Well, Pete has had a variety of cars Ive been running a Westfield since 2015. What follows is an intro to our new joint project initially lifted from another forum which Pete and I will keep updated over time so you can all point and laugh when it inevitably goes horribly wrong 
The last couple of years sprinting has been enormous fun, but having a fair amount of money tied up in a car that gets very little use has got me thinking recently about trying something different.
Cheaper. Maybe a little more disposable.And then, all set to go up to Croft last weekend, the turbo on my trusty tow-car decided it didnt want to hold all of its oil anymore.
2017-07-08_07-04-25 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrPete came to the rescue with a very kind offer for me to double-drive his current Fiesta
a 140k mile Zetec S with some ECP coilovers and a set of R888Rs. It was a bit different to the Westfield, but a lot of fun nonetheless!
2017-07-08_07-05-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35nL38iUay4
So a plan was hatched.
We both do all the same sprint events, and would like to do more trackdays. Neither of us drive our other cars very often, and both of us have more sensible things to be spending money on. Why not share a car? All the costs are halved. We have between us two garages, two sets of tools and a hydraulic lift. Trackdays just become car + additional driver. But what could we get? We spent the 5 hour drive back from Darlington looking at many different options.
Civic Type R? Clio 182? MX5? Too many in the series already, and we wanted something different. I got very excited about the prospect of an MG ZS180 (yes, really!), but it would put us in a class with VX220s and V6 Exiges. Same for an Accord Type R. Z3/Z4 were too expensive, but we did want RWD. Weve both had a variety of MR2s in the past but fancied something different something that could fit both of our kit, plus tools, jack and a spare set of wheels for a weekend. We kept coming back to the obvious answer that was staring us in the face Ive owned one before, but even so the internet scare stories can be a bit off-putting. How would it cope with regular track abuse? Only one way to find out!We set a budget of
£1000 and hit eBay.We almost had too much choice for our budget so whittling them down was a fairly arduous process, and finally chose one to go and have a look at.
So, yesterday evening, I put down a deposit on this beauty:
2017-07-08_07-05-28 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2017-07-08_07-05-39 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrYep,
£1000. It has a recent rebuild from Apex Rotary, starts well from hot and cold, and has clearly had some money spent in the past. It already has a stainless manifold and full exhaust system, Tein coilovers etc and seems to have had recent plugs, Magnecor leads and coils. On the other hand the paintwork is scruffy, it smells of dog, has a bit of play in the steering column and has some horrendous drug-dealer wheels fitted (those rears are 265 section!). So, plans? Well, the coilovers were on the list already so theyre a bonus.
The exhaust does have a cat (so MOT friendly) but is fairly loud and the manifold is blowing slightly. We might be a bit close to some track noise-limits, so Ill need to investigate that. Well flog the wheels in favour of a couple of sets of standard wheels (one for road use and one for a set of R888Rs we already have ready to go on). First sprint event is in three weeks so we have our work cut out! Longer-term plans will be to strip a reasonable amount from the interior, acquire some braided lines, fit a bolt-in roll cage, bucket seats and harnesses and take it from there. Hopefully itll give us a reasonable amount of fun without grenading itself.Pick-up this weekend!
looking forward to seeing how it goes, glad you guys are doing this together.
