Latest News 

18Mar

Trailer rewired

Over the weekend I've fitted a much larger battery to the trailer and rewired the remote winch and the motor mover to connect both to the battery through an isolator switch. It's another Bosch battery, so comes with, a four year guarantee. A no brainer based on the warranty swap I've just made on the battery from the van. The next job is to connect the battery to the 13pin trailer connector, so it is trickle charged when the engine is running on the van. Actually the next job is to pressure wash the clamshell. Five months parked in a field, isnt the best way to keep a trailer clean.

The finals are out for both Cadwell and Mallory Park, and its going to be a full on weekend making both events back to back. There is no paddock plan for Mallory, 'park at your discretion', so who knows where we'll all end up. I do hope there is a someone coordinating the paddock, as it'll be hard to get everyone out in the correct order otherwise.

On Friday I finished off all the jobs on the car, I just need to fill the fuel tank, reset the fuel consumption on the ECU, refill the dive tank so I can replenish the air in the paint ball bottle. Oh and fit the mirrors for Thursday.



15Mar

Brake pads changed

I fitted the fresh front brake pads last night, which is only a 30 second job as they're held in with spring clips. The pads they replaced are a few years old, and had half the pad material of the fresh ones.

I also removed the 3rd spring assembly to check that the grease inside the sliding mechanism was still allowing it to slide easily, and it was fine. I then sprayed some fresh black paint on it, and reassembled it once it had dried.

The final job was to stick the pair of turning vanes that I'd printed, to the floor, just ahead of the rear wheels, and I did that with Sikaflex. I'll see what difference they make at Mallory.





14Mar

Reluctance rings

I've just finished designing a front and rear wheel speed sensor setup for a well known competition car builder in the UK, and they are hopefully getting them manufactured and installed for an event in just over a weeks time. The brief was to have 20 teeth for the front and rear reluctance rings, and design a bracket to support the speed sensor on the front hub. I went for a folded steel bracket to keep the costs down, and the reluctance rings can be water jet cut from mild steeel.

I also provided a design for a 3D printed ring for the rear axle, with 30 holes for 30 steel dowels, to test. The printed ring would give 50% more pulses than the steel ring, and its just a question of robustness when used on a car designed for a full race series.


13Mar

Nosecone fitted

I've added the pair of fasteners to the nose cone, so it can now be attached securely to the car. I weighed it last night and its almost 800grammes lighter than the one it replaces. And I've replaced several of the cap head bolts on the front wing brackets with 10.9 button heads, to smooth out the air flow under the nose. And the last of the four gurney strips is now fixed in place, just the pair of turning vanes to fit ahead of the rear tyres.

Pleased to see John Graham has registered for the championship again; John won in 2019, and is still driving the red Gould which he won the championship in. Not sure which dates he'll be out, the entry list for Cadwell should be out in the next day or so, so we'll soon see.



11Mar

Nosecone replaced

This weekend I fastened the gurney strips to the rear diffuser, using epoxy resin, and stuck the first of the two strips to the front wing. I then fitted the wing, and tried the new nose cone for size, and it fitted straight on, requiring no modifications to clear the redesigned front wing drop plates. So I stuck the race number to it, and I now need to drill a couple of holes in the rear of the cone to rivet the fasteners to it, so it can be bolted securely in place. One more gurney strip to go, and the aero modifications are complete.

The entries opened this morning for Anglesey and Blyton, at 7:14am the email arrived from Longton, and luckily I had my phone on whilst I was eating breakfast otherwise I would have missed it. I have entered both events; Anglesey is in less than 4 weeks time, and Blyton is in May.

Good news on the van battery front. The one I just replaced was just under four years old, and had totally failed, so I sent it back and claimed on the four year warranty provided by Bosch, and I've just been refunded the full cost of the new battery I bought. Thank you Tayna Batteries and thank you Bosch.


7Mar

Exhaust refitted

Zircotec returned the exhaust pipe yesterday, it had to go back for a tiny bit of rework, and it looks fantastic bolted back on to the turbo. I hope it retains the matt black look after I've blown exhaust gas down it at 750°C.

I then replaced the three very short pieces of 6mm nylon pipe used by the pneumatic system, after I spotted an air leak via the pressure sensor readings from the ECU. You couldnt hear air escaping, but the pressure kept dropping, so I'll see now if the pressure is retained.

In my spare time I'm designing a few parts in Fusion, one of which is a fifth injector plate for the EcoBoost. You can find very few people selling these; there are a few in the US, but they come as a complete kit with electronics and a black box; whereas we just wanted the ability to run an additonal injector. So, with a small bit of help from Jenvey with the Pico injector inlet and outlet port sizes, I drew this. Its ready for 3D printing, to test the fitment, and then I'll get one made for testing. Prices with the Pico injector should be in the £300 range. It has a groove for an O-Ring on the underside, where it meets the throttle body.


ExtraBoost 5th Injector design

6Mar

Front wing drop plates upgraded

The pair of redesigned front wing drop plates arrived today, so I fitted them to the car and they are smaller and lighter than the Playskool ones, and I now have a pair of spares in case anything unfortunate happends to them. Very pleased with how they turned out. I designed them in Fusion to have scallops both sides :D

The spare turbo hoses arrived and I've replaced the 135° hose which had some tiny splits in it where the jubilee clip had been holding it on to the turbo outlet.


4Mar

Printed aero sections fitted

I've bonded on the pair of aero profile sections to the leading edge of the floor. They're held on with sikaflex, and wont fall off. The final two pieces of printed parts to fit are the turning vanes that will sit ahead of the rear tyres. I'll have a go at fitting those tomorrow. I' waiting for some more carbon angle to turn up, which will be used a gurney flaps on the front wing and for the rear diffuser. Delivery is due on Wednesday.



3Mar

More jobs completed

I'm now turning my attention to the electronics changes that I needed to make. I've updated the CAN Datastream from the Life ECU, to include ECP and GSP pressures, and after updating the DBC file in Kvaser, I've reprogrammed the Dash4Pro to display an alert when various channels are outside of normal ranges. eg EOT is above 120C; It's the first time I've actually set alarms on the Dash4Pro, and I'm quite impressed how well they work. You do need to change the variable names in CAN on the D4P, so it displays something meaningful in the warning screen, rather than the frame and slot number and some obscure shorthand for the message.

To test GSP (the air pressure in the pneumatic gear system) low pressure alarm, I simply operated the paddle switch with the clutch switch closed, and selected first then neutral, and the 95psi air pressure quickly dropped below the warning threshold set, triggering the LOW warning to be displayed on the dashboard together with flashing red LED's. When I then opened the paint ball bottle valve to repressurise the system, the pressure went back up to 95psi, and the alarms stopped. So yes, very pleased with how easy it was to set everything up. When the warning messages appear, I can either clear by pushing a button on the Display, or wait 5 seconds and the message will clear automatically.

I found an issue with the 45° hose that exits the turbo and directs the compressed air towards the intercooler. Where its been clamped to the turbo with the jubilee clip over the years, there were a few tiny splits appearing in the silicon, so not taking any chances, I ordered a spare, and that will be fitted this week. Thank you to Viper Performance for having them in stock :D



2Mar

Mallory Park is go

Great news, the organisers have stated that even with just 80 entries, they are 100% going ahead with the Mallory Park sprint, which means my test session a few days before should be fruitful.


1Mar

It's Spring

Yep, just 21 days to go to the first event. I have finished the floor upgrades, with the addition of another piece of angle carbon, kindly supplied by Easy Composites. I bonded the aero covers for the diffuser support brackets, using sikaflex. So they shouldn't fall off. I rewired the fp1 3 pin plug, having done a rush job in October when I was diagnosing the fuel pressure issue. It's now properly covered with adhesive heatshrink. I then spent a while tie wrapping cables out of harms way, in the area behind the seat, which were all again done in a rush when I refitted the engine last year, and it's all far tidyer and hopefully, wont cause me any issues.


29Feb

3D printed parts delivered

The three parts that I designed have been delivered, and I've placed them on the car, and they all fit perfectly. I'm putting a video together showing the process and their fitment.






28Feb

AAT sensor replaced

I'd had some issues with the temperatures reported by the Ambient Air Temperature sensor during the year, they have no bearing at all on the engine tune, its just a sensor that can be monitored and logged; so at Anglesey, when I had the misfire on the Sunday after repairing the core plug leak, I just turned it off and unplugged it. So I'd been meaning to replace the sensor since then. I had a spare one in my box of bits, so I've made an extension loom, to allow it to reach the turbo, where it will be fitted to monitor the true air temperature of the air as it enters the turbo.

I had to reassign the sensor in the IO, which is very easy to do. In LifeCAL in the IO Pin Assignments, you just tell the ECU which pin to use, which in my case is AN#23 on pin C1-84, and once thats done, and the ECU is re-programmed, the temperature reported by AAT is the temperature seen by the sensor. So now that's done, I can do some tidying up of the cables with some fresh cable ties, and we're good to go.



27Feb

Exhaust pipe returns

The exhaust pipe has returned from Zircotec and it looks amazing, finished in their black ThermoHold® plasma-applied ceramic exhaust coating.
Cant wait to fit it back on the car again.


26Feb

Diffuser mods

I've fitted the first of the pair of turning vanes/fences to the underside of the diffuser, to direct air out through the slotted louvres. The second element is prepared, and has been painted black, and I'll fit it on Monday. I've refitted the absent titanium skid to the nearside of the diffuser, it parted company at Castle Combe, and I've used another spare piece of titanium bar. Several cars were testing at Blyton on Sunday. Apparently the entrance road has been completely resurfaced, as has part of the circuit. I'm looking forward to seeing the circuit for myself.

As soon as the floor upgrades are finished, I'll turn to the electronics. The ECU needs the latest firmware flashing to enable a few new features since the last system update last year, and I have some modifications to make to the CAN Data sent to the dashboard, plus the dashboard layout needs altering. That'll hopefully be worthy of a new youtube video.

I am booked in for testing at Mallory Park in March, so I've still got plenty of time to get the car ready :D
There are still only 75 entries for the Mallory Park sprint, which leaves 35 short of the minimum 110 entries required to run the event. Only three weeks to go before the entries close....


20Feb

Floor complete

Well, almost, I'm just waiting on the printed parts to come back from 3D People. They contacted me today to say the pair of leading edge aero profiles were distorting during printing, and wanted to change to SLS, so I said yes. The parts are expected next Monday. I will skin the pair of leading edge parts, with carbon, to make them stronger.

The uhmwpe strips are now all stuck to the carbon angle sections, and all four carbon sections are re-attached to the floor. The ground clearance is bang on 40mm, but the floor height is adjustable, so as the strips wear, I can alter the height to maintain the 40mm gap. I replaced one of the small rubber hoses on the radiator, the one that leads from the top of the radiator to the header tank, and I've started checking all the jubilee clips to make sure they're all secure. Once tightened they're marked with yellow paint. Considering I put the engine back in rapidly in October, I've only found a couple of clips that needed a bit of adjustment to make sure they wont leak any coolant.



18Feb

MOT passed

The Van flew through its MOT again. I did have to replace the Bosch starter battery, as it had totally died since I parked it up in October. The battery is just within its four year warranty, so I will send it back for a warranty claim.

The double sided tape is now stuck to the uhmwpe strips, and is ready to be stuck to the underside of the carbon angle skirts. I will remove the skirts again to do that.

There are now approx 60 entries for the Mallory Park sprint on March 24th; can they get another 50 in the next four weeks, to reach the minimum 110 required to run the meeting?


16Feb

CAD Model - bodywork

I've had a go at modelling the bodywork, which isnt easy at all in Fusion 360. Its definitely looking more like a Mygale now though.


14Feb

CAD Model

I'm building up a new CAD model of the car, so I can have another play with Ansys to do some very basic CFD. I've a long way to go yet, I need to draw the nose cone, bonnet, and engine cover, which is going to take some doing.


The uhmwpe floor protections strips have arrived, thank you to Direct Plastics for providing them. I've ordered some adhesive tape to attach the strips to the carbon side skirts. I might still use a fastener to attach the leading edges of the strips to the floor, and use the adhesive to keep them from detaching along their lengths.

There are 38 days until the first event, and the Mallory Park meeting the first weekend only has around 50 entries, with a minimum of 110 required for the meeting to run. Fingers crossed we get some more drivers with cars to enter.


12Feb

Floor finished

Another 2.5 hrs on Saturday afternoon, and the carbon angle sections are now held on with M5 fasteners. I spent an age on ensuring that the ride height is maintained. The uhmwpe strips are on order.

On Sunday I spent a bit of time on Fusion 360, and drew up three new parts. The first part is an aero profile to fit over the blunt 10mm edge at the front of the floor sections. This will help air decide which direction to take, and should scoop more air underneath the floor than previous, as well as reducing drag by removing the blunt edge. The second part is a pair of aero sections to sit on the diffuser floor, fore and aft of the aluminium brackts that now connect the threaded rod from the floor to the chassis. These will further reduce drag. And the final part is a pair of rear tyre deflectors, which will attach to the carbon angle sections, sitting ahead of the rear tyres, and will delfect air across the front of the rotating rear wheels, to further reduce drag. All three parts are now off for printing, I should have them back next week. I am considering skinning the aero profiles for the floor, with carbon. The parts are hollow, and could do with some protection from stones etc.


Aero deflectors

Bracket deflectors

Floor aero

CAD model of the floor

Entries also opened for Cadwell (£180) and Mallory Park (£189), its now starting to get expensive.


8Feb

Floor mods

The modifications to the floor are going to plan. The 50x25mm 3mm angle sections arrived, and I've marked up where to drill them to attach both sides to the floor sections. I've just had some more 25mm 2mm sections arrive, and some smaller 10mm sections, so its time to get outside and mix the epoxy up :D


6Feb

Floor supports upgraded

Determined to prevent the floor from deflecting, I made a pair of floor support brackets which are firmly bolted to the diffuser floor ahead of the rear suspension. The brackets cant twist as they have two M5 fasteners holding them down. I can almost put my weight on the floor now, and its not moving at all. I will consider swapping to 3mm angled carbon, if I end up with any offcuts....

I've redesigned the front wing drop plates. The ones on the car were made by Playskool, and I've no spares. So I set about copying all the mounting holes, then adding scallops and reducing weight by 160grammes. These are now away being manufactured, and I should have them back in a week. Once fitted the new lightweight nose cone can be fitted.


5Feb

Floor mods begin

I've fitted a pair of carbon 25x25mm 90° angle sections to the edges of the diffuser floor, where it joins the two floor sections ahead, and they are both bonded on with epoxy. They replace the aluminium angle sections which sat above the diffuser, and had to be sealed with gorilla tape. The new sections are bonded below the diffuser and provide a smooth vertical surface for the side skirts to attach to.

I've also made new top brackets for the pair of threaded stays that support the floor, from aluminium, which wont flex anymore (they were carbon before). And both threaded stays are now covered in black heatshrink. The next job is to reinforce the diffuser where the stays attach, to eliminate any more downward movement of the floor, which is what was causing the nylon skirts to contact the ground and wear out so badly. If there is any movement, then rather than the car being pulled downwards by the low pressure under the floor, the floor itself moves downwards, and you loose the valuable downforce being generated. Everything has to be totally rigid.

I've got more 90° angle carbon on order. Four 1.2m lengths in 25x50mm. These will be attached to the vertical surfaces on the edge of the floor, to provide the L shape seal to the ground. I am toying with fitting uhmwpe strips to the bottom of the angled sections, to prevent the carbon from touching the ground. Attaching uhmwpe is quite difficult, double sided tape is meant to work, but not much else will stick to it. PTFE would a great material to use, but again, bonding it to carbon is the challenge. Unless a 10mm thick strip can be machined, with recessed screws inside. That would be ideal. I dont want any friction when the side skirt meets the ground. I'll explore the options. There are 47 days to go, before Cadwell, so plenty of time to come up with a solution.

I'm also making some more vertical sections (fences?) to sit inside the diffuser. I need to force air towards the pair of louvres that sit behind the rear wheels, to further reduce drag as the air exits the diffuser.


1Feb

Trigger disk video

I've put another short ten minute video together explaining the development and testing of the printed Nylon trigger disks, one of which is now installed on the car ready for testing. Dont forget to like and subscribe.



25Jan

3D printed trigger disk fitted

I fitted the first of the two front wheel trigger disks that I designed and had printed in December, having tested the operation on the bench. With the number of teeth set to 20, in the ecu, I was then able to spin the front wheel at ~100mph using a electric drill, and the ecu reported a steady speed, with no drop outs. I will run with just the one printed trigger disk for the first few events, until I'm happy that it works reliably, and then I'll replace the opposite side.

Here is a YouTube short showing the testing of the front wheel trigger disk.


24Jan

Leak down test performed

Why do a leakdown test? I needed to confirm that the coolant pressure reported by the Life ECU was accurate, hence I bought a leak down test kit from ebay. The kit is really impressive, and the pump obviously has a gauge on it to show the pressure in the system. So it was really straight forwards to connect everything up, and with the ECU on, apply 10psi of pressure, and see what the ECU read. And low and behold, it also said there was 10psi of pressure in the coolant system. I can therefore rely on the pressures reported as they are as accurate as they can be :D



21Jan

Engine runs

I ran the fresh engine on Saturday, I haven't started it since the last time it ran at October at Castle Combe. Of course it started first time after I'd primed the oil system (I'm always impressed with the Zero Gravity Lithium battery, and how much current it can deliver having not been charged for 3 months). With the engine running, I monitored the coolant pressure whilst the engine got up to temperature, which took around 11 minutes in total. Cant find any issues, with any of the changes that I've made. Before I ran it, I made some more modifications to the chassis loom, to add adhesive heatshrink to a few connectors to protect them from fatigue. I've also disconnected the front suspension potentiometers, and removed them from the car, which frees up another pair of analogue sensors.


One other job which I've been meaining to do for so long, is replace the four flourescent tubes in the garage, with LED Tubes. It was very easy to do, almost a straight swap for the flourescents, and the brightness in the garage, its like an operating theatre. I then fitted white ceiling tiles in the centre section between the four tube fittings, to reflect more light down, and its looking much better. It'll make a difference when I take any video or photographs outside.


The total distance for this years championships 22 rounds, is I reckon, just over 4500 miles travel, simply because additional rounds have been added, and we've more one day events in 2024. Thats for me anyway, other drivers who live down south or up north, may have to travel even further. Makes you question the sustainability of a championship, when it has more rounds than the BTCC, which is anything but amateur motorsport.



17Jan

New helmet

I've put a short video together showing the new Bell GP3 Carbon crash helmet I bought to replace the expired Bell GT5 which was certified to the old SNELL2010 standards, and no longer legal for use on MSUK events. The new helmet is made from carbon fibre, and is a lot lighter than the old one. I've also had some more vinyl come through, and I'm busy preparing the car for the start of the season. I've some silicon-glass sleeving to fit over several of the wiring loom sections, where I feel they're vulnerable to damage, so I'll get on with that in the next few days.

Please like and subscribe. I'm almost at 600 followers :D


14Jan

Sensor replaced

I have swapped the ecp sensor out for the gauge version, and the ECU now reads 0.0psi when there is no pressure present, which is good. I've also stuck the championship numbers on the rear wing, and I'm now ready to re-upholster the bead seat, replace the front nose, and modify the front wing. Its all go, and there's still 68 days left before the first event at Cadwell Park in March 2024.

Please like and subscribe.



12Jan

2023 season review part two

The second half of the season review is now YouTube.

Please like and subscribe if you'd like to see more sprint videos.



11Jan

Archive news

I appreciate there there is a lot of information on the website, which has been running since 1998, and its all searchable, but I'm still trying to make it more accessible; so I've written a small piece of php which allows you to search by year, and then read each months update, using the previous and next buttons at the bottom of the page to move forward and backwards through the pages.

The archive news can be reached through the Resources Menu above, click News Archive, then jump to the year you are looking for.


10Jan

Sensor delivered

The PX3 pressure has now arrived from Mouser Electronics, and I'll fit it over the weekend. This will give a reading of 0psi when there is no pressure in the coolant system, rather than 14.7psi. My 2024 numbers have also arrived, I went for the same style and colour as before, turquoise matt, in Basic Square font. I know, it should have been number 1 not 2. I must try even harder in 2024.

I'm not going to the Autosport show this year. Yet again Demon Tweeks are absent, as are many of the big brands, so it'll be fine if you want to buy dog blankets or gardening tools. The industry hasnt recovered from Covid-19, and it'll be a very long time before the Autosport show attracts the levels of attendance once seen.
The 2024 exhibitors list


07Jan

Gearshift system pressure sensor fitted

Over the weekend I've fitted the G1/4 Honeywell PX3 10bar pressure sensor to the pneumatic line that feeds the pair of solenoids for the gearshift actuator, and I've modified my loom from the X10 to the gearbox, which was previously connected to the pair of linear sensors that sat on the rear dampers. The loom is now split to connect the engine coolant pressure sensor, and the gearshift system pressure sensor, to two analogue inputs, and they're both programmed in to the ECU to provide logging and warnings should pressures be abnormal. I used Deutsch DTM 3-pin connectors, and adhesive heatshrink to keep it all looking tidy, and semi-professional :D

GSP and ECP sensors both enabled in the Life ECU
I've managed to find a stockist of the Honeywell PX3 100psi pressure sensor which is gauge or relative rather than absolute, so I'll replace the one fitted to the header tank so it reads 0psi when there is no pressure in the system. The part number is PX3AN2BS100PSAAX.


04Jan

2023 season review part one

I've put a video together showing the first half of the 2023 season, which is now on youtube. Part two will drop in the next few days.

Please like and subscribe if you'd like to see more sprint videos.