2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

Little bit of prep today for Snetterton tomorrow. It's supposed to be wet for most of the day so I decided that probably wouldn't be the best conditions to be trying to bed a new set of brakes in. Thankfully the EBC RPX pads have got a good amount of meat left in them and the discs are in better condition than I thought. All I did today was a good check over the car, bled the brakes which was well overdue to be fair, surprisingly the fluid (RBF660) was still fairly clean. This has done probably 20+ trackdays with only 1 minor bleed over that entire time. Oops!
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Even though I'd gotten a set of Mintex F2R pads to go in the Clio, I couldn't turn down a super cheap set of Carbon Lorraine RC6's from Frogjam Motorsport. Most places send Haribo with your order, I have to admit this took longer to understand the free gifts than I'd like to admit...
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Also took off the old smashed Maxton lip, it was broken in multiple places and generally very sad. Managed to get a cheap RenaultSport lip, it's got a few marks and it also showed me how battered my front bumper is as there's gaps... Not ideal but it'll do, looks much nicer than the Maxton anyway.WhatsApp Image 2024-03-14 at 15.32.43_d406d802.jpg

Now sat here charging GoPros (which I'll probably forget to put in the car) and sorting out my Racebox. Got the PS4's loaded in the car ready for the forecast showers, however the weather radar shows that they're just passing through so we might be lucky. We'll see!
 
Snetterton - 15th March

As you'll all no doubt have seen by now, the Clio has been an absolute pain in the arse with a lack of power, strange noises and generally being a sad panda. As we've got quite a few of us going to Cadwell next month I was using today to get issues ironed out, reasons being that Snetterton has lots of run off if things go wrong and I've done enough laps to know whether or not the car is performing well.
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Got to the track around 7.45, left the car warming up on the trailer while I got my wristband and sticker, this means the engine isn't stone cold when I go for noise testing. Static I'm sure the guy said it was something like 89Db which is nothing. Forecast for the day was patchy rain throughout so the PS4's were on standby.
After sighting laps I came back in to let everyone get their mad 5 minutes out of the way, there were a LOT of race teams there today and the morning was spent queuing to get back out after repeated red flags!
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This was red flag number 4 by 10.30. It wasn't going well.

The morning session was spent checking a few bits over on the car, playing with tyre pressures and generally making sure the car was behaving. I'm pleased to report that it was! For reference at the last Snetterton date, I was exiting Williams onto the back straight faster and by the time I was braking at marker 2, I was doing 103mph. Today I was exiting slower (more on this later) and GPS speed was showing as 114mph at the same braking point. The Racebox coming in handy for the data there.
Another red flag at 11.50 (the 8th of the morning according to the tannoy announcement!) ended the morning session after a Subaru dropped oil for nearly a mile! A lengthy clean up was needed, top work by the marshalls as usual!

I decided to have a look at my brakes as there was a little vibration through the pedal, turns out the centre of the wear face was opening up, doesn't look like much on the photo but I could feel this through my gloves, so therefore... New discs needed. This was going to be a job for yesterday but the pads still had life in them so I didn't bother, thankfully I brought everything with me.WhatsApp Image 2024-03-15 at 12.32.52_32b9849a.jpg
They've done well, probably a dozen trackdays (or more!) and several sets of pads, but the cracks were too much to ignore.
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Ended up fitting the drilled Brembo HC discs as they were on offer from Autodoc a while back, they were substantially cheaper at the time than the plain HC discs so I figured I'd give them a punt. I also ignored the Mintex F2R pads I had with me (sorry Nathe!) in favour of the Carbon Lorraine RC6 that @Beany always raved about.

The reason I was exiting the right handers slower was because the left front felt odd, I can't describe it but something felt very odd indeed. Turns out when I had that corner apart for driveshaft related issues, I thought I'd done the driveshaft nut up fully, turns out it was 2 full turns loose! Oops. I think it'll need a new wheel bearing soon but once I'd tightened the driveshaft nut up, the play had disappeared. Confidence restored.

The afternoon went without a hitch, the only red flag of the afternoon was for a breakdown I think, then come 3pm the forecast rain hit and it all came at once. I've not seen rain that heavy for a while and as soon as it had come, it went and the sun came out again.PXL_20240315_161740961.jpg
Ended the day after a dozen wet laps, the only reason I came in was because I'd run out of fuel for the day. Full tank + another 20 litres, all without a hitch. Very happy with today!

Roll on Cadwell! Well, don't roll... You know what I mean.
 
Nice, what do you reckon the problem was? A bit of everything?
All fingers point to a dodgy new cam position sensor, but the fault codes coming back were all over the place. I fixed a minor exhaust leak and changed loads of bits, cleaned the throttle body, new air filter etc...

Realistically I can't say for sure, but as it seems to be fixed I can't say I care anymore! I'm just glad it's back to good health.
 
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Teehee. Fire. This is the reason my diffuser is melted.

Not much more to say that the others that came to Cadwell haven't already said. Weather was good, company was good, track behaviour was actually really good (other than a pair of pricks in red Mercs that refused to move) and amazingly I think there was only 2 red flags?

The car is still working, it does feel a little gutless above 80-85mph but I think I can live with that now. It has however picked up a new noise, a rotatey noise. Possibly a pulley or tensioner but that's a problem for future me. The Clio is still on the trailer where I left it and it'll probably still be there for another week or so before I get time to have a look!
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Not many photos, the photographer seemed to be fixated on an old Audi Quattro that was taking some... Interesting... Lines.
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Probably why he got black flagged. Not sure if that counts as track limits?
 
Oh, I should probably add. The Carbon Lorraine RC6 pads that @Beany forced me to buy and fit are actually a very good pad, when it comes to finding out how broken the car is, I'll have a look and see how much meat is left on them. However they weren't much more than the previous EBC RPX pads I had on the car so if they'll do 4-5 days then I'll probably buy more if Frogjam Motorsport keep them at a sensible price.
 
Frogjam's prices are good. I got a set of DS1.11s from Frogjam and they were probably £30 cheaper than anywhere else was selling them.
 
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Oh, I should probably add. The Carbon Lorraine RC6 pads that @Beany forced me to buy and fit are actually a very good pad, when it comes to finding out how broken the car is, I'll have a look and see how much meat is left on them. However they weren't much more than the previous EBC RPX pads I had on the car so if they'll do 4-5 days then I'll probably buy more if Frogjam Motorsport keep them at a sensible price.
A compliment, this is a rare day
 
Is Wes going to get his car back?
Well we're planning to go over on the 1st. Matt has been told this is the plan but he's been making excuses about the work not being done. It's a shame because the original Supreme cars he built were mega and done in a reasonable time. I understand things do go wrong but on June 1st that will mark 355 days in his care, taking the piss now I think.