for Motorsport, News, Information, Updates, Tuning ……

…… and how it can kill your turbo.

All too often we hear of turbo failure of the K04 turbocharger, as used on the Z20LEx engines in Astra G and H, Zafira A and B, VX220 and all too frequently we hear the turbochargers being blamed as poor quality or ‘rubbish’ units, which is not the case.

In nearly all cases of turbo failure, the source of the problem is not down to the unit itself but usually due to oil contamination and/or incorrect fitting procedure. It is also important to carry out eliminating the initial cause of failure, if it was a failure caused by something other than old age/wear and tear. Additionally allowing oil to get dirty during use and poor or infrequent oil changes using poor quality oil will also contaminate the turbo causing failure.

The picture gallery below contains images from of a ‘failed turbo’ that was under 10,000 miles old which was dis-assembled and inspected and a report produced. The cause of the bearing failure in the turbo is down to contaminated dirty oil….. you cannot blame the turbo itself for the failure.

Here is the report, basically detailing how dirty oil has ‘scrapped’ the turbo:

Turbo Inspection Report

The good news is the wastegate assembly and actuator are in good condition!

[Show as slideshow]

Oil Contamination Fact Sheet:

Oil Contamination Fact Sheet

Pagid RS29 Pad

For the serious fast road and track day enthusiasts who appreciate an excellent brake pad, we now have in stock Pagid RS29 pads for the following calipers:

AP (VXR) 6 Pot (used in 362mm Vectra VXR kit)
Alcon 4498 4 Pot Monoblock calipers (used in the Alcon Xtreme Brake Kits)
K Sport 8 Pot (356mm and 330mm kits)
D2 6 Pot (356mm and 330mm kits)

These Pagid pads are also available from us for the AP 4 Pot 6600 caliper, and also the AP 4 Pot VXRacing 6600 caliper (343mm discs) which uses a slightly slimmer D50 pad.

From our own testing and from customer feedback, these Pagid pads are an excellent trackday brake pad and extremely well suit to that environment, that also works well for fast road use, benefiting from good feel even from lower temperatures.

Pad Spec.
Friction Level:
Cold 0.40
At 100^o C – 0.43
At 300^o C – 0.47
Max At 550^o C – 0.49

Constant Working Temperature: 400-700^o C
Maximum Temperature: 750^o C (Short Period Only)

Pads range from £240.00 – £273.00

RS29 is a direct development of RS19, with a very similar friction coefficient to RS19, improvements in initial bite offering quicker response and slightly more temperature stable at the upper levels of the temperature range. Developments in raw material selection and compounding have resulted in improvements also in pedal feel and feedback, helping with modulation particularly on lighter applications.
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Monday April 1st sees the start of the 2013 Time Attack Championship at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.

For 2013 Courtenay Sport Racing are backing and sponsoring the DCE Motorsport entry into the Time Attack Series. The car is an Astra H VXR which is driven by existing customer and owner Will Watson and has been entered into the Club Challenge Class FWD. The car features a number of our components, including our high flow inlet manifold and full exhaust system and the engine ecu has been bespoke remapped and a full set up carried out on our rolling road.

The great thing with this car is that the parts fitted and used on it are available for your everyday road and trackday car.

Time Attack 2013 Astra H VXR

For those unfamiliar with this series Time Attack events take place across one day. Competitors drive hard against the clock to set the quickest lap time around each circuit. After the formalities of scrutineering and drivers’ briefings have taken place, the on-track element of  a Time Attack event consists of four sessions:

Warm Up – 15 minutes
Practice – 20 minutes
Qualifying – 20 minutes
Final – 15 minutes.

If you would like to keep updated with our progress and the series you can get all the latest news and find information from a number of sources online:

Via Facebook and Twitter:

We wish Will and the whole team the best of luck for the opening round on Monday.

We recently put together a pictorial fitting guide with Total Vauxhall Magazine showing how to fit Polyurethane Bushes to a Vectra C VXR.

It was featured in Issue 144 January 2013. Here is the full article:

Vectra C Poly Bush Fitting Guide

If you experience an issue viewing the PDF file try the following: Read more

Gearbox Breather Tank for Astra H VXR/M32 Gearbox, also suitable for 1.9 CDTi Astra H, and equivalent Zafira models.

This breather tank kit is designed specifically for track day/race use but can also be fitted to road cars. It allows for the gearbox to breathe when the oil gets hot and also allows an additional  half litre of oil to be used in the gearbox, which helps to prolong the time it takes for the gearbox oil temperature to increase to temperatures where the oil can go out of grade.

Here is a brief fitting guide (on Astra H VXR): Read more

Astra G/H 2.0 Petrol Turbo, Astra H 1.9 CDTi, Zafira A/B 2.0 Petrol Turbo and Zafira B 1.9 CDTi have a gearbox side mount that is rubber and prone to failure.

Courtenay Sport approached Powerflex to devise a solution to not only improve the original factory mount, but also give it some additional support and to help reinforce it. In some cases where the original factory mount is not too badly damaged or split, the polyurethane insert can be used to ‘save’ the failing factory mount and prevent further deterioration.

Two specifications of material are available for this mount: Yellow for road use (Shore Hardness 70) and Black (Shore Hardness 95) more aimed at trackday/competition use as it is much stiffer.

OE Factory Engine Mount and Yellow Poly Insert

OE Factory Engine Mount and Black Poly Insert

We recently fitted a yellow mount insert to an Astra H VXR which had covered just over 46,000 miles and the factory mount was already showing signs of weakening due to splitting which if left would ultimately deteriorate fully and  fail completely.

Once fitted there was no noticeable increase in NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) into the vehicle. The vehicle used also had an uprated front engine mount insert fitted. Additionally it was noted that the gearchange had improved and became smoother due to the reduction in gearbox movement at gearchange, due to the uprated gearbox mount insert.

On vehicles with a full set of uprated engine mounts, some minor change in NVH may be experienced by fitting this additional mount.

Here is a brief fitting guide: Read more

The factory/OE rear brake hose on these cars is a single piece with a rubber brake hose at each end and a solid metal joiner pipe which cannot be reused due to the way the rubber hoses are fitted into the metal pipe.

Our braided rear brake hose kit comes complete with 4 braided hoses (2 for each side) and 2 copper joiner hoses (again one for each side). Unlike some other supplied brake hose kits we do supply the copper joiner pipes with male unions pre-fitted, to make fitting braided rear brake hoses a much more straightforward job.

Additionally the brackets that are used on the factory rear brake hoses can be re-used with our rear brake lines, as this is often queried by people.  We’ve uploaded a few fitting images to show you how its done.
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Further Development of this car has seen us change the turbo to a Garret GTx3076R along with a custom made 100mm diameter inlet pipe.

Target BHP was something on the right side of 500 BHP. With 99 octane UK pump fuel we saw 525 BHP but this was on the limit of our UK fuel quality; Stephan in Germany had seen well over 550 BHP with this turbo on 102 ocatane pump fuel available to them.

At this point we thought it might be fun to add some methanol to bring the octane value up; a stainless tank was fabricated and installed with an Aquamist pump in the spare wheel well, to sit alongside the already installed swirl pot and Pierburg pump.  The spare wheel well has had a number of vents installed and a laser cut acrylic panel made and installed to protect the contents and seal the wheel well off from the car’s interior. With further mapping mostly based around a much more efficient timing curve we saw the power rise to a peak of 568 BHP and finally settled with a comfortable figure of 559 BHP.

Final testing on the road proved very interesting and memorable for Mark R when he found some additional work was needed to stop the meth from puddling in the inlet manifold, which occurred on part throttle when the throttle was being feathered due to wheel spin! Fortunately the functionality and adjustability of the Aquamist ECU made this quite straight forward to achieve.

Engine Spec features numerous Courtenay core products as follows:

Ported Cylinder head
Forged Pistons
Steel Rods
Klasen Cams
Klasen Inlet Manifold
V Band Cast Manifold
Tial External Wastegate
Custom 3” front pipe mated to a Piper 3” exhaust System
GTx3076R Turbo with Tial Exhaust Housing & 100mm inlet
Courtenay Intercooler
Courtenay Water Radiator
Lightened Flywheel
Paddle Clutch plate
Reworked Sach’s Uprated Clutch Cover

To name but a few items…

Hopefully this should keep the ever power hungry Wayne T content for a while. A thoroughly enjoyable conversion to do cheers Wayne…

Spare Wheel Well with Swirl Pot, Pierburg High Pressure Pump, Aquamist Pump and Methanol Tank

Laser Cut Acrylic Spare Wheel Well Cover

The gearbox side engine mount (left had side mount) on Astra G/Zafira A 2.0 Turbo models is prone to failure caused by splitting, especially given the age of some of the rubber mounts. This polyurethane insert compliments our other uprated engine mounts and polyurethane inserts, and simply sleeves over the exiting factory OE side engine mount.

Inserts are an effective way of reducing engine movement, aiding power delivery and reducing damage to exhaust downpipes and other hoses and improving handling with less engine movement to unsettle a car during braking and cornering.

Additionally for fast road and trackday use the ability to strengthen this factory mount will reduce its movement.

The gearbox insert fits Astra G 2.0 petrol turbo engines (Z20LET)and Zafira A 2.0 Petrol Turbo (Z20LET) with the F23 gearbox

This mount is available in Yellow Material with a shore hardness of 70 for fast road use and light track use and in the new Black Material with a shore hardness of 95 (recommended only for race and dedicated trackday use)

Priced at £27.00 £24.00 (Yellow – Shown Below)
and £30.00 £27.00 (Black Series)

Poly Gearbox/Side Engine Mount Insert

Powerflex Black Series Logo

Powerflex Black Series range has been developed for ultimate performance, motorsport, track and race applications offering the most precise and accurate alignment for a wide range of chassis.

Designed for the Track – Ready to Race – Engineered to be the best.

Powerflex Black Series bushes are manufactured using a 95 Shore A compound to provide maximum control of chassis geometry.

This compound can be up to 80% more resistant to load than standard rubber and 25% stiffer than our purple performance material.

If your requirements are purely for the ultimate in handling and chassis performance then Powerflex Black Series are unique, offering the most precise and accurate alignment for your chassis.

Performance – Developed for ultimate performance using the toughest materials.

Precision – Engineered for the most accurate control of chassis geometry.

Practical – Manufactured to be easily fitted without the need for special tools.

All popular purple bushes are available in the new material including wishbone bushes and engine mounts

Astra H/Zafira B Front Wishbone Bushes – £98.40

Astra H/Zafira B Gearbox Side Mount Insert – £30.00

Astra H/Zafira B Front Engine Mount Insert – £30.00

Astra G/Zafira A Front Wishbone Bushes – £98.40

We identified a weakness in the gearbox mount (left had side mount) on Astra H VXR and CDTi models, whereby these are prone to failure caused by splitting. Additionally for fast road and trackday use the ability to strengthen this factory mount will reduce its movement.

With Powerflex we have now produced an insert which compliments other uprated engine mounts and polyurethane inserts.

Inserts are an effective way of reducing engine movement, aiding power delivery and reducing damage to exhaust downpipes and other hoses and improving handling with less engine movement to unsettle a car during braking and cornering.

The gearbox insert fits Astra H 2.0 petrol turbo engines (Z20LEL, Z20LER), Astra H VXR (Z20LEH), Astra H 1.9 CDTi Models (Z19DTx) and Zafira B 2.0 Petrol Turbo (Z20LER), VXR (Z20LEH) and 1.9 CDTi (Z19DTx).

This mount is available in Yellow Material with a shore hardness of 70 for fast road use and light track use and in the new Black Material with a shore hardness of 95 (recommended only for race and dedicated trackday use)

Priced at £27.00 £24.00 (Yellow – Shown Below)
and £30.00 £27.00 (Black Series)

Poly Gearbox/Side Engine Mount Insert

Courtenay Sport Stage 1 ECU Remap

Exclusive Courtenay Sport Stage 1 Software Upgrade. Software customising whilst on our rolling road optimising fuelling, full boost and ignition maps, Full Power and Torque Graph Print Outs.

Our Stage 1 upgrade gives much better low end response combined with a smother and flatter torque curve, whilst at the top end we have managed to increase and sustain the power for longer. Alongside this you will also benefit from improved cruise fuel economy. We saw a peak power figure of 342.65 lb ft torque with power rising to 300.07 bhp. Our development car still has quite low miles so we would expect to see a few more bhp as the engine loosens further.

Like all our ECU upgrades the software is installed on your car whilst on our rolling road optimising fuelling, boost and Ignition maps. This enables us to see and rectify any underlying faults or problems and to ensure that the calibration is 100% accurate and safe for your car before handing it back over to you, along with the full power and torque print outs.

£565.00 including full map optimisation, datalogging and Rolling Road Set Up.

Courtenay Sport Stage 1 Remap Graph Astra J VXR

Had something a little different on the Rolling Road this morning……

A 1965 Cortina GT 1500 on twin webbers.

It was just being run up to check fuelling and power and made a respectable 100bhp at the flywheel.

Cortina GT 1500

Cortina GT 1500

Cortina GT 1500

Cortina GT 1500

Courtenay Sport High Flow Panel Filters are now available for the Astra J VXR.

A high flow re-useable foam panel filter for improved air flow.

£34.95 + P&P Available Online Now

Courtenay Sport High Flow Panel Filter

A new range of Carbon Fibre components are soon to be available from Courtenay Sport. We have recently carried out trial fitting and evaluation and will will release the items very soon.

We will have available for Astra VXR the ‘V’ for the front grille, the Front Lower Splitter, the Rear Diffuser and covers for the inserts on the OE rear bumper.

All these parts are made in Real Carbon Fibre, they are not carbon wrapped/covered parts or backed with fibreglass. They are all very high quality items, with an excellent fit and lacquer finished.

Other parts will be following very soon, including the Rear Tailgate Strip for Astra VXR.

Lauch Prices as follows:

Carbon Fibre Foglight Surrounds £72.00
Carbon Fibre V-Grille £215.00
Carbon Fibre Front Splitter £498.00

Carbon Fibre Covers for OE Inserts in OE Rear Diffuser £72.00
Carbon Fibre Rear Diffuser Panel £375.00

Please telephone us to place your order. 01692 404313

Lead Time is about 4-5 weeks.

Astra VXR Carbon Fibre Front Splitter and V Grille

Astra VXR Carbon Fibre Rear Diffuser

Astra VXR Front Splitter

Courtenay Sport Key Ring.

A black simulated leather key ring with metal surround and a high quality Dome Resin Courtenay Sport Logo in Silver on a black background, giving a 3D look.

Measures approximately 84mm x 28mm (excludes ring) Overall Length approximately 106mm

£5.50 Now Available from our Online Web Shop.
This link will take you away from our blog and directly to our Web Shop.

Courtenay Sport Key Rings

For Sale a set of factory half-leather seats from a Corsa VXR.

Included are both Front Recaro Seats and the Rear seat bench and back.

They are in ‘as new’ condition, and have seen very little use, as can be seen from the pictures.

Price: £SOLD
For more information please contact Jon on 01692 404313 or email jon [@] courtenaysport.co.uk (removing the spaces and using @ instead of [@])

Corsa VXR Seats

Corsa VXR Front Driver Seat

Corsa VXR Front Passenger Seat

Corsa VXR Rear Seats

Courtenay Sport, as part of our development and testing, have run the new Astra GTC VXR on our Dynojet Rolling Road. This car is standard, and has been run as a benchmark. Mapping details will be released soon, along with full details of the 76mm performance exhaust system and intercooler.

Standard Astra GTC VXR Power Run on our Rolling Road

Vauxhall Cascada

EMBARGO: 9.00AM, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH

>>> First official teaser pics reveal classic lines and mid-size, four-seat body

>>> First Vauxhall-designed and built mid-sized convertible to be launched post-war

>>> Move from compact-sized cabrio class; body longer than Audi A5 Convertible

Luton – Vauxhall today revealed the name and first teaser shots of the first new mid-size convertible built and designed by the company for more than 70 years.

Called Cascada, the model is 4.7 metres in length – more than 70mm longer than Audi’s A5 Convertible – with a full-size fabric roof, giving the car a classy and elegant profile, seen in the two official images. The roof can be opened or closed at the touch of a button, even when the car is moving at up to 30mph.
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The impressive New Astra GTC VXR paid a visit to our North Walsham premises the other day. This is the latest model in the Vauxhall/Opel range that will feature in our tuning arsenal. Plenty of options are already in the pipeline.

Watch this space for more details.

Astra GTC VXR @ Courtenay Sport

Fuel Badge

Front Brembo Brakes Astra GTC VXR

Rear Brembo Brakes Astra GTC VXR