EDITORIAL

Ah, what a feeling; thousands of dollars spent, weeks of hard nights slangin’ spanners in the garage, days off work, leave approved, and bam, smoke screen on the second session out at the track day you’ve been waiting for, for ages. Yep, last month, I was a victim of a fate that plenty of you have experienced — engine failure. I had just fitted my new trumpets, had a retune, fitted new plugs, prepped the engine with brand new oil and a racing filter, only for it to fail miserably with smoke billowing out the rear end, thanks to oil getting pushed out of my breather and onto the exhaust.

Initially, I thought it was the gearbox oil getting pushed out somehow, until I remembered that we routed a breather from the engine onto the top of the gearbox. Yep, oil everywhere, and I spent half of the latest Gazoo Racing Festival with a rag in hand, cleaning oil off my car. For far too long, my trusty Toyota Altezza had given me a false sense of reliability. However, nearly three years over 8500rpm finally caught up with me. Like those who have experienced engine failure at the track and, as a result, have missed out on long-awaited track time, I had thoughts running through my head like, Maybe I will just slap a cheap motor in it and sell it. I’m done. And, It’s time for a turbo. I’ll just forge it.

But, after having it kick around the workshop for a couple of weeks, it’s apparent that I don’t want to sell it. Nor does it deserve having a cheap motor slapped into it. Instead, I will carry on with the project, and do it properly. It’s done me nearly three years of track duty, which is actually incredible, considering. A low-mileage motor and an uprated valve train will be sourced so I can run larger camshafts. Peeling past faster turbo cars is great through the corners, but with spicier cams and a closer ratio final-gear kit, we should be able to hang a bit closer on the straights too.

It has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions over the last month or so, but, thankfully, I have incredible mates around me that keep me on track with the build, as they know how much it means to me. With so many car events held over the summer period, there’s no doubt that plenty of you will experience a similar fate. If you’re reading this, remember the passion you had prior to the failure. Remember that the spark ignited within you, before all of the shit happened. You can rebuild and there’s an incredibly large community out there to support you. For those who have succeeded this summer season, bravo! Now, take a look to your left and to your right for that mate who didn’t — drop in with some beer, a pizza, and lend him a hand. He might need to do the same for you next summer, or at the next event — and I might see you there in my car.