Mk2 Ibiza track project

[R953 VSE]

A friend and I decided we wanted to buy and convert a car for taking to track days etc and, after looking at corsas, bmw's, saxo's, 106's and a few other possibilites, we came across this car advertised for sale locally and we snapped it up. It's an R reg Ibiza Gti 2L 16v Cupra Sport.

Here it is as it looked in the advert. All it has done to it is a set of coilovers and a powerflow cat-back exhaust.

Here it is back home in my friends garage ready to be worked on!

It's very clean inside, and outside it looks ok but the front and rear bumpers are rough and there's a funny bit at the front of the bonnet where one of those bra things had been. Also a few rusty spots but since its being taken to a track we're not bothered about that!

 

[R953 VSE]

First job on the list was to strip out as much of the interior as we could.

Looking very bare now and we have a lot of interior parts taking up space which we need to get rid of!

 

[crezz]

go for it, strip it out!

 

[crezz]

oh yeah, cheap mk3 cage in for sale saection not long ago, i believ it can be made to fit easily

 

[R953 VSE]

Hmm... a cage is on the list of things to do. Theres a new omp one we've looked at for around £350 i think.

But thats a few steps down the line yet.

 

[R953 VSE]

Before we bought the car the guy said there was something wrong with the clutch pedal and that he had put it to a garage who couldn't fix it somehow, and when we tested the car out we discovered there was also something up with the gears aswell!

When pressing the pedal down it had to be hard to the floor before you could change gear, and then when it did come to changing gear it felt like the gearstick was connected to the gearbox by a piece of string!

Anyhow, we obviously bought it anyway and once it was stripped out we had a look to see what the problems were.

Had a look under the dash at the pedals and noticed a couple of snapped bits and broken welds which were supposed to support the bit that the cable comes through. Since having removed the clutch pedal on my old mk3 cupra i had a fair idea of what i was doing here, so off came the pedals and out came the pedal box! took it to a friends house immediately and had it welded then came home and miraculously got it all back together again.

While i was busy doing this, my friend had been investigating the gear issues and found that the wieght on the gear selector mechanism was wobbling about very loosely and that someone had been welding something down there aswell! He took it apart to find that it was simply a nut that hadn't been tightened properly so once that was tightened up and put back together we had a much better clutch pedal and smoother, more direct gear changes.

In bits:

Welded:

Back together again:

 

[R953 VSE]

Progress up to now is that we have a pair of Momo fibreglass bucket seats and sabelt 3 point harnesses waiting to be fitted and just took delivery of a pair of OMP sidemounts, OMP steering wheel and OMP hub! it felt like christmas! The wheel is fitted but thats about it so far. gave it a clean through the week and took it out to get the 2 front tyres replaced because the tyre walls were knackered, also got the exhaust fixed as it was loose and rattling about badly.

Should have some more progress to report within a few days but would appreciate any comments and advice on what would be other good ideas to do!

 

[Brummy]

Cool as... would be good to update this regularly as Im sure there would be a few of us interested in keeping tabs on how its all going..

 

[ibiza_95]

looks fun... my mates got a staripped and rally prepped mg zr... its only a 1.4 but stripped with all door strengthening etc removed it was as quick as my 2l 16v

 

[dozza.13]

Awesome use of a mk2! Let us know how you get on at your first trackday!

 

[R953 VSE]

Cool as... would be good to update this regularly as Im sure there would be a few of us interested in keeping tabs on how its all going..

I know what you mean, i love a good progress thread, seeing how a car is transformed etc.

We have a list of things we would like to do to the car but only doing the priorities at the moment and after taking it to the track we will know what we need to improve.

 

[Frootboots]

Are you going to be flogging the seats and door panels?

 

[R953 VSE]

Are you going to be flogging the seats and door panels?

Hopefully. The plan is to try and sell everything we take out, but i haven't got round to advertising it all yet.

Things like the seats etc might cause a problem as they are such big items.

 

[Martin M]

I want to do this to mine! Should be a good little track car when it's done.

 

[R953 VSE]

Right, theres been a lot of talking but not a lot of progress.

I fitted the steering wheel on friday and got the horn wired up and my friend made a nice little blanking plate for where the head unit used to be, thinking of doing something similar for the passenger airbag hole. After inspecting the complex looking airbox setup we also drilled the standard airbox and fitted a bit of ducting directed to the holes instead of taking it out for an aftermarket job.

I was at Knockhill on sunday at the touring cars and had a spy inside one of the leons in the pits to see how they mounted their seats so we're now on the look out for some box section which will need to be welded into the car to bolt the seat side mounts onto. at this time we should also be fitting the harnesses, and i think once thats done we should be ready enough for the first track outing!

Oh, and a few questions. Could someone enlighten me as to what should be on top of the brake fluid reseviour cap as theres obviously something missing!

I also noticed the diagnostics connection under the dash and was wondering if my vagcom cable from my mk3 would fit this or do i need another cable or different software?

Thanks, Alan.

 

[roly]

There should be a plastic cap on top of the brake resivoir cap, they tend to go missing after a few years, new one from the main dealers or a bit of black tape over the top usually does the trick

Vag com cable will work but the ecu doesnt have as many functions as the mk3 does

Looks like a good fun project you've got going on

 

[R953 VSE]

There should be a plastic cap on top of the brake resivoir cap, they tend to go missing after a few years, new one from the main dealers or a bit of black tape over the top usually does the trick

Vag com cable will work but the ecu doesnt have as many functions as the mk3 does

Looks like a good fun project you've got going on

Thanks! there was a bit of duct tape hanging off when we got it so will see about putting a new bit on. I will give the cable a try, any info it gives us will be a bonus i suppose.

Getting something for the track has been mentioned now and again for a long time now but glad we've finally got something on the go. Spent a fair while last night reading through the many pages about your mk2, which is a beautiful piece of work i have to say, and just goes to show what can be done to these cars and was very inspirational indeed!

 

[roly]

Cheers

Sometimes i wished i'd left bits of it alone, but as they say you live and learn

I'd love to get another valver but don't have the space for another car unfortunatly

 

[R953 VSE]

yeah it will be good to see what works and what doesn't.

We could go and spend hundreds on bits and bobs and modifiy it loads to begin with but i'd like to do it bit by bit so i can see where we are improving, if we improve it at all!

 

[tris]

Good luck with it maybe see you at a trackday soon