106 Gti Track Setup
Discussion
I've got a 106Gti that needs a new rear axle and some front suspension work. I figured whilst it's in I should get a few bits done to make it into a poor mans little track weapon.
So, what should I be looking at? I'm poor so money IS an object. I'm already facing the cost of a new rear axle and front 'stuff' (not sure what's needed yet) but is it worth looking at lowered suspension? I assume the axle would need to be lowered prior to fitting, or did I misinterpret what I've read on Pug axles? The car already drives (read: oversteers) amazingly so I don't know what benefit lowering will bring. I couldn't give a toss about lap times.
In terms of power, it's already packing a mighty one hundred and mumble mumble broken horses. Feels quick enough on the road but I'm guessing it'll feel lost on a big wide track. Is there any point in going for exhausts and induction kits? If I'm looking at a grand for +10bhp, I don't really see a point. And I don't got turbo money.
Is it even worth stripping out? It's a light car already, but I don't know how shedding a few lbs will change it.
All advice appreciated.
So, what should I be looking at? I'm poor so money IS an object. I'm already facing the cost of a new rear axle and front 'stuff' (not sure what's needed yet) but is it worth looking at lowered suspension? I assume the axle would need to be lowered prior to fitting, or did I misinterpret what I've read on Pug axles? The car already drives (read: oversteers) amazingly so I don't know what benefit lowering will bring. I couldn't give a toss about lap times.
In terms of power, it's already packing a mighty one hundred and mumble mumble broken horses. Feels quick enough on the road but I'm guessing it'll feel lost on a big wide track. Is there any point in going for exhausts and induction kits? If I'm looking at a grand for +10bhp, I don't really see a point. And I don't got turbo money.
Is it even worth stripping out? It's a light car already, but I don't know how shedding a few lbs will change it.
All advice appreciated.
Edited by SuperDude on Tuesday 25th February 18:49
Edited by SuperDude on Tuesday 25th February 18:54
I'd counter the above by saying head to the Rallye Register as you'll find there is far less BS kicking around on there: http://www.106rallyeforum.com/forum2008/forum.php
In my own personal experience I've never gained much from the 106owners, but I am aware the club has new owners who are trying to move it on a bit... We are more motorsport biased on the RR so it should be ideal for your research.
However on to your original questions:
The rear beam is a tricky one as the stub pins that the trailing arms run on are likely to be fubar. If you want to rebuild it yourself you need a) a good axle with perfect stub pins and b) lots of tools and patience.
I rebuilt a good axle last summer for my rallye and the hardes part was dismantling it due to rusted in torsion bar splines. This involved the use of a large sledge hammer and lots of sacrificial bolts and bars against the ends of the T bars... Sandy Brown has previously written a good guide on this so have a search, plus have a look at my build thread in the members cars section in the Midlands forum on the Rallye Register to see what's involved. If you do decide to rebuild it yourseld, only use quality bearing kits and I recommend SKF.
Finding a good axle is the hard part though; I got lucky.
The easiest, but unfortunately more expensive option is to buy an axchange axle from IMaxle in Melton Mowbray.
Also what ever option you take, replace the beam mounting rubber bushes with poly items. The originals are voided which creates some passive steer, which is fine for a road car but on track you want the rear to be more precise. With these I find my car is more willing to oversteer and is far easier to control when pushing HARD.
With regards to the fronts, its just the usual refresh of all the bushes and joints as required. The wishbones are one-peice and whislt the ball joints can be pressed out this is more hassle than just replacing the complete units. I run Firstline items on my Rallye. If you want a more solid wishbone set up, then you can get solid rear mounts and poly fronts. But from my experience this results in quite a lot of vibration on rough roads and I'd only do this if you're running track rubber or it will be a waste of money as the stock rubber mounts are fine on road tyres.
Also budget for a decent set of dampers all round as this will refresh the car. Personally I run Bilstein B4's which are reasonably priced and are ideally suited to a stock ride height (my Rallye isn't a dedicated track car...).
Make sure the discs are all good (if scored/rusty friction surface replace them as they're cheap) and if on a budget the OMP brake pads are a great buy and resist fade very well indeed. Not far behind DS2500's for a lot less dosh...
The 106 GTI has a great chassis that requires very little in the way of modification to be a serious contender on track for not a lot of dosh! But above all, they're brilliant fun to drive
Edit: just to answer your question on tuning: it goes without saying that the first port of call is to check the engine is well serviced, so new filters, plugs, oil, sensors, radiator, hoses etc are all in good shape etc. The TU5J4 is a hardy little engine though and the factory 120bhp rating was generally a little conservative. Don't go nuts with the engine until the rest of the car is up to scratch, but start with a panel filter and cold air feed and the Raceland 4-2-1 manifold is great for the money, especially if you can get a decent used one (the Supersprint mani is the one though if you can find one...).
After the simple stuff you're stepping in to the realms of head work, cams, ported TB (easy to do and recommended) or even ITBs but not on a budget! All of which will require a remap so say goodbye to another £300...
A reasonable amount of weight can actually be stripped from them, so if it's a dedicated track car then go for it... A drivers bucket seat is also a worthwhile investment.
HTH!
In my own personal experience I've never gained much from the 106owners, but I am aware the club has new owners who are trying to move it on a bit... We are more motorsport biased on the RR so it should be ideal for your research.
However on to your original questions:
The rear beam is a tricky one as the stub pins that the trailing arms run on are likely to be fubar. If you want to rebuild it yourself you need a) a good axle with perfect stub pins and b) lots of tools and patience.
I rebuilt a good axle last summer for my rallye and the hardes part was dismantling it due to rusted in torsion bar splines. This involved the use of a large sledge hammer and lots of sacrificial bolts and bars against the ends of the T bars... Sandy Brown has previously written a good guide on this so have a search, plus have a look at my build thread in the members cars section in the Midlands forum on the Rallye Register to see what's involved. If you do decide to rebuild it yourseld, only use quality bearing kits and I recommend SKF.
Finding a good axle is the hard part though; I got lucky.
The easiest, but unfortunately more expensive option is to buy an axchange axle from IMaxle in Melton Mowbray.
Also what ever option you take, replace the beam mounting rubber bushes with poly items. The originals are voided which creates some passive steer, which is fine for a road car but on track you want the rear to be more precise. With these I find my car is more willing to oversteer and is far easier to control when pushing HARD.
With regards to the fronts, its just the usual refresh of all the bushes and joints as required. The wishbones are one-peice and whislt the ball joints can be pressed out this is more hassle than just replacing the complete units. I run Firstline items on my Rallye. If you want a more solid wishbone set up, then you can get solid rear mounts and poly fronts. But from my experience this results in quite a lot of vibration on rough roads and I'd only do this if you're running track rubber or it will be a waste of money as the stock rubber mounts are fine on road tyres.
Also budget for a decent set of dampers all round as this will refresh the car. Personally I run Bilstein B4's which are reasonably priced and are ideally suited to a stock ride height (my Rallye isn't a dedicated track car...).
Make sure the discs are all good (if scored/rusty friction surface replace them as they're cheap) and if on a budget the OMP brake pads are a great buy and resist fade very well indeed. Not far behind DS2500's for a lot less dosh...
The 106 GTI has a great chassis that requires very little in the way of modification to be a serious contender on track for not a lot of dosh! But above all, they're brilliant fun to drive
Edit: just to answer your question on tuning: it goes without saying that the first port of call is to check the engine is well serviced, so new filters, plugs, oil, sensors, radiator, hoses etc are all in good shape etc. The TU5J4 is a hardy little engine though and the factory 120bhp rating was generally a little conservative. Don't go nuts with the engine until the rest of the car is up to scratch, but start with a panel filter and cold air feed and the Raceland 4-2-1 manifold is great for the money, especially if you can get a decent used one (the Supersprint mani is the one though if you can find one...).
After the simple stuff you're stepping in to the realms of head work, cams, ported TB (easy to do and recommended) or even ITBs but not on a budget! All of which will require a remap so say goodbye to another £300...
A reasonable amount of weight can actually be stripped from them, so if it's a dedicated track car then go for it... A drivers bucket seat is also a worthwhile investment.
HTH!
Edited by Richair on Saturday 1st March 08:50
I have owned a 106 8v rallye race car for the last 15 or so years, It was largely std, but i'll offer up a few thoughts.
With regards to power, your best bet is a remap of the standard ecu, along with a k&n filter ( or similar) and the supersprint manifold. Remapping the ecu will probably liberate 20 hp if your engine is in good working condition. You could fit an inlet manifold of a c2vts which is marginally better and has a bigger throttle body, but I wouldn't go down the route of bike bodies as whilst you'll gain a great noise you'd only gain about 5 hp - and it'll be 1500 pounds by the time you have finished
As for handling, you could by some saxmax suspension from gaz, rear dampers are cheap enough, but if you are going to rebuild the rear axle fit thicker torsion bars 23mm is best ( stand is 19mm) Yo could also refit the hubs with washers on the bottom two bolts which would give you a small amount of camber.
The best gearbox is the 1.3 rallye box with the 4.54 final drive, this is basically a track box the gearing is so short, 85mph is 5000 rpm. I have just had one fitted to my car - I have yet to get it on track to see how it goes, but I'd anticipate 1 sec per lap improvement.
Other mods I'd consider, is fitting the master cylinder off a berlingo 1.9d as this is a 24.7mm bore, which gives a much firmer pedal with less travel. You could also try fitting the calipers off a late model 206gti which I think bolt straight on. They have a bigger capacity so can exert more force.
Take the weight out it is cheap to do, fit some sort of cage.
May be fit a strut brace.
If you don't want to go the dampers route, just buy some 7 inch springs from faulkner rated to 225 lbs, that will lower and tidy up the front handling, lower the rear torsion bars to their lowest position plus 1.
hth
With regards to power, your best bet is a remap of the standard ecu, along with a k&n filter ( or similar) and the supersprint manifold. Remapping the ecu will probably liberate 20 hp if your engine is in good working condition. You could fit an inlet manifold of a c2vts which is marginally better and has a bigger throttle body, but I wouldn't go down the route of bike bodies as whilst you'll gain a great noise you'd only gain about 5 hp - and it'll be 1500 pounds by the time you have finished
As for handling, you could by some saxmax suspension from gaz, rear dampers are cheap enough, but if you are going to rebuild the rear axle fit thicker torsion bars 23mm is best ( stand is 19mm) Yo could also refit the hubs with washers on the bottom two bolts which would give you a small amount of camber.
The best gearbox is the 1.3 rallye box with the 4.54 final drive, this is basically a track box the gearing is so short, 85mph is 5000 rpm. I have just had one fitted to my car - I have yet to get it on track to see how it goes, but I'd anticipate 1 sec per lap improvement.
Other mods I'd consider, is fitting the master cylinder off a berlingo 1.9d as this is a 24.7mm bore, which gives a much firmer pedal with less travel. You could also try fitting the calipers off a late model 206gti which I think bolt straight on. They have a bigger capacity so can exert more force.
Take the weight out it is cheap to do, fit some sort of cage.
May be fit a strut brace.
If you don't want to go the dampers route, just buy some 7 inch springs from faulkner rated to 225 lbs, that will lower and tidy up the front handling, lower the rear torsion bars to their lowest position plus 1.
hth
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