parthiban Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Coming along really nicely, look forward to seeing it all fitted. No point working hard to earn money if you don't use some of it purely for pleasure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted May 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 I like your attitude....... It's not the money that matters ( within reason ) it's the reward. As said you work hard, you provide for your family so why not follow your ambitions...... Yours is the type of 5 i would buy personally?... Reason i say that is i don't have the knowledge in the engine department to evolve this type of sleeper so a ready made one is the way to go for me. To be honest tony i embarked on the journey knowing a car already charged would be easier but i opted for the least trodden path as i wanted to have that journey of discovery as thats what i get a kick out of as i mentioned before. Theres something satisfying about creating something thats greater than the sum of its parts and something that is completely tailored to what you want out of a driving experience. In your case i would definitely look at buying something thats got the right bits on - then concentrate your efforts on refining them to a level you are happy with (things like removing power cards which are basic timing and fuel adjusters and putting in a proper ECU solution is one example). I'll be on hand to offer advice and my own experiences and i am sure there is enough experience between us all collectively to help you enjoy the process! That said if you get a nice one it should be sorted enough where you could just go out and enjoy for a while, find out where you perceive to be the areas of improvement and go from there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted May 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Coming along really nicely, look forward to seeing it all fitted. No point working hard to earn money if you don't use some of it purely for pleasure Cheers mate I've not had a chance to get some proper 'calendar shots' of it yet. I have the camera for it - i just need to get it cleaned and head out to a nice location. Thinking about it i might try and do this before i get to the WIM Meet in a couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Steve you are spot on..... As much as i love the as sold 5 i know it has much more to offer but my skill engine wise is absent. I think a reasonably enhanced 5 as a template and a learning curve is what i need...... Oddly enough i looked at another Esprit yesterday ( yellow ) but in the back of my mind i kept thinking about the 5... I have an itch that needs scratching and if i don't do it i will regret it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted May 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Steve you are spot on..... As much as i love the as sold 5 i know it has much more to offer but my skill engine wise is absent. I think a reasonably enhanced 5 as a template and a learning curve is what i need...... Oddly enough i looked at another Esprit yesterday ( yellow ) but in the back of my mind i kept thinking about the 5... I have an itch that needs scratching and if i don't do it i will regret it. You're on the money mate. Its a scratch that i itched and i didn't even know it needed itching. Now look at where i am now There really is anything like the 5 in terms of its handling. Its a ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 I've not had a chance to get some proper 'calendar shots' of it yet. Something I'd quite like to do with mine as well but never have the time! There really is anything like the 5 in terms of its handling. Its a ball. True, in handling terms there's only really the MX-5 and the Lotus Elise that can provide that back to basics purity (never driven an Elise but happy to go with the general consensus!). Another car that I think can be included in this company is the Toyota GT86, really is a lot of fun to chuck around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 The Lotus Elise has all the right ingredients and would rape the 5 on the straights but the 5 has the edge on the twisties. Steve's chaser has it all or soon will have. It really is going to be what i call a pocket rocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Interesting you should say that, in my mind if you were going for ultimate lap time the Elise is the one I would have thought would be quicker and sharper through the corners. Thought the MX-5 would be the one that was more fun, the kind of car you could throw about a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted May 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 Can of worms opened here tone I have seen a lot of videos of mx5's and elises together on track and you you always see them pull away on the straights the corners are the great leveller as most people (read average joes) dont know how to drive a mid-engined car at the limit. Thats where the MX5 comes into its own. Its the confidence it inspires that brings it up to the rear end of the elise. Give the mx5 the power it deserves and i think it will give it a bloody good run for its money. A friend of mine has a supercharged elise and to be fair its a beast but is it 100% usable in a trackday scenario for an average joe? - i am not so sure. I think the MX5 will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted May 15, 2014 Report Share Posted May 15, 2014 The Elise is to light on the front end and washes out on the apex under steering all the way whereas the 5's balance is near perfection, ok under powered by comparison but overall i think the 5 has the edge. I've seen images of the 5 and Elise on the apex, the 5 is nice and tight and the Elise is about to plough the field Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted May 16, 2014 Report Share Posted May 16, 2014 Your engine bay is going to look awesome Have you added all the bills up yet!! The engine bay will look good - once i have steam cleaned it and given it a bit of a detail to be fair the car is a working example and i am not intending it to be an immaculate show queen. Its going to be clean and tidy where possible but functional. I wont be hand polishing things for hours on end! I haven't looked at the bills and don't intend on adding anything up either - thats not the point of the journey for me. Its something i love doing and is my only real hobby. I work hard and it motivates me to keep on going (obviously my partner and daughter are the priority though!!). If i ever did sell i would sell it for a price that was in keeping with the specification and condition its in - i think to be honest its got to be one of the best all round 'tastefully sorted' MK1's out there - Skuzzle has made noises to that effect and he sees a LOT of them Yeah I've never seen the point in polishing an engine bay so it's that clean you can eat off it! I agree, a hobby is for enjoyment, no matter how expensive it gets. The trouble is you can't really put a value on the car now, it's only really worth what someone wants to pay. Once it's all finished I can't see you selling up, not for a good few years anyway, it's an awesome car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 So i have booked into a trackday finally. Bedford Autodrome on 23rd June open pit lane format. Myself and 6 other friends with their own cars will be going along to this also. Managed to secure a discount for each of us and also discount on having an instructor for the entire day. I dont anticipate using the instructor myself as i'd like to think i am competent enough now with my previous track experience to enjoy the day, but that said if the guys aren't utilizing him i will definitely get him in the car and give me some pointers. By the way if anyone else is interested in coming along i can also get you the discount on the day. Ahead of the day i still need to find time to install the new uprated rad and also a replacement slimline fan as its a bit tight for space with the intercooler pipes down there now. I've also just ordered an oil filter relocation kit and powder coated slam panel from moss. oil filter relocation should help me change the oil a lot faster moving forwards - i always lose skin on my arm when changing the filter presently. i expect to be able to change the oil and filter with this in place within 30 minutes now. The slam panel will be to ensure i get the maximum amount of air from the front dam through the new rad. Will also look nice no doubt! Along side this i am determined to get some decent footage of the day and try and edit some kind of video detailing my exploits. I have watched a lot of track day videos now and nearly all of them have had one or both of these issues : Wind noise destroying any engine noise, camera wobble so bad you cant see whats going on. I think it can be done better without much more effort. I have purchased a professional headrest camera mount, on which i will mount my HD action camera via a 1/4" thread. I have a remote control so can start and stop recordings at will. Due to the placement of the camera (between the driver and passenger seats) its likely wind noise will also ruin the footage. With this in mind i have also ordered a condensed stereo microphone, extension lead and a 8gb mp3 dictaphone that can record at 192kbps at high quality for days. I am going to mount this in the boot and run the mic out to the rear number plate or near the exhaust pipe and secure the mic and baffle with some additional sponge to reduce any wind noise. I am hoping then to overlay the audio on top of my video back at home using some sort of video editor and get a much better finish. I already think another experiment later would be to split the mic input and run another low sensitivity mic into the engine bay to capture the charger noise also. I will start with this for now anyway and see how it works. on paper it makes sense but i have no idea of the reality of the solution yet ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 The 23rd is a Monday? You're not holding back with the video equipment, sounds like a good setup, which should hopefully get you the result you're looking for. How does the oil filter relocation kit work then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Sounds awesome, have a great day! Need to start seriously thinking about getting myself booked on to something like this, itching to have a play on a track! You're taking the video quite seriously as well, look forward to the results! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 The 23rd is a Monday? You're not holding back with the video equipment, sounds like a good setup, which should hopefully get you the result you're looking for. How does the oil filter relocation kit work then? Yeah 23rd is a monday indeed. Not an ideal day as i would have preferred a saturday or sunday even but there you go The video setup isnt big bucks to be honest as i am new to it all. The action cam was £150 which was reduced at maplins and the audio setup has cost me about £15 all in. The camera mount was £58. i could have fabricated something but at least i know this way the marshalls can not take exception to it as its a very well made piece of kit! oil filter relocation is basically a plate that screws onto the block where the filter normally goes that has 2 barbed ports for inlet/outlet. You then run some hose to the bulkhead where you mount the second bit which is where the hoses attach to another set of barbed port and where the filter screws in. Its a simple setup but will make oil changes so much nicer to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Sounds awesome, have a great day! Need to start seriously thinking about getting myself booked on to something like this, itching to have a play on a track! You're taking the video quite seriously as well, look forward to the results! Well i want to document the day as its not a cheap hobby and want to look back when all the petrol has gone and say i was enjoying myself back in the good old days As i mentioned above its not a huge outlay really - just testing the water! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 That's actually a lot cheaper than I thought it might have been. Will be good to document it though, if I eventually getting around to doing something I'll need to get some kind camera to record the day's events Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Yeah you can see how this one pans out and copy the setup if your are interested. I'll post up the results here when i get it done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Look forward to it, although it sounds quite involved, most likely I'll just stick a gopro on the windscreen or the roll hoop and away I go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Well thats the thing. Suction mounted cameras are a bit of a grey area - theres no guarantee they will allow you on the track with one. The reason being if it detaches itself and gets under the brake pedal bad things will happen Hence me going for a more serious mount Roll hoop would work and tbh since yours is mid engined the audio should be fairly interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 The 23rd is a Monday? You're not holding back with the video equipment, sounds like a good setup, which should hopefully get you the result you're looking for. How does the oil filter relocation kit work then? Yeah 23rd is a monday indeed. Not an ideal day as i would have preferred a saturday or sunday even but there you go The video setup isnt big bucks to be honest as i am new to it all. The action cam was £150 which was reduced at maplins and the audio setup has cost me about £15 all in. The camera mount was £58. i could have fabricated something but at least i know this way the marshalls can not take exception to it as its a very well made piece of kit! oil filter relocation is basically a plate that screws onto the block where the filter normally goes that has 2 barbed ports for inlet/outlet. You then run some hose to the bulkhead where you mount the second bit which is where the hoses attach to another set of barbed port and where the filter screws in. Its a simple setup but will make oil changes so much nicer to do. Not that expensive for the camera setup then, I still fancy getting something just to record my journeys in the car, especially with all the nutters on the road! The oil filter kit sounds good, do you need to keep the filter at the same height to where it originally is? If it's mounted higher will it cause any issues with the oil flowing? Could do with something like that on the Civic, the filter is in the most awkward place, really hard to get to on the driveway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 There are some good HD recorders out there for less than £100 that will do the job if its just to record any twattery on the road! There will almost certainly be a relocation kit for the civic! Since the system is pressurised i don't think the height of the new mount is an issue. Its only a small difference anyway. in actual fact the system will take a bit more oil so is probably a good thing from temperature point of view! Reminds me actually the one i am getting caters for an oil cooler later on if required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 4, 2014 Report Share Posted June 4, 2014 Well thats the thing. Suction mounted cameras are a bit of a grey area - theres no guarantee they will allow you on the track with one. The reason being if it detaches itself and gets under the brake pedal bad things will happen Hence me going for a more serious mount Roll hoop would work and tbh since yours is mid engined the audio should be fairly interesting! Interesting point, no suction mounts then! Over the shoulder on the roll hoop would probably be a good location, and yes once it's going the noise dominates everything so shouldn't be any issues on that front twattery! Good word Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve-O Posted June 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 So went on the track day monday. Although the camera work was generally a failure due to the mount being too low down in the car to see anything other than the dashboard - managed to get a few good pics of the car via their resident photographer. i will look to sort the camera stuff out when a half cage goes in : Generally the car ran like a dream. I had a serial RS232 to bluetooth dongle running on the megasquirt and a Nexus 7 tablet stuck to the dash which gave me all sorts of cool data whilst out on track. Was mainly watching coolant and manifold air temps which all generally weren't as bad as i was fearing which was nice. I had a good day and got a lot of laps in including 40 minute session where i really pushed on. The last session of the day i detected the smallest of slips - at the moment i dont know if its the clutch or the belt needs adjusting i will wait and see! I generally run the meisters on full soft for road - that day i wound them straight up to max and put the tyres up to 29 psi. It was pretty much spot on. The grip once warmed up was very good - progressive handling and nailing the power out of tight hairpins saw the diff play nicely and it just hooked up a dream. This is no drifter! Really pleased with how the cars handling. I still think things will be even better once i get some better rubber on but since the alignment is so bloody good the tyres worn perfectly on all corners so might be another day left in these yokos. Other than some beading where the rubbers moved around you would be hard pressed to see they had been given some abuse all day. I had some new mintex M1144 pads fitted on the saturday which were subjected to a fast bed in procedure on the way up there and then endured what i threw at them including fast slowdowns from around 120mph to 60mph and they progressively got better as the day went on. Brake dust is something else though! Looking to get out there again in august hopefully - will have a few new toys on it by then as well i hope - considering some thicker ARB's and some better seats. I was literally hanging/bracing against the transmission tunnel on at times due to the immense grip! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 Nice to see you having fun with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.