Did a string line wheel alignment, it was actually pretty funny because my colleagues had never seen someone do it like that before 
the car actually had a small amount of toe in, so I shortened the right side by 1 turn now its just a tad past 0 on the toe out, and moved the rear axle over to the left a half turn, took one coil out of the rear springs. Now its driving much better and the steering wheel is straight but its still not perfect, and the rear is still a bi higher than the front. Im getting ready to head out to the air strip, ill be taking it easy today, just making sure everthing works well and maybe driving a bit more aggressive in the afternoon if everything works well. Videos will be coming soon 
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whaooo! what a day its been! Left bright and early then ended up getting stuck half way because of the stupid circuit breaker for the alternator! luckily we drove both cars, so after a trip back to the workshop to grab some supplies and bypass the circuit breaker we were on our way again.
Arrived late, being my first time i didnt realise i hadnt completed all the forms required to enter so i was told i couldnt race. Luckily some members from the local club pulled a few strings and managed to get me entered.
Boy did i get some funny looks!! A weird looking guy with a weird ass (not german) car with a weird ass accent showing up late and still getting a spot to race, there were alot of people who were probably having a laugh about me and probably a few who got a bad first impression lol. Any way because of my late arrival i didnt get a chance to walk the track nor did I get a chance to properly look at the track layout before getting rushed into the first session.
Aaaand on the first round I got completely lost in the witches hats⌠hahaha you live and learn i guess. The next run i took it nice and slow, got the course figured out and finished with a 1:27.
After that i started giving it a bit more and got my times down to around 50 to 52 seconds and was pretty consitant for the day. Had alot of trouble with understeer and ABS thanks to the 5 year old road tyresâŚ
I messed around with the tyre pressure a bit and managed a 49.6 on the last run, then called it a day. The car drove great, took alot of abuse without missing a beat!
I think the times were fantastic considering I was the only car without proper tyres, with the other cars having times ranging from 39 seconds to 52 seconds, all of which bar 1 had good slicks or semi slicks and 90% of which were full on built race cars. My self appointed ârivalsâ for the day were a vw sirocco and a vw polo which were both striped, caged, tuned, semi slicks ect. and would be in the same class as me both had times ranging from 48 seconds to 50 seconds, and i managed to keep up with them in the little dai even with standard suspension and shit tyres, so i think the sirion will be very competitive after a little more work.
Technical inspection went ok, but i need to change my battery box, needs to be water tight, made from thicker material, have the cables entering from the top, and the battery itself needs to have 2 straps holding it in, not one. I had read that in the regulations so it was no surprise, and other than that the inspector said there shouldnt be any problems to enter in the competitive races.
I think ill give the race next week a miss because i need a bit of time to sort out tyres and a new battery box, and also because of where the next course is, the track has some areas where it runs between concrete bollards and i dont want to be fighting old tyres with the risk of hitting something and fucking my shit up. But the following weekend there is another training session at the same airstrip and another week after that is the second race of the season, and i want to be ready for it
Anyway, unfortunatly i didnt get alot of footage, still figureing this gopro thing out, i got a bunch of 2 second videos of me turning it on then off again because i cant see the recording light where its mounted so i wasnt sure if it was recording or not. But i did manage to capture the last run, here it is, please enjoy and if you notice anything im doing wrong please let me know, im open to constructive criticism 
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sound like you had a blast! great work on getting the car this far!
the video is not working for me.
Excited for you Mick (video not available). Great work.
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Also vid not working. But you did really well! Looking forward to seeing the Dai kick some butt once itâs sorted out a bit more
sorry guys im also a first timer at youtube videos, im having another go at it now and hopefully i figure it out
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That was great.
Youâll have to explain the finish. Our version here you have to stop in the âgarageâ. With yours it looks like you drove through.
Stiff rear springs and more front negative camber. And as you know better tires.
Wooohoooo!!!
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I dont know, we got there late and missed the drivers brief and all that, I was just copying everyone else 
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Looks like its same as here in the Netherlands, we cross the line at speed, no garage.
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Hi guys, quick update here, the next training session is this weekend, I have some tyres on the way. I opted for the Nankang NS2R because of my budget (or lack of ) but @Mr_Gormsby says they perform quite well, and he is a vey knowledgeable man. I was a bit skeptical at first after reading some reviews, but after a bit of research I found that this particular tyre is available in a wide range of compounds, and this explains the differing opinions of the tyre. In any case I have ordered a set with a traedwear rating of 80 so they should stick like shit to a blanket After another test fit of the 15x7âs it looks like with tyres on them they will probably foul on the upper spring seats on the rear during hard cornering, so this will be the next problem I will need to overcome, nothing a quick cut & shut shouldnât fix. Some good news is my FPR has arrived (finally, its only been like 3 months), so I will be fitting this up in the coming weeks, I have also found a solution for the return line and factory in-tank fpr some time ago, but havenât shared the knowledge yet. But I will soon 
When this goes in ill be doing an overclock on the ecu and I will share that too. I have also found a solution for the rear wheel studs which are now a tad too short and definitely too short for the other rims. They are from FEBI Bilstein and are a replacement for Smart and Mitsubishi, they fit, are about 6mm longer, readily available and quite cheap. I also had a chance to hit the bonnet again with clear coat and gave it a good polish, its looking very nice now! And I got a proper mount sorted out for the brake fluid reservoir too, I had to relocate the charcoal canister a bit and it was a pain to find a sweetspot where everything fit, nothing fouled and all looked original, but its done. Anyway, as the parts start rolling in ill start fitting them up and posting photos, but I have a few hurdles to overcome in a short amount of time, so once again please wish me luck and pray to the car gods 
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Youâre doing awesome Mick! We all have our fingers crossed.
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SWEEEEEET; love the development man. Keep up the good work.
I was driving in the car with you there man; keep the vids coming, and ensure u keep having fun
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I think tomorrow night will be a long one! I only got 2 rims painted today, ill attack the other 2 tomorrow and ill probably have to break out the heat gun to get them dry enough to mount the tyres.
I used motip paint, proper wheel paint but white is a real pain because its soo thin. Had to do a ton of thin coats and it chewed up all my time today. I still have to modify the rear so the wheels dont foul and I ordered some camber bolts a while back, they are due to arrive tomorrow and with a bit of luck ill have enough time to throw them in and get a bit more camber, and ill probably give it a tad more toe out while im messing around with the front end. I also need too adjust the clutch cable as the friction point is a little too high, and I need to go over the rear brakes again, after pulling everything apart yesterday to fit the new studs and putting everything back together again the rear right was a bit tight and started smoking after dropping off a work mate on the way home. I hope its just the handbrake cable wasnât seated in the holder properly or something like that, and I hope I havenât destroyed the pads either. Anyway we will see.
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So friday night was a long one as expected, couldnât do much with the clutch, adjustment didnt bring the results I was after, I have a feeling the clutch is on its way out. I modified the rear spring seats to get enough clearance for the tyres, now there is plenty of room and only minimal rubbing on the trailing arms which should be rectified with new bushes where the trailing arms mount to the diff (the old ones are almost completely torn and new poly bushes are on the way) and minimal scrubbing against the inside of the wheel arch which should be rectified with stiffer springs. My camber bolts didnât arrive so I was still running with standard camber. I adjusted the toe out but only 1/4 turn so only around 0.3mm more than last time but I think I still need more. This time I managed a 47.56 on the same course, but there is still room for improvement. The first few runs on the new tyres were terrible, the car handled very differently and the tyres had to get a bit of wear and a bit of warmth before they began to grip properly. Its very strange, the tyres seem to grip more, but when they do give out they seem to slide more, but having said that the car is more predictable and more consistent. Im definitely catching up to my compitition, but there are some areas that could use improvement, a decent clutch so I can launch properly, better suspension, especially the rear but the front also needs attention. Last time I pulled the front apart to take measurements I noticed the front struts had NO gas pressure lol. But the car performs very well, I have plenty of top end power, the brakes are magnificent, but I could use a little more torque in the lower revs. I also realised I need to improve myself ALOT because there were a couple of professional racers (im not sure in which discipline they race) who were driving the course faster than me in a ford focus station wagon, when I saw that I realized I need to push myself harder and focus more on my lines. Having said that they were acting like a pair of knobs so I didnt bother asking them for advice. Im also lucky the next race aka my first actual race will be at the same course, so I should get some good results. Videos and pictures will come soon, Sabrina has the laptop with her and doesnt get back until Tuesday so youll have to wait a bit.
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Hey guys, ive been going hard on the sirion during the last week or so, got alot done. Should be alot faster this time around.
As you can see in the photo its sitting higher than before, some might think ive taken a step backwards, but thats not the case!
I ordered a pair of the fiat 500 springs I have spoken about a few times, the spring rate is around 48N/mm, quite a bit stronger than the front springs and a hell of alot stiffer than the original rear springs.
This brought the rear up about 35mm higher than it was, and with the eibachs on the front it was raked downwards to the front, looks terrible and basically cancelled out all castor. To compensate for this I installed the normal front springs from the parts car, this brought the front up level with the rear. This also means the front will have more upwards travel before it hits the bumps, and should in theory give me better traction in the front during cornering.
The camber bolts arrived
I now have around 1.5° more camber on each side. I have no idea what it was before, but we have a spirit level magnetic tool thing that we use when we change struts to make sure the camber is the same as before, I zeroed it out then installed the bolts, st them to max and it said 1.5°. You can see I used the camber bolts in the bottom hole, this is to get them maxed out and still have enough clearance for the semi slicks. With them in the top hole the semis would scrub on the strut.
I also stripped the complete interior.
Installed the new battery box to meet DMSB regulations.
And installed a power steering cooler underneath the car, of which ill post some pictures soon.
Also for those interested, here are a few photos of what the spring seats look like now. Youâll have to compare them with some previous photos to see the difference.
First race is this weekend, and its actually 3 events. The local club holds 2 events per season, and this year they are on the same day, and there is the first race of the GLP cup, which is basically like the slalom version of dial-in drag racing. You take a run to set a time, then you have to get as close to this time as possible. At the end of the day, the person with the closest time to their preset time, wins. In any case im just going to go out there and give it all ive got.
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Great work as always. I am sure you will find it will want to turn much better than before despite being higher (slammed and stance people listen in on this!). Canât wait to hear how it goes.
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I have taken it for a quick lap around the block, it drives like a gokart now, but with the high seating position and the standard ride hight there is a strange sensation driving something that handles so great while your ass is so high above the ground! I am very pleased with it at the moment, the advice you have given me during the build has been well received and brought excellent results Mr G, thanks again!!
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When it is just right the thing should be lifting the inside rear wheel. If this is happening then you are getting as much weight as possible over the front and maximising traction for the drive and steer tires. Shortening the rear droop can help too. At some point you might want to increase front rate, but only a little and only if it starts hitting the bump stop mid corner. When I went up from 115lb/in in the front to 150 I also took the back from 400 to 450.