as of Saturday, the car is now in the very capable hands of Tyrol Sport
Among the engine install and preparation for the new cage by Tyrol Sport, we have a few other projects we are sorting out for our first event. One of which is replacing our aluminum dash insert with a carbon fiber version. While we are there we’ll be reconfiguring the switches (eliminating some, adding others) as well as removing the three analog gauges we’ve been running the last few seasons.
In place of the analog gauges, we decided to run a digital setup. This obviously isn’t the standard off the shelf setup – in our grassroots style we decided to create our own setup (for a lot less money) that would retain our current MaxQData GPS lapping software, but add the ability to create a custom interface and gauges as well as add what ever parameters we wanted. In our case, all we need right now are Oil/Water temps, wideband AFR, RPMs, Speed, Oil pressure, and possibly throttle position.
All software runs off a Dell Mini 9 PC. After an exhaustive search, looking at all the big software companies, we happily decided to use a software called DashCommand made by Palmer Performance. It’s a touch screen interface that allows for fully customized gauges and parameter selection. The software is typically used in conjunction with OBDII vehicles, but can be used with auxiliary hardware as well, ie: innovate, aem, plx and in our case Zeitronix.
We wanted to take the time to give a shout out to Pierre at Palmer Performance we are working with – he’s taken the time to help us get the DashCommand working for our specific needs.
Anyway, here’s a few images of the process.
first mock up via sketchup and a screen capture of the DashCommand software
photoshop using a photo of carbon fiber – also showing the actual LED shift lights mounted in the CF faceplate. These LEDs will come on in sequence with the digital shift lights we created in the DashCommand
Year-1990
Make-Corrado
Model-G60
Mileage-unknown
Original Color-red
Current Color-red/matte black
Engine-1995 Passat OBD-1 VR6
Engine
- stock 1995 OBD-I VR6 Passat coilpack AAA delete of all emissions & secondary water pump
- AC delete
- custom 3.25” cold-air intake using a BMC CDA filter canister and front bumper inlet
- Camaro upper radiator hose replacement
- Moroso aluminum coolant expansion/overflow tank
- Custom aluminum power steering fluid reservoir
- 6 port to collector Genie headers with heat wrap
- custom aluminum header/firewall heat shield
- 4” Magnaflow round muffler to 6” Magnaflow round muffler to turn-down tip before rear axle beam
- Morcal sandwich plate and oil cooler w/ -8AN SS lines
- 10” Flex-a-lite radiator fan
- BlackForest “stage II” engine mounts
- MSD Coilpack conversion
- Zeitronix ZT-2 Wideband Datalogging System
- Atomic Motorsports Intake Manifold
- Apexi AFC-S Controller
Transmission
- stock 1995 O2A VR6 Passat
- motorsport inspired shifter
Interior
- fully stripped interior including all accessory-electrical, AC/heater core, etc
- Corbeau fiberglass F1 “racing” seat mounted on custom water-jet cut brackets
- Full custom cage by TyrolSport
- G-Force 5 point 3” racing harness
- Sparco “Corsa” pedal covers
- Sparco 330mm “Ring” steering wheel
- Custom digi dash powered by Dell laptop
- custom CF dash insert and accessory toggles switches for rad fan, ECU power, accessories, windows, headlights, wipers, etc.
- all new custom electrical, including relay panel and fuse block for all non-ECU accessories
- Honda S2000 start button
- battery key
- 2.5lb fire extinguisher
- custom video camera mount
- custom aluminum 2 way radio box for integrated push-to-talk button on steering wheel and fully wired helmets
- battery relocated to back seat tub
- Summit Racing shift light to LEDs on dash
- custom aluminum driver’s side floor pan overlay
Suspension
front:
- B&G coilovers w/450F springs
- sway bar delete
- VR6 control arms and hub assembly (5 lug)
- Eurosport camber plates
rear:
- B&G coilovers w/390F springs
- Atomic rear sway bar
Brakes
- non ABS swap
- removed and replaced all hardlines with new custom lines
- front:
- SS lines
- 11.1” “rally” slotted rotors
- Wilwood “Dynalite” 4-pot calipers
- Hawk HT-10 brake pads
- rear:
- SS lines
- plain rotors
- stock calipers
- EBS “redstuff” brake pads
Wheels/Tires
track:
- 15”x7” Kosei K-1 wheels
- 225/45/15 Toyo RA-1 tires
- 5mm spacers-front
- 8mm spacers-rear
testing/street:
- 15”x7” factory SLC wheels
- 205/45/15 Falken Azenis tires
- 8mm spacers-front
- 12mm spacers-rear
Body
- factory G60 panels include hood, fenders and bumpers
- two-tone gloss red & matte black paint w/ matte red engine bay
- shaved rear exhaust hole
- shaved windshield washer nozzles
- shaved side markers
- shaved antenna hole
- shaved side/door moldings
- custom molded-in fiberglass sunroof-delete panel
- SS hood pins w/ SS pin tethers
- fog/turn delete – replaced with custom brake duct inlets, engine intake inlet and tow hook
- rear tow hook
Motorsport Inspired Shifter – Part III
Posted: 20th August 2009 by Joseph in Motorsport Inspired ShifterTags: atomic motorsports, CAE, custom shifter, DIY, DIY motorsport shifter, DIY shifter, elevated shifter, motorsport inspired shifter, o2a, race shifter, reverse lockout, tyrolsport, VWMS
made some progress on the shifter and the cable-linkage
updated linkage with modified shape and spherical bearing:
and a few new pics of the whole shifter assembly complete with reverse lockout:
shift lever pushed over to the left, metal arm hits pin – 1st and 2nd gear:
Motorsport Inspired Shifter – Part II
Posted: 14th August 2009 by Joseph in Motorsport Inspired ShifterTags: atomic motorsports, CAE, custom shifter, DIY, DIY motorsport shifter, DIY shifter, elevated shifter, motorsport inspired shifter, o2a, race shifter, reverse lockout, tyrolsport, VWMS
Many of you have probably seen our Stage I shifter setup – basically, a completely stock, OE, O2A shifter mechanism taken out of its box from underneath the tunnel and remounted in a custom sheet metal tower. The sole purpose of the exercise was to raise the shifter up and get it as close to the 3’oclock position on the steering wheel helping to cut down on the time our hands are off the wheel.
[NOTE] Obviously we understand we aren’t real race car drivers and this is not a real competitive race car and hundredths of a seconds shaved off probably won’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but I’m a junky and I like doing this sort of stuff. [/NOTE]
So for those of you that haven’t seen it, here’s a few pics of the Stage I setup as well as the link to the original thread:
Motorsport Inspired Shifter – Part I
and why you ask I’m referring to all of this as “Stage I”…
…well, like always, I couldn’t leave well-enough alone and I’m too cheap to break down and buy a real CAE Motorsport shifter ($1200 USD). So now that the shifter is closer to the steering wheel and we had great success with it at Watkins Glen and Pocono North – never mind the broken shifter cable-end or the busted engine, the shifter tower worked great!
One thing that has always bothered us about the OE shifter, among many things, was the enormous throw… seriously, WTF? (I know, I’m preaching to the choir). So now that the car is up on jack stands for the winter while we install our full cage and figure out our engine problems, it was time to cure the throw.
We started with this (green=neutral, black=OE, red=45% reduction). By adding 2″ to the bottom of the shift lever below the pivot point, we would get about a 45% reduction in throw.
Now that we had a goal in mind, the challenge was to make something that would achieve the goal. As always, AutoCAD to the rescue. Here’s what we started with:
taking some measurements from the OE shifter lever:
>
so from that drawing above and a few measurements, I started chipping away at a 1/2″ x 1″ x 8″ piece of aluminum that I had left over from the cable-linkage I made. I ended up with this:
Now that the top was somewhat sorted it was time to figure out the bottom – which of course is the most important part of the equation. We had about 2-3/16″ of room to work with, so I chose a nice round 2″ for the extension below the pivot point of the shifter. Keep in mind, we are eliminating the push down reverse.
Unlike the drawing posted above, I decided that instead of trying to recreate the pin for the shifter cable linkage at the bottom, I might as well just use the bottom portion of the OE shifter and mount it to the new aluminum lever in a similar fashion to the top – this is what we got:
So now that we got the overall lever figured out, we needed to start toying with the reverse lockout mechanism:
And in the meantime, after a few more tasks, ie: inserting flanged brass bushings and creating some spacers we got the chance to install the lever and see how it felt… actually, to see if it even worked at all – haha
and more importantly, the comparison… keep in mind, the neutral position wasn’t the same between the two levers, so although 4th has a dramatic reduction and 3rd only has a slight reduction, if you look at the comparison in the neutral position you’ll see that 3rd should be more and 4th should be less dramatic.
4th Gear Comparison:
All I can say is wow – I love the feel of the new throw. I can’t wait to get back out on the track… oh wait… yeah, no engine. Haha, next year.
During this process I took the time to tighten up a few gaps by adding rubber sleeves and plastic bushings in areas that had way too much slop. This combined with the super tight fitting brass bushings on the lever and the cable linkage on the transmission side has done an enormous amount for the shifter feel. Obviously I can’t say if it works 100% because at the moment I can’t even start the car, but as soon I as do, I’ll be sure to post again.
Our next step is to solve the reverse lockout. Here’s what we have so far: