My Car

This article is the return of an old series in which we talk to club members about their cars. If you have an interesting competition car - and it doesn't have to be a rarity to be interesting - then give Richard a call on 0181 947 3800. In this article he is driven to the desperate lengths of interviewing himself....

When we bought the Astra it was with a view to becoming more competitive. I had started off with a 1700cc Mexico and then moved to a 205 GTi. Over time this car was 1600 GpN, 1900 GpN and GpA, but I was never better than a mid-field runner. Meanwhile Catherine had won class N3 with Nigel Cannell in his GSi on the 1995 Pirelli International.

What we wanted was a solid base to work up from, and the car we started the 1996 season with was certainly strong. L123ARY (Larry) was an ex-Jim Russell school car and was bought with a bolt-in cage. That was immediately chucked out and the car put on a spit, stripped of underseal and seam welded, and an OMP cage was welded in. The safety package was completed with 3 inch TRS belts, Motordrive seats and electric fire extinguishing hidden behind the navigator's foot box (always fools the scrutineers).

Apart from the addition of Bilstein suspension, tank and sump guards and some Goodridge hose, the car was bolted back together as standard.

Its first event, the 1996 Wyedean, was nearly its last as a mis-routed brake hose wore through and left us with no brakes. I stopped the car in a snow bank and carried on using the handbrake after spectators had pulled us back from the edge of a large drop.

The engine has not been blueprinted - in fact, we've never looked inside. After a couple of events I bought the SBD/MBE chip which made some difference but not as much as I'd expected - it took the engine to around 160bhp. This XE engine was designed by Cosworth and is legendarily strong but to encourage me to change up I've put in a tell-tale light that comes on at 6750rpm. The only other thing we considered for the engine bay was a strut brace but the fixings allowed for GpN would prevent it from having much effect. In the summer it gets a bit hot and there is a lower-rated thermostat which brings the fan in early. The only tuning the engine will get this year is a precautionary cleaning of the injectors which may find a few bhp.

What really makes the Astra the car to beat in N3 is the homologation of an LSD. We started off with an Avanti version but have moved on to a Wizard/ZF device which is so effective that the car will tuck in to a corner with extra power. The bad news is that it is so effective that it is quite easy to break a driveshaft, the cause of our two DNFs in 1997.

We never looked to see what final drive we had until we learnt of the homologation of a 3.7:1 version in early 1997. We then found that we had been running the worst possible cogs - 3.4:1. In the interests of shortening the gearing I will try the new 185/60 15 from Yokohama this year.

The gearboxes are known weak points and I am gentle with the changes, having broken a shaft before now. There are hardened gear sets available but I haven't gone that route. The linkages are nylon in parts and regular replacement is necessary to get 5th reliably.

Call me fussy, but I really like my cars to stop when I want. The front discs on the Astra are 256mm in diameter and in my opinion this is not enough. Even though I am keeping left-footing to a minimum, after about 8 miles in the woods the effectiveness is dwindling. We have Mintex 1155 up front and 1144 on the back. Oddly enough the rear discs are 270mm and no problem.

One of the benefits of the Astra over the 205 is the suspension, particularly at the back where there are coil springs and upright dampers. We have moved on from Bilstein to Proflex recently, not least because over a season in Wales I had bent both front legs. The Proflex offers adjustment in bump and rebound but I don't know enough to tune it. We have a setting which soaks up bumps and helps get the traction down - what more can you ask?