Test day - 28 March

Another test day at Kames on Sunday saw my first outing with the VX on the trailer. I arrived a bit late at the track since the clocks had changed and I had mistakenly stopped for coffee for half an hour thinking I was an hour early!

Anyway, the weather was pretty poor in the morning and I ended up in the gravel on my first run! The ABS on the VX has packed in - I think it's a loose cable on the front nearside sensor but I'll have to investigate.

There were a few more crashes than usual for a test day - three looked fairly serious and the result was that the tyre walls took a fair hammering. The weather picked up in the afternoon and I got some good practice in towards the end of the day.

The tyre wall damage combined with the atrocious weather during the week led to the postponement of the Good Friday Wigton Sprint, the opener of the 2010 Northern Speed Championship. That was a bit of a disappointment but on the plus side, it does give me an extra week to try and fix the ABS and it means I can enter the EACC sprint on Sat 10th April.

Test video

Ok,
here is the video from the test day.



I've got a few things to work on at my next test this coming Sunday. I need to get a clean hairpin exit and build up to keeping the foot in through the kink before the padock bend.

I've finally got round to fitting the rear VXR shocks. I spent a rather grim evening with a single ended hacksaw balde cutting through the bottom bolt on one side which had seized in the bush. Took a while but I got there in the end. The VXR shocks are designed for heavier turbo cars so the ride height is a bit on the high side but I'm hoping the stiffer springs will tighten things up a bit. They were cheap after all.......

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........