Hi guys, Car History inside! Looking to start track days

[CrysAk]

I've been a "member" on here since i started driving, but never really posted much, so figured it's about time to say hi, especially as I'm just now looking at getting into track days

So, let's start with car history

My First car was a Mercedes 190e (it was either this or a Punto... easy choice really).
Bought her stock and threw some silly wheels on, lowered, tinted, full leather interior swap, exhaust etc, mostly cosmetic mods



My 2nd car was the Cosworth version of the 190e, a 2.3 16v which i did a body restoration and respray on as the arches/sills were completely perished when i bought her, again mainly cosmetic mods, sold her in a more of a "stock" form than what i was driving her around in with a blacked out Avantgarde grille, yellow fogs and a big audio install.Fullproject build can be seen on the mercedes190 forums

How i sold her


How i drove her


Next up was my dream car, an R33 Skyline GTS-T running 425BHP, a bit of a jump up from what I had owned so far and I loved every day with this thing, even if most of it was spent at the petrol station.
I bought the car fully modified and didn't do a thing myself to her other than fit the big sound system which completely ruined the handeling on already awful D2 coilovers!.


Enough was enough, time to have one dedicated daily and one toy, rather than trying to get the best of both out of a single car. So i bought an e39 as a daily and an s14 as a drift toy.

The e39 was awful when i bought her, after fixing her up, throwing some new paint on the wheels, lowering, tinting and just making it look like a drug dealer car I was happy


and then there was the S14, again I bought it in a bit of a sorry state, some love, new bushes, subframe out, fixing boost leaks and all mannor of other minor issues, I had her running great and loved trying my hand at this "drifting" craze


However, time took its toll and I couldn't bare driving around a 5star hotel as a daily any more, the BMW was just too boring and I ended up taking the s14 everywhere instead. So i decided to sell both and get another R33 skyline again, after-all it was my childhood dream car and I wanted todo it "my" way!

So i bought a solid R33 to work from as a base, got her dirt cheap and apart from looking fugly, she had no rust, engine was good and there was no "immediate" issues to resolve.



She sat an entire YEAR in the bodyshop at which point i nabbed a cheap daily to run around in: A 450 BHP top-mount R33 that was fking AWFUL

the paint was st, the workmanship was done by a blind-man, everything was leaking or just about to fall off, but it didn't half shift (after finally spooling!) overall i hated this car and couldn't wait to get mine out of the bodyshop!



the wait was over, the car was finally out of the bodyshop and i threw all of the bits i had been collecting since buying the car. Wheels, full adjustable geo/coilovers, 2 way diff, new bushes, GTR interior swap, bracing all round and some shiny carbon bits and she's currently sitting pretty, just how I like


Then came along an Rx7 that I almost bought instead of doing the R33 build, except it was 1/4 of the price it was originally up for, and it was easy to see why, still I fancied the challenge as it was rude to turn it away at the price I got it for and decided to "save" it.

It had a huge fuel leak, split vac pipes, SUPER gay wing/hood scoop and an interior that would only suit the creator of Pimp My Ride UK.

Having fixed most of the issues all that's left is to dye the interior, touch up the paintwork a little and get it remapped as it's STILL running the safe map from the rebuild 3 years ago.
All that aside, she's actually a real nice motor, runs perfect (despite the map) now that all the leaks are fixed and it's in great shape bodywork wise with 0 rust and personally think it will look great with the cream interior being replaced with black.

Car's currently sitting like this:


So.. what now
I've been "self employed" building a new business for the last 3 years, which has taken a massive hit on my funds and it's been ALOT more work than i had anticipated, so it's time to jump back into full time employment and the business is going to take a back seat for a while, that being said I'm still working on it . I'm really looking forward to having some income again and I've already got plans for 450 BHP on the R33 via a hybrid turbo and supporting mods. Really hoping to get some proper use out of the car in the form of track days too

I'l be moving to the South again (Brighton) in a few weeks so hopefully will see a few of you guys about!

Can anyone recommend anything on how to get into the whole track-day / sunday-race-car-driver-wannabe scene?

[LouD86]

Hey Chris, nice to see you on here! I remember the first R33, the crazy S14, and the E39.

Where have you been hiding, if your now coming back down the south? Still following you on FB

[BaronVonV8]

Hi Chris, nice history. R33 GTR in midnight purple was one of my dream cars as a teenager thanks to a few too many hours playing Gran Turismo. I live down the road from you in Eastbourne and have also been looking to get a few trackdays under my belt. There seems to be a few choices around - Brands Hatch and Goodwood being the closest. Keep an eye out for novice sessions, I know trackdays at Brands are held fairly regularly and they do offer instruction too, so that'd probably be the place to start. Also it's not too much of a trek to get into Europe. I took my bike round the Nurburgring last year and want to take the car next year, you can easily get to the 'ring in a days drive. Plenty of options out there pal, might see you on track sometime.

[CrysAk]

Yea i think Brands Hatch is probably the easiest/cheapest to get into, esp at their Summer Wednesdays next year

Hey Lou, moved to Hertfordshire, just been working on my website but finding promoting it is costing more time and money than making it was + there's ALWAYS things to fix/change so just, getting back into full time employment again and doing the site at the weekends and evenings instead now

Will be nice to have a decent income again and already got plans for the 450 bhp to the skyline once the FD sells

[ecsrobin]

Amazing how much difference an RX7 without a spoiler looks. Sorry to say it but that's awful without.

Nice list of cars though and I'm sure members cars would quite like a build thread of the R33 if you kept one.

[CrysAk]

If you saw the wing that was on it, you may have a different opinion :P Veilside belongs in the bin ^^

I agree though, I am looking for a wing if one comes up cheap that looks good

Surprisingly I don't have much of a build thread on the skyline, got tons of photos on my phone/pc but never got around to writing one up