GTE valver fast road/track car project

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

I didn’t get much done on Sunday due to the crap weather we had and having to do the car on my drive.

You can see the welding that needs doing.



Here’s a better picture. I plan on doing similar to DarrenH and cut the mounting off, strengthen it from the rear and add some extra boxing and plating to the left to beef it all up.



After cleaning up the gearbox, I still need to buy a gasket, I couldn’t resist a pic of the straight cut crown wheel and Quaife ATB…mmm, much loveliness and noise.

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

It’s been a while since I’ve done anything on the GTE as I’ve just been way too busy. So today I stripped the pedal box area in preparation for welding the cracked rack mount next weekend.

Brake m/c removed





Then it was clutch and brake pedal removal followed by pedal box plate.





I managed to pull the wiring and bias adjuster cable that runs through the pedal box plate into the foot well and fortunately didn’t have to remove the dash carcass.



The wife lets me get away with most things but it was even better when she suggested I pop the GTE washer bottle in the dish washer to clean it up.



About 6 months ago I got hold of rarer than rocking horse droppings Eibach f+r ARB’s. The front is 23mm (standard 22mm on 16v) and the rear is 22mm (standard 18mm on 16v). I’ve now had them blasted and powder coated in purple to match their original colour. The front won’t make a huge difference but I’ll be leaving it loose anyway as John Cleland said it was a bit tight anyway and had slight understeer when he drive it at Knockhill last year.

[mick g]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

Quality work as usual mate

[laney]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

as mick said! lookin good mate, shame i cant spare the time, otherwise i would pop up and lend a hand with the welding, like i promised a while back am far to busy with house stuff atm

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

i would pop up and lend a hand with the welding, like i promised a while back am far to busy with house stuff atm

Thanks Laney but I have to learn at some point so my mate is popping down who does welding for a living so I'm in good hands to learn how to 'glue' metal together

[astrayorkie]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

some nice work there...

love arb's would like a front one of them

would this encourage understeer ?

[laney]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

Thanks Laney but I have to learn at some point so my mate is popping down who does welding for a living so I'm in good hands to learn how to 'glue' metal together

cool! no worries mate, wish i wasnt so tied up with other stuff atm

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

some nice work there...

love arb's would like a front one of them

would this encourage understeer ?

Your car will already have a front ARB fitted but the 16v came with a 22mm at standard other models came with either 16mm, 17.5mm or 20mm so might be worth looking for a 16v ARB and no my old one isn't for sale. They shouldn't induce understeer but hold everything nice and tight at the front under road conditions. My setup is that tight I need to give it slightly more roll on track so I'll either leave the front ARB loose, as I’m using using poly bushes on the drop links, or I'll disconnect it altogether. If it's too tight it'll cause understeer and strip your front tyres which is what’s currently happening on my car, as I was told so by the Astra mk2 God known as John Cleland.

I dearn't tell him not to lean on my car



John giving my motor a good thrashing at Knockhill last Easter for the Total Vauxhall shoot, that's how come I know it's a bit tight on the front as he tried his best to strip the front tyres.

[astrayorkie]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

i have one on my car already as is a 16v just wondered about the 23 mm uprated one what difference it would make.. as in my let astra used to understeer everywhere with the poly drops koni's so doing some investigating in to better setup's..

[Davey J]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

I would have thought stiffening up the back and putting a thinner one up front on most GTE's would get the front to dig in more. Read about a SAAB ARB on here somewhere. Worth experimenting with the different thickness fronts instead of running without one? My friend ran a diesel front ARB on his GTE Nova years ago and a thicker one at the back. Said it improved turn-in loads.

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

I'm already got the uprated Saab 22mm rear outer ARB (click for info) and with the Eibach inner 22mm bar the rear will be more than sorted. Going to have a think about front before putting a thinner bar, starting with leaving it looser than recommended might do the trick as the poly drop link bushes will allow for this.

Got a bit of welding done on the steering rack mount but after having a chat with a mate we now have a plan on how we are going to strengthen it properly, this will be done next weekend.

[Davey J]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

It's worth emailing Tom Stickland about bulkhead strengthening if you get time to.........................

[Steve Heley]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

I spent along time looking at how to make it alittle stronger without it turning into an eyesore. You can see from the picture i've put a strip in that pretty much fits on the end of the rack, i've also double skinned the same area on the inside and taken a bar from the cage to it (got no pics of that yet).

There's a few other cheeky little mods to spot.. Hopefully i'll start on it again this year as it's amazing how much 2 year old can put a stop to things

[DarrenH]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

excuse the crudity of the picture, i saw this setup on a race prepped mk1 golf on club gti years ago. (as in golf website) aim to replicate it on the gte.

the green lines represent thick wall cds tubing, red blobs are adjustable rose jointed links to the beam.

basically prevents the beam from distorting, and maintaining toe/camber. will also allow some fine tuning of toe.



will try and find the actual picture, need to trawl through the archive

[Harvey]

Re: GTE valver fast road/track car project

After researching the various repairs people have done on their o/s steering rack mounts I had a cunning plan in my mind so it started last Saturday. As “The Steg” (more on him later) and I decided the cracks in the mount weren’t that bad so we cut into them and welded them up.





Mission “weld it” then began on Friday evening with a cardboard template.



Then some metal plates were made up using 3mm angle. I decided to use an Ian T design and plate the mount to the left stopping it moving up and down as well as side to side.



We then also decided we needed to use some angle so we could pickup the inner wing to rack mount. So prepped the whole area for welding.



Found a crack/split while cleaning up for welding.



I fully admit I’m no welding expert, more of a welding virgin. So arranged for The Steg to come round who is a welding guru.



Welding my crack up, oh err!!! Plus the obligatory welding FIRE!!!





My the plating commence.



Bit of a breather for The Steg.



The welding done and tidied up. Had to make sure there was enough room for the rubber rack mount to slide into place when bolting the rack into place.