[Trackday_Prep] Jake's 205 Gti-6 Track Car Tweeks

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Howdy all!

 

Thought I would start a progress thread for this as I'm getting carried away with it and doing more changes than I thought haha. Anyways, found this car on eBay form a fella in Birmingham who is also on here, after a late bit of bidding I won woohoo! even tho I went over I wanted to spend but it has all the mods I was going to do for track so I was happy.

The time came to pick it up and I struggled to find someone to collect it from Birmingham to durham for a decent price and an acceptable time on shiply.co.uk as they wanted to collect it during the week which was no good but eventually found a local lad that would do it so the trip was on. After the 4hour drive down in a trannie that wasn't well I eventually came back with this:-

 

 

The spec is as follows:

 

Engine:

 

306 gti 6 engine

6 speed box

Re angled manifold (engine at correct angle)

Solid mounts

Quick shift modified linkage with mi16 stick and reverse cable

Larger 309 gti radiator lowered to allow room for inlet

Twin cooling fans on a switch

Uprated cams ( according to engines last owner) so sold as standard due to no proof

unlocked gti6 ECU

Bespoke alternator setup - no AC

Pulls very well right upto limiter and the ratios of the 6 box really suit track driving.

Spiky (off the 205 drivers forum) engine loom

Re angled down pipe and full magnex exhaust system

 

Drivetrain:

 

Bilstien shocks and springs

Polybushed 309 gti wishbones and 309 gti driveshafts (only 2 years old)

205 gti 1.9 hubs with

Drilled grooved 206 gti180 discs and calipers

Drilled rear discs with new pads

BRAIDED HOSES ALL ROUND

New brake pipe and brake bias mounted by handbrake

Beam fully rebuilt 2 years ago

Solid alloy rear mounts

Poly bushed

New drop links

309 gti ARB

1.9 wheels with Toyo Proxis T1R's (seen one trackday so at least one left in them)

 

Body:

 

Steel grey 1.9 gti shell - rust free and still in pretty good condition

Aluminium plated sunroof

10 point OMP roll cage with extra harness bar

Single bucket and 4 point harness (out of a jap drift car)

Gti passenger seat and 3 point harness (not currently fitted)

 

It is in very good condition for its age and even better considering it's a trackcar and the grey looks awesome! Just needs the petrol cap trim and spoiler and all should be good for the outside plus a few mods I have planned which I'm on with now. Inside wasn't the best and needs a major revamp, a bit of surface rust that needed taking care of and a very rough paint finnish on the cage and a white backed seat that I wasn't a big fan of, these aren't big issues btw just things I wanted changing/tidying up. When in got the car home it was misfiring badly but as it was late and I was fudged I called it a day and went for a kip.

 

First thing to do was fix the misfire so after a bit of inspection of the plugs it turned out one of the coil packs was loose, the bolts had came out so the coil pack so wasn't on top of the plug properly! At least that was a quick fix which means the other problem can be looked at, the 205 can't idle so the inlet was taken off for a clean up of the sensors unfortunately to no avail so I've ordered a idle control valve as that is what most have suggested.

 

Whilst I was trying to source parts I spent my time stripping the interior or what is left of it haha so seat, cage and dash out and the sound deadening behind it, also binned the fans and heater matrix for a bit of weight saving.

 

Didn't plan on starting a thread so apologies for the lack of decent pics but Here's a few pics before work started, It doesn't look as bad in the pics as I had cleaned it up a bit;

 

 

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m598/Shakey__Jake/6BC55D65-6E9E-4C34-91C0-D487A52A7DB6-6220-000003B537A11AD2.jpg

 

 

Lots of sanding it looked like this:-

 

 

 

Which wasn't enough so got a mate on the job with a wire wheel in a grinder to do it properly and quicker! Also taped up the interior ready for painting.

 

 

Some "Krust" rust treatment to finish it off before primer so no rust would come back and it was time to paint!

 

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Primed! And it's the first time it seen day light in ages! No lights in the garage is a pain in the the bot. It's hard working prepping in candle light

 

Also prepped and primed the cage.Taped up all the fabric on the seat and took off the beading to prep and paint it the same color as the inside of the car.I should have got more photos!

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Best add a pic of what it looks like!

 

 

Interior is now painted in a RAL 2k paint as its alot more durable and doesn't need lacquered which is best for the inside, the color I chose was a light grey as I'm not a fan of dark interiors.

 

 

Started putting it back together and lost some of the little bolts for the rear quarter window so started making some new ones out of 4mm thick polycarbonate, luckily we have a CNC at work so made the job much easier. Started by taking dimensions of the windows an input to the CAD software:-

 

 

Start with this little off-cut from some other work:-

 

 

Chop chop:-

 

 

Chop some more:-

 

 

TAA DAA! Few seconds later:-

 

 

Then ran another:-

 

 

Now just need to fit them...

Edited January 28, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Got a bit of work done before the snow came. First up was sorting the non-existant tick over by changing the idle control valve So whipped the inlet manifold off for easy access:

 

 

Changed it over and hoped for the best when it came to trying it for the first time. Worked a treat happy days.

 

Another job on the to do list was changing the knackered boot lock, but as it'a track car I went for these locking pins, never seen these ones used before but thought I would give them a try:-

 

 

Then came the nervous time of drilling a hole in my boot! Spent a while getting them lined up properly before drilling.

 

 

 

 

Also bought a fire extinguisher as I've seen a few car on track burst into flames and I've had a fuel line pop off on the 205 and squirt petrol all over the engine bay so though I would be on the safe side and get one.

 

 

Fitted pics coming soon....

 

[johniban 59 1 Cars]

must be handy having the cad

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Yep, CNC comes in handy too and ill be making a few more parts on it

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Right then, an update.

 

As I have the memory of a fish ill update off the pictures I've got, so first up was getting a spare set of wheels for the track tires. Managed to find a set of 1.9gti speedlines on Facebook for £40 which is a bargain! Nice and straight too, just need to get get round to sanding them down and painting them dark grey.......or black.......or light grey haha I need to make my mind up first! But as I bought the wheels at Christmas I now have a set of A048s on them that we're bought off eddy_gti6 when he started to split the V6 for parts on the gti-6 forum (cheers matey).

 

 

Next up was making a new dash panel as I've pulled the heaters and fans out so have no need for vents, turned out harder than I thought :lol I didn't get any pics as I made it in my breaks at work but just made a template out of cardboard to get the right shape then cut it out in polycarbonate, to mount it I made loads of aluminum brackets the bolt to the plastic and riveted my polycarbonate to that, but the poly is hard to bend so needed to heat it to get it to take the shape of the heater vents then pinched some of eddy_gti6's rivets to fit and painted it. My cut off switch and some other switches will be mounted in it, I'm happy with it. Here's a pic

 

 

 

Whilst I was fiddling with the dash some of the wires had FELL out of a multi-plug on the back of the clocks and when I tried getting them back in more fell out! So had to find out where the the wires went in the multi-plug and fight the plug to get it apart! All is back together now with few new bulbs in the clocks so all is good just need to get my rev counter working and it will be done. Also got a OMP deep dish wheel and a boss off the eddiebeano on the gti6 forum, the wheel needed a coat of paint so that is what I done soon as I got it.

 

In the spray booth/shed it went

 

 

 

Went to fit it and these two suckers were in the way! Got the hack saw out for the first one then got sick and whipped out the angle grinder for the second one.

 

 

 

Done and dusted for now, just needs heater vent blanks and a Hoover! Oh and all that wiring chopped out.

 

 

Thanks for reading,

Jakey

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Next up was fitting the aerocatches, expensive little things but well engineered.

 

Bought them from EPracing and soon as they arrived I got on with fitting them.

 

 

These come with backing plates which make for a much tidier and easier to fit than without backing plate.

 

 

Started by working out where I wanted the catch to be placed by eyeing it up, drill through the slam panel when I was happy with a small drill bit then measured it to be the same on the other side and drilled to correct size and fitted the pins.

 

 

Once that was done I closed the bonnet onto the pins which put a little mark on the underside of the bonnet and drilled through it to reveal a perfectly aligned pin!

 

 

After that I wanted my pins to have a cool funkey angle to them so marked off the angle I wanted them to sit at not forgetting the mega amounts of masking tape to protect the paint!

 

 

Used them lines to make use of the marking on the fitting template and chopped the fooker oot!

 

 

Also chopped out the back to allow room for the backing plate to be fitted

 

 

Got the pin perfectly aligned with the catch and drilled and fitted the Allen key bolts

 

 

Job well done

 

Some pics I got the the new bits fitted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just need to wrap the plates one the boot locking pins

Managed to loose a Allen key bolt for the aerocatches DOH!

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Just realized I haven't updated this in a while so here's what's been happening, put in in for an MOT back in march and this is the result for the first time I took it in for test:

 

1) Drop link dust cover split

 

2) Tyre fouling gearbox

 

3) Split pin missing from rear brake pads O/S

 

4) Split pin missing from rear brake pads N/S

 

5) Head lamp aim (had a clip missing so light was loose)

 

6) Rear fog lamp not working

 

7) Rear fog lamp tell tale not working

 

8) Drivers seat adjustment not functioning (had a bucket seat)

 

9) Rear brake pipe insecure

 

10) N/S rear brake pipe kinked

 

11) Handbrake cable insecure

 

12) CV booty split

 

Which I got sorted over the weekend and it went back in for re-test and came back with this due to the new test rules:

 

1) Rear fog light insecure

 

2) Fog light switch insecure

 

3) Number plate light not working

 

4) Fog light tell tale not working (it clearly was!)

 

5) Wiring harness under bonnet loose (N/S and O/S)

 

6) Clock light not working

 

7) Fault on dip and main beam warning

 

8) Lights dip when ignition is on

 

So if I put car in for re-test two days earlier I would have passed. Just had lots of little electrical jobs to do to get it on the road. However, I didn't sort it in time so left the car for a until the end of last month due to my exams so I didn't do a lot to it but the past week or two I've sorted the last few things to make it totally road legal. Biggest pain in the arse was getting all the dash lights and rev counter working which was eventually down to some s**t bulbs, broken connections and had to by-passing the dimmer switch so this left me with a full dash of lights.

 

Booked it for a MOT near my house whilst I was off work for a bit, and they said a ball joint needed replacing and my back brakes weren't working, so changed the wishbone and bled the brakes, put it back in for a re-test and all was good so EVENTUALLY I have 12 months MOT! As it was a different test centre that I took it to they also said that if the car has fixed bucket seats it can't be failed for not being adjustable, which was interesting.

 

Now that I have driven the car I can now say its pretty quick! It also likes to pull me all over the road, oh and I'm booked in for a sprint at teeside autodrome on the May 20th so ill see how it performs, it should be interesting as I've never driven a front wheel drive car on track before.

 

Anyway, here's a pic with cyclones fitted.

 

 

 

I don't think they suit the 205 :no swapped them for the speedlines

 

 

Much better:thumbsup

 

These will stay on till' I paint my track wheels. Also bought this splitter-

 

 

This pic shows the goodies you don't normally get to see and also the freshly painted brake calipers (and pads:P )

 

 

Oh, Also got some Michelin slicks to go on, so that should be interesting to see how much more grip they offer over Toyo T1Rs or Yokohama A048s. Also fitted a upper and lower strut brace too so next step is to stiffen the rear end.

 

I shall update after the sprint on Monday, just need to insure and tax it tomorrow and I'm good to go.

 

Thanks for looking,

Jake

Edited May 16, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Bought this last week

 

 

 

It's even got a peugeot engine in it!

 

Next job is to find a decent car trailer and do the B+E test to upgrade my license and I'll be cooking on gas.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Got it tax and insured on Friday so been out seeing what it's like to drive ready for the Teeside Sprint tomorrow. I first went out on the Toyo T1Rs which err lacked a bit of grip, some 'sprinted' driving got the fronts brakes locking up regularly and under steer even when slowly turning into the corner aswell as under steering out of corners when a little tiny wee bit of throttle is applied to try and over come that I ended up with some heart stopping drifts! I was going to use these tyres for the sprint but I quickly changed my mind and swapped them for my track wheels and Yokohama A048s which are in a totally different league! I must admit it now handles (dare I say it) as well as my old Evo 8!!! As long as there is no water on the ground...

Can't wait to get on a trackday and try out the Michelin slicks. If all goes well tomorrow I'll book croft for Saturday.

 

Here's some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Teesside sprint!

 

 

Had a noisy hour long drive down to the Teesside Autodrome this morning, I was hoping for nice sunny weather but that was not to be but I decided to leave the A048s on and hope it wouldn't get worse. That didn't work! It was misty and drizzling all day so it was just a case of getting used to the conditions and grip levels. As it was my first sprint I didn't know what to expect, new car, new track and I've never been timed doing anything in a car before so driving up to the start line for the first practice run (even tho its not timed) the butterflys are flying and I'm fiddling with anything I can because of the nerves. Glad I decided not to film my practice runs because the first are always the worst, lucky I didn't because of my off roading on the first corner.........and chicane.

 

After the two practice runs the timed runs start, here's run one with a time of 53.84 - not a bad time bit not a good time either, very greasy track.

 

RUN ONE VIDEO!!

 

Second run getting faster - 52.34

 

RUN TWO VIDEO!!

 

Third run even better - 52.13

 

RUN THREE VIDEO!!

Forth timed run the same - 52.13

 

RUN FOUR VIDEO!!

 

Fifth didn't go well an I got back in the 53s and my battery ran out on my phone so lost that video.

 

The way the sprint was set up means the timing was written on spread sheets against a car number, so no make or model which means hunting down which cars your faster than. It was good to see how we'll I did against similar cars and I'm very pleased with my times a lot of times on the board were 54 and 55s.

 

After the timed runs they let us out again and I got in about 4 other runs to improve but without being timed, this allowed me to try new wider lines and later braking. I then tried to get in one last run in I hit the Kurb on the chicane and it popped and spluttered so now only running on two or three cylinders. Tried to fix it but with limited tools and everyone packing up a had to drive it home nice and slowly.

Still had a smile on my face driving home after a good day even though it was at 50mph all the way and sounded horrendous!

 

Also 'Mad Mark' Watson turned up to demonstrate the rally cross car

 

 

 

 

Their was also a show n shine on somewhere but I'm not interested in all that so no pics.

 

In other news I've just recieved somting interesting in the post...........update tomorrow.

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Times are out! My Names Jake Simpson, not far from the top

TIMES FOR RUN #1
Keith Bryan EVO 6 2.3 17 47.19
Tony Hume EVO 5 2.0T 19 47.82
Jamie Lumley R35 GTR 3.8 1 48.25
Peter Milne EVO 9 2.0 14 50.22
Baz Turnball Scooby STI 2.6 44 51.03
Jonathan Chape Integra Type R 1.8 26 52.16
Matty Patterson Fisher Fury 900cc 28 52.97
Jake Simpson 205 GTI 1.9 21 53.84
Brett Nicholson scooby 2.0 T WRX 46 53.94
Jordan Walker Starlet Glanza 1.3 45 54.53
Michael Pitcher MR2 2.0T 37 55.09
Chris Chapman Starlet Glanza 1.3 12 55.41
Joe James BMW 328i 38 55.47
stuart smith R33 2.5 34 55.59
Tim Gray/Lee T Arbarth 500 essesse 55 55.68
Adam Bainbridge R33 2.5 30 55.69
Adi Day 205 gti 2.0 27 56.19
Chris Jessop scooby 2.0 T 2 56.56
Paul Rye fiesta mk2 2.0 32 56.66
David Michie Suzuki Swift 1.6 47 56.69
Barry Mitchel Pug 306 GTI 6 2.0 9 57.03
Emily Nicholson Scooby 2.0T WRX 18 57.66
Anthony Mcginty MX5 1.6 3 58.28
Bill Shearer RS2000 35 59.34
Stuart Averill focus st 170 2.0 40 59.56
Martin Waller EVO 6 2.3 22 48 .00
Second driver Suzuki Swift 1.6 24 55 .00
Ashley Langley Ford Puma 1.7 6 no run
Simon Dickinson Saxo VTR 1.6 42 1.00.82
Roger Ayton 205 GTI 1.6 29 1.02.90
Lara Birtwell scooby 2.0 T 4 1.03.31
Mark Jose Supra 3.0 25 1.03.85

__________________________________________________________
TIMES RUN #2
Keith Bryan EVO 6 2.3 17 46.34
Martin Waller EVO 6 2.3 22 47.5
Jamie Lumley R35 GTR 3.8 1 47.69
Tony Hume EVO 5 2.0T 19 47.81
Baz Turnball Scooby STI 2.6 44 49.54
Jonathan Chape Integra Type R 1.8 26 50.63
Peter Milne EVO 9 2.0 14 51.94
Matty Patterson Fisher Fury 900cc 28 52.03
Chris Chapman Starlet Glanza 1.3 12 52.22
Jake Simpson 205 GTI 1.9 21 52.34
Brett Nicholson scooby 2.0 T WRX 46 52.78
Michael Pitcher MR2 2.0T 37 53.38
Second driver Suzuki Swift 1.6 24 53.5
Jordan Walker Starlet Glanza 1.3 45 53.93
Joe James BMW 328i 38 54.16
David Michie Suzuki Swift 1.6 47 54.44
stuart smith R33 2.5 34 54.68
Chris Jessop scooby 2.0 T 2 54.72
Adam Bainbridge R33 2.5 30 55.53
Barry Mitchel Pug 306 GTI 6 2.0 9 56.03
Paul Rye fiesta mk2 2.0 32 56.94
Bill Shearer RS2000 35 56.94
Tim Gray/Lee T Arbarth 500 essesse 55 57.07
Stuart Averill focus st 170 2.0 40 57.16
Adi Day 205 gti 2.0 27 57.37
Anthony Mcginty MX5 1.6 3 57.84
Roger Ayton 205 GTI 1.6 29 58.19
Simon Dickinson Saxo VTR 1.6 42 59.69
Mark Jose Supra 3.0 25 1.01.32
Lara Birtwell scooby 2.0 T 4 1.02.03
Emily Nicholson Scooby 2.0T WRX 18 1.08.78
Ashley Langley Ford Puma 1.7 6 NO RUN

____________________________________________________________
TIMES RUN #3
Keith Bryan EVO 6 2.3 17 45.53
Jamie Lumley R35 GTR 3.8 1 45.93
Tony Hume EVO 5 2.0T 19 46.66
Martin Waller EVO 6 2.3 22 47.19
Peter Milne EVO 9 2.0 14 49.03
Baz Turnball Scooby STI 2.6 44 49.94
Jonathan Chape Integra Type R 1.8 26 50.43
Chris Chapman Starlet Glanza 1.3 12 51.84
Jake Simpson 205 GTI 1.9 21 52.13
Joe James BMW 328i 38 52.94
Second driver Suzuki Swift 1.6 24 52.97
stuart smith R33 2.5 34 53.16
Jordan Walker Starlet Glanza 1.3 45 53.22
David Michie Suzuki Swift 1.6 47 53.22
Michael Pitcher MR2 2.0T 37 53.59
Barry Mitchel Pug 306 GTI 6 2.0 9 54.72
Adam Bainbridge R33 2.5 30 55.34
Mark Jose Supra 3.0 25 55.37
Brett Nicholson scooby 2.0 T WRX 46 55.53
Adi Day 205 gti 2.0 27 55.57
Bill Shearer RS2000 35 55.69
Chris Jessop scooby 2.0 T 2 55.94
Stuart Averill focus st 170 2.0 40 56.28
Anthony Mcginty MX5 1.6 3 56.47
Paul Rye fiesta mk2 2.0 32 56.56
Roger Ayton 205 GTI 1.6 29 57
Tim Gray/Lee T Arbarth 500 essesse 55 57.22
Simon Dickinson Saxo VTR 1.6 42 57.53
Emily Nicholson Scooby 2.0T WRX 18 58.81
Lara Birtwell scooby 2.0 T 4 1.00.84
Matty Patterson Fisher Fury 900cc 28 1.00.19
Ashley Langley Ford Puma 1.7 6 NO RUN

________________________________________________________
TIMES RUN #4
Keith Bryan EVO 6 2.3 17 44.37
Tony Hume EVO 5 2.0T 19 45.69
Jamie Lumley R35 GTR 3.8 1 45.81
Martin Waller EVO 6 2.3 22 46.81
Baz Turnball Scooby STI 2.6 44 48.25
Peter Milne EVO 9 2.0 14 48.82
Matty Patterson Fisher Fury 900cc 28 50 .00
Jonathan Chape Integra Type R 1.8 26 50.47
Chris Chapman Starlet Glanza 1.3 12 50.78
David Michie Suzuki Swift 1.6 47 51.96
Jake Simpson 205 GTI 1.9 21 52.13
Brett Nicholson scooby 2.0 T WRX 46 52.22
Bill Shearer RS2000 35 52.28
stuart smith R33 2.5 34 52.44
Jordan Walker Starlet Glanza 1.3 45 52.59
Michael Pitcher MR2 2.0T 37 53.19
Chris Jessop scooby 2.0 T 2 53.28
Second driver Suzuki Swift 1.6 24 53.5
Adam Bainbridge R33 2.5 30 54.38
Stuart Averill focus st 170 2.0 40 54.72
Barry Mitchel Pug 306 GTI 6 2.0 9 55.1
Paul Rye fiesta mk2 2.0 32 55.41
Anthony Mcginty MX5 1.6 3 55.59
Adi Day 205 gti 2.0 27 55.71
Simon Dickinson Saxo VTR 1.6 42 55.84
Emily Nicholson Scooby 2.0T WRX 18 56.03
Roger Ayton 205 GTI 1.6 29 56.47
Tim Gray/Lee T Arbarth 500 essesse 55 56.59
Mark Jose Supra 3.0 25 56.91
Joe James BMW 328i 38 57.31
Lara Birtwell scooby 2.0 T 4 59.82
Ashley Langley Ford Puma 1.7 6 1.01.81

 

I like sprinting

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

 

There is another one withe a back wheel in the air but the bloke wants 20odd pound for it. Think ill stick with this one!

I'm still buzzing about how well I did against much quicker cars such as the scoobies, but sick that I got beat by a Suzuki swift (even thought it was supercharged) haha ill try harder next time!

 

In other news, this came in the post - exciting times ahead!

 

 

 

 

Popped up the garage yesterday to try and workout why the pug was only running on two cylinders. Turned out to be two of the coil packs had gave up so swapped them with some spare ones and all was good. Now it purrs like a kitten.

 

On that note I booked a last minute trackday at croft on Saturday. Just need to get my slicks put on my spare set of wheels and I'm good to go. This will be the third time this month I've been to croft but the first time driving, the weather is looking dry so it should be a good day. After the sprint i think the car handles amazing at the moment so can't see anything I want to change but once I hit some proper speed on track the lively back end might catch me out, so ill be taking it (reasonably) steady. Ill rig up the camera and try and get a vid to post up.

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

CROFT TRACKDAY!!

 

My morning went well, took advantage of the open pit lane and got out for a few laps came in to let it cool for a little while and repeated that as it was getting hot in the car without fans even with the windows open also had to swap the tyres around a few times because the front left was taking some abuse. Spent the first few laps getting used to the way the little pug handles and learning the lines of the track. It was abit of a posh trackday with all of the cars on track faster than mine a load of Porsches (gt3rs, 911 turbos and cup cars) 3 Nissan GTRs TVRs,kit cars and all sorts so my little pug was a bit out of place.

 

Anyways, my day changed when I got a missfire at the back of the track so slowly drove back to the pits when I started to get that smell of burning plastic followed by black smoke starting to come into the cockpit pulled in the pits and popes the bonnet where I was greeted with flames coming from under the coil pack cover! Whipped out my dinky fire extinguisher and put it out. It defiantly gets the heart rate raising when your cars on fire!

 

Rang a mate to come down and bring some coil packs to get the car running again but only managed one more track session before two different coil pack gave up! Luckily he brought his own track car down so we took turns of that for the rest of the day so not all was lost and it turned out to be a good day.

 

Overall, I'm happy With the way the 205 handles, I'm just getting use to how to drive a front wheel drive car fast around a circuit I.e loosen up the back end a wee bit to get it turned into a corner to reduce understeer and the back end still sticks like s**t!

The drive home on two cylinders wasn't much fun so I've sent the tax disc back and cancelled the insurance.

I used this trackday to see if I wanted to use this car for racing and I can happily say that I do. So now it's time to get all the MSA approved stuff on it. I've got a big list of thing to do, such as-

 

Medical

ARDS test

Then send that off with the fee to get a race license

 

Find and buy a braked trailer (to tow more weight)

Practice and book a days course for trailer test (getting lessons now)

 

Kit myself out-

Helmet

Race suit (3 layer)

Gloves

Boots

Fire proof under crackers

 

Sort the cars MSA approved equipment-

Seat

Harness

Internal and external cut off switches and stickers

Plumbed in fire extinguisher

Battery box

 

And a few mods to the car

 

Just don't add up the cost of all that!

 

Ill hopefully be joining the French trophy depending on what class they put me in (just sending some emails to find out)

 

 

 

Here's a few pics from Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[qwerty 9]

That's awesome mate, looking at your pic is really motivating me to get mine finished, can't wait to get to croft as it's really close to me.

 

Did you clock any of you times?

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Cheers! Good to see another local on here. If your from Consett then I'm just down the road from you. Didn't get any times unfortunately, tried to video a lap but got black flagged for it! I'm planning on getting a quiet exhaust for it so I can do the quiet days at croft with javelin trackdays. Let me know when your doing croft and I might join you.

[Batfink 201]

What suspension will you fit for racing? It's quite soft at the rear and with big ARB on the front

Edited June 2, 2013 by Batfink

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

I'm planning on using GAZ Golds and adjustable top mounts, not sure what spring rates but ill see what they recommend. Was also planning on thicker rear ARB and torsion bars but not sure what to go for? If I choose it would just be a guess.

 

What I really need is a tyre pressure gauge and foot pump instead of keeping the pressures the same all day!

Edited June 2, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Medical done and passed (I'm a bit blind tho) ARDS test booked at Oulton Park for June 18th because Croft are useless and couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery.

 

I best get watching this ARDS DVD!

Edited June 9, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

These past few weeks I set out to get my race license, firstly this requires a medical so rang my doctors and they wanted £120 carry out the medical for the race license! Obviously a rip off! got on the phone to the local race circuits to find a doctor that does the MSA medicals and after speaking to Teesside autodrome they recommended me a doctor to do my medical, got on the phone again and got booked in and completed it successfully the other week for a total sum of £50! and just because it was cheaper doesn't mean it wasn't done properly either.

 

Next up was the ARDS test. I always planned on doing this at croft circuit as that is my local circuit and I've been around it a few times so know where the corners are! But after speaking to them they didn't seem interested in booking me on, they couldn't tell me when they were running them or when the next free space was or anything. Disappointed about croft but also tried Teesside autodrome as I heard they do ARDS tests but they were stopped at the beginning of the year because Teeside does not hold any car racing (same reason with Bedford autodrome and other Kart/sprint circuits). Looked into tracks further away and decided on Oulton park as it looks a good track (on tele!) and they provide a car unlike Cadwell Park!

 

Traveled down to Oulton Park on Tuesday morning and had the test booked for 12:45 so no silly early morning to contend with. It starts with having to watch the 'go racing' video again but luckily not the first aid part as its boring as f**k. Then into the theory test which consists of a 28 question paper and the first 20 questions MUST be answered correctly! Finding this out made me nervous haha the test itself only takes a few minutes and luckily I got full marks! Woohoo!

 

Next it's down to the Peugeot RCZs for the track test. This involves the tester to do Two laps to show how they want you to drive but in my case it was showing me the circuit as I had never been there before which turned out not to be the best idea! Everyone else had either been before or had a mornings instruction! I got to grips with the circuit pretty quickly because I had too haha even you only get 3 laps practice with instruction and then 2 laps which is assessed. Then it's the moment of truth.......... I passed

 

For the driving assessment they expect you to drive smoothly and accurately by hitting the clipping points and not using lots of kurbs also knowing the racing lines and braking points with no oversteer or understeer or tyre squeal and at about 80% driving effort and not 'all out' but you are expected to go at a reasonable pace to show you can actually enter a race. And this was done whilst a open pit lane trackday was on so watching the mirrors for the radicals and kit cars!

 

Next up is completing my trailer test which is booked for the 3rd of July so I better get practicing and I'm also on the look out for a trailer. Also need to decide which PPE to get to get as theirs loads to choose from. Unfortunately i'll also be putting the 205 up for sale once the coil pack problem is fixed as it doesn't fit into any race series which is a shame as its a very good car on track!

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Fex-Ex man turned up at work with something interesting today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found myself wearing it for most of the working day :lol

 

Once I got home I found that postman Pat had left me something too

 

 

 

 

(It's a pic of my race license that's blocked)

 

I now need to decide of I want an OMP race suit or Alpinestars!

 

My 205 is now in the for sale section if anyone is interested, I've found I car and I need to make space for it.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Shakey_Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

These past few weeks I've been organizing the B+E driving test, a normal category B driving licence only allows towing up to 3500kg combined weight of car and trailer but I need mooooore! Not much more, annoyingly. For anyone that's interested here what has to be done.

 

The test includes a few "show me, tell me" questions, un-coupling the trailer from the car and parking up next to it then checking the the trailer is safe (check handbrake, tyres, doors are locked) the re-coupling the trailer back to the car then it's on to the manoeuvre, this is basically two boxes set so you reverse in an 'S' shape, they use a closed box trailer so you can't see anything out of the rear view mirror but it also means it can be stickered up with reference points to make it easier. Onto 50minutes of driving, 10 of which is independent driving (told to follow some signs to somewhere) they are looking for good use of mirrors and slow approaches to junctions and that's about it.

 

In summary, it was boring as f**k and a waste of time but basically the same as a normal driving test but longer as its classed as advanced driving (apparently) to me it didn't make much difference having a trailer on the back when driving apart form not being able to use the rear view mirror and slow approach to junctions which is what I would have done anyway without lessons. In fact I only had two lessons with the trailer instructor before test. Apologies for the rant but its annoying that little old c**ts that can't even see over the steering wheel are allowed to tow caravans and I have to do a test for it.

 

 

Forgot to mention I passed, 5 minors.

 

 

 

Cheers,

A very annoyed Jake

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

Well then, a while since I updated this. As far as the 205 goes I've rolled it out of the garage and back in, can't seem to suss what is wrong with it, swapped the coil pack over to ones which I knew we're working (from a working cylinder) and it still doesn't fire on two of the cylinders furthest away from the cambelt, anyone know what is next to check? as the coil packs and plugs are fine.

 

 

On another note I've ended up getting a race team (AK Automotive) to build me a Mazda MX-5 to race in the Mazda MX-5 championship.http://www.brsccmazda.com/

 

Started life like this last week:

 

 

And today it is getting painted ready for my first race at Anglesey next weekend, full supported by AK Automotive.

 

This meant I had to get myself kitted out, and thanks to Grand Prix Racewear for a very quick delivery even though they had a bit of stitching to do

 

 

Also had to get a GoPro because the championship I'm running in requires it in case of any disputes for incidents and its also needed for television as the races are broadcast on Motors TV and full length races on YouTube. And I'll post all my races on my YouTube channel. It will also come in handy for tuition from the other drivers in the team.

 

I was also planning on getting a trailer but won't need one for a while as the lads that are looking after the car will be transporting it to the races for me in the 7.5ton race truck or trailer it on the back of the motorhome. I've also managed to blah a camper van for the weekend.

 

Got a test day on Friday before the race so I can get used to RWD as I've never had it before and never driven a MX-5! A spare slot on Saturday means we have been allowed a free-practice before Qualifying for the first time so I should be up to speed by then. If anyone is at the track at the weekend comeover and say hi and have a brew, I'll be number 188.

 

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!