Marius

Alex, it was that strange swiss guy with rabbit ears who took the wing off, wasn´t it him ?!?! 😬

Hi Hanns. I wonder why the dry sump piping is different between an EU4 and EU3 car as this has nothing to do with exhaust/noise/etc´. Might this not be because of your car being a left hand drive car ? I have a LHD vauxhall racer and it´s dry sump system is also different to the RHD cars. If you don´t have to get your car approved every few years (like in germany every 2 years: TÜV) I´d rather take it to a specialist who will set up a new map for the ECU on the rollers with a proper exhaust and modified induction set up. Have you an MBE ECU on the car ? I know that Joachim Westermann from MOG got his MBE map modified somewhere in Germany and was very happy with the result and the service. Maybe worth mailing him to find out the adresse who did it for him. Marius Germany

Support germany, we fund the EU and need more money.... carbon aeroscreen: here

Rob, are sure that you could not "bend" the cage into position ? Mine was well out of line, too, at least 10-20mm at the side mounting points but it was an easy job to bend it into place with the straps.

Titanium spacers are lighter...

Cheers Arnie. Get Fiona into the garage, it´s easier with four hands. Had to fit it on my own which was a bit stressy. Protect the side of the scuttle with HD tank tape. Make sure to place the rear mountings (two holes, two rear fittings to the back panel) first, then align the cage roughly with the chassis. The gap between the cage and the chassis has to be filled up with spacers. Probably the lugs will not align properly with the chassis, so I took some of these straps where you tie down the car on the trailer with. One end to the cage, the other one to a front chassis strut. So you can "pull" the cage slowly into the right position, then fit all the bolts while it´s being held in the right position by the straps. Before attching the front mountings to the scuttle, fiddle the rests of the tank tape off from under the fittings. Tank tape is good cause it´s easily removable without leaving traces of glue on the paintwork. It took me about three hours to fit incl. all drillings and rivets but I had a cage which fitted quite good. I also heard of cages which needed four people to get onto the chassis.. Good luck... (now going down to the workshop, too, to fit some nice upgrades... 😬)

There have been some failures in the past so he obviously knows what he´s talking about... Let´s see if the carbon one on my car will last a whole season....

Found an older picture of a proper TC XE engine... here only 2% in common with a standard 2 litre XE

The guy at Spiess Tuning Germany (the tuner doing the works engines for Opel/Vauxhall) who I get my engine parts from worked on the 2 litre XE touring car engines and said that the last evolutions where slightly above 300 BHP (or DIN/PS), region of 310-315. You can simply buy one of these engines, just a matter of money (50.000 Euros incl. Bosch ignition) and running costs. The "hottest" works engines sometimes went pop during warm up. You really don´t want one of these for trackdays or street. I guess a reliable realistic figure for a 2 litre XE with 3 ring pistons is 240-265 BHP, everything above will let you have to strip the engine after a few hundred race miles. I am running now a "real" 240 BHP XE engine in a Caterham for three years and it never let me down (at least not by it´s own fault...). We are currently upgrading it with a special steel crank facing 2.1 litres and aim for "real" 265-270 BHP which is pretty much the limit for an affordable XE engine. If you want 300+, get a 2.3 duractec, throw 9k pounds on it... et voila... 😬 I reckon the first "real" 300BHP Duratecs will be with us within th next 6 month. All a matter of budget though... But a proper XE TC engine ist still more beautifull than any Duractec... 😬

I have a pure aluminium one without the engravings on top of it. YOu can have it for a small donation to NTL. contact me on info (at) schneiderwind (dot) de

I´m up for one

No problem, Dave

I shall have raced the RST at Paul Ricard, 3 hours race, beginning of November. Everything was planned & setup but despite huge efforts of Chris & Motopower, the car was not ready to be picked up until one day before the event... 🙆🏻 They had problems with the loom, alternator, ECU, to name but a few, but somehow I had the slight impression that they had doubt that the car would run faultlessly in a race for 3 hours. Maybe next year.... We raced the trusty old Vauxhall then, had position 8 until the rear brake pipe split.... ☹️

None of both.... 😬

Anthony, I have just received something else very tempting for you: Has does "full throttle shift", "load cell" and "gear dependent ignition cut" sound ?!?! 😬

Dave, can I have a copy, too ? Pleeeeeasse..... 0049-241-22709 I owe you a beer or two. Autosport in January ?

But I do like nipples ! 😬 The carbon propshaft hasn´t got any though, lifetime sealed ?!?!? Piece of art....

Personally I´d prefer a carbon-propshaft going bang than a steel one. Surely the carbon-tube can not rip a chassis apart as the steel one can. Let´s wait for the results of the first race in 2006... Yours sincerely Oink ! Guinea pig

Has anyone tried the Quaife gear-lever-extension which moves the gearlever a bit more backwards to clear the dashboard better ?

Great ! So I´m obviously the official test dummy next season. Wonder why nobody has gone that way yet. It´s a 2 Kilo ++ weight save, reduced inertia, for around 1.000 Euros. Will update that topic next year same time....

Anyone tried the CTG one already ? I´m going to fit one for the 2006 race season and would be interested in experiences.

Did you buy a dyno instead of going to Le Sept, Alex ? Next curry/dyno is at Mr. & Mrs. Wongs house then.... 😬

Normaly he adds a bottle of german Hatz-beer to every parcel... 😬

Hi Anthony, beware of Joachim when he offers you german beer.... That´s sales tactics....

Nigel, good luck at Valencia .... Just had an awesome race at Hockenheim, very hot, too. After 30min you pray for the race chief to wave the flag...