I thought it was about time I resurrected this thread, although I haven’t got a great deal to report to be honest, so maybe (just maybe) this will be a fairly concise one!
First off, you may remember my tale of woe regarding the airbag clock spring, which had previously been butchered by a would-be Edward Scissorhands, leaving a permanent warning lamp on the dash and inoperative cruise control. Well, when I was first searching for a new one I had set up a saved search on the good old Bay of E’s with the part number of the bit that I required, and then immediately forgotten about it. A good few weeks later I was reminded when an email dropped into my inbox saying one had just been listed. Moreover it was an absolute steal at approximately half the price of the ones I had seen previously. The big bad “Buy It Now” button was clicked without delay, and two days later it arrived on my desk.
Fitting it was pretty straight forward fortunately, although looking at this mess half way through was just a touch scary!
Once it was all thrown back together, and I nervously re-connected the battery and hit the start button, not only did nothing explode in my face, but I was greeted by a lovely warning free set of dials!
However, a short couple of days later, those same dials did deliver me a somewhat depressing message – my relatively low mileage R27 had now ticked its way into the big five-o’s. Is it just me or does this number somehow seem a far scarier prospect than the mid-to-late 40’s? Still, it has certainly covered a lot less tarmac than every one of my previously owned cars, so I really shouldn’t grumble!
Anyway, the fitment of the new clock spring assembly finally allowed me to connect up the cruise control switches which I had retained from the OEM wheel, but first I needed to fabricate a bracket. And here it is; from initial prototype, through dodgy aluminium test piece, to finished and painted article on the bottom right. It fits like a glove! I can now smash down the motorway at 70mph whilst getting all Michael Flatley on the dashboard, or at least I probably could after a few years of intensive yoga training.
Now for a slightly more exciting occurrence, another trip to Hullavington Airfield for a Motorsport-Events organised hoon. I was pretty confident leading up to the day, having pretty much nailed the lines and braking points on my last visit. But back in September it was bone dry, unfortunately a quarter of a year later it was not. At all. In fact a jet ski would have been a far more appropriate mode of transport than a car, let alone a car sporting well-scrubbed semi-slick’s on all 4 corners!
It could not have been a more different experience to last time, yet because of that it was just as much fun. The tyres really struggled for grip, especially under braking where my ABS was really earning its keep. Yet sliding through the corners feathering the throttle, on and beyond the limits of adhesion, was simply glorious, and somehow only ended in a (rather spectacular) pirouette once! It is the first properly wet track day I have ever done, but would urge everyone to try and do something similar. It has given me far more knowledge of how a car behaves at its limits than I would get in a lifetime on the road, and consequently a whole heap more confidence in what to do should I ever suddenly find myself at said limits somewhat unexpectedly!
There was a photographer on hand to capture the action, although annoyingly the shots he did get aren’t particularly enthralling.
Even so I had to show my appreciation for the fact he donned a cagoule and braved the conditions at all, and handed over some of my hard earned coin for a full res of this one, which I then tweaked to my tastes:
Also, true to a previous promise, I nabbed a friend’s GoPro for the day and managed to get two short videos of my antics before the battery decided it no longer wanted to play. Not entirely sure they are very exciting for the casual viewer, as in neither of them do I crash, nor make particularly rapid progress! It will, at the very least, give people some idea what a Scorpion resonated system sounds like in attack mode. Enjoy:
[video=youtube;MdRFHxPFsaM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdRFHxPFsaM[/video]
[video=youtube;jqJRysh7N-s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqJRysh7N-s[/video]
So what have I been up to since then? Well not a great deal really. I chucked my bike in the back for a quick trip to the trails (a recent purchase having been out of the saddle for far too long), and was pleased to discover it fitted snuggly with just one wheel removed. How very practical. Colour coded tarp is a nothing but a pleasant coincidence by the way.
I swapped the now very dead NS2-R’s from the front (yes I have seen off two pairs in a little under 6 months… it is a problem) with something a little more suited to the current weather conditions, Uniroyal Rainsport 3’s.
I first must apologise for the state of the above. A. this was just after fitting, B. DS2500’s are extremely dusty, and C. alloy refurb’s are on the to-do list! Those are my excuses and I’m sticking to them. First impressions of the tyres are reasonable; they are noticeably softer in the sidewall than the Kangers, which allows a little more body roll and annoyingly a much less responsive turn-in. On the flip side they are a damn site better at clearing standing water! I am already regretting the fact I cheaped out and only got them on the fronts though, having recently found myself navigating a moist corner with quite a substantial amount of opposite lock!
Oh and I also cleaned it (check out the lesser spotted Husky in the garage – I forgot I owned that as well):
Decorated the Recaro’s for Christmas:
Got it very dirty:
And then cleaned it… again:
And fancy that, it was pretty concise too! Me and a few friends may be having a festive jaunt over the border to Brecon at some point soon, so I will try and bring you some decent images back, seeing as the ones in this post are almost entirely via my mobile phone. Hopefully they will be of the car looking lovely on a squiggly bit of road against some delightful frosty scenery, and not upside down at the bottom of a valley, but I make no promises.
Merry Christmas and thanks for reading.
Rob
