[Trackday_Prep] Topaz 205 Gti6 Fast Road/track

[simsk 1]

Thought I should probably start a project thread on here. If anything it'll probably help me rather than help anyone else unfortunately but I'll help anyone with any questions on what I've done.

I've driven 205 Gti's since I was 18 and unfortunately have sent one to a scrap yard, converted one nearly to MI16 that I sold to a mate cheap which he easily got working and I hope is still on the road somewhere.

I had a small period of a few years without owning one before I decided I needed one in my life again. A bit of an impulse buy I must admit but knabbed this one off ebay.

image5 (1) by simsk, on Flickr

It is running a Xsara engine on jenvey throttle bodies and K6 management which was too hard for me to ignore since I wanted a XU10 engined car. It seemed to have a good spec with some money spent on it so seemed a good deal.

Basically as I bought the car it had:

Xsara engine with throttle bodies and K6 managment and made something like 167bhp at the wheels on the map though I'll have to double check. It was mapped at Janspeed.

Xsara 5 speed box

Willwood dynalite brakes with braided hoses

Gaz suspension

Grp N engine mounts

Swirl pot in the back with fuel line ran in the car.

OMP 6 point cage

Cobra Imola bucket seats and 4 point harnesses

Stainless steel custom exhaust

Bad points where:

Cage and seats where barely welded in...

Has wheel spacers all round

Sits too low so probably needs rasing by 20mm or so

Had no filter on the throttle bodies

Bad fuel lines and tyres.

Well at least that's what I've found wrong so far after owning the car a couple years.

It has had a couple problems both where the crank sensor. First time was a straight swap and up and running again though I never drove the car much as It had no air filter and then It started to become hard to start and got worse over time. What I didn't expect was the new crank sensor to break down slowly and cause this to happen which left me scratching my head for a long time and waiting for some people that never helped and In the end it clicked one day. Finally with that fixed and now an air filter fitted on the front I could at least drive the car though not fast as the seats and cage where a joke quite frankly...

So next year I want to drive around europe in it. Hit SPA, Nurburg, alps, monaco, le man and some other roads etc in a loop. I've always wanted to do this and only ever driven the ring in other peoples cars and never my own yet unfortunately. So the game is on to get it ready for next summer.

So I have a few jobs to do and a couple things I'm a little unsure on atm, regarding the rear beam and overall suspension setup. What to go for?? thinking 21mm torsion bars, 22-23mm ARB and a full rebuild with possibly xsara arms.

Here's some pics so far, I'll update with any little jobs etc on my way...

image3 (1) by simsk, on Flickr

Cosmetic wise I didn't like the orange wheels, badgeless grill or raised bonnet, so wheels are now ford grey fitted with new tyres, Continental PremiumContact5 185/50/15 and speedlines all round that I had in the garage with all my other bits and fitted a grill that wasn't badgeless though it does have carbon stickers on it :/ still I like the colour and having a badge!

I fitted a IFM filter onto the bodies...

image1 by simsk, on Flickr

image2 by simsk, on Flickr

Then I wanted to get the seats in properly though I don't think it'll quite meet MSA spec quite as the 3mm plates that attach in the middle aren't quite big enough. A wrong calc on my part... Though I'm pretty sure they are in there good and I'm happy with it. It was hard getting the seats low enough to keep your helmet away from the cage and I don't ever plan on competing myself though safety is always first.

image4 by simsk, on Flickr

image5 by simsk, on Flickr

Floor is just zinc primed until i get the cage in properly then i'll go over it all with a better finish paint.

That's where I am a now but hopefully I should be able to get some time over xmas to make some progress.

Any advice greatly appreciated, I do try to use the search function as much as possible on here.

[calvinhorse 870]

Great project, keep the updates coming!

[bluesleeper 3]

^^ What he said! ^^

[camgti 56]

Great work. A good project.

 

Ive used 21mm bars and 24mm arb on the road can vouch that it works well. Maybe a 23mm bar if you findthe 24 too stiff.

 

I would have a look at getting some stage 1 cams in there for more poke. Should work nicely with the throttles.

[simsk 1]

Great work. A good project.

 

Ive used 21mm bars and 24mm arb on the road can vouch that it works well. Maybe a 23mm bar if you findthe 24 too stiff.

 

I would have a look at getting some stage 1 cams in there for more poke. Should work nicely with the throttles.

 

Cheers Camgti. they are my preferred plans in time. I'm not overly keen on it being to stiff so will probably go with the 23mm and see how that is. Would you recommend any specific cams? Ideally i'd rather not do any head work so I can keep the overall engine pretty standard for an easy swap if anything serious happens. Then maybe when I get some serious money do a full build to a high spec...

[East_Hud 7 1 Cars]

Looks a great project. Really have to sort out my seat mounts as you have..

[camgti 56]

Your limited with the ampunt of lift you can run with standard pistons. PeterT does a stage 1 cam that I have used in a few cars thats great! Should work really well with your setup!

[simsk 1]

Unfortunately for me I got made redundant last week so have been busy using the workshop when I can. Managed to finish all the welding for the cage and have done a brief tidy up of some small surface rust on the inner arches.

 

Also painted the underneath in POR15 and undersealed as well as touching up any light patches.

 

Got the front wheels re balanced with some weights on the outside, so that I can get rid of the wheel spacers. Then it's onto rear brake lines and replacing a rear caliper tomorrow before getting a fresh MOT.

 

Just need to do a clutch then it's onto deciding what to do with rear beam other than just rising the height a little. See how deep my pocket goes...

 

Few pics:

 

Cage before... sickening!

 

 

 

and after:

 

 

IMG_0270 by simsk, on Flickr

 

 

Front inner arch ready for primer after rust treatment:

 

[welshpug 1,666]

nice job on the feet, needs HT bolts not ss though.

[simsk 1]

Thanks Welshpug, I'll get them changed.

[simsk 1]

While doing the rear brake lines and having to drop the fuel tank plus removing the rear beam I noticed some rust under the boot...

 

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IMG_0287 by simsk, on Flickr

 

So... I started and not sure I want to do that again but got it ready for rust treating tomorrow then paint.

 

Scraping underseal off first:

 

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then went at it with wire brush wheel in the drill and then cleaned it finally with acetone.

 

IMG_0308 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/68861266@N02/]

 

Looking at my beam and seeing as one of the mounting arm bushes is loose it could probably do with a full rebuild. Ideally I need one on there know while I re build mine with uprated torsion bars and ARB.

 

[simsk 1]

Well cars finally back together, rear compensators haven't gone back in as one wouldn't allow fluid through so presume it's no good. Other one was nice an shiny so presume had been changed on it's own. I'll see how it performs without and change it back when I get some money if it needs it. Got a rebuilt beam of Dan and Mei so that's all on and good and they kindly set the height for me at 315mm. Also fitted a different caliper as one was not recording any effort. Though I seem to have the wrong side so will have to see if there ok on the MOT. Also was doing some searching on the forum and saw people mentioning heat shields under the fuel tank... and yep I didn't have one so ran around the corner grabbed some sheet Ali and whipped one up for now. And I also finished the rear end, it got treated with hammerite Kurust and then painted in some serious container paint we had in the workshop, then finished with some fresh waxoyl. Few pics:

 

Underneath:

 

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Front inner arches got painted with some mixed up topaz blue paint from halfords. Have to say was very impressed with the colour match the original colour is slightly lighter but you can understand that after nearly 30years. Few coats of that and finished with clear lacquer:

 

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I then adjusted the front to hopefully match the rear, guessed and made it 20mm higher on each side. Turns out the front is a bit higher than the rear now by 5-7mm. Looking at the front wishbones though and there still not perfectly flat??

 

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Looking at it side on:

 

IMG_0353 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/68861266@N02/]

 

Should i adjust front to match the back by dropping it 5-7mm and putting a bit more angle on the front wishbones or should I just raise the rear beam at some point so that I can get the front wishbones flat? I'm not bothered about looks and am more interested in it's handling.

 

Also got the front wheels balanced on the outside of the wheels so that they don't catch the calipers. Now I have removed the wheel spacers!

 

Also switched the wires around on the fans at the front meaning air is now blown onto the radiator rather than it drawing it out from the engine bay. To me this makes sense as when your driving surely you don't want the fans opposing the oncoming air? Also checked my original 205 fans I have lying around they seem to go that way?? What effect if any his will have on the water cooling i'm not totally sure but hoping for an improvement.

 

Now for an MOT and then some well deserved test driving!!!

[dcc 855]

The ride height looks perfect to me! See how it drives before you change anything! Get your trim treated with bumper renovator or similar type stuff, that will look like a mint topaz!

[simsk 1]

Yeah will do mate, she needs driving and I need to drive her... Will get on the trim too, definitely needs a touch up!

[calvinhorse 870]

You don't want to have the wishbones perfectly flat, ideally they should be pointing down.

Perfectly flat wishbones is my absolute limit when lowering cars, it's not ideal but any more and it starts effecting the handling.

[welshpug 1,666]

are you looking at the arches when checking the height?

 

rears are lower, you need to look at the jacking points.

[simsk 1]

yeah did do it off arches, didn't think it was probably right...

 

over here now so will put it back in on flat surface and measure off jacking points. Reckon it might still need a bit to come up at front which is good

[welshpug 1,666]

yeah looking at the picture probably another 15-20 mm on the front, level or slightly raked forward works very well, just not quite that much!

[TAG 25 1 Cars]

Too much rake has been known to induce cacky-trousers syndrome if you're unsubtle coming off the loud pedal. Great fun though.

As others have said, front up a touch and she'll be reet.

Good thread so far, enjoying reading.

[simsk 1]

well give it to Mei, the measurements off the sill where: NF 180mm/ NR 198mm/ OF 175mm/ OR 202mm so looks like the front does need another 15-20mm raise.

 

Got the car MOT'd during the week and passed with flying colours which is always nice.

 

Went for a proper drive yesterday, 6am start, 200 mile trip up across exmoor to bude and back down to plymouth to put her on the scales.

Se weighed in at 900kg with half a tank of fuel and a truck battery in the boot lol so I'm actually happy with that. I said I'd be happy if it was sub 900 so a pretty good guess.

 

We where surprised to see my mates CRX weigh in at 920 though will polycarb windows and carbon bonnet and wings plus fibreglass tailgate and blanked sunroof...

 

Then went back up and across dartmoor and home. Some lovely roads and awesome fun and no dodgey moments, gave the car a good little first test, though the front suspension does seem a bit bouncy and soft IMO. Bu certainly feels a lot more predictable now its not slammed on the floor which is good. So would like to look at uprating that with damper control as well and adjustable top mounts.

 

Anyone got any suggestions on spring rates and top mounts for GTI6 engined car?

 

Heres a couple pics, was too busy driving all day to stop for photos:

 

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DSC_8294 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/68861266@N02/]

[welshpug 1,666]

guessing the GAZ you have aren't damping adjustable?

[simsk 1]

99percent sure there not, no dial on the side of the suspension body and nothing on top by the mount either.