Brands Hatch
17th July 2006
Well I think I am nearly there with the car. The last couple of weeks were pretty crazy with getting things finished in time for Brands Hatch on Wednesday, but it all came together in the end and it was a fantastic day!
First of all my new Toyo R888s were fitted, then the brake fluid was changed and some fresh engine oil put in. I was going to leave it at that, but Daz at Rare Import Parts called me...
We'd been discussing making a tubular front cross member with rose jointed tie rods for a few weeks. It was looking like it would be ready for Brands, but then some delays at the fab company meant it wouldn't be ready. But then Daz came through and got it ready in the nick of time!
It's really transformed the handling; stiffening the front end like this has meant there's no understeer unless you get silly with the loud pedal, but even that's more difficult because there's now so much more feedback through the steering it's much easier to feel when the tyres can't transmit any more power.
With the addition of my heavier springs and further weight reduction, the car was almost perfect. No understeer, no oversteer, just a beautiful balance. I was really able to start enjoying the circuit and was unofficially lapping just a couple of seconds shy of race pace (and that was with a passenger in the car!).
A huge thanks to everyone that helped, my dad especially for driving home after such a long day! Everyone was very excited after their passenger rides which is always good as well. The event was the first one organised by Hondas-On-Track and was seen as a huge success by the 40+ Hondas that made it.
The only thing I have to worry about now is whether or not my engine will last a full day at Silverstone on August 3rd!
As well as the couple of pictures below, there are lots more in the gallery here, and there's some video that my dad took here.
