March 2026
30Mar
First round of the championship complete
Watching the times on resultsman come through, the BSC group didnt even complete their first practice until 11:50am, and then the first timed runs around 2pm. There was a lengthy delay when Graham Porrett was caught off guard by the cold tyres and cold track, and visited the barriers in the TeGra EcoBoost. Ethan in the 1600 Force TA managed to propel himself round with a 74.92s run, which is some four seconds quicker than Gouldings class record in the EcoBoost, which is very impressive for his first visit. With the qualification done, the next timed runs (first run off) took park around 90 minutes later, with both drivers recording slower 79s runs, and by around 4pm the running stopped again, and then eventually the third and final timed runs started. It looked like the cold weather, and very large entry didnt help. The next round is Anglesey in 3 weeks time, with Ethan leading the championship. The scoring system hadnt been updated either, and the results published on Saturday showed neither Ethan nor Pete had been given their 26 points for their wins. That was sorted on Sunday. At £215 entry fee, and it running in March, I decided to give it a miss. It looks like I didn't miss out.The usual running order then, with no surprises. I'll see how I get on when I drive across to North Wales, hopefully I'll have landed myself a garage in the Longton raffle draw. Its £10 per ticket and I daresay a large number of tickets have been sold. Fingers crossed.
23Mar
Bambu labs PS2 3D printer
We've been trying out the Bambu Labs PS2 printer over the weekend, and I'm extremely impressed with the ease of producing parts. We're using PLA at the moment, and the Bambu slicer software, and it really is as simple as importing a file from Fusion 360, previewing it, then sending it to the printer. And the print quality is amazing. I'll upload some videos this week.This is a youtube short of the printer creating a fairing piece for the car.
16Mar
Entries open
Pleased to see LDMC used rallies.info to host the registration and entries for the Anglesey sprint in April. There are 85 entries at the moment. Only a few BSC contenders though, I was expecting a better turn out. The price isn't too bad either at £310. Fuel prices continue to rise though, its averaging 159pence per litre and still rising. What will it be in four weeks time?I am running the alternator control again this year, using the Life ECU to switch it on and off automatically based on the battery voltage. I also have more power than before, running a higher boost level in the lower gears. I am still limiting the boost in 1st and second, but the restrictions in 3rd, 4th, and 5th are now all removed, so the engine will be making maximum boost from 3rd gear upwards. This should be good for a few tenths of a second per lap of most venues.
9Mar
First event?
I'm ready and raring to go, however Longton DMC still hasn't opened the entries for Anglesey on the 18th/19th April. Nor their Blyton round in May. If it's that difficult to code the necessary forms to handle the processing of entries for an event, why not stick it on rallies.info?But with everything thats going on in the Middle East at the moment, with oil prices rising very rapidly, and supplies potentially drying up, will anyone be able to afford to travel soon?
I've updated the ftd.today database to show the winner of the first event this year. Congratulations to Simon Woodside on the win at Knutts Corner on Saturday.
And well done to the #FIA for the new #Formula1 regulations. I watched the Ozzy GP on Sunday morning, and what a race it was. I'm going to see my first foreign F1 race later this year, and I'm so looking forward to the trip. I've been watching F1 since the Lauda/Hunt days, avidly, this wont be my first GP, but it will be my first foreign one.
I received the information I requested from National Highways regarding the pothole damage to my tyres, and it shows the last inspection of the carriageway prior to me striking the hole was 6 days earlier. What I've done now is submitted a further FOI request, this time for the safety inspection logs from the vehicle used to drive along that stretch of motorway on January 7th, together with the number of occupants, and the telemetry/GPS data so I can see the recorded speed and time-stamped location as it passed through the segment between J18 and J19, as well as the inspection duration.
