Got to get out today with the AO48s on. Was happy with how the car felt, amazed with how much grip a second hand set of decent tyres like these have after even a few years.
 

 
always nice to have a good group of people to go cruising with too
 

Great write up.
Great pics.
I really do need to pull my finger out and finish my car and get in on the action.

Agreed, great pics. Looks like a great turnout and bunch of enthusiasts. Love that yellow Sundowner...
Cheers Drew

Caught wind that winton raceway may never hold another drift day due to a full circuit relay at a cost of 7million dollars, so against my previous statements of 'i wont drift with this box' and 'drift is just too hard on the car' i decided to nut up and get out onto the main track for my first and possibly last chance to drift winton raceway.
 
since being on track last a fair few regs had changed and with the decision to run only 3 weeks in advance i had a fair bit of work to get done, nothing like a deadline to make stuff happen.
 
New seats were needed as my old seats were reclinable and had far too much play in mechanism, got some fibreglass shelled fixed seats that are adr approved, made some mounts and bolted them in,
 

 
i think the days of long road trips may be over though, not much padding here
 

 
I needed to seal the boot area as i had moved all my fuel system into there since last time i was on track, (something i really should have done at long time ago anyways)
 

 
going to miss my rear speakers but will feel that little bit safer for not having them there.
 

 
bit of spray adhesive and some fabric and its looks like it belongs, and cuts the horrible glare.
 

 
i needed to sort my diff location problems, which meant removal all the rubber insulators and making up some small blocks to relower the car
 

 

 
i also had a leaking rear caliper that i put a reco kit through
 

 
painted up my 8inch 13's, was a super rough job as i knew that they would cop a bit of a pounding out there, 2 tins of $3 paint from bunnings did the job
 

 
good thing i didnt pay to have them powdercoated or painted properly 
 
Put the rear helper springs back in the stiffen up the leafs and gave it a quick align by tape measure and we were pretty good to go.
 
all loaded up and ready at my mates place, luckily he lives not far from the track which breaks up the 2+hour trip and saves me getting up at 5 to make it there on time.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So now onto the actual day.
 
to say that i was nervous was an understatement. i was sh!ting bricks.
i hadnt drifted on a full size track with other cars since dec 2013, with that day only last 12 laps before a box blew.
 
so this time around i was really trying the baby the box and alter my driving style to at least be about there half the day.
 
i had been told the track was a fair amount grippier then before the new surface had been layed so that really worried me as its all just more stress on the driveline. I put myself in class C which was the lowest skill based class and set off for my first session
 

 
a forced sighting lap was a blessing as it gave me a chance to not only drive the track for the first time but to also get everything up to temp a little driveline wise before being mean to it all.
 

 
im not going to bullsh!t and say i was amazing, not even close...
 
spent a whole heap of time off the track or facing the wrong direction, so much so that i got really disheartened with my driving and got meaner to the car each lap. 
 

Couldnt for the life of me work out what i was doing so wrong, as the last day i did the car seemed to fall into the drift and stay there but today was either understeering mid corner or gripping up straight after i initiated.
 
i went out each session trying new things, everybody told me faster faster, you need to go in faster. Great plan and all, but as i found when you go in faster you also come off alot faster.
 

 
the day was not without its successes though. i did manage a couple of clearer laps.
 

 

 
but as you can see the car is not sitting well through the corners, that with what we later discovered to be an open diff (lsd had lost almost all its bite) was contributing to the understeering and lack of slide mid corner, and far too soft front suspension there is alot of room car setup wise to make attempting to steer it easier.
 
may day ended one session early with my screamer pipe snapping off the flange mid drift and bouncing around under the car and later being spat out, (thanks to the marshall that picked it up and saved it for me)
 
so somehow the gearbox lives on, i didnt break anything major, no panel damage and i now have a healthy list of things to improve before i head out next.
 
off the the garage i go...
 
 

Another weekend another car based event
 
This time was the dyno day that i organised for the RS owners club of Victoria at Springy Performance
 

 

 

 
Car made 286hp which is down quite significantly from its usual low 300's, but was still suffering from its crank sensor phasing issue cutting about 1000rpm off the top end.
 
 
 
 

Awesome. Any more pics of the event/ cars?

Plenty on FB. Great result Zac and love the minilites by the way 👍

thanks guys, video was a bit of a rush job, using only windows movie maker. borrowed some footage and went from there. Couldnt have asked for a better turn out for the day and better weather. good spread of cars. mk1 & mk2 escorts, mk1 & mk2 cortinas, a capri, a few lasers, a few anglias, 2 focus rs's.  all ranging from 27.5hp to 302hp.