Testing, Testing, Testing

I've just had 2 days testing in the VX at Kames. Had a brilliant time - it was great to blow away the winter cobwebs and get some tracktime in. The VX is a fair bit quicker in a straight line than the MX-5 was. It seems to have a bit more grip too and being lighter, it can carry more speed through the corners. Problem is, my brain is tuned to MX-5 pace so I need to really push myself and concentrate to actually go any faster.

I tooks some videos and looking back at them, my times for the clockwise layout are around 98secs. Similar testing in the MX-5 was around 102secs so I reckon I'm around 3-4 secs quicker.

I'm certainly not going to win any gongs at that pace but with a set of sticky track tyres, my times could come down to around 95 secs so that is what I'm setting as my season target!

If I can work out how to do it, I'll post a video from today's testing soon......

Preparing the VX220

I've been busy doing some prep on the VX220 for the coming season. Nothing major - funds are likely to be tight this year. I've started with some stickering:

The obligatory ignition switch sticker:


Front and rear towing eyes with stickers:





Just in case someone thinks its a Lotus:


Then it was down to fitting the Scroth Profi II ASM harness I bought from MSAR. I've fitted the harness bar:



Trial fitting the shoulder straps showed that I really need to get the cut-outs in the seat so I've got the seat out to cut the holes and fit the grommets. That'll take me a couple of days no doubt.



I've still got the rear dampers to fit but other than that, the car will be ready to go for the test days at Kames in mid-March. If I can shift the trailer, I'll buy some wheels and List 1B tyres. Otherwise, I'm sticking to the standard Bridgestones........

Sad day :-(

Well, it finally came to pass. My trusty steed is on its way to Berkshire today, hopefully to be re-born as a trackday superstar.

I've had lots of good times with that car - several epic trips round Scotland with fellow MX-5ers, trips to Europe including an epic adventure to Italy, countless trackdays and of course a couple of speed championship trophies to boot.

Turns out I owned that MX-5 longer than any other car I've ever had - nearly 6 years!

I was sad to see it go and James was in tears - he said "But I don't want the MX-5 to go - I want to go on a run with the other MX-5s through the big puddles" :-(

I now need to resist the temptation to fill the empty void and keep the bank balance a bit healthier but I'm sure I will be back in a '5 before too long............

Long time no post

It's been a couple of months since my last post - Christmas, New Year and some snow got in the way of any meaningful news so I haven't bothered!

I attended the Wigton Motor Club annual dinner last weekend and collected my award for second in class R2. The dinner itself was great with guest speaker, Barry 'Whizzo' Williams giving an entertaining reprise of his career.

The East Ayrshire Club dinner is at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to that.

On the car front, the MX-5 is still on the driveway but I've taken a deposit and hope it will be away by the weekend.

I visited the Autosport show last week and ordered a Schroth racing harness for the VX220. That coupled with a second hand harness bar and some seat cut-outs will see me ready to compete, albeit I would rather have new wheels and tyres first. Unfortunately, I don't think my 2010 racing budget will stretch to new wheels and tyres at the start of the season so I'll be at a competitive disadvantage for a while.

I'm focussing on 2 championships this year - The Wigton Northern Speed Championship and the Scttish Lowland Speed Championship. I anticipate doing around 15 events between the 2 championships and it looks like I'll only need a couple of overnight stays away from home. The programmes and regulations are still to be published but it looks like the season kicks off on Good Friday, 2 April at Kames for a round of the Northern Speed Championship.