1999 Vauxhall Omega Estate - if Carlsberg did completely inappropriate track cars

[mat777]

As the story of this car is highly Autoshite-centric, I have decided for your delectation to copypasta my existing thread on it from Pistonheads - with references and names updated appropriately where needed and some minor edits for this audience. Please do enjoy this rather sporadic tale of trackday-based silliness aboard one of GM's finest barges:

 

(This part originally posted 10-Nov-18)
 

So, the background....

A long time ago, in discussion with friend, fellow PHer and tame racing driver Synchromesh, we pondered: what about a trackday car that was 6 cylinder, RWD, manual..... but not another bloody BMW 3-Series? For the sheddy 328i "track slag innit" is somewhat like a clitoris these days.....
Initial thoughts centered on a Jaguar S-type for ultimate incongruous hilarity. However, this was swiftly put paid to by a total lack of affordable off-the-shelf performance upgrades such as suspension and brakes.
At the same time, chatting to good friend @horriblemercedes and mentioning the idea brought up another proposition - an Omega. Now, here was a cheap, relatively plentiful and very well-made car with a lot of potential. Due to their popularity as a drift barge and some mild parts sharing with the Holden Commodore, there was also a decent supply of brakes, coilovers etc available from performance suppliers.

Fast forward several months, and with Synchromesh having been distracted by his own track car projects, myself and merc firmed up on the idea and started seriously looking for a V6 manual Omega. We quickly discovered that the fabled 3.0 MV6 model was now virtually unobtainable - at least, unless one wanted to spend several thousand pounds on one of the few remaining uncrashed or rust-free examples. Thoughts turned instead to the 2.5 V6 in standard trim, but the majority of these turned out to be comfortably specced automatic cruisers. Later on, we found out that the auto was standard on all V6s - manual was an option you had to deliberately tick, and what kind of idiot would do that on a motorway barge?*
At this point, it was May 2017. I was studying for my final year exams at uni, and merc was busy with work commitments. With a lack of suitable cars forthcoming, and both of us rather skint, we put the idea on hold for the time being.

*It turned out that back in 1999, one slightly strange buyer decided to spec a 2.5V6 CDX estate in Jewish Racing Gold, with a towbar.... and a manual gearbox!

Fast forward to April 2018 and said JRG car was listed on Gumtree, with 66,000 miles, for the princely sum of £650. The original owner had turned out to be an elderly gentleman who didn't drive very much. He had sold it to the vendor - a chap who also didn't drive very much and was thus getting rid.

The car had an excellent MOT history with nothing to note until the 2018 MOT. Merc spoke to the seller in Felixstowe on the phone and found out it was a manual (as the ad wasnt clear), and immediately left a deposit via bank transfer. That was that!
The following weekend I went to stay at merc's house in Birmingham to make the trip to collect it together in my Jeep. We arrived in Felixstowe at around 10am on the Sunday morning to find a car that was great, barring some iffy colour matching on the offside wing and some minor trim defects. The V6 sounded great revving out and the underside was almost spotless. Merc insured and drove the Omega behind my Jeep the 260 miles back to my unit and we parked it up, to get back to our normal lives for the time being.






For the next few months of the car's existence merc kept a diary, and this is how it goes:

19/05/2018

Driving back from Felixstowe to Cheshire, the brakes were clearly atrocious with a massive amount of slack travel before the pedal bit at all. The main piece of maintenance for today was to bleed them. The fluid that came out was awful. I got the nice job of sitting in the car and pumping the pedal while Matt released the bleed valves in turn until the fluid leaving the system looked fresh.

In addition to this we also replaced the boot lift struts as they were totally flaccid (although a handy broom handle had been included in the sale!), the wipers and checked the scuttle for debris as that’s a weak point on the Omega for rust. We also added a solar battery charger.







04/08/2018

We came to the car to find the battery completely dead. Our main ambition for today had been to solve a central locking fault involving the driver’s door not locking/unlocking, which we originally believed to be a lubrication issue. We jump started the Omega from my Astra and set about dismantling the driver’s door card. After circa 15 minutes running, the Omega shut off suddenly and we found that there were no flickering dashboard lights. The car wouldn’t start from a known-good forklift battery so it was jump started from Matt’s Jeep, running sweetly. Feeling that the battery could have died, we decided to buy a brand new battery and unexpectedly this completely solved the central locking problem. We therefore fitted the single bonnet strut I had bought, assembled the driver’s door card, topped up the coolant, adjusted the throttle cable, fitted one of the two replacement exhaust rubber hangers I had bought, and unblocked a windscreen washer jet (using a straightened paper clip).

The other main event of the day was trying the new 18” alloys Matt had collected for the car from a breaker’s yard, from an Astra H Twintop. They came with an odd mix of three Chinese ditchfinder tyres and one Michelin winter tyre. All were flat but have seemed to hold air since inflation. We also removed the solar charger we had attached on the previous maintenance session in case that had somehow killed our battery.






07/10/2018

I went to Evesham to collect a set of wheels Matt had found on eBay. Light, Lenso wheels (in the correct fitment!) with BTCC Dunlop slick tyres. The seller had had them on his tuned (538bhp!!!) Astra H VXR and turned out to be a really helpful guy, helping me diagnose a little stutter with my Astra H SRi Turbo 200 (turned out to be MAF sensor - I had to kick myself for not working that out myself!). He had enough components in the garage to build about half a dozen engines - he kept handing me all sorts of bits to look at - everything from forged rods and pistons to coilpacks.






28/10/18

Weightwatchers. We stripped out trim and the rear seats, but didn't get time to go much further. We also got chance to try the Lenso wheels and slick tyres we had bought, but unfortunately the bulbous sidewall on these tyres met the suspension strut on the front so we sold them and bought a set of Nankang NS-2Rs [entry-level track tyre] that Synchromesh happened to have spare. We kept these for future use with better suspension, and emergency spares in case the ditchfinders turned out to be unusable on track.
At the end of the day we loaded the car onto the trailer and moved it home from the unit, ready for the upcoming track day.

[When this picture was uploaded to PH, user McSam (another tame racing driver friend of ours), commented:
"This in particular is offensively brilliant. Please get some spacers so you can run it like that, but be careful, as I expect few components on the car were designed for that kind of lateral acceleration 😆" ]

Pictured here in the Hemi Jeep's natural habitat....




Now, to November 2018.... the first track outing was here, whether the car (and drivers!!!) were ready or not. As novices, we invited our friend Synchromesh along for support and a little guidance, which he did in exchange for the opportunity to check out the old girl for himself. It was a busy day at Oulton Park, with over 80 extremely varied cars being put through their paces. The Omega wasn't among the fastest but didn't embarrass itself immediately, either.
Luckily the trackday was well-served with photographers!








Pictured here is merc getting a bit of a slide on at a damp Lodge Corner, with a well-timed burst shot from the track snapper:

Track virgin merc improved massively throughout the day, and towards the end was approaching the speed and commitment of myself (a 5 time track "veteran") and race driver Synchromesh.
All three of us were very pleasantly surprised with several aspects of the car:
- With a lot of weight stripped out of the interior, it wasnt as slow as we feared
- The random ditchfinder combo gripped predictably enough and lasted all day without melting or falling apart - meaning we hadn't had to punish the still-standard suspension with sticky tyres
- Although floaty, the handling was pleasingly viceless and encouraged you to push harder and harder. Then again, at launch in 1994 the Omega was praised for its ability to (and I quote directly from Autocar's Steve Sutcliffe) "run rings around the E34 525i"!

Come 3.30pm, we were beginning to congratulate ourselves on a fault-free day with our untried elderly barge. No oil or water used, brakes (just about) holding up with regular cooling-off sessions, and no untoward rumbles or clonks.
I went out for one final session with merc as a passenger....... and downchanging from 3rd to 2nd for Foulston's chicance, the car wouldn't go into gear. Thinking I'd missed a gear, I tried again - only to realise the the clutch pedal was firmly stuck to the floor. It dawned in my mind that something had gone drastically wrong, confirmed by a horrible grinding noise as the car finally slotted into gear. As we coasted to a halt in the runoff road and waited for the tow truck, further investigation and experimentation revealed that the car was fine when out of gear with the engine running, and went into gear fine with the engine turned off.
So, all logic currently points to a disintegrated clutch or clutch release bearing. A sad end to an otherwise fantastic day, and as I write the car is currently sat at my local motorsport garage awaiting their assessment come Monday morning.

Predictably (and understandably) I have spent all night weathering a variety of clutch-related banter from the others, but every cloud has a silver lining. If the original, 20 year old clutch had not disintegrated at the end of today and lost us the last 45 minutes of track time, it would probably have let go at the start of the next event. That would have been significantly more irritating! Additionally, today is probably the hardest the car has ever been driven in its life, and the clutch copped some serious abuse!

Anyway, we've all come away having had a fantastic time today, and a long list of planned upgrades to slowly evolve the car into a full-fledged track machine. Roll on the next event!

[Bren]

All but vanished.

Duggie on once driven forever smitten has a very low mileage example.

[mat777]

Yes, we have noticed that in the 5 years since we bought this car for banger money, even total wrecks are now commanding 4 figures and nice ones are several k. You just dont see Omegas any more, even facelift ones. Without jumping the gun on the thread, the car is currently at an impasse where a really determined person could reinstate all the trim and put the car back on the road, but I CBA with that and it wouldn't be worth very much in its current state. Whilst it is now a much rarer car than it was, personally I'm in for a penny, in for a pound on going full race car, because to quote JFK, "not because it is easy, but because it is hard". And how coll will it look when it's finished? Very, IMO. 

Anyway, here's some onboard footage that subsequently emerged from another punter on the same trackday:

 

best summed up, I think, by the comment left on the video:

In conclusion, the standard suspension setup does leave a bit to be desired for track work (but it does at least cushion the rumble kerbs nicely.....)

[warch]

Not sure about track days but the Omega was a sweet handling car even in diesel automatic form. They’re all at least 20 years old now though and were worth eff all even 15 years ago so most have long since headed to the minicab rank in the sky. 
 

I do love a really inappropriate/unlikely track or rally car, I’m still obsessed with the V8 Discoveries and 110 I saw running in the Woodpecker Rally back in about 2002

[omegod]

2 hours ago, mat777 said:

You just dont see Omegas any more, even facelift ones. 

Guilty m'lord , I've broken around 20 of them, usually for the manual boxes to get shoved behind Saab B204/206 engines in kit cars.  

They are a hell of a car though and I still lookout for a suitable saloon resto project.  I rescued/restored this one last year , 2.5 V6 manual with only 17k, without a doubt the best one left, now sold on   

[sutty2006]

Alas, just like the Carlton. Once their intended purpose was fulfilled, its game over and they move on to the next disposable entity. Shame really as they’re nice cars! 

[straightSix]

I love inappropriate track cars. Not a V6 but you got me looking at this now:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207207964391?atmobcid=soc3

[High Jetter]

Yes, very under rated. Moar pls

[andy18s]

Just spotted on a Facebook page.

[warch]

Ironically (seeing as they frequently sold to people who wanted but couldn't afford a 5 Series) the equivalent Beemer is now cheaper and easier to find on the used car market. 

[De Selby]

These are much better looking cars than I remember 

[mat_the_cat]

My FIL had one for several years, a white MV6 (the hen house was a rare option I believe).

Cant remember if it was the 3 litre or 3.2, but went well enough and handled better than I'd expected. It was an ex-plod car, but not mega miles - it was a training car so only something like 60k miles after 7 years. They were evidently hard miles, as it felt pretty baggy by 100k miles although the engine still strong.

[mat777]

On 1/19/2023 at 10:43 PM, straightSix said:

I love inappropriate track cars. Not a V6 but you got me looking at this now:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207207964391?atmobcid=soc3

The 4-cylinder engine is I believe pretty closely related to the red top motors, should it need a little more zing.... 
 

On 1/19/2023 at 11:15 PM, High Jetter said:

Yes, very under rated. Moar pls

Coming right up!

 

On 1/20/2023 at 8:26 AM, andy18s said:

Just spotted on a Facebook page.

Saw that in an Omega owners group - tasty spec with the suspension and brakes, however I suspect it's more rotten that the average Terry-Thomas Character... The scuttle being full of leaves is not a good sign to start with as the drain holes in it will be blocked and rusting merrily. 
 

On 1/20/2023 at 11:08 AM, warch said:

Ironically (seeing as they frequently sold to people who wanted but couldn't afford a 5 Series) the equivalent Beemer is now cheaper and easier to find on the used car market. 

I'd much prefer this over a 5-series as a used buy - it's no more rust prone, waaaaay comfier, and has the same diesel engine anyway (or if petrol, then no vanos oil seal bollocks to worry about)
 

On 1/20/2023 at 11:18 AM, De Selby said:

These are much better looking cars than I remember 

Still not overly keen on the front of the pre-facelift, but the rest is definitely a handsomely understated car in today's era of unnecessary creases....

 

On 1/20/2023 at 9:32 PM, mat_the_cat said:

My FIL had one for several years, a white MV6 (the hen house was a rare option I believe).

Cant remember if it was the 3 litre or 3.2, but went well enough and handled better than I'd expected. It was an ex-plod car, but not mega miles - it was a training car so only something like 60k miles after 7 years. They were evidently hard miles, as it felt pretty baggy by 100k miles although the engine still strong.

That looks like an oversized version of a New York Taxi roof advert 😂

[Bren]

Pre face lift cars IMHO are better looking.

Post just look like they have a cheap bodykit fitted.

[mat777]

This part originally posted 13-Nov-18

Thanks all for the replies, glad to see our madness is appreciated!

We've heard back from the motorsport garage I took the car to (WMD motorsport in South Cheshire - extremely highly recommended bunch of all-round top chaps!). It does appear that the clutch release bearing has gone through the "fingers", explaining the lack of drive and pedal welded to the floor. I'm currently researching if any HD applications exist before the put a new standard clutch in. I'm in no hurry to get the car back so time spent in reconnaissance is rarely wasted.

We also aim to do something about the root cause of the issue - namely the huge pedal spacing that rendered heel'n'toeing impossible and led to the rampant clutch abuse. Top option at the minute seems to be to get some generic pre-drilled aluminum "sports/tuning" pedal pads from ebay and bolt them to the existing brake and accelerator, with the overlaps facing each other to close the gap.
The slightly more redneck option was to heat and bend the pedal stalks towards each other, but that would mean jauntily angled pedals amongst other disadvantages.....
 

PHer Dr G asked:
Are Omegas related to the Commodore/GTO/Monaro underneath?

I replied: Vauxhall/GM expert Merc is best placed to answer that, but yes I believe that the basic chassis is shared with the VT Commodore and subsequent HSV/Monaro/Pontiac GTO. We're not sure yet if any of the suspension, axles etc are, but we're looking into it as an alternative source of go-faster parts!
For example, after some research it appears that a popular mod amongst the GTO community in the US it to fit C5 Corvette brakes. We had been looking slightly closer to home for parts, such as Astra VXR calipers, but if 'Vette bits fit, it would be a) hugely cool and b) much more potent!!
 

It was also pointed out to us (although Merc already knew most of the details) that an LS V8 would drop almost right in, as (trivia alert) the car was originally designed for an V8 top option as offered in the Holden equivalent. There was even a concept car produced, called the V8.com which was, as the name suggests, also stuffed full of then cutting-edge tech as a sort of mobile office.
Unfortunately neither idea came to fruition, and GM Europe chickened out leaving the 3.0/3.2 V6 as the range-topping engine.


PHer Symchromesh, our tame driver, also replied with the following compliments:

Although not a shared owner on this car, I've been roped in (well, it didn't take much persuasion) to benchmark the mods as the car progresses and give a few track-driving pointers to the boys. I don't claim to be an especially quick driver, but I've done a few track days in my time.
Just a week before, I was driving a Radical at Silverstone, so the Omega could've been a huge disappointment. But it really wasn't. There's something fun about tracking a car totally unsuited to the task, and showing up 'faster' vehicles in the process.
The car has potential, too. It's a predictable chassis which, once we've controlled the roll with a set of coilovers and added grip with the NS-2Rs, I think will handle quite tidily. Obviously everything is blitzing us on the straights, but the cams should make us less of a mobile chicane there. And the weight loss will help everything. So, it's a promising start, but there's way more to come.
Unfortunately I didn't get any clear laps in my benchmarking session, but managed to put in a 2.25.7. I had to move out the way for an Atom at Lodge so lost speed coming over the line, got massively held up at Cascades by a stock car thing, and had to move over again for an unnaturally fast 205 up Clay Hill. Taking these into account, I think it's around a theoretical 2.24. In terms of conditions, after a wet morning the track had mostly dried out, but it started to spit with rain again about five minutes before this lap. The OBC read 12°c. Maybe in warmer, drier conditions a further few seconds could've been found.
You'll also notice I wasn't using heal and toe for down changes. It's a really nasty feeling having to drag the revs up on the clutch, but I physically couldn't get my foot across. I don't think I ever driven a car with such wide pedal spacing. It's something we plan to rectify with a pedal extension for next time.
Oh, and the compartment by my right knee kept popping open when I hit kerbs. It just adds to the silliness.

The video he links here is of him driving and me passengering - and it syncs up with the Peugeot 205 video in the previous post, giving both angles of the same few corners (before he streaked past !)

[omegod]

1 minute ago, mat777 said:

 

It was also pointed out to us (although Merc already knew most of the details) that an LS V8 would drop almost right in, as (trivia alert) the car was originally designed for an V8 top option as offered in the Holden equivalent. There was even a concept car produced, called the V8.com which was, as the name suggests, also stuffed full of then cutting-edge tech as a sort of mobile office.
Unfortunately neither idea came to fruition, and GM Europe chickened out leaving the 3.0/3.2 V6 as the range-topping engine.

Not a chance of dropping an LS in easily, it's been done but cost the owner circa 10k to modify it 

[mat777]

4 hours ago, omegod said:

Not a chance of dropping an LS in easily, it's been done but cost the owner circa 10k to modify it 

I've heard what must be a 50/50 split of "it can be done easily, all you have to do is flip one of the engine mounts" vs "it can't be done without loads of work" and I cant figure out why there's such a split when normally there's a consensus. 

Granted the bloke who did it must have done his research, but on the other hand I've never been able to fully establish what was the same and what was different with the engine bay and transmission tunnel of the VT shape commodore, which was later offered with the LS1 but initially came with the older Holden 5.0 "Iron Lion".... I really need a tame GM engineer at my disposal 😅

Suffice to say there's no danger of an imminent conversion....

 

In the meantime, for those who are fans of early 2000s tech, he's some more info on the V8.com :
https://www.evo.co.uk/vauxhall/vxr8/204901/opel-omega-v8-dead-on-arrival

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=123137.0

[mat777]

Originally posted 17-Nov-18

 

PHer ShampooEfficient said:

Those wheels look ridiculous! Especially with that paint colour... 
As a serial Omega owner (currently two in the fleet), I can say that there isnt much shared with the big Aussies. A couple of bushes and IIRC, something in the rear damper department, but otherwise the chassis geometry is totally different.
Speaking of - once youve got wheels and suspension on, make sure you get a full geo setup - the standard VX settings are too vague, and it'll strip the inner edge of the fronts in a very short time. Obviously if you're coilovering, youll have to have custom settings anyway, but Omegas are very, very camber sensitive.
Also, standard brakes are generally woeful and warp discs very easily. I think early Monaro brakes fit with a suitable adapter bracket. 

 

I replied:

Funny you should say that...

I've just finished some research into brake upgrades, and was disappointed to see that it seems the Aussie bits won't fit straight on. However, it seems we are spoiled for choice with Vectra 2.8 turbo, Astra H VXR and Cosra E VXR bits. A browse of ebay has revealed all 3 are available, for wildly varying prices...




In the meantime, the garage is now well underway replacing our clutch. They are proper enthusiasts that really know their stuff!
Their initial diagnosis of siezed and subsequently fubar'd release bearing was correct. We can only hypothesise that age, plus standing around for 6 months, then a day of 6000rpm action, was enough to cause it to partially sieze/deterioriate - causing it then overheat and fully sieze, going through the clutch fingers and losing drive/jamming the pedal down.
So, one Borg and Beck OE quality replacement is currently winging its way into the gearbox. Hopefully this should give somewhat more reliable service!

Whilst the car is in the garage and in the hands of mechanics far more experience/competent than us, we have decided to partially address the lack of straight line power (literally everything else was faster on the straights at Oulton). With his enthusiast knowledge of Vauxhall engines (comparable to my own level of Land Rover geekery!), merc came up trumps with an apparently common mod.
The X30XE G version of this engine, as used in hot Vectras, has a significantly pokier inlet cam than the smooth and mild Omega. However, to stop the engine sounding too rough at idle, Vauxhall still paired it with a smooth exhaust cam in the Vectra. Can you see where I'm going with this? 
Yup, the done thing in VX tuning circles is to drop 4 lumpy inlet cams into the top of our X25XE, yielding a (claimed) 30bhp gain! 
Coupled with some further dieting of the interior, and removing the cats for a straight pipe, we should have a significantly more potent car for the next day out 

 

Merc replied:
I think this is the first Omega I've driven, and on the day we collected it I just remember thinking "man, this really does handle pretty nicely!"
It's not quick yet, but with some weight loss and a bit more power, this can only get better!

Another PHER came along with:
It's disappointing but perhaps not surprising to hear that this old heap of shit failed at the end of the session, but at least it didn't dump a load of fluid on the track like many of these old shitters do. The Omega was a top car in it's day (cabinet ministers used to be driven in them!) but they're a bit past it now, on the whole. I can't remember the last time I saw a well kept one on the road.

Several people joined a pile-on in reply with the consensus of: 
Somewhat unkind...
This was far from the oldest car there!  The majority of fluid-dumping red flags seen are due to poorly modified cars, rather than ones that are simply old. The scrappage scheme did for most of these, as with a lot of mainstream mid-late 90s stuff.  This car isn't likely (barring getting damaged) to drop any fluids

PHer MarvinTPA then came up trumps with:
Hi, I have a complete set of 2004 Monaro Cv8 calipers and ( rusty ) discs sitting in my garage. If you'd like them, let me know and I can box'em up and send'em. No charge, as they might as well be used as opposed to sitting gathering rust.
I'll have to go and check the boxes and their current state, as they've been there for at least 3 years.

....This was an offer we very gladly accepted! 
The condition left a bit to be desired, but nothing a rebuild with new seals and pistons wouldn't sort:

[mat777]

Originally posted 30-Dec-19

Holy thread resurrection Batman! We apologise profusely for the radio silence on our part, and can only cite the same old lame excuses of too much life, not enough time....

Firstly, a couple of thankyou shoutouts are in order, I feel:
1 - To the PistonHeads content team for making us Reader's Car of the Week, and subsequently shortlisting us for Reader's car or the Year! It's very humbling to see how much interest, humour and goodwill has been generated by our madcap, shoestring project  
2 - To MarvinTPA, who true to his generous promise, sent us the monster calipers FOC. Read on for more...

So, what HAVE we been up to? Well, a lot has happened in the space of a year - as well as stepping up to a much increased workload in both of our jobs, Merc and I sat and passed our National B race licences after some friendly peer pressure from racer friends Synchromesh and McSam. This blossoming relationship has resulted in us both spending time and money racing their cars (as well as a larger group trip to the Nuburgring) instead of doing things to the Omega, but then again it is very fun to have a go in a fully sorted race car to get some perspective!  [McSam has an extremely competitive E36 328i, and at the time Snychromesh ran a Ma7da]

Nevertheless, some definite progress has been made on the car this year, and a lot of fun was had along the way. Here's a diary of events - and plenty of pictures...

20 Jan 19 - HOW MUCH?!

We pick up the tale with the Omega languishing in disgrace at the workshop of my trusted indy - WMD motorsport, near Oulton Park. Upon inspection by them, the vintage clutch had indeed shattered... impressively so. A lot of ringing around later, it appears that OEM Omega clutches are actually not a very common item any more - but having had to go to the effort and expense of changing it, we wanted a quality item in there and not cheap pattern part to create another timebomb. Luckily, the guys managed to secure us the last Borg and Beck clutch kit in the country(!) and it soon found its way into the bellhousing. 
Whilst they had the car to pieces, we opted in to have them fit the uprated camshafts Merc had secured - with a "suggested labour time" of 5 hours even for professionals, and the need to precisely time the engine back in, it was a job that would have been well over our heads. It turned out that this was a good move - whilst removing the timing belt, it was discovered that a previous monkey had snapped one of the 3 mounting bolts for the water pump, and the pump itself wasn't in the best state. Less than ideal for our projected high-stress usage...
New clutch, bigger cams, one new water pump, and fresh coolant - we could now be confident that the car was in rude health for its next outing. Just as well really, because after settling the £817.94 total bill, I certainly wasnt 😳

17 Feb 19 - Lubrication and Friction

Our first job on the to-do list was to give the car its first oil change since who knows when? Yes, we should probably have done this before the track day in November, but time had caught up with us in preparing, and the existing oil didn't seem alarmingly bad during the entirely scientific "fingertip rub test".
Well, now we'd know going forwards that what was in there was not only fresh, but the good stuff - I am a self-confessed shill for full-synth Ravenol and refuse to buy anything else 🤓

We always knew that the Monaro calipers would need to be sent away for refurbishing before we could use them, but in the meantime we desperately needed to do something to address our lacklustre existing setup - the obvious answer being to get some better pads and to keep them cool. 
Simple, right? Well, not really.... 
After some recommendations from the Facebook group Track Time (thoroughly recommended for advice and ideas for anyone who partakes in track days or amateur racing), we plumped for some Ferodo DS2500 pads. Supposedly these are "pretty damn good" and more importantly they were available in the correct fitment for an Omega. They weren't cheap though (can you see a theme emerging here?).
The pads duly arrived in the post... uh oh. I knew roughly what shape they should have been, and it wasn't that shape. Comparison here:

 

Turns out, the wing type is correct for very early 4-cylinder Omegas, which share the Cavalier calipers. V6 and all later Omegas have a much more suitably sized setup which uses the rectangular pads.  The more you know.....

Luckily, Euro Car Parts came to the rescue with a cheap and cheerful set of Brembos. Not quite a DS2500, but guaranteed to be an improvement over the Griffin-branded ones in there. Original production line fitment? Who knows - but it was definitely a very long time since those caliper bolts had moved - as evidenced by the penetrating fluid!

Next job - could we improve the cooling at all? It was the work of a moment to turn the "fake vents" in the front bumper into real ones, and in anticipation we had purchased some flexible ducting. Now, how to route it? Much head scratching, many cable ties and a cup of tea can of Red Thunder later, we had what we thought was a pretty foolproof and secure routing:

Note how I said "what we thought"? Yeah, more on that later......

6 April 19 - Caliper Comparisons

A brief but fruitful day on the car. 
I was mightily impressed when I opened up the "care package" from MarvinTPA. They were huge! Yet, being aluminium, they weighed noticeably less than the cast iron calipers currently on the car. Talk about a win-win
The rest of the family, it has to be said, were much less impressed at me unboxing something quite so filthy inside the house.... turns out the combination of brake dust and corrosion can rival photocopier toner for its staining ability 🙃

 

Aaaaanyway... 
Before we went any further, we deemed it prudent to double check the fitment of the carriers on the Omega hub. After a brief battle to remove the existing carrier bolts (their Loctite defeated our efforts with a 10" ratchet, but we couldn't jack the car high enough to wield my 3ft breaker bar), we were pleased to find that it was indeed a perfect fit. As the picture shows, we're talking a sizeable upgrade here!

A final quick but important job was to attend to the boot floor. After we removed the carpet in the first round of weight saving, we had been left with a series of tall, narrow and pointy metal locating studs welded through the floor in various places. Despite using layers of cardboard boxes when storing wheels and tyres in the boot, it would only be a matter of time before we ended up putting one through a sidewall, so they had had to go. Merc calls this photo "mat777 caught using Grindr"....

12 April 19 - Drift Day!

Time for the first event of the year!

I consider myself extremely lucky that I live close to Oulton Park, which has the only low-friction tarmac rally stage that I know of in the area (possibly in the country? I'm sure someone will soon confirm or deny!). For those who haven't come across the idea before, the stage is made with special asphalt incorporating ground glass. The surface is incredibly slippery when wet, allowing wannabe rally drivers and drifters to practice their art at walking pace without the risk of a colossal accident if it goes wrong. 
Of course, it's also very low stress on the car compared to normal drifting or track use. 

I'd done a drift day years ago with Synchromesh, but Merc had never had a go before. Additionally, a friend of mine at work had also expressed a keen interest. With its long wheelbase and extraordinarily good steering lock, what better tool for drifting than the Omega? (As evidenced by its popularity with the Irish drifters!)
Synchromesh agreed to reprise his role as instructor for Merc and my colleague - due to the low-stress day and lack of need for cool-down periods, it would be easy for all 4 of use to get a decent amount of seat time. 

Here we are, looking like we're about to drop a new rap album :hehe:

(Jimmy and Synchromesh are slightly camera shy...)

And here we are on the starting lineup:

 

I think it would be fair to say the day was a roaring success! Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and the car held up fine (with much improved clutch travel, funnily enough). The only thing we did struggle with was gear choice. In first it bounced off the rev limiter whilst drifting, but in second it was quite difficult to initiate a slide as it was out of the power band. Opinion was split between the 4 of us, with both techniques being tried and debated throughout the day. 
Another change we made over lunch was to replace the front ditchfinder tyres with the sticky NS2Rs we'd been saving until now (we don't want to run them on track days until we've uprated the soft suspension). The grip imbalance made it much easier to provoke the back end without inadvertently washing out the front when you come on the power  - the most frequent mistake we seemed to encounter during the day.
We all got the hang of it in the end though:

That last picture was kindly taken and sent to us by PHer FelixP. That's his black Corvette C4 (a rare manual, too!) in the back of the group picture, which Merc and I - as Corvette enthusiasts and fans of 80s kitsch in particular - were most thrilled to be offered a passenger ride in. With a short wheelbase, brutal power delivery and very little steering lock, it was probably not the ideal drift machine but Felix certainly looked like he was having fun anyway!
Mmmmm, digital dash glory 

Anyway, that's all for part one of this year's adventures... 
We leave you with this gif of some fantastic sideways action, and we promise that part 2 will follow in a day or 2 when I've finished writing it up (I really mean it this time! 🤔 )

[Bren]

Well done.

Your bill in my opinion was very reasonable indeed.

[mat777]

On 5/26/2023 at 4:16 PM, Bren said:

Well done.

Your bill in my opinion was very reasonable indeed.

In hindsight you're very right, but at the time as a skint graduate it felt like the end of the world 😅

On to the next part - originally posted 05-Jan-2020

Thanks to everyone for the enthusiasm so far!  

PHer motomk replied:
Cool, so the VT Commodore/Monaro caliper fits ok? 
The Commodore/Monaro disc is 296mm diameter and 28mm thick, which from what I can find is the same dimensions as an Omega disc. The centre and wheel stud stuff is different. 
Well Done to MarvinTPA !  

VT Commodore Berlina Wagon! 
 

 

Indeed, the major major advantage is that we can use the standard Omega disc without having to look for parts bin or custom swaps in a different diameter. When we do change the calipers for real, a new set of performance grooved discs will also be going on to replace the manky current ones. 
Is it just the perspective, or does that Berlina look all out of proportion with an almost hearse-like roof height? 

Another long update here, finally finished after a few late nights and a drams of Bourbon (maybe that's why these things always take so long to write and format!) 

01-June-19 - Post-Event Casualties
After the success of the drift day, the car was firstly given a thorough wash (with the wet surface - dirty from mud being dragged onto it when people go off - and spinning wheels all day, the cars end up looking like they've been rallying!) and then put to bed for a while.
I had some free time during a solo day at the workshop a couple of weeks later - and after taking a few more minor trim bits out and looking over the car in general, I quickly inspected underneath. Oh dear....

We thought we had a careful and clever routing of ducts, which emerged into the wheelarch right in the bottom front corner, and ran along the inner wall. Unfortunately, we hadn't realised just how tight the dynamic clearance was between tyre and inner arch - ie when the car was on full lock and the suspension was compressed. Had we only been using the car on track, this would likely have never been an issue - you generally don't apply more than half lock, if that. For drifting, of course, one tends to use the full steering rack when catching "dem wikkid skidz".... 
There wasn't much I could do with what was left of the ducts, so it was a case of stripping them out completely and mulling over a better alternative.  Again, more on this saga later....

Another casualty of the drift day was the jack adaptor for the car. Omegas (and Vauxhalls in general, if Merc's Astra was anything to go by), have a shaped jacking point that encompasses the bottom seam of the body, rather than a flat pad further under the shell. Each design has its own merits and that's for another thread - but it does mean unless you fancy using the comedy OEM screw jack, one needs something to prevent a trolley jack from crushing the seam and causing other damage.  
An early ebay buy was the rubber puck on the right - literally, as it turned out, an ice hockey puck with a groove sawn into it 🤣
Unfortunately, the bottom of an Omega is not designed to international sporting regulations, and as such was marginally too small for the puck to fit properly into the gap behind the seam.  Oh, and that groove wasn't really deep enough, either. Result - the puck was now splitting further with every use and had practically fallen in half. 
10 minutes with a piece of scrap 2x2 softwood and a chisel yielded a new adaptor, thinner in width and with a wider, deeper groove (across, not with the grain) - and I am pleased to say it has since worked perfectly!

 

14-16-June-19 - A Very Busy Weekend!

The next outing for the car was for a guest drive. Myself, Merc, McSam and PHer Synchromesh have a mutual friend whose work and other commitments prevent him having any track toys of his own - instead he pays a nominal fee to "rent" our cars and instruction for a day. He fancied trying some of the slo-mo drifting at Oulton, so what better excuse than to break out the Omega?
Being a Friday, I had to be in work, so I dropped the car off and left him under the trusted supervision of Synchro - who conveniently was passing by on his way from the South East to race his Locost at Anglesey that weekend. In comparison, my rig was definitely bigger than his, and we all know that size matters 😁

 

Anyway, another fun day was had by all, so I'm told. McSam's regular racing co-driver, also a friend of Synchro, also turned up and had a brief go in the afternoon as he lives locally. It's a small world!
This picture later emerged on a photography page, of our client just ever so slightly running out of road on one corner....   (it also illustrates my earlier point about how filthy the cars get during the day!)

When I sent the picture to our WhatsApp group, McSam replied with a cropped-in version showing the huge grin in evidence despite the "off", and the comment:
"Bahahaha not a single fuck was given that day. You're my idol 😂 😂"  

The only thing brought up to me when I arrived back from work on the day was that the power steering felt quite heavy towards the end of the day and the car smelled hot in general. This was to be expected I suppose, given that it had mostly been redlined in low gears with very little airflow over the radiator. The constant cycling from full lock to full lock would also have got the steering fluid quite hot and consequently thin - however, given its indeterminate age and condition we did resolve to at least change it for fresh fluid when we next had a working day on the car. 

And with that, it was off to Anglesey for Synchro - as well as Merc who had agreed to come along and spectate and help out as pit crew.  
As they set off with the Locost in tow, I took the Omega home before joining them for a fun but chilly weekend. The banter was terrific but the racing didn't entirely go to plan, when the Locost (already on thin ice with the scrutineers) shed its bonnet halfway through the race..... though that's a story for another thread!
Never mind, at least Merc and I had some time to talk over our next plans, and to compare each other's road barges on their first outing together (see the end of this psot).
 

02-July-19 - How ARDS Can It Be?

(©Synchromesh 2019 for that pun)
Continuing  with the thread interlude, the start of July saw the culmination of a very anxious couple of weeks of hoop-jumping, form filling, Blue Book revision and lap video watching - it was crunch time for our race licences. At Oulton park, naturally.....

The 208 GTI test car was quick, but of course it was nowhere near approaching the power and grip of the mighty Omega we were used to. 

(OK, that last sentence was a total lie 🙃 )

The day mainly involved a lot of tense waiting.....

.....but it was worth it in the end, as we both passed with flying colours!  

 

07-July-21 - More Pedal, Less Weight

A week later, and it was back to it on the Omega. This time, we were joined by PHer (and my best friend in real life) MasterVentris, who had fancied getting involved for a while as a build-up to his own much more daunting project.  (Again, that's one for another thread (can you see a theme here?).
[MV in fact has since sold both the Mini 1275GT this referred to, and the Locost chassis that followed it!]

Job one was to address the power steering concerns. The initial idea of a complete drain and refresh took a back seat when we realised it would have meant disturbing some high-pressure hydraulic unions that hadn't been touched in 20 years. Fearful of being unable to get them to re-seal ever again, we decided on a slightly "redneck" approach - using a suction syringe to remove the entire contents of the reservoir would give us about a 3/4 change, and repeating this after the next few outings should soon replace 99.9% of the fluid with next to no hassle. 

Job two was to finally solve the overriding ergonomic issue that had partially led to the clutch explosion - that ridiculous pedal spacing. As mentioned right back at the start of the thread, the separation of the throttle pedal from the brake was about double what one would normally find, and it made heel'n'toe downchanging virtually impossible.
A brief visit to Demon Tweeks (again, handily local for me) netted just what we were after - a set of oversized pedal pads which would be used to extend our existing pedals:

Some careful measuring and drilling later (not easy on a pedal that keeps trying to move!) et voila. All 3 of us had a few test goes of the heel'n'toe motions and proclaimed it to be satisfactory - time would tell how well it worked in anger!

Something that still niggled, however, was a tiny amount of slack in the throttle pedal - the Omega being an old-skool cable throttle, as mentioned in the opening post. Not enough to affect the driveability of the car as in the OP, but just enough to be noticeable and thus irritating. But with the cable all taut at the throttle body, where was the issue?
Contorting himself up into the footwell, MasterVentris noticed that the "slave" end of the throttle pedal had a small bush between it and the ferrule on end of the cable. Over time, this assembly had worn/compressed ever so slightly to the point where it now had a little slop in it - movement that was amplified by the time it reached the "master" end of the pedal. 
We decided to search for ideas by examining the "strategic fastener reserve" - the other half of the workshop I use is inhabited by a chap who has accumulated thousands of unusual, obscure and obsolete aviation fasteners and fittings, and who doesn't mind if I use the odd one occasionally. Quite a perk in such situations! Inspiration struck when we found some large "internal" grub screws. With the closed end cut off and a slot cut down the side, one could be fitted over the cable to replace the squashed bush and restore full tension.
Delicate hacksaw surgery completed, MV resumed his uncomfortable position and deftly installed our device - pictured here wrapped in yellow tape to close the slot and prevent it falling off:

Job done, and the pedal was now both perfectly positioned and perfectly tensioned. Satisfaction all round! 

Do tune in soon for the 3rd and final installment of the year's adventures! In the meantime, here's a phone-edited picture of mine and Merc's cars undergoing a bit of "bonding" in Anglesey 

 

[mat777]

Time for the next part! But first, can people tell me please - are the pictures on the thread showing up for you OK? On the computer I'm posting from it's all fine, but when I view on my parent's computer all I get it the little "there's an unloaded picture here" icons...

Either way, with the amount of media I'm throwing onto the thread, I definitely owe a donation to the site running!

 

Originally posted 13-Jan-20

PHer RazerSauber asked:
"How does it feel now it has the "G" cams all around? I have the same engine in my Calibra and am wondering if it's worth throwing some in at the next timing belt change"

Merc replied:
I’d say stronger at the top end but a bit flat in the middle. Depending on the gearing in the Calibra, it could be worth it. It might just feel flat in the middle *because* it’s stronger at the top 

I replied:
I'd have to agree with Merc - on track it felt like it had slightly less pull from the bottom end in slow corners. This is probably to be expected as spikier cams will move the power and torque up the rev range. At the top however, boy did it sing and boy did it pull! 

Again, our thanks to all well wishers, and I hope part 4 below will continue to live up to the standard I've set!

Mid August - Location Location Location

During all our work with the Omega since the February of 2019, there had been one annoying inconvenience - entirely of my own making...  
My workshop is shared with a couple of other people, and had always been too full to get the car inside. Not a problem, as the Omega had slumbered quite happily in a carport in the yard. However, in early 2019 I frivolously purchased 6 tons of non-running scrap metal  fire engine. Yes, really 🙃   ...  suddenly I needed the space.

The Omega was thus banished to live on top of my trailer in its storage barn a few miles away. Across 2 fields.....

 

Not only did it take an hour out of each working day with the performance of having to go across a farmyard and fields to fetch it, but this often brought its own unique issues 😂

 

Also, the act of unloading and reloading it from the trailer meant that we had to end each day with the car fully reassembled and driveable - rather than just being able to push it back undercover in whatever state it happened to be in.  

Finally, in August, I had finally negotiated for and created enough space inside for one vehicle.....at the back of the building to be blocked in by piles of stillages. Not ideal for a car that would be going out to events, so it was welcome back to the Omega outside, and in with the truck - once I'd worked out how to move the damn thing [cue A Team fabrication music, some shackles and an old trailer A-frame]

 

Anyway, back to the star car...

03 Nov - Ducts, V2.0

A busy September and October of racing, holidays and work for Merc and I meant that it was November by the time we got around to working on the Omega again - and the race was on as we realised we were rapidly running out of year.
PHer MasterVentris joined us once again, as we decided to sort out the brake cooling for good this time. 
I'd acquired some more ducting, and another trip to Demon Tweeks yielded a pair of intake scoops, to neatly solve the question of how we'd neatly terminate the new ducting in the bumper:

 

Unfortunately, as the organised working day rolled around it was pouring with rain. Hastily moving enough things around to make space, the car was pulled half into the workshop door and work commenced. 
As with any simple job, unforseen things soon reared their head. Wanting to avoid a repeat of the crushing on full lock, we elected this time to route the ducts down under the car, and then out along the bottom of the lower A-arm. That second half was fine, but to achieve the first half we needed to create a clear route backwards from the foglight holes. 
On the driver's side, a folded corner of sheet metal was right in the way. Notching a 2in. square corner out of it soon cured that, and we were sorted for that side. 
The passenger side was somewhat more complex. First for the chop (literally) were the twin horns and their bracket. Behind, however, was a curious device. A centrifugal pump of some sort, with a lot of rubber pipework leading to and from it. What the hell was that?
Some googling of part numbers told us that it was a "secondary air injection pump". Again, what the hell was that? More importantly, could we safely rip it out?
More research revealed that it is a common but little-known item, whose function is to blow fresh air into the exhaust manifold on a cold startup. This enables the catalysts to "light" the chemical reaction and warm up sooner, allowing them to begin working much more quickly that if relying on the oxygen-depleted exhaust alone. In short then, a cold start emissions device that we could safely remove, as explained by this handy picture I found online (every day's a schoolday!)

 

Remember how I mentioned unforseen things? To achieve the above removals, it quickly became apparent that the front bumper was going to have to come off, along with the crash beam behind it. To the Haynes manual! Luckily, by normal front bumper standards this was a pretty easy one to remove - and the fixing screws even co-operated on the first try! 
Just remember... "reassembly is the reverse of disassembly" (and 50 other hilarious Haynes lies you can tell yourself)

The final hurdle was directing the cooling air at the discs, which would mean removing the backplates. Easy, right... just remove the discs to get at the fixings? Er....no. Removing the disc presented us with the front wheel hub and bearings, which would have to be removed before the backplate would come off. 
Time for plan B - reaching for the hacksaw again, enough of each backplate was noisily and laboriously removed to produce a clear area of disc in the path of the airflow. The car, meanwhile, just casually sat there smoking a massive joint:

With that task complete, the car was all set... mostly. Over the last few months, whenever I'd moved it around the yard, the brakes had felt a little spongy. As the light faded on the day, we quickly bled the fronts and hoped this would be enough to cure the issue... because it would soon be time for the "annual November trackday"!

Postscript:
In the meantime,  Merc thoughtfully presented me with a gift relating to our project. A genuine dealer promotional Parker pen from the 90s! I was very touched, and it now has pride of place on my desk [and still does!]:

 

23 Nov - The Annual Track Day!

And so the day dawned! How successful would our mods and fixes be when tested in the white hot crucible of track use? One way to find out....
MasterVentris had long expressed an interest in having a go at a track day, and I'd long known and trusted his driving skills and mechanical sympathy. So, who better than to accompany Jimmy and myself for this adventure? 
As with last year, we had the advantage of a cool and slightly damp day which would minimise stress on brakes and tyres - or so we surmised, as we convened yawning and bleary-eyed at a pre-dawn Oulton Park:

Briefing concluded and a bacon sandwich consumed, the first task of the day was to swap the tyres. We were down to just 2 of the comedy ditchfinder shod twintop alloys, after we'd noticed worrying bulging on the others during the drift day prior. However, we still didn't really want to run the NS2Rs with the standard soft suspension or we'd be grinding the doorhandles on the ground a la 2CV 😅. 
Luckily, after selling his Astra, Merc had retained the "summer wheels", which happened to be a set of light, strong and stylish Pentas shod with decent Avon and Kumho tyres. These looked pretty damn cool on the car, it has to be said:

All in all, the day was another roaring success! The brake cooling worked extremely well - after a cooldown lap at the end of each run, the brakes were merely tepid instead of red hot, and didnt even smell of burning pads. The pedals were also a huge victory, with much nifty heel'n'toeing going on all day and no clutch abuse!
Along with the weather, a few other parallels could be drawn with the previous year. Last year, Synchromesh coached track virgin Merc from "cautious" to "not bad at all" in the space of the day, and gave me a couple of tips too. This year, Merc and myself, now fully fledged race drivers, had the pleasure of passing on the coaching to Ventris - who also started out with trepidation but quickly took to it like a duck to water. His comments throughout the day centred on how the Omega seemed a great car to debut in - modest enough performance to stay out of trouble, a very flexible engine, and seemingly viceless handling with excellent predictability. I think it's safe to say we have another convert and returning driver on our hands   
Again, last year we were left standing by an unnaturally rapid Peugeot 205 that turned out to be running 306 GTI running gear. This year, we were stunned by a ridiculously quick Toyota Starlet that turned out to be hiding a highly tuned AE86 engine and RWD drivetrain!

Gratuitous pitwall action shot:

There were only 2 criticisms throughout the day.
The first was the brake travel - it soon became extremely obvious that the bleeding had not fixed the problem of the long soft pedal. However, once the slack was taken up, the brakes worked very effectively and had a decent enough feel - so it wasn't like we had an airlock or leak. We could only surmise that one of the original 1999 flexi hoses was having an aneurism, which was understandable given the sudden abuse they were getting. One to add to the list of winter work!
The brakes are the very next thing for us to tackle - even if we do not have the new calipers refurb'd in time, we are going to have some braided SS hoses manufactured. We know the new ones need to be slightly longer due to the caliper design, we just need to double check the end fitting first to make sure it is the same between calipers!   
The second criticism was reserved by me for the driver of an Exige. Having let them past on the hilltop straight because they were going much faster, they proceeded to anchor up to an almost dead-stop on the next corner (knickerbook). Later discussion between myself and passenger Ventris, who'd spotted the passenger holding a clipboard, suggested that an instructor had told the driver to "brake. Brake! BRAKE!" and they'd obliged a bit too much. Either way, I came within 2 feet of removing his rear corner and it took a while to remove the clenched-in seat fabric from our behinds.....
[Postscript: It was later theorised that being an instructee, this driver had probably missed the sighting laps at the start of the day, and had therefore mistaken the acute-angled service road just before the corner, as the corner] 
I'm sure many will comment that there's 2 sides to every story, but if I can remember my Youtube login I'll post up some footage for everyone. 

Anyway, that's everything up to date for now - finally! I'll sign off and leave you all with many gratuitous pictures that were taken throughout the day by Javelin's fantastic photographer. Oulton Park really is such a picturesque circuit, isnt it?  
(Maybe some stiffer suspension ought to be added to the list too!)

 

[High Jetter]

Wot pics? 🤣

[Tickman]

Yes they are showing up no problem here

 

[dozeydustman]

A very good read. Looking forward to more instalments