Astra H VXR Sprint

In preparation for the roll cage fitting, the interior was stripped out to allow removal of the curtain airbags, and for the Recaro Pole Position Front Seats to be fitted.

So to get started the rear side boot trim panels, and quarter panels have been removed. Upon removal a huge amount of Dynamat sound deadening material was found. Adding extra unnecessary weight it all had to go:

Interior Preparation

Several hours with a heat gun and scraper (and some sore fingers and blisters) later:

Interior Preparation

It started to get cleared out:

Interior Preparation

Interior Preparation

Looking much better (and lighter!) now:

Interior Preparation

The head lining had to be dropped down to remove the curtain airbags and guess what? More Dynamat was revealed. So once the curtain airbags had been unplugged and removed it was onto the dynamat:

Dynamat Removal

Removed after several hours of hard work:

Dynamat Removed from Roof

And then the headlining could go back in:

Headlining Refitted

Interior trim going back in (to prevent the car from looking ‘half finished’):

Interior going back in

And this is what came out from behind all the rear panels, under the headlining and the spare wheel well:

Dynamat Removed

Dynamat Removed

Dynamat Removed

Nearly 7.5kgs of Dynamat in total!!

The rear brakes are being changed from the factory 278mm set up using solid discs to a larger 292mm set up using vented discs. This requires new callipers, discs, pads, mounting brackets and break lines. Additionally the rear calliper bodies are aluminium and lighter weight. The larger rear brake kit is being added because with good braking at the front end, the rear of the car tends to go ‘light’ under heavy braking. This larger brake set up helps add some additional braking to the rear end, helping the car to stay more level under very heavy braking.

Rear Vectra C/Saab Calipers cleaned ready for paint. The brackets have been soaked in Bilt Hamber Deox-C to remove the rust and corrosion. The calipers have been manually cleaned of corrosion:

Rear Saab/Vectra C Calipers

Rear CNC machined Mounting Brackets for 292mm Vented Brake Upgrade and Braided Brake Lines:

CNC Rear Mounting Brackets

292mm Vented 8 Groove Pagid Discs and Pagid Pads:

292mm Pagid Vented 8G Discs and Pads

Caliper Brackets painted:

Rear Caliper Mounting Brackets

Rear Caliper Mounting Brackets

Rear Caliper Mounting Brackets

Rear Calipers painted:

Rear Calipers

Rear Calipers

Rear Brake Backplates with the lips trimmed to fit the 292mm discs and painted:

Rear Backplates

Rear Hub, original 278mm disc removed, calliper to come off next:

Rear Hub

The rear hub and mounting brackets are then removed. The hub has to be removed from the original mounting bracket (carefully as sometimes this can damage the ABS hub) and the hub is then fitted into the new CNC machined mounting brackets, new lock nuts are fitted and then torqued up. Finally the discs, calipers and pads are fitted and the new brake lines, then the system is bled through.

292mm Rear Brake Upgrade Fitted:

292mm Rear Brake Set Up Fitted

The first track outing for the car was Thursday 26 July 2012; a track evening at Snetterton on the 300 circuit. The majority of the changes had been made to the car namely the Intercooler rework, addition of the Pro Alloy water radiator, turbo rework to K06 specification, the front brakes have been enlarged to 356mm, additional front brake cooling added and the front suspension bushes upgraded. The car has also had a 4 wheel chassis alignment carried out. The car ran on factory dampers with DAP road springs and the standard front seats and 3 point seat belts were still fitted along with the factory spec 278mm rear brakes.

This was an ideal opportunity to give the car a shake down and see how it performed, prior to further modification work.

The car performed faultlessly over the sessions run, it was a hot sunny July afternoon with the ambient air temperature at around 24 degrees C. Despite the heat coolant an inlet air temperatures were kept well under control and the front brakes were superb, offering excellent stopping ability. Looking forward to the next track day and the future mods.

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

On Track @ Snetterton

Track Evening organised by OpenTrack www.OpenTrack.co.uk
Thanks to Tony Harrison for the on track shots © Copyright Terms: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

The car came fitted with Alcon Monobloc 4 Pot calipers with single piece 345mm EBC discs. The discs are somewhat past their sell by date, as can be seen from the picture! Badly lipped and the grooves have been completely worn away.

Original One Piece 345mm Disc with Alcon Caliper

I decided that since the discs need replacing and that to fit the 345mm single piece discs the original brackets had been turned upside down and spaced out with washers (which I felt was not be ideal for track use left alone road use!) something different is called for.

So instead of using the Alcon 343mm discs and bells I will switch to a 356mm disc and alloy bell set up which would need a new single piece calliper mounting bracket. So to have the calliper mounting brackets machined, a piece of T6082 material is required:

T6082 Aluminium

Once the calliper was mocked up onto the new discs using the original brackets and some spacers to allow accurate calculation of dimensions:

Alcon Caliper and 356mm Disc

the new aluminium brackets were CNC machined:

Brake Caliper Mounting Brackets

New Bracket (bottom) with Original Bracket (top)

Brake Caliper Mounting Brackets

New Caliper Bracket:

Aluminium Caliper Mounting Bracket

New Bracket Trial Fitted to hub:

Bracket Mock Up

356mm disc and bell added:

Alcon Caliper and 356mm Disc

And all fitted, with a lovely brand new set of Pagid RS29 pads:

All Fitted

Almost back together ready for the first track evening at Snetterton at the end of July.

Slam panel to refit and coolant to be added:

Engine Bay Nearing Completion

Coolant required to top up:

Engine Bay Nearing Completion

Finished for now, ready for track:

Finished for Now

Finished for Now

The car has covered about 85,000 miles, and since it is being used on track an upgrade to the factory rubber bushes is in order. Whiteline Polyurethane Front Wishbone Bushes are being used, and at the same time due to the age and mileage of the original ball joints and drop links they are also having a refresh at the same time whilst everything is apart.

So here are the Whiteline front wishbone front poly bushes, new genuine original equipment (OE) drop links (anti roll bar links) and new genuine OE replacement bottom ball joints:

Poly Bushes, New Drop Links and Bottom Ball Joints

Poly Bushes come as a replacement bush in two halves for easier fitting with a heavy duty central metal sleeve. The Whiteline poly bushes below are the front wishbone rear bushes which give a small caster change, to improve positive caster for better turn in.

Whiteline Black Poly Bushes

Whiteline poly bushes have a shore hardness of around 85-90, and so are much stiffer than factory rubber bushes.

New wishbone to engine bed/subframe nuts and bolts:

Wishbone Retaining Bolts

Front Wishbone removed from the car, the bushes will be knocked out along with the removal of the ball joints:

Front Wishbone

From the factory the original bottom ball joints are riveted onto the wishbone, so to remove them the rivets on the OE ball joints are drilled out using suitable sized drills first (wear protective goggles!):

Removing OE Bottom Ball Joint

Then supported on a suitable old socket or similar the rivets can be tapped out allowing the ball joint to be removed from the wishbone:

OE Rivets Removed

Poly bushes have been fitted into the wishbone and the new genuine bottom ball joint has been fitted and secured with the supplied bolts and stover type lock nuts and is a perfect fit:

Bushes and Ball Joint Fitted

Front Wishbone from another angle showing the caster change bush fitted:

Camber Adjust Rear Poly Bush

Eibach camber adjustment bolts to allow some additional negative front camber to be added:

Eibach Camber Bolts

The OE radiator lower support brackets (minus rubber inserts – top) and the Pro Alloy Intercooler mounting brackets (bottom) have had a fresh coat of paint to tidy them up.

Radiator and Intercooler Brackets

Pro Alloy Intercooler (in Stealth Black finish) returned from Pro Alloy after having had the outlet (right hand top) opened up to 60mm from 50mm, plus the addition of a 60mm outlet pipe with map sensor boss (not shown).

Pro Alloy Intercooler

New Pro Alloy Water Radiator, in Stealth Black finish.

Pro Alloy Water Radiator

Black Intercooler Hoses to replace the original blue hoses, plus black alloy 90 joiner pipe (top left).

Intercooler Pipework

Water Rad fitted.

Water Rad Fitted

Water Rad and Intercooler fitted.

Water Rad and Intercooler Fitted

Water Rad and Intercooler Fitted

Water Rad and Intercooler Fitted

Intercooler

Track Spec Air Guide Blades added to the intercooler.

Intercooler Air Guide Blades

Air Guide Blade

Air Guide Blade

Fan Relays relocated to the water rad. They usually sit on a bracket on the front fan which sits on the air con condenser, which has all been removed for track work.

Fan Relays Relocated

Not much to report here, other than the original factory heat shield (which was looking a little tired) has been bead blasted and then painted with Wurth Matt Black Lacquer Spray, temperature resistant up to 600 degrees C. This smartens it up no end.

Matt Black Exhaust Heat Shield

With the aircon compressor removed,

AC Compressor

this is the auxiliary belt tensioner where the aircon compressor was mounted:

AC Compressor Mounting Bracket

This is the Aircon Delete Kit. Bracket freshly powder coated, auxiliary pulley, bolt and cover. Once assembled it replicates the Aircon Compressor and replaces the aircon unit:

Aircon Delete Bracket and Pulley

Aircon Delete Kit fitted with original belt refitted.

Aircon Delete Kit Fitted

And where the aircon pipes have been removed from the bulkhead, an aluminium blanking piece:

Bulkhead Aircon Blank

has been fitted to prevent dirt ingress should the aircon ever be refitted:

Aircon Blank

Turbocharger returned from Turbo Technics after rework to K06 spec with K06 Billet Compressor Wheel, uprated 360 gearing pack and exhaust wheel cut back to improve exhaust gas flow. A big thank you to Pete at Turbo technics for organising the rework for me. Turbo is looking like new.

K06 Turbocharger

Exhaust (Turbine) Wheel Cut Back

Turbo Refitted

Turbo Refitted