RetroPug's Ph.1 Diablo Gti-6

[RetroPug]

A bit of an update:

First off, a picture of the new rear beam fitted. The underside of this car will be getting a proper tidy up once I get somewhere indoors to work on it.



Once I had the new tyres fitted, it was time to do a sprint day!

Unfortunately, having removed the Uniroyal Rainsport 3s, it was absolutely chucking it down at the start of the day. This meant that for quite a lot of the morning I was sliding around all over the place and not going very quickly at all on the cold Yokohama AD08Rs on soaking wet tarmac, with various types of tarmac with varying levels of grip thrown into the mix as well:







Fortunately, towards the middle of the day the track dried up, and I'd now learned the rather confusing layout and had begun to get an idea of how to drive it. I began getting quicker times pretty much every time I went out and did a lap in the car, getting quicker and more confident all the time:





The car felt quite simply excellent. The Yokohama AD06Rs are a good tyre for sprints as they grip well even without much heat in them in the dry, and they felt very linear and predictable. The new rear beam, fitted with new mounts felt great, with the back end oversteering controllably pretty much when I wanted it to rather than catching me by surprise. I was really enjoying myself and although there were some corners I still wasn't taking as well as I hoped, there were some on which I was approaching the limits of the car and going very quickly through:



All of this enjoyment came at a price however, as my oil temperatures were getting extremely high even after just one run. Also, as the day moved into the afternoon, my car started getting louder and rougher sounding. This was because the outlet pipe on my catalyst had split again where it had been welded. This was a bit of a setback, especially as the sun had come out and the tarmac was beginning to warm up, and more importantly I was really getting into a groove and getting much quicker every lap. I decided to call it a day and go home as I didn't want the exhaust to split completely before the drive back, and because it was getting a bit frustrating waiting for the oil to cool for a long time between runs.

Overall, it was a fantastic day given that it was essentially a shakedown for the car after having a new rear beam fitted with new mounts, a new set of tyres, and it being the first time it had been driven in anger at all other than 4 runs at Pugfest last year.

Since doing this sprint day a little while ago I had ordered and taken delivery of a 12" SPAL pull fan to go on the back of the radiator, just awaiting a fitting kit now. This will allow me to fit the oil cooler setup I've had stored away for ages. I have also ordered another catalyst which I intend to modify. I've also been painting a replacement set of cam covers, and have removed a few other engine bay components in order to repaint them. This crusty pipe which has been cable-tied out of the way also got a tidy up, only got a before picture for that so far though:



I have also been refurbishing a spare set of genuine wishbones. These will have all new bushes fitted: lemforder front ones and genuine berlingo p-bushes. That's about it for now, just need to fix it before Pugfest!