Thursday 22 April 2010
Bathroom scales are rubbish
Ok i never expected them to be accurate, but thought by calibrating them to each other they would be good enough to set corner weights. But the repeatability accuracy seems to be about +-4kg!!! So thats scuppered that cheap plan. So the car is ready to go apart from the corner weights are not setup, i'll just have to put up with it for this race as i don't have the time to get it sorted before Brands
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Brands Prep
Other than the suspension/handling concerns i had there was actually nothing to repair on the Fury after Mallory!! Not one scrape, crack, dent or bent thing!!! Well not until i checked the car over and discovered oil all over the front of the chassis, steering rack and engine bay under tray. My initial thought was it was just the annoying drip from the sump plug has some how found its way forward, but i couldn't see how on earth that could happen. Some more investigation revealed oil had been passing through the radiator fins and spraying the inside of the engine bay, a quick look at the oil cooler showed a rather big dent in the front of it. With the engine ticking over and cold there was no apparent drip or spray, so i concluded that it had to be seeping out of a small hole in the cooler only when under high pressure and temperature.
A quick search on the web and i found nice looking oil cooler for £40, half the price of the equivalent Mocal item!! It was a simple job of undoing a few nuts and pipes and hey presto, a new oil cooler in place. Hopefully this was the problem and i won't be treating the chassis to more rust prevention at Brands!
I noticed that the rear nearside tyre has had it, so have ordered one from Polley Motorsport and will have it fitted saturday morning in the paddock. I may splash out on 2, as the other looks like it probably only has a few laps left in it aswell.
The last check i wanted to do was on the rear axle input flange, i had noticed a very small amount of up and down play in it before Mallory so wanted to check it hadn't increased. Now i'm not sure if it had increased or not, but I wasn't too happy with the amount of play and decided i'd check the centre nut holding it on. Most diffs have taper rollers, so you can soak up some of the play by nipping the nut up, and on this occasion it worked a treat. 1/16th of a turn on the nut and all play was gone. Its something i'm going to keep my eye on, a rebuild of the rear axle is definitely on the wish list when i could hopefully replace the nearside bearing again and cure the small leak i have suffered since changing it at Cadwell last year.
So Roll on the weekend, i have busy weekend with 2 practice sessions and 3 races (Allcomers and 2 x RGB) over 2 days, the forecast is good, the BBQ is packed, the entire disco bus crew are attending, what could possibly go wrong.......................
A quick search on the web and i found nice looking oil cooler for £40, half the price of the equivalent Mocal item!! It was a simple job of undoing a few nuts and pipes and hey presto, a new oil cooler in place. Hopefully this was the problem and i won't be treating the chassis to more rust prevention at Brands!
I noticed that the rear nearside tyre has had it, so have ordered one from Polley Motorsport and will have it fitted saturday morning in the paddock. I may splash out on 2, as the other looks like it probably only has a few laps left in it aswell.
The last check i wanted to do was on the rear axle input flange, i had noticed a very small amount of up and down play in it before Mallory so wanted to check it hadn't increased. Now i'm not sure if it had increased or not, but I wasn't too happy with the amount of play and decided i'd check the centre nut holding it on. Most diffs have taper rollers, so you can soak up some of the play by nipping the nut up, and on this occasion it worked a treat. 1/16th of a turn on the nut and all play was gone. Its something i'm going to keep my eye on, a rebuild of the rear axle is definitely on the wish list when i could hopefully replace the nearside bearing again and cure the small leak i have suffered since changing it at Cadwell last year.
So Roll on the weekend, i have busy weekend with 2 practice sessions and 3 races (Allcomers and 2 x RGB) over 2 days, the forecast is good, the BBQ is packed, the entire disco bus crew are attending, what could possibly go wrong.......................
Post Mallory Musing (not as a big a muse as Bob though)
I've always felt the rear of the fury was rather lively, but put it down to it being live axle, but now that i am pushing a bit harder i feel its really starting to hamper my progress. Now i know the biggest limiting factor is me, and apart from getting as much practice in as i can and planning on some driver training later on in the year, i have also embarked on a weight reduction plan and fitness campaign to try and improve my racing (and health) Putting that aside, i'd also like to improve the car if possible (just incase i get back on the sofa and scoff pies), I'm happy having the car sliding around underneath me, but i feel its just to snappy and find myself constantly fighting and backing off to keep it on the tarmac. I have definitely changed my driving style to try and become smoother (and maybe slower) but watching videos of the car from behind and observations from the pit wall show the rear of the car hopping about and constantly suddenly stepping out. The car definitely never feels like the back is in a controllable drift, its either gripping or letting go violently, which isn't confident inspiring or a particularly quick way to negotiate a corner.
Considering i wrote my dissertation on rear suspension design, you would think i would know exactly what i was talking about or what to do, but the reality is, the subject was completly home taught by myself, i looked at the subject it in a very 1 dimensional way, basing it it only one authors view from a book in the university library, I didn't bother reading all of the book as it was too long, there was beer to be drank, i only had 6 weeks to complete the project (as i'd left it to the last minute due to the previous point) and as i discovered the day before i handed it in and the prototype was sitting at the Stoneleigh kit car show, i had made a rather large error in the formula, so obviously had no idea what i was on about, which is still true today!! I understand all the terminology, and a lot of the theory, but turning that into reality and diagnosing problems really is new ground for me.
The rear of the car doesn't look settled so i decided to strip the dampers off and have a look at what was going on with the suspension. But before i did all this i measured everything up and took the corner weights (using 4 bathroom scales) so i had a starting point to revert to if needed and check the current setting/ride heights etc. Once this was done I removed the dampers and springs and the suspension seemed to move around correctly and had no slack in it, so that all looked good. I sent the dampers off to Procomp Motorsport (who i used to finish off setting up the ST last year) who have a dyno to see how the dampers are performing.
The results are shown below:-
Considering i wrote my dissertation on rear suspension design, you would think i would know exactly what i was talking about or what to do, but the reality is, the subject was completly home taught by myself, i looked at the subject it in a very 1 dimensional way, basing it it only one authors view from a book in the university library, I didn't bother reading all of the book as it was too long, there was beer to be drank, i only had 6 weeks to complete the project (as i'd left it to the last minute due to the previous point) and as i discovered the day before i handed it in and the prototype was sitting at the Stoneleigh kit car show, i had made a rather large error in the formula, so obviously had no idea what i was on about, which is still true today!! I understand all the terminology, and a lot of the theory, but turning that into reality and diagnosing problems really is new ground for me.
The rear of the car doesn't look settled so i decided to strip the dampers off and have a look at what was going on with the suspension. But before i did all this i measured everything up and took the corner weights (using 4 bathroom scales) so i had a starting point to revert to if needed and check the current setting/ride heights etc. Once this was done I removed the dampers and springs and the suspension seemed to move around correctly and had no slack in it, so that all looked good. I sent the dampers off to Procomp Motorsport (who i used to finish off setting up the ST last year) who have a dyno to see how the dampers are performing.
The results are shown below:-
The results show that the valving had been adjusted for the lighter car and that it was working as intended, but apparently the 2:1 ratio between rebound and compression are not correct as the dampers are ramped up. I also hadn't realised that 1 way adjustable dampers actually adjusted both rebound and compression, i thought they only controlled rebound, i now realise that i had been very stupid and must hang my head in shame. So with the compression increasing too much per click coupled to the fact i was running 11 clicks (out of 12) at the rear and also running 225lb/in springs at the rear it looks as if the car had virtually no suspension at the rear, which would back up why the car was so lively at the back and hoping around so much. I maybe barking up the wrong tree here, but my plan is to now drop the clicks right down (front and back) for Brands this weekend and see if it helps things. Ok i may have problem with rebound, but i will have to try and find a compromise for this weekend. Yes i should have played with the settings more before this, but the last thing you want to do is try new settings for a race with no testing as you can't do anything about them, plus i have been that engrossed in trying to improve myself, i have tried to the leave the car in one state as much as possible as a bench mark.
I have booked a track day in May and ordered a set of new protech dampers and 180lb/in rear springs, so i'll fit these, and swap over the current 275lb/in fronts for the 225 lb/in i have on the rear at present and see if it improves things, watch this space!
Thursday 15 April 2010
Bed time in the Bus
With the first full weekend and 2 night stay looming i thought i'd better get the beds sorted, especially as there will be 6 of us at Brands!!
The bus came with lots of seats, 6 of which were the rather useful fold out ones with built in seat belts. I bolted 2 of these in for Mallory for seating, but also to start working out what i needed to do to turn them into a bench seat/bed. I had 2 right hand seats and 4 left hand seats, this meant that i could bolt the frame works in as if the seats were facing each other and retain the seat belts. I toyed with the idea of leaving them like this and just dropping a board on them to convert into a bed a night, but it would be a bit messy, plus the wheelarch means that you sit at an angle. I therefore reverted to my original idea of hacking the backs off the seats, removing the base cushions and welding a framework up to connect the 2 seats. The back of one the chairs has been left in place as to show a reference to what i was doing, or it may have been because my grinder disintegrated while i was doing it ..........;-)
With some matching backs for the cushions this should make a fairly nice sofa to lounge around on when its peeing down with rain outside. I now have to do the same to the otherside, paint the frameworks and cover the MDF in carpet
The bus came with lots of seats, 6 of which were the rather useful fold out ones with built in seat belts. I bolted 2 of these in for Mallory for seating, but also to start working out what i needed to do to turn them into a bench seat/bed. I had 2 right hand seats and 4 left hand seats, this meant that i could bolt the frame works in as if the seats were facing each other and retain the seat belts. I toyed with the idea of leaving them like this and just dropping a board on them to convert into a bed a night, but it would be a bit messy, plus the wheelarch means that you sit at an angle. I therefore reverted to my original idea of hacking the backs off the seats, removing the base cushions and welding a framework up to connect the 2 seats. The back of one the chairs has been left in place as to show a reference to what i was doing, or it may have been because my grinder disintegrated while i was doing it ..........;-)
With the framework complete (and new grinder bought to remove seat back) I fixed some 12mm MDF to the framework as a base for the cushion
Now that the seat backs were removed there was no pin for the locking mechanism to hold the seat up whilst in transit, so using some more MDF i made an end panel to hold the cushions in place, but also to mount the pin
With some matching backs for the cushions this should make a fairly nice sofa to lounge around on when its peeing down with rain outside. I now have to do the same to the otherside, paint the frameworks and cover the MDF in carpet
Mallory Park 4th April 2010
I thought i'd split the posts up as i started waffling in the last one!!
I had entered the Allcomers race so as to get some practice in before the RGB main event, this meant an early scrutineering session, which went without a hitch, and out on circuit for 9.30 for practice. We headed out for practice to find a drying, but still greasy track. Some places were a lot wetter than others (The Esses we very slippy at the apex) and there were patches of damp dotted around the dryer areas. I took it fairly easy and never felt like i got a great lap in, there were lots of yellows and a restart. I went to Mallory worrying about the place as i had a very near miss last year and just found it very intimidating on both visits last year, if you make a mistake it usually ends up in big one at Mallory. When the times came out I was surprised to have qualified 7th with a time of 55.29, looking at the other times people were putting in i wasn't too disheartened with slow time as it was obviously slippy, although i did see Colin was nearly a full second ahead of me, which did put me off the pace i needed to be in class C.
By the time the RGB session started the track had completely dried, and after 5 or 6 laps really started to enjoy the circuit and pushing the car a lot harder. I was struggling to get the hairpin right, either out braking myself and missing the apex, or spinning the rear wheels as i came out, or sometimes both! Near the end of the session the red flags came out and i assumed we wouldn't be going out again, especially as the marshal directed me into the paddock, but i noticed a couple of cars lining back up again (Colin and Al), so drove straight down to investigate. They were going to let us out for 4 minutes, so that meant 3 or 4 flying laps to try and put a good one in, it was 3rd in the queue behind Colin and Al and knew they wouldn't hold me up and i could try and gauge if i could stay with them, which is my aim for this year, and maybe pick up some faster lines. On the 1st flying lap i was being held up by Al, which i couldn't understand, and out dragged him down the main straight, i now had 2 laps of clear track ahead to try and get my best time. I managed a 51.54, which i was pleased with, until the results came out, i had qualified 1st in class and was bloody ecstatic!!!! I bounced around the bus for a few minutes before colin stuck his head round the door and called me a "bugger", i've never been so complimented or elated by a derogatory name in my life!! So in the first 2 races of the season i have qualified 1st in class for both, i just need to do the same in the race!!! Its one thing to bang in one good lap, but you need to repeat that for every lap in a race and be able to actually race against people, something i'm still trying to learn!
Lining up for the Allcomers race i was stuck right behind the great big Marcos, meaning i couldn't see anything ahead, and started to panic as i didn't think i could see the lights, but this turned out to be because i was looking in the wrong place!! As they turned red i noticed they were on the bridge. I got a decent start, but within a couple of laps or so there was daylight a head and no one behind so just settled back and tried to push the car more and get a better lap time in. A red flag stopped the race, and there was a lengthy stop while the marshalls rearranged us before the restart. After another reasonable start i could see Colin ahead, so i set my sights on catching him, which to my surprise i did!! I realised i could catch him coming out of Gerrards and made a move coming into the esses, the first time he held me off and got the inside line and we went around the esses side by side, but this gave him the better line for the hairpin, but on the next lap i managed to just sneak up the inside, on the following lap he got passed me at the same point, then again on the next lap i passed him. I was looking for the last lap board, but again was looking at the wrong place! I keep thinking the bridge is the finish line and marshal post, but obviously its on the otherside of the track 100 meters closer. As we came into the Esses again i managed to just hold the inside line and get to the hairpin first, then as we came around the Elbow i saw the chequered flag. I was well chuffed that for the first time i had actually had a race with Colin and beat him (only just, and another lap later i could well have been behind him as usual).
As the RGB race approached i kept reminding myself not to throw it away on the first lap again, being at the front of the class really doesn't help me, the thought of actually winning whilst driving ruins my driving!!! I just had to keep my head, but still push hard! I was on the grid behind Tim, who himself admits is not the best off the line, so i had a plan to try and pull past him to the right which would also stop Al, who was behind me, coming up my inside. My master plan all went to pieces as soon as the lights went out, Tim had a rubbish start and i got blocked in besides Tony to the right, Al swept up the left past me and Tim and Colin shot of down the far right of the circuit. After a couple of laps i was behind Al, and Colin with Matt Green in his class B Spire behind us. I could stay with the Al and Colin round all of the circuit except for the hairpin where i was losing loads of time, and started making more mistakes there trying to go faster through it, but inevitably losing even more time until eventually. Eventually Al and Colin were a good few car lengths ahead and Matt came past me, i then hoped that with Matt being tangled up with Colin and Al it would slow them all down and i could close up the gap. But suddenly there was the Green pulsar of Phil behind me, who swallowed up big chunks of the gap between us at the hairpin everylap, until i ran very wide at the hair pin causing me to come into the main straight slower, Phil took the outside line down the main straight, where i accidently pushed him wide onto the grass as i couldn't see him and thought he was on my inside, it was only the sight of dust that made me realise he was there!! I moved back over to allow him some more track and we went round Gerrards side by side, which was highly exciting!! Phil had the outside line so i had to keep in tight and he managed to out accelerate onto the straight and got infront of me for the esses. The next few laps I fought to try and get passed him, and again had a fantastic side by side drive around the Esses, which he won, and an interesting moment coming into the esses where i tried to go down the inside but ran out of tarmac and put 2 wheels on the grass!! On the final lap we came round the elbow and i had the run on him, and crossed the line side by side!! Unfortunately i was 0.07 seconds behind Phil so came in 4th, but I had had a fantastic time racing with Phil, and importantly had not exchanged any paint or rubber in the process!! Phil seems to have picked up his pace this year, his now seemingly full time pit monkey (due to his lack of car), Tim Grey, seems to have passed on some of his speed to him!!!!
I can't wait for Brands in April!!!!
Pictures of Mallory
I have 3 cameras on the car now, but some of them packed up so only got these 2 videos of the mallory race
I had entered the Allcomers race so as to get some practice in before the RGB main event, this meant an early scrutineering session, which went without a hitch, and out on circuit for 9.30 for practice. We headed out for practice to find a drying, but still greasy track. Some places were a lot wetter than others (The Esses we very slippy at the apex) and there were patches of damp dotted around the dryer areas. I took it fairly easy and never felt like i got a great lap in, there were lots of yellows and a restart. I went to Mallory worrying about the place as i had a very near miss last year and just found it very intimidating on both visits last year, if you make a mistake it usually ends up in big one at Mallory. When the times came out I was surprised to have qualified 7th with a time of 55.29, looking at the other times people were putting in i wasn't too disheartened with slow time as it was obviously slippy, although i did see Colin was nearly a full second ahead of me, which did put me off the pace i needed to be in class C.
By the time the RGB session started the track had completely dried, and after 5 or 6 laps really started to enjoy the circuit and pushing the car a lot harder. I was struggling to get the hairpin right, either out braking myself and missing the apex, or spinning the rear wheels as i came out, or sometimes both! Near the end of the session the red flags came out and i assumed we wouldn't be going out again, especially as the marshal directed me into the paddock, but i noticed a couple of cars lining back up again (Colin and Al), so drove straight down to investigate. They were going to let us out for 4 minutes, so that meant 3 or 4 flying laps to try and put a good one in, it was 3rd in the queue behind Colin and Al and knew they wouldn't hold me up and i could try and gauge if i could stay with them, which is my aim for this year, and maybe pick up some faster lines. On the 1st flying lap i was being held up by Al, which i couldn't understand, and out dragged him down the main straight, i now had 2 laps of clear track ahead to try and get my best time. I managed a 51.54, which i was pleased with, until the results came out, i had qualified 1st in class and was bloody ecstatic!!!! I bounced around the bus for a few minutes before colin stuck his head round the door and called me a "bugger", i've never been so complimented or elated by a derogatory name in my life!! So in the first 2 races of the season i have qualified 1st in class for both, i just need to do the same in the race!!! Its one thing to bang in one good lap, but you need to repeat that for every lap in a race and be able to actually race against people, something i'm still trying to learn!
Lining up for the Allcomers race i was stuck right behind the great big Marcos, meaning i couldn't see anything ahead, and started to panic as i didn't think i could see the lights, but this turned out to be because i was looking in the wrong place!! As they turned red i noticed they were on the bridge. I got a decent start, but within a couple of laps or so there was daylight a head and no one behind so just settled back and tried to push the car more and get a better lap time in. A red flag stopped the race, and there was a lengthy stop while the marshalls rearranged us before the restart. After another reasonable start i could see Colin ahead, so i set my sights on catching him, which to my surprise i did!! I realised i could catch him coming out of Gerrards and made a move coming into the esses, the first time he held me off and got the inside line and we went around the esses side by side, but this gave him the better line for the hairpin, but on the next lap i managed to just sneak up the inside, on the following lap he got passed me at the same point, then again on the next lap i passed him. I was looking for the last lap board, but again was looking at the wrong place! I keep thinking the bridge is the finish line and marshal post, but obviously its on the otherside of the track 100 meters closer. As we came into the Esses again i managed to just hold the inside line and get to the hairpin first, then as we came around the Elbow i saw the chequered flag. I was well chuffed that for the first time i had actually had a race with Colin and beat him (only just, and another lap later i could well have been behind him as usual).
As the RGB race approached i kept reminding myself not to throw it away on the first lap again, being at the front of the class really doesn't help me, the thought of actually winning whilst driving ruins my driving!!! I just had to keep my head, but still push hard! I was on the grid behind Tim, who himself admits is not the best off the line, so i had a plan to try and pull past him to the right which would also stop Al, who was behind me, coming up my inside. My master plan all went to pieces as soon as the lights went out, Tim had a rubbish start and i got blocked in besides Tony to the right, Al swept up the left past me and Tim and Colin shot of down the far right of the circuit. After a couple of laps i was behind Al, and Colin with Matt Green in his class B Spire behind us. I could stay with the Al and Colin round all of the circuit except for the hairpin where i was losing loads of time, and started making more mistakes there trying to go faster through it, but inevitably losing even more time until eventually. Eventually Al and Colin were a good few car lengths ahead and Matt came past me, i then hoped that with Matt being tangled up with Colin and Al it would slow them all down and i could close up the gap. But suddenly there was the Green pulsar of Phil behind me, who swallowed up big chunks of the gap between us at the hairpin everylap, until i ran very wide at the hair pin causing me to come into the main straight slower, Phil took the outside line down the main straight, where i accidently pushed him wide onto the grass as i couldn't see him and thought he was on my inside, it was only the sight of dust that made me realise he was there!! I moved back over to allow him some more track and we went round Gerrards side by side, which was highly exciting!! Phil had the outside line so i had to keep in tight and he managed to out accelerate onto the straight and got infront of me for the esses. The next few laps I fought to try and get passed him, and again had a fantastic side by side drive around the Esses, which he won, and an interesting moment coming into the esses where i tried to go down the inside but ran out of tarmac and put 2 wheels on the grass!! On the final lap we came round the elbow and i had the run on him, and crossed the line side by side!! Unfortunately i was 0.07 seconds behind Phil so came in 4th, but I had had a fantastic time racing with Phil, and importantly had not exchanged any paint or rubber in the process!! Phil seems to have picked up his pace this year, his now seemingly full time pit monkey (due to his lack of car), Tim Grey, seems to have passed on some of his speed to him!!!!
I can't wait for Brands in April!!!!
Pictures of Mallory
I have 3 cameras on the car now, but some of them packed up so only got these 2 videos of the mallory race
Waffle before the race at Mallory Park 4th April 2010
After being very well behaved at the wedding and looking after the kids all night and putting them to bed, i managed to sneak in 1.5 hours heavy drinking . Unfortunately the bar shut soon after i started so had to go mine sweeping for half drank bottles of wine and finally half drunk glasses of wine!! I was ordered to bed at 1am and was very impressed that when i awoke at 8am pm saturday morning i had given myself a hangover in such a short period! So after a nice breakfast and a walk around Bakewell, William and I set off in the bus for the main event of the weekend, Mallory Park (Family members please note that was a joke)!
We arrived at Mallory before the gates opened to allow us into the paddock, this was all planned though so we could queue up and grab one of the few 240volt hook ups. OK the bus doesn't have 240 volts (yet), but as the forecast was for a cold night i wanted to plug my portable electric heater in (you can see it hiding behind the one fold out chair). I hadn't done any work on the bus other than bolt 2 of the seats in which i intended to use as the base for the fold out sofas, and acquired some cushions (for the sofas) to sleep. Ok its not a luxury motorhome like a lot of the others have, but to me its a 5 star hotel compared to the tent!!!!
We arrived at Mallory before the gates opened to allow us into the paddock, this was all planned though so we could queue up and grab one of the few 240volt hook ups. OK the bus doesn't have 240 volts (yet), but as the forecast was for a cold night i wanted to plug my portable electric heater in (you can see it hiding behind the one fold out chair). I hadn't done any work on the bus other than bolt 2 of the seats in which i intended to use as the base for the fold out sofas, and acquired some cushions (for the sofas) to sleep. Ok its not a luxury motorhome like a lot of the others have, but to me its a 5 star hotel compared to the tent!!!!
After a bit of faffing and chatting a group off us went out for a bite to eat and a couple of drinks at a local pub, The Windmill Inn, which was very nice. A big thanks to Dan for ferrying us all about (5 runs between the pub and Mallory in total) in his big Lexus!! Everyone disappeared off to bed so William and I settled down in the bus and quickly fell asleep. I was woken about 2 hours later sweating my ****** off, i had gone equipped with 2 sleeping bags and PJ's as i would have done in the tent, but with the heating and distinct lack of only nylon sheeting protecting us from the torrential rain i felt like i was in an oven! After ditching some layers i settled down again, and although woke a few time due to the rain, I probably had my best nights sleep at a circuit!!! Bus 1 - Tent 0!! When i finally surfaced for a shower, the rain had stopped, and we all had our fingers crossed for a dry day!!
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Pre wedding/race weekend fun
It was going to be a hectic extended bank holiday weekend! I had the sister-in-laws wedding up near Bakewell on the friday and rather than driving 2.5 hours home on the saturday to pick the car up, then drive another 2.5 hours back to Mallory I decided to get everything packed a ready for mallory and go up to the wedding in the bus. I had a lot of things to sort out for the wedding as i had to sort out the kids, their suits and more importantly i was in charge of collecting the flowers and bringing them up to the venue in the morning. This worried me as i had visions of the bus breaking down or there being some other disaster on the the way up on Friday morning, meaning that not only would the ring bearers (the kids) would not be there, the flowers would also be missing!! Little did i know at the time, but the in-laws also shared my concerns!!! I also had to get all the stuff required for the weekends race packed, and then fit it all in the bus.
Thursday day started well and i was getting my jobs of lists completed and actually realised i was going to get it all done without too much rushing. That was until the wife phoned from her parents, she had managed to lock her car keys in her car and block her parents car on the drive, and all this about an hour before they were all due to go up to the venue!! I didn't shout, kept very calm and drove over with the spare keys, but this obviously buggered up my plan for the day as i lost 2.5 hours!!!
I quick clean of the car was required as i wanted to show off her newly painted side pods! I just need to get that rear rough bit of fibreglass (the rear tub!!) rubbed down and repaired now and she'll be looking very impressive (for a race car)
Next job was to get the car into the bus, but the suspension wouldn't lower and the car wouldn't go up the ramp as it was too steep, after some faffing with wiring and relays i was completely stumped, but came up with the idea of driving it up a steep driveway so the back would be low to the ground. I did this and thought i'd give it one last go to see if the suspension would drop, which to my delight it did! So i reversed back down the slope to load up as normal, but this time it would drop again!!! So back up the drive and went, and low and behold it worked again!!! It then clicked, the handbrake had been interlocked with the air release valve on the suspension!! What a duffus, another hour wasted!!!
Anyway to cut a long story short, i got everything done by about 9pm and the flowers were picked up and safely stored in the garage ready to go in the bus for the journey up to Bakewell early the next morning.
Thursday day started well and i was getting my jobs of lists completed and actually realised i was going to get it all done without too much rushing. That was until the wife phoned from her parents, she had managed to lock her car keys in her car and block her parents car on the drive, and all this about an hour before they were all due to go up to the venue!! I didn't shout, kept very calm and drove over with the spare keys, but this obviously buggered up my plan for the day as i lost 2.5 hours!!!
I quick clean of the car was required as i wanted to show off her newly painted side pods! I just need to get that rear rough bit of fibreglass (the rear tub!!) rubbed down and repaired now and she'll be looking very impressive (for a race car)
Next job was to get the car into the bus, but the suspension wouldn't lower and the car wouldn't go up the ramp as it was too steep, after some faffing with wiring and relays i was completely stumped, but came up with the idea of driving it up a steep driveway so the back would be low to the ground. I did this and thought i'd give it one last go to see if the suspension would drop, which to my delight it did! So i reversed back down the slope to load up as normal, but this time it would drop again!!! So back up the drive and went, and low and behold it worked again!!! It then clicked, the handbrake had been interlocked with the air release valve on the suspension!! What a duffus, another hour wasted!!!
Anyway to cut a long story short, i got everything done by about 9pm and the flowers were picked up and safely stored in the garage ready to go in the bus for the journey up to Bakewell early the next morning.
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