Bianca White Phase 2 Gti6 Track & Fast Road Car

[Chr1sch]

Hi all,

Following from my newbie post, I thought i'd give a bit of a breakdown of the car and progress so far, as it stands today:

1998 Bianca White GTi 6 with a very bad respray
159k miles (gulp)
Phase 3 Headlights
'Clio' type front numberplate
Remap - 174.4bhp (back in 08)
Magnex exhaust
RichW rebuilt head
RichW light weight crank pulley
K&N Filter Element
Nissens Rad
AC Button fan mod
Mocal Oil Cooler
BakerBM Grp N Engine Mounts
Solid billet beam mounts

16' Speedline Turini's - soon to be refurbished in white
Federal 595 RS-R Track tyres (205/45's)
303mm Hi-Spec Brake conversion
Tarox Discs
Ferodo DS2500 Pads
Braided Hoses
ATE Superblue Brake fluid

Bilstein B8 Dampers
Eibach Springs
OMP Strut brace
Rose jointed drop links
RichW Roller bearing wishbone bushes

Fully stripped out bar front carpet
Sparco 'Sprint' bucket seats
Sparco FIA subframes
No radio/speakers etc etc
RMD 'OMP' Style wheel - to be replaced with genuine item this week!

Plans/Aspirations for 2015:

Roll Cage
Harnesses
Clutch & Cable
Accelerator Cable
Carbon door cards
Throttle bodies

Naturally i have made a lot of these changes over time but its hidden within a million posts on gti6oc so I thought i'd start a fresh on here...

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So i've been worried about the quality of my steering wheel ever since I saw a video of how the bloody things snap and spear you like a cheap kebab. (I should have realised £45 was too good to be true...)

RMD wheel that was removed:



Anyway, over the weekend I managed to fit a real bargain on eBay, a badly listed, virtually new OMP 2 Spoke wheel worth £160 @ Demon Tweeks right now.....price i paid, £65 incl postage - bargain...

And I love it! (its way way stronger/stiffer, slightly smaller and thinner rim, as well as being lighter, but most pleasing is the way it fits, rather than cheese strength plated bolts it uses the high-tensile Momo bolts that came with the boss, all counter sunk etc.)



I gave it a quick wash over lunch, noticed the tyres are ever-so-slightly catching the arches on the outside, i guess i will need to get them rolled?



Cheeky pic, without the decat the exhaust sits perfectly:

[306Dan]

Very nice, do you have any pics handy?

[Chr1sch]

Just added them

The brakes:



On track (with Toyo's that totally fell apart even though they were new!)

[Eeyore]

Looks good buddy! Cant see anything wrong with the paintwork in those photos?

[Chr1sch]

Haha thanks, a lesson in why never to buy a car unseen I guess, I love it but around the window seals Etc is woeful

[pugtk]

I want your car

[7057sam]

Looks lovely mate

How you getting on with the federal's ?

[Chr1sch]

Thanks gents, I'm quite partial to it myself :-)

Federals seem great so far Sam, annoyingly I've only managed to drive it in the wet/damp winter conditions and even then they seem ok and I was fearing the worst being more track orientated. They already have far far more grip than the Toyo's on there previously, just can't wait to really push it when it's dry!

Annoyingly I did notice today it's catching a tad on the arches on both sides, not major rubbing (I had no idea...) but there are minor marks/scuffs on the tyre, so I guess I'll have to get them rolled...

[7057sam]

Yeah I had major rubbing when I ran 205 50's track back to the good old 195 50 15 which I'm going to be running nankang ns2r medium compound.

Got any trackdays booked this year?

Us lot do all the combe action days which are a laugh and don't cost the world.

[adam b]

Watch the RSR for deep cracking between treads once they get hot, had quite a few do that on the Volvo track day last year. See you out there soon I hope

[procta]

looks a good one!

[Chr1sch]

Hey Sam,

Yeah i'd love to get involved - Castle Coombe is my local track (bar Donnington) so definitely up for that!

Rubbing wise, i'm really hoping its not going to be a problem but with my brakes i cant go back to a 15 inch wheel and the Toyo's are just silly money and seem to be the only one on 195 fitment

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Thanks Re: the RSR's - they seem to grip well but would be somewhat pointless if they fall apart!!

[son of a beesting]

Good looking car. Those brakes look meaty!

[Chr1sch]

Thanks - yes they are awesome i must admit - DS2500 pads are fantastic - far better than the Yellow Stuff before them...

[cully]

needs more pictures
looks good! though i may be bias

[7057sam]

Thanks - yes they are awesome i must admit - DS2500 pads are fantastic - far better than the Yellow Stuff before them...

Hmm really I heard the opposite  

ds would cost me £90 more for the full set over yellow stuff.

[Chr1sch]

Honestly i cant rate the DS2500's highly enough - i've spoken to numerous brake specialists including a guy who rebuilds brakes on RS4's and 911's - he was adamant, Brembo discs, Ferodo pads every time

[ben306]

Like it!!

My next wheel choise is probably going to be white tirini's

[7057sam]

Honestly i cant rate the DS2500's highly enough - i've spoken to numerous brake specialists including a guy who rebuilds brakes on RS4's and 911's - he was adamant, Brembo discs, Ferodo pads every time

Ok cheers,ill probably order a set next month ready for combe,also heard they wear quite well compares to the others??

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Like it!!

My next wheel choise is probably going to be white tirini's

YES 

The white 16's you had previously where epic.

[Chr1sch]

Cheers, i love the Turini's, just need to get the other 3 painted white lol

In other news........

IT ONLY PASSED ITS BLOODY MOT FIRST TIME!! (only advisory; ropey rear discs and a crap handbrake)

Happy Days - she's now getting the oil cooler all plumbed in, Aircon pipework & rad removed and fresh oil and filter ready for Bedford 2 weeks today :-D

[7057sam]

Nice one mate

Never been before but after I worked in St neots I started realising it's not actually that far.

Do they do different track layouts?

[Chr1sch]

Yes, the one to go for if you can get it is the GT circuit - 4 miles long, very flat but very safe as a result - massively hard on brakes

The one in 2 weeks is the 'SEN' circuit 2.2 miles, plenty of variety in corners. The guys i'm going with are all in their daily drivers so the safer the track the better for them...i fancy cadwell soon though, and Donnington!

[Chr1sch]

Time for an update!

So we were back on track on Monday last week (16th Feb) @ Bedford, and following the previous outing i was suffering from oil temp issues. now the car came with an oil cooler fitted in a bracked but not plumbed in...

Oil cooler all plumbed in with Mocal thermostatic plate, oil temps on track never broke 100 (140 last October in similar conditions)




Also gave it a full oil change/service and fitted a new clutch cable. (the latter transformed the car!)

Car park, pre track:



The track day was fantastic, started off dry and the car felt amazing, the RSR's were incredibly sticky and we were faster than quite a few traditionally faster cars. Here's a few pics and a video of one of my dry laps, it was one of the first laps and turn in was a tad aggressive, definitely improved throughout the day...

Bloody LOVE this picture from a guy in the track day section on PH!:





Video:


The weather got progressively worse from lunch time onwards, however It was fantastic, really forced me to adapt my driving style, balancing understeer vs oversteer, trail braking etc, its some of the best driving i've ever done. Towards the end of the day we were keeping up with really pretty special cars, particularly the E46 M3's, one lap I caught on camera below that i'm pretty pleased with! (RSR's arent amazing in the wet so did struggle with understeer on a couple of occasions as you'll see...





Wet Video: 12 solid laps chasing this M3! (just awesome)



Overall the car was fantastic, brakes remain the best setup i've ever used, handling is agile and lively but incredibly predictable and engaging, although i am craving more straight line speed (particulary torque out of the apex) however i cant complain, clicked over 160k miles whilst on track, completing 180 miles on track and 110 miles each way to get there!

Now on the hunt for the elusive half-cage, harnesses and throttle bodies....

Thanks for reading

Chris

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Just ordered some new uprated Gear linkages too - these should hopefully resolve the slightly vague 2nd gear at high rpm (I hope) although i suspect the syncro is probably pretty tired too...

[Ben]

Looks great and looks like you had a good day. Bodywork looks pretty good for that mileage as well.

[Chr1sch]

Thanks! It was an awesome day, although paying for it now, I appear to have one weeping shock and the brakes are almost back to normal lol

Bodywork is deceptive, the bumpers are rough and its had a pearl top coat at some point which isnt very good in places, but as a track car its fine :-D

[7057sam]

Looks great buddy

What row cooler are you running I have a 16 row which struggles to keep my temps under a 100 atm on track so upgrading to a 19 this year,also get a weird hum noise at 2 rpm from it,kinda sounds like fuel pump primer sound.

[Chr1sch]

Not too sure row wise, how can I find out? There looks to be 12 sets of 'fins' horizontally from the front. As you can see in the vids I didn't hold back and it never broke 100 all day (was 130ish before!)

Surelyyou don't want it running any cooler than that?

I haven't noticed any noises since fitting it, that said its pretty noisy anyway. I've also done the ac button mod and run the fan at full speed whenever on circuit...

[Chr1sch]

Small Update:

Painted the mirrors white (as they should be) and they are a marked improvement which is great...



Also added a 'retro' Talbot/Peugeot stripe to break up the white which i'm also pleased with...



Any finally a tripod pic, just because I dont get to drive it very often, but my god its bloody awesome - post thrash pic...



Also bought a Satchshift which is next on the list to add to the car, along with refurbished rear callipers as the nipple snapped off the rear left and brakes arent feeling amazing at the moment.

[7057sam]

Retro stripe look great 

Waiting to see if they is another satchshift group but and seeing if the problems with them get sorted first.

[Dum-Dum]

She looks like a brilliant all rounder mate