Here’s a photo of my tracking, before and after

Today I’m going to switch over the the Toyos and see how the car feels

I’ll Start with 38 psi in the fronts and 32 psi in the rears

Cheers Jamie

I am curious about the toe on the rear of the car as all components are brand new, and are obviously not adjustable

Are these results people typically get??

The print out I have for mine shows zero for rear toe before and after. Given your readings are out so little and different before and after, yet the rear toe is fixed (!), I would read as 'operator' margin of error and not worry too much.

It seems to drive nicely, and as you say it isn’t adjustable so it can only be ‘right’

Cheers Jamie

Cheeky photo having just washed her

I think that as both sides are even I'd not worry too much about it.

I do seem to recall that the Bravo/Brava/Marea of the same era all used a very similar trailing arm albeit with slight differences in toe and castor. In theory you could swap the whole rear axle over from something like a Merea to gain more rear toe.

As above, I'd reckon it's margin

So just got back from the track day at Donnington Park

The car mechanically was awesome, I tweaked the osravs on the front gradually to get what for me was a good balance.

So for those that know the track I was going through craner curves at a little over a 100mph, the only watch out was a bit of lift off oversteer that I could feel

Tyres…… I need some proper tyres for my trip to the ring later this year as the Toyo Proxes TR1s are just average for the track, but for the road they’re more than adequate

Only thing that’s gone wrong is the boost controller, in short it has a high and low setting, and for reasons that I don’t know at the minute it’s only in low mode. But that’s in part why I wanted to test the car out

Cheers Jamie

so after checking over the boost controller, I can't find anything wrong electrically or physically with the vacuum pipes

My only conclusion now is maybe after some prolonged track time is the wastegate just not holding???

Any views from anyone??

Cheers Jamie

Could you try adding a vacuum to the wastgate itself and seeing if it creeps? Sort of a reverse leak down

not a bad shout, I'll see what I can do

Cheers Jamie

Electrical gremlin is back

I suspect it may be the cable(s) to the starter motor, so weather permitting I’ll get underneath it tomorrow to inspect

Just read it through and I'd think the earth cable is shot if there's heat in it. I can't see anything in the car pulling enough current to warm it if it's okay. Give it a good check to the inner wing and also to the gearbox. Possibly loose there.

I did give these a clean up a week or so back, but I will take your advice and check it, as the negative terminal on the battery was warm

Today was weird, I’m been driving the car for a few hours and after several hours of the car being parked up, I came to start it and the dashboard lights dimmed and clicking could be heard.

I managed to bump start it to get myself home, and as a precautionary measure I’ve disconnected the battery in case it tries to combust

I will out of curiosity try to start it in the morning as I suspect it will start, meaning I just need to find which cable it is

Cheers Jamie

Might be the battery itself as it's quite old now. After initially going through a few of those awful Bosch silver batteries that Exide one was fine and was never changed again.

I always used the battery quick disconnect on the negative terminal whenever it was parked up (hence the dash clock being replaced with a voltmeter as I got fed up having to set the clock every time I took the car out!) so if you've not been doing that and the battery is draining overnight then maybe it just isn't up to it anymore.

You could check the connection of the negative cable to that battery quick disconnect screw thing and also how the quick disconnect itself connects to the negative terminal, I never had a problem with it but it was just a cheap ebay part so who knows.

I never had even a single problem with starting or turning over so I'd double check everything you've added (like fuel pump wiring mod) or disturbed during work of the last few months.

Hi graham,
I have thought about the screw connection on the negative terminal after my last chat with you. So I’m going to dismantle it to see if there’s anything obvious with it

Regarding the battery, I’m of the view it’s ok, as this morning from cold the car fired up straight away, whereas last night it displayed the symptoms of not enough oomph to do anything

At present I haven’t actually done the fuel pump wiring mod, and given that the apparent draw is significant I can’t think that the change of pump is enough for this level of current draw

So I’m sure it’s a connection issue, I just have to find which one it is

Cheers Jamie

So I’ve found something which it could be

The screws which tighten onto the earth cable for the battery connection weren’t tight, and don’t look like they’ll tighten up further, plus there’s some corrosion on the copper wire.

So I’ll do this first and see what happens

Thanks for the suggestions

Cheers Jamie

so I've fitted a new heavy duty negative terminal connection, and done some tests....


so far so good....

Cheers Jamie

has anybody ever done different coloured seatbelts???

I'm thinking to get mine changed to yellow


https://www.kolourkoncept.co.uk/product-page/seat-belt-rebbing

thoughts/opinions folks

Cheers Jamie

Fiat did with the LE, there should be pics around of the red seatbelts.

To me, it just looked silly and I think yellow would possibly be even worse, except maybe in a yellow car if the seatbelts properly matched the exterior colour.

Thanks Graham, this is why I ask

Yellow!

Tacky imho....


But then, this is available in select locations....

right you've convinced me it's barry, so I won't spaff my cash

Cheers Jamie

I thought I'd put this video link of the car at Donnington Park

For me it was a shakedown test, whereas my lad was going for let's thrash my dads car


As per my chat with Joe, I'm going to get some Zestino Gredge 07 RS (soft compound) tyres as the Toyo Sports just understeered from the first to the last bend


Cheers Jamie


https://vimeo.com/817238256/5513c82ca2

Looks like a 90's rave throwback

That's interesting, I had to look this up, assuming it was a derogatory term - but in Edinburgh slang it actually means brilliant

e.g. A local East Lothian brewery, Winton Brewery, make a beer called Barry Swally


However I also note the Collins dictionary describes it as "a mistake or blunder" !



I've learnt so much from here..

Brilliant Simon, for me the expression 'Barry' means not very good/insert other expletive

Cheers Jamie

Jamie look...... tempted?

Second shake down day with track tyres.....

Hi Joe,
If I wasn't on holiday, then yeah no problem as I've not driven Thruxton

I'm just about to order those tyres we spoke about and assuming they survive the ring then I'll definitely do another trackday or 2 before the years out

Slightly digressing, but on the trackday theme.....

I live quite close to the Curborough sprint circuit and after my holiday I'm going to enquire about hiring it for the day (it would ideally be a Saturday), so would anyone else on here be interested???

Cheers Jamie

Jamie, I would start a new thread in the Track Day section and see how you get on..