Croft Improvements

 

The first race of 2026 was the fast and flat Croft Circuit near Darlington.  It was a race against time to get the replacement clutch master cylinder fitted and the final mandatory series stickers only went on to the car the night before.   With just Mike driving there was a lot of track time over the weekend.

Friday Testing:

Having travelled up on the Thursday and dropped the car at the circuit the night before, we are ready for the 4x 30 minute sessions spread over the day.  We experimented with a couple of different roll bar and suspension stiffness settings, each making an improvement in how the car turns into the corners and then increasing our corner exist grip at the rear.  With a lot of mixed cars on track we didn't crystallise the lap times - but he evidence was clear from the optimal lap time - which was dropping rapidly. 
We had only just scraped the noise test at 105dB so took the long afternoon break to change the exhaust (the usual culprit) for our spare.  However as we did this we found the actual cause was a broken weld on the catalytic converter.  We have a spare too - but it's a std cat rather than the 100 cell sport cat.  

Saturday Qualifying:

The weather had turned overnight and rain showers were rolling through.  Despite it stopping raining, the circuit was very wet.  We stuck with the worn Yokohama A052 tyres which coped well and our lap times steadily came down during the session.  Keeping the car on the road was the name of the game so Mike didn't push it too hard.  We qualified in P12, 4th in SP2 behind a couple of SP3 cars which excel in these conditions with the 50:50 weight balance, and in front of a couple of SP1 Caymans.

Saturday Sprint Race #1:

It was a quick turn around for first of two 15 minute sprint races. The track was a little damp, but with a  clear dry line appearing.  Mike got a good start loosing a place to a Boxster initially, but then using the straight line speed to dispatch the two 968's within the first couple of laps.    However the front running Boxster's were just a second or two a lap quicker and pulling away. A Boxster and a Cayman (both new cars) had some issues so we finished P8 - a great start to the weekend.  

Saturday Sprint Race #2:

We were the last race on the card at nearly 6pm due to late running of the timetable.  Red flags came out on the first lap, after a big accident coming out of the chicane.  The driver was fine - but the car was unfortunately written off.   Mike heard a noise from the brakes - so pitted. This unfortunately forfeited the grid slot and had to restart form the Pit Lane.  We caught and overtook several of slower class cars but lap times were slower and the brake noise still there so Mike brough the car home in 13th place.  

On inspection we found one of the the brake pads - fitted after qualifying was in back-to-front - doh!  So not pushing it to hard was the right approach.  

Sunday Endurance Race #3:

The racing at Croft starts at midday on Sunday so not to disturb local church bells! Our pit stop race was the 2nd of the day and whilst overcast the threat of rain had mostly disappeared.  Mike got a good start again - gaining two places in the first couple of laps.  Then setting fastest laps of the weekend to close in on the main SP2 Boxster battle ahead.  A fastest ever lap for the car of 1m34.9s got him there on lap #5.  

Our lap timer was coming loose form the dashboard mounting - so was ripped off down the main straight and into the passenger footwell.   Once the cars in front sorted themselves out and started lapping cleaning - we couldn't keep with their pace and they started to get away.  We had a spin out of the chicane when pushing a little too hard and then pitted for the mandatory stop.  Tyre pressures were very high - so it took slightly longer to bring them down and were were back out.  The 2nd half of the race was straight forwards, lapping consistently but slightly slower without ant lap time or cars around for reference.   

We finished a fantastic P10, overall a great weekend with sa lot of track time and some brilliant time gains made.   

 

TSL Timing Results --> https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=750MC/2026/261536pot.pdf

Post Spa - Winter Overhaul

Winter Overhaul:

It wasn't until the Christmas break that we opened the garage and looked at the car. Still dirty from Spa like some LeMans homage - it definitely needed some TLC - starting with a wash! 

There is always a list jobs, and it only gets bigger the more we want to improve the car.  Stand still and you're ging backwards is the saying.  

The biggest issue from Spa was the clutch slave cylinder which was bodged together.  We had a genuine Sachs replacement to fit and the process of bleeding the clutch is both difficult and tedious and requires a combination of manual pedal movements and pressure bleeding.   Air will be in both the pedal end, the long line and the rear cylinder.  

Another casualty of the Spa clutch change was that one of the Gearbox mount bolts got cross threaded.  The nut is welded into the bracket that needed replacing.  It was handily the left hand side - so made access to the Clutch slave easier too.  

It took 2 attempts to get the correct bolt length and thread pitch which is a fine 0.75mm version.  

Our front drop-link boots are torn and the bottom bolts are also bent from the strain put on them - likely from hitting the kerbs. I had ordered new set before Spa - but never got the chance to fit them.  

Weight Saving:

For a long time we've know we had a lot of excess wiring still behind the dashboard and into the doors.  We but the bullet and removed the dashboard completely and set out pulling the individual wires back from the doors towards the centre of the car and the fuse box.  

Short Shifter Upgrade:

We've also been struggling with gear selection so decided to upgrade the Ebay short shifter to a fully bearing based version from Ben Auto Designs.  The difference was immediately noticeable.

Finally -  A standard oil and filter change was completed and we also flushed the brake fluid through all four corner callipers followed by setting of ride height and wheel alignment.

Shakedown:

With the car ready - we booked a track day at Snetterton as a shakedown to before entering the first race of the year.  

However mid way though the morning we started to get issues with the clutch not returning to position.  This is a sign of air in the system - but we'd bled it so many times there had to be another issue.   After further looking we could see the Clutch Master Cylinder (located at the pedal) was pushing fluid back into the reservoir so it's seals were gone.

That spelt the end of an otherwise productive day and signalled the need for yet more clutch bleeding!