arch

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

If your car is a UK car it will have gearbox code TY754VN1AA or 2AA if so you need a 3.54 R160 rear diff. Drop John Stevenson a PM he may well have one.

What exactly is damaged on your prop?

Got it from Japperformance.com mate they had one on there shelf. AA breakers if they had one was going to charge me a couple of hundred he said on the fone so £200 was not bad i think.

If its a 6 speed prop its a bit steep if its a 5 speed prop its robbery.

I am assuming your car is a WRX and a 5 speed. There is no difference in any of the 5 speed props apart from a slightly different centre arrangement but they all do the same thing. If this is the case I have a newage blobeye prop, 5 speed that you are welcome to try and I am sure we can come to an arrangement which is significantly less than £200.

If your car is a six speed try sourcing a classic auto prop as it is the same as a 6 speed prop.

Grives replaced my rear shocks under warranty without any issues at all pop back down you will prob find it is a misunderstanding

Go in and speak to Charlie the service manager he is one of the most helpful guys I have ever met. he will sort you out.

The spring could have snapped at the buttom in the seating where it can't be seen. I would also recpmmend jacking the car up, get a pair of gloves on and physically apply pressure to parts to make sure there isn;t any play. When the car is on the ground, weight is applied so any play will be taken up by this.

What he said , take the wheel off and have a right good look where the spring sits in the lower seat.

Thanks Chris More power is always nice and a definate possibility there are also plenty other ideas to make the car quicker for the future. What is more pressing is to have a car that handles properly which has been a massive issue all year. I am Only now getting to the bottom of it, if the car handled properly I would have more confidence in it and the times would come down. I am using a Spec D 6 speed at the minute which although not ideal does work .

It isnt really, the times are often close but points wise its not close at all, I cant mathematically catch Jim for the Scottish Class so have already relinquished that, but cant see anyone catching me for 2nd. The lowlands isnt that close points wise either.

Almost up to date now Had a couple of days off after Alford and then back out to Athens for just short of a fortnight. I had managed to arrange a shorter trip so that I got back for the British round at Kames on the 31st July - 1st Aug.

I arrived back home late on Thurs 29th July so only had one day to sort out my shift bar and get the car ready. I had ordered some long high tensile bolts while i was away and decided to bite the bullet and fix it properly once and for all. I used some fairly heavy duty alluminium plate which I cut and shaped to it on top of the tunnel to act as a level mounting point for the rear support. I then rivetted this to the top of the tunnel. I then marked out my holes and drilled through the double skinned section of the tunnel and into the transmission tunnel below. I removed the prop to get access and then used two 10mm bolts to secure the rear mount straight through the double skin portion of the tunnel. It wont move now

Right Kames, last one of the year and a round of the Brirsih championship as well so lots of interesting cars entered and some serious single seaters.

Surprise surprise not the best turn out again at Kames in class A3 just myself, Davie Coutts and Jac. The weather was also doing its Kames thing, one minute sunny ish then pouring then sunny - bizarre.

The practice runs were a mixed bag with the first being dry and the 2nd wet. Davy Coutts was sitting 1st after the two practice runs with me 0.29 secs behind him and Jac 4 secs behind me.

The timed runs pretty much followed the same weather format, the first run was dry with Jac sitting first and me 0.25 secs behind and Davy a further 3 secs adrift. I made a few mistakes on the first run so was quietly confident of taking some time out of my first run but as is always the risk at Kames just before we went back out for our second run the heavens opened and that was that wet track and no chance of improving on the time. So it was a first win over me since Jac started racing and its a case of taking the chance when its there, Davy finished 3rd on the day. It wasnt a huge issue for me as points wise it worked out fairly well for me.

Picture of one of the English lads who comes up north regularly for the British rounds of the Sprints and Hillclimbs, the noise this thing makes is awesome.

Picture of Les Mutch in his 600bhp Dax rush, this thing is just mental pretty much the same as Les Les and I are currently in a bit of a tussle in the Lowlands Championship.

Sunday saw a change to the format with the circuit now running anticlockwise. After the 2 practice runs there was nothing between us at all Jac was sitting first with me 0.04 secs behind and Davy another 0.7 behind me. I had over cooked the last corner on the 2nd practice run and slid over the line and right of the track taking out the timing gear and narrowly missing the tyre wall. The car had taken a fair buffeting and I wasnt convinced everything was ok.

I spent the next hour with the car jacked up wheels off and generally going over the car with a fine tooth comb. I borrowed a digital Clinometer and checked the camber and caster angles at all 4 corners and fortunately nothing seemed amiss - result Did manage to destroy the front splitter but to be honest it had led a charmed life and for me it had definately lasted longer than most others

After the first timed run Jac was again sitting first with me 1.5 secs behind after an awful first timed run, I came out of the hairpin the first time and went for 3rd nope managed 5th thought F*** how has that happened, well it did but there isnt time to look down so plodded on taking 5th another twice. Came into the paddock well hacked off as I was sure i had solved the issue. Looked down and I had bent the bar like a banana I had hit the bar so hard coming out of 2nd that the mounts, which were now solid, just transfered the load to the next weak point which was the bar. oops run killed again because of the bar My fault hadnt factored in agression and frustration into my calculation of the strength of bar required

Well surprise surprise just before we went back out for the 2nd timed runs it absolutely chucked it down, my how I laughed. Jac decided he had done enough and elected not to take his 2nd timed run. I thought ah well in for a penny ... I decided just to go for it you just never know. Having straightened the bar I just sat in the car on the line and thought just how fast can you throw one of these round the track in the wet, well i almost done it and must admit it was quite an adrenalin rush as the car was right on the ragged edge but I just failed to beat Jac's personal best dry time with my wet time which was a shade under 0.8 secs slower than jacs winning time in the dry cant be unhappy with that i thought Davy didnt have the best of days and finished 1.3 secs behind me. So a double win for Jac, but all in all not a bad weekend got decent points and learned a lot about the car in the wet.

Pic before weight reduction at the front

Pics After wait reduction at the front

Picture of Ross and Roy Napier who double enter the big Gould, this is amazing to watch and is beautifully prepared.

Again love watching Stuart and Jim Sugden in this seriously quick mini.

Big thanks to Stephen for some cracking puics as usual

After Kames it was back out to Athens for a few weeks which meant I would miss Fintry and Forrestburn. A change to the Hillclimb championship rules for this year stated that you had to compete at least once at every venue, this ruled me out of the Hillclimb championship as I was in Athens for both Fintry events so missing Fintry and Forestburn really made no difference to me.

After a few weeks out in Athens working hard and not lying by the pool at all just all work work work , it was home and the next event. Had a week at home before the Alford sprint so managed to resecure the shift bar on the transmission tunnel and thats about all I had time for. I spent most of my time catching up on everything I had missed while I was away. At this point being away so much was becoming an issue as i had virtually no time on the car between events and although I had tried some quick fixes I still hadn't had time to get to the bottom of my handling issues although Graeme from Whiteline had offered some very helpful advice which was greatly appreciated. Just finding the time to act on it was the problem.

Well next Up the Alford sprint which is just east of Aberdeen and is small oval circuit with a couple of cross overs which can be awkward to get 100% right. This is a one day event held on the 19th July and run by Grampian Automobile Club and held at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford. I decided not to go up the night before and try getting up early 3.45 am and drive up and back the same day, its an easy drive up so shouldnt be a problem . It seemed to work out fine getting up to Alford early and got the car of the trailer and set up early.

Well the day started not to bad a bit overcast with a few showers but nothing drastic. There wasn't a huge entry in our class, myself, Jim Kelly in his Evo, Davie Coutts in his Evo and Jim Gray again in the EVO.

After the practice runs Jim again was leading with me a close second behind with both Jim Gray and Davie Coutts another second behind that again. Davie was having some issues with the EVO so only took one practice to conserve the car for the timed runs.

Jim Kelly's Evo

Davie Coutts Evo

Jim Gray's Evo

Again rear wheel popping up

Well after the timed runs it definitely had that familiar look about it but to be honest there was very little between us Jim was a second in front of me and he won the class again with yet another class record, Davy Coutts was right on my tail 0.7 secs behind me and Jim Gray 0.16 secs behind Davy. I did have another occurrence of my bar shifting and again taking 5th so think a long term solution for that is required as it is starting to cost me dearly in terms of points.

It was a good day with decent weather and no major drama's. At this stage it certainly looks like Jim will be taking my Scottish class winners title off me. I have managed to win it the last 2 years but even at this stage I do not think I can catch up with the points lead that Jim has managed.

Must admit the drive back down to Glasgow was a bit of a struggle and I will definitely not do the round trip in one day again, you use so much energy during the day that after the event you are shattered and being up so early and facing a 4.5 hour journey back down to Glasgow towing the car wasnt what I wanted - lesson learned

Must say a big thank you to John Stewart for the pics some cracking shots again John Was good to catch up and have a chat.

The events were coming in quick succession with Kames the weekend after Golspie. This was East Ayrshire's first event of the season. The event was just to close to the Golspie event to allow any changes to the car so it was just a case of going with what i had which was far from perfect in terms of handling. The new turbo set up was working well and the car was producing good power, trying to put the power down and stay on the track was becoming the challenge.

The entry list for this event was again disappointing for our class with only myself, Jim Kelly and Jac entered. Again the weather was being kind as it was sunny again .

The practice runs in the morning were going fairly well apart from a bit of a misjudgment going into the hairpin on my second practice run, I tried to move my braking point on a little but moved it to far and ended up sort of drifting and careering round the hairpin losing loads of time but its only practice and probably made the marshals laugh so no harm done .

The timed runs seen the times tumbling with Jim again bursting the class record for the clockwise cct by over a second with a cracking 2nd timed run that had me thinking, where did that time come from I finished second a disappointing 2 secs behind Jim with Jac finishing 3rd.

The Sunday was run anticlockwise and started with the practice runs being wet, back to normal Kames weather, this suited me as I am starting to enjoy wet events more and more. Tony Hume had entered for the Sunday swelling the numbers in our class to 4 As the day progressed the weather picked up and so did the gap between Jim's times and mine. Jac was a bit off the pace and didn't seem to be liking the wet conditions. As the track dried everyones times started to drop but as was becoming the trend Jim popped up with another cracking 1st timed run which proved to be enough to win the class on the day and set yet another class record. I finished second 1.5 secs behind Jim with Jac 3rd 3.4 secs behind Jim. Tony again peddled the French toy as fast as humanly possible but ended up 7.5 secs off Jim's pace.

The season was now starting to have a familiar look to it with me trying to play catch up points wise with Jim but his times are consistently quick so its going to be a big ask to claw back the lead he already has.

Next up was Doune organized by Lothian car club. This would be the 3rd event in as many weeks so again no time to do anything to the car between events due to work commitments. This event was a round of the Scottish Hillclimb Championship and the Lowlands Championship. It was also a round of the British Hillclimb Championship.

The way this event is organized is not easy to follow as some cars in our class A3 run as Road going series production cars but those who have not upgraded their competition Nat B license run at the end in a separate class which can cause problems.

In terms of cars in A3 overall regardless of license it was myself, Tony Hume, Jac and Donald Ross so again not the biggest numbers. The event is spread over 2 days with 3 practice runs on Saturday, one practice run on Sunday morning and two timed runs after that. This makes it a steady event with plenty time to try different lines, different gears etc etc. The only thing I don't like is you get to a level of confidence on the Saturday and then on the Sunday morning you have to start all over again.

The weather proved to be really good for the Saturday and the event had a very big entry which included the British Hillclimb lads and the Ferrari owners club who had a fair few cars entered.

I managed to gradually get my times down to a 52.59 after the 3 Saturday practice runs which was OK nothing spectacular just steady progress. It was almost 2 years since I had last had a crack at Doune so it was almost like learning it all over again so there was no point in going mad in practice on the Saturday.

After the final practice I had taken a little more off my time so was happy and ready to have a go on the first timed run. After the 4 practice runs Donald Ross was sitting quickest followed by me and the then Jac and then Tony in the frog mobile

The first timed run went fairly well with me doing a 50.04 taking 2.5 secs off my quickest practice run and placed me fastest at that point, a second ahead of Donald, over 2 secs ahead of Jac and 2.7 secs ahead of Tony. I did manage to select 5th twice during the run when i went to take 3rd. i had a good look round the car selected all the gears coming back down the hill and couldn't find any issues, bizarre so didn't really give it a second thought.

The last timed run was a nightmare, came off the line round the first corner all looking good after a good launch then went to take 3rd car died **** 5th again, this happened again every time I went for 3rd so assumed the box had developed an issue so drove the rest in 2nd and 4th and was consequently 2.2 secs slower than my first run which wasn't bad considering what had happened. When I got to the top paddock I found the problem, the bar I use to help select 3rd had loosened in its mount which meant every time i went to select 3rd i put the lever straight into 5th (6 speed box) doh, a well an easy fix. As it turned out it was academic as Jac's second run was slower and although Donald had a good second run peddling his 400bhp Evo to within 0.75 of a second of my first timed run it wasn't enough so I ended up first in class with a new class record, closely followed by Donald, with Jac 2.18 secs adrift in 3rd and Tony 2.72 secs adrift in 4th.

I didn't get many pictures of the day but there are loads of superb pics at the links below.

http://www.zipp.co.uk/gallery/Doune-2010-06-20/?g2_page=1

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/SRW-Sprintm...um_id=412799578

Well straight after Doune it was back out to Athens for a while which meant i would miss the Forrestburn Hillclimb and the Boyndie sprint but hey can think of worse places to be working

Wow May 9th since my last write up

Well after Ingliston the next event was Kames and The Machars Sprint on the 23rd May. This is always a very relaxed event and one I always look forward to. Having said that the entry list was pretty poor in our class with just myself, Jim Kelly in his EVO 5 RS and Tony Hume in his Peugeot 309.

The weather was really good for a Kames event as it seems to have its own Micro climate which consists of cold and wet or cold and wet or if your really lucky just wet The day started well with not much between my self and Jim after the first practice but I knew Jim had moved his car on a lot from last year so was just waiting for the timed runs to see what I was really up against. Tony's 309 is way under powered and he was a fair bit behind. Didn't manage to get many decent pictures of the day but got a couple.

Picture of Sprint Champion Graeme Bremner in his new Supercharged Radical, I expect this to do really well this year.

After the timed runs it was Jim who came out fastest which to be honest was no surprise. I finished just over a second behind with Jim beating my Class record. So all in all not the best of days but points wise it still worked out pretty well. Tony brought up the rear which is really down to his car being underpowered when compared to the other cars in the class, that said he certainly knows how to drive the 309 to its limit but at the end of the day at the rear is really the right position for anything French

Next up for me was Golspie which is run by Caithness Car Club and is just south of Wick. Even at this point in the season it is becoming difficult getting the events in due to working away in Athens a lot. I have already had to miss the early round at Doune and will definitely miss the first Boyndie so getting enough scoring rounds in will be very tight.

The long run up to Golspie was pretty good with nice weather and fairly quiet roads for a change

I always enjoy the northern events especially Golspie and Boyndie as there is always stiff competition in our class from some of the high powered EVO boys. This event would be no exception, I prefer the Sunday Kylestrome layout to the Saturday Littleferry but both are quick and good fun. The entry list really didn't disappoint with 9 cars in the class myself, 7 EVO's and a Honda Prelude.

The Saturday event started well with a steady first practice without really going for it. The heavens opened for the 2nd practice and I managed to over cook it at the infield hairpin and spun oops waisted run there. The weather was looking very changeable and it rained again during the 1st timed runs which to be honest suited me as it leveled the field a little. I was sitting 3rd after the first timed run 2 secs behind Martin Willox in his EVO and 0.4 secs behind Callum wood again in an EVO. I was under no illusions at this stage as Jim Kelly had a poor first timed run and I didn't expect him to have another poor run.

Picture of a little cosmetic rebuild on Tony's EVO after a mishap on his 1st timed run.

Thats exactly how it worked out, the track dried which suited the bigger powered cars and Jim put in a blistering run to finish first in class and set a new class record, Tony Ellrick was only 0.06 secs behind Jim with Martin Willox 0.55 secs behind Jim. I managed a 4th place 2 secs behind Jim. The time wasn't really important it was the points difference between me and Jim that was already starting to grow.

Next day was again looking a bit overcast but I was looking forward to the Kylestrome cct. The morning went well with me sitting 2nd in class after the 2 practice rounds with my times coming down nicely.

The timed runs didn't go according to plan though, I ended up 5th in class 3 secs behind Tony Ellrick's very quick time which set another new class record. I was disappointed with the Sunday times as my quickest timed run was a sec slower than my quickest practice run and I felt during practice that I could take a little time out of that but unfortunately I drove like a f**** and got the results I deserved I was also surprised to find that my sat time was also 1 sec slower than my quickest time last year so something is definitely amiss.

I already had reservations about the handling of the car as it quite clearly picks up the inner rear wheel in tight turns which is losing me time.

I first noticed this at Ingliston and have been tweaking the suspension set up to try and counter this but so far without success. This is something that I do need to address but given the time I am away from home it is almost impossible.

I would like to say I big thank you to Graeme Jeram at Whiteline for helping out and getting a new rear roll bar and front drop links to me at very short notice, thanks Graeme top man

uk cars are vn`s which means 3.54 rear diff, 1.1 to 1 drop gears and 3.9 front i think.

Correct 3.54 rear diff with that box.

well we have andy.f down all we need is jac the lad and we have a main race

That won't happen the Forrestburn hill climb is the same weekend.

Arch get on the phone for back up quick style.

I do not need to get on the phone and do not need to fight John's battles he is more than capable of that himself. But hey I didnt realise it was a battle I thought it was "tongue in cheek" just as my comments were But if you throw stones then expect them to come back your way

My money is on John, he spends most of his time in the garage fixing his gearbox or on the tinternet looking for girls with there boobs on show

Suppose if you have a garage, have some tools and have the knowledge of how to use them then as well fixing things yourself

John it was not intended to '' Diss someone '' but more of a tongue in cheek statement that i thought was true, end of.

Bad habit that tongue in cheek malarky

Andy just to be factualy correct think that was joint, joint, joint, joint, joint,joint Lowlands Champion

You nwill not go wrong with the work at Meercat, no fancy premises just top quality work. They have done work on my road car exhaust and done the rotated turbo pipework and all the intercooler pipework om my race RA. tell Scott i said hello

An inverted coilover moves the spring platform above the inner sidewall area which then allows more space for camber adjustment. I dont have any camber issues at all now.

yup, no point paying 5x the price for Carbon LOL

ABS or GRP is just as light

Scott - Your rear struts/susp. EXE-TC yup?

Fee had to fit some 5mm shims to the rear of the Impreza today so the tyres would clear the struts. How much rear camber are you running? Do you have any issues like this?

This is with the STi7/8 gold 17"'s (bloody Advans dont clear my brakes when heated up (like yours LOL)). Tyres are 215 888's. Car was setup with the RG1's on which are a lower offset so would have not been an issue.

I had very similar issues last year with my coilovers. I had a set of eibach coilovers on and had no issues at all, they sprung a leak at the back and then my issues started. I had massive problems getting any negative camber without the struts rubbing on the wheels. This was with 17x8 Pro race 1.2's ET48, I had the same issue with the gold STI alloys but they were fine with a small spacer. In the end I went to an inverted coilover set up which solved the issue with the team dynamics but I still run a 5mm spacer if I have the gold STI wheels on for mapping or on the road.

Thanks Arch

Deffinately no point spending £3-400 on some mirrors that might well get twatted on thier 1st outing. I cant imagine they will be that much lighter anyway.

Carbon fibre ones def not much lighter if at all but a better fit, dont know about yours but the fit is rubbish on mine but the price is just right a £28 a pair but I can see to reverse out of the garage and into the paddock which is all i need them for. As long as you can see who you have just passed then they are up to the job for you to

Nice right up and cracking results this year

The mirrors are on the right way, I have the same much cheapness mirrors, no point in paying silly money for something that may not be there long . I have the 17x8's as well they work well on normal body classic.