Only a few problems all things considering.Started the morning tag team style, as the day was not sessioned we exhanged drivers a bit too quickly this morning, after about an hour and a half my lap was cut short by wisps of steam coming from the engine lid,
(concentrating on the track and the mirror I hadnt noticed the temp needle go off the red!!) luckily I was an the last stage of the circuit and limped to the pits, by now full on billowing! overcooked it and a pipe had blown of the expansion tank, within minutes the mk1 has spat out all of its coolant geyser style. After cooling the car down and putting in some more water it was fine until this afternoon when it happened again, this time we noticed the rad was stone cold, and realised there was the mother of all air locks in the system, bled it and ok agan until last thing, looks like we either have a knackered thermostat or head gasket issues (Doh!)Baring in mind how many laps the car got abused with today she has done us proud, the GT4 brakes worked a treat
(thanks Si and all of last weeks restoration show team!!) A friend of ours Karl came over and drove the car, being an experienced track driver but never driving a mk1 before, he left Donington asking me to find him one he can buy!!We all avoided dipping in the kittly little although I probable came the closest on a damp lap, inexperience caught me out, the back slid out a bit too far which I completely over re-acted to which ended up in an almighty tank slapper! although I did keep the car on the track.
As said there was a big difference in experience of all who drove today, this was my first day at Donnington, Ive drived Curborough in my Golf Gti Days, and have visited the Nurburgring a few times, but driven it fairly sedately in two different cars that I cared for, so today driving a car solely intended to the track was very educational.
Me, Andy and Martin sensibly drove to our own abilities today, where as Simon and Karl very much more experienced showed us what the car was capable of, which all were very impressed with, given that the car is standard other than the big brakes, and has a different brand of tyre on each corner.My favourite part of the day was Simon taking us out on a spirited drifting wet lap!
Learned loads, and we now have a benchmark for improvements for the car, 1st job, fix the overheating, got a new rad to put on, will change the thermostat and flush and replace coolant, then we need to think about dampers and springs, stripping weight, seats, and harnesses, and a cage,
the list endless really.Managed to drive the car back to Stoke which was a bonus, although I had taken the fixed bar with us just in case.
Looking forward to preparing the turbo engine for next years track days, but I for one can definitely say that the N/A 4AGE is more than adequate for now!
Full report will be in MR2 Only magazine with articles by myself, Simon, Martin and Celine of MR2DC with lots of photos of all todays MR2s by our cameraman Luke, and Allan Farrimond of MR2DC, I will also post up photos on www.mr2only.com as soon as I have them
a few photos so far, lots more to follow:-
http://www.mr2only.com/images/index17.htm
Fixed it with a black one and all is well.
