*****UPDATE*****
So I have been a bit lazy updating my threads over the last year... There has been a lot of change over the last year for me. The car now lives in my garage which has made a huge difference when working on it! Much better than a gravel drive
So there will be some bits missing but here's a highlight of the last year:
First up I took the car back to Surrey Rolling Road where myself and Charlie mapped the car to make it run safer.
The end result was 281.3 BHP and 320ft/lb... stupidly I forgot to upload the right image so in this one you can only really see the boost pressure, BHP and previous BHP/boost pressure - although the boost is straight lined at the bottom as we didn't measure that on the RR day.
The car ran so much smoother and it was a noticeable difference to the map before.
I decided I wanted to make the air coming into the car the most efficient it could be so I went about creating a direct cold air feed to the filter by mounting it in the bumper
Mocked up
This has also helped access in the engine bay to the belts and everything at the front of the engine which is nice.
I continued to use the car, we took it to Snetterton as a bit of a shake down before our 'Ring trip.
The car ran great all day apart from just before lunch when the bolt that holds the rear linkage in had worked itself loose. I spent the lunch break putting that back in and took it back out for the afternoon. It was probably the best track day up to then we had done.
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Getting towed off just before lunch:
I'm hoping this doesn't become a frequent photo
The next stop was the 'Ring. Once again we were glad to be back. Every time we visit this place I still get all excited like a kid before Christmas.
Unfortunately we didn't have the weather, the first day we went out I had a bit of a moment slipping on some coolant near 100mph so took a break as we were due to go to Spa the following day. Unfortunately no videos of that as I never film my first lap...
Spa was fantastic. By far the best trackday we have done. CircuitDays were amazing, they really know how to put on a good day!
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Darryl, on Flickr
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It was wet in the morning but we were all surprised by how much grip there was in the wet! The afternoon it dried out and was awesome.
A few from back at the 'ring
My Girlfriend's first lap - it was nice and steady due to the conditions
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Darryl, on Flickr
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View from the roof of the pits on the GP track
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Darryl, on Flickr
The start of this year we went to Bedford to start things off after the Christmas period. We went in February and the weather was brilliant. A bit of water and Ice first thing but by 11am it was dry and sunny most the day, it then started snowing around 4 where I made the most of a clear track and slid the car around to get a feel for losing the rear. This was another great day. I felt I had learnt so much about the car and thought I'd progressed in speed and car control.
Unfortunately on the way up though I hit a badger which ruined a foglight... It turns out this was a very costly mistake. £300-£400 for a replacement. My thought process is that this is being used more and more on track it could potentially happen again so I've gone about creating a cheaper alternative.
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Darryl, on Flickr
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My mate Chris chasing me through the chicane
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I've had a hand in helping him get this on the road and it really is a blast. He let me take it out on this day and I could not stop grinning. They're great cars especially with the setup he has.
So on with the foglight repair
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Darryl, on Flickr
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and the finished product:
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I've had to move the sidelights into the indicator spot, and turned the indicators into LED strips for Motorbikes up each side of the indicators as this was never used. I still need to finalise the brake ducts but I've not managed to run piping for them either yet so I'm not too worried at the moment.
Last Sunday I got the car out to take to Bicester Heritage for the Sunday Scramble but the steering was so heavy - even for a manual rack that I knew something was up so that put a stop to that.
On inspection with a mate, it became apparent that the rack was at fault. We went about removing it and re-greasing it to start with but this unfortunately didn't cure the issue.
We're due back at Snett on the 10th May so I didn't think I'd get a replacement in time or be able to get a refurb done so I set about something I'd read a while ago about which was a manual conversion on a Power-steering rack.
My old power steering rack in pieces:
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Steering damper - way too overcomplicated for what it does.
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Unfortunately I don't have photos of it back together but I can tell you that it has had a big impact and improvement!
I didn't need to travel far to notice how quicker it responded, this was always one of my gripes since changing to the manual rack - it has always gelt you have to turn a lot to not do much. This has been sorted with the new rack. It's brilliant. A bit too heavy for every day use but perfect for a weekend car that's not used in traffic much.
I have a friend who does vinyl work so I asked if he could do me a sunstrip as I felt the black ducts on the front looked a little out of place on their own. I think this has really completed the car and the embossing is so subtle.
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Darryl, on Flickr
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