Job van Beek’s Opel Corsa-A for Autocross competition

 

2005

In 2005 Job started his career in autocross competition.

In the first year, he drove a Corsa-a with 1.4 single point injection engine (C14NZ) and competed in a few local NVACT-competitions, in category O-. In O- the engine is limited to 1600 cc, and no modifications are allowed to the engine and transmission.

 

After a few races, another competitor finally persuaded Job to weld the differential, so that it is locked 100%. The other guy did this as well, and drove like this for years already. He said that it would make a big difference in performance on the track. “And they never check anyway…..”

 

We took the transmission apart, welded up the differential, and put it back together. Just to give it a try. On the first race, Job won by a big margin. Immediately after the race, the car was checked by the officials, and of course they found the locked differential. A disqualification was the result.

 

For 2006 Job decided to compete in the NVACT championship, but in S1 category. In this category the engine is limited to 1300 cc, but modifications inside the engine and transmission are allowed, as long as the outside of the engine and transmission is not changed from the original.

 

As a test Job drove his Corsa, now equipped with a 13SB engine in the last few races of 2005.

 

13SB carburettor engine

 

 

2006

In the winter of 2005-2006 the engine was modified to a different camshaft, and also the Irmscher injection was installed. The control system for the engine was home-made, and installed in the original housing of the Bosch L-Jetronic, as per the regulations for S1 category.

The transmission was still the original F10, but of course it had the welded differential installed.

 

With this car Job was quite succesfull, and with about half of the races for the championship over, he was in 2^nd place.

During the summer break we spent many many hours in the workshop, working on the cylinder head with a Dremel tool.

With this head, the engine really came alive, and Job won most races in the second half of the season.  At the end of his first full season, he finished seconds in the championship, just a few points short of number 1 (another Opel Corsa-A)

 

2007

In the winter 2006-2007 a new car was built, but still with the same engine. The engine performed very well the year before, and was still in good condition.

 

Old engine in new car

 

 

The downside of the increased performance and the welded differential  soon became apparent. The driveshafts were not up to it, and the wheelside CV-joints kept breaking. Because of this, Job was losing too many points in the championship.

The decision was made to install another differential, hoping that it would cure the drive-shaft problem.

After installing the other differential, the driveshafts lasted much longer. Apparently the welded differential put too much load on them.

With the car being much more reliable, Job won the 2007 championship.

 

 

2008

For the 2008 season, another new car and a new engine were built.

The engine is still a 1.3 litre and it still uses the original pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft, etc. The changes are mainly in the cilinderhead. More hours with the Dremel tool, and a hotter, but still very much torque-biased camshaft was installed.

 

Making the roll-cage

 

After painting

and a new engine installed.....

The new engine performance was very good. So good in fact that the gearbox broke every other race. Back to the drawing board again.

2nd gear teeth are missing                                            

Hopefully this is stronger

 

With the new gears the car proved to be very reliable, and the engine just seemed to run better and better every race.

 

Towards the end of the season there were a couple of failures of the drive-shafts again. The wheelside CV-joints broke twice within a few races, so we had to think of something stronger.

 

After a lot of thinking and searching for information the decision was made to use Astra/Kadett 2 litre wheelside cv-joints. By using a modified wheelbearing, and modifying the steering knuckle, these cv-joints could be fitted. On the gearbox-side we still use the original GSI cv-joints.

 

The shafts connecting the cv-joints were cut and welded at the correct length by a welding specialist. “Don’t worry, they won’t break. The same welded shafts are used in 1.6 and 2.0 litre corsa’s and astra’s”. That is what the specialist assured us.

 

On the last race of the season we tested this new set-up, and it seemed to work fine. But during a short test at home one of the shafts snapped at the weld. To prevent this from happening again custom shafts were made.

 

The NVACT- championship in S1 was won for the second time.

 

 

2009

For 2009 the 2008 car is used, with the same 1.3 litre engine. The only major change for the new year are different gear ratios.

A new sponsor made all of this possible.

New sponsor, www.prinsautogas.com

 

This year the plan was to compete in the Belgian NVACT S1 category again, and in Europokal Class 1 (up to 1.6 litre).

 

After a few races, Job decided that he could do with more practice before going to the first Europokal, so he also decided to compete in NVACT-S2. This is pretty much the same as S1, only engine size can be 1.6 litres (1.3 is the limit for S1).

So far in NVACT, this year the car seems almost unbeatable. All races in S1 were won, in S2 Job skipped 2 races, but he won all the other races.

 

In Europokal the first race was a huge success, on Saturday Job finish 5^th, ad on Sunday 2nd behind a 16 valve Seat Arosa, but ahead of all the Honda’s and Toyota MR2’s.

 

In the second race on Saturday a 6^th place was the result,  on Sunday another car hit the front wheel really hard, the steering rod broke, and other suspension parts were damaged. No finish.

 

In the third race Job decided not to compete because of the very bad track conditions.

 

 

 

 

Car specifications:

Opel Corsa-A

Engine: 1.3 with Irmscher injection, home-made ecu

Crankshaft, pistons, connecting rods: stock 13sb, with minor modifications to the pistons

Rod-bolts: ARP, modified to fit the Opel connecting rod

Camshaft, valves, valve springs: top secret

Transmission: F10 4-speed, custom made gears

Gear ratios: top secret

Final drive ratio: depends on track

Drive shafts: custom made

Suspension: Proflex

Fuel: Shell V-Power 100 ( we have to buy in Germany, not available in Holland or Belgium)

Motoroil: Kendall GT-1 20W50 Racing Green