surely something is wrong with that gearstick moving that much when you corner?

nah, the WD40 really does help stick tyres to rollers, most tuners use it as a tracion aid, even on a dry sunny day when they're having issues. Much like bar grips on a bike, WD40 helps slide them on, then sticks solid somehow. When WD40 won't hold a big car down, they move onto spray on carpet glue.

very much looking forward to seeing this come together Robin Should be an awesome little wagon.

looks good mate, well done

they do exactly if you look Different scales on the power / torque left and right. Horse power at 5252 is about 255-260bhp from the left hand scale, torque at 5252 is about 255-260 on the right hand scale I see what you mean though, just an odd method of displaying it.

OEM+ to the extreme

So, some graphs! Everyone likes graphs, right? Old engine, 211k miles at the time, dyno'd at Badger 5 1 week after Niki mapped it: New engine, forged rods and new rings / shells, but otherwise still stock. low mileage block on this one. Gains on boost are 14bhp and 21lbft on exactly the same boost, changes made were a full 3'' turbo back exhaust (old system was 2.5''), and the WMI system with very small nozzle installed to keep things cool. the actuator is slightly stronger on the new setup, but due to how the ECU calculates load and duty cycle the boost curve is identical still. Feels brilliant to drive with the nice smooth delivery too

hey guys, sorry I've missed these updates. No real news to report I'm very sad to say, From what I understand, Carol has spent countless money on Balifs fees and all sorts trying to recover costs from Simon, and every time he's managed to squirm out of it somehow, claiming he owns nothing, putting stuff in other peoples units, all sorts. So money down the drain and nothing to show for it for all the trouble, court trips, solicitors, just endless sadness. The tupmans have done loads of work on the shell, but at present, it sits in their secure storage, awaiting a decision on the engine. Sad times for all involved Still not a day goes past when i don't think of Oli

Car went on dyno today at Badger 5. Manifold glows nicely on boost: Made 307 bhp on the same boost it previously made 291 on, very happy indeed

the TA TEchnics coilovers and Jamex coilovers are the same product. If you're not a racing driver, and you're young enough not to care about it being a bit bumpy, then go for it.

^^^agreed, lovely polo. lose the tow strap, it already has a towing eye.