Cupra things

[tonijov]

MORE UPDATES!

Replaced a whole bunch of halogen bulbs to LED's, man are these things bright!





New indicator relay to work with LED's



Then all this went on!


ST XA front coilover, new design with progressive spring and retains the stock spring top cap




I already had a set of 25mm rear spacers (thanks Phil!), which widens the rear track width from 1394mm to 1444mm.
Front track width is 1430mm, so with 7mm front spacers I now have a matching front track width of 1444mm.




Now with castor adjustment!


Thought this was a pretty neat place to keep the adjuster tool.



Wheel alignment,
First I did the castor which was way off from factory, got it to +2.2° left and +2.3° right.
I had the front wheels sitting on top of two tiles with salt in between to allow then to slide around easily, set the camber to -0.9° left/right.
For toe I had some fishing line setup around the car and with the now equal track widths it was more simple to do the measurements from the wheels, toe took up the most time remeasuring many times over! Got it to about 2mm of toe out.


Next is to drive the thing and see how it goes, play with the damping adjustments, maybe some ride height tweaks etc

[Water Boy]

Nice DIY wheel alignment there!

[tonijov]

Corner balanced the car today!
Making sure I had level ground was crucial for this to work. I used the bucket of water and clear hose taped to a stick trick to level out 16 points (each corner of each block).

With a full tank of fuel and 77kg of weights in the drivers seat, car weighed in at 1182kg (65.5% front, 34.5% rear)


Precision weight placement lol


After some time playing around with the ride height of each corner I finally arrived at 50% cross weight (Front Left + Rear Right = Front Right + Rear Left)


Tomorrow I'll do another wheel alignment and see how it goes

[tonijov]

Treated the cupra to its first wash in Victoria today.
Very very pleased with the way it behaves on the road with the new setup, over bumps and in the turns. Also loving the stock exhaust quietness inside the car, the remus muffler sits waiting for now.

Another big thing I've done to the car is install a front and rear dashcam (Thinkware F750) as some insurance after the previous hit and run.
It'll sense motion or vibrations when parked and make a recording file 10 seconds prior to the event!


Here's once such example already spotted:


And another of the cupra eating up a turn at 60km/hr:

[Cupra]

Looking great Toni, it's great to see the care you are giving her.

Phil

[tonijov]

Cupra waits for some new shoes and bonnet gets a face peel

[tonijov]

Updates:

I had the rims powder coated before fitting new tyres as the original clear was flaking off.
The urge to pick white was strong, however a pain to keep clean so I decided to go with a light silver with metallic specks.
Really happy with the result as it's somewhere between stock and white!

During the wait I detailed the car, got rid of the ancient CD stacker system, installed light sensing auto on/off headlight system, fit the Remus exhaust and swapped my Neuspeed 28mm rear sway bar over.

Badges removed, polished, re-attached:


Clean!


New tyres, big size difference!


Adjusted speedo needle higher up to account for the bigger rolling diameter.


Exhaust new vs old. The stock tubing looks a bit more restrictive as it bends over the rear axle.


Headlight sensor, turns parking/tail lights on at dusk and then headlights as it gets darker (or entering undercover parking).


The once-was CD stacker interface, gone.


A neat place for my tyre pressure gauge.


Sway bar and exhaust fitted.



The new ride height. Corner balance/alignment redone.


Drive me!

[sports racer]

Love all the new shiny bits.

Is the rear mount for the sway bar welded on?

[tonijov]

Nope just held on with a bolt, no drilling either there just happened to be a hole there.
You can see the bolt head sticking up just under the shock. Bolt went in without having the remove the shock too.

[Cupra]

She is looking great Toni, love the subtle mods you've done.