Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Hi all,
It's been quite a while since my last update. This has predominantly been due to my retiring from the army due to an injuey....
Luckily the army are more than willing to allow me to still race under their banner as a veteran associate.
Because of this, my season was cut short last year. I didn't want the expense of racing with a risk of being unemployed looming over my head. Luckily I managed to land a job, before leaving the army, as a pipe fitter.
To keep myself amused/fit I went onto 2 wheels.
So onto preparations for this years season in the armed forces race challenge.
After a dominant display of pace last year, I don't plan on going too mad with making the car much faster for this year. The plan is to mainly try and make it as reliable as possible and to give me a nice and consistent base to work from.
A few weeks ago I decided to give the cars running gear a spruce up. Unfortunately my wife's Evos in the garage so I was relegated to the drive lol.
1 area I wanted to look at was the exe-tc suspension, which were a bit tight the last time gary@apt done my geo. Now they've been stripped, greased and reassembled, they are nice and free for adjustment.
Earlier this week I went to visit Rossport for a chat with Ross and to get a few bits for the car. He is going to be supporting me and the car again for this year and I am very great full for his help!
Rossport rear discs
Giro disc pads
Tial BOV
3" air filter
Modular 3" downpipe
Rossport/pace intercooler
So with a little haul in the spare room, today I set about fitting a few bits and test fitting some other bits.
Hadn't realised this bugger was even bent, good job a decided to splash out on a new 1!
Trial fit. Now time to get my tape measure and angle finder out so I can start knocking up some pipes at work !
Now time for a well executed compusary pit stop
So that's pretty much where I'm at now. Plans before my first race in a month and a bit, at silverstone are;
Strip a bit more weight out
Rear arb
Make new IC piping and exhaust
Hopefully a few days of testing
Looking forward to getting it all done and driving it again !
Thanks for looking.
It's been quite a while since my last update. This has predominantly been due to my retiring from the army due to an injuey....
Luckily the army are more than willing to allow me to still race under their banner as a veteran associate.
Because of this, my season was cut short last year. I didn't want the expense of racing with a risk of being unemployed looming over my head. Luckily I managed to land a job, before leaving the army, as a pipe fitter.
To keep myself amused/fit I went onto 2 wheels.
So onto preparations for this years season in the armed forces race challenge.
After a dominant display of pace last year, I don't plan on going too mad with making the car much faster for this year. The plan is to mainly try and make it as reliable as possible and to give me a nice and consistent base to work from.
A few weeks ago I decided to give the cars running gear a spruce up. Unfortunately my wife's Evos in the garage so I was relegated to the drive lol.
1 area I wanted to look at was the exe-tc suspension, which were a bit tight the last time gary@apt done my geo. Now they've been stripped, greased and reassembled, they are nice and free for adjustment.
Earlier this week I went to visit Rossport for a chat with Ross and to get a few bits for the car. He is going to be supporting me and the car again for this year and I am very great full for his help!
Rossport rear discs
Giro disc pads
Tial BOV
3" air filter
Modular 3" downpipe
Rossport/pace intercooler
So with a little haul in the spare room, today I set about fitting a few bits and test fitting some other bits.
Hadn't realised this bugger was even bent, good job a decided to splash out on a new 1!
Trial fit. Now time to get my tape measure and angle finder out so I can start knocking up some pipes at work !
Now time for a well executed compusary pit stop
So that's pretty much where I'm at now. Plans before my first race in a month and a bit, at silverstone are;
Strip a bit more weight out
Rear arb
Make new IC piping and exhaust
Hopefully a few days of testing
Looking forward to getting it all done and driving it again !
Thanks for looking.
Satoshi-5GSR
New Member
- Messages
- 20
- Location
- South Derbyshire
Liking the thread Tom, you've had your fair share of car woes by the looks of things, but glad to see you carrying on with it.
Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Made a little bit of progress over the weekend.
Managed to get the rear suspension all cleaned up etc then fitted the new rear brakes so the rear is moveable again.
And yes I know I need to referb my rear calipers but they work fine and as the race season is fast approaching I need to prioritise a bit.
I also measured up all of my piping so I've asked about at work and hopefully I'll get that little lot soon.
1 thing I also measured up was a long arm intake pipe i.e it goes through into the wing and sits directly behind the air intake. Has anyone done this or is there no point?
Tom
Managed to get the rear suspension all cleaned up etc then fitted the new rear brakes so the rear is moveable again.
And yes I know I need to referb my rear calipers but they work fine and as the race season is fast approaching I need to prioritise a bit.
I also measured up all of my piping so I've asked about at work and hopefully I'll get that little lot soon.
1 thing I also measured up was a long arm intake pipe i.e it goes through into the wing and sits directly behind the air intake. Has anyone done this or is there no point?
Tom
Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Hi all,
Thought I'd give a little update, as I've managed to get a bit done this week.
First off, the piping has been a bit of a pain. Only really due to not having the facilities at home to tack it in place and offer it up etc. here's how I managed to get around it.....
As tempting as it was to see how long duck tape (black and nasty) would last, I thought Id better weld them up at work. Please excuse the welding, I don't do much of it!
Here we have the cold/hot side IC piping and a new exhaust that will exit i front of the offside rear wheel and look towards the ground, as I'm fed up of having to worry about db tests and I might run a diffuser at some point.
The keen eyed amount you may have noticed an rs diff set up
This will be fitted once the car is up and running again and I can get it over to a mates garage and up on a lift.
So tonight I managed to put some of it back together. I'm retaining the maf for now, and just making sure its all working as it should. I have a non MAF intake to fit, along with taking off my IM to drill and tap it for the IAT sensor, to run on SD. MAF is what I know at the mo, so I won't try and run before I can walk.
So jobs left to do; finish putting it all together, delete sas (do I splash even more out and but a fancy manifold?) visit Rossport next week for a breather set up, convert to SD and then map.
Tom
Thought I'd give a little update, as I've managed to get a bit done this week.
First off, the piping has been a bit of a pain. Only really due to not having the facilities at home to tack it in place and offer it up etc. here's how I managed to get around it.....
As tempting as it was to see how long duck tape (black and nasty) would last, I thought Id better weld them up at work. Please excuse the welding, I don't do much of it!
Here we have the cold/hot side IC piping and a new exhaust that will exit i front of the offside rear wheel and look towards the ground, as I'm fed up of having to worry about db tests and I might run a diffuser at some point.
The keen eyed amount you may have noticed an rs diff set up
This will be fitted once the car is up and running again and I can get it over to a mates garage and up on a lift.
So tonight I managed to put some of it back together. I'm retaining the maf for now, and just making sure its all working as it should. I have a non MAF intake to fit, along with taking off my IM to drill and tap it for the IAT sensor, to run on SD. MAF is what I know at the mo, so I won't try and run before I can walk.
So jobs left to do; finish putting it all together, delete sas (do I splash even more out and but a fancy manifold?) visit Rossport next week for a breather set up, convert to SD and then map.
Tom
Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Thanks Billy.
Was good to see you and have a little catch up.
Sorry for such a late reply, I've been on my holidays, as well as a few other bits and bobs.
The cars been coming along too though, I'll try and update the thread in the next few days.
New stuff includes rs diff fitted and lexan windows.
Next race is next weekend at Cadwell so just trying to tart it up a bit before that.
Was good to see you and have a little catch up.
Sorry for such a late reply, I've been on my holidays, as well as a few other bits and bobs.
The cars been coming along too though, I'll try and update the thread in the next few days.
New stuff includes rs diff fitted and lexan windows.
Next race is next weekend at Cadwell so just trying to tart it up a bit before that.
Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of updates, the racing for this season has started and to be honest, the car and I are not getting on at all!
I raced last weekend, at Cadwell park and the few weeks leading up to the race were extremely busy with tidying a few bits and bobs up on the car.
I eventually ran out of time and had to go into the race weekend blind, having done no testing! What a mistake this turned out to be!
Saturday morning came around and I loaded the car up, ready for the 80 mile drive to Cadwell.
Having got there, we then had to wait in a field until our paddock area was clear for us to take over from the Saturdays racers. Whilst we waited, we decided to go and get scrutineering out of the way.....most nervous part of the weekend haha!
Having set up we had a communal chilli and then settle down for the night.....just as some of the Saturdays racers were returning from the pub and decided to get the worlds loudest stereo on in their fancy RV.
I got up on Sunday morning, in a foul mood and wanting yo go home, let alone race. As I had a few mates and the wife helping me out, they managed to convince me to go out and qualify. Qualifying immediately showed that I should have done some testing. I'm not entirely sure why yet but my abs light came on and the car....well, kept trying to kill me! Every time I got hard or the brakes, especially if I trailed them or left footed them a bit into a corner, they'd lock and try to spin the car!
I decided to drive around the problem and then a lap later I blew a boost pipe.....qualifying over and in 8th.....
No real matter, I thought, I'll get to about top 3 off the start line....wrong!
Having returned to the pits, I set about sorting the boost pipe and a few little other bits, including brimming the tank ready for the 40min race in the afternoon. Luckily everything was cold as after I had reached the top of the filler neck I could strongly smell petrol..... A look under the car revealed that I had managed to crack the filler neck, probably whilst fitting the rs diff.
I went out on Sunday afternoon for the race and quite frankly shouldn't have bothered.
On the start line I engaged launch control, as the red lights came on. They went off and the car lurched forward followed by a lot of revs and not much else. I immidiatly pulled to 1 side, so as to not get rear ended, and changed up through the gears and try for forwards motion. In 4th it finally started to pick up speed. My initial thought had been a breakage but now it was apparent that my clutch had given up.
I decided that I would limp around and pit in for the race. However, half way around the lap, my clutch started to bite. Not enough to be competitive, but enough to have a tussle with a few of the slower cars and a bit of fun.
So that decided, I ploughed on, over taking a few back markers and getting to mid table. The compulsory pit window opened after 15 mins and I decided to get it out of the way and have my car checked over during the 1 min stop. All was fine so I cracked back on. The next lap, 2 Raf guys unfortunately had a big coming together which bought out the safety car! That meant all of the guys who had a lap advantage managed to keep it!
I carried on nevertheless and had a good time, having a bit of a jostle with a lotus esprit, until an over zealous "guest driver" decided that his BMW compact brakes weren't as good as he thought so used me to get around the corner!
No real harm done, only a scuffed bumper and wheel. Most annoying thing was the complete lack of sportsmanship after the race just a stupid look and smarmy face. Safe to say that he won't be driving in the championship again!
Last problem of the weekend....we were kept on parc ferme, for a while, so I turned the car off for a bit. Upon trying to restart, nothing. No power what's so ever to the car.
I've had a brief look at it and I think it might be an alternator problem. I thought it might be a cut off switch problem but I've taken that out and still getting it. As soon as I connect the live to the car loom it goes from 12v to .06v. If anyone had any ideas please let me know.
Anyway, here are a few action shots.
So that was pretty much my disasterous weekend of racing at Cadwell park. All that was left to do was load the car up and go home to lick my wounds.
Current list of breakages:
New clutch
Poss new alternator
New fuel filler neck
Do away with abs and run rs bias valve
More seat time
I think that's ended this years racing before it even started. Real shame as I had planned to do spa and snetteron (my home track).
Thanks for reading.
Sorry for the lack of updates, the racing for this season has started and to be honest, the car and I are not getting on at all!
I raced last weekend, at Cadwell park and the few weeks leading up to the race were extremely busy with tidying a few bits and bobs up on the car.
I eventually ran out of time and had to go into the race weekend blind, having done no testing! What a mistake this turned out to be!
Saturday morning came around and I loaded the car up, ready for the 80 mile drive to Cadwell.
Having got there, we then had to wait in a field until our paddock area was clear for us to take over from the Saturdays racers. Whilst we waited, we decided to go and get scrutineering out of the way.....most nervous part of the weekend haha!
Having set up we had a communal chilli and then settle down for the night.....just as some of the Saturdays racers were returning from the pub and decided to get the worlds loudest stereo on in their fancy RV.
I got up on Sunday morning, in a foul mood and wanting yo go home, let alone race. As I had a few mates and the wife helping me out, they managed to convince me to go out and qualify. Qualifying immediately showed that I should have done some testing. I'm not entirely sure why yet but my abs light came on and the car....well, kept trying to kill me! Every time I got hard or the brakes, especially if I trailed them or left footed them a bit into a corner, they'd lock and try to spin the car!
I decided to drive around the problem and then a lap later I blew a boost pipe.....qualifying over and in 8th.....
No real matter, I thought, I'll get to about top 3 off the start line....wrong!
Having returned to the pits, I set about sorting the boost pipe and a few little other bits, including brimming the tank ready for the 40min race in the afternoon. Luckily everything was cold as after I had reached the top of the filler neck I could strongly smell petrol..... A look under the car revealed that I had managed to crack the filler neck, probably whilst fitting the rs diff.
I went out on Sunday afternoon for the race and quite frankly shouldn't have bothered.
On the start line I engaged launch control, as the red lights came on. They went off and the car lurched forward followed by a lot of revs and not much else. I immidiatly pulled to 1 side, so as to not get rear ended, and changed up through the gears and try for forwards motion. In 4th it finally started to pick up speed. My initial thought had been a breakage but now it was apparent that my clutch had given up.
I decided that I would limp around and pit in for the race. However, half way around the lap, my clutch started to bite. Not enough to be competitive, but enough to have a tussle with a few of the slower cars and a bit of fun.
So that decided, I ploughed on, over taking a few back markers and getting to mid table. The compulsory pit window opened after 15 mins and I decided to get it out of the way and have my car checked over during the 1 min stop. All was fine so I cracked back on. The next lap, 2 Raf guys unfortunately had a big coming together which bought out the safety car! That meant all of the guys who had a lap advantage managed to keep it!
I carried on nevertheless and had a good time, having a bit of a jostle with a lotus esprit, until an over zealous "guest driver" decided that his BMW compact brakes weren't as good as he thought so used me to get around the corner!
No real harm done, only a scuffed bumper and wheel. Most annoying thing was the complete lack of sportsmanship after the race just a stupid look and smarmy face. Safe to say that he won't be driving in the championship again!
Last problem of the weekend....we were kept on parc ferme, for a while, so I turned the car off for a bit. Upon trying to restart, nothing. No power what's so ever to the car.
I've had a brief look at it and I think it might be an alternator problem. I thought it might be a cut off switch problem but I've taken that out and still getting it. As soon as I connect the live to the car loom it goes from 12v to .06v. If anyone had any ideas please let me know.
Anyway, here are a few action shots.
So that was pretty much my disasterous weekend of racing at Cadwell park. All that was left to do was load the car up and go home to lick my wounds.
Current list of breakages:
New clutch
Poss new alternator
New fuel filler neck
Do away with abs and run rs bias valve
More seat time
I think that's ended this years racing before it even started. Real shame as I had planned to do spa and snetteron (my home track).
Thanks for reading.
Tom2741
Active Member
- Messages
- 748
- Location
- Norfolk
Maybe 3k and your scoob mate lol!
Had some good news recently, I managed to easily sort the electrical problem out. It turned out to be what's called a ghost earth. I'm guessing this was caused by the shunt breaking the bumper support, which my earth was bolted to.
Now just to mull over non abs and clutch options.
Had some good news recently, I managed to easily sort the electrical problem out. It turned out to be what's called a ghost earth. I'm guessing this was caused by the shunt breaking the bumper support, which my earth was bolted to.
Now just to mull over non abs and clutch options.
Nick
Superstar Admin
- Messages
- 2,392
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Awsome work!
Looks great fun.
Looks great fun.