Awesome day at Pembrey. Never been before but a really cool circuit and very technical. 31 degrees most of the day took its toll on me and the car a little!
New brake setup took some getting used to, trail braking requires a heavier foot for these calipers on the mk5 master cylinder which feels a little wrong at first but with this setup with pbs pro race on the front and mintex m155 on the back it really shocked me how much quicker it stops when the pads and tyres are warm, felt wicked out braking a lot of light weight and better prepared track cars in a 1.4 tonne fat boy golf with heated seats and air con
temp stickers show 140-160 on the calipers which is much lower than before but with it getting hotter and hotter and then getting carried away and staying out far too long on the last session they got seriously hot, didn't help that it was so hot they didn't cool down that much between sessions either.
Will check how the pads have coped and maybe bleed the brakes just in case but it all feels fine still on the drive home tbh.
Weirdly bumped into the guy who did the geo for the golf there while he was supporting a customers race car for the day. Embarrassingly he pointed out that I had my directional tyres facing the wrong way
for some reason I never clocked that if you swap sides they they face the wrong way
they've been like that for ages as well, I've been wondering why it's felt so twitchy on brakes and turn in lately
As you can imagine turning them the correct way meant the car felt a solid 2 or so seconds a lap faster, just way more grip everywhere and much more stable in every respect.
Did feel a little softly sprung in places, not sure if I can get some stiffer springs to fit the top mounts as it takes something like a 4 inch diameter spring on the mount and the shock body takes something like a 2 inch diameter. I've not seen anyone sell custom rated springs that vary in size top to bottom. Adapater needed? Or suitable top mount needed instead?
On way back though its misfiring very badly, cylinder 1. Smell of fuel outside the car and and not plugs or coils so I'm going to assume the fuel injector is dead. Not done the inlet manifold before, it looks a not so fun job.
My winter mod list keeps changing as expensive life events are taking over but thinking the aim is to get about 100kg of weight out of the car without losing air con or carpets yet to stop the cabin getting too hot and Poly bush everything with super pro. No way I'm paying for spherical (...yet?) And the rubber ones are old as he'll and a bit like marshmallows I think as it does feelt a little soft.