fingers crossed Sparco's car is ready in time!

too far for me to go to, but fingers crossed we have some people there to support him!

its the 16th May

good luck sparco!

You know Knockhill is one word, right?

nope but i do now!

Well i suppose i'll give you all a little update:

Car is now running on the Motec ECU and running better than ever. On running in oil during the running in procedure with 1.0 bar it was producing 350 bhp and 300lbs ft. All great.

Then when John was just ready to ramp up the boost a bit they noticed some smoke coming out of the front of the engine. It stopped, no noises nothing, then !!!!! It started again so John stopped the car. A bolt had gotten inside the timing cover and worked it's way down and onto the crank pulley and was jammed between it and the timing belt. I'll try and take a picture of the belt. Let's just say you are only ever this lucky once in your life!!!!!!

George will be changing the timing belt this morning and then John will finish mapping on pump fuel then move onto race fuel (109 GT Plus). It will be interesting to see what we get.

So Knockhill look out i am hpoing to really upset some of the biggerr boys in the Datsun class!!!!

Bloody hell, talk about a close call!!!

Sounds like it's going to be a beast once fully mapped, nice one!!!

Good stuff Sparco engine sounds like a good one bloody lucky that was caught.

Bloody hell Marco, your lucky!!!!!!!

Good luck at knockhill

also 1 bar @ 350bhp....
What bar do you plan to run?

Nice find on the bolt front

What was the problem with the car not wanting to start?

Just read this, fantastic news Marco!!!

Lucky boy with the bolt though....

Well here's yet another update:

Okay we reckon probabaly a wiring issue in the original loom, car is getting on so wiring is degrading. I think there is still an issue with an ignition relay but that's minor.

Car is running as sweet as a nut now on the Motec and John at Extreme reckons he only has and hour or so's mapping left to get it where he wants it on pump fuel. So far he has it at 440bhp at 1.7 bar which is very good. However just before i arrived the turbo ran it's bearings. John caught it before it imploded so the turbo is being removed and will be sent to AET on tuesday for repair and maybe a little tuning. Someone really doesn't like me up there i'm sure of it. That turbo was new from TD and has only done one season which is less than 12 outings. Just goes to show how fragile roller bearing turbos can be!!

Oh and it turns out that the place that built the bottom end originally didin't lock tight in the bolts on the oil pump and it was one of them that worked it's way loose. Turns out they were all slack and George has since lock tighted them all in. I have bought a lottery ticket as i'm due some luck by now surely.

I'm off on holiday on monoday for a week then it's Knockhill so i am surprisingly very much looking forward to it now especailly with the results we have so far.

Plodding along there Marco, glad to hear you're getting on top of it and at least you go to those other bolts before they had a chance to escape and do any damage!!!

There might be a simple explanation to all this. Did you fit any parts from Ross's car to yours at any point?

No Matt fortunately not mate!!

We'll get there, we always do.

Sounds like she's going be a proper beast marco.

Any chance of some pics and info on the new spec?

No it's a secret and it's just standard anyway with a filter and exhaust really!!!!

I will get some pics up but we're not finished fiddling yet. Intercooler pipework has now been shortened drastically which should help a little too and we have a few other little bits and bobs which will all add up. Also got some very nice alloy bits and pieces including a pro alloy header tank and custom spare wheel well fuel tank which i think is very nicely installed.

I'm just teasing, i'm off on holiday in the morning for a week so when i get back in the run up to Knockhill the car should be finished and in a state for taking some pictures at last.

I intend to see you there Marco, cheers

And yet another update......

Whilst on holiday George from Extreme was keeping me posted on how things were going. Only he didn't at the end of the week which rang alram bells. So on Monday i phoned him to see what was wrong. Surely nothing could have gone wrong now as the turbo was off and ono it's way to be repaired, could it. Oh yes it bloody well could. I'll name them, Fedex have lost my Turbo!!!!!!!!!!!!! They admitted that they can't find it in theri warehouse. Cue frantic calling and luckily for us Andy at AET has managed to build me one from scratch and it should arrive today. Can anything else possibly go wrong this year????

Anyway if it arrives in good time today we'll get it fitted and John will stay on and map it tonight. Hopefully that will be us then. Get the bonnet back on and a tidy up etc. Oh fit the new Vibratechnics mounts too. The IC pipework is very nice having seen it yesterday so i'm sure some pictures will be up soon. Had to send a full set of R888's back to Toyo to be branded or i wasn't getting to use them as all Toyos must have the Time Attack branding on them this year to make sure competitors are buying them directly from Toyo. Weather forecast looks good and i'm booked in for Saturday testing which will be the first time i'll have sat in the car since November!!

Marco you are turning into a man with the worst luck!!

how can they lose your turbo!?!

but it does sound good now and fingers crosssed nothjing else goes the wrong way for you!!

look forward to seeing the car pics!

Good old FedEx

Not exactly the term i would have used but yes good old Fedex. Godda luv those Yanks.

Okay turbo is now on and everything is ready just about for the last few hours of mapping, it's starting to look much more like the finshed article again, thankfully!!!!!

Roll on the weekend i'm getting excited again.

go get em Sparco!!

p.s PICS PLEASE!!!!!!!

Okay afternoon update:

Turbo all fine and car and engine all fine. Mapping all fine but the clutch is slipping. Knocked a couple of degrees off the ignition and we'll just have to nurse her along on Saturday and hope it lasts for Sunday.

Clutch is being made specially for me now at Helix and we'll have it tomorrow but we're not going to risk changing it as there is still lots to do to get the car completely ready. If it doesn't hold out on Saturday then it will be a nightshift on Saturday night at Extreme putting in a new 6 paddle clutch.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt!!!!!!!!!

How did you get on Sparco????

Looks like a win Marco!! 57secs flying!!

well done

http://www.tsl-timing.com/attack/2010/101970.pdf

rich

Yes 1st in class and 8th overall in club. Not an easy day by any means but we got there in the end and went over 2.5 seconds quicker than last year which is very good.

I reckon there is a 56 in the car.

next is brands!!!
cant wait to see you in action again!!!

car looks brilliant!!

Okay here's the video:

You'll have to excuse the outburst but i do regularly talk to myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwFcP9wxMB0

Brilliant Marco,you seem to have those chicanes sorted mate.The coupe seems to be pretty spot on from what i see on the vid.

haha a great watching Marco, killing the kerbs mate true touring style, dont think you could extract more from the car then you did??? - did the clutch work out ok?