Well...
An eventful day yesterday which for me has only just ended.
Got up for 7 and was on the road for 7:45, Astra was feeling and sounding pretty good. Made it to Crail for about 10:30 I think, only to discover that the B-roads en route had dislocated my exhaust from its hanger again. So, 1st order of business was to sort that, no big deal.
Got it jacked up, back on the hanger, dropped it to the deck, sorted. Popped the bonnet to make sure everything was cool and as I did, in comedy removing a baby's nappy style, I get sprayed with hot coolant from the radiator which somehow had been pierced by the bonnet catch.
Repair solutions were discussed and in the end I opted to clamp the pierced waterway shut with pliers which seemed to pretty much seal it up.
Paid my £15 to get on the strip and queued up before it was too busy. Received the honorary nod from AG as I passed the rolling road. Temps looked good, everything seemed as it should be. I'd been struggling recently with a bad missfire that I thought I had cured, alas, no, it was still there at about 5,500RPM (limiter is 7.5k)
Lined up vs a Citroen Xsara VTS for my first run. I beat him with a time of 14.7@103MPH. Okay for a warm up with a few missfires.
A red Escort RS turbo was to be my next victim, got a better start and despite some missing, I crossed the line well ahead of him with a 14.2@106MPH
Next run was what I believe to be an Astra 888 Diesel. Beat him too with a time of again, missing higher up the rev range. 14.6@104MPH
Next up was a Honda Civic, again, won with a crap 16.1@82MPH. - Lifted off due to heavy missing towards the end.
Had a break after that as temps were getting up and I don't currently have a fan.
Watched at the start line for a while and the Red Mk3 GSI was putting down some quick times. Mid 13's as i recall.
Motivated by this, I headed back to the car to queue up only to find the battery was flat, so its either a dud battery or the alternator is on its way out as it keeps flattening them. As I headed for the front of the queue, I spotted Alland parked up in the queue with his Nova, a quick chat with him and he explained he had snapped a shaft, bad news but he wheeled it back to his trailer and swapped shafts and was going again in no time, anyone know what he ran?
Next was to be my first defeat. I lined up against the 470BHP AVA Sierra Cosworth "C3SSE" plate. Talking to the owner Colin I think his name was in the queue he said it looked like I was struggling to get traction, which I was, I put 40PSI in the front tyres a few days ago to lift the car a bit and hadn't touched them since. Didn't have a gauge with me to check pressures so didn't want to adjust them. Quite keen to have a go at this beast, there was confussion at the start and I got away ahead of him only to missfire at the end of second and third so badly I lifted off and crossed the line a good bit after him, turned out we both got No Runs though due to the start.
Back round again and I lined up next to a green vectra, with a Mk1 wide arched "Castrol" Livered Escort claiming to be a V8 sitting all alone in front of me. I asked the vectra driver if he wanted to race him and he bottled it, so I line up next to the Escort feeling confident, let the tyre pressures down a bit, added a little more fuel pressure to see if it helped my miss fire, sprayed the IC with water and lined up to start. Got a reasonable start and was ahead of him only to go from 1st to 4th.
conceded defeat and crossed the line in 19.4 @ 55MPH
Would have had him easily though I reckon, if he was trying.
Temps were high again by this point, just below the red lining up against the scrote, so I pulled up for a breather.
I also got to thinking, the dipstick kept popping off and spraying everything with oil under heavy load - the same kind of load my missfire was happening with. I traced it back to the 1way valve between the TB and rocker, it wasn't working at all, so vented the rocker to atmosphere and clamped off the tb line and hoped for the best.
Next run was the best of the day.
I found myself in the queue beside a white Escos branded with DP motorsport decals and a DP private plate. Should be a good one I thought, the guy had his window up in the queue so he wasn't giving anything away, a splash of water on the intercooler, burnout up to the line and I was ready.
Gave it more revs this time on the line as my boys had said I wasn't wheelspinning away as much as others. 0.4 reaction and I was off, ahead of the Escos
Into 2nd, hit the limiter, no missfire, into third, close to the limiter, into 4th, higher up had a missfire towards the end of the 1/4 but was the best run of what were really a bad bunch 13.9@105MPH.
I then parked up and hung around the skid pan for a while. With a nightshift to work at 10 I was keen to get back down the road and get some kip. So I returned to the car and started it up, bit louder than usual? Sounds like the exhaust is blowing..
Popped the bonnet to find the Rick Draper ceramic coated Manifold has cracked. Cracked big time..
Against my better judgment but keen to get home, I crawled home in the car which on the whole, served me well despite all happenings on the day.
I'm now taking it off the road, the tax will be refunded today / tomorrow and the MOT expires next month. I have to decide what to do really.
It was good being in that environment again, meeting Lugy, Keith, Allan etc, its not something I really want to "get out of" There were lots of people coming up and asking me questions about the car etc and it got some interest I wasn't expecting. Thats fine and everything, but thats not what I want, I want to set quick times. If I go RWD or 4x4, the bar is just too high with the like of AG setting a 10.4 on the day, that is unbeatable unless you have a mega budget.
I'm just not sure what I want from the car anymore, it doesn't interest me driving it on the road anymore, its too jumpy, loud and hard for anything but motorway conditions. But at the same time I don't want a trailer queen.
It has the potential to be alot quicker on THIS spec, every run I did had an issue, all of my 60ft times were over 2.5 seconds too which is terrible. This car has a 12.xx second off gas in it, I feel it in my heart, it just needs a better tweaked setup.
A summary of the day:
Best run: Win vs DP Motorsport Escos 13.9@105MPH
Things broken / needing replaced: Tubular manifold
, radiator, battery/alt, CV boot (3rd in 12 months)
Highlight: AG's 10.4
Nathan (CavvieSRIred) got some good videos I think, so they'll probably appear at some stage. Congrats if you read this far, I'm gan bed.
Crail Raceway 28/09/08 
Re: MY Astra V2.0 
