Dave Parr told me he was racing tomorrow (Saturday). I'll be there tomorrow too so personally I'm hoping for good spectating conditions

 

Had such a good and dry test morning at Curborough.

John F came down to 'map' my AST's and did sucha good job too.

We (= John) sorted the dccd and that was a revelation and after a bit of a tidy-up geometrically the car will be very nice for the rest of the year.

We discovered so much in 3 hours and 20 or so 'laps' it was untrue.

The road manners are somewhat better too...

I'm keeping the settings to myself as they were hard-earnt.

Car really nice, but the rear diff is driving me mad!
So many thanks to John F for the effort and the results.

Just so good.

Graham

 

Great news Graham


*Don't do it*

Q. Whats wrong with the rear diff??

*Doh*

 

Crack bang and clunk.
Sounds painful, sounds like it is about to split in half, but runs great on track!
Graham

 

But that's what they do

At lease you know it's working properly

 

I could do with some track time soon to learn how my car handles now that it's had the demon alignment today at Powerstation.

I am pleased to report that the Tar-ox pads are already working better than the previous items ever did, and they're not fully bedded in yet!

 

Curborough costs £225 for a 10 to 1 pm 'day'.

Graham

 

OK:
Spanner time!

Had a very big box of bits from Whiteline the other week, but with Company sell-offs and Daughters birthdays and playing with the 911..install was delayed till the last 48 hours.

The box contained this lot plus the huge Whiteline 24mm blade front bar.


It all seems a simple task to change which it was once I had managed to get the bottom ball joints out of the hubs, talk about rusted in!
I thought the 911's were tough but these were a test, but in the end WD40 and a bloody big pry bar won the fight.

Getting the cones off the old ***** was a might tricky till I remembered my old Lambretta hub puller (!) and that did the trick.

One it was all cleaned, the Whiteline joints greased the re-install was a piece of cake and everything fitted superbly.
Similarly, the track rod ends were changed over for the new droped ones to bring the bump steer geometry back in line for the 6mm longer ball joints.

That all done the huge anti roll bar was fitted.

Now this bar is quite a bit different to say the least, both in diameter and the blade fitting where you can choose the stifness.
As it says on the instruction sheet, start on the soft setting and try it first. Too true.

Also note the rose joint adjustable drop links, idea for precise corner weighting, some thing the car still hasn't had.

some more pics:
The 2 front roll bars, note the step in the section.





I've oughly re-set the tracking, but will spend this bank hol Monday truing all the geometry inc the track before I drive it.

I'll report on my findings of the effect on cornering.

So where an i now on this chassis?

The test day was invaluable to get the tyres working right and to geet the damper settings correct too. Those were way off my settings (which I thought were quite good), but were all done before these last mods.

Tyre pressures also were changed to the car's benefit (cross ply slicks remember).

all this will mean another learning curve for me, all part of the fun, and i have to make the very most of my meager 350 bhp i have against all the Hot Shots in the class now with 400+ bhp and 25 years younger...

These two are keeping me busy;


I'm a luck old fart.

Thanks as ever to Job at Whiteline UK, the car is a driving catalogue of their products!

Graham

 

as i said previous i like the look of the new kit, but i have just fitted newage sti trackrod ends to mine along with brand new ball joints, so i`m throwing that idea of the window for another few years at least LOL

where did the rose joint droplinks come from?

still running the 11 year old classic wrx ones on mine so they probably need a change

 

They are Whiteline front links for a classic WRX. I was given them!
Be rude not to fit them.

Look a bit smart and they are length adjustable so after corner weighting you can re install the roll bar without any twist so preserving the corner weights.

Graham.

 

Had a first drive in the car yesterday in a dry spell and all feels good, but hardly race conditions.
If the next hillclimb (Shelsley this weekend) is wet then the 22mm will do back on as a known entity.
Shelsley is NOT the place to prat about at.

June sees a lot of hillclimbing, every weekend to be exact, so will be able to see what happens on several types of track.


Graham

 

Practise today at a very very hot Shelsley Walsh.

I started out with the mod, and on slicks for the first time here, so a bit apprehensive.

The first (of 3 ) run was a bit 'disconnected' the rear following the front a little late in a bend, so set the rear bar to middle from soft.
The second run was much better, but not faster, though I managed a pb start of 1.88 secs, the first time to the 1.8's for me:
DropShots Day

You cannot believe how fast that feels!

The car started to respond better so for the third run i tried the rear bar on hardest, and a further improvement was had, a pb on the hill of 32.7 something,; not startling, but better.

I have to drive far more aggressivly as the others in the class are racing ahead.

Hope the Bravery Pills work tomorrow...
Graham

 

Racing today, but still to conservative in my approach, but some decent starts nevertheless.

Shaved my pb to 32.4 but miles off from Rob and Pete running in the 30's and 31's.

Just got to drive 'into' the grip of the slicks, but Shelsley really is a power hill and I'm down on the front runners by a lot!

Loton is next weekend (The Official Hagley & District Light Car Club Website) and i hope to start to squeeze some out of the car.

Chassis was great, just HAVE to go faster.

bloody frustrating, and need to set plans for a decent engine for Xmas.
Graham

 

Hi Graham,Your runs looked good from where we were standing.
Nice to meet you in the pits in the morning ,crazy day,a lot of records were broken
Martin

 

Graham the 20g has 400bhp potential and you recorded figures in excess of that when you first got the car set up, if you think you are well below those figures would it not be a good idea to find out where all those horses went or getting the most out of the high spec of mods that you have for the rest of the season, a RR visit and remap possibly, good bang for your buck if it has gone off the boil?

Rob.

 

Yes, you are right Rob, just no time in June, but July is the '911 month' with 2 hillclimbs and Silverstone!

That would be a time to do it. Will see if Andy is in the Midlands in July.

I never really believed the 407 bhp at first, but did believe the 380 at Power Station's RR. The issue is the sport cat on the car.
Geoff T and I are the only cars with Cats in the class i think?

I really need something far more radical, a 2.35 and have done with it!

That might be Xmas time now though as the cost is high, even doing it myself which I can.

Loton next, so i hope to pop into the next second down and close the gap a little to you two.

Graham.

 

Graham, why this obsession with a Gucci (Expensive) 2.35 when the Ej257 with decent internals is now proven (IMHO). Safe and reliable at 500/500 with a 8000rpm limit. costs are EJ257 short motor, rods and pistons. Nothing more.

 

I did cost this option up John last year.
Scoobymania also sell the bare block so add the crank and the better rods/drop-in pistons and bearings and the short block is there to go.

The cost was very similar to a 2.35 on a cdb.

You know the type of engine i need, and i value your thoughts as you are there already.
For now i would hope to keep much of my peripherals, esp the 20g.

Food for thought.

Graham.

 

And front mount and injectors and turbo and exhaust and oil cooler and cams and excellent mapping and fuel pressure regulator and Bosch fuel pump.........

Just a bit more than an EJ257 rods and pistons for 500 500 in my opinion.

David APi

 

Must remember the gearbox.

I think a 450 x 400 low/mid range engine with 'zero' lag and 8000 rpm capability would be a nice engine for my micky mouse driving skills.

I also would like to drive it on the road to and from the hills!

Graham.

 

Hi Graham. Hows life in the fast(ish) lane?

Question for you....what length did you set your front drop links to? Originals got binned so nothing to compare to and not too sure what to do. And as for not using them with alloy arms, cant see why not and the non rj ones i fitted nearly popped off the bushes the angle they were at so no alternative for me.

On the subject of the ej257 for info, its cost me in the region of £2k in parts. (rods, pistons, bearings, oil pump, head bolts etc) Probably a similar spec to Johns. Just got to fork out another £1k to have it built properly. So add on the price of a block and crank and there you go. Then a bit of work on the heads for the 2.5 and it adds up to nearly £4.5-5k. Is it worth it? Ask John.

 

David, I'm only refering the the relative costs of a 2.3x versus 2.5 short motor, the other bits would be needed in either senario.

---john---

 

Doug:

The Young Ones are giving me hell!

Middle runner now this year, so serious think for Xmas 2007.

John's comments on the engine have made me sit-up.

There is a lot of merrit in his opinion and a 2.5 short block with just forged pistons would give a good engine (to my level) but a set of rods to make it rev to 8K is mandatory.

Is £5K the right value for money? I seriously doubt it!

I set my adjustable links to the same as the stock Sti links, ie 75mm centers.

The angle they take is almost allarming but all seems well.
Graham.

 

Long hot weekend at Loton Park and a frustrating time as the car sat in the 58's all weekend whatever i could try to break the 57's.

Car cornered well, ran without a glitch, and I felt ok all day letting Rob and Pete 'go' to chase the upper positions.
Just for once I left the car alone and just kept on trying to drive it better in places I thought I made mistakes, but it wasn't to be and ended up with a personal best of 58.02 and a series of good strong starts.

The settings and the roll centre mod made the car change direction with ease, and easing some of the rear brake pressure off helped approaching one bend, 'Fallow' quite a bit more smoothly than previously...

I know exactly where i lost the time, just 100m from the finisheing line by hanging onto 3rd @ 8K/rev limiter instead of snatching 4th.

Next time!

The Welsh hillclimb is next weekend and that certainly will be a challenge.

I need to change the sport cat to a decat to get the top-end of the engine back till the end of the year when it will be the crunch time.

Bigger engine or sell or leave as it is and take driving lessons.

Graham.
DropShots Day
Pete chasing and getting 2nd in class:
DropShots Day
And this is what he was chasing, the formidable V8 Quattro:
DropShots Day

 

Forget Shelsely Walsh, if you want a real hillclimb to fight then go to Wales, to the Epynt hill run by Brecon!

I cannot express just how good this hill is.

Firstly, the Brecon Motor Club must get the biggest applause for this event.
Just 3 months start to finish and it was as good as any of the Midland's hills.

The setting is great on the Brecon Beacons plateau but is it ever steep. It just goes on and on forever.
The track is smooth, narrow and with significant consequences if you 'detour', yet today saw one blown gearbox, 2 red flags and NO emergency services.
The paddock was full of just great cars and very nice people, a real clubbie meeting to rival any.

My class was full of 2 cars!

The other one was a full-house Darrian with a Millington (read mega engine) of 2.5 litre, Hewland dog box and weighing as much as a helium balloon..
Driven by an Irish man too. When did you EVER see a slow Irish race car?

God it was quick, but I was after him!
He took FTD by about 1.5 secs from me, so handing me 1st in class but such fun, and the Impreza was just great, one of the very few cars driven there and back on the road.

The climb is sizzellingly quick.
Over a mile long and packed full of devilish bends with pitches and dives for the first half, a couple of deceptive chicanes (lovely and fast) and then the ***** out straight run towards the finish over two blind high 'yumps' absolutly flat in 4th and then some.
My whatists shivelled up at 8K in 4th; I didn't have the nerve to pull 5th and keep going to the acute 90 right and the brake markers are so hard to see at 110 mph on 15 feet of tarmac...
****** on the stoppers and haul the speed down to low 2nd gear speed (I have stock brakes on my car..) and screeeech through to the finish line that is teasingly far away from the almighty 90 right.

Just so good.
So Good.

The 3 mile return road at first seems a bit 'mickey-mouse' but not so!
The car cools down, the driver cools down (and you need to ) and the slicks clean-up a treat!
As soon as you are back, seen the times, you are back getting ready for the next run.

Bloody great, and it has been ages since I enjoyed a hillclimb quite so much.

For those that did not take this opportunity, you really did miss-out on a choice venue, well run, and *****-out.

Exactly what Hillclimbing is all about.

Some random pics:
My steed for the day:

My class mate...

Some other cars there:




Gary's ever improving Sti : This is the first 15% of the climb.
DropShots Day
This is what an equal length header engine sounds like:
DropShots Day

What a day.
.

 

I'm on the internet

Does my car really make that wastegate-type whistle/chatter? I've never heard that before.

I had a great day, though a long one. I was there at 7am opening up the office and directing traffic and still there afterwards doing the clear up (was all finished by 5:45pm so not bad all considered). Car still in one piece and I've slightly more of a clue how to peddle it now. The exception to that was Burma, the big stop and >90 right. Over-enthusiasm and lack of talent means I've probably generated a whole series of instruction videos entitled how-not-to-take-a-corner!

Really glad you enjoyed it Graham. I think there were only 3 cars who got into the 61's and you were one of them. The hill record was set by the Darrian at 60.37 secs, but the bad news is he actually did a 58 something in the third fun run

 

Being involved means you get a good share of the 'other jobs'.
I know exactly what you mean!

The fact the Darrian cut a 58 just shows what next year is going to be like.
There will be such a fight to beat him!

I hav'nt enjoyed a hillclimb so much in ages.
Tedious drive home mind, zillions of Micra's and '50mph is too fast drivers'

Car did me proud yesterday, and you did really well too. Remember you are in a very stock car; spend about 8K and you could shave off 5 seconds minimum!
Graham.

 

Good stuff Graham, glad to hear enthusiasm in your 'voice' after your doldrums!!

I've withdrawn from Prescott this coming weekend, my health seems to be gradually getting worse (struggled at last Loton event) I may come along to say hello and watch.

I may well then put the car up for sale as I can't see health improving anytime soon. I'd love to come back to it at a later date (health permitting) I've had some great times (forgive the pun) and met some great people and would miss both.

Martin

 

Martin - very sorry to read about your health issues.

If you need anything, you know where to ask.

Best wishes.

Richard

 

Yes indeed, it is the one area that is important, jobs and such like can be changed to suit.

Try to make it to the track!