Any help apprieciated.

Need to build / strip a 1.1 sporting to compete in the Practical Performance Car £999 challenge

The event consists of a standing 1/8 mile and 2 laps of corbrough circuit.

I have located and bought the car (£200) and would like to get as much out of it as I can for this event.

Hopefully by the next event I can graft an engine inthe back.

So , I have not picked the car up yet, so I will have a week and ahalf to prep it.

I am assuminmg that I can save some weight by stipping out the interior, and fitting a single light weight fibreglass seat and harness.

Can anyone give me the dimensions of glass, so I can try and get hold of some platic replacement. I assume the glass will be heavy.

Will it things improve much by cutting one coil of each spring to lower the car?

Strut brace ?

I read somewhere that fitting wider tyres on the from improves things a little.

What Size can I get away with?

Any help would be good

Forgot to metion. Nitrous!!

I have a kit kicking around in the loft, thats never been used in anger.

Anyone fitted it toa cinq before?

If so. what size jet?

You seem to be thinking along the correct lines. One can do incredible stuff with little BHP and money.

I don't know what the Corborough Circuit looks like but you need to decide if it is a power circuit or handling circuit.

Shedding weight is a free gain, assuming you break no regulations. So dump all you can inside the rules. Also dump and replace if still required. e.g. glass for plastic. My only reservation here is to try and keep a sensible weight distribution.

Generally handling is easier and cheaper to do than engine / power mods. Simple engine stuff like COLD air feed, ram if possible, simple clean air filter / intake should of course be undertaken. If you don't care about the engine then dump the air filter for the actual challenge. It is unlikely that dumping the filter will result in massive under fuelling.

With only 2 laps then you do not need to upgrade the brakes. Have an as "open" wheels/rims as you can and see if there is any very simple ducting of air into the wheel/caliper areas you can do. On our Strada Abarth, for regular track work, I fitted the bottoms of some plastic seeds trays to the front suspension tie/anti roll bars. These conviently and naturally ducted/pointed into the wheel/hub area.

Lowering and stiffening the suspension will actually provide great gains. Lowering can be achieved by careful spring cutting. Also before cutting anything look for/at rubber spring assisters that are often used to upgrade springs for caravan towers. These can seriously stiffen your springs, reduce front end roll and associated understeer.

An increase in tyre width and lower profile will help in the handling and grip. This requires research as to what others have managed to safely fit in under the wheel arches. You also need to add a little extra tolerance as under load, on the track, tyre deflection/loading will potentially result in rubbing where you thought there was plenty of room.

Tyre buffing! Assuming you have to be road legal then you can get your wheels/tyres buffed/machined down to 2mm or 3mm of tread. Doing this will remove old tired tread/rubber and revitalise the tyre. Also by removing rubber, the tread blocks move less, create less heat and wear less. They also sound less cool because squeel is substantially reduced....I wonder why Buffed tyres actually last much longer than non buffed tyres. I know it sounds and feels totally insane but buying a new tyre with 8mm of tread on it and then getting it machined down to 4mm (or less) this machined tyre will well outlast the original new 8mm unit, and in addition give far improved grip and handling characteristics.

If you are allowed wheel changes then for your standing start 1/8 mile look a fitting a smaller diameter wheel size. Also lower the tyres pressures to increase the surface area contact patch. In addition think front or rear wheel drive. You need maximum driving wheel load. So for a front wheel drive car pump the rear non driven wheels up to maximum safe pressure. Lower the front pressures. Also add the perviously mentioned suspension caravan rubbers to the rear springs and remove them from the front springs. You are looking for a high low drag rear end and a low maximum grip front end.

If you are rear wheel drive the I'll let you work out what is required.

Hope this gets your mental juices churning....

Good luck

Thanks for the reply.

The basic idea of the event to just to buy and prep a road legal car and compete against other cars.

You can absolutely anything to it, as long as you spend less th 1K on it.

My friend and I have entered his car for the last 3 years. He has 500kg Magenta kitcar with and Alfa 3.0 V6.

I would like to run the cinq this year as fwd, and spend as littte as possible.
(£200 so far, £300 if you include the nos)

I am hoping to find a nice large capacity fwd car with a light engine, remove the engine and brace weld all the engine bay to stop it moving around.

Then cut out the engine bay, including wheel arches and struts, cut a big whole in the back of the cinq and remove most of it leaving part of the rear arches.

Then weld the two bits together, remove all the engine bay bracing, and re-fit the engine.

That why a maybe need a few moths to do it.

My mate reacons a good weekend coulfd get the major stuff done.

Thanks again for the reply.

A mat post some video of the event if i get chance. Its a brilliant laugh and more people should have a go.