A3 turbo track car - the reason the mini hasn't been touched in ages!
Turbo Mini Forums

Morning folks, I thought I'd post up a few pics of what I've been working on the last year or so, since finishing the new engine build on the Mini last year I've not been around on here much.

Mini is still getting used regularly, but after a few trips to the Ring I developed a bit of an addiction to it, and having taken my A3 out there before, I realised that the mini was never going to be the ideal car to drive to Germany, thrash around a track,a nd expect it to drive me home again (in comfort!), so I decided to leave Mini as it is, and have a go at building something else!

Here is how the A3 started off in summer 2006:



Fast foreward 4 years, 3 turbos, 2 gearboxes, and god knows how much else and a fair few thousand quic, and I ended up with this:



a fair few mods on it at this point, ko3S turbo, FMIC, turbo back exhaust, stage 2 map, TT brakes, coilovers, and some ARB's, it made 230bhp and 290lbft.

We took it to the Ring a few times, once with the Mini as well, and once just in the A3, it went well





After a trip to the Ring in Easter last year, the car was feeling pretty tired, with numerous problems created by thrashing it on track.

I parked it up, an sticking to what I know, bought another, newer A3 for a new daily driver:



Moving on to last september, and I took the Mini back to the Ring, and dad drove the daily driver out there to load all the gear into, we had a great time, but mini had issues with the crank sensor ailgnment, so I ended up using the daily A3 on the track again, and found it was awesome.

at this point, my Dad and I decided that we would try and build the old A3 (sat rotting on my drive at the time) into a more modern track car, taillored towards use at the ring, with the intention that it could be driven in comfort to germany and back several times a year.

The fleet, all together at the start of the project:



A few minor fixes, a new steering rack, some bushes, and an MOT, and it was back on the road!

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Christmas saw the interior ripped out, FIA spec seat rails welded in, and a set of cobra Monaco seats with Titon 4 point 3'' harnesses, and a new steering wheel and boss:











I then loaded it up with beer, and went off to party for new years eve!

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Over jan I collected a load more parts, a rebuilt box with quaife LSD, new weitec coilovers, some uprated near solid engine mounts, larger vented S3 rear brakes,eibach front TT ARB, and a new shift setup from a TT as well.

Over Feb / March, I fitted everything, and even decided to paint the wheels orange:










I also fitted a huge neuspeed 32mm rear ARB



ANd finally, a set of brembo 4 pots (seen here with old discs just before they were replaced)

.

After being let down by Demon tweeks on some tyres, I ended up buying a set of wheels and tyres from a mate, and it was ready for the Combe spring action day in early April:

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Sadly, after just 20 miles, the clutch slave cylinder started leaking, and leaked all over the new clutch, causing it to slip terribly!

So, one week before the trackday at Combe, the box came out again for a new clutch:





Back together with a new VR6 clutch, and all seemed well. I got the car on the weight bridge at work, and was delighted to see that it was just 1070Kg, not bad for a car with electric windows, aircon, remote locking, and a CD changer. Only non standard panel is the carbon fibre bonnet.



I made it to Combe, and the car went amazingly, and seemed to surprise a lot of people

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Lets off road!

I've just realised that to keep posting this much detail about it will take me all year to get it up to date, so I'll just try and pics pics with a simple caption from now on!

turbo off to sort out an oil leak:



Housing badly cracked:





Got to deal with it for now, new solution to follow soon!

Car went all black so as not to attract too much attnetion in germany:



daily vs track car



Went to the Ring, fairly busy weekend, only got 5 laps in, but managed an 08:40 BTG, so fairly happy for it's first trip out there in it's new guise!

New wheels and tyres, federal RS-R's





Took it to Pro tyre to have the tyres rebalanced, and 2 of the bolts that hold the crownwheel to the diff sheered, and destroyed the casing








One box rebuild later, welded casing, and new bolts, and it was back together.

We decided, that before it went back on track, it needed to be caged. Nobody makes a decent cage for the A3, so we bought a cage for a 5 door mk4 golf, and set about modifying it to fit. These share the same floorpan, so it wasn't THAT much of a gamble.

''how do I get this home then?''





Never going to happen. Borrowed a piclkup instead

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Lots of effort, 3 weekends work, and some CAD (cardboard aided design) and it was in!















Front feet made:



Harness bar



Door bars:



Tied into the shell:





Painting



Primed:



ORANGE!

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

In readiness for the impending death of my current tiny turbo, I've bought a new one!

a ko4-023 hybrid, built by CR turbos to a spec devised by Bill at Badger5.



3'' billet inlet adaptor from Badger5





Genesis 550cc injectors:



Dyno plots from this very turbo fitted to a friends car, red line is 338bhp @23psi peak, his engine spec is identical to mine, same turbo, manifold, injectors.



My plan is to run it at 18-19psi to hopefully net 300bhp. Should keep inlet temps low, reduce torque spikes that'll just kill traction, and most importantly, it should be reliable too!

This will all be going on over winter, now that the last trackday of the year has been done.


Needless to say, EGT's on my current tiny turbo are through the roof!



Jumping a bit on the time line (I got the turbo back in august) I got the car ready for it's final ring trip of the year in september

Grip tape in the footwells



Fire ext mounted:



Trying to use the car as much as possile, I even took it to work and took it out on site!



Ring trip in sept was a bit of a fail, car was epic and never put a foot wrong, but my mate wrote his leon off on the first night, saturday was shut almost all day due to english idiots crashing all the time (they give us SUCH a bad rep), then on Sunday I was first on scene to a fatal involving 3 UK lads in a clio. not cool at all. I think we'll write that trip off totally.

Took the car to Audi Driver International at Combe in October, and once again, it was brilliant:







Picked up some Rota Force wheels on ebay too for a steal, old TT rims were almost 14kg each, these are just 8.1Kg!



I got 3 bronze and one black rota, so I colour matched the bronze, and painted the odd wheel.

Came out a good match I think, for a rattle can job.



Bit of chassis stiffness testing:









Looks more mean on the rotas somehow, and the handling improvement is wonderful!










Got sent a few more pics from ADI recently too:

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Good work, looks like you've made yourself a quick little track car. It looks good with the rota's on. I was just reading your mini topic the other day wondering if you had an update for us.



Oh and fuck that! haha

for some reason i can't see the last 2 pictures. I was wondering how do you find the cobra monacos with going all the way to germany?

Funny you should ask about the Monacos. We've had them in the Mini for years, we never really had any issues with them, but back in Summer I tried some new seats in a mates car, and found them 10x more comfy and supportive than the monacos.

The cobras went up for sale that night, and I bought these new seats you see in the later pictures.

They're RMD Maximum protection seats, GRP backed, 6kg each, and WAAAAY more comfy than monacos. They're not FIA approved, but the shell is an exact copy of the sparco pro evo / pro2000 shell, and they're just £120 per seat!

The cobras gave both Dad and I back ache driving to germany and back, the bases are just too hard and flat :(

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

il have a look for those, i wanted some but was just worried about comfort. I wanted some cobra imola's but they are expensive!!

Nice project and track car, better / more fun than the mini?

hard to say really mark, the main reason for building it was for more high speed stuff, the Mini is awesome around a tight track, but on more open stuff, it just doesn't have the legs, and it feels so cruel to be holding the Mini at WOT at 7500rpm for almost an entire minute climbing some of the big hills on the Ring! plus it was just too uncomfy and loud to drive there more than once a year, and you can't get enough kit in it either!

I wouldn't say the A3 is more fun, it doesn't have the same character that the mini has bucket loads of, but from point to point, despite having similar power:weight ratio, is certainly a lot faster.

A3 currently has 208bhp/1100kg, Mini has 114bhp / 575kg.

SO around 190bhp/ton for the audi and 200 for the mini, but the massive brakes and huge torque of the audi just get it around so fast. Diff helps too!

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Awesome project buddy!

many hours gone in there well done

have you any youtube vids of it ?

Like the contrast in colour infact i like all of it :)

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

like it; a mate has a 1.8t quattro sitting that i could do something with.............

That looks great mate, Top job. The car looks super clean as well.

Best 1/4 mile 13.2 seconds @116 mph
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on a carb?
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on Injection?

http://www.mattwoodsphotography.com

Cheers folks, glad you approve!

I just thought it was about time I showed my face back on here! I missed you guys

I love turbos, and I love my mini, I've just not got around to combining the two yet!

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.