16th October 6 hour Ebusu Endurance Race - Mike Gadd (To the chequered flag).

Miguel was doing well, 1:10s and had just pulled a 1:09.5. He was gaining on the 2nd place car (in our class) and in the pit we were frantically discussing the refuel strategy. My session was about to start - 90mins to go to race end. We knew a full refuel would only last us about 1hr 15mins. Miguel was pulling such good times and because we had just done a splash and dash we knew he had fuel enough to keep going for an extra 20mins.
All day there had only been 2 safety cars out. I reasoned that if no safety car comes out during my session that we would lose time doing the splash and dash necessary for me to complete the last 25mins, so I suggested we kept Miguel out an extra 15mins as not having to stop for extra fuel would give us an edge overall.
We stood at the pit wall and kept the `pit in` sign well out of his view and kept our arm movements down so as not to give Miguel the idea we wanted him to pit at the scheduled time. I suspected he wouldn't pit anyway unless we called him in as I knew, like my mum’s old Jack Russell, once he had the smell of blood in his nostrils there's no stopping him. We discussed it and agreed that if we called him in after an extra 15mins that would mean Id be starting a 1hr 15min stint with enough fuel to complete the race with no pit stops - perfect given that we knew the 2 leading cars were changing drivers every hour on the hour so they both would lose perhaps half to one lap after we changed drivers. So with our lead if I could go out and maintain a reasonable speed and not crash we would be guaranteed to be on the podium as we would have no stops.
Just as we were about to call Miguel in he entered the pit lane. Getting in the car I realised the seat was really too far forward and I adjusted it back, too far and the harnesses were all really lose. I had a job finding the straps - Miguel was assisting me a little as the others were refueling. I closed the door and continued getting the straps done but all too soon (in light of how fast we refuel now with the new cans we maybe need to look at assisting the driver strap in more) I was signaled to go. I only had one glove on, one strap was not over my HANS device, all straps lose and my balls trapped uncomfortably under one of the crotch straps...not a good way to start the race. Rounding the 1st corner and through the chicane I didn't feel right. The seat was too far back, harnesses weren’t right, only one glove (the other had dropped in the foot well and was now resting somewhere around under the clutch pedal). I felt really hot, I didn't feel comfortable at all and tried my best to get so and get up to race speed asap. Passing the start line for the 1st time in my session I was busy putting the final tightening on my harnesses, resigning myself to the facts I had to make do with only one glove and potentially never being able to father another child. Unsurprisingly I noted, once again, that the traqmate wasn’t working but I knew the first lap or two would not be at the kind of times Id want to see anyway. Unfortunately it took me far far longer than usual to get up to race speed and Id joined the race not far in front of the 2nd place car, who with my reduced initial speed managed to catch up and get in front of me passing me around my 2nd lap. At that point I had just reached a point where I was sorted, comfortable settled and up to race speed.

As I speeded up I now faced a new problem. I had allowed the now slower 2nd placed car to get in front of me. We were going around the circuit bumper to bumper. At each corner I would exit faster and be up his bum - he'd block me, he'd get the blue flag, I’d try again, he'd block me and take the corner. This was happening on every corner. After what felt like 100`s laps of this I was getting more and more frustrated. I was clearly the faster car and they were just taking the piss. The marshals at downhill hairpin and the last corner were getting increasingly and noticeably animated waving the blue flag at them. It was getting to the point they he was spending so much time blocking me that he was off the line and slowing us both down. At times I could just see the 4th place car in my rearview he was catching on us. I didn't mind just maintaining our no.3 position the guys had worked so hard to obtain and not being able to pass the 2nd place car but I sure as hell didn't want them to slow us down so much that the next car catches up and we potentially lose /have to fight to keep 3rd place. I had been flashing and flashing them on every corner and right up his bum getting increasingly aggressive to the point now that it was dangerous for both of us - it was so clear that he was far slower. Strangely I was actually quite a bit faster than him on the chicane (which I assumed was my worse corner surprisingly) and I knew I could outbreak him so decided Id set it up to take him at the downhill hairpin. I came through the chicane backing off just before it enough so I could get on line (he was driving slow off line to block me) and so get max exit speed. I succeeded and was now gaining on him down the straight. I was making it very very clear I was going for it. I was flashing high beam and hand on the horn as I’m gaining fast on him. I was on line still behind him and I stayed to the left knowing he'd try to block me if I showed my hand too early. I could see ahead of us the marshal waving yet again the blue flag at him. At the last min I modified my braking a tad swung across behind him and took the inside line. I passed before the corner tight on the inside line he was well out of my corner view behind me. I was perfectly placed, on max breaking, tight, inside line - I knew I had the corner. Then in the corner of my eye I see him go deep breaking hard then pulled right across me. I couldn’t believe it. It was a very bad move, especially for a car that’s being blue flagged at the time. I literally had a car parked seaming stationary right across me at 90 degrees completely blocking the track. I had nowhere to go; I locked the wheel up, modified the pressure and turned as much as I could into the grass. He had to break so hard to turn and block he was practically stationary across me so it was the offside front corner that made contact with him at his rear door. The contact started at his rear door and ended at his front fender.

I kept going and took the corner (in front of him) and instantly decided I would find out if the car was left in a dangerous condition the hard way. Foot to the floor I sped off and the 2nd place car slowly but surely disappeared into my rear view mirror. I didn't see the 4th place car again either so I fixed my target to catching backup with the 2nd place car again and trying to gain on the Westfield.
After another dozen or so unfettered laps I saw the Westfield ahead of me.

I gained on it, once again coming down to the downhill hairpin. Threshold breaking I felt the car snake as if I’d hit ice. The lightest of steering correction and modifying the pressure settled it but I’d lost my line and the gap opened up. The loss of control worried me as it was not due to something that was familiar to me. It was a strange sensation. Then on the downhill hairpin every time I threshold braked the car would snake increasingly violently. I concluded that something had been damaged from the impact (Turned out the steering arm was bent, making the car vastly toe out on the left side). With each lap it seemed to be getting increasingly harder to keep the car on the track under heavy breaking so I decided I had no choice but to slow the pace right down perhaps even to give up all but one lap of our lead on the 4th place car, slow enough to maintain our 3rd place position and survive the race and forget about trying for 2nd. The decision was made easier as I knew car in 2nd and 4th had just done a driver change so would be perhaps a lap down and I had gained a lap on the Westfield and regained the lost lap from the 2nd place car.
Then the 2nd place car with a new driver flew past me like I was stationary. They were truly flying.

I knew immediately I wouldn’t be able to gain on them. They obviously saved a fast driver to last. So the focus shifted to just keeping at least one lap ahead of the 4th place car.
How far behind me were they? Could I afford to slow the pace (so as not to crash) and not lose 3rd to them if they caught me up? If I was forced to slow to a snail’s pace how many laps could I give up to them without losing 3rd place? Each time I passed the pits I scanned to see if they were showing me my position, as we had discussed the importance of this info and how best to give it during the last part of the endurance race, earlier. I had one time seen Simon holding something the size of a pocket handkerchief earlier with some writing on it but too small to read and I hadn’t seen anything since. I decided I’d just try to go as fast as the brakes would allow and if I saw the 4th place car come up behind me I’d just hope we were either a sufficiently large number of laps ahead that they now (with 15mins to go) couldn’t make up enough laps to take our position. I didn’t see them again.
5 mins to go and the TMC car appears behind me. I didn't know if they were a risk to us or not but they were in our class. I didn't want to take the risk of guessing wrongly. I quickly realised that I could be faster than them on all corners but I wasn’t able to outbreak them on the downhill hairpin at all. If I even came close to threshold breaking the car would snake very violently. It was literally suicide to try to.
The only thing I could think to do was to stay ahead of them on rest of circuit as I knew I could, and...Well...block them on the downhill hairpin. And this is what I did. I did it for what turned out to be the last 8 mins of the race (the cars internal clock was wrong) with each lap the degree of breaking I could apply at the downhill was decreasing. Although I admit to blocking it was only for one corner and it was clear I was the faster car on rest of circuit so I don’t think they had too much of an issue with me or that I was doing anything wrong. I certainly wasn’t getting blue flagged even on the downhill hairpin as I was faster right up to my earlier breaking point. The situation with the 2nd place car was different.
In that case it was abundantly clear they were not the faster car.

I passed the chequered flag taking 3rd place. Happy that I didn't erode the lead that Simon, Alex and Miguel had done such a great job winning.
I was surprised to see so little damage from the contact. The Preludes a tough car.


I explained that it was losing control under breaking and Miguel took a quick look at the front brakes and informed me that they were worn very thin on one side and worn down to the metal on the offside. The car was snaking under heavy breaking because we had toe out on the left side & harder braking on the right because of metal to metal contact.

I was frankly stunned to hear we had tried to use the same pads for a 12hr race and then a 6hr race.....
3 podium places in 3 races - I’m very proud of our achievements.

16th October 6 hour Ebusu Endurance Race - Miguel Varella-Cid (3rd of 4 drivers).

As I’d need to get home quickly after the race on Saturday, I’d opted to ride up on my bike, letting Alex carry my small backpack in the Prelude. Although the weather had been nice, leaving Shizuoka, I had taken the decision not to wear my leathers, but an armoured waterproof over suit. Alex & I travelled up in convoy except when I had to peel off to fill up, whilst he carried on. Then as I got back on the bike to catch him the heavens opened up about 50km from Koriyama, where we’d be stopping for the night. We couldn’t resist a Chinese meal and plenty of ice cold Asahi beer. Then the first surprise of the evening – I got a call from Mike. He was less than 20 minutes away and had managed to make the race, having abandoned his pressing work engagements and just driven down in his Lotus. More beers ensued, whilst Mike helped finish off the rest of the Chinese food. Sumi, on the other hand wasn’t going to make it… He’d tried putting on his helmet with stinking flu and felt so nauseated he’d e-mailed and called to say he wasn’t going to make it, poor chap.
Simon & Steve arrived shortly afterwards and more beers were drunk, much laughter and a narrow escape from a Phillipino infested hostess bar..

As Alex had volunteered to drive the Prelude up and spent so much time helping us prepare the car for the race, we’d intended to let him qualify, but since Sumi was now not going to race, Alex would drive his stint and I’d do the qualifying.

This race was had a surprisingly large number of entrants, so we were in for a fight… That’s how we like it! I went out and tried to set fast lap times, but this required timing it so I wouldn’t be held up by any other cars. In frustration of being held up and trying to see how the car would handle if I really chucked it into corners or braked too late, I was making mistakes. The car felt wrong too, lots of under steer. The plan had been for me to do say 6 laps, and then let Mike have a go, but the car wasn’t right. I came in; we checked the tyre pressures and took out some air. Mike noted the front damping setting was at something like 11, when it should be around 6. That would explain the under steer due to the dampers working sluggishly. I asked him to set it to 8, went out and the car felt immediately better, although the back still felt a tad under damped..
I did a mid 1.10 lap which I felt a little disappointed with, as I’d felt there was more to come and had hoped for a 1.09, but as we were now 3rd in class, behind the red Westfield and yellow Impreza Sti 5 wagon & lots of cars behind us that should have been faster, being lighter and on S tyres, etc. I realised everybody else had found the track as challenging as me, so we hadn’t done too badly I guess..

Simon started the race. Blue Leaf’s black Primera had one of their fastest drivers on for the first stint who took Simon in the first lap and began to pull a gap on us. The Westfield – in the meantime was going well (For a change!) and maintaining 1st position. 2nd Positioned Impreza Sti 5 was the same car that had been so slow in the last race, but was now a lot quicker. After 90 minutes we were down two positions to 5th, but the Yellow Impreza had more driver changes and we knew some of their drivers were slow – so there was no threat from them. Our targets were the stripped out black (Blue Leaf Team) Primera and the Red Westfield, both run by very competitive teams (The matt black DC5 we were challenged by in the last race is run by the same team).
The B class cars that had qualified fastest were still quicker – but not our targets. One notably fast little car was that 1.3 litre full tune Datsun. It sounded Awesome and went like stink! What a cool machine!




As Simon came in, we were all ready. Our new Fuel cans were much faster for refueling – and Alex helped get Simon out, whilst I helped Alex get his belts on as the fueling was about to begin. Alex went out and began fighting.
I could see he was enjoying himself as lap times got less and less. Not a bad way to be, after not having raced at all or driven on Ebisu since the first race our car had done.

Simon, Steve & I went to eat some food at the canteen, whilst we watched Alex do the middle bottom hairpin. He was doing well and we were up one position. We reasoned that with Mike and I being the faster drivers, with our stints still to go, there was a chance we’d catch Blue Leaf’s black Primera and were in with a strong chance of 2nd place. Remembering how the car had handled in qualifying & I watching the Prelude, I could see it was handling well, but I still felt the back was still a tad lively, being under damped. I began to form a list of things in my mind we had to do when Alex pitted and I took his place after 3 hours racing:

Correct the Interior Clock, reset the Traqmate, Dump a litre of oil into the engine, set the rear damping to 3 clicks from minimum, refuel & go!

As Alex came into the pit when we called him in, the team did their best to finish the pit stop FAST, and then I was out.

The last race, I’d felt encouraged by having a target (of sorts, because I wasn’t sure which car I needed to catch, so I caught everything I could & took it!) so now – knowing I had to get Blue Leaf, I was on a mission. The extra damping at the back had helped the car’s handling. It felt sweet now, and I got into the groove and just concentrated on doing fast laps. I had some good tussles with the Westfield, which I overtook and left behind for a while, more due to nerve than difference in speed.

Their car was only marginally quicker on the uphill straight, if anything – which is commendable for our Prelude, I thought. The best fun I had were a string of 4-5 laps, staying with the B class full race spec DC5 ORC Integra Type R on S-tyres. He’d gain 4-6 car lengths on me at the uphill straight with his close ratio gearbox, lighter weight and more power but I’d catch him up each lap on the Chicane and long sweeper. I felt chuffed knowing our road spec Prelude was quicker than the ORC full race spec car on the corners. Our handling felt spot on.
Then as the end of my stint was about due, I caught Blue leaf...

They knew their position in front of us was only 1 lap, so their driver immediately blocked me. For the first few corners where I tried to overtake, being faster – I thought perhaps he wasn’t doing it intentionally, but by the end of the second lap where he’d deliberately cut in front of me twice on the uphill straight and necessitated braking, I knew he was playing dirty. His driving was good, aside from the blocking – but this wasn’t racing, this was cheating! My head lights were on full beam and I was calling him a fucker in my helmet.
I’d stand on the horn entering corners, but he wasn’t paying any heed to the marshal’s blue flags, so I’d be inches from his rear bumper on the hairpins and once on the Chicane. Was kinda fun to see his car squirm all over the place as he desperately dived into gaps, where other cars were getting out of the way as we approached – but I stuck behind him headlights still blazing. One time as I tried to take him on the outside as he hugged the inside berm on the bottom left hairpin, he pushed me off the track. With each lap I got more determined.
I'd enter the bottom left hairpin inches from his back bumper, almost on the verge of hitting him Eventually, on about the 4th lap of this fight I tricked him, got alongside as got to the top of the hill and dived into the top hairpin. He couldn’t have blocked – all he could do was take a wider corner & make way for TGR which had the racing line. Our team had been watching Blue Leaf’s antics from the pit wall and Alex had commented, “Oh, I bet Miguel’s pissed…!!” the lap before I took him. Once I was past, I made up a lot of space on the chicane and lost the Primera. That was probably about the time I did a 1:09.5 - our car's fastest lap yet. We'll see when the Traqmate footage is uploaded.


I'd had to avoid not only the Primera's rump but a couple of spinning cars in front of me and one virtually standstill green Civic crawling up the hill as I overtook the Westfield earlier. No mishaps with our car.

But now my time was up and the reserve fuel light was coming on. I felt a bit of fuel starvation. Time for Mike!
As we changed drivers and did another super quick pit stop – I warned him of Blue Leaf’s dirty tactics...

There will be video footage…(soon). Should be good to watch, especially the fights with Blue leaf. Perhaps this is what touring car racing can be like.. So aggressive!

I had (amicable but firm) words with the entire Blue Leaf team after the race. I don’t think they’ll try those tactics again as next time they know we’ll bash their car or make a complaint!
They’re an excitable, dedicated younger team that’s done well – who were just too attached to keeping their position – and we all know what it’s like to get over excited. That’s cool.
I congratulated them on their driving, but told them what they did wasn’t racing – but was dangerous and politely asked them not to do it again next time.
Within a few minutes they conceded to realise what they'd done wasn't really fair racing. We didn’t lodge a complaint, or anything.
Our car only got a couple of scraped rims and easily removed dents on the front passenger side wing in the last stint... No cost to repair at all, which is a relief, considering we'd just had the rear quarter panel repaired. Their last driver who’d hit our car came over after the race to make sure our car was OK and apologised again. Good lad.

We started 17th on the grid, with 14 B class cars in front of us and ended 7th overall and 3rd in class, 2 laps behind the Blue Leaf Primera… After colliding with them, our car’s steering was misaligned from the impact & brakes wore to the metal soon afterwards - Had they played fair, we’d probably have caught them… or got much closer to getting 2nd place. But it didn’t matter – we got a Podium finish and had the biggest smiles on our faces.

Team Gaijin Racing’s been causing waves and people have begun to pay attention as we’ve had two podiums in the last 3 races (4th in the 12 hour, we missed 3rd by 23 seconds!!) When we started in this race series a little over a year ago we had an ill-handling Prelude and were about 5 seconds a lap slower, so the car’s really improved a lot.
We've got plans to improve the car further over winter & if we're successful I think next year TGR will be capable of 1.08's, which is very, very fast for a street registered class N/A car, but will pretty much be the end of development of the Prelude - within the rules. We intend for our car to become the quickest in the road registered N class. It’s not all about car performance - it’s also about pit strategy, refueling speed, reliability & of course driver skill.

The team will race again at the end of November, but I'll sit this one out.
Hopefully we can all meet before the race and have a session to coach the rest of the drivers and get each to the level where they're capable of doing consistent 1.10 laps. That would make TGR very hard to beat. Go for it lads!

16th October 6 hour Ebusu Endurance Race - Alex Labrador (2nd of 4 drivers).

I woke up thinking the fire alarm had gone off… Turned out Miguel was on the phone at reception ringing for 3 minutes. Yeah, I’m such a heavy sleeper they’d use me under train tracks if they could…
So I dashed and splashed in the shower, jumped into my race suit, (yes I said race suit!!) gathered my stuff and went downstairs. The others had left already…
I’d driven the Prelude up the day before – so I’d been elected to drive it to the track, stopping on the way to fill the jerry cans and tank with Hi-Oku.

Simon had been the first to drive and I’d been getting a little nervous as my time to prepare was up, but then Miguel told me, “Get ready, 2 laps and we’ve got a pit stop – you’re on”!
We weren’t wasting any time. The car came in; I helped Simon out and jumped inside. I couldn't get the harness on quick enough then bam!! GO! GO! Fuel stop was fast – and I was off…

I’d only driven the first race, back when we used the spare TEIN suspension because the Aragosta suspension still wasn’t completed from the overhaul. Now getting out there, I could immediately feel the car was a lot more stable. It took me about 4-5 laps to get my bearings on the track and I began to throw it around harder... Looking up at the traqmate I spotted 1.11 as my lap time. That’s about 5 seconds a lap quicker than I did in the 1st race!
I began to settle into the groove of overtaking before corners & throwing the car in, knowing it wouldn’t under steer. Boy, was I having fun…. Don’t know if it’ll appear in the video clips, but I was having so much fun I couldn’t help whooping a few times & I KNOW I had the same concentrated grin inside my helmet that Rossi wore on the outside of his helmet last year... I was racing!!

The car would slide on the Chicane and was frisky on the bottom right sweeper as I began to brake – but despite a little slip, it felt totally stable & wasn’t going to bite. All too soon, my time was up as I began to see the fuel reserve warning light come on... The guys were at the pit calling me in…
Like Miguel had said – the car would take whatever I could throw at it, or it into. This thing’s unbreakable!
I had quite a few miss-shifts and trips to the rev-limiter (Good reason to get Redline Heavy Shockproof in that box!) which lost me split seconds, but I found out after I came in I’d done a mid 1.10 amongst other faster laps.
Felt sorry for Sumi who had been sick and not able to make it. Thanks to him, I’d had the most fun time behind the wheel yet…

16th October 6 hour Ebusu Endurance Race - Simon Batters (1st of 4 drivers).

Fresh from attending the Japanese Grand Prix and [for me] a record 9hr trip home from Nagoya to Yokohama the previous Monday I was on the road again along with the tools and trolley jack etc to support TGR over the 6hr race luckily Luckily Steve came along and helped with the driving, we arrived in Koreyama around 11pm in time to catch the other guys and set out for a nightcap, after walking around trying to find a decent bar, we had a near miss outside a Philippino bar called Bacarlaccarlaccaca..... We settled for a few beers instead I finally hit the pillow at one am only to be woken at 3am by Miguel wanting to talk about the race car, well actually was I sober enough to drive it to a car park!

Race day and the alarm signaled that it was 4:30am and time to get up; we arrived at the circuit in time to wait with everyone else while the lady with the keys was late. We were allocated the rear of pit 18 and I unloaded the van and parked up and started to prepare for my stint which would be the first, this would be the third time I have started our race. After setting up the TraqMate equipment prepared my drinking system, flushing out my pipes with Pepsi.

Miguel Qualified the car and did a great job as heavy traffic can block you having a clear run and the track tends not to be so fast early in the morning, Miguel seemed a little disappointed with his time but it was plenty fast enough giving us 17th position on the grid of 39 cars and 3rd position in our class.

At 9:30 it was time to set out for the grid, this was the first time I had driven the car since my last stint in the August race and it felt a much more responsive and sharper the engine felt a little stronger too possibly due to the cooler air. There is something very satisfying in arriving at the grid a little later than most and having to weave your way past 22 other cars and their entourage to take your position, as usual I stayed in the car belted up with about 15 minutes to go as usual, all my TGR team-mates came and took pictures and offered encouragement we also had a visit from the race queens.

I really like the time before the start, the calm before the storm, sitting snugly in the car as the anticipation and tension mounts around you as you plan your route in the mayhem that will be the first lap it is strangely relaxing.

The endurance races start with a rolling start where you must maintain position until you cross the start line, well we were off and it was fairly well mannered but crowded I remember it was about three abreast into the first corner and through the chicane and two about two abreast for the rest of the lap then it settled down.

I then followed my lap plan which was about using as little brakes as possible and keeping the tyres stress free whilst going as quick as possible, for me this should equal 1m 13s to 1m 14s laps and trying to limit my braking and accelerating to when the front wheels are in the straight ahead position. I think this is key to getting an even wear across the tread of the front wheels so that they can last the full six hours and avoid a tyre change which would cost at least 2/3 laps and possibly a place lost in class.

I know the behaviour of a lot of the drivers in the field when I recognise the cars so I can anticipate what they will do, for example, I can control where faster cars can pass without slowing me down and quickly pass slower cars without getting stuck behind them, although where car/drivers are very evenly matched there is an opportunity for some great battles, I had some great battles especially with an MX5 where we traded places many times.

After about 1hr 15mins [my session was set for 1h 30m] the fuel gauge started to hit 'E', as I passed the pits I sounded the horn, this is our signal to pit, but could not see anyone from TGR so I lapped again sounded the horn again, this time I had some fuel starvation and had to pit my entry to the pits was very fast and upset the marshals but the team were ready and I got out feeling pretty good, I later learned that I finished my stint 3rd in class and 15th overall.

Got up early on Sunday morning to a rainy day, so my plans of riding the bike or RX-7 to Zama using Fuji's beautiful Skyline toll roads via Odawara were shelved and I took our workhorse & race support car instead.

In the meantime Russ (Rextreme) had taken a 2 hour ride on the train from Chiba and met me at Zama station on the way.
As we opened their front door we could smell Alex & Morgana was already making a big traditional American breakfast, right down to pancakes, syrup & fresh orange juice, so we sat down and enjoyed a proper start to the day with friends!

At the workshop whilst Alex got on with some work on his GT-R, Russ and I got stuck in. He'd already hand cut the smaller replacement stickers at home, but needed to make a template with tracing paper of the driver's side, to then cut a mirror image for the passenger side.


In the meantime, I got on with assembling the new fuel drums with fittings obtained elsewhere. Yoshi, a friend and competitor had done us proud - not only supplying details of where to buy the drums but also fittings and correctly sized hose.
Using some old hose clips I'd kept as spares - I assembled each.

The hose actually fits tightly into the filler cap, so I'm hoping the breather in the tank will do it's job, but I may try to find some copper fittings and add a small solid nozzle for each hose end, on race day.
I stamped numbers for each nozzle & can - that way we can easily tell which to assemble together - and have the plastic hose curling directly forwards when assembled.


Russ' job was going to take him about 4 hours, so I wanted to avoid working under the car till last. I fitted 3 small magnets on a new bracket side by side to hold the fuel cap shut instead of just one. Feels stronger now of course.

As Russ was finishing, I lifted the front, put it on stands and took off the front pipe off the bottom of the manifold.
The flexible section was sheared in two, with only the mesh holding it together.

I cut it out and ground away excess diameter, till I had a tight fit on each end& welded a new flexible section to one end. Checked the fit and marked where to weld next then finished on the other end. Removed the damaged heat proofing and ended up irritating the skin on my arms. I'd forgotten how nasty that stuff was!

The Ebay cat replacement pipe we'd bought for a Prelude BB6 has incorrectly sized flanges on, so I could fit it. Why do so many sellers there not even bother to sell goods fit for purpose! I want to see if we can find a better replacement in Japan.
The intake now sounds great, but the exhaust's still too quiet!

Checked the subframe bolts, all OK. Lowered the car and tidied up the interior. Found that 2 wheels can slide into the back from the boot's access hole - with fuel cans in the back too. So we only need to have one wheel on the passenger side.

Russ had to leave early to get back to Chiba, whilst we finishing off welding the front pipe.

Whilst waiting for Alex to finish on his car, I did a small bit of waxing. I'll probably take my porter cable to the track and give it a quick buff to remove all the rubber markings on race morning.

Here's the original driver's side:

Russ had slightly changed the design of the passenger side, to try and avoid using small stickers which may be damaged from fuel spillages. He also made up some white sheets for us to stick our race numbers on & even made a little TGR Keyring!


Big thanks to Russ (Rextreme) for coming out and helping us on a Sunday!

Now our race Prelude's all ready to go. Just needs fuel and someone to drive it to Ebisu & back.

Beautiful weather today. Hoping it'll stay like that for a week so we can have a dry race on Saturday!

Race Preparation 3rd October 2010

On Saturday morning I bought and collected all the bits I thought Sumi, Alex & I might need for fitting a dry battery, induction kit, cold air partition and a magnetic fuel lid release to our Prelude. These included aluminium and steel brackets, since we'd need to re-mount the oil filter block and the magnets of course.
I'd be adapting an unwanted Blitz induction kit to fit our Prelude - originally made to fit a Subaru Legacy...

In the meantime other parts had arrived: New (spare) driveshafts, 2 new Dunlop Z1 Starspec front tyres, Odyssey dry battery, cat replacement pipe, oil, etc.

Last Thursday evening Bodyshop-K had delivered the Prelude back to Alex's with the rear quarter and door repaired. I'd told them only to do the quarter as we have a spare door... Hopefully they won't charge for doing the door too and keep to the 50,000 Yen estimate Toshi Kun had quoted me over the phone... They did a perfect job!



Hoping our man Russ will be able to come over next Sunday (10th Oct) to replace the missing graphics, replace the proteeth stickers and tidy up the vents around the bonnet!

Sunday morning we met at Alex's and loaded up the Hiace with all the stuff we'd need and headed out to the workshop. The Prelude's exhaust leak's getting bigger!

Sumi & Alex switched the left rear tyre with a good used one that had survived mostly intact from the previous 6 hour race & switched the front tyres for new.
Sumi also inspected the brakes and bled the fluid.





In the meantime, I first got on with figuring out how to re-mount the oil filter block, using some brackets bought from my local home centre.
Wanting to keep weight as low as possible, I mounted the battery flat (being a Gel battery it can be mounted in any orientation). I cut the original screw hooks and re-threaded them, so we could re-use the original battery's positioning clamp.
For the air filter, I cut off a section of the original air box's lid and screwed into the Blit'z copper inserts. Air gaps were plugged with self adhesive foam.
As we're no longer using the air vents on the side of the bumper, I routed some spare ducting tube to the bottom of the air cleaner.
I hadn't been able to find any corrugated plastic suitable for making a partition, so I made a template out of cardboard first, then with the use of a jigsaw used that to cut an exact sized carbon fibre partition. The result fitted perfectly. Just need to plug a small gap with foam between the air intake tube and suspension turret & we'll have a much larger volume air box with total seperation from the rest of the hot engine bay.







Sumi undertook the task of fitting a small handle and magnet to the fuel lid. No more shouting to each other to release the fuel cap and risk losing valuable pit time!





Alex & Sumi finished by changing the oil (Castrol RS 10W50 under 3,000 Yen per 4 litres!), whilst I measured the leaking flexible tubing on the exhaust. A new replacement will be arriving shortly...

I checked the driveshafts for wear. They seem OK. We'd ran out of time, anyways - but I don't think they need changing... We will need to send back the OLD ones Simon has at his place, but in the meantime, the new ones can stay in their boxes as spares. Driveshafts are a known weak link on Hondas with tight LSD's..
Maybe we'll add more initial torque when we upgrade the final drive for the next season and change the driveshafts then whilst we're at it.

In the meantime, this morning 3 x 20L drums have arrived. I'll drop these off at Alex's and we'll fit the fittings bought for them. Now we'll have the best available fuel cans for faster pit stops.

Next Sunday, the plan is to complete the following:

(1). Assemble these new fuel cans & fittings and replace the old (Slower) ones.
(2). Fit an additional magnet to the fuel lid (We found the current solution's only just strong enough).
(3). Check front subframe bolts (For some reason they came loose twice before).
(4). Cut out old flexible section of the front pipe on exhaust and weld in replacement.
(5). Fit catalyst replacement pipe.
(6). Replace missing decals where the repair's been carried out (May be worth changing the design near the fuel cap, since spilt fuel made the decals unstick directly below, previously), tidy up the decals on the bonnet and replace missing decals on the rear bumper.
(7). Clean & polish the car, ready for the race on 16th August.



Hoping to have a better turnout from some of the other team members on 10th October, so we can complete the work quickly.

James' video of Ebisu 12 hour race!

Here's a video of the 12 hour endurance race (28th Aug 2010) made by James, one of our drivers.

Enjoy!