Sorry it has been a little while since our last post. After our Donington Park track day work and other stuff had to take priority for a while, and if we’re completely honest I don’t think either of us were that enthusiastic about today’s jobs!

Since buying the kit from the C1 Racing Club the shiny new drive shafts and wishbones have been sat in Marks office ready to be put on the car. The process on paper seemed quite simple – take off the old stuff, add a couple of track rod extensions and put the new kit back on.

We decided to start with an easy win. The key opening boot hatch is not allowed in the regulations so we changed it to a push button opener. A simple case of taking off the rear bumper, changing the key barrel for the push button assembly bought off Facebook and put it back together. Simple!

Then it was time for a tea break as we planned our attack on the front end.

So this needed referral to the C1 Racing Club build notes and, of course, YouTube. The dismantling of the lower front end meant removing the wheels, disconnecting the brake calipers, splitting the ball joints, taking off the hub nuts (needing a trip to Halfords for a massive socket), undoing the drop links and the wishbone fixings.

Removing these bits was easy including the wishbones and the drivers side drive shaft. Unfortunately the passenger side drive shaft split at the joint closest to the gear box which meant a lot of swearing and eventual removal with a bar, chisel and mallet 🤯🤬🤬🤦‍♂️.

So by now the worst of it was over so definitely time for a mug of tea.

The next step was to add the club supplied track rod extensions. This, oddly, meant dismantling the current track rod assembly then cutting the track rod to a set distance from the new lock nut, adding the extension and finally fitting back together with a very basic attempt to look at the tracking, (we will get the tracking looked at by a professional before our next outing!).

Then we had to fit the new drive shafts. A bit of pushing and twisting later and the new shiny shafts were in place. Then it was just a case of putting the new wishbones in, connecting the drop links and hubs, brake calipers and wheels.

Last but not least the gear box needed a refill of oil and the fill hole is in the most stupid place! The caused a headache with lots of twisting and routing a pipe down through the engine and employing the use of an extending funnel and syringe., plus it had started raining. We soon had the required 1.7l added and managed to get packed away in a reasonable time, (for us!).

We don’t plan to do any more upgrades before our next track day, but through the summer we will have more work to do on suspension, master switch, transponder, fire extinguisher, new alloys and shaved tyres, race setup and hopefully a new livery!

Next up though is another day at Donington Park in March where we will continue developing our driving and getting to know the car and we also get a chance to discuss possibly being involved with the Army Sports Car Racing Team!

As ever, advice, guidance, donations and even sponsorship are most welcome. Please follow us on social media to follow what we are up to!