More trackdays : )

As I said previously, after a few DECA's and a trackday I was seriously hooked!

Next up on the trackday calendar was a trip to the old Morwell Hill climb circuit. This was a great little track. Tight, twisty and no margin for error... it made for a lot of fun especially in a powerful RWD car.

The day was going well, until a nasty noise ruined the fun! While trying to get first gear in a hairpin I had somehow managed to destroy both the OS Giken twin plate clutch AND the gearbox. Nice effort I thought. This made for a fun drive home...

Clutch plate:

We replaced the box, and rebuilt the clutch with a new OS Giken rebuild kit and it was as good as new.

On to Winton...

I was all set for this day, when an unexpected surprise nearly ruined it. While at the workshop prior to the event stupid me forgot to clip the bonnet pins, and was rewarded with a carbon bonnet in my windscreen at around 70km/h. Not fun. Luckily I got away with minor damage to the front right guard, and a few little dents in the roof. Could have been much worse, and I won't be making that mistake again!

I put the standard bonnet back on and headed off to Winton.

Winton is an awesome track in country Victoria. It's tight, twisty and quite technical and suits these cars well. I managed a best of 1:39.8 by the afternoon after early rain which I was happy with for my first time. This managed a second in RWD for the day.

Thankfully the day went off without a hitch, except for the fun ride home where myself and a mate took the wrong rd and found ourselves twisting at night through a single lane, leaf covered rd with our semi slicks on and no vision. Fun fun! I think that trip knocked 10 years off my life...

After Winton, I decided to sell my Work Meisters, and my Algernon's as I wanted it to be more focused toward being a track car. I sold off both sets and got myself a set of 17x9 +22 LMGT4's in black, which I was stoked with as I'd always wanted these.

Next up was Sandown again, and I was ready for it this time! I managed a 1:25.003 by the end of the day... so close to a '24, but a WRX dropped oil all over the track so I didn't get a chance to better the time in the last session. A few more laps and I would have had it! Dang... still, I was happy with 3.5 seconds off my previous time with no modifications.

The exhaust leak at the manifold had been getting worse and worse as each track day passed, but I ignored it as I was planning a bit of an overhaul of the car anyway. This overhaul started a bit sooner than expected after my next DECA outing in August 2006. While doing a test on the back track I locked up on some loose gravel coming into a corner, and took the safest route which was straight off onto the grass. Unfortunately I managed to hit the screamer pipe on the ground, doing some major damage in the process. The car was still driveable, so I contined to drive it until about halfway through the day the exhaust leak got so bad I had to stop. After the car had cooled down, I started it again only to be met by the most horrible leak I've ever heard. An inspection showed why: I'd completely ripped the external gate off of the manifold! We managed to secure the gate to the manifold and power steering lines with a piece of wire so I wouldn't lose it, and headed home. That was a fun 3 hour drive home from Shepparton!

The manifold:

A few pics from the day: