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Opel Ascona B


daisybump
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Some of you may have seen this for sale recentely, well its not anymore cos I bought it..! and it is an awesome car.. 1981 opel ascona b 40000 miles on the clock, lots of mods, it was built as a track day car, spec as follows, c20xe lump, magnecor leads, manta big wing sump,powercap and pipercross vortex filter, getrag 5 speed box, calibra turbo clutch, sbd tubular manifold and 2 1/2" custom made jetex exhaust system, 3.7 diff, superflex polybushed throughout, bilstein shocks, eibach front and rear anti-roll bars, gte -25mm uprated springs, wilwood midilite calipers with vented discs ceramic pads and stainless hoses,

The car needs a really good clean as it has not had one in 3 years, It handles like its on rails, future plans are to paint and fit the 2 spare wings that came with it, fit the lsd from the isuzu piazza axle I have and drive it till the wheels fall off..!

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Edited by daisybump
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Keep us updated, saw that on ebay and thought it would make a nice car. Just love Ascona's with black bumpers and the front spoiler.

Very late car too on an X plate

Edited by stradacab
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Thanks for the positive comments, and retropower, i had to resist from buying it for months then it got the better of me and i dont regret it one bit.. smile.gif

Have not had much time to do any work on the car as i have been busy, and was on holiday last week enjoying the cornish sunshine (and rain..!), but before i went i gave it a dam good clean and polish, 5 hours worth of a clean and polish.

Removed the rear bumper and lights to straighten the rear panel a little where it had been gently bumped, you wont notice it on the pics.

Have replaced the headlight bulbs with some 90/100w items and it dramaticly changed the night vision, replaced the sidelight bulbs with some single led items for that modern look, replaced the indicator bulbs with 36 led items and also changed the flasher relay to suit, replaced the reverse lamp bulbs with 36 led items too.

Painted the centre console in satin black, it was painted a sort of red brown colour and will do the door pockets to match.

Replaced the exhaust mounting rubbers for some super tough bmw 3 series rear box rubbers so it doesnt move any more.

It smells of fuel sometimes but cant find a leak anywhere but the plan is to replace the fuel lines as they have been butchered somewhat with flexi hose patches here and there, and re-fit the fuel pump from the boot to under the car.

Had a quote of £280 to have the front wings painted (if i fit them) and the doors repaired and blown in.. does this sound a good price..?

And added this just to confuse people even more

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Took some pics on the way to work one morning as it was a very sunny day thumbsup.gif

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Thats a sweet looking ride mate.It looks great especially in the sun.For that extra i would suggest replacing or maybe overhaul the rear box it looks a bit rusty in the pics and spoils the great looking back end.I am also not great fan of the wheel arch chrome but the choise is yours...Keep it up i have the same car and yours is really mint(love the sticker by the way!!!)

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Thats a sweet looking ride mate.It looks great especially in the sun.For that extra i would suggest replacing or maybe overhaul the rear box it looks a bit rusty in the pics and spoils the great looking back end.I am also not great fan of the wheel arch chrome but the choise is yours...Keep it up i have the same car and yours is really mint(love the sticker by the way!!!)

I am going to have a tailpipe end trim made from stainless steel to tidy it up a bit..

As it is the Berlina S model it comes with all the fancy trim as standard so it will be staying.. :thumbup

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  • 3 weeks later...

So.. not really a lot to report on, done 700ish miles since i bought it and has not missed a beat. the only things i have done is to move the sticky out stereo from the dash to the centre console and replace with a more modern sony usb, bluetooth item, still need to make a suitable bracket/mounting system for it, i have replaced the hole in the dash with the cubby hole adaptor from my vw sharan, so now i know it works i can look out for one to fit permenately,

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Also i have repositioned the air filter from the engine bay to behind the grill, so it now gets more fresh cooler air.

And lost a centre cap at the local car wash..

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

Hi, not updated this for a while..and to be honest i havent done much to it apart from add some more miles on the clock..!

i did however do a track day on january 29th at bedford autodrome, was a good enjoyable day, i did have an 'off' moment while doing 70ishmph but i managed to stay on the track and no harm was done..!

We all like pictures so lets have some..

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Since then i have tidied up the wiring loom to stop the ecu getting flooded with water..not good..and fitted a 68mm throttle body..i did hava a chipped ecu fitted but it decided it didn't like it so swopped back to the origional..

Plans for this year are to try and fit a better wiring loom with an astra gte digi dash and do some much needed body repairs..but i dont want it to become a 'project' rather than a car i can jump in and use when the sun is shining..

Going on another trackday on monday 28 march so looking forward to that..

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I really like this car as it looks like a bit of an old grandads car but would easily wipe the floor with most other cars on the road or track. It has been pictured in several magazines a few years ago at different trackdays and always had comments about it suprising people next to the pictures. There should be more cars like this about. What happened at 70mph when you nearly had an off? You'll have to go steady for a while once you've got that LSD fitted. The track day photos after your diff is fitted will look a bit different to the other pictures. What cars did the old Ascona put away at the track then ? Keep up the good work.... Luke.

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What happened at 70.... well to be fair to the car it probably knows how to go round corners better than i can steer it..! in other words i was just carrying way to much speed out of a fast right hander into a sweeping right hand bend and the back caught the front up and round we went.. luckily there were a few cars behind me so they were far enough out of the way not to get hit.. it was on my first session so i was going a bit gung ho..thinking i was the best driver ever to have graced a track.. its all a learning curve though and driving style soon changes to suit..

i was keeping up with a few westfield sort of looking cars which i was quite surprised with.. there were quite a few 'moderns' there bmws and saabs etc that i could easily show up.. the rest were porsches and ferraris and tbh they came past me on the straight (and i was doing 125mph ish) like i was standing still..! usual track weapons scoobys tvr i didnt stand a chance..

I did manage to scrub a new set of toyo t1r's quite well..but they did seem to suddenly overheat after about 6 laps.. i have some colway intermediate tyres to try out this time on the front to try and get a bit more grip.. not a lot i can do about the rear end picking the inside wheel up and spinning..will have to source an LSD as ive sold the isuzu one now..and maybe try a standard roll bar on it..

:thumbup

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Hello again.. Went on another track day 28.03.11 at bedford autodrome.. the sun was shining and the cars were sounding great.. its my second visit to the track and i now feel some serious modifying must be done to the car, the front end just hasnt got the grip it needs, understeering most corners, i feel i can out drive the cars capabilities now..!

Halfway throught the day i changed the rear wheels/tyres for some colway intermediate tyres, this seems to have improved the rear end greatly, made the car totaly different to drive, they almost felt like driving on ice... but with more grip if that makes any sense..! maybe i should try some on the front..

Is there any way i can get some negative camber on the front..? or any way i can improve grip on the front..any suggestions welcome..

The engine now sounds like it is going to rattle itself to death and leaks oil from every gaske/seal but still pulls strong.. so a rebuild of a spare engine i have is on the cards

Its amazing how cool the engine stays as halfway through the day i noticed the cooling fan wiring had been rubbing and was no longer supplying power to the fan..!

All in all a good day was had..

Some more action shots..

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Bedford looks like a really fast track and the Ascona was flying. I stopped my Ascona from understeering by removing the rear Anti roll bar and setting the tracking to 2mm of toe out on the front ( not toe in as the manual lists ). Great video... Luke.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

A while since i have updated this thread, wheels are now painted matt black and fitted with 195 50 16 toyo tr1 tyres, et turned out to be 4 not 17 so they fit well in the arches, maybe a bit too wide on the front but look ok i think.. needs lowering a tad more now..

Front lights are crossed out now too but don't have any pics of them done..

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Edited by daisybump
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