WEEK 12 OF THE BUILD AND THE MK2 ENGINE IS BACK IN

A sunny day, and from one angle, we seem to have built a decent looking car.

We are still waiting for our new engine, so with time rushing on and no practice as yet, we decided to put the MK2 engine and VTR box back in this week and hope to have the suspension fitted next week.

We still need to fit some glass for the car to be watertight, but things are now progressing at a faster rate, as we have a rolling shell. The plan was to keep the car matt black and then run a dayglow stripe, but just picking out the chevrons might be enough considering the amount of decal we must place on the car.

From certain views, the car still has dsome work to do!

SPOOX SUPPORT FOR 2009

The local and respected Leicester Perugeot and Citroen Motorsport company will be running Mike in 2009. They have already assisted in the SAXO preparation and will be installing their engine and gearbox for us next month ready for testing. They already support winning Rally and Sprint drivers, but this is their first venture into Circuit Racing, so we look forward to the season with enthusiasm.

GAZ SUPPORT FOR 2009

The Stock Hatch units arrived over the weekend to the latest specification ready for testing. Once we have located some new bearings and anti-rollbar links form one of our supporters - Parkers of Leicester, we will get them installed later this week. GAZ were the 2005/6 winners of the championship, so we will have some basic circuit set up data from them. The Stock Hatch regulations are very strict, but as their MD originally owned LEDA, he feels he has the experience to provide us with a better solution. For more information about their excellent products contact them on www.gaz-shocks.co.uk and ask for Dave or Mark.

RACE-TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

In 2002 soon after the company started, having won the TKM festival, Mike was invited to started working with Race-Technology on a lighter version for Karting. During 2003/4 most of the potential problems were identified in order to make the unit more robust. Now in 2009, the company have offered Mike a system for his Stock Hatch season. Initially we will install the DL1 and Dash 3, which costs just £699. By mid-season we hope to link with their in-car video system. Full details are available on their web-site http://www.race-technology.com/

Mike has gone for the upgraded 20HZ version to give him more accurate car positioning data. He will also link it to his ECU so that he can display all the engine data on his Dash 3. The system records all the data onto a flash drive, which is downloaded onto any low powered PC for track-side analysis.

WEEK 11 OF BUILD - MORE PARTS ARRIVE

After a quiet couple of weeks of tinkering with small jobs, the brake discs and pads arrived together with the oil cooler and correct brake lines. The suspension has been posted to us together with the data capture module and lap timer.

With the power plant still at the engineers, we are installing the MK2 motor and VTR box for our initial testing, with the new powerplant and OMEX set up to follow in February. The poor Clan still sits in the garage waiting to be rebuilt!

WEEK 10 OF BUILD INCLUDES A TRIP TO THE NEC

While we wait for the engine and box being blue-printed, plus still waiting on the suspension units, so just little jobs being done which included a trip to the Autosport show with Spoox Motorsport.

Following the trip. Spoox outlined the support program for 2009, which looks very cost effective.

WEEK 9 UPDATE ON SAXO BUILD

With Mike away Skiing, and most of our suppliers closed, we are still waiting on the suspension from GAZ, the engine and gearbox from SPOOX and the ECU from OMEX. The car now has new fuel and brake-lines fitted and the seat and belts sorted. The spare rear axle has been refurbished and the roof plate and interior panels completed. Images will be posted soon. The 2009 regulations have just been published, so we now know what we are building. The main change is the addition of fitting a Catalyst.

Before he left, Mike returned home with the winners trophy and champagne from the Track Drivers meeting.