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Be back on the road tomorrow after 14 years!

Finally got around to taking some proper photos of my own car in the ‘paddock area’ at Curborough last week.

We then set off for Lithuania. Those were some of the worst roads I've ever driven on. At one point, though the speed limit was 90km/h, I couldn't go over 70 without feeling like I was about to lose a tooth. Somehow nothing fell off the car though! Once we got across the border, the roads improved again though. We stopped off to take a look at the hill of crosses which was pretty spectacular and a little creepy at the same time! Then for a little light heartedness we tried to go and check out an old abandoned theme park in Elektrenai, but unfortunately we were about a week too late as they've already demolished most of it. There were a few bits still standing, but it was an active building site so we could only take photos through the fence. After that, we set off for our next camping spot, possibly my favourite so far - that's the photo I posted yesterday, but here's another from the same place! Today was a big driving day to get to Lublin in Poland, only stopping for coffee, food and fuel. Lublin is a beautiful place, but the hostel has been a bit of a let down so far. First they had no record of our booking, then when they eventually figured it out, they tried to charge me again, even though they had already taken payment in full on my card. Eventually managed to sort it with them and we have some beds for the night. Tomorrow we set off into Ukraine. We won't get to Kiev until Thursday so no Internet for any updates tomorrow! I've had my gopro on for various parts so I'll go through that while there's no Internet to distract me and see if I can pick out any good bits!

The morning revealed just how nice a spot it was. May have been a little muddy getting there though. My car decided it wanted to try some DIY ceramic exhaust coating.

Yes when they started to sandbag the cafe entrance you knew it was getting biblical 😁

Well it was a cracking day out (now that i’m Warm and dry again). I still can’t drift but had a lot of fun. My highlight was @Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO and his finale doughnut wiping out all of the cones. I’m also hoping @Simon Westwood - Westfield Sportscars Ltd releases the video of him nearly getting run over. Possibly not the best advertising but an interesting moment. many thanks again to all that made it work. especially Patrick @Westfield Parts Dept

wd40 and lots of it. Works on screen bond as well (Don't ask how I know)

@Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO p shows off his powerboating skills today at 3 Sisters.

Mrs May tried to do Brexit the nice way and... Failed. I’m un-decided on boris, but I can see that with more MP’s against Brexit he has little choice to push the limits to break the stalemate in parliament let alone the EU. I fail To see how he can can deliver Brexit with his hands tied, when MP’s have voted can’t leave with out a deal, the current deal is unacceptable, without any negotiation clout he’s unlikely to get a better deal. MP’s would probably vote any deal down anyway because they want us to stay. Not to mention the EU... it’s a bl**** mess!

"In his two months in power, Boris Johnson has lost his first six Commons votes, broken the law by suspending Parliament and misled the monarch." Good start by old boris and the Tories. At least they are doing a damn fine job of making politics entertaining

ohhh man. Why did you say anything?

Ah you've gone and said it out loud now! That's us soaked all day now

Wednesday looks like the best day of the week. Have a spiffing day chaps!

Can’t comment on the track day stuff, not on my radar yet, but would echo all the comments by the Sport 250 group, our main users issues are on ground clearance and heat under the bonnet. For me the car provides all I can use and more, and I was more than happy with the handling of the car on the road, but after getting my ground clearance sorted with a new sump and then had the suspension setup correctly, it’s now providing more confidence as it’s that much sharper into corners inspiring you to experiment with entry and exit on corners that bit more. After setup, and after only a few miles it seems to be running cooler, to be confirmed b4 I make any foolish claims. After investigation into Ford EcoBoost engines in general, I’ve learned not to get hung up on the oil temp, modern oils are ok up to 120DegC so oil cooler not something I’m going to do at this point in time, but under hood temp is another thing, and I’m planning a few changes on air flow and air feed into the air filter/engine as I’m not happy with the current WF idea of the pipe hanging down by the RH suspension, at all. If it’s raw power your after then the EcoBoost 1600 has a lot more development options available and Dave Gemzoe’s Caterham 1600 I believe in at or above 300BHP, and it’s a much lighter engine, although it’s currently broken after a track incident. Something to look for on the 2.0L EcoBoost is the std Ford ECU is not mappable but WF are now supplying a 3rd party one that is mappable if yo desired that capability. My Sport 250 weighs in at 690Kg without my fat ass in it, but then again mine is very much build for me and not track work. Seen at least 1 other S2000 with the double exhaust can setup, 1 above another, specially for track day work, at one of our club meetings so must have been done for noise - can’t comment on induction noise. We have done a lot of mileage over the recent weekends, some of which was chasing Barnsley John in his S2000 and it was great fun and didn’t find myself looking for more from my 250 and that was b4 the setup work. Can’t comment on direct comparisons between the 2, but as AdgeC says car has tremendous pull from very low rpm, and I’ve pulled away from junctions from stand still, in 3rd gear, but not to be recommended. During “testing” have been north of the 1ton club, buy a quiet a BIG margin, enough to make my lift off blood quick as I’d have lots driving privileges by the men in blue, and think it was still pulling hard, but TBH think my eyes were quite wide as my first experience going that fast on 4 wheels in a 7. I did look at the S2000 car b4 starting my journey but even then the engines were becoming harder to find and even harder to find one that didn’t need tearing to bits and rebuilding from the ground up. A decent 2nd hand one would seem to be like hens teeth these days, so if you know of one i’de keep it on the QT. Gust my 2P worth but remember Red is fastest

This is one of the best “write up “ threads I have read on this site.

I keep meaning to, but forget every time I park up! While my speedo is in km/h, my odo also reads km so I need to actually change it to check rather than just looking down. I briefly switched it back to miles today while in a traffic jam and it's up over the 4k mark though!

Falling behind on my updates! This one hits the limits on photo sizes so there'll be a few posts here! Weather was much nicer on sunday for the drive from Estonia into Latvia. Roof was off all day thankfully! Once we crossed the border, we hit some really nice roads before stopping at a border checkpoint a couple of miles after the border. The Latvian border officer was very friendly, complimenting the car before checking my documents. All in order and we were back on our way. We stopped off for a short hike around Langu cliffs. Then carried on to another short walk to a viewpoint for Turaida castle. Then on to our campsite for the night. It was pretty late by the time we got there and the temperature was getting down to minus figures, so we just pitched the tents, cooked up some dinner and went to bed.

I've got the ground switched Freewheel diagrams at home too, although hand sketched rather than in colour, so if anyone needs them in future I can dig them back out.

Yes, thanks indeed, @BugMan. I modified it to show 2 standard 5 pin relays used with a high-side switching FreeWheel for @DE04* - might also help someone else (not as pretty as the original, though):

Not a lot of drifting skills though! 🤣

The accident to Monzon wasn’t fake and neither is the video of his accident. He was hospitalised with a pneumothorax and damage to his eyes, retina separation, and no doubt a few bruises, gladly fully recovered. On another serious point, as I said, my Westie V8 is 23 years old, So it has 23 year old seat belts, flexible brake hoses, master cylinder seals, brake caliper piston seals, fuel hoses, steering and suspension components etc. The car is always taken to a reliable and trustworthy mot station, and yes, they often point out a leaking seal or failed light, knowing that it will be fixed by me the next day. And I spend more time under my car than under my wife. That’s under her thumb, by the way. 🙂

It was mike and I for the championship! His exhaust issues earlier in the year gave me the tie breaker on class wins

Indeed, it's perfect 😁

Anyone living in Cheshire would agree right now that the weather is looking lovely for tomorrow!!

That make perfect sense and would explane my problem! Thank you. Just need a bit of dry weather to make the change now.

There’s no nead to show that video.... I’m still having therapy to deal with those images..... just saying

Still alive and well, just been a busy couple of days and not blessed with great Internet currently in Lithuania! We're booked into a hostel in Poland tomorrow night so I'll get a proper update done then, but in the mean time, here's a picture of the campsite tonight. Tactically dark to hide just how dirty the car is!

If the 'mods' don't like it, I'll show'em my ar$e 😉

MOT test time - my local garage decided that it was better to use a Tapley meter to measure braking efficiency as light cars tend to skip on their rollers. John and Lucy the owners squeezed into my narrow SEi for the brief drive. Lucy is, er, 'solid' while John is 6'5". It was not the best of fits! But the car passed, which is the main thing. 🙂

Two toys...

Yesterday: The clue's in the last picture.

Left home at 6.15am Did a little driving Got back home at 6.35pm

You know the law, without pictures it didn't happen......so......don't believe you.

Estonia! (but the weather here was horrible so no pretty pictures!)

The Lib Dems may want another referendum (good old EU tactic: keep running them until the desired result is achieved) but if the result is again to leave, Swinson is on record as saying that the Lib Dems would not respect that result. 😲

The problem is there is so much misinformation coming from the remain side that people are confused. We live in a parliamentary democracy, that is we the public give our votes for MP's to act on our behalf and that is true. However when they asked us for our vote in a "once in a lifetime decision" they gave democracy and the decision making power back to us and every party said they would honour that result and carry out the countries wishes. We have not given back that part to the MP's which is what those who want to stop Brexit do not get. What is now happening is MP's who do not wish to do as instructed have tried every thing they can to stop it and as I see it they have succeeded in that aim. Now we have a PM who has no negotiating power with the EU, is being hounded by the "rebel alliance" and an opposition leader who does not want an election as he wants to enshrine in law that no PM can leave the EU without a deal. If he was confident of winning he would not need that in place. In all my years I have never seen such underhand tactics and abuse of power against the will of the people. Just because remainers can muster shouty groups at the drop of a hat does not mean they represent the will of the people, the only measure of that was the referendum. Where we go from here is anyone's guess but I suspect there will be tactical voting like never before and this will be followed by another referendum which will be upheld if we vote to stay and ignored again if we vote to leave, or more likely the question will be so ambiguous and stacked that leave will be unable to win. However you voted and I respect everyone's choice, the way our parliament has acted is shameful.

It's not a belief system, it was a referendum, and the majority voted to leave. Lets imagine this was a general election and Party A won by 52 - 48. Would you actually believe that despite the result, Party B should be in power? Believe what you will but in the last referendum that we really REALLY cared about, Leave won. Irrespective of belief or party or whatever machinations we hang our hats on, the result of a democratic election should, and indeed must be honoured. To me any POLITICIAN who says "we can stop Brexit" should resign because they clearly and fundamentally do not believe in or understand how democracy works.