First trackday in the 16V, much breakage.

[Anonymous]

Hi folks.

I took my 16v out for its first trackday last weekend at RAF marham.
After spending most of the day before prepping and doing last minute stuff i was looking forward to a good bit of action.
I left my house in essex at 5AM and got as far as chelmsford when the car started making a nasty screaming noise, kinda like a misssed gear. I pulled over and switched it off and had a quick look under the bonnet, seeing nothing much i tried starting it up again but the starter was just clicking. I put it in gear and rocked it a bit and tried again and it burst into life and ran fine again so i got back in and carried on.
I got up to sudbury just before six and met up with a few people and had a gentle cruise the rest of the way there. The car never missed a beat for the rest of the journey.
Got to the track, waited for the fog to clear and finally got out in the first session. Managed half a lap and the car just died.
Got it towed back to the pits and had a quick poke around and decieded that it must be a problem with the crank sensor since i had no RPM signal at all, even on cranking. After about an hour or so of fighting the crank sensor came out looking like it had been run over by a tank. I put two and two together and decieded that while messing around under the bonnet the night before i must have dropped a nut or washer onto the bellhousing which had fallen inside causing the noise and the jamming starter. I guessed this had damaged the crank sensor too but not enough to stop the car from running but enough to make it rub on the flywheel and eventually fail.
I managed to find someone with a spare sensor from a 24v senator which i made fit by spacing it with a couple of nuts. Put it all back together and got back out by about 2 pm.
I managed another lap and a half before the car died again in exactly the same spot. Pulling the crank sensor out it looked exactly the same as the previous one.

We ended up towing the car to the gate and coming home on the back of an RAC truck.
I went down the workshop yesterday and pulled the box out, and this is the really annoying bit, found nothing in there at all. You can see the damage whatever it was has caused but it must have fallen out on the back of the recovery.
Still, the 2 laps that i did get in were the most fun i've had in ages so i'm gonna repair the car, maybe develop it a bit more over the winter and get some serious track time in next year.


The damage inside the bellhousing.


This is how it spent most of the day
Thats not me BTW, I'm the bloke standing behind with the helmet.





And someone must have been very quick to get these pics of it actually on the track.
At least i saved money on fuel coming home

[martyn]

Did removing the headlight & mirror give you any better performance

[Vanny]

sounds like the car never went fast enough to get the benefit from cold air feed Removing the head light does work if you have a cone filter on the end of the AFM

[Anonymous]

Did removing the headlight & mirror give you any better performance

Not as much as everything else i removed.

[Anonymous]

sounds like the car never went fast enough to get the benefit from cold air feed Removing the head light does work if you have a cone filter on the end of the AFM

Which i do

I still managed to hit about 120ish on the main straight before backing off to let some of the quicker boys through. The straight at marham is over a mile long so plenty of run up

[Kitch]

Whatever it was that dropped into the bellhousing didn't damage any of the teeth on the flywheel did it? Sounds very unlucky either way mate, but well done for getting a valver on the track!!

[Toddman]

Gutted for you mate!
But at least no really major damage.
I am watching the weather forecast carefully as we wee hoping to visit Pod on sunday but if weather is bad it is pointles.

Cheers
Luke

[Anonymous]

The teeth on the flywheel are fine, the only bit of damage is on the presssure plate and its nothing major.
There is a screw missing from inside the starter and i can only assume that thats what came out and its been chomped up by the flywheel.

I was hoping to get up to the pod this weekend too but now the cars off the road and the money situation is bordering on the tragic i'm going to have to give it a miss.
I'll be up there in the new year though, aiming to get into the 14's with a standard engine

[Timmo]

unlucky with the lack of track time, but good on you for getting out there and having some fun!!

hopefully your next venture will be a little more successful!!!!

[thanuttiscotsman]

sorry to hear of the misfortune on thr track! but keep it up im sure there will be alot of fun to come.

rossco