Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

Very nice, Great winter project. You will be able to spend many hours tweaking with this in the garage when it's built.
Problem is there are so many things you will be able to alter and tweak you will be forever messing :).
Had a quick look and it seems you can have 3 maps loaded up that are selectable on the fly. Could end up like a formula 1 car with loads of switches and stuff on the steering wheel to adjust various bits and pieces. :) .
Before you get completly sidetracked could you sort that video out :) .
 
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Hopefully these pics make more sense now Karl :racer:





I have to say a massive thank you to Ben too, for making it possible by doing me a great deal on the ECU.
Top man! :sign plug:

We have a brand new pre configured K6 ECU, AGU - K6 plug & play harness, and an emerald 3 way map switch with map 1 and 2 on the then dial, and map 3 selected via a push to make button on the steering wheel

:racer:
 
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The dust has settled, reality has unfortunately gone and 'happened' again as it has such bad habit of doing, and I must accept that I'm not on track today, or tomorrow, or for a while after that either. So to keep the. Buzz going that little bit longer, I'll write about it instead :)

Friday came, and I was supposed to have the afternoon off, to allow me to get everything ready for Combe the next day.

That didn't exactly work to plan, and I left the office just before 5pm, with a trip to Basingstoke first on the cards to collect some wheels.

The forecast looked BAD:



I wasn't going to take any chances, so decided I'd take a bit of everything.



Khumos to drive up on and use of it was midway wet-dry. Wets invade the heavens opened, and ever the optimist, the all important slicks too!

Back at home I shared unpacking the car from Curborough the weekend before:



The Rotas had a quick clean before going on the car:




After my driveshaft issue last weekend, and Bills terrible misfortune the weekend before, I really thoroughly checked over everything on the front end whilst it was all off. All looked very healthy still :)



The Rotas went on and i finished packing, slightly earlier than last time thankfully!



Not wanting to take any chances, I also took a spare shaft, cv, and a clip/grease kit and crimps should I need to change any of it at Combe



Saturday morning arrived, and I woke up to some pretty awful weather!

Thomas arrived just before 7am, to very kindly take the wets up for me as he had room in his passat. Sam arrived soon after, and we set off, feeling reasonably hopefull for a good day:



We made great time to Combe, getting there just before half past 8, and wasted no time in heading straight to the sound testing:



The car produced it's now regular 93dB, and we headed down the pitlane to meet Phil and Shelley who had just arrived towing the Mission Motorsport works MX5 Race car.

Dave who drives the MX5 hadn't arrived yet, so I whipped it off the trailler, and Sam took it for sound testing whilst I got the A3 unpacked.

All unpacked and parked up in the pitlane, Dave arrived to drive the MX5, and we were ready to go soon after 9am, with the weather looking fairly decent and drying up fast.





I don't know the details, but I believe Dave lost both his legs in an explosion, and now drives with 2 prosthetic legs. The car has completely conventional controls, and to see Dave drive it, you would not have a clue he is minus both his legs! It's absolutely incredible how he pedals the MX5 around the track far far better than 99% of fully able bodied people ever could. Truly inspiring to watch, and a testament to the amazing work that Mission Motorsport do to help guys like Dave.

Soon after Thomas arrived in the mk2, then followed by Gurds and Ram in the mk1. and finally Chris Hignel in his CCSC Fiat Punto, and that completed the mission motorsport line up for the day!



 
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Just as we were about to head out to do a warm up, the heavens opened, and the track was once again soaked!

This wasn't ideal, at all!

Soon after, a track closure followed, as some poor sodd lost it in a big way in the opening session of the day and ended up in the barrier. Not a great start for someone!

We waited around for a while, and by the time we got out, it was actually drying up slightly.

We were still on the Khumos to start with, and whilst I've found them to be brilliant on the road. Once loaded up on track, they just didn't give me the confidence I was used to. Fairly grippy, but the softer sidewall which makes them so compliant on the road left them feeling a little wooley on track, and the tyre squeal I got from them was fairly horrible too, so after a few laps, we headed back in, and swapped to slicks. You can also see the Mission Motorsport stickers we had for the day too :)



I'd rather stupidly forgotten my camera, having plugged it all in to charge the night before.

Thankfully, Phil had a GoPro spare and offered me the use of it for the day. Really glad he did as hopefully i'll have some decent footage!



He even had a cool little GoPro remote that I strapped to the steering wheel:]



I also took the opportunity to throw a few more stickers on the car for the day, made by Jonny at UberSticky - https://www.facebook.com/UBERSticky






We started taking members of the public out. This was great fun. £20 for 3 laps, plus an out / in lap, and everyone seemed to be really enjoying it. There were several people who'd known or seen the car previously, which was pretty cool, and loads of people wanted to talk about the car, and about Mission Motorsport and what they do. It all just felt like something really cool to be a part of.

Enough rambling from me for a minute, time for some pictures, I must admit these are a mix of shots, from Sam, Thomas, a few friends on facebook, and some random facebook groups I've found. Huge thanks to all who took pics on the day to help capture the feel of the event :)











These 2 shots by Thomas are brilliant:





And these are a few found on facebook:












 
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Dave is an amazing driver! Had a right blast in his Mx5!
I didn't know that Mk I was part of Mission Motor Motorsport... I would of gone out in that also if I'd known...
 
I am gutted I missed this
GUTTED!!!
great write up as always.
I so it a lot but God the car looks good at speed!!!
Mind you the mx5 looks great too.
She someone had a ding tho :(
Especially being a charity event.
Get the vids up asap.
 
I guess with the pictures done, it's time to wrap it up for this evening so I can go to bed. The more observant of you will have noticed in a few pics there has also been considerable garage progress too in the last week, but that will have to wait until another day!

A thoroughly enjoyable day was had, lapping most of the day with loads of different passengers. It was quite cool to share the car with new people, and an amazing feeling knowing that it was all for such a great cause and raising money whilst having fun.

At the end of the day, we swapped wheels back:



I took the chance to check brake pad wear. It's looking very promising with considerably less wear than I'd expect after this mileage:

Outside:



Inside:




Huge thanks must to go everyone involved on the day:

Sam - exceptional organiser of people, checker of tyre pressures, and adjuster of harnesses.
Shelley - arranging things, getting us all together, manning the Stand and incomming public.
Dave - For being a top laugh, and a ****** inspiration to all of us showing what can be done when you want it enough.
Phil - THE technology man, seemed to have everything on the day, from cameras, to laptops, to chargers and jump packs for just about everything, as well as a knowing eye helping check over all the cars between runs too.
Gurds and Ram + family - awesome fun lapping together as always, and thanks for feeding me :)
Thomas - driving over from the Island for the day, coming out of your way to take those wheels for me, even though I never used them!

Right. Enough rambling. I'm off to Wales for work tomorrow, and it's past my bed time :racer:



 
Oh, I almost forgot, one of my favourite pics of the day.

4 1/2 years ago, on I believe April 9th 2011, this pic was taken at the first Spring Action day I did in the car as a track car:



On Saturday, 1617 days later, Sam took this pic which really reminded me how far it's come from those early days:

 
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daz-20vt said:
Can you highlight skinny prawn
I can't see him???
Click to expand...
08:46 12:26 13:07 13:22 24:27 Looks like you had a good day, seems you and Gurds were together a lot.
All those big Japanese drifters put to shame a bit by the guy in the red Mk2 Escort, awesome stuff.
 
That Mk2 Escort was pulling some big drifts, I thought he must of stuffed it on one session as he never came back around after two laps, he limped it back though with a blown tyre.
 
Was good to take your it Phil ( @Clart )

Hope you enjoyed it!

Still buzzing from the day. Slowly wearing off. Want to be back on track again already!
 
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Prawn said:
Was good to take your it Phil ( @Clart )

Hope you enjoyed it!

Still buzzing from the day. Slowly wearing off. Want to be back on track again already!
Click to expand...

Mate tell about it!!! I've been looking at track cars for sale on Ebay... I want one >.<

Awesome day out! I was 50/50 if I was going to go to CC on Saturday because of the weather.
So glad I didn't miss out now :)
 
RX7 was very cool. really grabbed a lot of attention.

Not sure if it had different drivers during the day, but I was quite surprised to catch up to it twice during the day and pass it. Not on a cool down either, unless 145+ up avon rise is considered a cool down :racer:

Anyway, time for something different again, seeing as I'm doing my utmost to keep this thread moving lately:

After a manic day on Saturday, what I really needed was a decent bit of rest on Sunday.

:sign omg:

Of course, I have no time for such things, so instead I spent the day on the garage :)


I bought some wood:



And Luke came over on Thursday evening, and we spent the evening hanging joists:



The next morning it looked a bit like this:





Luke, being an absolute legend, came over again on Sunday, and we got a load more done.

Starting with the steels, I wanted to have large steels across the main door opening at the front, and also as a lifting beam midway along the garage.

My steels were free through a previous job, so I had to make them work with what I had.

I needed to cut down the front peers by 20mm to recess the steel in so it wouldn't sit proud of the joists.

I marked it all up, and made some cuts with the grinder and diamond disc:



Then after some careful work with the hammer and chisel, it looked like this:



We lifted the steel first onto the mobile tower:



Then then, one side at a time, into place on the block work:



Tada!



I was very happy with how it sat in the chiseled recesses:



After this, we afixed a length of 4x4 to the inside of the web, to position the outer joist:



And then the frontal 8x2 joist went into place:

 
Moving onto the lifting beam mid span, I got the grinder, drill, and chisel out again, and had another go, again with fairly pleasing results:



The steel went up onto the tower again:





And was lifted into place:



Again very happy with the fit around the peers:



At this point, the only and obvious thing to do was to stand on it, and get a picture!



We solid bridged down on side to stiffen up the joists. I'm yet to finish the other side as we ran out of time.



And that's where we ended the day on Sunday :)





It feels like it's all really coming together now. Hopefully another solid day and I'll be ready for the ply boards and roof covering, then once I'm inside and water tight I can be in here ALL the time!
 
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Looking really good Nick, Very professional, I really like the idea of the 2 windows in the back so the other half will get to see you occasionally as you move past them, Good thinking.
 
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Did you have any fun with a bright blue DC2 Teg type R with massive white forge stickers down the side? My mate Ricky built it and thought he remembered someone driving around in a proper car showing him up :p
 
I saw it a few times Craig yes :) very smart car nicely presented!

I feel mine needs a bit of tlc this winter. The laquer on the bonnet is really bad now, and inside needs a good touch up and the floor pan respraying too. It's not got that 'super smart' feel inside that it used to,
Looking back through old pics, nothing has changed in the interior since early 2013. So it's due a 'refresh'
 
Prawn said:
I saw it a few times Craig yes :) very smart car nicely presented!

I feel mine needs a bit of tlc this winter. The laquer on the bonnet is really bad now, and inside needs a good touch up and the floor pan respraying too. It's not got that 'super smart' feel inside that it used to,
Looking back through old pics, nothing has changed in the interior since early 2013. So it's due a 'refresh'
Click to expand...

Because racecar
 
OK
Because highly effective track day car
 
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You know me Daz, I do like to be factual, and until the car has competed in a race, it can't be a race car.

Still, that hasn't stopped me pre-empting that day and starting up a Twitter account in advance :racer:



Looks like I timed it pretty well on getting the most from these slicks.

Offside front JUST given up on the last session by the looks of it!



My spare tyre collection has now been taken away my my secret storage facility. It's handy having a van!




It's nice coming out every morning and having the car looking at me, it always looks like it wants to go for a drive :laugh:

 
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I have the lovely (grumpy) Victoria to deal with in the mornings :laugh: I couldn't cope with 2 of them :racer:

Sam sent me the none rotated version of the cool side shot last night.



Not sure which I prefer. Wouldn't mind getting a print done of one of them.
 
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