2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

[Helpimonfire]

Sh1t happens sometimes. Although I'm no fan of Javelin, I wouldn't necessarily lay the blame completely at their feet. It really does depend who turns up on the day. I did Donno with them a few weeks ago without too much agro, although I do find a massive difference between week-day track days and weekend track days.

The problem is that I've done a Snetterton evening session with them and it wasn't the best either. I dunno, I may give them another chance next year. I may avoid the weekend brigade and eat into my holiday entitlement!

 

[Beany]

The problem is that I've done a Snetterton evening session with them and it wasn't the best either. I dunno, I may give them another chance next year. I may avoid the weekend brigade and eat into my holiday entitlement!

to be brave and step in from the Javelin bashing, I’ve had nothing but good days so far from them… whilst numbers are dependant on the TDO the releasing of cars onto track is and will be done by the circuit Marshall’s not the TDO! Depend if you get lucky and have a nob or someone decent… also it’s the muppet who thinks he’s been waved out that he can gun it onto the racing line and not check his mirrors

 

[Helpimonfire]

to be brave and step in from the Javelin bashing, I’ve had nothing but good days so far from them… whilst numbers are dependant on the TDO the releasing of cars onto track is and will be done by the circuit Marshall’s not the TDO! Depend if you get lucky and have a nob or someone decent… also it’s the muppet who thinks he’s been waved out that he can gun it onto the racing line and not check his mirrors

To be fair to Javelin, the guy on pit exit should really be sent elsewhere, it was like he was actively sending people out into traffic. Like I said though, I'll give them another go as a TDO in the new year, hopefully they'll have a Monday event at Oulton Park...

 

[Helpimonfire]

This bloody Exocet was a mobile roadblock all day. Fittingly it's painted Traffic Cone Orange. I entered Craners at the rear of this pack and pushed my way through. By the next corner I was ahead of them all.

 

[RSRowe]

Probably couldn’t go any faster cus of the tyres he’s got fitted!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Probably couldn’t go any faster cus of the tyres he’s got fitted!

I was amazed at the amount of cars running the ol' Toyo Proxes on Sunday. Probably goes some way to explain the amount of red flags...

 

[Helpimonfire]

So. First post of 2022 and as expected, I haven't actually done anything to the car other than chuck it on the trailer and drag it off to a track or 2.

Snetterton 15/01/22
I wasn't going to book anything this early in the year but if you've seen any of my posts, by now you know I enjoy spending money on stuff and things. Opentrack had a Boxing Day sale and this was down to a lowly £99. So of course I booked it.
Damp start to the morning was soon forgotten about when I treated myself to a breakfast stick from the cafe, I ended up wearing a lot of it but it was worth it. Got out on track and everyone was surprisingly well behaved, couple yellow flags but nothing too serious. Met up with @tcw and his crew, didn't really get a lot of track time with them, but when I did I spent about 10 laps chasing his father in law, yet again highlighting the fact my car could really do with a diff.

Only photo I took all day!
Ended the day with my first proper off at around 3pm. Carried more speed through the final section, took Bombhole flat in 4th and went into Coram faster than I'd ever done. This was my undoing though, when I touched the brakes to turn into Murrays the rear locked up and sent me into a (probably hilarious) tankslapper. Proper pendulum effect and I ended up bouncing over a sausage kerb, smashing a chunk off my splitter and ending up on the grass near the pit entry. I didn't even bother getting back on track, just drove straight across the grass, into the pits and straight on the trailer.

Cadwell Park 22/01/22
First time at Cadwell and it didn't bode well on the drive in. Thick fog, frozen roads, -1*C all the way there. The start was delayed by over an hour as sections of the track were still frozen and the paddock was like an ice rink so I swapped over to my road/wet tyres while waiting for the sighting laps to begin.

Ended up getting out on track around 10.30am and to the marshalls credit, they cut their lunch break short so we could get more track time!

Thankfully the day went really well, a dry line started to appear around 2pm and everyone started pushing HARD by this point. I'd seen a Megane and a Clio 182 approaching fast into Hall bencds, Hairpin and Barn so I moved over to let them through, once they'd passed I tagged onto the back of them. Coming into Coppice I was still a little tentative and I'm glad I was, as I hit the apex all I saw was the Megane hard on the brakes to avoid a spinning 182 which I'd have collected if I was going any quicker! She was fine, didn't hit anything either which is always a bonus. I spoke to her afterwards and it turns out she has a YouTube channel and the video will go on there, I'll link it when it's uploaded.

By this point I decided to switch over to the MRFs and see how they'd cope with the cold and minor damp patches. The front end of the car was absolutely disgusting only to get worse on the journey home. The MRFs did well but I decided to call it a day when the yellows made several appearances. Really enjoyed the day though but I really need to get the alignment done, I haven't got much confidence in the car at high speed so I best get parts ordered and get it booked in!

 

[LiamP]

Two days already, good work!

 

[R20BTG]

Super keen start to the year!

 

[Benno]

Nice start to the year. Think my old Megane was up at Cadwell today!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Nice start to the year. Think my old Megane was up at Cadwell today!

R200BMS? I knew I recognised the plate from somewhere!

 

[Benno]

R200BMS? I knew I recognised the plate from somewhere!

Yeah man! 3 years I had it, decided it was time to call it a day after the Nurburgring trip in September.

Ironically the person that bought it from me was out in Germany at the same time as us, we were at the Nurburgring sign on the same evening doing twat laps up and down the road[emoji23]

 

[Helpimonfire]

Yeah man! 3 years I had it, decided it was time to call it a day after the Nurburgring trip in September.

Ironically the person that bought it from me was out in Germany at the same time as us, we were at the Nurburgring sign on the same evening doing twat laps up and down the road[emoji23]

He was driving it properly, that's for sure! So you could say it's in the right hands now.

 

[Helpimonfire]

So. More updates.

Snetterton 300 - 12/2/22 with MOT Trackdays.

Last minute booking here, absolutely no prep done with work being as busy as it is. Only came about as I was originally dropping my car off for an alignment on the Saturday morning for work to be done this morning, luck would have it that everyone at work has been absolutely grafting so they gave us today (14/2) off, paid. So straight onto the MOT Trackdays website to book up and what a brilliant choice that was!

All day long it was dry and mostly sunny, low numbers day so there was very little traffic to contend with and I believe there was only 2 red flags throughout the day, 1 for an MX5 that caught fire and the other for a turbo MX5 dropping oil on track. Fantastic day run by @NickD and I had a couple passenger laps with @Big Ben in his turbo monster.

On to today, after the rescheduled drop off, I spoke to the guys at Autotest in Norwich, this morning and they took all the details of what the car was doing, how it was behaving and what I wanted out of the car. I told them it was 99.9% track work so they set their resident race driver on it. (He races in the BRSCC MX5 championship and has previously ran a Mk3 Clio in another series so he's fairly clued up). I left the car with them (along with my weight so they could accurately set the geo up with a driver in) and around 3 hours later I picked it up again. Great service by them.


This is the fun part. Immediately you can see the toe is WAAYYYY out, so far out it wouldn't even register a reading on their Hunter 3D system, I knew this was the case but didn't realise how far out it would be. Camber was also a bit uneven so they sorted that out. They mentioned that they had just over 3 degrees of camber out of the YSR topmounts which was more than expected but they pulled it back to around 2 1/4 degrees both sides, very slight toe out on the front and they brought the caster to within spec too. I'm going to run this setup for a few trackdays and see how I get on, they said that if I wanted any adjustment, to tell them what the car was doing and they'd adjust to suit me.

The rear was actually pretty good, only a little toe in but as you can see, the camber on the NSR is way out there, almost 3 degrees! I was told to head to Pure Motorsport and order a 30' and 60' camber shim, this way they can either bring the NSR into spec with the OSR, or they can go with the 60' in the NS and 30' in the OS, which would give me just under 2 degrees of camber in the rear.

I only drove the car a few hundred yards to load onto my trailer but it immediately felt better, it originally went past 1/4 turn of lock and felt like it wanted to keep pulling the wheel around. This is gone now!

Very happy with the work and an absolute bargain at only £84!

 

[Helpimonfire]

I might even clean the car one day

 

[Helpimonfire]

(I threatened to do it... The car is finally clean!)
No pictures from yesterday as I spent all my time out on track, but...

Snetterton 26/2/22
Got my dates mixed up, I was sure someone else from here was booked on to this date but I was wrong, nevertheless I went and had an epic day. Had a couple mates come down for passenger laps and they loved it, spend pretty much all day on track, only stopping for fuel (used a tank and a half which is good going!) and for lunch.
With the geo set, I had way more confidence in the car, the front end felt grippier and I could play with the throttle mid corner to pull the rear around a little. Very little was going past me all day which is always a bonus! The MRFs are still going strong, they look barely worn and they still grip hard, still highlighting the lack of diff however. The PBS ProRace pads are still going strong too, I've ordered another set but mine still have over a third left on them!

Only niggle from the entire day is a slight clutch issue which seems to resolve itself with a few pumps, I think there's air in the clutch line. I might bleed it if I get a chance this coming weekend. It doesn't stop me changing gear, just brings this bite point down to near the floor. Hopefully it'll survive the next trackday in a fortnight at Cadwell, then if funds allow it'll get a diff and clutch before Croft!

 

[Big Ben]

Looking good mate. Everyone’s in a mad rush to get upgrades sorted for Croft

I wonder who was booked on at Snetterton and cancelled

 

[Helpimonfire]

So. Cadwell. 06/3/22
First time booking with Circuit Days, price was good so you knew how that was going to go Got there around 8ish, got unloaded and went off to sign in, grabbed some breakfast on my way out and went off to meet my mate who was coming up for some passenger laps. Wes turned up and off he went to get a driver wristband, ended up coming back with a sticker for track time so I knew it was going to be a lairy day!


Wes was kind enough to let me throw his Golf around the track in exchange for some laps in mine, it was his idea, he just threw the keys at me and told me not to bin it. 400+bhp, AWD with a DSG 'box, this thing is an animal. Very capable machine but maybe a little too capable, it grips hard but other than being batshit fast, I struggled to get into a rhythm, I think the fear of binning a £25k car with £13k of REVO goodies on it was holding me back a little. He absolutely fell in love with the Clio and he actually showed me how much faster I can be in it, he's handy behind the wheel and was monstering the Clio around all day long, I think he did more laps in it than I did!

Only had a few issues but they could be worked around, 3rd gear synchro is toast. Mega toast. Heel and toe downshifting helped a massive amount but it's still time for a rebuild, can't argue as it's still the original clutch and box from factory, now on close to 124k miles!
PBS pads finally let go, so I replaced them after lunch with another set of PBS Pro Race. I couldn't fault them in all honesty, they're surprisingly kind to the discs too and at £138 delivered from KTEC, a bit of a bargain all things considered.
I let the car down too. I pushed too hard on cold rear tyres and lost it big time round Charlies. Ended up digging 4 trenches across the grass towards the marshall post Found loads of Cadwell grass and mud in the arches, subframe, splitter, wheels and up the side of the car, but no damage other than a bruised ego. Came back in and checked the car over, all was good so we went again.

Called it a day at around 4.30, I was shattered and the car deserved a rest after the abuse it was given all day!

 

[Helpimonfire]

This was all that came of my off. Dirty wheel and tyre and clumps of mud everywhere.



All loaded up and ready to go home. Roll on Croft in May!

This is the Golf in question. 2019 Golf R. Revo stage 2, Micheline Cup Sport 2 on the rear and something similar up front. Bit of an animal!

 

[Beany]

You still tempted by Cadwell end of the month