horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Update time: This brings me onto track based activities. I am booked on the FDMC Dimanche Sprint on May 3rd in Aldershot and the Abingdon CAR-nival Sprint on June 6th at Abingdon Airfield. Exciting times! Interested to hear more about getting involved in events (sprint, hillclimb etc.) where did you do your ARDS? what sort of events are you doing? have you joined a motor club? I'm near Swindon and Thruxton do an ARDS course for £310, not sure if they do anything at Castle Combe. I've looked at Abingdon for a track day is it the same course for the sprints do you know? Mark p.s. Your MX5 is the direction I'd like mine to go in. For sprints and hillclimbs you only need a speed licence. These are circa £45 from the MSA and you only need to fill in a form with no test. I did my ARDS because I'm doing some circuit racing in another MX5 I part own. You also need to be a member of a motorclub that is running or invited to the event you want to run in. This is normally around £25 a year. I'm a member of Farnborough and District Motor Club who are one of the biggest. Dolphin Motor Club are a Bristol one I believe and they run quite a few sprints at Castle Combe, I'm hoping to do one later in the year. THe final thing you need is safety wear. As a minimum you need an FIA approved Helmet, race suit and gloves. Boots and undergarments are recommended. The regs for these events often look very confusing but you will always fit in somewhere. For standard road cars all you need is tow hooks clearly marked, yellow tape on the live battery lead, stick on door numbers and an arrow on the ignition switch to show which way is off. You can pick up these stickers on sheets from ebay. Sprints on circuits are normally part, whole or 1.5 laps of the circuit, depends on the event. If you want to come along to one and find out what it's all about I'd be happy to chat in exchange for a cup of tea and moral support
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,963
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Interested to hear more about getting involved in events (sprint, hillclimb etc.) where did you do your ARDS? what sort of events are you doing? have you joined a motor club? I'm near Swindon and Thruxton do an ARDS course for £310, not sure if they do anything at Castle Combe. I've looked at Abingdon for a track day is it the same course for the sprints do you know? Mark p.s. Your MX5 is the direction I'd like mine to go in. For sprints and hillclimbs you only need a speed licence. These are circa £45 from the MSA and you only need to fill in a form with no test. I did my ARDS because I'm doing some circuit racing in another MX5 I part own. You also need to be a member of a motorclub that is running or invited to the event you want to run in. This is normally around £25 a year. I'm a member of Farnborough and District Motor Club who are one of the biggest. Dolphin Motor Club are a Bristol one I believe and they run quite a few sprints at Castle Combe, I'm hoping to do one later in the year. THe final thing you need is safety wear. As a minimum you need an FIA approved Helmet, race suit and gloves. Boots and undergarments are recommended. The regs for these events often look very confusing but you will always fit in somewhere. For standard road cars all you need is tow hooks clearly marked, yellow tape on the live battery lead, stick on door numbers and an arrow on the ignition switch to show which way is off. You can pick up these stickers on sheets from ebay. Sprints on circuits are normally part, whole or 1.5 laps of the circuit, depends on the event. If you want to come along to one and find out what it's all about I'd be happy to chat in exchange for a cup of tea and moral support Great info, I'll look into the speed license there is a motor club in Bath that looks good so will look into joining them. Got boots but will need new helmet, mine isn't FIA approved :-( was going to get a race suit anyway. Most of the car stuff I've done just need the yellow tape on the battery lead. I go to Port Sunlight regularly will have to co-ordinate a trip with a visit to Demon Tweeks on the way. It would be good to come along and pick your brains, happy to provide tea/support, you can't be that far from me anyway. If you do the sprint at Castle Combe it's an interesting circuit did my first track day there last week... Mark
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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I'm in Basingstoke and work in Newbury so probably not far from you.
Castle Combe is great, I've done about 20 trackdays there over the years. If I sign up to a Sprint there I'll PM you and let you know.
there's a massive community of MX5s who SPrint, climb, AutoSolo and Trackday so getting along to events and getting advice is really easy. This is my first year sprinting and I'm yet to do one so it's all still quite new to me!
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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This is the sprint I'm doing in May driven by Toby who I bought my supercharger kit off after he decided to move onto a Lotus and broke his car.
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Apr 10, 2015 22:11:48 GMT
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Hi
i do hillclimb in my swift, but my mate has an mx5 turbo that I'm tempting into doing it. Just wondered what class you run in as i think we can away with std production class over 1800 under 2600 {1.6cc x(1.4)} due to the bbr mx5, and wether people question it.
Ross
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Apr 22, 2015 20:23:20 GMT
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First Sprint is on May 3rd and I have a few bits that need doing before then, one of which was an MSA compliant Beam Breaker/Timing Strut. I got this one off eBay and it's adjustable (it has to be a certain distance from the ground) and well happy with it. Beam breaker fitted. by Nicholas R Horne, on Flickr
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Apr 22, 2015 20:25:37 GMT
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Hi i do hillclimb in my swift, but my mate has an mx5 turbo that I'm tempting into doing it. Just wondered what class you run in as i think we can away with std production class over 1800 under 2600 {1.6cc x(1.4)} due to the bbr mx5, and wether people question it. Ross As long as you have all the interior, glass windows and no mad aero you should be fine in production with the 1.6 multiplier to the cc for the turbo. The class I'm in is Production 2000cc and above (Class 5 below in the regs for the Sprint on May 3rd). Category A. Road Going Series Production Cars (S.10.10.1) Class 1 Standard Cars up to 1600cc 2wd only list 1a tyres Class 2 Standard Cars 1600cc to 2000cc 2wd list 1a tyres Class 3 Up to 1400cc - 2wd only. Class 4 Over 1400cc to 2000cc - 2wd only. Class 5 Over 2000cc - 2wd only. Class 6 4wd - All engine capacities. Category B. Road Going Specialist Production Cars. (S. 10.10.2)Class 7 Up to 1700cc Class 8 Over 170cc Category C. Modified Limited Production Cars (S.10.10.3) and Modified Specialist production Cars (S 10.10.4)Class 9 Up to 1400cc Class 10 Over 1400cc to 2000cc Class 11 Over 2000cc Category D. Sports Libre Cars (S.10.10.6) Class 12 Up to 1800cc Class 13 Over 1800cc
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Last Edit: Apr 22, 2015 20:31:27 GMT by horney™
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Apr 23, 2015 19:39:05 GMT
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As long as you have all the interior, glass windows and no mad aero you should be fine in production with the 1.6 multiplier to the cc for the turbo. The class I'm in is Production 2000cc and above (Class 5 below in the regs for the Sprint on May 3rd). Category A. Road Going Series Production Cars (S.10.10.1) Class 1 Standard Cars up to 1600cc 2wd only list 1a tyres Class 2 Standard Cars 1600cc to 2000cc 2wd list 1a tyres Class 3 Up to 1400cc - 2wd only. Class 4 Over 1400cc to 2000cc - 2wd only. Class 5 Over 2000cc - 2wd only. Class 6 4wd - All engine capacities. Category B. Road Going Specialist Production Cars. (S. 10.10.2)Class 7 Up to 1700cc Class 8 Over 170cc Category C. Modified Limited Production Cars (S.10.10.3) and Modified Specialist production Cars (S 10.10.4)Class 9 Up to 1400cc Class 10 Over 1400cc to 2000cc Class 11 Over 2000cc Category D. Sports Libre Cars (S.10.10.6) Class 12 Up to 1800cc Class 13 Over 1800cc Your regs and class separations are completely different to ours. Turbo (x1.4) 1a & 1b tyres are allowed in all categories. along with 2wd & 4wd Category A Road Going Production cars A1 up to 1400cc A2 1400-1800cc A3 1800-2600cc A4 over 2600cc Iv seen then entry list for Werrington (a local hillclimb) and there is a bbr in A3, so we are going to go with that aswell. I was more worried about the fact the bbr (previously to my understanding) isn't a series production car as it was modified & re-sold by a separate company (bbr) and selling less than 1000 would put it in limited production cars (with caterhams & westfields). Although i have found some more info on bbr & mazda recently which sealed it, BBR won a tender to manufacture the turbo installs for mazda and sold as a dealer option. Ideal Definitely A3! All the research for a car that isnt even mine! I'm building a swift/justy gti turbo awd hopefully for this year, i might do a build thread later. Thanks for the reply and sorry for the long post Ross
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Final bit of prep for my first ever Sprint tomorrow. BBS with Federal 595 RSRs fitted New Harnesses in and adjusted Battery earth lead taped yellow Race numbers fitted (badly!) Took it for a spin and the federals are horrid when cold and less grippy than my road tyres! THis does not bode well for a cold wet sprint tomorrow where tyre warming is not allowed. I'll see how I get on but I might have to change to Kuhmo HS51s for the Abingdon CAR-nival Sprint. Untitled by Nicholas R Horne, on Flickr Untitled by Nicholas R Horne, on Flickr
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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I am an idiot. Got all my race gear and helmet packed, all my paperwork sorted and went to bed. Then had a horrible realisation. There was something I had missed off my list to do on the car. An oil catch tank. You can't run in Sprints or Hillclimbs with an open breather system, the requirement is for a minimum of a 1 litre properly plumbed in catch tank. A drinks bottle and some pipe don't cut it.
Gutted.
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,963
Club RR Member Number: 29
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I am an idiot. Got all my race gear and helmet packed, all my paperwork sorted and went to bed. Then had a horrible realisation. There was something I had missed off my list to do on the car. An oil catch tank. You can't run in Sprints or Hillclimbs with an open breather system, the requirement is for a minimum of a 1 litre properly plumbed in catch tank. A drinks bottle and some pipe don't cut it. Gutted. As you say you must be absolutely gutted with all the effort you've put in. Will be interesting to see what you come up with, alloy tanks seem to be about ~£100 1l-small-oil-catch-tankBTW I was looking at your flickr photostream (I'm countrtyphoto_uk) have you relocated your battery? would be interested to see some shots of that. Mark
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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May 12, 2015 21:26:55 GMT
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Had an epic day at Gurston Down Hillclimb School today. Here's a vid of all my runs where you can see the gradual improvement (and a fair few mistakes!).
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frosty
Part of things
Posts: 120
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May 14, 2015 16:06:32 GMT
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Just read this from start to finish.
Nice little motor to start with and has developed into a pretty awesome little sprint machine!
The supercharger sounds epic too!!
Well done sir! Will be interesting to see how you get on with it!!!
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1970 MGB GT 3.9 V8 efi Sebring
2007 Audi A3 Sport (Diesel)
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Mark
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,818
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May 14, 2015 19:41:59 GMT
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I have a soft spot for MX5's having worked for Mazda UK when they were first released. I've also owned a few, so know how much fun they are.
Best of luck with the sprints. I really enjoy them myself and am in my 4th year (3rd car), although am missing Crystal Palace as my car is being painted.
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BMW 320d (fridge on wheels)
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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May 15, 2015 11:15:50 GMT
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Cheers chaps.
Next event is the Abingdon CAR-nival Sprint on June 6th.
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,963
Club RR Member Number: 29
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May 15, 2015 11:45:30 GMT
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Cheers chaps. Next event is the Abingdon CAR-nival Sprint on June 6th. I'm hoping to get along to this to say hello and take some pictures. I want to do a track day at Abingdon I assume it's the same track/course. Mark
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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May 15, 2015 11:46:29 GMT
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I think it uses part of the Trackday course. Not sure though as I've never been there before.
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Photos by Robb Webb Photography from the hillclimb school arrived in the post (I know, how quint!). Banged them through lightroom and uploaded, there's loads so here's the best ones. Gurston Down School-7 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-10 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-11 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-16 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Needing a dab of oppo coming out of ashes on cold tyres: Gurston Down School-17 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-28 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-30 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-33 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Looking down from the start line: Gurston Down School-40 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Gurston Down School-43 by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr
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horney™
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,289
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Next up was Abingdon Motorsport CAR-nival Sprint yesterday which was awesome. I learnt the car is brilliant and I am rubbish. Finished 10th out of 11 in my class but I was up against 250bhp Minis, a 400bhp Mustang, a 350bhp S14 and a Jaguar XKR (which I beat) amongst others. It was also the first run for the new support vehicle. Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr It was a bit of a boys weekend with 3 mates and their competition cars a E36 M3, a MG Maestro Turbo and a MKI Escort with YB Cosworth lump. Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on Flickr Here's a vid of all my runs with a few interesting moments of too much throttle out of the bends. Sprinting is a tough discipline as you need to be on it 100% from the off which is scary on cold tyres and in a car you've not driven hard in it's current setup. Learnt a lot and looking forward to the next event.
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Last Edit: Jun 7, 2015 13:37:41 GMT by horney™
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,963
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Nick, Good to see you yesterday, the car looked good (I've got some panning shots from the first straight). The Escort and the M3 looked a bit of a handful at times, I've got photos of the Escort sideways. Mark
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Last Edit: Jun 7, 2015 17:23:19 GMT by MiataMark
1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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