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Engine and Gearbox
Topic Started: Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:06 pm (451 Views)
Matt
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Administrator - Hawk Eye

This thread is for everything to do with Engine and Gearbox for Track use. Please keep normal Engine and gearbox enquiries to the main forum.
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bez_merldo
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hello,
im interested in building a track 190 but not sure what enignes are involved and where they can be picked up from? can anyone help me?
thanks
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80's yuppy car
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bez_merldo
Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:43 pm
hello,
im interested in building a track 190 but not sure what enignes are involved and where they can be picked up from? can anyone help me?
thanks
Bez - Hi, dont worry yourself about engines first off, if you want to build a track car your first stop is safety, better brakes, better handling, good tyres, maybe a roll cage and seats etc then once you have re-mortgaged your house several times over and have a base car that will stay on the track round the corners then a few engine mods can be done.

After all there is no point in having a fast car if the first time you stuff it into the barriers you break your hip and your kneecaps fall off!

For most people standard engines with a few choice mods would be more than enough for some fun trackdays and this keeps the cost down too.

Without getting off topic too much for this section I would suggest that anyone wanting to build a track car for the first time is to get a copy of a motorsport catalogue (Demon Tweeks etc) or look online and tot up the price of the bits you will need then decide how far you want to go (if atall).

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alogaparaloga
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crazy mind
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I agree with "80's yuppy car" first thing is to make your car stable enough on track depending on what you are looking for.
So first things to decide:
1. Use of car ? (Drift, Drag, etc)

THEN:

2. Set suspension for the specific use.
3. Use the most appropriate tyre & wheel combination
4. Reduce rotating mass, but increase performance (brake rotors, light weight calipers etc)
5. Pass the available power on the track (transmission losses?, rear Diff?. LSD)

When all these have been set, go for the engine.
For sure Programmable ECU (VEMS, Megasquirt, MOTEC, DTA, etc
Tune it to your requirements.


It's your decision which setup you want and how far to go.
But not without handling and stopping power.


Regards,
Menelaos
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NEIL
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Fewer Posts than Kenny
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alogaparaloga
Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:56 pm
I agree with "80's yuppy car" first thing is to make your car stable enough on track depending on what you are looking for.
So first things to decide:
1. Use of car ? (Drift, Drag, etc)

THEN:

2. Set suspension for the specific use.
3. Use the most appropriate tyre & wheel combination
4. Reduce rotating mass, but increase performance (brake rotors, light weight calipers etc)
5. Pass the available power on the track (transmission losses?, rear Diff?. LSD)

When all these have been set, go for the engine.
For sure Programmable ECU (VEMS, Megasquirt, MOTEC, DTA, etc
Tune it to your requirements.


It's your decision which setup you want and how far to go.
But not without handling and stopping power.


Regards,
Menelaos
I agree, but would word it more like:

So first things to decide:
1. Use of car
THEN:
2. Set suspension for the specific use.
3. Use the most appropriate tyre & wheel combination
3a. Take it on a Novice track day.
3b. Take it on another Novice track day, and play about with the suspension if it's adjustable.
3c. Take it on more and more track days.
3d. Try another brand of tyre, maybe even two more.
4. Reduce rotating mass, but increase performance (brake rotors, light weight calipers etc)
4a. Take it on some more track days.
4b. Consider driving it out to Hockenheim/Nordschleife.
5. Pass the available power on the track (transmission losses?, rear Diff?. LSD)
When all these have been set, go for the engine.
For sure Programmable ECU (VEMS, Megasquirt, MOTEC, DTA, etc
Tune it to your requirements.

Development is what's needed for a good track car, not wholesale 'modification'.
Starting out with the car absolutely standard will teach you so much more than sticking 'what you think the car needs' on before your first track day.
Jeremy's doing a great job of demonstrating this, as have Pentoman & Enthusiast in the past.
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dave_irl
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I love offset.

NEIL
Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:08 pm
Development is what's needed for a good track car, not wholesale 'modification'.
Starting out with the car absolutely standard will teach you so much more than sticking 'what you think the car needs' on before your first track day.
Jeremy's doing a great job of demonstrating this, as have Pentoman & Enthusiast in the past.
Excellently put Neil.

Since I decided to work on my daily rather than the all out project build, I am learning lots more step by step as each modification is done, rather than driving a stock car 1 day and an all out (but untested) track machine 3 years later...

Development, thats absolutely it.
Edited by dave_irl, Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:31 pm.
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jeremy
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Let me just re-iterate,

Just to be on a track, you need track pads & Dot 5 fluid, and a helmet. (& possibly a bath-mat, but more of that later).Then (later) a decent set of rubber, some 97 octane & injector cleaner, then strip some weight off, spare tyre, tools, rear seats and backs, and the carpets. believe me, you will have lots of fun tagging along with and occasionally passing Honda type R's Porsche 944's/Boxters, BMW 3/5 series, Mr2's, MX 5's and many others of that ilk, and when you get good, even some standard Suburu, & Mitzi's turbos, even up to date stuff driven by dorks, is a piece of cake.

The biggest inpediment to having fun is yourself.

You would be amazed at just how fast you can pedal a 2.5-16V around a track, any track. at speeds that you have to re-calibrate your own brain at.

Stop thinking that you have to go out in a perfectly prepared & finished , fully developed work of art. TOSH!!!

Almost every car out there started life as almost standard, and has been developed as time & money allows.


Jeremy :evo2: :driver:
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