track car!

[General Baxter]

i want to build a small track car, so i need to find some parts

where online can i buy them perspex windows?
and a real roll cage? (none of this MPS lark)

[Chris]

Why not look into making the perspex windows yourself, quite easy to cut, you should be able to utilise the standard rubber seals on the rear quarters and rear screen then make something for the fronts (alot of cars I have seen have been self tappered into the door), as for cage just keep an eye out on the site as they pop up quite often

Chris

[General Baxter]

Why not look into making the perspex windows yourself,

tar chris

but its the cant be arsed factor again :lol:
good im getting lazy :wink:

[Dar]

Demon Tweeks do rollcages as well as alot of other performance places. Be warned my took six weeks to be delivered!!

I built my Nova as a track day car and I wouldn't worry about perspex windows just yet and Chris16v is right you can make them yourself easy enough though.

IMO I would Get your saftey stuff first :-

Rollcage (wield in if poss)
Buckets & Belts

Obviously you want a fast engine (doh) but make sure you up-rate the breaks to match.

I guess you already know what you are going to do with the car, however the best modification I did to mine was to fit a LSD. My track time improved by over 4.5 seconds with that one modification and the way you can drive the car around the bends is awsome!

I spent around ?7000-?8000 on mine but I did buy almost everything new and I did spend ?2000 on the management and injection. So this figure could be drasticly reduced!

If your intrested I have a very brief spec on what I have on mine and some video clips on www.daxtek.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk the page is really crappy by the way ZERO effort put in to it :oops:

[Jim]

Some nice vids there, you over did it a bit on that corner when you took the GTi-r :P

Jim

[Dar]

I know :oops: Got a bit excited. Couldn't believe I got past it!

[Jim]

Heh, I dont blame you :)

Jim

[Dan]

As regards the perspex you could get an 8ftx4ft sheet of 4mm for around 70 quid, cut all the windows out and have about 1/3rd of a sheet left to repair any that get scratched etc, or you could be lazy and spend 200 notes + and buy a set precut.

if you are on a budget a mint shell can be bought and built for under 500 quid to a high standard if you have good mates that have a few skills as i with the help of a few regulars have proven, a bolt in 6 point cage can be had for around 150-200 quid second hand. Then its just a case of what spec engine you want to run and the obvious brakes and suspension to match it all.

I wont bore peeps with specs and build pics again lol, but needless to say i could rebuild my whole car including engine again for under ?2500.

[Phil_G]

Hiya

heres a link i refer to frequently due to the excellnt advice to be had by CP, dan etc ref building a shell to track standards.

http://www.novaload.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=96453&start=0

and also what dan got for his ?2.5K

http://www.novaload.net/features/viewfeature.php?ref=2011

Hope this helps people

Phil

[isrs]

hey dan you mentioned buying pre-cut perspex windows, do you know were to buy them?

[burgo]

lol dar do you buy a set of new tyres after each track day ??

[Dar]

lol. They squeel a bit, they have lasted ages, I think that its a hard wearing tyre (came with wheels). I want some Yokos :twisted: Should get around the bends a bit quicker.

[Stuart]

unless your getting yoko slicks dont bother, try toyo T1's or Eagle F1's

[Dar]

OK, I've been told about Eagle F1's before.
I've just looked on the Yokohama website and it don't look like they do my size anyway :(
Which are better Toyo T1 or Eagle F1, or are they roughly the same performance?

[benji]

don't use eagle f1's on track

http://www.novaload.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=391772#391772

what tyres are you using mate? and what brakes

[Dar]

At the mo they are uniroyal rain sport 1's 195/45 r16. They squeel like hell but haven't worn out yet. I've done 4 trackdays on them each day consists of 3 runs and 5 laps a run. each lap 1.85 miles.

I have slicks to put on but they arn't allowed for trackdays and are reserved for when I sprint the car.

I do need a better, grippier tyre so any suggestions are welcome :D

[benji]

eagle f1's arevery stick but don't last very long. this one has done less than 500 road miles and 1 track day. the photo's don't show how bad it is, it hasn't just worn, it's melted and warped the tread

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bencurry/mallory_24.JPG

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bencurry/mallory_25.JPG

[Dar]

The second picture shows it better. I've found that they tend to do that. The tread on mine after one of the events was wedge shaped because your constantly doing right hand bends and very few left handers. Or vise versa.

My view is that its a trackday and its going to be hard on the rubber. If they stick well then the rubber is going to be softer and thats good enough for me :)

Anyone had experience of the Toyo T1's??

I didn't answer your question about the breaks either. Im using mintex 1144 pads with the normal 16v disc and caliper setup. The disc's are grooved and I have dot 5.1 break fluid. The break cylinder is also the bigger type. I came to this setup by trial and error and it works a treat for me.

[benji]

i think if i had tyres that could be rotated side to side aswell as front to back they would last longer

[Dan]

yep agree second picture shows clearly what happens to an f1 tyre when abused. Mine looked exactly the same as that after the one day at anglesey. The key would be to get f1's but with the tread worn down abit as its the roll off the high tread that kills them. Either that or get some intermediates.

Toyo's are supposed to be somewhere close to an f1 in the dry, but its when it becomes damp or wet conditions that the F1's keep on going strong when others might flack abit.

Ideally if i had the chance i would run inters on dry events, and F1's on wet events

The only reason they kill themselves so bad is the tyre roll due to softer sidewalls being road tyres as seen here when i used to run the gte shell.......(never expected it to be this bad but goes to show it is lol)

http://www2.novaload.net/files/dan/ang4.jpg

The yellow circle on the next pic shows the recess for the rim protector part of the tyre on the rear, which on this close up of that pic the front is stretched to the point where that is 50% of the tyre left above the tarmac

http://www2.novaload.net/files/dan/tyreroll3.jpg

[burgo]

thats actually kinda scary dan, i never thought tyres stretched that much

[nova ian]

If your intrested I have a very brief spec on what I have on mine and some video clips on www.daxtek.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk the page is really crappy by the way ZERO effort put in to it :oops:

nice pics and vids mate, thats one seriously quicl nova you got!

[m.d.]

i watched you at castle coombe really upset a few cars, i was having a bad day as i was running 185 el crappo road tyres and the lamp pod was causing hell of a drag on the streaghts, will deffo be more prepared for the next one,

[Dar]

Thanks for the info Dan. Mine have also worn halfway down the tyre wall. Do they let you out on inters? If so I may look in to that, because its dry tyres that im after.

m.d. - Good stuff the more Novas out there kicking butt the better :twisted: Next time you see the car come on over.

[m.d.]

i have inters which i was going to use but im not sure if they do allow it.

my 16s will be ok tho if i get something sticky for them i think

[Dan]

Erm its entirely upto you what tyres you choose to run on, When we did anglesey with bookatrack CP ran his full slicks and as seen i ran road tyres.

[Stuart]

after many conversations with CP and others regardgin tyres, your best off using a well worn set of F1's or T1's (ie near as damn it illegal levels) in the dry if you dont wish to spring for a slick


OR just run cut slicks


the problem is that whn you have "new" tyres they have lots of tread to roll about on so when giving it mega stick the tread level will roll about and cause odd wear and so on, but by using well worn ones there is less to move about on so you get more consistent running.

[benji]

so when giving it mega stick

that's what killed mine then. the best bit is you can see load's of bald spot's where they kept locking up :D

[m.d.]

i was a pussy when it came to braking really, i could have left it loads later but got a bit scared of locking up and bending the car on the barriers lol ill be better next time tho as i have experience of what track days are like now, AWSOME!!!!!

i will deffo be traloring it to the next track day tho as last time i nearly cooked the thing, (small rad and no oil cooler)

also does anyone know any lists of open track days that happen arround the country as the only one i know is castle coombe action day, which is hardly ever

[benji]

donington are doing one every sunday in november and up toi christmas for ?95 if you book in advance.

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/trakzone/

http://www.autocar.co.uk/trackdaydiary.asp

http://www.buyatyre.com/-pE

i'll put some more up in a bit

[m.d.]

ideal, im going to donnington for a sprint this weekend, (part of the hillclimbing championship this year i think) but i never realised that they did open days

[m.d.]

bugger realised its not there but it sounds good anyway, :oops:

[benji]

wheres the sprint at?