Dad wasn't too pleased that i had destroyed the new light weight front end on only its second outing, and my suggestion to bin it and build a replacement wasn't met with much enthusiasm.
We may have the a mould, but the laying up is the easy and quick part, dad has put many hours into the finishing, preping, spraying and fitting of the numerous incarnations of the front end and bonnet. So the best option we came up with was to cut the damaged section off completely and put it back into the mould, and lay up the missing section.
The front undertray had also come delaminated, so we cut of the delaminated part and added a fresh layer
Once it had all gone off, the part was popped out the mould. It had come out brilliantly, just requiring a small amount of filler and a bit of rubbing down (dad likes this ;-) )
Back in my garage i stripped off the front end to assess the mechanical damage, praying there was no more damage that what we had seen from out initial inspection at Donington. I was really worried about what had happened to the scuttle area as the steering column had moved about an inch closer to the dash board and we hadn't removed the centre tub. Luckiy it turned out to be just the column slipping through the mounting clamp, so no damage in this area
So after pulling it all apart the following the list of damage is as follows:-
Bent lower Wishbone
Bent rear lower wishbone pickup, chassis is fine, just the U bracket is bent
Small dink in joining chassis member between upper and lower main chassis rails
Bent steering rack mount
Twisted oil cooler
Mangled aluminium radiator ducting/floor
So although there is a bt of work to be done it isnt too bad at all. The damage has all occurred on the same corner of the chassis i rebuilt a couple of seasons ago (Pre 2010 prep), i used rather beefy tube to do this, added loads of gussets and my welding was obviously strong as rather than the entire corner being ripped out like a normal fury, it is all fine apart from the pick up bracket bending, infact it has completely bent, but the welding and tube is untouched. I have attempted to straighten the bracket, but am weighing up the option to cut it off and reweld a new one on.
The steering rack bracket is bent slightly, but enough to move the rack to the jaunty angle and pull the rack forward, i haven't attempted to straighten it yet, but am thinking a small slice in the tube, bend it, then reweld it up.
The forecast was terrible, Friday morning was a complete washout, but by the afternoon it dried out and everyone who was there managed to get a few quicker sessions in, once all the red flags had stopped. I had an issue with my brakes, the front were locking up very easily and the pedal didn't feel right. Initially thought i had air in the system after refitting the rear axle, so we bled them again and did find a small amount of air. On trying them again, they were still not very good, the fronts would just suddenly lock up with no warning and the pedal was all over the place, no amount of messing with the brake bias made any difference. So we then turned our attention to the front, the pads were worn, and at home in the garage i thought they would be fine for one more weekend. On bleeding the fronts, black fluid came down the bleed tube, indicating it had been boiling. After a few pumps the fluid was clear again and no bubbles. Removing the pads showed the usual Hi-Spec trait of wearing the pads at a horrible angle, and all the paint had burnt and peeled from the pads. This must have been caused as the pads were too thin (worn), so we set about fitting the spare pads we had in the truck.
Unfortunately the standard elise pads which are the same shape as the Evo8 pads Hispec quote as the part number for these callipers, but are a few mm thicker but half the price. Normally dad puts these on his surface grinder and thins them down to fit, but this time he hadn't got round to it the, so he improvised and made a rather scary looking surface grinder from a hand grinder, a few clamps and a camping kitchen
You can see in the foreground an unground pad compared to a thinned pad. After about an hour of grinding and fitting we had the pads in place. A quick test showed that the brakes were back to normal, crappy and wooden, but at least i knew when they would lock up.
Friday evening a group of us went to a local pub Dave Watson recommended, the BOGOF offer was fully utilised as 75% of the group ordered the American grill which consisted of most of Derbyshire wildstock!! A few pints of pedigree were also consumed, making a dangerous concoction for Saturday!!!
Saturday arrived, initially looking sunny, but soon turned wet and Windy, but surprising the weather man was correct and it dried up. We had a late qualifying session so the track had completely dried out. So with the car on full dry settings i headed out, hoping i could close the gap on my Boulton, and keep ahead of Steve, Paul and Andy. Last year i was a long way of Al here, although we had just fitted the front end and was still trying to get it balanced. As it turns out qualifying was a bit of a black banana, most laps in the first 5 minutes had a yellow flag, then Mark Conroy in his rebuilt mission stuck it in the gravel at Coppice. I do think they should have red flagged the session, as for the rest of the session the marshals attempted to remove it under waved yellows, meaning we all had to back off, something i was especially careful to do after my rollocking at the start of the season from Viv! So the grid was going to be a bit of a lottery, and i really had backed off so was half expecting to be near the back of the grid. But to my surprise i was 11th overall and 2nd in class, so about standard or maybe even slightly better than usual for this season!!
Race 1 was fun, a reasonable start getting past Scott but letting Steve Bell get ahead off the line. By the time we came down Craners i was tagged onto the back of Steve, and then almost rear ended him at xxx as he slowed at the apex. The I then defended the line from Scott, although we aren’t actually racing class R cars, getting another car (what ever the class) in between you and the car you are battling with is not ideal! As we came down Cranners for a 2nd time i was carrying a lot more speed than steve and came past him on the right hand side, i turned into the old hairpin and all felt good, but ended up running all 4 wheels wide onto the grass, Steve must have liked the look of this so he added 2 of his wheel to the grass and we headed up the hill side by side cutting the lawn. Obviously as he was on the tarmac he managed to accelerate alot quicker than me, as did Scott and Tony and they all passed me, bugger! Watching the video back i managed to undo all my good work by over correcting and literally steered myself off the circuit, this is a habit i have to kick!! For a couple of laps i tried to get past Tony, which then allowed Matt to catch us after his spin at the pit entrance. I tried to defend my position so not allow another between myself and Steve, but all this achieved was to widen the gap to Steve as i was going slower. Once Matt was past i gave chase, and did close the gap down to Steve, until smoke was seen coming from his car and he retired. This left me 2nd in class with a decent gap behind to the next class F car, so i toned it down a tad and bought it home to break my run of 3rds this season.
My wife Emma and my 2 youngest boys came over in the morning to watch the race and were staying in the bus for the first time on Saturday night. Emma likes things to be clean, something the bus isnt. An old race truck that only has men sleeping in it at weekends, and an oily race car in it the rest of the time is never going to be the most hygienic of places, although i do admit we need to get our fingers out with the cleaning a bit more in the future. So Emmas first job on Saturday was give the place a spruce up, she said she couldn’t stay in it in its current state. I tried to blame Dan as he is our gimp and should keep everything in check, but she wasn’t buying that, so I borrowed a dust pan and brush from Bob and gave it to her. Emma had had the foresight to bring some of her favourite things, anti bacterial wipes, with her, so then proceeded to wipe down everything she could reach. The evening was a jolly affair, 3 BBQ's on the go, and another counties supply of livestock cooked and washed down with plenty of beer.
I was woken up in the night by heavy rain, very heavy rain and i imagined a soaking wet race and unhappy wife and kids. But as it turned out it dried up again, and the sun actually came out!! Race 2 didnt start as well as race 1, and it then deteriorated massively. I let a few people through after a fluffed start, and was alongside colin coming down craners. I wish i had kept my foot down and got past him as then the next sequence of events wouldn't have happened. Going down starkys straight i was tucked up behind him, but as we reached Goddards everyone infront braked fairly early so i popped out to the left and went past him, i turned into Goddards and headed towards the 2nd apex, unfortunately so did Colin and had rather a large impact with m y offside wheel. Colin span off (but managed to get going again) but i stayed on the track. As i went over the start line i was aware the steering was at a jaunty angle and the car did feel a bit skitty, especially under braking into Redgate. I thought i'd carry on for a bit and on the right hander of redgate its seemed ok(ish) but as i headed down to craners it all got a bit wobbly and it took all my effort to keep the car in a straight line. At this point i knew it was time to retire from the race, something i had not had to do before in a RGB race due to a collision.
The car looked a bit sorry for itself, the one side of the new nose was destroyed, the new bonnet is cracked, wishbone is scrap, chassis pickup is bent, oil cooler is twisted, steering rack mounts bent and headlight is no more.
So a successful Saturday, not so great Sunday, but all in all i still had a great weekend. Just to finish the weekend off though, the bus decided to bite my head while loading the car up and i had to go over to the medical centre to get it glued up. I think i may have ended up at the cafe by accident, as the woman who glued it up made a bit of a mess, applying far too much glue and dripping a load more into my hair in another patch (the dark patch below the blood). I am writing this 5 days after the event and my hair still has huge lumps of glue in it!!
I had suspected at Brands that the car was down on power, and at Cadwell i was convinced as i could only hit about 117 down park straight and the car really wasnt pulling well up the hill. Nearly everybody i asked was hitting 125mph+ up there, even the MNR boys in there mobile bricks. I checked the compression and valve clearances while in the paddock at Cadwell, and although maybe very slightly low and a couple of tight valve clearances it didnt seem to tie up with the loss of power, especially up the top end. But i decided to swap out the engine with my spare, which by all accounts stands a chance of being a better engine if what the guy i bought it off was telling the truth. So tonight we were just about to start removing it, but while i was just making a start, dad rolled underneath to have a listen to the noisy bearing in the diff that John had picked up on at Cadwell to discover a huge amount of backlash in the diff. When dad had rebuilt the diff at the start of the season he said the crownwheel and pinion where pretty worn and looked as if the case hardening had just about worn through. He said we should change as soon as possible when one popped up for decent money, but up until now it had been put to the back of the list. So after stripping it down we were greeted by the sight of a hugely fubared gear set:-
I think i was lucky to even finish the last race at cadwell as there isnt much left on those teeth!! At least this means no need to swap the engine and i still hopefully a have a decent spare. But was it does mean is a hurried hunt for a replacement 3.54 crown wheel and pinion.
Dad also brought up with him the modified lightweight bonnet, now sporting a rather huge growth
As the bonnet doesnt have a the central bulge like the old heavy bonnet, so a modification was required to the new light nose cone fitted for cadwell, the part removed has left space for a new air intake scoop, again made by dad from GRP. Its a bit like a Rolf Harris drawing at the moment, but you will all see how it works in the next instalment
Being a gluten for punishment i decided to travel up to Cadwell on the tuesday night for a day of driver tuition from Tim Harmer on the Wednesday, then return home that night, only to return again on Friday. Dad would be missing his first (and only) race of the season this weekend as he was in Monaco for the F1, it was gonna be a long and tiring week of driving!
So back to the driver training day with Tim, earlier in the year i had attempted the same event only to have the day cut very short with a cracked front disc. This time i was hoping for a better day, but after 3 laps the fuel pump packed in again!!!!! I had a proper hi-flow facet pump spare in the bus, so after 30minutes we were up and running again and set out with Tim in the passenger seat for a few laps. The car was handling like crap due to the extra weight causing the car to bottom out on every right hand bend, but Tim used this initial session to just evaluate my lines and gear selection. His first suggestion was to try taking some of the corners in a higher gear so as not to be so brutal with the engine, and also to gve me that bit more time (not banging through the box) to concentrate on my lines and trail braking. We wound all the dampers up by 3 clicks and headed out again. The handling was transformed just by doing this, ok it wasn't a sharp as normal but at least it wasn't trying to kill us every corner. We spent the rest of the morning and first half of the afternoon tuning my lines, trailing the brakes and trying to get me to dance the car through hall bends. I found this mentally and physically exhausting, thinking about so much stuff, and trying different things left me feeling completely drained by the time i went out on my own. After the first solo session my times were the same as last year and first run in the morning, but the difference was i felt like there was plenty in reserve and i wasn't on the ragged edge all the time, and i still hadnt mastered hall bends. I almost didn't do the final session as i was so tiered but after a handful of skittles and a sugar rush i felt upto another bash. This time i reduced my lap times very slightly, but came away happy knowing i could knock more time off by experimenting and carrying more speed through a lot of the circuit.
See the new lightweight front end and lights, saving 6kg!!!!
Returning to Cadwell on Friday without checking the car over since wednesday was a little unnerving but i just didn't have the time, or inclination as i was totally fubared to do it on thurday evening. So an early start on Saturday was required so i could give it the once over before scrutineering, as it turned out everything was fine and i was all fueled up and ready to race way before scrutineering. Scruitineering turned out to be a real joke, a couple Furys were pulled up on roll cages by a scrutineer obviously having a bad day and dreaming of some new rules the night before. This didn't effect me, my experience was of the most lax scrutineering session i have ever been subjected to, infact it was a complete waste of time and the guy didn't even notice my 2 cameras so when i went into the holding area i was pulled up by the marshal for not having video written on my pass ticket. I was then told i was over the noise limit and was almost made to return to the bus to repack the exhaust. As it happens i managed to blag my way through it and promise to get t repacked for Doni, but as it turns out nearly every car was pulled up for noise, so i suspect the noise meter was rather broken!!
Practice went OK, 3rd in class (again) and 16th overall for both races, but still off the pace from Al, who again was miles out in front from the rest of class F. More disappointing was that i hadn't really improved from my best time on tuesday, recording a 1.37.68. I had hoped to be scraping onto the 134's or at least the low 135's so i was a long way off. I still knew there was time in places i could go quicker, or at least try and string a lap of better sectors together, but realised my hopes of 134's were not going to be reached.
Race 1 started well with a staller on the inside allowing me to move up a few places on the outside and get upto 2nd in class. After a few laps john Goodwin came past in the spire, and my mirrors were full of Steve Bell (again), i made a few mistakes, plus watching the video back i definitely needed to drop the car down a gear in a few of places as it was lacking acceleration, something that can be seen looking at the rear view. But i knew this at the time and was trying to concentrate on getting the lines and trail braking right. Steve got past cleanly down park straight, closely followed by Colin in his BDN. The following lap Matt Higginson forced his way through at Park, causing contact as he ran out wide after a rather ambitious manoeuvre. I purposely didn't defend the line, as he was well behind me as i turned into park, but i was then aware he was coming up the inside with no way of leaving any room for me to continue my line or even stay wide without leaving the track, so i pulled out and backed off to avoid a big collision. There then followed a small amount of contact as i tried to stay on the track as he ran out wide leaving me no where to go. I did similar things when i first started, and ended up with a bit of a reputation (and constant battle scares on the car) and received one or two talkings to from various racers and Clerks of the course, but in response I like to think i have changed my driving style. So Matt if you are reading I'm not criticising or having a pop, just observing from the otherside of the fence this time ;-) . So i ended up with 3rd in class again, oh and a broken bit of new front end, sorry dad!!!
Race 2 again started well, getting up to 2nd in class of the line again, then being part of a gaggle of cars for the first half of the race with some exciting side by side moments, but eventually losing my place to Steve (again) and rolling in 3rd in class (again).
Apologies for the video quality, i converted it using the wrong settings.
