Well, sh*t end to the season, all 4 wheels had a mind of there own, which made it very difficult to drive, never mind drive quickly. Wasnt something we could fix, so i either came home early or stuck it out and saw what happened.
Qualified rubbish, 14th, lowest of the year so far,
Race 1 was upto 2nd for half the race but dropped back to 4th as the hubs got hotter and developed more play, and made the thing unbeliveably oversteery.
Race 2 was going ok until i put 1 wheel in the gravel coming down paddock hill bend and i got sucked in and spun round.
Highlight for me (and the fastest i drove all weekend) was getting home in 6 hours. The fact that the car would randomly steer itself up the motorway says it all really.
Only plus point is that Robin thinks he knows whats wrong with it.
Huge thanks to Kelvin for helping out all weekend, giving me a place to stay and generally drinking beer and putting up with my moaning.
Roll on next year in a different car
LOTRDC - McApe brands hatch race report
Neil, what can I say. You gave it loads all year, achieved just as much if not more, and you should be proud of what you've done.
Many say they want to race and never do. There's always an excuse. But you went and did it, and in your own car, which you drove to - and from - every single event. What a track record.
Time to look forwards more than backward now.
Campbell
Many say they want to race and never do. There's always an excuse. But you went and did it, and in your own car, which you drove to - and from - every single event. What a track record.
Time to look forwards more than backward now.
Campbell
http://www.rathmhor.com | Coaching, training, consultancy
campbell wrote:Neil, what can I say. You gave it loads all year, achieved just as much if not more, and you should be proud of what you've done.
Many say they want to race and never do. There's always an excuse. But you went and did it, and in your own car, which you drove to - and from - every single event. What a track record.
Time to look forwards more than backward now.
Campbell
Dominic wrote:campbell wrote:Neil, what can I say. You gave it loads all year, achieved just as much if not more, and you should be proud of what you've done.
Many say they want to race and never do. There's always an excuse. But you went and did it, and in your own car, which you drove to - and from - every single event. What a track record.
Time to look forwards more than backward now.
Campbell
Its been great following your antics on the TV and on here. All the best for next season. Well done mate. 
2004 Exige S2 1.8 - Ardent Red
2003 RAV4 vvti 2.0 - Baleric Blue shiny version
Don't Fear The Reaper
Back on the road!
2003 RAV4 vvti 2.0 - Baleric Blue shiny version
Don't Fear The Reaper
Back on the road!
We need an end of season party, with all the races shown together, on a big telly with a big fridge of beers nearby 
http://www.rathmhor.com | Coaching, training, consultancy
Re: LOTRDC - McApe brands hatch race report
Indeed he did qualify 14th. However, his tyres were shagged and it did look more of a handful than usual. Put on new tyres and was half a second or so quicker in the race. It'd be worth checking the timesheet to see where that would have put you in qually...(-:
You did some great defending in the race and overall I thought you had a great race. What we need to do is start collecting some race data to allow you to properly compare one race to the next especially at tracks like Brands where you drive a few times in the year. It might help put some perspective on your (and your poor cars) performance.
Race 2 was going very well up until that wee incident LOL. Had you ended up 1 foot nearer the track you'd have got the car back on the track.
Regarding Neil's play problem. I figured that this can't be a unique problem for Neil given that most of the cars are using the same uprights, hubs, bearings etc. Prior to race 2, I spoke to the Sincs mechanics and they said they had never had this problem with Walshy's car (which hasn't had any of this upgraded so the same as Neils) So, after Walshy came in and while his car was still hot, I wandered down and had a tug at his wheels and both rears had a similar amount of play to Neil's although none on the fronts. Sincs said it had never done this before. However, I'm not so sure about that as all the play had disappeared when I checked it again later after it had cooled down. In any event, Walshy didn't enter race 2 as he figured that this play was contributing to his cars wayward handling. Sincs are looking to engineer a solution involving the S2 steel uprights although Walshy didn't think this was possible.
No probs on the support mate. I'll post my thoughts on the other thread...
Cheers
Kelvin.
You did some great defending in the race and overall I thought you had a great race. What we need to do is start collecting some race data to allow you to properly compare one race to the next especially at tracks like Brands where you drive a few times in the year. It might help put some perspective on your (and your poor cars) performance.
Race 2 was going very well up until that wee incident LOL. Had you ended up 1 foot nearer the track you'd have got the car back on the track.
Regarding Neil's play problem. I figured that this can't be a unique problem for Neil given that most of the cars are using the same uprights, hubs, bearings etc. Prior to race 2, I spoke to the Sincs mechanics and they said they had never had this problem with Walshy's car (which hasn't had any of this upgraded so the same as Neils) So, after Walshy came in and while his car was still hot, I wandered down and had a tug at his wheels and both rears had a similar amount of play to Neil's although none on the fronts. Sincs said it had never done this before. However, I'm not so sure about that as all the play had disappeared when I checked it again later after it had cooled down. In any event, Walshy didn't enter race 2 as he figured that this play was contributing to his cars wayward handling. Sincs are looking to engineer a solution involving the S2 steel uprights although Walshy didn't think this was possible.
No probs on the support mate. I'll post my thoughts on the other thread...
Cheers
Kelvin.
mckeann wrote:
Qualified rubbish, 14th, lowest of the year so far,
Race 1 was upto 2nd for half the race but dropped back to 4th as the hubs got hotter and developed more play, and made the thing unbeliveably oversteery.
Race 2 was going ok until i put 1 wheel in the gravel coming down paddock hill bend and i got sucked in and spun round.
Highlight for me (and the fastest i drove all weekend) was getting home in 6 hours. The fact that the car would randomly steer itself up the motorway says it all really.
Only plus point is that Robin thinks he knows whats wrong with it.
Huge thanks to Kelvin for helping out all weekend, giving me a place to stay and generally drinking beer and putting up with my moaning.
Roll on next year in a different car
We saw the same play-when-hot at Charade if you remember.
It might not seem much, but I suspect it equates to a good few mm of toe change which will give caster-like steering at the rear momentarily as the weight shifts.
I don't know whether the same thing happens with steel uprights.
The difference with Andrew's car is that (I think) it has proper front brake cooling - so you might find that the lack of play at the front is because the uprights and hubs are not getting as hot as they are on the yellow shed. Also they have different wheels (S1 5 spoke vs. 340R mags), which might make a difference to cooling somehow.
I think the yellow shed would benefit from a dynamic geometry analysis to see if anything untoward is happening with the wheels under load - I don't know where to get this done, however (obviously you can do some of it with a video camera pointing at the wheels, but that would not be particularly accurate).
Maybe it's the dampers binding, or too much rebound damping, or a combination of all these things.
If the car is staying in class B for 2008 then it needs some new dampers and proper setup time spent at a race track (Knockhill for starters, then maybe O/P, Cadwell or Croft). The idea is not to rag the car all day but to do repeated testing while measuring tyre temps/pressures and making small adjustments to see what works best. I think a trackday would be better than a test day because you're not constrained by the limited sessions.
If Neil's heading for class A in 2008 then we need a new car to start with anyway, and reduced power will reduce some of the dynamic problems he's having (pretty much everywhere is flat in a class A car ).
However, I do think that an early S2 with OZ wheels is an ideal starting place for class A next year ...
Cheers,
Robin
It might not seem much, but I suspect it equates to a good few mm of toe change which will give caster-like steering at the rear momentarily as the weight shifts.
I don't know whether the same thing happens with steel uprights.
The difference with Andrew's car is that (I think) it has proper front brake cooling - so you might find that the lack of play at the front is because the uprights and hubs are not getting as hot as they are on the yellow shed. Also they have different wheels (S1 5 spoke vs. 340R mags), which might make a difference to cooling somehow.
I think the yellow shed would benefit from a dynamic geometry analysis to see if anything untoward is happening with the wheels under load - I don't know where to get this done, however (obviously you can do some of it with a video camera pointing at the wheels, but that would not be particularly accurate).
Maybe it's the dampers binding, or too much rebound damping, or a combination of all these things.
If the car is staying in class B for 2008 then it needs some new dampers and proper setup time spent at a race track (Knockhill for starters, then maybe O/P, Cadwell or Croft). The idea is not to rag the car all day but to do repeated testing while measuring tyre temps/pressures and making small adjustments to see what works best. I think a trackday would be better than a test day because you're not constrained by the limited sessions.
If Neil's heading for class A in 2008 then we need a new car to start with anyway, and reduced power will reduce some of the dynamic problems he's having (pretty much everywhere is flat in a class A car
).However, I do think that an early S2 with OZ wheels is an ideal starting place for class A next year ...
Cheers,
Robin
I is in your loomz nibblin ur wirez
#bemoretut
#bemoretut
Would SimonA's car fit that descriptionrobin wrote: However, I do think that an early S2 with OZ wheels is an ideal starting place for class A next year ...
http://www.rathmhor.com | Coaching, training, consultancy
Actually, Simon's car is not where I would start as I think it's the VVC; they don't let you tune those at all for some reason, so you would be giving up 15BHP to the rest of the field ... but if it weren't for the VVC engine, yes, a good place indeed!
Cheers,
Robin
Cheers,
Robin
I is in your loomz nibblin ur wirez
#bemoretut
#bemoretut
