Cima Racing is Rallying an old banger around Europe to raise money for BEN Donate Now!
1,345,290
25 July 2007
That's how many people now know about our entry in the rally, thanks to our good friends at MoneySavingExpert.com - they've put us in their weekly email and linked that to a post by Martin Lewis himself on the message boards.If that doesn't raise any cash for SPARKS, our nominated charity, I don't know what will.
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
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23 July 2007
Thanks to the lovely people at Serpentine Green Shopping Centre in Hampton, Peterborough, the swishly painted car will be spending the 29th of August parked right inside the centre itself, right outside Boots and Tesco.As well as keeping me dry, and offering shameless promotion for ourselves and our supporters, it also means we'll be able to extract money from thousands of shoppers and put it straight in to our charity fund for SPARKS.
That said, I'm not sure what the shopping centre management are going to say when the 'rally car' turns up...
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
Warpaint!
15 July 2007
My delightful red Safrane is no longer delightful or red. Thanks to my good friend Jason Jenkin from T-Mobile, the Safrane is now a very bright yellow on top, and blue down the sides.With paint codes direct from the Williams F1 factory, we were certain of getting the right colours, so off we went to the Swadlincote branch of Halfords to mix things up. A hearty breakfast at McDonald's while we waited set us up, and it was then off to create a spray booth from 50 metres of polythene supplied by Parker Merchanting.
Other than having a compressor die half way through, running out of primer, and missing a large part of the roof, everything went extremely well, even if it did take from about 10am until 11:30pm to get it all done. I then had to drive the freshly painted car home, and it really does get people's attention, even at close to 1am!
There's still more to do, as there'll be black and white covering the lower panels, but they've got to wait a few days.
As ever, a picture speaks a thousand words so, rather than write 6,000 words, here's the pictures of the day...
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
ASAP's Biggest Fans
13 July 2007
The car has to get to Swadlincote tomorrow and, following the weekends overheating issue, I'm not too confident. Sadly time is against me, so I took the car down to ASAP again and got them to investigate the fan, or why it's not doing anything.A short while later I get the call - it needs a new switch, but it could be one of two types, and only one type is available. Even if the courier it, it won't arrive until about 5:30pm, and even then it might not be the right one. Fortunately the people at ASAP are nice guys, got the part couriered, and stayed late on a Friday to sort the car out.
With fans now apparently working properly, it's off to paint a car in the morning.
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
Hot, hot, hot!
07 July 2007
Thanks to our friends at Renault UK, I was heading down to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. I was meant to arrive at Finmere Airfield just to the south of the circuit to meet up with Renault and have some breakfast, before heading in to the race track. I'd got my Platinum tickets and various other passes, and was poised for a good day.It was a hot day, and driving down towards Finmere was pretty enjoyable. Generally high speeds and clear roads meant progress was good, and it also meant a healthy airflow over the radiator. Then I hit Buckingham.
Coming to a grinding halt, temperatures soared almost instantly, but I was confident that the newly installed vents and the whacking great big fan at the front would keep things in order.
I had assumed that the fan was working.
Fortunately, the rearward facing scoop now installed (it was always intended to act as a vent) meant I could actually see inside the engine bay from the drivers seat and see things starting to go awry. Shutting down instantly, a cursory glance once things had cooled showed no damage.
After that, it was time to ring Renault and make my excuses before heading home.
Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella qualified in seventh and eighth places, while I sat at home missing out on the generous hospitality I'd been looking forward to.
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
Time to 'pimp' our 'ride'
06 July 2007
A lovely summer's evening, a jig saw and some bits of a Subaru Impreza. Sounds like a plan hatching.Yes, tonight I started to hack away at the Renault and create a sports version. I'll be making the car lighter, thanks to cutting out parts of the bonnet. It'll also be more aerodynamic, thanks to a big scoop (don't bother me with technicalities such as a big lump of glass fibre being a bad thing, aerodynamically speaking). Importantly, it'll also look cool.
Kind of.
First, we removed the bonnet.
After (roughly) masking off where the vents and scoop were going, it was time for the first cut. I'll admit that, just for one moment, I hesitated. I feel ashamed and dirty admitting that.
Some jig sawing later and the hole for the scoop was done.
Time to crack on with the vents.
Resting the parts in place to get an idea of what the finished article will look like.
And, after more drilling so I could fix nuts and bolts, and a lot of filling, there is the finished bonnet.
Back on the car, it almost looks sporty.
I think that's a suitably high level of rubbishness achieved. Job done.
Labels: Staples2Naples 07
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