Wednesday 30 November 2011
Bus Beds
Over the winter i intend to get the bus a bit closer to completion. First job was to finish the fold out side seats/bed so that they both lock up in position during transport, rather than using rope. With that complete the rear double lower bunk could be made. This locks into postion ontop of the side seats when travelling, allowing the car to fit underneath, and lots of storage space for the journey. For some reason i forgot to take a pictuure of them in the transport position, but i'll get some next time. The bed/shelf has turned out pretty heavy and massively over engineered, but it will at least stand up to all the paddock kids jumping on it!
Birkett 6hr Relay 2011
Long delay in updating again, sorry!! In essence it was a great day and we one class A on scratch and were awarded a trophy for our efforts, unfortunetly this was an error as the award should have gone to class winner on handicap!! Anyway, we get to keep our trophy which i now one of the rarest trophies in motorsport.
I will endevour to write a full report when i find the time, but a pending house sale and work make finding this time pretty tricky!! Watch this space.....
I will endevour to write a full report when i find the time, but a pending house sale and work make finding this time pretty tricky!! Watch this space.....
Monday 7 November 2011
Cadwell Park - 8th & 9th October
The last 2 races of the season were originally scheduled for Donington, but due to the continuing shambles at the place, they had overbooked the amount of noisy days for the year (dont start me on the subject regarding noise at a venue next door to an airport!!), luckily the 750MC are a lot more organised than this and had a back up plan in lace for us all to visit Cadwell! Cadwell is great fun, although my previous 2 visit were marred with mechanical issues, i was really looking forward to it. The championship was still to be decided with Al and Paul taking it down to the last weekend to fight it out, infact all down the field there were positions to be grabbed, and a slip up from Al or Paul would also bring Derek and John back into the running for the overall championship. I had already guaranteed 3rd in class F but was neck and neck with Matt Green in 5th place overall. I had said at the start of the year if ii managed 35rd in class and 6th oerall i would over the moon, so i was seriously up for trying to grab the no5 on my car next season. So much so i decided not to run allcomers incase i binned it (plus was worried i'd miss the Birkett if i had a big one).
Due to MOT issues and getting the bus plated as a HGV we had to rent a trailer and camp!! The lack of bus really took the edge of my excitement for the weekend as i wasn't relishing a damp, cold and wet weekend under canvas. The journey to Cadwell didnt go too well either, a dropped jockey wheel on the trailer, shortly followed by getting flashed by a speed camera, and within another 5 miles a fully grown deer decided to jump out infront of us! I had no time to brake or swerve, luckily (for the discovery) the deer timed her run to miss the car but make the space between the car and trailer, unfortunetly for the deer the corner of the trailer hit it, followed by my dads mountain bike, then the wheel arches and finally a side light.
Qualifying was dry but i spent most of the session trying to familiarise myself with the circuit again, especially as i'd never driven it with the R1 install. I qualified 12th in both races, a bit lower than i would have hoped for, especially being so far behind Al and Derek. Matt is in Class R so not a direct fight with him, but as i was 2 points infront of him with the dropped points taken into account, i just needed to finish in the same position in class as he did. Looking at the grid that meant i needed to try and get 3rd in both races, assuming both Paul and John finished ahead in class R to put matt 3rd. It meant i needed to pull my socks up for the race and make few spots up if i wanted to get the 5th place overall.
In usual RGB style it rained before the race, and watching the races before it was obvious it was very slippy in places. The only good thing (for me anyway) was that Lee decided not to race due to the weather which not only meant i had 1 less class F car to beat, it meant i had a spot ahead of me for the start. Cadwell is very tight and a good start is important, so a clear track ahead is a big advantage. As it turns out i got a flying start, with an exciting first 2 corners alongside Gary in his contour, i got ahead of him and had gone from 12th to 6th by the end of Charlies!! Tim Pell then scuppered my flyer by spinning on the first lap and causing a red flag. Fortunately the restart went just aswell and i was 6th again heading down park straight, and this is how it ended, very uneventful,I had space infront and behind me and concentrated on finishing in the pretty horrid conditions without incident. So i finished 6th, and felt very pleased with my drive, my best finish to date and got my name in the results in Autosport :-)
Race 1 video didnt work apart from the forst start, plus i included a small "moment" where i tried to hold it flat(ish) around coppice!
A great evening was then spent in the paddock with the usual suspects and guests, drinking free beer from the remains of the BBQ and Tshirt sales early on in the season, Bobs tasty and extremely dry (like his humor) home brew cider and scoffing Bobs home cooked curry. The following morning wasn't so great, not due to a bad head, but i was producing some "violent" smells, making car prepping and cooking breakfast rather dangerous for the rest of the team.
I didnt have the clear track ahead of me in race 2 so didn't manage such a good start, although i did make up a couple of places and nipped wround Tim as he decided to go on a small sideways adventure up coppice. Tim soon had his spot back going down park straight. I left the door wide open for him coming into Park but was confident i'd get a shot at him within the next few corners, but as it turned out he managed to get past Dave pretty quickily and i then spent the rest of the race trying to get past him, with James close behind me. I was quicker than David in the first half of the circuit but he had me on the second half so the gap was constantly changing. My best place for overtaking him was coming down park straight into the Park and chris curve, but as you can see from the video i just could keep with him down the straight, especially coming up the hill. I had noticed on several occasions that my gear indicator was showing 4th instead of 6th coming up the hill, i put this down to to wheelspin, but looking back at the video, the way Dave pulled away, and a small amount of clutch slip on the last lap i think the clutch was starting to slip slightly. On the last lap Dave ran wide at the top of the goose neck, but rather than keep my toe down and try and get past him, i was uncertain (and i guess he was too) how and where he was going to re-enter the track, so i backed off a tad to ensure we didn't collide. He actually came back on under control and we probably would have been safe, but it just wasn't worth risking a collision.
Race 2 video
Due to MOT issues and getting the bus plated as a HGV we had to rent a trailer and camp!! The lack of bus really took the edge of my excitement for the weekend as i wasn't relishing a damp, cold and wet weekend under canvas. The journey to Cadwell didnt go too well either, a dropped jockey wheel on the trailer, shortly followed by getting flashed by a speed camera, and within another 5 miles a fully grown deer decided to jump out infront of us! I had no time to brake or swerve, luckily (for the discovery) the deer timed her run to miss the car but make the space between the car and trailer, unfortunetly for the deer the corner of the trailer hit it, followed by my dads mountain bike, then the wheel arches and finally a side light.
Qualifying was dry but i spent most of the session trying to familiarise myself with the circuit again, especially as i'd never driven it with the R1 install. I qualified 12th in both races, a bit lower than i would have hoped for, especially being so far behind Al and Derek. Matt is in Class R so not a direct fight with him, but as i was 2 points infront of him with the dropped points taken into account, i just needed to finish in the same position in class as he did. Looking at the grid that meant i needed to try and get 3rd in both races, assuming both Paul and John finished ahead in class R to put matt 3rd. It meant i needed to pull my socks up for the race and make few spots up if i wanted to get the 5th place overall.
In usual RGB style it rained before the race, and watching the races before it was obvious it was very slippy in places. The only good thing (for me anyway) was that Lee decided not to race due to the weather which not only meant i had 1 less class F car to beat, it meant i had a spot ahead of me for the start. Cadwell is very tight and a good start is important, so a clear track ahead is a big advantage. As it turns out i got a flying start, with an exciting first 2 corners alongside Gary in his contour, i got ahead of him and had gone from 12th to 6th by the end of Charlies!! Tim Pell then scuppered my flyer by spinning on the first lap and causing a red flag. Fortunately the restart went just aswell and i was 6th again heading down park straight, and this is how it ended, very uneventful,I had space infront and behind me and concentrated on finishing in the pretty horrid conditions without incident. So i finished 6th, and felt very pleased with my drive, my best finish to date and got my name in the results in Autosport :-)
Race 1 video didnt work apart from the forst start, plus i included a small "moment" where i tried to hold it flat(ish) around coppice!
A great evening was then spent in the paddock with the usual suspects and guests, drinking free beer from the remains of the BBQ and Tshirt sales early on in the season, Bobs tasty and extremely dry (like his humor) home brew cider and scoffing Bobs home cooked curry. The following morning wasn't so great, not due to a bad head, but i was producing some "violent" smells, making car prepping and cooking breakfast rather dangerous for the rest of the team.
I didnt have the clear track ahead of me in race 2 so didn't manage such a good start, although i did make up a couple of places and nipped wround Tim as he decided to go on a small sideways adventure up coppice. Tim soon had his spot back going down park straight. I left the door wide open for him coming into Park but was confident i'd get a shot at him within the next few corners, but as it turned out he managed to get past Dave pretty quickily and i then spent the rest of the race trying to get past him, with James close behind me. I was quicker than David in the first half of the circuit but he had me on the second half so the gap was constantly changing. My best place for overtaking him was coming down park straight into the Park and chris curve, but as you can see from the video i just could keep with him down the straight, especially coming up the hill. I had noticed on several occasions that my gear indicator was showing 4th instead of 6th coming up the hill, i put this down to to wheelspin, but looking back at the video, the way Dave pulled away, and a small amount of clutch slip on the last lap i think the clutch was starting to slip slightly. On the last lap Dave ran wide at the top of the goose neck, but rather than keep my toe down and try and get past him, i was uncertain (and i guess he was too) how and where he was going to re-enter the track, so i backed off a tad to ensure we didn't collide. He actually came back on under control and we probably would have been safe, but it just wasn't worth risking a collision.
Race 2 video
Sunday 2 October 2011
Pembrey - 24-25/09/11
I was looking forward to the full weekends racing at Pembrey. I like the circuit itself, as much as i detest the truly awful facilities. The track has a great technical section, a proper balls out section and for a change some interesting left hand corners. The facilities have the most godawful shower block consisting of 2 showers that struggle to spit luke warm water at the wall, which in turn you have to splash onto yourself (the noise of the guy in the shower next to me doing this on saturday morning made me question the activity that was going on!!), and just to make it worse there are 3 stinking traps in the same room that tramps would find too disgusting to use. Imagine taking a shower in the Trainspotting bathroom and you are nearly there.............
The weekend started well with an incident free first testing session, recording a 1.02.82. The car felt very good and nicely planted. I really feel like the car has reached a point now where I have actually improved it and can exploit the power. Yes i can still make improvements and tweeks, but i know the car is now faster than me and i can gain more by tweeking myself (but not like the guy in the shower next to me on saturday morning!!). The 2nd session wasn't so great, coming out of the first corner, a tight righthand hairpin, i lost all drive and the car came to a halt on the side of the track. I sat there for a few seconds going through the gears trying to work out what had broken, was it the clutch, gearbox, prop, diff or half shaft?? While standing on the side waiting for the recovery truck (sorry for closing the session everyone) i'd decided it wasn't engine side as i could hear the prop spinning around in the tunnel, it wasn't the prop as the prop was spinning and not flapping and removing my legs and the car was sitting on all 4 wheels, so i was convinced the diff had gone and that was the end of the weekend. On the tow back to the pits there was a lot of dragging noises and the car started bobbing up and down on the left hand rear corner, until there was a clunk and the car dropped down on that corner. At this point i actually felt relief as i then suspected a broken half shaft, which after jacking the car up was proven to be the fault.
Other than the broken halfshaft and a bent brake caliper bracket there seemed to be no other damage, so whilts dad set about removing the broken shaft from the casing, i started to ring around to find a replacement. Now if there is one place on the planet where finding escort mkII spares on the shelf or in someones garage, Wales and its rallying scene is probably the place you want to be. Within 30 minutes i had the required parts set aside at Peter Lloyd Rallying and set off with Gavin (thanks!!) to pick them up. By the time i had the parts (expensive uprated Tran X items) in my hands i had 2 other offers (which were much cheaper, but 2nd hand standard items). Dad had removed the old shaft and straightened the bent caliper bracket and was waiting to fit the new shafts by the time i returned. The shaft was obviously machined to use a slightly narrower bearing, so once fitted the hub and disc sat about 4mm further out than the standard item, this meant that the brake caliper fouled the disc. Dan B had seen exactly the same issue when he fitted the Tran-X items a few months ago. A few washers to space the caliper out cured this problem and the car was good to go.
Qualifying was damp and very busy, i was caught in a gaggle of cars and found i couldnt get a clear lap, so ended up wasting laps backing off to give myself the chance of a big enough gap to have a good go at a lap. I qualified 11th but more disappointingly 2 seconds of where i wanted to be. A sterling performance from Ben in his lonely 919 powered westy saw him out qualify many of us in our more modern 1000cc class F screamers.
The race was wet, extremely wet! I'd go to say probably the worst conditions i have raced in so far. The first corner at Pembrey is pretty tricky in the dry, slow, tight and narrow, and i wasn't really looking forward to it in these conditions. Upon the red lights going out my concerns were confirmed, visibility was null, grip wasn't much better and Bens early exit onto the grass, which was actually caused by the rain drop obscured car of Matts in my video, did little to build the confidence!!! But somehow we all made it round without incident, infact there was very little contact or spinning during the entire race, which is a credit to all the RGB drivers. After the tentative first corner i then proceeded to miss a gear, well changed the wrong way down the box instead of u,p coming out of the 2nd corner which allowed James to sneak up the outside of me. For the next few laps i tiptoed around and dropped back slightly from James, the visibility was terrible, but infact grip was a lot higher than the conditions suggested. My confidence grew and i caught back up to James, who was driving and sliding his car around like i have never seen him do before (well done James!), I noticed that James was braking far to early for the first corner, so after a couple of laps i ensured i was positioned tom ake a move on him coming down into it. It all got a bit close and bit skiddy, but i managed to sneak by. I then set about catching up with Lee, whose car looked a bit lively at the rear, and coming into the first corner again he ran ride and i snuck up the inside. For the next couple of laps i managed to pull a slight lead on Lee and felt comfortable enough to slow it down a tad on the last lap to ensure i didn't over run on the 2 tight corners and throw away the position. This meant that coming into Honda Lee was fairly close but i knew i'd be able to defend the line and hold him off, that was until i spotted a back marker who i had to go inside coming into Honda, Lee backed off allowing him to get a good run out of Honda where i had tiptoe out off, i saw him flying up the inside of me, but i managed just to keep a nose ahead of him as we crossed the line 0.1 seconds apart. So i finished 4th in class, and had a very eventful race, great fun, tinged with terror, or should that be terror tinged with fun???
Sunday was a late race, so a very pleasent evening was spent with members of our Birkett team (Rabid RGB) eating chilli, rice and snacks, washed down with plenty of beer, followed by a trip to the paddock bar and more beer. The evening was bought to a close by the miserable circuit owner kicking us out of the bar, shortly followed by a covert mission to "redesign" a certain trucks livery, which was unfortunately thwarted by a local troll...........
Sunday morning weather was dry, as was the shower block, so after a cold water wash in the Transpotting toilet we proceeded to kill 7 hours by what ever means we could. There are only so many things you can check on the car, so after a mid day meat fest BBQ we were all packed up and ready to leave after the race.
Amazingly the race was dry, even though showers had been forcast. My grid position was 1 better than before and i managed a decent start. There was an altercation at the first corner between John C and one the 3 bikesports that had been chucked in with us as there pathetic numbers meant they couldn't have there own "race". The word race and bikesports don't go together in my mind as there never is one!! The rest of us made it round fairly unscathed, and within all this i had done rather well and was directly behind Al, Derek and Tim G. For the next few frantic laps i really felt as if i was part of the class F front runners. It was manic, and i honestly didnt know how i would keep it up for another 15 minutes. I managed to get past Al as he out braked himself going into the first corner, but he managed to get the place back again on the following lap. Al then managed to get past Matt who was in the middle of the class F pack, and i had to back off going into the kink before Honda as i couldn't make it past Matt too. I then had a rather large sideways moment at the left hander and dropped back and then Lee came past me like a scolded cat on the start finish line. For the most of the rest of the race i had Tim H in my mirrors, who sat patiently waiting for my inevitable mistake, which capitalised on and came past. I had noticed during all of this that Derek and Lee had dropped out so was 3rd in class so the sensible thing to do was just to pootle round for the last few laps and take the points, but the competitive side of me would allow that and i wanted to have a go at Tim, but then the car started missing, initially i thought it was fuel surge, but it became obvious it was dropping a cylinder as i headed down the start finish straight. The last lap board came out so idecided to try and limp the car home to get the points. I lost another spot to Tony on the last corner, but as he was in class R it meant i finished 3rd and didn't lose any points.
At the presentations i was awarded 3rd and 2nd as Tim G was apparently invisible as he never actually entered the championship this year. So it was a bit of a fraudulent 2nd and 3rd but i'll take the points thankyou which guarantees 3rd inn class for the year, wahooo!! This leaves the overall points table for the last race of the year very interesting, Paul and Al are both in the runnings for 1st overall, but any slip up can be capitilised on by Derek or John behind them. Matt is 3 points ahead of me in 5th, but when you take away the 2 worst results i am actually in 5th overall (only by 4 points). In the early part of the season i said i'd be over the moon if i could manage 3rd in class and 6th overall, so if i can manage 5th i'll have to get extra drunk at the awards evening!!
The official gimp/slave, Dan was back from Afghanistan and made a welcome return to the Q20 camp, so not only provided great company, but also lots and lots of pictures again!! Thanks Dan!
The weekend started well with an incident free first testing session, recording a 1.02.82. The car felt very good and nicely planted. I really feel like the car has reached a point now where I have actually improved it and can exploit the power. Yes i can still make improvements and tweeks, but i know the car is now faster than me and i can gain more by tweeking myself (but not like the guy in the shower next to me on saturday morning!!). The 2nd session wasn't so great, coming out of the first corner, a tight righthand hairpin, i lost all drive and the car came to a halt on the side of the track. I sat there for a few seconds going through the gears trying to work out what had broken, was it the clutch, gearbox, prop, diff or half shaft?? While standing on the side waiting for the recovery truck (sorry for closing the session everyone) i'd decided it wasn't engine side as i could hear the prop spinning around in the tunnel, it wasn't the prop as the prop was spinning and not flapping and removing my legs and the car was sitting on all 4 wheels, so i was convinced the diff had gone and that was the end of the weekend. On the tow back to the pits there was a lot of dragging noises and the car started bobbing up and down on the left hand rear corner, until there was a clunk and the car dropped down on that corner. At this point i actually felt relief as i then suspected a broken half shaft, which after jacking the car up was proven to be the fault.
Other than the broken halfshaft and a bent brake caliper bracket there seemed to be no other damage, so whilts dad set about removing the broken shaft from the casing, i started to ring around to find a replacement. Now if there is one place on the planet where finding escort mkII spares on the shelf or in someones garage, Wales and its rallying scene is probably the place you want to be. Within 30 minutes i had the required parts set aside at Peter Lloyd Rallying and set off with Gavin (thanks!!) to pick them up. By the time i had the parts (expensive uprated Tran X items) in my hands i had 2 other offers (which were much cheaper, but 2nd hand standard items). Dad had removed the old shaft and straightened the bent caliper bracket and was waiting to fit the new shafts by the time i returned. The shaft was obviously machined to use a slightly narrower bearing, so once fitted the hub and disc sat about 4mm further out than the standard item, this meant that the brake caliper fouled the disc. Dan B had seen exactly the same issue when he fitted the Tran-X items a few months ago. A few washers to space the caliper out cured this problem and the car was good to go.
Qualifying was damp and very busy, i was caught in a gaggle of cars and found i couldnt get a clear lap, so ended up wasting laps backing off to give myself the chance of a big enough gap to have a good go at a lap. I qualified 11th but more disappointingly 2 seconds of where i wanted to be. A sterling performance from Ben in his lonely 919 powered westy saw him out qualify many of us in our more modern 1000cc class F screamers.
The race was wet, extremely wet! I'd go to say probably the worst conditions i have raced in so far. The first corner at Pembrey is pretty tricky in the dry, slow, tight and narrow, and i wasn't really looking forward to it in these conditions. Upon the red lights going out my concerns were confirmed, visibility was null, grip wasn't much better and Bens early exit onto the grass, which was actually caused by the rain drop obscured car of Matts in my video, did little to build the confidence!!! But somehow we all made it round without incident, infact there was very little contact or spinning during the entire race, which is a credit to all the RGB drivers. After the tentative first corner i then proceeded to miss a gear, well changed the wrong way down the box instead of u,p coming out of the 2nd corner which allowed James to sneak up the outside of me. For the next few laps i tiptoed around and dropped back slightly from James, the visibility was terrible, but infact grip was a lot higher than the conditions suggested. My confidence grew and i caught back up to James, who was driving and sliding his car around like i have never seen him do before (well done James!), I noticed that James was braking far to early for the first corner, so after a couple of laps i ensured i was positioned tom ake a move on him coming down into it. It all got a bit close and bit skiddy, but i managed to sneak by. I then set about catching up with Lee, whose car looked a bit lively at the rear, and coming into the first corner again he ran ride and i snuck up the inside. For the next couple of laps i managed to pull a slight lead on Lee and felt comfortable enough to slow it down a tad on the last lap to ensure i didn't over run on the 2 tight corners and throw away the position. This meant that coming into Honda Lee was fairly close but i knew i'd be able to defend the line and hold him off, that was until i spotted a back marker who i had to go inside coming into Honda, Lee backed off allowing him to get a good run out of Honda where i had tiptoe out off, i saw him flying up the inside of me, but i managed just to keep a nose ahead of him as we crossed the line 0.1 seconds apart. So i finished 4th in class, and had a very eventful race, great fun, tinged with terror, or should that be terror tinged with fun???
Sunday was a late race, so a very pleasent evening was spent with members of our Birkett team (Rabid RGB) eating chilli, rice and snacks, washed down with plenty of beer, followed by a trip to the paddock bar and more beer. The evening was bought to a close by the miserable circuit owner kicking us out of the bar, shortly followed by a covert mission to "redesign" a certain trucks livery, which was unfortunately thwarted by a local troll...........
Sunday morning weather was dry, as was the shower block, so after a cold water wash in the Transpotting toilet we proceeded to kill 7 hours by what ever means we could. There are only so many things you can check on the car, so after a mid day meat fest BBQ we were all packed up and ready to leave after the race.
Amazingly the race was dry, even though showers had been forcast. My grid position was 1 better than before and i managed a decent start. There was an altercation at the first corner between John C and one the 3 bikesports that had been chucked in with us as there pathetic numbers meant they couldn't have there own "race". The word race and bikesports don't go together in my mind as there never is one!! The rest of us made it round fairly unscathed, and within all this i had done rather well and was directly behind Al, Derek and Tim G. For the next few frantic laps i really felt as if i was part of the class F front runners. It was manic, and i honestly didnt know how i would keep it up for another 15 minutes. I managed to get past Al as he out braked himself going into the first corner, but he managed to get the place back again on the following lap. Al then managed to get past Matt who was in the middle of the class F pack, and i had to back off going into the kink before Honda as i couldn't make it past Matt too. I then had a rather large sideways moment at the left hander and dropped back and then Lee came past me like a scolded cat on the start finish line. For the most of the rest of the race i had Tim H in my mirrors, who sat patiently waiting for my inevitable mistake, which capitalised on and came past. I had noticed during all of this that Derek and Lee had dropped out so was 3rd in class so the sensible thing to do was just to pootle round for the last few laps and take the points, but the competitive side of me would allow that and i wanted to have a go at Tim, but then the car started missing, initially i thought it was fuel surge, but it became obvious it was dropping a cylinder as i headed down the start finish straight. The last lap board came out so idecided to try and limp the car home to get the points. I lost another spot to Tony on the last corner, but as he was in class R it meant i finished 3rd and didn't lose any points.
At the presentations i was awarded 3rd and 2nd as Tim G was apparently invisible as he never actually entered the championship this year. So it was a bit of a fraudulent 2nd and 3rd but i'll take the points thankyou which guarantees 3rd inn class for the year, wahooo!! This leaves the overall points table for the last race of the year very interesting, Paul and Al are both in the runnings for 1st overall, but any slip up can be capitilised on by Derek or John behind them. Matt is 3 points ahead of me in 5th, but when you take away the 2 worst results i am actually in 5th overall (only by 4 points). In the early part of the season i said i'd be over the moon if i could manage 3rd in class and 6th overall, so if i can manage 5th i'll have to get extra drunk at the awards evening!!
The official gimp/slave, Dan was back from Afghanistan and made a welcome return to the Q20 camp, so not only provided great company, but also lots and lots of pictures again!! Thanks Dan!
Monday 29 August 2011
Silverstone - 27/08/2011
Time, money and work meant no testing this weekend, but it turned out to be a good decision as the test day was sopping wet and there were lots of red flags and some big offs, including one of our newer recruits Steve M in his red MNR. Unfortunately Steve spent 36hrs in hospital, but has no posted he is fine other than bruises and stiffness and will be back soon.
Friday evening was enjoyable as Paul and Della put on some drinks and nibbles in aid of their 25th wedding anniversary, which seems confusing as looking at them i'm sure they must have been married off in some arranged nuptials by their parents in their early teens, maybe its a strange Norfolk tradition ;-)
The sensibly timed walk back to the bus to get a reasonably early night with not too much beer consumed ready for the early start got sabotaged by Dave Watson and crew in their MNR gazebo, where i ended up being "force fed" Carlsberg until the early hours. At least i fell asleep quickly when i crawled into my bunk........
As usual the adrenalin of a race weekend meant i woke as fresh(ish) as a daisy on saturday morning and got myself and the car already for qualifying at 9.40. Qualifying was damp, with the final 2 laps suddenly drying out, although there were still some tricky little wet patches, especially around Woodcote. Woodcote is a nothing bend in a RGB car in the dry, but in the wet its nasty. You accelerate all the way through it from Luffield, in the dry fine, but when its wet the car is constantly trying to spin up the back wheels as you approach it and as you hit the apex the back can step out very easily and very quickly. This is where Steve had his incident on Friday, and demand serious respect in wet conditions. I qualified 3rd in class and 10th overall, but more importantly not far behind Al, although Derek had pulled out a good distance on both of us.
The day stayed dry up until the race before RGB, when it absolutely poured down. RGB and silverstone means wet, very wet, for the past 3 years (sice i started) it has rained everytime we have been there, including the birkett, and usually just before the RGB race. I softened off the suspension by 3 clicks all round and we all waited until the last minute to go to the holding area, not wanting to sit in the tropical storm. The track was soaked, puddles and standing water everywhere, so we got a green flag lap so we could all at least see how bad it was. It was terrible, there was no grip anywhere, and viability in the spray was horrific. The only good thing was that i do always seem to do OK in the damp, so i was quite looking forward to getting off the line. The start went well, i got a good start with not too much wheel spin and managed to make up a couple of places, including getting passed Al, but soon lost out to him at maggots where Tim P spun infront of me, leaving me no where to go, i tried to go inside but the car wouldn't turn due to lack of grip, i tried to go to the left of him but he was still travelling that way, so ended up just hitting the anchors and praying we didn't collide, luckily we didn't and i managed to turn in, but this allowed Al past. On the next lap Derek and Paul came together at the front, moving me up to 2nd, and hot on the heels of Al. Al managed to get past Rich wise in the Sabre and for few laps we all grappled for grip trying to find a way past. Derek suddenly appeared in my mirrors and got by me at Luffied, but i wasn't too bothered as i knew it would then mean him and Al holding each other up, something i could hopefully capitalise on, unfortunately a lap later little bit of over excitement on the loud peddle sent me into a long drift and slow motion spin as i came past the pit lane entry. Bugger! I didn't lose a place, but was now too far back to make up a position, and with no one in sight behind me i decided to finish of the race at sensible pace, not risking an off or a loss of points, happy to take 3rd, which i knew would move me above Matt into 5th overall in the championship. And thats how it finished, 3rd in class, 7th overall, and my highest ever finish in RGB. It was a shame i spun and couldn't have kept the pressure on for 2nd in class, but again i feel like i've made a step forward.
I'missing Oulton due to a relatives 90th birthday, but will be back for more at Pembrey, and i promise to keep upto date with the blog now, and even add some development or bus news.
Friday evening was enjoyable as Paul and Della put on some drinks and nibbles in aid of their 25th wedding anniversary, which seems confusing as looking at them i'm sure they must have been married off in some arranged nuptials by their parents in their early teens, maybe its a strange Norfolk tradition ;-)
The sensibly timed walk back to the bus to get a reasonably early night with not too much beer consumed ready for the early start got sabotaged by Dave Watson and crew in their MNR gazebo, where i ended up being "force fed" Carlsberg until the early hours. At least i fell asleep quickly when i crawled into my bunk........
As usual the adrenalin of a race weekend meant i woke as fresh(ish) as a daisy on saturday morning and got myself and the car already for qualifying at 9.40. Qualifying was damp, with the final 2 laps suddenly drying out, although there were still some tricky little wet patches, especially around Woodcote. Woodcote is a nothing bend in a RGB car in the dry, but in the wet its nasty. You accelerate all the way through it from Luffield, in the dry fine, but when its wet the car is constantly trying to spin up the back wheels as you approach it and as you hit the apex the back can step out very easily and very quickly. This is where Steve had his incident on Friday, and demand serious respect in wet conditions. I qualified 3rd in class and 10th overall, but more importantly not far behind Al, although Derek had pulled out a good distance on both of us.
The day stayed dry up until the race before RGB, when it absolutely poured down. RGB and silverstone means wet, very wet, for the past 3 years (sice i started) it has rained everytime we have been there, including the birkett, and usually just before the RGB race. I softened off the suspension by 3 clicks all round and we all waited until the last minute to go to the holding area, not wanting to sit in the tropical storm. The track was soaked, puddles and standing water everywhere, so we got a green flag lap so we could all at least see how bad it was. It was terrible, there was no grip anywhere, and viability in the spray was horrific. The only good thing was that i do always seem to do OK in the damp, so i was quite looking forward to getting off the line. The start went well, i got a good start with not too much wheel spin and managed to make up a couple of places, including getting passed Al, but soon lost out to him at maggots where Tim P spun infront of me, leaving me no where to go, i tried to go inside but the car wouldn't turn due to lack of grip, i tried to go to the left of him but he was still travelling that way, so ended up just hitting the anchors and praying we didn't collide, luckily we didn't and i managed to turn in, but this allowed Al past. On the next lap Derek and Paul came together at the front, moving me up to 2nd, and hot on the heels of Al. Al managed to get past Rich wise in the Sabre and for few laps we all grappled for grip trying to find a way past. Derek suddenly appeared in my mirrors and got by me at Luffied, but i wasn't too bothered as i knew it would then mean him and Al holding each other up, something i could hopefully capitalise on, unfortunately a lap later little bit of over excitement on the loud peddle sent me into a long drift and slow motion spin as i came past the pit lane entry. Bugger! I didn't lose a place, but was now too far back to make up a position, and with no one in sight behind me i decided to finish of the race at sensible pace, not risking an off or a loss of points, happy to take 3rd, which i knew would move me above Matt into 5th overall in the championship. And thats how it finished, 3rd in class, 7th overall, and my highest ever finish in RGB. It was a shame i spun and couldn't have kept the pressure on for 2nd in class, but again i feel like i've made a step forward.
I'missing Oulton due to a relatives 90th birthday, but will be back for more at Pembrey, and i promise to keep upto date with the blog now, and even add some development or bus news.
Late update for Snetterton - 30-31/07/2011
I decided to really go for it t snetterton and do a full days testing on the friday, ready for the double header weekend. The test day went great, a few small tweeks to the the damping and the car felt the best it had ever done, no understeer, no oversteer, just a nice drift that could be altered with a dab of the throttle. I went to bed very happy on the friday, not just to the amount of Stella i consumed in the evening but the fact i had knocked 2.5 seconds off my laptime since last visit!!!!
Some pics of the car with all its new bodywork, some say its ugly, some like it, and some say nothing, but it seems to be doing a job, and personally i think it looks great.
Practice went fine for the first 10 miniutes and i was putting some consistent 1.19.xxxx times in, but then the car started losing power down the Betley straight and i initially thought the engine was seizing (as had Paul Rickers during the test day!!), but after stopping at the end of the straight the car ticked over fine. So i decided to venture out again, i managed about half a lap before the power went again, this time i realised it was fuel starvation, but not when cornering, just when i was on on WOT. When we lifted the bonnet, the high pressure side of the system was still pressurised at 3bar, so i was confident it was something to do with teh low pressure scavenge pump or pipe pipe work. We removed the return pipe from the swirl pot and pumped the fuel through, it seemed pretty poor and the pump was making a strange noise, something i had noticed on the test day to be honest, but just assumed it was a lose nut or bolt vibrating on the internal ali panels. We removed the pump and tried it alongside a spare pump, and sure enough the spare pump floe rate was far better, so we replaced the pump and assumed all was ok. Trouble is i couldn't properly test it until the race as WOT and driving at 100mph around the paddock is frowned upon.
The race started, only to be red flagged on the first lap due to Bobs 45 seconds hell, involving 3 separate collisions (all none of his fault) and resulting in a very badly damaged green and white BDN. I'm happy to say Bob came out virtually unscathed and is already well into the the rebuild. The restart was a little less hectic, but 2 laps in the fuel starvation returned and i had to retire. But on the bright side i had qualified 3rd and 2nd for the races, beating Al for the 2nd race grid position for the first time since the engine upgrades.
Back in the paddock again, a physical check of the glass bowl filter (which visually looked clear when we checked it earlier) showed up that the gauze was almost tota;y blocked, this had caused the first pump to run under serious strain for a period of time, causing it to semi fail, but was also starving the replacement pump. Luckily the pump seemed OK, and a free replacement gauze from Andy got the flow of fuel going again.
Race 2 on sunday went well for me, and i felt that i again improved my driving, staying focused, making far less mistakes and controlling the old red mist. This resulted in my first 2nd in class F, and 10th overall. Ok my 2nd in class was less impressive due to the fact that Paul and Derek not starting due to mechanical issues, but never the less i'll take it!!!
Some pics of the car with all its new bodywork, some say its ugly, some like it, and some say nothing, but it seems to be doing a job, and personally i think it looks great.
Practice went fine for the first 10 miniutes and i was putting some consistent 1.19.xxxx times in, but then the car started losing power down the Betley straight and i initially thought the engine was seizing (as had Paul Rickers during the test day!!), but after stopping at the end of the straight the car ticked over fine. So i decided to venture out again, i managed about half a lap before the power went again, this time i realised it was fuel starvation, but not when cornering, just when i was on on WOT. When we lifted the bonnet, the high pressure side of the system was still pressurised at 3bar, so i was confident it was something to do with teh low pressure scavenge pump or pipe pipe work. We removed the return pipe from the swirl pot and pumped the fuel through, it seemed pretty poor and the pump was making a strange noise, something i had noticed on the test day to be honest, but just assumed it was a lose nut or bolt vibrating on the internal ali panels. We removed the pump and tried it alongside a spare pump, and sure enough the spare pump floe rate was far better, so we replaced the pump and assumed all was ok. Trouble is i couldn't properly test it until the race as WOT and driving at 100mph around the paddock is frowned upon.
The race started, only to be red flagged on the first lap due to Bobs 45 seconds hell, involving 3 separate collisions (all none of his fault) and resulting in a very badly damaged green and white BDN. I'm happy to say Bob came out virtually unscathed and is already well into the the rebuild. The restart was a little less hectic, but 2 laps in the fuel starvation returned and i had to retire. But on the bright side i had qualified 3rd and 2nd for the races, beating Al for the 2nd race grid position for the first time since the engine upgrades.
Back in the paddock again, a physical check of the glass bowl filter (which visually looked clear when we checked it earlier) showed up that the gauze was almost tota;y blocked, this had caused the first pump to run under serious strain for a period of time, causing it to semi fail, but was also starving the replacement pump. Luckily the pump seemed OK, and a free replacement gauze from Andy got the flow of fuel going again.
Race 2 on sunday went well for me, and i felt that i again improved my driving, staying focused, making far less mistakes and controlling the old red mist. This resulted in my first 2nd in class F, and 10th overall. Ok my 2nd in class was less impressive due to the fact that Paul and Derek not starting due to mechanical issues, but never the less i'll take it!!!
Sunday 28 August 2011
Update at last- Donington 02/07/2011
OK,OK i've fallen behind a lot!!
So just a quick recap, there has been another double header at snetterton and a single race at Donington. Plus the car has been changed a little bit!!!!! Oh and i lost my phone too, so lost all my photos of the development of the car!
Anyway to summarise, the new front end was tested at a test day at donington. The day didn't go too well due problems with the front brakes seizing, the car over heating due to the new nose and terrible driving by myself!! The only thing we learnt about the new nose was that it caused fantastic front end grip without slowing the car down in a straight line, but the resulting effect of the increased front grip was a rear end that wanted to become the front at every opportunity!! just lifting off the power caused the rear to step out, which resulted in a large spin and visit to the kitty litter at the old hairpin! The cooling issues also meant i could only try 1 hot lap before having to do a slow lap to cool down. We tried to combat this on the day by putting some ducting in from the nose to the radiator and fitting some aluminium to act as a gurrny flap at the rear to try and settle the rear end. This helped a little but not enough to cool the car or increase rear end grip. So we returned home a little miffed and contemplating binning the new nose.
With just under 2 weeks to the donington race we reflected on the results and decided the front end was worth perusing, but we needed to add some rear down force as the car was un-raceable (is that a word??) as it was, and hence the batwings were born (i have no photos of the adjustable "batwings", but the snetterton photos below shows the mkII version with them blended in). You will also notice in the rear picture we cut a lot of the rear bodywork out to save some weight, and the new curved undertray set at 15 degree
I had enetered the Allcomers to test the new setup, but due to the exhaust lamda bung falling out on the way to practice i missed the session and had to start at the back of the grid. It also meant i had no practice before the RGB session, which resulted in a time i want too pleased with, although it was still quicker than i had done before. But importantly the wings worked a treat, the car had become very settled, and after a bit of fettling with the gurney flaps on the trailing edge after practice the top speed of the car didn't seem to be effect by all the new aero aids.
The Allcomers tuned out to be the best race i've ever been in, starting 32nd (at the back) of the grid, with a lot of slower cars ahead always sounded like it would be interesting, but i never imagined it could be quite so much fun!! By red gate (turn 1) i had gained 11 places!!! Then for the next few laps i quickly climbed up the field until i met up with Dave Wale where we proceeded to have great sport for the rest of the race, trading places several times, although he did finally get he best of me, with us finishing 4th and 5th!! Not a bad result gaining 26 places and probably not finishing any lower than if i'd actually taken part in practice!! Unfortunately the camera didnt work so i have no evidence of any of these claims.
I managed a 4th in class and 8th overall in the RGB race, the setup of the car and hopefully some of my own driving development resulted in me closing the gap on the Al, Derek and Pau in class F, although i still couldn't keep up with them, but i was now racing a bit further up the field and feel like i'm getting there.
So just a quick recap, there has been another double header at snetterton and a single race at Donington. Plus the car has been changed a little bit!!!!! Oh and i lost my phone too, so lost all my photos of the development of the car!
Anyway to summarise, the new front end was tested at a test day at donington. The day didn't go too well due problems with the front brakes seizing, the car over heating due to the new nose and terrible driving by myself!! The only thing we learnt about the new nose was that it caused fantastic front end grip without slowing the car down in a straight line, but the resulting effect of the increased front grip was a rear end that wanted to become the front at every opportunity!! just lifting off the power caused the rear to step out, which resulted in a large spin and visit to the kitty litter at the old hairpin! The cooling issues also meant i could only try 1 hot lap before having to do a slow lap to cool down. We tried to combat this on the day by putting some ducting in from the nose to the radiator and fitting some aluminium to act as a gurrny flap at the rear to try and settle the rear end. This helped a little but not enough to cool the car or increase rear end grip. So we returned home a little miffed and contemplating binning the new nose.
With just under 2 weeks to the donington race we reflected on the results and decided the front end was worth perusing, but we needed to add some rear down force as the car was un-raceable (is that a word??) as it was, and hence the batwings were born (i have no photos of the adjustable "batwings", but the snetterton photos below shows the mkII version with them blended in). You will also notice in the rear picture we cut a lot of the rear bodywork out to save some weight, and the new curved undertray set at 15 degree
I had enetered the Allcomers to test the new setup, but due to the exhaust lamda bung falling out on the way to practice i missed the session and had to start at the back of the grid. It also meant i had no practice before the RGB session, which resulted in a time i want too pleased with, although it was still quicker than i had done before. But importantly the wings worked a treat, the car had become very settled, and after a bit of fettling with the gurney flaps on the trailing edge after practice the top speed of the car didn't seem to be effect by all the new aero aids.
The Allcomers tuned out to be the best race i've ever been in, starting 32nd (at the back) of the grid, with a lot of slower cars ahead always sounded like it would be interesting, but i never imagined it could be quite so much fun!! By red gate (turn 1) i had gained 11 places!!! Then for the next few laps i quickly climbed up the field until i met up with Dave Wale where we proceeded to have great sport for the rest of the race, trading places several times, although he did finally get he best of me, with us finishing 4th and 5th!! Not a bad result gaining 26 places and probably not finishing any lower than if i'd actually taken part in practice!! Unfortunately the camera didnt work so i have no evidence of any of these claims.
I managed a 4th in class and 8th overall in the RGB race, the setup of the car and hopefully some of my own driving development resulted in me closing the gap on the Al, Derek and Pau in class F, although i still couldn't keep up with them, but i was now racing a bit further up the field and feel like i'm getting there.
Monday 13 June 2011
Slacking! Brands and Snetterton - 2011
Sorry for the lack of posts, work and home life have meant very little spare time, and what spare time i have found i have been using it up on the car! So although the blog has stopped for a while, the racing and car development have not.
Since the last update there have been 4 race (2 double headers) at Brands and Snetterton. I haven’t got time or the memory to go back through all this, but below are the videos and photos of the events.
Brands Race 2
Video to be uploaded
Photos
Snetterton Race 1
Snetterton Race 2
Photos
To sum up, the car has been working very well with no major incidents since Mallory, and i have managed 3 3rds and a 4th in class, so results wise i’m where i was hoping i would be. Although this doesn’t tell the entire story, i am off the pace from Al, Derek and now Paul Rickers (who has suddenly got a rocket up his arse!!). I’d say 90% of this is down to me, a distinct lack of skill, plus i’m struggling to be smooth now that i’m carrying a bit more pace into the corners, and using and exploiting the extra ponies wisely is an issue, as is my gear changes going down the box. In an attempt to gain the 10% we are develop the car, adding some aero aids and trying to improve the handling through setup changes.
Monday 11 April 2011
A spare hour!
I've been extremely busy getting the lounge finished, so the car has had to take a back seat. Happily we moved back in on sunday so i'll get some time on the car this week (after fixing a freelander and attending a local parish council meeting). although i did have a spare hour on friday so had a another quick go on the bus.
The bus maybe used as a sales stand for Q20 at the up and coming Stoneleigh show, so i need to get the passenger side and bonnet finished off before May bank holiday. The car and I will also be at he show, but on the 750mc stand.
I'd better go and get on with the car, there is a gallon of engine oil smeared all over the front from Bobs BDN.....
The bus maybe used as a sales stand for Q20 at the up and coming Stoneleigh show, so i need to get the passenger side and bonnet finished off before May bank holiday. The car and I will also be at he show, but on the 750mc stand.
I'd better go and get on with the car, there is a gallon of engine oil smeared all over the front from Bobs BDN.....
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Mallory Park - 03/04/2011
Right where do i start.........
Confidence in the car was at an all time low, but decided i'd enter the Allcomers as a bit of a shakedown of the new engine. The plan started off well, 3 laps into practice i came in so dad and Dan could check for signs of problems under the bonnet, no problems, the car felt good, and so i went out to complete the session. I started to push on a bit more each lap, but was keeping my eyes on the gauges. After about 4 laps i noticed the oil pressure warning flash up on the digidash as i exited Gerrards, bugger!!! I slowed it right down and carried on down the straight, the pressure picked up again so decided to continue, but as soon as went past thepit entrance into the left hander of the Esses the light flicked on again, bugger bugger!!! So i slowed it down again and came back in. I'd checked the oil levels before i went out, but as this was happening on the corners i decided to whack a bit more oil in and give it a try. Unfortunately as soon as i got on track i realised that pressure was still dropping off and came straight back into the pits.
A look back at the video showed that the oil pressure light warning had started to flicker the lap previous to the digidash warning, which is set lower (15psi), bugger, bugger, bugger! The engine still sounded fine though when i came in, so we decided to quickily fire her up again. This time no oil pressure registered in the first couple of seconds so i killed the engine. We decided that this could be down to the earth on the senders or a blockage in the senders flexi pipe. Removing the pipe showed no blockage, so we then resorted to lashing up an earth lead straight to the battery.
Upon firing up we had oil pressure again, so all happy it was a sender issue we prepared for the RGB practice.
As i came out of the pits for practice, the oil pressure looked fine, but as soon as i entered gerrard its started to drop, and this was at a slow pace! I was going to come straight in and held my arm up, but noticed the pressure come back up on the straight, so i thought i would do a slow lap to try and figure out what was instigating the drop. As it turned out any corner at any speed caused the pressure to drop, but if i tootled round it would hold about 25psi, on the straights it would not get above 60psi, but at least it had some pressure. I continued for 3 laps (to ensure i could at least start at the back of the grid for RGB) at a very slow pace watching the pressure constantly then came in.
We drained the oil out, which looked horrible, a strange colour and very, very thin. This oil had only done the power runs on saturday morning and about 10 laps of mallory:-
This was 10-40 fully synth castrol race, which is red when new, it now had the consistency and look of muddy water! we assumed that this was the cause of the oil pressure problems but decided to continue and take the sump off. As i pulled the sump off the oil pick up pipe fell onto the floor!!!
The modified pickup that reaches into the bottom of the modified sump consists of the top half of the original plastic R1 pick up, glued to a metal fireblade lower pick up, this joint had failed allowing the bowl like pick up end drop off into the sump!! No wonder i had so little oil pressure!!!
Andy Bates has done this modification to several engies that run in the NIsevens and never had a failure, so either i was just unlucky (again) or something in the oil attacked the glue (liquid metal) causing it to drop off. So andy went off to fix the pickup, including a strap that would stop it ever dropping off again even if the glue gave up again. meanwhile we cleaned the sump and oil cooler out. We still dont have an explanation for the odd oil, maybe cavitation caused by the air being sucked in through the broken filter, dodgy, contamination in the engine or maybe fuel getting into the crank case???? We check the fuel pressure which was staying at a constant 40psi, so fuel being forced in through over pressure cant be the reason. If anyone has any suggestions please post!!
With the pickup and sump all back on i refilled the engine with some of Andy's 15-50 oil that he recommends and started the car up. Instantly pressure was back up high, and reving the engine saw a good increase! But by this time i had missed the allcomers, so other than a pootle around the pits i wouldn't know if it was all operating as it should, or if the engine has sustained any lasting damage.
A small monsoon fell 20 minutes before the RGB race, meaning lots of scrabbling around in the pits softening off suspension and fitting wets for some people. But the good thing about this was that we would get a green flag lap, giving me nearly 2 laps (including the out lap) to asses the engine and oil pressure. My initial plan was for a very steady start and keeping my eyes on the gauges, something i had mentioned to a couple of the new guys when i was advising them to hold back and brake early at the first corner due to the bunching up effect. But as it all looked good as i rolled up to at the back of the grid for the start lights, and the red mist descended, i ended up flooring it and got an absolute flyer, making up 3 or 4 places and also nearly getting passed Henry before he shut the door on me. This left me and Bob side by side around Gerrards. This is how it stayed for most of the race, bob and i slowly making up a few places while dicing with each other. It was very very slippy, and visibility behind the BDN was pretty horrific, especially when bob decided to start using his James Bond like oil slick spray device, otherwise known as a leaky oil cooler! We had plenty of side by side moments, slidey moments, nearly touching moments and one grassy/mud moment, but on the whole a very gentlemanly tussle, bob drove well in the BDN debut and also defended very well (and fairly), especially coming into the hairpin, but after he missed a gear coming out of the Devils elbow i managed to get passed. Unfortunately the oil slick from the BDN had found its way onto the camera lense, and my visor, so the last 2 laps have been cut from the video, you will just have to take my word for it that i managed to get past.
So from starting last out of 21, i finished 12, so pretty damn pleased with that considering what a terrible few weeks i've had, and whats more the car seems to be working!!!! I will drain some of the oil off when i check the car over to see what state its in, hopefully it will be fine and i'll be fighting fit for Brands in 2 weeks!!!!
Pictures of the day:-
Confidence in the car was at an all time low, but decided i'd enter the Allcomers as a bit of a shakedown of the new engine. The plan started off well, 3 laps into practice i came in so dad and Dan could check for signs of problems under the bonnet, no problems, the car felt good, and so i went out to complete the session. I started to push on a bit more each lap, but was keeping my eyes on the gauges. After about 4 laps i noticed the oil pressure warning flash up on the digidash as i exited Gerrards, bugger!!! I slowed it right down and carried on down the straight, the pressure picked up again so decided to continue, but as soon as went past thepit entrance into the left hander of the Esses the light flicked on again, bugger bugger!!! So i slowed it down again and came back in. I'd checked the oil levels before i went out, but as this was happening on the corners i decided to whack a bit more oil in and give it a try. Unfortunately as soon as i got on track i realised that pressure was still dropping off and came straight back into the pits.
A look back at the video showed that the oil pressure light warning had started to flicker the lap previous to the digidash warning, which is set lower (15psi), bugger, bugger, bugger! The engine still sounded fine though when i came in, so we decided to quickily fire her up again. This time no oil pressure registered in the first couple of seconds so i killed the engine. We decided that this could be down to the earth on the senders or a blockage in the senders flexi pipe. Removing the pipe showed no blockage, so we then resorted to lashing up an earth lead straight to the battery.
Upon firing up we had oil pressure again, so all happy it was a sender issue we prepared for the RGB practice.
As i came out of the pits for practice, the oil pressure looked fine, but as soon as i entered gerrard its started to drop, and this was at a slow pace! I was going to come straight in and held my arm up, but noticed the pressure come back up on the straight, so i thought i would do a slow lap to try and figure out what was instigating the drop. As it turned out any corner at any speed caused the pressure to drop, but if i tootled round it would hold about 25psi, on the straights it would not get above 60psi, but at least it had some pressure. I continued for 3 laps (to ensure i could at least start at the back of the grid for RGB) at a very slow pace watching the pressure constantly then came in.
We drained the oil out, which looked horrible, a strange colour and very, very thin. This oil had only done the power runs on saturday morning and about 10 laps of mallory:-
This was 10-40 fully synth castrol race, which is red when new, it now had the consistency and look of muddy water! we assumed that this was the cause of the oil pressure problems but decided to continue and take the sump off. As i pulled the sump off the oil pick up pipe fell onto the floor!!!
The modified pickup that reaches into the bottom of the modified sump consists of the top half of the original plastic R1 pick up, glued to a metal fireblade lower pick up, this joint had failed allowing the bowl like pick up end drop off into the sump!! No wonder i had so little oil pressure!!!
Andy Bates has done this modification to several engies that run in the NIsevens and never had a failure, so either i was just unlucky (again) or something in the oil attacked the glue (liquid metal) causing it to drop off. So andy went off to fix the pickup, including a strap that would stop it ever dropping off again even if the glue gave up again. meanwhile we cleaned the sump and oil cooler out. We still dont have an explanation for the odd oil, maybe cavitation caused by the air being sucked in through the broken filter, dodgy, contamination in the engine or maybe fuel getting into the crank case???? We check the fuel pressure which was staying at a constant 40psi, so fuel being forced in through over pressure cant be the reason. If anyone has any suggestions please post!!
With the pickup and sump all back on i refilled the engine with some of Andy's 15-50 oil that he recommends and started the car up. Instantly pressure was back up high, and reving the engine saw a good increase! But by this time i had missed the allcomers, so other than a pootle around the pits i wouldn't know if it was all operating as it should, or if the engine has sustained any lasting damage.
A small monsoon fell 20 minutes before the RGB race, meaning lots of scrabbling around in the pits softening off suspension and fitting wets for some people. But the good thing about this was that we would get a green flag lap, giving me nearly 2 laps (including the out lap) to asses the engine and oil pressure. My initial plan was for a very steady start and keeping my eyes on the gauges, something i had mentioned to a couple of the new guys when i was advising them to hold back and brake early at the first corner due to the bunching up effect. But as it all looked good as i rolled up to at the back of the grid for the start lights, and the red mist descended, i ended up flooring it and got an absolute flyer, making up 3 or 4 places and also nearly getting passed Henry before he shut the door on me. This left me and Bob side by side around Gerrards. This is how it stayed for most of the race, bob and i slowly making up a few places while dicing with each other. It was very very slippy, and visibility behind the BDN was pretty horrific, especially when bob decided to start using his James Bond like oil slick spray device, otherwise known as a leaky oil cooler! We had plenty of side by side moments, slidey moments, nearly touching moments and one grassy/mud moment, but on the whole a very gentlemanly tussle, bob drove well in the BDN debut and also defended very well (and fairly), especially coming into the hairpin, but after he missed a gear coming out of the Devils elbow i managed to get passed. Unfortunately the oil slick from the BDN had found its way onto the camera lense, and my visor, so the last 2 laps have been cut from the video, you will just have to take my word for it that i managed to get past.
So from starting last out of 21, i finished 12, so pretty damn pleased with that considering what a terrible few weeks i've had, and whats more the car seems to be working!!!! I will drain some of the oil off when i check the car over to see what state its in, hopefully it will be fine and i'll be fighting fit for Brands in 2 weeks!!!!
Pictures of the day:-
And one i like which sums the race up nicely for me
HLM mapping
The 1-2 hr mapping session turned into a 4 hour marathon and 18 power runs due to the software on HLM machines expiring! So rather than using the automatic fuel mapping, every 250rpm rev range for 40-100% throttle had to be mapped manually!! Fair play to Hamish at HLM, he could have done half a job and i wouldn't have know any different, but he spent ages sorting it, ensuring a nice flat and safe air/fuel ratio at all throttle positions. I only gained about 5bhp, but the fueling is smoothed out and i am now happy its safe!! The end results, which are pretty meaningless on their own shows 149bhp and 101 of torque at the wheels.
At least with 18 power runs and no signs of problems it left me feeling a bit more confident in the engines chance of survival!!
At least with 18 power runs and no signs of problems it left me feeling a bit more confident in the engines chance of survival!!
Less of the pikeyness!
The bus was looking pretty sad for itself, so my good friends Dan and Miles, who both have a polishing fetish, got busy with the buffer, cutting paste and wax!!
Meanwhile my other good friend steve (www.planetgraphics.co.uk) had been busy with the vinyl cutter:-
We only had time to apply the stickers to one side, but pretty damn happy how good the old girl looks now!!!
The cleaning of the bus hadn't quenched there need for wax, so they then moved onto the fury:-
It was then time to load up, ready to head off to HLM in the morning for the mapping session.
Meanwhile my other good friend steve (www.planetgraphics.co.uk) had been busy with the vinyl cutter:-
We only had time to apply the stickers to one side, but pretty damn happy how good the old girl looks now!!!
The cleaning of the bus hadn't quenched there need for wax, so they then moved onto the fury:-
It was then time to load up, ready to head off to HLM in the morning for the mapping session.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Up and running and itching to go!!!
New engine is now installed and upon firing up it seemed to start better than the last engine and sounded different. So fingers crossed it was just a duffer and i was just very unlucky. We will have to wait and see how the car performs at Mallory and if it survives before i draw my final conclusions!!
We swapped the engine over within a few hours, so pretty confident we could manage it in the paddock if the its ever required. I have sourced another engine with damaged gearbox, so will combine the 2 to hopefully make a good engine to carry as a spare.
The engine drama seriously affected the progress of the front splitter, this is were we are at the moment, lots of trimming and filling to do and the actual floor tray will not be as big as this.
With the time lost it means that at mallory and Brands (dad is on holiday the week after mallory, how dare he!!) i will have to run without. The problem with that is that the lower half of the bonnet is completely missing and open, luckily we kept the corners we cut of and have now bolted them back into position.
So the car is ready, but i want to get it on the rolling road to check the fueling is ok, so on the way to Mallory on saturday i have booked a session with HLM in Bromsgrove, i have no idea how good (or bad) they are, but they maintain and run Jedi Hillclimb cars, so hopefully know their bike engines. Bob is also going there on saturday so i will be able to get a sneak peak of his lovely new BDN!! And nick his corner weight scales to set the Fury up.
We swapped the engine over within a few hours, so pretty confident we could manage it in the paddock if the its ever required. I have sourced another engine with damaged gearbox, so will combine the 2 to hopefully make a good engine to carry as a spare.
The engine drama seriously affected the progress of the front splitter, this is were we are at the moment, lots of trimming and filling to do and the actual floor tray will not be as big as this.
With the time lost it means that at mallory and Brands (dad is on holiday the week after mallory, how dare he!!) i will have to run without. The problem with that is that the lower half of the bonnet is completely missing and open, luckily we kept the corners we cut of and have now bolted them back into position.
So the car is ready, but i want to get it on the rolling road to check the fueling is ok, so on the way to Mallory on saturday i have booked a session with HLM in Bromsgrove, i have no idea how good (or bad) they are, but they maintain and run Jedi Hillclimb cars, so hopefully know their bike engines. Bob is also going there on saturday so i will be able to get a sneak peak of his lovely new BDN!! And nick his corner weight scales to set the Fury up.
Monday 21 March 2011
Mallory Test = Disaster!
I was nervous about the the test day, Mallory isn't my favorite circuit and i find it the most intimidating, but i was more worried about a serious mechanical problem with the car. My concerns would soon turn into reality........
It didn't start too well, battery was dead on the bus, then i damaged the rear tub mounting bracket as i drove the car over it. The trip there was at least uneventful and we arrived bang on 8am ready to sign on. After unloading i took the car for a slow spin around the paddock and everything was fine. I went out for the first session at 9 and did about 3 laps, taking it very steady, but could already tell it was going to be a flying machine compared to the blade!! Coming back to the pits and removing the bonet showed i had a small oil leak somehwere around or near to the oil level sight glass. It was only a small amount of oil and the levels was still fine so i headed out again. I started to push a little harder, but was still taking it very easy, i had no gear indicator or shift lights as these were still set for the blade so probably went no where near the rev limit. Returning back in we then set about trying to track down the oil leak.
The oil leak was only minor, but was coming from the union between the oil cooler and hose and it wouldn not tighten anymore. So we decided to remove the pipe to investigate further, this showed that the end we had had fitted on the old hose was the wrong type and would never seal properly, bugger! The leak was very very minor so at least it wouldn't stop the day, but dad being dad, came up with a solution using an o-ring, and "bang, the leak was gone". Whilst dad was doing this i set up the shift lights and gear indicator, something that would have been less fiddly if i had remembered to bring my laptop along!! By the time this was all done the 2nd session was well underway, but it was still worth a run out, but as i went to use the reverse the car went dead, no power!!! Bugger!!! I thought it was the master fuse, but a flick of the master switch and it came back alive again, but as soon as i tried to crank the engine it died again. I started to fear a serious electrical sort, until a waggle of the battery terminals showed they were lose!! A nip up with the spanner and i managed to get out on track for 1 lap before the flags came out!!
We again checked over the car, the oil leak from the cooler union was cured, but there was still dampness around the sight glass, very very minor but a leak none the less. It was either the glass seal itself or the cover plate directly above it, but not something we could sort with stripping the engine down a bit. The oil level was still perfect and not dropped so it would be fine for the final session. With 15minutes to spare we set up the new video vbox camera system and refueled.
In the final session I slowly started to build up the pace and started to use the full rev range, although still not really ragging it, and getting to terms with the swapped over gear change. I saw Al in my mirrors and thought oh dear this could messy (actually i thought wahoo a race!!), the circuit was damp and i was still being cautious (as was Al), but now the purple peril was behind i was hoping to start stretching the cars legs, unfortunately the following lap, whilst going down the start straight, there was an almightly bang, a horrible vibration, plumes of smoke and no engine power. I quickly pulled off onto the entry slip road of the pits and contemplated jumping in the lake.....
Pushing it back to the bus i knew something big had happened, i was hoping it was an exploded diff, but was pretty sure it was the engine. After removing the bonnet the damage was obvious, a hole in no1 barrel and crankcase, bugger!!!!
I was pretty sure it wasn't oil starvation as i had been keeping a very close eye on the oil pressure around Gerrards during the day, but unfortunately my data logger wasn't running. Luckily watching back on the video, the oil light is just visible in the bottom right hand corner. It does flicker on coming into the hairpin, but this is because the engine revs have dropped right down due to changing all the way down the box. Nowhere else does it come on so i was then confident it was not oil starvation, but a strip down of th enegine would need to be done to confirm this. At least my new video kit worked well, and it captured the moment of destruction very well
Back home we took the engine out and stripped it down
As you can see the big ends and crank are perfect, so the conrod failure was caused by oil starvation and the a seizing big end. So we can only conclude there was a fault with the conrod, either in caused in manufacture or by an excessive stress load during the its lifetime in the bike.
So making Mallory race 1 was looking fairly dubious on Thursday, until i decided to take the bull by the horns and start a nationwide hunt for a replacement. Malc at Yorkshire engines who supplied this engine offered me a replacement at cost price, but hadn't got one in stock, Andy Bates was on the look out for me, but then i stumbled across one in Stoke for a good price, so i shot up there and picked it up the same day.
So its now operation fit engine 2 and hope for the best next time out!! Fingers crossed!!
It didn't start too well, battery was dead on the bus, then i damaged the rear tub mounting bracket as i drove the car over it. The trip there was at least uneventful and we arrived bang on 8am ready to sign on. After unloading i took the car for a slow spin around the paddock and everything was fine. I went out for the first session at 9 and did about 3 laps, taking it very steady, but could already tell it was going to be a flying machine compared to the blade!! Coming back to the pits and removing the bonet showed i had a small oil leak somehwere around or near to the oil level sight glass. It was only a small amount of oil and the levels was still fine so i headed out again. I started to push a little harder, but was still taking it very easy, i had no gear indicator or shift lights as these were still set for the blade so probably went no where near the rev limit. Returning back in we then set about trying to track down the oil leak.
The oil leak was only minor, but was coming from the union between the oil cooler and hose and it wouldn not tighten anymore. So we decided to remove the pipe to investigate further, this showed that the end we had had fitted on the old hose was the wrong type and would never seal properly, bugger! The leak was very very minor so at least it wouldn't stop the day, but dad being dad, came up with a solution using an o-ring, and "bang, the leak was gone". Whilst dad was doing this i set up the shift lights and gear indicator, something that would have been less fiddly if i had remembered to bring my laptop along!! By the time this was all done the 2nd session was well underway, but it was still worth a run out, but as i went to use the reverse the car went dead, no power!!! Bugger!!! I thought it was the master fuse, but a flick of the master switch and it came back alive again, but as soon as i tried to crank the engine it died again. I started to fear a serious electrical sort, until a waggle of the battery terminals showed they were lose!! A nip up with the spanner and i managed to get out on track for 1 lap before the flags came out!!
We again checked over the car, the oil leak from the cooler union was cured, but there was still dampness around the sight glass, very very minor but a leak none the less. It was either the glass seal itself or the cover plate directly above it, but not something we could sort with stripping the engine down a bit. The oil level was still perfect and not dropped so it would be fine for the final session. With 15minutes to spare we set up the new video vbox camera system and refueled.
In the final session I slowly started to build up the pace and started to use the full rev range, although still not really ragging it, and getting to terms with the swapped over gear change. I saw Al in my mirrors and thought oh dear this could messy (actually i thought wahoo a race!!), the circuit was damp and i was still being cautious (as was Al), but now the purple peril was behind i was hoping to start stretching the cars legs, unfortunately the following lap, whilst going down the start straight, there was an almightly bang, a horrible vibration, plumes of smoke and no engine power. I quickly pulled off onto the entry slip road of the pits and contemplated jumping in the lake.....
Pushing it back to the bus i knew something big had happened, i was hoping it was an exploded diff, but was pretty sure it was the engine. After removing the bonnet the damage was obvious, a hole in no1 barrel and crankcase, bugger!!!!
I was pretty sure it wasn't oil starvation as i had been keeping a very close eye on the oil pressure around Gerrards during the day, but unfortunately my data logger wasn't running. Luckily watching back on the video, the oil light is just visible in the bottom right hand corner. It does flicker on coming into the hairpin, but this is because the engine revs have dropped right down due to changing all the way down the box. Nowhere else does it come on so i was then confident it was not oil starvation, but a strip down of th enegine would need to be done to confirm this. At least my new video kit worked well, and it captured the moment of destruction very well
Back home we took the engine out and stripped it down
So making Mallory race 1 was looking fairly dubious on Thursday, until i decided to take the bull by the horns and start a nationwide hunt for a replacement. Malc at Yorkshire engines who supplied this engine offered me a replacement at cost price, but hadn't got one in stock, Andy Bates was on the look out for me, but then i stumbled across one in Stoke for a good price, so i shot up there and picked it up the same day.
So its now operation fit engine 2 and hope for the best next time out!! Fingers crossed!!
Final jobs and Prep for Mallory Test Day
With Mallory test day only a few days away there were lots of jobs still to do, mainly tidying and binding the loom up, plus lots of there bits and bobs. It was one of those times where you are 99% complete but still have about 25% more time needed to complete. After a long day of jobs and a blast up and down the lane in the car at full operating temperature, we decided that the 9th was going to be too early to test, a water leak from the lower hose exit from the block, the throttle not returning properly, plus a few other bits and bobs made us decide to put it back a week. This took the pressure off and meant we could be fully prepared for a good mornings run. It also gave another couple of days to have a go at the front splitter. We are creating an GRP front lower valance, that will replace the lower half of the bonnet, hopefully creating more down force and creating a new look for the car, The fury Evolution??????
Rather than trying to match up to the returning underside of the bonnet, we decoded to cut this off to make a horizontal flange to mate between the valance and bonnet. Bonnet pins mounted to the front suspension mounts now hold the bonnet in position at the front.
Using a plub line we marked out the silhouette of the bonnet, then added 50mm to this, this gives us a maximum projection for the splitter (to comply with RGB rules) and cut it out
We then added the upper parts which follow the lower edge of the now shorten bonnet. This gives a buck to build up a mockup of the valance.
Lack of posts but an eventful few weeks
Dad finished the bonnet off, including repairing the front after the falling of the scales incident last year, which has ended up looking pretty damn good, especially for a temporary solution!
Meanwhile i had filled the engine with fluids and been spending many hours scratching my head trying to figure out the wiring. A couple of evenings with the wiring diagrams and i had labelled the bike loom up and was fairly happy what i was doing. So after a few more hours, some hot wiring of plugs (side stand, clutch switch etc) and lashing up of light switches (temporary stop switch) I was ready to flick the master switch. I was waiting for a big bang, but to my amazement everything lit up, the EXUP valve rotated and the throttle body butterflies cycled!! But i couldn't here the fuel pump prime, a bit of digging a round showed nothing obvious, but then i had a thought about the tilt switch. I had glued the original tilt switch up so as not to cause the engine to cut to due to G loads while cornering, but stupidly filled the switch with sealant afterwards as the casing had cracked when i took it apart. This obviously altered the impedance of the sensors and was causing the ECU to think the bike was tilted. Luckily the sealant hadn't gone off by the time i had realised so i managed to scrape it all out and clean it all up. After doing this the pump primed! Next thing we noticed was that the scavenge pump (the old blade pump) had stopped, indicating that the system was pressurised, but as there is a return from the swirl pot to tank this shouldn't happen and it should run continuously. A bit of investigation showed that the hole in the tank i had tapped into, was actually a blind hole that needed to be drilled out, idiot!! With that sorted everything looked good, and it was time to flick the start button. I had removed the plugs so as to check i was getting oil pressure, which turned out i wasn't. Cracking the oil filter while turning over sorted this, but this then showed a fairly major oil leak between the sandwich plate and the block. Removing the plate showed that the adapter threaded fitting was holding the the plate off the block. You can see the marks on the plate where the nut head was chaffing. A bit of lathe time soon sorted this out
Meanwhile i had filled the engine with fluids and been spending many hours scratching my head trying to figure out the wiring. A couple of evenings with the wiring diagrams and i had labelled the bike loom up and was fairly happy what i was doing. So after a few more hours, some hot wiring of plugs (side stand, clutch switch etc) and lashing up of light switches (temporary stop switch) I was ready to flick the master switch. I was waiting for a big bang, but to my amazement everything lit up, the EXUP valve rotated and the throttle body butterflies cycled!! But i couldn't here the fuel pump prime, a bit of digging a round showed nothing obvious, but then i had a thought about the tilt switch. I had glued the original tilt switch up so as not to cause the engine to cut to due to G loads while cornering, but stupidly filled the switch with sealant afterwards as the casing had cracked when i took it apart. This obviously altered the impedance of the sensors and was causing the ECU to think the bike was tilted. Luckily the sealant hadn't gone off by the time i had realised so i managed to scrape it all out and clean it all up. After doing this the pump primed! Next thing we noticed was that the scavenge pump (the old blade pump) had stopped, indicating that the system was pressurised, but as there is a return from the swirl pot to tank this shouldn't happen and it should run continuously. A bit of investigation showed that the hole in the tank i had tapped into, was actually a blind hole that needed to be drilled out, idiot!! With that sorted everything looked good, and it was time to flick the start button. I had removed the plugs so as to check i was getting oil pressure, which turned out i wasn't. Cracking the oil filter while turning over sorted this, but this then showed a fairly major oil leak between the sandwich plate and the block. Removing the plate showed that the adapter threaded fitting was holding the the plate off the block. You can see the marks on the plate where the nut head was chaffing. A bit of lathe time soon sorted this out
After this we were ready for a proper start attempt. A few attempts and the engine burst into life, and a flick of the light switch stopped it again. After restarting a few times and allowing the engine to tick over for a short time, I stripped it all out again and began to strip all the loom apart, just leaving the wires i needed
It was then time to lay it all in place and try to find homes for everything and then shorten and lengthen wires as required.
This went on for some time, and i was actually quite confident in what i was doing, apart from how to wire in the main feed from the master switch. After a long evening of sitting and scratching my head, plenty of swearing, declaration of giving up, followed by 2 ohone calls to Bob and Al i had my epiphany or Eureka moment when the penny suddenly dropped. A frenzied 15 minutes followed as i cut and joined various wires, not quite sure if i knew what i was doing or where i was going, until i had all wires connected.
The moment of truth was here, kill switch on.........dash illuminated, star button pressed.........engined turned over and burst into life, wahooooooooooo!!!! I then drove car 15 yards up my parents drive, and apart from the brakes being seized and the throttle sticking open slightly causing middle panic as i shot up the drive it felt great and we retired for the day happy!
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