28 April 2007

What we did today.

It was a very busy day for The Merlot boys on Saturday 28 April.

The morning saw Jon dashing to Ilford to visit our latest sponsors Dandycars.com. Its great to have the support of someone else so enthusiastic about Project Merlot.

Martin's morning got of to a hectic start (selling a Fiat!) followed by a dash to EMG Cambridge with Jon to meet up with Robbie and pick up the Merlot for the start of the weekends work.

How can you get lost going to Woolpit? (Well we did!) The plan for the afternoon was to get a head start on The Eastern Region Tech planned for Sunday at which the Merlot was to get its new suspension bushes fitted (donated by Performance 5). The first set of bushes were easy and we began to wonder why another well know Mazda track car team found it so hard! When we got stuck into the second set from a rear lower wishbone we found out how hard it can be! We only broke the one 150mm heavy duty G cramp but the end result of an afternoon work planned to get one side of the car complete saw us get just half of 1 wheel done.

Nevermind, there is always tomorrow and with lots of help from the guys at the Tech day and fortified by lots of sausage rolls we will no doubt succeed (fingers crossed!).

12 April 2007

Woodbridge Airfield Track Day 5 May

Project Merlot is heading for its first airfield track day on 5 May 07. Once again the car will be driven by members of the MX-5 Owners Club Eastern Region with another 2 new drivers this time.

The Woodbridge Airfield is fairly new to the track day scene but the events there so far, organised by Javelin Trackdays, have proved a big success.

For more information on Woodbridge and the 5 May event check out Javelins website at;
www.javelintrackdays.co.uk

Javelin are big MX-5 fans themselves with their very own "MX Experience" which gives people the chance to hire track prepared MX-5s and put one of the greastest sportscars through their paces.
www.mxexperience.co.uk

11 April 2007

The April Update

There’s been No track action for Project Merlot in April but both the team and the car have still been busy. The car, driven by Robbie Marsh, took part in the OC Eastern Region annual pub hunt on 1 April and was quite a sight as it dashed around Suffolk from pub to pub as part of the “MidnightWaterPumpers” team in the company of Steve Hiders competition winning white roadster.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

April has also seen some further sponsorship developments. Team Merlot are now pleased to have Performance5, the top UK MX-5 performance specialist, as a main sponsor. http://www.performance5.co.uk/.

This month has also seen a further appearance in the national media with a photo of the car on the track at Donnington Park and a write up in the news section of the May issue of Classic and Sports Car. This is the second time the Merlot has appeared in C & SC having been spotted in a write up on the MX-5 Owners Club 2006 National rally in Lincolnshire where the car made its first public appearance back in September.

The bad news for April was the discovery by Robbie of the terrible state of the brakes after the Snetterton track day in March. Robbie described the front brake pads as having “melted”, with “globules of molten metal” having “scored the discs” and “the rear brake pad material having come completely away from their back plates”. All sounded a bit technical to me, I just used the brakes to slow down a bit before the corners, as you do!