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STU MACMASTER Back in May I finally got round to having a race in my newly prepared car. The old Honda Civic had done me proud the season before - and also at OultonPark earlier this year, but I've always had a thing for the rear wheel drive Nissans so decided to prep and race one at last. With the Civic going to a good home (our very own Steve Turner), I had some extra cash to finish the last few jobs and get an entry in at Silverstone with the Classic Modified Saloons.
The car itself is an ex-drift car, so thankfully it had a few go faster parts, andmost importantly, an FIA cage! The car needed a few tweaks, so I've fitted some bigger 356mm 8Pot brakes, which just fit under the 17" wheels, had the engine rebuilt and fitted a new remapable ECU with bigger injectors and have replaced the air flow meter with a map sensor. Despite the car still being on the standard turbo, it made respectable power figures when it was mapped.
I’d been to Silverstone the previous year, so the circuit wasn't totally new, but more power and rear-wheel drive meant there was still a lot of learning to do - more than I could hope to achieve in practice!! I had a slight misfire in practice, which saw me down in 17th place on the grid. Come race day on the Sunday, the heavens opened and due to it being my first time racing the car I opted to start from the pit lane as all the cars around me in the assembly area had full race wets, and yes, my only tire was the Toyo 888, not a bad all round tire, but nowhere near as good as the full wets for the wet weather. The pit lane start actually turned out to be a good call - first corner saw an incident mid field which I'm sure would have included me had I been there!!
 During the race I was getting fuel surge on every right hand corner, and wheel spin in 4th on the straights, plus starting from the back of the grid, and not being on a wet tire, I only made 3 places as the car wanted to get back to its drifting roots, and despite the misfire, was wanting to go sideways in every corner when you tried to apply the throttle! Later in the day however, for the second race, the track dried! Starting from almost the back of the grid, I've never had such a fun 3 laps of racing - I think I made 6 places before the first corner, and progressed to a mid field final placing amongst cars running slick tires with me still on the wet or dry Toyo 888s.
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