Amateurs converting a 147 to a race car with a few questions!

[Pat_147]

Hey,
Me and some mates are currently in the process of building a 2002 147 2.0 TS for track / racing. We're new to racing and building cars (but not tools, and making things!) and we have a few questions. We're planning on racing in a budget endurance series.

- We deleted the Aircon, and installed a shorter belt (1080 from memory) however now the power steering makes an awful noise and doesn't seem to work properly. I am assuming we did something wrong here, any ideas?

- Having read around online, it seems the engines are pretty good when taken care of (we will put a new Cambelt in / full fluids before tracking it) but are there any mods we should look at doing that can increase the lifespan / reliability of the engine? Baffled sumps, Diff cooling etc?

- With the stock ECU, what are our options for deleting Cats without issues? Is it worth updating the air-intake and exhaust? (free within our rules)

- We've looked into various brake options, and to start with are just planning on keeping the original calipers, and getting new discs, braided hoses, new fluid, Ferodo DS3000 up front, and DS2500 in the rear. Is this worthy starting point? Or should we save the money and look into a bigger brake set up / something more track specific?

- Any other tips, ideas, suggestions or must do mods are welcome! We're happy to learn

- We are putting an LSD into it, 'race spec' Coilovers, 200TW Tyres (Hancook RS4), and changing the panels we can to Carbon, and then eventually down the track doing some basic aero,
Within our rules we aren't planning on doing anything to create more power really, as longevity, reliability are of more concern (and the way ourupgrade points allocation works)

For those interested, you can follow along on our amateur journey via insta
https://www.instagram.com/the_147_project/