[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Trackday at Cadwell Park yesterday, what an awesome track it is. I’ve only done passengers lap round it previously so it was good to finally get the Lupo out on it. It felt so much more at home compared to Snetterton. The balance of the car has been transformed since the Geometry and corner weighting has been done. I done a total of 62 laps without any issues at all! Fresh set of Nankang AR1’s performer great too! I’ll leave a video below of me chasing a mate in his Clio 182. 

https://youtu.be/NFlNmoyUzzU

 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

7 hours ago, cpcpeter said:

Cool, will give that a go at some point thanks! This is quite an epic thread you’ve made, I’ve made a bookmark on it 😆. Your Piper 270 cams - did you send away your originals to be re-profiled? I read they’re good for +8hp which isn’t mind bending but I guess with all your other mods it adds up?? Unless I read incorrectly... 🤔

Yeah I got hold of a spare set and sent them away, the turnaround was about a couple of weeks. I would say these engines are definitely worth tuning, mine is night and day faster than a stock one 👍🏼

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

38 minutes ago, cpcpeter said:

Clayton, what did you get for this?  I've got some shore A 60 stuff left over in the garage but don't know if that's too soft.

That’s exactly what I used mate👍🏼

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Been quiet on here lately but made the journey to Spires Tuning today to get the car setup properly. 

Eibach rear camber/toe shims, corner weight and a full geometry setup done today by @spirestuning. I hate letting anyone working on this car but watching Matt work his magic gave me full confidence that the car was in good hands. The rear beam being dialled in to the correct settings has made it feel like a different car, left turns noticeably better. Highly recommend @spirestuning, well worth the near 3 hour drive. Car weighed in at 929kg with half a tank of fuel.

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

5 minutes ago, mslater said:

Thanks for the reply, yeah I had seen you could include the adaptor, just not 100% sure I'm confident doing it myself. Your GTI is incredibly btw, absolute goals. 

It really is straight forward mate. Thanks man👌🏼

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

1 hour ago, mslater said:

I'm just about to order the kam racing exhaust. How easy was it to fit, straight swap from the original? Did you need any other new parts?

Yeah very straight forward fit. Just make sure you get the adaptor to fit on to the existing exhaust 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Gave the car a deep interior clean recently, seats out, everything wet vac’d. Came up like brand new, so satisfying seeing it in such good condition!

Also treated myself to a new pressure washer, the Kranzle K10/122TS. Something I’ve wanted for a long time!

And some recent pictures of mine and the missus car from a little shoot.

[MOT emissions with Kam Racing system]

Give chipwizards a ring, one of the few people who can map these cars. He done mine, it's an incredible difference!

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Hope everyone had a good Xmas and got some car goodies! I certainly did, my old Garage Midnight stud kit was starting to look very tired. So rather than replace, upgrade right? I went for the PSDesigns Titanium stud kit. Fitted them today and my god the quality is just something else, first time experiencing titanium and I can believe how light they are. I weighed both sets and the titanium set came in at 800 grams and the steel set came in at 1500 grams. I know it’s only a small saving but impressive on such a small piece of metal. 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Had the wheels refurbed at Aerocoat in a fresh Silver, very happy with how they look now. Stuck a set of Michelin PS3's on for winter.

Went for a Sunday hoon this morning with the missus 9N3 Polo GTI, would of been rude not to get a few pictures!

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Latest little mod, @baf_motorsport K Brace installed, very well made and super easy to fit! Not sure if rigidity will be improved, it is bolted to the top struts and the floor but at least I can put things in the ‘boot’ and not have things flying forward. 

Also, took my new favourite picture early Sunday morning! (Doing the milk run of course) 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Couple of changes made to the car, I’ve been after a set of 15” ATS DTC’s for a long time now. Since they don’t make them anymore in the correct size they are very hard to come by. A set come up for sale in one of the FB pages I’m in, they were in Belgium but I had to have them, he agreed to post them. Fast forward a few days later and they are on the car, they will be getting a refurb in a month or so but I thought I’d wear out the AD08R’s they came on first. 

I’ve also fitted a new exhaust from Kam Racing that I’ve been waiting for a while now. It sounds great, will leave some pictures and video’s below. 

https://youtu.be/SMChZLTVEuc

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

1 hour ago, mk2 said:

After 8 years of ownership, you must be getting to a point now where the car is perfect? I'd say that there isn't a lot more you could do now other than radical stuff. And the car is still pretty much stock other than carefully considered tweaks and improvements. Tell us what you're thinking? It's a gorgeous machine now and the envy of everyone on here. 👍🏻

Have you had it valued (for insurance purposes- just in case...)? I'd guess maybe 7k?

Yeah it’s getting there, it will never be perfect to me but it’s close. Still a few things I’d like to do, Alcantara door cards to get rid of the horrible material on the standard ones. 
 

Appreciate that👍🏼 It’s been valued with the my insurance for £7500.

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

I've been testing a new airbox from a company called Sprogley Motorsport the last few months. It replaced my BMC airbox which had nothing wrong with it but Sprogley got in touch and said he's sure he can make a better design than the BMC. So he sent me one out before my first Nurburgring trip this year, the car definitely had more induction noise so it was giving that placebo affect that it must be making more power lol. 

Yesterday I went to where Sprogley is based and to the local dyno to test it out. We tried to make the test as fair as possible, we let the car idle for 5 mintues before we tested each filter and we done 3 runs with each. The only thing that isn't 100% accuarate is that the BMC filter wasn't brand new but it has always been cleaned and maintained properly.

We tested 5 different filters and the results were -

SM Airbox - 169.9bhp / 159.0lb/ft
SM Pro Airbox - 169.1bhp  / 154lb/ft
BMC CDA - 165.8bhp / 154.7lb/ft
eBay Airbox - 165.2bhp / 154.2lb/ft
Ramair Open Cone - 163bhp / 146lb/ft (dropped down to 158bhp over 3 runs due to heatsoak)

I was rather happy myself that the car made a healthy 169bhp and 159lb/ft. That's 42bhp and 47lb/ft more than stock!

Successful day for Sprogley too, he said at the start of the day that he would be happy if it matched the figuers of the BMC because his product if about £70-£80 cheaper and is more appealing to the eye. 

He vlog'd the whole day so once he edits and uploads the video, ill be sure to post it in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpudonnuWqA&ab_channel=ClaytonJones

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

The latest addition, a new custom intake made by a friend of mine at Motion Fabrication. Very pleased with the work and how it turned out, looks very neat in the engine bay. It runs directly to where the inner sidelights used to be, so it should get maximum airflow.

I also went to Santa Pod this weekend to GTI Festival. Haven't been to Pod for quite a while so I thought why not see what the GTI can do now. I took the car up the 1/4 mile strip when I first got the car completely standard, my best time then was a 15.9. I then went back a few years ago when the car had the full manifold exhaust system, intake and a lightened flywheel. I done a 15.4 so a decent improvement. Now with the cams, headwork and tune I managed to do a 14.8. Over a second faster than when the car was standard is a big improvement, well happy with that. I know this car isn't built for drag racing at all, but it's an easy way to see how much difference the upgardes have made

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Got the subframe, wishbones and radiator on yesterday. The old subframe definitely needed changing out after finding a whole had been ripped in it from my 'near miss' at the Nurburgring. The radiator looked worse for wear aswell although it was still functioning properly. Something very satisfying about putting powder coated parts and new bolts on the car

[Lupo GTI Rally car project]

On 9/28/2020 at 9:28 PM, imaparana said:

It’s an epytec one, I know quite a few gti’s run them so maybe a one off problem or something, not spoken to them yet as not sure I want to put another on to have a similar issue

Had a great event on Saturday finishing 1st in class and 6th overall (out of 9 entrants). The new power definately made a big different on the longer sections and uphill areas.

areas that need addressing before the next event:

oil leak to fix

leaking oil filled engine mount to fix

gearbox oil leak to fix

maybe fit an updated clutch and it was abit smelly at times

 

Interesting that the Epytec flywheel decided to pack up, i've had mine on for about 3 years now and it's been great.

 

Have you thought about filling the standard oil filled mount with poly-resin? I done that to mine and it made a world of difference to engine stiffness!

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

No big update this time, just a few nice pictures I've recently taken. 

Although, this Saturday I will be fitting the new freshly powder coated subframe and wishbones with all new bolts and bushes. Also a Cambelt and waterpump change with the new Aluminium radiator as well

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

So last weekend me and the missus made the trip up to Anglesey for a track day on the Sunday. We travelled up on Saturday and stayed the night, it's a 5-6 hour journey from Ipswich so I didn't fancy doing it all in one day :laugh:

Once again the car perfomed faultlessly, the best it's ever felt in fact with the new KW V2 coilovers. They really have transformed the car, night and day better than the BC's. The car feels so much more composed and the spring rates seem much better. A lot less body roll also. 

I managed to do around 60 laps in total, some on the international circuit and some on the coastal circuit. 

On the way home we decided to go to the Evo Triangle, having previously been before the cameras got installed, I knew it wouldn't be as good this time but it would of been rude not to ey? It's still a great road with some great views, got a couple of pictures and a little video of what the car sounds like on the outside. I'll leave some pictures and video's below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDk0kPqjFiA&ab_channel=ClaytonJones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ye4G77ChQ&ab_channel=ClaytonJones

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

This is the most recent purchase and one that I think will make the car even better on road & track. A set of KW V2 coilovers! The BC’s have done me well but are still only a mid range coilover and they are 4 years old now. I picked these V2’s up for a price I couldn’t say no to. So today’s project was to get them on and setup, new bearings and top mounts front and rear. Only been out for a short drive to test them before getting the gel done again but the car rides noticeably better and turn in feels improved. Will report back more once they have been tested a bit more.

 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

Recent purchase of an Aluminium radiator, the car has never struggled with cooling issues as the car uses the same radiator as found in MK3 VR6 so it is more than sufficient. But being on the car since new I thought why not replace with better

Also got the subframe and wishbones back from powder coaters. Got the MK4 R32 reaer wishbones installed. It will all be going on in a few weeks time as well as a  cambelt change. I've booked a trackday at Anglesey for the 13th September, hopefully it's nice weather!

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

The most recent purchase, it’s a number plate I’ve wanted ever since I first got the car but the modification always came first. So here it is, let me know what you think Took the car out for blast down to Aldeburgh today. Also booked a trackday at Anglesey for the 13th September, looking forward to that one!

 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

I arrived home last night from what can only be described as the best Nurburgring trip ever. It was my 5th time over there and it gets better and bettter, the weather was absolutely perfect the whole weekend. I covered 1060 fault free miles including 10 laps! One of those beating my previous PB of 8.49 with an 8.39

I'm sure some of you would have the seen my 'near miss' all over the Nurbrugring instagram and facebook pages lol. I'll leave the video link below if you haven't seen it. The issue was tyre pressures, I wasn't aware of how much you need to keep an eye on the pressures with Nankang AR1's. They raised waty more than I thought they would, I ended up being down to 22psi cold to be at the optimum pressure of 31psi. I was also slightly off line as I had an FK8 Type R behind me which put me under slight pressure. The front of the car just washed out and wouldn't grip. Safe to say I done well to hold it and come out of it with no damage, it knocked my front right camber out about a bit but with a bit of DIY later that evening I got it back to 'eye' perfect and the car felt great the next day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6MD6bfQfpc








cgps nyc

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

So after the trackday I dropped the car off to the body shop the next day. The front end has been looking so tatty recently so it was over due. The painted said he’s never seen a car with so many stone chips lol. Got the car back yesterday, unfortunately not going to be driving it until I have PPF installed in a few weeks time when the paint has hardened. 

I also decided to remove the inner side lights and replace them with matching honeycomb grill. I love the way it looks now and it’s much better for cold air to my intake! 

 

[Clayton's Tornado Red GTI..]

On 6/9/2020 at 8:12 PM, cpcpeter said:

@CLAYTONJONES Awesome stuff.  I was all set on getting the CAE but may change my mind then if you think the feel is better.  Do you have to hack apart the shift weight on top of the 'box?

Did you manage to fit the cams without needing both VW locking tools?  I cannot for the life of me find one of them!

Could you drive the cams on the standard ECU or did the engine complain?

I really love the Coolerworx, I’ve felt a CAE and they do feel really nice too but I wouldn’t say they are worth more money. A mate of mine fitted the cams whilst I “helped” and I’m sure he used both locking tools. 
 

You could drive it on standard ECU just fine👍🏼

On 6/13/2020 at 7:14 PM, JJT said:

Beautiful car that bud, just spent ages going through the thread! 

Noticed you had the BC Racing coilovers... Would you recommend these? Seems like a good price for the dampening adjustment compared to the £1200 KW V2s,

Cheers, 

J

Thanks mate!

I would 100% recommend the BC’s, I’ve had mine 3 years now and they are still great.