Haha, you guys are awesome! I just logged in to update this, and was dreading searching for the thread on my awfully slow laptop, and I find that you've brought it right to the top for me
Cheers lads!
Minor update this time I'm afraid, I've been busy sorting out christmas stuff, and been away on Holiday with Tori
I didn't make much noise about these, because frankly, they just didn't look good at all, but I picked up these TT comps from Ben a few weeks ago:
I had them shod with some Pirelli P-zero Corsas I picked up a little while back from Plunky.
Beautiful wheels, and they looked amaing on the black mk2 they used to live on, but just didn't work on the track car at all:
So, fast forward some miserable hours spent outside in the cold and wet with the sander, and they were ready to paint:
Forward a bit more in time, and today I fitted them:
Much, much, MUCH better I think.
I had the original alloy centre caps, which were looking a bit tatty, so I sanded them down clean and fitted them too. Not sure about these like this, so may paint them black too:
WIth those on, I decided I'd done enough messing around with the suspension over the past few months, and with a 400 mile round trip to cornwall coming up for christmas, and a 200 mile round trip for new years, it was about time I had the tracking set again. Last time it was done on the Weitecs, one of which turned out to be bent!
Down to Protyre, and I handed over the keys. The bloke pulled forward, then went to reverse, and kind of sat there for a few minutes, creeping a few inches forward every 30 seconds before trying again. Haha, the shifter really confused him.
I still get excited looking at it being the correct shape again
I almost like it in Matt black, but I don't think it'd look right if the whole car was done like this.
Results on the whole were very good indeed:
Front end has come out perfectly, with almost exactly 2.4 degrees negative camber on each side, and 8.8 and 8.65 degrees of caster, pretty close for camber / caster that was setup on the spirit level of my iphone
In light of the added camber and caster, I had the front track set just a fraction toe in this time, Toe out seems to suit otherwise standard geo and livens it up a tad, but with the rest of it being fairly aggressive now, it seems to feel a bit more stable slightly toe in, and hopefully it'll counter a little bit of tyre wear induced by the camber.
At the rear, it's not quite so great, but still by no means a fail, the toe has evened out perfectly, although not quite as close to parrallel as I had expected.
The side that I shimmed 1 degree of camber, aiming to go from 1.2deg to 2.2 deg, has gone slightly further, reaching 2.47 degrees negative, yet the side that I shimmed 0.5 degrees, hoping to go from -1.7 to -2.2, has actually stayed the same. I'll be removing that stub axle and adding a 1 degree shim now instead of the 0.5 I had previously.
All in all though, it's come out REALLY well, it drives very staight, and with the toe now set it feels fantastically sharp. I had a little drive tonight, and on low boost it's just about managable in the wet from 3rd upwards, but on high boost it's still utterly terrifying, which just leaves you with the biggest grin ever
Heading home to cornwall tomorrow in the car, and will then be doing an oil change with 1000 miles now on the new engine. Taking Jardo his Milltek sytem, and Frenchman my old weitecs which he will be having refurbed and repaired, so hopefully those two will have some updates soon as well
Also hoping to have a little Mini meet up over the holiday with anyone else who's around in Plymouth at all, I think Jardo was thinking Sunday if anyone is about?