K-sport is a taiwanese maker of big brakes kits, my opinion is that their products are made more for shiny look, for big chrome wheels lovers, not for serious competitors as I am

 

AP Racing 6- or 8-pot, large dia. disc kits.

End of.

(But at a price. )

 

Please excuse me whilst I place focus back on my car and the on-going project.

Yesterday was MOT day and I always tend to get expect the worse, even though I don't ever remember any of my cars owned, ever failing a MOT test (I've done it now haven't I).

I called APi and they had booked me in for the annual "trip to the dentist".

I needed to get over to Litchfield's to pick something up that day, so decided to go there before having the MOT done. Whilst I was at Litchfields I decided to have a quick look under the car.... just as well I did.



So what's wrong with this picture then!?

You'll probably notice a nut missing off the drop link (this is the rear btw) and upon initial inspection, I thought it just needed a new nut. Upon closer inspection (unfortunately I didn't get any images of this) the bottom side of the studs thread was completely flat. When we first looked under the car the threaded stud was not through the ARB, so it had obviously come out of the ARB locating hole, but rubbed against the thread in doing so.

I wondered why the rear felt a tad weird recently, not being very "tight" and "vague".

I swear to god Felly did this when he was throwing my car around, when he took it for a test drive a few months ago. Strangely my Subaru's have a tendancy to break their drop links when other drivers have a punt in them.... Simon did the same in my old SPEC C! lol

We could have wound a new nut on and tried to re-cut the thread, but that's a bit "Heath Robinson". Litchfields grabbed a new set of drop links from their stores and replaced both links in a matter of minutes. The ones put in place were much more heavy duty ones from Whiteline - KLC139's.





So inadvertedly we performed another mod to the car, even if it was one for pure maintenance reasons, rather than modifying in isolation.

Hopefully these new heavy duty droplinks will be able to withstand any future abuse session by someone akin to Mr Felstead's driving.

These ARB links utilise heavy duty steel ball joint ends that adjust & rotate to any angular combination. These eliminate ARB preload via the adjustable body providing up to 15mm centre to centre length adjustment.

Thankfully the car sailed through the MOT later on yesterday.

Massive thanks to Litchfields for sorting the car out at short notice and APi for sorting the MOT.

Onwards and upwards for another 12 months.

 

That pic looks like you have either a leaking damper or brake line!

 

Definitely very worthwhile to uprate the droplinks to more significant items than the oe ones, they will take some abuse and you dont want bendy suspension!!

Whats next??

 

If it had a leaking damper or break line it wouldn't have passed the MOT.

Try something a little less dramatic, like the fact that it was peeing it down on Monday and although the car is quick, it can't dodge the rain or flooded roads I had to travel on.

 

Mine had a 2nd hand set of the WL 'wire' type rear DLs...



...And one of the wires popped off one of the yellow poly bushes on one side. I knew something was up as I had exactly the same vague, floaty feeling at my rear. It was unsettling.


Now got the much more robust WL 'C' types fitted...

 

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with the OEM droplinks, assuming they are in good repair. I had OEM ones on my SPEC C and they took a PROPER beating and only broke after 36k miles iirc.

I certainly wouldn't have replaced them had they not failed.

In the immediate future I still want to try a Meth mix.... even if it's only to see what effect it has on my set-up.

There is little point (for me) in trying any further turbo changes I suspect... although there is another area with regard to turbo's that might throw up some testing I can take part in. Sounds secretive I know, but I need to see what transpires over the coming months.

There's maybe a possibility of looking at a 2.1 conversion, but I'm probably a couple months away from even thinking about that one.

Plenty that can be done, but not a lot of time to progress in reality.

 

So you CAN be arsed with faffing around with meths again then?! Age not a 'barrier' after all?

 

LOL

What's making this more difficult is the fact it's like trying to get an audience with the pope, trying to get hold of Richard Bulmer and a space in his diary and my availability matched!

It's a ****ter when life gets in the way of playing with our cars innit!

 

The mapping is the 'easy' bit (as far as YOU'RE concerned). When you can get a slot that is.

It's the ordering of the meth, the 'hassle' of carrying it about and measuring it out at the pump, etc.

Not really a hassle though is it ..... Hell I might even 'get into it' and get the 2nd map done on my Simtek to try to break 400!

 

2x 5l cans in the boot, bungied to stop them rolling around, and a pair of 25l cans in the garage with taps to make it easy to fill the 5l cans - couldn't be easier

Even easier that there's a Meth supplier local to me so I just go and get my 25l cans refilled when I need to

 

That's my problem... Live in a small flat with no space to store.

Except!.... I think the landlord has an unused 'garage' space right outside the flat...........!!!

 

The day I start to carry a fuel additive for a weekend blaster, will be the day I chop my middle leg off with a rusty butter knife.

THE biggest issue with this stuff is ensuring that you're pretty close to strength as mapped when filling up. With VPower not exactly being the easiest fuel to plan to fill up (if you want to travel a bit over a weekend), this is not my idea of ideal. lol

I'll make no bones about the fact that when I get this done, it will be purely to see what it can do. Rather than having any inclination to use this form of fuel for anything other than planned occasional usage.

 

I chose a see-through can and added 1l markers, so still not a problem

 

Oh, and since I run a PROPER ecu I can switch to a safe map if needs be, should I only be able to get Asda fuel

 

Is it legal then, to carry methanol (or any other nasty liquids) in the boot?!

Or is it only easily flammable liquids that are illegal?

 

Oh, silly me, methanol's not flammable

 

I don't know what it does if exposed to intense heat/naked flame on its own - as I've never tried lol.

I'm guessing it's 'interesting'?

Hence the genuine Q.

 

The only problem Tim has with running meth now is he has to watch the paint work when loading it into the boot

 

"Methanol...is less flammable than gasoline...However, along with its many beneficial attributes, methanol is a volatile, flammable poison that burns with a nearly invisible flame..."

That's that then.

So I assume it IS illegal to carry around in the boot then?

 

Meth burns with no flame, which is rather dangerous of course, but I don't think it is any more or less dangerous than petrol.

It's not just loading meth in to the boot - have to take care ALL the time doing ANYTHING with the car now Ryan

Sun came out yesterday so spent 5 hours cleaning and waxing and now looks STUNNING...shame there's been no sun today for me to take pictures...and it rained again

 

Same here Tim,the rain is causing me hassle with not being able to put jobs outside in the sunshine to finish hardening

How did you like the 'pop' mate

 

Take some photos and post up anyway!

Perhaps quickly throw some water over tomorrow and microfibre off, before doing so?

 

This was Tim's motor a few weeks a go in my workshop
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DSCF5446.jpg?t=1340728946

 

What... and you think I can't do the same on my lowly OEM ECU?

 

Not with 8 different maps to choose from, no

Oh, and to change maps don't you have to lift your left trouser leg, waggle your right elbow, and pray to Mecca?

 

That's the kind of statement I would expect from someone who likes to use a Meth mix, so you've answered mine and most other peoples questions about this sort of thing. Thank you.

This is exactly the reason why I can't be arsed with this kind of fueling strategy.

 

Bloody hell Ryan!

That finish is like a polished mirror for a ruddy giant astronomy telescope!!! WTF?!

I take it it's your own work?

 

Really not sure I understand your negativity.

I have three main maps: Vpower, Vpower+Meth, and sh*t fuel. I then decided to have full boost and less-boost for the Vpower and Vpower+meth maps, to make it a little easier on track in differing conditions.

Why do i use meth? Not for power as I get nearly 500bhp on Vpower alone which is more than enough for my build. But the spool and response is very noticeably better with meth.

But argue away...falling on deaf ears