ben240z
Club Member
Over the winter I have been approached by a garage near to Gurston with a view to providing some support for the Z at the local hillclimbs.
I am delighted to say that we now have some much valued support from Tisbury Motors Ltd. They are a small garage based in Tisbury, Wiltshire, who as well as the normal run of the mill garage services/mot's etc are also specialist in Diagnostics of engine management and Bosch agents.
I was good to start the season with them by producing 2 class wins and look forward to the rest of the season.
The season opener double header meeting at Gurston down on 19th and 20th April was a character building start to the season. With drizzle interspersed with rain and gusting winds on Saturday, the track was somewhat slippery.
Work commitments conspired against us to rule out a practice day.
The Pride built and mapped Datsun engine performed with consummate consideration to its occupant’s well being, delivering the power and torque in a very progressive and predictable way.
This allowed me to drift and slide the 240Z to a comfortable class win in worsening conditions, while Dee was able to drive it without fear of it biting hard and taking her on a rollercoaster ride.
Sunday started badly with a wheel stud shearing off as I was undoing the nuts to change onto the slicks for the dry track and threats of sunshine if the fog burnt off.
A 2 and ½ hour round trip home to find a spare stud (not the time to find that the only studs that I had were much shorter than the broken one) and then the job of removing the rear hub and bearing to replace the offending item began in earnest.
After a bit of knuckle grazing I was ready to put the rear wheels back onto the car only to find that the wheels fouled the callipers. I normally have a spacer but could not use it due to the stud being shorter. We also had to cut the wheel nuts in half as they were not threaded to their full length.
With the scrutineers breathing down my neck and the last batch of practice nearing the end I bolted on the old cut slicks that I run in the wet. They have a different offset but at least 12 year old tyres fitted.
I missed practice by about 5 mins so the first run in the afternoon had to double up as practice, find out how much life was left in the rear tyres and hopefully bank a respectable time.
That run proved to be my best of the day due to some over exuberance on my part on the second run, but good enough for another class win.
Not a bad start to the season after all
I am delighted to say that we now have some much valued support from Tisbury Motors Ltd. They are a small garage based in Tisbury, Wiltshire, who as well as the normal run of the mill garage services/mot's etc are also specialist in Diagnostics of engine management and Bosch agents.
I was good to start the season with them by producing 2 class wins and look forward to the rest of the season.
The season opener double header meeting at Gurston down on 19th and 20th April was a character building start to the season. With drizzle interspersed with rain and gusting winds on Saturday, the track was somewhat slippery.
Work commitments conspired against us to rule out a practice day.
The Pride built and mapped Datsun engine performed with consummate consideration to its occupant’s well being, delivering the power and torque in a very progressive and predictable way.
This allowed me to drift and slide the 240Z to a comfortable class win in worsening conditions, while Dee was able to drive it without fear of it biting hard and taking her on a rollercoaster ride.
Sunday started badly with a wheel stud shearing off as I was undoing the nuts to change onto the slicks for the dry track and threats of sunshine if the fog burnt off.
A 2 and ½ hour round trip home to find a spare stud (not the time to find that the only studs that I had were much shorter than the broken one) and then the job of removing the rear hub and bearing to replace the offending item began in earnest.
After a bit of knuckle grazing I was ready to put the rear wheels back onto the car only to find that the wheels fouled the callipers. I normally have a spacer but could not use it due to the stud being shorter. We also had to cut the wheel nuts in half as they were not threaded to their full length.
With the scrutineers breathing down my neck and the last batch of practice nearing the end I bolted on the old cut slicks that I run in the wet. They have a different offset but at least 12 year old tyres fitted.
I missed practice by about 5 mins so the first run in the afternoon had to double up as practice, find out how much life was left in the rear tyres and hopefully bank a respectable time.
That run proved to be my best of the day due to some over exuberance on my part on the second run, but good enough for another class win.
Not a bad start to the season after all
