st10587 Lupo Sport track project!! - Roll Cage Now In!!!

[st10587]

Right guys and girls i thought i should start a build thread for my next project.

Me and a friend have bought a lupo sport for use on track.


I bought the car from a friends girl friend so he had done some of the work. The car came with coilovers, BMC induction kit, modified exhaust, Lenso BSX rims running 175/50/15 (stretched to fit), rolled wheel arches.



Plans are to loose weight and sort the handling out.

The 1st saturday was spent replacing the clutch as the old one was shot.

This weekend was spent stripping just about everything possible from the inside, modifing the dash to loose as much weight from it as possible and relocating the important switches (car is staying road legalish).

We are waiting on seat frames from cobra to mount the buckets we have and already have the 4 point harness ready waiting to go in.

At some point we will look into a cage and possible pollycarbing all the windows (at the moment funds do not allow this). Also going to be loosing the Lenso rims and trying to find a nice cheap set of 15's as the lenso's are to good for track.

Here are some pics (more to follow when it stops raining)

Arch rolling!

Seats

Harnesses

Switch relocation

My spare room looks like a lupo threw up in it!

o and if any of you arosa guys need any interior parts drop me a message as i have most of the plastic trims, head liner and full set of seats and door card etc etc to get shot of

 

[Chambers_CUPRA]

Plan sounds good

This the 100bhp model

 

[st10587]

yep it the 100bhp model. its suprising how much weight you can remove from a lupo and how much it effects the car

 

[cupra.al]

good to see you back on the forum.
make sure you keep this thread updated the civic thread didnt last long.
love the car have always wanted one myself although i think being 6ft 2 i need a car that done put my knees under my arm pits.

 

[st10587]

haha thats cos the civic didnt last long! tracked it for a few sessions and got rid. was costing to much and after i was done it needed tyres brakes and a clutch lol.

You can fit in a lupo..... im 6ft 2 also!

This thread will be kept up to date as im more likely to spend time on this car lol

 

[cupra.al]

cool.
whats your daily now then?

 

[st10587]

just a quick update, harness eye bolt arrived today, along with the new heater control panel, door check strap and window seal! still hoping that cobra will pull there fingers out and get the seat frames here for the weekend!

Should be another busy weekend playing with the lupo!

 

[st10587]

cool.
whats your daily now then?

Daily now is a 12 plate Jetta! i now work as a service advisor for Guildford VW, so i have a company car

 

[cupra.al]

i see lucky you.
not sure if you remember the forum member driveforward with the track prepared arosa but might be worth a look at his thread for ideas if you need any that is.

 

[st10587]

i see lucky you.
not sure if you remember the forum member driveforward with the track prepared arosa but might be worth a look at his thread for ideas if you need any that is.

yep i remember, i have read just about every thread out there now on any track prepared arosa or lupo before i committed to the project. was toying with the lupo gti but just works out so much more than the sports and other then a little less weight, 20bhp and a 6th gear there not a huge amount between them.

 

[cupra.al]

cool.
do you have any plans for the engine in the lupo then?

 

[st10587]

cool.
do you have any plans for the engine in the lupo then?

atm its just staying standard with the additions of induction and exhaust. i will blank the EGR off to try and reduce coking. Going to see how it goes for now as i mainly stick to smaller tracks top end is not as bigger deal. would be tempted to go the supercharge route but it then starts to get expensive

 

[st10587]

Today's work was to re-cable the heater box for where the controls no are in the dash. had to swap 2 cables round as the heat setting one was to short. Then after the dash was back in i seat to on the window seal that was badly leaking, followed by change the passenger door check strap as it was pretty much seized solid. Removed rear wiper assembly and tidied the dash wiring up. There's still a lot of wiring i want to pull out of the car as its now redundant but it will be a mission to split the looms down.

Some pics of how the car stands now.

 

[st10587]

OK this weekends work involved fitting seats and harnesses. (the sholder straps will be moved to the cage when we get it fitted)

 

[st10587]

new steering wheel arrived today. needless to say it was fitted straight away!

 

[cupra.al]

when is the cage going in?
lupos are so cool.

 

[st10587]

when is the cage going in?
lupos are so cool.

when the roll cage fairy leaves one under my pillow

it will be a couple of months as its about £550 for the cage then i need to tap a friend up who's a welder

 

[st10587]

ok had the first track day this weekend. completed 8 sessions at Lydden Hill and all went great! Found the lupo handles alright considering the tyres that are currently fitted. could do with reducing some bodyroll so will be looking into antiroll bars and polly bushing. Only issue we had were the seat frames kept coming loose!! going to be looking into nylocking the bolts in as its not fun when the seat starts moving. So far for a direct fit subframe the cobra ones have been a pain in the arse.

Good thing is the lupo got alot of attention and we had quite a few 'what have you done to that to make it so quick?'. Think the guys with the bigger cars were suprised to find at the corner i could brake later and carry more corner speed and do some cheeky undertakes, however they got me back on the straights!

Heres some pics and a short video!

Short video here


http://youtu.be/r-zJBLpNGYc

 

[Gooner_Mike]

Good to see you're still about mate! This looks like a fun project.

 

[st10587]

Good to see you're still about mate! This looks like a fun project.

always about lol. You still working in guildford? saw a C4 with a tow eye buddy few months back and thought hmmm i wonder?

Update on the lupo is not a huge one, have been tinkering doing th eboring stuff after the last rack day. good news is we have 3 more days booked, 1st at brands on april 25th then two more at Lydden in May (BHP show and Apex festival). roll on the 25th