MeTsU's 9N3 TDi - Sooty from South Africa

[MeTsU]

This is what was unveiled after removing the cover to the box:


Preparing to remove the OEM dampers and Eibach springs:


OEM dampers and Eibach springs removed - what a mission to get the hub loose:


New axial grooved ball bearing:


Assembling the front coilovers:


Front coilovers installed:


Rears removed and preparing for installation:


Assembling the rear damper:


Rear coilovers installed:

[MeTsU]

Front tyre to wheel arch gap before:


Front tyre to wheel arch gap after (inital setup and then dropped another 10mm after the photo):


Here's a few photo's from when we were admiring our days work. It was truly awesome to just take our time and do the small things - clean all the nitty gritty bits. It's not something you necessarily see, but I know it's now right.

[MeTsU]

Please excuse the poor photos, I'm certainly far from good when it comes to taking shots at night.

Left airvent surround installed:


Right airvent surround installed:


Removing the ashtray:


Centre console:


Installing centre console - I forgot to take a photo of the ashtray:


Centre console coming together:


Centre console finished - for now:


I've still got some final polishing to do. I still need to have the stop tray section, blank off below the radio, the cuppholder, the card holder and the fan control surround done. I am ecstatic with the quality of workmanship. The photo's don't do the parts justice.

The gentleman doing the Carbon Fibre work is very well respected and I certainly see why. The value of the work is close on R6k, but the cost to have this done is close on the R3k mark.

I look forward to completing the centre console.

Ciao, Matteo

[MeTsU]

I did a mufflerectomy - so Sooty's running a straight pipe from turbo to the turn down at the rear. I must admit, it took a little getting used to for the first week, but I'm starting to enjoy the tone. It really is a different sound for a diesel and to be able to hear the vanes snapping open under light to moderate load - gives a rather perspective on a diesel.

Whilst fitting the Carbon Fibre centre console, side air vents and ashtray, I replaced the standard leather boot with a Polo GTi boot. The hand brake lever will follow shortly.

At the same time, I decided to get the nose in the air, drop the belly pan and pull the dogbone mount - and to my surprise, it looked rather healthy. I decided to fit the spare dogbone from the Polo Cup car - it's a 90 shove (orange) poly bushed mount. Immediately on startup you notice the mount is a lot firmer than the standard one. Obviously, added NVH is to be expected, but not as badly as I thought it would be.

There is still a feeling of "a rocking motor" with this mount in, although, it is a more aggressive movement, with less travel. To be honest, I don't think that is it the motor, but the DMF not taking up correctly due to the springs starting to really wear out - I have a feeling they have lost some of their "tension".

My standard mount is busy being poly bushed - I decided to go for 70 shove (black). This should help in keeping some of the NVH at bay, whilst giving some rigidity. I should get this back around mid-week and will fit it.


I've decided that I won't be racing in the Regional series I competed in last season - I won't go into great detail due to them being so long winded - but the short version is that there's a lot of politics going on and due to having fully prep'd, stripped and caged race cars competing my class, which is supposed to be solely for everyday road going vehicles (daily drives), I won't be running. Anyway...

Here's a few photo's from today's 1st Trackday for the year 2010. I'm glad that I've finally finished off these terribly dry rotted Pirelli P6000's. I think it's time to invest in a set of semi's - they will work out best bang for buck and certainly last a lot longer. My times were ok. I was far off my usual times, due to the tyres, as well as needing to start doing setup on the coilovers. We know what works for the road, but today was the first bit of track time. I did a few laps on my street setting, came in and set the dampers to full hard, and went back out. It was a great improvement over the street setting that I use, but I feel that I need to look into running a high spring rate spring setup. Time will tell.

[MeTsU]

It's certainly been a while since I've had time to work on Sooty. Work has and still is rather insane at the moment. That, and the prep work with my team mate for the All Tar Rally in CPT, in August, as well as the Vivo Cup build.

I'm hoping to post a few Sooty updates this month. I might drop a photo or two, here and there of the other two cars in the fleet.

The tarmac special rally golf was completed mid 2009. Darren, my team mate, took part in the Knysna Hill Climb with me, and came an incredible 3rd place in his class, with this 8V beast. He has certainly taught me a lot and with his experience and knowledge in motorsport, I look forward to learning more. Darren has been key, in sparking my passion for motor racing.

This photo was taken at the Regional Makro Rally held three weeks ago. We went on to claim 4 stage wins:



Ciao, Matteo

[MeTsU]

I got around to taking a quick snap of one of the blank off's I had laser cut. I decided to go with Stainless Steel, 304 grade. I'm really happy with the quality.



I can't believe how much soot build up I had in my EGR & Anti-shudder valve, after only 15k km's. I would've been able to show you my documented photo's, had I remembered to put the memory card back in my camera - DOH!

What I can say, is that Sooty's got a lovely purr on idle now, as the EGR is in a permanent "closed" position. This means when idling you can really hear the turbo spinning. I can't comment on whether it takes longer to heat up or not at this stage. It certainly does make sense that it would affect it, but with the temperature around the 10C mark, it's difficult to say. What I have been thinking about, is that I need to look at getting my map redone, as a lot has changed since the initial map, as well as the fact that it does make sense that the car could possibly run a little leaner due to not having the EGR active. I do have a few blank off sets which I will put up for sale shortly.

My good friend Darren was kind enough to invite me to Cape Town to watch the German vs Argentina game - what an awesome roadtrip and game! The reason for mentioning this is that I happened to do an impulsive purchase and I hope to post up a couple of photo's of the progress of these items. :mrgreen:

[MeTsU]

I've been wanting these parts for almost a year now!! I just never got around to actually sourcing them - but luckily - a special someone took note and gave them to me for my birthday. Subtle, but draws just the right amount of attention - I love them.










I will be fitting these during the course of the week - although I'm sure it's safer to say on the weekend, LOL.

[MeTsU]

Here was a sneak preview of what the guys were expected to see in Durban for the annual DubRun '10.






DubRun 2010 - what an awesome event, enjoyed it thoroughly once again.

Here's a quick snap of Rob trying to convince me to run an LED tailpiece on Sooty - the salesman is strong in this one :



Here's two photo's from DubRun 2010 - having a break at Shane's place. I'm really happy with the depth and wetness the detail I did gave the paintwork - I'm really impressed with the CG Top Coat & Collinite 476S combo.

[MeTsU]

I was at Aldo Scribante two weekends ago to watch some of the Regional Racing (a large number of the CT guys came down to race). I met up with Redrum there and we were discussing how Sooty isn't really that low - and although this is true, the "limiting" factor is actually the belly pan being rather low. He decided to take a look and saw this for himself, LOL.

This is a shot of his cigarettes under Sooy:



I decided to drop Sooty further after the outing to the track where the "Aspen" shot was taken. The front is down another 5mm, which is very little, I know...but belly pan clearance is already an issue. The rear probably dropped around 15mm, not sure to be honest, but I can't go lower. Here's a shot I snapped, excuse the dirty car (water restrictions FTL ), I'll look for more tonight.

[MeTsU]

I thought I'd post up some test fitment photo's of the OZ's on the front right side. I was trying to get an idea of the clearances and whether it was necessary to run a 205/40 or not.

















The centre caps have been fitted this morning.