Vernier cam pulley arrived today.

Just ordered myself front strut braces. I'm also eyeing up a quick shift gear linkage.

I've just been down my local organised scrappies to look at throttle housings.

Fitted upper strut brace.

Fitted lower strut brace. Whilst the car is in the air I fitted a new starter motor. The old one did not always work. When it just clicked I used to roll the car forwards in 1st gear and then it'd be OK.

Did throttle modifications. Also set up cam to factory spec.

Have decided that lower profile tyres are necessary. Managed to find someone who is selling a set of Cavalier GSi 15" wheels. I know 15" is too small on fashion grounds, but it's handling I want, not looks alone.

I've been out on a few jaunts recently and I can say I am totally happy with the performance of this car now. It pulls like a train and goes round corners in a very satisfying manner. But not in the wet!

Just got my first speeding ticket. On the motorway to work. As I came round a corner on the outside lane I spotted a patrol car on the bridge of a junction. So I slowed down, but in a non obvious way. Down to about 75mph. After I passed the junction I kept my eye on the mirror looking for activity. After about a minute I saw blue flashing lights as the outside lane was blocked. Then they turned the lights off as they came up behind me. They sat behind me for a bit. I started to wonder if I had a chance. Nope. They turned on the lights. Into the patrol car for a little chat. They'd timed me between two bridges and my average had been 92mph. Fair cop. 3 points and £60. Oh well, consider myself lucky. All the same, my attention has been brought to UK Speedtraps where they review a lot of detectors.

Just ordered a lightened flywheel.

Not again! Just got a NIP through the post telling me I was caught on camera doing 48 in a temporary 40mph limit. Bugger the cost, time for a detector of some sort.

Ordered myself a lightened flywheel from SBD.

Phoned up the ticket office and asked them to send me the photograph that the camera had taken. They took a bit of persuading but agreed to do it. I've been looking at detectors etc (UK Speedtraps) and have decided that a Geodesy Morpheus is the first step. It's a warning device based on a satellite navigation system and a database of camera locations.

Ordered myself a Morpheus.

Fitted the Morpheus system. Hardwired the power supply in and also the mobile phone charger whilst I was at it. No more cruddy wires coming out of the cigarette lighter socket.

Just been and tried the Morpheus out. It's pretty good. One mile from a camera site and the first Red LED lights up. More and more LEDs come on as the site is approached. At six the display starts to flash and the warning buzzer starts. At ten it goes mad with all the Red LEDs flashing quickly. Nice.

Just spent from 2pm to 2am fitting a lightened flywheel and new clutch. Quite an involving job since I had to remove the gear box to get at the flywheel. No major disasters though.

No more noisey clutch release bearing. After a year of ever worsening noises coming from the gearbox when in neutral it's a relief. The clutch pedal is very light as well now.

New clutch cable. The clutch is really light now.

Spend a few hours carefully fitting countersunk screws into the throttle plate. They were threadlocked in but I was still a bit scared that they might fall out.

I have been having problems with the exhaust blowing recently. At first I thought it was the flexible joint between the downpipe and the centre section. Whilst I was round the parts place I shone a torch down to guess the size of the gasket disc in the join when I noticed that the pipe was shiney on a clamped joint - the two sections had been sliding in and out. When I had the car up on axle stands I found that the next joint was blowing as well because I'd failed to replace the clamp when the end sheared off. Just can't get the quality of workmanship nowadays.

Session at rolling road sorting cam timing. Really pleased because it's now making 148BHP and 118BHP at the wheels. And I thought it felt a bit slow recently!

Today I went along to one of the stages on the Network Q rally. On the way in to the car park it was a forest road with pot holes in it. The lower strut brace runs about 2-3" above the road surface. So when both front wheels went down potholes the car bottomed out on the strut brace. There was a nasty graunching noise when it happend. I've had a look since and the strut brace is bent. Can't be doing the geometry any good that. And the gearbox hits it sometimes as well. Oh dear. Have to take the brace off tomorrow.

Order another strut brace.

Brake pads have worn down to the metal! I can hear an odd noise when braking.

Oil change.

Remove strut brace. Fit new track rod ends and lower ball joints. On the road the car feels much better, as good as it was the first time I rebuilt the suspension.

Pick up new wheels. They're 15" 5 spoke alloys as fitted to Cavalier Sri. Still not entirely sure about the looks, but I decide to try them anyway because I'm curious about the handling improvement. The new wheels had 185/60/15 tyres on so they're a larger rolling radius than the 185/60/14 tyres on the old wheels. Of course that will be sorted soon by fitted lower profile tyres.

When I get home I decide to try the wheels on to see what they'll look like. After fitting two of them I'm still not sure that they're look right. With lower profile tyres they might look better. I go out for a quick test and they feel better than the 14" wheels.

Have set of 195/50/15 Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres fitted at Protyre. Total cost was £229 including wheel alignment. A good price. The wheels look much better with the low profile rubber on them. I was tempted by some 195/45/15s but I was warned that they can look wrong because the arch-tyre gap gets too large. So I decide to stick with 195/50/15s.

Out on the road the grip improvement is startling. In the damp it seems to grip in a much more confidence inspiring manner. And when it starts to let go it is much more controllable. I've been laughing my head off at the way it slides off roundabouts in the damp. Not big obvious slides, just the feeling that the car is going at a slight different direction to the way the wheels are pointing.

Small things in life. Sorted the grotty tax disc holder. Replaced with £3 magnetic one. I did look at anodised ones but they looked gash. A tax disc is only a piece of paper! So why does it need eight Hex bolts to hold it down?

Sorting out front foglights. Also found a seller for bumpers since I need a new set ready for the respray next year. Considering a rear disc conversion, using parts from 16v Astra.

Travelled to Manchester to pick up a 16v rear beam complete with disc brakes and some more front and rear bumpers. Also picked up another set of front foglights since the current ones have both been cracked.

Met up with another MIG member for a mini car session. He's got a 2L 16v Calibra that's he's tuned to run up to 8500rpm and should be making 230-250BHP. He kindly allows me to drive it. Big smile on my face, this is proper mental. Because of the work he's done, revving to 8500 feels like 6000 on a normal car, just the noise sounds better. He's running throttle bodies and I'm impressed. The car can be driven normally and feels fine and quiet. Boot it and the fun begins. This is the piece of encouragement I need in my throttle body decision. The only word of caution is that 240BHP in a Calibra is fun, but the fun factor is not that far away from my 145BHP GTE. Factor in the heavier car, it's smoother ride and the less direct steering. I'm sure that if I really knew the Calibra then I could extract every bit of fun from it. But the lesson is in the balance - it's not just power, it is the complete package. The reason I love my GTE is that that it is such fun to drive. That's from attention to suspension, wheels, tyres and the engine. Bear that in mind when planning a project. Noise is good as well.

I've been thinking about this for months now. My current plan is to rebuild a second bottom end. The standard bottom end can run to 7250rpm. Well the 16v one can and I was told that the 16v had stronger con rods. If the con rod bolts are replaced with uprated items then the rev limit is raised to 7750rpm. The hydraulic tappets can cope out this far hopefully. So I'd run to 7700rpm. Now imagine that throttle bodies at 10% to the power and the higher rev limit allows about 10% more power, then I should be looking at somewhere around 175BHP. This would seem right since the 16v engine makes between 175 and 200BHP on throttle bodies. And a 2L 8v Nova with the B+ head and twin 45 carbs made 180BHP. Feeding this data into my accleration model produced 1/4 mile results of 14.9s at 95mph and a 0-60 of 6.5s. This would be enough to just beat the Honda Civic type R and the Clio 172, both new hotter that hot hatches. And I could do it for about £2K. Which is nice.