...firstly go find a car and buy it, then....buy a set of rims for it for much cheapness on ebay, fit a set of Toyo tyres (required by sponsors), and go racing!
Thats what we did last weekend! Our Nissan Skyline (car in my sig pic) we run in Time Attack was in the middle of an engine rebuild which took rather longer than we had hoped - it spun a bearing at the previous round at Brands Hatch, mainly due to oil starvation (oil control problems are common in the RB engines), anyway with one thing and another we had 2 weeks to go and the engine was still in bits. 2 Black Lines took ill and it began to look like we wouldnt make the final round of Time Attack at Snetterton in Norfolk. We eventually came to the decision not to run the car, deciding to wait and build the engine up properly for next year - got dry sump plans and more.
We found an M3 with 139000 miles in Liverpool that has had 11 owners, probably a lot of abuse, but still felt tight and also carried the private plate from registration for the first owner!. It is an Evolution and has a 6 speed manual gearbox. Picked car up from Liverpool on Friday, drove it to Glasgow on the trailer. Left for Norfolk on Saturday, car given once over, a new battery (existing one was flat) and an oil change and new filter and we are ready to rock and roll
450 or so miles down the road car was taken off trailer - got our spare toyos (wet pattern but same compountd as the 888's) fitted to our very tatty m6 wheels that we painted white and car ready to race!
Car did not disgrace itself - amongst stripped caged and far from standard cars, it managed to finish above a couple of Mazdas, a Sierra and some other stuff - the only thing we managed to reduce weight was the spare wheel, and the boot lining. We ran with full leather interior and standard front seats and standard suspension which is fine for road use but some nice aftermarket anti roll bars would have done very nicely!! Got to say here, the car also did well thanks to 2 Black Lines driving skills! I know i'm biased but its true!
We were very impressed just how well the car did perform and how it ran with no problems in two sessions on the track - oil temp crept up a bit and so did water, but with a couple of slower laps these quickly came back down.
Plans now are to get the car tidied up - needs a bit of paintwork, get the wheels powder coated white (we sprayed them with white paint) and have a nice Club carand daily driver
Here are some pics from the day
http://www.timeattack.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/round-5-finals-gallery/rich_sams_ta_rnd5_070.jpg -
http://www.timeattack.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/round-5-finals-gallery/rich_sams_ta_rnd5_178.jpg -
http://www.timeattack.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/round-5-finals-gallery/479.jpg -
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Cars
1996 BMW M3 Evolution
2001 C5 Corvette
1989 601 s Trabant
1956 Glas Goggomobil
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