Astra H VXR Sprint

To make the car stand out a little from most other Astra VXRs I have decided to finish off the exterior with some carbon fibre components; a V Grille, Front Lower Spoiler and Rear Diffuser.

Carbon Fibre V Grille:

Carbon Fibre V Grille

Front Lower Spoiler:

Carbon Fibre Front Lower Spoiler

Carbon Fibre Rear Diffuser:

Carbon Fibre Rear Diffuser

OE foglight surrounds, prepared for the carbon fibre covers:

Foglight Surrounds

OE surrounds with Sikaflex bonding agent:

Front Foglight Surrounds with Sikaflex

Foglight Surround Prepped

Foglight Surround Prepped

The carbon fibre covers have been fitted to the OE surrounds and all the edges have been stuck down with masking tape to ensure all the edges are stuck down properly as the bonder ‘goes off’:

Carbon Fibre Covers During Fitting

And the finished surrounds:

Carbon Fibre Surrounds Fitted

Carbon Fibre surrounds fitted into the front bumper with the extra large foglight delete brake cooling ducts:

Carbon Fibre Surrounds Fitted to the Front Bumper

Carbon Fibre Surrounds Fitted to the Front Bumper

Front end with carbon fibre detailing:

Carbon Fibre Front Splitter and V Grille

Front View:

Front End V Grille and Splitter Fitted

Rear View:

Carbon Fibre Rear Diffuser

Just needs a Carbon Fibre Boot Strip to finish it off.

Replacing the factory front seats for the Recaro Pole Position seats also means the factory seat belts and pre-tensioners are being removed (although for road use the Recaro Pole Position seats are approved for used with the factory seat belts and pre-tensioners) and 4 point Sablet harnesses are being used.

I have chosen Sabelt harnesses, with pull down straps and are supplied complete with snap hooks to attach the straps to the eye bolts.

The shoulder straps are simple to fix into the car, one of the reasons a rear cage is being fitted. The rear cage was manufactured with captive threads in the harness bars and the eye bolts are screwed in ready for the shoulder straps to clip on;

Roll Cage showing Eyelets

The outer lap straps are also pretty straightforward to fix in, because an eye bolt can simply be screwed into the captive thread originally used for the lower seat belt retainers at the base of the ‘B’ pillar, once they are removed from the car. The eye bolt screws in (right) but removing the OE bracket also leaves a hole in the trim (left);

Outer Eyelet Fitted

Which can be blanked by an OE looking blanking piece;

Outer Eyelet and Blank

The inner eye bolt provision is a little harder to do as there is a fair degree of work involved and they will need to screw into the centre tunnel. First the front seats have to be removed, along with the front centre console and the front carpets need to be moved out of the way. Then underneath the car the heatshield around the exhaust centre section also has to be dropped off the car.

The inner eye bolt is fitted opposite the outer eye bolt, so the mounting location into the centre tunnel is measured and marked and then a suitable size hole is drilled in the tunnel. From underneath a pair of eye bolt backing plates 65mm x 65mm with a 7/16 UNF captive nut on them need to be welded to the underside of the tunnel. Also another plate was fitted on the inside of the tunnel. These are a strengthening plate and are essential for safety reasons. The eye bolts were temporarily screwed in to allow the plates underneath to be held securely in place while they were welded to the tunnel. The welds were then seam sealed.  The exhaust heatshield was then refitted. The eye bolts were then removed and then refitted after a small slit was cut in the carpet to allow the eye bolt to be screwed in through the carpet once it is refitted.

Eye Bolt Backing Plate

Inner Eyebolt Fitted (before carpet is refitted)

Continuing on with the track day theme for the car I decided that a roll cage was in order. The roll cage was required to not only add to the track day theme of the car but also to compliment the Recaro Pole Position seats and Sabelt harnesses, because I needed somewhere to safely secure the shoulder straps to but also to help stiffen the shell for track use. With regards to safely fitting harnesses, I certainly wasn’t prepared to risk mounting harnesses to the original seatbelt mounting points as is often the case for road cars, as this is highly dangerous especially if the harnesses are called into use (which I obviously hope they aren’t!)

After looking around I felt a rear 4 point or half cage was in keeping with a track day car, rather than a full 6 point cage. The cage bolts into the car at 4 points, at the base of the B pillars and into the suspension turrets. Brackets which are supplied with the cage are welded into the vehicle’s floorpan and then the cage is bolted in securely. The Safety Devices Rear Roll Cage ticked all the boxes for what I needed.

So the cage arrived direct from Safety Devices:

Roll Cage Arrives

And was quickly unwrapped!

Being Unpacked

As this was a track day car, and not a fully stripped out race car, I was fitting the cage into the car and retaining the factory interior trim. However to fit the cage all the interior trim had to be removed from both sides and also the centre console. This has to be done to get all the interior time out of the way for welding. It allowed the brackets to be offered up into the car along with the roll cage. Once the cage was strapped down the required holes were drilled. Once sure on the fitment the cage was removed and then the brackets were tacked into place into the car.

Roll Cage Mounting Brackets

The cage was then be offered up and checked for fit to be 100% sure.

Once the fit was established as good, the cage was then removed and the mounting brackets were then fully welded into the car, and then seam sealed and painted.

The interior side trim panels were then put back into the car

The cage was then put back into the car and then bolted home:

Roll Cage Trial Fit

Then the protective plastic was removed.

Roll Cage

Roll Cage

Roll Cage

Roll Cage

Roll Cage fitted with Recaro Seats and Sabelt Harnesses:

Roll Cage Fitted with Seats and Harnesses

Roll Cage Fitted with Seats and Harnesses