Nicole's black ek9 - Poorly 9 and Teesside track time pg7

[Liam_]

Let the "I slayed x, y, and z" and "you should be faster than x, y, and z" crews get on with it - you don't know what's been done to the cars you meet on track days, or whether the owners are driving them slightly reserved, or with no fear of bashing armco. As long as you have fun and improve over the day, where's the issue. You've only had it a few weeks and it was your second track day?!

The EK is a brilliant package and fair fucking play to you for keeping such a good example and using it properly. Some sticky rubber and a bit more suspension travel will have you taking corners even faster, so don't give up on the old girl yet.

[martin1985]

Originally Posted by nicole_

Love the intake martin looks awesome! Love a bit of carbon fibre haha. how are you getting on with it? Did you not fancy a facelift one?

i like the preface lift models my self!, my car came at a price i couldn't say no to to be honest! Glad you like the induction kit. i love my ep3 much smoother than my vts ever was through the power band!. only problem is i get every knob wanting to race me when all i want to do he have a cruise lol. just need my car as clean as yours!

[nicole_]

Havent updated this in a while so thought I might aswell seeing as I'll be bringing it to Bolton Abbey!

Random instagram photos from where i left off....
oh and some random instagram photos..
new track tyres


she got a really good service after Cadwell too


some foams with Zizzle


and some genuine OEM stickers from japan! £££££££


Liam_ bought his fresh import...so some photos as I've not really taken any of it with the decals on! Car looks so much better with them back on IMO!




Next up...bought a Vibrant 4-2-1 manifold, was almost like new, it's in brilliant condition!


Heat wrap done and mani on!


Bought some UK 98 spec wheels in 15s for my track rubber... They were silly cheap, but the paint was pretty bubbled, as they're just my track wheels, I decided to refurb myself to tidy them up a little..

paint stripping


went for bronze with satin laquer to keep them looking matte!



and put them on so I could take my oem wheel's off to clean up a bit
naturally had to get photos haha





oem's came off for a bit of love..


cleeeean!


Also I thought this was pretty interesting...after cadwell, I've had problems with my wheel nuts coming loose (I actually lost one or two) on my front wheels and have to keep re-torquing them. I'm guessing these have been powder coated at some point...

Wheel on the right is a front wheel, note all the whites gone from where it meets the hub compared to the rear wheel to the left!


And where the coatings all burnt off round the edge! Pretty hard to get a photo of, but this lips huge!


I dont really trust these wheels at all haha, so I'm pretty happy ive got different wheels for track now

Also did my centre caps as they were looking pretty sad!



Next up was my engine bay....!
I have a thing for dark/stealthy looking engine bays so the cam cover went off to my painter for smoothing and painting, along with my brake stopper as that was looking a bit tatty...
New stainless bolts for the stopper, skunk2 oil cap, passwordJDM carbon plug cover and black stainless dome nuts for the cover and I got these back!
Such a hard colour to photograph, but its a deep dark anthracite and I love it!



And one of my favourite purchases, my beautiful Carbing brace <3 I love it so much haha


Also relocated the throttle cable and rerouted the wiring that normally lies over the strut top/wing to the passenger side to tidy everything up a bit

Next was Mimms! I have to admit I was a little sad mine blends in quite a lot as shes totally OEM looking, but I do love it, and people who can appreciate a mint oem car gave me some lovely comments Went for little photoshoots with peeps while I was there, would of been rude not to!





Finally...I've taken my whale ***** off. I love the noise, but I didn't feel like it was doing the car any good, she did feel really hesitant between gears, and as much as I miss the noise, I'm a lot happier with how she drives
Thought I'd hate the look of my bay without the carbon, but I really prefer it!


Not sure if this will work, but heres a quick last listen of the whale intake before I took it off...Did love it haha

nicoleharashima


Japfest tracktime posts to follow
Cadwell booked on 17th June and Japfest 2 open pit lane in August

[nicole_]

Went to the Yorkshire dales to see Mr Marv and his little red beast! I know I have the ek9, but these little french hatchbacks will always have my heart haha. Sure this little GTI needs no introduction, it's defo a bit special <3
Oh, and the roads here are just incredible!




On to the next weekend, woke up early before work to swap my wheels over...ready for some track time at Japfest


I loved the actual show itself, such variety and some really lovely examples about


really wasn't keen on the track. Had two sessions where it luckily dried up for both of them! Absolutely loved my tyres, what a difference to Cadwell on road tyres! Bit sketchy when they had mud on them and were cold but were brilliant Absolutely hated the track - was sent round the whole show from the stand to get on and it took 40 mins to get through the crowds and was late getting on track so was pretty flustered as it was. Felt a bit lost on track for the majority of it, surface is horrendous and really unsettled the car, was a boring fast loop that I felt didnt really suit the ek9 at all? The evo's flying past must have been loving it but the highlight for me was two little chicanes and thats about as exciting as it got! Really gave the poor car some abuse not being able to decide what gear to be in for 75% of the corners/bends, but I guess it's something I'll learn over time
little bit of footage from the side of the track

http://pinsta.me/p/717573888282253494_7402613









tyres after 2 sessions


I think my engine mounts had been going for a while beforehand as recently I'd been getting a massive slap/knock from the engine moving when changing down gears etc, so bought these pretty little lightweight things! <3


Went to fit them and realised I didnt have the bracket/bolts with them that I needed to fit, but in the mean time got my torque mounts off!
safe to say the passenger side one was pretty f*cked!


some post-japfest cleaning..

crappy iphone shot, but i love my paint


went to a local car show, took some honda photos


chilling with some more hondas on a random night out in the nice weather



Kindly got these parts off a friend to tidy up my bay a little bit!
so off came the old tatty bits -


Skunk2 battery tie

Mishimoto rad stay

Powdercoeted gunmetal grey power sterring bracket


Took the car to get the alignment done earlier this week, had a lot of toe out on the back which i think might have been the cause of my wondering back end on track, so now have toe in and very slight toe out on the front.

and a little underneath shot


a few pretty shots from a JDMfresh meet



Credit to Stylecase for these! Love them

[Jamie]

Lobleh jobleh!

Nice Nicole looks fresh.

[D4MJT]

Interesting read about Combe, I found it pretty good fun tbh, Quarry is a good laugh and by the end of the day I was loving coming down through Tower as well, you can pretty much throw it into the corner then straighten up and just let the car fly out the other side as you drop down the corner. It is a fairly quick circuit though as you say, I guess it probably feels slower if you're getting passed by Evo's etc. I was down on FCS so everything was fairly similar, bar JP lashing past everything at about 15k revs.

Whaddya reckon to the RSR's then? Are they any good? Loads of people seem to rave about them but they pretty much 'look' like a road tyre to me? Are they in a similar ballpark to say the AD08?

[Dany4494]

Wow this car is so clean and just keeps getting better, 100% agree with you on the whale cock now im back on standard air box so much better in the lower revs and i found it quite noticable in mid range when dropping a gear for example and I don't really miss the noise tbh I made up a cold feel out of the resonator box piping if you want me to send you a picture can't see it from the bay and just sits nicely in the front quite low down lots of nice cold air.

That stut brace is nice too mighy have to invest where did you get it from if you dont mind me asking ?

[D4MJT]

Dany4494 in almost reasonably punctuated post shocker!

[jones91]

Gorgeous looking car, nice to see money been spent in the right areas too

Just a word or warning with the federal rs-r's btw, mine did this after about 9 months and 3k of driving...








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[smiith]

My next car may be a Honda now.

[nicole_]

thanks for the warning but I did my research before buying the RSRs and know people with these and it's hit and miss and I'm prepared to take the risk for the price of them!

[nicole_]

cheers guys

I've got all my engine mounts on, valve clearances have been done and car feels spot on now. I'm absolutely loving it as it just doesnt feel like it needs anything at all atm <3
A bit more power would be lovely, but how it feels to drive is great. still has a skittish back end but I'm just learning to drive it that way haha

Valve Clearances -


Bought re002s for my road tyres, pretty happy with them



Thought I'd help her out a bit and stripped the majority out the rear just for the next few weeks as I have a few track days - weighs in at 1040kg, was hoping for sub 1k but that's not too bad I guess!

sticky wheels on...so shiny


my footage from cadwell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK9p3-ncTgM

Had my first ever spin at the end...i dont get on well with this corner and i'm still trying to crack the best way to take it, but i love cadwell sooo much haha
Photo credit to Titch!






Teeside track eveningTomorrow and Hondas on Track at croft on Friday

[blackie_2k5]

many go to the evening at teesside these days nicole~?

[nicole_]

andddd cus these are pretty

[nicole_]

Originally Posted by blackie_2k5

many go to the evening at teesside these days nicole~?

No idea, they said they wouldnt run unless 20 booked, and they must of cus its going ahead - but about 3/4 of the people I knew going aren't now so it might be pretty quiet.
I've never been on track there, and I know its tiny so not sure what to expect, couldnt really grumble for £35 and it being less than an hour away!
Will be taking it easy anyway with Croft coming up

[blackie_2k5]

can be busy during the day for the auto testing etc but ive heard the nights can be hit and miss, same with everthing i suppose

its pretty small but for the price and where it is, youll still enjoy it

gonna have a few days down in the xsi when its mapped for the same reason lol

[nicole_]

Originally Posted by blackie_2k5

can be busy during the day for the auto testing etc but ive heard the nights can be hit and miss, same with everthing i suppose

its pretty small but for the price and where it is, youll still enjoy it

gonna have a few days down in the xsi when its mapped for the same reason lol

Yeh, I think for the price it'll do to give the 9 a run out. I'm determined to try every track once haha
Just know it's gunna be a lot of abuse for my low gears if I dont wanna drop out of tec
If I enjoy Croft on friday, looking to book a date at the end of August again, should get involved Sucks the two tracks near us are either too small or too expensive haha

[blackie_2k5]

boz is booking a day at croft in aug so ill defo be at that.. hes trying to get a load from the NE to go so it should be a cracking day

ai its crap up here.. croft nearest decent but its expensive and not on too often..and the noise regs are strict lol

next nearest is knockill

[W103_A5H]

Actually in love with this car! Just keeps getting better! Think you need to do the daily wheels in the colour of your track wheels though

[nicole_]

Originally Posted by blackie_2k5

boz is booking a day at croft in aug so ill defo be at that.. hes trying to get a load from the NE to go so it should be a cracking day

ai its crap up here.. croft nearest decent but its expensive and not on too often..and the noise regs are strict lol

next nearest is knockill

Ahh wonder if its the same day! Dont think theres many dates at the end of August. I'm trying to get a few people booked on too!

Cadwells only 30 more miles than knockhill tbf, people never seem to realise. It's awesome and you're less likely to end up with some radgy evo in the side of your car too haha