fiestaturbo.com

[Minstral]

what else did u find to take out?

[hb69]

The pump came in at 5kg and the bracket to hold it in place was 4kg! Thats what came out today

[Minstral]

kl so thats all the ac out now then

[hb69]

Yup Feels so light and agile after its intense diet

[hb69]

The bank holiday has seen the Mazda lose 22kg's, which is an immense reduction, nearly half the weight of a person

I finally got round to removing the a/c which is a majority of the weight thats come out, the heater matrix also found its way to the bin.

Few pics, engine bay with a bit more room in it now





Managed to sheer this bolt when doing it back up, only tensions the power steering pump, its tense enough at the moment anyway



Another bit of weight saved came from the boot and bonnet inner skins





The bonnet really weighs nothing now, and the boot isnt far off. If i take any more metal off the boot i doubt it will be watertight any more, so cant really do much with it

Another picture of the dent, i think the light shows it off nicely here



I also plan on fitting a non power steering rack, and getting rid of the power steering system at some point, another few kg's

[jonboisescort]

glad to see your getting rid of everything

i got addicted to it on the fiesta

[Sphinx]

I really want an MX5 now damn it

[hb69]

I really want an MX5 now damn it

Believe the hype, they are awesome to drive. Very cheap to buy now too

Rollcage going in to be painted Thursday, expecting it beginning of next week

[jonyb4]

pimsle i hope you aint ambutating parts of your body for this?

[hb69]

Cage is here finally, and looks awesome....on the lounge floor. Challenge for the weekend is to get it bolted in

Also found out why the dash lights arent working, so need to sort that too

[hb69]

This weekend started with trouble, i was on the way to pick up a few bits in the mazda and noticed alot of smoke coming from the n/s/f wheel area, and the smell of brakes. Removed the pads to find them in this state





But the actual pad face looks fine



Not sure if they have a higher temperature tolerance or something because they are track pads. They havent crumbled or anything. The bits that look like they have melted is just the paint, that scrapes off, and the pad looks fine underneath too.

Checked to make sure the caliper is now freed off, few times in and out and it seems fine. Might be due to the fact its barely moved since last year. Its only covered just over 1k since i bought it lol

The main thing to sort this weekend was the rollcage as it is a two man job really, Toby came over yesterday and we started to make some progress



After all day working on it, the seatbelt tower bolts wouldnt line up. So we decided to call it a day and try again on sunday. So this morning Steve came over and we slackened all the bolts off and tried lining it all up again, this time sucess!



Its not a pretty installation, but with me doing it, it was never going to be



Underneath



Undersealed



Thought id find a lot more rot under there than i did, in fact there was nothing more than in the pics. The sills are solid, as is everthing else it seems Impressed

Cage fitted, and also got the road wheels on the rear, one of the fronts needs a new tyre before i can put it on.



Dash lights now work again, just a case of adding an earth wire

Things to do, if its going to make it to combe next week

-Fit new track rod ends
-Fit new tyre on road wheels
-Hoover out all the nuts,bolts and bits inside that have accumilated since last september

Will be trying to get those bits done throughout the week, and see what happens

[:: blade ::]

looking good matey, hope to see it at combe

[jonyb4]

looking good mate

so do you two take baths together too then?

[bakewell001]

Just needed a proffessional (lol) hand yesterday to fit that cage.

Car is looking very purposeful now

Fingers etc crossed that all goes to plan ready for Friday/Saturday!

[Ratspeed]

-Hoover out all the nuts,bolts and bits inside that have accumilated since last september

[hb69]

-Hoover out all the nuts,bolts and bits inside that have accumilated since last september

Thats probably the job thats going to take the longest Went out in it earlier and there was so many noises of things rolling around

-Tyre on roadwheel is sorted

Going to the garage to do the track rod ends tomorrow. Shame we ran out of time and patience over the weekend,could have got them done i reckon.

[bakewell001]

If only you had found your "sense of urgency" earlier in the day... Although I was halfway through changing one side and got told to put it all back together!

[hb69]

Its been a while since ive updated this, last update was before combe, so from then heres whats been going on with the mazda

Firstly i went to Castle Combe for the action day, did a couple of sessions. Couple of pics







I managed to spin it at Quarry, i entered carrying too much speed, then put the power on too soon. I think i was getting bored of being overtaken on the straights, it just doesnt have enough straight line speed. So i overdid it, fortunately came out unscathed, but it definately affected my confidence. Having never spun on track before, i was quite annoyed at myself. The next session went fine, overtook a few things and enjoyed it loads. The Mazda behaved itself all weekend.

Once id got home i noticed a couple of oil leaks, id got to a stage when i couldnt afford to have any repairs carried out, and my brother wanted to use it for a couple of track days, so i let him deal with the repairs. Turned out the camshaft seals and rocker gasket had gone already, only replaced them at the end of last year. So they were replaced and my brother went off to Mallory Park for the PPC in the Park show.

Heres a video of the Mazda on track, notice how on a smaller slower track it really does quite well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APM1_144wSk

Some of the twitchyness from the rear end shows itself in the first minute or so.

Pic, courtesy of someone on corsasport



The twitchyness was becoming more of an issue as it had a big trip coming up. My brother took it to the Nurburgring, i went along, but in a different car. As the suspension had shown itself to need some adjustment we tried softening it by 5 clicks for the first lap and it was still quite skittish at the back, so a further 2 clicks for the next lap, and apparantly its better now. Maybe a further few clicks needed. It managed another lap after that, then did the 300+ miles back without any fault whatsoever. It does now appear to have another oil leak again, the underneath was covered in oil when i looked last time.

Picture of it on the ring



My brother is using it as his daily car at the moment as his Golf is off the road at the moment.Ive taken a bit of a back seat with the Mazda as of late, and am at a bit of a crossroads with what to do with it. My brother has at least one more track day planned in it, then im tempted to buy out his half and have a play with fitting a supercharger/turbo to it for a bit more straight line speed. Will have to see how the finances are looking at the time

[Minstral]

i will be there next time

[MB7201]

That last pic almost looks like a Gran Tourismo replay shot

How long do you find the r888 last?

On the power bit how hard would a 1.8 conversion be?

[hb69]

Tony-You better be there next time. Im not so sure the Mazda will...

Mark- The r888's last really well actually, they have been on nearly a year now. Done a fair few track events and road miles and still got loads of meat left on them. For grip there arent many other road legal tyres that can compete. Yeah im pretty sure the 1.8 would go straight in, but for the outlay on it id only be getting another 10bhp. Supercharging is the only other option, but they cost about £1,500 and take it up to about 170bhp on low boost.

Im honestly considering the other option of, selling up, then taking my half of the money and buying a track car of my own.Not even sure what its worth though

[Smo]

Get yourself another MK3, you know you want to

[hb69]

Get yourself another MK3, you know you want to

You know me too well

[hb69]

Had a look at the Mazda the other day, its been sitting in the same place since the end of May. The brakes are seized on, engine tapping quite a lot and its covered in rubbish

Should sort it out really

[MK2 Jamie]

Sort it out and get a turbo bolted on! me and Aaron had a drifting experience in the mk2 today that ended alarmingly close to a lamp post. Il enlighten you at ford fair

[martynkeep]

Coooool. I do love these
Couple of people i know have some

[Minstral]

like them alot.

[hb69]

Yeah they can look pretty good

Engine noise is due to no oil in the engine. So thats one mystery solved

[jonyb4]

the competetive racing does look like fun, but cant be taken lightly, something id love to get into in the future

i like hw your brother made that lucky correction round the first major bend

could have spin him so easy

[hb69]

Now MOT'd, went straight through

[jonyb4]

ah nice

[hb69]

My brother did a track day at Brands yesterday, the car performed brilliantly apparantly.

The Mazda is now up for sale, regretfully

http://pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1963741.htm

[jonyb4]

shame your getting rid mate yet again track cars never really stay for that long with people


this is quite sad ill admit, but on Forza 3 on the 360, i use one of these and the back end loves to stick out, was wondering is it the same in real life with this one? being rear wheel drive and light i can see it probably does