My DC5 track toy
- Thread starter ChrisD.
- Start date
Soldato
I remember that car from the dc5 forum when i had mine, always looked good to me.
I'd really love something like this myself, i've probably done a similar move to you as had a DC5 then i went to a scooby and felt pretty much excatly the same as you, great fun but too fast for the road on a lot of occasions. And can be very dull on track being a big heavy car. If the prices of normal non bargain DC5's were less i'd be very tempted to do exactly the same as you!
I drove mine over to the 'ring and it was great but there's no way i'd have done the same journey caged, stripped and plexiglassed up. For the average driver i think a full interior weighs so little on this type of car you'd be a fool to strip it out.
I'd really love something like this myself, i've probably done a similar move to you as had a DC5 then i went to a scooby and felt pretty much excatly the same as you, great fun but too fast for the road on a lot of occasions. And can be very dull on track being a big heavy car. If the prices of normal non bargain DC5's were less i'd be very tempted to do exactly the same as you!
I drove mine over to the 'ring and it was great but there's no way i'd have done the same journey caged, stripped and plexiglassed up. For the average driver i think a full interior weighs so little on this type of car you'd be a fool to strip it out.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Dec 2009
- Posts
- 7,208
Looks great, I hope to pick up a DC2/5 in the next couple of years for a track only toy so always great to read about them. Subscribed 
Craners is my favourite part of Donington, I push down there as fast as possible which is unfortunately 110-115mph in my heavy FN2 with a passenger.
On my first proper go at Donington / that corner, I thought to myself this is a bit fast and let off the accelerator and I felt the rear end go light, kept it planted after having that moment (semi-slicks).
It's the Esses / Roberts I have issues with, could do with more practice there.
Craners is my favourite part of Donington, I push down there as fast as possible which is unfortunately 110-115mph in my heavy FN2 with a passenger.
On my first proper go at Donington / that corner, I thought to myself this is a bit fast and let off the accelerator and I felt the rear end go light, kept it planted after having that moment (semi-slicks).
It's the Esses / Roberts I have issues with, could do with more practice there.
Fitted new nuts on the strut brace yesterday, cleaned a bit of the surface rust beneath where it's mounted but I need to do it properly with some stuff designed for rather than a sponge. 
Jacked the car up to see if there is a brace underneath as I'd spotted something in the photos from when I was at Brands.
Love how stiff the chassis is. Don't worry, if the wheels come off I do use stands.
Sure enough there's one underneath. Looks like a Spoon brace.
A nice little surprise none the less.
Another short video from Brands Hatch but this time with the Mugen intake fitted, you can definitely hear that it's not barking like the Gruppe M does, but I think it sounds great and suits me perfectly. The Clio didn't move out of the way so I came back into the pits quite early.
I've also ordered some parts and I'm getting a load of work done in March. Off the top of my head:
Red Recaro Pole Position seat and brackets, Kaaz plated diff, Spoon 5.3 final drive, EP3 6th gear, OEM clutch, getting a remap due to changing the mods and a Clockwise motion baffled sump.
I'm hoping I can get it all done in march anyway, it's going to be tight in the run up to Spa at the start of April.
I'm actually looking at buying an FN2 as a runaround once the new job 2 miles from work lands. I'll be walking and cycling to work and I don't want to use a plated diff DC5 for running around to the shops etc in.
Jacked the car up to see if there is a brace underneath as I'd spotted something in the photos from when I was at Brands.
Love how stiff the chassis is. Don't worry, if the wheels come off I do use stands.
Sure enough there's one underneath. Looks like a Spoon brace.
A nice little surprise none the less.
Another short video from Brands Hatch but this time with the Mugen intake fitted, you can definitely hear that it's not barking like the Gruppe M does, but I think it sounds great and suits me perfectly. The Clio didn't move out of the way so I came back into the pits quite early.
I've also ordered some parts and I'm getting a load of work done in March. Off the top of my head:
Red Recaro Pole Position seat and brackets, Kaaz plated diff, Spoon 5.3 final drive, EP3 6th gear, OEM clutch, getting a remap due to changing the mods and a Clockwise motion baffled sump.
I'm hoping I can get it all done in march anyway, it's going to be tight in the run up to Spa at the start of April.
I'm actually looking at buying an FN2 as a runaround once the new job 2 miles from work lands. I'll be walking and cycling to work and I don't want to use a plated diff DC5 for running around to the shops etc in.
Soldato
Is the Spa trip with Javelin? I'll be taking the MR2 out there again with them at the start of April
Soldato
Looks like you're there the day before me then. Depending on when we arrive I might try and drop the car/trailer off in the paddock.
Bit of an update, the car has been mapped and had a sump baffle fitted, I also got Rich to fit my Mugen airbox correctly. Before I begin, I would just like to clarify something: dyno numbers. It's what everyone seems the most in interested in when in truth we all know that they should only be used as a tuning tool. Now, the dyno that Rich uses to tune cars is notorious for under reading, so the 235 peak my car made doesn't really tell the whole story. The car was previously mapped by Romain and made 247bhp on the Eurospec dyno. For reasons I won't go into I've always wanted to get it mapped again, plus with changing the intake and exhaust I wanted to know that in my ownership of the car that the fueling is spot on and safe. End of the day the car doesn't get used much apart from being hammered on track or sat at 70 on the way there.
The rev numbers are all skewiff, Rich did explain why but it went over my head. But the torque and bhp curves are true. Here's the before dyno, as you can see it isn't overly smooth and a little lumpy, there's also flat spots which I sometimes notice on the road.
Here's after mapping.
You can see that it's much, much smoother and the difference in the torque curve is night and day. Rich told me the previous map was too rich as well. So, a 10-15 bhp gain on the Owen Developments dyno, with a bit of man maths would suggest it's knocking on 260 bhp on Romains dyno. On the way home my mate and I found a private airstrip. He's got an Evo X 300, and from around 50 to knocking on 120, there is nothing in it. He gains maybe 1/4 car length when things get silly. In retrospect, my last Evo with around 400 bhp would pull 1-2 car lengths on the X, so not that much of a difference at all! The Teg does have weight on its side, plus when the shorter final drive goes in it's going to be even quicker.
Now on the road the car feels better, it's smoother both wide open and part throttle, and it feels far more potent when pressing on. I'm extremely happy with the work once again.
That's the car at TGM now to have the gearbox removed.
The rev numbers are all skewiff, Rich did explain why but it went over my head. But the torque and bhp curves are true. Here's the before dyno, as you can see it isn't overly smooth and a little lumpy, there's also flat spots which I sometimes notice on the road.
Here's after mapping.
You can see that it's much, much smoother and the difference in the torque curve is night and day. Rich told me the previous map was too rich as well. So, a 10-15 bhp gain on the Owen Developments dyno, with a bit of man maths would suggest it's knocking on 260 bhp on Romains dyno. On the way home my mate and I found a private airstrip. He's got an Evo X 300, and from around 50 to knocking on 120, there is nothing in it. He gains maybe 1/4 car length when things get silly. In retrospect, my last Evo with around 400 bhp would pull 1-2 car lengths on the X, so not that much of a difference at all! The Teg does have weight on its side, plus when the shorter final drive goes in it's going to be even quicker.
Now on the road the car feels better, it's smoother both wide open and part throttle, and it feels far more potent when pressing on. I'm extremely happy with the work once again.
That's the car at TGM now to have the gearbox removed.
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Well, where to start. The car has been at TGM for the past fortnight or so to have the gearbox removed and have a plated diff put in along with a shorter final drive plus a replacement OEM clutch.
First of all, the diff. I went for the Kaaz Super Q which has WPC coating. It has some advantages over the regular diff, some of which are quieter and smoother operation, longer lasting and no bed in procedures. It costs a bit more but I felt it was worth it. I've only ever driven one car with a plated diff which was a stripped out K swap DC2, I remember the noise being quite savage. I've also heard the TGM race cars moving about and you can definitely tell it's not a normal diff! Part of me wanted that (probably for scene points at tracks), so when I picked it up from Tom's I was a little disappointed that it sounds almost OEM! But now upon reflection that's probably a good thing in the long run. The diff really has transformed the car, even more so than the difference between a DC5 and an EP3 with no diff. It's absolutely savage, it's turned the car into a complete and utter weapon. I was driving around today trying to induce understeer but it was impossible, the car will go in whatever direction you are pointing the wheels, which is actually a downside at times because you really have to watch what you're doing. The steering does not return to centre as easily as before so it's quite easy to get on the power after a corner yet you're pointing at a kerb, bush or small child. I really can't wait to try it out on track, I think it's going to be a lot of fun! In terms of normal driving, you really do know it's there especially when cornering at low speed. The best way I can describe it is when you kangaroo in first, well, if there's any throttle applied and you're parking or whatever, the car kangaroos a little bit. Not so much that it makes it a pain, but it's definitely noticeable. You can also hear the inside wheel aggressively gripping into the tarmac.
I also had the Spoon 5.3 final drive fitted, this basically lowers the overall gearing of the car which means it accelerates faster. I've seen figures of an equivalent 20% power increase, so if my car is running at 235 on the Owen Developments dyno then I've gained an extra 47 horsepower which means it's like having just over 280 bhp under the bonnet. Can I notice it? Well, what I can notice is the increased revs at motorway speeds, 80 mph is now the wrong side of 4500 rpm which makes motorway to be more irritating. Sitting at an indicated 70 and I get 4k rpm which is a good comprimise. At first I couldn't tell you if the car felt faster, but with the nice weather today I've been driving around and yes, it's much quicker! I'm rattling through the gears much faster, in combination with the diff it really does cover quckly ground now - not that it was slow before!
I also had the rear arches rolled, I'm going to be running 225 tyres at the rear and I've read that with lowered cars that they tyres can rub, so rather get it done for piece of mind.
I had a chat with Tom about the car and he told me that the inside of the gearbox is the cleanest he has ever seen at TGM, which is testament to the previous owner and how often he serviced it. There were no other gremlins apart from a broken drop link which has been replaced.
As I picked the car up the EML came on, so Tom grabbed the code reader and it's showing as the primary O2 sensor. The one which was replaced last year which cost me £160 odd! I was pretty sure that it was a Honda original however I've ordered one from Hendy and it is the wrong side of £200! I'm hoping it's here before Spa, sadly TGM don't hold any in stock. Also annoyingly I don't have the rail yet for the Pole Position so that will have to wait.
I also had a sun strip fitted, I'm not quite sure on it however it is nice inside the car, especially with the sun being out today! It also makes the cockpit view much more aggressive.
I've also replaced the Gruppe M scuttle with an OEM one, but Des lost a clip so I'll have to find one from somewhere. There is a rattle at over 8k rpm so I need to look into that.
I also fitted the black Rota's today with wider AD08R tyres ready for Spa and the 'Ring, I'm not sure whether to take bronze ones with Federal RS-R with me or not as an emergency spare in case I shred the AD08R's or get a puncture etc. Still deciding on that one!
While the wheels were off I inspected the brakes, all look good and plenty of pad life so no need to order any spares.
Here's how the engine bay is looking now, won't win any show and shine competitions however it's functional. You can also see the bracket that has been made up for the Mugen intake hose:
With the weather being nice I decided to take some snaps. With the car being 16 years old it's a bit tatty in places, I'll slowly get around to replacing things like the plastic around the wing mirror and the surrounds of the windows.
I think it's come along nicely since the OP, well, I should hope so with the money I've piled into it! But I'm currently a very happy man, the car is just insane to drive.
First of all, the diff. I went for the Kaaz Super Q which has WPC coating. It has some advantages over the regular diff, some of which are quieter and smoother operation, longer lasting and no bed in procedures. It costs a bit more but I felt it was worth it. I've only ever driven one car with a plated diff which was a stripped out K swap DC2, I remember the noise being quite savage. I've also heard the TGM race cars moving about and you can definitely tell it's not a normal diff! Part of me wanted that (probably for scene points at tracks), so when I picked it up from Tom's I was a little disappointed that it sounds almost OEM! But now upon reflection that's probably a good thing in the long run. The diff really has transformed the car, even more so than the difference between a DC5 and an EP3 with no diff. It's absolutely savage, it's turned the car into a complete and utter weapon. I was driving around today trying to induce understeer but it was impossible, the car will go in whatever direction you are pointing the wheels, which is actually a downside at times because you really have to watch what you're doing. The steering does not return to centre as easily as before so it's quite easy to get on the power after a corner yet you're pointing at a kerb, bush or small child. I really can't wait to try it out on track, I think it's going to be a lot of fun! In terms of normal driving, you really do know it's there especially when cornering at low speed. The best way I can describe it is when you kangaroo in first, well, if there's any throttle applied and you're parking or whatever, the car kangaroos a little bit. Not so much that it makes it a pain, but it's definitely noticeable. You can also hear the inside wheel aggressively gripping into the tarmac.
I also had the Spoon 5.3 final drive fitted, this basically lowers the overall gearing of the car which means it accelerates faster. I've seen figures of an equivalent 20% power increase, so if my car is running at 235 on the Owen Developments dyno then I've gained an extra 47 horsepower which means it's like having just over 280 bhp under the bonnet. Can I notice it? Well, what I can notice is the increased revs at motorway speeds, 80 mph is now the wrong side of 4500 rpm which makes motorway to be more irritating. Sitting at an indicated 70 and I get 4k rpm which is a good comprimise. At first I couldn't tell you if the car felt faster, but with the nice weather today I've been driving around and yes, it's much quicker! I'm rattling through the gears much faster, in combination with the diff it really does cover quckly ground now - not that it was slow before!
I also had the rear arches rolled, I'm going to be running 225 tyres at the rear and I've read that with lowered cars that they tyres can rub, so rather get it done for piece of mind.
I had a chat with Tom about the car and he told me that the inside of the gearbox is the cleanest he has ever seen at TGM, which is testament to the previous owner and how often he serviced it. There were no other gremlins apart from a broken drop link which has been replaced.
As I picked the car up the EML came on, so Tom grabbed the code reader and it's showing as the primary O2 sensor. The one which was replaced last year which cost me £160 odd! I was pretty sure that it was a Honda original however I've ordered one from Hendy and it is the wrong side of £200! I'm hoping it's here before Spa, sadly TGM don't hold any in stock. Also annoyingly I don't have the rail yet for the Pole Position so that will have to wait.
I also had a sun strip fitted, I'm not quite sure on it however it is nice inside the car, especially with the sun being out today! It also makes the cockpit view much more aggressive.
I've also replaced the Gruppe M scuttle with an OEM one, but Des lost a clip so I'll have to find one from somewhere. There is a rattle at over 8k rpm so I need to look into that.
I also fitted the black Rota's today with wider AD08R tyres ready for Spa and the 'Ring, I'm not sure whether to take bronze ones with Federal RS-R with me or not as an emergency spare in case I shred the AD08R's or get a puncture etc. Still deciding on that one!
While the wheels were off I inspected the brakes, all look good and plenty of pad life so no need to order any spares.
Here's how the engine bay is looking now, won't win any show and shine competitions however it's functional. You can also see the bracket that has been made up for the Mugen intake hose:
With the weather being nice I decided to take some snaps. With the car being 16 years old it's a bit tatty in places, I'll slowly get around to replacing things like the plastic around the wing mirror and the surrounds of the windows.
I think it's come along nicely since the OP, well, I should hope so with the money I've piled into it! But I'm currently a very happy man, the car is just insane to drive.
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Don
I take it this was owned by Chalkie from the dc2 forum, based on the plate. How did it end up looking so sad?
Great job on bringing it back to life!
Great job on bringing it back to life!
Nice to see a teg thread again! Keep it coming.
Need to drive a sorted dc5, drove a couple of standard ones when looking to move on from my dc2 and they felt a tad softer and less planted in general. Shame as the prices are ridiculous now. Surprised Chalkie only wanted 4.8k for that beaut. Even with it sat around.
Need to drive a sorted dc5, drove a couple of standard ones when looking to move on from my dc2 and they felt a tad softer and less planted in general. Shame as the prices are ridiculous now. Surprised Chalkie only wanted 4.8k for that beaut. Even with it sat around.
Tempting me now.
Is this a good one
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...ort--red-recaros--excellent-condition/7003097
I have driven them, remember them as epic, don't no much about them. Sub 10K, what would you buy?
Is this a good one
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...ort--red-recaros--excellent-condition/7003097
I have driven them, remember them as epic, don't no much about them. Sub 10K, what would you buy?
It doesn't have the C-pack and the headlights look cloudy, but it looks like its in a good condition overall. Pretty low mileage too for the age
You get rear wiper (less streamlined) and folding mirrors. Not sure what else. Mine is a lowly B pack.
No, I decided against it because there will be some tracks I will need to go into 6th and apparently it's like hitting a brick wall with the longer 6th.
It isn't that bad on the motorway, 4k rpm I can live with and it's doing 70 at that. I don't tend to speed on the road these days so not a huge issue.
It isn't that bad on the motorway, 4k rpm I can live with and it's doing 70 at that. I don't tend to speed on the road these days so not a huge issue.
You get a push-button start too.
The biggest bonus of the C-pack is the rear wiper, the shape of the car means that you need it in all weather if you want to be able to see out the back. Less of a problem for a track car, but very useful on the road.