omg colin you are so luck that it didn`t go on its roof, it was so close, was there much damage?
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omg colin you are so luck that it didn`t go on its roof, it was so close, was there much damage?
Those pictures look brutal. I can't believe the angle of the car during the crash!
well, there's no doubting your commitment there colin....
considering the speed you were doing, the damage is quite light
if they ever do another png awards, you get my vote for bravest.
Good god you are the luckiest bloke I know. How that didn't flip, roll, spin is beyond me.
The noise and speed is unbelievable as well, I want one lol
Oh no Colin, all the effort you have put into the car and your unfortunate personal issues and now this has happened. Just hope you get it sorted over the coming months/year and get it back out there better than ever.
Regardless of the crash I still think you're a class driver for avoiding rolling that!
Awaits photoshopped photos.....
Nasty one that, glad you got out OK. The Nova stood up to it well. Hope you get it sorted soon.
Very lucky the front end didn't dig in!!
A real life Brown underpants moment.
Lucky the steering wheel is on the right side! :)
Nothing in the way of photos (sorry), but behind the scenes there has been work going on to get it repaired.
The front panel and both front inner wings were mangled, so the entire front end has been cut off just in front of the suspension turrets.
I've got a length of 32mm T45 tubing which will be bent up and made into a 'spaceframe' to take the front tie bars and the new engine mounts. We reckon this is going to trim another 5kg or so off the car.
Some new lightweight tie bars, track control arms and steering arms are being fabricated, which should get at least 2.5kg off. I may also try it without the front anti-roll bar.
And there's been some modifications to the rear axle, saving another 1.5kg.
I've ditched the floor mounted pedal box, and a Lotus Elise alloy pedal box is being modified to fit (2kg lighter as well). An electric water pump is going on in place of the old mechanical system, no weight saving there but it should be more efficient and it can be left to circulate coolant after the engine has been switched off.
The gearbox has been stripped, and I'm going to have my gearbox man alter the ramp angles on the LSD, and hopefully I will be acquiring a different Final Drive (CWP) to solve the problem of the short gearing. I have to pay a visit to Quaife in Kent for that though, and then pay for it somehow.
This morning I took the turbo unit to CR Turbos (New Milton, Hampshire), and they reckon it just needs a new compressor wheel, following the intake of dirt/gravel during the crash.
The engine is being stripped tonight to see if there's any damage to that - fingers are firmly crossed that it will live again.
Other than these things it needs repairs to the front wheel inner rim sections, the exhaust downpipe, plus a new radiator and intercooler. Oh, and body panels of course.
Finally I'm having an aerodyamicist friend of mine, Simon McBeath, review the whole car and see what he suggests for improvements there. Expect to see it next season featuring a front splitter and a rear spoiler.
Massive thanks to Martin Haresign (MARTSTDVAN off here), and to Mark Windley (Mark One Garage) at Tattershall, Lincs, for all their work so far. It's much appreciated at a stressful time for me as I'm moving house!
You don't hang around good work
Glad to hear the car is coming back together, sounds like quite a shunt although any shunt in a nova tends to finish it off so glad to hear it is atleast repairable.
Holy sh1t Colin well done for not ramping the thing over, if it was a LHD you might have had a lot more to repair.
It's always a funny situation when driving & all you can see out of the windscreen is the ground below ;O
Got the T45 tube bent up today to form the front spaceframe, so that can be welded into place now.
All the rose joints and fittings have been ordered for making the new TCA's, tie bars and steering arms.
The revised, lightweight rear beam is now back from the blasters, and freshly painted in a nice shade of pink primer.
I'm after an Irmscher rear spoiler, or a fibreglass/carbon fibre GTE Mk.1 spoiler if anyone knows of anything. I had arranged to buy an Irmscher one, but I appear to have been let down by the seller.
We started dismantling the engine, and are thinking about a different camshaft for it. But before deciding on that, I want to find out what camshaft is in there at the moment - see my post in 'Mechanical' in case there are any 8v Vauxhall camshaft specialists on here..........
CT Turbos have rung me to say my repaired turbo unit is ready to be collected, and they also informed me that the wastegate has never shut, because the actuator rod was wrongly adjusted (presumably by the people I bought the turbo from). So for 2 years I've been racing it with a lot of lag that shouldn't be there.
It's gonna be a totally different animal once all back together.
Would you not want to run some sort of bespoke carbon wing on top of the tailgate rather than a larger MK1 GTE item?
Not allowed in our rules, only standard fit stuff is accepted.Quote:
Originally Posted by BRoadGhost
another update for you colin,
the new bottom arm's have been mocked up along with the tie bars
and the new space framed front is ready to be cut and fitted.
also the new rear ARB design is finished, looks like i'm in for a long weekend ;)
pics pics pics!
Ahh thought that might be the case. From what i'm aware of the GTE spoiler is fairly efficient for what it is.
Does standard fitment stuff not rule out carbon/fibreglass copies as you could make them slightly different?
Silhouette side on has to remain standard/recognisable as a nova, so only standard 'shape' stuff is allowedQuote:
Originally Posted by Iain
Look out for a small photo update later today......
My apologies for the lack of updates recently, but I moved out of my house and workshops last week, and as you can imagine there was a lot of sorting out to be done.
I still have a lot of Nova and Corsa parts if anyone needs anything............
Anyway, a few photos of progress with the resurrection of my Nova, firstly some mocking up of the new front end, following removal of the mangled front inner wings and crossmember;
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/002-93.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/003-96.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/004-84.jpg
The turbo, fresh from being rebuilt at CR Turbos (great service and sensible prices);
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/008-55.jpg
The Lotus Elise pedal box awaiting more modification and installation;
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/009-54.jpg
Irmscher 3-piece rear spoiler (many thanks to Vessey for the loan of this). It's going to my aerodynamics man next week for him to assess it's suitability, if it is right for the job I'll get it made out of carbon fibre;
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/015-37.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/006-76.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/007-64.jpg
And finally for now, the new rear beam, which has been lightened by 1.5kg compared to my old one;
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/010-53.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/011-47.jpg
Please to see you are making progress Colin
How did you shed so much weight off the beam? I see the pink one doesn't have the parts for the rear anti roll bar. Have you redesigned the roll bar attachments or are they still to be added?
i was curious too, as the new beam has no bushes.
The pink beam still needs bushes in it, we haven't decided yet if we're going to use a rose joint or just the poly bushes that were on the old axle.Quote:
Originally Posted by SimonTW
The weight has been taken away with a lot of hours of cutting and grinding to smooth down, along with removal of the spring platforms, drilling of holes etc.
I plan to test the car with no rear anti-roll bar, I'd like to think it can run without one to save even more weight. But if it's decided it does need one, we will probably fabricate something in T45 tube as the old one was quite heavy.
liking the new tube front end colin, are you planning to keep the rad angled? thats my plan for this winter but with the rad angle forwards with sealed in airflow entry and exiting out the bonnet via some vents like most current GT cars
i think the plan for no ARB will yield interesting results, personally i think you'll need one, or to stiffen the beam in a different way may be a lighter solution
If you can, take a peek at a C2 R2 or DS3 R, as the current Citroen off the shelf rally pack contains all the bits to re-angle the rad & also includes an airflow entry system for it. VERY effective simple engineering. Also found on Swift JWRC cars now too.Quote:
Originally Posted by lee303
Any picks or links mike - sounds interesting
I have loads on a memory card somewhere from my friends JWRC Swift, Maxi C2 R2 & a DS3 R he/his business currently building. Hes also done a few "conversions" on 106's & normal C2's to repositioned tilted rads. Works really well IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by fearless
EDIT: Found memory card but not got a reader for Mini SD cards anymore :/
EDIT2: All is not lost, I have a DS3R build manual somewhere...
does sound interesting, i have a good idea what i want to do though and some alloy sheet and a bit of imagination may suffice, but pics/links would be ace either way:thumb:
Details of Citroens rally build manuals show basic pictures here - page 14 onwards
http://boutique.citroenracing.com/cm...ec9a5603f9.pdf
But we still need your pictures :)
Edit : Loads of bedtime reading here on the works C2'R2D2's and DS3's etc
http://boutique.citroenracing.com/do...av=4&id_lang=1
nice links there dave, looks exactly like what i want to do!!
Pages 14 ~ 17 in the first link are what you want :thumb: The OEM rad shroud is fleixble plastic type stuff, the lower dummy bar is steel obviously, as are the replacement rad mounting brackets.
Its a dead simple design TBH, shocked that no ones though of using it sooner on a track car TBH lol although with a standard manifold implacation with downpipe interference will definetly happen. The works cars overcome this by using a titanium over gearbox type manifold & heat insulated thermal plastic air intake above that (Citroen type) the Suzuki setup is same theory but slightly different in design.
A lot of the works build manuals I have in my loft for these have similiar photos to that link. Being the acual book that comes with the kit though, its a lot more detailed. And FYI lol theres just over 540 parts in the DS3R rally pack.... so theres a lot of pages to said book lol
i have already sealed the rad in as efficiently as i could in stock position, but i wanted to do it properly now, i reckon i have a bit more room too with a tubular front end, as i certainly cant afford a titanium manifold!:lol:
The manifold is one of the most expensive parts of the kit pack!Quote:
Originally Posted by lee303
Honestly lee, its really easy to do, sheet matierial, same angled Y shaped brackets & a bit of lateral thinking = result. The problems start if you get manifold interference though.
EDIT: Another trick as fook thing aswell.... in the Suzuki Swift JWRC rally pack, the cabin air feed, thats a work of GRP art! No roof vents needed, a proper trick two piece affair that leads from front of bonnet, to bulkhead an then through into cabin. Really simple awesome idea.
i like my roof vent! lol i have enough to do anyway, need to finally make my splitter out of wood so i can get a good radius on the front of it, and a few other things, anyway, enough chit chat in colins thread i would imagine, i am looking forward to seeing this back together though!!
Some maybe useful pics from my facebook...
Note lower front dummy bar, rally pack add on
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j181/mikenova/1.jpg
OEM lower valance should look like this, on my old 106
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j181/mikenova/2.jpg
C2 R2 works type air cleaner feed with works manifold on my friends C2.
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j181/mikenova/3.jpg
**** thats nice!