Johnsy's mk2 LCR' -- Nurburgring trip September 2016--

Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Took a bank Monday drive upto Harte side cafe with some friends,it's was a bit wet n foggy early on but still had fun,



Secretly hankering after a megane 275 trophy in liquid yellow.
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Nurdburgring 7weeks tomorrow!

Bloody car though, it would seem the concentric slave cylinder has retired itself,slowly drawing air into the hydraulics pffff. £40 part tops come with a £250 quid labour Bill, so while the gearbox so off Iv placed an order with AKS tuning for a Helix organic clutch which seems to be the clutch of choice to handle the extra power/torque,atleast it should be future mod proof upto around 450lbft torque. Iv got a couple other little mods to fit aswell, AKS solid shifter bushes & a billet block bleeder to replace the plastic oem items .

Clutch is being delivered direct to Richie @ Automotive solutions in perterlee,but I'll ask him to take some pictures.
Annual service a few weeks back and just passed 40k miles, decided to follow the crowd and use Millers oils Nanodrive 5w-40

And while eurocarparts had one of there many recent 30% off sales I ordered some new TTS Brembo discs for the impending 2000mile euro trip.I just need to decide on brake pad compound/brand to get.

And last but not least having my daughter in the car and my better half fitting bright pink sun shades to the side window with Disney princesses on, I had to do some summit,


Easy enough to fit but the tailgate ones could be a better fit and have better clips same goes for the quarter lights aswell, since removed the tailgate ones as its too dark inside.
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Helix organic has been on a few weeks now and is bedded in nicely,


I'm liking the robust feeling in the pedal, I also had the AKS solid shifter bushes fitted,but decided to bin the CM billet bleeder as its stupid tight to get on

Iv just ordered some Project Mu HC+ front pads aswell
 
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Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Boom, now that's what I call fast very, ordered these at 3:30pm and they were delivered at 11:15am the following day

Even weighed them
 
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Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Got round to fitting new Brembo discs and the project mu HC+ pads today. Helps when your mate has a 2post ramp,makes for an easy time ,took about an hour all in
New vs old, £50 pagids served a purpose but really struggling with fade now there down to around 8mm


The old discs did have the j hook pattern in them but as you can see after approx 12k Miles there's no more pattern.


All fitted and the calipers a little cleaner ready for bedding in.


iv only really got the cheap pagids to compare these to so its not much of a comparison, but cold bite is good and no god awful squealing so far,
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Nurburgring trip 2016

1722.5 miles
246.44 liters of V-power
28mpg
40 hrs driving
3 laps of Nordsleiffe
5 laps Nurburgring GP

Wow what a place! So green so very very green.its hard to imagine you turn off the autobahn into this beautiful green cauldron of mountains & valleys, driving down through the tunnels set into the scenery,the pressure builds and your ears pop, trying hard to follow the winding mountain roads and not fall off it staring at the shear beauty of it all!
my iPhone 6 camera doesn't do the place justice



Arriving late on Monday due to an overturned wagon on the Brussels ring road meant we'd missed the Monday night 2hr ring session, so had to settle for a 20min session on the GP circuit on Tuesday.

Cooling off

2hr session ended 30min early to due to biker getting spat off,atleast he did it in front of us in the bottom car park, funny the Wednesday session was ended early due to another biker doing something similar out of sight this time. I'd went out earlier as a passenger in a M3 CSL,quite an experience, but not as cool as jumping in with an Irish kid in his 180 sx, his mate had a 200sx and they didn't disappoint, light oversteer he called it just a flick no handbrake, mind they still got banned from the rest of the session despite getting the marshals approval,pesky Germans and there rules.( waiting for YouTube video upload)

We ended up at pistenklause restaurant, Apprently owned by Sabien Schmitz family, the famous steak on a stone didn't disappoint, and got another visit on the last night, Steak for 17

Half eaten


Even though the track was closed for TF, the manufacturers basically lap it all day every day with there test mules, We even caught a few glimpses of the Pagani Hyaura apparently trying to set a lap record ,it sounded awesome at full chat on the start/finish straight
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kUOjyiiE6To

Found some corners, next time Ill leave the wife at home and take a mountain bike




Had read about the views from the top of the castle and the weather was amazing,
Driving up from the gantry

Overlooking the GP circuit, about 9 Lamborghinis where lapping at the time, telescope came in handy

Green hell


Obligatory other touristy stuff

Not the best


Not sure about putting stickers on my car




The ring was open for TF on Thursday evening between 5:30 and 7:30(ish), nervous,excited bearing in mind all you really see about this place is all the accident YouTube footage, decided not to wear a helmet so as not to feel invincible, first lap I spent more time checking my mirrors and keeping out of the way,and slowing for every blind crest, after doing the first lap in 11:30 I was straight back out with a little more confidence and returned with a 10:23, happy the car was ok and feeling a little more relaxed I went straight back out again for a third, having a little bit more track knowledge my 3rd lap was certainly quicker but Harry's lap timer had killed my phone storage,so stopped filming, I got around 9mins of footage .

High speed brake dust


Cued for a 4th lap but the session was cut short as the track claimed another victim, no footage has appeared of the crash as yet,but have read lift off oversteer killed this Meg.the guys that where still out on track got a rare treat of driving it backwards
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LbQTl2-8reI What a mess,driver and passenger ok
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QhU9seCCxQs

Really enjoyable trip and the car was faultless

 
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Daniel M

Blackbelts & Chickenheads
Apr 18, 2013
2,874
7
Middlesbrough
Looks like a good trip, would love to go myself but would be scared of wrecking the car lol.

Definitely on my bucket list though.
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Looks like a good trip, would love to go myself but would be scared of wrecking the car lol.

Definitely on my bucket list though.

Thanks for the reply Dan, 200 odd views Since the update and 2 replys lol,

But yeah it's an amazing place it should be on every pistonheads bucket list,the Track is a pretty daunting beast and as long as you don't get carried away and drive well within your cars limit and yours you'll be fine,

Did you check out the YouTube footage of the crashed megane?
 
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Aug 6, 2009
970
1
cumbria
Looks like you had a excellent time on the your trip. Abit unlucky you missed your first session.
How did you rated the new brake set up on the track?
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Looks like you had a excellent time on the your trip. Abit unlucky you missed your first session.
How did you rated the new brake set up on the track?

Brakes are great for scrubbing speed off when dabbing them,but I think they'd benefit from j-hooked discs or similar when trying to left foot/trail brake into a corner to help with pad/disc contact,
At times when there hot and your riding the pedal into a heavy braking zone like the first corner on the GP circuit you can feel them running out of friction/fade which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, I'm sure the 362mm rotors are also a better option to help with heat management .
 

Daniel M

Blackbelts & Chickenheads
Apr 18, 2013
2,874
7
Middlesbrough
Thanks for the reply Dan, 200 odd views Since the update and 2 replys lol,

But yeah it's an amazing place it should be on every pistonheads bucket list,the Track is a pretty daunting beast and as long as you don't get carried away and drive well within your cars limit and yours you'll be fine,

Did you check out the YouTube footage of the crashed megane?

Yeah had a look at that, looked pretty nasty. :blink:

The forum is very different to how it was even 6 months to a year ago. Not many people on these days and those that are generally browse instead of commenting.
 
Aug 6, 2009
970
1
cumbria
Brakes are great for scrubbing speed off when dabbing them,but I think they'd benefit from j-hooked discs or similar when trying to left foot/trail brake into a corner to help with pad/disc contact,

At times when there hot and your riding the pedal into a heavy braking zone like the first corner on the GP circuit you can feel them running out of friction/fade which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, I'm sure the 362mm rotors are also a better option to help with heat management .


Left foot braking is something I need to learn.
Have you thought about the floating discs? Cost a lot but they work really well.

Also just seenthe post about heartside next time your up let me know I'm only 15min away.
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Left foot braking is something I need to learn.
Have you thought about the floating discs? Cost a lot but they work really well.

Also just seenthe post about heartside next time your up let me know I'm only 15min away.

Floating discs would be nice, but it's a big expense, now the ring trip is out of the way I'm in saving mode because I really need a house,been in this apartment far too long,

That was my first time up heart side but I'll let you know next time we plan a trip up,I think locky on here was interested also.Im going to croft on the 17/18th October with the same lads but only as a spectator , there tracking a Meg n Clio :D

Also while I remember it's a lot easier to heel/toe with the brembos over the standard gash
 
Jun 25, 2012
920
1
Gateshead
Yeah had a look at that, looked pretty nasty. :blink:

The forum is very different to how it was even 6 months to a year ago. Not many people on these days and those that are generally browse instead of commenting.

Sad but true, Facebook seems to be killing off forums
 
Aug 6, 2009
970
1
cumbria
Floating discs would be nice, but it's a big expense, now the ring trip is out of the way I'm in saving mode because I really need a house,been in this apartment far too long,



That was my first time up heart side but I'll let you know next time we plan a trip up,I think locky on here was interested also.Im going to croft on the 17/18th October with the same lads but only as a spectator , there tracking a Meg n Clio :D



Also while I remember it's a lot easier to heel/toe with the brembos over the standard gash



I know how it feels, I had to put my car plans on hold for 2year while we bought and done up a house.

It's a good road up heart side, but the weather needs to be right. Would be good if a few of the Leon boys had a bit of a meet up there.

Standard brakes were gash, all or nothing no progression at all.
 
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