Project - Yellow Racing 180.

[POMPSKI]

Sounds like you are ticking all the right boxes, good project this. Oh and that wheel looks ace!

[Nobrainer]

Thats a honda alloy (which I'm sure you noticed ;-) ). Are the rover alloys the same size?
Are you actually racing or doing track days?

[Cally180]

It's just track days mate, and yeah they are Honda wheel but the MG shares everything with the old Honda civics due to being based on them, it was a P reg saloon civic that wheel came off . Had a quick look at the civic aswell and it is pretty much identical

[AdDaMan]

So how was it on track? Wht was the standard suspension like? A little too soft?
Also why are you thinking of changing to a 15" wheel when the chassis and geo was set up for a 17"?! If its just for weight/rolling resistance etc I doubt it's worth it!

[Cally180]

Originally Posted by AdDaMan

So how was it on track? Wht was the standard suspension like? A little too soft?
Also why are you thinking of changing to a 15" wheel when the chassis and geo was set up for a 17"?! If its just for weight/rolling resistance etc I doubt it's worth it!

Over all it done well, running standard and down on power (inlet issue) not a lot got by it, was eating mx5's all day and got a good race with a few Peugeots. Only thing that passed me was scoobys and the two saxo's I was up with. Had a good chase with a cavilier GSI up the straight and kept up with it, only for it to get away due to hittin traffic.


Yeah it handled ok for being standard suspension and standard budget tyres. Not a lot of body roll but yeah soft

The wheels - Well for a few reasons,

The size that these come with these is also 16" so dropping to 15" wouldn't be doing any harm.. Plus it's all about acceleration and smaller wheels will help this and yea it will be lighter but that's not just my aim, you also reduce the ground clearance on the car dropping the size and in return will help with handling.

That and tyres are also easier to get / buy for 15"

I'm thinking more of civics etc.. They run 15" a run well, I don't see any issues or anything different when it comes to the ZS

[talkingcars]

The body shell is the same as the earlier civic but MG spent £10 million redesigning the suspension for the ZS - I know this as a friend of my brother in law was in charge of the project.

The ZS 180 NEVER EVER came with anything less than 17" wheels.
I can see the advantage of the smaller wheels but you will run in to cooling problems with the brakes, especially on a circuit where acceleration is more important than top speed as these will be the circuits where you also use the brakes the most.

And I would be even more concerned with wheels like those as they are almost solid so will restrict airflow around the brakes.

I think I'd be looking at lowering the car through suspension modifications rather than fitting smaller wheels.

[Maxxed_Ross]

as above, smaller wheels will help a bit but could cause more problems than they solve.

If I were you I would upgrade the brakes (Knockhill is all about brakes!) and good fast road or semi-racing pads (steer clear of anything by EBC, total garbage) and as already mentioned sort the suspension out if you think it is too soft.

[Noobrider]

Nice start to what will be a good track car. Your a fair bit ahead of me, I'm struggling to find time to do anything to my track car project.

Removing all the sound deadening is a worthwhile but labourious task, I've got about half of it out so far and that alone weighs around 10Kg. A combination of chiselling and heatgun.

Personally, I would stick with the 17's, yes tyres are a bit more expensive but lowering needs to be done at the suspension end as you end up with funny camber angles. Acceleration will come from extra power from an induction kit and a decent exhaust set up.

Remove the aircon, there is a lot of weight there and it releases some power from the engine due to it not having to power an extra pulley.

If you can afford it, some fibreglas seats would be better, they are much lighter than recliners and give a lot more support.

Good luck with it and keep your thread up to date as I'm subscribing to it.

We are off to Blyton Park this weekend but with the Pumesta as the 180 is a long way off being ready for the track.

[Cally180]

cheers guy that's the sort of feedback I'm needing

Originally Posted by Noobrider

Nice start to what will be a good track car. Your a fair bit ahead of me, I'm struggling to find time to do anything to my track car project.

Removing all the sound deadening is a worthwhile but labourious task, I've got about half of it out so far and that alone weighs around 10Kg. A combination of chiselling and heatgun.

Personally, I would stick with the 17's, yes tyres are a bit more expensive but lowering needs to be done at the suspension end as you end up with funny camber angles. Acceleration will come from extra power from an induction kit and a decent exhaust set up.

Remove the aircon, there is a lot of weight there and it releases some power from the engine due to it not having to power an extra pulley.

If you can afford it, some fibreglas seats would be better, they are much lighter than recliners and give a lot more support.

Good luck with it and keep your thread up to date as I'm subscribing to it.

We are off to Blyton Park this weekend but with the Pumesta as the 180 is a long way off being ready for the track.

yeah I have had a good go at the sound deadening, removed 3 of the 4 foot wells and some of the boot, its just so time consuming.

yeah I was looking at the aircon earlier, am I right in saying it would require changing the belt? easy enough done I'd imagine.

the recliners where just a scrap yard find, and allowed me to move on my interior, which the guy came to knockhill and collected, all down to cost tbh.


good luck at the weekend, lots of picture is a must! going to mount a camera next time inside to capture it all.

[Smokey]

If you have an ihone or ipod touch, I highly recommend Harry's Lap Timer for video with data capture. It is way awesome at a bargain £13!