Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He
Llandow Trackday:
Last Wednesday I started the very early journey to go and collect the car from TDF ready for the Llandow trackday, I then went to collect some new brake pads that I was going to be trying out due to the issues with the PF97’s causing the ABS to kick in very easily in the wet. The plan was to convoy down to South Wales with Tony, Jay and Andy. I met Tony and then we went to meet Jay and Andy. We had a decent drive down to Llandow and even had an opportunity in traffic to get out and have a look round the cars!
We got to Llandow and Jay and Chip helped me change the brake pads in record time (The pub was calling) We then went off to the pub and had some good food and a nice chilled evening. I had planned to borrow my brothers tent but this fell though and on Tuesday I had been to Argos and bought the cheapest pop up tent I could find, this had been a mistake. I couldn’t even fit lengthways in the tent lol. The following morning I was awoken to light coming in through little pin holes the tent seemingly had holes in which meant the duvet and pillows I took were soaked. There was a puddle on the floor of my tent which my phone and wallet were sat in. I dealt with it packed up and off we went to the circuit. When I jumped in the Clio I was greeted by a misted up windscreen so put the heated screen on but it would only clear small bands which seemed odd as it was only the first time I have used it. I then went to sign on for the trackday, it was great to meet so many people from the forum and finally put faces to the names. It was then time to get out on track, the weather was pretty terrible by the time my session came around but it wasn’t too important as I was only going to use it to bed in the new pads. After about 5 minutes I really couldn’t see much, I did another 5 minutes and couldn’t see anything at all so had to come in before I hit something! This coincided with the throttle jamming open which was a nice morning wake up coming into the first corner.
Throttle issue was easily sorted and won’t happen again and then back out for the second session, unfortunately it was very difficult to see where I was going and after about 5 minutes it was too dangerous to carry on so had to pit again. I had luckily brought some rainx anti mist just incase something like this ever happened so I applied this. Once again this didn’t really do anything but on the passenger side I had forgotten to wipe off the solution like you are supposed to and that was clear enough to see from so I came back in and wiped all the windows with it and didn’t remove. That was luckily the end of my visibility problems but it was now after lunch. The day then began to dry up and I could try out the new setup that was on the car. We had turned all the shocks up to full hard although the springs were still the soft set we had also connected the rear ARB. I was really worried that this would be too hard for the wet but it felt absolutely fine and probably still too soft so when it dried up then it was obvious that we could still go harder still. I got plenty of time in the car in the afternoon and could play around with various tyre pressure, line and different approaches to driving style. It has given me more confidence in the car and I am starting to understand how the small changes to the car affect the way it handles and in the long term this means hopefully that I can push forward with getting the car quicker
Overall it was a great day and I started my 520 mile drive home a happy boy! Massive thanks to Burpspeed for making it happen and I can’t wait for the next one.
Moving on from here I still have got a few things to do before Anglesey, the car is now back at TDF to have a few finishing touches added to the car. We are thinking to alter the springs before Anglesey test day. I am in the process of blagging a Sabelt Titan seat so that I have more visibility for the race at Anglesey. I am going to move the camera back in the car so it will pick up the inputs from me and give me more feedback on how to move forwards with my driving. The storm wiper kit has now broken again for the second time. The heated screen company are saying the screen failure isn’t their fault so I am now trying to work out why it has failed as it’s not the kind of thing you want to change each time the car has been out!
The last and in my opinion major thing to sort is the gear linkage. We put the stock linkage back in for Llandow but in the modified position, we did this to clarify the gearbox was okay after the clutch issue. Thankfully it was but this now leaves me with the linkage to sort out. With the linkage being relocated 18” further back in the car it has brought a lot of play in the gearstick side to side which means it is very difficult to tell between 1[SUP]st[/SUP], 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] and 5[SUP]th[/SUP]. I also now have the issue that when a shorter driver wants to drive the car it is impossible for them because the gearstick is behind them. Unfortunately the original place for the linkage is too far forwards for me to reach so I am trying to engineer a compromise. If anyone has any ideas then they would be appreciated
I have thought of a solution as below but we are not sure if it will work.
I am now a confirmed entry for Anglesey and can’t wait to be out there, I am testing the day before aswell so should have plenty of time in the car.
Photo’s will follow once I email Dan for them and the video is below.
[video=youtube_share;GGUsLjgziW4]http://youtu.be/GGUsLjgziW4[/video]
Thanks as always for reading!
James
