PROJECT - Seat Ibiza Cupra Touring Car

Drummerboy08

Spotted someone earlier moaning about the lack of project threads on here, so I might as well throw up where I'm up to with the Seat.

Having spent quite a bit of time in Mondello during 2011/2012 following the ITCC, I got bitten by the bug that is Touring Cars. I've always followed the BTCC etc, however I never really had any interest in the Irish answer until I started frequenting Mondello.

So, in August of this year I took the big plunge and picked up this -



Seat Ibiza Cupra, with alot of the heavy work already carried out. Decent cage, suspension etc etc which made things easier for me.

Some specs -

1.8T with KO3s Turbo
Pipercross air filter
ECU mapped on Revo software
Supposed 210bhp
KW Coilovers
Brembos up front, standard Cupra calipers on rear
Forge intercooler
B&M Short shifter

Since then, I've made some changes which I'll post up here.

I've been lucky enough to have two guys on board with me who have some knowledge of what needs to be done, and how to do it, in the large shape of Quazzie and GaryITR.

The general idea at the minute is to run this car, and Gary's DC2 in ITCC under one Team guise for the 2013 season. I've never driven a car competitively and have very little track time under my belt, so I'm taking massive steps into the unknown here but hopefully this will at least give others an idea of what it takes.

Drummerboy08

So, changes.

The car came with two sets of 17" wheels, which fitted nicely over the Brembo's up front. However, for a few different reasons I wanted to run the car on 15" wheels which meant something had to give.

I done a little homework and soon found out that I couldnt have the best of both worlds - 15" wheels and Brembo's - so something had to give.

I've decided that the wheels are worth more to me than the brakes, so first change I made was to lose the Brembo's. It made selling them a little easier knowing they'd go to a good home in the form of a MK2 Golf GTi with a 1.8t conversion.

The plan is to replace them with Mk4 Golf GTI brakes which should just fit under the wheels, with a little help. Brakes are currently bought and in the process of being fitted.

I'll try and dig out some pictures of this and stick them up here!

Drummerboy08

Next.

Two days after the car was bought, I brought it to Mondello for a shakedown of sorts. I wanted to find out if there was anything wrong that needed attention quickly................and soon found out that slicks need to be warmed up BEFORE you go hard into corners! Steep learning curve huh?!

Other than my first turn scare, the car actually drove OK, apart from being down on power. Unfortunately an electrical fault cut my session short just 15 minutes in, so that was the first thing to fix.

With some investigation from all three of us, we found it to be a failed relay in the Hazard light switch. Replaced it, car started on the button and was fine.

However, during our investigation, we found some other issues with the wiring and electricals in general which I wouldnt have been happy racing with so..........in come the experts.

Over the last few weeks, Carl and the boys at Sound Decision have been going at the car, tidying up the wiring in general, and adding in some switches at my request. This should hopefully help with reliability.

Drummerboy08

So plans for the next two months.

Engine out, cambelt and waterpump replaced because I don't know the history of it. While it's out, top end will be rebuilt also.

Braking system needs to be sorted out, with braided lines being fitted, and some of the internal lines being replaced.

Front ARB needs to be replaced at some point, so that will be upgraded - unsure at this point to go for a H&R or Whiteline bar.

Once this is done, the car will find it's way to the hands of Joe Power @ Chippedire to be mapped.

The deadline I'm aiming for is end of January, hopefully get out on track around that time for testing.

In the meantime, I also need to complete my Motorsport Ireland course to get my competition licence, and I also need to spend quite a bit of money on race gear.

I'll update this thread as we go too.

RandomAccess

What are the regulations you need to meet for the build?

I guess there are power and min weight restrictions?
I would have thought after market brakes would have been a big plus for track use, was it that the large wheels were ruining suspension geometry? Just curious.

I'd love to do this myself but all my mates are football heads with no interest in cars at all plus I'm no mechanic.

Edit,
Found the link to regulations
Odd menu arrangement on the site

sean1141

I had a h&r ARB kit on the Leon. Completely transformed the handling

Drummerboy08

RandomAccess wrote: »

What are the regulations you need to meet for the build?

I guess there are power and min weight restrictions?
I would have thought after market brakes would have been a big plus for track use, was it that the large wheels were ruining suspension geometry? Just curious.

I'd love to do this myself but all my mates are football heads with no interest in cars at all plus I'm no mechanic.

Edit,
Found the link to regulations
Odd menu arrangement on the site

There are a few regulations alright. The main one is weight - I'll have to run the car at 1050kg in the class I'm planning to run.

Power is unrestricted in that class, but I do have a barrier time which is effectively the same thing. Break that and you end up being bumped into the higher class.

In terms of the brakes, I decided to run 15" wheels over the Brembo's for a few different reasons. Unsprung weight, handling, and costs. There's 400 quid between a set of 15" and 17" tyres, so that's not a small amount over 3 or 4 sets. I won't loose that much stopping power if I use decent pads.

sean1141 wrote: »

I had a h&r ARB kit on the Leon. Completely transformed the handling

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the H&R alright, seems to be good gear. It's running a stock ARB at the minute which is near the end of it's life, so I need to make a decision on that fairly soon.

Ded_Zebra

Drummerboy, you say in the op that you are fairly new to racing etc and was wondering how you got into it?

Was it just through Knowing people who are already involved and you got into it through them?

Drummerboy08

Ded_Zebra wrote: »

Drummerboy, you say in the op that you are fairly new to racing etc and was wondering how you got into it?

Was it just through Knowing people who are already involved and you got into it through them?

Good question. I spent a bit of time over the last two years in Mondello and got to know some of the Guys down there already racing. It kinda went from there!

Ded_Zebra

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Good question. I spent a bit of time over the last two years in Mondello and got to know some of the Guys down there already racing. It kinda went from there!

Cool. It's definitely something that I would love to do so much .

Maybe when I grow up/ have disposable income!! :rolleyes:

Drummerboy08

So, been a while since anything has happened here, been flat out with work the last few months.

Currently working on the brakes. When I bought the car, it was on 17"s with Brembo's but I wanted to run the car on 15"s so the Brembo's had to go.

Decided on a set of Calipers off a MkIV Golf GTi. Picked them up ages ago, but just hadn't done anything with them. Took them apart on Saturday, and have rebuild kits ordered for them.

Pic-


Have also got Goodridge braided lines on the way, and have some Cupro Nickel pipes to make up some inner lines too.

Once this job is done then the car is pretty much driveable again, so hoping to be out in Mondello at some stage over Feb or March.

Will be a few other bits happening soon too, including a colour scheme!!

projectgtr

Nice build, looking forward to see how it goes out on track. Is there a control tyre for ITCC?

Whats gary running this year? You dont know if he finished the Black EG Civic by any chance?

tossy

Love these cars,and the 1.8T is a great engine for the track.

Any particular reason for wanting to go with 15's ? Cost of rubber? I think the mk4 gti brakes won't be up to much for track use - you'll get a lot of brake fade unless you go with a set of nice discs i'e 2 piece etc to help with heat dissipation.

Looking forward to following the project,good to see threads like this on here.

pred racer

Fair play to you.

The feeling you get after passing the chequered flag in a machine you have prepared, there is nothing quite like it! For me it was motocross so alot simpler(and cheaper) than what you are doing, but again kudos:cool:

projectgtr

tossy wrote: »

Love these cars,and the 1.8T is a great engine for the track.

Any particular reason for wanting to go with 15's ? Cost of rubber? I think the mk4 gti brakes won't be up to much for track use - you'll get a lot of brake fade unless you go with a set of nice discs i'e 2 piece etc to help with heat dissipation.

Looking forward to following the project,good to see threads like this on here.

Surely a nice set of race compound pads like say Carbotechs, a decent 5.1 fluid and a simple brake duct setup would have little to no fade?? You can definitely over do it on a big brake setup on a small car. Id say a well setup GTI spec caliper will be more than up to the task. The Ibiza doesnt weigh all that much does it?

Drummerboy08

I've been so busy actually building the car the past few months I've forgotten to update everywhere except Facebook....

projectgtr wrote: »

Nice build, looking forward to see how it goes out on track. Is there a control tyre for ITCC?

Whats gary running this year? You dont know if he finished the Black EG Civic by any chance?

There is a control tyre, Ao48 for Production class (I.e. me) and a full Yokohama slick for Touring class.

The black EG was something we were working on together way back in Urban times, when the Seat and Gary's ex-Urban Performance DC2 came on the scene we didn't have room for the EG so she had to go unfortunately....

tossy wrote: »

Love these cars,and the 1.8T is a great engine for the track.

Any particular reason for wanting to go with 15's ? Cost of rubber? I think the mk4 gti brakes won't be up to much for track use - you'll get a lot of brake fade unless you go with a set of nice discs i'e 2 piece etc to help with heat dissipation.

Looking forward to following the project,good to see threads like this on here.

The main reason to go 15's was a smaller unsprung weight, handling and costs. There's 400 quid in the difference of a set of 15's and 17's!!

I think the brakes will be fine for what they'll be used for, I'll be using a decent pad anyway so fade shouldn't hurt it too much.

pred racer wrote: »

Fair play to you.

The feeling you get after passing the chequered flag in a machine you have prepared, there is nothing quite like it! For me it was motocross so alot simpler(and cheaper) than what you are doing, but again kudos:cool:

That's the main idea, there's been a lot of late nights and empty bank accounts recently but hopefully I'm nearly there now.

projectgtr wrote: »

Surely a nice set of race compound pads like say Carbotechs, a decent 5.1 fluid and a simple brake duct setup would have little to no fade?? You can definitely over do it on a big brake setup on a small car. Id say a well setup GTI spec caliper will be more than up to the task. The Ibiza doesnt weigh all that much does it?

The car has to weigh 1050kg because of regs, isn't that much really. I agree with overdoing it on the brakes though, I think a decent pad/disc combo with some cooling as you say should be fine.

Drummerboy08

So, update.

As mentioned above, there's been plenty of late nights of recent times trying to get some work done on this!

All 4 calipers have been rebuilt. When removing the Brembo's way back in Sept, I sheered a bolt in the carrier which means the hub had to be removed and sent to the machine shop. For good measure we took the other side out too and sent both away to be checked over.

While the hubs were off we decided to take the wishbones out for inspection, and while they were out we decided to take the subframe and front ARB out too.....all in one night of madness!

There was a lot of surface rust on the subframe and there was a risk of not passing scrutiny with it so we cleaned it up, and gave it a lick of paint.







The ARB also got a lick of paint but was otherwise solid. Went a bit mad on colour choice.....

Drummerboy08

The wishbones will also get a lick of paint, and some fresh Powerflex bushes. Hopefully this will happen this week.

While we're at the underneath of the car it made sense to drop the sump and have a little look around......lots of sludge in there which is a common issue with the 1.8t so it's been cleaned up along with the oil pick up line and been put back. It's all clean now but it will be dropped again after a few rounds for another look.

I also got a little delivery yesterday, getting ever so close to the first round now....





It's been an expensive weekend!!

Drummerboy08

So, plan for this week is -

- Subframe, ARB, Steering rack and wishbones to be re-fitted
- Internal brake pipes modified
- All 4 calipers refitted with new Braided lines and system bled
- Immobiliser removed and electronics finished (both jobs being outsourced)

Hopefully once this is all done the car will start, and head to Joe Power to be mapped the week after....

projectgtr

Looking well when are you hoping to get her out on track? would love to see this out on track.

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

The black EG was something we were working on together way back in Urban times, when the Seat and Gary's ex-Urban Performance DC2 came on the scene we didn't have room for the EG so she had to go unfortunately....

Any idea where it ended up? was my first ever car always wanted to try get my hands on it again

Drummerboy08

projectgtr wrote: »

Looking well when are you hoping to get her out on track? would love to see this out on track.



Any idea where it ended up? was my first ever car always wanted to try get my hands on it again

As always, I'd like to get a shakedown and some testing done but I'm not sure I'll have her ready in time.

It will be out for the first round though....

We sold the car to a guy around Naas, god only knows where it is now...

Drummerboy08

She started last night for the first time after 6 months.... Exciting times!!