May 2018
29May
Pembrey Final Instructions are out
I'm running as car 104 at Pembrey this weekend, with Pete at 105. Quite apt as my PB last year was 104.89s. Pete's not been before in his Mygale, so I have the advantage. Last year I was nursing the front tyres, as the lack of downforce meant I grained the fronts up really badly, and after just four laps on my first visit, I set a PB of 104.89s. Now, this year, with some downforce and a chassis thats been setup profesionally, I'm expecting to get below the 100s laptime, which looking at my video from last year, should be pretty easy. However, the competition this year is much stiffer, with six V8's in class 5E, plus all the other more experienced drivers there, we're going to have to push very very hard on Saturday to get every ounce of performance from the car, whilst saving something for Sunday's repeat performance. I'm certainly looking forward to the battle.
Pembrey Entry ListPembrey Final InstructionsPembrey Running OrderThe car is 90% ready. I've replaced the side skirt on the drivers side after it was ground away at Castle Combe, so that should help increase the efficiciency of the diffuser. I've made a few more tweaks to the dashboard, after I noticed it gave a high oil pressure warning when the ignition was turned on. The Life ECU reports the oil pressure at 65bar when the engine isnt running, so I've had to set the high alarm to 100bar to ignore it.
The mk3 front wing drop plates arrived from Plays-kool Motorsport, after Nick Algar designed them and Luke then machined them. They are fitted to the crash box, and raise the front wing a further 10mm off the ground, so I need to lower the front ride height 10mm to get it back to how Triple-M set it up. Very pleased with Plays-Kool, they have done a fantastic job of the design and machining, very highly recommended.
I have also labelled up the front flap angles, so I can quickly make changes while referring to the calculations from DJ for the amount of downforce the front wing is meant to be producing.
We went down to Santa Pod on Saturday to watch the FIA Main Event Top Fuel dragsters and funny-cars running. Perfect weather saw some amazing times being set on the new track. A 3.9s for the 1/4 mile is mental, and 309mph across the line! It was a great day out, even if the admission costs were a little high, at £45 per adult. Fortunately the kids got in for free.
12May
Springs fitted
The stiffer springs are now fitted to the front and rear dampers. The fronts have gone up from 750 to 950lb/in, and the rears have gone up from 950 to 1150lb/in. I'll have to wait until Pembrey to see if that'll improve the resistance to the downforce thats being produced. The front wheel rate is now 88.44 NM and the rears are 52.618 NM, giving 5.4 Hz front wheel frequency, and 3.0 Hz rear.
I also tweaked the dashboard, to make both sets of shift-lights work, as I've only had the left hand lights working since it went back to RT for the repair last year, despite me trying to reinstate them previously, they're now working properly.
6May
Pi Progress
I'm making some progress now with the Pi Zero based G-Meter. I've had to define my own 4x8 pixel character set, so I can display text and words, and I've written a subroutine in Python to scroll the text from right to left. The Waveshare pHATs didnt work on the Zero, and I'm trying to get my money back. Instead I now have an Allo mini-Rainbow pHAT which worked straight out of the box with no configuration changes required.2May
Pi Data logger results from Aintree
I only managed to record one run at Aintree using the Pi data logger, I was switching the Pi on and pressing the Start button, but the USB stick only had data from the first practice run. It wasnt until I took the Pi out the car tonight to check it that I found the antenna had come loose. I'd not secured the connector using a spanner. Oops. Oh well, when I put it back in the car I'll make sure to tighten it properly, so for Pembrey I will catch all the suspension data.
