August 2014 - Mini update #5
Just a small update to keep things moving along whilst the minor niggles and finer points on the car are sorted out...
Last Wednesday saw the arrival of the infamous BurpSpeed track day at Llandow; arguably the highlight of my track day calendar! 
The arrival of the track day also served to bring some good people closer to this great place we call Wales. Either that or the social gathering at the nearby Travelodge / Harvester the evening before...
Knowing that a bunch of good mates were staying over at the Travelodge, and more were due to arrive over the evening, I decided I couldn't take it anymore. A flick of the mouse and Windows was soon shutting down... which was timed to coincide nicely with that point in the day when my boss takes his late afternoon toilet break. Purely coincidental. Honest. So yes, I bailed out of work, went straight home, got changed and made the short journey over to Pencoed. Pulling into the Harvester car park some 30 minutes later I was soon greeted by familiar faces. I think they may have heard the car entering the car park to be honest (even though I tried to be as discreet as possible). I was soon lubed up with J2O's finest pear juice and chewing the fat with Cub., Tim., JP83., Christopher., Euan94, Pete. and others (apologies for not mentioning you by name but I can't be ar$ed digging out all the usernames. Rest assured, it was properly lovely to see you all x)
I'd managed about half of the J2O when attentions turned to the Trophy and I offered to take Oli out for a spin. It would have been rude not to. After all, she was warm and the mileage was helping loosen her up nicely (the Trophy, not Oli). Handily the dual carriageway wasn't too far away so I could happily blast up and down that at 69.9mph.
It's hard to describe the sound it makes. It's definitely ITB-like. It's a kinda barking growl that increases in volume the further you push the loud pedal. Or something like that. Regardless, it was/is immensely addictive and I enjoyed the blast up and down the carriageway (at 69.9mph). I think/hope Oli enjoyed it, too.
On arrival back at the pub car park I was met by Chris (or was it Tim? My ageing memory fails me...) Hence we were straight back out on the dual carriageway for another gentle drive. And so the trend continued. Each time I returned to the car park another one of the lads were waiting in line to go for a spin!
I think it was a good half hour before I got back to finish the remainder of my J2O... That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it (especially under the motorway bridges) and luckily the police rapid response vehicle was clearly after somebody else. <clench> Phew. </unclench>
After the arrival of Jay, Tony, Matt and others I enjoyed a bite to eat, a bit of banter and had to head home. Naturally I took the scenic route home and - ooft - the T really loves that crisp, cold night air.
Wednesday morning arrived and I left early to meet a few guys at Cardiff West Services; from there we would head in to Llandow together. Eventually we got Gavin out of bed and the convoy rolled forth. The traffic wasn't so bad but being stuck behind an articulated truck meant we couldn't enjoy the country road leading to the venue as much as we perhaps could have done otherwise. Still, we were at the circuit a half hour later and soon enjoying the breakfast and briefing. And... get this... it was dry and warm! DRY AND WARM! Rejoice, the God of track days was smiling down on Llandow for once.
Being on photography duty for the morning (thanks to Jay and Tony asking me along again - something I am always happy to do) I spent the time grabbing shots of folks enjoying themselves over the rather grippy and abrasive surface that comprises Llandow's short, but sweet, layout. The weather made it a pleasure and it was good to see people enjoying themselves, their cars and the venue. Both track drivers new and experienced were flying around in no time. Happy days
During the lunch break I took the opportunity to head out on the local roads with Marc (owner of the ITB's 172 Cup) to get the Trophy warmed up a little. A few miles of driving and I returned to the circuit, strapped the helmet on and went out for what was effectively a shakedown! LOL! After a few warmup and familiarisation laps I decided to ramp things up a bit and started to use that loud pedal more. It was awesome. It was awesome for a few hundred metres. :clown: The revs suddenly rose sharply and, realising I wasn't in third gear, I slotted the shifter back into third. Alas, the same thing happened again a couple of corners later...
And so this continued for the rest of the day. I just got not keep it in third gear and, unsurprisingly, third gear is quite useful at Llandow. *sigh*
Thankfully the problem does not seem, or feel, serious. And it only affects 3rd gear, too. There is no clanging, no banging and the gearbox is otherwise spot-on. It was getting very warm but this may be due to the fact that it is probably due a fluid change and the fact that it's running on semi-synthetic stuff used to run in the gearbox. As I wasn't too concerned I continued to take a few people out over the course of the day but didn't really have use of that 3rd gear. It made chasing people down difficult whilst conversely allowed people to easily get by. Pah! But it was still immense fun! By this time, the gear had started to slip out of 3rd under hard acceleration, braking and cornering. As a result, I headed in and allowed everything to cool down before heading out for a handful of laps right at the end of the day. And that's when it happened... I got things warmed up and then was able to enjoy TWO full-on hot laps without any incident at all. And she flew. Those two laps made it all worthwhile and what a car; it all came together so well and it was a genuine joy to drive.
The next lap naturally saw the gear slide out again so I dived in and called it a day. I was a bit frustrated but still had enjoyed the day immensely.
Filters even managed to catch a bit of a flyby on his phone... thanks mate! You might need to turn the sound up a bit as it's a tad quiet...
As ClioSport Saturday is tomorrow I am still looking to head over in the Trophy.
Jay Payne has kindly free'd up his evening for me and I am heading over there later to change the gearbox fluid and to get a closer look at the gearbox linkage. A massive thanks to Jay - it is very much appreciated and I have this here Carling stuff for you... Hopefully we might get a result tonight (ooer) or at least be able to rule a couple of things out. As I said, I'm not too concerned as it seems a very minor niggle and I'd be happy to drive to CSS without 3rd gear if necessary!
Cheers,
Andy
