MadaboutKitcars

hello everyone I have just bought a 5exi I believe it was a factory race car it has a rover 1.6 engine and gearbox I took the car to Malory recently to a track day
Whilst I found the cars handelling round corners great apart from a half spin in the wet at the hairpin my fault
It feels very nervous at speed and when lifting at the bottom of the straight for Gerard's the car had a mind of its own I would like to upgrade the engine for mor power but untill the this handelling issue is resolved it would be pointless
Any help would be much apriciated
On another note has any one fitted a bike engine to a marlin thanks Brandon

Mine was as you described when first built, hence I did this:

http://madabout-kitcars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1639&highlight=handling+woes

Now much better. I've driven Mallory once, and the car was fine there - braking from circa 130mph into Gerard's with no issue.

Hard to know what your car is currently like - if it's a race car it's presumably been produced differently to the road cars.

Thanks for the reply looks like I need to ring track developments
Dare I ask how much it cost and do you have a contact number thanks

Hi Brandon.

Do you have any pictures of the car at all? Is it the 1.6 k Series? Blue by any chance?

Reason I ask, is wondering if it's Dylan's original car on the original mk1 suspension set up.

If it is, let me know. Had mine done that was on mk1 suspension by TD. Now goes like it's on rails/go kart like and pushing 300 bhp.

http://www.trackdevelopments.co.uk/

My car was very much a development mule, so the price I paid is no longer valid.

Limpabit's car is the better reference.

Yes it's a 1.6 k series on twin webbers it's green now I'll try and post a picture up not very good at things like that
It's a lovely car just doesn't inspire confidence at speed

Ah ok. It's not Dylan's.b How long ago did you buy the parts? Wondering if you have the updated rear suspension.

Where are you located?

Bet that's a nice sound on twin webbers

Bought the car a few weeks ago from Canterbury it was on piston heads I think it was built by marlin as a race come demo car in 2002 I spoke to marlin they seemed to think it was black origanly and that he had raced it for a season

If you look at your rear suspension. Is the two ball joints the different sizes on the hub? Or do they look like this:



Might well have the old mk1 original suspension

No it's not like that is their an upgrade available from marlin I spoke to the but he didn't mention any thing
That looks a lot better set up than mine

How do you post pictures
Thanks for the replies I thought I was on my own with this one
If I can sort the handelling it would be fantastic

Join up for free with someone like photo bucket.com
Upload photos
Copy the link for the uploaded photo. It will have a link with IMg at each end of the line.
Post it in the box where you type on here.

It's easier to do than it sounds with these instructions!

Mk1 had different sized two top ball joints
Mk2 is in my photo above supplied by Marlin.

Where are you located? Someone might be near you to have a look.

Not on you own. Great bunch on here to help you out

Yes it has different sized top ball joints
I'm in Oswestry Shropshire
Do you think it could be as simple as replacing the top wishbones
Apart from the lift of wobble the car was great well balanced no under steer I would like to upgrade the engine to a vvc which I have throttle bodies cams ect
200 bhp ish and lighten it a bit I've sorted the brakes out which were awfull
And I think it will be good fun I do hillclimbs and sprints and a few track days

You have a number of options. Minimum would be rear top and bottom wish bones and hubs. At the time I upgraded with Marlin, bottom wish bones were optional.

You could give Marlin a ring. Or give Dave at TD a ring for options and prices. Then get the geometry setup etc.

Thanks I'll ring them both tomorrow

Dave would be the better person to call in my opinion.

Not had much driving experience, but apparently tyre pressure can also make a a huge difference to how the car handles.

I've played with pressures on track, and other than raising or lowering grip, it didn't make too great a difference to the fundamental feel of the car.

After the suspension was changed on my car the biggest differences came from stiffening the rails (replacing removable lateral brace), bracing the rack O/S mount, and stiffening the front toe arms.

I don't think tyre pressures would make any difference
Spoke to dave and marlin today time to have a think
Could turn into a winter progect and involve fitting a bike engine
And try and make a very light weight marlin with a six speed paddle shift gear box 200 hp and 500kg is the plan I think less weight in the back would make a massive difference

On another note has any one checked the castor angle mine has 2 degrees with I think is ok for a race car but if I was using it on the road I think it could do with more which would proberbly counter out the rear wheel steering I think westfields run about 6 or 7 degrees so their would be be more self centring on the steering and a lot less nervous just a thought

Can't recall how much caster my car has, but it's not a great deal.

Caster or no caster, if the rear is flexible and has bump steer, it'll feel like it does regardless of what the front's doing; drive like an unstable forklift truck.

Your right just checked the bump steer and flex on the rear suspension with
Laser 4 wheel alignment and it's horrendous I would say just pushing the back down with the shocks on their softest setting it's moving 2 mm each side the if you put a bar in the wheel and pull another 1mm
On a better note the front didn't seem to bad

Understand the root cause before you start anything

I read through this thread with interest and with a bit of understanding.

Before you start a very expensive project to correct a handling factor you need to understand what is wrong!

My 5Exi is fresh on the track/road and my first outing at Llandow it performed extremely well.

I had the rear uprights massively modified by TD and then TD set it up and I has hardly been touched during the build and since the track outing.

You likely know now how much TD will charge for an assessment once you have invested the few hundreds you will know what is wrong and you can make a rational decision

There is the 5Exi location map and the registration data base you can refer too to find others close too you to look at

I don't disagree with a bike engine'd project but my std VVC is close to as fast as I want it and I have the suspicion that if you don't fix the root problem it will only develop differently with a different weight distribution.

My two penny worth anyway.

Just to let you all no I fitted the new marlin rear suspension to the car
And took it out today and the car is totally transformed
Over takeing cars no scary wobbles it now drives like it should
Well chuffed