Since my last post I have had the Ultralites fitted to the front, has the arches rolled and pulled to suit and fitted a carbon splitter, I have booked a trackday for the 29th March and also booked Phil Glew for the day for some driving tuition.

I have rang TA scrutineers about the location of the fire extinguisher and they are happy with its location as long as I can reach it, they will then assess its location at the first round, if they are not happy with its location it will need moving for the next round. (thanx Dunc & Adam )

A while ago I was looking at the baffled sumps on offer in the UK and they all seem pretty much the same as each other, I have heard of high volume sumps which until now I could not find to suit the twin scroll Jap cars. Whilst looking around at FMIC on offer I have found the Stage 3 Hyperflow sump which is both High volume and baffled for the JDM cars so I am looking in to getting one of these, if funds will allow I am also looking at the Hyperflow 660GT3 kit which includes the FMIC kit, oil cooling kit plus more, not cheap though, funnily enough the Monster3 FMIC kit is no dearer than the 660GT3 kit, I have heard though that the Monster intercoolers are a bit more laggy on the lower powered 2.0L cars? so looking at the 660GT FMIC.

Here is a pic of the car from today

Cheers,
Lee.

 

Looks awsome

 

nice looking car. pretty sure you won't have an issue lag wise on he 2.0...but bear in mind people are running decent power on tmic...have a look in the project thread for bob Rawls' haweye build

 

Lee,
I would just get a baffle insert for your existing sump. Speak to Rich as I am sure he can get hold of one.

You don't need an additional oil cooler.... your Spec C one will be fine! Mine was with a hotter running 2.5 and a shedload more power than you have currently. If you get a FMIC, just ask Rich to re-locate the OE SPEC C one as he did with mine.

Regards the Monster FMIC.... I can't see what difference it makes what engine size you have, these FMIC's have a very low pressure drop and are very efficient.

 

Hi fella, Richard does have a contact for the sumps but I am sure they where for the non twin scroll cars, it was Richard who initially stated that we should do everything possible to keep the oil cooler, he suggested a larger oil cooler than the standard one.

I suppose its a bit belt & braces for the present set up getting the sump and fmic, but for track work it will help, I am also casting one eye on the next step of power increase, hoping to go down the 2.1L route later this year/next year

 

Looks good bud

Anyone got the links to the TA regs as on the site the links dont seem to work??

Col

 

awesome mate

 

Looks very good Lee.

Nice comprehensive views/reviews about your options and routes that you are going down. Its always nice to read or hear constructive advice from those that have 'done it' or are fully/semi-proffesionals.

Best of luck with the TA, I may actually see you and your car in the flesh which is always nice to reflect on when you have been reading up on someones 'project'.

Regards,
Rob

 

Nice one fella, if you do attend a round nip over and say hello, I should be with a lot of Scooby nuts

 

I thought I would post a sneak preview of my new Perrin fmic, getting a few more jobs done Friday at Tracktive and Saturday at SPD (Buddy Club) so will post some better pics after these jobs are all complete.

Lee.

 

Good luck in TA, hope there is enough competitors to compete with

 

I dont just me and two others will be fine > chance of a podium

 

David at API can source you a baffled twin scroll sump made by ex prodrive people I believe- I have one works well

 

looks very good! will you have to have your map adjusted for the front mount?

 

^^ Hi fella, I have already ordered my sump from Hyperflow, just awaiting delivery. Hyperflow stage 3 sump

^ Just got back from Tracktive Solutions from having the car mapped again to suit the fmic Richard & Matt have worked there magic again, the car feels awesome might be attending a RR tomorrow so I may have some figures to let you guys know what it is now.

Lee.

 

Not that it truly matters, but a dyno figure will provide some good information for others.

Glad it went well today.

 

Little update >
Had a fmic fitted at Scooby Clinic on Monday (Tracktive where too busy preping for Assen TA today) and then went to Tracktive on Friday to have the car mapped, first thing that Richard & Matt decided was the car needed more cool air reaching the engine bay induction kit. So Matt set about installing a front wing cold air feed to the induction kit

After this it was agreed that the engine oil temps could be a concern in the future so a high capacity oil cooling kit was installed inside the grill where it would receive the most cooling. This did take a while but in the end it was worth the effort > Nice one Matt

After this the car was off to be mapped, as I would expect its awesome, Matt informed me afterwards that they added 3 degrees to the ignition (I think thats right) because the intake temps are now so much cooler with the fmic, this hints it should be more powerful

I have taken it for a blast and yes its quicker and the noises coming from under the bonnet are a giggle, sounds fantastic.

I was then at Buddy Club / SPD yesterday to get my graphics fitted, Paul did a fantstic job, after watching him applying the stickers I realised I definitely could not have done this myself, there is an art to applying these things.

Whilst I was there I also took Shaun out for a spin, he had a huge grin but then the feedback started. I am hoping that both Shaun and Ashley are going to be involved in my efforts at Oulton, Shaun has arranged for the car to be corner weighted after Oulton trackday next week and where also looking at using nitrogen in the tyres for more pressure stability between hot & cold tyre temps.
A few pics >




Oh and these still need to be fitted ASAP!!!!

 

Car looks great Lee!

 

looks awesome, will you have those tyres fitted for the trackday tomoz? i will see you there in my blue blobeye, not driving the day tho,

 

Tyres have been fitted today come over and say hello fella

 

Looks good Lee, although the graphics could have been put on straight . Seriously though I look foward to seeing you in action buddy

Rob

I get mine back Wed's
Let the further mods commence.

How is it possible to buy a car for daily use 8 months ago to only have it on the road for 1 month

 

to be honest fella I am now at the point I want the modding to stop so we can have a bit of steady state with the car. I feel like I am living in Subaru garages recently.

Lee.

 

Car looks spot on Lee.
with a bit of look I will see you all at some of the rounds later in the year.

Good look to you, and nice choice of car.

Bez

 

Cheers fella getting proper excited about going out tomorrow at Oulton

Lee.

 

How did it go At Oulton for you?

Looking at the Calender the only round I can do of Time Attack is Anglesey 28th Aug.
Brands is Just too far away, & its a Double Header, the other dates I am tied up this year.

But Oulton is a fantastic track, and again good look with the Time attack.

Bez

 

Hi fella,

I will more than likely be competing at Angelsey as well, prior to TA I am hoping to be doing passenger rides for charity with the RS owners club which for me will also be free track time, everyone is a winner

Today at Oulton was great, had a good day out with mates and everyone really enjoyed themselves > I am trying to make sure that this saga doesnt become too stressfull or just hard work

As previously mentioned I had booked Phil Glew for a day of tuition, possibly the wisest money I have ever spent. Up to the dinner break wasnt so enjoyable as I tried to take on board what Phil was saying with little success and I felt my driving was poor, but bearing in mind how much the car has changed recently and the fact that I had new Pirelli tyres on this was to be expected.

After great thought and consideration during the dinner break the afternoon sessions where a lot better, I had taken time to understand exactly what Phil was trying to get me to do and so we set about slowing the pace right down and just concentrating on getting my lines and style to suit what Phil was explaining, after this was achieved and understood it was then a case of picking up the pace until I was back up to full speed and not reverting back to my old bad habbits.

In the last session I hooked up with a BTCC car (someone called "Hughes") and hung on to him for about 10 laps, this was awesome, it was someone who was stretching me to my limits (and beyong at times ) and it was an opportunity to put what I had learnt in to practice.

When I came back in a friend stated he recorded two of the laps, one of which was a 2min 1sec and the other was a 1min 58sec lap. Bearing in mind we were continously having to slow down to pass other cars whilst whilst following the track day rules this is cause for great encouragement. I have also learnt (again thanks to Phil) that my car ride height can be dropped by about 10mm and the front end after the first day of testing is too soft and needs stiffening up some more.

Pirelli's > Phil was complimentry about these tyres, he thought for a road tyre they not only managed good levels of grip but also managed to stay ok for stints of 10 laps on the run. Personally I thought they where going to be better, I have never used track day tyres before (R888 or AO48's) but I thought the level of grip to prevent understeer (yes caused by me) would have been better?

Ah well, so I am now hoping to get out once more before the first round to see if I can get my driving more consistant and cut out the mistakes, I feel 1 more day on my own I should be able to manage this?

Cheers,
Lee.

Ps. did I mention it was a top day out

 

Phil is great and really helps build your confidence. The grip will come with the change to front end set up

Glad you are going about this the right way Lee

 

Cheer fella

Every muscle in my unfit body is hurting, TOP day out

Having had time to digest what happened yesterday I am certain that this year will be focused on learning to find the corner grip, my old driving style was just to hard in to the corner and trying to apply accelarartion to quickly which just lead to loads of understeer > I have seen the light

Lee.

 

Sounds like you had a top day out on the track.
As far as getting the tyres, can you buy the Pirelli tyres from any where, or is it like the Toyos from last year, where it was authorised dealers?

Bez

 

Hi Lee,
Sounds like you had a great day and certainly a worth while exploit.

It's amazing how much you realise that "understeer" is as much about how you drive / what is practical, as it is about how the car is set-up. I had no idea what should be expected dependant on a driving style and physics, compared to what I "thought" a car should be capable of. With little or no experience, I used to think it all to easy to think "the car is ****, it aint set-up right".... little did I know the biggest initial advances would come from how I actually drive in the first place.

It will be interesting to hear of your progression through the year.