The last time I had a diesel car I took it out for a few sprints, just for fun, and it did ok. Thanks to the capacity equivalency given to turbo diesel cars, I ended up competing in class A1, for standard production cars up to 1400cc. Things have moved on since then, there is no standard production class, so even with the Bora’s sprightly TDi engine, it would be no match for cars around half its weight. I don’t have the cash to tune suspension, brakes, engine, clutch, etc. and I have to keep the car properly road driveable… by that I mean comfortable. I spend upwards of a couple of hours in the car each day so no degradation in ride comfort will be tolerated. The only sensible solution is to replace the already tired brakes with something a little better and perhaps a small hike in power, easily available by chipping or re-mapping. The temptation to get out the credit card and buy adjustable dampers, springs and bushes MUST be resisted at all costs.

Sourcing the brakes was less than straightforward. All I wanted was drilled discs and some slightly better pads. I searched various websites and magazines looking for a cost effective solution. As an example, one company was asking nearly £200 for a pair of standard size drilled front discs but didn’t offer rear discs! Eventually I found a more appropriately priced solution, drilled discs, front and rear for just £129! Coupled with some fast road pads they should help me stop far more effectively.

The process of fitting the brakes was hampered by the discovery that the front discs had been altered during the life of the product, so Murphy's Law had prevailed and I'd ended up with the wrong ones. To add complication I was abroad on business in between the 2 weekends I had available to do the work. I also had a terrible time bleeding the system to get a firm pedal. The master cylinder itself has bleed nipples which are quite tricky to access without removing various bits and pieces. Once finished, I reckon I had used about 3 litres of expensive Super Dot 4 fluid!

Power was my next issue. Although the 130PS engine gives a respectable punch, enough to get around at a reasonable pace on the road, it sometimes leaves me wanting more. To compete with the smaller, lighter cars in almost a ton and a half of family saloon, I would need more power… lots of it.

After a bit of research and some interesting conversations, I settled on a trip to Jabbasport for a custom re-map. The main drawback of this is the location, they are stuck in the middle of the Cambridgeshire Fens, which took me 2 hours to reach, even from my Essex office! The reception was warm if a little impersonal and service was quick. The result was lots of power and lots of torque (over 30% increase to both) which needs to be applied with an intelligent approach to avoid destroying tyres and various bits of the driveline. The real world performance is now more than acceptable, with the added benefit of improved fuel economy.

North Weald is traditionally a wet/dry event and this year’s Speed League opener was no exception. My question for the day was; ESP on or off… which is better? I was lucky enough to get a dry first timed run (ESP on) in which I posted a class wining time, albeit a little slower than my 2^nd practice run (ESP off) which showed that either the ESP was slowing me down or that the tiny bit of drizzle that had fallen during practice had actually had a measurable effect. I think it was the former. My 2^nd timed run was damp (ESP off) and my final timed run was fully wet (ESP on). With the ESP on there are some large delays in getting going once the system has bailed you out of what it thinks is a potential accident, whereas if it is left off you can apply power early and balance the throttle to modulate wheelspin, understeer, oversteer etc. The car is quite controllable on the limit, as proven last year in the grass autotest final. The added benefit of running with ESP off is that the brakes and clutch get a much easier time. That brings me nicely back to the brakes, now fully bedded in they provide excellent initial response followed by prolonged confident deceleration… just what is needed for fast road and occasional sprint use. On publication of the full results I was pleased to see that I'd managed to beat a number of potentially much quicker cars but given the changeable conditions during the day, judgement will remain reserved until after a truly fair fight. Some minor technical developments will be made over the coming weeks to ensure reliability and, in the case of the rather worn tyres, safety and road legality!