Brakes are severley warped. I've had enough of this. Considering the 16v GTE ATE calipers.

I had a "race" with an Audi TT on the way to work today. On the dual carriageway he was behind me and I seemed to be getting away from him in 3rd...just. Then he was gaining on me. On the motorway sliproad there is a tight bend (slippery in the wet) and then it goes into two lanes. He was tailgating me on the bend, then on the double lane section I was past the tricky bit and I booted it and he never managed to get past. Makes all the effort seem worth it that does.

Pants. Whilst in work car park I lose the front on a slippery patch and kerb the right hand wheel. Take a big chunk out of it. Go round Protyre and have spare one fitted. Need new front tyres as well. So that's 5 months out of the last set (Goodyears). Don't mind, that's a lot of slipping and sliding. Tracking was knocked out a bit. Most upsetting, the steering feel has been knackered, suspect that it needs another steering rack. Again.

Cleaning session, cleared out boot and jetwashed the metalwork, then polished it. Made me feel a lot better. All the same, all I can see is scratches, paint chips, dents and rust spots. Sometimes I feel like giving up, but it's nothing that a respray couldn't sort.

The smell of damp carpet has returned so I decide to have another look for the leak. This time I do it properly, running water down the windscreen from the garden hose. Inside the drivers footwell it sounds like a coffee perculator. Aha, I do see a hole in the inner wing with water coming in through it! What's happening is that water goes down the bulkhead drain and then down the side of the inner wing, where some of it leaks into the footweel. A quick visit to Halfords and one grommet later it seems to be sorted.

Bit quiet at the moment. New plastic bits for the front and rear bumpers. New gear lever gaitor. Water level warning light flashing, faulty sensor temporarily fixed with some wire to bypass. New black vinyl bits for the door pillars and tailgate. Brakes still need sorting. I've managed to find new late spec ATE calipers (as from 16v).

Remove black vinyl off tailgate, ready for fitting new one. This is necessary because I ripped a patch off by accident with the jetwash one day, and also because the previous owner decided that two GTE badges would look better than one. Surprisingly, the car looks a lot better without the black vinyl. It really is surprising how much difference it makes. This is a bit of a quandary since I'm working on keeping the car standard. Will wait and see if the novelty wears off.

Pick up remanufactured ATE brake calipers. For brake rebuild. Hmm, seems to be a bit missing. Turns out that Vauxhall won't sell that part on its own. Scrappies then.

Doing a lot of polishing at the moment. It's looking pretty clean. A lot of scratches and stone chips though.

Went to CCC action day at Castle Combe. It was a road car track day. For £20 you got to do 5 laps of the cicuit, along with about 30 other cars. I went to watch first, and feck me, every single car was screaching round the bends, a fair few looked close to the limit. I did eventually get my track pass. I took it carefully at first wanting to learn the track. I speeded up on subsequent laps. It was about 60% fear and 40% fun, I couldn't afford to crash. Also the track was very busy with Caterham 7s and what not flying past most of the time. I did manage to hold off a 205Gti which was nice. He got past at one stage but I managed to reclaim my place by booting it in 3rd gear. To be honest, it was a relief to get off the track. Need to be in a better mental state next time, I was too tired from late nights. However, when I went for walkabout I watched loads of other cars and I don't think I did too badly for a novice. I was getting tyre screach on all of the corners. I did overcook it once but managed to correct it out. Generally I enjoyed the slow sharp chicanes more than the big bends. I can understand why people build track cars now. Crashing your pride and joy would be painful.

Vowed to sort brakes out properly.

I had some new number plates made at a trade stand at Castle Coombe. It took me a while to choose, but I went for plain background, single border, standard letters, no logos, emblems, text or honeycomb. I thought I'd gone too minimalist. But when I fixed the rear ones on with double sided carpet tape and stood back, the result was a massive improvement in the looks. The tatty old plate with rusty screws was gone and in it's place a simple and effective new one. I'd never believed that such a simple job would be so satisfying.

Pick up calipers from scrappies.

Sorting out insurance. Best quote £350 3rd party, £530 fully comp.

Pick up reground discs and brake carrier sections from Maynards.

Fit ATE calipers. Doing it.

Insurance up for renewal. Phone round loads of places. Try adverts in back of Redline magasine. Get some reasonable quotes. About £550 fully comp for modded car (suspension, air box, exhaust).

Have to get garage report for insurance. Not sure what to do. Phone up the place where I had my MOT done. They agree to inspect suspension if I bring it round. Really good of them, charge me £10, print out report "suspension upgrade integrity check". Think they've been having fun.

One of the brake discs has warped. Bored by this. Maybe the discs are crap. Maybe the caliper was sticking. Will sort it later.

Busy meshing front grille.

Down to Santa Pod for some more 1/4 mile timings. Get 16.23s which is better than last time, but not as good as Crail. It's about spot on what I calculated , so I don't think I could get much better. Best thing is a side by side race with a 16v GTE. My 8v managed to stick on all the way, only falling behind about 1 car length, mainly from the start. Really confirmed my faith in the trusty old 8v.

Finally finish sorting the water leak. Silicone seal a decent grommet into the hole in the inner wing. Refit carpet and centre console (been out for about 6 months now). New gear lever gaitor. Various bits of trim refitted in driver's footwell.

It's 9pm on Friday night so I decide to fix the handbrake cable that I snapped on the previous day. If you find yourself pulling the handbrake further and further each time then chances are that the cable might be about to go. I hit a problem when I removed the brake drums. There was such a deep groove worn that the shoes came off with the drums. I lost one of the retaining pins. After an hour searching around with a spot light I gave up. Better idea..

Cycled round Vauxhall dealer and picked up new retaining pins and washers, and new drums. Also fitted new wheel bearings.

Driving in Bristol I could smell burning. Looked into the mirror and could see smoke coming off the right hand rear drum. That'll be the bedding in process then. Fine after a day or so.

Not many updates recently. Things have quietened down on the car front because it's summer and there's other things to do, like mountain biking, football in the park, watching the wildlife, and, oh, lack of money. So keeping it looking clean has been the main activity. Don't worry though, the enthusiasm hasn't died, I still really enjoy driving this car.