James I

Great to meet up with you all again today, plenty of track action, special thanks to Haydn for the most thrilling passenger ride in the Brisk Rover . Look forward to the next one Richard.

If you have the time and inclination you can order yourself an All Star ONE card, use this card to fill up at Morrisons, swipe your card and sign the receipt, forfeit your points on your loyalty card and you will get 4.25p per litre off the forecourt advertised price. You will also get money off servicing and tyres, well worth a look.

My Golf also shows errors, one in the M1 road works as yours and every night coming home from work, the ACC is off but heading out of Leeds at a specific set of traffic lights the bleep goes off and ACC sensor inactive displays. Not sure if it gets confused with street furniture or it just needs fixing.

The Elan would have been a good choice but Jake's car will suffice

May I ask which one of your many thoroughbreds will be at Brands? I will be there with the camera and a crash helmet....

My first outing at Oulton Park was in a MK2 Fabia, all I did to the car was to fit a decent set of brake pads suited to a track day and fitted a set of wheels with part worn tyres as new standard tyres are no good, they melt! I was more interested in learning the lines and how to carry speed through the corners with a standard car, I have to say the car performed well, gearbox was good too, as a start I would do the same again. Once the basics were learned then I changed the car to something else BUT, Sharkrider had a MK2, he changed the suspension and fitted ARB's front and rear and it transformed the car. Just go out there and give it a blast, you will probably find the auto box works better than trying to change gear yourself.

Well, photographs did follow and so did a DVD, I chose not to buy the images as the DVD was better. Since my first rally I have entered another but before I can go rallying I have to repair all the bits that broke on my last event!! Over the last week or two I have been gathering my bits and pieces, until today when I fitted them, the car is off the floor with all four wheels off, front wishbone bushes have been replaced with Powerflex Black bushes, the brake pads have also been replaced with Mintex 1144's up front and 1155's at the rear, jobs still to do, fit the plastic windows, move the battery from the passenger foot well into the boot and fix the electric fan back onto the radiator as it fell off! Here are the worn parts. You can see how the Ferodo pads have fallen apart just like the set of DS2500's I had in the Golf.

I have updated my Calendar, see you on the 14th November

I thought it was October 10th for Brands Hatch?

Incredible power Richard, all of which will create that fun factor through a manual box but I really do think it is time you should be considering a track sequential box, you have already experienced failure with the power the Yeti was running last year, the power you have now is up there with the space shuttle so a decent delivery system has to be the way forward, at least you will know you can use all those horses without consequence. Will the Yeti be going to Brands in October? I have my day booked off to come and visit so I will be there in the battery Golf, but no track car!!!!!!!

Just home after an eventful day rallying, managed 15th overall and 5th in class in very challenging conditions, lost the brakes at one point when we threw a pad from the rear calliper, managed to borrow a pad and a clip from some other entrants with a Peugeot so this kept us in the rally. I now have a few jobs to do on the car before the next outing and I will need more tyres as we used 6 in total for 54 stage miles Pictures to follow should find any online.

Good to see you had a good day Dan.

I only ever ran the RS-R's, rain, sun, cold or hot they are quite capable but you will notice reduced grip in the wet, you should also try and keep off the racing by a cars width in the wet as the track will be very slippery where the rubber has been laid down in the dry. Take the road tyres and try both, it can't hurt, as you say Dan, push on in a controlled manor and you will improve your car control and have a great time pushing the limits, lift off oversteer will be your issue so balanced braking all the way to the apex and then power on when the front is loaded up will see you through the corner. Have a great day.

First Rally booked for the 12th June, it is a tarmac event at Weeton Camp near Blackpool, car has been checked, just have tyres to buy and we're off, can't wait.

Heat will soften up the adhesive, as George says hair dryer will do the trick. I agree with you, all advertising is removed from all new cars.