Minor updates;
30/5/11
Not done much with the car recently, had a nice gentle drive down to Bristol and back last week, slightly disappointing economy though as I only got 34mpg out of the tank, despite driving as though Miss Daisy was in the car.
What was annoying was a couple of rattles, one from the glovebox, another from the phone bracket and a third from the steering column cowling. With this in mind I set to this evening, discovered some bolts and the cigar lighter at the back of the glovebox, so hopefully that will have solved that. I then stripped part of the drivers dash apart and refitted using some anti-ratttle tape, which I also used on the phone and nav brackets, so fingers crossed the rattles will now be resolved.
Might have another from the n/s/r quarter, which I partly removed when looking at fitting the cage, so that might be coming out to be refitted shortly.
6/6/11
Changed my lower engine mount on Saturday for one from a lower mileage car, just a bit of preventative maintenance.
Had an appointment in the peak district this morning, thoroughly enjoyed the car both ways, must have said to myself several times that I really love this car.
Also just checked and I have now had the car for nearly a year, and I still love it. I am going to do over 800 miles in this car over the next three days and am really looking forward to it!
7/6/11
Cheers!
Covered around 350 miles today, car was perfect. Will be doing a lot more miles tomorrow so long may it continue!
Need to get a filter and some oil ordered for its service later this month after the Blyton Park track day.
8/6/11
So today I achieved the 450 mile tank of petrol, very please with myself, 38.1mpg!
I have done well over 1,000 miles in the car since Saturday, and over 400 miles just today. What a great car, refined and responsive enough with the cruise set at 70 on the motorway, and a complete hoot on windy A roads, plus a 3rd gear that is awesome for overtaking!
On the downside the "Service Due Soon" warning came on around 250 miles ago, which I think will have been 11,000 miles after it was last serviced. I am assuming it will change at 12,000 miles to service due now or similar. The oil was changed about 4,500 miles ago, so there is no great urgency but in any case it is booked in for 27th.
14/6/11
Little car did really well at Cadwell last night, the Toyos probably helped but the car was great. Took a couple of mates with me, one of whom is more of a biker and he was astounded about how it went around corners. I seemed to have forgotten most of what the instructor had told me last time, so I think the next time I book a day at Cadwell, I will try to get an instructor booked early on so I can practice for the rest of the day.
Also, got the tyres filled with nitrogen yesterday morning, adjusted them later when cold, 33PSI @ 20C = 40PSI @ 50C, so much for nitrogen not expanding!
Brakes continue to impress, there are a couple of places where I could brake harder and later, and once or twice I overbraked going into Park. At times it felt like there was a touch of debris stuck to the disc but this soon cleaned itself up. No fade though and good feel, despite standard pads and standard brake lines. I am probably going to whip the pads out to check them over when I change the wheels back later this week.
This was my first track event with the 197 Cup chassis, and to be honest I couldn't notice much if any difference. One day I will get the 200 Cup steering rack fitted and will see if that makes much difference. Not that I am at all dissatisfied with things as they are, as the car does seem really well setup for road and track use.
What was interesting was just how twitchy the rear ends of other FWD french stuff seemed to be, 1*2's, Saxos, 306's, I guess that just means they were trying harder than me!
In any case, a terrific evening and excellent fun. If you have one of these cars and don't use it on the track then you are really missing out.
Oh, and 12.9MPG on track, based on 9 road miles and 71 track miles.
19/6/11
Swapped the wheels back, leaky valve on one of the Toyos so waiting for a replacement.
While the wheels were off all of them got a wash inside and out, and I took the opportunity to strip down and clean the front calipers, with liberal use of copper grease.
Then today the car got a wash, wheels off again, cleaned the arch liners with AG engine & machine cleaner, wiped down the calipers again (this time cunningly not in the dark) and touched up a few marks with some red hammerite; it isn't a perfect match but should be fine.
While I was cleaning the arches, I noticed some muck and debris inside the o/s sill trim, cue removing the rearmost three bolts and unclipping enough to spray the hose in and clear out the debris. Tried the same on the n/s, very little muck in there, but may have broken one of the clips so will get a few replacements just in case.
Service a week tomorrow, bit more track action beforehand at Blyton on Sunday.
No pics from today, calipers look good but the discs look oxidised as I didn't want to drive the car to clean them until the paint was properly dry.
21/6/11
Ok, some pics, firstly from Cadwell, apologies for the poor quality;
And with the freshly touched up brakes;
Few pics from Blyton today, my first time there and my wife's first track event;
Car went well, circuit is a bit tight for my liking, prefer Cadwell, but we still had a lot of fun. Harder on the brakes than Cadwell, and it was a really hot day, but the car still didn't miss a beat. Only issue we had was heat soak from the hot front brakes into the front wheels, confusing the TPMS system.
There were some quick cars there, two that really impressed were a Mk2 XR2 in red, not sure how standard, and a pretty stripped Escort GTi, which I hadn't expected much of but was rather quick for what it is.
Not been upto much since Blyton, replaced the front pads with some standard Brembo pads. They feel very similar to the OE Brembo/Ferodo pads but I am thinking that I might be better biting the bullet and going for DS2500's.
I needed new pads because despite there being plenty of meat left on my old ones they were starting to crack, and one of them had a bit missing;
The previous pads were genuine Renault ones, Brembo branded but made by Ferodo, type 4446. I didn't want to spend the £80 for genuine Renault so I got some Brembo pads from a motor factor for £37.
Took the car for a short drive after fitting, they feel fine, but I guess the proof will be how they perform when I get some real heat into them.
I got a massive 8,000 miles out of the last set so if I can get closer to 25k out of some DS2500's then they would be better value in the long run.
