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Passat CKRA Tuning Guide
The CKRA engine is a 140ps 2.0 TDI found in the US & Canadian VW Passats. We get a lot of enquires for modifiying these so we thought we would put together a definiative tuning guide. The first step, as for most modern diesel is a custom remap. The CKRA will make around +30 BHP with a custom tune, retaining all of the stock hardware. See the "Powergate Remote Tuning Section" below for more information about tuning.
Emissions Control Removal:
Before removing any of the emissions control
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21 01 2023
Silverstone GP - Britcar Trophy - 13th March 2022
We had an early start to the 2022 racing season, as we made a one off entry to the Britcar Endurance Trophy race at Silverstone on the GP Circuit.
With it being in March, it gives us another month to fully prepare for the first rounds of both the Turismo-X Racing Championship and the 750MC Club Enduro Championship, which we are competing for the whole season. All the details and dates for those series can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.
A layout of Silverstone is below. We get
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24 03 2022
750MC Birkett Relay - Silverstone GP - 23rd October 2021
With a a hectic season of racing almost to a close, we were back for the 750 Motor Club Birkett 6 Hour Relay Race after skipping it in 2020. The event takes place every year at the end of October on the Silverstone GP Circuit. You can read about our exploits in the race last time on 26th October 2019 HERE .
Instead of a straight race or normal endurance format, the relay element is for the driver AND car. Basically, a car and driver goes out, does their stint (which can be anything from 1 lap
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05 11 2021
Brands Hatch Indy - MSV SuperCup - 12th September
The next round of the SuperCup, took us all the way down South to Brands Hatch, on the short Indy Circuit.
With a busy schedule outside of racing, we were not able to do any testing before the race, which wouldn't have been much of a problem had we not being having the usual Golf nightmares!
The DSG box started causing issues on Wednesday night, sticking in gears. We figured it was a wiring or solenoid issue, both of which we had lost interest in trying to diagnose after countless hours trying
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16 09 2020
Silverstone GP - MSV SuperCup and Focus Cup - 15th-16th August
With only one week between our MSV Trackday Championship and EnduroKA success at Oulton Park (which you can read about here) and the next round of the SuperCup, we needed to get the car ready quickly, especially after we found a few niggles that we know would haunt us if we didn't get them sorted.
As the circuit is so big (and expensive to rent for over an hour), MSV decided to combine the SuperCup Grid with that of the TDC and Trackday Trophy. This meant we had a grid of over 50 cars, so it
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25 08 2020
Oulton Park - MSV Trackday Championship / EnduroKA - 8th August 2020
The first round of the MSV Trackday Championship was a proper stinker at Snetterton, with 2 DNFs in the Golf due to various issues (which you can read about here). Not to let this dampen our spirits, we came back to base and worked like crazy to iron out as many issues as possible before round 2 at Oulton Park in Cheshire, which comprised of a 45 minute Race in the Golf, then a 5 hour race in the EnduroKA. We did plan to also enter the Trackday Trophy in the Golf, but once bitten twice shy, we d
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13 08 2020
SRS Automotive 2.0 TDI CR DSG 4Motion Caddy Race Van - Engine and Gearbox Build
Back in 2019 we collated all the build photos of Stef's SRS Automotive Caddy Van. You can view that by clicking the image below
The one thing is was missing was a proper engine! Stef suffered for a long time with only 240bhp, so we decided to give him the same Engine as our CitiGo which should give it a good kick up the rear!
Part 1 of the video is a walkaround of the van showing the attention to detail of the whole build, before we rip out the stock engine.
Part 2 shows us going th
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13 04 2020
MSV End of Season Event - Trackday Trophy and SuperCup - Brands Hatch Indy - 16th November 2019
With the MSV Trackday Championship over with, we could have some fun. If you haven't read about the TDC Championship, click below:.
As the season finale, held at Brands Hatch in Kent, hosted the SuperCup and Trackday Trophy races on the same day as the TDC, we thought it would be pretty cool to do all 3 races. The timetable is below, with back to back qualifying sessions for all 3 races, then only a gap of around 1hr between the TDC and SuperCup Race, the team needed to be on point!
We c
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26 11 2019
750MC Birket Relay - Silverstone GP - 26th October 2019
Something a little different to what we normally do race wise, we decided early on in the year to enter the 750 Motor Club Birkett 6 Hour Relay Race which takes place every year at the end of October on the Silverstone GP Circuit.Instead of a straight race or normal endurance format, the relay element is for the driver AND car. Basically, a car and driver goes out, does their stint (which can be anything from 1 lap up to 3hrs of driving), and when they come back in the pits, a second car and d
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01 11 2019