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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Finally found an engine for the Corsa.

1.2 twinport, with gearbox, and both engine and interior looms. £40. Burns oil.

Valve stem oil seals - £14.00 for 16

Piston rings - Around £50.00 for 4 sets

Stands me at around £104.00.

No need for the gearbox, and they sell at roughly £50.00 on ebay.

£54 quid for a refreshed engine, noice.

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Still 'umming and 'arring about exhausts! I want something that will get through an MOT (albeit the cat below isn't type approved...) so this is the latest plan...

That's a good idea, but you will probably find you will need to put a flange on one end of the cat to bolt up to the downpipe section, then a piece of pipe flared on the other end to join the rest of the system. There more than likely won't be enough room to fit the cat in the area you have highlighted.

If you do it the way I have said, you can then just swap the cat in and out at MOT time.

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I guess we are due an update after yesterday!

Saturday night we all bundled to Prawns and his lovely lady cooked a roast dinner, we drank alcohol free beer and watched Aussie V8 racing in the wet.

Up at 5 and on the road to Curby, 2 hours 40 mins to get there.

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I like it when Team Prawn Racing hits the road in convoy, it's a nice feeling rolling along in two badass 8L's.

I took a picture to show my excitement.

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We arrived just after gates opening at 8:15, popped up the tent and dropped George Michael off then went to the Shell station for some bang bang juice.

Morning briefing done, Prawn and I jumped straight to the front of the line up.

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The way Curby works you tend to stay in the same order all day, so for hours Prawn and I were going back to back. This wasn't enjoyable because we never got to see each other.

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We did spend a lot of time pushing each other's cars though.

This type of event is very odd because it is almost totally anonymous.

There are people who are clearly fast, because their car and general style dictates that they must be. But because there is no timing, and nobody really knows how you're doing it's all a mystery until lunch time.

So I didn't have a clue if I was shit of not.

Looking back retrospectively at the times I was averaging in the mid 30 second range, consistently doing anywhere between 30.3 and 30.7 seconds.

I took Prawn out for a lap, which was my penultimate before I went for lunch,

He showed me some places where I was losing lots of time, so I went out for my last morning lap and ran a little wider, braked a little earlier in places to get a better entry line and later in places to take a late apex.

I felt happy with my times, things were smooth.

Lunch came and we ran up to the timing van to see what we had clocked.

I was astounded to see I was within half a second of third place, which happened to be a 300bhp turbo'd 16v Mk2, which is a hugely spec'd well seasoned endurance race car with a much more experienced driver who has done the Curby track quite a bit in the past. Which was most certainly running on form, because he was very close to chasing the tails of the local hero Gurds in his mental Mk1 race car.

We were clearly both having a fantastic day.

I know it's not about who you beat, but beating yourself. However I was really pleased to see I could compete with such a fantastic car and driver, AND improve on my lap times and get below the 30 second mark. A really encouraging thought :) Now I just had to work on being as tidy as the Mk2 ahead of me, and keeping my driving smooooth like his.

Unfortunately Sparrow in the Mk2 ran into some quite terminal suspension issues shortly after the second session started which was a real shame, I believe it's all in hand mind you and is already on the road to being sorted.

I did get some videos in the afternoon sessions which will hopefully give people an idea of what this kind of event is.

The circuit is a B shape in mirror. But the upright of the B has a short tail coming off the end of it you join and exit.

There is a timing light about a third down the straight, so you do an in-lap to warm up then fly through the light gate and do a flying lap then exit.

curborough_fb_front.png

Here my laps -

http://youtu.be/q08AtMqKaV8

And filmed in the car -

http://youtu.be/e3Pz5cLZdTI

So at the end of the day, I went home a winner.

Because I drove 150 miles there, thrashed the car all day, went sub 30 seconds, improved on my times, met some fantastic people and drove 150 miles home without having to do anything other than push the DV vac hose back on and check the oil.

£45 for the day, £60 in fuel.

£105 for a full days racing. Unbeatable.

In terms of sheer times I was the fastest of the ASN group, and finished with a high 29 second time.

Prawn did a lap in Daz's car which took my 4th place. And an S4 on slicks which wasn't really part of the day turned up and put in some spanking laps which were faster than mine. But I'm not counting him because he wasn't on the original list, and 5th isn't as good as 4th :P

Plans moving forward.

The car needs more grip, I was the fastest entrant on road tires. Worn out ones at that.

So I need to get on it with some NS2R's or the like as get my 595's sold.

I need more support in the car, buckets are a must if I'm upping the grip. I almost couldn't hold on to the wheel enough to stay in the seat.

The brakes aren't good enough for repetitive stops and more aggressive work than road. So a pad upgrade needs to happen.

And I need to realign and set up the suspension to suit the lighter car now it is partially stripped.

Happy days, thanks to Prawn Jojo and Daz for such great company.

Roll on Donnington next month :)

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Sounds like a cracking day out! I'm itching to get to Curborough for one of these sprint days sometime, seems like the ability to time really adds something.

I must pull you up on this though:

£105 for a full days racing. Unbeatable.

No, just no :P

Oh, and NS2Rs are pretty much bang on the same pace as the Federal RSR 595s, I've tested them back to back (both are control tyres for our series). Both are fastest when they are nearly worn out, too.

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It's a bit of a motivator, not having anybody to directly compare or race against.

I should have put racing in inverted commas, but you know what I mean.

Newbie turns up, no pressure, drive as slow or fast as you like, no competition or hassle from other cars, nice short stint so minimal car wear.

Or you can go flat out for times and make a proper day of it.

I liked it :)

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Looked forward to an event this weekend for the past 6 months, decided to bleed the brakes friday afternoon as the brakes were a bit shit.

Bubbled up more than Snoop's bong, master cylinder shat it's pants. Bernard is not in the good books right now.

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f**k insurance companies. f**k them f**king all. f**king so annoying.

Can't get cheaper than £595. I then do a re-quote with EXACTLY the same details and that bastarding quote jumps to £650!!! Pile of f**king annoyance.

I guarantee it's like the whole flight thing where if you do a quote, and go to another site and come back and do it again it jumps up because they track your cookies.

I'm 22, 4 years ncb, 5 years driving and I can't get it cheaper than £595 :/

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Probably worth factoring in where they are with that too (and where they say the car is stored and all that kinda shit)? I know it f**ks with the simplicity of that, but it's a more honest appraisal of it...

I didn't think people would want to reply with that much info for times sake :P

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Yeah, but my quotes, depending on level of honesty, varied by a fairly substantial %age depending on those results so it wouldn't necessarily give you a realistic reflection of how much you should be paying.

In any case: £380~, 27, 4, Focus 1.8 LX.

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