Golf III ITB

[Bill Miller]

Kirk,

I thought that trunk kits were essentially done away with for SS cars. I don't know if they were taken away from cars that already had them, but I thought I read something in FasTrack about how no new SS cars would be given trunk kits.

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608

[Knestis]

I believe that you are correct on both points, Bill - no newly classified trunk-kit cars but those that have them may continue to use them.

K

[Knestis]

Making progress. Putting stock interior panels back in a racing car sucks...





As you can tell from the pix, I've made the commitment to stick with SSC for this season at least, the $1400 in replacement OE parts helping to eat up budget and make the decision for me. I'd rather have new hubs, bearings, tie rods, and all that than KONI's anyway, right?

K

[spike]

Great job
first class build

------------------
87 ITB Golf
True speed is in the turns

[HOOSER 99]

SANTA CAME EARLY


Feb fastrack pg 11

happy holidays

jerry monaghan

[Knestis]

Cool news!

K

[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited December 18, 2003).]

[Dave Zaslow]

FASTRACK NEWS ®
OFFICIAL SCCA MEMBER NOTIFICATION
EFFECTIVE FIRST DAY OF THE COVER MONTH: FEBRUARY 2004

NEW CAR CLASSIFICATIONS
The Competition Board has instituted a
new feature in our monthly minutes. It was
pointed out to the Board that at times the
classification of new cars either gets buried
in the technical data contained in the
monthly technical bulletin or is delayed in
announcing the new classification since we
have not been able to develop all of the
specifications necessary for the Technical
Bulletin. In order to inform the membership
as quickly as possible of our intent to
add new cars we will also be listing the cars
being added in this section of our minutes
under the heading of New Car
Classifications. The details of the specifications
will be found in the Technical
Bulletins as the specifications are
researched and confirmed.

New Car Classifications (effective 1/1/04)

ITB
1994-97 Volkswagen Golf III

…………………………………

TECH BULLETIN
DATE: November 21-23 & December 8, 2003
NUMBER: TB 04-02
FROM: Competition Board
TO: Competitors, Stewards, and Scrutineers
SUBJECT: Errors, and Omissions, Competition
Adjustments, Clarifications, and Classifications.
All page numbers in the following document
refer to the 2004 GCR.

IT

ITB

3. Volkswagen Golf III (93), p. 49, add the
model years 94-97.

[Bill Miller]

Pretty funny that it says it's effective 1/1/04, yet it's in a Feb. '04 FasTrack, and isn't effective until 2/1/04.

------------------
MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608

[Knestis]

If any of you guys building "real" racing cars out of your MkIII's want to chuck OE springs, front ARB, or strut hardware (anything besides the strut, actually), I'd love to have your cast-offs.

I'd also be curious to know what color codes your stock springs have and the diameter of your OE ARB.

K

[Dave Zaslow]

Decontenting the car has been an education in modern car construction methods and materials. Yanking things apart is tortuous fun.

Three things of note, so far:

Get a very, very long hex key to take the passenger air bag out.

If you take out the alarm module the car will not run. (DUH!!) You can remove all of the pin switches.

If you are thinking of selling the air bags, get the control module as well. On my '95 it is buried behind the heater ducts, on the tunnel, at the firewall.

Is this fun?

Dave Z

[imported_Webmaster]

We could use another photo essay..."How to build an IT car... on the site. So which one of you guys wants to be imortalized on IT.com to help others with their Golf 3 builds?

Dave, Kirk, Jerry ?


------------------
Webmaster - www.ImprovedTouring.com

[Knestis]

Remember that mine would be titled, "How to put off building an IT car for 2 years."

K

[Dave Zaslow]

Bill,

A great idea. I will try to borrow a digicam at critical times. Given the positions that deconstruction/reconstruction puts you in, perhaps we should call it the "A3 Kama Sutra".

I got the dash out yesterday. The last two fasteners are through the firewall and accessed only after removing the wipers, trim panels and raintray. The one on the drivers side to loosen is the upper one of an identical, stacked pair.

There is a beautiful structural tube that supports the dash and steering column. It runs between the A-pillars. The HVAC box and fan fill the area behind it from the passenger door to the instrument cluster. Kirk's cage (above)does not seem to have a cross bar at the firewall. Kirk, is this the reason?

Unlike my Rabbit, the A3 heater core always has water running through. A flap in the box opens to allow air to be blown either through the cold or hot side of the box. The cold side will also have the AC heat exchanger.

Can't work on it next week. Stay tuned...

Dave Z

[Knestis]

Right on about that cross member. I (a) couldn't figure out where to put a cross-tube given that I have to keep the dash knee bars, and ( figured that that member is hell-for-stout anyway. It's held in by Torx bolts from the door jam side of the dash and my guess is that it accounts for about 30# of the weight difference between a MkII and a MkIII.

We torched a hole through that beast for the downtubes so that, in a side impact, the tubes will run up against the OE structure.

Those last two dash nuts ARE fun, aren't they?

Since the front downtubes run right behind the side vents, I cut the ends off of the lateral tubes in the air ducts that are bonded to the bottom of the dash, and taped them up with aluminum duct tape. (Note here that I don't believe that putting a tube through the dash is permission to take all that stuff out.) The demister is unaffected and when I turned on the dash vents driving home from getting the cage (AC is great!), it just about blew my eyeballs out, with all of the air coming through the center holes in my face...

It's also interesting that my cage is asymmetrical - the front downtube mounts farther forward on the driver's side floor than on the passenger's, to miss structure on the passenger side while moving foot protection as far forward as possible on the side that counts. We also had to relocate the big wire junction that sits behind the driver's-side vent, shoving it to where that end of the duct used to live.

K

[Knestis]

Build photo series and more at...

http://www.it2.evaluand.com/gti/build.php

K

[Knestis]

I took advantage of a day when it wasn't below freezing and did the required graphics yesterday evening. Of course, I finished them in the dark...



It almost looks like a racing car...

K

[RSTPerformance]

looks nice

[Banzai240]

Hey Kirk... you mind picking me up a gallon of 2% while you're out???



------------------
Darin E. Jordan
SCCA #273080, OR/NW Regions
Auburn, WA
ITS '97 240SX

[RSTPerformance]

Kirk-

Only cause you are called the "rules nerd" I figured I would test ya!!!

what is illigal about your car in the above picture???

Raymond

PS: this is only for fun, its not a performance gainer again I love the car!!!

[Banzai240]

Originally posted by RSTPerformance:
what is illigal about your car in the above picture???

------------------
Darin E. Jordan
SCCA #273080, OR/NW Regions
Auburn, WA
ITS '97 240SX


[This message has been edited by Banzai240 (edited January 14, 2004).]