Preparing the car for track days.....

I think it was about 2003 when I took the car off the road and at some point a few years later I thought id start stripping it out and getting it ready for track days.

So, I basically went through the inside of the car and anything which didnt make the car go quicker I ripped out and chucked in the skip. So, all the rear seats, front seats, plastic door trims, carpets, stereo, speakers, everything.

I already had a front OMP strut brace, but I then made up a rear one out of some scaffolding pole. It really tightened up the back end of the car. A full 6 point bolt in roll cage then went in, and the stock front seats were replaced by a pair of cobra lightweight buckets, with harnesses.

A push button engine start was something id always wanted, so I fitted one of them too.

I really should have weighed all the stuff I chucked out, as it would be interesting to know how much weight savings I made. I remember working out once that the car had twice the power to weight ratio than a Lotus Elise, so any more weight saving is even better!

Heres how it looked half way through the process.

And then I moved house, and so after starting it up, driving it onto a trailer, trailering it to the new house, its stayed in the corner of the garage ever since.

One thing moving the car told me was that the fuel pump is on its way out. I had to use an old motorcycle fuel pump with a pipe going into a can of petrol & plugged into the side of the carb to get it moving. Still, it drove/stopped fine!