More expenditure!

I've been spending more money in my pursuit of lightness and speed!

Firstly, I've bought an aluminium racing seat from Kirkey Racing Fabrication.



I just need to work out how to mount it!

I'm also picking up a nice bit of head work in January:



It's been given a good workover by Roger at Sabre Heads - ported and polished, skimmed slightly, has 1mm oversize valves and improved valvetrain.

It comes with a spare inlet manfold which has been port matched:


To make the most of this, I'm currently looking at an ECU upgrade along with a 4-1 header although I need to get the clutch done and my rust sorted out so budget may be tight.........

New purchases

For the past year, I've been running my car with a four-point Schroth Profi-II harness. The shoulder straps were mounted to a single eye-bolt on a tab welded to the roll over bar. However, from 2009, this arrangement will not be acceptable as the MSA are requiring that the shoulder straps have separate mounting points.

I've therefore purchased a Hard Dog Harness Bar from Performance5. This bolts to the seatbelt towers and allows the harness straps to be wrapped around it, effectively giving two separate mounting points.

I've also bought a set of lightweight 14" alloys from a Mk1 1.8iS. These weigh around 4.5kg and will be fitted with a set of Toyo T1-R in 195/45 14 which will be lighter and will have an 8% smaller circumference. So, a significant weight saving plus smaller wheels = faster acceleration. At least, that's the theory!

Winter planning commences

At this time of year my thoughts turn to what I can do to go faster next season. I've had some wild and crazy ideas - some of which are pure fantasy - some of which might make it to fruition.

First thought was to sell my current MX-5 and buy another one. My idea was to buy a 1998 RS-spec Roadster (Japanese market Mx-5) as the spec includes a 6-speed box, torsen LSD and bilstein dampers. There's a guy selling a white one (the new black!) on Pistonheads right now for £3300 and he's just along the road from me.......

Second thought was to go to 'the dark side' - Forced Induction. This is the cheapest way to get some serious power in an MX-5. For around £4,000 I could have around 220bhp...........

Trouble with both these options is I would need a belly load of cash and with the 'credit crunch' biting, I don't have much. So......

I got thinking about weight reduction. My car was corner-weighted in April and weighed in at an elephantine 1148kg with half a tank fuel and me in it! So, I have come up with the following weight reduction plan:

1. Remove the soft-top and frame (save around 25-30kg)
2. Fit a motorcycle battery (save around 5kg)
3. Replace steering wheel and remove passenger airbag (Save around 2-3kg)
4. Remove radio, speakers and aerial (about 2kg)
5. Lighten bonnet and boot lid (2-5kg)
6. Lighten front and rear bumper mountings (1-2kg)
7. Remove power steering (3-5kg)

The first item will leave me cold and wet but I had planned on getting a removable hard-top to keep me dry.

So, If I go through with it all, I could get the kerb weight down to about 975kg. That would give me a whopping power to weight ratio of 144 bhp/tonne! Should be enough to beat a 205 Rallye ;-)

If I do all that and find another £4,000 for my 220bhp, I'd have nearly 230bhp/tonne - that's in Lotus Exige territory !!!!!

Champion again !!

I just got the results for the Windowcraft Lowland Speed Championship and I managed to bag first place in Class A8 (Marque Road Sports Cars)!

This is a real bonus for me which I wasn't expecting as I had focused on the Northern Speed Championship this season.

So, I'm a double champ this season!