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Author Topic: The JMR Mk1...  (Read 331 times)

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Offline JMR

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The JMR Mk1...
« on: July 10, 2012, 01:13:39 am »
The car that can lay the claim to starting the official JMR bandwagon....

Bought in 1995 as my road car, but with a plan to hit the circuits in the then Slick 50 championship, SSJ825Y had a fair few owners under it's P-slots by the time my name hit the log book.

After being made redundant and shuffling through a few jobs, circuit racing became a distant dream, and a lure back to the hills more of a reality after being a fairly regular competitor in another FWD icon...the good o'll BL Mini.

The Golf made it's debut at Wiscombe Park hillclimb in a mixed class, and came either last or second to last...the old memory bank fails me there...or was it trading times with a Vauxhall Belmont SRi I'd rather forget!...anyway..hethum!

At around 18 years old at the time, the poor old thing needed a bit of TLC and a lot more development if it was to be a serious contender the next time out! So I pulled the car off the road for a tidy up and a few basic tweeks. The suspension and brakes were already done and had proved effective at a couple of track days at Castle Coombe, so the effort to squeeze some extra grunt was the priority.

A spare block assembly was built up with the intention of sorting the head/cam next and running it on the std K-Jet system. A chance conversation about a blown up ex hotrod engine that we had once seen for a re-build while I worked at a rolling road led to a phone call to it's then owner. It was revealed the remains of the engine were sat in an old out-building on the owners land, he had broken the crank while using it in anger in grass racing. The best bit was the parts were for sale...and they were cheap...not much more than 6 month road tax costs now for an average family saloon....£150 bought a  set of Forged Cosworth pistons complete with valve dents in the crowns thanks to a broken crank!....4 steel H section conrods, one of which was slightly bent...and twisted just to add to the fun!

The head was undamaged apart from the valves, and it came with 3 camshafts & a vernier pulley, a dry sump pan, RWD bellhousing & Race exhaust manifold...again RWD so no use to the project.

After some evaluation of the parts...or more like "lets chuck it together and see what happens"...a Plan was formed to machine the piston crowns to tidy them up, have the bent/twisted rod straightened (I kid you not!), fit some new valves in the head, and use the new/untried cam of the 3 available.

With the main engine sorted we needed some fueling...

It was decided to skip the K-Jet system as the engine was likely to be too wild for it, and another chance conversation lead me back to the previous owner again to pick up the Weber 48 SP's that had been returned from out on loan. A re-furb saw them pressed into service...they're not perfect but they work & they were cheap!...less than a full tank of fuel costs now for a medium size hatchback!...oh ok...50 quid!

After fitting the engine in place with an off the shelf manifold mated to my old road system, and a gearbox cobbled together with old Maestro bits (another 50 quid bargain!), it was time to hit the road and run it in for a couple hundred miles before it's first rolling road thrashing!

After some jetting and timing tweeks we went for a quick look at peak power which we were hoping to hit around 140-145 at the wheels if we were lucky! So when the deep chested bark of the 48's helped make the numbers 1 4 9 @ 7k poped up on the dynoplot we all looked at each other with a sense of "what the fu$k"!...on our faces! With further attention to detail in terms of carb & ignition settings, plus some cam tweeking, we went looking for the final peak power reading...164 at the wheels @ 7,500!...hanging onto the same numbers at 7,900, and dropping off to 162 @ 8,100!

I wasnt in a hurry to run it up the road honest!....and the words "fu%king hell" never came out of my mouth the first time it came on strong in 2nd gear at 4,500 to 8,500...honest mum!...and of course it was on a private road and not the local industrial estate!

It's been good to me since....

In 2004 it gave me the Devon speed championship in my 1st full season with it, in 2005 came 2nd in the Devon sprint championship, and finally, in 2007, we managed to win the Southwest Hilllclimb championship outright. With a total of 37 class wins from 50 events, and 15 class records broken between 2004-2009...it's done a good job...so far.







« Last Edit: July 10, 2012, 01:19:07 am by JMR »

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Offline Tim Moll

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2012, 07:37:39 am »
I take it you managed to miss the tyres in that last shot Jason?  :o

Offline Stooza

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2012, 04:17:23 pm »
I had a black Mk1 just like that when I was 18 :)  Should never had sold it
Mk2 2.0 16v GTi (built for track day fun)
Mk3 16v GTi (standard)
1970 1915cc type 1 beetle (rebuild on hold)

Offline Robin_16v

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2012, 05:07:27 pm »
amazing how cheap you could get the parts, i wish i could find it al that cheap :D

Offline JMR

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2012, 10:46:08 pm »
Luck!....or maybe "meant to be"!

Offline Tristan

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2013, 11:04:30 pm »
what sort of power has it now Jason?

Offline JMR

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Re: The JMR Mk1...
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2013, 11:22:45 pm »
Zero!...lol

Engines in bits....been trying to get around to giving it some TLC ...customers work gets priority tho.

I started re porting the head...found some extra flow with more to come....a new cam profile to try...should punch harder mid range through to peak...soon see.

 

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