Petrified's Lupo Sport

7 January, 200719 yr

A bit empty in here so thought I'd add the Lupo and it's nearing completion :-)

Model: Lupo 1.4 16v Sport.

Engine: 1.4 16v AFK (100bhp). BMC carbon filter, raceland manifold, self polished throttle body, decatted, longlife custom exhaust. Rolling roaded at 126bhp 102lbft. Soon to add Lupo Cup car (2000) 1.4 LSD gearbox.

Suspension: FK Highsport coilovers around 70mm front all the way (120mm) back but because the lack of weight only looks around 70mm. Car now weighs approx. 730kg's

Brakes: Standard discs, Black Diamond pads.

Wheels and Tyres: 15x7 OZ Superleggera 4.9kg's each. Tyres are currently Toyo T1-S 195/4515's

Exterior Mods: Removed fogs - 1.0 lower front bumper, black front vw badge, removed 16v badges, rear wiper, arch liners, undertray, heat shield...

Interior Mods: hmm... :badgrin: Removed dash, stereo, airvents, carpet, sound deadening, roof liner, wiring looms, door cards, anything not welded in... Cobra Imola 2 bucket seats with cobra 4 point harnesses. Lupo cup car (2000) roll cage. OMP suede steering wheel.

ICE and Security: No ICE! Standard VW imobiliser sellotaped to the bulkhead. Removed steering wheel when not in use.

Story: I wanted a relativly cheap car to turn into a track day car, I wanted it to be cheap to maintain, insure and easy to buy performance parts for it, reliable and looking in the vw range I wanted something a bit different. Originally I wanted a G40 saloon as a track day car but that never happened so I looked at the lupo as standard only weighing around 947kg's for a modern car and I knew there was at least 150kg's that could be removed quite easily. I always loved the 1.4 16v engines and the GTI was way too much. I picked up a cheap sport off ebay with around 106,000 miles on the clock. I also wanted to do the whole thing on a budget and try not to buy parts new if I could help it.

When I got it back home I immediatly started ripping bits off it. a lot of things from under the dash were removed, then the spare wheel and rear seats... you could immediatly feel the car was faster. I removed the rest of the rear interior like seatbelts and plastic trim.

I had a road angel that was no longer needed and a stereo that had been removed and swapped them for a set of OZ superleggera wheels. great! but the car was a little 'high' :oops:

In the short term untill I could find some cheap second hand but good coilovers I bought some new lowering springs 60mm from ECP for around £50 not bad and I knew I'd get most of that back when selling them on. I removed the side strips and fitted a black front vw badge. I had also started removing bits from the engine bay like the standard airbox and engine cover, I replaced them with a 2nd hand cheap universal filter.

By this time the car was really taking shape and looking like I wanted it too. I'd also removed the fogs and wiring looms.

The inside was getting the same treatment, out came the capet and many more looms, rear wiper and aerial.

Kept at it and removed the dash with no problems, airbags also all gone. I replaced the steering wheel for a £10 ebay momo wheel and boss which was a great buy! at this point I had also realised the air filter was not in the best position and when a bmc came up for sale on the forums I snapped it up!

Had a little fun along the way with the rear wiper pipe now that it wasn't needed!

I now needed a few things to continue with the interior like seats and harnesses, unwilling to buy them new I moved onto other things like trying to get more power out of the car. I had already taken it to santapod a few times by now and got the 1/4 mile times down from 17.8 seconds to 16.6. I invested in a manifold in a group buy and at the same time got a whole exhaust system as the 113,000 mile one was starting to break. heres a pic ofthe niceshiney manifold when it was new gooooooollld 8-)

And the new exhaust. This was a full system from the manifold and also had a decat while I was there. The engine is an older AFK with just the one lambda sensor on the downpipe so I didnt have to worry about removing the car and the ecu having a fit.

I now managed to get some seats and harnesses fitted them with subframes for now anf pretty much most of what could be removed - removed. I had pretty much finished the first stage. I was very happy with the car now. The 1/4 mile times had dropped significantly to around 15.6/15.7 the car had been rolling roaded at 126 bhp on one rolling road and 122 on another so definatly making the most of the mods. On the first rolling road another seat 1.4 engine was rr'd at 100bhp. I removed the heating system and door cards for santapod and put them back in for normal driving.

A few pics seeing as I spent all afternoon (at the car wash) cleaning it.. ok most of the time was spent trying to remove the water that had gahtered in the footwells.

I spent a bit of time trying to make it lighter, removing more of the sound deadening and wiring looms and some more from the engine bay.

The car was now a regular at santapod and at GTI fest won fastest in it's class even though I lost 4th gear due to a stretched clutch cable and breaking the window switch with the window open. :crybaby: but MANY MANY THANKS to Gaz and Jez who helped me out that day.

It's clear the car was not going to get much faster than 15.6 but still tried removing more and took it o the Mini showdown over the summer in 31degrees! somehow the lupo managed to run it's fastest ever. and got a 15.40 but with quite a low terminal speed of 87mph.

I had a go at polishing the throttle body removed some more things but couldn't get the car to go any faster. I equalled 15.4 at Santapod but that was it. so time for stage 2 to progress this would basically mean turning it from a car that only performs in straight lines to one that could go around the track too. I was on the look out for a roll cage and coilover kit after one of the runs on the 1/4 mile almost saw me spin the lupo when braking at the end.. the rear was so light I even managed a lupo stoppie! when trying to slow down coming up to a round about a few days before, something had to be done.

I managed to find some coilovers and picked them up at edition 38. FK highsports and adjustable so they should be exactly what I was looking for.

Another visit to the rollling road alarmed me slightly when the car only came up with 107bhp when previously recorded 122 on the same rr. I changed the oil and I tried swapping leads and plugs for GTI items. The car felt more lively so I thought one more visit to the pod would ease my mind. I thought the coilovers would slow it down a bit due to the stance of the car changing but when I was running 15.6 and then a 15.5 this reassured me the car was running fine. The engine was now on 123,000 and pushed very hard for the last 15k!

I was very lucky and managed to get hold of a lupo cup car roll cage and lsd box..knowing the route the car was now going to take could this be the last time it see's santapod? and who cares? :badgrin:

I got the car back to my parents place and had a go at fitting the roll cage bolting it together but not bolting it to the car yet, it would probably need a good spraying first and not something I could confidently do on my own :smirk:

So that pretty much it for now still in stage two, once that's finished.. so bolted in cage and the seat bolted in not on subframes it'll be ready for castle coombe / llandow in march. I've arranged to have the cage properly fitted in 2 weeks from now in the mean time I've taken it to the shops and back. had some funny looks so really cant wait to get it finished. Other than that it's been sitting outside the house for a few weeks. It gets a round out at least 2-3 times a week to keep it all good but looking a little dirty at the mo. :paranoid:

Cant wait for track days next year. and theres the dreaded MOT :retard: and who knows what stage 3 will be?? I think the engine now approaching 130,000 miles might have answered that one!