CLAYTONJONES

Was scrolling through the inter web over the weekend and come across some titanium brake pad shims to help dissipate the heat produced by the caliper and stop it transferring back into the caliper. Not sure why I hadn’t thought about it sooner. You can’t buy them for my Wilwood calipers so I ordered a sheet it titanium and got the grinder out lol. Turned out pretty well, not perfect but it doesn’t need to be 100%. A nice cheap upgrade that should help a lot on track! g][/url]

I set them in the position with the LED pointing upwards, I tried pointing down but the beam pattern wasn’t as clear

It is definitely a great alternative, the ballasts are hard to find and expensive! The beam pattern is identical, I was worried about that too but I was pleasantly surprised. I’d be amazed if anyone failed an MOT on them, no one would ever know without removing the whole light and taking it apart and we know how much of a pain that is lol. The kit I got comes with a 5 year warranty so I’m hoping they last that at least👍🏼

When I last out in the car I had Xenon die on me. I was praying it was a bulb instead of a ballast but guess what, it was a ballast. I reckon I’ve changed them about 10 times in my ownership and at about £150 a piece it’s a bit of a pain, plus the bulbs are around £90 too. I looked into a solution and found a company called ledperf.co.uk who sell a D2S xenon to LED conversion kit. I took the plunge and got them fitted last night, very simple to do it’s just a case of joining two wires together. This way I’ve got rid of the ballast and D2S bulbs all together. I went for a drive last night to see how the compare, there really is no disadvantages. Beam pattern is great, light output is marginally better, a very crisp white light. Overall I’m glad I made the jump to LED’s, anyone thinking of doing the same thing drop me a message on Instagram @claytonjoness 👍🏼 The first picture is the LED’s, the second is the Xenons to give you an idea, I know a picture isn’t the best way to show the comparisons.

In a straight line mine is slightly faster, around a track they are very similar. I’m yet to come across a standard one but it really does depend on the driver. I’ve been faster than some modified ones but some have been faster than me. The Clio no doubt has the better chassis but they are common as muck so it’s more fun keeping up in something you don’t expect👌🏼

One last final trackday of 2022 at Snetterton on Saturday with Opentrack. Safe to say it was very wet and slippery but it was still a great day. The Lupo is definitely a challenge to drive in wet conditions being very short wheel base. Some great pictures from the day below…

Hi mate, glad you got tit sorted. I was going to say there is one bracket that needs drilling off, I had the same thing on mine so I reckon it’s the earlier 5 speeds that don’t have the brackets👍🏼

Recently done a trackday at Donnington, my first time there and what a track it is, not 100% suited to the Lupo but Craner Curves is so much fun! Completed 64 laps in the day, the car was faultless and surprised so many people. I’ve just finished a well over due paint correction on the car too, it’s been around 2.5-3 years since I’ve touched the car with a polisher. I used Sonax perfect finish and a Yellow Rupes pad. I decided to put a ceramic coating on the car, Carbon Collective Oracle, the slickness and gloss it has left behind is incredible and should be good for 2-3 years. I’ll leave some differences down below

Hi mate, no I still have standard valve springs, more than capable for 160-170bhp I have found👍🏼 It was the remap that raised the rev limiter. He didn’t use the current system at the time when I booked mine, it took him a solid 8 hours on mine but I think that was because he hadn’t done one for so long!

The car got a well deserved oil change today, I tend to do them every 4k but this time it was at 3 after the weekend it just had! Recently purchased the Sealey oil funnel, my god I wish I bought sooner. Made life so easy lol. The ECS magnetic sump plug had picked something up, not sure what it was but it’s doing the job.

Took a few interior pictures with a new lens I’m trying on my Nikon DSLR, quite pleased with how they look. Door cards are getting trimmed in black Alcantara soon with black stitching to keep things subtle as the standard material is horrible. I’ve also just had a small silencer put back in the exhaust as it’s a little too loud for me these days (showing my age) lol. It sounds much better now, not loads quieter but just right and it’s lost the drone from inside of the car. Whilst at the Nürburgring, my MAP sensor decided to fail, luckily on the last day. It happened the year before too, I spoke to a friend and he said it’s likely because these engines breathe quite heavily, especially once tuned, that the MAP sensor could but getting clogged up with oil. So I thought I’d eliminate the problem completely and install a neat little catch can setup. Changed out the brake pads yesterday too, Nürburgring and Cadwell finished the old ones off. Stuck to what I know and what work wells, Ferodo DS1.11, at only £105 it’s a bargain too.

I use 12mm spacers on the rear. 195/50/15 as there is much more tyre choice👍🏼

Hi mate. They are 15x7 ET37 I believe👍🏼

For all of you that don’t follow me on Instagram you probably don’t know about the mega weekend I have just had. We headed out to the Nürburgring on Thursday morning, had a relaxed day on the Thursday travelling down. Done some TF laps Friday evening, 4 I managed in a couple of hours, the car felt incredible so I couldn’t wait for a full day of TF on the Saturday. Managed another 7 laps that day without any issues! I also met up with Misha from Apex to do a video on the car if you haven’t seen it already, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, quite scary being a passenger in your own car around the Nürburgring. I won’t spoil it too much, you’ll have to watch a video which I’ll leave a link below! https://youtu.be/fW-3MGG6jdc We travelled home on the Monday morning, all the way from Nürburgring to Cadwell Park for a trackday on the Tuesday, call me mad but it was never planned to be like that haha. The trackday at Cadwell went fantastic too, again, zero issues with the car after 60-70 laps of Cadwell. All in all I done just over 1800 miles in the trip I’ll leave all the pictures from the trip below

Hi mate, all is great, will be doing an update today! Yeah I got mine from Rally Design a couple of years ago so I’m not sure if they’ve changed a urging know the time. Yes MK2 G60 👍🏼

Yeah I sold them on almost the same day! I would probably chose BC’s over the V1’s due to being able to adjust the dampening control👍🏼

BC’s are good for the money, but the KW V2’s are on another level to them. The BC’s are a bit softer on the road, but allow too much roll on track.

I found the lower centre grill for a Polo GTI pretty cheap. Cut it up to the correct size then tiger sealed it on👍🏼

Managed to get the head off the car during the week to inspect the damage. All I found was a bent valve and broken valve spring retainer, no other damage to the head or pistons, I’ve been lucky that’s for sure! So I got all the bits needed ordered from VW, everything came in Friday and by Saturday afternoon it’s back up and running sweeter than ever!

Another track evening completed at Snetterton last night, sort of... The weather forecast said rain all evening, so I went on my wet tyres Michelin PS3's. You can guess what happened, it stayed dry all night! The car still felt great though, just couldn't do as many laps at once. 3-4 laps was the limit before they started over heating. This is where it went south, it was the last session of the night, came out of 'Agestini', shifted into 3rd then the car instantly ran on 3 cylinders. Limped it back into the pits to inspect. Turned the car off, tried to start again but nothing. I could hear it was down a cylinder. Luckily a friend had his trailer with him so I got it home then inspected today, compression test results for cylinder 3 was what I expected. Absoluely no compression at all. I put a borescope down it and the pistions look brand new. I think it's slipped a tooth and knocked the timing out and bent a valve! Never mind ey, hopefully have it stripped and rebuilt in a couple of weeks. Be back on the road before you know it! Had a good battle with my mate in his FN2 Civic Type R, they are incredible matched around Snetterton, i'll leave a link to the lap below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJJs4FLnkZI&ab_channel=ClaytonJones

That’s the goal, always trying to improve! It’s pretty much how I’ve always wanted it now. Next things on the list are Alcantara dash and doorcards👍🏼 Thanks!

Went out with a friend who is a photographer a few evenings to get some pictures of the Lupo with a decent sunset. Safe to say these pictures turned out incredible!

I was worried about this myself but it’s actually so minimal you’d never really notice. Especially with how often do you park on a dead flat surface!

I did reply up above 👍🏼

Some more pictures from the photographers!