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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Looking at the B pillars on j-rods picture..Theres a reasonable gap between the cage tube and the pillar. Id rather it be flush the whole way down see. I was just curious as to why most cages are built to sit within the shell rather than against it or as part of it..

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Basically for the reason I said about avoiding bends. Modern cages now seem to be following the a-pillars very closely, but they add a near vertical bar coming down from the top of the a-pillar to the floor to regain the strength lost, this bar is basically necessary with modern windscreen angles anyway, so if you've got that you can get away with better fitting but weaker a-pillar bars.

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Is there a ruling on tubing too? I wanted to use 38 - 40mm OD in a 2mm wall. Mostly because I can keep it reasonably discreet but it feels a little on the small side to hold.. Maybe I could mix it and use larger tubing for the more critical sections?

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Is there a ruling on tubing too? I wanted to use 38 - 40mm OD in a 2mm wall. Mostly because I can keep it reasonably discreet but it feels a little on the small side to hold.. Maybe I could mix it and use larger tubing for the more critical sections?

That is a little on the small side yeah. A long time back it used to be 38x3 (1 1/2" x 1/8"), but in more recent years it's been 45x2.5mm or 50x2mm for the main members (so the basic 6 point structure and at least one of the rear diagonals), and 38x2.0 or 40x2.5 for additional bracing (so door bars, additional diagonals etc.). That's because of MSA regs, but at the end of the day the regs are there for a reason. Admittedly going thinner wont make it unsafe as such, as long as the designs right it'll still be helping, just to a lesser extent (as long as it's CDS!) Personally though I'd want to do it right, no point in the trouble, cost, effort and obstruction of the thing if it's not up to scratch. (MSA Regs on cages are all found here)

One thing you could do is bring the cage down early, along the line where a quarterlight would be in larger diameter, and then make the tight fitting a-pillar support in the smaller stuff as an additional piece.

So basically build it like Prawns cage, coming down steep for strength and ignoring the cars original pillar positioning all together, but then add additional bits running down the a-pillars (if you want to.) Prawns cage:

292617_10150276354646777_2987697_n.jpg

It all depends how much protection you actually want from it though. If you just want it to be a little tougher than standard, just shaping a tube to fit each pillar and welding it in won't be unsafe, it will help the cars strength but it'll still be a fraction of the strength of a proper cage.

Edited by RobinJI
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First out of around 3 vids. What really shocked me was that a good driver in a stock Megane RS on rally slicks and boosted to 320bhp came along and finished 2nd overall. I'm deeply disappointed that a purpose built M3 wasn't a match for a cheap stock French runaround. Maybe if I didn't have completely worn 595's on the rear things would have gone differently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBbB4c7MJBA

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In car-related "Sucks to be me" news: After it f**king up significantly at the end of last year, I ended up replacing my old Rover. That's been sitting at work while I've been alternately forgetting about it's existence and trying to work out what to do with it. Went to unlock it to try and manoeuvre it around the car park on Friday night (and also to get my helmet out of the boot), but can't unlock it. As it's just been sitting there for a while it seems the battery's gone flat, so my central locking doesn't work. Not usually the end of the world, but for some reason the keys I've got for that car only fit in the ignition and not in the door lock.

Fun times ahead.

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There is no passenger door lock (Rover quality), and although it seems to fit better in the boot lock no f**ks are being given by it. Apparently, you can undo the bonnet catch by going into the engine bay via the right wheel arch, so I may have to give that a go then try and charge the battery up or something. Generally though you need to take your wheel off to do that as it's a twat get to otherwise, but I've got locking wheel nuts on those alloys and there are no prizes for guessing where that particular socket is ;)

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I had thought that, but part of the reason my car was f**ked was an issue with the alternator belt, and when I tried starting it last it sounded like the battery was pretty much flat. We'll see. I've had to replace the fob battery before, so I guess it might have gone again.

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J44rdo has he got any after-market steering wheels and bosskits to fit a MK3? well that question goes to anyone really.
Need to buy one asap as the mk3 ones make me want to cry.
Would quite like a deepdish or the cheap (fake) momomomomo/omp/sparco generic one would do. 12" or smaller let me know ;)
Let me know what you have and ill get me some pics.

Also if anyone has some nice 8J wide 15" wheels let me know.

Got the golf home at 11 tonight so am going to get to work on it tomorrow, will post some pics then.

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I'm not 100% on this but if you can get under the car you could connect a + jump lead to the alternator to battery cable and a - to the engine/ chassis. If the regulator is built into the alternator it'll work. If not it might work and you should get enough power to unlock the car with the fob.

The difficult bit will be getting it connected up.

Or see if you can get a lead on the starter solenoid and do the same thing.

Edited by GavLawson
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First out of around 3 vids. What really shocked me was that a good driver in a stock Megane RS on rally slicks and boosted to 320bhp came along and finished 2nd overall. I'm deeply disappointed that a purpose built M3 wasn't a match for a cheap stock French runaround. Maybe if I didn't have completely worn 595's on the rear things would have gone differently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBbB4c7MJBA

Absolutely loving this as always, I'm re-quoting the vid as well, because anyone who hasn't watched it, needs to!

This megane: are you sure it was anything even close to stock? 320bhp doesn't sound very stock, or rally slicks, perhaps a little more worked than the guy was letting on?

Have to ask about the gear lever though, is that play in the engine mounts? or just the linkage?

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Absolutely loving this as always, I'm re-quoting the vid as well, because anyone who hasn't watched it, needs to!

This megane: are you sure it was anything even close to stock? 320bhp doesn't sound very stock, or rally slicks, perhaps a little more worked than the guy was letting on?

Have to ask about the gear lever though, is that play in the engine mounts? or just the linkage?

Cheers man! The play is in the gearbox selector mechanism itself, I'm waiting with replacing it until it fails completely, so far no synchros on 3rd or 5th. When 4th fails I'll replace.

The Megane looked completely stock, the suspension was definitely stock. In terms of power output I think his claimed 320bhp is possible, having played his http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaBfzrEtrIsside by side with mine, his car is actually slower in a straight line. He's quicker through the corners which must be down to the proper tyres and he was a lot quicker on the slippery bits. This would also be down to the tyres, I was on completely worn 595's which on a wet surface at almost 0C do not grip well :P Top Gear are testing this car next week, looking forward to the lap time it posts around their track.

Found a nice pic from yesterday, probably more to come.

82076846864963651762470.jpg

Edited by Greetings
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