The Aygo As A Sprint Racer

[PaulT]

I competed in the Toyota Sprint Series at the weekend and I thought I'd share my thoughts as to the suitability of the Aygo as a sprint racer.

Sprint racing takes place over a short-ish course, typically about a mile or one minute in length. So the top speeds aren't necessarily all that high, maybe even below the UK speed limit for the whole circuit if you don't have a powerful car.

It is timed racing against the clock, so only one car races at once. Typically sprint courses are set up with cones on a large expanse of tarmac such as a runway, but there are also purpose-built mini-circuits designed for single-lane sprinting only. Dave Ellen from Prolex UK made a

of last Sunday's circuit at Waterbeach, driving an Aristo V300.

For the TSS, the regulations are pretty straightforward. Cars must be road-legal, and if old enough to need an MOT then must have one. There is a small amount of preparation that needs to be done to meet the rules: fit towing eyelets, mark towing points with tape, tape the headlights and put yellow tape over the Battery cathode and earth cable.

I went further and removed the boot carpet, back seat (two bolts and two nuts hold the back section and the cushion just unclips from the front) and at the circuit I took out the spare wheel and toolkit. A five minute job for all that, but maybe gain a few extra tenths on the track :D

The TSS has quite a few sponsors now, so we were supplied with stickers to put on the cars.

On arriving at the course, everybody drove two slow sighting laps to get a good look at the corners and the road surface. Then throughout the day we took turns to drive fast timed laps. Everybody lines up in a queue behind the start installation (laser-beam timing system with staging lights) and every 45 seconds or so somebody starts.

Provided nobody spins, it is possible to get fifty or so cars through in a reasonable time. We ended up with the option to run seven timed laps throughout the day, of which I did six and decided I had probably got near my best possible time.

My Aygo is unmodified except for Toyota lowering springs which I had fitted last week. I stand by my original assertion that they help a little bit, but the car tends to wriggle a little under very heavy braking and I think the dampers now just aren't up to the job. We need somebody to make coilovers for the Aygo.

In general, though, the Aygo does handle very well when pushed. On the slippery surface at Waterbeach, we struggled to get the power on coming out of corners but the direction change through the corners was otherwise very good. The engine pulls well above its tiny 68kg weight too. We were giving away between 50 to 330bhp to the opposition but didn't finish last and were not far off the pace.

Dave's Aristo is a 400bhp Time Attack challenge car and that was only two seconds faster than the Aygo. Dave was going for it as well, but the big car is not as nimble as the Aygo in the tight corners. The Aygo was faster than a Celica GT4 and MK1 and MK2 turbo MR2s.

I used the stock economy 155 tyres as I didn't manage to get some new wheels and better rubber sorted last week. I reckon the car would be two seconds faster at least with the road-legal track tyres I have sitting here in my flat. I must get those on the car for the next round in May.

What I'm wondering is how much more speed we could get with the supercharger. An improvement of 6-8 seconds on the course would put us in with a chance of beating some very quick cars indeed. I think I'll see how far I can get n/a first, but it's looking like an Aygo with forced induction could give the class B cars (1.6-litre or lower with turbo) a run for their money.

Overall I think my expectations have been exceeded by a long way. Who'd have thought that Toyota's smallest car in stock form would be able to mix it with some serious modified motors! B)

Paul.

[timcrasher]

Well done Paul. Excellent stuff.

I have done a couple of trackdays in my Aygo and have been suprised at how easy it has been to catch and pass badly driven faster cars. I agree that a few more horsepower would help on the straights, but the Aygo's are so nimble that the corners are a hunting ground. I have bigger wheels and tyres on mine but standard springs, and find it doesn't roll too much. It rarely looses traction in the dry either.

I realise that in the sprint series you tend to use the lower gears more, and think that a set of 15" wheels and tyres would be a big performance gain.

How did the brakes cope? I feel that this is the weekest area of the whole Aygo package when you start to push things. I had a spongey pedal after just 6 miles of the Nordschliefe last year( I must get them changed).

I think that if you were to add a supercharger kit, the clutch would really suffer with the kind of stick it would get from this kind of competition. And the supercharger kit is alot of money.

I'm glad you have done so well at the giant killing

Keep up the good work, and work commitments permiting I will try and see how you get on for myself

Cheers

Tim

[Projectzip]

how much does a typical day cost???

[PaulT]

I realise that in the sprint series you tend to use the lower gears more, and think that a set of 15" wheels and tyres would be a big performance gain.

Agreed, wider rubber looks like a must. I've actually bought 14in wheels as I'm trying to keep the weight down and you can get track-orientated tyres which fit the Aygo rolling diameter on those.

How did the brakes cope? I feel that this is the weekest area of the whole Aygo package when you start to push things. I had a spongey pedal after just 6 miles of the Nordschliefe last year( I must get them changed).

Yep, Nur is one of the hardest tracks on brakes. I will switch to Greenstuff pads I think when the stock ones wear out, but really you probably want a four-pot conversion and bigger discs.

On the sprint course, there were only two hard stops and the brakes were still cool afterwards. No problems with the stock set-up on the Aygo.

I think that if you were to add a supercharger kit, the clutch would really suffer with the kind of stick it would get from this kind of competition. And the supercharger kit is alot of money.

It's possible, although I think the Aygo clutch is quite robust. I only changed gear between 2nd and 3rd a few times per lap, so I don't think you would necessarily see excessive wear.

Paul.

[PaulT]

how much does a typical day cost???

I don't know about sprint events in general, but the TSS costs £80 per event to compete. Add to that an IOPD license for a year at £15 (unfortunately a government requirement these days). I also hired a helmet at the event for a tenner.

And in terms of running costs, I reckon I lost 2mm or so from my tyres and on the 220 mile round trip, including the racing, I used less than half a tank of petrol :D

Paul.

[SJandMR2]

Hi Paul, congrats again, think you represented the Aygos (and TOC!!) very well. If you got the s/c would you still be in the 1litre class? is it n/a and force inducted (hmm English??) 1litres?

I agree the Aygo does have potential as a good track day car, espcially if your prepared to put the money in for things like the supercharger. It might never make number 1 but it would be sure fun trying :P

Did you have to get special insurance for the day also?

SJx

[daveyjp]

The Aygo would also make a fun hill climbing car as it has long gearing, 80 in 3rd from a 1.0 litre is more than adequate.

A colleague has just bought a Fiat 126 for this purpose and I've seen a vintage race where Austin 7s were in abundance!

Major expense for hillclimbing would be a rollcage which is mandatory.

[aygo vvti]

Hi paul and good luck for next time! well if you add up more power to the aygo with supercharger or turbo (i had turbo on mine) handling problems will surface! The aygo is very well balanced in power and suspention so the slightest increase in power the handling suffers and what you gain in power on a straight line you loose in braking and in understeer coming out of corners and forget racing in the wet as it will wheelspin in 1st and 2nd gear all the way!

[aygo vvti]

just change the thin tyres for 195/45/15 ones and with the better handling you will get you will gain those 2secs no problem!

[PaulT]

Hi Paul, congrats again, think you represented the Aygos (and TOC!!) very well. If you got the s/c would you still be in the 1litre class? is it n/a and force inducted (hmm English??) 1litres?

No, I would have to move up to class B which is for forced induction below 1.6 litres. That puts you in with Glanza turbos for example.

Did you have to get special insurance for the day also?

Insurance is optional. I think that a well organised sprint event in many ways is actually safer and less risky than driving on a public road, as you are on the track on your own and there is no possibility of another vehicle hitting you. Also, the track is marked with cones and plastic blocks, so you will not wreck your car if you spin into something.

So for me I decided that track insurance is not worth getting. Obviously your usual road insurance will not cover track driving so you will be uninsured. If it worries you, then competition insurance is available I believe.

Although the events are competitive, most people drive as though they don't want to crash. It's not as if people are pushing as hard as possible for that last tenth of a second, well I wasn't anyway :D The atmosphere is more like a Jap car meet with some track driving, as opposed to a bunch of hard-core racers out for victory at all costs

Paul.

[PaulT]

Hi paul and good luck for next time! well if you add up more power to the aygo with supercharger or turbo (i had turbo on mine) handling problems will surface! The aygo is very well balanced in power and suspention so the slightest increase in power the handling suffers and what you gain in power on a straight line you loose in braking and in understeer coming out of corners and forget racing in the wet as it will wheelspin in 1st and 2nd gear all the way!

Even with one 67bhp I find the Aygo still wheelspins in the wet :D

Bigger, grippier tyres will help of course, but a limited slip diff would also be a bonus in the corners. Does anybody know who makes the Aygo gearbox, and what model it is? I'd always assumed it was the same Toyota unit used in the Yaris, but it might not be.

If we identify the gearbox, we might be able to match up an aftermarket LSD.

Paul.

[daveyjp]

"Glanza turbos"

Going off topic a neighbour has just got one of these and I'd never hear of it before. I now know a bit more!

[aygo vvti]

Hi paul and good luck for next time! well if you add up more power to the aygo with supercharger or turbo (i had turbo on mine) handling problems will surface! The aygo is very well balanced in power and suspention so the slightest increase in power the handling suffers and what you gain in power on a straight line you loose in braking and in understeer coming out of corners and forget racing in the wet as it will wheelspin in 1st and 2nd gear all the way!

Even with one 67bhp I find the Aygo still wheelspins in the wet :D

Bigger, grippier tyres will help of course, but a limited slip diff would also be a bonus in the corners. Does anybody know who makes the Aygo gearbox, and what model it is? I'd always assumed it was the same Toyota unit used in the Yaris, but it might not be.

If we identify the gearbox, we might be able to match up an aftermarket LSD.

Paul.

the g/box is more likely to be a daihatsu one as the engine :sirion 1.0 ,charade 1.0 .dont know about a lsd for it u wont find much! maybe modify your basket and spiders to have a sort of lsd in the std g/box.

[SJandMR2]

Yeah the box is Daihatsu, clutch is Valeo.. according to an expert.