Marcus decided as part of his 40th birthday celebrations that he wanted to return to the Green Hell in the Eifel Forest, but this time with a car which he did not care about, so the search started! A 10 year old Mitshubishi FTO was identified which we bought from an unsuspecting chap in Kent for £400. Next it was stripped to save weight (but Trevor then added this back by custom making a roll cage from scaffolding). A quick trip online bought new brake discs, Yellow Stuff track pads, braided cables, springs and a servicing kit – we proudly did all the work ourselves. Nick gave the wheels a quick paint job, and a few well considered vinyl decals later SHiH-TZU was born.
A date was chosen, Eurotunnel was booked, SHiH-TZU was loaded onto Marcus’s trailer and off we went one Saturday morning having only test driven the car around Trev’s garage forecourt – this was to prove to be a fatal error! Eight hours later we arrived, unloaded and took the ‘beasty’ for a quick drive only to find out that our race car juddered violently at 60mph plus… oops. A quick trip to a friendly garage on the Sunday uncovered a wheel balancing issue which was quickly fixed, but the juddering was still there, just less so (it proved to be a bearing gone in the diff)! So we just took her to the track and drove, the three of us had a fantastic day. It only ended late afternoon after the alternator belt fell off following a violent trip across the curbs and the battery lost charge, at which point we abandoned SHiH-TZU in a Lidl car park by the off at Adenau and went to the Pistenklause.
As ever the Ring took its fair share of casualties on the day, its still dangerous, and still shows no mercy if you go off line. Just ask Nick that question…
