March 2024
26Mar
Printed trigger disk a successs
The 3D printed front wheel trigger disk with 20 dowels was a total success at Mallory. Never missed a beat. The traces on the ECU are so smooth. I will have to get another pair printed with 30 dowels and see how well that works.
25Mar
Runoff winning video
Gerards needs a lot more commitment, can be taken significantly faster, and not in 4th gear. When we go back in June I'm hoping to have more grip, so we'll see if the times can be improved further.A couple of photos from Cadwell.
24Mar
Runoff winner
Saturday
Cadwell was freezing cold, dry, but very very windy, and I just couldnt get my car to turn in. It was 5s quicker when I put the Pirellis on for the first run off, and I finished 2nd. But I just had no confidence, and on the final run off I was 4th. I couldnt work out what was wrong, it was great at Mallory on Thursday. Very odd. Anyway, I won BARC Members FTD, which was collected for me by a friend, and I went home, for some hot food, a shower, and centrally heated house to thaw out. The car required no work, so I left it all in the trailer for Sundays trip to Mallory Park. Over the five runs, the car used 7.8 litres of fuel (approx £54 worth)
Sunday
On sunday morning I left Leicester at 6:30am and was at the Mallory paddock for 10 to 7, found a spot in the paddock and unloaded the car. The day was forecast cold, and sunny but dry, and rather than risk the Avons I ran the 2 year old Pirellis all day. To rectify the understeer from Cadwell, I removed both the Gurney strips from the front wing elements, and it transformed the grip. So clearly they weren't necessary, and thankyou to Graham Porrett for the suggestion, he said they didnt work on the Lola. A useful tidbit of experience handed down.First practice went well, the car was handling properly now, and I was second fastest to Pete Goulding, and my wife arrived just as I was starting the lap. She stayed with me all day, and it was great to have some company, and someone to clean the grit from the tyres.
The first timed run was taken before lunch, and I improved, as did Pete, and we then had a 1hr lunch break. The first run off was after dinner, and I shot round 3s quicker to record a 64.01s lap. But Pete pipped me with a 63.95 to take first. I new what I had to do for the final run, take Gerards with some more speed, however, I downshifted from 6th to 5th, and it didnt down shift, so I downshifted again and it then went 5th then 4th when I lifted off, due to the stack shift system which queues up downshifts, which I completely forgot about. That cost me half a second, and I was slower with a 44.75. But so was Pete, and I finished a quarter of a second ahead to take my first Run Off win of the year.
My best run wasnt recorded on the camera (technical fault), but the second run off win was, so I will overlay the data today and get the video up. My best lap, using the Edwina's chicane layout, was a 45.3s, measuring the full lap from the same point on the track (the Edwina's chicane). My highest speed was 155mph (GPS speed) on the approach to Gerards.
Aside from removing the pair of gurney strips, I didnt take a spanner to the car all day, and only removed the engine cover once to show a friend the engine. A perfect day. During the four runs, the car used 6.600 litres of fuel (approx £42 worth)
Next up, Anglesey in two weeks, and I am 2nd in the championship, with no work required on the car. The new floor skirts worked perfectly, as did all the other aero mods. Very happy.
21Mar
Testing success
No issues at Mallory today, the car is extremely fast now, the aero mods were making a very big difference allowing me to run the front and rear wings at shallower angles than I've ever run, and the grip from the Avons was outstanding. I now have engine coolant pressure data to work through, and the gear system pressure sensor also captured the air bottle pressure during changes, with no issues. The plastic printed front wheel trigger disk worked perfectly, so I will look to fit the opposite front at some point. Now I need to give the Avons a quick clean and load up for the trip to Cadwell tomorrow.
20Mar
Tyres cleaned
I took the heat gun to the Pirellis, which were new in August 2022, and I'm hoping I can get another season out of them. If not, I'll fall back to the Avon HC3's.
The 3D printed extraboost fifth injector port has turned up, and it looks great. I'm still waiting for the pico injector to arrive, and then I can do a test fit on the plenum with the spare throttle body.
19Mar
Trailer washed!
The best tool for getting 12 months of dirt off a clamshell, is the Karcher T-Racer surface cleaner/rotary patio cleaner. It makes very short work of getting all the muck and stains off. A quick wash with some soapy water and a rinse afterwards, and it came up great.
Video on youtube
18Mar
Trailer rewired
Over the weekend I've fitted a much larger battery to the trailer and rewired the remote winch and the motor mover to connect both to the battery through an isolator switch. It's another Bosch battery, so comes with, a four year guarantee. A no brainer based on the warranty swap I've just made on the battery from the van. The next job is to connect the battery to the 13pin trailer connector, so it is trickle charged when the engine is running on the van. Actually the next job is to pressure wash the clamshell. Five months parked in a field, isnt the best way to keep a trailer clean.
The finals are out for both Cadwell and Mallory Park, and its going to be a full on weekend making both events back to back. There is no paddock plan for Mallory, 'park at your discretion', so who knows where we'll all end up. I do hope there is a someone coordinating the paddock, as it'll be hard to get everyone out in the correct order otherwise.
On Friday I finished off all the jobs on the car, I just need to fill the fuel tank, reset the fuel consumption on the ECU, refill the dive tank so I can replenish the air in the paint ball bottle. Oh and fit the mirrors for Thursday.
15Mar
Brake pads changed
I fitted the fresh front brake pads last night, which is only a 30 second job as they're held in with spring clips. The pads they replaced are a few years old, and had half the pad material of the fresh ones.
I also removed the 3rd spring assembly to check that the grease inside the sliding mechanism was still allowing it to slide easily, and it was fine. I then sprayed some fresh black paint on it, and reassembled it once it had dried.
The final job was to stick the pair of turning vanes that I'd printed, to the floor, just ahead of the rear wheels, and I did that with Sikaflex. I'll see what difference they make at Mallory.
14Mar
Reluctance rings
I've just finished designing a front and rear wheel speed sensor setup for a well known competition car builder in the UK, and they are hopefully getting them manufactured and installed for an event in just over a weeks time. The brief was to have 20 teeth for the front and rear reluctance rings, and design a bracket to support the speed sensor on the front hub. I went for a folded steel bracket to keep the costs down, and the reluctance rings can be water jet cut from mild steeel.
I also provided a design for a 3D printed ring for the rear axle, with 30 holes for 30 steel dowels, to test. The printed ring would give 50% more pulses than the steel ring, and its just a question of robustness when used on a car designed for a full race series.
13Mar
Nosecone fitted
I've added the pair of fasteners to the nose cone, so it can now be attached securely to the car. I weighed it last night and its almost 800grammes lighter than the one it replaces. And I've replaced several of the cap head bolts on the front wing brackets with 10.9 button heads, to smooth out the air flow under the nose. And the last of the four gurney strips is now fixed in place, just the pair of turning vanes to fit ahead of the rear tyres.
Pleased to see John Graham has registered for the championship again; John won in 2019, and is still driving the red Gould which he won the championship in. Not sure which dates he'll be out, the entry list for Cadwell should be out in the next day or so, so we'll soon see.
11Mar
Nosecone replaced
This weekend I fastened the gurney strips to the rear diffuser, using epoxy resin, and stuck the first of the two strips to the front wing. I then fitted the wing, and tried the new nose cone for size, and it fitted straight on, requiring no modifications to clear the redesigned front wing drop plates. So I stuck the race number to it, and I now need to drill a couple of holes in the rear of the cone to rivet the fasteners to it, so it can be bolted securely in place. One more gurney strip to go, and the aero modifications are complete.
The entries opened this morning for Anglesey and Blyton, at 7:14am the email arrived from Longton, and luckily I had my phone on whilst I was eating breakfast otherwise I would have missed it. I have entered both events; Anglesey is in less than 4 weeks time, and Blyton is in May.
Good news on the van battery front. The one I just replaced was just under four years old, and had totally failed, so I sent it back and claimed on the four year warranty provided by Bosch, and I've just been refunded the full cost of the new battery I bought. Thank you Tayna Batteries and thank you Bosch.
7Mar
Exhaust refitted
Zircotec returned the exhaust pipe yesterday, it had to go back for a tiny bit of rework, and it looks fantastic bolted back on to the turbo. I hope it retains the matt black look after I've blown exhaust gas down it at 750°C.
I then replaced the three very short pieces of 6mm nylon pipe used by the pneumatic system, after I spotted an air leak via the pressure sensor readings from the ECU. You couldnt hear air escaping, but the pressure kept dropping, so I'll see now if the pressure is retained.
In my spare time I'm designing a few parts in Fusion, one of which is a fifth injector plate for the EcoBoost. You can find very few people selling these; there are a few in the US, but they come as a complete kit with electronics and a black box; whereas we just wanted the ability to run an additonal injector. So, with a small bit of help from Jenvey with the Pico injector inlet and outlet port sizes, I drew this. Its ready for 3D printing, to test the fitment, and then I'll get one made for testing. Prices with the Pico injector should be in the £300 range. It has a groove for an O-Ring on the underside, where it meets the throttle body.
ExtraBoost 5th Injector design
6Mar
Front wing drop plates upgraded
The pair of redesigned front wing drop plates arrived today, so I fitted them to the car and they are smaller and lighter than the Playskool ones, and I now have a pair of spares in case anything unfortunate happends to them. Very pleased with how they turned out. I designed them in Fusion to have scallops both sides :D
The spare turbo hoses arrived and I've replaced the 135° hose which had some tiny splits in it where the jubilee clip had been holding it on to the turbo outlet.
4Mar
Printed aero sections fitted
I've bonded on the pair of aero profile sections to the leading edge of the floor. They're held on with sikaflex, and wont fall off. The final two pieces of printed parts to fit are the turning vanes that will sit ahead of the rear tyres. I'll have a go at fitting those tomorrow. I' waiting for some more carbon angle to turn up, which will be used a gurney flaps on the front wing and for the rear diffuser. Delivery is due on Wednesday.
3Mar
More jobs completed
I'm now turning my attention to the electronics changes that I needed to make. I've updated the CAN Datastream from the Life ECU, to include ECP and GSP pressures, and after updating the DBC file in Kvaser, I've reprogrammed the Dash4Pro to display an alert when various channels are outside of normal ranges. eg EOT is above 120C; It's the first time I've actually set alarms on the Dash4Pro, and I'm quite impressed how well they work. You do need to change the variable names in CAN on the D4P, so it displays something meaningful in the warning screen, rather than the frame and slot number and some obscure shorthand for the message.
To test GSP (the air pressure in the pneumatic gear system) low pressure alarm, I simply operated the paddle switch with the clutch switch closed, and selected first then neutral, and the 95psi air pressure quickly dropped below the warning threshold set, triggering the LOW warning to be displayed on the dashboard together with flashing red LED's. When I then opened the paint ball bottle valve to repressurise the system, the pressure went back up to 95psi, and the alarms stopped. So yes, very pleased with how easy it was to set everything up. When the warning messages appear, I can either clear by pushing a button on the Display, or wait 5 seconds and the message will clear automatically.
I found an issue with the 45° hose that exits the turbo and directs the compressed air towards the intercooler. Where its been clamped to the turbo with the jubilee clip over the years, there were a few tiny splits appearing in the silicon, so not taking any chances, I ordered a spare, and that will be fitted this week. Thank you to Viper Performance for having them in stock :D
2Mar
Mallory Park is go
Great news, the organisers have stated that even with just 80 entries, they are 100% going ahead with the Mallory Park sprint, which means my test session a few days before should be fruitful.
1Mar
It's Spring
Yep, just 21 days to go to the first event. I have finished the floor upgrades, with the addition of another piece of angle carbon, kindly supplied by Easy Composites. I bonded the aero covers for the diffuser support brackets, using sikaflex. So they shouldn't fall off. I rewired the fp1 3 pin plug, having done a rush job in October when I was diagnosing the fuel pressure issue. It's now properly covered with adhesive heatshrink. I then spent a while tie wrapping cables out of harms way, in the area behind the seat, which were all again done in a rush when I refitted the engine last year, and it's all far tidyer and hopefully, wont cause me any issues.
