Track Car Project Thread - Eventually

[johns]

Great thread Archie - looking forward to the rest of the reason's write up and developments.

John

[DR Motosport]

Yes, excellent posting.

I'll be looking out for it on Sunday at Doune.

David

[stuarted]

I used Mikalor clamps and you can get them from any Pirtek branch, I used the one in Paisley

John Probably best if I hang onto it for now

Brilliant, cheers.

Keep up the good work with the car and the thread. A top read

[jac]

Got a few photos of you Arch. Car is looking good and going well, knocking off 4 sec on run two

Wish I could of stayed for the full day but the kids were getting restless. It was good chatting with you and thanks for the tools

to fix Marks car.

Edited September 29, 2008 by JAC

[fai17]

Cool and good chatting with you m8...

[arch]

Peter, Mark. Jac

Thanks guys it was good to see you all up and thanks for the pics Jac you may see them a bit later on . Glad you managed to get Mark's car sorted. Also good to meet David R had to be careful though in case his lad Nick decided he wanted to practice his Judo Thanks for bringing the splitter up David really appreciate it, but as we said probably best not to put one on at Doune my splitters dont seem to last there Sorry I disapeared just before you went, I started to get a bit of a temper tantrum on when the rain come on before my 2nd run so decided to go for a walk Also good to see Stephen up as usual with his lens in hand.

John had a really good 2nd run and went within 0.16 of the record he holds there. Will try and get the season finished in the thread as soon as possible so wont comment just yet.

Edited September 29, 2008 by Arch

[JohnSt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/men...nagement1.shtml

[arch]

Well with the exploites of Doune out of the way it was off to Forrestburn next on the 27th April. Another hill climb hosted by Monklands Sporting Car Club, it is located not far from Shotts. I had never been to Forrestburn before so was completely in the dark about the track. Well after walking the track any illusions I had of a nice easy day were completely shattered. In many ways it is as technical as Doune with a very narrow track with lots of adverse camber, yumps, dry stone dykes and grassed areas with icebergs imbedded ready to rip your car to sheds. mmm interesting.

With John not there Graham Bremner took me under his wing and gave me some pointers I did start to think oh here we go again when Graham explained that a yump after the start line just where the road takes a slight right turn can throw the car right into the wall if you are not careful .

Turned out to be a successfull day where I picked up 4 points in the Hillclimb Championship - result The scoring for the Hills is much simpler than the sprints and is based on the fastest up the hill in each class scoring 5 points 2nd fastest 4 points etc etc.

The car held up well with the superb MSA approved white tape working a treat holding the bumper together. It has almost chameleon like qualities as the pics show.

Next up on the 3rd/4th Maywas the next Sprint hosted by Lothian Car club held at East Fortune. This is an old airfield and the track is big, fast and wide and should be ideally suited to the car. It was a two day event which I must admit was really enjoyable. The difference between the sprints and the hills is massive. In this instance the circuit is all about power. There was only John and I in A3 road saloons which was really disappointing given that the track is ideal for cars in this class. Unfortunately i dont have any pictures of East Fortune but the two days went well for me and I picked up good points for the sprint championship. John unfortunately had no luck with his gear selector breaking on the Sun, he did however still manage to beat me even with his car only having 3rd gear mmm still got a long way to go I think

The events at this part of the year were coming thick and fast and you really have no time to do much to the car in between apart from basic checks before each event.

We have now reached 10th/11th May and the Finrty Hill climb just north of Aberdeen hosted by Grampian Automoblie Club. This is a short Hill climb but again quite technical with a wicked yump just before you cross the finish line which has caused numerous cars to be propelled into the trees if you get it wrong Bit of a theme developing on these hill climbs. Again over the two days it was more about both track and driving experience for me and any points picked up were a bonus. Unfortunately for Graham and Jennifer their Exige developed a problem on the Sat, he double enters the car with his partner Jennifer, Graham had been offered a drive in another Elise for the Sun so not wanting Jeniffer to have a wasted day I asked her if she wanted to drive my car on the Sun. It would be an interesting exercise to get some feedback on the car and also to see Jennifer's times as she is pretty quick in the Exige and used to driving a much more powerful 4 wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. Armed with some sound advice from Graham We set off on the Sun runs. Things were going well with Jennifer getting used to a 4 wheel drive car again and her times just slightly less than mine. Then came the second timed run and Jennifer pops up with a very quick run some 1.5 secs quicker than my 1st timed run, oh well no pressure for the 2nd timed run then. With a bit of competition going on and not wanting someone else to be quicker in my car I managed to pull a much quicker time beating Jennifer by just under a second which was a result as Jeniffer is very quick on this hill. I managed to pick up a point each day which wasn't to bad considering the entry list and the other more powerful and more experinced drivers. Just getting the confidence to power over the finish line was worth the visit.

Slightly more familiar settings now on the 24th and 25th May as it is back to kames. John has set some amazing times at Kames which makes it a very hard place to pick up points but armed with a visit already under my belt I hoped to improve on my last visit. The car was still running well with only some issues off the start line asociated with hitting the rev limiter which was making starts a bit harder to get right. On my first visit I had only managed to pick up 16 points which was a bit disapointing, but perhaps I was looking for more than expected from my very first sprint and the first time I had driven the car on track.

The Sat went fairly well with my times well down on my previous visit.

The Sunday turned out to be a bit of a defining moment for me and unfortunately it came about purely due to John's misfortune. My time on Sunday morning were very similar to my Sat times and I was starting to wonder if I could actually do this, my times were 2-3 seconds down on similar cars and I didnt feel I could go much faster in the corners, the straights I know i could but the corners were an issue. Unfortunately for John his engine expired in quite spectacular style, being the type of person he is instead of worrying about his own problems he decided it would be interesting to try his wheels on my car to see what difference it made.

Well the difference was night and day I recorded A 91 sec run which was way quicker than any time I had done previously by nearly 5 secs.

The car felt superb it stuck in the corners with just a little predictable slide but was better than before. I was really looking forward to pushing much harder on the second timed run. Unfortunately I now felt invinceable and after a good first lap I promptly overestimated the capabilities of the car and driver and spun the car coming out of the padock hairpin - oops. No damage done other than a poor time. Never the less it was a good day and a very important learning experience. Although the wheel and tyre combination I was using were very effective the change produced impressive results. The only down side to the day was the breakage to John's engine after what was looking like a very promising outing for the new car.

John In action before engine problems forced his retirement from the event.

Due to a family holiday I missed both The Golspie sprint (big mistake) and Doune in June.

To be Cont

Edited October 1, 2008 by Arch

[arch]

Well fresh back from Holiday it was back to the grind. I had removed the bonnet and drivers wing, sourced a new bumper, grill and splitter and all had gone to Brian Leeson motors in Kilsyth ( http://www.paperclip.org.uk/Business/leeso...%20Information) to be repaired and painted so that I could fit them on my return from Holiday. It was time to say goodbye to my old bumper grill and that magic tape.

True to his word Derek (Leeson) had all the parts ready and even delivered them for me. The results were superb and would make the car look even better than before the mishap at Doune, the quality of the work was flawless - Derek and Brian thanks for all the help it is greatly appreciated It was a simple task reassembling everything and the results were much better than I anticipated.

So next it was off to Forrestburn with the new front end ready for its first test.

The two days went well and i managed to pick up 3 points on the saturday and 4 points on the Sunday another good set of results at Forrestburn

Next up was one I had been looking forward to 5th and 6th July at Boyndie near Banff, this sprint was hosted by Aberdeen and District Motor Club. The trips up north are always good as there are always plenty of cars in class A3 which it makes it more competative and really pushes you on more.

The weather stayed mostly dry and made for a good weekend on track as well as a few sociable drinks at night

As expected there was the usual large entry list for our class with plenty of Evo's, a couple of Subaru's (me and John) and some other well sorted cars.

This was a really successfull weekend as I really enjoyed the circuit, which changes layout from a very tight circuit on the sat to a more open layout on the Sun. I managed to pick up the highest points I had managed so far with 27.78 on the sat and 28.17 out of 32 on the sun - result.

The events were again relentless with the Alford sprint hosted by Grampian Automobile club next up on thee 19th and 20th July. Alford is a figure of eight affair with two cross overs during each run. The hardest part about the circuit is remembering when to cross over. I walked the track on the sat morning with Graham, David and John and had it all sorted in my head when to cross. I promptly torched of the line round the circuit and forgot to cross over, the red flag was about the same colour as my face fortunately it was only practice oops I didnt get ridiculed much tho:lol:

The saturday turned into a bit of a nightmare for John with his drop gears breaking late in the morning. In true style he jumped into the legacy and set of for home to pick a set up. At the same time Mrs S aided by Kenny S were looking out the relevant parts with Mrs S heading north to meet John half way between Cumbernauld and Aberdeen. At the same time Myself and David Reid had the car jacked up onto axle stands, exhaust removed rear casing off and everything ready for John's return. At about 5pm the legacy pulls up and we then set about replacing the DCCD and the drop gears. 2 hours later the cars off round the track for a quick test before we all head off for something to eat and a well earned

The timed runs on the Sunday brought rain and as a result poor times which limited the points. Never the less another 25 points in the bank for the championship.

I did have a slight mishap on the last timed run when a rogue hay bail jumped out at me forcing me to spin onto the grass narrowly missing another bail well at least thats how I remember it some are trying to suggest I may have went into the hair pin to fast and made a mess of it how dare they.

I cant finish Alford without putting up this amazing picture captured by John S. It shows Bobby davidson in his Nova, he managed to clip the kerb on the cross over and it just launched the car onto two wheels, how it did not roll I will never know. John I hope you dont mind me using the pic

to be cont

Edited October 1, 2008 by Arch

[johns]

Arch,

no problems at all with you posting up my pictures

If and when I get time, I'll put the hi-res originals onto a CD for you.

John

[arch]

Arch,

no problems at all with you posting up my pictures

If and when I get time, I'll put the hi-res originals onto a CD for you.

John

Thanks John appreciate it

[arch]

Well we are now into August already and the last two months of the season with 6 events crammed into that time. :wonder:

First up it was back to Kames for the last time this year. I was starting to grow in confidence here but the times set previously by John make picking up points with car the way it is very difficult. The scoring system needs a mathematician in tow to calculate but from my point of view the times I needed to do to achieve good points were unrealistic in the car.

This was a two day event over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd August. This was also the first time I had trailered the car to events after picking up a trailer the week before. I was hoping this would make a difference mentally as it had alsways been in the back of my mind during previous events "I have to drive this home", having negative thoughts like that have to be a hinderance.

The first practice session didnt start well with torrential rain, which to be honest was dangerous, there was some standing water on the straight before the hairpin on the anti-clockwise circuit right where you want to start braking. You guessed it I was slightly over zealous and ended up sliding a little onto the grass at the hairpin, fortunately no damage done. Not surprisingly though the water was brushed from the track pretty quickly after wards!

Fortunately the sun came out and the track dried up nicely which made for a good couple of days on track.

Sunday also proved to be dry and sunny, the track was run on the more familiar clockwise pattern as opposed to the anti clockwise set up on Saturday.

My times at Kames while improving were not picking me up useful points and ultimately I would end up dropping all my scores at Kames this year which is something I must address for next year :wonder:

The next event on the calender was the Fintry House Hillclimb. Unfortunately due to work commitments and dwindling leave I had to miss this event.

So next up for me was anoher trip to the Hillclimb at Forrestburn. This was a single day event hosted by Monklands Sporting Car Club. This turned out to be a pretty disapointing event.

With two not to bad practice runs under my belt and the hill pretty much sorted in my head I set off on my first timed run. I felt pretty confident but I managed to get it all wrong on the last third of the hill and spun the car after trying to brake far to late for a corner, again no damage done other than a rubbish time. I had gone from 2nd in class after practic to last

The 2nd timed run obviously had more pressure than normal and a combination of braking at places I should not be braking and a mistake at the first hairpin left me in 4th place in class at the end of the day. All in all a day to forget.

to be Cont

[arch]

CONT

Fresh from the disappointments of Forrestburn came the long trip up to Golspie for the Sprint held by Caithness Car Club. I had been told all about this circuit and was looking forward to the weekend. The track is pretty wide and has a couple of decent straights coupled with some adverse camber and a part of the track called the "corkscrew"

The trip up couldnt have been better the sun was shining and the scenary was pretty special. John and I finally arrived at the circuit at 7pm on the friday night and unloaded the cars ready for the Saturday morning, next stop the pub for a well deserved beer

The saturday turned out to be a disaster with every possible problem arising.

The weather was rubbish with rain on and off making for a wet track and then disaster for Jim Kelly in his EVO. His new dog box decided to implode and sent the contents of the gearbox all over the track the whole length of the straight. With only one practice under my belt, which to be honest, i took fairly conservatively trying to learn the track. So this was a real blow.

To be fair to Caithness car club they managed to source a road sweeper and after some real hard work from the members and marshalls along with the road sweeper they had the track cleaned up. By this time it was well into the afternoon and it was decided there was only time for one more run and that would be a timed run. So only one practice and then only one timed run on a circuit I had never even seen before

It all turned out to be academic as the first lot of timed runs including our class were done on a wet track, the sun then came out and dried the track which meant the single seaters were running on a completely dry track. This had the effect of making the event a dry event as opposed to a wet event which was likely if it had stayed wet. The net result for me was taking my points on the Saturday from 24 if it was classed as a wet event to 13 for the dry event . Oh well another dropped score there then.

The Sunday event was looking much better, clear skys and a bit of sun. The track was a slightly different layout with a second straight added and the "corkscrew" on the exit of a hairpin just before the finish line. The cork screw is pretty much that, the track has a slight S bend with a pretty steep left slope followed immediately with a right slope, hard to describe but pretty impressive non the less.

The runs all went pretty well and I managed to pick up some pretty good points which was a welcome relief after Kames and Forrestburn. Having seen this circuit I am really looking forward to going back next year where I hope to be able to be a lot more aggresive armed with the experience of this trip.

Well next up is a return to Boyndie, this should have been Alford but due to building work it has been moved to Boyndie. This really suits me as this is the sprint where I have scored highest this year. The set up at Boyndie is in some ways similar to Golspie in that tey are both cart tracks and both have excellent facilities which makes everything easier.

The whole weekend went really well for me. I picked up very good points again and faired really well against some much more powerful Evo's. The downside was again John having really bad luck with his car. It snapped an exhaust cam on the sat and despite frantic efforts to find a solution we had to admit defeat. He was looking pretty good for 2nd overall in the Scottish sprint championship which given the technical problems he has suffered this year is a pretty amazing achievement. This however left the door open for John to be bypassed and as it turned out, he slipped to 3rd place.

We decided to double enter my car on the Sun so that at least John could have a play on the Sun and also give me some feedback on the car. This turned out to be a pretty useful exercise as John pulled out a time on the second timed run that was only 3 tenths of a second quicker than me but placed him 3rd in class on the day. It shows how tight we were time wise as I ended up 6th in class only 3 tenths slower than John. To be fair John did have problems trying to remember that the clutch is required to change gear on my car and he was apparently seen drinking a can of red bull coming round the paddock corner while shouting why is everything happening so slowly

The only picture I have of John as he comes off the line.

That was the last sprint of the season and only Doune left

The last event of the year the Doune Hill climb, hosted by Lothian car Club. This was also a round of the British Hillclimb Championship which is always nice as there are always some pretty quick cars from down South at this event and also a good turn out of spectators. Watching some of the single seaters attack this hill is something to behold.

From a personal point of view it was another chance to get some confidence back after my mishap here earlier in the year.

The format was practice all day Saturday, a practice on the Sunday morning and then two timed runs after that.

With the possibility of three practice runs I decided to use the first run as a familiarisation especially on the lower part of the hill which is only 14 feet wide and completely enclosed both sides with either armco or stone walls which means any mistake is going to hurt as shown previously.

Clip below of how Doune looks from in car.

Now this is how to drive Doune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn8Vmgs35Mg

You can see from the in car once you come out into the open part of the hill there is a steep hill, and it is steep, at the top there is a right hander you have to turn in early or you end up straight off the other side. Well having successfully, all be it fairly slowly, completed the first half of the hill I got a bit over enthusiastic and braked far to late, I turned in early enough but was going far to fast and ended up well onto the grass on the other side ripping off the splitter in the process oops

I hope to have a new one in place pretty soon, thanks to David Reid for the offer of one for the Sunday runs at Doune :thumb: but I thought it may be best to wait until after Doune before fitting another one. Thats two splitters at Doune in two visits :norty: So will wait until David has one in stock before sorting that area out.

Home

It turned out to be a pretty eventful weekend with a group of mini's from the Mini sprint challenge series also having a go at Doune, quite litterally as they single handedly tried to demolish the hill while killing their cars one by one :nono:

I didnt have any other mishaps over the weekend but was left raging. After a pretty good first timed run I had got myself psyched up for a real go at the hill on the last timed run. It all went a bit wrong off the start line as I hit the rev limiter and the car coughed and spluttered all the way round the first corner before picking up again. This has happened before but has never cost me as dear as this time. I had a fit of temper and really pushed the car all the way to the top and ended up only 2 tenths slower than my first timed run. Given that I could almost have walked to the first bend quicker that means I must have put in a pretty good run after that. I must admit it did feel much much quicker and I was sliding closer to the walls than ever before so I suppose that at least gives me a bit more confidence for next year. The down side is the chance I had to take 2nd place in class A3 of the Hill Climb championship had just evaporated

A shot of the drive back down the hill after one of the timed runs.

Well that was the last event of the year. It has gone really quickly and has been a real experience and a very steep learning curve. Armed with the advice I have been given and the experience of the year I hope to see a vast improvement next year.

I must admit to being surprised at how the year has turned out.

I have managed to achieve the following in my very first year of any form of competative motorsport.

2008 Guyson Scottish Sprint Championship

Winner Class A3

4th overall in the newcomers category

2008 Windowcraft Lowland Speed Championship

Winner Class A3

2008 Scottish Sporting Car Club Road Car Shield

Runner Up

The Windowcraft Newcomers Award

Winner

Not a bad result considering at the start of the year all I anticipated was a year to get used to the car and try and get round every circuit to get some experience. To end up with these results has exceeded my expectations, it wouldnt have been possible without all the help I have had - you know who you are

So now its out with the calculator and try and move the car on as far as finances will allow. Did some one say credit crunch :wonder:

Edited October 18, 2008 by Arch

[Spaceman]

Top job archie and great results in your first year hope i can do as well next year, see you there with a few tweaks i hope, car comes off road this month to get worked on till it all starts

Top write up to btw.

Greig

[seafar99]

Well done Archie on getting through your first season racing, and a mighty fine write-up of the season too.

I think you may well have a shout for this years 'Booker Prize' !

[st3ph3n]

Cracking read again Archie. Was a good year for you against some competitive cars. Next year will hopefully be even better.

I've started doing the same on Paul's new website - http://ninjabogey.wordpress.com/

[arch]

Cracking read again Archie. Was a good year for you against some competitive cars. Next year will hopefully be even better.

I've started doing the same on Paul's new website - http://ninjabogey.wordpress.com/

God I hope he is painting that before next year my eyes are offended

[jac]

WOW!! Not bad results for your first season

excellent thread and Good luck for next year.

[arch]

Thanks guys appreciate the comments. Just need to try and get some better results on the hills next year will have to have a look on ebay for a set of hillclimb specific version 2 boll*cks

Edited October 18, 2008 by Arch

[eurosti]

Great thread ive just spent close to an hour reading it. Well done mate great result in your first year of competition!

[arch]

Great thread ive just spent close to an hour reading it. Well done mate great result in your first year of competition!

Thanks appreciate the comments

[arch]

Well I havnt updated this for a few months now and since John is blatantly flaunting his rear end in his Rocket thread it seems only fair I do the same. I have been busy at the rear of the car with absolutely everything removed from the rear suspension. I decided to give the rear end a rub down even though it was in very good condition with no rust at all. I painted the whole back end with POR 15 paint which goes on really nice and looks like it could have been sprayed on even though it is brush painted. The pics really dont do it justice. I done the centre of the underside last year and it still looks perfect.

Before some smart individual says anything the trailing arm is just hanging there thats not how it mounts

Also have some pics of the lateral arms I used last year they are just standard arms which I removed the old bushes had them powder coated and then fitted powerflex poly bushes.

This year though I will be fitting a set of fully adjustable rose jointed lateral and trailing arms along with a few other changes. The car handled really well last year but I hope to get it a bit better still so that I can try and get a little closer to the boys with the big power

I have also removed the powerflex diff carrier bushes I used last year which were a massive improvement over standard and fitted a set of much firmer Whiteline items - cheers Geo These had to be pressed in as opposed to the powerflex ones which are a push fit.

Powerflex

Whiteline even if they are blue

I hope to have the back end completely rebuilt this week and then start on tidying up the inside as well as fitting a new cage and new dash. Then sort the front wheel wells with a lick of POR 15 and some new whiteline bushes for the alloy arm front mountings and a few more suspension tweeks. Might as well add some new brakes so i can brake a bit later as well well it would be rude not to change them since I have already sold the 4 pots fronts and two pot rears. Then the final hurdle will be a few engine tweeks to try and squeeze a little extra power out of the car

Edited January 12, 2009 by Arch

[bobbyc]

Great thread Arch thats the first hour of my 12 hr shift passed in already

Good luck for next season mate & I look forward to reading how you & John get on,

Must try to get out to a few events to spectate & give some support

Bobby

[JohnSt]

New Rear Brakes dropped off

[arch]

Thank you sir and like wise