OK, OK.. It didn't go that smoothly! Things never do..
About 10 days before the rockingham trackaddict track day (2018) I put the car in for an MOT in the next village - proper villagey garage (bruntingthorpe motor engineers) and it failed! That wouldn't be so bad, but the next day i flew off to the states for a week with work..
Armed with a long list, when I got back to the UK I got stuck in - 3hrs sleep, then heavily jet lagged I started working through it. Nothing major, just lots of things like labeling random switches, fixing an exhaust hangar, some proper clips for brake lines, etc. There was one bigger issue whcih is one of the exhaust manifolds is leaking around the boss where it joins the centre of the exhaust system. Real bugger to do on the car - bad enough to do it off the car! I decided to gun-gum this (OH, THE SHAME!! ) and will repair properly over the winter
I then headed back to the MOT centre the day before the track day - Friday AM.. PASSED!
Friday PM, went to get the alignment done in Market Harborough - DONE..
Headed home, I decided to give it a few revs for the first time - I'd literally not taken it above about 2750rpm until this point.. Theres a 1/2 mile long straight road about 1 mile from my house, so I decided to give it some beans - took it to about 5000rpm along the straight in 3rd and it pulled like a train!.. then, I kind of coasted down to a sharp 90-degree corner, big smile on face. HORRENDOUS noise, and the power steering died! I just about muscled it around the corner, then insinctively cut the engine and coasted down the hill most of the way home. I then started it, drove about 200yds onto the drive and killed it immediately and hopped out.. The damn water pump pulley had literally exploded! Took the fan belt out, fortunately everything else looked ok
I sat watching some BS on the telly for about 20mins feeling sorry for myself, then I thought "F*** this" and got back on it.. I pulled everything to bits, managed to get a new belt and a pulley ordered for Sat morning 9AM, everything else looked ok
Sat morning - lie in, headed to parkers for 9 on the dot (got there at 8:50 - parts were already in) home for about 9:20, parts on the car by 10 and everything checked over again..
Test drive? NOPE! Packed my crap into the car, headed to Rockingham - about 40mins from me. Got there, got signed on, about 1/2hr - 40mins before the lunch break at 12. Decided to let the car cool down, and check it over at the end of lunch and try a few sessions during the afternoon
Start of the day the weather was GRIM! Nothing like 2017, but over lunch it started drying out. I had a few tentative laps, a few checks, a few tentative laps, etc., etc. - car appeared to be ok. I kept the revs under about 3750 as the engine had done hardly any miles since the rebuild and so wanted to get it a bit run-in. Despite my best efforts I'd just not had time to do this before the track day..
Car felt great; without the revs it wasn't particularly quick, but around the corners the chassis felt great!
Towards the end of the day, the heavens opened again, and most people disappeared - I spent the last 45mins or so on track slithering around chasing a ginetta g40. My lack of revs and his lack of power, combined with both of our lack of grip made it very entertaining! Eventually the fun being brought to an end by the marshalls "chequered flagging" us off the track at 5pm!
So a tough run to get to the track day, but a huge amount of fun!
Still a lot left to do, but the car is now trackable and looks close to finished (even though in all honesty it will prob never BE finished
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Thanks for reading this far - I will continue to update as-and-when, but for the time being, a few photos from Rockingham including a few snaps with "Calsy Motorsport" and his e36 B&H STW tribute - he was a huge help with decals for my car and did a fantastic job particularly "clifford" (the dragon)
Unfortunately no onboard footage or action shots, but will rectify this another time..