OliverJ's Leon Cupra R : OZ AP Racing upgrades...

[oliverj]

You certainly feel the bite when braking, it makes an amazing noise like some form of space age air brakes!!!

Being completely honest it was a friend of mine who spotted they were on "back to front" after I had them fitted at which point I enquired why. I would definitely recommend it!

 

[Willie]

Greenlight are the boys I went with in the end, HIC came in quite expensive for me £1600 all inclusive for as many track days as I want) as I have had an unlucky past with vandalism on my previous cars so only have 3 years NCB even though I have been driving for 12. I spoke to Chris Knott too but Greenlight were the ones I was looking to go with (next door neighbour is with them too and he speaks very highly of them).

Greenlight were really helpful and my policy is £640 and I pay £50 for each trackday I do to cover me fully comp. I am only planning on doing 4/5 a year so it is not too unreasonable and they won't bum rape me every time I make a small change to the car like Elephant did.

Elephant threatened to cancel the policy if I made one more change to the car and I had only done the wheels and brakes.

Who would you use to remap yours? I looked at Jabbasport and the custom remap seemed really good as it is bespoke to your vehicle (and designed within tolerances) rather than Revo which just drop a standard one for that model on everyones.

I'd probably use custom code or AMD.
More swinging toward CC as if I plan to get a hybrid turbo they can map it and give a reduction for people with CC phase 2.
All I need is the 3" DP and I'm ready for phase/stage 2
As said though I'm more concentrating on brakes and handling first then more power once I know how to handle the car properly

I leaned on HIC big time and they really fought for my buisness. With them you don't pay any more for track days but have a £500 excess. But your only aloud 3 track days which at this rate I might not even manage this year

 

[oliverj]

I'll look into CC - thanks for the tip.

Not unlike you though I want to raise my skill level before I raise the BHP. I would be happy doing a few bits like induction and exhaust relatively soon to help the engine breath but the standard stuff is pretty good. I had a Janspeed S1 on my Rover 200VI and that was a nice exhaust, that and a carbon fibre induction box with filter took me from 145BHP to 167BHP at flywheel when I had it on a rolling road.

My excess withGreenlight doubles when I go onto the track from £300 to £600. I am going to be very careful!!

Would you go on the track as soon as your gearbox is sorted? Is there anything else you would want to do first like the brakes and wheels?

 

[oliverj]

I feel ashamed to say it but I got rather excited reading about the new Focus RS in my AutoCar mag... that is what you and I need... a slip diff and some decent, supportive seats!

 

[Willie]

I have a CG lock that helps massively with the seat control bit

http://www.cg-lock.co.uk/cg-lock/

Not quite a harness but a good step towards it
The LSD is on the list of stuff to do, I wish I had the money to do it whilst sorting out the gearbox but I don't.
As for exhaust, look at the Piper 3" DP and 3" free flowing mandrel bent system, looks and sounds great and gives good figures.
As for induction better off smoothing your air box and fitting afreer flowing panel filter for a start, this has been tested to 330 BHP with similar results as a induction kit. With a 100mm feed to the box the sound and flowing is as good as an induction kit without having to tell the insurance peoples

And yup as soon as the gearbox issue is sorted there will be a call to KH
I have the DS2500 pads with Ultimax discs, I'm eager to get these onto the track to see what they are like. I don't hold too much hope for them but we will see

 

[oliverj]

My next door neighbour had one of those CG locks - they get good write-ups but be nice to have a 6 point harness aside from the risk of severely creasing my shirt on the way to a meeting!

How much would a LSD cost for our car? That would open the flood gates for 300BHP+

Are you talking cat back on the Piper and DP 3"?

I read a posting on Uncle Fester smoothing his air box. Did you feel much difference replacing your hoses with the Forge ones?

 

[Willie]

I don't feel any difference with the hoses, its more about the boost not getting used up expanding the hoses. The TIP has been said to collapse under high RPM.
I've got a powerflow CAT back, don't know if i'll replace this with the full Piper syatem, probably as the powerflow is a bit droney at 3,000 RPM
And yes it would be the 3" DP, 200 Cell race CAT and oval 6" x 4" tail pipe like OEM

LSD is about £650, but its the fitting that costs a bomb as its obviously a gear box out job. With bigger torque your just aswell to get the clutch changed aswell, it all mounts up!!

 

[DPJ]

ive often thought the same, it makes sense to have them this way for the dusty to be removed when on the move.
However ive seen numerous photos of grooves fitted as shown on this thread by major race teams among others, So i guess it doesnt matter!?

Just noticed the grooves dont even get to the disk edge so it wouldnt help anyway.

Got mine on that way too. I think if the grooves run to the edge, they can encourage cracking.

 

[oliverj]

Hi Dave, how long have you been running the rotors back to front? have you noticed anything negative at all? This is the first set I have had this way and the braking is exceptional but the noise at low speed and reversing is plain embarassing

Worth the stares though when you pull up at lights or try and back into a parking space.

 

[oliverj]

I don't feel any difference with the hoses, its more about the boost not getting used up expanding the hoses. The TIP has been said to collapse under high RPM.
I've got a powerflow CAT back, don't know if i'll replace this with the full Piper syatem, probably as the powerflow is a bit droney at 3,000 RPM
And yes it would be the 3" DP, 200 Cell race CAT and oval 6" x 4" tail pipe like OEM

LSD is about £650, but its the fitting that costs a bomb as its obviously a gear box out job. With bigger torque your just aswell to get the clutch changed aswell, it all mounts up!!

That sounds like a nice exhaust upgrade, I bet you don't get much change out of £1k though.

The Janspeed S1 I had previously had a lovely note to it but people could hear me coming and I am getting too old for this now

It makes you wonder whether all these things we do to our cars it's worth just buying one that already has them! It must be cheaper! I've spent three years thinking of what my next car could be and I can honestly say having had the LCR now I can't think of anything less than £50K that would interest me. The LCR is just superb in every aspect.

 

[oliverj]

Just spotted this SCN topic on the Piper system:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=142042

Not sure whether to go for Piper or Milltek system? Milltek don't appear to have a 3" version though for the LCR.... Oh and I need uit fitting ASAP as I am at Donington a week on Monday!

Any feedback from folk with a full Piper system? Or comments on the Milltek full system inc sports cat?

 

[oliverj]

Having just read the 14 pages of postings I think it is a no brainer! Waiting for lead times on the 3" coated turbo back system!

 

[Willie]

Piper

 

[oliverj]

After reading the reviews and going through the specs it was an easy decision I just had to dismiss the others for a reason!

Will make the calls tomorow to see when I can get it! need to check with insurance company first!

 

[Willie]

It's Gary you want to speak to, he has been very helpful to the guys on here and he might have one in stock without the coating, I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Good choice

 

[wild willy]

One thing to consider is that the piper system is only 2.5 inch on the exhaust side. This should make things less boomy. The fact it doesn't have a center silencer should help flow also. For max torque and power i had a 3 inch custom system with no silencer which was a little noisey but much better torque and pull than the Blue flame that i replaced it with. To get good results from a turbo back system you must get specific software written for it (not a custom remap but at least stage 2 code). My LCR with the 3 inch system and APR stage 2 code was night and day compared to when it was a stock car with just stage 1 code loaded on it.
PS I think the way your both doing the handling mods and braking mods first is definately the way to go and a well sorted stock car would out perform any remapped only LCR on the track.

 

[oliverj]

Cheers for the feedback boys, as you probably both appreciate there is so much I would love to do with the car but I am restricted by funding and comon sense and I am doing this to make the car more driver focussed! I realise that the most improvement can be made in my driving skills.

Therefore, I have decided to do Donington with the car as is (wheels and brakes upgrade only) and see how she fares. I will then be able to make a decision as to what to do next (if anything) depending on what doesn't cope on the day. My suspicion is the suspension will be the weak link as the tyres are Michelin PS2s and the brakes are already track proven.

You make a good point that I may as well go for an induction, turbo back exhaust and custom remap all at the same time to realise the most benefit. The flip side ofthe coin is that every mod I make pushes me further away from my next car...

 

[Willie]

One thing to consider is that the piper system is only 2.5 inch on the exhaust side. This should make things less boomy. The fact it doesn't have a center silencer should help flow also. For max torque and power i had a 3 inch custom system with no silencer which was a little noisey but much better torque and pull than the Blue flame that i replaced it with. To get good results from a turbo back system you must get specific software written for it (not a custom remap but at least stage 2 code). My LCR with the 3 inch system and APR stage 2 code was night and day compared to when it was a stock car with just stage 1 code loaded on it.
PS I think the way your both doing the handling mods and braking mods first is definately the way to go and a well sorted stock car would out perform any remapped only LCR on the track.

I'd like to prove that

 

[oliverj]

Me too!!!!

Have to see how I get on as stock next week... Be nice if there is another LCR there but I have a mixture of 911s, Atoms, Westfield, Lotus and a Toyota Starlet GT to play with!

 

[wild willy]

I'd like to prove that

but a well sorted LCR with good brakes and a decent remap is a different beast again though.