Time Attack 2009 & Snetterton Review

It’s been a couple of days now since the last round of 2009’s Time Attack series and, truth be told, it hasnt really sunk in that I am now the Time Attack 2009 Club Challenge Champion.

The work put in within the last two weeks by myself  to get the car ready then decide to run a hitherto totally untested dry sump system had kind of distracted me mind away from thinking about how far I had come with the car in the last year or so. Still, the zen performance dry sump was in place and Paul from Zen was convinced it would work – initial tests on the road he was absolutely right and it was working perfectly.  It was time to get the rest of the car ready and get me ready to bring home the title.

I had done most of this to-do during the week but there were one of two bits left over from my list that unfortunately had to be done the day before the event. Nige and the rest of the Pinders were coming to ours for the weekend of the Snetterton round and this meant that together we could get them done – thanks Nige for helping to change brake lines to some lovely HEL stainless braided lines, change and bleed the brake fluid and generally get all the ’stuff’ sorted.

Cheers also to Jon and Fezza for bringing all of the E85 that I would need for the weekend from their local Morrisons and for the banter back at base

All that was needed then was for me to map the car.  Luckily Nige was willing and able to sit in the passenger seat and following instructions from me got a map fairly close to where I needed it within a very short period of time. Live mapping with the Solaris ecu is really a god send and saves a huge amount of time. We also discussed various settings for the map switches to allow me to run various levels of boost / aggressive timing/fuel etc should I need to in desperation but the plan was to stick to a known and comfortable level for the car for the morning sessions before upping the ante when it counted. No issues at all during mapping.

So …. saturday night and car loaded up, cleaned in the dark and food time and try and get some sleep.  Luckily so much work both on the car and ‘proper’ work over the preceding week meant sleep was just 1 second away at most times… before I knew it – it was the morning of the big day. My home track, the one I had done more than any other in the world.

I hadn’t driven since March on a track day with tuition from Phil Glew but felt confident in my knowledge of the circuit, the lines and the car – it just needed to work as expected.

Getting to the track was easy enough, although a bit of chaos in the pits themselves which meant that i was getting a tad stressed with set up and last minute check time was by eaten into by faffing around – thanks again Nige for taking on duties in that area and for my wife Rachel for putting up with my general edginess (understatement) LOL.

Team Zen arrived on cue and whilst the whirlwind that is Team Zen unpacked, the guy from Rapid Media set up the camera system in the car and matt (www.2clearbuckets.com) gave the car some TLC to make it gleaming for its big day.  It was show time…

Off out into the warm up and all was not well, every time I put my foot to the floor I got a horrid misfire the car missed several beats and it scared the sheet out of me, then the boost hose popped off and I headed into the pits to be greeted by Paul from Zen and the guys who set about getting it back on in record time to send me back out. Half throttle was the order of the day for warm up as a result of the misfire but I still surprisingly managed to equal my best ever time around Snetterton. Russ Paton (2nd in the championship and the only guy that could beat me) on the other hand seemed to be flying and doubts entered my head as to whether I could actually do this.

With only an hour between warm up and practice I set about trying to locate the source of the issue in the map that wasnt there the day before – it looked like the crank sensor voltage was dropping outside of the range to pick up a signal and the ecu thought the car was stalling at 7000 rpm ! It wasnt I adjusted the range and crossed my fingers that it would do it and headed out for Practice.  By this time friends and family had made it there and they were all expecting great things aswell as witty/relaxed conversation from me.  Sorry on both counts everyone.

Practice came and so did the misfire again. Balls. I knew I wouldn’t be able to solve the issue during the session so used the time on track to get the corners nailed, lines comfortable and settle myself – or at least try to. I came in from the session seeing Russ in the 1.15’s – way quicker than I thought I could go and felt beaten. Phil spoke to me about the lines I had been taken and reassured me that they were spot on – just needed to believe. Liz got my head straight in true lizzy fashion by telling me to snap out of it granddad (or words to that effect). Paul and Pat also had a look at the issue on the ecu/car to see if our collective minds could solve it – we all agreed what the issue was and the necessary changes made – it HAD to work.

Julian and Nige had been looking after me and the car superbly (as had Rachel by feeding, making coffee and generally keeping me upbeat about it) – I had to pay back that faith and support in qualifying. An agonising wait and eventually we get out on track. I put my foot down out of the pit lane … no misfire… hmm.  Ok, maybe this will be cool. I give myself some space ont he warm up lap and nail it but the Reynolds Sierra comes out the pitlane late and blocks Scott Robson in front of me, then I catch him in the Esses costing a lot of time.. I could feel it slipping away. I was angry – not a state that I normally like to drive in, but keep on it for that lap – i needed something on the board to count. I do the lap and carry on for hot lap 2 – yeah felt good but caught Scott on the straight and decided to pass, this took me off line and trying to keep on it too long – I missed my braking point and had to bail out and down the escape road. Calm down Duncan. I gave up on that lap and went past the pits and the pit board said P2 – OMG ! Even with the hold up… perhaps I could do it. Next lap it said P3.  I needed P4 or better and P5 in the final to win the series so had to do another hot lap to try and do it.  This time, I had a clear run, good speed around the important parts and came across the line and carried on for another hot lap but then the red lights were out and it was end of session due to an exploding reynolds sierra. I came in and I was in P1 with Russ in P4 – if it stayed like that the title was mine.  There were 6 mins remaining of the session so decided to sit it out and wait as it was working and I wanted to keep it that way for the final but quietly hoping that I could get it wrapped up in quali. A very long 5 mins once they were out there saw Russ improve his time but not by enough… my 1.15.3 was enough to secure 1st in qualifying and overall series win !

Lots of jumping around in the Team Zen garage by all and sundry ensued as Zen had also got P1 in their qualifying session just afterwards – it was awesome to see them come back so strongly after the bitter disappointment of brands hatch. It takes real resilience to do that and they have it in bucket fulls. A great team to have on your side.

Anyway – the final.  Half tempted to just drive around with anti lag on and waving but then curiosity struck and I wondered whether it would be possible to get what is still my daily driver into the 1.14’s.  I vowed to give it a good go and headed out.

hot lap 1 – 1.15.1 and the pitboard showed P1 as I crossed the line to start hotlap 2 – I was happy and the car felt immense and totally connected to the road. I took even more speed into Coram and still it gripped, spat me down the hill to the chicane and onto the finish straight.. yeah that felt sweet. if any lap would do it – that had to be it.  Pit board said P1. I did a few cool down laps checked the board and gathering myself for one last go – maybe it could go quicker still. i started another hotlap and my mind was elsewhere and the car was too, I was missing apexes by miles, but I kept going through that lap and decided to come in on the next lap – I wasn’t going to get any quicker today 1.14.999 was my time and I was over the moon … but Russ Paton pulled out a stormer just on my coming in lap and right on the chequered flag to beat me and take the win. Oh well – he deserved it – he had been on it all day and the 1.14.3 he got was simply stunning.

So – that was it. Just Zen to do their part and bring home the Pro win. Phil Glew had been on fire all day and a win was always on the cards although a change of weather caught RCM out and ended up taking away the massive fight between RCM + NOS and Zen + handling that would have been very interesting to see. I am over the moon for them – the late nights they put in with me in the last week to help get the dry sump system set up whilst rebuilding their own car (all outside normal customer hours) is humbling.

So – the awards ceremony and normal champagne madness and some cracking trophies and chatting to fellow competitors, friends, family, well wishers, team and basically everyone it seemed and it was time to go home.

What a great year ! – It wouldnt have been possible without the help and support of many many people …

• Paul / Liz and the team at Zen Performance and all of Team Zen (what a great team)
• Mark at Lateral Performance
• Pat and Charlie – Solaris
• Alyn at AS Performance
• Daren at AutoBodyworks
• Gary at Keith Michaels Insurance
• Julian and Donna from CJS Norwich
• Jon at GW Autoserve in Ipswich
• Ben at HEL
• Matt at 2ClearBuckets.com

With invaluable support from

• Ren
• Nige / Lou and the Pinders
• and especially #1 Supporters – Rachel & Annabelle

and everyone that has followed my progress through the year and wished me luck or said well done.  It takes a lot out of you emotionally and it is the support that keeps you going.

Thank you and who knows what the future may hold

ps – sorry about the huge amount of words and small amount (ie none) pictures – not had a chance to go through and sort pics out to go with this yet.  There will be some added though.

Time Attack Champion 2009 !!!

OMG.

An awesome day out at Snetterton and the Club Challenge 2009 title was wrapped up in qualifying with 1st place securing the overall win in the series.

that motorsport champagne stings but tastes ooo so good

I will write a full report later but for the time being a huge thanks to friends and family for their constant support and for sponsors for all that they have done for me this year – I could not have done it without you … I am sure we will speak soon about 2010

In particular I would like to say a HUGE thanks to Paul and Liz at Zen Performance – Team Zen never give up spirit, determination, engine building, chassis set up, constant support and race engineering assistance right through 2009 has made this happen.

Congratulations to them also for their win yesterday at Snetterton. !

oh and the Dry Sump worked perfectly

Brands Hatch 2009 .. review

Venue: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit
Date: June 28th 2009

The date set, venue set and round 4 of Time Attack 2009 beckoned..

After the mad panic and huge amount of work going into round 3 at Silverstone, it was refreshing and lovely not to HAVE to do anything pre this round. This didn’t stop one minor tweak though… in preparation for the forthcoming diffuser it was time to raise the exhaust up to exit the rear bumper. You will see the new exit below:

Unlike Silverstone, Brands Hatch is much more of a handling circuit and with ZEN Performance’s superb history of winning this round I was confident of a great result.  Plans were made ages ago to get practice in prior to this round as I had not driven it for 20 years and then it was in standard MG Metros and MG Maestros on a corporate day… I had a lot to learn and booked Phil glew’s services to teach me.  Having had his tuition already this year I have seen the huge difference that his tuition has made to my driving, confidence and speed.  All set for the track day and totally gutted the day before when the organisers called it off… oh ffs !!  With work already scheduled nothing else could be arranged so I would have to made do and learn as best I could from the track time available on the day.

Saturday:

Picked up a borrowed trailer from Andy Stevens (cheers mate) and Julian (CJS Norwich) and I prepared the tool kit for the sunday and were going to head down there in the morning.  Easy day doing basic last minute checks but great to have Julian as my right hand man and his superb Jeep there to do the lugging duties of the car and gear.

Car loaded and a nice relaxing meal and sleep ready for the early start.

Sunday:

A great drive down passing Olly Clarke but getting blitzed by Team Zen who flew past us beeping horns and waving – we thought that was a good omen.  Hopefully not the only time Team Zen would go past RCM…

We arrived in plenty of time and unpacked and with loads of time before our action started, there was time to clean the car from the spray on the roads on the way down from the fenland mist and make all checks (again) to the car, set up the live in car camera system (from Rapid Media again), chat to everyone and fine tune tactics for the day with Paul from Zen.  This has been a superb partnership this year and without doubt has made a huge difference to the ability to get the best from the car (and me).

It was sorted… the plan was to win.

Julian was accompanying me in the warm up, not for anything other than a huge thank you for his help – he is ever cheerful and great to have around when my mind is often cluttered with thoughts of self doubt.  The car was great, the bad-ass Zengine was purring and everything was going to be great. Relax… have a sausage roll

I learnt the hard way last year that warm up was not a place for heros – it was for test and warm up so I was not disappointed with being well down the leader-board. I was hardly on full throttle. No point of breaking it or crashing it in this session.  Traffic was horrendous in this session with so many cars out on track on such a short track.

Warm up dealt with and a minor tweak to the suspension setting from those that we ended Silverstone with to cure some mild oversteer I had going into clearways.  This was needed at Silverstone to help in the complex but wasn’t here. We knew everything else worked perfectly.

Time to watch Team Zen’s pro car blitz the field… oh bugger just as we were ready to watch, the car had stopped on track and was catching fire. Oh bugger again. The mood in the camp was down. VERY down. So much work had been done to get the Zen car there, it was ready, readier than it had ever been but a small component failure had caused their day to be over. The whole team was gutted but I was now absolutely determined to bring some smiles to the pit garage and get the top slot for the team. Sure it wouldn’t be the same as their own car be there but such is the spirit in Team ZEN that it is all for one…

Practice and Rob Barnes came around to say would we mind the top 10 cars from club playing out on track with the club pro and pro cars to give everyone more space.  Hopefully we wouldn’t hold the pro guys up but it would even the two sessions out and give everyone the best chance of track space for the hot laps.  I jumped at the opportunity and to be able to share track space with the cars in that class was an honour.

We headed out for practice with the pro guys and this confused a lot of people, I got texts, answer machine messages galore from onlookers that were there and those at home watching the live timing screens on the TA website and not seeing me there.  I am sorry if I didn’t answer them

Practice went well and I followed Jonathan Faull for most of it.  The car was understeering a bit more now (although not much) so towards the end of the session I headed into the pits to check tyre pressures, temps and tweak the suspension.  Unfortunately the session was cut short so I didn’t get back out but I knew the adjustments would be spot on.  I ended up in P1 in club challenge with a 53.8  I was very pleased as I felt there was more to be had.

In car video from this session:

Duncan Graham – Brands Hatch practice session 2009 from Duncan Graham on Vimeo.

Qualifying and we were out with the Club pro and Pro guys again. I headed out after most of these as I did not want to be interfering with their times and hogging the first slots in the pit lane.

So.. this is where it started to count.

Out lap and then 2 flying laps, the second quicker than the first and I had a 53.3 That ’should’ be enough but I kept circulating checking the pit board for updates and cooling the tyres/car ready for another flying lap.  The tyres were hot but as I was learning lines better and getting to grips with the car the two were counteracting each other.  The car was spot on.  It was in the elusive sweet spot of total predictability. It turned when I wanted, stopped well, grip galore and I was having fun.  Another pair of mid 53 second laps and the rain was starting to come down.  I tried for one more hot lap but as soon as I went into paddock hill I knew no-one was going to be going quicker on that track at that time than my previous time so i aborted the lap and came into the pits and chill.  P1 was mine and the job was half done with the nearest challenger a way behind.

The wait for the final seems to take ages when there is nothing to do or fix on the car and we hadn’t touched it all day apart from bleeding the brakes after the warmup.  It was faultless and running gorgeously.

It was great to chat to everyone there though, chatting to my sisters and their families, play with my niece and nephews who were cheering me on whilst my wife and daughter were up in cambridge (my daughter was competing in the Cambridge Triathlon – I was as gutted to miss that as she and my wife, Rachel, were to miss Brands…)

On with some uber sexy wheels (thanks Paul and Liz) and it was final time and we were out with the club guys again.  Paul and I had sorted tactics and I got to the start of the pit lane before everyone else ready for the start of the session.  This was it. I was determined to get the top slot for the first time ever.

The final went like clockwork apart from coming down the start finish straight for that first hot lap as cars were still coming out of the pits. Paul had warned me of this but it seemed to be like a parting of the waves and I just kept driving with everyone jumping out of the way on their out laps. Thanks so much chaps and especially Marco and I think Steve Linton that I was pretty close to around Clearways … ooops Lap 1 was 58.8 as a result and not enough so I kept on it for lap 2 and improved to 53.8 .. P1 but could it stay that way?

I checked the lap board on the lap afterwards and it showed me as P1 – thanks Steve for that and the team for giving you regular updates to hold it out every lap. I kept going around slowly keeping out of the way to try and cool tyres down and then put in another hot lap – 53.3 better. Still P1 and time running out for the others but my nerves were starting to get frayed. Calm down Dunk. More slow laps and then another blitz … 53.1 yes. That felt good.

I came around again and the lap board was still showing P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1

My mind was jumping ahead of itself and I had to drive fast to get my head clear of stupidness. Another hot lap and a little bit scruffy with a 53.3 but all good.

Lap board says P1 still there cant be much time left surely !!!

Next lap.. checkered flag .. OMG !! I bashed the steering wheel with a release of emotion and thought of the pain and anguish over the last year and a half to get there… or had i done it…. the lap board was gone. Oh sheeet. Bugger.

Into the pits and Steven was doing his Michael Jackson dance – then I knew I was speechless and shaking with adrenaline. It does that to an old man like me lol. YES !!

I was overjoyed (i still am) and couldn’t thank my family, sponsors, supporters, helpers, and team enough.

Best of all, Team ZEN were smiling.

Not being known to celebrate on the podium (cough cough) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSX-aNgWsE

Time Attack Round 1 – Oulton Park

… 1 week to go

Having spent most of the previous weekend under the car, I was relieved to have finished the need to do list on the friday so could look at some tidying up work and double checking of the work done to make sure there would be no show stoppers on the day.  This, i felt, would be time well spent as the events come thick and fast to start with.

The week started with a great offer of a Jeep Cheroke tow vehicle from one of my sponsors CJS Norwich.  This was an absolute god send and meant that towing up to Oulton Park was going to happen and I could push harder on the day for a result along with taking the family and all the spares I could need with me.  There was even room for the odd luxury with my a proper beans to cup coffee machine making its way into the truck so that caffeine fixes could be had at any time !! LOL

… 2 days to go:

Toyo 888’s arrived in time from Toyo and a quick trip to Ely Tyre Services to fit them to the rims and chat to the guys about what I was going to do with them.  I was surprised and delighted that they had heard of Time Attack and they quickly got the job done so that I could come back and watch whilst Matt Neame of 2 clear buckets put yet another coat of wax on the car and wheels.  He said it would make me faster LOL.  The car looked gorgeous when finished and with 2 sets of absolutely glistening Hyper Zero Wheels, i felt proud to see what the vision and discussions with Paul of Zen Performance at the end of last season had materialised into on my drive.

Lower, Wider, Faster were the key words of that discussion on the Sofa in Wellingborough and now that the check list of ‘need to do’ things had all been done for this round (further developments are following soon) I was excited about the prospects of doing well.  The car was certainly lower than last year, definitely wider and I know from the testing at Snetterton that it is faster too (along with me).

… 1 day to go:

Nerves didnt have time to hit as I spent the day running around collecting the trailer and loading the truck and trailer and we headed off for our good friends Nigel & Lou Pinder to spend the night before at their house (more local than ours) and go for a curry.  A great meal and a good relaxing evening and it was early to bed for the 5am rise and trip to the circuit for signing on, and leisurely run up to the warm up.  Last year’s accident at Oulton was definitely in my mind and the mixed weather forecast looked all too familiar.

… the day itself

The trip to the track was simple and the Jeep performed its duties superbly with plenty of grunt to cope with the hills – they have hills around there – and yet return 29pmg towing the trailer !

Unloaded and set about preparing the car for the warm up, signing on (LOL) and chatting about the plans for the day.

A good short briefing this time and we were ready to start the car and head out onto the track.  Nige was going to sit with me for the warm up session to help settle my nerves.  It did in a way but he could tell my head wasnt right as my lines in the first session were quite frankly embarassing and I was not right.  The car performed great though on wastegate duty apart from a huge misfire that was solved as soon as I got back to the pits with the help of Pat.  The Solaris ecu’s immense datalogging abilities providing the exact millisecond when this happened and we were able to identify the issue and sort it there and then with Pat on the phone.  Simply download the rolling log file when I come into the pits and thousands of data points are there able to be analysed and improved upon in time for the next session.

Then, just before practice the heavens opened.  De Ja Vu and my already messed up head with going haywire.  I did not want a repeat of last year’s daftness so optimistic, well definite that the weather would improve, I was going to go out and do one lap in the wet and come back in.  No prizes for practice times and it would not be of any use to the dry track experience later.

Tom Ferrier was helping me get my head together during the lead up to going out and he definitely helped (as he did all day) with words of encouragement as well as wisdom.  I think everyone around me could sense my mood and most gave me a wide berth so that I could do what I needed to do to feel

The track was patchy – some parts were very grippy even in the wet but others most definitely weren’t.  I guess the Deisel guzzling Trucks on the track did not help and unfortunately it bit a few competitors and the session was stopped.  Thank god

The time for qualifying to happen took ages to come around, luckily the gang from Zen arrived so that was a great distraction and great to see as the experience of Paul in the pits is a nerve settler for sure.  The car was looking superb and even though not 100% finished it would still be very very quick on track.

The rain clouds had gone and it was turning out to be a fantastic day.

Qualifying was going to be the first session run at full boost.  Time to extract every bhp out of the Lateral MD321V and find the confidence to drive the track as hard as I needed to….

The pre practice checks were done by the gang, more fuel added and away I went with the instructions that Paul had given me.  We had a plan and it was time to apply it.

It seemed to go well, I was gaining in confidence and speed but I guess others were on the same journey.  Into the pits for a check up after a very sideways moment, I think it must have been on the oil that Neil Wrenn was chucking onto track as it was unexpected and nearly took me into the gravel at Druids.  I told Paul that i must have a puncture as it felt very weird..  Paul assured me all was well and instructed me to head out again and get another hot lap in.  This was the time to make it count as there were points on offer for qualifying position.

back into the pits and Steve Darley (I think) informed me that I was 4th – superb !

Mark from Lateral Performance was as excited as I was, as was Julian, Nige and all of Team Zen.  Rachel and Annabelle headed back from viewing and they were ecstatic too.

The car felt great with the first full session on full boost, the braking was immense from the KSports and Performance Friction Pads, the handling sublime and far greater than I could use at that stage.  It was confidence inspiring – just what I needed.  A few checks on the car, download the data logs, check the oil, water and all was good.  Nothing to do for the final except change tyres and put a splash of fuel in.  I knew I could go lots faster.  As Tom said to me – “time to be brave”.

The final and I lined up behind Shane.  We chatted and he explained to me what his intentions were so that we could work with each other to make sure we had space on track to make our times count.  This was great and shows the comradery of the competitors and the TA spirit.  Time to go and when the safety car pulled in Shane had dropped back from the car in front so as to give himself space to make his first lap count.  I did the same and on fresh rubber for the final tried to warm them up on the first full hot lap ready for a banzai number 2 lap.  This didnt quite work to plan and I came to the pits for a chat with Paul and he sent me back out with a plan, one fast then one balls out lap after he made an adjustment.  The first part worked and into the last flying lap of the final – about a minute to go and I was on it, faster than I had been, deeper into braking, quicker onto the power, harder through the chicane and flat out for the tree before druids and I catch the silver civic on a cool down lap overtaking two other cars on a cool down lap … grrrrrrrrrr.  I had to come right out of the power through the apex of druids and this cost me right down the straight to lodge, around there to a proper brave line this time and nailed it to the finish.  It was a fast one – must have been my quickest – it had to be.

Into the pits and Steve Darley held up 3 fingers ! – fantastic and I punched the air with delight, even though the lap had been compromised it had been enough to get my first ever podium.  Steve asked whether I had seen the pit board he had been holding out showing that I was 5th at that time and basically saying get a wiggle on – unfortunately I had just been focusing on picking the right braking point for that final banzai lap so had forgotten to look.  Thanks for trying to help Steven – I will remember next time LOL.

Out of the car and immediately on the phone to Rachel to ask whether she liked champagne – I was going to celebrate this one.  My target pre event was top 5 and I had done it.

Looking at the sector times afterwards showed where I was quick and where I wasnt, understandably my slow sector was the final corner of the lap where I had the accident last year.  i was getting the confidence but a few more laps would have been great.

Everyone was so happy around me and lots of other drivers came up to the pit garage to say well done, even Steve Linton that I had pipped to the 3rd place spot – I have a feeling it will be a close battle all year with him.

Party time !

To everyone else that was competing and writing their own stories, it was great to see you all. Getting there through all of our work, sweat, tears and money was a huge achievement.

So many thank yous, so little space…

Mark at Lateral Performance.  So much help over the last few months on getting the performance and the reliability in order.  That MD321V turbo is mentally ballistic – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT ! but when’s that 600bhp bolt on turbo ready ?

Pat & Charlie – Solaris ECU – What a piece of kit that is. SUPERB!  The improvements to the driving characteristics of the car are huge, it is so much easier and smoother to drive on the limit now and the ALS adds a bit of sparkle to the final cool down lap to celebrate.

Paul and Team Zen from Zen Performance – as usual the calming influence of infinite set up knowledge is so easy to work with.  The extra time gained through making the car handle predictably and smoothly pays dividends in inspiring confidence to put the boundaries.  I can’t wait to see the improvements on the other tracks too.

Julian at CJS – your help and loan of the tow truck made the weekend possible.

Nige/Lou – for trillions of photos, videos, help setting up, getting there, entertaining, feeding, distracting me, entertaining me and generally being a great mate.

Daren at ABW – for making the prettiest car on the grid.  Wide is the way forward

Gary at Keith Michaels – for sorting out insurance for me at the last minute.

Matt at 2ClearBuckets – it was the wax that did it I am sure !!

Alyn at ASP – I will just say thanks for everything, hopefully you can make it up to Scotland for round 2.

GW Autoserve Ipswich – thanks for sorting the tyres / geometry out for me last week.  It really helps when all the wheels point in the direction that you want them to.

and most importantly to Rachel and Annabelle for losing me to the car for a few weeks and putting up with my general grumpiness over the past week.  It is great to have highs and lows – it makes you feel alive.

I would also like to say thank you for all the words of encouragement and support from friends and aquaintances whether actual or cyber.  They mean a lot to me.

and now, time to prepare for Round 2 – Knockhill 17th May

Testing at Snetterton

Well, first track test on the new set up yesterday at Snetterton and I can see distinct progress already.

Hardly off track all day apart from detailed de-brief with Mr Glew who was there all day with me to teach me a trick or two about driving imprezas fast.  They seemed to work lol.

So many positives from yesterday:

- smoother performance from the Solaris ecu meant power could be applied much earlier and progressively. Ran low boost (1.5 bar) to start with but upped it to a little more    and had a ball 

- handling… wide is good

- aero works … experimenting with a few rear wing settings gave great feedback that hopefully will translate into other venues.  I need to figure out a way to stop the dents in the double layer metal bootlid getting much worse though lol.

Some distinct improvements are needed in sump baffling now though.  Even two up, full fuel level and with having to back off to protect it from oil surge around Coram (looking at the oil pressure all the way around) we were clocking quicker times (I am told) than the final of TA.

There are obviously one or two other small things to sort but in general everything worked like clockwork and I got a huge amount of seat time and instruction from Phil.

Other improvements to come should improve the car further.

Some pics:

The ABW Magic Wand

Now that the car is back from the ABW after having had some minor modifications done    it is time to start on the real work.

How it looks now:

Things to do:

1. Solaris – heading up to SC on friday to see Pat the Map for install of Solaris and to see whether the mass of wires that Pat has hand soldered into the connectors work.  I am sure they will 

2. Suspension bushes.  Will be replacing the rear bushes as they are showing audible signs of wear.  Got some nice polybushes to go on the front bushes.  I am sure these will be a right PITA to fit but I will have a go anyway.

3. Aero is distinctly missing so this will be going on.

4. Brake Ducting – to extend the life of the Brembos and the PF discs/pads I will have some proper ducting from the front splitter area to the discs.  Hopefully with the vents from the arches the air drawn through will be enough to cool them.

5. Oil Cooler – need to relocate this as it was hitting the bumper.  It is placed temporarily at present.  I will also build ducting to and from this.

6. Interior – cage to go back in along with bucket seats.  The rest of the sound proofing can be removed from the front compartment too.

7. Baffled sump – it is time to upgrade from the cosworth baffle plate.

8. A few other weight saving things (tba)

9. some other misc fittings.