2010 Time Attack – Round 1 – Oulton Park report

Round 1 was a great learning exercise for me in a new class, a very different car and lots of unfinished (and unchecked) parts.

It went well on the day but the pure number of hours put in on the car (and working/mapping beforehand) meant that it was going to be down to the wire.

Thanks to some awesome help from ABW I had new doors 2 days before the round and windows arrived the same day and with Tim’s help got those on the day before setting off to Oulton Park with Julian.

I had not driven the car in the new state til rolling out of the pit lane for warm up and ran low boost to get used to it – it felt great and was immediately 2 seconds quicker than last year’s best time even on old tyres that had done the whole of last year’s TA season, a trip to the ring, cadwell and lots of road miles. (unfortunately that is all I had tyre wise)

Brakes bled and off out for practice and boost was upped and more time got whilst learning the car and relearning lines – all was good aside from issues with the centre of the new bonnet lifting (cured with some tape) and windows bowing out (again tape to the rescue)

Qualifying and I couldn’t stop locking the brakes under braking and i felt the car lacking in normal power and increased noise but put it down to lack of interior and vowed to try harder in the final and get the braking right.

The final came and went and I gained almost a second over qualifying but the car felt even less powerful and with worsening braking problems.  I put it down to my overeagerness to late brake until I came to the final lap and I lost the brake pedal altogether and cruised into the pits to see fluid leaking all over the wheels and tyres.  This was why the braking lockups were happening.  Turned out to be the union pipe that joins the two caliper halfs on the drivers side – the nuts had come loose and were dripping fluid.  I have spoken to ksport about this and they have now added a bolt check into the install instructions (i hadnt checked mine and I guess the heat cycles had done it).

At the end of the day I felt a little disappointed about my competitiveness in the new class even though I ended up 3 seconds quicker than last year, the car handled superbly on the new BC coilovers and felt very nimble through the corners – the lack of weight now is very noticeable which was very pleasing and the cage made the car feel tight.

After the event and on driving the car on the tuesday up to Leeds (daily driver duty) the boost leak was obvious with only 0.7 bar available and lots of hissing – the noise i heard on saturday on track was obvious now.  Split pipe from turbo to IC:

Very annoying that I didnt spot this on the day as it now explains why my speed traps were falling during the day despite carrying more speed through the corners.  On the main speed traps, i was 10mph slower at the end of the day than I was during the warmup.  If only ..

Anwyay, all fixed now and other finishing work done on the work that couldnt be done pre oulton and almost ready for knockhill with full power and full braking :thumb:

Other items done:

- central aerocatch for bonnet:

- some bling APR mirrors that I can see sod all out of but look lovely courtesy of Amber Performance :

- door sealing rubbers
- window retaining clips
- engine bay is now spotless too