More pics from France

We also took a trip down to Reims with our friends M&M in their '86 3.2. Stickered up of course because we're so childish I guess! We visited the old Reims F1 track which ends in a field these days. There's a load of enthusiasts who come and restore the grandstands - it's amazing to visit, then race each other round the remaining sections of track.

 Here are some pics...

A triumphant return from Le Mans Classic 2008

We took the RSR down to Le Mans to watch the Classic racing last weekend. JZM gave her a complete clean bill of health, and she performed perfectly over the 800 odd miles. We convoyed with a group of really nice blokes in another classic 911 and a 1970's Bristol with a monster Chevy block in it. Tim, the owner of the 911, is a professional automotive photographer and he got this pic of us while heading back to up to London village. Le Mans was great fun - I'll post more pics from the event soon.

Latest update

In the run up to the Cannonball in Sept, and a couple of longish trips in July (Classic Le Mans and then a run over to Reims), I decided to get the car thoroughly checked over by JZ Machtech. They've sorted a few niggly things out and given her a clean bill of health - woohoo! The latest good news is that the exhaust inserts actually work well, reducing the volume level considerably (but still VERY loud with the foot down). The wheels still need polishing up though.. I think I need some professional help. This weekend I'll give wheel polishing one more go, along with installing the last door speaker

Had to try the car with the exhaust off!

Exhaust overhaul

My exhaust is a) WAY too noisy b) made of mild steel and rusting already c) not mounted with straps because it doesn't fit quite right. I decided to take it off, get rid of the rust, spray with VHT (Very High Temperature) paint, stick some decibel reducing inserts in, and strap it up to the body properly. Mark at RS911 said he'll modify it to reduce the volume, but I thought I'd give this a try first. So far it's painted and fits a bit better, but I'll have to wait a couple of weeks before getting the inserts in and strapping it in place - just don't have enough time, you know?


These are the tail pipe inserts. I'm having to grind a bit off to fit them, so all they'll do is restric the flow slightly. To be honest, I'm not too hopeful!!

Look at this.. The silencer is more or less straight through - no wonder it's loud!

Wheely annoying

As you can see from the pics here, my shiny 'n bling wheels have gone all tarnished from lack of care over the last year or so. I'm determined to get them uber shiny for summer. I've tried these three polishes, but they just don't bring the wheels up to their original splendour. I went to a wheel specialist, and I can either have them painted, laser-cut, or put some elbow grease into it. The first two aren't really an option, so I'm going to have to take the wheels off and go for it... Maybe next week.

God, I really must grow up!!

Busted!

Oh dear.. There goes another 3 points. 35mph in a 30 zone is a bit tight though isn't it?!

Latest news

This weather's killing me. I want to go for long drives, but with no heater in the car, it's not going to happen. A few things have happened recently though:
a) WHEELS. My shiny alloys are all dull and have this whitish surface corrosion. I've got 3 different brands of polish to try, so I'll try them all and get the results up on the blog. Everyone needs a bit of bling.
b) SPEEDING. We got done for speeding it turns out about 10 miles away from the garage we had just picked the RSR up from Grrrrr!!
c) PHOTOS. I got contacted by a photographer about the possibility of doing some shots for one of the Porsche mags (not until point 'a' is resolved) - how cool is that!
d) EXHAUST. My exhaust is way too loud... It sets off car alarms and makes children cry (both true). Mark said he's going to build me a new exhaust that has a hidden 'quiet' output and two normal 'racing' outputs that I can cap off when I don't want to scare kids. Can't wait.. It means my neighbours may start speaking to me again!

Tearing up West London

It was great weather today so I got some stickers on the beast and tried to clean the alloys. After about an hour I'd managed to clean a small patch on one of the rear wheels. I don't know what I'm going to do to get them clean.. At the moment they're very dirty and have got this whitish oxidisation on them that just won't come off. Anyway, we had a tootle round town. The car is so loud, I set off two car alarms - oops. We got a load of grins and thumbs up off guys, but mostly foul stares off women. I guess some people were hoping for a nice quiet Sunday - not near my house!

Back in action!!

Picked up the RSR rep on Friday - woohoo! Just a few small things to sort out now.. The rear tyre rubs now and then when going over bumps, and there are some odd rattles at various RPM speeds. I'll take her to JZM in a couple of weeks to work on it. She drives like a dream! Much faster, louder and exciting than I remember.. Roll on Summer.

Fernando's Replica Porsche RSR

I've been talking to a very nice chap on the other side of the pond who has a lot of experience restoring cars, and has done an AWESOME job of building up an RSR replica. It's beautiful, and now what I aspire to one day with my RSR! See his site here:
http://www.readynet.com/myproject/

Cannonball 8000 2008 - we're on!!

We're definitely on the 2008 Cannonball run! Woohoo! Thanks to my sponsors 'Intel' without whom, I'd just be watching the cars leave at the start line. This year we're going from London to Brussels, then down to Cannes, then over to Italy to Rome! Brilliant!! The even better news is that our good friends Flembo and Rani are also in the rally in their Ferrari 360 CS. You can see their site at http://www.team79.co.uk/

Latest work

It's been a long time since I've updated the blog, so here's what's been going on.. The RSR has spent the cold and rainy winter up with Mark at RS911. He's doing a few things such as putting a new alarm system in, putting a steel bonnet on (with Spot lights), putting the correct exhaust header on, and installing a new roll cage. Hopefully I'll pick her up some time in March, but I need to arrange that with Mark.

JZM Gearbox rebuild pics

So here are some of the pics from the gearbox rebuild. Dave at JZ Machtech knows 915's like the back of his hand. He completely broke it down, replaced everything that needed replacing and fabricated a few small parts you can't even buy any more. He even took pics of the whole process for me. It feels like a new box - I'm really pleased with it. I'm going to take off the Wevo short shift and put the regular shifter back on though, as the 915 just isn't designed for a fast shift. Dave also installed my lightweight Sachs clutch kit so no more jumpy starts off the lights.

Headers have come in..

Andy has sourced the correct headers for my exhaust system - thanks Andy!! We drive up to Wales and dropped the old girl off with Mark for the final work to be done over the next few months. We've had a change of heart and decided not to bother with changing the window surrounds to chrome. It just looks too damn goo with black and orange! There's still a long list of things to sort out - for instance one of the front tyres rubs on the arch slightly when under stress.. alarm to fit, final detailing, exhaust, oh and of course a steel bonnet with quad spotlights!!

Out with the dodgy alarm x3

Got the car back from JZM on Friday after a gearbox rebuild, new clutch, new fuel pump, and various other things. Dave is their gearbox expert (he's brilliant) and did a fantastic job.. He took pictures of the whole process so I'll post some pics soon. He also stripped out my three rubbish alarm systems - look at the picture!! It's about three Kilos of crap!

Back in the garage

Well JZ Machtech are having her back for a while now. She needs the gearbox checking, and loads of new suspension parts.. The fuel pump replacing, new clutch, oil seals replaced, the list is never ending! After a stint at JZM, we'll drive her back up to Mark at RS911 to finish the conversion job off. He's going to fit the correct exhaust, the chrome around the windows, chrome door handles, and I'm having a steel bonnet (the fibre glass bonnet doesn't fit) with four spotlights fitted! I popped in the Steve Wong performance chip at the weekend, so I'll see what it's done to decrease my 0-60 at 7:30am on the North Circular tomorrow!

Vid at start line

This is a vid I took from the start line. The original Mustang next to the Lambo was probably the most valuable car there... Notice on the other side the SCREEM guys being served Champagne by a midget - class!

Long trip back through Germany

After all the hoo-ha about going through Germany, we decided to cut through there to quicken the journey back. Some people had been held up at the German and Italian borders (Rani got held up by gun point! Har har!!) even though it was a day or two since the end of the rally. We had no problems at all though (other than mechanical issues), and surprisingly the Germans loved it! They were taking pictures of it and giving us thumbs up all the way to France.

The Final Day..

The drive down to Croatia was good fun, even in a hire car. As Gary said to us on the phone "Don't go too fast Ash, you know how precious hire cars are" - ho ho ho!! We managed to get south in no time at all, even beating an Aston Martin from the border to the finish line! The finish line and final party were great fun, and we made it through to 6:30am the next morning. I decided it might be a good time to hit the sack when Helen started inviting the Cannonball crowd up to our room to raid the mini bar. We had a lovely big lunch the next day with a bunch of the guys - really nice food, drink and fabulous company. I know it's a cliché, but it's the people that make the Cannonball 8000 what it is.

Second Day

Germany had told the Cannonball crew that they would impound any Cannonball car coming through their fine country. The Cannonball team only told us this after we'd been drinking, so standing up and leaving there and then at 11pm was out of the question. Instead we went to bed and got up at 2:30am to drive 1000 miles round the long way.. Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic! It was all a bit too much for the old girl and we suffered alternator problems in Austria - a shame really as we'd come so far. We wave off Gary and Ian who we'd been following for 500 odd miles and started making frantic phone calls to arrange a garage and a hire car.

Steves Viper

I love Steve and Sarahs Dodge Viper. Across the top of the windscreen it says 'Don't mention the war!' - class.

First day is great fun, then POW!

We got off to a good start, leaving Earls Court straight into the traffic and heading slowly down to the south coast. As we were burning round the M25, we saw the Ferrari girls waving like mad (they are mad) at us and driving off at silly speed in the wrong direction on the M25. We also saw a couple of cars being nicked for speeding - two Porsches caught by a police Volvo.. Ho ho!! We got to Brussels OK and Helen got interviewed. 20 mins later we were in the bar getting drunk. 3 hours later Conrad dropped the bombshell - we couldn't drive through Germany!

We're at the start line..

Near the front, but squashed between a Range Rover and a big Corona truck. There's an orange lambo next to us that's attracting more wasps than our car. Wasps are so fickle. The Spearmint Rhino girls keep jumping on peoples bonnets.. If they do it to our car, they'll fall straight through the fibre glass bonnet onto our luggage, so I'm keeping guard.

Woohoo! Last minute fix!

We got the train back to Chiswick and started prepping helens Boxster to take when we got a call from the Porsche garage - they'd got the car working again!! It was the short shift gear kit after all (nice one Mr AA guy). We dived into the rush hour M25 traffic and picked it up about 6pm. Excellent, so now we've just got to get home, put the stickers on, install the stereo, pack our clothes etc etc. Don't think we'll make it to the launch party tonight.. :(

Not the best start...

Well that didn't go quite as planned.. After visiting the garage in the morning to sort out the clonking noise coming from the engine bay, we drove to Pinner to pick up a new stereo. Everything was going well and then, pow, the gearbox is stuck in reverse. The AA guy spent ages on it and said the gearbox was knackered. We got it on the back of a truck (hours later) and got it back to the garage. I know what you're thinking: "how could anyone have this much bad luck?"... Well when it comes to cars, to us it comes naturally!

Half stickered up

I picked Lula up from JZ Machtech on Friday. She feels much tighter now she's been lowered and the sport shocks installed. It wasn't cheap though, and right now it just feels like we're pouring money we don't have into a car that's over 20 years old and could blow up in Kent for all we know! Only half the stickers have come through so far, which is really annoying because we wanted to get them all on there during the weekend . Also, there's a 'clonking' noise coming from the rear which is very worrying. I've got to take her back to JZM on Thursday to have them check it. We're off on the 2007 Cannonball 8000 rally this Friday, so we don't have any time for mechanical problems!

Mark demos the exhaust!

Picked her up at last! woohoo!!

We got up at 4:30am on Saturday morning to get a series of trains up to Wales to pick 'Lula' up. Mark has done us proud with a car that has people doing double takes in the street. Honestly, kids jump up and down pointing at it, blokes smile in appreciation, and women usually give us an almightily dirty look. If you could hear it you'd know why - it's exceptionally loud… Even when ticking over on idle it sounds like a spitfire! It's AWESOME!! We love it! We're certainly going to make an impression on the start line of the Cannonball 8000 rally! There are a few small bits that need to be sorted, the exhaust is one of them. It's a racing system at the moment that sounds like a dragster and spits out fire! As brilliant as it is, it's not really suitable for London so we'll get a new one at some point. Anyway, here are the pics!

Cannonball 8000 2007 - Germans don't see the funny side!

We've had an email off the Cannonball 8000 team saying that talks have broken down with Germany, and their Police are going to consider the Cannonball 8000 2007 rally 'illegal'!! They suggest we should peel off ALL of our car stickers before entering Germany and driving incognito.. In this car?! It's hardly under cover! They then suggest we should re-sticker our car as soon as we exit Germany. I'm having two sets of sponsor stickers made up just in case. Donner und blitzen!

One week to go..

The lightweight carpet is now in, Mark has borrowed a roll cage off a friend and we're almost ready to roll. As long as nothing goes wrong (ie engine exploding etc) she will be ready to pick up next Saturday. Mark's going to ride her around for a bit to check it's all OK then install my Steve Wong performance chip. After picking her up and driving home, I've booked her into to JZM for the wheel bearings and shocks to be replaced along with the ride height lowered and geometry checked. I really hope our luck holds up and nothing goes wrong mechanically. Honestly, I think I'd cry!

Decals are on

Day by day we get closer.. The Carrera Decals are now in place, but we're still missing the roll cage and light carpet set. We're sending the new (silver on black) registration plates and my Steve Wong performance chip up to him to install. The Cannonball 8000 2007 is only 25 days to go now. As far as I'm aware, we're the only entrants in the rally who had a car built specifically for it! Woo hoo!

Wow, only a couple of weeks to go..

Wow, Mark sent over the latest pictures and it looks stunning.. Absolutely stunning. He said they're having trouble locating the exhaust headers, so I'm borrowing an exhaust off Andy until after the Cannonball 8000 rally. The interior is still stripped out, so there's still a load of work to do. Apparently the guy who put the stereo in left a load of bare wires behind the dash which shorted and burnt out a load of wiring - so that's all got to be replaced. I've decided I'm just going to get the wheel bearings and geometry done after picking her up and before the rally. There's no point tempting fate by replacing the clutch and shocks. Look at it… Look at it!!!!!