Toad's Lifeline - Saxo Cup front suspension purchased!

[rushy_23]

Well thats pretty much what I did for the GTi, Pugsport centre with the Magnex
backbox to keep it quieter and looking a bit neater imo.

Shame the magnex backbox weighs so much compared to the Pugsport.

[sim69er]

glad youve got a pugsport,altho i think you need to raise it up abit to the bumper, like a member pow on here did im sure there will be a pic of it somewhere

[dannygti]

you can use the other hangers so it sits higher,thats what ive done and it sits perfect.about 1cm away from the bumper.although i did take the bracket off (that connects the hanger to chasis) and i bent it in a vice to get it how i wanted.

[KIRKSTER-VTS]

its looking nice mate

[Toad]

You really think it's hanging that low?

[Toad]

I forgot to mention... There's hardly any clearance from the exhaust and one of the torsion bars. If it sits any higher it could be a problem. I'll get some underneath photos up tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

[Jackman]

Pugsport on a saxo can be done.

Paul_Collins has done it and it looks spot on. and sounds great.

Nice one on getting one toad. there is no better exhaust you could have bought.

the tone is quite amusing when you first hear it though. i remember how much i laughed when i first heard it on my mates rallye.

[LEE_VTR1]

exhaust sounds perfect toad.
sounds spot on its not a chavvy tone its a nice tone imo
what exhaust system are you running now then toad??

im pretty sure that my standard mani and downpipe and robbing some ponies from my engine with my supersprint de-cat center pipe and magnex backbox

soon to be getting a piper 4-1 or the supersprint 4-2-1 im abit unsure though.

[Toad]

Thanks for the comments chaps.

Jack, yeah, I'm still smilling when driving it. It makes me laugh alright!

Lee, what do you mean what exhaust system? It's a Pugsport! Don't VTRs have the cat in the manifold? In that case, yes, you will be losing power...

A sad update I'm afraid. As per usual, nothing ever goes right for the Toadmeister! ...and I mean nothing!

I looked at the exhaust this morning, to see why it was sitting low as you folks pointed out, and I immediately noticed that the rubber on the left side had come off its hook. When I hooked it back on, it raised the backbox, but also pulled it over to the left. It looked fine, but when i started the car I nearly shat myself! The noise was unbareable! I didn't take me long to realise that the dummy cat was smacking against the side of the heatshield area. So... head scratching time...

I soon figured out that it wasn't the result of pulling the backbox upward, but pulling it over to the left, (when hooking the left rubber on) which brings the middle section too close to the heatshield area.

The problem I've got is really to do with my hooks underneath the car don't line up well for the backbox. The right hook sits directly underneath the backbox's right hook which seems fine. But the left hook sits a good inch and a half to the left of the backbox's hook. Hence, when attaching the rubber, it caused the backbox to move to the left. If that's not a big enough problem! Even with the backbox sitting fairly low, there's very little clearance between the pipe and one of the torsion bars. I can't really lift the backbox any higher as it gets too close!

Here's some pics to show you what I mean:










I suppose I'm going to need some bespoke hooks welded underneath the car. It's only connected to one hook at the moment, so it's not that secure, and can wobble fairly easily. One thing that's confusing me, is the dip in the exhaust system that's obviously there to help clear the torsion bar. Well, this dip doesn't line up with the torsion bar, it's further forwards by about 2 inches. There's no way that the exhaust is sitting 2 inches too far forward though, as even if I could bring the system back 2 inches, the entire backbox would protrude the rear bumper! Wierd...

[rushy_23]

Not a big problem mate, most custom exhaust places can do custom hangers for
you for near enough nothing.

[Toad]

Aye. But's it's allways going to have to sit low though... Unless it's gets bent upwards after the torsion bar area somehow...

[Paul_Collins]

thats the only prob with the pugsport, the hangers arnt spot on.

take it to a local garage and ask them to bend the hangers so the rubber doesnt some off, then it will be fine.

[Toad]

Unfortunately bending the handers won't fix it, as the left hanger is miles away from the one on the backbox. I've called up a custom exhaust fitting place in Slough which isn't too far from me, and they're going to fabricate me some new hangers. Going in next Saturday.

[LEE_VTR1]

Originally Posted by Toad

Lee, what do you mean what exhaust system? It's a Pugsport! Don't VTRs have the cat in the manifold? In that case, yes, you will be losing power...

what i meant was is it all pugsport from the manifold or do you have like a super sprint mani and pug sport center section and backbox? either way it looks nice and sounds nice

my cat was under the car not in the manifold maybe the 98bhp VTR's are different mines only the 90 bhp model so i dunno mate thats wierd..

[Toad]

OK, I see. Indeed, I've got a Supersprint manifold. The exhaust system is all Pugsport, which is simply a 2 piece system with a dummy cat.

Ah, I didn't realise that some VTRs had the cat in the exhaust system.

[Toad]

OK, I'm too tempted to solve this! I will have another crack tomorrow, lol. I'm positive now that the exhaust is currently too short! It needs to come out further, as the tailpipe is sitting virtually flush with the back bumper, which can't be right. Surely it should poke out a bit, so exhaust fumes don't mark the rear bumper!!?? The exhaust overlaps as a connection, and I think it may have been overlapped too much, making the overall length too short. This would explain why the dip in the pipe doesn't sit directly under the torsion bar too! Also, pulling it back will give me the option to attach it to different hooks, so this will be interesting... Watch this space.

[dannygti]

the pugsports sits flush with the bumper toad,if not slightly in a bit.

[Toad]

Right! I think we're there boys!

Spent a good hour on it this morning, I'm pretty happy with the result. I disconnected the clamp keeping the 2 pieces together, and slowly pulled the exhaust pipes apart from each other. I managed to stretch the exhaust roughly an inch longer without causing any issue with the amount of overlap to still maintain a solid connection. In doing this, because the connection is at a 45 degree angle, it moved the backbox further back, as well as moving it over to the left, which helped bring the backbox more in line with the hangers on the car. I managed to bend the hanger on the left a bit anyway, which helped overall.

Also, by stretching the exhaust, it moved the dip area nearer to the torsion bar, which gave me extra clearance! So I was able to lift the backbox up much higher and still get plenty of room under the torsion bar. Unlike before, when I lifted it up, it just fouled the torsion bar... So in light of all this, I've actually used a different hanger on the right, it's the hanger on my car which is much further back, and higher up. And for the left, I used the same hanger on my car (as there's only one!) but a different hanger on the backbox. The pictures will tell all...

There's still some minor niggles which are annoying, but they're not too bad. Basically, the left hanger on my car appears to have been hacked off slightly, so there's no curve at the end which helps keep the rubber in position. To try and keep the rubber from falling off, I've used a cable tie and attached it to the inner mudgaurd. Not ideal I know, but there isn't anything else to use for support. Grrr. The other niggle, is the hangers on the right side which I'm now not using (car and backbox) are touching each other! What a git! Ideally, I need to bend the car one out of the way, but I couldn't get to it. For now, i just put a piece of rubber over one of the hangers which stops the scoring, but it sometimes squeeks a bit, lol.

That's about it really, so here's some pics:

Right hand side - Using the rear hanger now on the car:




Left hand side - Using same car hanger, but other backbox hanger:




This is problem with the right side hangers touching each other:




This is cool, still enough room under the torsion bar:





Here's what it looks like from the side. Fine by me!




And the final pic! How she looks from behind!




Toad =

[Jackman]

Much better dude!

Look and sounds top notch!

No better sound than a pugsport on 16v's!

[Toad]

Thanks doooooood.