2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

[Helpimonfire]

Not exciting but it does sound nice. Less raspy than the Scorpion exhaust was.

 

[burrellbloke]

It will be like a new beast - I am looking forward to seeing it at Oulton.

 

[Onrus]

What exhaust did you fit?

 

[Helpimonfire]

What exhaust did you fit?

It's an older Milltek by the looks of things. 2½" to the tip with a Powerflow box fitted in the centre section. At least the mid part is Milltek anyway! Got a nicer tone than the Scorpion in my opinion but I've only heard it on the dyno, as the car isn't road legal I haven't taken it for a rip yet.

 

[NickD]

Snetterton happened. Met up with @Bomster and another mate with a tasty Corvette. I'd booked a garage because I assumed it was going to be red hot all day but I was wrong. Still nice to have the space though.View attachment 154865View attachment 154864
Alex from AW Motorworks was there in a freshly built 182 turbo as seen above, the few laps he spent behind me was a big ego boost for me as he asked Alex how much power my car had as it can't have been standard, the response of "no extra power, just a healthy lack of mechanical sympathy when it's warmed up" was had.
View attachment 154863
Spent a lot of time running nose to tail with Bomster in his mostly standard (and very tidy) 200, he was struggling with front end grip due to a lack of camber and running on the shoulder of his R888Rs.
I did swap the wheels over and spent the morning on the AR1s and the afternoon on MRFs. Still a lot of back to back testing to be done I think, the AR1 is a quicker tyre but feels much softer on the sidewalls and the car feels more skittish under braking, however the MRFs have less outright grip (and speed) but the car feels more stable. This was reflected in the lap times which don't really tell the whole story.
Ended up with a quickest lap of 2:23.2 which was disappointing to be honest. I was on for a best of a 2:20.x but coming across a 3 wide gaggle of cars doing 40mph through Coram scuppered that, especially when they tripped over each other through the final corner and sat in the way all the way to the finish line.
View attachment 154862View attachment 154861
Overall a good day, still very impressed with the EBC RPX pads. The car struggled with front end grip and power all day long, getting a better corner exit and pulling away from a stock 200, then being reeled in along the straight is a horrible feeling.


Passenger laps in the Corvette was wild though. When I originally saw the car last year I assumed it would be a typical straight line hero but I was very wrong. Absolute animal and felt like it had more to give, impressive that he managed to dip into the 2:12s with traffic!

You want the soft MRF if you want to out do the AR1, which you would, but obviously it would wear quicker than the medium or hard, but probably still less than the Nankang. My car weighed 1250kg on Donington's scales and still did a 2:21 round Snett and probably been quicker if the gear change wasn't so slow.

 

[RSRowe]

if you want to out do the AR1

As a slight detraction to the thread - can you persuade MRF to start doing 245/40 or 255/40 in 17" for us Megane folk. Pleaseeeeee

 

[Helpimonfire]

You want the soft MRF if you want to out do the AR1, which you would, but obviously it would wear quicker than the medium or hard, but probably still less than the Nankang. My car weighed 1250kg on Donington's scales and still did a 2:21 round Snett and probably been quicker if the gear change wasn't so slow.

For reference with a quicker driver, my car on MRFs can do a 2:18, however I don't have the same amount of skill or testicular size!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Another day, another middle finger up at the baguette.



For the 3rd time now I've had a CV boot piss grease everywhere, usually I leave it to someone that knows what they're doing to fix it, but as I couldn't get booked in anywhere I ended up doing this myself. Oddly enough I seem to have a Renault Scenic driveshaft on the left front when looking at part numbers for the boot. So the genuine part I bought didn't fit. Standard really.

Luckily the boot that was on hadn't actually split. I cleaned it out and checked for any damage and there was none at all. Thankfully the last time it shat itself, it ejected all the grease so there's wasn't much to clean out of the boot. The gearbox, bulkhead and everything else in the area weren't so lucky...



With the Blackline LSD, it seems to be a common thing that the N/S shaft is an absolute pig to remove, I couldn't get the bloody thing out so it stayed there. I rebuilt the joint and ended up having to rebuild the shaft in place, you can imagine the frustration. The first picture sums it up. I only really need the shaft to last the day at Oulton, after that it can explode as I should have some indoor storage lined up locally with an actual concrete floor, rather than the gravel driveway I currently work on!
You can see here how little space I have to work on the car. Banging my head on the boiler flue guard was great fun for the 85th time in 1 day..

 

[RSRowe]

 

[Beany]

Hopefully this time round is enough to stop it or time to get rid and get a gripper

 

[EthanMenace]

View attachment 155518

Hopefully this time round is enough to stop it or time to get rid and get a gripper

+1 on that, Driveshafts fall out with a gripper ez

 

[burrellbloke]

I was watching some DannyDC2 on YouTube yesterday and you appeared in his recent Cadwell video.

 

[Helpimonfire]

Yeah I went up there to watch some racing, spent the day watching them swap an engine. Impressive stuff to be fair!

 

[Beany]

I was watching some DannyDC2 on YouTube yesterday and you appeared in his recent Cadwell video.

View attachment 155611

Looking cheerful as ever @Helpimonfire

 

[Helpimonfire]

Looking cheerful as ever @Helpimonfire

Usually happens when people shove a camera in my face!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Oulton Park - 19/9/23

It's been almost 2 years since I was last at Oulton and I've missed it a lot. Honestly one of my favourite tracks that I've been to so far and it'll take a lot to change that thought.
Wet day which was going to prove interesting as I'd sold my wheels with "wet weather" tyres on, so my choices were the newly purchased Direzzas or AR1s. I stuck with the Dunlops as they have a tread pattern that looks like it'll move water away a little.

In the run up to Oulton I'd found a few issues that needed sorting out, a couple wheel studs had about 5 degrees of free movement so they were all removed and cleaned out, fresh Loctite applied and left for a day to go off fully.


Direzzas mounted and ready to go on the car.

Was a little concerned about rubbing but that didn't seem to be an issue that I could see in the end! Fitment was perfect, rear was a slight concern but turned out alright in the end.
Car was loaded up and ready to go on Sunday, ready to hit the road on Monday! Which had its own dramas... I'd made it about 20 miles and the trailer kept swaying a little, this was odd because it was loaded same as usual with the same weight distribution as normal. Stopped for fuel and when I walked to the trailer to fill the Clio up it became apparent there was an issue, one that could have canned the trackday. The right rear wheel on the trailer was seriously hot with a bit of smoke coming off the brake drum so I knew it could have been serious, best case was a sticky brake, worst was a failed wheel bearing. So round to Tesco car park we went, took up about 8 parking bays and had a look, thankfully after unloading the Clio, getting all my tools out it turned out one of the brake cables had rusty bits and wouldn't let the brake release. Got it freed off and slackened the rear axle brakes off a bit - not ideal but it'll do.
Anyway. Oulton. Mega happy to be going back to the track as said before, it's easily a favourite!

Car was faultless all day, even in the wet on Direzzas. Definitely need a driver mod now, the car is more capable than I am for sure. One lad came over to me about mid-morning and said the car was spitting flames which amused me more than it should have done. Explains the melty bit on the back now...


10/10 would go back again.

 

[NickD]

Oulton Park - Friday 17th November 2023

The track at Oulton Park is built into the natural contours of the Cheshire countryside and is well known for its rapidly changing gradients, blind

mottrackdays.com

60 cars only

 

[Helpimonfire]

We'll see how next month goes! I'd like to go back again soon.

I did however book onto a Blyton day for next month. Saturday 21st October with Trackday Solutions. Don't think there's many spaces left, if any now.

I'd also like to do Donington again at some point, just not on a Sunday this time...

 

[Tarticmonkey]

I’ll be interested to know what you think to TDS as they’re days are a lot more relaxed than other organisers I’ve found.

 

[Helpimonfire]

With the weather potentially getting wet and wild as the year draws to a close, I figur d it was time to replace the Eagle F1s I stupidly sold earlier this year. All I ever hear is how good Michelin PS4's are in wet conditions so I've taken a punt on a set. Just need to get them mounted in time for Blyton in a fortnight!

Nothing else needs doing tbh now. The CV boot repair seems to be holding, just need to keep an eye on the brake discs as they're looking a little worse for wear with a few micro cracks appearing in the middle of the wear face but that's not really a concern to be fair.