TDI and Our plans!

[Cryos]

Hi all,

You have all seen me go on about Turbo diesel this and that!

Well, im glad to announce that i can finally confirm that we will most definatly be building a Polo S1600 4 Based Diesel Car. Our project has attracted alot of interest and i am glad to say that our development process may be part financed by a U.K based company. We are currenlty in talks with the Organisers of the Irish Championship and will be submitting quierys to both the BRDA and Rallycross Super Series technical contacts over the next few weeks, we have recieved no objections from Irish organisers infact quiet the opposite.

We have done extensive testing with Turbo Diesel Powered Road cars and found that Volkswagen / Audi Diesel engines were both reliable and had the power band we were looking for.

We plan to have the car built , tested and ready to go by late 2006.

I encourage you to visit my homepage where updates will be done shortly after our software update.

[EvilPumpkin]

fascinating stuff. Thought you'd left?

[BertMk2]

So are you racing at all this year rxie? Or is all time and budget now being consumed by the diesel project? Should certainly be interesting - the diesel engines create a lot of torque but I'm assuming are heavier than petrols? What swung the decision to go down the diesel route - was it pure novelty value or do you think the car will be on the pace?

(I'm just interested really as the majoity of diesel powered racers that have been produced so far have by and large been seen as novelties and not taken all that seriously, diesel engines have made a lot of progress over the past few years so how long will it be before there is a genuinely competitive diesel?)

[sihorton]

I must admit, i think there is a lot of potential for a TDI in rallycross.
What reg's are you working to?

Also what restrictions are there for turbo diesels, otherwise u could wind up the turbo boost till it's about to pop or till you smoke the rest of the field out!

Anyway, all credit too you, I like it when people are brave enought to try something different..

simon

[Cryos]

fascinating stuff. Thought you'd left?

No no never left temporary vacation

@si horton

We are running off European Regs for various homologation reasons (1.9TDI Polo's are homologated by the FIA See VW Polo GT).

At the moment in the irish championship there are no restrictions, we will simply run with the Turbo Multiplyer (i.e i think its your CC x 1.4) so we would be running in Modifieds Upto 2500cc (if my off the top of my head maths are right).

At the moment there are no Turbo Diesel specific regulations however i think 300BHP could be the maximum permittable horsepower for Modified (we are still in talks at the moment).

So are you racing at all this year rxie? Or is all time and budget now being consumed by the diesel project? Should certainly be interesting - the diesel engines create a lot of torque but I'm assuming are heavier than petrols? What swung the decision to go down the diesel route - was it pure novelty value or do you think the car will be on the pace?

I will be racing this year, my car is currently being Re-shelled and we should be out for the remainder of the rallycross year in august. The mythos Bertmk2 with building some cars is that it is easyer than others, more modern cars are welded more (which reduces static and body role conciderably), so you dont really have to do much to strenghten them even more (however you do have to take into account that modern cars are softer and designed to crumple more than older cars, so nessasary strenghtening plates and stuff are being put in).

Engine size with diesels has come down in recent years, if you compaired a 1.9 Streight diesel engine with a modern day Seat Cordoba SDI engine you would find that the cordoba has a smaller but more powerfull engine, weight is a much of a much.

We are using a Golf TDI 130 Based Transversal orientation Engine, it is a heavy engine. Other issues arising with diesel engines are engine mountings. Changing them over to Solid Competition Mountings is a no no, because diesel engine harmonics are most savear than petrol engines.

Getting back to your final question bert.

There was various factors involved:

A few years back i saw the Volkswagen GT-TDI Rally Car being displayed at the Autosport show (remember it ? it was on the stand facing Allan Menu's Renault Laguna?) and it looked a mean looking car, a year later i seen it rally at Lurgan Park, what really impressed me about the car was its ability to enter a corner and have loads of torque to pull it out and be away very quickly from the corner. It was quiet deceavingly fast as i was expecting for it to come roaring around instead it was a kitten compaired to the lancers and Mk2's of the day.

I seen the car yet again in the hands of another guy, it was his first time in the car and it got 3rd in class (and not too far off 2nd and first i might add).

I personally love driving diesels, the last remaining factors is well youve all seen the new adds for "Ford Mondeo Sports Diesels, Saab 93 Turbo Diesel Sport, VW Polo GT" etc... its never been soo easy to get power out of diesels reliably and if youve driven one of the above you will know that they are phenominal machines to drive.

And the straw that broke the camels back, the prospect of our project having part financing if it was diesel !

Left any questions out ??

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by rxie

Left any questions out ??

I don't think so!

I know people have used Golf diesels for rallying and I think there's at least one that's circuit racing (I think it was featured in Track and Race Car magazine a while back) so the potential is obviously there. Weren't Ford rumoured to be considering a diesel touring car too?

I hope the build goes smoothly and that the car hits the track on schedule, as si said it's good to see somebody trying something a bit different.

[Cryos]

Thanks bert !

There are currenlty 7 TDI Powered Racing Cars in the UK, most of them in the Volkswagen Cup.

Ford have produced the mondeo sports diesel to get homologation so that they could build a touring car with their TDDi engines ive not seen much on it tho.

You might see me in Mondello throughout this year with a TDI golf (if i get permission to do some track testing during the morning and lunch maybe).

Hope to have the body end of it done soon so i can flash some pictures around!!

[peespeed]

I still think a rallycrossing Caddy van would be a good idea
the racing version doesnt look too bad, note twin outlet exhaust

[Cryos]

hmmm tempting......