Our track project - including diary of a Sprint N00b...

vix · 01-08-2008, 17:49

So today Phil has been doing a bit of preparation on Sakura for the sprint on Sunday. I think I mentioned before that we can't do this sprint in Humphrey as this is an MSA regulated sprint and therefore a dedicated track car needs a cage, however a road car can compete. The difference being how much interior remains in the car! I can't take any pictures on the day as cameras are banned at the site we are at (Lotus test track), so I asked Phil to prep her fully so I could have some pics today. Hopefully there will be a pro there who will be taking some on track pics.

First of all, Phil got creative with the numbers. Because we are numbers 56 and 57 in the Sprint Series, we have 2 each of numbers 5,6 and 7. Typically, Phil's allocated number of this sprint is 8!!! So, black electrical tape and white vinyl on our number 6, gives us this rather convincing 8:

Phil then went to the back of Sakura to mark out the towing eyes. This is when he found that the n00b who fitted the bodykit (previous owner) had decided the towing eyes were unneccesary and cut them off :/ So now Sakura has this lovely new bumper borrowed off Humph. Well it blends in quite nicely :/

Hahaha, anyway the luggage rack is on there because we are going to have to strap my walking frame to it so I can actually hobble round the paddock a bit and go to the loo. Very important. Whilst Phil had both bumpers off, he decided to weigh them to see the difference, as he had removed some metal from Humphrey's as a weight saving exercise. The difference was 5kg, which is fairly good. Here's a pic of the two bumpers to show what has been removed:

The Toyota Sprint Series does not require the use of a timing strut, however this MSA sprint does. The strut needs to be the first thing on the car that will break the timing beams. Phil made it a few years ago when he did his first ever sprint in his red MR2, it is basically thin aluminium with matt black paint. It's then fitted to the nose of the car with gaffa tape. Hardcore!

I wonder if I can persuade Phil to wash her tomorrow?

So that's basically one road car prepped for sprinting. I'm a bit nervous about her going on track and also very very annoyed and frustrated that I can't drive her.

I said he should have carried the gaffa tape stripes up the bonnet, I rather like them

01-08-2008, 17:49	#11
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	So today Phil has been doing a bit of preparation on Sakura for the sprint on Sunday. I think I mentioned before that we can't do this sprint in Humphrey as this is an MSA regulated sprint and therefore a dedicated track car needs a cage, however a road car can compete. The difference being how much interior remains in the car! I can't take any pictures on the day as cameras are banned at the site we are at (Lotus test track), so I asked Phil to prep her fully so I could have some pics today. Hopefully there will be a pro there who will be taking some on track pics. First of all, Phil got creative with the numbers. Because we are numbers 56 and 57 in the Sprint Series, we have 2 each of numbers 5,6 and 7. Typically, Phil's allocated number of this sprint is 8!!! So, black electrical tape and white vinyl on our number 6, gives us this rather convincing 8: Phil then went to the back of Sakura to mark out the towing eyes. This is when he found that the n00b who fitted the bodykit (previous owner) had decided the towing eyes were unneccesary and cut them off :/ So now Sakura has this lovely new bumper borrowed off Humph. Well it blends in quite nicely :/ Hahaha, anyway the luggage rack is on there because we are going to have to strap my walking frame to it so I can actually hobble round the paddock a bit and go to the loo. Very important. Whilst Phil had both bumpers off, he decided to weigh them to see the difference, as he had removed some metal from Humphrey's as a weight saving exercise. The difference was 5kg, which is fairly good. Here's a pic of the two bumpers to show what has been removed: The Toyota Sprint Series does not require the use of a timing strut, however this MSA sprint does. The strut needs to be the first thing on the car that will break the timing beams. Phil made it a few years ago when he did his first ever sprint in his red MR2, it is basically thin aluminium with matt black paint. It's then fitted to the nose of the car with gaffa tape. Hardcore! I wonder if I can persuade Phil to wash her tomorrow? So that's basically one road car prepped for sprinting. I'm a bit nervous about her going on track and also very very annoyed and frustrated that I can't drive her. I said he should have carried the gaffa tape stripes up the bonnet, I rather like them __________________ Last edited by vix; 01-08-2008 at 17:54.