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Lupo GTI Rally car project


imaparana
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Hi All,

ive been meaning to document this build however its kept slipping my mind so here we go.

We've had the car for around 4 years now, the first 2 it was my daily and the past 2 years it was the girlfriends daily. Weve both wanted to do rallying and thought why not convert the lupo.

So ill let these photos do the talking.

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There are only a few little bits to sort out before it can get its MSA logbook.

I will add some detail in future posts when I make progress.

Cheers

Edited by imaparana
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24 minutes ago, mk2 said:

Nice. You've even left the speakers in :)

what's that thing on top of the instrument cluster?

 

Door cards yes, Speakers nope :)

Its a dehumidifier haha It was in for when the cage was bare metal before it got painted to stop and surface corrosion.

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Yeah was thinking the same. I guess its the regs? What do they say regarding fuel tanks now? I know there was a requirement a couple of years ago for a small double lined thing that could be kept inside the passenger / driver compartment. Has that changed?

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58 minutes ago, LR5V said:

Kevlar tank guard is great - did you make that yourself?

Thanks!

Yea i did, Calvin woods on here with his silver rally car gave me the idea.

also did and overlay (many layers) on the original underpan to try and help out.

23 minutes ago, mk2 said:

Yeah was thinking the same. I guess its the regs? What do they say regarding fuel tanks now? I know there was a requirement a couple of years ago for a small double lined thing that could be kept inside the passenger / driver compartment. Has that changed?

do you mean a fuel cell? not sure on the exact regs but i know that the stock tank is good to go

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1 minute ago, LR5V said:

So many questions - What else have you got planned? 

The roads in Jersey would be a great to drive, no issue with narrow winding roads and an the ageing population?

Are you Bergerac?

 

The plan at the moment is to just get it rally legal and keep it reliable (famous last words), hopefully drop a quaiffe into it as some point.

its a great little car for the island, and yes the oldies can be an issues, especially when they are dropping speed limits like nobodys business.

Yes i am indeed Bergerac haha

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I'm looking forward to exploring the improvements the Quaife in mine offers, its just an MOT away, hopefully soon.

I have only had the briefest of drives in the wet, on road legal track tyres,  the traction was really good.

Oh - I heard they were going to do a new Bergerac TV series

 

Edited by LR5V
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9 hours ago, LR5V said:

I'm looking forward to exploring the improvements the Quaife in mine offers, its just an MOT away, hopefully soon.

I have only had the briefest of drives in the wet, on road legal track tyres,  the traction was really good.

Oh - I heard they were going to do a new Bergerac TV series

 

Will be interesting to see! Was is straightforward enough to fit? I best check out your thread!

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I think the windscreen pillar bit will be ok, but probably needs a plate attaching to the pillar near the top. I also think it'll need another web across the middle of the 'X'. Above and below.

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2 hours ago, imaparana said:

Cheers for the comments, id looked into this and was going to install the above mentioned bars, but the MSA changes there rules for cars pre 2005.

https://www.motorsportuk.org/Older-stage-rally-cars-exempted-from-roll-cage-rule-changes

Now you come to mention it, I do remember seeing this amendment.. My bad! Although good to be sure :)

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26 minutes ago, cj1 said:

Now you come to mention it, I do remember seeing this amendment.. My bad! Although good to be sure :)

Scared the s**t out of me, my biggest fear is that the cage doesn’t pass scruitineering 

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9 hours ago, imaparana said:

Will be interesting to see! Was is straightforward enough to fit? I best check out your thread!

Now gearbox's are the line I really don't want to cross, had enough trouble with the clutch - I sent it to a very good man in South Wales who can pretty much rebuild any box, dog, sequential etc. and also sourced the Quaife at a really good price too. I asked for ARP bolts, but he gave some mad VAG ones instead.

The issue on the gearbox is 6th gear is a bit high, a lower gearset would make it more usable - Rich believes he knows what type of box you can source different ratios out of.

Where did you source your cage?

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  • 7 months later...
On 3/27/2019 at 5:08 PM, LR5V said:

Now gearbox's are the line I really don't want to cross, had enough trouble with the clutch - I sent it to a very good man in South Wales who can pretty much rebuild any box, dog, sequential etc. and also sourced the Quaife at a really good price too. I asked for ARP bolts, but he gave some mad VAG ones instead.

The issue on the gearbox is 6th gear is a bit high, a lower gearset would make it more usable - Rich believes he knows what type of box you can source different ratios out of.

Where did you source your cage?

The cage was from custom cages

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Right long over due an update, have done a few events since the build,

Got the car ready to rally without any crazy mods, just the basics to get us racing.

The first even was an autosolo in the local quarry, a very relaxed event which can be entered in a road car. it was a good event to give the car a shakedown after having it in bits. Car performed flawlessly

Next was the Dirt rally back again at the same quarry, The misses drove this one and had a blast, apart from one butt clenching moment. Again, the car as great. After the event the car got treated the a G60 front brake upgrade along with CL RC5 pads, which work great!

Shortly after was the first (short) tarmac rally, L'etacq attack. Where again the car performed great apart from the stock handbrake (putting this down to new stock rear pads which hadnt bedded in thus the contact patch was alot less than before.

Then, was the task of fitting the quaife ATB LSD, new clutch and hydraulic handbrake. 

The first test of the new diff was the Bouley bay hillclimb, It made such a bike difference to the car in the corners and gave us a best time of only 2 seconds of the class record, so not bad for a stock motor'd car.

This lead to the big one, The 2 day Jersey Rally. The car was great where after 2 stages we'd gone from our seeded 78th to 53rd beating alot of higher powered cars (the lupo was probaly the lowest of the lot). However on stage 3 i let the side down and had abit of a incidident with a tree. We managed to get the car back on the road after needing a new wing, lower arm, ball joist, inner and out tie rod, drive shaft and passenger window, (thank god for a spares car) we were back out and finished the second day.

Now the rally blues have kicked in and planning the next one. 

to do before the next rally:

-Get the passenger side fixed and repainted. 

-Fit new perspex windows

-full front steering refresh along with new ball joints (then the old can be spares)

-Fit new side mounts which managed to bend in the impact.

-Swap out passenger drive shaft flange (thanks rich for the spares)

Here are a few piccies

 

 

 

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Edited by imaparana
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UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a64_zpsfal4dbdo.j

As you can see from on of the pictures above i ruin a lovely Aluminium wing :(

So i thought now i dont have a spare wing, why not try and make one.

So i went a made a mould of the 1 good wing remaining and then made a fibreglass copy,

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which didnt turn out too bad.

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I even managed to save a little bit of weight on the stock item.

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Ill be making another one and try to match the gel coat colour to the tornado red abit better to save me in paint costs.

Ill probably do the same for the passenger side, then maybe even try making a boot lid.

 

 

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49 minutes ago, mk2 said:

Nice. You'll be selling everyone front wings soon... There's definitely a market for them.

Respect. It's not easy making fibreglass copies of 3D shapes. 👍🏻

Cheers, am yet to fit it but looks like it should be sweet, it’s only using the top mounting points, so will find a way of securing to the bumper and will, it’ll do for a rally car at least 

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Well done with the results - shame about the vegetation getting in the way!

Considering how light the original wing is, a 20% weight saving is a very good effort, how many layers of fibre glass did you use?

Seems the rally bug has set in, I get a feeling it may not be long before you wish you had flared the arch.

For your steering rebuild, getting the new ball joints can be a problem - I hope its not the case, but if they are on back order it could be a long wait.

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9 hours ago, LR5V said:

Well done with the results - shame about the vegetation getting in the way!

Considering how light the original wing is, a 20% weight saving is a very good effort, how many layers of fibre glass did you use?

Seems the rally bug has set in, I get a feeling it may not be long before you wish you had flared the arch.

For your steering rebuild, getting the new ball joints can be a problem - I hope its not the case, but if they are on back order it could be a long wait.

I used 2 layers of 450csm with a core material (lightweight spacer) inbetween to increase stiffness without adding weight, im going to make the next one out of lighter matt and see how it goes, doesnt need be strong, only enough to hold itself up, i was amazed by how aluminium one tore so badly.

The flared arches crossed my mind the minute i pulled the arch out of the mould :) 

As for ball joists i think i managed to source the aftermarket gti ones, i will compare when i go to do it.

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On 11/15/2019 at 8:01 AM, imaparana said:

As for ball joists i think i managed to source the aftermarket gti ones, i will compare when i go to do it.

I hope you do - its pretty much the OEM only holy grail of service parts for the Gti, many have searched and failed. Even heard back order can be nearly a year

If yours match please share manufacturer and PN

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4 hours ago, LR5V said:

I hope you do - its pretty much the OEM only holy grail of service parts for the Gti, many have searched and failed. Even heard back order can be nearly a year

If yours match please share manufacturer and PN

Are the ones on all the threads on here not right?

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