Wow! Seems like a lucky escape! The damage could have been so much worse!
It sure could have ended worse yes.
That was a lucky escape, car looks great in those photos
Thanks tony, the car looks better now than ever before I think.
There still is some niggles I have to sort out, but it's getting there.
that was lucky as you say for that to fail on a corner at speed would have been life changing!! Looks like the joint had got dry and completely seized up, guess you checked the other side
Missed the last update with all the picture and video epic road trip
I checked ALL ball joints after this yes, but the only bad one was the one that broke.
I also found a small slack in the upper right ball joint, but not too much to worry about yet, it was a teeny tiny slack so I'll change that at a later date.
Now to the update that brings us up to date sort of.
The weekend 24-26 august I was booked for a track day weekend at Arctic Circle Raceway in 'Mo I Rana' in the southern part of northern norway, around 380km's south of where I live.
This time I wanted to take the car out on the track to thrash the he|| out of it and set some good lap times.
Firstly I had a set of wobbling brake disks in the front, so I contacted a friend of mine to get the discs put through a lathe to try to get them straight.
They came out great, I almost lost all wobble, except for when the brakes was really warm.
Newly skimmed disks:
Next upon the agenda I thought about swapping my one piece drive shaft with a standard with rubber coupling to get rid of the grownling at high speed.
I ordered a middle rubber coupling and the front rubber coupling, but the middle one was wrong so I ditched that idea and ran with the one piece one, I could live with the growling for a few weeks more.
Front:
Middle one, you can clearly see the difference between the stock and the replacement:
Then it was time to look at the cooling.
Last time I was on the track in 2007, the car was overheating after 6-7 laps so I looked at the radiator. It wasn't leaking, but the small brass "ribs" going between the water channels had deteriorated on almost 70% of the radiator, and it was due for replacement.
Old one:
Next job was to find a replacement radiator. I luckily had one from a 1982 Taunus/Cortina 1.6 lying around that was the same size as the original, but it was leaking at the top, around the top reservoir, but a quick soldering session fixed that up pronto.
Replacement after soldering, ready to be put to use:
That was then installed and then I changed all the fluids and filters on the engine, and checked the oil in the rear axle.
I also installed a tachometer with a programmable shift light in the windshield to keep an eye on the revs going around the track.
Ready for lift off
Not many pictures this time, but I got lots of video this weekend
A little about the track, it's called Arctic Circle Raceway and is 3.7km's long.
The track is designed by some engineers at lotus and is a very fun and challenging track with high speed sections and tight low speed bends.
I've edited and uploaded two videos to youtube, one from friday the 24th, and one from saturday 25th.
This video from friday wasn't that exiting, lots of people on the track I had to watch out for, so not so good laptimes then, but a little fun because around the middle of the video I had a little "fight" with a mitsubishi evo X or something, and he was struggling with grip all the time, and he was struggling with keeping up with me in the turns.
Watch them in 720p
Friday:
Saturday's video was a little bit more interesting, more high speed and consistent laptimes with my personal best of 2:00 minutes/lap.
I also drove the filmed laps with a mate that weighs around 110kg, so I had a weight disadvantage, but nevertheless I got great laptimes and had lots of fun.
I also had a fun fight with an ABT Audi with a V6 turbodiesel with 310hp and 600nm torques, around the middle of the video
I also had a few clips of the drive from the track from inside and outside of the car
Saturday:
And the weekend went great, except for the clutch cable broke on synday just before the drive home, but some nice guy in a Sierra Cosworth had one extra that he gave me free of charge, so my trip home was saved.
It didn't fit particularly well, but we made it fit like it was made for the car
And today I had my cousin over and I took a few pics of his '71 Cortina and my '75 Taunus.
And an overview of the yard:
Thanks for watching guys!
Let me know what you think of my driving
Edit: fixed some pictures.
