Could go for full on bucket seats but a lot of the events I do require a fair bit of travelling to and from them so it's nice to retain a bit of comfort. I'm doing an Autosolo this weekend which is 3 hours away so case in point. 

 

I know seats/comfort is very subjective, but the week I put my Corbeau clubsport in (standard size), I did Oxford and back in an evening (~7.5h) and felt absolutely fine when I got home. It strongly discourages slouching (makes it uncomfortable on my legs) so tends to be much better for the lower back. Have been down to Kent in a single stint too and its been brilliant.

This is really interesting - I had no idea this sort of thing was even going on in empty car parks!

 

Also looks like a great car for 500 quid (let's ignore the money on the upgrades :D ) - also thought the compact was quite a nice idea back when I looked at them in 2004ish.

This is really interesting - I had no idea this sort of thing was even going on in empty car parks!

 

Also looks like a great car for 500 quid (let's ignore the money on the upgrades :D ) - also thought the compact was quite a nice idea back when I looked at them in 2004ish.

 

Yep, car parks, airfields, anywhere the motor clubs can get landowners interested. So easy to get involved too, just join your local motor club and it opens up a whole new world of interesting events.

 

So far I haven't had to spend that much on it. Biggest investment has been the diff an driveshafts at £500. I've spent another £100 on a steering rack along with track rods and ends.

The spot lights and harnesses I already had in stock as I kept them from my Rover. Also managed to sell a lot of stuff off the Rover along with a collection of spares which is keeping the cost of the Beemer down and also creating much needed space in my garage :D

My photographer mate was experimenting with moving pictures at the weekend and knocked up a nice little video. I was looking alright until I found reverse instead of 1st gear at the end :D

 

Made a couple of improvements today.

 

First of all, the car has always been a bit bouncy, mainly due to the shock absorbers being knackered.

I wanted to replace them with something decent but I didn't want anything too hard and I certainly didn't want to lose any ride height. I ran the Rover on standard stuff and it worked really well for me so I had a look around and settled on a set of Bilstein B4s.

 

 

The car feels so much better now. Very stable and much firmer, I think it was just basically working on the springs alone before!

 

Whilst I was taking things apart, I finally fitted my purple tag quick rack so it's gone from 3.5 turns to 3 turns and the new rack is all inear where as the last one did bugger all until you stuck a fair amount of input through the steering wheel. Sideways moments are now far easier to catch and hold on to.

 

 

I'm now really happy with how it's handling, feel a lot more confident in it's abilities now. I've got an event next weekend so hopefully these little tweeks will see me produce some competitive results.

 

Also this week, I've got myself a manual tyre changing jobby. Should see a decent saving in the long run not having to pay people to change tyres for me anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 11 February, 20179 yr by niceyellow vrs

What's the tyre thing like to use?

Are you not chasing it around the garage?

1 hour ago, pip_vrs said:

What's the tyre thing like to use?

Are you not chasing it around the garage?

 

It's fairly simple to use but you do need to teach yourself little methods that work best. It takes a bit of elbow grease but it's saving me a fortune with all the swapping about of tyres I do.

I'd be wary of using it on pristine wheels as the chances of marking the rims as you work the bar round are high but for wheels that get used for motorsport that get bashed about anyway it's a great tool. I certainly recommend a compressor for reinflating as it makes reseating the beads a doddle.

 

I've also got a manual balancer now too. That requires patience but it does work.

 

I've got a few mates which work at different garages and don't charge much to swap over tyres but It's a ballach having to lug sets of wheels about.

Mine are only for trackdays too so would be ideal really, might look into it.

That clip @46 seconds where you just slide out of video is quality

It's been a while so probably due an update.

 

Done a few Autosolos with the car now and I was seemingly way off the pace. Sometimes struggling to stay in the top 20. The main issue I was having was the amount of body roll. It was leaning so much onto the front corners that I was starting to lift rear wheels and lose the lsd action meaning I was unable to get the power down when I wanted. Deciding something must be done, I ordered a full set of H&R Sport springs. They arrived, went on very easily and now the car sits like this:

 

 

The handling difference is night and day. Basically, the car now works properly. It turns in when it should, the back steps out when it should and the all round grip is great. I put a late entry in to an Autosolo at Kempton Park in order to give it a test before my next CMSG Championship round and I was running in the top 3 all day until the last test when my closest rival just edged my by 0.8 seconds overall after the last test.

 

 

A couple of weeks later it was my next championship round and it was all to play for. I was again trading tenths of seconds with my mate in his Ford Puma ending up 5th overall out of 44. Still not quite had a class win yet but I feel it won't be long. Just need to be a bit braver. Although I was seriously quick on test 3

 

 

At the start of this event I noticed that I had a busted engine mount. Most annoying as I had only just replaced it a couple of months ago when I broke it on a Road Rally. When it went the first time, we stayed in the rally by getting a ratchet strap around the mounting bracket and hanging it off the inner wing. When I spotted it had gone again, there wasn't time to sort it so we had to do the morning session with it a bit loose. The lunch break gave us enough time to get it strapped up.

 

 

Common problem on these as the mount is a **** design. It's basically just a rubber donut with a plate and stud bonded to the top. It doesn't take a lot to shear it off. This time I ordered some better items, drift spec polyurethane jobbies

 

 

As you can see, the stud isn't just stuck to the top of these ones.

 

Fitting is fairly easy when you have the right tools

 

 

 

Hopefully these ones will last a bit longer

 

Car is pretty sorted at the mo. Next things will be an exhaust of some description and probably a remap for better driveability. I'd also like to put a lightened flywheel on it but all this will need to wait a while as I need to funnel the pennies into house improvements to keep the woman happy.

 

TTFN.

 

Edited 15 June, 20179 yr by niceyellow vrs

End of project, car on it's way today to start a new life with a new owner in Wrexham.