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Another b2b Wakefield prep

With another MWSCC Wakefield in a weeks time it was time for a last minute track prep.

I've always used the RaceChrono timing app in car for real time lap delta, and also the overlays for the YouTube lap videos. As most users will know, theres a bit of lag when the time is updating and this is due to most phones only have a 1Hz GPS receiver.

The solution to this? A bluetooth 10Hz GPS receiver, I went with the Qstarz BT-Q818XT one, and this will essentially boost the phones available GPS signal. Having watched others videos of how much better it is, it was a no brainer as I'd like to start diving into the data. I'll velcro it onto the dash somewhere, maybe get a 3D printed mount for it eventually.

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Recently I've been starting to do a EFI conversion on one of my Honda Civic RT4WD wagon's, firstly with stripping back the engine bay and painting it. It's taken up the main side of the pergola to bring the cars through, but with the upcoming track day I had to move it to the side. Poor mans quick jacks, engine crane around the front subframe, with a trolley jack on the rear tow point, easy peasy!

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Dirty P1's

When Kevin was balancing the P1's not too long ago whilst trying to diagnose the vibration from SMSP, I did comment about how dirty the inner barrel of the P1's were. Mainly the front 2 from CV grease painting itself everywhere, then all sorts of dirt/tyre marbles sticking to it on the track. Few photos of the current status of them.

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Nice and clean now! I used the Bowdens wheel cleaner, let it sit for 5 minutes before washing it off, then got some car wash and a old sponge and had at them! Came out quite good actually. No wheel weights were lost in the process. Probably a tad lighter now as well.

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Brakes

As mentioned at the previous post at Wakefield, I suffered from the new brake pads disintegrating, which was due to a manufacturing batch issue. On the track I was getting a lot of brake fade, then coming back into the pits with smoke leaving the wheel area.

Phil from Intima is always checking in, especially when I'm at the track. Relaying the info to him he was able to confirm the issue, and straight away had a fresh set sent to my place without question. Customer service is 5 stars, and I look forward to trying the new set of RS's with the new brake setup at the track again, to see what they can really do!

Anywho, heres the condition of those pads, they really had a bad time.

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Current condition of the rotors, the surface overall seems fine. I did note the inner wear against the surface rust from moving the car around the back yard, this can be related to a few factors, but maybe the calipers arent aligned correctly or something. I've read a few times regarding OEM slider calipers not pulling on the pads evenly, wearing the pad out on a slant. I've definitely had this myself a few times in the past.

Monoblock calipers one day?

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Seat rail

As mentioned in the previous post at Wakefield, the Racetech seat was amazing but it was moving about a lot on the rails, and you can see it in the video. I'm currently using Bride slider mounts as the car was always on the street, and allows easy adjustment for other drivers obviously. With sliders though, theres obviously going to be some play within them due to the moving parts.

It was never this bad with my Bride seat, and I definitely feel not with the Recaro, but with them on the bench without the seat, it was very easy to move them.

Now apologies for the first class measuring setup, but here I have a rule set with the rail pushed out to the right (2nd photo) and then pushed out to the left (3rd photo). Theres about a 3mm play on just this 1 rail, I didn't even bother to check the other but it seemed to be a bit more.

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This relays to the seat flopping about side to side on every corner. 1 it's not safe at all, in the case of a crash I can only imagine them falling apart, and 2 it's super annoying moving about like that during corner transition. For now I'll have to use them again, but this will definitely be getting addressed.

I've never liked how high I sat in the car with these either. You'll look at outside shots of the car on track and my head is nearly touching the roof. With the car only being for track, I'm very tempted to weld in some bar and mount the seat straight to the floor.

PCI offer a low mount solution which bolts it to the floor, but where you bolt the seat to the brace, the bolt holes are long slits which allows you to slightly loosen the bolt and side the whole seat back and forth. Good option, but they are about $500 AUD, and I'd like one for the passenger as well to use my old Recaro.. We shall see.

Misc

Found the left outer CV boot was torn, looks like it's thrown all the grease out and is a bit dry inside. With only looking at the car now a few days before the trackday, I don't really have any time to get this fixed. Definitely need to keep an eye on it at the next track day.

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Wheel alignment to make sure everything is correct. You like my custom wheel holding setup? It actually works quite well, but I'll need to get a proper clamp device like workshops use.

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Washed and ready

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