Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He
Anglesey Race weekend:
So based on my past two visits to Anglesey I was slightly dubious of the visit. The forecast was looking rather horrid and with my new found money saving techniques I was camping for the 2/3 nights.
I had managed to sort out with Sabelt UK to get a Titan seat instead of the replacement Taurus they had given me so after setting off at 9am on Thursday it was first a trip to the Lake District to collect the new seat. Then we made progress down the M6 to take the motorway over towards Anglesey. At this point my friend fell asleep with his mouth wide open and I was plotting on how I could vandalise him! Next thing I know I’m overtaking Tony and Helen towing the Burpspeed Clio. We then convoyed over to Anglesey. On arrival it was very windy but dry so we thought it was a good time to try and erect the tents. Once this was done it was time to help Tony out with setting up the Burpspeed hospitality suite. We managed to get the gazebo up but the wind ripped one of the panels and then it was decided it just wasn’t going to work. Meanwhile our tents were flapping around!
The wind at Anglesey was causing me to get really wind burnt so shelter was taken and it was time for a BBQ, The evening was actually nice weather with clear blue skies apart from the wind. After dinner it was time for a track walk. This was the first time I have ever walked a circuit and was a really good experience. We then discussed the key points and compared what I had been taught by my instructor and what Tony does. Everything seems so different when you walk the track such as the elevation changes and the amount of time you think you will have between corners that you just don’t have in the car.
It was then time to get an early night in preparation for TDF arriving with the car at 7am on the Friday morning. I was then suffering from the stereotypical welsh scenario. The wifi wouldn’t work, I had no phone coverage and the water was cut off to the showers and taps so couldn’t do my teeth! I tried to sleep at 10.30 but it was so windy and blowing the tent all over! I stuck with it but by 3am I still hadn’t managed to get to sleep so I moved to the car for a couple of hours sleep.
I woke up at 6.30 ready to greet TDF and crack on with the day, I was feeling very rough and still not able to have a shower I had to battle on smelling a bit worse for wear lol!
The car arrived and we proceeded to work through a list of jobs I had to do such as fit the new seat move the camera position and set up the data logger. The logger had been sent back to Race technology and it was finally working, it showed me my lap times on the dash along with sector times and predictive delta so you can see if you are on a better lap. It sounds like a gimmick but it is awesome now it finally works
I’m afraid the data overlay still doesn’t work on the video though!
The test day was very under subscribed with only 14 cars booked so the day was run in an open pit format. We then went out for a few laps to get the tyre’s upto temp and also to do the pressures. The car wasn’t feeling great in all fairness, it felt massively soft over the front and was pushing wide on entry. We came in and swapped to some stiffer rear springs and disconnected the RARB. This made a decent improvement but still felt very soft. I then came in and dropped the pressures. This made another improvement and I had taken 2 seconds off my lap time. The last 5 laps though I had an issue getting the power down and thought I had flat spotted the tyres but didn’t think much of it. I then decided to pit because the rear felt like it was on rails so thought we could reconnect the RARB. On my slowing down lap it sounded like the wheel bearing had gone again so took it back to the paddock to inspect. All seemed okay with the back so we connected the RARB and was about to go back out. I asked if we could just check the fronts as I was sure something wasn’t right. Sure enough the front passenger side wheel had massive play. The bearing at the top of the strut where the piston goes had failed and was causing huge play.
While Al stripped down both front struts I got onto the phone and found that Demon tweeks had a set of the KW’s in stock. I called a few other people to see what the chances of getting the existing dampers repaired were but it was a no go. KW apologised and offered to get us another set for Monday (no use to us) They were happy for Demon tweeks to give us the kit and they would send them a new set on Monday. Demon tweeks just wouldn’t play ball though. We offered to buy the kit, just take the front struts then KW would send them the new one’s then they refund but still wouldn’t have any of it. I have been a loyal customer for years and they couldn’t even do us a small favor! If they had said yes then we would have had the car back out after the lunch break and could of carried up with setup. Matt at TDF had a set of H+R’s but Cambridge is a hell of a way from Anglesey, Fred also had a set of H+R’s and very kindly offered to lend us them. We decided to get the car back to the TDF workshop and get the H+R’s fitted. Al very kindly drove all the way back, fitted them and put as good a setup on them as we could without testing them. He then came straight back upto Anglesey. He got to the hotel at 2am exactly 24 hours after he woke up to set off from home! The guy worked his arse off all weekend and he knows how much I appreciate all the hours he puts in!
I was absolutely gutted after only 20 minutes of driving the car was broken, Anglesey just isn’t meant to be for me! I stayed up at the circuit while the car went back to TDF. Tried to chill out and looked at my data and video from the few laps. We then had a similar evening to the Thursday with nice weather. We had dinner and then went for another track walk. We went up onto the banking around the circuit and the view’s were breathtaking! This instantly lifted my mood! I then heard from Al to say he was back en-route. After the walk we had a nice chilled evening and had a couple of drinks with food and banter! We all pitched our tents in the Scrutineers shelter to try and not have the wind noise although it was sleeping on concrete and I didn’t have an airbed! Got a much better nights sleep though and then it was raceday!
Finally the water was back on and managed to have a shower so felt much better going into the day. The car arrived back at the circuit at 7am and then it was time to sort out the tyres and get ready for qualifying discussing how we were going to do the session.
The H+R’s weren’t valved for the springs that were fitted and the rear suspension was the KW. I just had to go out and ring the neck of the car to try and get a decent time. The car was harder at the front (The damping must have failed before the test day on the KW’s) which caused masses of understeer, the rear was really fixed but didn’t have time in Quail to change the setup so just had to make the best of the situation. I managed 18[SUP]th[/SUP] position out of 24 so wasn’t very happy but in the situation and with how the car was then I should have been happy with that really. At least we had got the car out.
I watched back the video and also looked at the data to see where the differences were. I was really struggling with apex speed and very slow into the corners. In hindsight we should have refitted the stiffer rear springs and the RARB but I just opted for the RARB.
It was then time for the race, I wasn’t nervous but also it was the first time I have got in the car and not been excited to drive it. I got a really good reaction to the lights but had lots of wheel spin so couldn’t make the progress I would of liked to have. I was going to go up the inside of someone into the first corner but the two cars in front closed the gap so I had to lift. I had a few little tussles and had good fun with some of the racing. I have edited to the video to show the highlights of the race so I hope it’s not too boring.
Looking back at the race I have learnt a lot so am very happy I managed to get out there. You will see in the video I still have a long way to go until I will make a decent racer but I think I know the area’s for improvement so will keep trudging on
!
[video=youtube_share;2yLLfR4Wsfg]http://youtu.be/2yLLfR4Wsfg[/video]
Just before the safety car my car had started to do the same as it had in testing and I knew that we had finished off the H+R’s too! Luckily the safety car was out for a while so took a load off the suspension. I decided just to forget about the dampers and was just going to go for it when the safety car went in. Cornering at 115mph while knowing the shocks were vibrating was a touch scary!
Overall I had a good weekend with great company as always! The car was disappointing but not much we can do about it and there are only so many spares we can carry. A massive thank you to Tony and Helen for providing me, James and the TDF boy’s with food for the weekend. Thank you to Fred, Matt and Nick for offering their suspension for my car was really kind of you all! Also a big thank you to everyone else for their company and help over the weekend
Without everyone around to lift my spirits I would have been in a much worse mood lol!
The car is now back at my house and I have been putting in the hours working through an ever expanding list of jobs before its next outing. I will do a bit of a write up in the next few days with what I’ve been upto and also what the plan is from here for the rest of the season.
Thanks as always for reading and sorry for it to be such a long read!
James
Who need's video when you can take multiple pictures
