Tom Ibrahim's Racing Blog

PBMW Round 12 - Castle Combe

2010-08-09T23:46:00.006+01:00

I lied about the full, long, detailed report on the Combe round. It's going to have to wait as I'm shortly off to Road America in Wisconsin to partake in a little Spec Miata racing with my brother. Oh frickin yes. Will tell all upon my return.

In the meantime, here's a couple more of Mike Dugdale's excellent in car videos. This time from Castle Combe, where I scored another solid Top 10 finish. I was also pleased to take a rather starring role in Mike's video (I'm driving number 42 if you're wondering), even if it did end up costing me a place. The videos tell the story far better than I can really, so here we go..

PBMW Rounds 7 and 8 - Brands Hatch GP

2010-08-03T17:44:00.004+01:00

As you may or may not have noticed, it's been a while since I posted here so I don't remember a great deal about this race - aside from the moment when I had to slam the brakes on to more or less a complete stop to avoid the spinning Clint Bardwell.

The bottom line was that I again thoroughly enjoyed myself around what is one of THE great circuits and came away with a 9th and an 11th. Not too bad at all if I may say so.

My confidence was growing after that, but a long lay-off until Combe meant that I was unlikely to be able to capitalise on it. You need to be in the car pretty regularly to really grow as a driver, but an opportunity to do an overseas race in August (more on this later) meant that I had to keep the purse strings tight and have a couple of months off.

I'll be back very shortly with a proper report on the Combe race which was held last weekend.

PBMW Round 6 - Thruxton

2010-08-03T17:41:00.001+01:00

Bit late with this one... anyway...

This race meeting was unfortunately more sad than it was enjoyable. Tragically, an accident in the GT Cup race early in the day resulted in the death of one of the drivers. So our thoughts and condolences were very much with the family and friends of Jeff Leadley.

Much of the racing time was therefore lost while the rescue and emergency services dealt with the situation. Both the GT Cup and Heritage GT organisations withdrew from their respective races both as a mark of respect and because for a long time, it looked unlikely that racing would resume.

However after a long period, it was suggested to us (PBMW and TTRS) that we'd likely get the opportunity to race. A show of hands made it clear that most people would prefer to race, given the opportunity. But if the whole thing had been called off, I don't think anyone would have complained.

So at six o'clock in the cold spitting rain, we formed up to race.

Despite not having driven at Thruxton, I was well aware of its reputation for being fast, and both difficult and scary to learn. I wholeheartedly agree!, even putting aside the events described above. I should say though that having experienced racing there, I can't wait to go back. Some expert advice I received just prior to qualifying meant that I was given a fast-track to success with a couple of important bits on the circuit that I very much doubt I'd have figured out for myself very quickly. There are a couple of places where the best thing to do is counter intuitive, but turn out to make an enormous difference to your lap time. This, coupled with a car that is easy to drive made my learning process alot quicker than it otherwise would have been. But the over-riding pleasure is simply driving the car flat-out through a constant stream of curves for the better part of a minute every lap. Church corner is probably my new favourite, just pipping my previous candidate - Copse, at Silverstone. The car is fully loaded up and you can feel every little thing that is going on.

Life is curiously spooky sometimes.On the same day you get the worst feeling possible in motorsport (when someone succumbs to it's darker side), you can also get the best feeling. Opposites attract I suppose.

After qualifying I found myself 15th out of 40, after dropping from 11th on the last lap when I caught a load of slower cars.

Come race start I got a half decent launch this time. Grip levels were still pretty good so I pushed hard immediately and gained a couple of places back on the first lap. I tailed the bootlid of Tony Smith's car for the next few laps and had a couple of pops at him as we both moved up the order. Onto lap 5, he and Nigel Olive-Jones seemed to slow each other up a bit through Allard and then moved apart slightly so I kept my foot and took advantage between the pair of them on the run to the complex. There things didn't go quite so well I'm afraid, as I successfully passed Tony but had to tuck in behind Nigel on the way out of Cobb. I moved to my left to give Nigel some space and inadvertantly caught my rear left tyre on Tony's bumper as he poked his nose up the inside. Round I went and spun to a stop, losing the engine in the process. Bugger. Thankfully, nobody hit me and I got away pretty quickly and back up to speed in no time. I'd lost about six places, but you would normally expect to lose many more than that in such a close field. The rest of the race was spent trying to haul Jack Gabriel in, which I duly did but unfortunately not fast enough to get on terms with him. A number of other cars either fell off or fell away, so I was left with 14th place. Considering I'd been stationary at one point with the engine off, I was quite pleased with that! A quick trip to see the Clerk of the Course to explain my side of the incident with Tony and the day was done.

All in all, it was very a bad day for everyone. But, I came away a new perspective on just how much fun it is to be out racing in this Championship.

Some excellent video from Mike Dugdale's car provides an insight..

PBMW Rounds 4 and 5 - Silverstone GP

2010-06-02T20:58:00.014+01:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Silverstone. Right now I love it, but I know the next time I spectate there, I’ll hate it again. As a place to drive, it’s an absolute joy. As place to just ‘be’ it’s a complete arse! It seems to suffer from an inability to tell the difference between an F1 race meeting and a club race meeting. The traffic/crowd management systems and security measures designed to deal with an F1 race day are, unsurprisingly, not appropriate for club race meetings, and I suspect this is the root cause of the myriad of unnecessary limitations and restrictions one encounters when just trying to get around the place.

Anyway, last weekend I was happy to be in one of the ‘love it’ phases of my relationship with ‘The Home of British Motorsport’. The weather was just beautiful and I got what I wanted: Close racing, good results and a lot of encouragement.

After Brands, I still didn’t have much idea about how much pace was in the car, or whether I was able to access it. But I knew the Silverstone meeting would go a long way to answering those questions. I’ve always gone well there and of course, I’d already driven the car there – albeit on the National.

We had 2 x 15 min races in store, but first we had to qualify. Now, with 50 plus cars, many driven by competitors who’d never been there before or hadn’t even driven their cars before (or perhaps even both), the chances of getting a clear lap were always going to be slim. They were made even more remote when what seemed like half the field got over excited and threw themselves into the gravel traps cutting the session to only four laps. I spent the first couple hunting down a bit of a space, warming the tyres and having a little feel around for the grip level. Everything felt comfortable so when the one clear lap came along, I could press really hard immediately. This came on the last lap and I got a completely clear run all the way to Vale where I had to thread my way through a few other cars, all of whom thankfully played along and made some space. Across the line, the flags came out, the session was over.
In parc ferme, most people including myself were pretty annoyed at the shortness of the session. But when Keith our eligibility scrutineer read out a list of numbers he said was the Top 10, and this list included my number, I felt a lot better! I was 6th overall with a number of Championship contenders behind me. Yes!

As a result of qualifying well up, my car became subject to a technical inspection, including Schrick test. All was good, apart from a minor bollocking for not having my race number displayed on the bonnet. Woops.

Having cocked up the starts at Brands three weeks earlier I suspected I might struggle a bit again in this department. I’m just getting a bit mixed up between different techniques for launching the car, coupled with little experience to inform the balance between bogging down and spinning the wheels! In both races it cost me three places within the first 20 yards, but I don’t think it made much difference to my finishing position in Race 1, following Nick Barke and Stu Waite home to a solid 9th place – my first Top 10 finish. This was a target I’d had in mind from the start so it was great to tick it off the list so quickly. I knew that I’d probably have ended up in the same spot even if I’d nailed the start as I doubt I could have held Nick or Stu behind me.

In Race 2, much the same thing happened again but this time I penalised myself further by attempting an overly ambitious move at Abbey that cost me a load more places. I recovered most of them during the 15 minute race, and probably enjoyed it more than the first but only came away with 12th this time.

In order to do well in this Championship, I’m learning that you need a lot of bases covered. The best analogy I can think of is the oft-heard ‘bag of golf clubs’. You’re going to need a full set, be reasonably expertise with them all, and be a genius with at least one. Currently, number 42 has got the idea with a couple of them, but the wraps are only just coming off the others.

A couple of pics worth posting I think... (courtesy of Jon Bryant - www.snappyracers.com):

PBMW Rounds 1, 2 and 3 – Brands Indy

2010-05-11T21:15:00.003+01:00

I’ll keep this report short because my intention going into the race weekend was just to stay sensible, get some race mileage on the car and see where we ended up. I got what I wanted, which means there’s not a great deal that’s worth going into any detail about I’m afraid. Sorry!

I came away with a couple of decent mid-field finishes, a new water pump and an engine mount courtesy of Nigel Olive-Jones and Jason at RAW motorsport who very kindly jumped in and fixed my car on Sunday morning. Thanks guys.

My Dad took some good video, complete with a short bit of Nigel and Jason at work and me standing around watching in wonder..

All in all, it was a good start and I went away reasonably convinced that I could do well at Silverstone.

Sensible

2010-05-11T21:13:00.002+01:00

It’s not a word one would normally associate with motor racing I know, but for me 2010 so far is probably best summarised that way. That’s not to say I haven’t been enjoying it of course.

Most of my weekends in February were spent finishing off the major jobs on the car and tidying up in a few areas. Even the smallest jobs seem to take disproportionate amount of time to finish, but I suppose that’s because I’m doing them VERY carefully. Part of the idea in racing ‘production’ level cars is that you can get them more or less to a point where you don’t have to do much more than you would with a road car besides increase the rate at which you change the consumables like oil and pads etc. The Astra was certainly like that and I hope this car will be the same. But more on that later ;-)

The next step was to attempt a set up and give it a run. For this bit I was lucky to receive some very valuable assistance from some racing friends who’ve much more experience in this department than I. Loaded Gunn Racing have for a number of years built and run Sports 2000 cars in the UK with great success. Their website offers much more information than I can and makes for some very interesting reading: www.loadedgunn.com In a later post, I hope to cover their progress in 2010 as I’ve always had a soft spot sports racing cars and having had a bit of insight to Loaded Gunn’s approach and the challenges they face, I’m keen to see them do well.

So, the day before I took the car for its first run, I stopped in at Loaded Gunn who performed a full static set-up, including tracking, camber, ride-height and corner weighting. The outcome was very satisfying as the car measured up well and responded to change in the way we expected. We quickly found that it needed little tweaking to get near a theoretical ‘ideal’ and was very straightforward to work on. A big thank you to them then, as it gave me a huge boost in confidence because I now knew I had a good car.

The following day, we took it for a track day on the Silverstone National circuit. It’s not the most exciting layout, but it does provide a good mix of corners, a long straight and a short lap – all the ingredients required for productive testing. It was pretty damp in the morning and the track was very busy, so after a lap or two and a few checks around the car, we settled into a few long but steady runs to get some miles on it and give me a chance to settle in. In the afternoon it steadily dried out completely, so we played a bit with damper settings and went through a simple process to find a reasonable dry set-up. I came away from the test very very happy. The car felt brilliant, behaved itself perfectly and responded well to the changes we made.

Chipping away...

2010-04-14T22:47:00.003+01:00

I'll be back soon with some stuff about my first PBMW weekend at Brands last month, and my second which is coming up this weekend at Silverstone. Suffice to say, its been going pretty well, but no great shakes yet ;-)

More soon.

Cheers,
Tom.

The cuddly space ship

2010-02-18T20:52:00.022Z

I started writing this post a while ago, but have only now got round to finishing it off. So apologies for the gap and the fact is has nothing to do with racing, but it was a day I'll not forget and I wanted to get it recorded some how.

Anyway...

In my day job I spend a lot of time dealing with the largely dull complications of supplying military organisations with communication equipment. But every now and then it gets me into some interesting places that members of the public like us don’t normally see. It’s reasonable to say however, that the subject of this post will prove hard to top in the coming years.

In the last year or so I’ve spent a lot of time in Florida dealing with a supplier based in the east in the area known as the Space Coast. Many aerospace and defence companies set up there for obvious reasons. So in amongst all of my dealings there it's hard not to be conscious of the ever present feeling of optimism and excitement provided by the close proximity of Kennedy Space Centre and Cape Canaveral. I’ve yet to witness a launch despite best efforts to design my meeting dates to coincide with one, but I think I got the next best thing a few weeks back when I was invited to attend a very rare NASA employees ‘friends and family’ open day. Of course the general public is able to visit the site every day of the week but it has to be said, what you are provided with is more of a ‘show’ than the reality of what NASA actually do. There are some excellent IMAX movies to see and you do get to wander around a few pretty convincing mock-ups, but you very rarely clap eyes on the real stuff. And if you do it’s from a long way away.

The wife of one the engineers working at the supplier is the Flow Director for Space Shuttle Endeavour. Essentially, she manages the processing of that particular orbiter from the moment it lands to the moment it next launches; quite a job and one that I still can’t really grasp. So, on a sunny Saturday morning we were invited to KSC to meet up with Dana and her husband Jeremy to be taken around the Shuttle in its processing facility. A little bit of background may help here so forgive me if you’re already fairly well versed on how the Shuttle operates. After landing, the shuttle is wheeled across from the massive runway they have to the processing buildings next to the vehicle assembly building, where later on it is mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in preparation for launch. But before that happens, the shuttle is ‘processed’. Essentially everything that needs to happen to it before it can fly again happens in this building. It might help to add a few piccies at this point… some of them I’ve pulled from Wikipedia because they’re better than mine, but all of the shots inside are mine.

To get inside you walk through a dark corridor to some double doors, not knowing quite what you’re going to see on the other side. Through those doors you’re first presented with a massive clean white structure with bright lights dotted all over it and pipes, valves and god knows what going everywhere presumably containing the star of the show embedded within.

Right at that moment, it was impossible not be struck by the complexity of this thing and the amount peripheral kit that’s needed to keep it alive. But still, for all its complexity it achieves something that whilst enormously difficult, is very easy to understand. It’s a space ship. I think it’d take anyone a long time to fully comprehend this, no matter how long you stared at all the surrounding gear in awe. But the labyrinth of gubbins crawling all over it was also somehow reassuring. You knew you were looking at the real thing.

There was a short queue to a flight of stairs leading up the back of structure which gave us a nice period to stare at things for a while, talk to Dana and try to get a grip on what we were looking at. Looking through the lower part of the structure, it was possible to make out the smooth dark tiled surface that covers the whole of the underside of the shuttle.

Climbing up the stairs, we were presented with the business end of the craft and from an engineers point of view it was in some ways a bonus that the engines hadn’t yet been installed (they’re overhauled after every flight) as it gave us a rare view of the internals.

Moving back down the other side, we were then treated to a comprehensive overview of what may, understandably, seem one of the duller bits of the shuttle – it’s underside and it’s thermal protection system.

Ok, it’s just a load of tiles. But any comparisons with your bathroom walls end right here. These things do the hardest job in space flight – bring your crew home safely. A single flaw can as Columbia unfortunately found in 2003 be catastrophic, and I can’t begin to describe the care and attention that goes into inspecting and managing them. No two tiles are the same and each one is incredibly delicate – when inspecting a sample tile, the dark outer surface could be cracked and chipped off just with a light flick with your finger. Replacement of any of them takes several weeks. The most critical tiles were those in the first metre or so of the underside of the nose as much like an inverted F1 car, this area sets up the aerodynamics of the rest of the underside. Any interruption or distortion in the smoothness of the surface can result in disruption to the essential laminar flow and set up a turbulent stream that can overheat tiles further back in the stream. But despite the constant rework that goes on many of the tiles at the rear of Endeavour have survived since it was first built. Dana had spent a large part of her career working on them so was able to give us an in depth explanation of what goes into it, but I’m not going to try to relay that here. There’s masses of information on the web for anyone who wants to know more.

Moving back up the gantry, this time at the front, we got a good view of the nose. It was at this point that I saw that the white surface I’d previously thought was some kind of hard composite was actually made of some kind of cloth. Dana then confirmed that most of the white surfaces on the shuttle are simply Nomex wadding. It’s cuddly!!

Onward to the side we got a glimpse of the door the astronauts use to get in on the pad.

To finish up, we learned a tremendous amount about both the shuttle and everything involved in running it, but the bit I liked after all the talk of cutting edge technologies and clever task management was this sight as we came back down the stairs and walked past the tools area..

Probably the best advert Snap-on could have ever hoped for.

There was much more to our tour that I can’t cover here as it didn’t take long for my brain to fill up. But I really didn’t want to leave, I just wanted to sit in there and stare at it for a few more hours.

In the months since our tour, processing of Endevour was completed and she was rolled out just before Christmas, finally launching last week on her penultimate mission to the ISS for STS-130. Later on this year, she'll complete her final mission to space and will then be decommissioned and placed on public display somewhere in the US. 2010 is the last year that NASA will operate the Space Shuttle, and having watched the first launch on TV when I was in primary school, I feel very sad that they won't be flying any more.

A big thankyou to Dana and Jeremy for having me along with them on a very special day.

Coming along nicely

2010-01-30T21:02:00.005Z

Still got a lot of jobs to do, but the car's taking shape. It took me a bit longer than expected to get the new suspension on but it was a straight forward job. I bought a few shiny new bits from Jimmy Cuthbert via his new shop: www.raceperformancemodified.com which went on at the same time.

Today, I sorted out one or two minor things I didn't like such as the way the bonnet was fastened and the positions of the safety cable handles. Also, I swapped the coloured bumpers from the 318i across which make the car look quite a lot nicer.

My current ponderings are all about the ride height and spring rates. I don't think I'll come to any useful conclusions until I've driven it a bit, but I quite like pondering so that's what I'm doing! I might get it MOT'd and on the road, but then again I might not. Not sure I'd really gain anything more than the ability to drive around a bit on a Saturday afternoon cos I'm certainly not park it in the street at home in Cardiff, or drive it to a race meeting. It'd be useful for basic checks, but that's about it.

Next jobs on the list are the new exhaust, a sump guard (no prizes for guessing why I'm so keen to get one on it) and a swirl pot. After that, I'm pretty much done aside from the usual tidying/checking/bleeding brakes/changing oil etc.

Anyway, this is how it looks now. Quite a bit more business like I think ;-)

2010 prep begins

2009-12-29T20:27:00.006Z

Yeah yeah yeah... been ages, I know.

Quite a lot has happened since my last post. The Astra was sold quickly and easily to a happy new owner, who's already been out testing in it at Snetterton. Hopefully he'll be out in TTRS next year and I'll be glad to see it about as I was a little sad seeing it go.

Anyway, enough of that. I got a new one ain't I!! :-)

I'd been keeping an eye open for either another 318i or 320i roader to increase the bits supply, but I'd also thought that if the right car came up at the right price I'd consider a part or fully built Prod BMW car. Well, that car came along in the form of a Koba racing built 320i that hadn't really seen the light of day since completion. Since he'd had it built, the owner hadn't been able to get out racing due to other commitments and was also having some trouble getting the engine to behave itself, but there was clearly nothing seriously wrong with it. Anyway, after a very careful look around (with a copy of the rulebook on hand) we both seemed to settle on the same idea about what the price should be and I agreed to buy it the following day.

So, what's it like? It's a solid 320i non-sunroof (which are quite rare) with a fully welded in Rollcentre cage, polybushed all round, all the mandatory safety equipment etc, professionally finished race car. Its VERY tidy and clean which is what I was aiming for however I got there. There's quite a few odds and sods to sort out, such as changing the now illegal side-exit exhaust and bolting on some more appropriate suspension, but all the really hard work has been done for me. The suspension that was on it was more fast-road than race, but it could have been further modified to sort it out. I managed however, to get hold of a similar, but more much appropriately modified kit to bolt straight on - supplied by Jonathan Wildash of Koba Racing. My kit is Laurie Dunster's old set up, after he switched to GAZ at some point in the last 12 months. It seems a perfectly good starting set up. A little on the soft side springs wise perhaps, but that's easy to change later on if I feel inclined. I've plently to mess about with and learn before spending any more money on something any better.

So, here's a couple of pics from earlier today while I press on with putting the kit on on the car.. as you can see, the weather isn't helping very much!

Last race of the season

2009-10-22T20:59:00.007+01:00

Ripped from the TTRS forum, here is my short report of the Silverstone GP races..

Can't remember much from Qually... front end was a bit 'hoppy' on its first new pair of tyres since March 07. Can't have been too bad as it was good enough for 16th overall out of 70 odd cars and within striking distance of Mr McAteer.

Race 1: Reasonable start I think, managed to stave off the Jags behind me for the first few laps and set about chasing Will down. Kept up a decent pace and waited as Will seemed to be losing his. Finally got a run at him going onto the last lap into Copse but echoed my April passing attempt on James Hebditch at the same spot, stuffing it up the inside (oh yes) but leaving my braking too late, resulting in a big squirrely moment on the exit which handed it back to him. Gathered it up and got a decent run out of Becketts to move past down the straight and take a very satisfying Class win.

Race 2. VERY WINDY! Didn't seem to get a bad start, but Loz Ball got a flyer through the middle of a load of us so we all crowded in for a better look. First few laps were the closest racing I've ever had.... with Will, Gail, Tom M, Loz, Mike C, Brian Jordan and little ol' me falling over each other and swapping around several times every hundred yards or so. Amazing fun!... I remember heading flat out into Becketts three abreast with Gail and Mike, and hearing myself say something incoherant..... 'mummy' I think it was ;-) Things spread out a bit mid race, which left me to pick up the pieces as both Mike and Will hit problems. Spent the last 3 or 4 laps JUST holding off a very menacing Ben Winrow. How is he doing that?

Video of Race 2, again in car with Tom Murphy... I'm in this one a lot more!

Part 2

All in all, a very nice way to finish off my partnership with the greenest Astra on the planet. I never had much time for Vauxhalls, but that car has been a bloody marvel. I've barely touched it since picking it up from bloke who lives in a place called Mynyddislwyn on a windy hill top farm in deepest darkest Wales (no I can't say Mynyddislwyn either), but it's never let me down.

....so long my glowing little friend.

The Astra is now for sale. Advert can be found here: http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1305657.htm

Brands and Brands again..

2009-10-06T19:52:00.004+01:00

So what’s been going on?

Well, since the VLN round in June it’s been TTRS all the way. In August we had the pleasure of the Brands GP circuit – which was a long way to go for 12 minutes racing, but very satisfying nonetheless. Then, during September we were invited to support the DTM meeting at Brands again, where I got the chance to try out my Dad’s latest Alfa 33. This is the ex-John Strickland car I’ve mentioned previously here, that Dad bought earlier in the year. He’s had quite a few issues to sort out, mainly centred around leaky fluids, so this was the first time out since getting to the bottom of all of the problems. As we were sharing the car across two races, I was only permitted to run the mandatory three laps in qualifying and told that I mustn’t set a time. Also, I would be starting my race from the back of the grid…. Loads of fun! Dad took a bit of video of my progress which you can see here (red, number 41)..

And Oliver Davies had a camera in his Renault 5 that got a good view of my progress and also gives a good view of the fun he was having in his little turbo.

The Alfa was much like the Astra to drive, but had better brakes and was quite a bit more stable. I felt at home in it immediately, but that’s no surprise really as I’d spent plenty of time behind the wheel of a similar car he owned a couple of years ago. Towards the end of the race, the engine seemed to lose top end power and I lost a load of pace, allowing Ken Lark in the Vento to drive back past me but it didn’t matter as I’d had my fun by then.

Following this, we made the journey to Goodwood for another fantastic Revival meeting, which I might cover in another post if I feel like it. Got some groovy pictures so I might just make that a ‘photo’ post.

A couple of weeks back, Vaughan and I realised that time was getting short for us to ready ourselves and the 318is for the next planned VLN race at the Nurburgring, so we’ve decided to can the trip. Unfortunately that car won’t be eligible next year as it’ll be too old, so we’re hatching a plan for a new build that should be good for us well into the future. The plan at the moment is to build an E46 325i. The base car will cost a bit more than an E36, however the build cost will be much the same. The bonus will be that we’ll have a very contemporary car, with lots of power and air con! But anyway, I’ll cover this properly in another post when I know more.

Back soon

2009-09-30T23:00:00.003+01:00

I've not given up doing this blog. Honestly. I just haven't had much new to blog about and figured that my race reports probably weren't that interesting anyway (not that I'll stop doing them either).

I'll be back with a few tales including the moment last weekend when I came face to face with a real life space ship. Yeah I know its got nothing to do with racing...

More to come soon.

First race at the Nurburgring

2009-06-30T20:26:00.004+01:00

Just got back from my first race at the Nurburgring in the 318iS with Vaughan. We were challenged in so many ways its difficult to know where to start so I'll stick to the bottom line for now. We didn't finish the race, but we did do over half of it before the vulnerable sump of the M42 engine finally bit the dust at the Karussel in a cloud of smoke on the last lap of my stint. We just ran out of time prior to the event to get a guard fitted. It was very disappointing as we'd overcome many challenges just to get the thing on the grid at all, but on balance we can deem the attempt a success I think. The car was nice to drive, very consistent and if it wasn't for the lack of sump guard, would have finished the race ahead of many much more expensive machinery that didn't.

Anyway, I enjoyed my 4.5 laps of the ring immensely which is what it's all about!

Not sure where on the Nordschleife this is exactly but I've got my head down and am having a go ;-)

Le Mans 2009

2009-06-23T21:39:00.005+01:00

Yeah yeah... been ages since I put anything on here.. so here we go.

I'm heading off to the Nurburgring on Thursday where Vaughan, Jonathan and I will attempt our first VLN race as planned. My head is all over the place at the moment, not in a bad way, but I'll not be posting about this race until I return. The preparation has been going on for a while now, which included a test day at Silverstone earlier in the month. But apart from that, the bulk of the stuff we've had to do has been administrative and safety related so its not very interesting blog material unless you're fascinated by the ins and outs of dealing with an organisation that mainly operates in another language. Babelfish hasn't known what's hit it in the last few weeks.

In the midst of this, I made my annual pilgrimage to Le Mans as planned and thoroughly enjoyed seeing Audi actually LOSE at Le Mans. YES REALLY. Peugeot scored a well deserved 1-2 after a fairly straight forward race from the front. Audi never really looked like taking it from them despite the French team's effort to scupper themselves by crashing their cars into each other in the pits. The first few hours were pretty frantic all round really with a number of entertaining incidents and cock-ups affecting many of the 54 car field.

Out and around the circuit I reckon I did a much better job behind the lens than I managed last year. Not that I've been practising much. Anyway, here are the best of the bunch...

Friday pit walk about:

First few hours of the race:

For me, the star of the show. Looks fantastic, sounds even better...

Loooooooooserrrrrrrrsssss..... (biggup respeck to these guys though, they know what they're doing)...

It woudn't be Le Mans without the sight and forceful bark of a few 911's:

Oh go on then... lets have another look at that Lola Aston Martin... hooooohhhhhh...

This was one of a pair of privateer run Lola Astons that were very pleasing also:

And finally, a bit of vid from someone who's got to place you're not supposed to go... but well worth the effort I reckon. Look out for the pair of Aston's screaming through at about 1:25..

Over and out.

Tom.

Nurburgring Nordschleife

2009-05-10T19:30:00.006+01:00

That's it. I'm moving house. I've fallen head long for the Nurburgring and I don't see it changing for a very long time. It fully lives up to the all the reports you read and hear about it so regularly. Every lap unfolds like a complicated but captivating movie plot as it twists through the valleys and forests. The story develops and unwinds into a hypnotizing series of sub-plots each with its own satisfying resolution. Towards the end of the lap it stretches out and gets a lot faster as you're sucked into a car sized groove in the centre of a tunnel of Armco and trees. You're spat out at the other end going 'woooooooooaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!' like you've just stepped off the finest fairground ride on the planet. The greatest circuit in the world bar none I think. All this AND in the most stunningly beautiful setting. All this has been said and written a thousand times before, but I really must express how true the glowing reports are. It's a bloody fantastic place.

Vaughan's 318is ran perfectly after we had an emergency water pump change when it sprang a leak during the performance test at Manthey Racing. Despite spreading oil and water over the works Porsche rolling road, it passed the test and we headed to the pit area to get the car pre-scrutineered and checked over by the organiners of the VLN events. On the basis of what we found and dealt with, the trip was well worth the effort and expense on that day alone.

We spent most of Saturday spectating at the VLN race and enjoying the sun and countryside, finally rounding off the weekend with some public laps on the Sunday.

I'd not driven an E30 at speed before, but true to the reports from other drivers, found it very easy to handle and a real joy to deal with, especially when compared to the Astra. That car requires a curious mix of patience, brutality and an ability to get several things happening at once in order to get the best out of it. The 318is was a total contrast in that cornering was all about calmly going through a smooth staged process and treating it gently so as not to upset the rear end. The result is that you feel more like you're driving a proper racing car, which is what its all about about as far as I'm concerned. Getting results is the icing on the cake if you can do it, but the underlying reason being out there has to be the enjoyment of driving the car. This is something I've not always had with the Astra .

Not sure I can wait until June 27th to drive either an E30 or the Ring... I'm thoroughly sold on both.

Its all happening...

2009-04-27T22:41:00.005+01:00

Not had much chance to do anything on here for a bit and can't see myself doing anything soon either!... other than this of course.

Times are busy, but its all going very well so I'm not complaining. Had the car going really well at Silverstone last week and managed to grab a couple more TTRS Class wins. That car is at its best on quick circuits and was a hoot to chuck through Copse corner, so I really enjoyed driving it. Found a couple of new issues that have reared up due to the increased cornering speeds its now capable of. More on that stuff another time.

In the meantime, I spent all of last weekend working on Vaughan's 318is which is now more or less ready for the Nurburgring VLN races in the summer. We're heading out there this Thursday to have the car performance tested (mandatory dyno measurement), watch the VLN race and do some public laps on Sunday. Its going to be cool to finally visit such an iconic circuit, having spent countless hours hairing round it on the Playstation over the last 10 years or so.

After that, I'm thankfully going to have a bit of spare time to chill out and do some stuff on my own BMW... unless of course, the summer proves to be unlike the last 2 years and I'm busy doing not very much other than eating, drinking and enjoying the sun.

More next time.

Silverstone TTRS:

The 'ring machine awaits its fate:

Better

2009-03-29T20:17:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately so was everybody else.

But, I’m probably putting an overly negative slant on what was a very successful first TTRS round of the 2009 season at sunny Brands Hatch two weeks ago.

Having spent some time making a few changes to the car, it was good to convert those efforts into a significant lap time reduction. In 08’ my best lap round the Indy circuit was 60.06 s, this time round we got a 59.3.. Even better though was the consistency. In the races, I only did one lap on the wrong side of 60s. The car was more stable with the new front geometry (this statement makes it sound like I’ve measured it) in the form of some decent camber and castor angles – it now has some of both, but I can’t say it felt hugely different really. I should remember though that it’s the best part of 6 months since I drove it, which isn’t the finest basis for comparison.

Anyway, I got another two 2^nd places in Class D but this time losing out to newcomer Peter Seldon in his 325i. The unfortunate Tom Bateson in his Scirocco suffered total engine failure early on in qualifying which put paid to what was likely to be another classic encounter between us. This was doubly frustrating because he and Will McAteer had spent a considerable chunk of the winter rebuilding the engine. I hope they get it back together in time for Donington in two weeks time.

The first race was a little bit of repeat of race one at Brands last year, when Matt Knight and I had a race long battle. This time, I was able to get past him much more decisively and in doing so learned how you get past people at this circuit. I'm sure overtaking is possible in other places, but when the pace differential between the two cars isn't very much, the best way I found was to force the defender to hold the inside at the entry to Paddock Hill, make him to brake very late to avoid being overtaken round the outside and this will in turn make him need to either run wide on the exit or back off to avoid the gravel. Either way, all you have to do is drive round the back of him and up the inside to take the line into Druids. Despite having done this countless times on the playstation it'd never occured to me to put it into practise for real. Its bloody obvious when I think about it now!

Anyway, race two was actually a fairly dull race in comparison as I didn't have anyone to play with. But, for a reasonable chunk of the race, I thought I'd got a shot at taking the Class only to find that Peter Seldon had backed off and let me past 'cause he was bored, not because he was in trouble or I was quicker. As I initially went past him, I incorrectly diagnosed that he had a gearbox problem and that whilst a lot slower, he might find a way to drive around it and make a come back. With this in mind then, I set about building a decent gap and steadily pushed the car and myself. It was all in vain though when about 4 laps from the end, Peter reappeared in my mirrors and promptly swept past to retake the Class. All a bit irritating really, as I was taking it quite seriously! Anyway, he was entitled to have his fun however he wants so no complaints. Also, if he hadn't backed off I probably wouldn't have felt the need to push so hard, which on reflection was good fun.

After the first race, I managed to weigh the car for the first time since I bought it. The bad news is that with me and a third of a tank for fuel it weighs 1006kg! This is a lot! The good news is that the minimum weight is over 100kg less than this, so I have room to improve. Also, whilst waiting to get weighed in parc ferme, I tried to restart the car and found that the battery was completely flat. I knew it was getting weak, but didn't realise it was quite that bad. The health of the engine was proven though, when a couple of the other drivers and I push started it in a space of about 5 yards. So, with the knowledge that I need a new battery and to lose some weight, it was obvious that the first thing to buy when I got home was a Varley. Its on its way.

I think its going to save me about 10kg and in fitting it, I'll relocate it to the passenger compartment.

I'll post some pics of the finished mods (including the new top mounts and strut brace) once I've finished the new battery fit. In the meantime, we'll have to make do with the obligatory race shot, courtesy of Az Edwards:

318i vs 320i

2009-02-25T20:32:00.006Z

Hmmmmm...... I’m currently pondering which engine to run in my E30. I can fairly easily run either, but it’d be better to pick the right one now than have to switch later on. Of course, sods law states that no matter which I plump for now, I’m going to want the other at times. So, how long will it be before we see somebody switching between them in order to have the best for each circuit?

The choice is an interesting subject for discussion (and a common one in the PBMW paddock I’ve found) as the arguments for either engine are largely subjective. One driver will (possibly) do better with one engine whilst another will possibly do better with the other. I’ve written up ‘a’ viewpoint here and outlined some of the key points. But it’s by no means exhaustive and I’d welcome any other views/information that would provide a better picture. Indeed, the fact that I have a 318i sat in my garage is probably an influencing factor in my argument!

Anyway, here goes...

A good theoretical argument can be made for a properly prepared and driven 318i being quicker than a 320i over a lap. They enjoy a 60kg minimum weight advantage which not only helps to counter their 14bhp deficit to the 320i’s but also helps in the handling/cornering department by reducing the lateral g applied to the tyres to achieve the same cornering speed i.e. you have more grip available!

Additional performance benefits are;

* The total weight of the car is more evenly distributed front to rear (so corner loading uses all 4 tyres more evenly, providing yet more grip, and tyre wear should therefore be more even),
* The brakes don’t have to work as hard as they’re not only braking less weight, but should also be applied a less amount by the driver due to the higher corner entry speeds that a 318i should, in theory, be able to achieve.
* The M40 engine appears to have a very slight torque advantage over the M20.

I feel that the sum of these advantages outweigh the slight power to weight advantage of the 320i.

Add to these the following ‘fringe’ benefits:

* The engine, whilst being more complicated, is smaller and easier to deal with in or out of the car.
* It uses less fuel than the M20
* It doesn’t suffer from the oil starvation issues seen with the M20
* It doesn’t suffer from the head warping issues seen with the M20
* Production of the M40 appears to have used more consistent parts manufacturing/outsourcing and as a result shows less variation to the M20 (but you could argue this is a disadvantage as it allows less opportunity for finding improvement by ‘matching’ parts.)
* It is less commonly found in PBMW and/or any motor racing and as such the parts supply is likely to last longer than the M20 which is very commonly used (but there are less M40s in the world, so this argument could be a bit tenuous also!)

The above reasons are why a 318i currently awaits my attention and not a 320i.

However, actually making the performance stuff pay is easier said than done. I think the sum of these differences make the 318i quite a different animal to the 320i. The differences manifest themselves most importantly in terms of what is required of the engineer/driver to get the best out of either machine. In the case of the 320i I would guess that the car feels best when it is set up with softer suspension than one might find on a 318i, due to the extra weight swinging around. This will make the car naturally more forgiving to drive, as will the power to weight advantage – where overzealous cornering speeds will be less likely to result in a net-loss compared to a 318i due to the superior power to weight ratio providing the driver with a ‘get out of jail free card’. I don’t think the 320i will reward poor driving, I just reckon it won’t penalise it as much as a 318i will.

In order to get the best out of the 318i, I suspect that what’s needed is the ‘go-kart’ approach i.e. stiff as possible and an accurate, calculated driving style. If the driver lets the back end step out, it’s going to hurt his lap time significantly. Momentum will be lost and the power to regain it just isn’t there. The need to have ‘everything right’ will also be much more apparent. If the suspension set-up provides too much grip at one end, then the tyre scrub will again lose you much needed momentum. It’s a finer balancing act both from an engineering and driving point of view. And of course, you can’t even contemplate using the advantage until you actually have it – both you and the car need to go on a serious diet to get down to the minimum weight.

This is just the brief overview of the ‘on track’ differences between these cars that I can think of, and I’m sure there’d be a lot more to it if one decided to study it properly. It is also, so far, a view that looks at it from the point of view of lap-time only. We must remember that we’re talking about PBMW here i.e. crowded grids and no clear laps (Qually or Race). So I think the only way you’ll get the best out of a 318i is if you plonk it on, or very near pole and get a good start every time. Ok, there are other 318i’s out there, but the little bit of extra grunt the 320i’s have means they are able to make a move on the straights in a way the 318i’s can’t. The 318i’s just don’t seem to be able to ‘make good’ on their cornering advantage as well as 320i’s ‘make good’ on their slight power advantage (usually because there’s a 320i in the way!).

Results over the last couple of years suggest that neither car has a decisive advantage as both have won races. But it is clear that the 320i has won more (12/8 split in ’07 and ’08). Another feature of these past two seasons has been the presence of Rob Welsh in a 318i built and driven much in the style I suspect is best (as above)... but in both seasons he has been beaten to the title by a 320i. On most occasions he’s spent the race either miles out in front (confirming my suspicion that if you get some space, the 318i is the car to have), chasing the leader closely (but unable to make a pass) or off-song and off the pace (suffering due to a set-up imbalance that couldn’t be driven around).

My growing belief is that, frankly, if he wasn’t able to make it work then I don’t see that I could either!

One last point worth making is that until now the cars have not, shall we say, had the most intense eligibility scrutineering found in motor racing. Don’t get me wrong, Illegal cars have been found and dealt with, but I suspect the presence of a permanent scrutineer in 2009 will have an effect across the field and it’ll be seen on the 320i’s in particular – The M20 engine offers more scope for useful modification and also has a significant following of enthusiasts able to advise about sneaky ways of improving it quite easily. However, I certainly don’t believe any of the previous race winners were running illegal engines (They don’t need to, they’re good enough already!). But from the Top 5 back, we may see the 318i’s benefitting from a greater degree of ‘parity’. I’m very much looking forward to watching what happens this year, but if I was forced to make a bet, my money would be on Rob Smith in his 320i.
I’m going to wait and see before making my decision what to put in my car, but it won’t surprise you to hear that I’m also on the hunt for a decent 320i.

Getting on with it...

2009-01-18T17:36:00.019Z

Spent the day up at 'the barn' hacking into a couple of jobs on the Astra. The theme for this winter is thankfully different from last in that I'm doing a couple of things that might actually make me go a bit quicker. The areas that cost the least to attack and are probably most likely to bring improvement without a detriment to reliability are weight and handling. So, the previously mentioned eccentric top mounts are 'in progress' and the glass fibre bonnet I got from Tim Wilkinson is now on... after a bit of fettling with a dremel. I seem to get an unusual amount of pleasure from fannying around with fibreglass and a dremel. I like the smell and I like the noise. Next bit of work on that job is to tidy and spray it up. I think I'm going to have some trouble getting the right colour though. I bought some Fiat Telefonica Verde a couple of summers back that was the most intense green in the multitude of catalogues at the mixing centre, but its still not quite got the depth and brilliance of whatever is on that car. I could paint it another colour I suppose, but almost everything other than yellow looks shite when put next to bright green. I definitely aint painting it black before anyone suggests it... Vin Diesel and the 'modifying' brigade aren't going to influence anything I'll ever own.

Here it is, in its current white coat.. complete with smeary bird shit effect and 318i lurking at the back, waiting to get butchered:
Moving on, the eccentric top mounts fit isn't as simple as I'd hoped. I can't fit them in the usual place, under the turrets, as this will reduce the amount of suspension travel available for the ideal ride height. So, I'm having to find a way to mount them on top which has its own problem in that it'll raise the strut brace and stop the bonnet from shutting down properly. I'll deal with that problem when I come to it. I have seen people running eccentric top mounts in the same position as this, but they've omitted the strut brace in order to accomodate them. I'm of the belief that this car benefits from the brace significantly so its going to go back on.. somehow.

Pics de la state of play:

While I'm here, its a good time to drop in a couple of pictures of the BMW and the start that I made with prepping it at the back of '08. First job, remove everything soft, comfortable and heavy:

Next, do everything else. Simple!

And to finish off this rather scatty post, here's a pic of the Libra in its current state. The one I posted before was on the day Dad took delivery. Since then, he's stripped off the garish yellow stickers, fitted the correct GTM splitter, fitted an intercooler and rerouted the turbo ducting. The pics below show it the day after we ragged it round the Sparkford Circuit. Its a pretty cool little car I think:

Bye bye 2008.... its been nice knowing you.

2008-12-18T14:58:00.003Z

As the final outing of 2008, last weekend it was time again to exercise the ‘lucky boy’ card and join my Dad and a couple of buddies for a mess around at the tiny circuit Haynes have at the Motor Museum in Sparkford. This time it was the turn of the GTM Libra bought earlier in the year. He’d been on the lookout for something cool, cute, quick and easy to modify. The Libra fulfils all those criteria admirably, with an MR2 Turbo engine packing a formidable punch.
The Haynes circuit is more of a go-kart track than anything else. Indeed it was originally built for exactly that purpose, but its width means that it can accommodate cars. Just. As a first-run for the car, I had some reservations about the value of taking it to this circuit as we’d not be getting much past 2nd gear, but it proved to be a lot of fun and actually suited the car quite well I think. All the corners are tight, but there is a nice little chicane as an alternative route to the main straight which presented a pleasing little ‘rally cross’ style challenge in such a short wheel-based but powerful car. As long as you didn’t lift, pulling the weight off the rear, it was just a case of pointing, squirting and holding the rear-end in check. The track was wet the whole time, but this helped us get more fun out of it by providing the ability to get the car well out of shape at relatively low speed. I wouldn’t like to have had it so sideways in the dry at that place!
Our day was cut a bit short when we finally realised why the fuel consumption was so poor. The wide band of lighter coloured tarmac that was beginning to appear around the circuit wasn't an 'emerging' dry line as we'd thought. It was a thin layer of Esso's finest..
The trip home incorporated another classic bit of 'Ibrahim' idiocy, when the nearside trailer tyre caught a branch sticking out of the verge, instantaneously deflating and stranding us on the side of a cold, dark and busy highway. Dad doesn't carry a spare… much to the amusement of our guest driver.. Reg Palmer. The subsequent 4 hour delay featuring numerous arguments with the AA didn't dampen the spirit… but did provide Reg with yet another story to add his already intimidating portfolio of anecdotes..
I'll be back in 2009 with more stories from the world of TTRS, PBMW and hopefully VLN. Until then, a very Merry Christmas to you all and have a great new year!
Cheers,
Tom.

Everything...

2008-11-03T11:02:00.001Z

Earlier in the year I posted about some long standing ambitions to do some long distance events. Well, it now looks like something is going to happen.

In the planning stages of the Spa trip, Vaughan Fullagar contacted me about sharing some accommodation near the circuit. In our subsequent discussions, he outlined his plans for the 318is he has been racing this year and that his aim is to get out in the VLN at the Nurburgring sometime in ’09. The VLN is a well established racing series that competes solely at the aforementioned legendary racing circuit doing mainly 4hr events on the Nordschleife (with the GP circuit and pitlane tagged onto the lap).

Having watched the last couple of years Nurburgring 24hr races on the web, I was excited to find that the same bunch of cars compete in the VLN. The field for that race is massive (over 230 cars) with everything imaginable from Porsche GT3 RSR’s and ex-Le Mans Vipers to virtually ‘road going’ Saloons such as BMWs and Astra’s. This year there was even a couple of Kia Cee’ds and an original Mini Cooper.

The VLN meetings consist of the same bunch of cars with a very welcoming class and cost structure, tight organisation and single day schedule, allowing amateurs from all over Europe to get out in long distance races in standard cars on the most intimidating circuit known to man. This is what Vaughan was aiming to do [with a possible attempt at the 24hr one day in the distant future ;-)]…. and he was struggling to find someone in a position to drive with him. Oooooooh!

Without going into detail, our discussions didn’t take very long to mature and we have now agreed to a joint venture next year. Yes!

The plan is to get out in a couple of races together and see how it goes. Nothing more complicated than that. Vaughan is a man of similar ambition and realism, so we agreed on the approach very easily. We’re keeping things uncomplicated and relatively risk free, so if things don’t work out, then neither of us stands to lose anything really.
But I think it’s going to work very well and we’ll both get what we want out of it not just from a driving point of view, but also from the enjoyment and challenges of running a small team together. He has some very well versed mates and I have a couple of interested buddies, so I don’t think we’ll struggle to muster enough ‘hands’ to create a nice little team of people out for a bit of fun and a steep learning curve.

For ’09 we’re using Vaughan’s E30 318is which is actually an ex-VLN competing car. So, coupled with our recent upgrade in Licence and racewear (brought about by the TTRS Spa trip), we’ve already cleared the biggest hurdles to getting out there. They’ll be plenty of things for us to worry about when we do it, but in theory we could enter a VLN race today.

I’ll continue to run the Astra in TTRS while building and developing my 318i for PBMW.

It’s going to be a very busy 12 months!

Last TTRS race of the season – Spa Francorchamps

2008-10-11T23:29:00.006+01:00

Having just completed the 1000 mile round trip to Spa for the last TTRS races of the year, my viewpoint on what qualifies as a long distance event has changed somewhat. Snetterton now seems just down the road.
Luckily, all went entirely to plan and we had a great weekend away. And after the planning and expense involved, I’m pretty relieved to have ticked it off the ‘wouldn’t it be good if’ list.

I’ve never liked the long rambling race reports you often find on blogs and race diaries, but I now realise why people do it. You just want to write it all down while it’s fresh in your mind, regardless of whether it actually turns out to be a good read. So please bear with me and excuse the nature of this and my last post. It’s more about me getting it recorded than anything else.

So anyway :-), arriving at the little town of Malmedy next to Spa on the Thursday night, we were hugely grateful to Vaughan Fullagar and friends as they had already scoped out our arrangements, erected a gazebo to cover the cars, booked us all into our accommodation and reserved us a table in a nice little restaurant in nearby Malmedy. We arrived and everything was there ready to go. After a long day on the M4, M25, ferry and driving through the mad Belgians, it was wonderful to relax and start enjoying the weekend. Marvellous.
Into the days at the track, it was clear, unsurprisingly, that I wasn’t alone in my nervousness about what lay ahead. Friday was properly wet, but I found the ambient music the organisers play loudly round the entire facility strangely calming as I sat in the car waiting to go out for our first laps on this intimidating circuit.
Whilst sitting there, staring at the steep wet tarmac of Eau Rouge, trying my best to contain the heavy breathing and avoid steaming up the glass, a number of officials starting pointing and laughing at the underside of my car. After a short period they began to dissipate until I called out to ask what on earth was so funny. Turned out there was fluffy grey cat under the car. I fired it up. It didn’t hang around long.

I’d bolted on a brand new pair of 888’s to the front of the car in anticipation of the wet weather, but knew that they would really benefit from a little scrubbing in before use in full wet conditions as the remains of the release gel can make them greasy. But I resigned myself to just dealing with it no matter what it was like and headed out.
Having spent countless hours playing video games of this circuit on a range of machines from Amiga’s to Playstations, my belief in the value of this was fully confirmed as I can honestly say I felt quite at home immediately. Again I was comfortable at the wheel and this coupled with the cool, wet conditions meant I wasn’t working the car or myself hard very hard. When it’s wet, the physically tiring ‘gung ho’ approach needed for the dry isn’t going to get you anywhere except pressed up against the barriers. I soon realised however, that I had to be REALLY delicate with the car. Turn-in was ok, but mid corner oversteer was very pronounced, especially in the middle sector of the circuit. This would then develop into classic FWD exit understeer and knew I was losing a lot time in certain sections. But through the fast bits like Blanchimont and Eau Rouge, the bits that you make the journey for, the car was pretty good and I could fairly press on where I expected to have an advantage over the lesser powered cars.
The session was only 20 minutes, so it wasn’t long enough to try anything particularly daring, but I knew that I’d done a decent time as I seemed to pass more cars than passed me.

The session netted a class pole and 11th overall so I was happy with that. Will had a problem seeing out of his car so didn’t really get a chance to set a representative time and was a long way back. If the rain hung around, I’d have a chance to beat him I thought.
Before writing up the races, I want to get a bit about the car and what I learned about it at off my chest:

Throughout the weekend, regardless of the conditions, through a large portion of the circuit the car never felt good to me. At Spa, the timekeepers supply something most of us have never had before: Sector times!
This is really useful information, because it both confirms your thoughts (whether they’re right or wrong) and tells you stuff you didn’t know. Not just about yourself, but about everyone else as well. So looking back through, there it was, plain as day. I was crap through the second sector, but perfectly good through the first and last sectors – where the circuit is very fast. This was ok, because I knew that I was maximising the car’s strengths, but I really didn’t know how to address its weaknesses. Put simply, in the downhill portion of the circuit, where the curves are the tightest, I found the car painfully twitchy and unpredictable. It was a bit like a mid-engined car on reflection. And not knowing why, I was left confused as to what to do about it.
Considering that my time had got me the class pole, I was loathed to make any major changes for the races, and suspected that we could have mixed conditions and therefore if it was a bit overly stiff in the suspension department then I’d just as likely benefit from leaving it ‘as is’ as I would from softening it significantly. So I simply dropped the pressures a bit and left it at that.
On reflection, that may have worsened matters. Even in the dry I couldn’t get decent corner speed on the downhill sections and I just had to make the best of it, and be sure to fully maximise the quick bits.

Race 1 was held on Saturday afternoon in bright dry conditions. I don’t remember the start that well, but there was an unfortunate coming together between several cars putting them either out of the race or on a long recovery drive. Unbeknownst to me, Will was left with nowhere to go and had to come to a complete stop before finding a way past the blockage and heading off into the race. Thankfully I got away cleanly and found myself in 3rd position overall through Rivage on the first lap. This didn’t last long as Don Hughes in the Mk1 golf slipped past at Fagnes. The first 2/3 laps were spent desperately fending off Rob Welsh in his 318i and the 320i of Charles Hodge. The difficulties I was having at Rivage were highly evident when Rob kindly gave me a firm nudge square on the back halfway through the hairpin. I know he couldn’t have avoided it, I know I was pathetically slow through there. But, no harm done, I managed to get away a little bit when they had to deal with some faster cars recovering back through the field. I let those guys through as well and the battle continued between myself and Charles, with Rob dropping away from us both. I had a power advantage over Charles’ 320, but holding him off through Stavelot got increasingly hard as the race wore on. With a couple of laps to go, I finally made a mistake out of La Source, missing third gear and allowing Charles to tag on the back through Eau Rouge and up the hill. He passed me under braking into Les Combe just as a couple of other recovering faster machinery approached us both. I spent the rest of the race following one of the Vento’s praying that the exhaust pipe it was dragging along behind wouldn’t break loose right in front of me.
I crossed the line thinking that I’d won the class. Will McAteer kindly came over and congratulated me on the win, but I quickly realised that one of the cars that had passed me up the hill was Craig Short in his 325i. I was so wrapped up in thinking that Will might beat me that I’d entirely forgotten Craig was in our class. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to have come second yet again, but Craig’s drive from the back was excellent and at over 5 seconds a lap faster than me, I would never have beaten him that day.
So, in the overnight period before Race 2 I found myself with an irrepressible nagging in my mind to get a Class win under my belt. I’d finished 2nd six times and it was starting to get really annoying and had actually begun to affect my enjoyment of the event. Perhaps more accurately, I’d jumped the financial and logistical hurdles needed to get to Spa in the first place and I’d grown accustomed to putting myself under pressure to get a job done. Having managed to do everything up to that point, my personal satisfaction needed a new dependency I guess! It’s funny how your mind works sometimes.

Sunday broke to pouring rain as forecasted and I did wonder for a while whether we would race at all. Mid morning, it got a bit better but I think we all knew we’d have a wet race no matter what. I dropped the pressures a bit further and did the usual checks. Bonnet up, yes there’s still an engine in it, bonnet back down again..

Lining up on the grid, I was presented with an enviable amount of space in front of me, due to a missing entrant. No idea why he wasn’t there, but I wasn’t complaining. At the lights, Stacy Vickers front row RX7 spluttered to a halt and forced Craig to take an immediate route around him. Having got a decent start myself, this opened a very handy gap for me to post the car between him and Charles into La Source. Cheers!
On the run down to Eau Rouge for the first time I realised I was 3rd overall again with none of the other class D runners in sight in my mirrors. I couldn’t have asked for more really. I had a nice little gap over the next car heading up the Kemmel straight, giving me a bit of breathing space to take it easy at Les Combe and assess the grip level carefully. My assessment returned a categoric ‘its shite mate’ and I headed to Rivage knowing I needed to take this very easily. Unsurprisingly, things weren’t much better there either and I then knew this was going to be real ‘tip toe’ job just to keep it on the road for 30 minutes. Again through Blanchimont it wasn’t too bad, so I could use the car’s straight line pace to compensate for my growing concern for its behaviour (and my inability to find a way around it) in the downhill slower corners. I simply chose not to fight it, and ensure a clean exit from the corners and therefore a decent run onto the quicker bits.
This went on for 3 laps, holding 3rd place uncontested. But at the end of the 3rd lap, Matt Knight’s Corsa on an amazing recovery drive from the back of the grid, appeared in my mirrors with Ken Lark’s Corrado. I still couldn’t see either Will or Craig anywhere behind me and knew that Matt and Ken had far superior pace, so I made a big gap for them at La Source and let them go. I really didn’t have a defence, but even if I did I wouldn’t have used it because I didn’t want to cost myself time to Will or Craig. Soon after those two disappeared up the road, the pair of Vento’s steamed up behind me, giving me a fright for a moment as they front end of a Vento looks remarkably like that of a Golf (ergo Will McAteer) in the rain. Realising this did the same as with the others and let them go cleanly and without losing any time myself. At this point, a small shunt on the exit of Blanchimont brought out the safety car. I didn’t know whether this was good news or bad until I saw Will in my mirrors behind the BMW of Charles Hodge who’d been following me the whole time setting an almost identical pace to me. In some ways it was a shame because it took a big chunk out of our race time, but in others I was grateful – more race time means more opportunity to lose a position you’ve been trying to protect. I think the safety car did 3 laps before turning his lights off. This is when the class was won for me.
Exiting Blanchimont on the lap before racing resumed I saw that Charles Hodge was completely asleep and doing a brilliant job of holding Will behind him a good 200 yards behind me. Thanks Charles! .. so at the resumption I had a very handy gap over the pair of them. As it turned out, we only had 2 laps to go. On the run down to Pouhon on the penultimate lap, I was watching Will and Charles now joined by Liam Crilly very carefully. I’d been uber-slow through Rivage and they’d all taken a fair chunk out of my gap. On the exit of Pouhon, once the car was straightened up, I looked again and both Will and Liam had disappeared completely. As long as I kept it clean, the class win was mine. On the last lap I scanned the circuit to see if Will was parked up somewhere and hopefully not in the barriers but all was clear thankfully. So I had a straight run to a very welcome flag and my first TTRS class win.

It’d been a long time coming, but that made it all the more sweet. I was completely over the moon and really appreciated the podium treatment they gave us all including a bubbly spraying session onto the empty pit road!

This was such a pleasurable way to finish the year off. Not just because it was the last race, but because it was probably the last time I’d run the Astra in its current guise. To get a class win out of it at the last was testament to my belief that a very standard car driven carefully can bring home the bacon from time to time. But to get properly on terms with the cars that’ll be running next year, we’re going to have to make some significant changes. More on that another time.

TTRS Britcar 24 Hour Support

2008-09-22T15:38:00.002+01:00

After a 3 month break from racing, it was good to get back into the car last weekend for the penultimate round of the TTRS on the Silverstone GP circuit, supporting the Britcar 24hr.

This was a big meeting, so it was great for us to be associated with it.

The schedule was a little different from previous meetings, having races on the Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Both races were to be the longest we’d done to date and with this in mind I chose not to make any drastic changes to the car in preparation, opting simply to check it over thoroughly and correct a couple of bits that might give trouble.

The only change I made that would be apparent from the drivers seat was the position of the seat itself. At my last meeting at Rockingham in June, I found myself ‘flailing’ around at the controls somewhat when under pressure. I initially put this down to a lack of experience in that situation, but finally put two and two together, realising that I was sitting just a bit too far back in the car.
Having rectified this, I immediately noticed the difference on the first few laps out on Friday. It felt completely different. Everything was perfectly to hand and I didn’t have to physically work very hard to be fully on top of the car.

The whole experience of driving the car was totally transformed and this went on to prove its worth in many ways throughout the weekend.

In the qualifying session, everything felt ok for the first 2/3 laps before an alarming moment at Brooklands when the back end of the car instantaneously stepped round. I gathered it up and carried on, but this was very uncharacteristic of the car. I noticed on the next lap that the back end got a bit squirmy again, but this time through a lovely fast left hander called Priory, and again felt this wasn’t typical behaviour. The car seemed absolutely fine through the right-handers such as Copse, again a lovely fast corner, so I figured I’d just take it easy through the lefties, of which there are few, and do the tidiest lap I could.
All went basically ok after that, but not without giving Will McAteer a scare at Becketts when I opted to let him through just as we approached a waved yellow flag. I was watching him in my mirrors, but as I’d not had a good run into this series of curves I decided to move off line, back off and let him through. I then saw the yellows and realised I’d inadvertently put him in a position that could have been dangerous or at the least resulted in a penalty for him. Will did the right thing and reported to Race Control to explain, which will have helped, but I was glad to hear nothing came of it and it wasn’t mentioned again.

The useful bit of having Will behind for a lap or so was that he came over afterward to point out that fuel was leaking out of the filler cap and onto my right rear tyre. Ah! Now I knew what the hell was going on with the back end. This was reassuring news as it was easily fixed up for the races.

I’d qualified 19th out of the 50 odd cars, 3rd in class with most of the BMWs behind. Not bad.

Come the race, late in the day, my aim was to dispatch the remaining BMWs and have a go at Matt Knight in his ever improving Corsa. As it worked out, that is precisely what happened, though it took me longer than I’d envisaged. The relative pace of the BMWs and myself seemed to fluctuate quite wildly as the likes of Liam Crilly, Mike Dugdale and Tim Wilson scrapped it out in front of me. Considering the intensity of their battle and the length of the race I decided not to try any last gasp moves at the times I got close. I knew that decisive moves were possible as I had the power advantage but I only seemed to be getting close to making a move at the points on the circuit where overtaking is quite marginal, such as Bridge corner. I backed out on a couple of occasions, reminding myself that I still had another long race the following day and a big trip to Spa only a fortnight away.
I don’t know whether the BMW’s cooked their tyres a bit, but somehow, one by one I picked them all off except Rob Smith who was too far up the road by this point. This left me with the familiar sight of the rear end of a Vauxhall Corsa driven by Matt Knight.
The last time he and I met I had a hairy moment on the grass trying to pass him up the inside of Druids corner at Brands. This time, the hairiness came courtesy of the pit wall.. as I just managed to squeak up the inside on the run towards Copse. Matt gave me ‘the squeeze’ but left just enough room to draw alongside with the wing mirror millimetres off the wall. Quite exciting!
At the last moment, he saw I was still there and moved left to give us both some space into Copse. With a very late brake, turn in and wide exit I managed to get by, with Matt having a moment of his own on the exit. It was a very satisfying move… if a little ragged.

The race finished a couple of laps later and I was chuffed to find myself 2nd in Class and 8th overall, largely due to the level of attrition amongst the faster cars. Though I guess I did pass 5 or so cars on merit.

For the second race, on Saturday morning, I felt that my only real goal should be to ensure I cleared the last BMW of Rob Smith and then do my best to follow Will to the line as close as I could. He’d mentioned a little worry he’d got about his front left wheel bearing and so I suspected he’d be nursing it and thought that this might offer an opportunity to actually beat him and get a Class win under my belt.
At the start, I spun the wheels a bit and Matt came through before lurching violently towards me in avoidance of the stalling John Willcocks in his M3. Thankfully, everybody got away cleanly and without incident. Out of Copse I was ahead of Rob Smith and pulling away. Job #1 complete.
I chased Matt for the first couple of laps, but was mindful of the much faster cars coming past that had suffered trouble in the first race. Those guys through, I was then easily able to draft past Matt on the run out of Luffield.

I then spent the bulk of this race enjoying some clear ‘wheel time’ having about 10/11 laps to myself without interruption. I was grateful for this as every race to date has involved a lot of battling, which although very good fun, hasn’t allowed me to spend some time with just my own car and lines to deal with. This was a great opportunity to put my head down and drive as smoothly and quickly as I could, while being careful not to make a silly error or push too hard and give me and the car a problem.
The Silverstone GP circuit is very fast and flowing, so I could lean quite hard on the car and find out a few things about it and myself. Looking back through the lap chart, I was very happy with the consistency and lap time. The car stayed pretty much the same throughout the race, with perhaps a slight dip in performance towards the end before punching in my fastest time on my penultimate lap.

With a couple of laps to go, I noticed that Will, who’d been in my sight all race but quite a long way up the road, was starting to get bigger! My suspicions were confirmed when I pulled to within 2 seconds of him and saw him have a moment at Copse, running wide onto the run-off apron. Trying to make the most of this opportunity I pushed a bit harder (doing my aforementioned fastest lap), but not too hard as I didn’t want to end up losing time. It was clear however, that despite his bearing trouble Will still had a pretty good pace and I simply ran out of laps. The recovering John Willcocks appeared on my bootlid as I turned into Priory for the last time and the distraction meant that my chase of Will was over. I wouldn’t have got him that lap either way. One more though, and I reckon it could’ve been a Class win. John out-dragged me easily out of Luffield and onto the flag, but the combination of the loss of a couple of quicker cars meant I still ended up 7th. 2nd in Class for the 4th time this year.

Saturday was a beautiful morning, bright and hazy so it was a real pleasure to be out on the circuit. The car felt good and I felt at home. A very nice feeling.

Plus, for a £2000 race car running standard engine, gearbox, brakes and no LSD, a lap time that would not have been last on the grid of the Britcar 24 hour (I doubt there was a car that cost under ten-times the price of mine in that race) isn’t too bad if I may say so myself.

I hate to mention it but....

2008-09-09T22:57:00.002+01:00

I told myself not to give the cock up at Spa on Sunday too much thought as it really did feel like the last straw that night... but I just can't leave it! Also, this is the first time I've mentioned anything F1 related in this blog. I've generally avoided it as its so widely covered elsewhere but, considering the ridiculousness of the outcome I think it warrants a comment. Plus, I suppose I just love the sport too much to not say something.

Here's a post I left on the Ten Tenths Forum regarding this particularly contraversial bit of F1 soap opera:

I think that a claim of 'total' conspiracy is based on tenuous evidence, pretty unlikely and too difficult to achieve consistantly (now there's a word). We are in no position to make a clear judgement regarding that idea.

We are however in a good position to judge whether the steward’s decision was correct and whether a penalty should have been applied.

The basis for the implementation of a penalty is, at best, highly tenuous. The widespread debate surrounding the question of whether Lewis gained an advantage or not is testament to the difficulty involved in making a clear case either way. A decision that results in the penalty we have seen applied here must be made on clear unequivocal evidence that a significant and illegal advantage had been gained. It is plainly obvious that a sufficiently strong case could not be made either way in this particular situation.

To disregard the relative pace of the cars both in the lap leading up to the clash and the lap after it, where Lewis was clearly the quicker of the two is to miss a key point regarding the final overtaking manoeuvre into La Source. Lewis was quicker. His ability to pass Kimi was as likely to have come from his quicker pace as it had from an advantage gained at the previous corner.

If people think that Lewis did gain an advantage, and I’m not one of them, it was so small and so debatable that intervention was out of the question. There just wasn’t enough evidence to convict and the stewards should have let the result ‘on the road’ stand, as they rightly did in Valencia.

Again, I hesitate to comment about the arguments regarding conspiracy theories. But very reputable word from life long friends of TSA confirms that the reason he left the post was due to a total lack of basic fairness and principal operated by the upper management of the FIA. I suspect that he was hired because they thought his calm, measured and appreciative demeanor would make him a walk over. Clearly they were wrong.

But, my real sadness about this is that the true racing enthusiasts are left justifiably offended by an inexplicable and intrusive intervention into one of the greatest finishes to an F1 race in recent times.

I feel better now. (dirty, but better)

Blogging for blogging’s sake

2008-09-05T13:53:00.002+01:00

Looking at the stats for traffic through this blog, I see that a number of you are regularly checking in, presumably to see if there is a new post. Well I want to apologise profusely for the lack of update in the past month or so…

This isn’t really a proper post I know, but I just wanted to say hello! and that I’ll be back soon with some proper racing stuff to discuss.

Cheers,

Tom.

Time out

2008-08-18T23:15:00.004+01:00

As those who come here regularly have probably noticed, I've not blogged in a while. I'll be back with some racing stuff soon, but in the meanwhile I've been busy working up some photo's I took in Berlin last week during a short break. I've posted a few on my Flickr Photostream if you're interested...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25449715@N04/

....and you'll also find a few racing ones there if you quickly get bored of the arty fartyness.

Mallock Mk8b

2008-07-24T22:02:00.005+01:00

I am a lucky boy.

Lucky, because I have a generous father and lucky because he's owned a multitude of interesting cars over the years.

On Tuesday I met up with him at Llandow to give one of his recent purchases a 'shakedown' after he'd completed a few changes to what is basically a classic bit of British racing history. There are many Mallocks in the world now and the company continues to produce cars long after the death Arthur Mallock who was the father of both the car and Ray Mallock, the very successful driver, engineer and team owner.

To those who haven't seen one before, they look a bit weird yes. But underneath the bodywork is something essentially very recognisable as a Lotus 7 derived space frame chassis. In fact, if you simply removed the wings and side pods, most would understandably think it was a Lotus 7.
Dad has tinkered around with these cars from time to time for about as long as I can remember (he spent much of my childhood building and developing one into a full-bodied MG Midget race car) so it was nice to finally have a go in one.

This car is an 8b, which first appeared in 1970 for sale to competitors in the Clubmans Championship. I'm no expert I'm afraid so am not going to attempt to outline the development of these cars or indeed this one, but suffice to say this car has been developed significantly since its first manufacture and now sports an aero package that could be deemed contemporary for competitive Clubmans cars in the late 70s/eary 80s.
Underneath the fibre-glass sits a 1300cc Ford Crossflow, coupled to a 4 speed 'dog box'.

The car currently has last years Classic Clubmans Avon rubber on its wheels that, although reported to have been disliked by the competitors, is perfectly good for us to have a go with.

Anyway, we only had an afternoon to play with but that proved long enough to find out what we wanted to know and simply to enjoy having a little go in it. It is a very simple little car, with nothing much to go wrong but nevertheless its always satisfying to confirm that by having a clear afternoons driving. I was pleased for Dad as he'd spent quite a bit of time rebuilding the suspension and generally renovating the car into the proper state.

I had 2 runs and found it to be not unlike the '93 Swift Formula Renault we'd taken there in 2005. The seating position is really quite different, but the capability of the car in terms of power to weight and the sheer amount of grip you've got at your disposal was a real reminder of that car. However, the gearbox was a load easier to deal with. We'd both struggled a bit with the downchange to 2nd in the Swift, but this box was just fantastic. Both positive and compliant.

Neither of us pushed to get a representative lap time mainly because a mistake in some parts of the circuit results in quite a nasty impact, but we didn't really hang about on the safer bits either. Llandow doesn't provide a proper 'racing' corner, but you can still pull some decent revs in 4th before braking hard for either the 'bus stop' style chicane at the start of the lap, or the quick right-left-right on the other side of the circuit.
The car handled like a dream frankly (well, it was bound to feel good compared to an Astra) and the engine sounded great so it was hard to actually bring yourself to pull in when you planned to do so. 'I'll just do one more lap' was the usual result.

The weather stayed dry and warm, and we had some fun. Probably the nicest Tuesday I can remember!

Cheers Dad!

A purchase has been made

2008-07-18T23:12:00.004+01:00

Dunno exactly what I'm going to do with it yet, but the price and the fact it was only hour up the road meant I had to buy it. Honestly.
Its possibly the straightest, cleanest E30 I've ever seen. I had to buy it. No really I did.
Bit of a shame then that I managed to ding the front valence transporting it up the M4.. silly boy.

It'll mend.

HSCC Pembrey

2008-07-14T16:52:00.007+01:00

Spent a sunny afternoon at the HSCC meeting at Pembrey yesterday. All very nice, if a little under-supported.

The best couple of races of the day came from the amalgamated Classic Formula 3/Derek Bell Trophy races.

These races were intriguing as the amalgamation brought a Mid sixties F2 Brabham B29 into a fierce battle with a couple of Mid seventies F3 cars. In both of their races, the front three cars were brilliantly driven and provided 15 minutes of great entertainment. This was one of those situations commonly known to provide good racing, where one car was quick in different places to its rival. The Brabham, without the burden of wings and with 20bhp more than the F3’s, was able to make good on its straight line advantage while the F3’s with their much higher developed chassis design and full downforce capability were able to reel him back in through the curvier bits of the varied Pembrey circuit. Lead swap’s aplenty!
Added to this, the drivers clearly had the cars right underneath them and were all able to pitch themselves with total commitment into the quicker bits of the circuit and you could see the whole package working beautifully. I could happily watch that all day.

The first race went to the F3’s. But the second one, a proper nail biter throughout, provided the best entertainment as the Brabham managed to get ahead at the first corner and relied on the F3’s squabbling between themselves to make a small gap. The driver kept it neat, tidy but ultimately just quick enough to hold them at arm’s length and take a fully deserved victory for the Tom Pryce Memorial Trophy. There were only about 300 spectators, but I’m sure everyone who saw it will remember it.

The Classic Saloons race, while a little slower, was just as good fun. It was nice to see a couple of Imps out giving the Mini’s a run for their money and it took me back to when my Dad ran one in Pre’65 in the early 90’s. Again, many of the cars were beautifully driven and a pleasure to behold as they were flung though the quicker bits of the circuit.

I couldn’t help feeling a little bit sad though. This sort of racing will get gradually harder and harder to find as the years go by. Not that long ago these cars could be bought and raced on a tight budget, but that certainly isn’t the case anymore. You won’t find this stuff in the scrapyards and anything race prepped will set you back a small fortune.
The ‘budget classics’ are now more likely to be cars like mine and the multitude of other mass produced FWD tin boxes. It is a shame then, that the 60’s era will probably be the last to provide such visually appealing racing. These cars were the last to widely employ the front engine, rear drive arrangement – coupled with fairly agricultural suspension and high profile tyres. Everything afterwards, apart from the BMW’s and a couple of other tiny exceptions, will never be as much fun to drive and/or watch.

Sorry, I do hate to be such a doom monger… but I’m really going to miss this stuff when it dies out.

I’ve not been to Pembrey for a couple of years which is part of the reason why I went along to this meeting. It suffers a bit from the airfield syndrome of flat and windy bleakness and there’s not much to admire when there’s nothing on the circuit. But on a sunny day, the sense of space turns into a nice warm airiness and it’s quite a relaxing place to be. Yesterday was just like that.

The circuit itself is one of the best in the country in my view. Its smooth, fast and demanding, with a bit of something for everyone. No wonder Ayrton Senna loved it so much. The spectating isn’t great though, largely due to the flatness, large run-off areas and the fact that the circuit makes best use of the area by running ‘inside itself’, with the spectator banking getting in the way of any attempt to look further than the 2/3 corners in front of you. Also, half of the circuit – the fastest section – is completely inaccessible. But, its only an hour away for me and so I do hope to race there sometime soon.

Click on the pics to make 'em bigger... they look quite good when you do that. I tried to get some of the cars in the quicker bits, but was struggling with the camera and what seemed to be TOO MUCH light.. weird...

What to do?

2008-07-08T10:05:00.000+01:00

I’m in a bit of a racing break at the moment. There’s nothing on the calendar until Silverstone in September – a race meeting I’m very much looking forward to.
So, in this gap there are a few things to do to the car, but a few things to think about and maybe start planning toward.

As I mentioned, the Rockingham meeting had a profound effect on my thoughts in that it’s removed a few internal barriers and doubled my already substantial desire to race even more and in something a bit quicker. Initially, it made me want to develop the Astra further and I think that’s still going to happen to some extent. But now, a few weeks later, it’s simply left me feeling like looking further and wider (my ambitions are up again). However, it is very difficult to properly assess other possibilities and I’m loathed to move to another organisation as I feel at home with the Project 8 crowd.

So, assuming that I stick with TTRS as my base, there are other things I could explore. I’m lucky in that my father is pretty active in motor sport and owns a couple of quick cars that might satisfy my curiosity for a bit. More on those another time.

But the area I’d most like to explore further is ‘team’ racing with other drivers in longer ‘endurance’ races. I really fancy having a go at something like this. I think I’d be good at it (as I know I’m a consistent, reasonably quick, have a safe pair of hands and am mechanically sympathetic to cars) and I would really like to spend some intense ‘team time’ around other more experienced drivers and mechanics. My only regular racing buddy to date has been my Dad and I’m certainly not complaining about what I’ve learned from him (pretty much everything I know) and we’ve enjoyed countless race days together over the last 20 years. But it’d be good to spend more time around people who don’t think like I do!

Plus, I find the idea of doing a ‘stint’ in a race car (as opposed to the entire race) very appealing. Especially if it was a reasonably quick car and in the dark… somebody’s still got ‘Le Mans fever’ some might say!
Well, yes, but if that’s the case then I’ve PERMANENTLY got Le Mans fever!

I’ve yet to fully explore the possible race series/championships that could be ‘do-able’. Whilst the most obvious candidate is Britcar, at first glance this looks a bit beyond most people’s grasp. The cars and entry fees are astronomical frankly. However, there are other possibilities to be found – the classic endurance racing scene is very popular these days and I’m confident somewhere there is an appropriate level to start out in.

Unfortunately though, the prerequisite number of ‘fellow team mates’ might not be so easy to find. The obvious way to approach it is to find some like minded individuals, pool our money and go racing. But living in Wales means that most local like-minded individuals are more interested in rallying than circuit racing. Plus, everyone else I know is far more likely to be spending their hard earned on having children, furnishing their houses or dreaming about the Audi TT/Mini/325i or any other ‘show’ car they’ve always wanted. None of that appeals to me at the moment and so I’ve got to look further afield.

To anyone reading this who feels the same way. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH! There’s some great racing we can do!

The best place to be

2008-06-24T21:56:00.006+01:00

I figured that its time to get something up about Le Mans as its fast becoming a distant memory.

The race fully lived up to its billing. Audi and Peugeot battled hard throughout the entire 24 hours and the result really wasn’t certain until the last half hour or so.

Highlights were McNish giving it everything in the first few hours, quadruple stinting the would-be winner #2 R10 and staying touch with the unfeasibly quick 908’s. In the last hours it rained hard and this is when Nick Minassian showed just how talented a driver he is by staying out on slicks in the hope of making up the 3 minute deficit to the lead Audi. Through the scary Porsche curves he had full opposite lock in both directions on several occasions at incredible speed, somehow threading the car through what has now become one of the most dangerous sections of race circuit in the world.

The results seemed about right in the end, even if it was yet another bloody Audi win. It was just great for McNish to get his long overdue second Le Mans win.

I took a few piccies with my new camera. Not too bad considering the cheap lens and untalented fool on the other end of it.

Till next year…

Waking up at Rockingham

2008-06-19T22:08:00.007+01:00

So, here we go. The Rockingham meeting in full.

I think this meeting will stand in my memory as a distinct turning point for me in a number of ways and very I'm glad to say they're good ones.

On paper and from the outside, it probably all looked fairly unremarkable. Just a bright green Astra GTE being driven around a race track. But from my perspective, several things came together at once and created something that has changed my thinking permanently.

The key part of it was that, despite making some pretty big mistakes, I got the best out of both myself and the car that I possibly could have done that day. Prior to this meeting, I've always left the circuit feeling that I could have driven better. This time I knew that I'd given it everything and that felt great.

The day went thus:

Our qualifying session was cut short to enable the insertion of the last race of the day: Last Chance Saloons - allowing a few 'would be' reserves to get a race and give us TTRS boys another one. The upshot was that not only would we have little time on the circuit, but all entrants to both races (38 in total) would qualify together.
Knowing this and that I that I hadn't driven the circuit before, I planned to take things pretty easy. But then it rained. Hard.
At most race meetings, I take my time in getting myself and the car ready to go out and often end up at the back of the pack. This is usually because I simply don't want to get in the way of the faster cars. This time however, I figured that the multitude of PBMW entrants would be falling over eachother in the wet conditions and therefore decided to head up to the assembly area on the early side. Good move.
The circuit was soaking wet for the entire session, but I had a wonderfully clear run only seeing the blindingly quick Don Hughes in his Mk1 Golf on his way to pole.
The result was that I was 8th fastest overall. I can't honestly say I did anything remarkable behind the wheel, just kept it on the least wet bits and feathered the gas carefully.
I think that not knowing the circuit actually helped to some degree as I was undistracted by the correct 'dry' lines through the bends. Those that have read Skip Barber's 'Going Faster' will know that alot can be gained in the wet by placing the car on the less worn parts of the circuit, as the tarmac is usually less compressed and polished by cars and therefore drains more easily and offers a rougher surface for the tyres to grab hold of.
I often find also, that drivers who display a very gung-ho attitude in the dry drive a little too carefully in the wet. More seem to be scared by it than willing to embrace it and see it as an opportunity to drive the car close to its limit at a relatively low speed.

Onto the racing.
After lunch the weather cleared and the circuit began to dry. By the time of our first race, it was completely dry and I therefore felt that I was likely to drop down the order rather than progress forward. As it turned out, I got a great start off the lights and got past the Alfa 33 of Tim Perry with a fairly aggressive chopping manoeuvre. Indeed, a couple of much quicker cars that had faltered in the wet came past on the long run to the first hairpin, but it seemed that we were good for 9th position closely chased by Tom Bateson in the Scirocco. Tom chased very hard for the first 3 or 4 laps and I had to give it everything to keep him behind. I was helped however by what was becoming clear as a distinct power advantage down the straights. This was a bit of a surprise as I’m fairly sure my engine is standard and Tom Bateson’s has been properly race prepped. Either way, I was able to keep him back even if I was right at the limit of what I could get from the car around the wiggly bits. This was the first time I’d been really pressurised in the car and it showed. I was missing gears regularly as my attention was completely taken up by watching the mirrors while trying to keep the lines tidy and the braking distances short and defensive. I’d never worked so hard behind the wheel.
Towards the end of lap 4, at the second hairpin I found my limit. Pressing the accelerator on the exit of the corner, the engine was dead and I coasted to a halt on the grass. I can’t remember exactly what I saw when I looked at the fuel and electrics switches on the dash, but I turned everything off, then on again, pressed the starter and drove back into the race. It was soon clear that there was nothing wrong with the car and the only explanation for the mishap was that I must have hit the fuel switch while desperately downchanging into the hairpin. Arse.
It was annoying to lose such a good position, but I was just pleased that there was nothing wrong with the car and ultimately that we had good pace. I passed a few courteous BMWs to regain a few places and finished the race 19th overall.

Due to a technicality about how the second race came about, the grid was thankfully not determined by the finishing positions of our first. So, I was somewhat 'gifted' a reprieve from my earlier mistake and started from much the same position again and ahead of Tom Bateson. Didn't really seem fair, but I wasn't complaining. Off the line, again a good start, somehow getting past the Rover Turbo 220 of Richard Buckley only to be repassed by him on the run to the hairpin. From this point, the racing pretty much resumed where I'd ducked out in race 1, with myself and Tom dicing hard for 2nd in Class D. However, Will didn't seem to disappear up the road like I expected him too and although I was not on terms with him, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to keep him sight. I managed to keep Tom behind for the first 6/7 laps but then badly missed a gear on the run out of the last corner and he slipped by on the oval banking. I tried to keep up some pressure on him, but was beginning to drop a couple of car lengths back as we started the last lap. Getting a good run onto the banking, I arrived at the first hairpin fully tanked up. Unfortunately I got the car proper crossed up under braking and it looked for a moment like I was going to overshoot. But, with the car skating around and locked up, I made alot of screeching noise and I think, though I don't know for sure, this put Tom off his line and he lost it mid corner (after the race he mentioned his understandable fear that I was about to T-bone him mid corner and that he was trying to take action to avoid a shunt). By this time, I'd just about gathered it up enough to turn in and was able to nip alongside Tom on the exit and ultimately past him into the next right hander.
Tom remained right on my bootlid until the last section of the lap, when he started to suffer from fuel starvation and dropped back to complete a nice little train of the top 3 Class D cars across the line. Will, myself and Tom respectively.

I feel a little bad about the pass, as I don't think it would have happened if I hadn't lost it and Tom hadn't made an admirable attempt to avoid an accident. But, as it turned out, I'd probably have passed him anyway when his engine began to cut a little at the end of the lap.

So, all in all I was very pleased to finish 7th overall at such a varied circuit. For me, it really showed that the car has potential. And as a driver, I learned a load of stuff... not least, that to compete properly I must drive as hard as I did throughout that day.

I will return to this meeting in a later post, as the stuff I learned has had a profound effect on my approach to the car and my driving. I'd planned to spend the summer commencing the build of a Production BMW car, but these couple of races have left me feeling quite different. I may instead head into a proper cycle of development with the Astra, spend a bit more money on it and take it to a level I hadn't previously planned on. Hmmmmmmmmnn!

Catching up

2008-06-18T22:34:00.002+01:00

ok, well I'm a liar.

Work commitments last week and the mad panic to get ready for Le Mans meant I wasn't able to update the blog with stuff about Rockingham before I left for the big race. Now I'm back I'll hop to it and get something up about it soon. Also, I'll post some stuff about Le Mans, and couple of pics I took with my new camera.

Both Rockingham and Le Mans were memorable weekends for different reasons and I'd like to cover them properly and thoughtfully.

Again, sorry for the delay. I promise I will do better!

The Rock

2008-06-09T16:49:00.002+01:00

Just got back from a brilliant couple of races at Rockingham on Saturday. 7th overall in Race 2. YES!!!!!

Still a bit over excited to post properly about this, so I'll get back to it once I've calmed down a bit :-).... plus, it's Le Mans week and I've got stuff to sort out. But hopefully I'll find a moment to try and sum my races prior to departing for La Sarthe.

Stay tooned!

Le Mans

2008-05-22T12:47:00.003+01:00

I shouldn’t even begin to post about this because it could take years to write and I’ll probably never be completely happy with it. I’d probably be better off not even broaching the subject and opt instead to recommend that anyone who wants to know more about Le Mans should just go. But seeing as I have such a love affair with it (if you can describe a life long obsession as a love affair) I think I should have a go at writing about it.

For me, Le Mans epitomises many of the aspects that I love about racing. The cars are beautiful and sound fantastic, the circuit is blindingly fast, the drivers are the best in the world and the event itself involves such a hugely diverse range of people and their respective facets that it’s hard to think of a sporting occasion that results in such a random melting pot of human endeavour.
Its difficult to pinpoint the things that make this the case because it’s a subtle combination of circumstance and history that makes it the way it is, but there’s no doubt about its ability to appeal to a very large (and still growing) number of people who fall under its spell.

Most people only need attend once and then they’re hooked for life. ‘Not going’ results in considerable emotional pain, especially if the Eurosport feed of the race happens to appear on your telly during the race weekend when you’re at home. You feel like you’ve stood up a very beautifully lady and she’s never quite going to regard you in the same way ever again. Turning on the TV feed feels a bit like spying on her while she happily learns to forget you exist.

Luckily, I won’t be feeling that this year as I’m heading out with a couple of buddies for what should be the best (some would say first) proper contest this century; Audi vs. Peugeot. This will be my 10th Le Mans, so it’d be good if it lives up to its billing. We shall soon see.
In the meantime, here’s a couple of clips I dug up that just begin to scratch the surface of what Le Mans consists of for me. Hope you enjoy them:

Turn up the volume.

Race start (2005)

Mulsanne at Night

Foux Da Fa Fa

TTRS Brands Hatch

2008-04-30T16:34:00.003+01:00

After a great weekend’s racing at Brands last week, I’m now much more relaxed about the car and the rest of the season. The misfire has completely gone, the brakes were better again and I had no mechanical complaints all weekend.
This is great for the future, cos now I can get on with just growing more confident in the car and hopefully a getting bit quicker.

Last weekend’s meeting was the first 2 dayer I’ve ever entered and I had some concerns that I’d find some more problems with the car. In the end, I shouldn’t have worried.

I’d been laid a bit low during the week prior to the races with a fairly trivial cold. But this, coupled with a bit of nervousness and general ‘tiredness’, I must admit left me feeling like utter crap over the entire meeting. Annoying. For anyone that sometimes suffers with a bit of pre-race tension, I can confirm that the usual symptoms were proudly showing themselves throughout the weekend!

But I’ve found over the last couple of years that nerves are not always there. Recently, I’ve also found that I can manage to ‘make’ myself nervous, when previously I was ok, simply by wondering why I’m not nervous. It’s bloody infuriating! But, in retrospect it’s not that surprising really and it indicates that I’ll get a full grip on it at some point soon. A ‘little’ bit of nerves is probably not a bad thing though either.

The racing itself was brilliant fun. Probably the most fun I’ve had in a race car. Contrary to my post below, the competition decided to show up in the form of Will McAteer and a couple of cars I’d previously discounted as beatable. Tom Bateson in the Scirocco was much more competitive at Brands than Combe, where his pace was slowed presumably due to mechanical woes. The other car that suddenly appeared to find pace was Craig Short in his BMW 325. I was unable to challenge any of these guys for Class honours.

Despite this, I had a great battle with Matt Knight in his Corsa in the bright sunshine of Race 1. He defended very well and it took me most of the race to actually get past him. This only came after we’d had several close ‘side by side’ runs through a few bends, including a first-time ‘sod this I’m getting on the grass’ moment from me when trying to get past on the inside on the run up to Druids. I only nailed him once I’d finally realised (after several bloody obvious demonstrations) that all I needed to do was fully block the inside of the entry to Paddock Hill bend after passing him on the start/finish straight. I don’t think I was quite ‘with it’ on reflection!

The second race was a close battle again, but this time including many other cars. The video shows what happened better than I can explain.

Part 1

Part 2

The Competition

2008-04-17T14:08:00.002+01:00

My car runs in Class D of the TTRS, for cars with an engine between 1600 and 2000cc. On paper, the Astra is a sound basis for a class winning car. It has one of the best 2 Litre 16v engines ever designed and it’s quite small and light. The area where the Astra has inherent failings is in the handling department. It was designed to be a rugged run-about and achieved that goal by having fairly agricultural suspension design and ride-height. Also, the engine and gearbox assembly is tall, giving a higher centre of gravity than the opposition. There are a number of things that can be done to counter this, and I’ll talk about them in more detail some other time, but the aim for me was to get the car ‘chuckable’ and fun to drive on a limited budget and in ‘one hit’. I didn’t want to spend lots of cash trying various ideas and configurations, so I went straight for a full GAZ adjustable kit (built-up specially for this application), with the Macphersons converted to coil over ‘wet’ units. Considering that the Astra famously suffers from chronic understeer problems due to aspects that aren’t easily rectified, I opted out of tackling the front end directly (other than stiffening and lowering it) and decided to simply stiffen the rear of the car even more dramatically in an attempt to get it moving around as much if not more than the front. Yes, it makes the whole car a lot more twitchy and nervous, but it does seem to turn in quite well.
It’s difficult to know how much better the car could be if someone spent more time and money working on it (or indeed how much worse), but I don’t think it does anything badly enough to warrant major change. There are a number of other simple things I can do that will bring an improvement in the future.

But, when rating my chances against some of the competition in Class D, its clear that a winning opportunity is unfortunately only going to come if certain people don’t turn up. I think there are 2 main rivals who should beat me every time really. Firstly, there’s John Strickland in the Alfa 33. This car has a successful history in the hands of Shaun Hazlewood in what used to be Class F of the Alfa Romeo Championship. It has the 1700cc Flat 4 16v Boxer engine, which is a real screamer. These engines are capable of 150bhp without too much trouble and sit beautifully low in the car. As previously mentioned, I’ve spent a fair amount of time at the wheel of an Alfa 33 and can vouch for their cornering ability. They’re just so nice to drive.
John hasn’t had the car out that many times, but has certainly proved quick on the occasions he has been competing. He won Class D by a huge margin at the Combe race.

The other car that I’ll struggle to get on terms with is the Golf GTi of Will McAteer. I don’t know much about Will or the car, but it’s clear that the combination has a lot of potential. From what I’ve seen of the car, it’s beautifully prepared to a very high standard and I don’t think it’ll be long before Will is battling with or beating John Strickland. Mechanical troubles got in the way of a good first race result for Will, but his fastest lap was ominously quick.

Unfortunately, neither of these guys are at Brands so we’re going to have to wait a while before we’ll have another encounter.

TTRS Castle Combe 2008

2008-04-15T22:34:00.000+01:00

Spot the odd one out.

This pic was lifted from Oddball racing and Charlie's sites. Hope you don't mind me using it too!

Coughs, splutters and stopping.

2008-04-15T16:43:00.000+01:00

For me, 2008 has so far been about sorting out a couple of irritations with the car. I’ve done one race, at Castle Combe, coming 2nd in class despite a misfiring engine. I was pleased to finish, but a bit frustrated by the inability to go for a new ‘personal best’ lap around that circuit. It’s a good gauge for the competitiveness of the car because its quite varied. But I’ve yet to drive there without having some kind of technical issue. Ok, I’ve only done 2 meetings at Combe with the car, but I don’t really intend to keep the Astra for ever.

Last year, the problem I had all year was to do with the brake set-up. It was clear early on that the 8v GTE front discs and calipers couldn’t cope with the heat of racing, although the actual braking performance was pretty good. After using them for the first ever race meeting with the car (admittedly a 3 race affair at Stowe which is quite hard on brakes), the pads were worn to their backing plates and couldn’t have done another lap.
As advised by a friend, I fitted the much bigger 288mm Vectra V6 set-up, with a bit of modification needed to get it onto my car.
On my first time out with the new set-up, it was clear that while it provided ample braking performance and the equipment could easily cope with the heat, the effect of fitting much bigger front cylinders was having an unacceptable (for me) impact on the brake pedal. Specifically, the pedal was long and very very soft. I couldn’t get any feedback or confidence from them. For me, the brakes are a fundamental tool in the driving of a race car and I really enjoy the challenge of threshold braking and using them to control weight transfer into a corner. Without a decent pedal feel, I don’t feel like I’m driving a race car properly. This is probably due to the bulk of my race driving being in vehicles such as Karts, Single Seaters and an Alfa 33 that braked beautifully.
After much thought and analysis, I changed the master for the biggest I could fit without having to change the entire mechanism and plumbing. The pedal felt just the same. Next attempt came in the form of a cockpit mounted bias valve, in the hope that an increased restriction in the rear circuit may provide a boost in the front circuit. Apparently not.
At this point, I decided to cut my losses and fit a standard 16V GTE set-up, knowing that while it wouldn’t cope so well with the heat, it would give me a pedal I could work with. It did.

One problem out of the way, the other was a little different. At the Silverstone meeting in August last year, the car began to misfire on the second lap of the second race. Fortunately the car finished the race, but the engine was distinctly unhappy and I quickly dropped back from the Toyota Celica I was battling with at the time. The unfortunate aspect was that this was the last race of the year and it gave me scant running time to assess the problem and ultimately find its source. It did seem to misfire at higher revs when static after the race, but it was difficult to differentiate between the misfire and the rev limiter.
I parked the car up for the winter after having checked and lubricated all of the major electrical connections which seemed to have cured the problem.
On returning to the car after the winter, I couldn’t get the car to misfire and assumed that it was an isolated incident, possibly to do with the heat of the Silverstone race day and that I’d probably cure it just by renewing plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm. I bought the best I could find. The annoying thing with racing cars is that you can’t just take them for a drive to see how they’re running! Unless you’ve got the time and budget to go testing, you only find out what you’ve got once you’re on a race circuit and its usually in a competitive session.

I took the car to Combe for the first round of the TTRS, and to see ‘what I’d got’. I still had a misfire. That’s what.
Again, it wasn’t bad enough to stop the car and I got a decent result. But defending against the competition was impossible and I just had to make the best of it and drive it home.

The good news this week is that I seem to have found the source of this problem. The car has played ball since the Combe meeting and has continued to proudly display its misfire even at idle, allowing me to get to grips with what’s been going on. Contrary to the basic fault finding I did last year, doing the same this year yielded clear evidence of the source. I don’t know why the evidence has only appeared now, but it may be due to the spark plugs being so clean and new. Anyway, in short, one cylinder is clearly underfuelled while the others are clearly over fuelled. This points to injector trouble.
Upon dismantling the fuel rail and injectors, it was clear that the ‘control bus’ plastic conduit was missing 3 of the 4 injector/connector fixing clips. The whole thing was sitting proud of the injectors, so my conclusion is that the injector wasn’t firing because it wasn’t properly connected.

I put it all back together and immediately the engine ran perfectly. It now idles like a road engine should.

I’ve ordered some freshly cleaned and balanced injectors and a complete set of clips. So, hopefully, its onto Brands with a clean running engine.

What a difference a year makes

2008-04-15T12:22:00.000+01:00

Ok, well not quite a year. But it feels like it.

The last time I posted, I was busy preparing the car for my last race meeting of the year at Silverstone on the brilliant 'International' configuration with the Dunlop Motorsport News (DMN) Championship crowd. More on that later.

Now, it is 2008 and I'm gearing up for the second and third rounds of the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons (TTRS) at Brands Hatch at the end of the month. What happened to competing in the CTCRC Pre'93 Championship? Well, unbeknown to me, a few people (fellow competitors) were working in the background last year to get us, the competitors (the people that fund circuit racing) a much better deal. Motor racing is unfortunately plagued by politics and I've no desire to detail the full story here (not least because I don't have it!) but the result is the creation of a new series (not a championship yet). The TTRS.

For a couple of years I'd been looking for a series to compete in that met a certain criteria:

1. Only saloons with ‘relatively’ little modification allowed

2. Control tyres that aren’t a stupidly expensive Dunlop

3. A varied calendar with rounds at all of the major UK circuits including Castle Combe (my closest circuit and a favourite).

4. Reasonable entry and registration fees with no requirement to join one of the ‘major’ clubs (BARC/BRSCC) at additional significant cost

5. A personable/conscientious/listening/communicating organisation outfit that views the competitors as customers

The TTRS meets these criteria frighteningly accurately. I really couldn’t have found a better match. Thanks to all those who’ve put it together.

Having been involved to some extent in UK circuit racing for the best part of 25 years, I’ve seen a lot of series/championships come and go. This is a very complicated sport with some fairly unpredictable variables, but it has always surprised me how many clubs and organisations have failed to recognise that the championships that run roughly to the criteria above enjoy the biggest grid sizes, most entertaining racing and have happiest competitors than virtually any other subset of British motor racing. When will they learn?

Of course, it would be understandable for someone in my position to regard this situation as a bit of a shame but that I shouldn’t really care because I have the racing that I want. But, there’s a more to it I think. UK club racing as a whole will suffer if the major clubs don’t get their act together.

2007-09-03T14:35:00.001+01:00

My initial goals after buying the car were simply to get it race worthy, not super-competitive (its never going to be that). What that really means is fitting all of the mandatory safety items. Like I said, some of the work had already been done but not to the standard that I wanted. A few of the jobs were a bit more of a pain in the arse than I first envisaged. Just getting the master cut-off switch properly wired and the cable release working smoothly and in a manner that wasn’t going to give trouble later on took several evenings work. There were less obvious jobs that needed doing though, like removing the steering lock with brute force, an angle grinder and a lot of swearing… But, due to the way an Astra is engineered, many of these jobs would have been a lot harder on other cars.
As mentioned previously, I’m not a huge fan of these cars but I’ve got to say that from the ‘serviceability’ point of view it is excellent. Having owned a few Japanese cars in the past, I was struck by the simplicity employed in the right places. Why use 4 screws and plastic catches when one decent nut and bolt will do the job? The Astra comes apart in minutes, which is a real asset in race preparation.

The only job that I didn’t personally do was the seat fitting. This involves quite a bit of welding and needs to be done properly so I found a local rally prep garage (there’s a lot of these in Wales) and they did a great job of it….. even though it was a touch pricey if you ask me.

I wanted to get the car out in one of the Silverstone Stowe meetings now organised by the CTCRC as they’re a great way to test out a car cheaply. So I had a bit of a mad panic to get it together in time, but we were there on March 17th - approximately 5 weeks after commencing the prep. The car was basically as standard and running on worn road tyres, but went remarkably well and returned a decent lap time immediately. It was clear though that the true prep had only just begun as the predictably the body roll was awful and the brakes just weren’t up to the job. But, I’d found out what I wanted to know… i.e. that the basic engine and drivetrain were in good health and the car kept going strongly without bits falling off it.

2nd Pic

2007-08-15T17:32:00.001+01:00

I couldn't figure out how to get multiple pictures in one post to look any good, so here's the second pic I was on about.

Its not easy being green

2007-08-15T17:02:00.000+01:00

Ok, well I’ll start off with what I’m doing right now. The lurid green Vauxhall Astra you can see was bought off guy who lives a few miles from where I work for not much over £700. I have very little idea about its history, but judging from what had been done when I bought it, its probably a sometime trackday and road rally hack. The cage was in, as was a battery cut-off switch (wired up wrong) and a race seat. A good basis for building into a race car, if a little rough around the edges. Plus, the engine sounded right and the shell was in good shape. But, to be honest, I nearly didn’t buy it. I’ve never really lusted after Astra’s (definitely not bright green ones) and I felt that although the basics were already done, there was a little bit too much to sort out on this car (for reasons that will become clear in another post). The wiring was all over the place, the seat fitting completely wrong and a lot of the safety requirements weren’t there at all. Nevertheless, a short chat with my Dad convinced me that an opportunity to end up with something reasonably quick probably wasn’t going to come along at a better price. I’d have to do a lot to it to get the real pace out of the car, but an Astra GTE with the red top 16v engine is inherently a good racing car proposition if only for its power to weight ratio.

Before going any further I’d like to get a couple of things clear. To some, this blog may be a bit random (it aint yet, but it will be, believe me). I could do a full chronological diary of events across my racing exploits… but I reckon that would be uber-dull and frankly I can’t be arsed to go back through it. I’m a pretty scatty thinker so I’m gonna stick to a format that will keep me interested and not tied down i.e. no format at all. Expect a stream of consciousness, which means illogical reasoning and lots of jumping about. It will make sense to me, but probably not everyone else, which is fine, because they aren’t me so it doesn’t matter anyway! But, if I think something needs proper explanation then I’ll do it. But only if it comes up. Ok?, clear?.... no?.... then read it again!

While on the subject of detail and structure, I don’t intend this blog to document everything technical to do with this or any other car. Even though I do all the work on my car/s, I’m not going to go through it all step by step…. But I will talk about some of the pertinent bits and bobs that come up or that I’m wondering about. To those knowledgeable about motor racing who may be reading this, it means I’m only going to get technical when I feel the need to make excuses or explain why I couldn’t quite get on the pace of the car in front of me.

I’ve posted 2 pics for you… One the morning after I bought the car and the other at Castle Combe in May this year doing a round of the Classic Touring Car Racing Club Pre-93 Series. It should be obvious which is which.

More soon….

Tom.