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JUst beat me to it

Jac if you don't have anything positive to say that relates to the season in general, your car or any other car etc etc then take your posts elsewhere they are not welcome and not wanted the more you go on the more damage you do to yourself. Statistics can be used to show anything anyone wants. I have done 13 events this year, 11 sprint events and 2 hillclimbs. Of those events I have been quickest in class at one sprint and both hillclimbs, Doune on both occasions. The one sprint event I was quickest at Jim Kelly was not entered, had he entered given Jim's season I have no doubts he would have been the quickest in class. Of the 11 sprint events, I have also finished 2nd in class 4 times. I have never finished last in class at any event in the last 2 years. Of the 11 sprint events 4 have been at Golspie where the level of competition is far far higher than we see down here. Jac has entered 5 sprints and has been first in class twice and slowest in class 3 times. The two events he was first in class Jim Kelly was not present. Of the 7 events, 5 sprints and 2 hillclimbs, that Jac and I have come head to head Jac has been quicker twice and I have been quicker 5 times. So that makes me 71.43% quicker than Jac, statistics again mean nothing, but can be made to appear to mean something To be honest though who is 1st, 2nd 3rd etc in class is not even relevant, points at the end of the season is what matters and what determines whether a season has been successful or not, Blackpool could beat Chelsea twice this season and still get relegated, they wont be remembered for the two wins against Chelsea. The Lowlands Championship is the only Championship that we both went head to head in this year as I could not get to most of the hills due to work commitments and Jac chose not to enter the sprint events up North for his own reasons. In the Lowlands I won the championship outright some 37.11 points ahead of Jac so as i say statistics and percentages mean nothing points are what is important and at the end of the day these are not life changing trophies they should be won after a long but enjoyable season and who ever has the most points wins.

Does it do it when indicating/hazards as well or purely when setting/unsetting the alarm. If its only with the alarm operation it may also be an issue with the alarm driver cct for the hazards.

Sounds like a sticky relay

Andy your a bad man but 100% correct. It would appear that one of the issues I have been having is what I thought was missing 1st to 2nd when in fact I have been changing the way I used to with the 5 speed box which seems to be too quick for the 6 speed synchro's or so a nice man told me anyway

Ian Godney is someone that definately knows his brakes and is at the top the pile when it comes to brakes you will definately not go wrong with his advice. I wpould also suggest giving Alyn at As Performance a ring as he also knows the Impreza inside out. I would disagree on pad choice and would say from my experience the best pads for all round use on Brembo's are PF Z compound and i have used a fair few choices.

The best are Performance Friction bells and rotors but they are not cheap, last I seen they were just over £500 a pair. Probably not worth going to that expense if the car is a pure road car though

I use a low current trickle charger on the RA to keep the battery topped up. Not a huge fan of higher current chargers as over heating and distortion of the plates along with boiling of the electrolyte is a possibility if it is used regularly. As an irregular useage or low current type they are fine.

Thanks guys appreciate that. Well got some parts already coming in for next years upgrades. If all goes to plan the car will be a different animal again next year Will have a few bits for sale in the coming months that may be of interest.

Very difficult question as it will be down to roll bars, spring rates and dampers and getting them all working together.If your managing to pop the wheel off the ground in the wet it would be far far worse in the dry with grip when your cornering speeds woill be much higher.

Well next up is the last event of the year for me it’s the Doune Hillclimb held on Saturday18th and Sunday the 19th Sept, organised as always by Lothian Car Club. As well as being a round of the Scottish Hillclimb Championship it is also a round of the British Championship which brings a good selection of cars up north from the British rounds. It is a sight that has to be seen watching the big single seaters coming round oak tree and up garden gate. The short trip up to Doune was fairly quiet and the weather wasn’t looking to bad, at least it was dry. I hadn’t touched the car since Golspie other than a quick run on Fri night. The format of this event is slightly unusual, Saturday is all practice with 3 practice runs, then a single practice on Sunday morning followed by two timed runs and top 12 run off’s for the British Championship. This event was particularly important as I was in a strong position chasing the Lowlands Championship. I needed one more scoring round and needed to collect decent points and score higher than Les Mutch in his 500+ Dax Rush and John Roddick in his Citreon Saxo. I held a 2.5 point cushion between myself and Les and 5 points between myself and John. The classes are slightly mixed up at this event due to the Nat A Licence holders being in a separate category to the Nat B holders. I wasn’t overly concerned about the A3 class win but did have my eye on trying to beat my class record of 50.04, I also expected a strong challenge from Donald Ross in his EVO as he is always quick here. Jac was also entered along with Davie Coutts and Jim Gray in their EVO’s attending Doune for the first time. The way the classes were organised had placed me 2nd on the entry list – deep joy. Well the first run was uneventful, steady and more of a sighting run to be honest. I recorded a time of 54.42 which was ok and stress free. Donald was quickest in the A3 class 0.9 secs ahead of me, Davie and Jim were 3 and 4 secs respectively behind me and Jac was some 5 secs slower than me. Les and John also had steady runs well if any run Les does is steady lol. At the end of the days 3 practice runs the times had come down and I was happy with the way the car had handled, I had used lines on the hill that I had not used in the past and the car just did not react so I was sitting a very comforatable 1 second slower than my track record so things were looking good for lowering my track record on Sunday. Donald was a half second quicker than me, Davie Coutts 1.8 secs slower, Jim Gray 3.5 secs slower and Jac 5.5 secs slower. Davie and Jim were going well considering it was their first outing at Doune. Things were on track to take the points I needed but given it was only practice it was impossible to take anything from the times other than the car definitely felt much better and more stable than I remembered from June. Well Sunday morning and the weather couldn’t have been different it was raining and it didn’t look like it was going to be an easy day. The first and only practice of Sunday was a bit of an unknown as I had never driven Doune in the wet so had no idea which bits were the worst so it was a case of taking it steady and have a good feel for the bits that I thought would be the worst. As it turned out the first half of the hill felt not to bad but Garden gate was interesting and coming across the meadow was an experience, got the car sideways and on he grass but managed to correct it and again the last bend before the finish straight was very slippy and it is very tight with the Armco anyway. The times were all slower than the sat times due to the weather and everyone feeling their way up the hill in the wet. Donald was 0.6 secs quicker than me then Davie Coutts 0.6 secs behind me, Jac was 0.7 secs behind me then Jim Gray a surprising 3.5 secs behind me. All in all apart from Jim’s cautious run there was very little between the A3 cars at this stage. Looking at the pictures its obvious how tentaive i took this run as i am right in the centre of the track when I would normally have been much closer to the armco. I had been looking at Les Mutch and John Roddick’s times and if things remained the way they were they would not be able to close the gap in the Lowlands Championship. I made the decision not to go flat out on the first timed run and ensure I got a time in that was there or there abouts score wise. If I failed to score any points I would have handed the championship to Les or John. The weather had improved a little and was now showery but to be honest in terms of grip on the hill the damage was done. I set off on the first timed run and decided to push it on the first half of the hill which I thought was less slippy and be more cautious on the 2nd half. It seemed to work ok and I finished the run with a very comfortable 54.20 although this was 4.2secs off my record it might have been just enough points wise to pip Les and John. In A3 Donald wasn’t hanging around and done a very quick 52.54 to take the lead in the class. Jac and Davie Coutts were tied on 56.07 with Jim Gray on 56.09. So a pretty successful and conservative first run for me. Having seen Les’s time and John’s time I knew I might need a little more so decided to have a go on the last timed run. I had not used the high boost setting all day due to the weather but thought ah well worth a shot. I was sat on the start line waiting to go and off went the horn. Joanna had come off in her saxo so a little delay as the barriers were checked so just a little reminder of what Doune is all about. Off the line the car felt good round the first corner no grip issues so nailed it all the way to garden gate then big twitch as I came on the power, still slippy then. Coming out over meadow I had to back off as the car was sliding off the track so probably lost a little time there. The rest of the hill up to the esses seemed fine but again I got well sideways coming through there so I backed off a touch, round the last corner and just missed the outside Armco with the rear end as the car stepped sideways as I tried to get the power down, it was then foot down and across the line in 51.58 which I was quite happy with given how slippy parts of the hill were and it was only 1.5 secs behind my record which was done in the dry. This time does make me now realise the 50.04 will not be hard to beat in the dry and the changes to the handling of the car have obviously improved things a fair bit, Jac managed a 53.93 on his run straight after me. Next up was Donald in his Evo, at the split time Donald was 0.4 of a second quicker which wasn’t unusual as he seems to be slightly quicker to garden gate then I make time up on the 2nd part of the hill. I was standing at Garden gate watching and heard a bang just as the commentator said Donald had come across the line in 53.77 then he said that Donald had come off. I didn’t think much apart from hope its only a scratch. There was a delay with the clerk of the course going up the hill then returning a while later, this is normal as they have to check the course so I assumed Donald had clipped the Armco on the last bend before going across the line. So next up was Davie Coutts who was noticeably slower through garden gate where I was watching and his time was 56.42 I thought he must have a problem with the car then came Jim Gray who again seemed slow and recorded a 55.94. I then walked down the hill and only then realised why davie and Jim had been slower than I expected, the news had filtered down to the paddock that Donald had rolled his car after he crossed the line and it wasn’t good. Fortunately Donald wasn’t badly injured but his car was in a bit of a mess. I hadn’t realised this as the car was still in the upper paddock, this news had obviously affected Davie and Jim’s thinking hence their times. I managed to get a chat with Donald and he seemed ok which given how bad the car was amazed me. Well not the best end to the event but as we all know when we enter Doune it is a possibility, there really is no room for error at all. This year in two outings at Doune I have seen 2 cars written off and several badly damaged it’s a very difficult hill to go fast as your body wants to press the brake even when your brain says accelerate. After my off at the first corner on my first Doune event , the next time I went to Doune I swore blind that I did not brake before the first corner it wasn’t until I was shown a video that I realised I did, every time and I didn’t even know I was doing it! Picture of an Impreza from down south that was running in the modified class it was a very nicely prepared car wish I had some better pictures as that one does not do it justice. I cant remember its times but dont think it beat my 51.58. So it finished up I was quickest out of the A3 cars I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t manage to get a shot at my record but the conditions just didn’t allow it. I did manage to do enough to secure the points required to win the Lowland Championship outright which is pleasing. I also managed to take 2nd place in the class in the Scottish Sprint championship. So not the worst end to the season but its one of those if only scenario’s. If I had realised how badly the car was handling earlier in the season how much of a difference would it have made? Would I have caught Jim in the Sprints, I am not sure, but it would have been much closer that’s for sure. That said Jim has been consistently quicker than me all season and thourghly deserves the win. I have not been quicker than him at any event so hats off and congratulations to a worthy winner. Must say a big thanks to Alyn at AS Performance for all his help and advice throughout the year, Andy Forrest same reason invaluable experience and a massive help wouldnt let anyone else map my car, John at Progrip for pulling out the stops all the time to get the Geometry perfect, Kenny Brown for his last minute intervention and massive amount of experience which has transormed the car cant wait to see what Kenny can produce next year, Graeme Bremner for his support all year and also John St for constant help and advice - thanks guys Last thank you to my two boys David and Steven for helping out all year even late at night in a freezing garage, but David your still not driving it next year So next its a month in Athens and a chance to reflect and plan. I already know what I need to do to move the car on to the next level its just a matter of funding it.

Give Alyn at As Performance a ring he will do you a good deal on your oil if you mention SIDC

Chris how are the pumps wired? i.e new fused and relayed seperate supplies or the single original supply?

Chris think you will see a massive difference in the car once it is mapped at 2 bar, should be an interesting road mapping session. I must admit my car has never seen a dyno and prefer to go by how the car feels and also take Andy's feedback on how it performs. Hopefully your misfire issues will be sorted and you will have a car you can use to its full potential next year.

I always take my road car to Ian Grieves, bought it there and have nothing but help and brilliant service since, only problem is a shady character called Gav who lurks around there

Lifting a rear wheel under corner that looks familiar.

Thats if you trust Halley's with your car.

Well about time I updated this not much going on today just sitting in the 25 deg sun with a cold beer . After Kames it was straight back out to Athens for pretty much the whole of August so again no time to do anything with the car other than park it up. I have not been at all happy with the way the car has handled all year. It has been lifting the inside wheel under entry and exit of corners which has been a real issue. On my return from Athens I decided to have a look at a few things and noticed that when turning the prop the rear wheels contra-rotated which they should not do as I thought the rear diff was plated. Quick call to Stevenson motorsport help line and my fears were confirmed. I pulled the diff out and opened it up and found a bizarre plated diff of sorts but not at all what I expected and it definitely did not work as a proper plated diff. It has a plate unit on one side and a normal open diff arrangement on the other side so it would appear to work as a plated diff under load but when a wheel loses drive it acts as an open diff, result for me significant amount of drive lost being sent to the wheel in the air losing me traction, power and time. I thought I had a spare plate unit, which I had bought a while back but it turned out to be an open diff, another scoobynet scam! So diff back in and another item added to the shopping list. So decided that I needed to try and get to the bottom of my handling issues once and for all as it had probably ruined my season, especially at Kames where the car was so unstable coming down the straight on the clockwise circuit that I expected to come off every time! I gave Kenny Brown a ring down in Hillington, knowing how busy Kenny normally is I knew it was a bit of a long shot given the limited time I had, but Kenny kindly agreed to have a look for me before Golspie. So car on the trailer and off down to Hillington. Kenny had the car for 2 days and identified a number of issues, to the extent that he said after driving it that it handled very badly! He is polite is Kenny and not the words I would have used. Main thing was to get the roll bars and dampers working together and then corner weight the car and a few geometry tweaks using Kenny’s experience and it was done. Kenny tested the car and said it was much better and could be pushed from understeer to oversteer at will and felt much more balanced. He did point out that with some changes he could have the car handling much much better but given the time constraints it was the best we could get. So with the car back and only two days before Golspie it was looking good until I noticed I had 10 bar of oil px at idle. Didn’t think it could be a correct reading as the pump would be struggling to produce that at revs never mind idle so had to be indication. Quick trip to Stevenson Motorsport HQ to borrow John’s sender unit but managed to knacker it taking it out oops. Phone call to McGill motorsports over in Kirkaldy and 2 new gauges and senders ordered, can’t recommend them highly enough very helpful. Gauges arrived Fri morning, sender fitted – nil fix still the same. Decided to pull the dash apart and wire in the new gauge again still the same. Decided it had to be a wiring fault, it was getting into the afternoon so gave in headed off to Golspie with a nagging doubt in my head. Pretty quiet drive up the A9 for a change but arrived at Golspie in the dark. Decided to do a few more wiring checks and put the dash back together, couldn’t find the fault without a further strip down so decided to go with the oil temp gauge and px switch as indications. Did end up looking like I had been attacked with a red marker pen as the midges had eaten me alive – not impressed. Well Saturday morning 11th September arrived and the weather was rubbish wet and very overcast. The event was run and organised by Caithness Car Club and would be run on the Littleferry circuit for the Saturday. The entry again was of a really high standard in A3 with 5 Evo’s, a Honda Prelude and myself. I went out in the first practice with a very slight worry about the oil pressure and did take it easy along the first straight off the line, didn’t have any massive explosions so thought must be ok and went for it. The track was very wet and a bit slippy, I was still feeling my way as I wasn’t sure how the car would handle after all the changes Kenny had made but ended up 2nd in class 5 secs behind Martin Willox in his Evo which was promising as I knew I could go quicker. The car was handling well but it was very difficult to tell just how much the changes had affected things due to the conditions. The 2nd practice was a fair bit quicker. 5.5 secs quicker but Martin didn’t have the best of runs and both Jim Kelly and Tony Ellrick spun off killing their runs. So after practice I was still 2nd in class but only 0.6 secs off martin’s time. The first timed run went ok but was slower than the 2nd practice run but I still retained 2nd in class but Martin had pulled out an amazing run and was over 6 secs ahead again with Jim Kelly over a second adrift of me. Half way through the 1st timed runs for the single seaters one of them had a massive engine failure dumping oil all over the main straight and half way up the infield straight. As a result the event was halted and it was so bad they had to get a sweeper in with proper detergents to clean the track. I decided on a bit of a social call to Alan the commentator that ended up with me pretty pissed on a few large Drambuie’s. I had assumed that the Sun morning would see the rest of the 1st timed runs completed and then the Sun event started so I went off happy, well pissed and happy at a 2nd place finish in class in the wet – result. Next morning was still overcast but not as wet, the track was still damp and most of the oil was cleared but there was a large area at Beeches that was still being cleaned when I arrived. I also learned that while I was socialising the Clerk of the course had decided to do the 2nd timed runs for the Saturday event on Sunday morning then do 1 practice and 2 timed runs for the Sunday event. I knew that would change things as the drying track would allow the bigger power cars to get the power down on the straights and that would be an issue. Well off we went 2nd timed run for the Saturday cct, I was far to tentative on the first lap feeling my way on the oil spillage bits and by the time I confirmed it was ok I had lost to much time and went from 2nd in class to 5th my worst placing ever at Golspie. To be honest I wasn’t really fazed as I didn’t need the points and the main object of the weekend was to see how the car handled before Doune. On this run I did manage to push the car more on the 2nd and 3rd laps and found it was very neutral and much more planted than before, it turned in early and really drove out of the corners. From what I was told the rear inside wheel seemed to stay in contact with the ground and was certainly in contact on exit so that was a result. So after a quick break and a change of the track layout to the Kylestrome cct we were into the Sun event. I particularly like this cct as there is a large hump right in the middle of the infield straight where you can get all 4 wheels off the ground, the problem is you then need to brake straight away as soon as the car goes heavy to get round the corner, keeps the heart going. First practice went ok with me still pushing the car on bit by bit. The track was drying but was still damp in Places. I was sitting 4th in class behind Martin Willox, Tony Ellrick and Jim Kelly. I was just over a second behind Jim, which again was promising. The track was drying all the time and this meant that both Martin and Tony would be able to use their superior power, which would make it difficult to catch. I was aiming at reeling Jim in a bit and start to push the car on to see how it handled. The first timed run went well and the car really felt good, there were still some feelings of instability under heavy braking but other than that it handled superbly, even when I got an entry to a corner wrong there was no understeer just a neutral feeling and a little hint of the back end moving while powering out but never going into oversteer. After the 1st timed runs I was still sitting 4th but was only 0.6 sec behind Jim, which was closer than I had been in the dry all year. Martin and Tony were 2.5 and 2 secs ahead which to be honest was expected. The 2nd timed run was not the best I bogged the start and lost time but had a really good run after that and the car really did handle and I pushed it as hard as I could. I still ended up 4th in class with a 77.07s still 0.6 secs behind Jim, 2.7 secs behind Martin and 2 secs behind Tony. Interestingly on my 2nd timed run, which apart from the start I knew was quick, I was only 0.5 sec slower than Martin Willox after the split time and quicker than Tony and I was exactly the same time after the split as Tony’s quickest run so I now know the car can be competitive and know where I am losing time. All in all it was a worthwhile event with a lot learned about the car and what is needed to move it on to where it really should be. Next up is Doune in a week’s time.

Depends what you use your car for craig and what price you can get the millers for. There is no comparison between shell helix and Millers oils and given what the dealer charges for the shell helix it is a no brainer. The CFS 10w60 may be a little thicker than some like for a road car, I have it in my road car as i used to use it in the RA and had some left. When i change it next I will use CFS 10W50 in the road car. For pure track cars Motul 300v is, in my opinion, the best choice.

Millers 10w60 from AS Perforamance and take it to Ian Grieves to be changed

Paypal only offeres protection for ebay items, anything outwith that you will not see a penny from them. If paying with paypal always use your credit card and never use your bank account or funds in your paypal account that way you will at least have the cc protection. I learned the hard way as well.

Graeme i have been stung myself and had the same paypal scenario. You will get the money back from your credit card contact them straight away, the money on your debit card mmm much harder, I now always try and pay by credit card as paypal are a waste of space outside ebay. gutted for you.

Best way, I have never had mine on a set of rollers and only will if it is a necessity to get a base map. Good to see your car getting there

You havnt said what you are trying to do? If you are trying to replace the standard rails with a set that can take -6 or -8 fittings so you can cjhange the fuel routing then try Carl Davey his stuff is top quality and a cracking guy as well. http://www.carldavey.co.uk/product.php?id=13

mapping on the road is the only way to go, I agree it is interesting tho