[JOHNDQ]

That’s cheating, you’ve got another one to finish first

Glad to see you’re sticking with the Rovers.

Definitely won't be finishing that one mate just going to try and off load it on eBay once it's all in primer and rolling

It would be good to know the spec of these cars, I’m guessing similar modifications as the tomcat racers?

No unfortunately not everything is standard other than uprated shocks and Springs, Janspeed exhaust manifold and stitch welding to the body with a very basic cage. Have noticed it's got a D16 Z engine rather than a D16 9 tho

[James3990]

How you getting on John?

Did I see on Facebook your 1st track day didn’t go to plan?

[JOHNDQ]

Snetterton update Was a fully booked with with MGs on Track a running 20 minute session per hour so was unable to get any real clean laps in to full a full fast lap but never the less had a great day, wasnt expecting to set any lap records as was my first time of ever driving the car and i dont think the car itself has been used since the late 1990's. Anyway once got used to it after the morning sessions (its completely different to driving my other R8 on track, slow to turn in and rear breaks away easy being the main problems as we cant run any camber aids etc and not much power on the straights) was ready to start the afternoon with some fast laps. unfortunately in the 2nd afternoon session it started to loose power and wouldnt rev past 6k then coolant temp was getting to around 3/4 on the gauge. After coming into the pits to do some checking over noticed the coolant was pressurising and leaking from the cap, gone very brown and smelt of exhaust gas To be honest i was expecting some of these issues as ive have to drop the tank (was full of rust to the point the sender unit had seized as a block of rust) and when replacing the coolant all the steel coolant outlets on head in take manifold were very badly deteriorated so i guessed the headgasket would have in turn started to deteriorate. Still at least ive had a bit of seat time and i know what to do to move forward, plan is to remove the head and check start of next month and get back out on track asap

Few pictures of the day, theres 2 videos on the Rover R8 enthusiast Fb page if anyone wants to view them and a few pictures of the car on track on the MSV photo website (Snetterton, 15 May, MG Owners club, white cars)

IMG_20230515_065809_HDR by John Quincey, on Flickr
IMG_20230515_075345_HDR by John Quincey, on Flickr
IMG_20230515_124204_HDR by John Quincey, on Flickr

Conformation the headgasket has failed....

IMG_20230516_182419_HDR by John Quincey, on Flickr

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Definitely won't be finishing that one mate just going to try and off load it on eBay once it's all in primer and rolling

It would be good to know the spec of these cars, I’m guessing similar modifications as the tomcat racers?

No unfortunately not everything is standard other than uprated shocks and Springs, Janspeed exhaust manifold and stitch welding to the body with a very basic cage. Have noticed it's got a D16 Z engine rather than a D16 9 tho

That sounds like a bitza engine John? as you're probably aware the D16Z2' is the more common SOHC version of the engine, fitted to both auto & manual boxes. As that is very definitely a twin cam head [ & the blocks differ] that might be the cause of any h'gasket issues?

[JOHNDQ]

It would be good to know the spec of these cars, I’m guessing similar modifications as the tomcat racers?

No unfortunately not everything is standard other than uprated shocks and Springs, Janspeed exhaust manifold and stitch welding to the body with a very basic cage. Have noticed it's got a D16 Z engine rather than a D16 9 tho

That sounds like a bitza engine John? as you're probably aware the D16Z2' is the more common SOHC version of the engine, fitted to both auto & manual boxes. As that is very definitely a twin cam head [ & the blocks differ] that might be the cause of any h'gasket issues?

I'm wondering if they used that block for these cars I know of another ex challenge car and that has the same engine code. It's not possible to fit the DOHC head on the SOHC I tried that once before when I was restoring the green GTi I head (was going to fit the DOHC on it). The DOHC engine uses 11mm head bolts rather than 10mm and the head bolts are in a different position for some reason. I done a bit of net research and I found the JDM and Australia market only Civic used a engine which is D16ZC/4 which apparently used a PG7 ECU from a 1988 Honda Integra so makes more power.

[James3990]

Nice to see you've managed to get it out so soon despite the teething issues

You've got a much better chassis to work with, it will be interesting to know if the lower arms (front and back) are rose jointed like the tomcats?

Can you swap over many parts from the track car to help improve the challenge car?

How does the D16 compare to the k-series so far?

[JOHNDQ]

Nice to see you've managed to get it out so soon despite the teething issues

You've got a much better chassis to work with, it will be interesting to know if the lower arms (front and back) are rose jointed like the tomcats?

Can you swap over many parts from the track car to help improve the challenge car?

How does the D16 compare to the k-series so far?

At the minute I'm just on polybrushed arms, the car came with one polybrushed rear arm and one RS there is guy on facebook who reconditions the RS arms and after talking to a few people with the GTi's they said it should have the RS rose joined arms so that's something I need to look into but looking on the MG Cup regulations page it says only allowed poly bushes so need to ask Peter about that. I'm trying to keep it in the regs ready for when I start racing but I have fitted the MG ZR brake reaction arms

[JOHNDQ]

I don't thinks it's fair to compare the 2 cars to be honest especially when the GTi is about 60bhp less with no camber adjustment if I decide to race in a different series then I would put all the other parts onto it

[James3990]

Yeah Andy and Paul can sort out the RS arms for you, I’ve seen a pair of rear LCA’s and they are really nice quality. I don’t think they’ve sorted the front LCA’s yet.

With the two engines, I’m clueless on the D16 engine. Does it have an alloy block and does it rev as nice as the K-series?

The MGCC regs are questionable mate, to keep them as per the original RS spec is hard. Sourcing/refurbishing the original parts being the biggest problem, and then competing against the more modern MG cars too.

You could always go in the Invitation class, or if enough GTI challenge cars re-enter the track they would consider a seperate Series specifically for these cars.

[JOHNDQ]

Yeah Andy and Paul can sort out the RS arms for you, I’ve seen a pair of rear LCA’s and they are really nice quality. I don’t think they’ve sorted the front LCA’s yet.

With the two engines, I’m clueless on the D16 engine. Does it have an alloy block and does it rev as nice as the K-series?

The MGCC regs are questionable mate, to keep them as per the original RS spec is hard. Sourcing/refurbishing the original parts being the biggest problem, and then competing against the more modern MG cars too.

You could always go in the Invitation class, or if enough GTI challenge cars re-enter the track they would consider a seperate Series specifically for these cars.

Yes D Series is all alloy but fair bit heavier than the K Series. I would say Revving is same as a non VVC series but on the D Series the standard flywheel is like yours 9.8KG. I have just ordered a 5kg flywheel, didn't want to go 3.5kg as on other car it's lost so much low down torque. I'll have you check I'm sure on the other GTi there was brand new front RS lower arms with all the suspension parts. After speaking to a few people in the MG Cup they all say the rigs are open to a bit of bending so we'll just enter as is and see what happens. At the end of the day the worst that can happen is they take any points I might get away but bearing in mind I'll probably only get one race in this year that wouldn't matter anyway