248 replies to this topic

[nicollow]

I'm just back my holidays then, so the car won't be ready, but I will turn up if you guys are going on

 

Get it sorted this weekend then  

 

 

Whats needing done?

[G-Bob]

Probably something like his air freshener needs changed.

[Claws]

Brake servo hose Oil and filter Plugs HCBs Leaving early Friday AM (It's really a massive but that's not the point ) Eta, Need to install new air freshener and stereo

Edited by Claws, 28 October 2013 - 01:45 PM.

[LY_Scott]

New toe links I think before I do fking anything with the plastic sh*t box. Oh and that lovely deer imprint on the front.

[G-Bob]

do you think that is partly to blame for why I didn't "get" the car/mx5 hype/characteristics/tightness when I had a shot at Kames?

....and its now a million times better again. Just been in for its MOT and they discovered the rear anti-roll bar bracket had snapped which meant it was moving around. Have welded it back together. This looks like it was causing the movement at the rear rather than the suspected knackered shocks. Car is straight as a die now and brakes straight as well.

[Claws]

Nice one!! Glad to see that it has made an improvement, that and the rear ARB mount Happy days!

[ghand]

Nice one!! Glad to see that it has made an improvement, that and the rear ARB mount Happy days!

Funny how they may be better with some structural body work , roll bar, shocks and other sh*t even better for next years Hoon

[Luke84]

This thread makes me want to give my little mk2.5 some love, wife drives it (into stuff) far more than me.

 

Leather heated seats, amazing heater... might steal it off her for winter 

[G-Bob]

Nice one!! Glad to see that it has made an improvement, that and the rear ARB mount Happy days!

Funny how they may be better with some structural body work , roll bar, shocks and other sh*t even better for next years Hoon

Yeah, funny how a fully operational and structurally sound car drives and handles better.

This thread makes me want to give my little mk2.5 some love, wife drives it (into stuff) far more than me.   Leather heated seats, amazing heater... might steal it off her for winter 

The heater on these things is a furnace. You can quite happily drive it topless when its cold out and you have to turn the heat down at times. There are a million and 1 companies making parts for these things to make them better, some of which are good and some bad, but the point is that it doesn't take a lot to get them a bit sharper and make them a lot of fun.

[G-Bob]

So I've not updated this for a while. I've not really done any updates to the car as I've been driving it and doing some autosolo. Turns out I'm not the worst at it with a win 3weeks ago out of 12 and a 3rd out of 10 the following week. On the back of this I've been talking to a load of people about doing a hillclimb&sprint series next year. I've discovered that there is an MX5 only class with quite tight regulations, promoting fairly standard cars without power upgrades. So I've decided to go ahead with it and turns out I'm going racing next year. I'll update my thread here if people are interested and if not, stuff you I'll update it anyway.

[ghand]

So I've not updated this for a while. I've not really done any updates to the car as I've been driving it and doing some autosolo. Turns out I'm not the worst at it with a win 3weeks ago out of 12 and a 3rd out of 10 the following week. On the back of this I've been talking to a load of people about doing a hillclimb&sprint series next year. I've discovered that there is an MX5 only class with quite tight regulations, promoting fairly standard cars without power upgrades. So I've decided to go ahead with it and turns out I'm going racing next year. I'll update my thread here if people are interested and if not, stuff you I'll update it anyway.

Sounds good, enjoying racing, winning some races, all good fun without spending 20k on mods to your VX (Mark).

[Jase_MK]

On the back of this I've been talking to a load of people about doing a hillclimb&sprint series next year. I've discovered that there is an MX5 only class with quite tight regulations, promoting fairly standard cars without power upgrades. So I've decided to go ahead with it and turns out I'm going racing next year. I'll update my thread here if people are interested and if not, stuff you I'll update it anyway.

 Keep us updated.

 

What series are you doing? Is it all Scotland based? I did a season or two of sprints in my old MX5 and it was great, but my biggest problem was having a set of R888 track tyres on which put it into the modified class and I didn't stand a chance. Had I stayed with some 1A tyres I'd have been setting competitive times.

 

On that, what tyres have you got/are you planning to use? I need new tyres for the current MX5 and am wondering what 1A tyres offer the best grip per ££, as I've always got this little idea in my head that I might enter a solo/sprint or two at some point and don't want to make the mistake of ending up with all the modified guys again.

[G-Bob]

The championship is the Scottish Lowland Hillclimb & Sprint Championship which is run over 3 venues up here.

Kames – The sprint tract that we play around on a lot up here.

Forrestburn – A quite twisty handling hillclimb course about 15 miles from my house (never done)

Doune – A Scary hillclimb with lots of walled/barriered narrow sections.

 

The class I’m entering is a class that’s specifically for MX5s and has been setup specifically so that fairly standard MX5’s done have to go up against caterhams, elises, TVRs etc.  The regs don’t allow big power which means it’s not chequebook racing and more about the driver.  See here:  www.eunosecosse.co.uk

 

Tyres wise I’ve not decided just yet.  We can use anything from 1A or 1B.  They have things like T1Rs and the like on the list but I’m a big woofter when it comes to going fast in the wet so will pick something that’s wet grip biast. 

My car currently runs on 15’s but I’ve just managed to get a refurbished set of 14’s for £60 (no-one wanted them because they were 14’s) which should mean the tyre costs come down a bit with the smaller size.  The weight of the wheel is 2.5kg less each corner as well which helps. 

The tyres that people seem to rate in the class are the conti premium contact.  There’s been a few of the good tyres replaced recently and the new versions are not on the list yet which is a bit of a pain.

 

Next after the brakes are sorted out (unstuck, new pads and new fluid) I need to start looking at suspension because I have no dampening anymore on the standard shocks and the car is bouncing like a pram on the Eibach springs that TT gave me.  The choice with MX5’s is huge though and there are a lot of different opinions.

[Jase_MK]

Sounds good, Bob. 

 

I also looked at 14" tyres as I have a spare set of std 14s in the garage, but I found that 195/50/15s were actually cheaper for a lot of tyre models as it's such a popular size. Weight is obviously a factor though, as you say.

 

 

[G-Bob]

I'd be running 185/60/r14 which is a common size as well. I don't think that the 10mm of contact patch will be the limiting factor on my car and is more likely to be the driver. At this level, as long as I have a solid car with conservative upgrades then I think that will be enough for me to tune my craft and make some good progress.

[G-Bob]

So the wheels arrived:

 

Will probably need to wait until next month until I get tyres for these bad boys but happy with them for £60.  

 

For those of you on PusBook, I've started a page for documenting the trials and tribulations of my build and season out racing.

See here:   Bawzoot Racing

[G-Bob]

Thought I'd post a bit of an update (bored at work):

 

Entries:

I'm now completely signed up to the MX5register and lowland sprint&hillclimb championship so all entries are in.  My Nat B license came yesterday as well so I'm all legal and ready to go.

 

Gear for me:

OMP power ranger outfit and gloves were bought by my in-laws for my christmas which is great, and my Snell SA2010 spec helmet was bought for me by my parents. (been lucky this year).

I've decided against the boots because I prefer to drive in bigger shoes (merrel trainers) so that I can mash all the pedals at once and as it turns out they are not a requirement under the regulations.

 

Car bits:

I've bought everything I need (bar some rear brake pads) and have started getting them fitted to the car.

Started with the Slinderella stage 1 vx220 seat.  I forgot how solid the vx seats are when the padding is a bit worn. 

 

My Bilstein suspension with shortened springs were fitted last weekend and my Torsen LSD is being fitted tomorrow.

 

In the time since the last update I've got some wheels and ordered some Nankang NS-2R tyres to go on them so next (hopefully next weekend) I'll be up to visit John (jtj30) to get the tyres fitted and my geo done.     When that's all done I'll be scrubbing the tyres in on the road in advance of giving the car a shake down at Kames towards the end of the month.

 

Rear brakes need to be done, but that should be an easy enough job before the season starts.   So all I should have to do after that lot is to put some stickers on around my ignition barrel and pointing to my towing straps.

 

Race dates:

[color=rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;]Round 1 12 April, 2015 Kames East Ayrshire C.C.[/color]
[color=rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;]Round 2 19 April, 2015 Doune Lothian C.C.[/color]
[color=rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;]Round 3 16 May, 2015 Kames Scottish Sporting C.C.[/color]
[color=rgb(20,24,35);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;]Round 4 17 May, 2015 Kames Machars C.C.
Round 5 20/21 June, 2015 Doune Lothian C.C.
Round 6 28 June, 2015 Forrestburn Monklands Sporting C.C.
Round 7 25 July, 2015 Kames East Ayrshire C.C.
Round 8 26 July, 2015 Kames East Ayrshire C.C.
Round 9 30 August, 2015 Forrestburn Monklands Sporting C.C.
Round 10 19/20 September Doune Lothian C.C.
Round 11 4 October, 2015 Kames Wigton M.C.[/color]

 

 

Overall, I think I'm almost organised to start racing.  

 

 

 

 

[G-Bob]

The suspension is on.

The Diff is on (although it needs a new seal because it's leaking)

The wheels and tyres are on

The Geo has been done.

 

Had my first test day at Kames last weekend which was a bit of an experience.  Learning the car with still to be scrubbed track tyres on a snow/slush covered track was not the best chance to be setting times and giving the car a good beating.

 

The main things (apart from the weather) was trying to learn the new balance of the car.   The back end breaks a lot quicker with the new geo, and this combined with the really sharp turn in means I really need to adjust my driving style.

 

Rather than turn it in and if the front holds I can beast it out the corner, I need to remember I can go faster into the corner but have to feather the go-pedal on the way out rather than weld it to the bulkhead.

 

Towards the end the slush cleared and it was just wet with massive areas of standing water so I managed to experiment with a few different lines.   According to the video I managed a 110sec run in the slush, with too much wheelspin at the start and locked the brakes 3 times.   

 

110secs is about level with the slowest wet time last season so I'm not completely out of it.  

 

 

The biggest thing that was holding me back though was my brakes.  The fronts are sharp as hell but I have no braking power on the back meaning the car is diving forward and locking up.   Full rear brake refresh is on the cards this weekend so that should make a difference and mean I don't have to brake as early for fear of locking up.

 

 

Next testing day -  29th of March (2 weeks before the start of the season)

[LazyDonkey]

You should have bought a biscuit Vx seat 

 

...will try and make it down to one of your events*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*if you text me and remind me a few days beforehand

[ChrisS1]

Nice one, will keep an eye on the thread Bob

 

Do you need any safety equipment like roll bars?