2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

There should be no shortage with 225 45 17 Sport Pilot 4, I have 2 here and 13 showing in stock elsewhere.
 
Blyton Park 21st Oct.

I'd been itching to get back out on track again, a cheapish Saturday popped up through Trackday Solutions so I chucked some money at the website and proceeded to get the car ready. To be fair the car only needed fluids and a quick checkover. I had to spend a day rebuilding the running gear on the trailer though.
Some big inconsiderate storm hit the UK a few days before the Blyton date, flash floods and general mayhem ensued across the UK meaning a lot of diversions in place. Ended up having to wade through a small river than burst its banks in a village near Blyton. The mighty Mondeo went through no problem, the water was deep enough that the side running lights were fully submerged at one point. Someone else in a Disco decided it was too much water and bailed.394320081_6720044581375883_3626409350108537802_n.jpg
Wuss.
Anyway. Got set up and got the PS4s on after doing sighting laps on the Direzzas. It was a lot wetter than Oulton and I didn't fancy my chances at all!
WhatsApp Image 2023-10-21 at 11.05.05_972e5240.jpg
We were warned that the entry to Bunga Bunga was mildly moist. They weren't wrong.
WhatsApp Image 2023-10-23 at 09.44.48_d74adeae.jpg
This Fiesta driver didn't listen and ended up visiting Shrek in his swamp.
394461189_2226820491042396_3644386054593467043_n.jpg

After a lengthy red flag to pull him out (photo taken by a marshal), track time was underway again. Car ran flawlessly most of the day until a spanner appeared on the dash accompanied by "Check emissions". Car had a slight misfire but once it was back up to temp it was fine so it soldiered on!
53292192613_9da432db6c_o.jpg53291065107_865e2c10e5_o.jpg53291065112_df41665e48_o.jpg53292193558_50a062b9b8_o.jpg53292321364_5d45c82782_o.jpg

Once I'd gotten packed up I made the perilous journey home which was thankfully less eventful than the trip up! Got home late Saturday night and abandoned the car round the side of the house ready to help my mate out with his entry to the final round of Time Attack at Snetterton on Sunday 22nd.

Snetterton Sunday 22nd October - Time Attack round 8

Got to the track around 7am ready to get my mates C6 Corvette ready. Thankfully it didn't need much at all so throughout the day it was a case of experimenting with tyre pressures as the car is near bone stock with the exception of upgraded brakes, lighter wheels and upgraded dampers. It was still running the leaf spring rear suspension! The MRNOISY plate was the original plate he had on the car 15 years ago in America when he bought the car! When he moved back to the UK he imported the car so it's been owned by him for most of its life.
WhatsApp Image 2023-10-22 at 21.20.32_a0c9238b.jpgWhatsApp Image 2023-10-22 at 21.20.32_0fdfc1f1.jpgWhatsApp Image 2023-10-22 at 21.20.32_a1055660.jpg
As you can imagine it was a bit of a fan favourite. Lots of people stopping by the pit garage to talk to us and the circuit commentator was from America so he was very biased toward the mighty Vette.
WhatsApp Image 2023-10-28 at 19.51.48_5430cecc.jpgWhatsApp Image 2023-10-28 at 19.51.42_06e9e0ba.jpg

For those that don't follow me on Insta, you won't have seen the bombardment on my stories from the day. The car was entered in to the Clubman class - the "bottom" group but this basically means the car is mostly stock and has the interior still. As we were a single round entry (SRE, formally known as OHW - One Hit Wonder) we didn't need to worry about tyre choice, Rich was content with finishing off the Yoko AD09 he'd bought when they first came out in the UK and they got destroyed.

As the day progressed, conditions got better and better, the mighty Vette was getting quicker and quicker through the class, which was being led by an AReeve Motorsport prepped Golf GTI running north of 400bhp and lots of trick bits on it. We spent the day fighting with the BTT Motorsport prepared FK8 Civic Type R, finally beating him in the final 2 sessions. At the beginning of the day we said we'd be happy with a steady improvement and that a top 5 in class would keep us happy.
Practice saw us in 4th in class, 3 seconds off the pace. It was damp and greasy and the Vette was struggling to put the power down, posting a time of 1:34.261 on the 200 circuit.
Warm up followed and the other groups had dried the track out for the most part, the times were falling and Rich posted a 1:25.252, 3rd in class and 10th overall.
Qualifying up next, nerves were setting in and I made the decision to knock about 6psi out of the front tyres (cold) as Rich was saying the front was washing wide. It paid off, a time of 1:23.858 was set and 2nd in class was achieved, 1st in class was half a second quicker with a 1:23.330. The DSG box was paying for itself there but we'd dispatched of the CTR in 3rd place which we saw as our target.
Finals. Pressure was on now, we didn't touch the car other than to top up fluids and do a quick spanner check, the AD09s were toast by this point but Rich went out and pushed as much as he dared. 1:22.618! We'd knocked over a second off our best time and we were so close to going quickest, another lap and I think we'd have done it. The winner in class posted a 1:22.516. Fastest lap of the day was here -

For our first steps into motorsport it was massively enjoyable. It's been decided that the Corvette is getting some love over winter and he'll be back for a full season next year. I'm also going to prep my car to compete next year too, although probably only for a few rounds as funds will be tight.

Next up. Cadwell park on the 11th November, followed by Snetterton on the 21st November.

There's also a new project in the makings which I'm very excited by... Keep an eye out for that next weekend if all goes to plan!
 
So after Blyton, I had a few issues pop up with the Clio.PXL_20231025_080722628.jpg
The car would struggle to idle and eventually stall, it would hesitate on throttle too and misfire like a bitch.
So, onto the little ramps she goes.
PXL_20231105_122734215.jpg
After it was mapped, Andy at Engine Dynamics did say my upstream lambda was toast so 2 of those codes make sense. The 3rd will make sense in a mo...
PXL_20231105_130357149.jpg
There were some tiny breaks in the wiring that I assume have been rubbing somewhere for some time and causing issues. Also didn't help that it had worked itself loose! Speaking to Alex at AW Motorworks he said it's fairly common if you're reusing an old sensor as the crush washer is knackered and doesn't bite. New Bosch sensor from Autodoc saved the day (Part no: 0258006046 for the earlier cars with the rounded multiplug), £41.10 rather than the £90+ on RPD, it just took longer to arrive.
I'd already changed the camshaft position sensor which cleared the cam phaser fault code as seen above. I had one of these in the garage from a long time ago, I forget why I ordered it. I also swapped out the crank position sensor too just to be on the safe side, plugged the diagnostic tool in and cleared the codes. The car fired up and the struggle to idle had finally gone!

In other news my temporary CV boot repair has held up just fine, so it's becoming a permanent repair until it no longer holds.
PXL_20231105_130927403.MP.jpg

Next up;

Cadwell Park - Saturday November 11th - https://car.msvtrackdays.com/Calendar/Car/CadwellPark/2023/11/11
Snetterton - Tuesday 21st November - https://javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackdays/Upcoming-Events/SN211123

Then over winter we start prepping for some Time Attack entries in 2024!
 
You always have been a brave man booking winter track days.

Are you getting a full cage for Time Attack or can you do it with just a half cage?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Beany
You always have been a brave man booking winter track days.

Are you getting a full cage for Time Attack or can you do it with just a half cage?

They're cheap days and good for learning a bit more car control, plus they're normally pretty quiet too!

Time Attack doesn't need anything like that for the club classes, it's only when you go into the Pro classes that they get very strict on safety, the only things my car needs are a handheld fire extinguisher and 4 point harnesses. However with my car being mostly stripped out I'll end up in club 2wd I think but it depends what the scrutineers say. So that car will stay as it is for now but a full cage is on the cards anyway as I plan to do some racing in 2025/26 if possible!
 
They're cheap days and good for learning a bit more car control, plus they're normally pretty quiet too!

Time Attack doesn't need anything like that for the club classes, it's only when you go into the Pro classes that they get very strict on safety, the only things my car needs are a handheld fire extinguisher and 4 point harnesses. However with my car being mostly stripped out I'll end up in club 2wd I think but it depends what the scrutineers say. So that car will stay as it is for now but a full cage is on the cards anyway as I plan to do some racing in 2025/26 if possible!

Im looking at TA for next year also, If anything you'll be clubman / clubman+ .. I've gotta go into Pocket rocket due to the interior and performance mods ive done also. Club 2wd is WAY too quick for the clios with the 2l stock lump, so at a PUSH you'll be Pocket rocket. But apply for clubman, and if they think you're not 100% for that class they'll move you to a more suitable one.

Spent weeks trying to figure it out, talking to the TA people / chief scrutineer to get my awsners!
Hope this helps.
 
Would be good to get into… and I’d like to have a crack but unsure of the car category plus I doubt I could run a full season
 
Single Round Entry would be the one! You would need a race suit however which will only make you faster at trackdays anyway!
 
It's been a bit slack for updates lately but there's not been much to report. Car was having issues after the mega wet day at Blyton last year, dephaser problems, sensor issues, fuelling issues and a heap of other shit. I ended up loading the parts cannon and lighting the fuse.

Cadwell was a bit of a bust, spent most of the day coasting around with a distinct lack of power. Decent day otherwise, the weather was great and company was good too.
Snetterton was very wet so the lack of power didn't matter, still frustrating that I had stock NC MX5's in front and I couldn't pass on the straights! I took the Snap On scanner from work and kept resetting fault after fault to get a couple of laps before the car went back into what could only be described as a kind of limp mode.
1.jpg
2.jpg
This was the MX5 I was struggling to pass.
PXL_20231121_123424456.jpg
And this about summed the day up.
PXL_20231121_095351045.jpg

After this the car got chucked on the trailer and forgotten about over the Christmas break.

Ben (of TrackBaguettes fame) did replacement belts and replaced the inlet cam & dephaser pulley for me in January and that seemed to solve some issues but not all of them. The car was still down on power and generally running like a bag of shit, however there were less codes to read now.

Next trackday was the ill-fated Snetterton where Gav and Ethan had a coming together with the barrier, I'd been loading my car up after a disappointing day when we heard the call of a red flag over the tannoy. "Oh no Gav, what have you done?" I said in jest to Ross who had popped down in his Megane 300. We went to the front of the garages to see what was going on and there was no sign of the little white Clio. About 10-15 minutes passed and in came the lads in a different white vehicle, an ambulance! (Standard procedure that any contact with the barrier requires a check up by the medical team).

Anyway, that was a pants end to an already fairly pants day.

Did a few bits and pieces over the last week or so, started with cleaning the throttle body out because it was FULL of gunk, the butterfly was sticky and the throttle felt on or off. Probably not helping things. The KTEC air filter was also fairly clogged so there's a replacement on the way now. More parts were ordered too, I've already got a set of new front discs with fancy dimples and grooves in (Brembo HC Max) and another set of EBC RPX pads, they've really impressed me and feel nothing like EBC products of old! I also decided that the smashed Maxton lip needs replacing so I took advantage of the sale on KTECs page, picking up a brand new one for less than £200. The recurring fault code is now for the cam position sensor (which was new 6 months ago) so I've put the old one back in, cleared the codes and taken the car up the private road and back as quick as I dared. Basically the next trackday is a testing session to see what else could be causing issues. I only changed the cam position sensor because I was having the car mapped so it would give it the best possible chance, the old (original) one was still working. I'm gunna be annoyed if that turns out to be the problem...

The next purchases were to be expected...
I've booked Snetterton for Friday 15th March with Javelin - https://javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackdays/Upcoming-Events/SN150324
Followed by Cadwell on the 8th April, also Javelin - https://javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackdays/Upcoming-Events/CP080424
 
Where did you get the RPX pads from? I checked their website the other day and was saying out of stock.