Project Decathalon:

The first time HPA left a footprint in the R32 community, it was late 2003. Our Stage 2 twin turbo R32 came onto the global stage and crushed the top super cars performance numbers. As we look towards 2008, our hearts still lie with the MK4 chassis. Its bulldog looks coupled with the raw Motorsport feel continue to inspire our small group to push the envelope and develop new parts and place this car into new arenas of competition.

Squirreled away at HPA was a brand new R32 with 1000miles on the odometer. What a perfect candidate to showcase what we have learned over the last 4 years. We knew that DSG and our twin turbo’s would have to lie under the hood, but we always struggled with getting a wide enough running shoe under that body to take full advantage of our power.

This past season, our FT single turbo owners have graced the record books at Bonneville, won championships in Solo racing, and made strong showings at local drag strips. Inspired by these results, we set out to take on even more race venues with the R including:

Maxton Mile- Top Speed
Time Attack
Onelap of America

These are just 3 of 10 venues we look to do battle in during the 2008 season.

So, how do we get there?

After months of reading up on all the rules for each event, we found a blend of accepted safety requirements we could build to. A roll cage was always in the cards, but for weight we switched up to chromoly. The high speed categories allowed for a fuel cell, BUT you had to retain the OE tank to qualify. Just one of the many small obstacles our team will encounter as we set out on this build.

We called a team meeting, and a game plan was set forth.

Step one – Save weight, but keep it streetable
Step two – build a functional roll cage that complies with desired venues
Step three- integrate a fuel cell
Step 4 – GO WIDE, I want 285’s on all 4 corners with no compromise in travel!
Step 5- Power power..and more power

We assembled a few slides that document the progress over the last few weeks and will continue to update as the days and weeks progress. We hope you enjoy!

This is an exciting project for our group and we are truly proud to share it first with the R community that continues to believe in our team. This R will sport the latest in performance offerings from HPA including the new CVP. We look forward to updating the slides as the front end gets wrapped up and the rear bumper and supports get fit for the last time.

It has been a busy week since we last checked in and there are some exciting elements on the go. Attached are 4 updated slides. Our team has now finalized our rear end, and updated the aftermarket bumper to match the functionality we require.

We are working hard to stay true to the OEM lines, but our cooling needs at the front of the car and rear required a departure from our fan favorite stock parts. This was not a SEMA left over, rather a new R32 that was destine for a stage 2 twin turbo trimming, but is now headed in a much more aggressive direction. Once the body work is wrapped up, we will walk through the DSG conversion and then onto the exciting under hood augmentations.

Thanks for all the feedback, and I am excited to share my teams work from this last week. The front fenders really kick this car off the play nice stage and into the realm of BAD ASS track Rat!

Enjoy!

Since the last update, and during our Christmas break, a collective decision was made to invest into tooling to capture some 85% of the hard work that had been invested to widen our bodywork. The worry was; should an unforeseen off-track excursion force the introduction of our beast to, let’s say, a tire wall… we would be up the creek without a paddle. We finalized the rear bumper design and made our plug. From there, we have been juggling the Decathlon between our favorite body shop and a skilled fiberglass craftsman.

The talented team at Auto Image took our raw sheet metal work; fine tuned it, and put the whole car into epoxy. Then we shuttled the car to our expert glass shop, where molds were taken from the installed parts to be sure that the recreated pieces would fit without any doubt.

Just this week, the first test parts were pulled to proof the tooling with 100% success!! The Decathlon is now back at the painter this week to have its new color applied to the inner cabin and engine bay. We will get it back at the end of this week where the rear fun (Power Train) will kick off.

Update 04.11.08

Ok, its been a hard 2 months as we have been juggling the schedules at the body shop with our in house developments on CVP and some other special in bound projects, BUT attached are a few slides that will help to summarize what we have been up to.

Finally the car is back and Tuesday, our team will crack into both the engine bay and the interior.

We will be outfitting a first ever configuration to our proven twin turbo package with aggressive ¼ mile targets in sight. I am sure as the images come to light over the coming weeks, everyone will see the raw potential of this critter.

Looking forward to the next steps!!!!

Enjoy the few images.

Update 10.23.08

OK, it has been a crazy 10 days here in the Great White North.

The team tackled buttoning up all the small details between dates at the paint shop!

The OEM Dash has now been 100% integrated with the welded in Rollcage. It required the fabrication of new mounting brackets and the relocation of the fuse panel to guarantee user access.

The Fuel system was dialed in and wrapped up along with the airjack system and interior paneling etc. Please find a small host of images captured prior to sending it back to the paint shop where this weekend it will receive its final exterior finish; just in time for a rapid reassembly and a jaunt down to Las Vegas for the SEMA show.