bobgenie

Welcome aboard :-) The closed height of that jack means it won't go under the car. I have a pair of low height race jacks neither of which go straight under except at the sill hence Pete chuntering about damage there :-) he is going to strengthen there so when tw@ts like me use it there'll be no damage and he won't have a moan haha.

Pete will do a great job as alwYs. Actually probably be better than before coz he's got some extra muscle with Paul alongside :-) it's not hard to spot lots of little issues but this got me through a full season of time attack and TOTB all following a crash which was to all intents and purposes a write off! Also remember this to a budget which demanded I drive no matter what :-) I drove Donington with the words 'possible brake fluid leak on the front disc' ringing on my ears. I would have driven if the brakes were held on by a split pin!!! Oh they were lol!!! Anyway onwards and upwards. I am trying to keep most of the work in house with 300zx specialists but I am gonna miss zither Eurospec Way!!!

My trailer is 73 inches wide and it's tight. I got mine so that it fits in the garage and it suits me just fine but you would struggle to get the car on. Why not just get one a decent size because this one sounds like hard work and not very versatile TBH.

I'll be seeing Pete tonight and if he doesn't want it you can have it for a fiver which you can give to Pete :) just don't expect anyone to be wrapping it up and posting it lol

I am picking the 2+2 up on Friday hopefully with all the last little niggles finally sorted. Don't know why I said that there will always be a few it's the nature of the beast but it will be a seriously fast road car and now with Dan Turners proven engine in should be reliable too. More power than my race car about 100 bhp but with a bit of luck in six months time perhaps the new car will have the edge ................

No but I want a little more as it's been rubbing a bit and I need another ten millimetres if I can get it He doesn't but the car will be visiting Bodymech and if they don't do it yet they can learn on my motor :)

Talk to Pete I'll be getting mine redone most likely when the cars up there get yours done at the same time :)

It's been said already but we had a very good day at Brands and it was good to finish the season on a high. Like everyone else I was pushing my hardest and like everyone else I came off the black stuff a few times but it was fun!! For myself I was pretty good up from Clearways all the way up to Druids and was fastest of the RWD cars along the pit straight. But having to use third around Druids wasn't ideal and it went downhill from there (no pun intended) all the way back to clearways where I was almost the slowest of all the club challengers lol. So we live and we learn and I have learned a lot from this years involvement with Time Attack. One thing I've learned is how incredibly quick these guys are and how we needed to be in amongst them to learn what indeed was possible even with our 20 year old cars. I also learned how expensive it is and how hard I've had to work just to keep my head above water. Most important of all is the team with every individual being as necessary as the next one. So my thanks go out to Eurospec who kept my car going through thick and thin. And if they had charged me their normal rates I'd have been bankrupt long before the end of the season!! And of course Mr Slick Pete himself who has always been on hand to help where needed but of course he prefers to be in the hot seat as team manager and that's precisely where he will remain for the foreseeable future :) thanks also to Paul who is a real asset to the team and I'm hoping wants to join us next year in testing and whatever we choose to compete in. Mikey Bean helped us at Brands and he might want to come along and play next year too as clearly Pete isn't up to much in the way of physical :) A lot of thanks and respect to James too. Pushes his car to the limit and often beyond yet simply dusts himself and his car off then goes again. But how else are we to learn to go quick and how else are we going to find the limits of our cars? There's no book about racing zeds (at least not one written by anyone that's actually done it) so we've gotta go out there and work it out for ourselves. I've no doubt in my mind that sometime next year we're going to see a couple of very fast zeds out there driven by a couple of guys who just want to go fast :) For myself I managed to bag three podiums over the series but while it seemed that perhaps Donington and Brands were better suited to our cars I think it more likely that we just got faster. Now it's time to start afresh and build the ultimate fast zed for the track. No doubt James might have something to say about that :) In the meantime here's a little video from Brands final session. First few seconds is a hot lap coming into clearways where a puff of smoke from Umars rear wheels don't tell the full story. We get so used to overtaking on the left even when there's no room we still aim for it. Luckily my instincts took over and I swept by on the right. I love that corner!! Till next year .................

This is how I see it. Strip out as much as you can then stick a big spoiler on the back to counteract the imbalance. Corner weighting is good of course. So the back end is lighter but I would rather modify my driving style and suspension setup than add weight but that's just me :-£

I wonder if James remembers this one :) It's the only pic I've got with us both both in and I think James was still going faster than me sideways :)

For once I did get footage of the event but it was all pointing at the sky as we didn't check the scene lol. Many thanks to Pete and Paul who both did a great job of keeping the car running. Morning was pretty poor for me as the car was pretty slow but once the exhaust was clamped and we understood the leak I pushed it a little harder. Actually qualifying time was a 1.20 so not too bad and a good 8 seconds quicker than my morning session. I reckoned I could find another 2 or 3 seconds but in the final I got hindered on every quick lap and just about managed another 1.20 which squeezed us into third. I was a bit disappointed at first knowing we had a bit more but I can't complain so was satisfied with the podium. As I am relatively low on power I have to rely on late braking and higher corner speeds to maintain momentum so anything causing me to slow I can't make it back up. As I'm having gearbox issues I also only used third and fourth which took a bit of thinking to get the best lines and all the stones on the chicane didn't help when taking it in third haha. In fact I think Darron (VX220) suffered a bit there also which possibly hindered him in the final too :( The car is definitely capable of the top step on the podium whether the driver is also capable isn't so clear :) I'm not sure if people realise how fast these guys are and what it takes to be competitive. Umar and Ronnie regularly set times faster than the 4x4 pros. They have great cars and are very experienced at knocking out a super fast lap when the rest of us are scratching our heads. I'm not sure Brands will suit my car as it's currently set up and I'm in 'low fund mode' but if we can get it sorted properly I will push it to the max. Bit of bad luck for James but testing at the event is always going to be risky as I found at Cadwell :) here's hoping we can both finish with a flourish at Brands :)

Sounds like I'd better bring my toolbox too :) Just to remove plugs use a bit of hosepipe! Bring some spare coilpacks Pete one of those in the road car was perished so might come in handy. See you on Saturday mate :)

Thanks guys will have another look today :)

I changed the control unit but still the same only hot air. Here is a pic of what shows the -86 is always there so any knowledgeable people know what this means? I've got a spare ECU but wanted to wait see if the pic means anything before I take the plunge.

Just checked the camera as Martyna took a few pix and here's one of the Vulcan. Not the best but ......... I also found some pix from last years TOTB as we hadn't used this camera since then!!

I always thought that each class had it's own 'top ten' and that's how I planned my day but that's not the case weirdly. Only the top ten in each discipline get points regardless of class. Of course you can see how you do within each class but this is for info only and not for points. It kind of makes it a 4x4 event almost but it's up to the rest of us to catch up I guess :) I set out to win the RWD class and knew that the 1/4 would be my weakest discipline so put most of my effort into that. I thought topspeed was a banker (wrongly as it happens lol) and that the handling would also be a top three. My intention was to try and knock out a sub 12 second 1/4, then hit the handling course and get into the shootout and then finally just do a single topspeed and see where I was. I changed settings a few times and it was quite hard to get the time I wanted on the quarter but finally got it right. Off to the handling course only to find I was poodling round due to a few dodgy spark plugs so that first run was wasted. I managed a decent time on my fourth run and decided not to bother with the fifth and have a go at topspeed where I struggled badly. I was hitting 150 mph with about 350 metres to go but the engine wasn't having any of it so called it a day rather than kill something. They decided to run the handling eliminator an hour early so I was lucky to have the car ready and on my second run managed to score a third place so was pretty pleased with that considering I'd only done the course a few times. My slow topspeed was still Ok for third place too as a few of the top cars either didn't run it or fizzled out. Fifth in the quarter just missing the shootout but if they were awarding points for all classes as I thought then I would have won the RWD class on points with 26 which included 4 points for scoring in all three :) There were clearly some very good RWD cars there the Lotus was going great but died on the topspeed run and I think the Talbot Cosworth ended up damaged somehow. The two Dax Rushes didn't do the topspeed so 300zx did the job. Now I know classes aren't scored next year I will do things a little different but doubt I can compete with some of the 4x4 which are in a different league. I managed a 48.75 on the handling and a few more practice runs could see a couple of seconds dropped so next year all being well I might just try to get a place there rather then try to get a place in all three. We live and learn :) I'm glad you guys enjoyed the event. I think it's the perfect competition for modified cars and the opportunity to see just how good our cars are as an all rounder. We will never compete with the big boys as their funding is through the roof but we can try and nip their ankles. See you next year and if you come on the Saturday and I'm not driving I might be more sociable lol.

Here are some times and results. Still no points released which is strange since they seem to know on the day ........ I will post the points table if/when I see it but it's always good to try your hand at all three disciplines so well done to the zed community the boys done good :) 2013-07-28 Quarter Mile Best Times.pdf 2013-07-28 Best Flyers.pdf 2013-07-28 Circuit Top 5 Results.pdf 2013-07-28 Circuit Results.pdf

I didn't see a Vulcan my favourite plane ever but I did see this ........ photo courtesy of Lee :)

lol well I know what you mean but I just enjoy the buzz of the competition the more the merrier :) Duncan Cowper in the Dax Rush was quickest of all on the handling circuit including the 4x4s. I was racing him at TOTB 3 years ago and TBH I think he's done a great job of creating a seriously quick car over the years so good luck to him. On the other hand I saw some cars that have had in excess of 1/4 million pounds pumped into them (some of the guys James and I have to contend with in Time Attack aren't too far off budget wise either :w00t: ) so on that basis it's hard to decide what's right and wrong so in my mind it's sensible and more satisfying to just do your best and see how it measures up. As a matter of interest on the handling we managed to get a better time than all the front wheel drive and half the 4x4 so maybe the 300zx isn't such a bad motor after all. And believe it or not my car is taxed, tested, and insured :lol:

First off a big up to all the guys who took part today. It was good to see so many zeds running and some decent times being done too. Once you get the first run out of the way it gets a bit easier! Apologies to all if I didn't have time to speak but it's just the way I compete and today was a long hard slog with lots of problems to solve and changes to make. I was very happy with the 11.75 but disappointed with the top speed run. The car was detonating at around 150mph and I still had about 300 metres left to run. I've managed a 173mph previously but had more power then but still really wanted something better but that bloody hose kinda ruined that. My personal favourite part of the day was my final handling circuit run. I only did 6 runs all weekend and that included the final eliminator so third was a great result. Not only that but my car weighs more than both the first and second place cars put together!!!! There were some fantastic cars on show today and some amazing times were recorded. I think Andy Forest might have won individual but I believe MLR won the team event but we shall see when the results are advertised proper.

By the way that time only had me 5th in RWD with best RWD 10 seconds something and 4x4 8 seconds!!! I got some work to do lol.

Practice today 1/4 mile only I managed an 11.88 with a terminal 131mph. Happy with that but hope to do a little better tomorrow. There are some fast cars here and the competition is stiff so gonna be a great days driving :-)

We are on holiday so not got a lot of info. I thought we did ok at Oulton considering never having seen the place before. I managed to improve with every session and despite a few mistakes in the final left with a 2.01 so fairly satisfied. I am only running 510 at the fly at time attack so it's quite respectable. With Brands and Donny to go still time for another podium I can pull my finger out :-)

Saturday is practice but while I will be there won't be running until the Sunday (me and Martyna will probably go into the aircraft museum next door lol instead). The likes of Andy Forest won't run on the Saturday and most of the other big boys won't do Saturday either but it's still an OK day. If you're only going for one day make it Sunday.

Some nice pix there. I will hopefully have a little vid of the strip in a few days time permitting :)