May 2024
28May
Coming up: Pembrey weekend (June 1st and 2nd)
A couple of things to further increase the performance of the car will be trialled at this coming weekend's sprints at Pembrey. Spurred on by the calibration changes made at Blyton, where I now have a Run Off mode which allows for extra power, we're developing some more enhancements which will be tested on the extremely fast Welsh circuit. I certainly couldnt have gotten in to the 55's at Blyton without the changes, so I hope the weather plays ball in South Wales.Contrary to what was written in the BSC report for Blyton, I was not running the new ExtraBoost map on Saturday. After trying it in first practice, the car felt sluggish and I realised it was severely down on power. Looking at the map1 levels, I figured out we'd made a mistake with the Wastegate Control MAP Target Adjustment for CAL 02, so I reloaded the previous map, and that restored the power back to the previous power levels, which were enough to win both run offs and FTD. During Saturday evening I corrected the error, loaded the ExtraBoot map back on, and on Sunday ran CAL 02 for the qualifying runs, and CAL 01 for the Run Off's. The difference on CAL 01 was definitely noticeable to me, the engine pulled so much harder, it certainly put a smile on my face. There were some corresponding issues which we found afterwards, which are being corrected for Pembrey. The rebuilt and upgraded engine is certainly capable of producing more power :D
22May
Onboards from Blyton Park circuit
Saturdays 4K FTD Winning run on the Eastern Circuit
Sundays 4K 3rd place 55s run on the Outer Circuit
20May
Blyton Park circuit - Six in a row
I was overjoyed as you can probably imagine to win both run offs and set Fastest Time of the Day for the sixth time on the Eastern Circuit. Everything went according to my plan, no dramas, nothing broke or fell off, and I was clearly the fastest car around the circuit all day. Perfect. I was in the lead of the championship too, by three points. The weather was incredible, low 20's and sun all day. You couldnt complain about anything. Well done to Longton DMC for putting on a great show, and thanks for the Best Longton Member award too.Sunday was also a very successful day. I was in the 55's for both run offs, both new PBs, and on the same second as the winner, finishing 3rd both times, and netting 48 points. The car was perfect, the two seasons old Pirellis did what I asked of them, and the EcoBoost engine pulled very strongly in every gear. I dropped back in to second place in the championship, but its clearly going to be another two horse race again this year, with both EcoBoost's swapping positions.
The 30 dowel 3D printed trigger wheel on the rear axle worked perfectly all weekend, leading to a 2.12s 64ft on dirty two season old tyres on the final run on Sunday. I'm happy with that. Last year I had a surge in results after the other drivers's tyres grip levels fell off a cliff, so I'm hoping that if I keep applying pressure like I am, and taking care of my rubber, then the same thing will happen again. I had zero nearside front wheel lockups over the weekend, so thank you to TripleM motorsport for performing the corner weighting the other week, as the chassis is now balanced allowing me to brake harder later.
Clive Wooster
The worst part of the weekend was hearing of the untimely passing of regular sprinter Clive Wooster. He died at home on Saturday morning from an apparent heart attack. Clive was such an ambassador for the sport, and will be sorely missed with his Green Radical a familiar sight at sprints in the Midlands and South West. RIP Clive.
8May
30 dowel trigger wheel fitted
I removed the nearside driveshaft again last night, and slid the 20 dowel printed trigger wheel off, and replaced it with the latest 30 dowel version. The ECU then had the new CAL loaded, and I set the wheel speed sensor up for 30 teeth. This will allow 12° rotation of the wheel per pulse, which coupled with the 20 dowel trigger wheel on the front axle, should make a further improvement to the launch and traction control. With the wheel fitted, I can spin the axle around by hand, and the ECU displayed some very smooth data from the sensor, which is currently adjusted approx 2mm from the dowels. I will need to keep an eye on the dowels, which only weigh 0.5 grammes, they shouldnt move, but we'll find out at Blyton.
A question that came up on facebook recently was whether the steel dowels would come out when the car was being driven. So I've just done a quick calculation, and at 150mph, with the rear wheel rotating at 2227 rpm, the dowels have an effective mass of 133.6 grammes per dowel. Which sounds a lot, but, to push the dowels in to the plastic ring, requires over 10kg of force. That is, if I place the ring on to my kitchen scales, and push the dowel in to the ring, the scales are overloaded before the dowel is forced into the ring. And as the scales have a max reading of 10kg, I take that as more than 10kg of force to insert each dowel. Thats the theory, lets see what happens at Blyton.
The entry list for the Blyton sprint is now out. Only 72 entries though from 120. Not a great turn out, but there are 17 BSC drivers in total, which is pretty good.
6May
Fifth injector update
The 3rd version of the fifth injector assembly turned up from 3D People at the weekend, and everything fits together properly now. The orb fitting on the injector rail works perfectly with the AN6 fitting I bought from torques. And the O-rings on the Pico injector seat properly in the fuel rail and the main body. So I guess its time to get one made from aluminium now and see if we can get it working with the ECU.
I also have the front and rear trigger disks back from 3D People, and I've populated two of the rings with 4mm dowels. The steel dowels weigh just 0.5g each, so even when fully populated the plastic rings arent that heavy.
2May
Corner weight check
I took a trip over to TripleM motor sport today for a corner weight check and to have the new Avon wets fitted to the rims. Alan and Nick placed the car on the scales, and to my delight the car was just a couple of kg's off front left to right rear, which was easily adjusted by altering the length of the right rear pushrod. They also checked the toe and camber and nothing needed adjusting. Alan then clamped the brake pedal closed, and they turned the front wheels to see how much torque was needed to turn the wheels against the brakes, and both wheels required the same amount of torque. So the reason the front left keeps locking under hard braking maybe down to the pad materials in the new pads. If the front left locks again at Blyton, I'm to swap the pads over left to right, and see if the issue goes away.I drove past the show ground at Lincoln on the way back, and there were huge queues of lorries and tractor units, for exhibitors for the truck show at the weekend. I was glad I wasnt caught up in that traffic.
