This lovely Insignia VXR came into us with its owner complaining of a slightly slippy clutch, so after a simple road test to confirm the problem and a fair quote given to the customer we set about replacing the worn clutch.

The clutch replacement on this particular model of Insignia is not a straight forward job! first of all you need to remove the whole exhaust system,

and then the main sub frame before you can even even access the gearbox.

Not a problem at Aarons Autos though as our fully skilled technicians are trained to handle even the trickiest, time consuming and challenging jobs.

After removing the gearbox and clutch we checked the Dual Mass Flywheel for excessive play, but it was well within tolerance so we set about fitting the new clutch kit and hydraulic slave cylinder then rebuilding the car.

Once the car was finished and road tested it was time to hand it back to a very happy customer.

The week commencing our first race of the season at Donington Park I was getting myself and the car ready for its first outing since the winter rebuild when Dave decided to drop a bombshell on me “Im going to race”! for those of you that don’t know he has been in agony with his back for the last few months and had said he probably wouldn’t race this season.

This was great news even if I was a little concerned about his decision but it meant we would be racing as a team which is always more fun and more of a buzz.

This year we are racing with 750 Motor Club in there Roadsports series.

Race day comes and we arrive at Donington around 7.00am and manage to share a garage with Steve Hewson (Trackday Instructor) who was racing his mighty supercharged 106, we got ourselves setup and headed for signing on.

Qualifying soon came around and by this time the heavens had opened and it was wet, very wet! this was good for us because we had noticed from walking around the paddock that most of the cars we were racing against were a lot faster than our humble little Clio and they were mainly rear wheel drive.

Dave went out first and set a reasonable time (limited on laps as its only a 20 min qualifying and you have to do a minimum of three laps each) then i went out and was on average five seconds a lap slower but then i got a clear lap and beat Dave’s time which put us at P5 on the grid.

So Race time, Dave starts and gets a great start and grabs 4th place by the second corner but further back in the field there was a serious incident which collected several cars and meant ‘Safety Car’ after a couple of laps giving the marshals time to clear the wreckage the safety car headed in and we were racing again only to have the ‘Safety Car’ pulled out again after one lap!

The incident from the first lap had caused oil and coolent to be spilt all over Red Gate corner causing cars to spin and slide, after several laps the safety car came in and it was time to get racing again we had dropped back several places due to cars overtaking under yellow flags and not being seen by marshals but Dave was hot on there heels and trying to grab places back.

Pit stop time which in one hand was a complete mess up but in the other it was brilliant! as Dave was passing the pit wall i put my thumb up to tell him he was doing well but he took that as ‘its time to pit’ so on the next lap when I had the pit board out ready to show him he pulled into the pits! I was not ready for him so I leapt from the pit wall pulling my gloves on whilst running to the car and we managed to do a reasonable pit stop time of 1.24 and then it was my turn.

I had no idea what position we were in the race as we usually use radios to pass information from the pit to the driver (not allowed at Dono due to the airport) and we are a bit rusty with the old pit board, I decided that the only thing to do was drive fast and pass everything i could see, this worked well until the next ‘Safety Car’ which meant i was stuck behind a BMW Compact Cup Car that decided he didn’t want to catch up with the rest of the pack and just drive around at 30mph!!! FRUSTRATING, once the green flags were shown i had to wait till we got to the start finish line before i was allowed to overtake him. I managed to get past couple of other cars before the chequered flag but was past by two class A cars a BMW M3 and a very fast MR2 which i later found out were racing for first place.

As i came into the pits i still had no idea where we had finished so drove round the back of the paddock where Dave told me we had finished 12th overall and 7th in class! I felt gutted, but anyone who knows Dave knows he is a terrible liar, he finally told me we were 1st in class and 4th overall (3rd overall after the M3 got disqualified for overtaking under yellows) I started punching the steering wheel with joy, it was a far better result than we had expected but as we always say ‘Go for the win’

We would like to say a massive thank you to all our sponsors Sign Design Derby, M J Boyce Ltd, Wilkinson Coachbuilders, HB Group, Fast Away Services and Aarons Autos.

The RAC has reported an 82% increase in ‘pothole’ breakdowns with January and February 2015 marked as the worst months for suspension spring call-outs.

RAC patrols attended nearly 7,500 breakdowns in the first two months of the year compared to just over 4,000 suspension spring call-outs in 2014 and 2013 – the year that gave rise to so many potholes due to cold weather – nearly 5,600.

RAC Chief Engineer, David Bizley, said: “The sharp increase in suspension spring faults that we have seen across the country really does cast a cloud on the quality of our roads.”

With the replacement of suspension springs in an average vehicle costing up to £350, the RAC estimates that motorists are potentially facing a combined bill of more than £1 million each month – with the poor state of the UK’s roads to blame.

The problems caused by bad quality road surfaces are not confined to suspension springs either – shock absorbers can be affected, and tyres and wheels potentially damaged.

Estimates have placed the bill to repair the UK’s potholes at £12.16 billion and the repairs would take 13 years to complete.

Bizley added: “Experience tells us that these problems are normally worse in the first half of the year, so if numbers are still high come the summer we will know that local authorities are still struggling to get on top of the maintenance backlog.”

We would like to say a big thank you to all of our sponsors new and old for their continued support in 2015 of our race team Norfolk n Chance, without their kind donations this race team would be little more than a dream.

We will be racing in a new series this year which is the 750 Motor Clubs Roadsports series, again it consists of 7 gruelling 45 minute endurance races with a 20 minute qualifying sessions.

The first race will be at Donington Park on the 28th March, but unfortunately Aaron will be racing solo as Dave is still injured and unable to race (not a happy fellow) updates of the race will be posted on our Facebook page so that sponsors and friends can keep up to date with the action.

Please click on the Logos to find out more about our sponsors.

Last week we received a phone call from a customer regarding his Megane RS 265 Trophy saying that he had the usual tell tail signs of the lower swivel joint starting to fail, this is not an un-common thing for us as we see lots of Megane’s and Clio’s for this fault on a weekly basis.

This one was slightly different though, as the customer wanted to know about Ferry times?? after an interesting conversation with the customer we found out that he had been to his local Renault Dealer in Ireland who wanted to charge him nearly 1000 euros per side to replace the hubs!!

He also told us that he checked his on board crash camera after his Megane had been into the dealers to find to his horror that they had been racing his car up and down the dual carriege way and the mic on the camera picked them up saying “lets see how fast it goes”!!

So Friday morning comes and around 9.30 our customer arrives and we check over his car to find that it actually only needs one joint and not two like the dealers had told him! so we dropped him off in town to do a spot of shopping whilst we fitted a new swivel joint to his lovely RS265 Trophy, a couple of hours later we picked him up from town to collect his car and he was back on the road home to Ireland.

We are currently working on some very competitive ‘Service Packages‘ for the Renault Sport range which will include-

• Service and Cambelt Deals
• Service, Cambelt and Water Pump Deals
• Cambelt, Water Pump and Dephaser Pulley Deals
• Full Service Deals (inc plugs, pollen filter and gearbox oil)

The deals will be for-

• Clio Sport 172 / 182
• Clio RS 197 / 200
• Megane RS 225 / R26
• Megane RS 250 / 265

We will be updating the site over the next couple weeks with the Service Package prices along with prices for supplying and fitting Cooksport Lowering Springs and a range of Pure Motorsport products.

If there is anything you would like to add to our lists please feel free to email us or give us a call.

Winter is on its way once again so its time to make sure your vehicle is ready for the cold weather and icy conditions ahead.

Our winter service includes-

• Oil and Filter change
• Winter screen wash
• Anti Freeze content test
• All under bonnet levels checked
• Full vehicle safety check

Also with our Winter Service you will get a FREE ‘Winter Pack’ to help you on those cold mornings.

It was a sad Motorsport day when one of our race cars was involved in a horrific crash at the Cadwell Park Circuit during the MSVR Team Trophy event.

Destination Nurburgring boss Darren Langeveld was forced off the track by the horrendously driven car 59 (Porsche 968) after trying to pass for 3 laps. The driver of the Porsche was excluded from the event and had 6 points added to his racing licence for dangerous behaviour.

Lots can be said about terrible driving standards but Aarons Autos were just happy to see Darren escaping with minor injuries. Our Renault Clio was built to withstand accidents of this nature and all of the safety systems worked as expected to protect the driver.

The feature video on this page promotes the use of great safety gear, especially the HANS device. Darren was luckily wearing one during the impact which surely helped to lessen any neck/spine injury.

Race Five Report – Silverstone National

Sat 6 September 2014

Clios battle in Silverstone rain

The Silverstone National was a good place to be in a race Clio for round five of the 2014 season as Paul Ivens and Adam Langeveld beat Aaron Harding and David Slater to the win.

Qualifying

It was an all-Guest Class top five, but James Bird and Andrew Stacey who took pole in their MINICooper S Challenge by the smallest of margins. Jeremy Hayman and Mark Penny, in Class B in a Vauxhall VX220, almost snatched top spot but came up just 0.016s shy of the Bird and Stacey benchmark.

Troy Dunlop and William Norman lined up alongside the VX220 in their BMW E36, lapping the Silverstone National circuit just 0.043s slower. The first of the Clios, piloted by Harding and Slater, claimed fourth alongside Geoff Conner in another of the Clios.

The Class D pole went the way of Nick De-Jesus in the BMW 318i Compact, comfortably clear of the line-astern Giles Billingsley and George and Jack Wright. Pole in Class E was secured by Adrian Timpson.

Race

The pouring rain helped the Clios of Ivens/Langeveld and Harding/Slater (both built by Aarons Autos Motorsport) to rocket to the front, utilizing their front-wheel-drive to leap-frog the heavier machinery in front of them on the grid.

Both passed the guest-appearing Nissan 370Z of the 2014 GT Academy racers, and Ivens/Langeveld coped best with the conditions to ease away from the similar Clio behind.

The safety car was scrambled when the Mark Astall and Craig Bunting-shared BMW E36 spun at the exit of Woodcote, finishing midway down the old pit straight resting on the pit wall.

Battles raged throughout the field on the restart, and an intriguing chase was commencing at the head of the field after the pitstops. The guesting Nissans soon switched places, and a David vs Goliath fight began. The looming Clios forced the once-leading Nissan into a mistake after taking chunks out its lead to move into second and third on the road. Ivens and Langeveld had to be mindful of their mirrors too, managing the gap back to Harding and Slater.

The Mondeo ST220 of Charles Angrave and Mark Witherington almost broke the Clio monopoly, but Gordon Cooper had just enough of a cushion to make it an all-Clio top three. The two cars were also able to catch and pass the former leader, the second of the Nissans.

Gary Johnson impressed in his SEAT Ibiza R to take the Class B win, just ahead of the Ian Brent-Smith and Steve Lyons BMW E30. Johnson made up seven places on the opening lap, and then soon passed the Class B-leading Hayman and Penny VX220. The VX220 lost out to the BMW just after the safety car interruption to be demoted to third.

Nick De-Jesus’ giant-killing continues, claiming eighth and a third Class D victory of the year. Mark Tranter became the first car in Class E to beat Adrian Timpson, his Citroen Saxo picking up 18^th place.

Classification

1. Ivens/Langeveld – Renault Clio – 30 laps
2. Harding/Slater – Renault Clio – +2.653s
3. Gordon Cooper – Renault Clio 197 – +12.833s
4. Angrave/Witherington – Ford Mondeo ST220 – +13.239s
5. Bird/Stacey – MINI Cooper S Challenge – +14.893s
6. Nick De-Jesus – BMW 318i Compact – +27.354s

Class B

1. Gary Johnson – SEAT Ibiza R
2. Brent-Smith/Lyons – BMW E30
3. Hayman/Penny – Vauxhall VX220

Class C

1. Ivens/Langeveld – Renault Clio
2. Harding/Slater – Renault Clio
3. Gordon Cooper – Renault Clio 197

Class D

1. Nick De-Jesus – BMW 318i Compact
2. Wright/Wright – Citroen Saxo VTS
3. Giles Billingsley – Fiat Punto Abarth

Class E

1. Mark Tranter – Citroen Saxo
2. Adrian Timpson – Toyota MR2
3. Orr/Skelton – Toyota MR2