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By Lewisgame
#3866066
kinky_boy wrote:nice and smooth! track day seems to be a lot better, you can actually enjoy and focus on the driving not on other cars.
ep3 is an awesome car, standing 15 laps of nurburgring with no problems is outstanding! i don't see many cars that can take that!
If you don;t actually race in a competition then there is no point in stripping the car, my 2 cents.
The track etiquette is spot on. Rarely are you stuck behind a car for a long period. Just return the favour to faster cars and it all works.
The EP3 is a relatively reliable car. On the other hand preparation is key. I’ve done 5 trips totally faultless. I’ve been meticulous with the car maintenance and overlooking this is where people fail no matter what the car.


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By Lewisgame
#3866554
Not much going on recently...

First of all. My first trip to the Nürburgring has been booked. Track day on the 23rd of April so I’ll spend the Easter weekend over there. From what I’ve seen and heard Easter is always mental busy so I won’t do many, if any, TF laps and stick to the side lines watching the carnage. The Honda needs brakes and tyres and I need to improve the cooling for the brakes so they last a little longer.

Non Honda side of things, after a hard year of work and training becoming a Volkswagen Master Technician I decided to treat myself to a new daily car.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Performance. Fast, fun, practical and surprisingly economical. 300 miles covered in one week and for the average person who enjoys driving it does everything you need. Thanks to a car scheme at work I’ll only have this for 6 months with the option to get another new one or go back to my old banger.
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User avatar
By mint type r
#3866646
Lewisgame wrote:Not much going on recently...

First of all. My first trip to the Nürburgring has been booked. Track day on the 23rd of April so I’ll spend the Easter weekend over there. From what I’ve seen and heard Easter is always mental busy so I won’t do many, if any, TF laps and stick to the side lines watching the carnage. The Honda needs brakes and tyres and I need to improve the cooling for the brakes so they last a little longer.

Non Honda side of things, after a hard year of work and training becoming a Volkswagen Master Technician I decided to treat myself to a new daily car.
Volkswagen Golf GTI Performance. Fast, fun, practical and surprisingly economical. 300 miles covered in one week and for the average person who enjoys driving it does everything you need. Thanks to a car scheme at work I’ll only have this for 6 months with the option to get another new one or go back to my old banger.
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great build mate, you ever going to sell the ep3? :P
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By Lewisgame
#3866666
Long time coming update.

Prep work needed to be done before my trip to the Nürburgring. Simple stuff done like all fluids changed. New Toyo R888R tyres around and new front brake pads.
I stuck with the Carbotech XP10 pads up front. But RPB discs weren’t available. Decided on some Tarox discs which are almost double in price but hoping would maybe work and last better...

Anyway the Nürburgring trip was a success. Again the car was absolutely faultless and performed as I expected. I went over the Easter holidays with my track day on the Tuesday after. The weather the whole time was glorious.
A friend of mine hired out a MK7 Golf GTI on the Saturday to take around the track for 2 laps. Although after one lap he didn’t fancy anymore so let me have a go for the second lap. Overall a good car and set up nice. Lacked a little poke top end but it had great grip coming out of the corners as it had the performance pack which comes with an electronic front diff from factory.

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Before my track day I done very little driving. The track over the Easter weekend was soo busy and spent a lot of time closed due to crashes.
Monday came around and decided to treat myself to a ring ‘taxi’ being driven around in a McLaren 600LT. Pretty impressive car with some amazing cornering speeds.
Interestingly they run the 600LT on the Nankang AR-1 tyres which I questioned the driver about which he says he prefers over the factory Pirelli Trofeo R which are a dual compound. I think this discussion jinxed us as 3 corners to the end of the lap one of the tyres failed on us. Nothing bad happened in the end apart from a wrecked tyre.

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After that I thought it was probably best just to do 1 TF lap in the Honda before my track day to get my eye in and see the track changes.

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Looks like I’m on 2 wheels coming out the mini karussell
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Saw this as well. If you know, you know...
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Tuesday came around and it was track day time. I think I managed to do around 16-18 laps in total. You lose count of them. I had a moment through miss-hit-miss corner where I caught the grass at around 90mph. Camera doesn’t do it any justice but it could of been the end of the Honda. Video here https://instagram.com/p/BwzW5VEDWiL/

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Some drive by videos here https://www.instagram.com/p/BwpbLI2j1lA ... 7nx7mjurj3

Best lap times was identical to last year. Car hasn’t been improved since and my driving hasn’t either. At least I’m consistent I guess. End of the day I need that car to take me home so there’s only so far I can push. I’m happy with it. Video here


And then after all that it was home time. Gave the car a quick check over and apart from front brakes being dead it’s ready to go back out on track!

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Tarox discs have been chewed up by the Carbotech pads
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Then after all that I decided to play around with the alignment on the front. I’ve seen people do this so thought I’d give it a go and see the results. Swapping the top mounts to the opposite side to increase caster.
End result is another +1° of caster and still keeping over -3° of camber up front. Does feel a little better but without going on track not going to notice the full benefit. Damper adjuster is tight to the A/C pipe but a little tweak sorted that.

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I’ve got a few ideas and plans I’d like to do for this car when it comes to winter time. I’m thinking a partial strip down. Freshen up all the suspension. Engine/gearbox out for a refresh and make everything sweet for years to come. I also think part of my problem will killing discs and pads soo quickly is that they’re not big enough so I’m looking into a big brake kit. Reyland Motorsport make a nice AP Racing kit but it’s big bucks.
On the other hand, planning on selling one property to buy another and with the missus wanting kids... we will see....
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By Lewisgame
#3866727
So I got a birthday present of tickets for a weekend watching the F1 at Spa-Francorchamps.... and you know what’s close by [emoji57]
So Friday is only free practice at F1 and isn’t really that exciting to watch. Time to nip off early and get down to the Nürburgring for an evening session.
Difference is though I was in my daily Golf GTI. A good time to really compare a modern hot hatch straight out of the factory that I’m used to and the Honda.
Have to say, it’s torque and ability to pull itself out of the slower and tighter turns is really impressive. Modern suspension and it’s active front diff working extremely well. It’s downsides was it’s on road tyres which seemed to be ok for one lap but then instantly then going for lap 2 they had overheated and lost their bite. Brakes was also the same story.
It was nice however to go around in some more comfort with the air con running.
I didn’t push for anything mega. Left all the supports on etc. I get a new car this month so this needs to be sold on.
2 laps done. BTG was 8:51. Not bad. Assists turned off and a couple of more laps and it’d easy be 10 seconds quicker.

Few pics I found. Some more on my Instagram

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And I got a video of the lap.



Honda news is none. Still planning to do some work over the winter. Need to save some pennies first.


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