Timmy's AW11 N/A - Heaps Good Edition

So after first having a MX-5 as track/weekend car and then moving on to a Yamaha R1 powered Clubman I figured I was pretty keen on learning to drive a proper mid-engined car. That in combination with my love for the somewhat similar MX-5 and always having a weak spot for the AW11 but never being able to find a decent one due to the amount of rust on the few still running back in Sweden made the choice quite simple when I moved here about a year ago.
 
Said and done, in January last year after a fair amount of searching around I finally found a reasonably candidate here in SA which needed some work but had potential. When I bought it the brakes were awful and I good rock the car sideways an impressive 5-7cm so plenty of room for improvement. :)
 
Since picking it up I've among a lot of other thing done up the suspension with new urethane bushings all round and coilovers, new wheel bearings in every corner with new rotors and pads. New starter and battery, rebuilt distributor, short shifter, timing belt after a failure on track, exhaust silencer and tons of other stuff.
 
So as you can probably see this car is primarily meant to be a track car that I can still drive too/from the track and develop my driving skills with.
 
Current specs:
-88 NA
-Hardtop
 
BC BR Coilovers 5/8kg
Whiteline swaybars
Prothane bushings
Twos R Us Rear tie rods
 
Stock bigport 4age (280.000km)
Extractors
Dual fan alu radiator
TwosRUs Polyurethane engine mounts
 
Speedline Corse 15x7 wheels
Yokohama A048 205/50 R15
EBC Redstuff Pads
Brake balance valve gutted
Project Mu Brake Fluid
 
Twos R Us Short Shifter
Unknown after market wheel
Polka dot pimped arm rest and "smart phone shelf"
Stereo delete
 
Some random pics:






 
And a video from my last track session where the car was a bit of a handful but waaay too fun. 

Hi Timmy,
Looks though you had heaps of fun - Mallala is a great track.
I dont want to hijack your showroom thread, but are you interested in joining us Adelaide boys (approx 6) joining us on a road trip to MTC 2015.
Pm me if your keen, would be great to have another person join & for the trip. - nice Aw11 BTW.
 
Looks as though you are the right candidate who enjoys plenty of track time.

I would absolutely love going to MTC! But I've got my dad over from Europe and can't get away from work so wont make it.
 
Yeah Mallala is pretty good. The long straights does get a bit boring in the AW and it'd be great with some more surface undulations. But conveniently close and accessible. Looking forward to seeing how Tailem Bend turns out.

What tyres are you running?

I gather they're a track only semi slick?

On my MX-5 I used to run Toyo R1-R which is in-between proper semi-slicks and a really high performance street tire. Probably the equivalent to the AD08s. The R1-R used to be really good bang for the buck but I heard Toyo was going to discontinue them but not sure if that happened. Probably would go for the AD08s if I were in the market for something slight street friendlier.
 
That being said I've been using both A032, A048 and R888 on street cars without any dramas. Just be cautious in the wet or cold as mentioned above.

The A032s I had before (which was fairly old and hard) had about half the tread depth when I bought them and I did 4-5 trackdays including there and back plus maybe 15-20 weekend drives before two of them were down to full slicks.
 
My current A048s though I would expect to make 3-4 trackdays or so, but they were pretty worn when I bought them too.
 
I've seen it vary heavily. Some people claim to do 15-20 trackdays on the same set whilst some go through a set in 2-3 even. But if you're not pushing it like crazy you do get decent amount of life out of them.

rikkir
What tyres are you running?

Rick....please get some better tires for MTC.  You will be kicking yourself with those street tires!