Ownership Verified: I didn't choose the Dub life...

The door sills say GTi too. I has a confuse. :?



Today I installed the stereo that I was rocking in the Alfa. A double DIN setup would look better but I already had this one and it worked perfectly fine. It sounds so much better in this car than it ever did in the Alfa! In fact it sounds pretty damn awesome and there is enough bass to make the seats vibrate. And it actually runs off the ignition so I don't have to manually turn it on or off anymore. Plus I fixed an annoying issue I used to have with the whole thing resetting every time I switched the ignition off. Turns out all I had to do was disconnect some bullet connectors and switch wires around. And yes the clocks don't agree with each other. That's my way of sticking it to the Germans. :p

 
shad_68 said:
I'm not surprised, it's the same in my parents' Mk4 Golf.
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Sadly the 2008 Octavia vRS that I borrowed from work a few years ago was doing the same thing. If this isn't peeling then it's, er, what would you have to do to prevent that?
 
Remnants of hair gel and products like that cause the soft touch material to peel.
 
Today I had the awesome opportunity to take part in a track day! It was my first time ever doing anything remotely like it (amusement park go-carts don't really count) and I really didn't know what to expect. With that in mind my goals were to not smash up the car, have fun, and not smash up the car. Boy did I ever have fun! It was a weird sensation being out on a proper track after so many years of watching racing and playing Forza and the likes. Fortunately the track was set up with n00bs in mind and they had braking, turn-in, and apex points clearly marked. This definitely helped get my reference points down and before too long I was braking well beyond their suggested signs. As for the racing lines, I felt I did rather well with them if I do say so myself. The aforementioned Forza sessions definitely helped with this since I already had a good understanding of what sorts of lines to take through certain types of corners. The tricky part was putting that into practice for real.

The circuit, Snetterton, is a lot of fun to drive! It has a good mix of fast sweepers, tight hairpins, and some weird transitional corners (the corner after the bridge in the videos below). Unfortunately the conditions today weren't the best, especially for a novice like myself. It was cold and the track was damp and greasy for almost the whole day. That meant that some sliding happened whether I wanted it to or not.



Those tire tracks going off on the left? Yeah, that was me. :lol: I had a massive spin on one of my first power laps. It was at the first corner and it's got a tricky late apex after the corner decreases in radius. I took the turn too tight at first then had to turn even more to try and keep it on the track. Liftoff oversteer happened and despite my best efforts to correct it (it felt like the car was starting to go out of control for a good five seconds) the back end flipped around and backwards through the grass I went. I estimate I was going about 40mph when I actually left the tarmac because I slid for a good long while. Fortunately there was no damage whatsoever to the car and I was able to rejoin the track and keep on going. I'm just mad I didn't get it on camera. :p

Now I suppose I should talk about the car seeing as this is the car's thread. In short, I was getting passed by anything and everything on track. :lol: I had no power, very little top speed (max was 90mph when most everyone else was hitting 110+), but worst of all were the tires. Oh sweet baby Jesus the tires! They had very little grip in corners and what made that worse is that they gave me no feel through those corners. I could never tell how much grip I had left; it was there and then suddenly gone. On the other hand I had no issues with them accelerating or braking. The lowered suspension probably didn't do too many favors with the handling either but it kept me more upright through the corners than I was expecting to be. Brakes were the best thing I had going for me. They're strong, give good feel, and surprisingly take a lot of abuse before fading. Hard braking was really the only maneuver I could do with confidence.

All in all though I had a fantastic, kick-ass day out! Driving around a track like this really is one of my bucket list items I can happily cross off now. I would do another track day in a heartbeat. Although that being said I think I still have more fun in a day's off roading.

Now for the TL;DR edition brought to you by my shiny new GoPro.



[video=youtube;in84_Q3b6-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in84_Q3b6-0[/video]

Unfortunately the day didn't go well for everyone. A gorgeous Z4M met the wall at the end of this video. There appeared to be some pretty substantial suspension damage. :(


 
Imagine doing this with the 156. Imagine the said 156 having a V6 under the bonnet. :p :D
 
Most of the day I was imagining doing it with the MGF I had so many moons ago. It was a fun day out but I really did wish I had a better car to play with. That last video really shows the speed difference I was experiencing.
 
That looked like bloody good fun. Never been on a track day, maybe one day I'll own a suitable car. :)
 
I somehow like the idea of taking the Disco on the Nordschleife and, say, Adrian's 850 or Viper's Viper greenlaning.
 
They were nice enough to have a professional photographer on hand so I couldn't resist getting some action shots.















 
KaJuN said:
Most of the day I was imagining doing it with the MGF I had so many moons ago. It was a fun day out but I really did wish I had a better car to play with. That last video really shows the speed difference I was experiencing.
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I've always been one of, if not the slowest car on track. Never bothered me. :) Just as long as the car is fun and responsive to drive. Lack of power and grip also has the upside of less speed when you get things wrong, so it's easier to search for the limit and discover what happens after you cross it.
 
Update time! Recently some things broke which was mildly annoying. First was the thermostat with the old 'not letting the engine warm up' trick. Swapping it out was a fairly easy job once I figured out the right combination of ratchets, sockets, and extensions to get to the housing bolts. I suspect the thermostat had been going out all winter because the heater never really was that good. I was pushing a half hour of driving before I had to turn the heat down in 50ish degree F weather. Now the heater is ridiculous! Ten minutes in I'm sweating with it anything above 1/3 up the dial. :cool:

I've also noticed an oil spot developing under the car. Turns out ze brilliant German engineers decided that brittle plastic was an acceptable material to use in the construction of a fairly vital engine component: the dip stick tube. :rolleyes: It was shattered into three pieces. The real pain was getting it off the rest of the way while trying to keep little plastic shards from dropping down into the oil pan.

All-in-all though they were easy and cheap fixes. I spent maybe ?35 on all the parts and about two hours of work.
 
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