Latest News
30July
Croft video
What a fantastic video from my fastest run on Sunday!28July
Croft Success
I couldnt quite match my PB from 2019, I did record an 80.41s run, and my PB was a 79.32s, but in my defence my tyres are 3 years old now and the weather was a lot cooler. Excuses over, it was a great days racing on Sunday, I made more new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed the event. I did one practice and five timed runs. My best run was T4 on the freshly cleaned Pirellis, which was as hard as I dare push the car. I was running very low downforce on both wings, to see how well she handled with less downforce, and the car was very neutral. It was good to get away from the security blanket of running high wing angles. Sometimes you've just got to try these things. Had the rain come down then I would have gone back to max downforce, but although a rain shower was forecast the day remained cool and dry. Maybe a bit more downforce would have led to a new PB, but I was happy with the result. I won my class, and took FTD, and Adrian was just 3s slower in the Fensport Yaris GR. It is running 110RON race fuel, with water/methanol injection before and after the intercooler, and with 2.6bar of boost, the 3 cylinder 1600cc engine is producing in the order of 600bhp, which is transferred to the tarmac via all four wheels. It''s a stunning car to look at, and it is pedalled extremely well. He'd embarrass most of the field if he were to run at a BSC meeting :DThere were 44 photos provided from the event, all free of charge!
20July
Tyre cleaning
I spent an hour or so on Sunday cleaning four of the eight tyres I'm running at Croft. Three Avons and one Pirelli, and only one of the Avon fronts is showing evidence of cold shear. I did give them a hard time at Cadwell. Once the others are cleaned I'll wrap them ready for transport.Following the intense heat at Cadwell, I checked the level of the water in the header tank, and it had dropped just below the bottom of the tank, and it took maybe a cupfull of coolant to bring it back up to the normal level. Dont forget, never dilute coolant with water in these engines, it leads to core plugs rusting and bursting, lesson learnt in 2023. Since then I've only used ready mixed coolant which contains antifreeze and anti-corrosion chemicals.
17July
Coming up - Croft sprint
I'm looking forwards to the upcoming trip to Croft for round four of the Javelin sprint championship on July 27th. I am leading the championship, but I'm missing both the Anglesey rounds in September due to a surgical procedure I've got booked the last week in August, so the Blyton sprint in August (16th & 17th) will probably be the last time I drive the car this year. Missing the remaining rounds means I cant win the championship overall, but I'm not too bothered about that, I just want to enjoy the car and the driving.In prep for Croft I've changed the dashboard layout, to reduce clutter from the Pits screen, and increase the intensity of the LED's from 10% to 90%, I just couldn't see them at Cadwell. The 3D printed bezel worked great, and the joystick I found made it very easy to change screens. Its a very impressive dashboard, well worth looking at if you're in the market for one.
16July
Noise issues at Lydden Hill
The organisers had to alternate race cars with saloon cars at one point last Saturday, due to noise issues at the track, and that meant the fourth timed runs were cancelled. I have heard stories of residents sitting outside their homes with sound meters, monitoring the noise levels. I'm sure the track was there before they occupied their homes.Broughton took two wins, with Jones 2nd, and the rest were several seconds slower. I believe Nick Scott has now hung up his helmet, he is apparently selling his Force, which means one less driver heading over to N.Ireland in August. I reckon there's going to be just five drivers heading over this year. Easy points for those who do, 80 points for the weekend for the sixth place driver just for turning up; my money is on the local Ethan Faulkner to clean up both days.
11July
Falling attendance
Just ten drivers travelling to the next BSC round at the weekend, at Lydden Hill. Thats one less than 2024. I wonder how few will travel across to Kirkistown in August? I mean its easy points when no one else turns up. No qualifying, just drive it and net a bag of points for showing up. I wish the championship would revert back to the old points system, with Top 12 run offs.9July
Two more weekends remain
I've only got two more events to go this year; the Javelin sprint at Croft at the end of July, and the Yorks motor club event at Blyton in August, both of which I am really looking forward to. I'm not planning on racing after August, the new job is very time consuming with lots of travel, and therefore very tiring.29June
Cadwell success
I managed one practice and five timed runs yesterday, getting my time down to an 82.21s run on the old pirellis. That was good enough for first in class and FTD. This is only my 3rd visit to Cadwell in the Mygale, and only the second full dry event. The first visit in 2023 was wet, and in 2024 I managed a 82.54s run. Today I took 0.3s off that time which given the extreme temperatures I was quite happy with.The Plex dash worked perfectly, allowing me to see all the channels, and select gears using the paddles. Aside from the bonkers 30 degree heat, it was a very enjoyable day, blasting around the Cadwell Park circuit. I've still not learnt it, but I was making huge improvements, getting more and more confident. Again, swapping from the two year old Avons to Pirellis gave a big improvement in grip on the final two runs, and it was only then that I could really push the car.
27June
Cadwell this Saturday
The car is all packed up and ready for the trip over this afternoon, for the JTSS competition at Cadwell Park tomorrow. Just hope I can get a decent spot in the tarmac paddock.Plex has featured my dashboard install on their web site, it's a very impressive read.
Plex SDM-330 article
22June
Mallory Park BSC round 13 & 14
I went to Mallory Park on Saturday, to watch Ethan Faulkner pedal his OMS around the circuit, and I wasnt disappointed. He managed a 2nd place in the one and only run off in the afternoon, proving how adept he is at learning tracks. This was his first visit to the Leicestershire circuit.
It was another day beset with problems. Mallory Park just doesnt seem to lend itself to smooth running sprints over the two lap format (not when there are multiple accidents anyway). The circuit is great, but the venue desperately needs a revamp! A drastic shortage of marshals, and temperatures peaking at 29C didnt help. A crash in the morning involving a Lotus delayed proceedings by 30 or so minutes. A couple of rain showers made things interesting, and after the commencement of the T2 run after lunch, the BSC drivers had just completed their runs at the head of the batch, when a further short shower made the track very damp, sadly catching out one of the Radical drivers. As they crossed the finish line, braking heavily, the car did a 180 and then hit the tyre barrier on the left just after the Edwina chicane. The driver was carted off to the medical centre, and after an hour the organisers announced the meeting had been abandoned since the ambulance needed to leave the circuit to take the driver to Leicester Royal Infirmary for further checks.
I was sat in the cafe downloading images from my camera when I heard the impact. It sounded horrible. When I looked across the track, the driver appeared to sit for quite a while before anyone turned up. A young marshal was first on the scene, and others soon followed. The tyres on that tyre wall made short work of the Radical. I dont know how old the tyres are, but they're bound together tightly, and have gone very hard having sat exposed to the elements for many years, and they just dont offer the protection of recticel/foam barriers.
I hope the driver recovers quickly, and gets back behind the wheel again soon.
As for the eleven BSC drivers, Steve Browns supercharger failed on the Empire EVO at the end of his first practice run, leading to him missing the T1 qualifier run whilst he swapped chargers over. Steve Broughton's gearbox shat itself on the line in practice, and he also missed the T1 run, but had the car running for the one and only run off. It was good to see the new F4 EcoBoost running. It sounds and looks like it needs a lot of work on the tuning, particularly with the launch control as it often bogged down and stalled on the line. But they've only just started the journey so I'm sure they'll get it running smoothly in time.
There was another EcoBoost, the ex-Sutton car, running around at the back of the group, so aside from Smiles and Ethan, Pete G wasnt really troubled and picked up yet another win. Chris Jones had COVID, so he sadly missed the event, which he may regret later in the year. I had a few welcomes, good to see you's, and a very frosty 'youre not welcome here' from one of the more senior drivers; it's a championship with a definite PR problem.
14June
Tyres cleaned
I cleaned the Pirellis today, which are 3 years old but still have loads of life left in them. I'm going to fit the new Pirellis to the other set of rims, to replace the two year old Avons. Just trying to find someone in Leicester that can fit tyres to split rims, after the last experience where one particular shop managed to bend an outer, I'm just not sure who to take them to. I asked Graham Goodes but they declined. I may have to take a trip over to BMTR if I cant find anyone locally. Thats not too bad as they're 45 minutes away, but it'd be easier to find someone local.I'm at Cadwell Park on the 29th June, so I need to get the fresh rubber fitted before then.
Plex are going to write a feature on my 3D printed dashboard solution for the SDM-330. I've been asked to provide photographs and some notes on what I've achieved, so hopefully I'll be sharing a link to their web site in the next week or so.
9June
Extra CAN
I added four more channels to the Life ECU Datastream, as it was still only sending 48 channels (48 is the maximum the Dash4Pro could work with). I've added gpsTimeHour and gpsTimeMin, as well as engineEnable, and LaunchMode.The reason for adding the pair of gps channels, is that I now have a digital clock on the pits/paddock page, so when the engine is idling and I'm either warming the engine up or sat in the car in the queue, I can a) see the time, and b) have confirmation that the GPS board has aquired a satellite lock and therefore the car will have a track map for me to download when the run is complete.
engineEnable is used for a new icon, which shows if the ignition is on or off. I had to create a flag and invert the logic, because the channel returns 0 for igntion on, and 1 for off. The reason for that is the ECU needed a 1 to kill the engine when the switch is turned off, so the ECU outputs the reverse to what you think it would for ignition on and off.
Exciting Shelsley
I dont know if you were following the live stream from Shelsley at the weekend, but the footage from the Hillclimb TV livestream was incredible. Alex Summers took the first run off win, and Matt Ryder the second. The footage can be seen here.Ethan nearly takes his first win
Ethan Faulkner, the teenager from N.Ireland, on his first visit to Pembrey, finished 2nd overall in the final run off on Sunday, beating several champions in the process. He's an amazing talent, and I look forward to seeing him in action at Mallory Park in just two weeks time. The EcoBoost is fuelled and ready......1June
Success in France for Will and Simon
I am really happy to report that Simon Bainbridge and Will Shuttleworth both had success in France at the St Goueno hillclimb over the weekend. Will's Radical SR3 is the one I rewired, for the Gen2 Hyabusa engine using the DTA S100 ECU and a donor loom from a car running a Zetec engine. Will had no issues at all over the weekend, and posted a very reasonable 1m 43s run on his final dry weather run on Sunday, before the rain spoilt the fun. Congratulations to Simon and Will on an outstanding job. When Will said in January he wanted to do the hillclimb in May, I was keen to get involved and help, and you couldnt ask for a better customer.31May
Dash upgrade completed
It turned out to be a very trivial change to get the ECU to recognise the data sent from the Plex dashboard. It was as I thought, that it needed a full 8 bytes of B Frame data, otherwise the frame would be discarded. With the Plex configured to send four rotary switches, plus the two digital paddles, and two more fixed values to pad the frame out to 8 bytes, I simply had to reassign the ECU IO to the relevant B Frames and it worked! Both paddles are recognised, along with all four switches. I also changed the Plex to send 0 to 11 for the 12 positions provided by the rotary switches, rather than 1 to 12, and the ECU recognised all the switch positions.I also unassigned the pair of analogue inputs on the SLAVE1 AN channels, which means I now have another pair of free analogue inputs available (via the X10 expander) which could be used elsewhere to monitor more of the engine health.
The printed bezel will be available in the Ebay shop, so if anyone else wants to use the same solution, I'm happy to manufacture and supply the parts.
26May
Connected the dash to the ECU
I had limited success connecting the Plex dash to the LifeRacing ECU. By that I mean, the dash displayed all the CAN data like I set it up to do. But the four rotary switches and the digital paddle switches were harder to setup. I'd asked Plex if the dash supported B frames, and it did. They provided the instructions how to send the LSB using a bitmask of 0x00FF. I set that up, but it wasnt receiving the data. To cut a long story short, the reason why was the ECU was discarding the B frames it was receiving, because I hadnt set the Plex dash to send 8 bytes. The ECU must see 8 bytes otherwise it discards the frame. Anyway, now I know that I've set the Plex up to send 8 bytes, and I'll try it again on Friday when I get back in to the garage again.
Because I've left the 9-way D-Type connector fitted on the CAN BUS, I can still plug the Dash4Pro display in at the same time as the Plex dash (which is connected using a Binder plug/socket) so that allowed me to display the frames being seen on the CAN bus. Very useful for debugging issues.
The BARC Midlands round at Snetterton in August has opened, and its another whopping £370 for the two days. Not quite as expensive as the Mallory Park round in June, but at least with Snetterton, you'll get more than two runs a day!
16May
Mk3 printed Plex dash bezel
The final version of the printed bezel was waiting for me when I got home on Thursday, so I didnt waste any time in taking the steering wheel apart and fitting the quick release boss and other parts to the new wheel. I think it looks great. I've just got a few wires to fit and it can be plugged in to the car for testing :DLink to the Youtube short.
This is the schematic for the wiring that I need to produce to connect the four rotary switches, the joystick, and the paddles, to the Plex connector.
11May
Blyton success
I enjoyed myself sprinting at Blyton on Sunday, on the Eastern layout. Steve Miles and Martin Pickles (both BSC drivers) were both entered, but Martin had to withdraw and miss the event as he wasnt feeling well on Sunday morning. Get well soon Martin. Smileys ageing Van Diemen has had a lot of updates, some are working better than others. So he was my main (and only) competition, would he run the brand new Ultrasofts that he'd stashed in the trailer?I had a new silencer fitted, which I was hoping would knock a couple of decibels off the sound level, so I wouldnt trip the sound meter. After I returned from my first timed run, I was warned the sound level had broken 98dB. So the previous event it was 95dB, and the addition of the silencer made the car twice as loud? OK, so I removed the silencer, and dropped the auto-gear shift rpm for 3rd gear to 6000rpm, to act as a short shift. Still on the cleaned Avons, I did the first timed run, full of trepidation. Had I tripped the sound meter? No, I was below 95dB this time. How does that work? Why would a silencer double to sound pressure? Anyway I spoke to Kev Theaker, and he said keep left off the start line, to put a couple more car widths between your car and the sound meter, which I did, and for the next four runs, I had no issues with noise.
Smiley was running on old Pirellis, and I opted for the 3 year old Pirellis for my T3 run, and on that run I recorded my quickest time of 56.65s. For all the other runs I was in the 57's, once the Pirellis had had their first use, their grip levels fell away, but at least I was consitently faster than Smiles. His best run (his sixth run which I elected not to do) he managed a 56.72, so I beat him by 0.07s, to take first in class and fastest overall.
No drama's today, I did reconnect the water sprayer and used iced water, which kept the air charge temperature below 50C, which wasn't bad considering the ambient temperatures were around 25C.
7May
Dashboard housing update
I've made a final push to get the dashboard housing completed, by mirroring the chamber I added on the side for the wires, so there is now a chamber on both sides of the housing. This will give me more capacity for wires to run down to the front panel for the switches. I drilled the steering wheel at the weekend, for the Plex dash to attach to it, and the dash fits nicely inside the housing, against the aluminium wheel centre.
3May
Horn replaced
It was very easy to swap the faulty car horn on the beemer. Jack the car up, remove the wheel, remove the inner wheel arch lining, remove the faulty horn, and after fitting the new one, the process to put it all back together again took another 10 minutes. Cheaper than paying the BMW dealership to do it.2May
New job
I started a new 12 month contract on Monday, so now I'm working Hybrid so I'm spending three days a week at my clients office in Manchester, and two days at home. Its been a busy first week, with an unexpected trip home on Tuesday afternoon to return again Wednesday morning, so the mileage is double that of a normal week, but its good to get back on the road again, and back in to an office environment.I am now working as part of an Agile team, and getting to grips with daily SCRUMs and two week Sprints. Totally different mindset to the previous client I worked with.
I had the 335D serviced last week, in anticipation of the increased milage I'm going to be racking up. The last service was at the end of 2021, as the car had only travelled 14,000 miles in the past 3.5 years. So it was just a basic oil and filter change for £310. The dealer said one of the horns had stopped working, the car has a pair, a 400hz horn and a 500hz horn, and the 400hz one had gone silent (a common fault apparently on the 3 series). So I ordered a pair of new ones, made by Hella, from Autodoc, and they've arrived, ready for fitting this weekend.
