back in black

Ordered (and received a few days later) some black "Pop" plates form VicRoads. Same number. Goes well with the paint colour. The front plate is held on with double sided tape, so that it conforms to the shape of the front bumper better (and does double duty hiding the holes that I put in it the other day ;o)

Now I just have to get rid of the orange bits (reflectors, indicators, etc)...



Also got the stone chip in the windscreen repaired, though it is still quite visible (it just stops it cracking further).

Phillip Island - Round 1

Back at the track! (at last)

Another great fun day at the track, my first event in at least two years. I thought it might take me a little time to get back into it, but I was straight into the 2:04s and showing up many of the newer club members, teehee. Eventually got down to a 2:03.60 which is a new Vic Club class record for Standard NB. Very happy with that.

Not so happy with a massive stone chip in the windscreen (and bonnet, and bumper...) from some flicked up stones, but what can you do?

The new tyres were excellent, though I was spinning up the inside rear out of corners - really need an LSD to stop this or I'll shred them in no time.

Holey crap!

Yep, I've done it again! More damage.
Will be opting for the cheapy repair on this one (ie, forget about it and hide it behind the plate)

Lube and rubber

Had some free hours on the weekend, and I'm off to Phillip Island next week, so last chance to get ready!

Got some new tyres fitted - Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 to give them their full title.
Size is 195/50R15, they look very square on the factory 15x6" wheels as you can see above. As soon as I left the tyre shop the wheels were spinning, but that is (hopefully only) due to the release compound doing its thing. All going well they should be scrubbed in by next week.

With Tony busy today, I jacked the car in the street and crawled under to change some fluids.
First, engine oil - I don't think the previous stuff was too old, but at least I have a starting point now. Shell Helix Ultra full synthetic 5W-40.
Then on to the gearbox oil - good to see the gorilla still works at the Mazda factory - those gearbox fill and drain caps were on stupidly tight. It took a BFH to encourage them off. Refilled with 1 litre of Castrol Syntrax and the remainder (nearly a litre) of Castrol ATF - a strange mix admittedly, but ATF is apparently good for curing crunchy shifts (which I have badly on 2nd gear), because it is less viscous and allows the synchros to engage faster. Will find out how it goes soon...
Lastly, I replaced the shifter boots which were torn (see previous post) and topped up the shift tower (with ATF, because the bottle was open).

Dropped the tyre pressure back from 36 psi that the tyre guys had put in it,to something more sensible. Surprisingly not much difference in ride though. Must be some stiff sidewalls here :o)

I have the Powah!

She's back - at last! Sadly took a week longer than expected, which means I missed out on going to DECA. :o(
Looks good though!

I got her back just in time to go to the club dyno day.
73.7 kW of power, and 1993 Newtons (?) of force (analogous to torque) at the rollers of the Caulfield Jag dyno. This is (as I recall from previous years) pretty much normal for a standard NB, so all is good in that respect.

I have a box full of goodies to fit in the next couple of weeks, I started with some new globes tonight - Phillips BlueVision, the colour seems OK (very white) even if they're not any brighter (which was the aim...).

Are we there yet?

OK, so this isn't the MX, but it's car fun nonetheless. I thought it was about time to pull the DVD navigation unit out of the BMW. It's a Japan-only system, so as useful as tits on a bull around here. Not as simple a task as first imagined... I can't believe how complex this thing is! 6 radio sensors on the rear window, a GPS sensor, another sensor (VICS?) on the dash, a couple of signal amplifiers, the DVD unit, and several other electronics boxes scattered throughout the car - in the boot, on the parcel shelf, and behind the glovebox. What's shown doesn't even include the TV screen that must have been in there also...

I reckon I saved about 5kg.

What's wrong with a bloody Navman?????

Blink and you'd miss it

Not much happening lately - I was supposed to be going to a track day at Sandown, but given the condition of the car (see below), that wasn't happening. It's off to the shop tomorrow morning, hopefully to be fixed before the next club event.

So to alleviate the boredom of a lack of car tinkering (or maybe just to satisfy my anally retentive attention to detail) I pulled off the corner reflectors and sanded back all the raised lettering. Start with 400 grit wet and dry to buff off the lettering, then again with 1200 (the finest in the shop, 2000 would be better), and finally a buff with plastic polish.

Hopefully the panel shop guys will be able to figure out which one goes where when they reassemble it, now that they aren't labelled. I didn't get round to doing the side indicators, but they could really do with the same work done. There's a couple of letters on the rear lights too, but I probably won't bother with those ones.

But the job isn't complete yet. They're still orange. The next task is to find and apply some lens tint and blacken them up - I saw some painted on another car recently and it looks superb.