Track Car Project Thread - Eventually

[andrew_forrest]

Nice one Archie

Maybe you should take up drag racing, no corners, what could possibly go wrong

cheers

Andy

[arch]

Nice one Archie

Maybe you should take up drag racing, no corners, what could possibly go wrong

cheers

Andy

Nah too boring and no competition Note to self THE CAR NO LONGER HAS A 20G

Edited March 29, 2010 by Arch

[fai17]

How is yours coming on peter

Getting there,see 22b

[hi_jac]

You are welcome Arch, am sure you would have done the same for me.

Edited March 30, 2010 by HI_JAC

[bob wrx]

good read there arch!what engine you running and what class you entering this year modifed?

[arch]

good read there arch!what engine you running and what class you entering this year modifed?

Thanks Bob the car is currently running a 2.5lt

[bob wrx]

so you'll be running in the modified class then not a3?

[arch]

Well had the car over at John at Progrip today after John kindly squeezed me in at the last minute. John had mentioned that he has the basis of his website up and running. It has a link to the Hunter site which has a few simple guides to various aspects of geometry settings.

http://www.pro-grip.org.uk/

Everything at the front was still spot on but both nearside rear camber bolts had moved so it was a quick tweek and all sorted so fortunately nothing major wrong. Had a chance to have a good look around under side while it was on the ramp and other than cosmetic scrapes to the wheels and a few stone chips the car is ok after the slight detour which is a relief.

So just a little bit of wiring and a tart up and the car is ready which is a massive difference to the stress and disapointment of last year although in the end winning the Scottish Sprint Class for the 2nd year in a row, with so few rounds completed, was a pleasing bonus

Edited April 2, 2010 by Arch

[J.C.]

so you'll be running in the modified class then not a3?

Archie is in A3 on the championship entry list.

[arch]

so you'll be running in the modified class then not a3?

[bob wrx]

Archie is in A3 on the championship entry list.

from my understanding of the new rules i didnt think you could run a 2.5 or 6 speed in A3? as its not what a classic came with? thats why i didnt enter my car this year?????

[arch]

from my understanding of the new rules i didnt think you could run a 2.5 or 6 speed in A3? as its not what a classic came with? thats why i didnt enter my car this year?????

Think you should have entered your car then Bob

[J.C.]

The championship entry is now closed, but you could still enter individual events Bob. Check your cars eligibility with the championship scrutineer Rob Mckinna if you are worried.

[arch]

Well thought it was time i updated the thread.

The first event of the season was held on Sun 11th April at Kames and was the first round of the Scottish Sprint Championship and was hosted by The Scottish Sporting Car Club. There was also a club sprint run on the 10th April by East Ayrshire CC.

Despite being away from home a lot I managed, just, to get the car ready and the Neetronics wired up and mounted. I did not have time to test it or set it up which wasnt the best scenrio. I didnt have time on the sat to play with it much as I hadnt even read the instructions other than the wiring diagram so I ran the car all day with the diff fully open. I must admit it did feel good being back in the car after a long cold winter in the garage where I often questioned what the hell I was doing, especially one night when things were not going well and I went to have a drink of orange that I had poured earlier in the night, only to find it partially frozen

The car ran really well on the Sat with no real issues at all, I ran the car on the low boost setting with the rev limiter initially set to 6K and increased to 6.8K as the day progressed. I also had the added problem of having brand new tyres on the car which I didnt even have time to scrub in That however wasnt an issue for long as Kames is quite sore on tires especially the front left.

I managed to take the class win on Sat but to be honest there was nothing between myself, Jac and Donald. It was not really a competative sprint with most people out to check the bum dyno test a few things a tweek a few other things, it does seem strange but the single seater guys seem to like the tweeking a bit more thn us road car types

The weather on Sat was kind to us and Sun was no different if anything maybe even a little warmer. It made a change as Kames seems to have its own micro climate that can make Muirkirk seem more like the north pole than Scotland.

On Sun A3 was increased to myself and Jac in the Impreza's and Donald and Davie Coutts in their evo's. It was particullarly nice to see Davie travel south for the first time as we had enjoyed a few tussles up north over the last couple of years with honours prob in Davie's favour. It was a pity Jim kelly didnt ake it down with his Evo 5 as I am sure he would have pushed us all on.

I did play with the diff settings on the DCCD having had a chance to have a look at the instructions on sat night over a few I didnt use the launch mode as i wasnt 100% sure how to set it up and didnt want to get it wrong for obvious reasons

Again the car went well with only a minor issue of the front passengers side tyre rubbing the wheel arch a little, a quick tweek and 2mm added to the front ride height sorted that.

Pic of Jac's car

Donald in action

And Davie's evo

The day was uneventful unlike the track day a couple of weeks earlier. I managed to take the class win again on the Sun just ahead of Davie in his Evo, although with the mods he is planning very soon that may not last long. Jac had some real issues with his car which became more evident as the day went on and Donald pushed his Evo very close to myself and Davie Coutts.

It was a mixed bag of reactions to to the Sunday as I managed to pick up decent points but was unhappy with my performance. My times were slower than last year but i know i lost significant time on the straight by being to tentative after the previous weeks off. I will resolve that at the next event and hope to improve on the times which will be a must as everyone will up their game as the season goes on, all in all however, an enjoyable weekend.

After Kames it was a couple of days at home before heading out to Athens again Well someone has to do it

Big thanks to Phil for the pics

The next challenge for me now is to get back from Athens in time for the sprint at Ingliston which at the minute is looking 50/50

Edited August 30, 2010 by Arch

[jcscoob]

Arch great wee right up there, nice one guys

[arch]

Arch great wee right up there, nice one guys

Thanks John sorry for not replying being lazing around in the sun kidding on i am working

[arch]

Well quick update, managed to squeeze in the Inglistonn sprint last Sunday. Although not a Scottish round it was a round of the Lowlands championship as well as a British round and a non scoring round of the Highland Speed Championship.

Having only made it home on Fri evening it was to tight for time to do the Saturday event so I only entered for the Sunday. I have to say how imprerssed I was with the way Dunfermline Car Club ran and organised this event - DCC are a successful rally club but have never ran a sprint before, you would never have known all in all a cracking event.

Unfortunately I have not had time to sort out any pictures but will do that as soon as possible. The class on Sunday was well attended with around 8 cars total in the class. Martin Willox in his Evo really did throw the gauntlet down early on but unfortunately he had gearbox problems and had to retire before the timed runs which was a shame as I think he would have set a time that would really have pushed everyone on.

In the end I was pipped into 2nd by Donald Ross in his Evo by 0.3 sec. Donald produced a crackng final run to take a well deserved class win. From my point of view it was a first outing at Ingliston as the cct has not been used for sprints since the 1980's and in hinde sight a saturday entry may have been a good idea. Most importantly I still managed decent points and the car performed really well, just need to get the driver to match the performance of the car and I may just be onto something

With the extra power and torque this year the car is totally different and i have not got to grips with it as quickly as I had hoped but the next event for me is on familiar territory back at Kames on the 23rd May so another chance to try and improve on the times from last month.

[fai17]

Nice write up Archie

Hope to catch you at Kames on the 23rd May

[arch]

Nice write up Archie

Hope to catch you at Kames on the 23rd May

How is the car coming on Peter

[fai17]

How is the car coming on Peter

They haven't done mush i the last 2 weeks but will be back on track from monday.

Just some snagging to sort then it's ready!

[arch]

They haven't done mush i the last 2 weeks but will be back on track from monday.

Just some snagging to sort then it's ready!

Cool will be good to see it in action, The sidc event at kames on th 28th May would be a good place to try it out with no pressure on you or the car although it would prob be to small a track to open it up with that turbo

[arch]

Finally got a chance to sort out some pics of Ingliston. There are some more at the link below. Some excellent shots of the event all taken by Steve Wilkinson Photographic

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/SRW-Sprintm...273400347.03803

Edited May 9, 2010 by Arch

[arch]

Wow May 9th since my last write up

Well after Ingliston the next event was Kames and The Machars Sprint on the 23rd May. This is always a very relaxed event and one I always look forward to. Having said that the entry list was pretty poor in our class with just myself, Jim Kelly in his EVO 5 RS and Tony Hume in his Peugeot 309.

The weather was really good for a Kames event as it seems to have its own Micro climate which consists of cold and wet or cold and wet or if your really lucky just wet The day started well with not much between my self and Jim after the first practice but I knew Jim had moved his car on a lot from last year so was just waiting for the timed runs to see what I was really up against. Tony's 309 is way under powered and he was a fair bit behind. Didn't manage to get many decent pictures of the day but got a couple.

Picture of Sprint Champion Graeme Bremner in his new Supercharged Radical, I expect this to do really well this year.

After the timed runs it was Jim who came out fastest which to be honest was no surprise. I finished just over a second behind with Jim beating my Class record. So all in all not the best of days but points wise it still worked out pretty well. Tony brought up the rear which is really down to his car being underpowered when compared to the other cars in the class, that said he certainly knows how to drive the 309 to its limit but at the end of the day at the rear is really the right position for anything French

Next up for me was Golspie which is run by Caithness Car Club and is just south of Wick. Even at this point in the season it is becoming difficult getting the events in due to working away in Athens a lot. I have already had to miss the early round at Doune and will definitely miss the first Boyndie so getting enough scoring rounds in will be very tight.

The long run up to Golspie was pretty good with nice weather and fairly quiet roads for a change

I always enjoy the northern events especially Golspie and Boyndie as there is always stiff competition in our class from some of the high powered EVO boys. This event would be no exception, I prefer the Sunday Kylestrome layout to the Saturday Littleferry but both are quick and good fun. The entry list really didn't disappoint with 9 cars in the class myself, 7 EVO's and a Honda Prelude.

The Saturday event started well with a steady first practice without really going for it. The heavens opened for the 2nd practice and I managed to over cook it at the infield hairpin and spun oops waisted run there. The weather was looking very changeable and it rained again during the 1st timed runs which to be honest suited me as it leveled the field a little. I was sitting 3rd after the first timed run 2 secs behind Martin Willox in his EVO and 0.4 secs behind Callum wood again in an EVO. I was under no illusions at this stage as Jim Kelly had a poor first timed run and I didn't expect him to have another poor run.

Picture of a little cosmetic rebuild on Tony's EVO after a mishap on his 1st timed run.

Thats exactly how it worked out, the track dried which suited the bigger powered cars and Jim put in a blistering run to finish first in class and set a new class record, Tony Ellrick was only 0.06 secs behind Jim with Martin Willox 0.55 secs behind Jim. I managed a 4th place 2 secs behind Jim. The time wasn't really important it was the points difference between me and Jim that was already starting to grow.

Next day was again looking a bit overcast but I was looking forward to the Kylestrome cct. The morning went well with me sitting 2nd in class after the 2 practice rounds with my times coming down nicely.

The timed runs didn't go according to plan though, I ended up 5th in class 3 secs behind Tony Ellrick's very quick time which set another new class record. I was disappointed with the Sunday times as my quickest timed run was a sec slower than my quickest practice run and I felt during practice that I could take a little time out of that but unfortunately I drove like a f**** and got the results I deserved I was also surprised to find that my sat time was also 1 sec slower than my quickest time last year so something is definitely amiss.

I already had reservations about the handling of the car as it quite clearly picks up the inner rear wheel in tight turns which is losing me time.

I first noticed this at Ingliston and have been tweaking the suspension set up to try and counter this but so far without success. This is something that I do need to address but given the time I am away from home it is almost impossible.

I would like to say I big thank you to Graeme Jeram at Whiteline for helping out and getting a new rear roll bar and front drop links to me at very short notice, thanks Graeme top man

[arch]

The events were coming in quick succession with Kames the weekend after Golspie. This was East Ayrshire's first event of the season. The event was just to close to the Golspie event to allow any changes to the car so it was just a case of going with what i had which was far from perfect in terms of handling. The new turbo set up was working well and the car was producing good power, trying to put the power down and stay on the track was becoming the challenge.

The entry list for this event was again disappointing for our class with only myself, Jim Kelly and Jac entered. Again the weather was being kind as it was sunny again .

The practice runs in the morning were going fairly well apart from a bit of a misjudgment going into the hairpin on my second practice run, I tried to move my braking point on a little but moved it to far and ended up sort of drifting and careering round the hairpin losing loads of time but its only practice and probably made the marshals laugh so no harm done .

The timed runs seen the times tumbling with Jim again bursting the class record for the clockwise cct by over a second with a cracking 2nd timed run that had me thinking, where did that time come from I finished second a disappointing 2 secs behind Jim with Jac finishing 3rd.

The Sunday was run anticlockwise and started with the practice runs being wet, back to normal Kames weather, this suited me as I am starting to enjoy wet events more and more. Tony Hume had entered for the Sunday swelling the numbers in our class to 4 As the day progressed the weather picked up and so did the gap between Jim's times and mine. Jac was a bit off the pace and didn't seem to be liking the wet conditions. As the track dried everyones times started to drop but as was becoming the trend Jim popped up with another cracking 1st timed run which proved to be enough to win the class on the day and set yet another class record. I finished second 1.5 secs behind Jim with Jac 3rd 3.4 secs behind Jim. Tony again peddled the French toy as fast as humanly possible but ended up 7.5 secs off Jim's pace.

The season was now starting to have a familiar look to it with me trying to play catch up points wise with Jim but his times are consistently quick so its going to be a big ask to claw back the lead he already has.

Next up was Doune organized by Lothian car club. This would be the 3rd event in as many weeks so again no time to do anything to the car between events due to work commitments. This event was a round of the Scottish Hillclimb Championship and the Lowlands Championship. It was also a round of the British Hillclimb Championship.

The way this event is organized is not easy to follow as some cars in our class A3 run as Road going series production cars but those who have not upgraded their competition Nat B license run at the end in a separate class which can cause problems.

In terms of cars in A3 overall regardless of license it was myself, Tony Hume, Jac and Donald Ross so again not the biggest numbers. The event is spread over 2 days with 3 practice runs on Saturday, one practice run on Sunday morning and two timed runs after that. This makes it a steady event with plenty time to try different lines, different gears etc etc. The only thing I don't like is you get to a level of confidence on the Saturday and then on the Sunday morning you have to start all over again.

The weather proved to be really good for the Saturday and the event had a very big entry which included the British Hillclimb lads and the Ferrari owners club who had a fair few cars entered.

I managed to gradually get my times down to a 52.59 after the 3 Saturday practice runs which was OK nothing spectacular just steady progress. It was almost 2 years since I had last had a crack at Doune so it was almost like learning it all over again so there was no point in going mad in practice on the Saturday.

After the final practice I had taken a little more off my time so was happy and ready to have a go on the first timed run. After the 4 practice runs Donald Ross was sitting quickest followed by me and the then Jac and then Tony in the frog mobile

The first timed run went fairly well with me doing a 50.04 taking 2.5 secs off my quickest practice run and placed me fastest at that point, a second ahead of Donald, over 2 secs ahead of Jac and 2.7 secs ahead of Tony. I did manage to select 5th twice during the run when i went to take 3rd. i had a good look round the car selected all the gears coming back down the hill and couldn't find any issues, bizarre so didn't really give it a second thought.

The last timed run was a nightmare, came off the line round the first corner all looking good after a good launch then went to take 3rd car died **** 5th again, this happened again every time I went for 3rd so assumed the box had developed an issue so drove the rest in 2nd and 4th and was consequently 2.2 secs slower than my first run which wasn't bad considering what had happened. When I got to the top paddock I found the problem, the bar I use to help select 3rd had loosened in its mount which meant every time i went to select 3rd i put the lever straight into 5th (6 speed box) doh, a well an easy fix. As it turned out it was academic as Jac's second run was slower and although Donald had a good second run peddling his 400bhp Evo to within 0.75 of a second of my first timed run it wasn't enough so I ended up first in class with a new class record, closely followed by Donald, with Jac 2.18 secs adrift in 3rd and Tony 2.72 secs adrift in 4th.

I didn't get many pictures of the day but there are loads of superb pics at the links below.

http://www.zipp.co.uk/gallery/Doune-2010-06-20/?g2_page=1

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/SRW-Sprintm...um_id=412799578

Well straight after Doune it was back out to Athens for a while which meant i would miss the Forrestburn Hillclimb and the Boyndie sprint but hey can think of worse places to be working

[arch]

After a few weeks out in Athens working hard and not lying by the pool at all just all work work work , it was home and the next event. Had a week at home before the Alford sprint so managed to resecure the shift bar on the transmission tunnel and thats about all I had time for. I spent most of my time catching up on everything I had missed while I was away. At this point being away so much was becoming an issue as i had virtually no time on the car between events and although I had tried some quick fixes I still hadn't had time to get to the bottom of my handling issues although Graeme from Whiteline had offered some very helpful advice which was greatly appreciated. Just finding the time to act on it was the problem.

Well next Up the Alford sprint which is just east of Aberdeen and is small oval circuit with a couple of cross overs which can be awkward to get 100% right. This is a one day event held on the 19th July and run by Grampian Automobile Club and held at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford. I decided not to go up the night before and try getting up early 3.45 am and drive up and back the same day, its an easy drive up so shouldnt be a problem . It seemed to work out fine getting up to Alford early and got the car of the trailer and set up early.

Well the day started not to bad a bit overcast with a few showers but nothing drastic. There wasn't a huge entry in our class, myself, Jim Kelly in his Evo, Davie Coutts in his Evo and Jim Gray again in the EVO.

After the practice runs Jim again was leading with me a close second behind with both Jim Gray and Davie Coutts another second behind that again. Davie was having some issues with the EVO so only took one practice to conserve the car for the timed runs.

Jim Kelly's Evo

Davie Coutts Evo

Jim Gray's Evo

Again rear wheel popping up

Well after the timed runs it definitely had that familiar look about it but to be honest there was very little between us Jim was a second in front of me and he won the class again with yet another class record, Davy Coutts was right on my tail 0.7 secs behind me and Jim Gray 0.16 secs behind Davy. I did have another occurrence of my bar shifting and again taking 5th so think a long term solution for that is required as it is starting to cost me dearly in terms of points.

It was a good day with decent weather and no major drama's. At this stage it certainly looks like Jim will be taking my Scottish class winners title off me. I have managed to win it the last 2 years but even at this stage I do not think I can catch up with the points lead that Jim has managed.

Must admit the drive back down to Glasgow was a bit of a struggle and I will definitely not do the round trip in one day again, you use so much energy during the day that after the event you are shattered and being up so early and facing a 4.5 hour journey back down to Glasgow towing the car wasnt what I wanted - lesson learned

Must say a big thank you to John Stewart for the pics some cracking shots again John Was good to catch up and have a chat.