RATechnology

Would have gone if I'd have know earlier! I was down that way yesterday! Bugger! Did anyone go? What was it like?

I'm heading over again for a couple of VLN races this year... A friend of mine runs a couple of cars out there! Can highly recommend going for the 24 hour race there! It's mental!! Also going over in a couple of weeks! Going to pick up a car with another mate... Sadly it's not a 'ring special but a Mercedes Pullman! And were going in a truck! So no laps this time One thing I will say though is don't travel in a convoy! German Police don't like i very much! Keep it to a max of 2 or 3 cars, spread out if there's more of you going... Otherwise they will find an excuse to pull you over and fine you all!!

Vauxhall Chavalier!

Not sure I can comment on the reliability of certain suspension however, yes with the RB320 there seems to be a rather large amount of these being replaced. Having come from a motorsport background I would recommend having your Coilovers serviced and checked every year.. This will hopefully avoid any issues. Again this is what i would recommend on a rally or race car to ensure reliability and performance of your dampers. For road use I would imagine that two years between services would be sufficent.. Although I would have them checked for leaks and wear by a specialist every year again for ensured reliability and performance. An alignment / Geomentry setup wouldn't go amiss either every year. (all mileage dependant of course) One thing you have to remember is that the Impreza be it an STI or WRX is a performance car and when driven accordingly need's slightly higher mantinence than a normal econobox!

Doesn't mean you have to change the complete unit will just mean you'll have to replace the top mounts (that's if you can & the parts are available?) If you've had the Coilovers on for two years maybe a good time to get them rebuilt.. Check all your other suspension components as well such as drop links ball joints.. See if there's any other play that could be causing your noise? May even be a wheel bearing? How many miles on the car?

Have to say well done!!! Congratulations to all involved

Sold my BMW recently, Had an E30 Touring!! If I still had it I'd have been dead by now... Possibly the worst car ever in conditions like we've had over the last few days!!

It's also available to download on BBC iPlayer!

Ha! This quite funny! I currently work from home, so really don't need to go anywhere!! I pity all those who have had to go out today! Chaos comes to mind but then this country doesn't seem to cope with any sort of extreme weather conditions

Craig, ring Graham Gleeson at Exe-tc direct... He's usually very helpful and can probably point you in the right direction for a base setup.. I haven't got his number anymore but have his email.. graham.gleeson@exe-tc.co.uk

Well i'd go for either a 215 or 225 size tyre, The Hankook Z211 are a road leagl track day tyre, quite a shallow tread depth to stop the sort of flex you would get on an R888.. Dry wather grip is much better than the toyo.. A 225/40R18 would cost around the £140 each...

Gary if your looking for something a little different for the track you could always try a set of Hankook Z211's.. Similar money to the Toyo's but far better wear... Grip levels i've found are better in the dry (both are fairly useless in the wet) What size wheels you got on the Scoob at the minute? Classic or Newage?

Any chance that you worked for MSD?

I have to agree the cars sound fantastic... I hope it does bring about a new dawn of rallying where by money doesn't buy world championships... (i'll step out of my bubble now) Still i'd like to know what Peugeot and Fiat have spent... It would be in the region of what the top WRC boys have spent.. The S2000 rules yes were created to bring a levelish playing field to the game. I've a build sheet somewhere for a FIAT and it's 2 yo WRC money to even start playing then there's engines... Well that's another story. Ok the K series isn't a good engine! Again the price of a 'works' spec engine from Sodemo or Abarth is horrific money.. FIAT last year were having to subsidise engine's and gearboxes to make it attractive to people to compete. A Sadev gearbox every event and an engine every other. If they sort it out similar to WRC where by you have to run an engine and box for multiple events then yes it will help bring in more people. An ex customer of mine was a good case, he had both a group N and WRC Subaru as well as a FIAT.. and the FIAT was costing him nearly as much as his WRC car.. The idea of S2000 was to bring in more manufacturers to compete with Group N Subaru's and Mitsubishi's and keep the costs down.. Can't see any of them being in the top 10 in Monte Carlo. The FIA for once was on the right track they just didn't go far enough.. the WRC should impliment S2000 rules and restric development more than what already exists, that way the underfunded, talented privateer has at least a fighting chance... Who know's I'd love to see a few 'locals' such as Meeke, Wilks, Jones, McShea etc competeing against the regulars on a level playing field..

I'm sure Proton owned Lotus at one stage... Not sure if they still do?

Bugger!! I'd just written a rant to go on this and lost the lot!! Well here goes again.. Yes the Proton is a nice car, and could be a contender given the rules.. Sadly unless Proton spend big on the project then it won't be as competitive as it could... Prime example is the MG, Corsa and Toyota Corolla S2000 cars, good drivers and teams behind each of these projects.. but lack of real money from manufacturers will always leave them lagging behind the works entries... Skoda may have learnt it's lesson the hard way in the WRC, it's now put some decent money behind the S2000 project and well the early results are looking good. Niall McShea will give a good idea of where the car will be in terms of pace in Rally Ireland... I don't think Petter will do the car any favours, well unless he's got his head screwed on properly this time!! He was one of the biggest issues with SWRT along with lack of cash from Subaru and sponsors... Sadly motorsport at IRC or WRC level is very difficult without manufacturer budgets... Again where is the first Group N Mitsubishi or Subaru (S2000 was developed to be on par with these cars) the rules maybe there to keep it a level playing field but without the money to develop the car to the best of the rules the Proton I feel will be left behind like the others i've mentioned... Developing horsepower from a 2L N/A production engine is very difficult and expensive... I'll use the MG as an example, the K series isn't a bad engine it's got all the right parts to produce decent horsepower and it does go very well, however it's weak and as seen with Stuart it fails with regular occurence.. Again this comes down to lack of development and money to do so... A lot of factors will come into if the Proton is to become any good, over the next few months, team, drivers money, testing, development... I'd like to see a plucky underdog prove me wrong!

True you may never know.. But Volvo had TWR on board to develop the 850 and a massive budget that would have put SWRT to shame... It's all very new for the MEM team and they'll have a big mountain to climb! They need good support from Proton and a deccent budget to even get close to the Fiat's, Peugeots or even Skoda.

PMSL Well I'll upset more people by saying that yes it's not a bad S2000 Rally car, still it's no Peugeot or Fiat... And with Petter driving i'm sorry but that won't do them any favours in developing it into a decent car... Ari would do a better job in developing the car into something that maybe half decent as a rally car... but as a road car... Yes Protons are still ****!!!

Well it's safe to say that yes there are several 'STIG'S' used... I've worked with two of them and know a third who works with a friends company... Not sure that Ben Collins is the most used of stig's?? Think sometimes the media and the BBC throw out a rumour to create some gossip?? Slow news day maybe??

Just out of curiosity what's the build number on this car? Should have a Prodrive chassis plate in the engine bay? I might be able to find out a bit more info on history etc for you?

Try the following www.rallyinsurance.co.uk Covers everything from Rally, Race and Track days. It won't be cheap..

Looks like a good turn out for the day! Pity I was stuck at Autosport show, oh well! Hope to make the next oxon meet!?!

I have to ask what Subframes, Seat Brackets are you using on this car? Cheers Gav

Well by the sounds of it she needs to get a life? I can't answer the question about noise as i'm not sure of the legal limit in this country(I'm Australian) I had a simlar problem to this by my neighbours. My brother had a Skyline and I had an Evo 4 at the time, both with straight through systems. No Cats and just a single rear silencer.. Now she used to complain all the time about the noise when we used to start them in the mornings (My brother left at 7.30am and I left for work at 8.30) Both were under the legal limit. How do I know because she made a complaint to the local residence assosiation, then they all complained in our street and sent the police around with a DB metre.... Mr Plod couldn't do anything as they were both under the legal limit of 94db! Have to say she was livid about the situation! Mind you her yougest child used to make more noise than both cars combined when he started crying!! Her little man was a right screamer! Well i'd check out a government site DVLA or similar and see if you can find the noise levels? Other wise hopefully someone else knows? Good luck i know how you feel!!

Yeah stories have it so far though that Chris's deal is only for Rally Ireland and I'm lead to believe that this cost him quite a large amount of money for just the one round... Slowberg won't get a drive unless he put's his hands in his pocket..