Little Red Devil

[VWindahouse]

Haha thanks mate, it's a hectic little ride for sure!!

[VWindahouse]

I saw the dyno numbers from the euro day on the dyno wall and mate very impressed with what you've achieved with a well thought out and relatively cost effective build! Innovative stuff mate, keep it up!

PS and I was kidding before about the novel thing in light of seeing your results

[DonJuan]

Pity you had to pull out of tomorrow Ant, I was looking forward to seeing the little red devil again, especially since a lot has changed in between catching up with you!

[Tarmac]

I saw the dyno numbers from the euro day on the dyno wall and mate very impressed with what you've achieved with a well thought out and relatively cost effective build! Innovative stuff mate, keep it up!

PS and I was kidding before about the novel thing in light of seeing your results

LOL, funny story that. I was meant to use a white board marker.......i didnt. So its never been rubbed off the white board. haha. Soon i will rub the figure out and put 300-320awkw there. Cant wait.

Thanks mate, the entire idea of it all is cost effective but remain safe and reliable. I think i have done that, finally.

[vwthunder]

Ant amazing Dyno result, you and gav have put so much hard work into it. Interested to see the result once a final tune is finished when the rods are in.

Do you plan on putting the rods in soon ?
Whats it like to drive, does it just light up one tyre in 2nd and i guess 3rd ?
How is your clutch holding up?

[VWindahouse]

Pity you had to pull out of tomorrow Ant, I was looking forward to seeing the little red devil again, especially since a lot has changed in between catching up with you!

Yeah sorry mate, but I will do my best to get the next Euro meet so we can catch up. Bet you're enjoying that new R

LOL, funny story that. I was meant to use a white board marker.......i didnt. So its never been rubbed off the white board. haha. Soon i will rub the figure out and put 300-320awkw there. Cant wait.

Thanks mate, the entire idea of it all is cost effective but remain safe and reliable. I think i have done that, finally.

300-320awkw well that's just plain ridiculous... I love it!!! When is this planned for mate?

Ant amazing Dyno result, you and gav have put so much hard work into it. Interested to see the result once a final tune is finished when the rods are in.

Do you plan on putting the rods in soon ?
Whats it like to drive, does it just light up one tyre in 2nd and i guess 3rd ?
How is your clutch holding up?

Thanks Troy, yep Gav's just been plain awesome as usual. But as a true professional he was quite sombre in light of the fueling outcome where as I was bouncing off the walls.

I will be buying more bit's to go with the rods over time after I get a few other things sorted.

And for the clutch I'm lucky I went straight to the ECS Stage 2 clutch kit in the early days and it's holding up fantastically. It's still rated for more torque iirc.

For the traction, well I was going to start another thread about as I've been doing some thinking. I'm lucky in that the power delivery is very linear so once I got the front alignment sorted out (mainly toe), high speed traction isn't an issue at all anymore. So I was just left with changing up into 2nd (3rd is completely fine) where it still spun if you just planted it.

I remembered when Gav and I were doing the road logging I couldn't get it to spin at all even being heavy footed which got me thinking so started researching corner balancing. So there are a few contributing factors to the Polo's loss of traction;

Transverse engine predominately placed on the drivers side of the car, then both the drivers weight and the fuel tank are all that side also. So a VERY lop sided setup from the get go.

This I guess I why the 20kg factory battery is not only on the passenger side but as Gav pointed out in front of the drive shaft effectively making it's effect on that tyre heavier. And not to forget that huge windscreen washer bottle over there also (when it's full).

So even with this fully weighted factory set up we all know how easy it was to spin the shorter drive shaft on the passenger side being the path on least resistance I guess.

Now take those of us with 5kg batteries instead of the OEM brick. That's substantially less weight over the the drive shaft that needs that balancing weight the most.

So with a full tank of fuel a 70-100kg driver and a pissant little battery and no passenger you're gonna have a bad time

This is where those with coilovers have a big advantage. So from what I've read the objective with corner balancing is to achieve perfect 50:50 weight distribution front and rear and also 50:50 diagonally also - left front to right rear, and right front to left rear. Now this is fine for both RWD and AWD but good luck achieving this with a very front heavy FWD Hatchback. The only way to achieve those figures I just mentioned is to add ballast which completely defeats the purpose of having a lightweight little hatchback as you will go slower. Plus you actually want more weight over the front wheels anyway for obvious reasons.

So what's the solution. Well not many of the experts out in interweb land actually agree on a formula for corner balancing a FWD hatchback but here is a theory and method that makes sense to me. Now you will need proper corner balancing scales for this which are hard to come by because they usually cost over a grand to buy.

First add either a person of your exact weight to the drivers seat or some ballast.
Second set the ride height to where you want with a slight rake towards the front being a FWD vehicle.
Third undo the sway bars if you have them as they have preload tension that will effect the weight being seen on the scales.
Forth roll the car onto the scales and see where you're at on each corner then start adjusting the heights with the aim of firstly achieving a 50:50 distribution from side to side (this is not done on RWD or AWD vehicles) They say you should roll the car off the scales then back on after every adjustment.

So as a rule if you want to increase the weight of a particular corner you raise the coilover and reverse for wanting to lower the corner weight.

Also note how much fuel you have (for those who want to race their Polo try to have the level that you will be mainly racing with). Or half a tank is a good compromise if you don't.

Fifth look at balancing the front and rear as close to 50:50 as possible without upsetting the 50:50 side to side setting you've already achieved. This will be more like 60:40 or even worse if you have a stripped out rear end.

It can be a time consuming process but well worth the trouble in the end.

So I painstaking set about a getto balance last week (no scales) and it's paid dividends I got the ride height sorted then raised the front passenger side incrementally a couple of turns at a time then went for a drive to test both traction and cornering balance on a few favorite local twisties. It only took two too may adjustments on that side to really upset the car to the point the steering wheel was pulling heavily to one side, then took it back to the happy spot. So you really can tell just by feel if you're heading in the right direction with your adjustments.

But for those that care about static stance well you can't have your cake and eat it too unfortunately as the car will look lopsided sitting there with no one in it.

When I get the new damper adjustable coilovers I'll be getting the car balanced properly with scales but for now just the getto balance has worked wonders!

[jasn78]

Ant u thought about Changing thickness of drive shafts to compensate for the different in length? Was speaking to engineering friend last night on ur car and was sayin this is another option

[noone]

Nice progress dude, epic.


I assumed that was the reference... Love the montage song

Thats a nice way to find some more power, I'll have to have a bit of a read back over this all again.

I'm thinking the swaybar would be fighting the springs resting position unless you adjusted the links length to suit. Does that sound about right?

[VWindahouse]

Ant u thought about Changing thickness of drive shafts to compensate for the different in length? Was speaking to engineering friend last night on ur car and was sayin this is another option

That's a hell of an idea mate! Never would have considered it. And having the A3 shaft on already maybe that's a little thicker than the Polo's, and why traction hasn't been such an issue for me in the past???

Nice progress dude, epic.


I assumed that was the reference... Love the montage song

Thats a nice way to find some more power, I'll have to have a bit of a read back over this all again.

I'm thinking the swaybar would be fighting the springs resting position unless you adjusted the links length to suit. Does that sound about right?

Haha nice pick up Ben!!! Thanks mate

[jasn78]

Lol helps to have mates with brains