Latest News
19Jan
Pothole claim
I've filed my claim for the recovery of the costs for the two new tyres from last weeks pothole smash on the M6 motorway. They wanted all the receipts of course, but also the insurance details, the MOT certificate, my national insurance number and DOB, and the location of the accident plus the description of what happened and what the damage was. I'm happy to provide everything, and I now have to wait 21 days for National Highways to acknowledge the receipt of the claim, and then 90 days for their decision. I'm not holding my breath, but I'd like my costs back.13Jan
Pothole misery
There I was cruising along the M6 on Tuesday morning, in the dark, 65mph, when there was the most almighty bang, and the car suddenly jumped in the air, and immediately I realised I'd hit a pothole. The front offisde tyre went flat instantly, and I also thought the rear had too, but the computer pinged up a message saying the right front was flat, I knew I could limp the mile to the Knutsford Services (Northbound) where I could take a look. The M6 motorway is a smart motorway along that section, with no hard shoulder, and I didnt want to dive in to the first refuge layby when I only had a mile to get to the services. Hazards on, and 40mph, despite the rumbling noise from the tyre the car drove OK and I pulled over in to the services and got out to inspect the damage. The tyre was destroyed, with a huge hole in the outer sidewall. The rear tyre had a bulge on the side, but at least it hadnt gone down.To cut a long story short, by 10:50am Green Flag had arranged for a mobile tyre fitter to come to me; they couldnt find the same Hankook Ventus tyre I needed, so we agreed on a Continental, and the fitter inspected the rear and recommended get it replaced asap. I was back at work by midday, feeling blessed that I hadnt lost control of the car and stuffed it in to the armco (been there, got the badge).
I reported it to the Highways Agency. Someone had reported the same pothole the evening before, but they only closed the lane to repair it following my accident. By Midday the lane was reopen and the hole repaired. I have been invited to put in a claim, but looking at the HA website, they do appear to defend most claims, so as to whether I can get the cost of both tyres and my lost earning for the morning back, I will have to wait 90 days to see. At least I was recording the journey with the dashcam software on the phone so I do have evidence that the road caused the damage, and not my driving.
12Jan
Trailer collected
On Sunday I collected the new Woodford RL5040 trailer from StarTruck Trailers in Nottingham, and brought it home; she tows really nicely, but it is 4" wider each side so I have to relearn the width for when I'm driving down narrow lanes. Initial impressions are that it's put together well, however, the side doors let rain water in as the seals dont quite touch the doors all round, and this morning after overnight rain, there was evidence of water inside. I will work on a fix for that.
The Reich EasyDriver Pro 2.0 motor mover was fitted this morning, by Midland Motor Movers Ltd, along with a dedicated larger leisure battery, which is wired in parallel with the existing onboard car battery which is used for the winch. Both batteries have isolators fitted, so although they will both be charged when the van is connected, they will only discharge when their isolators are moved to the on position. The Reich motormover automatically moves the roller onto the tyre on this model, so I dont need to carry the chordless drill around with me anymore to position the roller manually. It's made moving the trailer far easier, she's big, and 250Kg heavier than the RS2! Not only 8" wider, but one meter longer too; I didnt notice the additional length when towing, but when I reversed the trailer on to the driveway, the nose of the LWB T5.1 Van just sticks out over the road, and thats with the trailer an inch from the garage. These new builds, they dont give you anything like as much room as you think you need :D
I'm fitting an infrared wireless reverse camera at the weekend, which will make manouvering the trailer even easier, and it will let me see whats behind me when I'm towing. It came with a camera already fitted, but the screen is broken and the camera has broken wiring, and I wasnt charged for it, just as well. I'll keep the camera, but the screen is in the bin already.
So overall I'm very pleased with the trailer, its just the rain water leaks which I'm a little disappointed with. The tyre rack needs work too, to find a way to secure the wheels and there are no shelves for the jerry cans, so I may need to buy some prefabricated boxes to store them in securely.
I'm starting my weekly trips back up to Stockport this week, I didnt go last week because of all the ice and snow we had. On Saturday morning I had to venture out in the Focus ST to take my daughter over to her boyfriends parents house as they were taking them both back up North to University. That was an extremely sketchy trip in the Focus; even in Slippery Mode, there was sheets of black ice on the country lanes, and I really had to take my time with the car. It was only 7 miles there, but it took about 25 minutes, and on the way back I watched an Audi A3 crash in to the kerbs exiting a slip road. I think if I'd taken the 335D which has X-Drive I'd have been a little more confident, the Focus follows the crown of the road, so you didnt know if that was the ice trying to take the car in to the ditch, or just its normal behaviour LOL
7Jan
Trailer bought
I've bought a Woodford RL5040 trailer, which will hopefully allow me to put the car away without having to dismantle it first. It's a tiltbed, with winch and tyre rack, and I'm getting a Reich motormover fitted, with autoengage, and a Leisure battery to power the motors. It also has internal and external led lighting. I cant wait to collect the trailer and bring it home. But that's dependant on the weather at the moment, with more heavy snow forecast in the next few days.31Dec
Trailer sold
I've sold the Brian James RS2 after 9 years of use, its going to continue to be seen around sprint paddocks with its new owner. Now to find a replacement. I've my eye on a longer trailer that should allow me to put the car away without having to dismantle it first!25Dec
Happy Christmas
I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas. Here's to another exciting year, and may all your laps in 2026 be fastest laps :D
19Dec
Draft British Sprint Calendar has even more rounds!
Despite asking for feedback and the majority of people agreeing that there are too many rounds, the 2026 calendar has dropped and there are four more rounds than there were in 2025! Bonkers. 21 days racing! It looks like I may have another year with Javelin in 2026, where its more friendly, and there is less travel, and they still go to great circuits. And you get tonnes of free photos from every event. What's not to like?13Dec
Dampers have returned from Raceshocks UK
The dampers arrived back on Saturday morning, from Raceshocks UK, and the box included several bags containing the parts that had been replaced. All four dampers needed new pistons, shims and o-rings. I refitted the springs to the dampers, then the dampers to the car, and I've just got the spring lengths to adjust by turning the spring platforms. The printed reservoir clamps fit really well, and when the titanium bolts arrive on Monday I can get those fitted too.
There is a link here to a Youtube short which shows the dampers and explains whats been done to them.
https://youtube.com/shorts/6FiCe7WvcLg?si=wCncVX9ylFjiL666
7Dec
3D printed clamps
The printed clamps have come back from 3D People, and they're ready to be fitted back on to the car. I'm once again pleased with how they've come out. And they're really strong so I know the reservoirs wont be moving under acceleration or braking.5Dec
Dampers ready
The Intrax dampers have been serviced, they all needed a repair, which involved replacing the o-rings and shims on each damper, and each repair kit is £100 plus vat. The total bill came to £1250, and I'm expecting them back in the next few days. Not cheap, but these are 4-way dampers with remote reservoirs, so there is a lot more to them than a conventional damper.23Nov
Damper update
The Intrax dampers have been stripped and cleaned and the quote has been received for the cost to rebuild, which I've approved. Once rebuilt they will be individually tested on the damper dyno again, then dispatched back to me to refit on to the car.11Nov
New menus
I've reworked the menus on the BSC History Portal that I run, it now has a hamburger menu button which allows the user to navigate through all the statistics pages. I've also added the time difference and gaps to the winner, to all the run off tables.
4Nov
Two more reports
I've generated two more pages for the BSC History Portal. The first one details the interval since the last win for each winning driver. And the other one the interval between a drivers first and last (most recent) win.The Intra 4way dampers are now in the queue for their turn on the damper dyno, where a report on their health will be generated, prior to the strip down and inspection. All in the safe hands of the guys at Raceshocks UK.
3Nov
Winning streaks report
Ever wondered which driver had the most consecutive wins in the Championship? Well now you can find out by visiting the new page I created over the weekend, winning streaksI do feature, with my two back to back wins in 2023 at Snetterton.
28Oct
Dampers dispatched
The Intrax dampers were collected today; they should be at Raceshocks UK tomorrow.I've imported all the 2025 run data in to the BSC History Portal, so you can now deep dive in to the data. There were only four different drivers winning the runoffs in 2025; and Grahame Harden scored the highest number of bonus points, by breaking nine class records! The link to the portal is in the Resources menu option above. I've added a new Venue History page too, which shows the first and last year a venue was used, and the number of years used.
25Oct
Dampers removed for their service
I removed all four dampers and removed the springs from them today, so they can be sent off to Raceshocks UK for a service.Here is the video which I made today.
Youtube video
22Oct
New Page
I've added a new page to the site, which details all the work in designing the Heave Spring for the Mygale. You can navigate to it from the Resources menu option, or click here.My contract has been extended another six months, which I'm over the moon about. More time away from home, less time in the garage, but more time to spend thinking about and designing parts, for the race car :D
20Oct
CSS updated
To keep this website running smoothly, I've been working on the CSS (styles) to optimise the way in which the pages are formatted for the desktop and the printer. All of the DIV tags are now using class= instead of id=, and now when you print a page you get black text on white rather than gray text on white, which lets face it, isn't readable. I spotted the mistake last week, and over the past few days, as well as changing the fonts displayed, resolved that issue, and its running really smoothly again.I also updated the ftd.today site over the weekend, manually, its not yet able to automatically find the National and Interclub FTD times, but that is coming, and will run automatically for the new year. Well done to both FTD winners at the weekend.
19Oct
Broughton takes the win
Steve Broughton won the British Sprint Championship on Saturday, after Pete Goulding suffered a common failure at the notorious Castle Combe circuit, on the final run off of the year, an OEM rear pushrod failed. He suffered the same pushrod failure at Kirkistown in August, and I'm told Graham Porrett gave him a new old spare from his collection.The OEM pushrods are not up to the forces generated by big wings and slicks on the Mygales; I should know, I bent my first standard elliptical one at Abingdon, then developed tubular steel pushrods, which despite the Euler buckling load calculations saying they'd be up to the job, I also bent, and finally finishing off with custom made T45 pushrods and my self-designed heave spring setup, since when I've never suffered another failure.
What a costly strategy! All that effort and expenditure over the year, and an overloaded OEM part fails and costs the championship win!
This is what he needs, a heave spring and pair of T45 pushrods. If you're interested, get in touch for a price.
15Oct
Two weeks to go
Just two weeks left with my current client, and this week I've managed to get Matlab working as a remote desktop inside Altair PBS. That took a huge amount of effort, and I'm still not sure it was installed with the least number of components. Not to worry, the utilisation of the platform has shot up now, so who knows if I'm to be retained or not. Though my client did set me a challenge to increase its usage! I'm happy I've got something working, and I've learnt a lot in the process. I am enjoying my trips over to Cheadle Heath, the run across the Cat and Fiddle on the way home is a particular highlight.On my second channel, I post some of the journeys I make, here is one of the trips along the A537 over the moors. Shame there is a 50 mph average speed limit on the hill :(
Driving the Cat and Fiddle - Video clip
13Oct
2026 Prep
I'm thinking about what needs doing for next year. There are five items I want to cover.1) Send the Intrax dampers off for a full refurb; they're long overdue a service.
2) Remove the fuel system and overhaul it, and fit the fuel cooler system I designed a few years ago.
3) Modify the leading edges of the floor to further improve the downforce.
4) Remove the old Avons and fit the fresh Pirelli Ultrasofts.
5) Investigate water/methanol injection to see if we can get to 2 bar of boost.
Over the weekend I've finally fixed the annoying squeak from the rear of my 335D Estate. One of the brackets that supports the handbrake cable had broken, so the cable was flexing up and down, and squeaking. I added a pair of cable ties to the passenger side, to support the handbrake cable, and its cured it completely now. I was also trying to change the rear brake pads at the weekend, but the pins that hold the pads in place, need a special tool to remove them without butchering all the blue laquered paint on the calipers, so I've soaked the pins in Rusteze, and I've ordered a Laser tool #7687 (a 4.8mm punch with a concave face) which should allow me to remove the pins next weekend, and then swap the pads over.
I've changed the content text to a new font, its a google font called Spectral, and is a serif font. It's growing on me. It should be easier to read than the sans-serif font that has been in use since 1998.
06Oct
ftd.today
Hopefully this new website that I've quickly put together will be of some use. Now you can find who had FTD at the weekend, by going to ftd.todayIts written in php with a mySQL backend, which will allow me to feed results from other websites in to it; I just need to write the python to scrape sites using BeautifulSoup, which is easy enough to do. I'll then run the python from an AWS container using the free tier servers that they provide.
https://ftd.today
04Oct
New ride
Picked up a 2023 Ford Focus ST today, from Cardiff, to replace the BMW 220D Active Tourer. I'm most impressed with the car. Its got the 2.3 EcoBoost running 280BHP, and it goes really well, even in 6th when you open the taps. The infotainment system is wonderful, and makes the one in my 335D look prehistoric now. A couple of minor niggles with the condition of the paintwork, which needs a good polish, and the drivers door rubber weather strip has come away from the door; Ford sticks them on with double sided tape for some reason, so that needs reattaching. Apart from that, with the B&O sound system punching out 650W of power, and the sporty ride and exhaust note, its a really great car. I'm looking forward to racking up the miles in it.
30Sep
Garage roulette
Longton District Motor Club decided to do a garage roulette draw for the event this coming weekend at Anglesey. They randomly pulled names from the hat for the 10 garages up for grabs, and only Cathy Sewart and Mike Taylor from the BSC were lucky enough to get a garage. All the rest went to 9 other drivers. And the forecast for this weekend is not great with Hurricane Humberto on it's way across the Atlantic. Some drivers are going to get very soggy. I wont mind, as I'm in Cardiff this weekend looking at a replacement car for the BMW 220D, which has just had it's second front suspension spring changed, 8 months after the passsenger side decided to snap! Thats another £600 that could have been put towards a PCP. Last year we had to replace the heater module and the battery, I think she is well past her sell by date. And it's only eight years old with 50,000 on the clock. I think they call it built in obsolence.
19Sep
BSC improvements?
There is another one of those pointless 'how do we get more people to join the BSC' posts on facebook. Where people make suggestions, which are then dismissed immediately by the 'inner circle'. There is even a poll, but it's all a waste of time.For me, I'd change it to 6 to 8 weekends a year (this reduces costs); make all runs on each day count; FTD gets 10 points, down to 1 point for the 10th fastest driver; scrap qualifying, scrap the fake run offs (which encourages everyone to drive quickly all of the time = better for spectators); it also discounts someone from getting an advantage because it rained after their run; and most importantly, it encourages competition.
So many new drivers try their hand but leave after a season, and you only have to ask them for their explanation. Start with listening to these drivers, and reacting accordingly. Attendance was down last year, and this year it has continued to decline.
16Sep
FWEP design
There is a design of a front wing end plate that has been doing the rounds on various 3D printing pages on FB, and a friend of mine wanted to know if it could be drawn and printed. I quickly sketched it in Fusion, and while it does look nice, I wanted to see what it would do to the airflow over the car. After I installed Ansys Workbench Student 2025, I exported the drawing in IGES format, then imported it in to Ansys, defined the enclosure (wind tunnel) that it sits in, defined the inlet and outlet and the walls of the enclosure, then the wind speed, and after a few more mouse clicks, ran the analysis on it, and the results are as shown below. I've added a bluff 13 inch wheel/tyre downstream of the FWEP to give the combined effect of both objects, albeit the wheel isnt rotating, and the ground below the FWEP and wheel is also static.
Ansys says they produce 34N of downforce at 130MPH, which isnt that bad.
The airflow visualised in Ansys.
11Sep
Sensor orientation
With the tip of the Bosch ABS sensor placed against the trigger wheel, I wasnt seeing all the pulses on the oscilloscope. Which I thought was odd. And then I tried rotating the sensor through 90 degrees, just to see what difference it made, and hey presto, it suddenly reads all the pulses. I've redesigned the sensor bracket to change the orientation, and I'll get some more printed for testing.
This is the correct alignment to detect the steel dowels. The flat side on the sensor has to be parallel to the direction of travel.
This is the screen capture from the picoscope, showing the square wave trace from the ABS sensor in the correct orientation.
10Sep
Too wet to race?
When is it too wet to race? I've had a few events I can remember when the organisers threw in the towel. Aintree and Croft are the two I can remember. Oh and the second run off at Snetterton in 2023 when the first three cars (me included) span off in torrential rain during a thunder storm. There has to be a point when the organisers send a saloon out to check the condition of the track? I dont see any sense in forcing people to compete when the track is completely waterlogged. Why would anyone drive in these conditions?https://youtu.be/WqnN9X9M7QY
8Sep
ABS sensor
I'm working on some 3D printed sensor mounts for an overseas customer at the moment, and they are using hall effect ABS sensors which are two wire, not three. So how does that work?
So the way it works is the hall effect sensor needs a +12V feed, and a signal ground, and a resistor wired in series with the ground connection. The voltage measured across the resistor is then used as the square wave output from the sensor, which rises when the sensor detects the presence of a steel dowel as it passes. I've used a 470R resistor, after trying a 1000R first with no success, and the 470R gives a really nice square rise and fall to the signal. I've rebuilt the lego destructinator which allows me spin the 45 tooth trigger wheels that I've had printed, and the picoscope is connected across the 470R resistor to monitor the signal. The issue I have is the gap with this particular brand of two wire sensors (Bosch) is the air gap seems to be smaller than the 1-2mm I'd get away with using the 3 wire sensor. So I've designed a wheel in Fusion, that the trigger wheel will slide over, and it will place the wheel perfectly central, which will allow a consistent air gap, and should allow me to see 45 pulses per revolution of the wheel. The part is away for printing, and should be with me this week for testing. Good old Lego eh :D
https://www.tiepie-automotive.com/en/articles/abs-sensor-hall
The printed wheel that will allow me to spin the speed sensor trigger wheel without deviation.
7Sep
Back home again
That was a rough ride! I was re-admitted to hospital on Tuesday September the 2nd, seven days after the first surgery, and was told I was going to need a second surgical procedure to remove a haematoma that had formed around the surgical site. So I was nil-by-mouth on Wednesday morning, and finally taken to theatre at 4.30pm, and two hours later I was back on the Urology Admission ward 29 recovering. I'd missed the evening meal I'd ordered, so had to have sandwhiches and crisps, and was in a fair amount of discomfort all night. The next day I was still in pain, and remained in the ward until Friday evening when they moved me to Ward 28 late at night.When I arrived in Ward 28, at 10:45pm, I was placed next to the corridor, which was brightly illuminated, and there was the sound of music. Some f*cking looney tunes was sat in bed scrolling through music tracks, at high volume, and he was very abusive to staff when they asked him to turn it off. I had ear plugs in, and headphones on, and an eyemask to block the light, and I could not sleep. Eventually around 2:30am the security team removed the individual, much to the relief of the 20 patients in the vicinity, and I then fell asleep, to be woken at 6.20am to have my blood pressure taken. When I was woken up I was in agony again, but the tablets they then provided soon took the edge off, and during the day the pain started to subside.
After hardly any sleep, I was examined by the Doctor on Saturday morning, he said everything was healing well, and it would take 4-6 weeks to go back to normal. He asked if I wanted to go home, of course I said yes, and I was eventually discharged at 4pm, went home, had an omlette, and went to bed at 7pm, and slept for 11 hours straight. Which I've never done before. I could have stayed for another 24 hours, but I couldnt face another night of disrupted sleep if that looney tunes was readmitted again. They're a regular at the hospital, known to the staff. And the staff have to deal with some very difficult patients. I did feel sorry for them. Ward 29 wasnt exactly quiet, I could hear some dementia sufferers calling out; that I could deal with, but this guy was toxic and needed an injection in the side of the neck, and rolling out in to the car park!!
The staff at the Leicester General Hospical were fantastic. The service the NHS provides is amazing, it's just a shame the first surgery led to complications, but that can happen to 1 in 100 men, so I guess I was just unlucky. The second surgery went well, and I'm now on the mend again. I have a follow up appointment in four weeks time, and then I'll be back to normal in a month or so. I just need to avoid lifting anything heavy, and avoid straining too much. So no gardening or DIY for a while, or racing. Oh and I have a sharkbite scar on my ballsack, as they cut in to it twice, but dont worry, I wont be sharing any photos LOL
1Sep
