Venue: Ford RS Trackday@ Castle Combe 04/07/09
Having been around the trackday scene for many years and running some highly competative machinery I was in a slight rush to sort my Edition 30.
Knowing what I wanted to do long term I didn't have the time to get it fully sorted but was curious to see exactly how good it would be on track and how it would cope with a few 'light' upgrades to assess it's capabilities.
Having come from my highly sorted APR Stage 3+ MKIV Golf running 350bhp/350lbs with all manner of other things done to enable track use I was fully aware that my Ed 30 would have alot to live up to.
When I bought the Ed 30 I was seriously impressed with the chassis especially in road trim. I can remember Richard Meaden's (Ex EVO and race driver) evaluation which can be seen on the video link on Drivers Republic.
My first port of call was fitment of cruise control so I decided on the APR Stage 1 upgrade with stock air filter, exhaust. This has really livened the car up and in my oppinion more than sufficient for it's current chassis set up and stock brakes.
With the lap day looming I raided my tyre stock and slapped on my ex VW Cup Dunlop D01j's in 235 x 18...not the best size for the Pescara's I know but still capable of high grip levels and also saving my road tyres.
Having consulted with a few people not on here but elsewhere I decided to upgrade the pads to EBC Yellowstuff running Motul RB600F on the stock 312mm brakes. I know some on here haven't got on with these but I was interested to see how they would operate....as Demon Tweeks stated that they sell all brands including Ferodo DS 3000's but they had good faith in EBC's and they stated they have suppied many circuit's with these for use on their track demo cars. As they said if they were crap they wouldn't sell them being in the business of supplying motorsport parts for over 20yrs.
The RS day is an excellent day for enthusiasts of all makes. I was worried that my car would be blown away by the exotic machinery on display. From Evo MR360's to MK1/2 Escorts to the Reyland RS 500 Cossies this is always a good day to judge your car's abilities.
In the ideal world I would have turned up with KW3's, Quaife, AP/Alcon brakes, Stage 2 FP APR map and Exhaust...you know the score. This was a totally budget approach which was an interesting excercise.
First session out with a friend and his TSR 2 litre 16v MK2 built by himself when managing the TSR establishment....not a slouch!
Unfortunately he clipped a valve on his first session ending his day early.
I followed the pack and immediately was quickly reminded to put a lap in first to get heat into the rather twitchy cold Dunlop Inters.
With the pads warming up nicely getting better and better throughout the session it was time to play to see how palyful that multi link suspension is....nicely mobile when needed it was joy coming from torsion beam set up.
Bowling down the main straight peering down at the speedo Avon Rise into Quarry I the car was touching 135mph.
After a good first session the 2nd would be much more interesting with an MR 360 in front. This I thought would be a forgone conclusion....how wrong I was. The Evo was up and away out of the pits.....I followed dispatching a Civic Type R with relative ease following the Evo into Quarry.....from thereon in it was literally nip and tuck as the Inter's took hold of the ideal conditions on track.
The main straight was a one on one slog to Avon Rise.....and so it continued.....my weak areas being the need for better damping control into the nasty hump at Avon Rise. My other priority and glaring need would be a diff as with so much torque I couldn't get maximum pasty on exiting Quarry or the first Chicane and Bobbies.
The brakes held out brilliantly even though the discs are now slightly scored they will clean up....a real bargain.
Lap times were very competative the best being 1.23 secs and constant 1.24 secs....I reckon 1.20 and less will be seen with the addition of KW's Quaiffe Diff and big brakes.
Got some video footage of the day if I can get it onto here.
Next mods planned in the next few weeks are KW's.
