Two weddings and a funeral...

Let's start with the weddings (upgrades)...

During these difficult times, most of us try to keep our minds occupied with something joyful. Not being an exception, I recently decided to make the final hardware changes to my car.

The first upgrade was related with the alignment setup. We replaced the front upper arms with fully adjustable ones from Hardrace and managed to dial in the exact figures that we were opting for. Minimal bump steer, a bit more caster and similar camber values.

The biggest and (hopefully) last upgrade was the rear end upgrade. I purchased and installed a stage 2 Puddy mod complete rear end with a 4.3 final drive ratio and an MFactory 1.5 way disc differential.

Diff setup specs below (quote from Ben - Herne aka Puddy Mod)

"Stage 2: The rear is set up for N/A and boosted cars. It is rebuilt from the housing in starting with every rotating part being cryogenically thermo cycled, then new pinion bearings and seals are used to assemble. There is a one piece PuddyMod solid steel sleeve used instead of an OEM crush collar. The solid sleeve is made of 10/20 mandrel steel, it is seamless and will not compress under heavy stress like the OEM can. Solid sleeves are used in high performance racing rear ends because they work. The PM sleeve is a custom made part to fit this rear, it is a one piece steel sleeve. The stock hardware is replaced with new 10.9 hardware. Backlash is set at 2 to 3.5 thousands giving a tighter gear to gear fit. Full Blueprint assembly of rear using precision accuracy to better than factory tolerances."

And the Mfactory disc differential below.

Time for the funeral...

Having installed all of the above, I managed to visit a local track for testing, excited to see how the car behaves.

Unfortunately enough, after a few laps and while shifting from 3rd to 4th, one of the valves decided to kiss the piston and....

New engine is being fitted as we speak... Stay tuned for more!!