Feb 2018
28Feb
Snow stops play!
Seriously, who'd have predicted snow in March? Er, well, it does happen, but the press in the UK are portraying it as an end-of-the-world level event. It does look like the testing on Saturday is off, so not quite the end-of-the-world but close in my world; the track temps even if there is no snow, would prevent anyone there from running at the pace we need to test our cars at, so a sensible decision given the snowy conditions. I even spent 3/4 of an hour outside in the garage last night, but after battling with -3C and tools that hurt my hands when I touched them, I gave up. So we are trying to get another date set up, in March, where we can have another go.Meanwhile DJ has provided CAD drawings (that cannot be shared!) of the wing end plates for the SM153 and SM183 on my car, and I now know which holes correlate to wing angles, so I can label the wings up, and try the different angles to see how they change the car's handling.
Other news, Pete's Mygale came back from **** on Tuesday, with a big power hike. He fitted the larger hybrid turbo, and with the longer exhaust he's made, the power has crept slightly higher than mine, with 320bhp (vs 314bhp), but his torque is quite a bit higher, peaking at 300ftlb (vs 261ftlb). He has the exhaust cam wired in, so I may need to wire mine in, and go back for more power. Pete's peak power was at around 1.7bar though, whereas mine was was reached at 1.2bar, so there is definitely more scope for power from my TT Evo Turbo. However, we did limit the torque on mine to 260ftlb when we did the power run, so all we really need to do is raise the limit in the ECU, and it shouldnt have any difficulty in producing more power, even without the exhaust cam wired in.
23Feb
Snow!
Well, with the forecast looking as bad as it is, we could be in for a bit of snow at the end of next week, that may result in the testing at Blyton on the 3rd, being cancelled. I'm keeping everything crossed that the weathermen have got it wrong, as they sometimes do. But in the meantime, I'm still readying the car. I've cut six 15° shims out, that are now fitted to the front wing mount. The M6 bolts that secure the wing bracket to the FIA carbon crash box, protrude vertically from the underside of the box, but the surface of the box slopes upwards at 15° to the horizontal plane. So at least now the shims secure front wing properly. My Pi Datalogger software is now complete, at version 19, and after some 80 hours of testing in my road car, I'm very pleased with the way that it is working, so its just a case of fitting the Pi to the car, in such a way that it doesnt rattle itself to pieces, and running power to it.I've entered the Rockingham Sprint on the 25th March, and the Croft Sprint (BSC Round 2) on April 2nd. There is then a two month gap until the next round, #3, in June, so I may do an Aintree at the end of April to get a bit more seat time with the new wings on the car.
And finally, I rolled the car out the garage last weekend for a few photos. She's on the wet tyres as the slicks are safely wrapped waiting for the test session. Assuming its dry of course.
14Feb
07Feb
Progress...
The repaired rear damper has returned from Triple M, and is now back on the car. It had air inside, so the O-rings were replaced and the damper re-filled with oil and re-pressurised. The BSC entry is now up to 17 people, of whom three are new to the BSC. I'm not sure how many will be at Combe, but I do believe that the event is now full, so some may have missed the cutoff. The next event to enter is the BARC Rockingham sprint, but the entries arent open yet.03Feb
Progress..
Still very busy in the evenings, ticking off all the jobs. I'm currently applying DEI 2" heat protection tape to the rear suspension aft of the exhaust, and I've added some curved pieces of wood to the leading edges of the plywood floor, to help the air make its mind up that it needs to go below the floor rather than over it. I've cut out a new perspex wind screen, thats taller and has a saw tooth profile to help produce turbulant air. I've realised that there was a fair bit of fuel in the tank when it was weighed the other week, so the base weight is more like 450kg this year, which is a significant reduction (~10Kg less than 2017), mostly down to the light weight aero that the car will be running with. The Mygale aero was built from heavy duty 9mm nylon sheets, and sturdy aluminium wings, and was over engineered, and consequently, was weight I didnt need to carry around. I ran the engine on Friday, the first time its ran since October, and the engine started first time, with no smoke or fuss. Still a long way from being race ready, but the list of jobs left is diminishing.