Boy Racer Question

[Brucester70]

I have a VX 2l running twin webber 45's, It is supposed to put out 180bhp, but when I raced an Integra Type R the other nite, I was up his bumper but couldn't pass when he pulled over at about 70mph, we were similar then.  This race was down dual carriage ways.  Surely my car can't be runnning right as the Integra has 194bhp (i think).

What are your views, anyone else raced one, if so what set up do you have.

Cheers

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Wind resistance and gearing may be your problem.

John

[ricdiggle]

Depends on the Integra too - did it have two enormous HKS exhaust sticking out of the back?

If so, it was probably far from stardard. They are very quick and lovely cars anyway.

Why were you racing on the Queen's Higway though? It's not something I do in my Westfield!

[Phssthpok]

Why were you racing on the Queen's Higway though? It's not something I do in my Westfield!

    I’m not a man of religious belief. But, on a warm summers’ day when I chance upon another boy (or girl) racer I lift my eyes to the heavens and give a little nod.    

[westy]

afraid it is your gearbox letting you down and wind resistance above 90+ (not that you should be going that quick on the public roads!.

A different gearbox with taller gears will mean 55-60 in first and 80 ish in second.  Once you have enough traction and can apply full throttle these two gears should be able to sort out that nippy little car and just about every other car on the road.

[Brucester70]

It looked standard and didn't have the monster pipe out the back.  Out of interest how do you go about sorting out the gear box to get a long first and second, is it a whole new gear box needed or can the gear ratio's be changed?  If so how much would it cost and who in the south can do it?

Cheers

[westy]

You can purchase the internals and DIY but I would not recommend it in the slightest leave it to the pro's.

The main suppliers of these gearboxes seem to be Quaife or BGH.  If your going for Quaife Phil @ Road and Race is the man to supply the box.

Road & Race Transmissions

Filstone Farm,

Filstone, Shoreham,

Sevenoaks, Kent,

TN14 5JU

Tel: 01959 525 105 Fax: 01959 525 233

A brand new Heavy duty gearbox will set you back 1k+vat (around 600-700 second hand) or a clubman for around the 800+vat mark (around 500 second hand).

A new gearbox from BGH with similiar gearing will set you back around the 600/700 mark.  Be warned all of these gearboxes are straight cut so read noisy to very noisy, but will transform the power delivery of the car.

If your not planning on any serious bhp upgrades I would suggest you contact Brian and have a chat with him.

Cheers,

Westy

[ian crocker]

Altering your gearing won't help as long as you can be somewhere near peak power at 70 with the gears you have.  It is aerodynamics pure and simple, a fact that many people overlook when they think power to weight is everything.  Power to weight is only important (for acceleration) at low and medium speeds.

An Integra type R does 60-100 in about 10 seconds flat which is probably the same as your car so you wouldn't be able to pass him at 70+mph.

Rgds,

Ian

[westy]

The main difference being when you engage third gear at around 70-80 your revs will be drop to around 5-5.5k mark where the engine will still be on song and will still pull well.  Rather than the standard box where you changed up (I guess it would fourth at that point) and suddenly wished you were going down hill.

I cant speak for the v8's out there but my car now pulls well to around 115 where as before it would be noticeably slower on acceleration from 80ish and even worse once the mph crept up from there.

[Brucester70]

Sounds right Westy, I am changing into fourth at about 80mph, so I guess the revs drop down a little low, unlike yours.  But am I not wrong in thinking a longer first and second would slow down initial pick-up, i.e slower 0-60 times, but better 50-100?

[westy]

depending on your diff and tyre circumference you can see 60mph in first gear alone so straight away you have saved yourself .5-1 of second depending on how much you hammer your gearbox.

If you’re running a standard box then first gear is probably as much use as chocolate tea pot to you.  I.e. you are probably pulling away at a round about from standstill and before you have reached the centre you have to change up again or the equivalent you pull away and because of the power you have to change almost immediately.  The standard ratios were made for a tin top pulling a caravan up hill unfortunately

With the better ratios you will get to use the torque of the VX engine in a much better way and I found acceleration is vastly improved until the Westfield aerodynamics of a brick kick in.

If your Essex your welcome to a demo – once I fix my car

[Brucester70]

Whats up with your car?  And where abouts in essex are you.  Everything your saying makes sense, 1st is a waste of time its over far too quickly! I just wanna get rolling and knock her into second.  Glad there is something I can do about it, but by the sounds of it could cost a grand!?

[westy]

Whats up with your car?  And where abouts in essex are you.  Everything your saying makes sense, 1st is a waste of time its over far too quickly! I just wanna get rolling and knock her into second.  Glad there is something I can do about it, but by the sounds of it could cost a grand!?

Yes it can cost a lot of money but it depends on what you go for.  If you are not planning any serious bhp upgrades then a BGH box will be fine (only reason I say this is I don’t know of many people that run this type of box with serious bhp everyone just seems to go for the Quaife but I stand to be corrected).  

This will still cost you in the region of 600 so you do have the option of buying a second hand Quaife box.

If you have heard the onboard sound of touring cars with the constant whine that’s roughly what the straight cut box sounds like, when you get use to it though it sounds great.  Fourth gear is normally running a straight 1:1 so is silent followed by an overdrive 5th of .89 for long distance.

Heres some more recent discussion on gearboxes

here

Have PM'd location

[Clive]

There are a number of people running BGH boxes with serious power.

I know of one person with a 240+bhp N/A cossy engine using this box.

On the other hand why waste time competing on a dual carriageway, westfields are surely not designed for this type of "cicuit".

Find some twisty roads and then look in your rearview mirror to see what is trying to keep up    

Clive

[chrisbin]

I reckon Clive has hit nail on the head....

straight lines are for MAX POWER boys

Westys are only partly about acceleration - like I say to people, you can have loads of fun at sensible speeds cos you don't slow down for corners!!!!