GONZO01

iTrader: (6)

Cracking thread can't wait to read what you do next? What are the limits engine, clutch, gearbox wise on the A45?

Shaun

Thanks GONZO01.

No one really knows the limits yet imo. Plenty of stuff being banded around, but nothing conclusive at the moment. It's said that the engine can take up to 600bhp (it's a forged blueprinted engine).

GONZO01

iTrader: (6)

Not to shabby then lol.

Shaun

No more mods done in the past two weeks, but I have some formal performance test data for you.

VBOX Testing
This didn’t exactly go to plan and threw up a few issues…..

I haven’t had that much time to get any VBOX logs due to real life getting in the way and also because of the recent poor weather. However, just over a week ago the weather sorted itself out, so I took the car out with the VBOX in toe.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but during the last visit to Santa Pod I was still using my VBOX in the car, although the Pod was obviously providing me proper drag times. Something wasn’t right though as the VBOX times were way out compared to the strip times. The VBOX was well under reading, even though I had set the box to take into account the 1ft rollout that the strip timing gear is based on. Effectively on the strip, the official timing gear ignores the 1st foot. I’ll tell you more about the VBOX comparisons further on.

Right… so I found a decent flat and quiet national speed limit road and decided to try a dash to 60 using Launch Control. Conditions were bone dry and it was around 18degs. Unfortunately the car was fully fuelled up…. not the best way to get some numbers, but it was what it was.

First try I engaged LC and car immediately axle tramped, scrabbled for grip and the dash lit up with “4MATIC unavailable”. I kept my foot in post launch and it was pulling from left to right continuously…. horrendous torque steer, which was obviously the grunt it was having to put up with in FWD. Damn….. never had that before on a dry/warm road with the tuning box!

Tried it again….exactly the same, so I thought 3rd time lucky right!? You guessed it…. happened again!

The only thing that’s changed is the move to Stage 2. I’m on 19” rims with Continental Contisport 5P’s. I think these tyres are pretty grippy, but they were not having any of this…. and neither was the 4Matic!

One of two things could be causing this. Either the tyres are shot, or I have more torque now than these tyres can handle. Suffice to say that was the end of VBOXing that day.

In reality it doesn’t have a problem in normal driving, even when pushing it. Since I don’t really use LC, apart from VBOXing and drag strip stuff, it’s perhaps a bit of a moot point. I needed to get some objective data though.

It wasn’t a brilliant start to try and gauge performance increases on the road, and in some ways it was starting to get me slightly concerned in how the car was potentially going to NOT perform on the drag strip.

I double checked my front tyres when I got home and measured the tread depth. 5mm on the fronts!



I can come here and subjectively say this car is ****ing ballistic on the road (it is), but who is ever going to believe me without any objective results. Dyno graphs mean little on their own, so you’ve gotta back things up with other data.

I was going to get some in-gear times on my VBOX, but to do that I really needed to get back down Bruntingthorpe and I was genuinely concerned about the accuracy of my VBOX anyhow.

At the end of the day you’ll get the good, the bad and the ugly with me. That’s what testing stuff and working with others to develop is all about. You’ve gotta take the rough with the smooth. So with all of this I really needed to get back down the drag strip to see if that sticky surface would at least let me utilise LC. I was really apprehensive about going down, purely because of this total lack of traction using LC on the road, especially with a decent amount of tread on the tyres.

At times you’ve just gotta suck it up and get on with it!

Santa Pod
Luckily Santa Pod had a RWYB event Saturday just gone. I’d made my mind up in the middle of the week I was going to go….. assuming the weather held out.

On the Friday night before, I shot out in the car to try and get the fuel down, which was still virtually at the full tank mark. I really needed to reduce this. Things really were not going well as it was absolutely hoofing it down with rain, so I literally only did about 40 miles.

Got up Saturday morning…. and yes, it was very wet out! FFS!

I checked the forecast and it said it was going to dry up apparently, so I got ready and shot over to Santa Pod. It’s only down the road from me, so again, I wouldn’t have much chance to get shot of much fuel. Too late to be worrying about that now. lol

Unfortunately when I arrived at Santa Pod (at 9am) it was about as gloomy as you could ever want. Damp, cold and windy. Mmmmm.

Anyway….. here’s the fuel level at the start of the day:



The track was still being dried out with the guys using what looked like a jet blower. Not sure how long they were doing this before I got there, but it took them another 2hrs to finish the job off! By this time the cross wind and changed to a head wind, which was forecast to be up to 25mph. If anything, at least rain was not forecast for the rest of the day and the sun was trying it’s hardest to poke it’s head out!

Once the track opening I went straight down to the fire up lane….

First run 12.22 @ 111.54mph
I knew this early in the day with a pretty sketchy track surface, the first run wasn’t going to be great. I didn’t appear to be far wrong, especially when my VBOX logged this specific run to be 12.5 @ 116mph!!! Yeah….. my VBOX is goosed, FACT!

Now there was a problem with the track timing gear, in that we were unable to receive our printed results. I did manage to get these later in the day, but never knew what times I was really running until after my 3rd run about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Anyway…. I’ll continue to write this as if I received the times as I ran.

The car was really scrabbling for grip and axle tramping off the launch, but at least Launch Control worked now on the strip surface. Thank God! Something I noticed was that the Traction Control light was coming on after launch. Never had that before on my previous visit with the tuning box. I then thought “Here we go again. More traction issues.”.

In Launch Control mode you already have to switch off the first stage of Traction Control (sports mode), yet it was still kicking in. lol

The official 60ft time of this run confirmed my traction concerns. A rather poor 1.92!

Second run 12.18 @ 113.19mph
Around an hour after the first run (the queues were pretty bad) I managed to get the second in.

Exactly the same issues with the start and the Traction Control light coming on as before, post the launch. It just didn’t feel good, and once again the 60ft time confirmed that. 1.92! However, at least the times were dropping and the speed was increasing.

Third run 12.11 @ 114.33mph
By this time the wind was really starting to pick up, but as the sun was out, the track conditions were clearly starting to improve.

Again, it was a repeat “crap traction” performance of before, this time with a 1.90 to 60ft. But yet again, at least the times continued to come down and the terminal speed was increasing.

At this point in time I just thought any further runs would be an utter waste of time. The track conditions didn’t appear to be great, the wind was against me and I was struggling with grip. However, I thought I would try one more thing to gain some extra traction off the line….. lower my front tyre pressures and give it one last banzai run! lol

Fronts measured around 38psi, so I took them down to 30psi and got back in the queue.

Just as my day couldn’t have got any worse, another runner appeared to throw half of his oil down the track. STOP! It took another hour to clean that mess up, whilst I was stuck in the queue.


As I was getting bored I took a photo of my awesome and light weight fuel level!



It’s now about 5pm and the track closes at 5:30pm. I’m probably around 12 car pairs back, and they throw the next 5-6 car pairs down…. then move over to getting the bikes down. Half way through the bike runs a biker decides to throw him and his bike down the strip…. literally! Ambulance goes down the strip (probably quicker than me to be honest! ha). I thought that was it….. game over for me. Then it came back and after about another 10mins they started running again. 5:20pm (this is like an episode of Top Gear, AND I’m not making this up!) and the track will stop running in 10mins…. they still carry on with the rest of the bikes. You can imagine I’m going off my head at this point. Literally, at 5:30pm I’m on the start line.

Fourth run 12.06 @ 113.22mph
Well… that helped the launch a little bit (still axle tramping), although I still had the TC light coming on.

60ft of that run was an awesome (yeah right!) 1.87s.



Positives
I’d be lying if I stated I was over the moon with the results. I wasn’t. However, when you dig into the detail and take everything into consideration, the results were actually positive.

The car clearly has more grunt now, than it did when it was at Stage 1. If we look at the best from the previous Stage 1 runs, to these runs, the differences are marked:

Stage 1
12.25 @ 109mph; 60ft in 1.82s; 330ft in 5.06; ⅛ in 7.83 @ 88.22

Stage 2
12.06 @ 113mph; 60ft in 1.87s; 330ft in 5.08; ⅛ in 7.76 @ 91.62

The difference in terminal speed backs up the fact that I now have more BHP, and the car is clearly quicker down the strip because of this.

Negatives
The single biggest issue I now have is lack of traction. Now this could be either due to how much torque I have, or purely down to mechanical grip. It’s possibly a mix of both.

There are two things apparent which are alluding to this. One is the 60ft times, which should be lower and the second is the TC coming on after launch.

There is a general guide that every decrease you see in your 60ft time, can equate to double the decrease at your final time. Assuming grip levels are good, these A45’s should be seeing 60ft times at around 1.80 and into the high 1.7’s. My best this time was 1.87, so a possible .07 off where it could be. The 60ft has little to do with outright grunt, but so much to do with grip/traction off the start.

The other thing is the Traction Control issues. How much impact this is having on my times (every 100th counts I’m afraid!) I don’t know, but it certainly isn’t helping me. When TC cuts in, it must be limiting torque, as that is what TC does.

I know I have an overall traction issue now as I can’t use LC on the road. The only thing that has changed is that I now have more power & torque.

The other things against me on the day were the overall conditions of both the track and the environment. They were what they were, but they were far from ideal in my opinion.

You can never assume that you’ll achieve your best times on each visit. This is why I would have preferred to run alongside other known A45’s on the same day. At least then you can compare between all on the same day, under the same conditions.

When I got home I actually looked at my VBOX data to see what the curves looked like. What each and every logged run showed me was quite alarming.



See that big dip in the red line (which is the speed plotted against time). That’s where the traction issues are being recorded in the log, which is pretty bad to be honest. The grey trace is accelerative g’s, and you can see the g’s drop right off (virtually down to 0 g’s) as the traction is being lost, and then start to build back up (but struggling to retain). The traction issue appears to be affecting the run from around 1s through to 2.5s+. So this is impacting both my 60ft (but we knew that already) and beyond.

I think as I approach 1g on acceleration I haven’t got enough mechanical grip due to the torque. The tyres then effectively spin so much that I lose all forward motion, until they manage to grip again. Torque then rapidly builds up at such a rate that the g’s then hit nearly 1.2. As it approaches 1.2g the TC is kicking in, as you see a second dip again between 2 and 3s.

How much time this is losing me I have no idea, but it has to be losing me time regardless.

Strangely enough I actually think all of this is a positive….. as I can now look at areas to try and sort, to improve this traction issue. Power is nothing unless I can get it down on the strip when I need it.

You’ll notice I’m putting a lot of emphasis on my quarter time results here. This is purely from a measurement comparison exercise. This car is extremely rapid on the road, especially in-gear. I don’t do drag starts on the road, so these “issues” are quite a moot point in that way. I’m conscious that many of you want to see real world performance figures, and since my VBOX timing is off, I can’t rely upon that currently (I need to buy a new one for sure). Regardless, none of this should take anything away from the car on the road. It’s quick!

What’s next?
Plenty! lol

Regardless of how the day went I gathered some really useful data. Such is the way when you’re working with others to develop things, and this certainly gives me specifics to look at and improve upon.

I need to see if I can sort these traction issues out and get back down the strip to see the impact.

I have a few ideas before I start pulling the current tyres off for brand new ones, so I’ll see what I can do over the following weeks.

The aim will be to get back down the drag strip (hopefully with some other tuned A45’s) at the end of this month. So we’ll have to see.

After that, I’ll be planning the next round of mods for Stage 3.

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Nice - I love the way you record real world data.

Awesome results, bet your well chuffed.

It sounds like you have reached the real world limit of your weight vs power vs traction.

My first thought though when faced with this issue is to jump on the torque maps and limit torque only in 1st and 2nd gears to see if that brings it all back into line. As you well know, power and control are a finely balanced duo with power being useless without the traction. We often find that the manufacturer has got the useful torque in first gear quite close to optimal (For the wet) and raising it too far results in a slower yet harder to control (but more exciting?) animal.

Some cars (my own included) launch better in second once the torque is sufficient. Is that an option with your system?

Alternatively, you could shift the weight balance by taking sausage fingers up the strip with you then having him jump out when you hit the top end of second gear.
That might work! LOL. Hope hes well.. ?

Always look forward to reading your updates. Great progress.

Shaun

Really appreciate your supportive comments, together with your advice Stu!

For obvious reasons I really don't want to go for a "de-tune" just yet. But yes, the approach of revisiting the torque maps for 1st and 2nd has crossed my mind. I really want to see if I can increase grip levels first on launch. On the road for normal driving everything appears to be OK in general traction terms (apart from LC), and since that is the environment/use the car will be used for, the whole issue is slightly moot to a degree.

I'm going to try some of the obvious things first, like swapping the rears to fronts and also check and possibly adjust the geometry. I'd be surprised if there isn't any positive adjustment that could be made with factory geometry settings (based on past experiences with factory settings/setups).

If none of that works I'd be inclined to investigate:
- different tyres;
- adjustment of LC strategy (lowering the rpm point perhaps, also looking at what else we can do - in-line with your comment).

There are a few things I can try on the strip itself, like tyre pressures etc.

If all else fails..... we'll have to reduce the torque in 1st and 2nd.


I didn't think of "sausage fingers". Although to be fair, he'd cost me about 500bhp at the launch. I would then be in negative power.... would I go backwards then?

Loads of testing to do and loads of data to collect - I love this stuff!

MelTypeR

iTrader: (4)

Shaun did you try just trying to launch the car yourself without LC?

Shaun

No I didn't Mel. Had I a chance of more runs, I would have certainly tried this.

Devildog

Shaun - just a thought and I may be way off mark here, but presumably LC parameters are set up to be optimal for a factory standard car?

Could it be, therefore, that launch control is using sub optimal parameters (launch RPM, etc) for your set up giving you the tramp and traction issues?


(Edit to add I see you've thought about lowering RPM)

Shaun

Absolutely...... it's certainly an area that could be looked at.

I'm looking at ensuring the key areas supporting mechanical grip are optimum first. If that doesn't resolve things we'll have to look at the LC strategy, followed by the torque maps for 1st and 2nd.

Shaun

Guys…. there’s going to be a lot of “rice” in this update, as I’ve had quite an eventful couple of days.

Pull yourselves up to the table. Get your napkin out. Grab your knife and fork……. tuck in!

On my last update I signed off with the following:
So….. what was I going to do about the traction issues?

We could have jumped straight into adjusting the map, by pulling back the torque in first few gears. I really didn’t want to do that off the bat as I like “secret sauce”. On top of that I wanted to try incremental steps to see what effect they have….. you learn more that way.

Off I shot to Litchfields last Friday to look at a few areas.

Tyres
Instead of just going out and replacing my tyres with “better” ones, like Michelin Pilot Super Sports or some nice and sticky AD08’s or R888’s, I decided I just wanted to swap the rears to fronts on the existing tyres.

I was quite wary that this may make no difference whatsoever, but it was worth a punt, especially with the rears having 6-7mm tread and a much cleaner tyre block. Whilst the fronts still had 4-5mm on them, the blocks were not that clean, being a tad chewed up.

One thing worth mentioning is the inside edge wear you get on the fronts with the A45. We’ll come onto that further on.

These cars have a Tyre Pressure System, so I wasn’t sure if the CAN system would screw up the readings if we just swapped the wheels around. Luckily nothing needed recoding, and the TPS system worked fine (and read correctly) with the wheels swapped around.

These were the fronts after the changeover. Nice amount of tread and much better block surface integrity.



Geometry
Something worth checking regardless is the state of factory geometry. We hadn’t put the car on the alignment rig up until now, but since I wanted to see if anything was untoward that would be causing me issues with launch grip, now seemed a good time as ever to check it.

Using Litchfields top of the range Hunter Hawkeye Elite TD alignment rig (it looks like something out of Star Trek!), the results were interesting.







First off all of the current settings were within manufacturer tolerances. This is clarified by all the readings being green. However, apparently the tolerances are typical for the German marque for geometry…. fairly wide.

The figures across the top part of the above screenshot are for the front axle, and the lower figures are for the rear axle.

You’ll notice there is some variance for both front camber and toe across axles, front and rear. Effectively each wheel has different geometry, which isn’t great to be honest.

The next thing I commented on was the amount of camber and castor these cars run.

Plenty of castor is good in my opinion, as it aids straight line stability but also provides you natural camber when you turn the wheel…. exactly where you need it. As a comparison on my previous Impreza STI, it had just under 5degs of castor standard. With adjustable top mounts we got that to just under 6degs. The difference in how the car drove was marked. These cars have well over 6.5degs of castor….. standard!

I knew these cars ran quite high camber for a road car to assist with reducing understeer. Unfortunately that means you tend to get increased inside edge wear on the tyre. Something we see on the A45.

Now, the geometry could be cleaned up a tad to ensure all the slack was taken out of the alignment, even without making major changes to the overall geometry. Unfortunately it appears the A45’s camber adjustment is on the struts, and from looking it appears this is fixed based on three adjustments available.

If I wanted to set the car up to perform optimally on the drag strip, you’d need to adjust the camber right back, as the tyres need to be as square as possible on the tarmac to ensure optimum grip. That would then make the car handle worse on the road. Not something I was prepared to do. It looks like we’ll need to look at proper adjustable camber bolts to precisely alter the camber anyhow…. we’ll come on to the handling and chassis setup in the future.

The area we could adjust was just to tidy up the toe, so that’s all we did.

I’d hate to think you guys might have thought I’d changed the camber to set the car up for the drag strip… so here’s the printout after the minor toe adjustments had been made:



So as far as any handling changes had been done to see if we could improve traction, that was it. I wasn’t that confident it would be enough….. we’d find out the following day, when I hit the drag strip again!

Downpipe Wrapping
Something I mentioned when Stage 2 was being applied, was that I wanted to look at wrapping my new downpipe. Since the car was having the above work down, I took this opportunity to do just that.

I think I said before about the benefits of this, but effectively wrapping (or ceramic coating) the downpipe has two key benefits. One is to reduce the heat that is radiated into the engine bay, but the most important is to retain heat in the downpipe itself. The more heat in the downpipe, the better the exhaust gas temps will be retained. The hotter the gases, the quicker the gas flow. The quicker the exhaust gases can get out, the more efficient you can restart the whole combustion process. Pretty simple physics really.

Following this type of simple modification should help with both spool of the turbo, especially when on throttle, coming off and then back on again. No great benefit to the drag strip in reality, but all these little things help for road use…. which is what my car is all about.

As you can see from the picture below, the downpipe had already started to get a nice golden tinge to it, due to the effect the heat has on the metal.



Using titanium wrap, the downpipe then looked like this.



Then mounted back where it should be.



So that was it. The plan was to take the car back down the strip the following day, to see what we could do.


Shakespeare County Raceway
It had been organised for three of us A45 owners to hit Shakey on the same day. Again, I’d suggested on my previous update, that it’s always good if you can run against the other cars you are trying to compare your own against. It’s not always about getting the fast time regardless, as it’s also interesting to see how you fair against other cars, at similar states of tune on the same day. Because these cars have all the electronic gizmo’s, you can all but remove any issues with driver skill. This makes on the same day comparisons even more beneficial.

For reference these two other cars had previously achieved (with a group of other tuned A45’s) 11.90 (ECU tune, full decat exhaust and induction kit) and 11.92 (ECU tune and induction kit) respectively at Santa Pod. With one of these two cars actually achieving an 11.86 pass at Shakey, which as far as we’re aware is the quickest drag strip timed A45 in the UK.

Today’s comparisons would be good!

So… I rocked up at Shakey first thing (7:45am) and was quite amazed at how good the conditions were. It was dry, sunny, cool and importantly….. little head wind. A million miles away from what is was when I ran at Santa Pod a few weeks ago! Unfortunately this means there are less excuses to be had! lol



Not having that much confidence that we’d sorted out my traction issues, I decided to jump straight on to the tyre pressures. I know from past experience that my car has always responded well to dropping pressures on non prepped drag surfaces. Previously I’ve done this after a few runs…. this time I dropped them straight away.

We got the normal scrutineering and signing on out of the way, and because all three of us got there really early, we were the first in the queue!



I’d been at the strip over 2hrs prior to us running, so not only was my engine cool (I had to bring the oil back up to temp by reving it), but my gearbox was getting dangerously close to the magic 50deg. It was 52deg and obviously once it dips below 50degs you can’t use Launch Control. Stone cold tyres and of course a nice cold track with no “today” rubber down, was always going to see a bad run.

First run 12.39 @ 115.43mph
Yeah…. that was **** then!

I know you’re going to roll your eyes, but the traction was utterly awful. Like the worst I have ever had down the strip. The axle tramp was dire, to the point that I was totally surprised the 4Matic never shut down. Again (no surprise) I also had the traction control cut in, as I saw at Santa Pod. Same old **** different drag strip. To be fair this was the first run, but I was still mega pee’d off.

Looking at the timing slip proved this situation. 60ft was a horrific 2.26s!



Second run 12.07 @ 115.26mph
I ran straight back round as the queues were pretty non existent, to at least try to captilise on some retained heat in my tyres.

Same again…. felt awful. Axle tramp. Traction control cut in. However, at least the time was coming down…. things were improving.

60ft was a better (still poor though) 1.97s!



Third run 11.95 @ 115.68mph
Again, I whizzed back round to the start, but decided this was to be my last run for the moment.

Same, same, same!

When I had discovered I had done an 11s pass I was obviously pleased. However, when I saw the slip and found that was with a 60ft of 1.88s, I was pee’d off again. If I could get an 11.95 even with that 60ft time, I knew I could get a quicker time…… assuming I could sort the traction out. Which has always been my problem, and based on these three runs I thought I was hitting a brick wall again.



I checked with the other two guys and their best had been 11.90 (ECU tune and induction kit) and 11.95 (ECU tune, full decat exhaust and induction kit). Both had also seen better 60ft times than me, at the 1.80s to 60ft mark.

I parked the car up with the intention to give it an hour or so for the sun to heat the track surface up, and get some more rubber down. Hoping it would help me (it was a big hope!).

I decided to give the car a quick once over. Opened up the engine bay to see the engine cover completely off it’s mounting points. The airbox had moved back and the snorkel had become detached!! Christ….. that’s some axle tramp to cause that. Luckily it all pushes back on easily enough.

I then rechecked my tyre pressures and they had gone up to 35psi. I thought ***** to it…. I took another chunk of pressure out of them, below what I had them at before. I just needed more grip and I wasn’t bothered now about the additional tyre drag!

Fourth run 11.94 @ 115.76mph
That’s a real surprise isn’t it! However, I thought “Right…. one last run, now I have some heat in the tyres”.



Fifth run
Lined up in the staging area…. lights went to green and I dropped the hammer on the launch.

**** me…. now we’re talking. That was by far THE best launch I have ever had today or at any previous time in the A45. There was a slight chirp of the tyres and it just gripped and went like a stabbed rat. No axle tramp. No nothing. Just pure traction………. at last!!!

That run felt good….. but until you see the timing slip, it don’t mean ****. lol

BOOOM!

11.80 @ 115.96mph

I was seriously ecstatic with that result, which was the outcome of me finally being able to get the torque down at launch. 60ft was a much better 1.80s.



Unfortunately I had a slight heart palpitation, as I found out when taking the car back to the pits, that the oil filler cap had come off at some point (it was certainly on prior to last run). This had caused a very slight spray of oil out of the filler, on to the underside of my bonnet. This minor panic situation took the edge off the time. Luckily I managed to find the cap at the back of the engine bay. Phew!

Word of warning guys. If you ever have similar repeated traction issues on launch, with bad axle tramp that shakes your engine cover off. Check your cap is tight again! One of the other guys checked his prior to his last run (after he knew mine had come loose). Whilst his was not off, it had started to unscrew itself. It must be the vibration from the axle tramp.

Because of the above I decided to quit whilst I was ahead! lol

Looking at the times though I was 8 1000ths away from a 11.79. As each run saw better times, there may have been a possibility that I could have just nudged into that next bracket with another run. It’s got to be in there surely! lol

The quickest time for the other two was a best of 11.90 (ECU tune and induction kit), which was a PB for the individual that got that one!

Unfortunately one of the guys (ECU tune, full decat exhaust and induction kit) had some issues with the fuel he was running (he’ll be back!), but all in all it was a great morning.

I need to make the most out of this as I don’t know how long it will stand for…. but as far as I’m aware this is now the quickest official drag time for an A45 in the UK.

What’s next?
Stage 3 - turbo time!!! ;-)

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

Great lunchtime reading mate, well pleased for you.

Now go and spend some money... I hate boring lunchtimes with nothing to read so im looking forward to your next update!

mickywrx

iTrader: (29)

Result, Shaun. Well done mate.

Shaun

Thanks Stu - I'll see what I can do!

Cheers Micky!

SEDITION

iTrader: (1)

For some weird reason I'm loving reading about a Merc on a Subaru forum. Keep up the good work, it is very interesting.

I also think that this is looking more and more like my next car....

What's the leg room in the back and boot space like?

Nice YouTube channel. One thing I'd like to see is a video of the overtaking power this car must have; it puts it in perspective for me. So next time someone is dawdling along at 50 in front of you on a dual carriageway, I'd love to see the video of you roaring past

Shaun

SEDITION,
Thanks.

Leg room is "OK" in the back. The front seats can go back quite far. I'm 6ft 6" and I have to pull the drivers seat forward, rather than hit the stops looking for more room.

I haven't had a hatch for years, but others who have seen the boost size have been impressed with it.

I can only "roar" past up to the national speed limit though.

Abx

iTrader: (15)

Hi Shaun, your progress on the A45 development has been an interesting read and I've picked up some great info.

Once my STI is serviced next week I'll be getting it up for sale, I have therefore over the last few months been looking at its replacement!

The plan was to get an e92 M3 but that has moved on to a A45, went to MB at the weekend and all they had was a facelift which was lovely, however my budget allows a 13 plate.

Unfortunately they are now out of the Mk1 brochures, I was wondering if you had one and if you would mind scanning a copy for me, what I'm really looking at is the options page so I can see what any potential purchase has as options over over cars I'm looking at, also be great to see how a 13 differs inside/outside to what I'll be getting.

Thanks in advance.
Arron

Shaun

Hi Arron,
I *think* I have a pdf of the pre-fl brochure. Message me your email address and I'll have a look when I get home later.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

There was a lovely white A45 AMG with the aero kit at the Mercedes Dealer in Tonbridge last week for £35,495, just looked it up online and its a 14 plate with 3k miles on the clock if its any good to you!!!

Shaun

I couldn't resist when I had some spare time yesterday!

Abx

iTrader: (15)

Thanks Scoobyboy, sounds great but a little steep for me unfortunately, around 32.5k is my budget, assuming I get what I need for my MY11 saloon.

Shaun, really appreciate the email and the info, will digest it and sure I will be back with some questions.

Cheers
A

Beastie

iTrader: (2)

A great read Shaun!!

Shaun

Abx,
No problem bud!

Beastie,
Cheers mate.

rickya

iTrader: (18)

Super thread as per usual Shaun

Shaun

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

oooh you're such a tease.

Shaun

Featured now in Mercedes Enthusiast:

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

KKK

Shaun

Went to Santa Pod today for the first "drag rag" of 2016.

Plagued with traction issues and the gearbox Sports mode was playing up with the shifting (had this a few times before tbh). Anyway.... didn't break my previous record, but still managed to bag an 11.86. Happy with that tbh, as that's 11.8x on two separate occasions and two different tracks now.

I did try altering my launch technique, but not letting RS hit 4k. I was launching @ 3k. Made no difference and still axle tramped. Think I'll try soft/HOLD launch next time.



As you can see by the varied times.... I had a couple of issues today! Ha

Today I fitted the rear lower diffuser off the Face Lift A45. The rear looks so more aggressive now in my opinion. A great mod to the pre-fl A45.

RAGGY DOO

iTrader: (1)

Shaun you do some talking son but I'm glad to you I read your jdm hawk thread and it gave me everything I need to know on how best proceed with my own jdm hatch thus thread is been brilliant and the car is nothing short of incredible Im enjoying the read keep it coming bud