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Engine Bay
I tried to do some digging on it a few weeks back. Mainly because the seller knew nothing about it. He bought it with NO HISTORY (and therefore I have no paperwork or folder of history, eek!), he was not into kit cars, had hardly driven it and basically liked the idea of combining the best bits of his MX5 race car and motorbikes into one. It was too much. I went and took a look at it, it wasn't everything I wanted but was about the right price and so bought it quite blind.
Its obviously a 4age Rotrex supercharged so hopefully 220bhp+ with the 4agze internals. I dont think its a TR Chassis (front rocker arms are under the chassis rails), I dont think it has had much committed use or care for the last 10 years as its got a lot of residual dirt and covered around 2000 miles in 10 years! Apparently it is a RAW ex-demo and does seem pretty well built with mostly sensible brackets and fitment of things but it does need a tidy up.
I collected it on 15th Jan and already had a track day booked for 21st Jan so I thought I would take the opportunity to use it as a shakedown instead of taking The Ol' Trusty One. It made for a busy week in between spending every night in the freezing garage with thermals on checking over the car. The day iself was very cold at Oulton Park. -4 on arrival and a delayed start while they cleared the snow and ice off. Noise testing was passed, 100dB with a 105dB static limit. Happy days, the 1st box ticked.
Then it was onto sighting laps. Sitting in Parc Ferme the water temps climbed and climbed. . . . then the engine cut out. . .great!!! As I was just in a queue I just sat there and let the temps drop again. They did, it started and then I went out on track. The temp climbed up to about 110DegC (!!!) a couple of corners in and I was just thinking "well a hose will pop off soon or something is going to go bang" then the thermostat must of unstuck and the temps dropped to 80degC and stayed around 90DegC for the rest of the day. Perfect!! Oil remained around 100DegC.
I came in after sighting laps, gave it 20 mins for the madmen in their Clios and Civics to move the snow sludge and let some steam off before I headed out. Suspension was hard so I softened that right off. Tyres pressures were all over the place, set them at 20PSI. Session after session it seemed to work well and have some decent poke. I don't think it has an LSD as I was slipping all over the place. I slowly pushed on a damp track getting more and more confidence in the car. The car ended up filthy!!
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Overall, Im very happy. Lots of tweaks and improvements but it didn't blow up, didn't fall apart and I didn't crash in the snow!! Next thing is to prepare my blue car for sale, it needs some bits doing and a good clean tidy up, fresh MOT etc but it will have to go to make space for the red one. So, if anyone is considering a RAW Striker IRS ~165bhp with proven reliable then it will be up for sale in a couple of months.
Garden Ornament
Recent Front Right
Roll on 2023, thanks for reading. Comments, questions and advice welcome.
[Edited on 24/1/23 by bi22le]
