scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

My brother is thinking of building a track car and was thinking of the lines of either a 5 Turbo or a Escort RS turbo and having the interior stripped adding lighter seats and spending a bit of money on the suspension and brakes, does anyone think its a good idea or is there any other cars to think about.

scoobynutta555

Heard nothing but scare stories concerning the engine on R5 turbos.

Id have thought for the same money or less a fairly decent 205 gti could be had, bundles of them for around £800. Minimal mods would be needed for the track as they handle so well. A few on here have them as track cars.

A'K

IMO I would go with a GTT. I had one for 6 years and loved it (still got it locked up in my garage), there really light already so if you strip them down and do a few little engine mods, which hardly cost anything you'll have a dam fast track car for very little money...

davegtt

Scoobynutta, thats a typical thing for people to say, "Ive HEARD nothing but scare stories" well if thats what youve heard its probably 10th hand information and its all false (scare stories happened when boy racers fitted a bleed valve and made the car run 20psi (over its standard 9) then didnt adjust the fueling to suit hence its reputation for head gasket failure, if you did the same to a scoob you'd have a far worse state engine than a head gasket in need of replacing). Look after the R5 like youd look after an impreza (i.e oil changes when needed and any major mods youd have a remap, well stick the 5 on the rollers and adjust the fueling) and bobs ya uncle, 1 very light car that was originally built for rallying and 150BHP for about £10..... the ford will be heavy and sh!te for handling and not half as quick and tuneable as the 5. plus any break downs that might happen on the 5 will be fixed relatively cheaply for second hand part, people are always breaking cars....

IMO the 5 handles just aswell as the 205, the choice is yours though

delcbr

Firstly i owned a gt turbo raider for 3 years.
ive got to say i drove it like i stole it for most of the time i was driving it,but of course i waited for the engine to heat up before i thrashed it and waited for it to cool down before turning it off.

i found it to be very unreliable(no suprise there)
identical acceleration to my friends 2 litre 16 valve nova to 80 mph.
after i fitted a in car boost control valve(25 pounds) and strapped the intercooler (free) and fitted 1 grade colder spark plugs(30 quid) 1 bigger carb jet (5 pounds).the acceleration was identical up to 120mph.
oh and it was hitting 14s on the 1/4 mile with standard tyres ****ty uniroyals.
and stock suspension.plus was as quick as the first gen clio 172.so not bad.
acceleration coming out of corners or off roundabouts was lightning quick thanany of the other cars i talked about.

my friend who has owned nothin but several 205s has always to replace ball joints cv joints and drive shafts because his 205s have mostly been lowered and wear out parts much faster.he owns an mi16 which has huge potential check out www.pumaracing.co.uk **** name but you wont regret going to that website!!!!!

as for the escort rs turbo you can get 170 bhp out of them easy to start with but the gearboxes are weak and ford cvh engines arent that great.and probably shagged by the time you start tuning it.i know a guy that bought a standard looking rst for 5 grand (iknow) 200 at the wheels f***ing quick the gearbox went followed by the engine!!then his mates gearbox burst in his rst.


Driving the r5gtt flat out for a long time is not good,where as the pug will be fine.
to tune the 5 properly and reliably costs **** loads,think about silicone hoses,copper core radiator, bigger turbo to keep the heat down with the higher boost, thicker head gasket, alloy intercooler,
i kept the standard coolant hoses and boost hoses but they kept bursting due to the heat from the turbo and the age of the car.

there that should be enough info for you.
if it was me i would buy the r5gtt a raider which doesnt attract attention
and make sure its been looked after!!!!!
the most fun to drive(like a go-kart) and i forgot to mention the brakes are awesome!!!!just be prepared to repair it alot!!!

kammy

I have had 5 R5GTT they are totally awesome machines. Handled better than my old 205 GTI don't believe all the bull$git about them... just get a good example. Most have been thrashed to **** so be careful... with a bit tuning they are ultra quick on pick and great on coming out of corners....
Totally recommend one!!
check out www.rtoc.org or is it www.rtoc.co.uk????

davegtt

its www.rtoc.org

I wouldnt take delcbr's comments to heart, they are not unreliable at all, Ive owned reno 5's constantly for 7 years, got 2 at the minute, owned 1 for 5 years and 1 for a year. both have been very reliable. the std parts are good enough, the pipes burst because most R5's are 15years old now so the rubber has obviously worn. std pips nice and cheap will replace anything and cope with anything for another 15yrs. 25lbs of boost going through a std IC strapped I aint suprised youve had problems with it 15lbs is the most you should run on a std Intercooler. anymore than that you'll need a full alloy 1 otherwise you'll split the plastic head on the IC...... FACT. who charged you £5 for a jet for the carb? saw you coming mate get a 1.35mm drill bit and away you go

if your looking for a clean tidy R5 forget it, they'll cost a fortune, best bet is to buy something run down. if you've got any mechanical sence what so ever you wont have a problem with the 5.

RS Grant

I would be tempted to buy a 1992-1995 EG Civic VTi and strip that out... 160bhp, with some minor mods you can get to 170+bhp and they are bombproof!! Designed to rev to 8k plus and with suspension and braking mods then IMO they would make good track cars.

You could try finding an earlier EF? Civic VTi, its the older wedge shape, I think its 89-92.. They are fairly rare, but really extremely light and come with same B16a engine!!

Wouldnt consider either of those Turbo'd cars for a dedicated track car, both too fragile to take constant abuse on track IMO.


Cheers,
Grant

scoobynutta555

10th hand my @rse. I know of three mates who have had them and had to have rebuilds after owning STANDARD cars. They have got a reputation for weak engines like it or not.

davegtt

they have a "reputation" but its just that, the engine aint weak at all, its only a small 1.4 pushrod engine. people expect them to chuck out the reported 300bhp that KTEC can get from it constantly, when in actual fact this power can be extracted from the engine but for a period of 10 seconds, thats why you never seen KTEC chucking their cars up santa pod. 180BHP on a 5 will last as long as the car is looked after. after owning 5's for 7 years Ive not had 1 engine rebuild. if fact the most damage Ive had to a 5 is the valve stem oil seals. total cost of about £100ish

Ralph Wiggum

utter utter utter tosh

my gt turbo still runs no blow ups 4 years . No maf sensors or anything to blow the engine up

scoobynutta555

Those 3 cars I mention must have been lemons and not typical examples then

Ralph Wiggum

same with anycars, they might of been sold std, but the previous owner my of been running 1.5 bar on stock setup and then changed it back

blot

I bought this with a mate specifically for track days, major abuse given to it and the only problem was spontaneous combustion caused by crap fuel regulator. As dave said, just turning the boost up will kill them, but that's the same with most cars. Suspect the reason R5 reputation comes about is down to impatient 'younger adults' wanting bigger bhp without the associated costs....

This car only weighs around 600kg, is a very reliable 150bhp (could run a lot higher but really don't need it) and anyone who has seen it on track will know, it's pretty nippy
http://photobucket.com/albums/v512/b...=cornering.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v512/b...5enginebay.jpg

davegtt

blot, would love to see a pic of ya car but its password protected?

asagi

Ah the R5 GTT.

Sold mine 5 years ago due to baby. Still miss her, straight through scorpion zorst, dump valve, pipercross cone, bleed valve ans ******* quick.


The good old days

Davegtt are you from and ex GTTurbo web site, can't remember the name but seem to remember your'e sign on.

Cheers

delcbr

first ive got to agree with rs grant i too would like to get my hands on the last of the crx which came with the 160bhp v-tec engine.but they go for alot of money.so maybe look at the 91 on civic vti.

and dave gtt you misunderstood me mate i meant 25quid for the boost controller not the amount of measured boost i was running.
by the way i was running 18psi max.

and i got my carb jet from Racetech and its a genuine main carb jet sized from the factory as its stamped weber135 better (i know its a solex carb on the car)than drilling it cos iam a machinist engineer to trade and i know from experience that when you drill through metal it always drills bigger than the drill size.
i.e. 1mm drill might drill a hole 1.15 mm
so best to get it from the factory that way you know it will be right.
the right way to increase a carb jet would be to drill it undersize by about a ball hair(.12mm) then finish it off with a reamer.Reamer is the actual size you want the hole to be.
i just wanted to clear that up thank you please

blot

Dave, suspect you may have seen these already but this should work this time

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5.../cornering.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...5enginebay.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/blot/thrux6.jpg

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Thanks for the info guys, he is thinking off getting the 5 turbo, as you can pick them up well cheap, and cheap to modify, as long as you aint to stupid with the boost it should be o.k.

davegtt

delcbr, sorry for the misunderstanding

asagi, yes Im from the original site mate, stil use rtoc.org too. simple sign on name was Dave. from nottingham 10k posts

asagi

In that case, hello and you must seriously know your R5GT Turbo's by now!!!


Don't know what it. Owned faster cars, better handling cars (just!) etc, etc but will never forget my GT Turbo.

A true classic. In 1985 0-60 in 7 secs asa standard!!!!

Cheers

delcbr

Dave just wondering if youve heard of this problem concerning r5gtts.
have you ever heard of oil coming from the engine and getting sprayed all over the inside of the engine bay when your driving it?
thats what minds ended up doing but couldnt figure out what was causing it?
any ideas?

blot

Could be worth checking how secure the oil feed to the turbo is, mine had the wrong size connector on when i bought it, made for a lovely barbecue effect!

Ralph Wiggum

check the oil breather system, 9/10 it will be a cause that a pipe is blocked or loose, you will get oily film every where,

also its illegal to be dumping oil like that

larks

any car with a small lump putting out high boost will be a little tempremental.Have you considerd a fiesta rst i had one with 165bhp and it was bloody nippy.Or i have seen some mk2 xr2s running escort rst gear so you get a lsd bigger turbo and an easy 175bhp at 1 bar in a car the same weight as a r5.Spares for both rst and r5 are easy to get,down to personal choice this one i think

craigdmcd

iTrader: (2)

Depends on how much you want to spend on it, used to own a lot of RS's, I had a Series 2 RS turbo estate (Don't Ask), with a power engineering 2 litre block, about 230-240 bhp, that was just silly, and the wife had a 200Bhp Fiesta RS, that straight lined with cossies at Donington and whipped them round the corners. Never had any big engine or gearbox faults that weren't of my own doing. Like I say, depends on your budget, and what you are looking for.

davegtt

oil round the engine bay, should have sat with the bonnet up and rev'ed the nutts of it, chances are it was only leaking when under pressure. rocker cover gasket. oil breather system blocked up, oil feed to the turn may be loose, may even have a hair line split in it. more the engine revs the more oil it'd pump out.....

StevieG

Have owned many fast cars over the years (including 2 scoobs), but the R5GTT is the only car, I really really miss, Yes the interior quality was crap, yes it was tinny, (& my car was only 2 years old when I bought it), but the handling & pace were fantastic. As has been pointed out several times already, most blow because the boost is turned up far too high & cr*p maintenance; I had mine modded by Radbourne Racing, which cost a bit, but it gave 160bhp & was reliable (while I owned it at least). The last cars were registered in early 1992 so are at least 13 years old now, there was a J reg one for sale near me last month, was very tempted........

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Seems quite a lot of you had 5 turbo's and still got a soft spot for them still, I think they would make a great track car, Also do you have to have them mapped when changing turbos etc, and if you do could anyone point us in the right direction to any good tuning companys.

Thanks

jtabraham

Hi
I set up the origional R5GT Owners club, and would say that most owners had very few probs, no more than any other car as long as they are looked after. I did 70,000mls in mine running over 160BHP and only probs were caused by the immobaliser. Also had a Renault 11 Turbo for 2 yrs. Bit scary on the twisties but very quick in a straight line.
Good place of contact is- primaracing.com. and if still running GT Tuning.
Hope this helps
Jt