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.
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