Part Six
The Heart and transmission of the car
The 2.0 litre engine comes from factory with an IS28 turbo charger we have changed this with an IS38 as found on the Golf R model. This is slightly larger meaning we can run slightly more boost and gain more torque without putting too much strain on the smaller Is28. We have removed and deleted unnecessary components such as the carbon canister and water inlets and outlets to the heater matrix. These engines seem to suffer from heavy breathing on track when hard cornering and braking so we installed a racing line catch can and breather.
Transmission- We opted for the best differential on the market a Drexler Plated LSD. The box was split apart for inspection and the original Crown Wheel removed from the diff. The original crown wheel is riveted to the diff from factory, so this must be done by drilling the old rivets out. We will keep the VAQ in place as this will still work alongside the Plated LSD.
It was time to mate the transmission and engine together and mount it into the freshly painted bay using VW racing engine mounts.
Motul Engine oil and DCTF gearbox fluid was used to lubricate the two.
Part 7
Front Suspension
With us at Motion Motorsport being a proud supplier and working with Verkline it was only right that this build received the Verkline MQB race subframe and lower arms. The arms have spherical bearing joints instead of Polyurethane bushes, they also have the ability to adjust camber and caster including additional camber adjustment from a billet ball joint.
The T45 tubing Subframe is a work of art. The benefits of this subframe is that its 50% lighter than the OEM subframe. It has only one mounting position so that it eliminates movement. One of the main benefits for us is that it completely corrects bump-steer now that we are running the car a lot lower than stock height.
Rear Suspension
The rear suspension was not as straight forward as buying off the shelf items. Firstly, we wanted to get rid of the stock separate damper and Spring arm set up on the rear so that we can use a coilover. To do this we had to think about wheel clearance. We sourced a different VAG rear upright to allow this as the damper will bolt straight to it and not sit on the rear lower arm. We now had to make a custom rear trailing arm to suit the new upright and again we also made this spherical. Unfortunately, we were now left with an ugly re arm not being used to hose a spring or damper and still on stock rubber bushes. With the rest of the car now spherical we had to do something about this. With a little thinking a tubular spherical rear adjustable arm was made. With it being adjustable this now allowed easy toe changes to the rear. A different anti roll bar was now used as the original mounted to the spring arm.
We were that happy with the outcome we now sell the rear conversion kits on our online shop (Mk7 Rear geometry kit) – Consists of Rear upright, Spherical rear trailing arms, Tubular rear spherical arm with subframe and upright inserts and a rear anti roll bar.
(pictures of custom set up and rear end)
Part 8
With all the suspension components built up and installed along with the engine and gearbox. We can now see where to mount all the safety equipment such as. Fire extinguisher and Pipework, Fuel hoses and Fuel drain System.
AN Fittings and Braided fuel hoses were used throughout this build. When it comes to a fuel system we always opt for braided and AN Fittings. This is due to the safety and strength/ rigidity over a normal rubber hose that can easily get rubbed through if it were to become out of place. The AN Fittings can also hold more pressure than a normal jubilee or spring clamp.
(Pics of fuel and extinguisher system)
Part Nine
Wiring
In a race car you only need necessity items such as the items that make the car run and stop. All extras such as speakers, sat nav, airbags, Infotainment systems and interior lighting have been removed along with modules that are no longer needed. All this was a bit of a challenge and a lot of decoding and deleting of certain components had to be carried out. This allowed us to save weight and make the wiring loom a lot neater by stripping back lots of components and de pinning plugs.
Just look at how much we have managed to remove and how much neater it all looks.
Part Ten
Geometry and suspension set up
Having worked on the MQB chassis before in the TCR Championship and securing a championship with James Turkington we knew a decent starting point to set this car up. Having already spec’d spring rates and brake master cylinders it was time to play around with corner weights, Camber settings, Caster, bump steer before finalising with the toe settings. There are many many factors that go in to a good handling race car from something as little as a tyre pressure change to roll bar stiffness.
Shake down
We took the car to Blyton Park for a shake down before real track testing got underway. The car was everything we expected and ran faultlessly all day.
750 MC Club Enduro
It has been a strange year with Covid19 and the race season being delayed and cancelled here and there but in the end Luke managed to compete in Club Enduro and the car ran faultlessly all year and finished every single race securing Luke the class B championship win. We are very proud how this car turned out and so happy for Luke for finally getting some trophies for his cabinet.