Borough 19 North Weald 14th March
Well I managed last in class yesterday despite thinking I was trying quite hard 
The day started off rather frantically as I arrived at 7:55 (late) to find a full paddock and had to park away from the BP bunch. Efficient prioritising is essential at such times as I'd almost missed the alloted the scrutineering slot of 7:30 so first things first and I joined the queue. Not the for scrutineering but the burger van queue for bacon buttie and tea. Next was sign on, have a chat and then, walk the course with Logan, Jason and A.N. Other (can't remember who).
I finally got the car emptied and joined the scrute queue. Some nice cars around, Ferraris were common as muck, as were TVRs a Jensen CV-8 looking its age, a couple of Subarus and four Evos. Sat in the queue and the car succumbed to a pretty serious problem. The bloody ipod decided to throw in the towel which threatened a pretty poor level of entertainment on the drive home if the only option was the radio.
Looking up I could see Trev's GTi-R with steam shooting from the top of the radiator grille. I couldn't see if Trev was in the car because of the reflection on the screen. I jumped out and ran (yes, ran) over to the little black Nissan and opened the door of the empty car and switched off the engine. Looking round I called to Trev, who was nattering with the usual suspects, a few cars away. He didn't look too happy when I pointed out the contents of his cooling system, spewed across the tarmac but at least the engine was OK.
Time for the first practice and the clutch, which I thought would present a real problem, was actually OK and benefitted from the hard(ish) launches. It's much easier in traffic now and I've still to notice any hint of the slip that Gary noticed on the dyno. The Evo seemed to go quite well and is very different to the Impreza. The ting doesn't understeer anything like the Subaru and took a while to realise how hard it could be driven.
I tried the larger, ebay, wheels with worn Pirelli PZero tyres, which I thought would be better than the well treaded Toyo T1Rs but, not surprisingly, as I'm not a lover of Pirellis, they were so hard, the car suffered Subaruesque understeer and the rear sidewalls ended up getting cewed by the rear arches. So, if anyone's interested, 235 section tyres don't suit an Evo 4.
The rest is history really. A bright (mostly) sunny day with a biting wind warmed by the excellent fayre from the new caterers and the usual good company plus a couple of new faces.
Congratulations to Jason in his Integra, Logan in his Evo, Baz in his Pug and Gerry F in his re-buit, re-furbed, re-sprayed, re-fettled, imaculate looking, Caterham for their class winning performances.
Mike B got the prize for artistic merit sponsored by Michelin as he laid down the biggest smoke screen ever at North Weald in an almighty spin that must have had the BMs traction control system wondering what the hell was going on. With its front wheels rotating backwards and the rear wheels spinning forwards it must have thought it was about to disappear up its own exhaust
The day started off rather frantically as I arrived at 7:55 (late) to find a full paddock and had to park away from the BP bunch. Efficient prioritising is essential at such times as I'd almost missed the alloted the scrutineering slot of 7:30 so first things first and I joined the queue. Not the for scrutineering but the burger van queue for bacon buttie and tea. Next was sign on, have a chat and then, walk the course with Logan, Jason and A.N. Other (can't remember who).
I finally got the car emptied and joined the scrute queue. Some nice cars around, Ferraris were common as muck, as were TVRs a Jensen CV-8 looking its age, a couple of Subarus and four Evos. Sat in the queue and the car succumbed to a pretty serious problem. The bloody ipod decided to throw in the towel which threatened a pretty poor level of entertainment on the drive home if the only option was the radio.
Looking up I could see Trev's GTi-R with steam shooting from the top of the radiator grille. I couldn't see if Trev was in the car because of the reflection on the screen. I jumped out and ran (yes, ran) over to the little black Nissan and opened the door of the empty car and switched off the engine. Looking round I called to Trev, who was nattering with the usual suspects, a few cars away. He didn't look too happy when I pointed out the contents of his cooling system, spewed across the tarmac but at least the engine was OK.
Time for the first practice and the clutch, which I thought would present a real problem, was actually OK and benefitted from the hard(ish) launches. It's much easier in traffic now and I've still to notice any hint of the slip that Gary noticed on the dyno. The Evo seemed to go quite well and is very different to the Impreza. The ting doesn't understeer anything like the Subaru and took a while to realise how hard it could be driven.
I tried the larger, ebay, wheels with worn Pirelli PZero tyres, which I thought would be better than the well treaded Toyo T1Rs but, not surprisingly, as I'm not a lover of Pirellis, they were so hard, the car suffered Subaruesque understeer and the rear sidewalls ended up getting cewed by the rear arches. So, if anyone's interested, 235 section tyres don't suit an Evo 4.
The rest is history really. A bright (mostly) sunny day with a biting wind warmed by the excellent fayre from the new caterers and the usual good company plus a couple of new faces.
Congratulations to Jason in his Integra, Logan in his Evo, Baz in his Pug and Gerry F in his re-buit, re-furbed, re-sprayed, re-fettled, imaculate looking, Caterham for their class winning performances.
Mike B got the prize for artistic merit sponsored by Michelin as he laid down the biggest smoke screen ever at North Weald in an almighty spin that must have had the BMs traction control system wondering what the hell was going on. With its front wheels rotating backwards and the rear wheels spinning forwards it must have thought it was about to disappear up its own exhaust
Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away!