97 replies to this topic

[T VXT]

Im still waiting for my carbon vee and splitters from the group buy. In the meantime I wanted to see what the front would look like with the honeycomb grill and a debadged vee. Ignore the bit of tape at the bottom to hold it in place.



I think it looks pretty good, not sure if I prefer it to my old Steinmetz though.

[T VXT]

Geo - done Remap tweak - done Picking it up in the morning, then I need to refit the undertrays and try to fit an exhaust baffle. Saturday - Bedford track day!!!! Can't wait to see how it handles now!

[T VXT]

Went to Bedford on Saturday and had a great day. The car is completely different, it's so much more composed and confidence inspiring. Matt has worked wonders. The car is now so adjustable on the throttle and at the limit, it's an absolute hoot to drive. It makes my mates Cayman S feel like a boat. Felt completely happy to push past its limits on some of the long fast corners and playing with the backend on some of the chicanes. Not the quickest way round but good fun laying down number 11's out of some of the tighter corners. On the road it's slightly firmer on rough road surfaces and speed bumps, but strangely it has a better ride on normal road surfaces. Luckily most of the roads I regularly drive on are pretty good. Loving how flat is stays in the corners, even my fiancée mentioned she likes how it doesn't roll anymore, in her words "I don't get thrown around as much and it feels more stable". So in conclusion a 1 inch ARB, uprated Ertacetal bushes, new everything else and Quantums (with 220/550lb rears, 400lb fronts) is excellent. Although this is not my daily drive, if it was I would have softer front springs, but the progressive rears are fine. Also forgot how good fresh brakes are, I don't really know why you would need anymore. I did eat a noticeable amount of the 1144's though and my wheels are now a gunmetal colour rather than silver..... On to the Inlet manifold. The engine feels really different with the highflow manifold. The partially throttle response is vastly improved, even the instructor mentioned how linear it was for a high powered turbo. It just feels so much better and smoother through the revs. And this thing now revs, before it was tailing off at 5500 and revving slowly thereafter and no real point going past 6250. Now it gets to 5500 and goes mental and wants to rev off the clock!! Still pulling hard past 7000, in 2nd and 3rd. I wanted to check where my rev limit is and it's around 7600/7700, which is an indicated 120+ in 3rd. I wont be revving it up this high on a regular basis just wanted to see how high it would go. The tailing off up to the limiter is barely noticeable when compared to the old tailing off between 5500-6500. It's probably worth noting I have no balancer shafts, a light weight fly and underdrive pulley kit which all help the revs spin up that bit quicker. IMO this widening of the powerband has changed the engine's character more than moving from Stage 2 to Stage 4. Moving from Stage 2 to Stage 4 makes the car more savage and tbh a bit spiky, this manifold has smoothed everything out and actually makes the car more controllable on the throttle, considerably less on/off. It's my best engine mod to date. In general the only downside is the car used to feel like it had too much power and was edgy, slightly unpredictable when it would spin up a rear wheel. You might call me odd but this edginess was strangely exciting. Even though it now has more power, with the delivery being smoother/less spikey and the chassis being so well controlled, it's lost some of that edginess and now feels like it could handle more power........

Edited by T VXT, 26 May 2015 - 08:29 PM.

[T VXT]

Following on from above, with the extra power, wider powerband and feeling a shed load faster, I wanted to get some actual performance figures. I borrowed a mates racelogic box and as I expected our speedo's are quite optimistic. Roughly 65 on the speedo = real 60

I've seen videos of other stage 4's acceleration here: http://www.vx220.org...e +acceleration and my speedo is noticeably quicker than these, mine revs alot quicker between 5 - 7k+ in both 2nd and 3rd.

I did a couple of 0-100 mph runs, on a safe private road. Only did 2 runs as it's brutal on the clutch and I haven't got a paddle clutch.

1st run- not a very good launch, too much wheel spin. Road was flat.


2nd run- near perfect launch probably due to warmer tyres and perfect gear changes. Road was flat until a slight downhill bit at the end of the run.


Due to the slight downhill at the end of the 2nd run I would add a few 10's to the 7.9 sec's, so I wouldn't say it's a true sub 8 car.

Taking the average of both runs

0-60 3.7
0-100 8.3

Pretty good for a little plastic car!

Edited by T VXT, 20 June 2015 - 11:10 PM.

[T VXT]

Has anyone else got some racelogic figures to compare?

[Rosssco]

Impressive figures. I presume the increased rev limit means you pass the 60 mph marker in second gear?

[chris_uk]

i got 3.9 with my mate in the car to 60mph and 9.1 seconds to 100 but i suspect a lot of that loss it due to the big wing and splitter0.

 

thats with 330ish bhp and r888's

Edited by chris_uk, 22 June 2015 - 02:43 PM.

[ross16i16]

Where did you get the honeycomb grill from? Also, did you have to take the front clam off to fit?

[A.C.oral]

Nice read from start - finish. Fair play sticking to silver & keeping true to its origins.

[Nev]

IMO this widening of the powerband has changed the engine's character more than moving from Stage 2 to Stage 4.

Yea, a wide powerband really transforms a car. Good to hear you are so happy with it

[siztenboots]

I have the same manifold on mine and before it was only happy in 1st and 2nd to rev , its now got a great top end in all gears

[T VXT]

Ross1616, it's some universal honeycomb grill. I brought 90 cm by 40 cm of this one http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4acffc40f1 , as it has some depth to it. It's fibreglassed into place from behind, so needs clam off. There's also a screw through the number plate section holding a bracket the other side.

[T VXT]

Chris- Those figures were with 888's too. The car has lots of the normal lightweight bits, with no extra weight in the car on those runs. I'm not sure if the leh engine is lighter than an let engine? The car has no air brakes either, not even turbo splitters atm Rosssco - yeah 2nd gear pulls hard past 75 on the speedo (while revving to 7k+), I'll post a crapy quality video so you can see how it pulls through the revs. I might do the test again to see if I can recreate the 3.5 or close to confirm it wasn't a fluke. But not going to burn the clutch out trying. Although I'm more happy with the 0-100 times.

Edited by T VXT, 24 June 2015 - 10:06 PM.

[T VXT]

IMO this widening of the powerband has changed the engine's character more than moving from Stage 2 to Stage 4.

Yea, a wide powerband really transforms a car. Good to hear you are so happy with it

Cheers Nev, would live to come see nipper one day, but I'd be scared of how much the trip could cost me in future mods.......

[T VXT]

Here's a video of the speedo, sorry for the jerkyness, I didnt secure the mini cam very well.

[D-DAWG83]

Jesus, that is spinning round quick! 

[T VXT]

Yep, the wider powerband and extra revs means it can hold a lower gear for longer, which has made a big difference in acceleration.

 

 

 

 

[Bumblebee]

Are you on std internals? What hp are you running?

[Captain Vimes]

That's a rather rapid car!

[Nev]

It is remarkable how VXTs acceleration always looks so fast at low/moderate speeds, it's all that mid range torque and thanks to the low intertia turbo. However, I used to find the acceleration fizzled out by about 120 leptons though.

Edited by Nev, 26 June 2015 - 10:39 AM.