Discussion
This is a thread about my first car which I've owned since 2003, it started life as a 1.3 8v Polo GT, all 75bhp and 800kg.
Chapter 1 - The Early Years
I don t have many photos of my car standard, partly because it didn t spend much of its life in this state. However, there was a brief period I was content with cleaning it, polishing it and adding a few shiny dress parts.
It looked like this:
If ever there was a car that didn't have a clue what the next 23 years held for it...
Shortly after passing my test, I bought a Wizards of Nos nitrous kit, and jetted it for about 80bhp and made my way down to Santa Pod on a regular basis:
The car would run 17s without gas and high 15s with it
I made my own coilovers and promptly ruined the little handling capability the car had from factory, whilst bouncing down the road on 175/50 A539s stretched on a 13x7 listening to Pendulum at full tilt. Good times.
I then started tinkering a little more seriously and had an early MS1 megasquirt system running on some Kawasaki Ninja ITBs and a 300' rally cam which needed piston relieving so the valves didn't clash.
This setup sounded great, but never really delivered the power/torque I wanted. Using a student loan I proceeded to buy a doner G40 which had some decent components, mainly a K03 turbo strapped to the front in place of the more fragile G-Lader:
This setup made just over 200bhp/190lbft add a set of MT Drag slicks and I was deep into the 13s:
Then with a sniff of giggle gas, into the 12s:
This was back in 2008/2009 which was fairly uncommon, in the VW Scene the 4wd Audis were rapid all would be shown a clean set of heels by a lightly fettled Golf R / RS3 today, but in 2008 a 1.3 8v Polo beating RS4s was funny!
After many trips to Santa Pod, I wanted a new challenge so set about making some changes to the turbo setup which would suit circuits.
Turbo setup was changed to a GT2554R and ran around the same power level I had previously with nitrous, just no gas this time:
I also stuck a full cage in it:
Bruntingthorpe (back when you could rent it!) was used to map the car, still on it s original Bosch Digifant ECU. One of the final WOT 5th gear pulls recorded 150mph GPS (on a road angel remember them?!)
Unfortunately the carbon bonnet would call time and lost it s outer skin
I did numerous trackdays being a local to Oulton Park at the time
One greasy morning I ran out of talent coming out of Shell hairpin and hit grass on slicks, which resulted in some barrier contact. I took the opportunity to fit some WL Motorsport arches to run a wider track and bigger wheels in future:
Once repaired and wheels were pointing roughly in the right direction, it took a trip to CofG to see Chris and Pete:
I then spent many hours at various circuits doing my best to break things, a few random photos:
Blyton Park with a mate in his AX (runs a 16v motor and Saxo Cup running gear)
Always tinkering:
Few days at Curborough with Club GTi crew:
I d also revisit Santa Pod with my mate in his R5:
If you re still reading, you might find it odd that I ve not mentioned broken components, there have been plenty! Possibly the most spectacular was following a PH Meet near the M6 Toll.
The Polo had drawn a crowd and I d been chatting to a few people, I recall someone asking me what's the bottom end was good for?
Plenty, mate
fast forward about 45min and I m staring at the crank through a hole in the block!
That was fixed with a set of stronger rods, what continued to plague me was gearbox issues.
The original 085 gearbox wasn t designed for slicks and the power/torque I was feeding it. After several broken gearboxes, snapped shafts, CV joints etc I decided to make a larger 02J gearbox from a golf fit.
The box itself is a similar size to the Polo engine:
One adapter plate, bespoke shafts and linkages later and I was back in business.
The car stayed like this for a while, it remained road legal too:
I then decided to stick a 1.8t 20v into it (because the gearbox was now capable of more power FFS.
This will continue with, Chapter 2 Polo GT1
Chapter 1 - The Early Years
I don t have many photos of my car standard, partly because it didn t spend much of its life in this state. However, there was a brief period I was content with cleaning it, polishing it and adding a few shiny dress parts.
It looked like this:
If ever there was a car that didn't have a clue what the next 23 years held for it...
Shortly after passing my test, I bought a Wizards of Nos nitrous kit, and jetted it for about 80bhp and made my way down to Santa Pod on a regular basis:
The car would run 17s without gas and high 15s with it
I made my own coilovers and promptly ruined the little handling capability the car had from factory, whilst bouncing down the road on 175/50 A539s stretched on a 13x7 listening to Pendulum at full tilt. Good times.
I then started tinkering a little more seriously and had an early MS1 megasquirt system running on some Kawasaki Ninja ITBs and a 300' rally cam which needed piston relieving so the valves didn't clash.
This setup sounded great, but never really delivered the power/torque I wanted. Using a student loan I proceeded to buy a doner G40 which had some decent components, mainly a K03 turbo strapped to the front in place of the more fragile G-Lader:
This setup made just over 200bhp/190lbft add a set of MT Drag slicks and I was deep into the 13s:
Then with a sniff of giggle gas, into the 12s:
This was back in 2008/2009 which was fairly uncommon, in the VW Scene the 4wd Audis were rapid all would be shown a clean set of heels by a lightly fettled Golf R / RS3 today, but in 2008 a 1.3 8v Polo beating RS4s was funny!
After many trips to Santa Pod, I wanted a new challenge so set about making some changes to the turbo setup which would suit circuits.
Turbo setup was changed to a GT2554R and ran around the same power level I had previously with nitrous, just no gas this time:
I also stuck a full cage in it:
Bruntingthorpe (back when you could rent it!) was used to map the car, still on it s original Bosch Digifant ECU. One of the final WOT 5th gear pulls recorded 150mph GPS (on a road angel remember them?!)
Unfortunately the carbon bonnet would call time and lost it s outer skin
I did numerous trackdays being a local to Oulton Park at the time
One greasy morning I ran out of talent coming out of Shell hairpin and hit grass on slicks, which resulted in some barrier contact. I took the opportunity to fit some WL Motorsport arches to run a wider track and bigger wheels in future:
Once repaired and wheels were pointing roughly in the right direction, it took a trip to CofG to see Chris and Pete:
I then spent many hours at various circuits doing my best to break things, a few random photos:
Blyton Park with a mate in his AX (runs a 16v motor and Saxo Cup running gear)
Always tinkering:
Few days at Curborough with Club GTi crew:
I d also revisit Santa Pod with my mate in his R5:
If you re still reading, you might find it odd that I ve not mentioned broken components, there have been plenty! Possibly the most spectacular was following a PH Meet near the M6 Toll.
The Polo had drawn a crowd and I d been chatting to a few people, I recall someone asking me what's the bottom end was good for?
Plenty, mate
fast forward about 45min and I m staring at the crank through a hole in the block!
That was fixed with a set of stronger rods, what continued to plague me was gearbox issues.
The original 085 gearbox wasn t designed for slicks and the power/torque I was feeding it. After several broken gearboxes, snapped shafts, CV joints etc I decided to make a larger 02J gearbox from a golf fit.
The box itself is a similar size to the Polo engine:
One adapter plate, bespoke shafts and linkages later and I was back in business.
The car stayed like this for a while, it remained road legal too:
I then decided to stick a 1.8t 20v into it (because the gearbox was now capable of more power FFS.
This will continue with, Chapter 2 Polo GT1
Edited by Yoof on Wednesday 5th August 14:10
I remember these, even had one , be it the 'breadvan' style as my first car of sorts.
1043cc engine and 4 speed box. that engine blew up 3 times cause of the HG design fault.
Ironically someone i worked with has one in blue, with a similar setup of a G40 engine with a sizeable turbo. I believe he's working over at Prodrive these days.
1043cc engine and 4 speed box. that engine blew up 3 times cause of the HG design fault.
Ironically someone i worked with has one in blue, with a similar setup of a G40 engine with a sizeable turbo. I believe he's working over at Prodrive these days.
Sf_Manta said:
I remember these, even had one , be it the 'breadvan' style as my first car of sorts.
1043cc engine and 4 speed box. that engine blew up 3 times cause of the HG design fault.
Ironically someone i worked with has one in blue, with a similar setup of a G40 engine with a sizeable turbo. I believe he's working over at Prodrive these days.
I’ve known Andy the best part of 40 years, we’ve got the same parents 1043cc engine and 4 speed box. that engine blew up 3 times cause of the HG design fault.
Ironically someone i worked with has one in blue, with a similar setup of a G40 engine with a sizeable turbo. I believe he's working over at Prodrive these days.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff