Pashley26

Right, so the same age as mine then. They're not that quick...what sore of power was this one?

V5 turbo? What age.

Define further please.

I know I sound like a fanny. But I'm going to say it anyway. Are you surprised? MX5's are ONLY cool when they are modified for track work. The idea of driving a nimble little sports car sounds great, but the reality of driving round in a pink convertible soft top which has a maximum of 130bh/ton and is deemed as a female equivalent of "my first sports car" by anybody who doesn't use one as a track car are very different. Now before high horses are mounted, may I remind you that out of choice I drove some of the ugliest and most hated cars known to man. And I'm certainly not passing judgement myself, because I know that they can be great cars. As a word of advice if you want to drive an MX5 on the road daily you HAVE to not preach about it to anybody. Just let it sink into part of your existence, tell nobody how great it is, tell nobody how reliable it is, speak of it to nobody unless you are thick skinned or wearing a flame retardant suit. I've never known a car get so many opinions about it as an MX5, most people have never driven one but still assume they are gay. Which is hugely narrow minded and idiotic, but hopefully you know what I mean. To the general public an MX5 looks very different to what you and I see... No offense meant.

Thanks. I am pretty great at looking different. Most people don't know what I even look like, it's hilarious.

Yeah, it's a chav wagon Clio with an RS badge. What were you expecting? What you need is an S3. If you like penis in your bum and cheap insurance. Byeeee....

It's a bit of a motivator, not having anybody to directly compare or race against. I should have put racing in inverted commas, but you know what I mean. Newbie turns up, no pressure, drive as slow or fast as you like, no competition or hassle from other cars, nice short stint so minimal car wear. Or you can go flat out for times and make a proper day of it. I liked it

I guess we are due an update after yesterday! Saturday night we all bundled to Prawns and his lovely lady cooked a roast dinner, we drank alcohol free beer and watched Aussie V8 racing in the wet. Up at 5 and on the road to Curby, 2 hours 40 mins to get there. I like it when Team Prawn Racing hits the road in convoy, it's a nice feeling rolling along in two badass 8L's. I took a picture to show my excitement. We arrived just after gates opening at 8:15, popped up the tent and dropped George Michael off then went to the Shell station for some bang bang juice. Morning briefing done, Prawn and I jumped straight to the front of the line up. The way Curby works you tend to stay in the same order all day, so for hours Prawn and I were going back to back. This wasn't enjoyable because we never got to see each other. We did spend a lot of time pushing each other's cars though. This type of event is very odd because it is almost totally anonymous. There are people who are clearly fast, because their car and general style dictates that they must be. But because there is no timing, and nobody really knows how you're doing it's all a mystery until lunch time. So I didn't have a clue if I was shit of not. Looking back retrospectively at the times I was averaging in the mid 30 second range, consistently doing anywhere between 30.3 and 30.7 seconds. I took Prawn out for a lap, which was my penultimate before I went for lunch, He showed me some places where I was losing lots of time, so I went out for my last morning lap and ran a little wider, braked a little earlier in places to get a better entry line and later in places to take a late apex. I felt happy with my times, things were smooth. Lunch came and we ran up to the timing van to see what we had clocked. I was astounded to see I was within half a second of third place, which happened to be a 300bhp turbo'd 16v Mk2, which is a hugely spec'd well seasoned endurance race car with a much more experienced driver who has done the Curby track quite a bit in the past. Which was most certainly running on form, because he was very close to chasing the tails of the local hero Gurds in his mental Mk1 race car. We were clearly both having a fantastic day. I know it's not about who you beat, but beating yourself. However I was really pleased to see I could compete with such a fantastic car and driver, AND improve on my lap times and get below the 30 second mark. A really encouraging thought Now I just had to work on being as tidy as the Mk2 ahead of me, and keeping my driving smooooth like his. Unfortunately Sparrow in the Mk2 ran into some quite terminal suspension issues shortly after the second session started which was a real shame, I believe it's all in hand mind you and is already on the road to being sorted. I did get some videos in the afternoon sessions which will hopefully give people an idea of what this kind of event is. The circuit is a B shape in mirror. But the upright of the B has a short tail coming off the end of it you join and exit. There is a timing light about a third down the straight, so you do an in-lap to warm up then fly through the light gate and do a flying lap then exit. Here my laps - http://youtu.be/q08AtMqKaV8 And filmed in the car - http://youtu.be/e3Pz5cLZdTI So at the end of the day, I went home a winner. Because I drove 150 miles there, thrashed the car all day, went sub 30 seconds, improved on my times, met some fantastic people and drove 150 miles home without having to do anything other than push the DV vac hose back on and check the oil. £45 for the day, £60 in fuel. £105 for a full days racing. Unbeatable. In terms of sheer times I was the fastest of the ASN group, and finished with a high 29 second time. Prawn did a lap in Daz's car which took my 4th place. And an S4 on slicks which wasn't really part of the day turned up and put in some spanking laps which were faster than mine. But I'm not counting him because he wasn't on the original list, and 5th isn't as good as 4th Plans moving forward. The car needs more grip, I was the fastest entrant on road tires. Worn out ones at that. So I need to get on it with some NS2R's or the like as get my 595's sold. I need more support in the car, buckets are a must if I'm upping the grip. I almost couldn't hold on to the wheel enough to stay in the seat. The brakes aren't good enough for repetitive stops and more aggressive work than road. So a pad upgrade needs to happen. And I need to realign and set up the suspension to suit the lighter car now it is partially stripped. Happy days, thanks to Prawn Jojo and Daz for such great company. Roll on Donnington next month

Why doesn't Mike just go buy a Clio 172 and be done with it?

Dare I say this... Why MX5?

A reasonable week in the world of S3 ownership! I found an S3 friend in the work car park. I fitted some TT pedals. I rebuilt my DV. I took a picture. I stripped the back out for this weekend. I fitted some new plugs. I dropped the oil. I fixed the brake pad warning sensor plug. And the ABS sensor. I removed some stickers. I removed this POS. And replaced it with this. And I still haven't sold it! and don't feel overly inclined to.

I lol'd. Dan has moved on from breaking cars to making girls vaginas look like broken cat flaps. No shame in it.

Well that's Ad's f**ked then... http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29004060

Remember the guess the car thread? Probably the best thread ever.

It's a Fiat X19. Keep your pat on the back, it was quite obvious.

Never been a fan of Chemical Guys, other than their V32/34/36 compounds. They always seem to be far too wet, and sloppy.

I can see it... Maybe I'm just attuned to seeing 8L's so it jumps out at me. Stranger things have happened at sea. Oh, but some Britemax Iron max and some Zymol cleaner wax. Pretty much a two step "wow my car looks nice" process for minimal effort.

Nah, Peugeots of the era had a sliding glass roof which worked on vacuum pumped seals. When you slide it across and shut the locking lever it goes "ptsssshhhh" and the roof lifts about 2cm's. For reference, I'm the S3 in the background being black flagged and heading for the pits...

Oh Mike...

Oh. I can see it?

And if you look closely at this excellent picture; you can quite clearly see me getting sheepishly black flagged. Bravo.

Hahaha I just went to post this with the caption... "Adams at it again..."

And it appears I have officially passed the metaphorical baton of "poster of the same picture multiple times to show the same thing" to Dan. Bravo, it's been quite a burden for all these years.

And what did you buy?