I am staying down in Worthing tomorrow so this will be the last report in this series, except for the report on Goodwood itself.  Imagine, I thought it would be a relatively relaxing day but I ended up finishing odd jobs after 8pm again.  I still haven't put my tool kit together or packed so I won't be away early tomorrow. (Simon, the oil pump primer is in the car already, see you there).

I ran the car another 220 miles and in total have done virtually 500 now.  No problems except for a slight leak on the oil cooler which I cured by tightening the fixings.  I gradually raise the revs (to about 4000 eventually) and used more throttle and acceleration.

Oil Change

I have just changed the oil and the filter, which is slightly easier with the drain plug at the front. Its amazing how thin the oil is when hot.  I am glad of the oil cooler, since it it gets very hot it must be helping! Starting the engine again was a bit alarming, I did fill the oil filter but it still seemed like several seconds before the oil pressure registered.  Maybe I should have used the oil pump primer again although the oil pump itself would have been primed.

Tracking

I noticed the front tyres where wearing decidedly more on the outside compared to the inside so I decided to check the tracking.  I hadn't questioned until now as I had paid for expensive 4 wheel alignment with all the camber, castor and toe in results. 

I used two high quality 4x2 wood lengths, marking them with some graduations next to each other with a engineers square roughly at the track width.  I then placed the wood lengths under the back and front of the tyres and used the square to check the distances.

I checked the rear first and found this to be 4mm of toe-in. This is to the GTD setup guide allowing for having 17" wheels rather than 15".

I found the front track was heavily toed in. I mean about 20mm of toe in at the wheel rim!  I couldn't believe it and checked it several times.  It goes to show you shouldn't rely on anyone without someone verifying it.  The car has always seemed a bit skittish which I put down to the wide rear tyres (335s) and short wheelbase.  Also I understood that toe-in makes a car more stable not less.  I need to go for another short run tomorrow before setting off just to make sure its roughly OK to drive.  I now know that turning the steering arm nuts each side ONE flat makes a difference of about 2mm at the rim - obviously this can be calculated but I haven't measured the steering arm distance from the pivot (the rim is 465mm diameter - and remember the movement at the arm is doubled as the wheel pivots about its axis).  I can adjust the front track at the track day - rather appropriate :)

See you guys Monday.