Well today started off relatively early (for me anyway) with loading the car with a few goodies needing fitting to the car and anything else I might need.
I then set off on the 70miles or so drive to TFS Racing to so Stew and I could do a number of jobs on the car.
I left just after rush hour in the hope I wouldnt get stuck in traffic but unfortunatly no such luck, its not really a car you want to be crawling along on the m25 in..
Some minor amusement with the attention the car gained in the petrol station with a couple of people wanting to take pictures etc..

So I arrived with stew without incident but fairly stressed, I had installed electric powersteering and so stopped a few times to check for leaks, although there werent any lol

We then set about welding all the joints on the exhaust to remove a few clamps
Stew Welding


We also fitted a return to sump catch can and standard oil filler cap, removing the quick fix that didnt work that I had fitted previously.

A few other jobs sorted along the way including a bent trailing arm (it bent it trying to escape the dyno). Thanks to Bod for going to retrieve a replacement and CJ for dropping the camber bolts up.

We also fitted an SD motorsport gearbox mount and diff mount


The main reason for sorting it today was because I am taking the car to Blyton for a sprint on Sunday.. therefore the alignment was also sort by Stew



The solid box and diff mount have added a little extra noise but its all good noise
http://s950.photobucket.com/albums/ad341/JollyGree...

The car still wants to kill me when I do floor it but I seems to point in the right direction now, and at least I will die with a big smile on my face.

Simon

A couple of weekends back I took the car to Blyton for the Brightgreendetailing mlr sprint.

Its taken me a while to get around to writing up what happened with it overall being a pretty annoying day I havent really been enfused to find the time to do so lol.

The format works that you are assigned a number (I was number 29) and you queue up in order and do a run around the circuit..
First practice run came a bit quicker than I expected after the briefing and jumped in to find the battery flat.. doh..
So I went out for a passenger ride in Damiens car and CJ's car and was sat there thinking I am not going to be able to abuse my car enough to be competitive, I have made a mistake bringing it.. then my run came and in the queue for the start line realised that I hadnt even launched the car yet as the uprated shafts only went in two days before and I didnt bother trying to brake the originals...
make it to the line..


light changed to green.. and I am away, launch feeling pretty good



wheel spin, next gear, more wheel spin, next gear and grip and it feels good.. brake and turn into first fast bend, feels good.. get to next slower bend (damn I havent turned powersteering on lol, flick it on, thats easier), rest of the lap felt good.. plenty more time to come but main exercise to check the car handles okay and the baffled sump works well enough for circuit work.. both all good, and I was wrong as I enjoyed abusing it



Next practice comes and I am more relaxed with the car and start pushing it a little more, still on the vpower 1.1bar map, this time CJ is in passenger seat. lots of fun trying to keep car in a straight line and not sideways under power out of bends..
Second practice is some 6seconds quicker than the first one and I still dont really know the circuit.. really starting to enjoy myself.

Third practice run and Damien comes out in passenger seat... I decided to up the boost a little and selected the 1.4bar setting.
Launch isnt too bad, get to first bend doing about 110mph and lift off the throttle and engine doesnt decellerate.. the throttles jammed fully open..
feck.. kill switch and on the brakes and into the area beside the bend (luck it was there).
Towed back to the pits with tail between my legs lol.
stripped throttle over lunch and can find nothing wrong.. not particularly clean but nothing obvious so a good clean and it is working freely with no issues..

after lunch go out for first timed run with Daz Davies in the passenger seat..
Unfortunatly the throttle issue was still there and it was again game over at the first bend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MpBmp0MWpg&fea...

I then spent a fair bit of time stripping it down and the second spring appeared to be doubling over so as a last ditch attempt the second spring was removed and the throttle cable slackenned right off.. the problem was I couldnt test it as sat there it worked perfectly with engine running or not but only jammed after the launch etc.. even sat in the car with throttle pinned for a few seconds and it wouldnt stick and worked freely..
Many thanks to anyone else that helped out too at this point whilst I was stressing.

Out again and same thing.. lots of head scratching and then Paul Martin to the rescue, he had had the same issue on his evo, the bearing is pressed in on one side and the boost pressure pushes the bearing out slightly and moves the butterflies with it and they jam.. hence we couldnt simulate the issue in the pits and ones moved the throttle was fine.

Temporay fix done but decide it wasnt worth the risk running the car again with only 2 runs left before the end of the day, if it jammed at the end of the back straight it would be game over. Thats motorsport I guess.



Happy the car handled well enough to be thrown about and the sump held off surge (at least for my practice sessions anyway, yet to be seen at higher G).

suspension updates planned as although the car handled okay there is a lot of body roll and Lift under power


Simon

Yes. Take me a bit to be confident with throttle body.

Might put it on the dyno and try a few pulls

Simon, are you going to be focusing on the drag event?

Part way through a weekend of the best fun possible with your clothes on

Friday used a hub dyno at tdi to play with the fuel map and check over of the car. Due to time constraints mainly played on vpower but was v happy with 662hp at 1.4bar on vpower and similar lb torque. Did have brief check on vpower plus 20% meth and made similar power at only 1.2bar. At which point I had enough data to be happy to map from datalogs when car was being used in anger.

Then travelled north for totb and installed a "how can you miss it" big rev counter and shift light and a toucan display for monitoring ecu data, and a couple of new graphics on the car.

Saturdays playtime and really pleased to get a baseline on this setup and get a good feel for the car.
Its first quarter mile run ever being 11.11secs on the toyo r888 tyres.

With little alteration physically to the car all day just map tweaks and alterations to my driving and hoosier drag radials the times slowly dropped to 10.01secs which I did twice lol. Not run on racefuel yet or used flatshift so still more to come hopefully, especially if I can get a clean run in.
Massively pleased with how the cars behaved, and massive thanks to team JGM pit crew and support (CJ, Damien, Ian and Stew@TFS racing) and anyone I have forgot.

Simon

congrats on the time simon. Looks like the Imprezas really dominated in the drag events! AFP cars sounded and looked stunning form the vids i have seen.

Thanks guys.

Broke the gearbox on the gripper track on the sunday but excellent fun and really happy with time for first try at it and proper car shake down.

Tempted to do mlr sprint at castle comb if box fixed. Would like to also do a day at shakespear raceway and try and get into the 9s.

Well both run the best ecu, mapped by the best lmfao, it could be either car.

Busy week for the car and me, tfs, teg sport, ian (bod).

Realised there was a test and tune day at santapod coming up on 21st sept that worked with my mapping schedule perfectly so rather than the relaxed fix the box when I get around to it, it became a rush and last minute dot com.
Thanks to teg sport for building the box nice and quick.
I didnt want to risk it being delayed by a courier so dropped it up there and then on wednesday headed off to collect it (2x650mile round trips). Had a busy mapping day at tfs on the thursday so whilst I mapped the cars stew and ian fitted the box. Clutch was being a pain in the ass and box came out and back in several times late into the night to get it sorted and I cancelled the dyno time booked for my car at surrey rolling road to tweak for the new exhaust and I headed north with a working car strapped on the trailer at 10ish and started the task of searching for a hotel that had a room spare and space for car and trailer and that I could be happy leaving it.
Friday morning came way to quick and rolled up at pod at 8am.
First run on r888s straight off the trailer and all good but car felt slow, it didnt scare me.
Think is was a 10.7, which wasnt bad on the r888s but car was noticably less powerful.
Checked logs and rich and so made some adjustments but my mind wasnt happy as it shouldnt be rich.
Another run on r888s and it was better but still down on power.
Then notice in the logs the battery voltage is 11.7volts - doh.
Tried few checks and wiring all good, thanks to stew and ian for help. Conclusion was alternator dead, which was always a question mark over whether it would be okay and it had been fine until now. Logs from elvington show 13.9v.
To an extent I was pleased to find that and pleased I was correct it was less powerful.
As everything else on the car was 100% and I was there and had paid for the day thought whatsit to it and put drag wheels and tyres on and used jump pack to start it as battery got lower still and ran with electric powersteering off and enjoyed running it anyway, more quarter miles under my belt, all good fun.
Quickest was 10.14 if I recall correct.
So no 9s for 2012, that can wait until 2013.

would have been quicker had I not tried to hold 4th across the line and ttted the limiter
Jolly Green Monster testing at santapod
car trying to save weight during the run by shedding the fog light cover
Jolly Green Monster testing at Santapod
I think this was the 10.14.. blast limiter again lol
Jolly green monster run at pod
last run of the day I think (you can see the weather coming in) I was sat watching the water temp climb going "come on ffs"..
whose got the biggers crack (on gearchange lol)
Jolly Green Monster testing at Santapod

Simon