A busy weekend

This time it was a busy weekend working on the cars, rather than driving them.

As ever there is always a list of jobs to be done (see ‘the list’ in the top menu to see what), a rare weekend at home meant it was a good chance to catch up on jobs on both competition cars.

The MGZR was the first up, with some DTM mirrors to be fitted, these are much lighter than the OEM ones, and a smaller profile to reducing frontal area (aero drag) and also they make the car narrower which is handy for those taller cones… 😉

Then it was on to trying to stop the fuel vaporising issues which came up whilst running Car 0 on the East Anglian Classic. A new fuel pump relay had already been fitted, so the next jobs were to heat wrap the fuel lines and coolant pipes which run very near each other. I also heat wrapped the fuse/relay box as this got very hot too. The MGZR doesn’t have any heat guards around the exhaust which runs close to the fuel tank, so this can’t be helping either by heating the tank by radiant heat. Some additional heat wrapping (with two lots of adhesive) , now see’s the fuel tank protected from radiant heat from the exhaust.

Whilst working under the car, I treated the floor and sills to a quick coat of black spray paint to try and keep the rust at bay.

As a way of removing weight, and prep for an upcoming sump guard fitment, I removed the sound proofing from the front floor pans. The drivers side was very easy with it coming up in large pieces, the navs side was lets just say a lot more work….! However it was worth it as along with the lighter mirrors saw nearly 4.5kgs removed from the car over the weekend 🙂

A small niggle, but I don’t like seeing red warning lights on the dash (it makes me think the oil light is on!), with us removing the ABS fuse to get better braking this was giving an error red light. So the warning bulbs were removed, a small weight saving and no error lights – a win win situation 🙂

Then it was on to the Micra, which hadn’t really moved or seen daylight for a couple of months. The first job was to change rear pads, and carry out a rear bolt check. Next was to paint the floor, which like the MG was to try and keep rust at bay.

Then it was time to bleed the rear brakes, I will now be running Motul 660 Racing Brake fluid in an attempt to improve the braking capacity. This was done in-between keeping up to date with an ever changing Grand Prix on the iPad.

Bleeding brakes can take quite a while (using the gravity method), so I used the time to clean the engine bay and spanner check it, and re-paint the front towing eye.

Finally it was time to prime and paint the new front brake calipers, again as a way to try and improve the braking capacity brand new brake calipers have been bought (old ones, are scrap heap specials).

If you look at the ‘the list’ you will see there is still plenty left to do…!

You can see a picture video version on the above here :-

 

 

A double header weekend

It was to be a very full weekend, a Autosolo on the Saturday and a Targa Rally on the Sunday.

The autosolo was running as part of the Abingdon Carnival weekend. It was a new event for me, though the test layouts were similar to other autosolos, each venue has it’s own quirks. Wind was this venues one! All day long there was a very strong wind blowing across the airfield, which made the marshaling element of the day cold at times.

The event was a BTRDA & CSMG Championship round which meant there would be plenty of top crews out to play. The MGZR is a good car for these events although with a standard diff, the power is sometimes a little too much. You do also have to adapt to a smoother driving style as the rear-disc brakes are good at speed but the handbrake is as much use as a chocolate fire guard… This does force me into a smoother driving style though which has to be a good thing.

By the end of a fun and challenging day I ended up 13th overall (9th in the Nat B event) and 6th in class. Typically for me I finished the day a lot faster than I started it, especially when the class was close at the end of the day.

(C) Ian Harrison

On to the next event on the Sunday, which was a brand new event. A targa rally running at Kemble airfield, organised by Bath MC.

The venue used a small section of the airfield, and the organisers arranged for 6 tests running through the day. Although the test mileage / time was lower than other similar events, with double driving I was kept busy all day.

Running at Car 4 was ideal as it means you can watch a couple other cars and the marshals have been woken up by the cars ahead of you. The changes to the tests were subtle and this meant that you had to be very on the ball after each test to spot the changes. As the day went on we (Antons on the maps) worked up the leader board through a mixture of consistent speed and ensuring we went the right way. By the end test 4 we were lying second overall, however during the 5th test a small rock on the gravel section of the tests caused a puncture which cost me a fair chunk of time. By the end of the day I was tired (annoyed at the puncture) but pleased with a fun days rallying and considering the puncture still a good result at 6th overall.