Missing horses have been rounded up!

Took the car back to the rolling road on Friday and it now has 149BHP, fantastic compared to the 115BHP at the last visit there back in March.

So the faulty cat and the work done by Mark at MJN have done the trick.

Can't wait for the next event next weekend at Wiscombe Hillclimb, no excuses this time!

Thank you mister Astra Y823HYA !

Slightly off topic but as a driving instructor, this is the third time I've been hit by uninsured drivers and it drives me mad that this scum can get away with it! or so they think?

I would like to thank the driver of black Astra, registration Y823HYA, for the rear end smash into my car today on the A4174, Bristol ring-road, and the then chase after you as you proceeded not to stop after the accident.

 I would like to point out to you that my pupil was in fact on their driving test, when you decided that going through a red light was somehow now an acceptable way of driving.

Have you considered the affect left in your wake, probably not, so I would like to explain.

As you are not insured, then first of all we have obvious cost of repairs to the rear of my car, then the lost lessons for me while I file the incident report with the Police, then the lost test for the next person taking their test which the examiner who had to spend time with the Police, the pain in my neck from being sat in the back, then the lost confidence of my pupil, who now may never take their test again, I could go on and on....

But at least we have the fond memories of chasing you up and down Blackhorse Road, while you try to escape from me, followed by the final picture of you proceeding through another red light in a desperate attempt to escape, and all because you were so desperate in your sad world to get to wherever you were going that you couldn't stop at a red light for 1 minute.

So mister Astra, Y823HYA, thanks for ruining everyone's day, looking forward to the court date, I can't wait for your explanation!

Entries are in for the next couple of months!

Still not managed to get the car back to rolling road yet but hopefully should be some time this week.

The entries for the next couple of months are now in and confirmed.

Next up is Wiscombe hillclimb on 19th May, Abingdon Sprint on 9th June, Gurston Down hillclimb on 24th June, Castle Hill hillclimb on 7th and 8th July.

Not sure which events to enter after this, just going to wait to see how we get on first before commiting to any more entries, but at least this should get some scores in the MGCC Luffield Championship, as we are in a lowly position in all classes at the moment!

Car Back from MJN Motors

Got the car back from Mark at MJN Motors in Bristol.

He carried out a compression test and all was OK, put it on his T4 test machine and it didn't come back with too many problems, so some small adjustments to the VVC, and tinkering with the general settings and it's all fine.

Just got to wait for the ECU to learn the new settings and then back to the rolling road to see what improvements have been made by Mark and the fitting of a new cat and oil change.

Driving the car home it did fell more willing to pull but the prove will be the rolling road in a week or two!

Withdrawn from Curborough

After much deliberation over the weekend, I have decided to withdraw from Curborough this weekend because of the ongoing problems with power loss.

There was no point going with an underpowered car, I would only moan about it not being quick enough.

So this now gives me a 7 week window before the next event I was going to enter, which is Wiscombe hill climb on 19th May, hopefully this will be with a car that is running to it's full capacity.

MOT

Arrived at My Garage in Emersons Green to find that the MOT chap that I normally see was away on holiday but no problem as another technician was doing the MOT's that day.
As the car was driven into the workshop I hung around outside waiting and watching. After about 20 mins I couldn't resist going in to see how it going.

Not good as the car was failing on the emissions test, he tried a couple of times and called a colleague over for verification, "sorry but your cats knackered".
I found this very hard to believe because the cat was less than a year old and supplied by Brown and Gammons, who are a well respected MG specialist.

The MOT continued and the car passed on everything about from the emission test. Armed with this information I called B&G to ask for their advice. They were very helpful and asked when I could bring the car back to them for them to inspect for themselves, so I wanted to get it sorted ASAP, so agreed to drive the 2.5 hours on Saturday morning.

Got to B&G this morning before they opened, I was impressed to get there that early, and duly waited for them to open. They quickly diagnosed that the cat had failed and offered to replace then and there. Interestingly the sound from the exhaust on the drive home was one that I was familiar with but hadn't heard from my car for a little while now. So I'm confident that the retest of the MOT next Friday should be a formality but there still remains the issue of lost horsepower and why the cat had failed.

After a few searches on Internet, it seems that most cats fail because of either over fuelling and petrol contaminating the cat or compression loss, this comes back to the earlier problem experienced at the rolling road session.

So the next sprint at Curborough next weekend will still be with a car that I'm not sure exactly is going on with the engine but hopefully the following week when the compression tests are done, should be sorted and we can find those missing horses!!

Rolling Road Results

I decided after the Mallory Park sprint that I should get the car on a rolling road and checked out to make sure that it is running as well as it could do. So yesterday I took it to South West In Car Tech at Dodington near Bristol.

Well the results from 3 power runs can only be described as disappointing. I was expecting somewhere between 140 and 150 bhp, but the car could only manage 115 bhp. Big disappointment and then the question of WHY? The chap at SWICT seemed to think that the engine was fuelling correctly but was losing compression, so either 1 or 2 cylinders are not as they should be or the dreaded head gasket was beginning to fail.

Took a trip to see mark at MJN motors in Brislington to book it in for a compression check. Mark has seen the car a few times now and was confident it wasn't the head gasket but unfortunately couldn't get my car in for a couple of weeks to check the full compression. With the next sprint at Curborough only a week away, this wasn't good but maybe i would have better luck with the MOT which was booked for later in the afternoon!