RS fabrications

Local Banbury Businessman Geoff, has taken delivery of his brand new Range Rover Sport Black Edition.

Costing the best part of 60K, Geoff felt the rear of the vehicle was not quite finished off!!

Built at the Range Rover Plant in Gaydon, Warwickshire, this vehicle was assembled in just 72 hours, and built to Geoff’s personal detailed specification.

The only thing that was missing for him was the finishing touches he required on the twin exit exhaust pipework.

It was down to RS Fabrications for the 100mm rear silencer Sport Trim upgrade.

Ben 10 took on the task to fit the Mirror polished, slash cut, rolled in Sport Tailpipes and it is amazing that such a small addition to the rear of the vehicle should have such a large visual impact to the finish on this Range Rover Sport.

Geoff complimented RS Fabrications on the quality of the product, and noted that RS had used the same style Sport Tailpipe upgrade as on the RS Fabrications Aston Martin V8 Vantage Development Vehicle, and these Tailpipes were just what he required.

If you are interested in this Range Rover Tailpipe upgrade, or any other RS Fabrications Performance Products, do no hesitate to call Russell or Shane at the Banbury Workshop on 01295 266655 to discuss you personal requirements.

FEU 01 was down at MRC Tuning this week to establish actual power outputs.

After DPF regeneration, the vehicle [factory listed as a 140 PS unit] had the baseline power output of maximum 124.3 PS corrected.

This could be due to a number of reasons, most common being Particle Filter build up, even after regeneration, but for whatever reason this is what the Scirooco had.

Field evaluations over the last 2500 miles have shown that this 2.0l Diesel vehicle is currently returning  an average of 45.83 MPG in general daily driving with the same operator.

Doug at MRC Tuning remapped FEU 01 [MRC Stage 1] and now the vehicle is producing 170.4 PS corrected, which is a substitutional increases.

Torque figures are up from 311Nm @ 2065 RPM to 396Nm @ 2032 RPM, up 28 %.

It will be interesting to see how this correlates into MPG over the next set of evaluations.

The Scirocco is certainly more lively to drive, and this normally has the tendency for the operator to overdrive the vehicle more aggressively, resulting in increase MPG.

Strict guidelines have been laid out, but as previously mentioned, this test is designed to provide real fuel efficiency numbers, on real roads, with regular traffic and weather conditions.

Further testing & evaluations will show the comparative numbers, prior to the RS Fabrications Exhaust Treatment that will follow as this study continues.

Associated Links:-

http://www.mrctuning.com/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.508799599162299.104554.154822821226647&type=1

Maria Costello MBE is gearing up for another full season of Road Racing in 2013, which will include the TT, Ulster, Skerries and more.

Coming off the back of a full 2012 season, Maria also had a run at the Goodwood Revival, claiming 15th in the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy Races with Team Cohen on George Cohen’s ‘Garden Gate’ Norton Daytona Manx.

Maria is currently working on her Kawasaki Pizza Race Bike with legendary Bob Jackson rebuilding the ER6 Supertwin Engine. The plan is to get the Kawasaki down to RS Fabrications for exhaust work to extract the most from the engine and shave off some additional weight for her.

Maria is also looking forward to the 2013 Iale of Man TT Classic, where she will be riding Bob Jackson’s Susuki T20, as she did to great effect in 2012.

Follow Maria’s updates at:- http://pizzaracebike.blogspot.co.uk  to see how things progress.

http://www.costelloracing.com/

The Mobil Economy Run [1936-1968], was designed to provide real fuel efficiency numbers, on real roads, with regular traffic and weather conditions.

On this occasion, this is what the RS Fabrications FEU Project is all about. Fuel economy and the improvements that can be made to any “run of the mill” road vehicle.

In conjunction with an undisclosed customer, RS have obtained a used Diesel VW Scirocco, designated at FEU 01 [Field Evaluation Unit 01] and the vehicle in question is a 2.0 TDI 140 BHP derivative.

Over the next few months the vehicle will be driven as any regular customer would drive their car and all fuel/mileage recorded, irrespective of road type & conditions, incidentally with the 1st tank of fuel FEU 01 produced 45 MPG in daily use.

This is in stark contrast to current methods of computing fuel consumption, normally undertaken with manufacturers, by running vehicles on chassis dyno’s in climate controlled environments.

Once these base line figures are in place, the R & D department will me making changes to the vehicle and will be recording data, noting all aspect of the vehicle performance.

Close attention will be paid to the Engines “vital signs” in order to manipulate thresholds and performance. These will be assessed, recorded and evaluated to see what effect they have on overall fuel economy under the designated test conditions.

First off the bat, and once the baseline is established,, FEU 01 will undergo an ECU [Engine Control Unit] remap. This is normally associated with performance gain, but in this case study RS Fabrications will be following a different path, the gains made in diesel fuel consumption.

Updates to follow:-

Marussia had a successful Launch at the first F1 Test in Jerez, Spain yesterday, in preparation for the upcoming Formula 1 Season.

RS Fabrications have been working closely with the team for for the past 3 years and have manufactured parts on the car, as well as various items of Pit Equipment and Team Support Hardware.

As many parts fabricated are sensitive and restricted, we can only supply limited details associated with Race Car components and the Race Team equipment unfortunately.

Pit and Garage support are of the utmost importance and this is where the RS Fabrications facility, positioned 3 Doors away from the Marussia Technical Centre, comes in real handy.

Development, prototype, production and modified parts, pass through the RS Fabrications workshop, and normally time is of a premium. It is the ability to react fast that puts RS on the front line!

RS Fabrications will continue to support the Marussia F1 Team, throughout the 2013 Formula 1 season, and it will be interesting to see how the team progresses with the new car.

Local Businessman Richard is the proud owner of a very rare Chevrolet V8 Firenza, he is also one of only two known owners of this Classic V8 Firenza in the UK.

The Firenza was manufactured with a Small Block Chevrolet V8 in South Africa with a limited production run of only 100 units, of which there may be as little as 25 left in existence. [see period advertisement below]

Richard came to RS Fabrications with 2 requests. He needed the V8 exhaust manifolds Zircotec Ceramic Coated in Solid Black and an Aluminium Radiator fabricated to replace the factory item on the Firenza.

The manifolds were sent off to Zircotec for coating, and the original factory radiator was dimensioned in the Design Office.

With the CAD work completed, we had an aluminium radiator core manufactured to the original dimensions.

Shane hand fabricated the Water Tanks, Filler Neck and Pipework, along with side mounting brackets, to weld onto the custom radiator core.

The result is as you see here, lighter than standard, the new radiator will also out perform the factory brass unit allowing for some moderate tuning of the small block Chevrolet engine at a future date.

Richard was more than happy with the results, and he also has some other projects that will require attention at RS Fab in the future.

Call Shane or Russell at RS Fabrications Banbury to discuss your radiator or intercooler requirements.

01295 266655

Wow!! Now that’s paintwork !

Alan is back up to his fighting weight and his time with Darren, Oddy and Chris down at Power Park Auto’s, it has made his year.

While in the RS Fabrications workshop the RS Aston Martin Vantage has had a few upgrades from Santa!

At the rear a new Carbon Fibre Diffuser and RS Fabrications Exhaust upgrade, which incorporates lined Sport Trim Tailpipes, but still retains the factory vacuum actuated Exhaust Valve setup. These Valves can be operated manually with the Bamford Rose Tuning Package, as well as controlled by the engine ECU.

Other Carbon items from Vorland Technik include Mirror Covers & Wing Insert Side Strakes, along with interior Carbon Sill Kick Panels to replace the Aluminium Extruded items.

“Darren and the lads at Powerpark have completed a splendid job on the RS Aston Martin” commented Russell “it really is a testament to their skills in vehicle preparation & paint finish!”

Mrs V says, ” Not bad for a second car”!!

Associated websites:-

http://www.powerparkautos.co.uk/

http://www.bamfordrose.com/

http://vorlandtechnik.com/

Jason Clegg and his TVR Racing Tuscan has had a return visit to RS Fabrications.

The original exhaust work was completed on the Racing TVR at the RS Fabrications Banbury workshop with a pair of  side mounted GT3 Silencers, visit the previous entry on the RS website :-

Str8 Six TVR Racing Tuscan taking shape

Now, the Tuscan was back in the workshop for custom air intake and airbox, with the airbox fitted and sealed to the underside the bonnet and insulated for cool air intake.

The Carbon Inlet Plenum was mounted from the top of the motor to finish off Jason’s engine installation. These tasks were completed by “Treas” [AKA Neil Saunders].

On top of the suspension components manufactured at RS Fabrications, additional plug silencers have been fabricated for the GT3 silencers. These may be required at some racing circuits due to noise limitations that are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain with regular Performance Silencer design.

Jason and his team of TVR Master Technicians, have built South Oxfordshire Str8six Company into a leading TVR Performance Specialist and their work has culminated into this immaculate Racing Tuscan.

Look out for “Cleggy” at British Racing Circuits during the 2013 racing Season.

Associated Links:- http://www.str8six.co.uk/

Alan has his New Coat, just in time for Christmas!

The boys at Power Park Autos pulled out all the stops and Chris & Oddy sprayed in tandem to achieve the high quality finish that you see here.

It’s now back to the RS Fabrications workshop for fit up and assembly and hopefully Alan will find some upgraded parts under the Christmas Tree next week.

Updates to follow in the New Year.

Another visit to Power Park Auto, to see Darren, and an update on the Aston Martin RS.

All looking good with Chris & Oddy taking up the task to prep and re-finish Alan.

As mentioned before, road rash and a few marks here and there had to be addressed and as with any high class paintwork, the finish is in the preparation.

Some blemishes in the Aluminium body have been identified, and these have been taken back to bare metal, as part of the process. Once these were etch primed the preparation continued, and many hours have been invested to get Alan to this level, and that all before the guns come out!

Praise given to Chris & Oddy’s skills, things are looking very good.

Mrs V will be down next week for an inspection, to see how her Boy is!!