Midseason Overhaul ... Not just the car!

In my last post you will recall I mentioned that with a seven week break in the excitement we would now give the car a midseason overhaul ... well the boys have been getting on with it. The engine was removed and sent to Swiftune for a refresh, I spoke to Nick this morning and it's practically back together, it was running fine anyway, but was getting close to rebuild time; the good news is that there were no issues found, just routine 'consumable' parts such as bearing shells and piston rings to be replaced. It should go onto Nick's dyno on Monday and be back with Iain by the end of next week.

Iain convinced me to go 'the whole hog' and strip the car right back ... there should be a photo here to show you how serious he was ....
 


Almost ready to race ...Not! At least one crack was found in the chassis, so it's been stripped back, repaired, blasted and then painted. The bodywork is getting repainted too, the gearbox overhauled, and it'll all get put back together with a few shiny new nuts and bolts ... We need to test it before Nurburgring, and the only date I can do is July 31st, so fingers crossed it's back together in time for that ... it will be keeping the boys busy anyway!

But it's not only the car that's getting an overhaul ... oh no! Driver too ... My darling wife signed herself up to a pretty serious fitness, nutrition and detox programme that lasts 19 days. She challenged me to do it with her, not absolutely my thing if I'm honest, but we are now on Day 5 and I've started to feel the effects. 2 workouts a day, including quite a lot of weights-work, lots of stretching, no carbs (no beer, wine or chocolate ... grrr!), lots of green veg and high protein foods. Even a drink made from broccoli, spinach, kale, and watercress ... looks, smells and tastes exactly as disgusting as you'd think it would. I mentioned somewhere earlier that I sometimes had to cope with things that Lewis Hamilton probably didn't, well he probably does have to do this! Mind you, he doesn't have to cope with commuting to London everyday and sitting in an office for 8 hours as well! Coupled with my usual games of squash and a few 5 and 10km races, there's a pretty reasonable chance that the next time I pull on that new racesuit I might find it a bit baggy. If it shaves a second a lap I guess it's worth the pain and misery ...

I might have shown you a picture of the car undergoing its overhaul, but I'll spare you a photo of the driver improvements!