Mr Simmonds 3B lite project.

[K Simmonds]

And like this a couple of hours later, took me a little while to remember how it all went back together.

[K Simmonds]

A couple of the car itself, still a lot time and effort to go in to this venture.

[4WheelDrifter]

It looks pretty harsh in there without a carpet and the sound deadening removed.
Engine bay diet has gone a bit far though. I don't think it will run with all that removed.

It reminds me that I was close to binning the ABS on my car.That weighs a ton, and is high up in the car. I don't have it on my van, and I didn't have on any car I had in my youth, so that doesn't scare me.
Another option I toyed with was moving the ABS unit back into the car. I chickened out in the end and kept it roughly where it is. At least I can switch it off when I want to.

[Error404]

i think the only issure with removing the ABS is needing to fit a proportioning valve as AFAIK the stock ABS unit has it in there somewhere. Defo worth binning it if its a pure performance machine IMHO. Likewise the hydraulic system. Get an electric PAS pump and a vacuum servo and bin all the heavy stuff and the drain on engine power through the crank pulley

[K Simmonds]

It looks pretty harsh in there without a carpet and the sound deadening removed.
Engine bay diet has gone a bit far though. I don't think it will run with all that removed.

It reminds me that I was close to binning the ABS on my car.That weighs a ton, and is high up in the car. I don't have it on my van, and I didn't have on any car I had in my youth, so that doesn't scare me.
Another option I toyed with was moving the ABS unit back into the car. I chickened out in the end and kept it roughly where it is. At least I can switch it off when I want to.

Yeah the floor looks rough, my lightened front carpet only weighs a couple of Kilos and will hide most of it. The centre console will be going back as well, I like the storage hole by the hand-brake and I have no intention of giving up the tab's soon so the ash tray and lighter are essential. The Aux gauges will be in the original location, I'm going to use the stereo hole in the dash for a boost gauge and EGT/AFR gauges.

I thought about moving the ABS pump as well but decided it's not worth the hassle, as you say at least it can be switched off and kinda I like having it most the time. Binning the whole system is an option, not having ABS never bothered me in my any of my Golf GTi's, however it's not something I'd like to have to reinstate if I changed my mind.

[Rusty]

It is quite harsh without any interior but it all makes sense when you give it WOT and the WG opens

The 5-10% performance increase is pretty handy also

If you turn the ABS off doesn't it knacker the brake balance? Isn't that the issue that Mihnea had in his S4 a while back? A pressure valve would be a good addition in case the rear brakes are a bit strong with the lighter rear. I've found that the rear wheels spin a lot easier on a launch now that there's a lot less weight over them.

[4WheelDrifter]

Stripped lightweight carpet is a good idea.

The brake proportioning valve sits under the master cylinder on the 3B, by the ABS unit on the ABY. An adjustable valve would be the thing for a proper stripped racer. Coilovers will be a good idea too, to adjust the suspension. Which could be important with an extreme weight loss plan.

I also looked into losing the hydraulics. They must sap a lot of power. Especially the brake servo.

ABS cancel is no problem with regard to brake balance. But TBH I'm not 100% sure about total removal.
With ESP something weird happens, like it defaults to 50/50 front/rear or something. I remember when we had an ESP fault on the S3, and braking hard it was pretty unbalanced. And yes. I remember Mihnea's 190mph spins.
It's also annoying that ESP is default on, and I always forget to turn it off until the first slow corner I try to power out of, it the car doesn't go in the direction expected.
I had a dirty sensor on the S8 when I took it to the Ring, so I was without ABS luckily. Worked fine, as I didn't brake when the wheels were off the ground.
Anyway, no worries on a 3B with the cancel switch.

Don't forget a lot of weight can be lost on the drivers part in some cases. I remember talking to a guy at Combe that was going on about how much weight he saved with his carbon body panels, when TBH as he was talking I kept thinking his own body could've lost more weight for a lot less money.

I have my own lightweight secret weapon for the drag strip. It's a bit brutal on clutches though.

[K Simmonds]

Suspension wise I'm going to go for coil-overs when funds allow, but for now I'm using H&R springs for a na 20 valve CQ, figured they would be designed for less weight. I ran the car partially striped with them and they seemed pretty good then.

[K Simmonds]

Had a b'stard of a day with my A-post trim's. As I've mentioned earlier in this thread my windscreen has been replaced in the past, whoever did the job made a real hash of it. The A post trims had both been badly refitted, most of the rivets were loose or missing and the top of trim was about 3mm proud of the roof as opposed to having a nice flush finish, mainly due to too much sealant being used along the top edge of the screen. After much huffing and puffing with a little swearing I managed to get a nice flush fit by trimming a little from the narrow black trim that runs along the top of the screen and putting a fair bit of force on the A-post trim to get it to locate properly on the lug on the top of the A-post. Whilst riveting the trim into place this happened:, I can only assume this is due to the screen being sat too high, poo. I was more careful with the drivers side and the same thing happened, got the trim fitting right, five minuets later I notice a hair line crack in the same place.

The only way I can hide it it to get some good quality self adhesive black vinyl and cover the top corners of the screen as sympathetically as possible. At least the damage is within the black area round the edge of the screen and the back of the cracks are completely covered with sealant. Somewhere down the line I'm likely to have a glass out respray as I have some body-work issues and a I know a friendly paint shop, I'll fit a new screen properly then but I was hoping to be able to reuse this screen, oh well no chance of that now. I hope all this stress leads water tight door seals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[K Simmonds]

Oh and I started to put the engine bay back together to cheer myself up a bit, hope for a better day tomorrow.

[Rusty]

Oh dear, at least it's not in an MOT fail position. Might be worth taking it all to bits and getting a new one fitted by someone who knows what they're doing

Old cars eh Who'd have'em

[K Simmonds]

Oh dear, at least it's not in an MOT fail position. Might be worth taking it all to bits and getting a new one fitted by someone who knows what they're doing

Old cars eh Who'd have'em

Yes it's bloody annoying, I'm just going to hide the cracks for the time being and either fit a new screen myself or preferably get someone who's tackled one before to do it. At least my A post trims fit properly now and hopefully my door seals won't leak any more.

It can wait though till I get it painted which will be some time yet, I'll do a lot of the prep myself as I used to work in the paint shop that I'll use.

Yeah, old cars, it's a laugh a minuet.

[K Simmonds]

Had a better day today. I decided to fit the black head-lining and post trims, the whole lot only weighs five Kilos and looks far better then the inside of the roof. Also the sunroof is staying as there is no satisfactory way of deleting it without major hassle or it looking cr@p so it may as well still work and I need the head-lining to mount the control panel/interior light nicely , it's a pre select roof which is nice. Refitted the door seals properly as well which is a bit of a fiddle but hopefully I should have a waterproof passenger compartment now, fingers crossed. Got the bit of trim to put on round the sun roof hole and the lights in the front grab handles to wire up and its done. At the end of the day the cars going to be used on the road as well as for track days so I want it to be basically hospitable inside all be it very loud. I also pressure washed my lightened front carpet to with in an inch of it's life ready for refitting soon.

[Rusty]

I refitted my headlining for the same reason along with A and B pillar trims but IU've left the C pillar trims off for now. I'm also going to strip a pair of rear seat backs to the frames and fit a parcel shelf over the battery and ABS ECU. Not sur eon what to do with the rear door cards yet, the shame of them means that I'll probrably end up fitting the originals without speakers in there and going for a 4 speaker setup up front to keep at least some tunes in the car for longer journeys, you can't really hear the rears anyway so I won't miss them. Going for a Club Sport style rather than a full blown stripped out racing machine, same reason, it'll get used on the road too.

[K Simmonds]

I've come to the conclusion that one needs to start with an early non sunroof coupé quattro shell for an out and out light weight track car, in fact I'm going to be keeping my eye out over the next few months for such a candidate. I still reckon I'm on to hit about 1300 Kilos which will make this exercise worthwhile .