Hey if anyone is reading.
I now have an outside report regarding the car from Peter Lundgren.
Peter has many years experience in racing and today is the driving instructor in racing gave us the chance to get a test drive and evaluation of the car.
Here's his little story about his part of the story Polo 250% project.
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Last winter rang a Thomas Knutsson to me and told me he was working on a project. Building on a VW Polo D Kombi to something more advanced than the original. And it was urgent because the car is visible on the car show in Elmia at Easter. He is neither the first nor last to have ideas about building a car, but I listened to what he had to say. He had some issues that we talked about. He called several times and we talked some more. And over time i began to understand that he really was doing something. So at one point he asked also if I could think of to test drive the car. If I had the time I could think of doing this. And here I sit now with a new experience.
I had arranged a date at Kinnekulle raceway for testing.
A little late Thomas came to an end. We got started just after lunch.
I ran some laps with Thomas as a passenger. The perception I had was that it felt very insecure. How much should you dare to push this car?
But, out with Thomas, and add about 10 laps. The feeling that the car was unbalanced remained, especially the rear end that was not as it should.
We discussed it and I also got the information that the car is not built as a race car. We adjusted the tire pressure as the only option. Drove another 10 laps. Checked the temp, tested braking, throttle and so on. I started to get me some more feeling of the car behavior. The feeling of understeering was there all the time. Prior to Run No. 3, I felt that it is time to push the car, see what it can do. But with understeer in the head, regular street tires on, a gearbox that does not want to rough handeling I still had to take it a bit "careful". Tested to hit the throttle earlier in curves, correcting understeer and now it started to go much better. I also began to get warm in “my clothes”, better temperature in the tires and the lap times fell,
Now that i knew where i had the car I could begin run it in a different way. Begin to reflect on what I'm driving. And little by little, I got the feeling that the car can "become something".
What I think of as the main action's to be taken is due to the handling. It is being understerred, but still feels very stable. But with other struts and so on. this should not be a problem. The next thing to work with the engine power. It is smooth o fine but with a little high exhaust temp at the end of the straight. Output Register is far too short. It came nicely at 4500-5500 revolutions but nothing more.
Later it turned out that it sat quite wrong air filter in your car, which explain a lot.
So overall, having been told the whole story of this project, I think you managed to build a surprisingly good car. Thomas is enthusiastic and energetic with his project, and it is also what it takes things like this. There is every opportunity to get this car to a potent and competitive race car in the appropriate regulations, if you like. It is interesting to follow the development of this project and it has definitely given a taste to participate and test the car while it develops.
Peter Lundgren - Test Pilot
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Must say it feels quite strange to read this for me.
We have built a car, we have done something extraordinary that you know who have read the thread.
When I talked to Peter about how we wanted to do so where he's quite "off" at first.
When one is so up in the project are easily biased and do not always see the reality.
We must be open to others' experiences, etc. Therefore, I stood on me.
But the car was ready and tested.
Had time been available before the test drive on Kinnekulle I had found the error but unfortunately it became as it were.
Motor supplied only 80bhp most and then in a register at 1000rpm´s.
Despite this, he run the car.
Now that the engine performs 160bhp such an assessment is made to the car to get around the Ring of around 1min.
It is very good. It was so good thanks to the sponsors' contribution.
But ...
Now we have built this car ready for road use with std articles regarding handling, etc.
Soon we are taking the step towards this and start with "Step 2".
Now we will optimize it for the track and racing.
Now there is no requirement for std stuff anymore, but now we take a deeper step into the world of racing.
Then it's gold with Peter's experience.
Watch this space for thoughts on this.
How good can a polo diesel from 1993 realy be?
There is great potential as Peter writes to get to a really good car.
Thomas
