A.R.S.E.

Yeah, this road comes off Cotter Rd. Very little traffic on weekdays but cyclists like to get out there on weekends.

A bit of work with the car today. Took it back to the guy I bought it off and helped him swap in some new suspension bits. Basically new solid suspension top mounts, front bump stops, OEM shocks and Eibach pro-line springs which drop it about 25mm all round. Didn't want to drop it too far as I'm running slightly higher offset than stock and didn't want rubbing.

Rear suspension is an absolute piece of piss - don't even have to take the wheels off and both sides, shocks and springs done in about 20 minutes. Front was a little bit more work...

Solid top mounts (to replace the stock ones which, being French are made of cheese):




Front right shock coming out (showing spiffing new red brake lines):




New shock and spring:




Front left and things didn't quite go to plan - there's not meant to be a huge puddle of oil under the car is there???




In trying to lever the upright out of the way we managed to pop the gearbox seal off the driveshaft which must have just been hanging on for dear life anyway...




So, one new driveshaft and a trip to the shops for some gearbox oil later...



Will need to get a better shot at some point and also it desperately needs a wheel alignment as getting the new driveshaft in obviously resulted in some geometry changes...

Awesome man. Car is looking great. It would be great to drive though the twisties with this new suspension!

Looks excellent Exar, the stance is excellent!

Looks great mate...enjoy.

Thanks guys. Alignment done - no longer has a mind of its own on straight pieces of road which is good. Heading down to the coast over the Clyde Mountain on the weekend to give it a go at the twisties.

Some more work and the car is basically where I want it to be now. Replaced lower control arms as the ball joints were rooted. Grabbed a later model set that have increased caster so the steering feels better now too. Also did all the front suspension bushes at the same time as well as a new clutch cable which makes the pedal feel a bit nicer.

Having done all that, gave the car a good clean, plasti-dipped the wing mirrors black and headed out to Yass on Friday to meet up with about 40 like minded RenaultSport fans. The OzRenaultSport Nationals were on but I could only partake in a small part of the event due to other commitments. We had a spirited drive from Yass to Wee Jasper and back which was full of nice windy roads plus a few locals in Hiluxes who probably didn't quite get what was going on. Some mighty fine RenaultSport specimens to be seen. I spent the afternoon giving chase to the blue 182 which was immaculate and looked amazing. Handy driver too - it cracked the 1:14s at Wakefield on Saturday running 6 or 7 year old road tyres. Not bad for a little old hatchback.

I've also signed up for my first trackday - going to Marulan driver training centre in November. It's a pretty short, tight track that hopefully shouldn't be too hard on car or driver on their first time out.

Looking great Exar! The track day sounds awesome, that must be exciting! Looking forward to hearing about that!

That's a fine looking little Motor Mick

Thanks guys.

Here's a bit of the Wee Jasper run straight out of the GoPro so no editing.

[youtube]8XCl3Bgm0DI [/youtube]

Had French car day on the weekend so my car got to hang out with some buddies.



Turns out the mechanic who did the lower control arms a couple of months ago didn't install them properly causing one of the new ball joints to fail. So one new ball joint and an hour or two worth of labour and it's fixed. However, a delivery truck managed to hit my rear bar whilst it was parked up at the shop.



Not too much damage but a pain in the arse as I now have to chase up quotes and get it all sorted.

In good news, I'm all set for my first track day this weekend. It's just at Marulan Driver Training Centre north of Goulburn but should be a good way to get to know the car. Some new Michelin PP3s on the front and the GoPro is charged so all good to go.

Cross posting but whatever.

My first time on a track! Marulan Driver Training Centre which is only a 1km long course and I barely topped 100km/h. Only one gear change into third on the straight then back second for the whole lap. I was about 5 seconds off the seasoned track day guys but it was an awesome day. Got about 50 laps in so plenty of running and actually got to experience pushing the car for the first time. I'd never even engaged the ABS before! Conditions were a bit changeable but it was mostly dry in the end so all good. These are a couple of laps picked at random from the GoPro.

[youtube]C7oJ9JuIDl0 [/youtube]

[youtube]1_i4swVLM8Y [/youtube]

Nice work, Mick.

It's always tricky to know how hard to push, especially when you have to drive the car home again! And it doesn't look like there's much room for error at that track.

Mick - plain awesome you must have had a ball

Not a bad little track.

Being a few secs off is not a bad thing for your first time.. you want to have fun not get a tow truck.


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Jesus Mick. It feels like LFS.

And where is the constant sawing of the hands like in GPL?

Jesus that circuit makes Wakefield Park look like Spa Franchorchamps. Tight as a nuns nasty!

norbs wrote:Jesus Mick. It feels like LFS.

And where is the constant sawing of the hands like in GPL?

A bit of self preservation of man and machine at work! But seriously I just wanted to be smooth and get my lines down. Such a different experience for me being allowed to attack corners as hard as I like but there's only one moderately quick corner on the track and the car was only just starting to wiggle around in that corner as I got more confident towards the end of the day. Then it started to piss down and I went home.

The car is an awesome bang for your buck proposition. I only used half a tank of fuel lapping the track all day then driving an hour and a half back to Canberra.

Brembo disks, DS2500s and a fluid flush with Ferodo DOT 5.1 for good measure.



Now to get the pads bedded in properly...

Looks serious.

I like.

Sweet!

A couple more mods yesterday:

Fully sick snooker ball gearknob (actually red but phone makes it look orange)




And a KTR induction kit for MOAR NOISE! Sounds brilliant!

Ready to hit the race track now! Winton in a couple of weeks and Wakefield in November. Super dooper excited!