Jonny-Jimbo

In Street use situations … Bedding in when the red EBC surface coating (marked on the pads as Brake In) is applied. Best procedure is to drive gently avoiding harsh braking unless in an emergency for first 100 miles. In the second 100 miles (up to 200) you can use gently increasing brake pressures when using the brakes. Only after 200 miles urban driving (not 200 miles on a freeway where brakes are almost unused) should you attempt to apply heavy load and heat to the brakes. To do this final bedding on a QUIET ROAD in safe traffic apply the brakes and slow from 60 to 10 MPH five times in a row. Then drive slowly for a few minutes if safe to do so to allow the brakes to cool. Try to avoid coming to a rest whilst the brakes are heated. A smell may be noticed from the warm brakes, this is normal. Repeat this procedure a second time after the brakes have TOTALLY cooled down. EBC pads get better with miles. Even after this bed in procedure it can take up to 1500 miles before the pads are at their best. In the meantime the pads will be good and safe but true potential not realised. EBC makes performance pads that last, they do not bed in within 5 minutes driving. Noises will be more likely during the first 1000-1500 miles use whilst this chemical bedding takes place. NEVER attempt to sand or scotchbrite brake pads to assist it bedding in or noise reduction,this will only make things worse by taking the pads “Off-Flat” and require hundreds of miles driving to seat them again during which time the brakes will feel very dull. The only way to seat pads is against the rotor they will be used on and by following our bedding recommendation.

A striking bright orange looks the dogs doodah's on G15s.

We are now an invited club for the Mercia Motor Club grass auto test series!! We won't be eligible for the championship overall, but we can still have some enjoyable evenings driving round fields!

Rear axle located in Coventry - it's complete but is missing the brakes. Are you on facebook Eyuptim? If so I can get you in touch directly with the seller.

I've sent them a message, see if I hear anything back.

As a little bonus - if anyone wants to marshal on this event, you do get breakfast included, AND all marshals are entered into a prize draw to win a rally driving experience day with the Rally Rides driving school!

I have half an idea that there is someone over in Rugby that has a spare Sprint axle, but I can't remember for certain. I'll drop them a message and find out. What's your location, or are you willing to travel for the part?

Regulations now available (CT not included in list of clubs as the regs were written before we were invited!), entries go live on 6th July. Regs available here; http://mercianrally.co.uk/regulations.html

Hi Richard, all being well I'll be doing the event with AJ. I have to say, I didn't realise it's the week after 10CR, so I guess there is a good chance that we won't get many CT teams entering. You'd have to be a real glutton for punishment to spend 5 days driving round Europe, then a week later spend a night blasting round Warwickshire! However, if AJ decides not to do it with me, I'll be in touch!

What did you break Steve? Diff nose mount thing?

Hi all, We have been made an invited club for the Mercian Road Rally, organised by the Mercia Motor Club. The main details are shown below. - The event is overnight, on the 16th and 17th September. - The event is around 150 miles in total, on OS Maps 151 and 152. Most of the navigation is by tulips, but there are specials tests on private land. - The roads are yellows, whites and some unmade roads on the special tests. - We are welcome to enter in any car, under the CT banner. There is NOT a historic class, but both team members MUST be in CT (or other invited club) - The event is run under two categories, as a Clubman event and a National B. The actual event is identical for both classes. - The start of the event is at Southam Tyres, with adequate parking for all; trailers, extra cars if driver and navigator are coming from different places etc. - The finish is The Wharf Inn, a few miles south of the start, where breakfast is provided as well as results. - As a road rally, with a section of private land, not much special equipment is needed. All crews must carry a spill kit, and things like a tow rope, fire extinguishers, first aid kit are recommended (like our own events). - There is no need to have anything like a roll cage/harnesses etc. This is a link to the photo gallery from last year. As can be expected, most entries are old beater hatchbacks etc, but there is the odd old Escort etc scattered in there... and who wouldn't enjoy an evenings fun with an old Escort? http://www.mandhphotography.co.uk/p568917269 I have provisionally accepted the invitation, as I hope to take part in the event myself (Either in the 2000 or the MX5 - sadly the 540 is out as not allowed more than 4 cylinders for a modern car. The organiser can apply for exemptions for 6 pot classics). Keep an eye on the events dedicated website - http://mercianrally.co.uk/ for when regulations and entry forms are released. For those interested there is an event specific facebook page too - just search for Mercian Road Rally. When they're available I will also post the regulations and entry form here for download.

Agree with most statements above really - the brake pads need to be suited to what your driving is, and really, it might be worth having two sets of pads in use to swap over. Standard road pads for most of the driving, then if you know you're going to be doing a lot of hard stops (like driving through the mountains etc) then consider swapping them. It's not like it's a hard job to swap pads on our cars! As for performance, we use Carbon Lorraine pads on the BMW Touring Cars, which would also fit the Herald and Vitesse type calipers (two different pads), but race pads on the road would be a terrible idea.

Different type of car, but I had green stuffs in my 540 (So twice the weight and three times the power of a Herald), and I didn't get on with them. They came with the car when I bought it, but I didn't truly like them I have to say. Had no real bite or feel. Decided to try moving to Red Stuff's and they were much better. Initial bite is good without being snatchy. Progressive, and didn't overheat. They're still in the car after 3 years being daily driven, AND have done 200 laps of Mallory Park on a track day, 5 laps of the Nurburgring and the CT Autosolo... although I didn't use them a huge amount on that. HOWEVER, I have green stuffs in my Vitesse and they're really good...

i have just put new repair sections onto a Herald 948 convertible. I bought the lip repairs from Canleys and they were pretty good. Certainly better than the front arch sections from Rimmers. The metal on the Canley ones was the right thickness (19 Gauge, possibly?), but the Rimmer front ones were very hard to weld as they were like tin foil in comparison. The Canley panels seem pretty good for the price - as Dave said though, people aren't willing to spend big-money on our cars yet, so the quality of most parts reflects that. I have a slightly rough but unmolested Vitesse, a rough but unmolested rear tub AND a complete NOS rear wing assembly, so I could get a good average of sizes. I found that all of them had a range of +/- 1/4 inch. What I did to get the position of the arch repair right, was to refit the rear quarter valance and the sill panel, so I knew that if the edges lined up I was in the right ball park. This was just a lip repair panel though, not a complete wing, nor was it just the infill panel between the door and the arch. As has been said, each car is different...

Do not use GL5 oil - it contains some detergents that GL4 does not, these are harmful to yellow metals like brass etc. If you use GL5 it will eat your syncro's etc and you may find that your gearbox and O/D fail in quick succession.

Do you, or a mate have a welder Dave? Could always clean the head up with a wire brush etc and weld a bit of rod or a small bolt onto it which you can then get more leverage on. The heat will help unseize it too.

It seems it may be a good job that the event is cancelled - I was out and about in the MX5 the other day (trying to cool down with a blast through the lanes), and signs have sprung up saying that a lot of the roads that would have been used for the rally are going to be closed for resurfacing from the 26th June to the 2nd July. That could have upset the applecart a bit!

I was told this as well when my clutch wasn't working on my 2500 engined mk1, so I pulled it all apart and the fork, cross shaft and pin were all fine. The problem in my case were a few small things coming together to make an ineffective clutch, but it wasn't that. Try using a suction bleeder on the slave cylinder, helps get that fiddly bit of air out of the system.

I'll still have to check the clues though Richard, so it's almost as much work!! Still, it's a shame, but good in some ways as AJ is doing crazy hours at work and her sister in law is very ill too, so would be an extra stress to get the catering done. Hopefully, back to full strength next year!

Hello everyone, We had a comps comt meeting last night, and unfortunately we came to a joint decision that this years event will be cancelled due to lack of entries. It's very unfortunate having had 5 years of constant growth and development - indeed, this years may have been the best yet! Still, it gives us time to regroup and consider where we stand with the event, be it running another treasure hunt, or some other form of event. We needed 14 entries to break even - given last years entry of 25 cars in a 24 car event I was confident in the build up to it that we would have no issues getting a full contingent. I will personally contact all those entries I currently have this evening to make sure everyone knows for definite. (Moderators/Admin - if any of you read this can you add '-CANCELLED' onto the forum thread name please?)

Not looking promising - might have a very tough decision to make on this event, sorry.

Well, unless I get more entries in soon, you might well be at the beer festival Mike! Not sure if it's because I was a bit less organised this year or what, but I'd have expected more entries by now. History has shown that the number of downloads of the forms is double the number of entries, so I might get 7 or 8. I need 14 to run the event really.

So, entries received so far... Class A 1) Nathan Billing / Phil Wootton - 1300 FWD - Coventry and Warwickshire 2) Richard Warr / Ian Frost - 2000 Mk1 - Worcester Class C 1) Jono Hobbs / Graham Gardner - Renault Clio 182 - Mercia Motor Club

I had the results come through from the event this weekend - we came 35th out of 58 teams, so we didn't do too badly for our first go, and the 5th team of two out of 10. If scoreing can seem relevant we got 21 points out of 60, with the winning team getting 57, so we have a long, long way to go. Yet to be convinced we'll give it another go though...

Too close to the summer scatter for me unfortunately, will have to give it a miss.