Toms ‘99 Lupo and maybe got lucky with another ‘99 Lupo

[427za]

I’ve just found this thread, I knew it’d be here somewhere!

That was an awesome day playing at the Pod and maybe I should have been braver and warmed the tyres of the old van. It would have tested the gearbox!

It’ll be great watching those two in their rookie season and we’ll have to make sure we’re pitted nearby 😎

[johnthesparky]

The green one had failed it’s MOT

Ordered a new cat and an O2 sensor, picked the sensor up on Friday from GSF with a discount code, it’s a NTK one so am hoping it’ll last a bit longer than a year this time, but we’ll see.

Cat was ordered Thursday evening, was hoping it would arrive Saturday, we had removed the old one and reprofiled the bend over the beam on the new exhaust to stop it running on the floor, because we then had an open exhaust we did get told off when we moved the lupo out of the way on Saturday evening
I finished a job popped home Monday lunchtime, popped home for lunch and it got delivered so fitted that



And ran it back for a retest, once it got warm, it sailed through the emissions and I left with an MOT.
Went out to drop some stuff off later and it started blowing again. Checked it over and ended up changing the clamp on the cat to rear joint but it was still blowing really bad, then had a revelation…. there is a bung for a rear lambda on later cars



It must have not been tight and unscrewed itself… doh!!

Anyway, with it being worth spending a bit of time on now, we replaced the cable tied mirror



One popped up on eBay, in the right colour for £20 (and it was a stubby one too ) so had that



We fitted the Joms coilies, and had a bit of a tidy up around the beam too as it’s pretty scruffy with rust and muck





We’ve got a sport beam to do a proper job on, but it looks a bit more loved now, and should stop it getting worse for a while
.
With the coilies on, and the sport wheels it looks so much better







Even if it is quite high!! We set the backs pretty high and wound the fronts up as we struggled getting the trolley jack under, and we’ll be jacking it up quite a bit for a while

And then today we’ve had a go at setting the tracking, got an old set a while back that uses a string… sure it’s not the best set up, but better than guessing





Worst bit was having to put steels on to get the gauges on…. Well, having to unseize the track rod locking nuts, or cutting and chiselling them then fitting new nuts etc… but they’ve been well coated with copperslip now, so going forward changing wheels is the faff

Rhys also set his





And Tom fitted some plate frames and new number plates





Which he can swap his race number into. Keep seeing people covering or hiding their numberplates at tracks, this gives him that option…

[misteralz]

I like that, although with that format I'd've been tempted to go with the old German DIN plates. There's a company in Ireland do them.

[johnthesparky]

Fitted a Blaupunkt media player stereo in the green one.







Was £110 and really suits the dash I think. Does Bluetooth phone and media streaming and currently FM using the existing aerial
Really pleased with it for the money

[Deleted]

Great call re. the stereo. Someone has fitted a ghastly silver JVC in mine - yuck! Will order one of those, looks almost OEM.

[johnthesparky]

Not updated for a bit, it’s been cold, wet and dark

Little bits have been happening though,

Couldn’t find anyone who wanted the 1ltr MPi engine, so it got stripped down and mostly went in the scrap bin



We swapped the suspension on the black one to the standard stuff that was on Toms green one, with a couple of freebie rear dampers Rhys was given. And Rhys dropped it off for an MOT



He might have a buyer for it, but they wanted to know how bad it was… so it had a few bits done but didn’t really want to spend any money on it… wasn’t expecting it to pass, so wasn’t upset when it didn’t.. in fact, was surprised how little needs doing.



Toms green one now has double cup holders



And a fog light lower grill





He has the switch too, just need to sort the wiring

Rhys has been fixing other Lupos



And helping friend to buy even more Lupos



He’s also modified some clocks, and fitted GTi clock onto the standard cluster (and another set of Arosa TDi clocks, but swapped the red LEDs to blue







He’s rebushed some lower arms (and pressed Audi TT rear bushes in



And tidied up some sport callipers



And at the weekend we pressed the hubs and bearings out of the sport carriers so he can tidy them up and paint… No photos, but Betsy did try to help



We’ve not done much in comparison We need to service Toms one (and got some tyres on order too) and fit Rhys’s boot floor and sport exhaust befor epre season testing in March

But Toms been washing it and driving when he can













So currently waiting for an Autodoc parts order, some tyres and in a couple of weeks, Lucy’s working the weekend so we are going to do the boot floor then

[johnthesparky]

Been a few weeks, VWDRC pre season testing is on 18th March, so we wanted to swap the exhaust on Rhys’s car to the sport one, this isn’t straightforward as the sports had a half height spare wheel well because the silencer sits underneath.
So we needed to cut holes in his car, last weekend wasn’t the ideal time with storm Eunice blowing out and storm Franklin blowing in. But Saturday we set up a tarp and managed to get the cutting and welding done



We’d cut the panel from the blue car, so tidied up the edges and weld through prime red that and then cut the boot floor out



Prepped that and fitted the panel



And then really struggled to get nice welds, not really done much with the R-tech mig and couldn’t get it to give nice welds… at this point I should have stopped and had a brew/ browsed the internet for the answer but wanted to get it tacked In, so kept persevering…. And just kept making a mess really, when I did stop and look up settings it was like a different machine! Doh!
Anyway got it welded in, we stitch welded it around the edge and plug welded where the spots had been, then seam sealed it and left it over night

Sunday, we painted it black as it was different colours, and the same underneath, so hopefully no rust traps anywhere.



Then swapped the sport spacesaver and jack



And then fitted the exhaust, it’s a 2.5” custom powerflow system so should be a bit more free flowing





He’s got the rear bumper with the cutout for the exhaust, but it’s blue. So for now we trimmed the standard bumper and fitted that until he gets the blue one painted



We just about got it back together and tidied away without getting too wet, but then we had a torrential downpour and hail



It does sound better, hopefully the GTi manifold and the exhaust will make a little difference, every little helps with little engines

Then this week we got another!
Brother in law spoke to me about getting a lupo for my nephew, we’d been having a look and one popped up in Daventry, it was cheap, mainly because it was broken (it wouldn’t rev) it’s pretty tidy though so we brought that home





A-framed it the 20ish miles home, and had a look on Friday evening





We were getting faults similar to the ones when we had issues with Rhys’s throttle body caused by the damaged crank sensor wiring.
So we thought it was probably something pulling the 5v down

Disconnected sensors and checked connectors and wires and found a load of water in quite a few connectors, coolant temp sensor was wet and the sensor is leaking and the two 14 pin connectors were wet too.





Cleaned and dried those and it ran, but we couldn’t run adaptations on the throttle body to calibrate.
Modified a spare sport throttle body to get it to fit and that sorted it (except it struggled to control itself as the sport tb is a lot bigger)

There are a few bits to fix;
Exhaust is blowing
Sort the tb properly
Rad fan squeals
leak from the temp sensor

But brother in law came to have a look, and now niece wants it nephew is at uni, but they are potentially going to share for the summer

So got a couple of weeks to sort it, and hopefully we’ve actually saved one and sold it!!

Toms one is getting some new tyres, so currently running on all the old steels, but we had a lupo mini meet today



Need to service Toms one next

[johnthesparky]

Toms lupo got half a service, we did an oil change and swapped the filters.
Also managed to get a couple of genuine door check straps so fitted them







Replaced the passenger electric window mechanism and found that someone had upgraded the speakers

Few last minute fixes for Rhys, an oil swap, he wrapped the exhaust and a few other bits

Then it was pre-season testing at Santa Pod. We met Steve in his Baja and Ian 427za and convoyed in



Was a lovely day, Steve has fitted a 1776 to the baja (we’d guessed at about 85fhp and with some fibreglass panels etc I reckoned it would run a 16….
Rhys’s lupo sport should also run a 16.. so they had a wager on first into the 16s

They both went out and ran 17s, then the baja ran a 16.6, Rhys was still struggling off the line until he went for a less aggressive start and got a 16.8
They went up against each other and Steve ran a 16.56 whilst Rhys ran a 16.58













I took Toms green lupo along, we’d had new tyre fitted the week before, Falken ze310s and hopes for a bit more grip



















Ran fairly consistently around 18.2, going through the burnout box seemed to make a bit of difference, didn’t really struggle too much for grip, if I tried to hard it just spun, but the lower power seems to make it easier to get off the line than Rhys sport

We dropped the tyre pressures on Rhys’s which did seem to help, but didn’t bother on Toms.

And we applied for Toms race licence, which arrived, and means we can book a RWYB around his birthday



After that, Rhys took the yellow one apart, swapping lower arms, bushes, anti roll bar and sport brakes and hub carriers







And because he didn’t get to go to testing because of school, Took Tom up the farm for a practice

[johnthesparky]

Since pre-season testing we fitted a shift light to Toms lupo, it’s a paws gs10 which is a little unit that is fitted by the fusebox and the limit can be changed, after testing we set to 4500rpm whilst Tom gets the hang of it.





Rhys sold the SE, and we swapped the clutch on another lupo rainking
DarrenW came to offer ‘emotional support’ after we nearly got it finished but forgot to fit the release bearing







Betsy assisted and caused some of the woes, catching and showering a 6 month old puppy whilst doing these things isn’t overly helpful



After that we ate pizza and drank beer to celebrate our…. erm….. yeah, anyway we were taken for pizza and beer (probably out of pity in hindsight ) luckily a qualified mechanic was on hand to reconnect the reversing light switch too

Then it was time to go racing, Rhys had done some RWYB at GTi fest the week before, and ran fairly consistent 17.2s and 17.3s

Tom and me went over on Thursday, set up the tent and got sorted then waited for Rhys to turn up so we could go through scrutineering and then relax… enroute the aux belt on his car failed (being old I had ordered a spare one for the green one, which was safely tucked away in the garage an hour away) I hadn’t carried many spares as we were rather limited for space



luckily rainking and Abi came to the rescue and collected said belt on her way home from work and brought to site.
In the mean time we robbed the green lupo of parts to make it work and get through scrutineering



With that out of the way and both cars mostly fixed again we could get on with the racing, and supporting

In the end there were 2 qualifying sessions on the Friday, Rhys finishing the day in 13th

Then on Saturday we were called up first, for the run that was missed yesterday, I think the rushing around didn’t help as I believe there were 5 red lights and Rhys broke out with a 16s run. He then ran really close to dial in and at one point was in 6th, but end of day was 10th.

Sunday eliminations. Rhys was drawn against an experienced driver who tried to mess with his head and kept mentioning red lights, on his first competitive run I’m not sure there was a lot left to mess with… but
he kept it together but lost it on a 0.1 slower reaction time

Which meant we could spend the rest of the day as spectators, didn’t take many photos but there are loads on Facebook etc











Alex in the single cab (who helped us out at Goodwood last year) ran a 9.09,
Steve in the baja got through to 3rd round of eliminations

the top fuel cars and jets were, as always, incredible.

The weather was superb, other racers were so helpful with advice and support…. Roll on 2 weeks to the next round

[rainking]

Glad we could be of assistance.... after all, our Lupo was why 'emotional support' was required!

And as various members of the VWDRC will testify, DarrenW , Ady and myself are exceptional cheerleaders in times of need....

Rhys did really well for his first event.... he was unlucky to lose in the first round, and he's already mastered one of the 2 MOST important things in drag racing - burnouts.

Although he'll be doing well to master the 2nd most important thing - Wheelies....

We finished Tom's bread yesterday too... had it toasted with lashings of butter.... it was a triumph! (trying to keep it on a R-R theme)

Looking forward to doing it all again (hopefully with slightly more repaired ribs) at Spring Speed.

[johnthesparky]

Yeah the burnout was good…. Suspect the crowd were hoping for something bigger than a small shopping car when the smoke cleared

Hazel had a good attempt at a fwd wheelie in the Passat!



Next up will be more gearbox work as Rhys’s now makes interesting noises, so he’s found another 1ltr box, and a 1.4 box to take 5th gear from.. so should keep the low ratios for racing but not be doing 5000rom at 80! Hopefully Betsy will behave

Also, I’m updating a bit about the racing here, as it probably explains why some of the mods and fixes are being done, aware that it’s not completely relevant but hope it’s ok, so trying to keep it short and sweet.

We have got a Facebook page thing for ‘Remus Racing’ where we update racing stuff, if you want to see a middle aged man struggle to understand modern social media it’s definitely the place to watch the highs and lows of some mediocre racing, and I’ll add a brief highlight in here

[vitesseefi]

Having seen inside the 085 gearbox when I rebuilt one for our diesel Arosa, I can tell you that they DEFINITELY were not built for drag racing. They are somewhat legendary on the GTis and diesels for their self-dismantling abilities.

Not sure where you are, but I do have a stray hybrid box which appears to be a 1.0 one with the diesel (big block) engine-side casing. Was working fine when removed, but gearing meant that our SDI was literally on the governer at 70mph in 5th.

Free to collect from Yeovil area….

Nick

[johnthesparky]

Apr 19, 2022 10:47:53 GMT vitesseefi said:

Having seen inside the 085 gearbox when I rebuilt one for our diesel Arosa, I can tell you that they DEFINITELY were not built for drag racing. They are somewhat legendary on the GTis and diesels for their self-dismantling abilities.

Not sure where you are, but I do have a stray hybrid box which appears to be a 1.0 one with the diesel (big block) engine-side casing. Was working fine when removed, but gearing meant that our SDI was literally on the governer at 70mph in 5th.

Free to collect from Yeovil area….

Nick

Mentioned to Rhys, he works in far flung places, but seems to mostly be North… Manchester and Edinburgh at the mo. I’ll let him liaise if he’s down with you

Thanks

[johnthesparky]

Since last time, not a lot has been done mechanically.

We acquired a spare 1400s engine and box. It’s a later fbw (BBY) engine that we wanted the throttle body off of for the SE.
Rhys wanted the 5th gear from the gearbox. So we went and helped remove them from a partially stripped car and brought them home

Following weekend was Springspeed Nationals, smaller event than the first round, with 7 runs of qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, except it rained on Sunday so there was a lot of waiting and one run.
Bank Holiday Monday was eliminations, and Rhys had a misfire! Ran a 21s and that was the end of that!
Miss was on no3, it put engine management light on but cleared by cycling key. we swapped plugs and coil packs around but it’s not done it again

This weekend, there was a RWYB on Saturday, and since Tom is now 16 he can race!
Except, he needs to have his licence signed off, so we went to do his observed runs.
He was sent out on his own (bye run) and observed. So we’d come round, wait off to the side and get sent out on his own, was a busy day but the staff at Santa Pod were brilliant and really helped him settle in and gave tips and advise.
He did 6 observed runs, was given tips on how to improve and changed things.
First thing was he was finishing burnout still in the water instead of spinning through, got that sorted

He struggled getting it into stage, when he was nervous at the start he deep staged it, and they pulled him back. He did that second run too, expected to be pulled back but they left him, he expected to be pulled back. So his second run is a 12s reaction time and he lost a bye run to nobody I stood next to him and signalled him forward (a couple of runs I was tapping the screen, once he’d settled and got a few runs past that, I was advised that’s a big no-no to do that in competition, but that we’re happy to let him settle in first)
Once the nerves settled a bit, he sorted it out himself, was using the handbrake as a staging brake.

And then reaction times, once he was settled they talked to him about preempting the green light, once that had been processed he halved his reaction times.

Once they were happy, they let him run with other cars and he did a further 3 runs

He really enjoyed it, is buzzing to go again…. Luckily next round is start of July, so not going to distract him from GCSEs

[johnthesparky]

And Toms racecar is called ‘Harold’

I think we were on way to the Pod when we first got it, explaining to Tim that if your racecar hasn’t got a name, someone will name it for you, so he had until it first raced to sort a name.
If it was then, then the road to the pod is Harrold Road

Anyway, it’s called Harold.

I had a weird thought about 50s gasser drag shopping car thing, spoke to Tasha who understood my weird image and raised the bar

So now it’s a racecar!!





Edit to add some extra race photos

[427za]

Tom did really well and big congratulations to him for completing his observed runs, he did really well by the sounds of it.

More importantly John, you’ve driven that car up the strip a few times so he did he do compared to your pb in it? 😁

[johnthesparky]

May 8, 2022 16:17:03 GMT 427za said:

Tom did really well and big congratulations to him for completing his observed runs, he did really well by the sounds of it.

More importantly John, you’ve driven that car up the strip a few times so he did he do compared to your pb in it? 😁

I managed to run a 17.9473 @ 75.17

Tom got a 75.03 top speed and a 18.3374 ET, but not on the same run… we had a family party we were supposed to leave for at 2.30, and his last two runs according to ETslips were 14.37 and 15.11. So I was already in trouble… but if we hadn’t had to leave then he’d have beaten me!
At least I’m still quicker until July

[johnthesparky]

Since last time,

We went to the Weekender, which as you probably know was brilliant (and if you don’t know, you should go and find out how brilliant it is )



Rhys had fitted bonnet pins to his car, because the bonnet pull handles are a bit chocolate on these, after meeting The Doctor over the weekend, he sourced Rhys a couple of lhd trim panels (as the handle is on the other side, so these are just a plain panel)
He’s fitted that and been playing with gearboxes

The black lupo was also sold, it failed MOT on emmisions, so Rhys ordered a cat and o2 sensor….. and then went on holiday, so I ended up fitting that and getting it tested, he mentioned that it would be going up for sale and sold pretty much straight away!

That meant the parking spot at the farm could be filled with octavia







And then Drag Day…
I was already going, as was Rhys, but originally it was 2 days and Tim had a GCSE exam on the Thursday and Friday, when it swapped to one day we discussed it and decided that since the exam was morning and it was weekend anyway, once Tom got home Lucy would bring him over…. But we didn’t want to break his focus so it was super secret squirrel between us and vwdrc… which nearly went wrong when we’d had beer and bumped into Andrew, Abby, Ady and Darren in the pub but got away with it!

Anyway, Lucy brought Tom over, he hadn’t had time to Pychopath himself up so first run was a mess… but the start official was brilliant, helped him settle down and told him if he messed up again he’d poke him in the eye!
In the end he got 9 runs in!

Was a hot day, they drove over in the midday heat, Tom did his runs, and on the last couldn’t get 3rd. On the way home Lucy struggled too, we parked up and went for a curry but the next morning it was fine, so think it just got very hot…. Could do something about it, but a strange scenario that probably won’t manifest again, so we’ll just change the oil for now and see how it goes

[The Doctor]

Good to hear that the trim pieces arrived. I had to do something back for the T shirt thing at the weekender

[johnthesparky]

Jun 15, 2022 18:24:46 GMT The Doctor said:

Good to hear that the trim pieces arrived. I had to do something back for the T shirt thing at the weekender

Nooooooo! That’s my own fault, stupid as a stupid does but thanks, will miss you at Gathering (fingers crossed it all goes well anyway) but await your thread with anticipation