What a great day that was on Friday. And I cant even begin to describe what a baptism of fire it was! Holy sh*t! I don’t know where to even start or where im heading from here.
I’ll start with myself. I totally loved it, even though I was as slow as a wet week out there. On my first few runs there were times coming into crests that I didn’t know if the track was going left or right over the crest!!! At that stage I could have said oh to hell with this and decided it wasn’t for me. But I plugged away and gradually started to learn the track. At least now I know the general lay out of it! But as for lines, forget about it! Hoping for the best is all I was doing. Even at times I was tucking in behind lads trying to follow there line, but sure a few corners and they were gone. It was fairly obvious too that the car, in its standard form was well out of its depth.
In relation to the car I have to say it ran absolutely perfect. Never missed a beat in the 80 miles I clocked up. But….. And it’s a big but….. It needs a lot of work to be competing with you guys! The tyres were a joke, just sliding all over the place, try and get the power down coming out of a corner and all you get is a ball of wheel spin. I was very conscious too of that happening as it was inclined to fly up into the red on wheel spin and even Toyota say if you want to shatter an oil pump that’s the way to do it! The brakes I was complaining about a bit early on as I had some smoke from them after a few laps, but the more I kept going they never faded. I did notice as the day went on the pedal got longer but im thinking that could be just down to wear on the pads….
Anyway im at a cross roads and looking for advice, lots of advice…. Do I tip away as is, do a few days with the car standard and put up with it because its still good fun. Do I make a few changes and see if that improves things. Or do I go nuts, strip it out, do suspension, brakes, tyres etc and make a real track car out of it!
I know what I want to do, its obvious. Go the whole hog but I need to consider a few things. One big thing being cost. I had a quick read over Adrian’s Saxo blog last night. Savage, savage, savage car by the way lad! But my god the work that went into it was unreal. Even when he bought it there was a good few bits done to it where im starting from scratch. Not even an induction kit or de catted exhaust! And, I will have to pay labour for all bits needed doing. I can do oil changes, even a bit with brakes but changing the likes of suspension etc is beyond me.
So someone guide me…. What would I need to do to get somewhere even near a respectable track car. I was tempted too just strip it out, buy sticky tyres and try that…. But I don’t know would it make enough of a difference without going the whole hog…. Adrian even changed cams etc and fook like, its massive work, and would cost me a fortune to do. I just don’t know!!!
Anyway all opinions and contributions greatly accepted!
Oh ya, if I do go again, I need lessons out there too. I'm just chancing my arm out there as is....