Thursday 23 August 2012
Moving the window switch
Just a final tidy up after stripping the doors means I had to put the window switch somewhere so luckily it fits exactly where the ashtray used to be. A quick(ish) bit of work on the remaining aluminium and same dodgy carbon wrap later and here we are :-)
Stripping the doors, and the door fights back :-(
One of the things I did recently was ordering the roll cage and booking fitting from Rogue. Frankie also booked his in at the same time so we are getting them done starting 14th October.
In order to do this, it is a good idea to strip the doors out and replace them with aluminium door cards, so I ordered these up and got busy with the doors.
Stripping them was pretty straightforward, but the complication is having to move a load of wiring to get the door cards to fit. The passenger side was pretty easy and just involved taking out the speakers etc.
The drivers door was a lot more involved as we need to keep the window switches out and put them somewhere else. In order to do this I had to move all the wiring out the door except the two wires that go to the window motor, and then relocate the switch somewhere else. For the minute I just left it hanging around.
Once this was done, screwing on the new cards was just a case of more drilling to make some holes and then screwing everything in place. I really have been drilling a lot recently.
At some point during this abuse, the car decided it had had enough and somehow managed to slam the door straight onto my hand :*-O. So I hit it with a hammer. The door that is, not my hand.
We made up though, and the car is really starting to look a bit brutal now. I like it :-).
In order to do this, it is a good idea to strip the doors out and replace them with aluminium door cards, so I ordered these up and got busy with the doors.
Stripping them was pretty straightforward, but the complication is having to move a load of wiring to get the door cards to fit. The passenger side was pretty easy and just involved taking out the speakers etc.
Passenger door before stripping (old card already removed)
The drivers door was a lot more involved as we need to keep the window switches out and put them somewhere else. In order to do this I had to move all the wiring out the door except the two wires that go to the window motor, and then relocate the switch somewhere else. For the minute I just left it hanging around.
Hmmm. Lots of wires.
Once this was done, screwing on the new cards was just a case of more drilling to make some holes and then screwing everything in place. I really have been drilling a lot recently.
Just needs screwing in
At some point during this abuse, the car decided it had had enough and somehow managed to slam the door straight onto my hand :*-O. So I hit it with a hammer. The door that is, not my hand.
We made up though, and the car is really starting to look a bit brutal now. I like it :-).
Getting strapped in
Did this a little while ago but not updated the blog, but I have fitted the 6 point harness that I had delivered.
A nice pair of blue SRS 6 point harnesses, apparently these are actually made by Sabelt but there were a lot cheaper. Fully FIA approved though.
Also delivered were some eye bolts and backing plates. These are to go on the outside of the car to stop the bolts pulling through the bodywork. That would be bad.
So I measured up where the belts should go in relation to the seats, and marked the body work. Then out come the seats again, and the trusty drill is used to drill two holes each side underneath the seats for the anti-submarine straps to clip to. These straps are not actually for destroying submarines, but to stop you sliding down in the chair in case of a crash. After a bit of nervousness related to drilling holes in the floor, these were actually pretty straightforward. Screwed in the eye bolt and these straps are done.
Next up is the lap belts. One of them just screws straight into the existing seat belt hole, but the other side needs another hold drilled into the floor on the opposite side. This is a bit fiddly as it is so near the fuel tank, but a deep breath taken and then just dive in. Same principal as the sub straps, but this time under the car I had to jam my hand under a plastic cover which was somewhat painful and annoying.
Lastly the shoulder straps need to go into the firewall behind the seats. This involved taking out the heat shield from the engine bay, and to do this I had to take out the strut brace. Pain. Anyway, while doing this I found that the previous owner had left in part of the air box which is no longet needed, so I took that out and chucked it :-)
Once all that was out, drilled the holes and screwed in the eye bolts and all was done! Not too bad at all. Except now I had to put the seats back in.. I HATE DOING THAT! Anyway, it got done and then it was a case of adjusting the straps to the right length, and this also took a while as I had to keep taking them off the bolts, adjusting them and then putting them back. Over and over.
So here is the finished product, looking pretty cool I think...
A nice pair of blue SRS 6 point harnesses, apparently these are actually made by Sabelt but there were a lot cheaper. Fully FIA approved though.
Also delivered were some eye bolts and backing plates. These are to go on the outside of the car to stop the bolts pulling through the bodywork. That would be bad.
So I measured up where the belts should go in relation to the seats, and marked the body work. Then out come the seats again, and the trusty drill is used to drill two holes each side underneath the seats for the anti-submarine straps to clip to. These straps are not actually for destroying submarines, but to stop you sliding down in the chair in case of a crash. After a bit of nervousness related to drilling holes in the floor, these were actually pretty straightforward. Screwed in the eye bolt and these straps are done.
Next up is the lap belts. One of them just screws straight into the existing seat belt hole, but the other side needs another hold drilled into the floor on the opposite side. This is a bit fiddly as it is so near the fuel tank, but a deep breath taken and then just dive in. Same principal as the sub straps, but this time under the car I had to jam my hand under a plastic cover which was somewhat painful and annoying.
Lastly the shoulder straps need to go into the firewall behind the seats. This involved taking out the heat shield from the engine bay, and to do this I had to take out the strut brace. Pain. Anyway, while doing this I found that the previous owner had left in part of the air box which is no longet needed, so I took that out and chucked it :-)
Once all that was out, drilled the holes and screwed in the eye bolts and all was done! Not too bad at all. Except now I had to put the seats back in.. I HATE DOING THAT! Anyway, it got done and then it was a case of adjusting the straps to the right length, and this also took a while as I had to keep taking them off the bolts, adjusting them and then putting them back. Over and over.
So here is the finished product, looking pretty cool I think...
Front view of drivers seat
The shoulder strap attachments in the firewall
Thursday 16 August 2012
Bright light in my rear end
Newly confident after the cut off switch success I thought I would tackle the FIA rain light that has to go on the back of the car. This will attach to the funky aircraft style switch on the centre panel. Being an experienced auto electrician of one whole days experience, I thought I would takle this alone.
First off, a visit to Halfords (naturally) to get some more wire and some attachments. I then attached one end of the wire (blue this time - no black available) to the neutral terminal on the battery, and ran it the length of the car through the same holes as the existing wiring, through the engine bay and out into the boot where I attached it to one side of the light.
Next up, run the red wire from the switch, back through the car, through the.. oh. Ran out of wire.
Back to halfords again for some more red wire.
And.. through the engine bay and into the boot and the other side of the light. Tighten up all the little connectors, turn the power on and flick the switch. Nothing seems to have melted, so check the light and wow, it's on! Two successes in a row, this is unheard of.
Now the fun bit :-)
I've seen pictures of other MR2s so have seen they put the light into the rear light valance thing so I took this off and the light fits in the gap. Just need to drill out the plastic and screw it in place. Luckily I seem to have one of those big gap drill bit thingies (a serated disc type effort), and it appears to be exactly the size I need by some bizarre concidence.
So drilly drilly, and before you know it, this light is in place (although it was a bit of a pain as the back was not flat for some reason) and everthing is done. Next!
First off, a visit to Halfords (naturally) to get some more wire and some attachments. I then attached one end of the wire (blue this time - no black available) to the neutral terminal on the battery, and ran it the length of the car through the same holes as the existing wiring, through the engine bay and out into the boot where I attached it to one side of the light.
Next up, run the red wire from the switch, back through the car, through the.. oh. Ran out of wire.
Back to halfords again for some more red wire.
And.. through the engine bay and into the boot and the other side of the light. Tighten up all the little connectors, turn the power on and flick the switch. Nothing seems to have melted, so check the light and wow, it's on! Two successes in a row, this is unheard of.
Now the fun bit :-)
I've seen pictures of other MR2s so have seen they put the light into the rear light valance thing so I took this off and the light fits in the gap. Just need to drill out the plastic and screw it in place. Luckily I seem to have one of those big gap drill bit thingies (a serated disc type effort), and it appears to be exactly the size I need by some bizarre concidence.
So drilly drilly, and before you know it, this light is in place (although it was a bit of a pain as the back was not flat for some reason) and everthing is done. Next!
Quite bright - this was taken in the sun, at night its much brighter.
Cut it out.
Finally it was time to bite the bullet and attempt the electronics. Small problem is I have no idea what I am doing, but I know a man who does :-)
So a return visit to Frankie's is arranged, and this time I actually turn up with the parts that are needed. Well most of them, we still have to take the obligatory trip to halfords to get a few more bits.
Next up is a lot of looking at things and stroking of chins, before we dive in and start wiring things up. First up we take the live cable off the battery and extend it inside the car to behind the switch panel and attach it to the big connector. From the other side the other half of the large cable (25mm2 if you are interested, which you won't be) goes back and reattaches to the battery.
Lets test this by turning the switch and hooray! All power is disconnected!
The second job is to attach the ignition wire to the small connectors to kill the engine as soon as the switch is twisted. This was always going to be tricky as we had no idea what wire it was. After much messing about pulling things apart near the key tunnel, we consulted the forum and lo and behold found it was the "black wire with an orange stripe". And there was! Looks like it already has something to do with the alarm attached as well. So we bravely chop the wire in half and run it to the switch.
The final connection is to take a power lead to one side of the other connection and run a resistor to the bodywork. This stops the car blowing up when you turn the switch while the engine is running, so is therefore heartily recommend. Chris use his electro skills to do this nicely and I was the bolt monkey.
So now for the big one. Start the engine and get ready to twist. Hopefully the car will not explode or blow every component. And. Twist. We live! And the car has shut itself off too! Exclamation marks! This shouldn't be as exciting as it is, but we are laughing our heads off and both want another go.
Here is a picture of the panel in-situ even though it looks the same as another posts picture. I don't like posts without at least one picture you see.
So a return visit to Frankie's is arranged, and this time I actually turn up with the parts that are needed. Well most of them, we still have to take the obligatory trip to halfords to get a few more bits.
Next up is a lot of looking at things and stroking of chins, before we dive in and start wiring things up. First up we take the live cable off the battery and extend it inside the car to behind the switch panel and attach it to the big connector. From the other side the other half of the large cable (25mm2 if you are interested, which you won't be) goes back and reattaches to the battery.
Lets test this by turning the switch and hooray! All power is disconnected!
The second job is to attach the ignition wire to the small connectors to kill the engine as soon as the switch is twisted. This was always going to be tricky as we had no idea what wire it was. After much messing about pulling things apart near the key tunnel, we consulted the forum and lo and behold found it was the "black wire with an orange stripe". And there was! Looks like it already has something to do with the alarm attached as well. So we bravely chop the wire in half and run it to the switch.
The final connection is to take a power lead to one side of the other connection and run a resistor to the bodywork. This stops the car blowing up when you turn the switch while the engine is running, so is therefore heartily recommend. Chris use his electro skills to do this nicely and I was the bolt monkey.
So now for the big one. Start the engine and get ready to twist. Hopefully the car will not explode or blow every component. And. Twist. We live! And the car has shut itself off too! Exclamation marks! This shouldn't be as exciting as it is, but we are laughing our heads off and both want another go.
Here is a picture of the panel in-situ even though it looks the same as another posts picture. I don't like posts without at least one picture you see.
Sunday 5 August 2012
I am Kwik fit. But slower.
Went to see Frankie about installing the cut off switch (what with him being an eletrician and everything, thought he might stop me electrocuting myself), but the shop managed to have nothing we needed so a small change of plan. Decided to fit the new discs and pads instead.
While talking about Frankie, I didn't mention before but he has also decided to join in and has bought himself an old MR2 too! Looks like we are going to go racing togther next year. And little Frankie. What could possibly go wrong there? :-O
So I thought installing the seat was a pain in the arse. Oh no. This was.
It seems the discs have been on the car for about 10,000 years and did not want to come off. Here is what they looked like when I started:
When I say they did not want to come off, I mean they DID NOT WANT TO COME OFF.
Firstly the bolts on the back of the caliper holder thingie (technical term) were absolutely frozen solid. No amount of whacking, levering, praying or swearing would move it. My somewhat unorthadox method of rfinally emoving them was to put a spanner on and then jack the 1.5 tonne trolley jack up underneath the spanner. The car was actually lifting up before the bolt finally freed up.
Hurrah! And now just to remove the disc... oh oh. This also did not want to budge. Cue more swearing and banging. No luck. A final and probably highly dangerous brainwave was to wedge the other jack between the arch and the back of the disc and crank away. After an unbelievable amount of pressure the thing finally gave way with a highly concerning crack.
After this putting on the new one wasn't that hard, except I found that there was no lubrication anywhere and the sliders were bone dry. A bit of jiggery pokery later and voila! One corner complete. It only took 2 hours :-O
Shiny.
So there we are. You might notice that the pads are yellow, this is because they are ECB yellow stuff racing pads :-)
After this I had kind of worked out what I was doing, so managed to finish the other 3 corners in a mere 3 more hours... Cripes.
While talking about Frankie, I didn't mention before but he has also decided to join in and has bought himself an old MR2 too! Looks like we are going to go racing togther next year. And little Frankie. What could possibly go wrong there? :-O
So I thought installing the seat was a pain in the arse. Oh no. This was.
It seems the discs have been on the car for about 10,000 years and did not want to come off. Here is what they looked like when I started:
Urgh.
When I say they did not want to come off, I mean they DID NOT WANT TO COME OFF.
Firstly the bolts on the back of the caliper holder thingie (technical term) were absolutely frozen solid. No amount of whacking, levering, praying or swearing would move it. My somewhat unorthadox method of rfinally emoving them was to put a spanner on and then jack the 1.5 tonne trolley jack up underneath the spanner. The car was actually lifting up before the bolt finally freed up.
Hurrah! And now just to remove the disc... oh oh. This also did not want to budge. Cue more swearing and banging. No luck. A final and probably highly dangerous brainwave was to wedge the other jack between the arch and the back of the disc and crank away. After an unbelievable amount of pressure the thing finally gave way with a highly concerning crack.
After this putting on the new one wasn't that hard, except I found that there was no lubrication anywhere and the sliders were bone dry. A bit of jiggery pokery later and voila! One corner complete. It only took 2 hours :-O
Shiny.
So there we are. You might notice that the pads are yellow, this is because they are ECB yellow stuff racing pads :-)
After this I had kind of worked out what I was doing, so managed to finish the other 3 corners in a mere 3 more hours... Cripes.
Shiny switch panel pt 2: Not so shiny
Next job is to install the FIA cut off, the rain light switch and the fire extinguisher pull cable in the shiny switch panel. Not that they actually do anything yet, but it's time they went in anyway.
I also realised that a highly reflective shiny panel is a stupid idea, so got some cheapo carbon fibre effect sticker to satisfy my inner chav.
So here it is :-)
I also realised that a highly reflective shiny panel is a stupid idea, so got some cheapo carbon fibre effect sticker to satisfy my inner chav.
So here it is :-)
The Buckets
So after a trip down to Road and Race gear in hangar lane I decided on a pair of Sparco Sprint V bucket seats. These are only the entry level steel frame seats but I actually found them more comfy than the carbon fibre ones, I didn't just buy them because they were the cheapest - honest!
A quick phone call to Rogue motorsport and I had ordered the subframes to bolt them into the car.
A few days later and all the stuff turned up so time to put it in... this turned out to be a right pain in the backside however.
There were loads of different combinations of ways to put everything in, and after much trial and error I finally got it the right way round so that the damn things fit, and just about managed to get everything in. I swear that not a single thing lined up straight :-(
So in case anyone needs to ever do this, here is what the frames look like installed.
A quick phone call to Rogue motorsport and I had ordered the subframes to bolt them into the car.
A few days later and all the stuff turned up so time to put it in... this turned out to be a right pain in the backside however.
There were loads of different combinations of ways to put everything in, and after much trial and error I finally got it the right way round so that the damn things fit, and just about managed to get everything in. I swear that not a single thing lined up straight :-(
So in case anyone needs to ever do this, here is what the frames look like installed.
The standard seats remove with 4 bolts, and then the same bolts go back in with the new subframes.
Then the side mounts go in. This was the painful bit getting them in the right place. I can't actually remember if this photo is the right way round or if I took it out again afterwards...
But, after all that, they are in and they are amazing. They really hold you in place, and when the harnesses go in will be even better. Oh, they have to come out again to put the harnesses in :-O
Sunday 22 July 2012
A strip show on my birthday
What better way to spend your birthday than ripping a car to pieces?
Not too much to say here other than this was fantastic fun! I recommend stripping the inside of a car out at least once in your life if the oportunity arises.
Your own car of course, someone elses would just be wrong.
Not too much to say here other than this was fantastic fun! I recommend stripping the inside of a car out at least once in your life if the oportunity arises.
Your own car of course, someone elses would just be wrong.
Here we go....
Hmmm, that's a lot of bits.
Might of got a bit carried away :-0
Ah that's better
Sunday 15 July 2012
No going back now...
I have found that there is something very scary but oddly satsifying in drilling big holes in the bodywork of your own car. The first job that really means no going back, fitting the bonnet and engine cover pins.
After much faffing and trying to decide the best place to put them, it seemed best just to get the drill out and start. The neighbours were a bit confused as to why I was in the car with a drill but hey ho.
First up the front bonnet (but just a spare wheel inside as the engine is in the back). Here is a pic of the holes drilled inside the bay, and the bolts attached. Still nothing too scary has happened yet...
And now the scary one, drilling a hole the bonnet. Best just to take a deep breath and press that drill button :-0
Then you make the hole even bigger, and pray to the god of holes that it is in the right place. Screw in the clips and voila! Here is one I made earlier.
Time to take a deep breath, and then rinse and repeat on the engine cover. Same thing but a bit trickier as there is less metal to put the bolts in. Had to put them quite near the edge in the end.
Not quite done as I have to disconnect the standard mechanism so that they are just held in place by the pins, but thought it might be a good idea to see if they actually stay on for a bit first.
So quite a scary day, but we are definitely making some progress!
After much faffing and trying to decide the best place to put them, it seemed best just to get the drill out and start. The neighbours were a bit confused as to why I was in the car with a drill but hey ho.
First up the front bonnet (but just a spare wheel inside as the engine is in the back). Here is a pic of the holes drilled inside the bay, and the bolts attached. Still nothing too scary has happened yet...
And now the scary one, drilling a hole the bonnet. Best just to take a deep breath and press that drill button :-0
Then you make the hole even bigger, and pray to the god of holes that it is in the right place. Screw in the clips and voila! Here is one I made earlier.
Time to take a deep breath, and then rinse and repeat on the engine cover. Same thing but a bit trickier as there is less metal to put the bolts in. Had to put them quite near the edge in the end.
So quite a scary day, but we are definitely making some progress!
The right wheels
While fitting the shiny switch panel (TM) a man arrived and delivered some wheel nuts. This is good as it enabled me to fit the 15" stock wheels that I have to have on the car. Here they are.
Now to ebay the 17" ones and hopefully get a few quid back.
Now to ebay the 17" ones and hopefully get a few quid back.
Shiny switch panel
Thanks to Steve getting me a nice shiny bit of aluminium I've created a blank panel that will go where the stereo used to be and will hold the extinguisher pull cord and cut off switch.
Anyone familiar with my CDT skills will be concerned at this point, so here is what I created:
You will notice that this is held in place by my finger. This is a problem as the finger is required for other things, so I went to screw it in and realised it was not wide enough for the screws to reach the nuts in the dashboard.
So I made another one. This one was wider and went behind the dash and actually fit. If I say so myself I don't think it's that shabby...
Now it just needs some switches.
Anyone familiar with my CDT skills will be concerned at this point, so here is what I created:
You will notice that this is held in place by my finger. This is a problem as the finger is required for other things, so I went to screw it in and realised it was not wide enough for the screws to reach the nuts in the dashboard.
So I made another one. This one was wider and went behind the dash and actually fit. If I say so myself I don't think it's that shabby...
Now it just needs some switches.
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Been Shopping.
Been shopping :-)
Picked up some more of the bits that need fitting. I really am going to have to start putting some of this stuff on the car...
Lovely orange tow straps
Kill switch and external pull cable
Bonnet and engine cover pins
Picked up some more of the bits that need fitting. I really am going to have to start putting some of this stuff on the car...
Lovely orange tow straps
Kill switch and external pull cable
Bonnet and engine cover pins
FIA rain light
New Wheels.
Next up is sorting the wheels out. Currently the wheels on the car look like this:
Now this is all well and good, but unfortunately these are 17 inch rims and the championship requires stock 15 inch rims :-(
So after a bit of a trawl through the ebay and gumtree managed to pick up a set with pretty decent tyres on for 50 quid. Hurray! A quick spin down to Rochester to pick them up and they are now in the spare room with the washing...
So why are they not on the car? Well, as usual there is always a complication, and in this case the wheel nuts the are on the 17 inch wheels (60 degree chamfer) are different to the ones needed on the 15 inch wheels (flat face). So I have had to order a set of original wheel nuts in order to put on the original wheels. Stupidly these cost almost half the amount that all 4 wheels and tyres cost!
Now this is all well and good, but unfortunately these are 17 inch rims and the championship requires stock 15 inch rims :-(
So after a bit of a trawl through the ebay and gumtree managed to pick up a set with pretty decent tyres on for 50 quid. Hurray! A quick spin down to Rochester to pick them up and they are now in the spare room with the washing...
The morning after.
Right. Up early and determined to sort out whatever the problems are.
First stop halfords for a set of fuses, a socket set and a trolley jack.
Job 1. Fix the lights.
Please let it be the fuse. Please let it be the fuse. Find the fuse box and wow, the fuse is blown! Joy! So replace the fuse and and let's test the lights.. and... nothing. Check the fuse and it has blown again. Oh dear, this is not good. A wiring problem :-(
Where to start? Maybe pull out that stereo that has got to come out anyway.
So I start pulling it out and it becomes apparent that it has been wired in by a blind man. A drunk blind man. There are wires taped to all kinds of other wires, so I pull the whole lot out, trim down and insulate all the wires in the dash and get rid of the stereo. Might be able to ebay it for a few quid anyway.
Now to see if this has helped the lights by some happy chance. New fuse in, lights on and YES! All the lights have come on! Job one sorted in an hour :-)
Job 2. Horrible grinding noise
Now this has me worried. It sounds like a brake problem, but I can see there is plenty of pad and disc left. Maybe the caliper has seized. Better get the wheel off and take a look I suppose. So I roll the car back onto the flat ground and take a look underneath to find the jacking point and.. what the ***?
What the hell is that plastic thing wedged under the car? You have to be kidding me, the front plastic undertray has only come loose and bent over and got stuck under the car. A couple of tugs and a quick unscrew and off it comes, and lo and behold no more grinding! This is fantastic!
So take the car for a quick spin and everything is fine. Oh what a difference a couple of hours can make :-)
Now that the urgent things have been taken car of, it's time to start the serious work. And the first things to do are make a list of everything that needs to be done, and get some standard 15 inch wheels.
First stop halfords for a set of fuses, a socket set and a trolley jack.
Job 1. Fix the lights.
Please let it be the fuse. Please let it be the fuse. Find the fuse box and wow, the fuse is blown! Joy! So replace the fuse and and let's test the lights.. and... nothing. Check the fuse and it has blown again. Oh dear, this is not good. A wiring problem :-(
Where to start? Maybe pull out that stereo that has got to come out anyway.
So I start pulling it out and it becomes apparent that it has been wired in by a blind man. A drunk blind man. There are wires taped to all kinds of other wires, so I pull the whole lot out, trim down and insulate all the wires in the dash and get rid of the stereo. Might be able to ebay it for a few quid anyway.
Now to see if this has helped the lights by some happy chance. New fuse in, lights on and YES! All the lights have come on! Job one sorted in an hour :-)
Job 2. Horrible grinding noise
Now this has me worried. It sounds like a brake problem, but I can see there is plenty of pad and disc left. Maybe the caliper has seized. Better get the wheel off and take a look I suppose. So I roll the car back onto the flat ground and take a look underneath to find the jacking point and.. what the ***?
What the hell is that plastic thing wedged under the car? You have to be kidding me, the front plastic undertray has only come loose and bent over and got stuck under the car. A couple of tugs and a quick unscrew and off it comes, and lo and behold no more grinding! This is fantastic!
So take the car for a quick spin and everything is fine. Oh what a difference a couple of hours can make :-)
Now that the urgent things have been taken car of, it's time to start the serious work. And the first things to do are make a list of everything that needs to be done, and get some standard 15 inch wheels.
The drive home.
So what have we just bought?
It's a 1997 Japanese import with hard top. This is good as it means no mucking about welding the sunroof shut, and also means it's the Revision 3 with the 172ish BHP engine.
Not so good is that it's on 17inch rims which will have to go, and at some point apparently hit a badger which damaged the front bumper a bit. This doesn't really matter as the body is going to get knocked about anyway. The badger was a bit annoyed though.
It's got a new clutch (allegedly..), an induction kit and rather handily comes with a complete set of polybushes the previous owner bought but never fitted. Result!
So off we go down the motor way and oooh that induction kit sound nice :-)
10 minutes later suddenly there is a massive scraping/grinding noise coming from the front. Aaaghh!
Pulling over I can't see anything obviously wrong so carry on but with a bit more care...
Hmm, why am I being flashed by everyone now it's dark? Also why do I have no dashboard lights... oh oh. A quick check reveals that I have in fact got no rear lights either :-(
This is not ideal.
So I get home without being rear ended by a lorry and go to sleep muttering and not happy. These problems will just have to wait for the morning...
It's a 1997 Japanese import with hard top. This is good as it means no mucking about welding the sunroof shut, and also means it's the Revision 3 with the 172ish BHP engine.
Not so good is that it's on 17inch rims which will have to go, and at some point apparently hit a badger which damaged the front bumper a bit. This doesn't really matter as the body is going to get knocked about anyway. The badger was a bit annoyed though.
It's got a new clutch (allegedly..), an induction kit and rather handily comes with a complete set of polybushes the previous owner bought but never fitted. Result!
So off we go down the motor way and oooh that induction kit sound nice :-)
10 minutes later suddenly there is a massive scraping/grinding noise coming from the front. Aaaghh!
Pulling over I can't see anything obviously wrong so carry on but with a bit more care...
Hmm, why am I being flashed by everyone now it's dark? Also why do I have no dashboard lights... oh oh. A quick check reveals that I have in fact got no rear lights either :-(
This is not ideal.
So I get home without being rear ended by a lorry and go to sleep muttering and not happy. These problems will just have to wait for the morning...
The beginning...
So track days are great fun, but there were a few problems that were becoming a pain.
1. The car had to be driven home afterwards so we had to always be a bit careful with how we treated the car.
2. After doing a sprint day, the lack of competition on track days made them lacking.
3. Want to be a racing driver!
What could the solution be? How about a bit of club racing? Mmmm.
Looking at the various clubs and entry level series, decided on MR2 racing with the 750 motor club. This gave a good selection of circuits, limited modifications allowed and single car type so should give fair racing without spending a fortune (in theory!). Also MR2s look cool :-)
http://www.750mc.co.uk/F-mr2.php
After popping along to Donnington to meet the head of the series, we had a good read of all the info and started thinking about exactly what to get and where to get a donor car. And then went out and bought one on a bit of an impulse!
Here it is in all it's glory before the drive home from the previous owners. Now to get it home...
1. The car had to be driven home afterwards so we had to always be a bit careful with how we treated the car.
2. After doing a sprint day, the lack of competition on track days made them lacking.
3. Want to be a racing driver!
What could the solution be? How about a bit of club racing? Mmmm.
Looking at the various clubs and entry level series, decided on MR2 racing with the 750 motor club. This gave a good selection of circuits, limited modifications allowed and single car type so should give fair racing without spending a fortune (in theory!). Also MR2s look cool :-)
http://www.750mc.co.uk/F-mr2.php
After popping along to Donnington to meet the head of the series, we had a good read of all the info and started thinking about exactly what to get and where to get a donor car. And then went out and bought one on a bit of an impulse!
Here it is in all it's glory before the drive home from the previous owners. Now to get it home...
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