5 GT Turbo 11 years later silver bullet comes home

[Duncan Grier]

I was only refering to the floor 4 holes @Turbell def leaving others as oem like inner sill etc and will bond the chassis rail ones bk in

 

[Duncan Grier]

Tonights 90min of playtime

Finsihed patch from yesterday and onto stich welding the inner sill to outer sill section and a started on chassis rails to floor, do other sill when in next

Also measured up amd did my design to add to the rottiserie to be able to use it as a chassis dolly and align to the front and rear jacking points.....1 tool 2 jobs just seems to make sense, try and get out to pick up some 50x50mm box steel tomorrow

 

[Duncan Grier]

Got a few hours in earlier, stitch welded other side, drilled and dropped a few plug welds along with rear arch section and made hole on inner sill I missed before.

Got hold of 8m length of 40mm 4mm box steel and moved my other runs of box steel into garage ready to mix things up for a chassis dolly reasy to get car level and get on with next phase

 

[Duncan Grier]

Also removed roof lining although middle section did not play nice and wonder if heat was a better friend than shock cold treatment as all the outer sections responded really well to this......looks like it can be fixed but moving on as far from ideal

 

[Duncan Grier]

Neighbour popped in for chat while working and setup his 1st 30min try at welding, happy to share what little I know. Imo really is something to find your own way also and get practicing.....he enjoyed it and was that or help with death wire wheel job lol........he went with welding option

 

[Turbell]

Go on then.....what's in store for this?
With all that stuff you've put up for sale ( was tempted for Camprust ) is there a grand plan for serious mechanical upgrades?
I had thought with values well up, you'd be going OE ? Or have you just got multiple parts?

 

[Duncan Grier]

Haha well it was inevitable that the eagle eyed of you would put 2 and 2 together.....

@Turbell you are the 1st to flag it and was on the fence to give my dribble live updates or wait until moved forward a chunk

Plan was always back to oem plus with no real intention to sell and do something crazy with the blue rwd 5 and get race car tarted back up for some track days

The reality is I dont have the time or the funds around family life, work and generally getting older lol

So after my wife questioning me on what do you really want Duncan scenario stop talking about it and do you just want to tinker or actually get something finished (harsh but true lol), knowing me better than anyone said pick one thing, stop bouncing between projects, holding onto things you have already done, nostalgia of it etc - do one thing how you want and just make it so, and a continued ban on doing any projects/work outside of Grier garage ! Dont worry about the unknowns or future bits needed......or sell the bloody lot and buy a normal sports car already

 

[Duncan Grier]

Soooo.......

Reality of how much work is required to finsih a bare shell restoration and onward effort needed to complete to sell to fund the long conceived master plan felt like a long way off only to have to do again to the other 5, so put on my big boy pants

Blue RWD 5 sold, got race car back in garage and will back up for sale after festive period once replacing clutch hydraulics, new battery and general service

I purchased back some key bits I had sold to a friend and now mega skint but have the core ingredients to get on

Some will see it as sacrilege especially with the provance of car but reality is it would be used for high days and holidays and not really give me what I want even if I kept it.....and the state of it should have been scraped 3 times over lol

 

[Duncan Grier]

Enter.....

Project - Renault 5 GT Turbo 2
Mid engined RWD
Double wishbone front and rear
ABS, TC, launch control etc
2.5 20v 5 cylinder turbo engine (RS3)
7 speed DQ500 DSG gearbox (RS3), convert to 2WD
Syvec 7plus ecu
Full custom cage @Mark_L
Space frame for engine
GT turbo custom wide body kit...80's retro

 

[Steve Swan]

Well. There was nothing on Telly anyway! Will you share some of your Design thoughts and ideas?? I'm guessing a double unequal length wishbone set up to try to get the right sort of angle changes in roll, most people elect to fit the front end in the back, which is easiest to accomplish quickly, but can give rise to issues, yep another bump steer classic............
Will it be Bespoke or robbed from elsewhere, a bit of a mixture, who knows?
How does that type box work? is it a manual with autochange or more like an enhanced Autobox. The issue being that having enough power to break the box is pretty easy these days, so using Auto type technology helps to minimise breakage, but I've never been keen on anything I can't dip the clutch in. That has saved my Bacon on many occasions, when I've run out of talent.....
Ready for the start of the Season? about Easter?........................

 

[Duncan Grier]

You are correct @Steve Swan and unequal double wishbone for all the right reasons - it is a mixture based on what I know well and have a lot of experience with. I have put a lot of research and development into the fine details so while always happy to help and the pictures will give a good guide, im not putting a how to or specifics in this thread My target was always a proper handling setup, 999kg or lighter, usable from shopping to track days, creature comforts so air con heated seats etc along with few safety nets of traction control, abs

Box is full 7 speed dual clutch Tiptronic setup and will be controlled by the Syvec 7plus ECU. So full auto, flappy paddle, gearshift (may find this in part helps retain a bit more involvement) - can handle way over anywhere near the power levels I am going to run and well regarded as the strongest flavor of the transverse dsg family - converting to 2WD does not seem to have been done so may need to get something machined up but will have a good sniff in the VAG parts bin 1st - Manual box would be easy but having used the 6 speed vag box mated to the S3 2.0 tfsi in prior conversions I have done while fine always felt the DSG was as close to sequential without the mad money and handling power/torque requirements quest for flat shifts and all the other configurable bits.....guess time will tell

I still only have a couple of hours a few days a week and bit of a longer run at weekends so expect like these things do, some updates will be great others will be many hours and little to show I have a target in mind but it will take what it takes and just need to maintain momentum and save hard as some bits needed are eye watering. Still have plenty of rot to sort but at least cutting out the rear gets rid of that bit lol

 

[DaveL485]

So...you sold a mid-engine, RWD R5 shell that worked (in the past), and now you are starting over on a... mid-engine RWD R5?

Make it make sense, you absolute loon

(Uninteresting fact: the last time that RWD blue 5 was on the road, I recomissioned and MOT'd it. )

 

[Turbell]

I spotted the red oxide line on the underside, mention of extra shell welding...... now it makes sense!
Full OE would have made been OK, but like you say , it would have been broken for spares yonks ago with the rot it had, you can't save them all.
There's plenty of nice OE ones about, you've got the knowledge, so why not put it into this.
Look forward to seeing it become reality.

 

[Duncan Grier]

So...you sold a mid-engine, RWD R5 shell that worked (in the past), and now you are starting over on a... mid-engine RWD R5?

Make it make sense, you absolute loon

(Uninteresting fact: the last time that RWD blue 5 was on the road, I recomissioned and MOT'd it. )

@DaveL485 logic makes sense the reality was all the hard work done would be cut out. Rs3 engine and box far wider than the 1.8 20vt and 5 speed manual in there. Need to cut wider than the rear chassis rails so that and suspension towers out and also for the type of conversion would be redo sills, jacking points etc it stopped making as much sense

Mine will have a wide rear so again no benefit of blue one - needs to handle properly

 

[DaveL485]

needs to handle properly

To be fair that blue one handled pretty badly, it felt like I was driving my impending death!

 

[Steve Swan]

To be fair that blue one handled pretty badly, it felt like I was driving my impending death!

That's why I asked about design philosophy, as a lot of these type undertakings don't pan out right, usually owing to fairly minor issues not being sorted at the design stage. Many get scrapped, when they could have been sorted. A real shame after the amount of work that goes into a project ..

 

[Duncan Grier]

Blue one lives on and new owner planning to get back on the road in the summer. Runs and engineering company so hope I guess

 

[gordini stu]

Loving your work and then going to chop it all up again.

 

[Duncan Grier]

Thanks and also sorry @gordini stu

 

[gordini stu]

Ok , this Vw root for power does look a cheaper and more achievable option ,
What’s your depth of knowledge in this area . I’m thinking for me some kind of Audi box mated to a turbo’ed VW group 4 pot , so I keep it as is