Getting ready for Fabcar

Now it's time to get ready for the Fabcar 1-Day Challenge. Actually there's not a lot to do, as most of the stuff that gets scrutineered on the superkhana day is the same for the 1 day event. The major difference is the requirement for fire extinguishers.

The requirement is for 1 x 2kg, or 2x1kg, as long as one is accessible to the driver. The trick with clubmans is finding a suitable location, and a suitable extinguisher that fits. Unfortunately, Australia has been inundated with squat, fat things instead of the previous long, thin versions that fit so nicely under the drivers or passengers legs.

So I now have two extinguishers fitted - one sits between the driver and passenger seats bolted to the rear bulkhead with a reinforcing bracket, and the other is in the boot boot bolted to the roll-bar anchorage. Neither should move in the event of a 25-G impact, which is apparently the standard.

Also, this week the car is going back to the dyno for a retune. The car is idling OK, but it hates part throttle (keeps want to stall, missing etc), makes a hell of a lot of noise on over-run, and doesn't like 3000rpm, so I think a quick retune is in order before the event. Not that part throttle or 3000rpm is likely to occur much in the event, but it would be good to know that it's all running as it should.

Also - it will make taking off at lights less conspicuous. I was sitting next to a police car the other day, which is common for me given I live next to police HQ in Perth. My car gets attention, but if you have to rev the hell out of it to stop it stalling, it gets more attention. So I'd rather it was tuned to be a little more tractable at part throttle ;-) He's also going to play with the cam timings this time around, which might also help.

I'll post the results as they come in - again, also hoping for something a little better that 108rwhp. Frank had his checked out, and it came back significantly better than this, so I need to have a lot more if I'm ever going to think of keeping up.

Actually, that's a point. Frank had his out the other day for a quick shakedown run - he had no oil pressure, was keeping the revs really low - and still he pulled comfortably away. And he wasn't even trying.

Hmmmmm.....time for an upgrade, perhaps? No, no, mustn't think that way. Especially now the Aussie dollar has achieved parity with the Mexican peso.