Archive for the ‘Garage Services’ Category

Sick Saxo

Monday, November 29th, 2010

This Saxo was due in for some preparation work as it’s owner was heading east towards the Nurbergring in Germany. We had various things to look at including brakes, a bit of welding ready for a roll cage and to check over the turbo install. The turbo had been installed by a previous owner and They’d done a pretty good job by all accounts. If Citroen had done it themselves it wouldn’t have been any better. Unfortunatley the day it was due in the Saxo was driven into in a car park casuing a fair amount of front end damage. The clock was ticking as the date for track day was set so a few late nights were called upon. It all went back together and the car made it to the nurbergring on time.

 

Four wheel alignment

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

We’ve been working with Practical performance car magazine for some time now helping with their race efforts and carrying out a feature called ‘Car Clinic’. Here we take in cars either from road or track and improve their handling with some geometry set up. This involves measuring the various positions and angle of the wheels and suspension and adjusting them as required, it’s just a short leap on from tracking which a lot of people have done on their road cars. The latest car to pass through our hands is PPC’s Westfield XI.  Measurements were taken for tracking, camber, castor, heights, wheelbase, track and axle offset . A few tweeks later and the car’s ready just in time for the last race of the 2010 season.

Win a free service

Monday, September 13th, 2010

We are proud to be members of the Good Garage Scheme. This scheme has information on garages in your area and offers you as the customer the assurance that you are being served by skilled and reputable staff. When we have completed the work on your car you can fill out a Good Garage Scheme feedback form to rate our service. At AA Silencers filling out this form also enters you to win a free interim service, one available each quarter. This offer is only available at AA Silencers, not all Good garage Scheme garages. Next time you’re in be sure to fill out a form, it could be worth your while.

track day civic

Monday, September 13th, 2010

This civic came in needing an MoT and setting up for the race track. The two things don’t normally go hand in hand but this little terrier has to do daily driving duties and will see some serious track day action too. There a was a big list of work including welding and various suspension upgrades, wheel bearings, brakes etc. Once it was all assembled the geometry equipment came out to make sure everything was pointing in the right direction and away it went for it’s MoT. With a green ticket first time through the owner went away with a big smile and no doubt headed for the nearest race track.

Westfield barn find

Monday, September 13th, 2010

In truth it’s less of a barn find and more of barn remembrance. The car is owned by Kev Leaper of PPC Magazine who we do various work for. This is a westfield XI, a copy of the Lotus XI. This car has been graced with bigger arches and a bonnet bulge to accomodate it’s vauxhall XE ‘redtop’ engine. It’s a fair deviation from how Lotus intended it to look but I thiink it looks like a rolling work of art, assuming that is you can see past the dust, rust and cobwebs.

The plan id to get it race ready, no mean feat but one we’re all set for. So far we’ve got it running and resolved a few cooling problems. The next obstacle was freeing off the brakes which wasn’t too hard, but then found that they wouldn’t bleed back up again. The master cylinder had seized so once that was replaced and several tight bleed nipples freed off it had brakes once again. Now we’re down to the nitty gritty of getting it set up and all those little details that take so much time but I can’t wait to see the car back on the race track

Super Seat needs more wind

Monday, June 28th, 2010

This seat came to us having already received extensive modificatons. The car was producing super power but had some nasty flat spots in it’s torque curve due to some air restrictions. It already had a very free flowing exhaust on so the only area to improve on was to remove the cat. The induction kit currently on the car left the air filter sitting in the engine bay amongst all the hot air, so we divised a kit that would move the filter to a high pressure air pocket in the inner wing fed by an air vent in the front bumper. Like most modern diesels with this level of work it drives like a Supercar but still returns reasonable fuel economy.

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Mallory Park PPC Show

Friday, June 18th, 2010

AA Silencers was out in force at this years PPC show. We ran several cars there and drove the Practical Performance Car magazines Porsche on their behalf as the other magazine staff members were rather busy organising the event. Several staff members and customers drove on track in array of cars and the AA Silencers Capri was busy all day long giving passenger rides. The trade stand was busy with enquiries ranging from geomtry set up information to aerodynamic devices and engine conversions.

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Adding Stiffness

Friday, June 11th, 2010

I’m sure many men and women out there will understand the importance of stiffness. The last thing anyone wants is something that’s supposed to be nice and stiff being all floppy and weak, worst still breaking off all together.

As I’m sure you’re aware I’m talking about MGZS Clutch brackets. They are prone to cracking and bending resulting in a sloppy clutch pedal or worse still a total loss of the clutch.

We have developed a modified bracket which addresses all of the weak points on the original design and reinforces any stress points inherent from the original mass production.

These brackets along with most other ZS180 parts ar available for MG Zed Bits http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MG-Zed-Bits?_rdc=1

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Full of hot air

Friday, June 11th, 2010

We do lots of development work on this customers track day car. Work is always done on sensible budgets so it’s enjoyable engineering solutions to a cost and often using parts which aren’t quite meant to fit. It seems more fun trying to engineer a way to fit a round peg in a square hole rather than spend 2 thousand pounds on a brand new billet aluminium square peg or a carbon fibre round hole.

This time we had to make a few adaptions up to mount a larger turbo. All of the flanges and pipes need making for air, oil and water. Next on the list was to pipe in the largest radiator we could squeeze between the chassis rails and not infringe on the intercooler. Once this was done we decided residual underbonnet temperatures would be no good for the air intake so it had to be moved. Fortuantely this car hasn’t been seen by an MoT tester for some time so lights are an unecessary luxury, and a perfect place to scoop up some cold air.

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Practical Performance car

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

DSCF1653I have long been a reader of Practical Performance Car magazine http://ppcmag.co.uk/ and it was my pleasure to be invited to drive along side one of the editors Kev Leaper as he tested the often dangerous waters of motorsport.  Motorsport isn’t dangerous becuase of the accident’s but because it is seriously addictive and may harm your bank account. There’s so much more to going racing than driving a car and the preparation and comittment in cost and time often dampens peoples enthusiasm very quickly.

Kev’s Porsche had seen some track day action but needed a lot to get it up to race spec. Racing is the ultimate test of any machinery and the Porsche showed it’s frailties. Fortunately both it and it’s owner showed their potential too, and Kev has bags of enthusiasm for motorsport.

There’s a long road ahead but it’s a joy to be part of it. Buy your copy of PPC Magazine and follow the tales.

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