May 2021
29May
Air Charge temperature sensor calibration complete
The calibration of the air charge temperature sensor has been done and is now loaded on to the ECU. The process is quite simple. With the manufacturers data sheet, you can see the impedance values for the various temperatures. These are entered in to Excel, which produces the voltage for each step. In LifeCAL there is an option to Add Points to the linearisation table. With each calculated voltage for the different impedances, entered, once the process is complete, you tell the LifeCAL software to commit the change, and it then automatically interpolates all the voltages between the points you added, and you end up with a nice smooth curve. Once thats done and the calibration is written back to the ECU, the sensor then provides an accurate temperature to the ECU.I'd not used the process before, but once you've worked out how to add the points, its all quite intuitive.
The sensor responds far more quickly to changes, I'm looking forward to seeing the data from the next round.
27May
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Some more changes to the logging configuration today. I want to monitor the Cyl1-4 ignition and fuelling adjustments over the base values in the maps in the ECU. This data will tell me if the map needs adjusting since it will show the corrections being made in real time whilst the engine is under load. I'm looking to understand why Cyl3 has higher EGT temps than the other 3 cylinders, and this data will help me track down what could be the potential cause.
I'm now making good use of the burst logging modes, so much so that the bandwidth is very low, meaning the 4MB of memory in the ECU is storing far more logging data than before, which means less chance of it being overwritten when the engine is sat ticking over in BASE mode. When I get back from a run I always leave the engine ticking over for a few minutes to allow the water cooled turbo to cool down, and this used to mean I'd sometimes lose data as it would be overwritten when the engine was left idling. That shouldnt happen now.
I've also edited the CAN transmit datastream in LifeCAL to pass the launchRPMAddCalSw value to the display. This allows me to see the launch control switch value, so I can see what value is being added to the Launch RPM, from -800RPM to +200RPM determined by the launch switch position.
I dropped the charge cooler pipe off yesterday to get the M12 boss welded on to it, hopefully I'll get it back before this bank holiday weekend so I can run the engine to make sure it has no air leaks from the pipe work. I've found a supplier for some spare brake disks. None other than Jayde Kruger, the 2014 Formula Ford champion. His family runs a business in the UK that manufactures spare parts for race cars, and appropriately enough, they produce a range of Mygale spares. The brake disks are on a 3 week lead time, so I'll have them in time for the trip to Snetterton at the end of June.
26May
Launch and TC changes
I've been looking at the data from the launch phase, to see how I can reduce the 64ft times, and the wheelspin isn't being maintained at 10% during launch. It drops down to around 3%, which is ok, but you actually get more acceleration with around 10% wheelspin. So with the log data entered in to a spreadsheet I've written, I can produce a set of RPM clamps for the vehicle speed, which should ensure the wheels maintain a steady 10% spin target.The way the Life launch works is quite clever; it allows you to set an RPM limit (clamp) at set vehicle (undriven wheel) speeds.
If you know the circumference of the rear tyres, and of course the gear ratios, then you know what speed the rear wheels will rotate at for a given RPM. In 1st gear, for launch, the RPM is held at say 3000 revs, which is 23 MPH. When the clutch is pedal is released and the clutch engages, the rear wheels start spinning at 23 MPH, and when the front wheels report that they have reached 4.5 MPH, the RPM limit is then changed again according to the Engine vs Vehicle speed table, so the RPM can either be increased or reduced, or left the same. The next breakpoint is 9mph, so again, the engine revs can be increased or decreased. And the idea is to set the RPM to try to spin the rear wheels at a speed of at least 10% faster than the front wheels are turning. The ECU is pretty good at cutting the ignition to keep the RPM under control, and when it hooks up and works, the car really does take off very quickly, pulling over 1G in the process. But at Blyton there was very little grip, which resulted in very slow 64ft times. Thats because the rears were spinning, but the fronts weren't catching up as rapidly as I'd have liked, and there's not a great deal that the ECU can do about that. As a driver you can reduce the launch RPM via the steering wheel control before you launch the car. If it were wet, and you launched the car at 3000RPM, then you'd just sit there with 100% wheel spin, and the car wouldnt accelerate quickly at all. So for the wet and situations where grip is less than ideal, the launch RPM is reduced through trial and error until a good compromise can be found.
Traction Control has also been revised again, with changes to the Yaw map, and I've also restricted max wheelspin to 15% (it was 500% before) so that should keep everything under control.
25May
Alternator control
As you can see from the graphs below, the battery voltage drops very rapidly when the alternator is turned off, which is what you'd expect if its not running. What I need to work on is the battery voltage cut off point, which is currently set to 12.4V, so when the voltage drops below 12.4 the alternator turns back on again, then it goes in to recovery mode, which forces the alternator to stay on for a set time, before it can then be turned off again. I've some adjustments to make, to increase the off time, which will mean dropping the cut off voltage, whilst keeping an eye on the lift pump pressure. Note: the ECU also monitors the RPM and throttle position to determine if the alternator should be on or off.With alternator control, from the Blyton outer circuit. (Right click image, open in new tab to see more detail)
Without alternator control (from 2020 at the same venue)
24May
Lettering cont'd
Both side pods now have the EcoBoost lettering stuck on them.
I then removed the charge cooler pipe that needs modifying to take the M12 boss, and couldnt find any oil inside the pipe or the silicon bends, which is a good sign. Next job was to find a way to prevent the radiator from moving, and I've fitted a small right angled bracket with a piece of high density foam sandwhiched between the rad and the bracket, at the base of the rad, which will keep it in place. I've also tightened the wire rope next to the radiator which should stop the floor from moving again.
The BSC results are finally out :D, we now know its the best 16 scores that count. That's plus bonus points for braking records, which is what it might come down to for taking the 1st place overall at the end of the year.
Long time family friend Paul Mensley was out at Silverstone at the weekend in his fresh Group A Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500. He finished 2nd, beating Steve Soper! If you want to see what 600bhp and hard Dunlop control tyres looks like, in the dry, have a watch of this. Only Paul's 2nd event in the new car, so he's still getting used to how it handles.
22May
Lettering
I've stuck the EcoBoost lettering on the nearside radiator pod, using the laser leveller to make sure that its stuck on straight this time. With the pod off the car, I found that yet again the radiator has tried to make a break for freedom. It sits in a U shaped channel, and has a similar shaped channel above, and thats all that holds it in place. When the radiator moves, the air that passes in to the side pod, flows straight past it, so I need to stop it from happening, or the engine could start overheating.The floor must be pulled downwards at speed, which is allowing the radiator to pop out of the channel that it sits in. This must mean that the downforce being generated by the floor isnt being harnessed, since the floor is not pulling the chassis downwards as the downforce builds. I'll look at adding a bracket to tie the floor in to the chassis, to a) prevent the radiator from jumping out again, but more importantly b) to make sure I'm not wasting the downforce. There are already several other brackets that tie the chassis in to the floor on both sides of the car, but it looks like I need to add at least another.
21May
Brakes & Volts
I've checked the brake pressures that I'm generating when I hit the pedal, and they're about 50% of what they need to be to optimise the braking phase. So I've now changed the right hand LED's on the dashboard to show the front brake pressure, and if I light all six LED's then I know I'm about on-the-limit of the system. Left foot braking is easy to do, but generating the pressures required by using the left foot will be what I shall be focused on at the next event.
On the theme of the Dash4Pro dashboard, it turns out that RPM received over CAN BUS, cant be assigned directly to the shift lights. There is a workaround, which is quite easy. I have to assign the CAN RPM message to a math channel, and then use the LED's as a bar graph display, similar to how I've got the right hand LED's to display the brake pressure. With a little bit of logic to hide the LED's until RPM reaches 6000, and all LED's are then lit at 6750rpm.
The rev cut on my Mygale is set at 7350rpm and the rev limit is set at 6900rpm. I shift at 6600rpm using the audible warning that I hear inside my crash helmet. So by the time I react to the audible warning, its usually around 6750rpm that I actually change gear at. These engines will rev a fair bit higher, but there's little point when there is so much torque available. I'd still like the visual warning on the dashboard though, as I did forget to plug the crash helmet in to the ECU on one run on Saturday, so wasnt getting any change warnings.
I've removed the crooked ADVAN stickers from each side pod, in preparation for sticking the EcoBoost stickers on in their place. I'll get the new stickers on over the weekend. Straight this time. The fast acting NTC air temperature sensor has arrived from EPS, I'll fit a mini-timer connector on the end and get it plugged in to the ECU for calibration. The M12x1.5 weld in bung has also turned up in the post, but I cant get it Tig welded on to the air charge pipe until next Weds, which is plenty of time before we need to be ready for the next event.
20May
Photos
The pictures from Anthony Mitchell taken at Blyton are filtering through, so I'll put them up later. I can see in the pictures that the white ADVAN lettering on the side pods is wonky, so I'll remove it and stick the EcoBoost lettering on instead. This time I'll use the laser leveller to make sure the lettering is level. They're an awkward curved surface to stick things on straight, thats my excuse.There are however still no official results published, and given the championship rewrote the regulations for 2020, and they were quite simple before and my scoring spreadsheet worked well, its going to take some effort now to produce accurate scores.
Pete Goulding's fourth visit to the dyno yesterday resulted in a dead EcoBoost engine. Chasing the elusive 400hp with the Pumaspeed EVO turbo. But it was a standard engine. His rebuilt Area 6 forged engine was delivered to Blyton on Friday evening, so that now needs to be reinstalled, and a fifth rolling road visit booked. Will it be done in time for the next event in June though?
19May
Number crunching
Wading through the data, I'm looking at the accuracy of the air charge temperature sensor at the moment. For comparison, I'm going to fit a more accurate NTC fast sensor, which has a different thread to the M14x1.5 sensor that's currently fitted. So I'll weld an M12x1.5 boss on to the charge cooler pipe, adjacent to the current sensor, and then I can wire in the new sensor using the only spare analogue input that I've got left on the ECU, the original front right wheel speed sensor input. Parts are ordered, I'll get the pipe modified asap. ACT's reached 60C at Blyton, with ambient air temperature of 18C, at least I now know with the ITG Cold Air Intake fitted, that the turbo is getting fresh cold air fed in to it. The engine health looks really good too. The lambda values are absolutely rock steady under WOT.Paddock Walk video from the weekend
Warming up the EcoBoost engine
18May
Anglesey Sprint Weekend in May, cancelled
The news we didnt want to hear, but I always had my doubts. LDMC announced this morning that the Anglesey rounds in May have had to be cancelled due to the Welsh governments lockdown restrictions.Looking through the data I captured at Blyton, I now have some very useful suspension ride height information, which shows the downforce working on the car, with the front and rear of the car dropping as the speed rises. At 130mph I'm seeing something like 30mm compression at the front, and 25mm at the rear, which is a good baseline. I want to increase the front downforce, so I'll see at the next event what difference that makes to the compression. Whats also interesting is how the rear of the car squats under acceleration, so from the standing start, the rear immediately drops, and the front only starts dropping once the speed has reached 65mph. I was always told that wings dont work below certain speeds, and its interesting to see the phenomenon first hand.
Front wing downforce starting to take effect above 65mph
I can also see the alternator working well under ECU control. It turns off and on against the parameters that I set. What is surprising is how rapidly the battery voltage does drop without the alternator enabled, and of course, as the voltage drops, so does the lift pump fuel pressure, so I'm going to have to fine tune the parameters to allow the alternator to turn off, but not allow the battery voltage to drop too far otherwise the performance will drop off, which is the opposite of what I wanted to actually achieve by turning off the alternator in the first place. Free those horses :D
17May
Blyton Park Rounds 1 to 4
The forecast of heavy rain all weekend brought anticipation of another good opportunity to score points. Arriving Friday afternoon at 3pm, we were held for 1.5 hours whilst the team of volunteers pegged out our parking positions in the paddock. And after Alan Mugglestone gave the OK signal it was like a gold rush as everyone dashed in to the paddock. An hour or so later, my car was unloaded, and all the gubbins from inside the van, relocated to the trailer so I could setup my accomodation for the night. The skies looked threatening, but no sign of any rain.
Saturday
After what was one of the worst nights sleeps I've ever had in the van (nerves or excitement?), Saturday dawned, and everyone was out setting their cars up. I'd fitted wets, and was on a wet setup, expecting it to rain by the time first practice came around at 9:30. But with no sign of rain, as 9 O'Clock approached I changed the setup back to dry, and fitted the practice slicks back on the car. Sure enough, the first two practice runs took a very long time to execute. Breakdowns, lots of accidents, it was all very slow. All the time we were looking skywards, but still no sign of any rain.
On my P1 run the car had a very poor launch, and afterwards everyone I spoke to said they were suffering from a lack of grip off the line. Expecting rain I had reduced the manifold pressure in 1st gear a further 100mbar, so it was no only producing 1.0bar boost pressure (~200bhp). Despite the drop in horse power and torque, the car still had no grip. But everything else was OK. The cold air intake, and all the other mods to the battery wiring, the replacement X10 wiring loom etc, all worked perfectly. The only thing that didnt seem to work was the gear shift LED's on the dash, but as I had the audible warning in my helmet, I wasn't too worried about that.
On my P2 run, I felt what I thought was fuel surge through the fast sweeping final section of the run, but it turned out to be the front left wheel speed sensor had failed, and the front right had sporadically dropped by 60mph, which caused traction control to restrict the engine torque, and this felt the same as a drop of fuel pressure. I investigated the fault, examined the front left sensor, but couldnt coax it to work, so I just carried on, hoping the front right wouldnt drop again.
Then we were on to the first timed runs after lunch, and at 1:30, I drove around the Eastern circuit as briskly as I could, and posted a time fast enough to qualify 3rd fastest for the first Top 12 run off run. Then it was time for the first run off of the 2021 season, and I finished 5th after an oh so average drive. Still, it was 21 points in the bag.
Then on to the third timed run, and I qualified 3rd fastest again for the 2nd run off. And on the second run off I finished 3rd, which was a solid 23 points. So in all, I'd netted 44 points from a maximum of 50. Not bad. The front wheel speed sensors appeared to be working again, so I had pretty good reliability, and looked forwards to Sundays battle on the faster Outer circuit.
Sunday
With a dry day behind us, the forecast had changed somewhat, and heavy overnight rain left the circuit very damp. Only 1 practice this time, and Stephen Miles wangled a slot in the convoy run layed on for the Sunday only drivers. He'd found a cracked front brake disk on Saturday, and swapped the disks front to rear on one side of the car, so on safety grounds managed a sneaky grip level check before 1st practice. Clever.
Prior to 1st practice, I dropped the Traction Control Base Gain from 5.0 to 5.0 reducing to 4.0 at 160MPH, which would reduce the torque clamp as speed increased, to make any torque clamping less harsh the faster I was going. I then refilled the air bottle, added a few litres of petrol to the tank, and left the practice tyres on the car.
On to the first and only damp practice, and I needed some part throttle logs in the ECU to allow me to recalibrate the knock sensors, so I pottered around, collecting valuable data. I also tried the soft pedal map that I'd developed, to see how that felt, and it was actually alright. I prefer the 100% linear pedal, which is assigned to Cal 1, but as Cal 2 had the same power output (375bhp) and the softer pedal map it seemed a good idea to try it out.
On to the first timed run, I fitted the fresher tyres complete with the spanking new Ultrasofts on the front. There was only 12 of us left in the running on Sunday. Terry Holmes had backed the Lola in to the tyres on the 2nd run off on Saturday evening, heavily damaging the rear of the car, so that was him and Graham Porrett out.
John Graham left early Sunday morning, having only managed one run off on the Saturday, complaining of gear selection issues. Nicholas Scott had to leave on Saturday. Graham Harden had engine problems in his Radical PR6, so he'd also gone home on Saturday. Simon Bainbridge, broke a diff on Saturday, and replaced it over lunch, but the risk was there that the same thing could happen again. Sure enough it did, and he was then out of the running on Sunday.
In the timed run I managed a 60.98s run, with Goulding 58.15 and Smiles 58.82, which qualified me 3rd for the first Sunday T12 run off.
On to the Top 12 run off. As I launched the car, it started off fine, but then I had traction control going beserk as I tried to accelerate down to the first corner. I then realised what was going on, so I lifted off, looked down at the steering wheel, found the TC knob and turned it to the off position, and then flew around the remainder of the circuit. I'd lost a 2.5 seconds on the first sector, recording a time of 60.30, so even though I'd improved it was the one that got away, and I finished 4th, earning 22 points. I had a chance to investigate what was going on. Turns out that the working front right sensor had also dropped out, so I decided to fit the original 8 hole front speed disk that came with the car, to the front left, recalibrate the ECU to use 8 holes per revolution instead of 16 holes, and with TC back on, I'd see how she felt.
The third timed run quickly came round, and I went 1.2s quicker to record a 59.16, which #beatpete and qualified me 2nd for the second run off. Sweet. I was trying my hardest to put in to action what Alan Mugglestone had been teaching me two weeks earlier, and I'd made up time on the first corner, at Wiggler, and at Bishops, it was just the final sector that I couldnt quite get right.
Right, its now time to focus. Time for the fourth timed run, which was the second T12 run-off run. I'm 2nd from last car to go out, so I watch Pete Goulding go off the line for a change, and then its my turn. Now or never, lets see if we can brake later still for the first corner. Off I went, the best launch of the day, having turned the launch RPM down further to 2800 for this run, that clearly was a good move. The car was ballistic, and the first corner came up very quickly. I trail braked, and it was my best attempt of the day. Then I upshifted early, and stamped on the throttle pedal to accelerate out of the chicane, up towards the Wiggler. That came past very quickly, again nice line, trail braked, and then rushed up to Bishops, almost getting 6th gear, brake down a gear, chuck her in, and up to Bunga Bunga. Braked too early, turned in to early, couldnt get on the throttle as quickly as I'd hoped. Upshifted early, planted the throttle, and rushed in to port froid, feathered the throttle, stayed in 5th, and selected 6th on the exit. Just the last corner to negotiate, braked too early, turned in, accelerated over the line. I'd survived, and the time was, a new PB with 58.28, so another second quicker than the last lap, placing me 3rd overall again.
Looking at the split and sector times, I'm right up there with Smiles and Goulding. I will add more front wing for my next visit and drive with a bit more confidence, as I lost valuable seconds just by feathering the throttle and not being fully committed. Still, its especially important to qualify and finish all the run offs this year, and my 3rd place earned me another 23 points, making a total of 89 points for my first weekend, placing me 3rd overall. Very happy with that.
The car was perfect apart from the front speed sensor issue, which I've now cured. Launching with less boost in 1st gear not only preserves the FTR gearbox, but also seems to be conducive to quick get aways. Yes, I think I'll reduce it a little further on the next event and see if I can get the 64ft times to drop again. The exhaust VVT solenoid was enabled all weekend, the engine felt very smooth and quite punchy. I've got suspension travel data, and loads of other data to go through, which is going to keep me busy for a week or two. And finally, the larger PS-20 Powerlite LiPo battery worked flawlessly and started the engine every time, without me needing to charge it between runs. :D
We were blessed with fantastic weather, and yet 10 miles from the circuit on the way home, I drove through heavy storms and flooded roads.
11May
Final preparations
A thorough check of the front end of the car last night, with no faults found. I topped up the clutch fluid though, however everything else looked OK. The car is now sat back on the original team dynamics rims waiting to be loaded on to the trailer.I've been through my black book of notes from the last 4 years, and made a list of times, wing angles and tyres pressures for the various venues that we visit. So I've a good idea what setup I need to run at Blyton, which is a high downforce circuit. My PB on the outer circuit is 58.3s which after the Triple-M tuition I'm hoping to lower using the techniques and racing lines that I've learnt. The forecast for the weekend is showers, which isn't ideal. You always end up on the wrong tyres when waiting to leave the line. If that's the forecast, I may as well leave the fresh Pirelli wets on all day. In 2018 I won my first National A FTD at Blyton on the Michelin's in atrocious conditions, and the Pirelli Cinturato wets are meant to be fantastic in the wet, but I've never driven on them before, so I'll have to adapt quickly to the grip levels.
10May
Blyton finals are out
Good to see LDMC has issued the final instructions, complete with online signing-on, and a drivers briefing Zoom call which looks to have taken some effort to setup. They should be applauded, the standard of the documentation is very high. The paddock plan hasnt been published, but we've a number pegged to every parking spot, so I can arrive at 15:00hrs on Friday and wont have to fight to get a decent place to park.The results will be available here. http://www.timeteamtiming.co.uk/event-results-and-reports/
The British Sprint entry list. Only 7 of the current Top 12 are entered.
Batch running order. I'm following Smiles in car 7.
7May
Not long to go
Did someone say 8 days to go?
I found some Yokohama decals in my extensive box of motorsport stickers that I've collected over the years, so it felt appropriate to attach the Y logo to both rear wing end plates, just to add a bit more branding to the car. The stickers were supplied by Yokohama when they provided a set of tyres for the Fiesta, so given their age I was sceptical about how well they'd peel off the backing paper. I needn't have worried though.
Still no news on Team SBD for Blyton, but the Anglesey entry list is looking a lot fuller; however, there is still no sign of a restart of motorsport in Wales, so I'm not sure if we'll get to drive at Anglesey and Pembrey on the back to back weekends at the end of May / start of June. I do hope we can. But, its not looking good at the moment. Pete Goulding says he cant get his Mygale booked in for another RR session before Blyton, so he wont be running the 350+bhp that he ran in 2020, and he says the giant Pumaspeed EVO2 turbo will produce a lot of lag. The answer to that is to turn ALS on, can you imagine the sound of antilag on a single seater? Yes please.
It looks like Team TeGra (Terry and Graham in the Lola) are also running the new Avon compounds, following John Graham's testing at Anglesey and Aintree. Team TeGra were testing at Goodwood yesterday, and Graham Porrett said the car turned in far better. The question is how well they work on the first corner, as we know the Pirelli Ultrasoft's are fantastic off the line, so we could still gain a few tenths on the big single seaters braking in to the first corner. We still dont know what Stewart Robb is running on the 5000cc Pilbeam, though I suspect he'll also have changed to the latest Avon compound, if the new compounds are available in all the larger tyre sizes.
5May
Rear suspension damper pots calibrated
I had to make a new pair of brackets to support the rear of the Bosch linear sensors on the rear dampers, to extend the usable range of the sensors by 30mm. Now the damper can move 40mm without damaging the sensor. I then calibrated both damper pots, and with my 82.5kg stood on the gearbox, I can see around 8.5mm displacement on the dial gauge, which is a nice linear figure to have. So for 10mm displacement, thats around 100Kg of downforce, and given the DJ rear wing can produce up to 350kg at 140mph on max wing angle, I should be able to see how much downforce is being produced for the wing angles chosen. Not that I ever run it that steep, but we'll see at Blyton the approx downforce front and rear now that I've got all the pots working.
Aside from checking that the dive tank has air in it, and the engine and gearbox fluid levels, there's not a great deal left to do. 10 days to go until Blyton and I'm more than ready. I'm sure I'll find something to do. I will be collecting the trailer over the weekend, to check the brakes etc. Probably throw a bucket of water over it too.
4May
Rear suspension damper pots fitted
After a bit of head scratching I realised the best place to locate the mounting for the rear damper pots was to attach it to my custom spring spacers. So I unscrewed the spring platforms by 10 turns, slid the spacers off the ends of the dampers, and drilled a pair of 4mm holes, tapped to M5. A couple of M5 studs later, and the pots are now sat on both dampers, awaiting calibration. Once I've done that I'll screw the platforms back, and lock them back in place to restore the ride height.
Sadly Steve Brown wont be at Blyton, such was the extent of the damage to his car at Aintree. So its not as big a turnout as I'd hoped for, but there'll still be a good collection of cars to compete for overall honours. SBD has a new front wing, and some elements ahead of their rear wheels, to try to improve the air flow of their floor. Looks like a lot of effort and expense for small gains. Which is the nature of this sport. Pete Goulding hopes he's now fixed his fuel delivery issue, and is out at Debden on Sunday to test it, albeit running low boost with the engine only partially mapped, on the standard engine. He's trying to get the Mygale back to the rollers for a fourth time, before Blyton, but is up against it with only 10 days left.
Blyton BSC drivers registered for the LDMC sprint weekend
BSC-B
Grahame Harden Radical PR6 (1340cc) 4A
Stephen Mallett Radical PR6 (1340cc) BSC-B
Richard Mallett Radical PR6 (1340cc) BSC-B
Chris Fulke-Greville Turner Modsport (1824cc) BSC-B
Simon Bainbridge Cronos (4200cc) 4B
BSC-C
Tony Beesley Jedi (999cc) 5A
Simon Wallis OMS 3000M (1070cc) 5A
John Loudon Force HC (1070cc) BSC-C
Mark Anson Jedi Mk6 (1070cc) BSC-C
BSC-D
Rob Tonge Force TA (1440cc) BSC-D
Nicholas Scott Force TA (1596cc) 5B
BSC-E
Steve Miles Van Diemen (2000cc) 5D
BSC-F
Graham Blackwell Mygale EcoBoost G21 (1598cc) BSC-F
Pete Goulding Mygale FF200 (1598cc) BSC-F
BSC-G
Stewart Robb Pilbeam MP88 (5000cc) BSC-A
Graham Porrett Lola (3500cc) (5E) BSC-G
Terry Holmes Lola (3500cc) (5E) BSC-G
John Graham Gould GR55B (3500cc) (5E) BSC-G
There are some obvious omissions from the list above? Notably, the Team SBD are missing, as is Chris Jones, Zoe Kingham in the EcoBoost Westfield, and several other new drivers for 2021.
3May
Front suspension damper pots calibrated
I finally got round to setting up the ECU to return the ride height in mm for the front dampers. It's a bit crude, there isnt a great deal of movement for the potentiometers given the high motion ratio of the Mygale's front rockers, but it's done. So now when I sit in the car it reads 40mm ride height at the front, and as the height drops from the increasing downforce as speed increases, I should get some data. I'll calibrate the rears tomorrow, and thats another job ticked off. If the potentiometers fail to give me the resolution that I want, I might move to using rotary sensors fitted on the tops of the rockers instead.50 litres of race fuel are on order. I'm still using Sunoco 102RON R TF-R5, which comes in 25 or 50 litre drums, and to be honest, a 50 litre drum isnt easy to handle or move, which is why I prefer the smaller 25's. Last year the BSC organisers tried to ban the fuel, but I pointed out it was an FIA approved and legal Pump Fuel, meeting FIA 252.9 appendix J regulations, so their decision had to be reversed. No cheating here thankyou.
