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Another winter, another 6 months without racing :-( But with just one week before the first race of the 2006 season it's the last chance for tinkering. That's not to say that the car hasn't received some attention before now. I've increased the camber on the front wheels (as per the new regs) and had the engine looked at to ensure reliability and hopfully reclaim some lost power after 130,000 miles. I hope it makes for a successful season!

Liam • Prep

After my crash at Rockingham I've felt a little vulnerable in my Cobra Monaco seat, particularly with the lack of lateral head restraint. It's also uncomfortable and offers little support in the corners. And so I have bought a Cobra Evolution seat which not only provides a nice sung fit but also has "ears" which will stop my head from going through the side window again if I find myself heading for the barriers.

Liam • Prep

The front nearside wing has been dented ever since I bought the car - although I have made it bigger! But that sort of shed-like appearance simply will not do this year :-) and so I splashed out on a new one (£20 from German & Swedish) and painted it a couple of weeks ago. The standard Halfords paint is a pretty good match but my painting skills are not so great and the finish is not quite showroom smooth...

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Liam • Prep

Spent the day putting the car back together. Lining up the prop shaft joint, bolting on the subframe and differential. Then springs, dampers, handbrake cables, rear brake hydraulic lines, shields and exhaust. Finally, my favourite job... bleeding the brakes :-( After all that I took the car for a quick spin to make sure I had proper fuel supply under load and see how the rear end felt. All good!

Liam • Prep

After spending one evening this week removing the trailing arm bushes today was the big one - with the subframe bushes to replace. I invested in a blowtorch and put my trusty 3-leg puller to work. Surprisingly, this combination was very effective and was a lot easier than I was expecting. But then fitting the new polyurethane bushes was a lot more difficult than I expected! With the rear end ready to bolt back onto the car I fitted my replacement fuel tank. This was another painful experience and required a lot of brute force. After painstakingly transplanting the fuel pump and reconnecting the multitude of fuel pipes I was very relieved when the engine started quickly and held idle long enough to know that the fuel pump was working.

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Liam • Prep

I've been putting off the winter maintenance for as long as possible but with a test day at Snetterton looming at the end of the month it's time to get back to work on the car. The one last major bit of work left to do is the rear bushes. This requires the entire rear running gear to be removed to get at the subframe and trailing arm bushes. While I'm there I'll also replace the fuel tank which leaks when over half full. Two (short) days later I have the whole lot on the ground beneath the car, several skinned knuckles and an aching glow of satisfaction!

Liam • Prep

As part of their title sponsorship of the series, Milltek Sport have developed a race exhaust system for the challenge cars. Today I took the car up to their Derbyshire workshop so that they could finalise the 318i system. I then took it home again with a shiny (and rather loud) new exhaust!

Liam • Prep

I'm kicking myself for not changing all the rubber components last year when I had more time. I'm leaving for Lydden tomorrow afternoon and I can't afford any mistakes. I've got a new pair of control arm bushes and engine mounts to fit and it's raining. It's a long, slow job but with help from my local garage and also from fellow competitor Nigel Goater we get the job done. It was very hard to inspect the engine mounts but it was certainly worth replacing them as both were split and the reduction in engine movement it significant.

Liam • Prep

Time to do some maintenance on the car again. Changing the gearbox and differential oil is something I've put off for a long time but the whine from the diff is getting worrying and I noticed at Silverstone that 5th gear has developed a new noise as well. It took me a while to get started. Finding the right oil wasn't straightforward and then getting the transmission warm was a challenge since I've taken the car off the road. I resorted to raising the car on axle stands and 'driving' at 120mph in 5th gear until the gearbox got hot! And when I was finally under the car ready to drain the old oil I realised I didn't have the necessary 17mm allen key to remove the plugs. Changing the oil was actually very easy once I had everything in place and 5th gear was immediately much quieter. Let's hope that's all that was needed.

Alarmingly, whilst under the car I noticed that the front left control arm bush was all but missing. Only one piece of loose rubber remained... no wonder the steering had been feeling 'wobbly' on right handers!!! It's a good job there's time to fit new bushes before the next race.

Liam • Prep

It's been a while since I did any work on the car but with only 6 weeks to go until the first race I thought I'd better make the best use of a dry day and cross a few items off the todo list. I finally got the rear of the sunroof cassette removed and the associated winder mechanism. Best of all was mounting my newly awarded novice cross!

Liam • Prep

With the bonnet pins allowing quick removal of the bonnet, it has been a right pain having to disconnect and reconnect the wash wipe hose which runs to nozzles on the bonnet. A simple solution was to effectively move the nozzles to the wiper arm. Being a bit of an anorak, I happen to know that the Peugeot 405 had such a system so I spoke to my friendly local Peugeot dealer and ordered a 405 'spray bar' for £6. A few cable ties later and I'm no more messing about with the washer bottle!

Liam • Prep

After bolting in the fire extinguisher unit a while back and getting the dash plate installed with pull handle it was time to do the plumbing. Two nozzles in the engine bay and two in the cockpit. The plastic covered pipes are easy to manipulate by hand and after figuring out how to run the pipe 180° (behind the roll cage) it was plain sailing. The majority of the time was taken up with making aluminium brackets to mount the nozzles. I must say I'm rather pleased with them!

Liam • Prep