AdamR28

1/4" difference in offset makes bugger all difference to spoke length (I was off Friday but I always build that hub with same spokes both sides).

Nah I'm the MX5, but he's been here doing passenger laps. We were timing the other teams so decided to find out what he was doing. Think the Coastal layout suits a nimble car though...

10bhp, I chuckled. It'll sound better but you'll likely lose some power, the standard induction is good. Things I learned today: Mel C (spice girl) is the sister of Paul O'Neill (ex BTCC driver). My kit car is as fast (or maybe a bit faster) round Anglesey Coastal as Adam Morgan in his BTCC Merc A Class, bizarre!

58.8! Mike, that sounds promising. Hopefully it was just the lifters running out of pressure... Fill her up and try again. Things may be different when the oil warms up though - keep an eye on the oil pressure gauge, you need at least 3 bar when its hot and over 2.5k rpm, and should show at least 4 bar on idle when its cold.

Aaah, that makes sense. Yep, that works for me! Edit: Tried to call, no joy, sent email via contact form. Will keep you updated.

In theory, of course. In practice, it'd need a bit of thinking about I guess. My idea was to split the hire cost exactly between all of us, but then if there's an extra person or two at the last minute when everyone's paid up it makes things a bit awkward in terms of refunds etc. I'll see if there's a maximum number (personally wouldn't want to have any more than 15 ideally, else you feel like you've spent all day sat around doing nothing) and a cost and we can go from there...

List of pointless and shit mods you've done to your car?

It's on my to-do list... which is big, and ever growing

1) A bit. You'll have the right general idea, but it's pretty different! 2) Yep, fine, and it'll be wicked fun. 3) Yeah, not a problem. THey won't get killed by such a short layout too. Brakes will be fine as well, there's only a couple of hard stops.

No worries I read that... I guess you bought a full brake system? If you need spares like that in future give me a shout, got loads of bits lying about and if I haven't got it then someone I know will have

That's a bummer Mike It does sound like a big end bearing (the one between the con rod and the crank shaft), and it's usually on number 4 (the one nearest the gearbox, since that's the furthest from the oil pump, which is right at the front of the engine). It's not an easy job just to replace the bearings unfortunately, as to get the sump off you need to remove the front subframe. Even then you'll struggle to get the sump to seal afterwards as it uses silicone / RTV rather than a 'regular' rubber gasket, so the surfaces need to be mega clean - not easy when you have oil running down the inside of the block! As Jardo says, your best bet is to drop a new lump in - should be able to pick one up for less than £200, and you'll probably be able to find a friendly Nutzer who'll help you do it for a few quid. It's not too bad a job, you can do it in a day fairly comfortably on someone's drive (need an engine crane though, of course). White smoke indicates head gasket usually, which is another reason to drop a new lump in rather than mess around with this one... As an aside, none of my MX-5 engines have ever used oil, but did you say you did an oil change recently? It's a really good idea to fill it to the max, run the car for a few minutes, then shut it off for ~10 minutes and check the level again. It will usually appear to drop by ~0.5L (the stick is 0.8L from max to min) as the oil filter gets completely filled etc.

Positive spin: At least you found that out now, rather than when your engine's in hundreds of bits ready to fit them!

Figure of 8 it is then

This may be useful as a reference: http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/bike_builder.php

Haha. (Any excuse for an Anchorman reference.)

Ooohhh I seeeeee. Christ on a bike, didn't realise car rental was so much! Our entry fee for a team of 4 was less than that. How did you managed to wangle that one then?

Lol. Strangely I'm not really feeling it Haha, yeah, it's a long way for you Southern chumps, plus you'd need to get a license and all the kit...

Wanted to go to that (there's a lot of Westfields going who I could have spanked), but racing instead...

Nothing wrong with the pedal-pumping method! Stupid ABS brakes

Don't think you can do much about that... If there's no air in that's as little travel as you'll get without changing components. As a note, I seem to remember Prawn once telling me NOT to bleed the VAG master cylinders with the 'push the pedal' method, due to flipping seals as Paul said. Also, do you need to activate the ABS using VCDS or is that only for when the system has been completely emptied?

I'm sure someone will drop out, always happens! Cool - I'll shoot for 15 and see what happens...

Hmm, cooould be. Not heard of that before, but then again haven't come across too many people who've driven with flat tyres! Are they all at the same pressure now?

Interesting that these three are all exactly the same freewheel with a different logo. I'm a big believer that bedding in and maintenance makes a difference. Skipping under load damages the internals and it just goes downhill from there...