After the track day on the weekend the old girl is looking a bit worse for wear. Thankfully it’s mainly superficial.
First of all, the day started at 5am and cold (3deg C) in my hometown. Fog greeted me halfway into the 2hr trip, but the early morning rise paid off and meant I was first in the line and had first choice of the pits.
The track was looking picturesque in the morning sun and fog
I put a pair of the new 215/45 Austyre's on for the first session. I found out after briefing I'd been bumped to the top class too. First session I struck it lucky and had fresh track, hammering out 5-6 laps before feeling the tyres get a lot harder.
Stupidly my confidence had grown and was throwing it earlier and faster each lap in, not accounting for the slipperier tyres. On lap 8 I entered early and fast, putting my foot down hard, only to find no forward drive and heading straight for the outer tyre wall at ~100kmh. I feathered the throttle to get what drive I could, gaining enough to narrowly avoid contact. I got so close I could hear the exhaust get louder, echoing off the tyre wall. Thankfully the cool down flag was out and it was in to the pits.
I knew I had been hammering it pretty hard, but was surprised to find only 1mm left on the tyres! New tyres down to 1mm in 1 session was unheard of, for me and the car.
Anyway, next pair of new tyres fitted and I started by chasing Joel Patterson and his tidy grey AE86 hatch. It was great to find someone who entered the same speed as me into the hairpin, and being a turbo 4AGE it didn't put out too much smoke so I could see where I was going. I mucked up my turns at leading, but got progressively closer to him each chase run, so took a lot away from it.
Next session another driver clipped a tyre on the last corner, dragging it onto the track, just where my right hand corner goes. Having no option at ~90kmh I ploughed into it. It smashed the right hand corner off the bumper, smashed the mounts off the corner light and bent the ducting pretty bad. But nothing that some hammers and cable ties couldn't fix. Thankfully the oil cooler and intercooler piping were undamaged.
A mate and myself unbolted the ducting and hammered it as best we could and reassembled. We cable tied up the bumper as best we could and went out again.
Sadly, I struck a session with a lot of spins and didn't get many clean runs. The next saw that damn tyre out again on the final corner. The marshal's took half the session to move it, by then I was ropeable.
The final session saw my tie rod inner pull itself out of the rack. It must have been unwinding over the past few events, finally ripping the last few threads. I frantically repaired it in time to load up and tow home. So a day with only two really good sessions, and two frustrating ones, and one with only one corner.
I'm hoping the next day in July holds a better organised day and more track time. The front bumper needs some surgery, but it will add to its character.
Test fitting one of my mates BN side skirts to see how much I need to pump the rear metal to make the rear wheels not look sunk. I've also been offered a FK Type 2 front bar and side skirts for stupid cheap. Just waiting on the width of it to come through (to see if my current track isn't too sunk). If it’s too wide I’ll stick with Vertex and get a fresh copy.