Meet Roly,

I've got the track day bug, and my evo was just to good to risk breaking/crashing etc. So I managed to find a alternative that's abit different to the norm and a good alternate to the usual type r's and Clio's that seem to be very popular, I always liked the understated look that's why I love skodas too haha,

I'm sure a few of you know about these around 190bhp out the factory and weigh a tad over 1200kg so a very good base to start.

A few things to do, needs a rad and cv boot, full service etc, just going to sort brakes and suspension first and a bit of weight saving, see how it gets on

I like the understated look of these, they can then suprise people

Yup you'll want to change the brakes, weakest point on the car, can burn them out in no time.

Get a K&N typhoon on it, they make a glorious noise with one

Yup you'll want to change the brakes, weakest point on the car, can burn them out in no time.

Get a K&N typhoon on it, they make a glorious noise with one

Didn't you have one of these Jase? And yep brakes are first on list to do

Didn't you have one of these Jase? And yep brakes are first on list to do

Yup my fav car of all time. Fancy another

Oh and a comedy shot

As standard an ep3 type r could pull away slightly and i mean slightly.

I fitted

TTE short shift

Helix clutch and Fidanza flywheel

K&N Typhoon

With those mods i could easily pull away from a stock ep3 type r. The fidanza flywheel made the biggest improvement

Only downside is its about impossible to maintain the 'lift' from 1st to 2nd. It can be done but takes some doing, you have to slip the clutch on gearchange

really like the sleeper look of these cars. i was looking at one myself not that long back.

Its the engine thats awesome

Its made by yamaha, 189bhp from 1.8litres n/a is pretty good going imo

Made a start of draining coolant, rad out, air con out while I was there, awaiting new mishimoto one tomorrow I love working on jap cars so simple and almost a pleasure, must have took half an hour to remove rad and air con system,

Gaping hole left, should have lots of air flow to keep her cool now,

New rad fitted, mishimoto says it requires no modification to fit and standard fans can be used, well what a load of tosh fitment was well off had to chop abit of the slam panel to fit it and modify the standard fan, not impressed but at least it's on now,

Some pics

Bit of the slam panel that was chopped as it sat no where near the mount holes

Been busy today Rear discs and pads done, rear wiper delete, bit of weight saving too

Bit of a sorry state

After

Smallest pads in the world lol

And a bit of weight gone

And you thought Fabia vrs standard ride height was silly lol

Had the kitchen scales out today too shhhh don't tell the wife, been tootling up what's come out so far,

Rear Speakers 1.75kg

Rear Seatbelts 4.4kg

Rear Wiper motor and blade 2.3kg

Rear seat brackets 7.6kg

various bolts 1.5kg

Parcel shelf 4.4kg

N/r boot panel 4.6kg

O/r boot panel 4.2kg

Bootlid trim 3kg

center seat belt 0.7kg

Rear seat backs 17kg

rear door trims 8kg

rear seat bases 7kg

Front sound deadening 10kg

rear sound deadening 6.2kg

Lower boot trim 1kg

air con compressor 5kg

Air con rad 4kg

Air con pipes 1.5kg

parking sensor control unit and wiring 1kg

that's not really trying too hard too grand total of 95.15kg that's a good start,

Will be retaining some creature comforts like the carpet and headlining, electric windows, stereo and front speakers, dash etc staying as is,

Still got full size spare, tool kit etc so could easily get under 1100kg

Going out for a good run tommorrow after I've done the front brakes, make sure there's nothing else needs doing before her first outing at Bedford in two weeks

New goodies arrived

Some ta technic coilovers, wasn't going to spend the value of the car on suspension so these should do the job nicely, come with adjustable droplinks too which was a nice surprise.

Took the heater matrix out too as it had been leaking and been bypassed at some point, lots of nice soggy insulation under the carpet too, so good job that's all out. Another 1.5kg to the total, every little helps, car has had a service, I still have in tank fuel filter to do, lots to do still.

Had a short blast at the weekend, feels pretty good engine feels strong, got a few bits coming from toyota for when I do the suspension, and doing new lift bolts as a precaution this week, wasn't happy with the calipers when I did the rears and fronts, o/f was extremely tight and had a seized slider pin, both rear bleed nipples seized and Pistons were hard as anything pushing back in, to be expected with a 13 year old car I suppose, got a set of four newer low milage calipers coming now, and some braided lines, so have all them to do aswell,

Busy week ahead

Bit of an update, rear calipers changed rear braided lines fitted, minor mishap with n/r brake line as the joiner twisted while trying to undo and split the line. Got the father in law to make me a new bit of pipe so all good now, leaving the fronts till after its first outing on track now just incase I get any further problems, suspension is on now too:) just waiting on some part worn tyres early next week to replace the ditch finders that are on there, then can tweak the height etc. Some pics

Should be well under 1100kg now

Spare wheel out 23kg

tool kit. 5.4kg

Fog lights 3kg

Boot floor cover 6kg

Tool kit holder 2.4kg

39.8kg so in total to just under 140kg down, going with run flats so am able to lose the spare wheel

Got all the suspension sitting perfect now after a couple of hours of playing all level all round with the weight out.

Some pics

Fitted a TTE rear Strut brace too

No point in runflats in the slightest.

Cost 50% more

Horrible ride

And they are heavier by a long long way. So what you save on the loss of spare wheel you'll make it back up with the weight of the runflats.

Also you need runflat compatible alloys, (they have an extra lip on the barrell so under failure they stay on the rim.

Runflats on normal alloys is a recipe for disaster

For example

I changed from 16" alloys with rft's on my bmw (iirc they weighed 22kgs each)

To 18" alloys with non rft's

(They weighed 18kgs each)

Iirc. Was something alongs those lines. But the saving was massive

Surprised about the special rims never herd that before, these will only be temporary until I get some new wheels, and are going to be part worns, as it's pointless putting brand new on just before a track day, I'll see how I get on, Corolla as you know have a funny tyre size as standard 195/55 r16 just so happens that minis come with that size too so run flats are plenty full

Yes the alloys have an extra lip on both sides of the barrell to keep the run flat tyres in place when deflated

If that makes sense

Absolutely gutted just been for a pre track day blast and got a bad knocking from o/f, removed wheel to find the rear wishbone bush was kaput, why didn't it do this yesterday grrr so annoyed, first track outing will have to wait:(

Best of luck with this one Trev. Bad luck on the timing with that failure :(

 

Was also surprised at your runflat comment - there's no way I'd put them anywhere near a car, let alone a trackday one! There's a reason BMW fit them to 'normal' cars, but not to anything proper from M-Division.

Best of luck with this one Trev. Bad luck on the timing with that failure :(

 

Was also surprised at your runflat comment - there's no way I'd put them anywhere near a car, let alone a trackday one! There's a reason BMW fit them to 'normal' cars, but not to anything proper from M-Division.

Yeah I got normal tyres in the end all in prep for tomorrow :(

Best of luck with this one Trev. Bad luck on the timing with that failure :(

Was also surprised at your runflat comment - there's no way I'd put them anywhere near a car, let alone a trackday one! There's a reason BMW fit them to 'normal' cars, but not to anything proper from M-Division.

Exactly...

What does that tell you!

My old boy has just today had to buy a new rear alloy for his 335d as one has cracked due to the dreaded runflats. Goodbye £400

In other news I did manage to get it on the weigh bridge before it decided to misbehave,

Result was 1112kg with half a tank of fuel not too shabby

Not to going to drive the rolla for a couple of weeks till I get the wishbones done and got to sort a gearbox leak from driveshaft seal grrr,

Decided to remove a couple more bits

Some more boot trims 1.2kg

Rear speaker brackets 0.5kg

Center armrest/glovebox 3.7kg

Another 5.4kg pretty easily gone, gonna concentrate on big stuff next, smaller battery, seats, wheels etc still lots of weight to lose.

Some pics

Rear doors before

After

Armrest

After

Got a few bits to do this week, got a small leak from o/s gearbox driveshaft seal so going to do that along with Gbox oil change, got the o/s wishbone to change too aswell as lift bolts. and my wheels will be back from powdercoaters end of the week sporting there new colour. Oh and have got a smaller battery too just need to make a bracket for it