Totb 2009

[Nick@TD.co.uk]

OK - here goes...

Going...

CP forged pistons (standard CR)
Cunningham forged rods
Mildly-flowed head, standard valves
Columbo & Bariani 'fast road' cams
Garrett GT2871 turbo (0.64 AR turbine housing)
Live mapping to standard ECU
384cc injectors, with 3.8 bar FPR
Forge front mount intercooler
Forge straight intake pipe with Ramair filter
Forge dump valve
Hayward & Scott 3" downpipe, custom 3" exhaust system
6 speed gearbox (five as standard for the base 20vt - 6 speeds on the LE and Plus models)

Cornering...

Sparco upper strut brace
Custom lower subframe brace
Koni shocks
Eibach springs
Uprated ARBs front and rear
Polybushed wishbones

Stopping...

DBA 4000 discs
Pagid Yellow pads
Dot 4 racing fluid
Custom braided hoses

The unusual thing about this car is the mileage - its on 218,000 at the moment, and growing by 25,000 - 30,000 a year. Its a genuine daily driver, which often does huge distances (500-mile days aren't rare for me).

Its very carefully mapped so that its usable - I get 28mpg on the daily commute, and easy 35 mpg cruising the motorways at legal (ish) speeds. When trying, I can get over 40mpg.

Best quarter to date has been 12.38 @ 118 at a very warm Santa Pod. Top speed is 'unknown' - I reckon around 180 (its geared for 195)

There are MUCH more powerful Coupes out there (mine was definitely the least powerful at TOTB - always has been). The biggest output we've seen is well over 600bhp from a 2.4 litre conversion. It was at TOTB two years ago, but snapped a driveshaft on the first launch of the day

There - Nigel's Coupe in a couple of hundred words - how can a description be so quick when I've put six years and around £20k into it?

Not a bad spec list mate at all, how have you lost compression on one cylinder with forged internals mate? anyways was a good laugh and i wasn't taking anything away from you, you beat us but we will be back dont worry we know what to expect now and we know the areas that let us down.

Thanks for the support from TGTT we appreciate it!

Will update shortly and put up some pictures of what the GT was running etc but it was still on a Stock TD04 turbocharger with stock cams and valves so it was pretty mild but we get great response as its built for the track not the drag

Thanks Again and if anyone wants a chat drop us a PM or Email and we will advise or chat about anything to help you.

~Nick @ Tuning Developments LTD

 

[Animal GT]

i cant see a stock td04 turbo and stock cams reaching into 12s doh on the Q/M!! as som1 stated earleir in th thread..

 

[NigelO]

Not sure what's caused the loss of compression - a year ago it was 150 across all five pots, but last week it was 130, 140, 145, 108, 130

There's three possibilities

1) The engine overheated on a recent mapping session when a water hose blew
2) It was running rich for a while - could be bore-wash
3) 'total-seal' rings are reputed to be hard on the bores - I've done nearly 90,000 with them

Regardless of the cause, it will be rebuilt with a good low-mileage block and some new rings (hopefully the pistons will be OK)

I'm becoming seriously impressed with the little Starlet - one of the reasons I own a Coupe is becuase its 'different' - I guess there's a bit of this with the Starlet as well? - its not the usual choice of Scooby/Skyline/Evo/200SX. I could see it was optimised for the corners, it really was very neat around the twisty bits (anyone can go fast in a straight line )

I'm already looking forward to next year :drive:

 

[GTti]

It's nice that you joined the forum to share your thoughts Nigel. I'd never even heard of TOTB before this thread so I look forward to more material.

I really like what Nick's done to his car, it's always good when you develop something with an objective in mind, the car seems to have a good balance of everything.

You may just have given him so motivation to get on top

 

[NigelO]

You may just have given him so motivation to get on top

I hope so!

The only advice I would give to Nick is that TOTB is just one day a year - if you build a car purely to do well there, it will be a right PITA for the other 364 days

Don't lose sight of why you like the car - I imagine its a total hoot to drive on the road, and with the balance of handling and power it currently has, I bet it can scare lots of machinery of ten times its own value. Another 50+ horsepower would make it into a true giant-killer (and probably a Coupe-killer too )

However, as soon as you start to REALLY try to win at TOTB, you run the risk of hating the car. I've *just* stopped myself, as a) I need the car for everyday commuting and b) I can't afford to get it to 500bhp. The metallic red Coupe is normally much faster than mine, but it has a huge turbo, which meant it was next to useless on the handling circuit. Even mine was a bit too laggy (I had to dip the clutch in second to get the revs up on a couple of the bends).

Just keep focus on what you REALLY want out of the car and treat TOTB as a bit of fun.

If you want some proper track action, then go for a proper trackday - last year, I worked out how much tracktime I got from TOTB, compared with how much I spent - it worked out at over £1 per SECOND that I actually drove in anger - not good value.

However, its a great platform for showing people what a relatively obscure car can do - for me, this is (was) the greatest attraction of TOTB - the two best cars this year were the Granada and the MG SV. Previous years have seen an Integrale, a rear-engined Golf Mk1 with a WRC Quattro engine in the back, a twin engined VR6 turbo Golf, a mini with a turbo'd Hayabusa engine in the boot and even a Mk4 Transit with a Cosworth lump in the rear. All of this seems to be lost now, as its just a case of "deepest wallet wins"

There - I said it - rant over

 

[STARLET N/A]

^^ have you got any videos of yur little monstor??

 

[59bhp]

However, its a great platform for showing people what a relatively obscure car can do - for me, this is (was) the greatest attraction of TOTB - the two best cars this year were the Granada and the MG SV. Previous years have seen an Integrale, a rear-engined Golf Mk1 with a WRC Quattro engine in the back, a twin engined VR6 turbo Golf, a mini with a turbo'd Hayabusa engine in the boot and even a Mk4 Transit with a Cosworth lump in the rear. All of this seems to be lost now, as its just a case of "deepest wallet wins"

There - I said it - rant over

we were actually discussing this over the weekend, i remember the first totb where a maestro turbo took 1st in the fwd class,

personally there should be a stipulation where the entrants have to drive the car for a certain amount of days per year, (obviously enforcing this is almost impossible) but the spirit has definatly been taken from the competition in recent years.

 

[lanxter]

some nice little write ups there, i have to say the corsa that won 1/4 in fwd is driven most of the year as hes forever out with us in it, hes not a megga rich bloke and doesnt give his cars and a cheque to a company its nearly all done himself in his garage.

 

[NigelO]

t the spirit has definatly been taken from the competition in recent years.

I agree - the original mantra of TOTB was to find the fastest road-legal cars in the country

Now I know that *technically* my car isn't road-legal due to a decat, but its taxed, MOT'd and the mileometer shows its actually used on the road.

Its clear that some of the cars there are not road legal - no numberplates, no tax discs and exhausts that would be heard by every plod in the county.

If you were around at the beginning, you'll remember Rocket Ronnie in his Skyline - still head leather, aircon, carpets, everything - he just turned up, raced (and won) then drove home - now THAT is a proper TOTB car.

I was speaking with Specky (Tigra) and whilst his car is actually used on the road, Sunday was the first time it had been run in six months. Whilst the car is clearly amazing (it came 9th overall in top speed last year) its hardly in keeping with what TOTB was designed to be about.

Shame, but I think its starting to lose it

I agree though - its impossible to police genuine road cars, as people will simply add mileage by winding the clocks forward (reverse clocking?)

Shame, but that's the way its heading

 

[Nick@TD.co.uk]

i cant see a stock td04 turbo and stock cams reaching into 12s doh on the Q/M!! as som1 stated earleir in th thread..

Anythings possible mate and if we really wanted to do 1/4 mile with our car then we would prove this but as im not a huge fan of drag racing the car wont see much action.

As said our GT is built for the track and handling and chassis setup always comes first for us, we tested a new gearbox we had on TOTB and it didn't work for us it held us back alot but we will have another box built shortly

Fantastic work with the Coupe though its a superb car and well built look forward to seeing you next year and drop us a PM of any trackdays or events your at this year and we will try and pop along.

Many Thanks
~Nick @ Tuning Developments LTD

 

[stevieturbo]

Cool Starlet, and well done with the results. Always good to see some variety with the cars.
Pity you had problems on the day though...but it happens all too easy when abusing the cars like that.

As for next year...who knows what format the event might take under its new management.

we will have another box built shortly

Hopefully not pink though :rockon:

 

[Nick@TD.co.uk]

Cool Starlet, and well done with the results. Always good to see some variety with the cars.
Pity you had problems on the day though...but it happens all too easy when abusing the cars like that.

As for next year...who knows what format the event might take under its new management.




Hopefully not pink though :rockon:

Cheers for that buddy much appreciated and yeah they mentioned making it a 2day event next year so will see what happens and see what they plan

Regarding the gearbox whats wrong with pink mate? haha

~Nick @ Tuning Developments LTD