Lee's mk2.5 Sport

[leesvt]

Hi guys chassis leg rot has finally caught up with me so thought I'd start a thread on here to document my time with her as this could be the death of it. ive already cut the legs out but its 50/50 on weather she'll live. 



A bit of history.

Back in late 2012 after a couple of runs out in my bro Dales MK2 RS and a good friend's mk1, I sold off some of my guitar collection and Marshall stack with the plan of getting a cheap 5 as a 2nd car with the intention of turning it into a track based car. Fast forward to March 13 funds were in place and the hunt was on. My only things in my wants list were cheap, solidish and a lsd, what more do you need. Sports weren't really an option as they seemed out of budget and hearing that the later ones had weaker diffs. But on paper they had the best base for what I had in mind. Out of the blue this popped up on gumtree the other side of the country in Stockport ( I'm about 40 miles north of Newcastle).

An 02 sport with a pre mot sheet the owner just could not afford at garage rates. Quizzing the owner all it needed was both back calipers rebuilding, discs and pads all round and 4 new tyres. But at £800+ for the work he just couldn't justify it with a wedding months away. Lucky me[emoji1].



Priced at a very reasonable 900 off I went bro riding shotgun. A quick walk round and it was pretty much what I'd hoped for. It was a bit tatty but body work was the last thing I cared about with my plans. Minimal wear to the leather. Tyres were legal, just and it did stop albeit at a funny angle and juddery as fook. So the drive home was doable! Then came the final check the dreaded chassis legs. Some surface rust was visible and from underneath you just could feel it swelling around the drain hole. A quick chat with Dale " fook it offer 700, you could drive home pull it to bits today and make a profit" He accepted and off we went, I was both shocked and delighted .
The drive home was epic and set the tone perfectly for the car. 10mins in I'm up a kerb on the wrong side of the road having come off a roundabout a bit to keen. Emotions and just off the marker tyres getting the better of me. "Reet back up over hartside pass it'll be fine, just follow me" was Dales next idea. I'd never driven the road once and having just fell off I was a tad nervous. It was awesome tho and taught me a lot, 5s don't need brakes and can pester loads thru corners even in the hands of a ejit. Not happy with driving my derv civic up to the cafe, Dale grabbed the keys and took me for a blat to Alston to stretch its legs. I'm not usually bad passenger and I knew he'd cut his teeth on the road nearly every weekend with his ep3 typeR for the last 2 years, but with the semislick tyres and wonky braking I was bricking myself. Chasing down a new Focus ST, I'm not ashamed to say I felt a bit sick and a bit of poo may have come out. Thank goodness for wipe clean leather. Back up to the cafe as were pressing on Dale confirms it goes really well, and is impressed. I jump back in the 5 and continue home with only one more slight incident. 180ing it out a particularly tight and greasy corner despite a warning and as slow as I thought it needed, I see Dale parked further up the road waiting on me spinning shouting "aye, that corners a c#nt"
Finally I'm back home, knackered, smug and forming a plan.







More to follow



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[leesvt]

The first job was to tackle the brakes and tyres. A quick Google and a pair of rebuild kits were ordered from Brakes international and I set about stripping the calipers. It was a fairly straightforward affair with only the handbrake mechanism on the piston causing some head scratching. Turns out the seal on the hex adjuster had perished in both side pissing out fluid. Pagid discs were ordered along with EBC Ultimax pads, a foolish choice but funds were low. Again, as funds were low and I couldnt afford a set of lightweight 15" alloys I ordered a full set of 16" T1Rs beliving all the hype given them. A truly aweful decision, there were canoe but too late came the realization. All back together off she went of her Mot and sailed thru. The rest of 2013 I pootled around just enjoying it around the twisty local Northubrian B roads. [/span]


in the mean time, in June '13 I had my first track day at Teesside autodrome



The car performed perfectly despite my horrendous driving. Even tho I was canoe it was easy to feel the weak points in the car. The brakes weren't up for the job and neither were the tyres both overheated far to easily. The leather and rolly std non Billy suspension had me clinging onto the wheel as I slid all over the place. But it was a great day and really give me a direction with the car and a really got me thinking. With the car off the road over the winter it was time to make 2014 truly special.

[leesvt]

The first part of the plan was simple sort the handling, spend no money on anything but performance bits. First up was getting it stopping properly, so a set of Yellowstuff was swapped in with some ATE super blue fluid. The leather seats were removed and sold on for good money and a Sparco sprint fitted for me and for anyone brave enough to join me, a borrowed MK2 RS cloth seat Dale had sitting about as he also has those silly Kevlar Recaro things.



Coilovers came next looking for anything big branded but set of Gaz Gold Pros were my perfered choice. Not the most advanced shocks out ther, but I knew they were the cheapest to rebuild as most should be rebuilt every 2 years. This would prove mega handy, as I found a used set from eBay advertised to fit MK1 ,2 & 2.5. The car was jacked up again and the old suspension stripped out. Yeah they didn't fit, they were mk1s which only use mk1 top mounts that won't go thru the mk 2 body. I dropped the seller an email explaining, with pics of my car now in bits and rather than returning them i aceppeted a decent bit of cash back. So I called Gaz to see if anything could be done. The reply was simple for an extra £18 on a std shock service they'd swap out the rods for mk2s as the body's were identical. 5 days and £170 later I have some shiny fully refurbed shocks. All in it cost me £400 for basically new suspension bar the rusty springs but meh I've had beetles I know my rust.



Next was tyres and alloys. A cheap set of TD alloys were bought with a good set of T1rs fitted. Knowing how bad they were they were quickily sold on a after pinching a pair of worn AD08s of Dale and an other worn pair of the bay. These were only deep enough for track work with plans to get them to the canvas .After a trip to local experts AK automotive for alignment and the height setting, May 2014 the car was ready for my track day.







And when I mean my track day it, really was mine. On a prarrie canoe, rainy, horibble day in October 13 I was thinking of Teesside and how much fun it was and how cool would it be full of 5s, so I stupidly sent of an email to the track owner about hiring the track. Turns out its not that expensive and they were well up for it. Riiiight, bugger, what to do.



With Dale and good friend Richy members on Nutz, they took point and a thread was posted. It was cheap and with the track perfect for these cars 32 fellow owners quickly signed up. I still can't fully describe how elated with the day I was. The car was transformed, sharp, pointy, predictable and grippy, oh heavens ! I was able to learn so much, push harder and all with the knowledge I'd made it all happen, me!




Then it all went wrong. In the very last session I fell off. I wasn't even going as hard as I could have of, I didn't know it was the last session I thought we had another hr but the tight corner just before the mountain caught me out. I spun and over corrected spitting me out facing backwards and into the tyre wall. The damage was bad cosmetic but bad. The door, and rear quarter were dented, the front wing was crushed and worse of all the front bumper had been ripped off almost completely. Back in the pits everyone came to either help or have a look. All were more concerned about the damage than me, remember I paid 700 and sold the leather for over a 1/3 of that. My concern was the 2hr drive back with cable ties and gaffa tape holding her together. 2 Mins In something was wrong, very wrong. I'd ripped an engine mounting causing the engine to shift and bang every time I pulled away, you could see it moving the bonnet! Fuch. not the best as it's 5 pm and the A19 was going to be super busy as usual all the way home. It was horrible, constant stop start every 100yards the engine banging away, my blood pressure was thru the roof. I got home feeling exhausted and sick.

[leesvt]

some pics of the day

[leesvt]

The plan for after the trackday took a bit of a dfferent twist what with the car a bit bent. Still with my approach of only spending cash on performance goodies the bumper was worrying me. I'd never cared how it looked just that the mechanicals were good and the best I could afford. As these mk2.5 bits are sort after meaning expensive, along with the damaged clips of the headlights, my options were a cheap as chips complete mk2 front end retro fit or replace like for like. The main support was ripped clean off but thankfully with a bit of thought, some threaded bar, alu 1" box and plate I fashioned a bracket I could secure the bumper to. You'll notice 2 fasteners in following pics. The headlights wernt cracked just snapped clips, so with some epoxy they were glued back together and lined up perfectly. My only cost was a wing as it was to far gone to persuade in to shape. On to the engine mounting to stop the vvt lump trying to escape. Another simple job completed in an afternoon and she was 'fixed' and back on the road. With another alignment check proving nothing underdeath was bent. Not as pretty as she once was but it looked the same from the drivers seat.

Id saved some cash for a new set of ado8s but the shunt had me now looking for a roll cage. So a safety 21 4 point was sourced and quickly fitted. Along with a home brew harness bar and perspex wind blocker




Reviewing the videos of the day I came to the conclusion that seating position, steering wheel and the center console were most likley the cause of the spin. Typically I didn't catch the spin on tape but I'd dealt with other slides well all day and had a couple of pleasing drifts at that very corner. I'm not a big lad at 5,7 and a dinky 28/30 waist, I found my self too close to the huge std nardi wheel and had struggled with catching my elbow in the 2.5 center consoles cup holders throughout the day. A pair of JB mounts were ordered to add some tilt and smaller 350 mono race steering wheel coupled to a mk1 boss improved my arm angles massively. The boss brought the wheel closer to the stalks so I found out they don't bend at all.
This just left the console, with the ins lowering me even more even a shortend console would prove problematic. So I had a choice bin the console completely wire some window switched to the dash or botch up a custom one. I did the layer and came up with this

A chopped mk1 cut to fit the mk2 dash. It's rough but sits lower and frees up my arms perfectly. With some life still on the AD08s in September 14 the car was ready for the second day at Teesside we organized.

[leesvt]

Our second time at Teesside went even better than the first. Learning from our last day we dropped the numbers to 25 and changed format to OPL. There seemed to be a lot of stress about getting out on track and making the most of your 30 mins, so the lower numbers and being able to go out whenever was a huge success. With the mods to my driving position, i felt alot more in control and was putting in some reasonable times. I spent so much more time in the seat, the car constantly feeding me the confidence i needed. Once again the car was faultless, and somehow I left with some tread on the tyres. The day was over too quick but at least the drive home was better.



Unfortunately with the lower numbers our camera man spent more time out on track and less behind the lens.






My parnters in crime