Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Oh, just renewed Insurance with Moley and Keith Michaels. Hoping for another year of good service!

chet123

iTrader: (7)

great thread mate. what power is under that hood and with what mods. I like what you've done to the car - surely you are running some decent power there?

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Power still a modest 320bhp (Decat, Panel, Fuel Pump, Map), but it's on the agenda for next year

Thanks for the comment.

fawor

iTrader: (3)

yeah right, you cant afford it on that moment
black and red looks a nuts and all scoobs are jdm btw- yours is only crap UK version

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Ready for my drive-way winter service

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Just handed the cash over for a Harvey Smith TD05-20G.

Will be lying around for ages whilst I collect other bits, so may consider a billet wheel upgrade - thoughts?

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Some more updates:

TD05 20G arrived, seems well but will be off to Braveheart Racing Development for a rebuild and billet compressor wheel conversion before it see's the car.



Performed my winter oil and filter change.



Replaced steering rack bushes for Whiteline uprated parts. Almost eliminated the free play I had in the "dead zone" and steering feels much better all around.



Gave my car it's winter protection. Snow foam, 2BM, bug/tar remover, 3M Clay, started polishing with Sonus Restore with my DA but the temperature meant the compound just didn't break down properly, so continued by hand with Meg's Ultimate then a coat of AngelWax AG:



On Monday night last week, pulled in at home to see temp gauge high Upon inspection, the bottom of the Rad had split and was emptying my coolant onto the drive. It was a new radiator supplied and fitted in January, so got it all sorted under warranty - just needed to pay £60 for a recovery truck to the garage which supplied/fitted it.



Dropped car off at Chevron in Stafford for a full suspension setup. Loads of choice locally, but their reputation was hard to ignore - and I had another excuse to make the trip anyway. Will be collecting next Saturday, can't wait.

oli_p

iTrader: (4)

will be sending my car too them after chrimbo, to have my geo setup after the **** up scoobyworld made. good with them being on my door step, although not the cheapest of places to get work done at

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Two hour drive for me! I was in the area anyway, so worth popping in.

Also worth paying for a good service, wasted a day and £100 for a dodgy alignment once before.

oli_p

iTrader: (4)

I paid £130 I think it was for scoobyworld fast road setup, but Si at chevron said its all over the place, and camber on the rear is far too much said he doesn't even run anywhere near what mine is set to on track prepped impreza's

leeds_182

iTrader: (2)

Who was that with I wonder?

Car looks awesome.

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Ages since I updated this, but done a few things.

I managed to get some 60mm Prosport "touch" gauges from the classifieds here on Scoobynet, Oil Pressure, Boost Pressure and Water Temperature.

What I really wanted was Oil Temp rather than Water Temp, so I got a new OT gauge from RSpec and the various senders/bits of wiring that I needed.

I wired/plumbed them in over a few sessions whilst I waited for weather and parts, but all in all probably 2hours spent max. Hardest part was getting the TMIC back on, as usual...

Oil Pressure is "Teed" into the OEM position along with the OEM pressure switch.
Boost Pressure is "Teed" into the pipe coming from the recirv valve.
Oil Temp is taken from the bung above Cyl3. My god undoing that bung was hard/scary.

I had an ATI Pod waiting to go, so finally got them in and working




The touch gauges from Prosport come with little touch controls on about 3" of wire. I extended that so I could install them appropriately. In the ashtray!



Next addition was a strut brace, it's one of those you see everywhere with pink ends - which I had painted black.

Engine pay looking nice and OEM despite the gauge install



Finally, took a punt with some KW Variant 3 coilovers on eBay. Clearly needing a refurb and priced accordingly.

I like my BC ER coilovers on the track, but they're a bit much tbh for my road usage. With the KW's i'll be able to run OEM (or GroupN) rubber topmounts to soften things up a bit. The KW's are on their way to KW as I type this, so will see what kind of state they're in and whether they're worth refurbishing.



BC's will be for sale as soon as the KW's are back and fitted, so keep an eye on the classiefieds if you're interested!

leeds_182

iTrader: (2)

Booooooooooost.

Mr Blobby

Would you not recommend the BC ER coil overs for road use then? As that was the choice I was going for but I do not want it to be crashy and a bit to racey for the road.

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

They're not crashy, theyve got a good range of adjustment and I'm sure with time and experimenting you could sort a real nice road setup with them.

They're a little noisy on the rears due to solid top mounts, but that could just be my car - there are a fair few owners of these coilovers which claim their cars to be silent! I got the KW with the intention of running them with rubber top mounts to soak up any noise, but I really can't complain with the ride quality of the BCs.

If you're interested in buying these when they come off the car, you're welcome to them. If you were closer I'd happily invite you to come for a drive with them first to see how they feel/sound!

Mr Blobby

Ah okay yeah that sounds good man. If you wouldn't mind letting me know first when you come to sell them that would be awesome. How long have they been on your car?

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

No worries, had them on the car about 6months I reckon (2-3000 miles).

They're the 2013 revised model, I believe earlier ones had a hose connecting the reservoir that could foul the CV or something, this has all the hose integral to the bracket kind of arrangement. They've been to Chevron for setup and confirmed to not be faulty (as a potential source for noise) so I guess it must just be my parcel shelf/boot lid suffering from the solid top mounts.

Hoping for an ETA on the KWs next week, I won't hang around swapping them over if I've got a potential buyer... They're too expensive to have lying around for long

Mr Blobby

Ah cool man, sounds like a plan to me. Well yeah, when you swap them over, send me lots of pics of them so I can see what they are like and we can go from there thanks for all the info and stuff nice and helpful!

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

No problem mate, I shall be as thorough as possible with pics etc when the time comes.

chrishigham

Great looking car you have there

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Cheers fella

I got a bit of a non-update from KW today. Basically they've taken almost two weeks to decide that they don't have the gear to service them in the UK so they're off to Germany. Should hear more next week.

I have done a bit of cleaning up on the two bits I had left behind though, the springs and the upper spring seats for the rears.

First up the springs, nice and easy. Take to powdercoaters!

Before:


After:


No idea how long a powdercoat finish will last on springs which have so much flex/movement. I tried though.

I bought a couple of products too, one to protect these coilovers once ready for the car, and another to clear off any nasty surface rust that spoils certain corners of my car. (underneath...)


Went to clean up the rear spring seats and they were actually a bit rusty. YAY I could try my new goop...


Spunked it on, left it overnight:


Voila


All got a nice coat of my rust-proof waxy stuff:


Then a wee eBay find came up. Bit tatty round the edges but by FAR the cleanest I've seen since I bought this car, except a NEW set which went for £160



Also, Got my uppipe today, perfect partner for my turbo

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Need to get some of that stuff - it's done a great job, much better than my hammerite de-rust. I was considering some coilover socks for mine to keep the corrosion at bay

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Yeah I'm impressed so far. When my wheels are next off I'll be gooping up my track rod ends, hubs and a few visible nuts and bolts that aren't rusty as such - they're just discoloured and ruin the look of everything.

Will then prevent further corrosion with the waxy spray I got, or hammerite smooth black where appropriate.

Not as good as powdercoating and plating all my bits, granted - but I need to keep this car on the road

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

That's been the beauty of having it as a toy - coat and plate to my hearts content

Ukshaun

great progress, looks great. very interesting read

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Some delayed updates...

First off, got an RCM baffle plate fitted and the subsequent oil change by the lads at Richard Henry. This was after buying a baffled sump which wouldn't seem to fit over my pickup pipe... investigation needed there.

Then, I'd been considering options for a new backbox for a while, mainly since Andrew Carr mentioned the prodrive one being very restrictive. I felt my options were quite limited, as I'm nervous about exceeding 105db and a few of the popular choices are LOUD. I had it narrowed down to a couple though, and ended up going for a TSL Group N one which came up on eBay.

It doesn't look much here, but it tidied up nicely with a bit of help from Autosol.


Aesthetically it's very similar to the prodrive one, which I like.

New left, old right:


It sounds SO much better, not so much just sat revving on the drive but when driving around it sounds a hundred times better, but according to an iPhone app it's critically no louder. Hopefully the Javelin detectors agree on tuesday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvTB...ature=youtu.be

Next to do at the weekend was a bit of track prep ready for Blyton Park the following Tuesday, pretty much just wheel swap and swapping out my kevlar brake pads for my Carbone Lorraine RC5+s.

I noticed when swapping out the brake pads that my piston seals were looking a bit (very) tired. Didn't get a photo as my hands were filthy, but need to keep an eye on those and consider stripping and tidying up the calipers at some point.

Brake pads needed bedding in, they were terrible initially - uneven bite on each corner and all sorts of lockups/ABS drama, impossible to apply progressively but after 12-15 80mph-20mph "stops", it seems like some pad material transferred onto the disks and they're now much better - so much more stopping power than with my kevlars, just a bit noisy/dirty for road use!

Tweaked my camera mount for a GoPro which a friend is very kindly lending for tuesday, will probably buy one when I'm in the US so this will be a good demo hopefully.



All cleaned up, ready to go...

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Blyton was an ace day, and without any real drama. Gutted it's over to be honest, might have to rush another day in before I depart if I can

Arrived at the track in thick fog, wasn't looking good but I was confident it would clear - as we had a nice day forecast.

Got there about an hour before the brief, made friends with our paddock neighbour in an Octavia then went to perv at some cars - mainly a 996 GT3 and some kitcars.

Fog!


They explained during the brief that we'd do the sighting laps in the fog ( ) and then wait for it to clear before green lighting the day. The fog ended up lifting about 10:30, so were delayed by about 45mins.

I was about 6th or 7th in the queue to get out first, but it got red flagged before I got to go because the GT3 broke down on his outlap

Once towed away, it was party time. Track still very damp in the opening session but got a good feel for the car and other than a few scary moments under braking (need to fit the pads earlier next time, and do more bedding in) it went without drama. Got back to the paddock for the marshal to tell me I was VERY close to the noise limit and I need to start short shifting

There was no static noise test at Blyton, just drivebys.

Next session I went out and miserably short shifted around. The car sounded epic, but was a tad loud - mainly the pops and bangs when I blipped the throttle on downshift and quite an intense roar at the upper end of the range I think.

Got about 5 laps in, and could hear a rotational scuff scuff scuff coming from the rear. I'd experienced that before on the road with my "normal" pads - I think it might be the dust shield but it doesn't seem to affect braking and so kept driving.

On lap 6, I got black flagged

I was almost sure that was my day over, too noisy - but after a quick chat with the marshal, my sound was actually OK - it was the rotational scuffing that they could hear.

That basically restricted me to 5lap sessions for the rest of the day, as that prevented heat from getting too high and causing the scuff to be too loud.

Turned into a beautiful day:


After an epic 40mile trip at lunch to find fuel it was party time again, really picked up the pace in the afternoon and played with my centre differential adjustments to try and assist me with a bit of understeer.

My car would understeer a touch on entry to the higher speed turns, but I was then able to get on the power and almost rotate the car through the turn, I could feel the rear of the car grip up and push me round - it was an excellent feeling and the car felt so balanced, encouraged me to push harder and harder. Had a few flicks of the tail on exit a couple of times but nothing that required panic or "catching". It felt flamboyant at the time, but it's not really noticeable from any in-car footage

As usual, the in-car footage just looks slow and undramatic, but I felt I was pushing the car a million times harder than at Cadwell, and I only had to let one car past all day... which in hindsight I shouldn't have done, as he held me up afterwards! (S1 Elise).

Had an app running on my phone all day which was supposedly recording lap times, but GPS signal seemed to be non-existent all day. It says my fastest lap was 1.16 though, can't really find any YouTube reference points but I think low 1.teens is possible if I went back tomorrow.

I ran out of bollocks on "Port Froid" which should be a flat-out chicane, car is probably capable of 100mph through there but I was lifting. "Bunga Bunga" is my favourite corner by far, take it wide with a touch of understeer then get on the power early to hit the second apex right at the end - feels and looks like you're going to run out of track but the car just rotates through at about 70mph - pretty awesome.

With about half an hour to go, I fell asleep on the grass and was woken by someguy shouting "15mins, last chance!" so I went back out for a few more laps. All went fine until the penultimate lap, came out of a slower chicane in 3rd, shifted up to 4th at 6200rpm then got to about 6k rpm in fourth and power cut really quickly, then immediately came back in. Coasted round for a lap, then did exactly the same in the same place.

After tidying up and setting off home, I tried to replicate on a slip road and the car just boosted right through the range fine... favourite theory is fuel surge after a chat with a few people.

Some vids.

Onboard:
External:
Brakes:

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Got to work at the weekend returning the car back to "road mode", and also trying to figure out what's scuffing on the rear when it gets hot.



Bit of surface rust bubbling up, but also a polished streak at the 2-3o'clock position in a groove right next to the handbrake shoes.



Seems like a lip on the disc is supposed to sit in that groove, and is catching when getting warm. You can see the lip is slightly polished vs the totally crusty "other side".



vs



I dremelled the lip down a mm or so, so hopefully that gives me enough clearance next time I'm on track. I at least know it's nothing "dangerous" so hopefully I can sweet talk the marshals if/when it happens again.

Dremelled down:


Ground down the backing plates and covered in my anti-rust gunk:


...and the other side:


Good old Hammerite to tidy up:






Road pads back in, staggered yo'


I guess the aftermarket discs I got just don't quite have the same tolerances as factory, as the "groove" on the hub doesn't seem deformed or anything.

Fonzey

iTrader: (5)

Got my pictures through...





Foggy!

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

Looks like you've been having fun