jonfoc

Thanks for that mate. How far forward is the splitter I was thinking about fitting one to mine about 75mm extended out.
I work at Leda and I've been looking into spring rates as I'm just starting to build mine up. I've opted for 375lb front and 450 rear. I'm running bladed arb's too. Some of the spring rates other companies were quoted were huge. 700 & 800lb front and rear, which is massive considering the corner weights of the car. It'll never give chance for the dampers to work surely?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Rstar_man

It extends 100mm past the bumper for TA regs I think I can have upto 150mm but that in my option is to much for my car. I was thinking in the region of 600-700 maybe but with standard ARB's. Bladed one would make things so much easier to adjust setting but out of my price range at the moment. What car are you using those spring rates on?

jonfoc

I'm building a focus rs mk1 mate. Been a labour of love for a few years now. Twins and marriage slow things down massively.

https://passionford.com/forum/restor...influence.html

jonfoc

A friend of mine had a focus rs mk1 track car, he had a very expensive Ohlins set up on it. His springs were around 600 & 700 front and rear running standard arb's and 210 slick tyres. He would get terrible snap oversteer on tight hairpins sometimes. It just seems an awful lot of spring on each corner for a focus. 6 & 700 pounds of pressure on each corner before the dampers are allowed to do their stuff and control it. The rear of our cars is very light after you've stripped them out.

Rstar_man

Bloody amazing fab work mate been watching it your build. I'd love to start from a bare shell on my own car

PaulinhoT

Looking forward to reading about your winter updates, and next year is looking good.

jonfoc

Cheers mate. I'm hoping to get it home one night this week coming. Most bits are ready to bolt on, just waiting on a couple of little bits but work is manic and it's holding me back a bit.

Rstar_man

Thanks Paul, I have a few sneaky pics on my Instagram page if a few things for next year if you haven't already seen them 👍

jonfoc

Stick the pictures up on here please mate. I'm old and don't do instagram.

Rstar_man

Maybe I'll reconsider the springs in that case 🤔 Thanks for the hints

jonfoc

No worries mate. You're further down the line than me so I was hoping you could help me. I do know that when I had the 375 springs on the front and dampers set to hard I really had to bounce the thing to make them move.

Rstar_man

I was working from my BTCC stuff they have 800-900 front and 1200-1500 rear and the Honda 24hr cars I built used 800-1000 so I just thought to go softer.

We we are all here doing the same thing just with different knowledge, experience and budget so spreading help where we can is all apart of the fun of building our cars and sharing the jounery.

I'll post some of my Instagram pics up later if my laptop stops having a hissy fit

jonfoc

Nice work you do. That's some serious poundage, maybe I'm miles off (often the case) they look quite soft on track, lots of nose dipping under breaking. A couple of guys on here with our cars run a softer spring too. Underdog and nevsrevs I think they're around a 450 rear spring, I think the rear was twitchy when they used higher rates.

jonfoc

What sort of aero did they use on BTCC?

jonfoc

My mates focus ran 600 & 700lb springs front and rear respectively

Rstar_man

Yeh it does look like they are soft but can ensure you they are heavily sprung. Most of it is due to set up as they have a lot of rack plus the body kit is high apart from Welch's Proton that had the rear archs made to fit lower making the back look lower but still ran 15-20mm rack, aero wise not much just wider body to meet the regs for max width, front floor/splitter (can't remember how far it extended past the bumper but not much) and a rear wing which in the Focus's does next to nothing as it's made to sit a bit lower then the roof line as they still use the standard boot lid wing and most other front wheel drive cars were set up to add lift on the rear to help pivot te back on turn in and create less drag

Rstar_man

Small update and a few pictures of a few thing to come in the future.


Firstly I pick up a front end rally cross kit from the guys at X-Sport Racing a while back after seeing pictures of their old rally cross car turned into a V8 monster I know I had to have it as the pictures will prove,



(I'm not using the bonnet)


The kit test fitted,



Also got them to make a splitter for the bumper as well,

Just need to get wheels to fit.


Back to the updates, My old tired Eibach coilovers have done me proud after a good few years of use, but its time they came off to make way for my new setup,

And modified my top mounts,

(ignore the rust looking bits that is crap of the bottom of my strut brace)


With the power upgrades slowly coming together I had a afternoon free and made a start on the idea I have for the new exhaust. Can you tell where I got the idea from?





I'm going for a Group A style side pipe I'll hopefully get round to making the exhaust over the weekend, I will keep you all updated if I do, maybe a video as well

jonfoc

A mate of mine runs that front end on his focus rs. Make sure you fit it securely and use an underfloor too. The splitter generates that much down force it nearly ripped the bumper off! He's probably going back to a smaller splitter from memory. Car is going to be epic. What dampers are going on?

Rstar_man

I think I follow him on Instagram, the kits were made a week apart (sad that I know that), I was going to make better supports from the chassis legs (like the cross brace on the WRC MK1) to hold the bumper and floor on with the extra force on light weight panels. Not to sure on dampers yet still trying to work out what budget I have to do everything

jonfoc

Yeah jacks his name, I'm sure he will be along to comment at some point. You must have access to some suspension goodies and wheels in your line of work?

Rstar_man

You would like to think so, but unfortunately loads of seriously heavy spring and centre nut wheels and I don't wont to go down the route of custom hubs etc, although centre nut wheels would be mint.

PaulinhoT

I really like the front end on that car, I wonder if it would work well on the road

Rstar_man

Evening all,


I managed to get a bit of time on the car last night and finish the exhaust, I do have a video but I can't seem to transfer it from my phone to computer but I'll keep trying.


Here's a few pictures of the finished exhaust,




Also a few pictures of what's to come



Thanks to the guy's from Lightning Motorsport for the manifold.


I am expecting more parts to arrive in the post over the coming days and into the new year so best pull my finger out and start building.


Thanks guys

jonfoc

Shiny I like it. It looks like it’ll be nice and quiet

Rstar_man

Yeah I think I'll be putting in a bigger silencer before I even think of going out on track

Rsmat

iTrader: (2)

Cracking work so far mate .

Rstar_man

Thanks mate 👍

gcfcos

Love that exhaust

jonfoc

Any updates on this?

Rstar_man

Evening all,


Just a small update this time.


The new suspension kit is on the car, may choice my surprise some but I've gone for BC due to budget, but still going to work better then my old Eibach dampers

As you can see from the condition of my old rear springs they have been on the car for quite some time

They have standard springs on at the moment but have stiffer springs to try and see what I prefer.


Also more engine parts have arrived, Ollie from OC Motorsport has sorted me some of his stage 2 cams which will work while the car stay's N/A to work on the handling with a bit more power and will work with helping to increase the power when the turbo build is finished.


New stage 2 cam on the left and standard cam on the right for size comparison

Both cams ready to go in




That's is all for now, I have a few parts that hopefully should arrive by the weekend. I will post up when they do.

jonfoc

Nice little update. Heard good things about BC units. What spring rates?

Rstar_man

Cheers John, I can't remember what the standard rates are I think somewhere around 350-450 but I could be wrong, I'm also going to try 600-700 springs once I've drove it with the standard ones to get an idea and which I prefer

PaulinhoT

Nice little update, and I would love an exhaust like that for my ST170 ,)

Rstar_man

Evening everyone, another small update as a few boxes have arrived at work.


Firstly Hardrace rear Toe and Camber arms,

I even managed to find time to install the Toe arms, after spending quite some time cutting the seized bolts out,

New arms on, I have replaced the long bolts with shorter ones now,



A bit silly but nothing says I'm a race car then a small white knob



Also a 1ltr fuel swirl pot for the updated fuel system to help stop fuel surge, I'm still waiting for the rest of the parts for the fuel system to arrive in form of a MSA/FIA fuel sampling kit which goes into the fuel line before the fuel rail which can be also used as a system drain to measure how much fuel I use per session, inline fuel pumps, filters and braided lines to run through the inside of the car,

It's only plonked in a rough place to get an idea on space for the pump and filter


New Vibra engine and gearbox mounts, I have a slight issue with the engine mount though and this is the only one Vibra so need help if anyone knows anyone that can make me the correct one,




Roughly 10 weeks to go until the official Time Attack test day Cadwell Park which I'm hoping to attend with most of the work done by then but we will see

Caddyshack

Can you really swap from 450 springs to 700 and use the same dampers?, I would have thought the damper would not be able to cope?

My little 205 feels stiff on 170 springs and it has a yb and a 4x4 system in it so not as light as a standard one.

jonfoc

Nice list of parts there. You've got your work cut out to get it ready. Good luck.

@Toby that's a good question. If the kit has been nice designed for the softer springs then that's their optimum spring rate. You are right in thinking that the dampers might struggle to control the stiffer spring. It takes a lot to compress that kind of spring and in turn to control the rebound. It could be a very bumpy ride and if not careful it could pull the dampers apart (unlikely but possible.

This lad works in Motorsport so I'm sure he will research first.

jonfoc

Doesn't the fuel system need a firewall? I'm trying to get my head around my installation now too.

Rstar_man

Hello mate, its something I hear quite a lot can you do this or that won't work, but from my experience on cars I have built and run in the past be it from 24hr cars, club level front wheel drive cars and all the way to BTCC S2000 and NGTC spec cars, something that we have always done is put heavier pound springs on so we could run a more supple and not as stiff dampers (all be it a shit ton stiffer the anything I will run). Yes in my case I don't have a way of controlling the rebound externally so have no way of controlling it if the springs are to hard, which is why its a game of finding the right balance for how I want it to behave on track, but through many years of working in motorsport I have been lucky to make friends with suspension experts who can re-valve and shim the internals to suit if it feels to bouncy. Saying that I'm going to try the standard springs and then change to the stiffer springs back to back to get a comparison and make to damper softer to suit the stiffer springs

jonfoc

Are you changing the roll bars?

Rstar_man

Yes ideally it does need a fire wall, but as I don't have a spare wheel well anymore, I Spoke to the Time Attack scrutineers/MSA scrutineers at Autosport and had the issue addressed. What I am going to do is make a box from alloy or thin steel to cover it which is bolted down to seal it from fumes escaping into the cabin and as the lines are in the car they have to be stainless steal and the system needs a roll over/vent valve installed. Hope this helps mate, unless you are using a ATL bag tank everything is contained inside the bag itself so will only need to make box for it to sit in and stainless steal lines in the car