Right... As you will have seen the engine/car was finished, run in and then taken to Mallory. Had a bit of a nightmare with something playing up when we initially tried to run it in, along with the alternator stopping charging. Got that rebuilt and tried again, still wouldnt not run properly. Turned out the crank sensor connector was loose, so a bit of fiddling and a cable tie later all was well. Put around 100 miles on it down our private runway and everything was OK, no bad noises, no smoke and best of all pulling well.
I also cut the lower grill out of the bumper..
...and it was pretty much ready for Mallory with a day to spare. I drained the mineral oil and replaced with normal stuff, along with a new filter. Bled the brakes and did the tracking.
The day before Mallory I went to fetch the trailer, then the Clio, and took it back to my house to fit the newly painted bonnet (talk about last minute). I literally left the car on the trailer and welded two brackets onto my cage in the scuttle panel for the rear pins to go into. It all fitted well and left for Mallory...
As with the last two years at Mallory/RTOC National day we camped both nights and made it into a weekend. The Passat pulled the Clio with ease, returning over 40MPG which I was suprised at..
Its nice to have a bonnet without a big split down the front, and I much prefer the pins this way round. Last thing to do was fit the new front pads in the dark once I arrived... opted for some CL RC5+ this year...
On the morning I gave the pads a quick bedding in on the sighting laps, came back in, checked the oil level and tyre pressures and left it at that. Took it out and gave it the full beans from the word go. The engine pulls a lot smoother and harder than the last, really is so much better to drive. Kept on top of checking the oil level during the day and it never moved, always a good sign. I did have a slight issue with the starter motor f*cking up, so I fitted my spare which ended up being f*cked also so resorted to bump starting it all day (Cheers Ian/Wilky/etc
).
First impressions are the RC5+'s are some way better than the previous DS2500's, like them a lot. The Dunlop slicks (thank god the weather was great as I didnt have another set of wheels) are on another level to R888's too, really really good to drive on...
Couple of clips 'on board'...
Packed up on the Sunday and loaded everything back up for the drive home...
So yeah... everything went great. Two weeks until Cadwell now, just got the starter motor to sort and a few things to check over but at the moment I am really happy with how its turned out after the what now seems pretty normal - last minute rush.
More soon!