gambler

I have the orange label Z32 maf for sale for £120 if that any use to you.

I’m currently sans track car as the impreza is getting an engine rebuild after some problems at brands hatch. Hopefully with over 500Horses I got an invite from a mate with a well sorted Impreza P1 to go a track day on the gt circuit at Bedford aerodrome with some of the lads who I go to spa and the ring with. We arrived on circuit and did the sighting laps. Circuit is 3.5miles long, really wide, fast and has massive run off's. There is only 3 corners where there is something to hit if you come off. 1st toy I was out in was a mutaya. Its impreza running gear with 300hp on an 800kg kit car body. The lad had just built it and fitted adjustable EXE-TC suspension to it. The same as I have in my car. He wanted a hand setting it up and a couple of track tips. He drove for a bit and then he gave me the keys and out we went for a play. The car was really good fun with none of the heavy car weight transfer you get in an impreza. Then my mate who has a 997 GT3 who has not done a lot on track wanted some tips too. I have never been in one and jumped at the chance to ride in the pax seat. We just worked on lines and smoothness on the controls as the GT3 seems to need a lot of respect. Parting with some of my limited knowledge seemed to help him and I was really impressed with the grip and balance of the car. The next toy was the track spec P1. Excellent fun. Not quite as grippy or stiff as my car but this makes is so easy to have a laugh and slide around as sideways as you like in. Really enjoyable car We were then approached by a company with a racing radical and asked if we wanted some pax laps. The cost, zero pounds they just wanted feedback to see if people would pay for the experience on a track day. I signed the disclaimer and jumped in. There was a lovely girl there to assist with the harness. Lucky, as im not sure what happened, but I must have forgotten how a harness works and I had to get her to strap me in The car was amazing. It could brake so late and the G-Forces on the corners were unbelievable. It changed direction like a fly. I was then offered some pax laps in a mates Nissan GTR.After all the hype I was looking forward to this. As a piece of engineering it’s a masterpiece. Although, i found it a bit dull. Great lap times but zero driver involvement. It just does everything for you. I appreciate i come from the world of 4wd but to drive an impreza with no fancy electronic diffs you do have to balance the car and steer on the throttle in the corners. Not that dissimilar to my M3 on track. Just more forgiving when you do make an a*** of it. I was then back out in the P1 for another play. Much more exciting and if I was given the chance, I would much rather drive the P1 than the GTR. Then, all my Christmases and birthdays came at once. I was given the keys to the GT3 and told to go and have some fun on the track. The 1st lap I was absolutely papping myself as I knew how much it would cost to fix . I then got into the grove and stopped driving it like a pussy, as that would have just been rude. I decided to push it on a bit. What an amazing car. So much feel and feedback. When it’s going to go a bit sideways it gives you plenty of warning and it pretty forgiving when you do push it. It’s just so fast and smooth. Not as quick or as brutal as my impreza by a long way but amazing to drive on track (a dry track with lots of massive run-offs) If Carlsberg did track days. And friends!

Its a forge dump valve mate

Just been playing about with the windows video editor, finally Here is a couple of video's from the Final at Silverstone and practice at Brands Hatch The Skyline infront is Shane Smith. He has was winning club class at the time.Very quick, muchos power. Brands Hatch practice session

I agree with everyone else. The R-A-R was a special edition for the last of the hawkeyes. They had white wheels and brembo 6 pots on the front as standard

Good luck John

I'll hopefully be there. Have to get my head gasket fixed though after problems at brands hatch

good luck at the SIDC day. See you at brands. Good to see another scottish scoobie on track. p.s. loving the saltire

Have fun guys. I was wanting to make this one. Ill be driving down to brands to race time attack on sunday.

Too much traffic in qualifying probably. I have also been having similar problems in the finals. I have not had a single clear lap all year. I think brands is going to be a nightmare as is so short. Silverstone was bad enough and thats 1.6 miles

Good write up fee. Looks like its going to be close between us

The car was running close to 400hp on a td05 20g turbo. Closed deck block, forge pistons, steel rods and sti 3 heads. Will now be running in the high 400s with an md321t+ turbo 20% e85 and some Andy Forest magic!

John - Loved your pictures. Ill have to get some High Res ones from you Adam - Just be glad your not making your debut at silverstone. That was a crazy power circuit. Im sure the car wont be 280hp for much longer!

Looking good Will it be ready for brands?

Im a bit late with this update. As we have already raced silverstone. Ill get a report for that done when i get some pictures to make it a bit more interesting Knockhill update - Time attack had organized a test day on Saturday. Knockhill was its usual. Horizontal, freezing rain. I was quite pleased with some wet practice as I had moved to stiffer spring and replaced a lot of the bushings on the car which should make the car a bit stiffer. I had softened up the rear arb to an adjustable 22mm, to match the front rather than a fixed 24mm which was making the car very tail happy in the wet. Great fun but not very fast. As soon as I got out on track the car felt grippy and handled great but it was little bit sluggish. I thought it was maybe because I had to put power on a little bit later through the corners. The day dried out and I finally got a chance to do some timed laps (we were allowed to time as it was a time attack practice session). Now...... not that I would have myself timed at a track day a few weeks before. That’s not allowed. If I had done I may have found my times to be consistently in the high 57’s with a passenger and a set of ruined r888s.I think! I was also not pushing very hard that day. I had expected to get at least a second quicker with new tyres and being able to push really hard. My times were over a minute????? Went in and checked tyre pressures, suspension etc everything was fine. The car just did not feel like it was pulling out of the corners, there was a big lack of low down grunt. Then the rain started again, horizontal, well it is knockhill. Sunday warm up- I had noticed the car was a bit louder than usual. It’s always loud though so I did not think anything of it. Took my mechanic Ali out with me as it would give me the same ballast as my 'estimated' high 57sec lap time. We are allowed to take a mechanic or mapper out with us on the warmup sessions. This is so any last minute mapping can be done. They can carry a laptop with them :shock: . 1st few clear laps, all just over a minute. The same problem with the car, feeling sluggish and lacking torque. I pushed harder and harder and eventually got the time just below a minute. The grip was great. It just lacked power. End of session and I was not to happy with my decidedly average time. Practice - Much more of the same. Pushed a bit harder and got the time down into the low 59's. After practice I knew the pressure would be on as only the top 10 forced induction 4wd cars would get through. This was my home event and there was no way I was missing out in the final. I quite enjoy a bit of pressure and it usually helps me to perform well Qualifying - I knew there was going to be 45 cars out on track for qualifying and traffic was going to be a problem as we can only run 3 laps flat out before the tyres go off. I got myself down early and was front of the queue. I knew this would give me 1 reasonably clear lap. That should be all I needed. Followed the pace car round for the parade lap, back into the pits where we have to stop for a minute and then off for a proper warm up lap. I pushed on with a reasonable pace tying to get heat into the tyres. Back round to the start finish straight to be met by a clear lap in front. Lights on and off I went. Attacked duffus as quickly as I have take in (just short on 90 on the data logger) and then straight back on the power. Just scrubbed off enough speed and trail braked into Scotsman. Back on the power with only a slight lift over the chicane, which had been made really tight with the tyre bails far out making only a small cut possible? Missed the tyre bails by mm. Think I touched the right hand one with wing mirror (note to self, get smaller mirrors!) Trail braked again but arrived a wee bit too much speed round carlube and missed the apex slightly. Barreled down the straight only to be met with a stack of cars in front of me. Most saw I had the headlights on and got out of the way. All but one car! Braked as late as I could and really stand on brakes at the last minute, see pic! I had to end up taking a wide line and pass him mid corner at hairpin. Up the straight to post a 58.4. Not as good as I had expected before the weekend but my best time of the day. Later on in qualifying I was on for a quicker lap, by splits, but left the braking too late this time and ended up with a tour of the gravel trap. The lap time was enough to put me in 10th place in 4wd f/I and got me through to the final Final - Everyone had taken my idea and had q'ed up early. I run race pads and they always take a bit of warming up. Usually a bit of left foot braking on the straights on warm up gets temperature in them. In the final it took me 4 laps to get them working properly. I must have given them a good glazing in qualifying. By the time they were hot most of the guys out in the final had cooked their tyres and were doing a couple of cool down laps. Slowed down a couple of times in traffic, I only managed to post a 59.1. Then...Bang! And a loss of all power. Pulled over onto the grass and that was the end of my day. Final result 12th overall Andy Forest was there and had a look at the car. It turned out the gasket at the exhaust header had been leaking. Causing the loss of power, especially at lower revs, coming out of corners. This had then melted my lambda sensor and the wring right up the loom. Over fuelled the car causing, the big bang which blew off the down pipe and cracked the manifold in 5 places. Other good results were, Fee from TrackScotland 11th and John Stevenson 3rd in club pro I decided that as the car was comming to bits, again! It was time to go for a bigger turbo and get up to 500horsepower. Silverstone Update and videos to follow

Adam - Im currently running about 400bhp and not sure what torque.Was really struggling for power at knockhill at the weekend. Exhaust manifold gasket had been blowing and the car was down on power and majorly in low down torque. It eventually blew right off in the final. Weight is about 1200kg. As the car has a heavy 6 speed box and a cage. Possibly running more power for silverstone. Im running 215.45.17 r888's. Thats as wide as i can get without them rubbing on the wings or suspension strutts.

Looking good. See you at Brands

Nice to speak to you again col. Cracking picks. Conditions were v slippy out there today. Good fun if it was to be a track day. Hard to get good times though. We shall see what knockhill brings us weatherwise tomorow

Car looks awesome guys. Im very glad its not in club challenge! See you guys there on sun. Met the AWD bunch at oulton. Top guys, even offered me the loan of a gearbox when my syncro's were on their way out. Anyone there give me a wave or come and say hello. Im no.21 in club challenge, red classic on irish plates Practice is from 1 till 4 on saturday Scot

TrackScotland- Nice to meet you guys. I followed the skyline on the track day on fri and it looked like it was going well. Hope its all up and ready for knockhill. John - Thanks for the advice. Got some new bearings on the way and also some knockoff springs

Thanks for all the support folks. Roll on knockhill. It will be good to be on a track i know

Oulton Park Update. Things started in true motorsport style. At 2am of the day the track/test day the car was finally rolled out of my mechanics garage for a quick shakedown. Everything went fine, apart from the time attack sun visor blowing off at exactly 60 mph, honest gov! So I loaded the car on the trailer and headed off to bed. For an hour and a half. I think I must have slept for about half and hour as I was looking forward to the next couple of days. After my great nights sleep I jumped into the tow vehicle(thanks to stan palmer subaru. http://www.stanpalmer.co.uk) and headed the 170 miles to Oulton Park for the track day.A quick breakfast at the circuit where i met adam and fee from track scotland. I had never been to the circuit before and thought a bit of acclimatisation would be a good idea. I had also managed to get Phil Glew who won the time attack series in 2007 and is currently doing very well in the clio cup, to sit beside me for a few laps. Phil was great in showing me some lines and working on general driving technique. This is where the 1st of the problems occurred. Pad knockoff, this is where the pistons get pushed back into the cylinder, I think , meaning you have to pump the brakes before they will work. I found this out after a few moments on the main straight when I found no pedal at 135. This could be resolved by a bit of left foot braking on the straight before to push the pads back into place. I had suffered a bit of pad knock before, but nothing major. I had just installed a whole lot of new bushings and control arms at the back to stiffen things up. I think this had made the knockoff worse. Later on in the day 4th gear decided to get a bit crunchy. In the 6 speed box I have the syncro's are a bit soft, just my luck it decided to get worn now! It was getting late in the afternoon anyway so I decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel and save the gearbox for tomorrow. Woke up nice and early in the morning excited, like a kid on Christmas morning. We had to be at the track for the drivers briefing at 8 am. Myself and my mechanic mate, Ali was there for 7. Ali did his spanner thing over the car to make sure everything was fine. I just stood about like a spanner and drank tea. The drivers briefing was a bit like a track day. Overtaking on the left only but it can be done in braking zones and corners and does not have to be with the consent of the other driver. Although its advisable.I then had a look at the other cars in club class. Most of them seemed to have had a hell of a lot of money spent on them and they all looked like they were worth a lot more than mine. Lucky i had my hero flakes for breakfast as it looked like i was going to have to make up what i lacked in power on the bakes and corners. Warm-up - This was a 10 minute session to just really warm up the car and make sure everything was fine. Apart from the gearbox and brakes. They are overrated anyway . I just did a few laps at a 70-80% to make sure nothing was going to fall off and headed back into the pits. Practice - 20 mins. By now the heavens had opened. Really enjoyed this session as a lot of grip could be found at outlon park. Apart from druids which becomes a skating rink. My advice from Phil Glew for druids in the wet was,’ just survive that corner, don’t try anything fancy'. I really fancied my chances in the wet as most of the field were using the same lines as the dry and I passed most of them in that session. Back into the pits and I tried my best to do a rain dance to summon some of the wet stuff. Then the sun came out and stayed there for the rest of the day! By now the crowds were getting pretty large is Time Attack runs alongside the Modified and Live shows. I think there was something in the region of 20 000 people there. Had a quick look about at some of the show cars and just got confused as why anyone would spend £20k on a saxo. Decided I was too old for that crap and headed back to the pits. Qualifying - Lined myself up nice and early to get a chance to sit and focus. I don’t know whether it really makes a difference but I found in my international rowing days that it gets me into the perfect state of mind. I just sat with my eyes closed and visualized driving the circuit. Every braking point, turn in, apex and exit. The excitement started to build. Luckily I have never been bothered by nerves. I just sat there champing at the bit to go. We had to follow the pace car for a lap I cruised for another lap to get some heat into the tyres and make some space. Onto the start finish straight, lights on (to signify to the other drivers I was on a flying lap) and we were off. It was a rush of adrenaline ill never forget. It was no longer just pissing around on a track day but racing, all be it, against the clock. I had never felt so alive. Time to find out just what I was made of. I knew I had less power and than a lot of the other cars. 1st corner, perfect I was on a roll and loving every second of it. Round to druid’s right on the limit. Then the back end went big style. I must have hit some fluid. Wee bit of correction and we were back on it. Unfortunately I had forgotten to left foot brake before the last corner. NO PEDAL! few pumps and we were back in business. Ruined my entry as I missed my breaking point. Flew over the line to a time of 1:38. Just as the red flags went out. An evo had decided to make friends with a 200sx at the hairpin. Into the pits. I was in 5th place. I knew there was another couple of seconds to come off my time as the lap before was good but not perfect. Back out again, warm-up lap and I made plenty of space then I was out for another flyer. Lights on again and we were off. This lap was going perfect, I hit every point at just the right speed. Got to the chicane and some t**t on a slow lap decided not to wait for me to go through. I had to go round the outside loosing me a second on the split time. Crossed the line on 1:37. I then went in to save the crunchy gearbox for the final. Checked the times and everyone had improved again. I was still 5th out of 32.Just over half a second behind a guy in an inpreza with nearly 550bhp. I was happy with that result Final - I knew the times were close with the cars in front. If I got a clear lap I was not held in traffic I knew I could take another second off my time to put me hopefully in the high 1:35's.If I could do this I may even get into the top 3. I went out and q'd nice and early to get me some clear space at the front of the field. As the series controllers had decided to let all 32 cars out into the 15 min final and just to go out in whatever ordered you wanted. I was sitting focusing away. Quick look at the fuel gauge and it was a lot less than it had been in the paddock, must have been on a hill. I decided I did not want the distraction of worrying about fuel so I decided to stick some in. Schoolboy error. I was really annoyed with myself as I was now near the end of a long q. I had to just get that out my mind and concentrate on the job in hand. What followed was the most frustrating 15 mins of my life. With the concern of the brakes overcooking as they had done a couple of times the day before I was trying to just get 1 quick lap and cruise round to save tyres and brakes. This lap never came as everytime I was on a flyer I was seriously held up. I suppose this is the key to doing well in time attack. Session finished and I headed back to the pits. Raging that I was held up so often. Best time in the final 1:39 and 10th place. If I had have managed a 1:36 I would have been in the top 3. I was really frustrated that 1 clear lap was all I needed for a great result. Loaded up and jumped into the jeep for the 3 hour drive home. It gave me time to reflect that this was a learning process and to qualify 5th was a pretty good effort considering I was well outgunned in the power stakes by the cars qualifying around me. I was still buzzing on adrenaline all the way home. It was a real experience of a lifetime. The mechanical issues are already being sorted. I cant wait for the next one. Roll on Knockhill Massive thanks to Colin Telfer for Turning the car from an insurance write off to what it is now. Ali Collins for coming down to oulton and doing all my spanner work. Joel Payne for comming down to oulton and running around for a whole load of stuff and making the car shiney and my sponsors http://www.stanpalmer.co.uk http://www.usedcarparts.co.uk It was also nice to meet JohnSt and thanks for the brake fulid and the guys from AWD, thanks for the advice and the offer of the loan of the gearbox, very kind! Good to hear that fee is ok after her off in practice. Hope you get the car back to 100% before our home leg at knockhill Some Pictures http://www.timeattack.co.uk/images/2009 ... 1_174.html http://www.timeattack.co.uk/images/2009 ... 1_126.html http://www.timeattack.co.uk/images/2009 ... 1_081.html http://www.timeattack.co.uk/images/2009 ... 1_042.html

Ill see you down there guys. Im racing in club class in the red classic. Still working on car so it looks like it will be a 4am start for me

Gorgeous car. I saw one sitting outside nobles the other day. You are a lucky man. Enjoy

It will be good to have a tartan contingent. I think fee has the skyline? And i have heard about Johns car from andy forrest. Sounds like its quite a beast. Is he competing in club or club pro?