Re: James/BigAsh 182 Race Car by TDF... It doesn't get much better than this! *Pic He
General Update and Donington Trackday evening:
So Since Anglesey a lot had been going on behind the scenes and I was trying to sort out new suspension. I made the decision about 2 weeks ago to go with the AST sportline 2’s and Josh from Cooksport got these delivered to me direct from AST to save time as he knew I was wanting them urgently and he was really helpful. Unfortunately a few bits didn’t arrive with the coilovers so took a few days to end up with all the right bits but have to give it to Josh he pulled out all the stops to ensure I got sorted ASAP and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.
Once everything arrived I got on with fitting the kit which is where I came across my first issue, the KW’s that were coming off had a different diameter thread so the bushes and nut’s wouldn’t transfer over and I didn’t have a set of standard items to fit. (Thanks to Jay for making me realise what the issue was)It was late on a Friday afternoon and with the car booked in for setup on the Monday morning I was just trying to get them to fit. Trying to work out what nut they needed was a mission in itself and turns out the are metric fine thread with a very fine (0.75mm pitch I think it was) I couldn’t find one for love nor money but then luckily Kat at Renparts returned my call and said they had a set of the bushes and nuts but had missed the post for Saturday. I had 1hr 30 until they shut and it is a 1hr 30 journey so it was time once again for me to get my toe down. Luckily got there just in time complete with AST coilover to test they were correct.
Then upon returning home I proceeded to fit the suspension but when I had fit the fronts there was play in the wheels. I swapped the TRE’s, knackered the ball joint while trying to check it but then realised it was the bearing in the top mount that had been vibrated to death from the knackered H+R’s at Anglesey. This was an issue as the car was booked in for geo on Monday morning and then I was busy until the trackday so would have had no time to get sorted. I left Pure a message and they kindly retuned my call first thing Monday to say they could ship some out to me special delivery. Kindly one of my friends offered to get them delivered there then he would fit them into the top mounts and drop them off for me at home ready for me to get home Tuesday night, fit them and take it for geo en-route to Donny. All went to plan thankfully and went about fitting them when I realised that the I.D of the Pure top mount spacer is different to the diameter of the AST strut. It was 5 to 5 on the Tuesday so I went to my local precision engineer and pleaded with him to machine me up some metal bushes to correct the I.D issue. Thankfully a crate of beer was a good persuader and I got sorted and went back home and fit the front suspension.
I gave the wheels a wobble in the 12-6 position and no play so was relieved then just casually checked 3-9 position and still had play! I was gutted, by this point I had replaced the TRE’s, Ball joints, top bearings so all it could have been was either the rack or the inner tie rod’s sure enough when I stripped back the gaiter it was the tie rod’s. Nothing could describe how I felt after all the time I had put in to get the car ready. I called Fred at nearly 10pm and woke him up
sorry mate! He was frankly awesome and offered to squeeze me in on Wednesday and then if we had time to spare then we would go and get the alignment done before the trackday and he would also do the corner weighting.
So I got the car all packed up all with associated gear for the trackday. Managed to get about 2 hours sleep before setting off to Birmingham.
The parts were already waiting when I arrived with the car and Fred got cracking
It was great to meet Fred, Sam and Zoltan and they really did save the day. By the time I had finished chatting away it was too late to safely get to Warwick and get the alignment done so Fred offered to do what he could just by sight and to say I was not optimistic was an understatement. I said I wanted the front to be fairly parallel and sure enough following a short test drive it was remarkable how good it felt! We quickly put the car on the scales to check cornerweights and it was well within what it needed to be but the total weight including me was 1130kg which is scarily heavy and going to have to work on the car’s and my weight over winter.
Tony had kindly offered to come upto Donington to help out for the evening and when I explained I hadn’t managed to get the alignment done he very kindly managed to blag some alignment gauges (What a legend!) So I got on my way to Donington to get a garage so that we had a level surface to work on setup.
Upon arrival I met up with Phil, Mark and Ian who had come along to say hi and was good to see everyone so thanks for coming! Then Tony, Sam, Fred and Zoltan arrived so I got on with unloading the car and then going for the briefing. Just before going out on the sighting laps Fred noticed that I hadn’t torqued up the TRE’s to the correct amount so he kindly sorted that and then I went out to get a feel for the car. The sighting laps were very slow but the car felt good and nothing fell off which is always a bonus with this car
I didn’t bother finishing all the sighting laps and just pulled in to then check over the car quickly. I went out and did a couple of lap runs to get some heat into the tyres but kept getting broken up with red flags. People weren’t moving out of the way which was proving frustrating so I decided that the racing cars that weren’t moving could just be overtaken and then I was been courteous to the trackday folk. I was suffering a slight vibration at high engine speeds which we think could be engine/box mounts as there is also a thud when the car engages first gear. The car was also having an issue with the brake servo and pulling very hard to the left under braking so I was trying not to brake too hard. I came back in for a quick check over when another red flag was thrown and then Fred said go and give it some so I wound it up and the car felt epic compared to how it used to, the additional speed I could take through the corners was just awesome and this was before we had worked on camber, tyre pressures, toe, me finding the limits etc. I managed one lap with only a little traffic and managed a 1:24.9 which is 4.8 seconds faster than my best when I last visited Donington in the car
I only realised the laptime the day after the trackday as I was having dash issues on the day. Unfortunately me getting the car screaming along caused me to be black flagged at the end of my first flying lap for noise and I wasn’t allowed back on. The car went straight on the trailer and was loaded up less than 20 mins after the circuit had gone open pit! Fred and Sam began to try and modify the exhaust to make it quieter and I was going to try and electronically drop the rev limit but after speaking to the TDO’s they were not going to let me back out no matter what we did so 1 flying lap later and it was day over! I was livid and really gutted after all the hard work I had put in to get the car there.
We then went off and had a mcyd’s to call it a night! Deep down while been gutted I knew that the car was vastly better (Didn’t realise nearly 5 seconds quicker)
The following day when I looked through the video and data I saw the laptime and was over the moon and while I didn’t get much seat time all the hard work was worth it for me as we took a huge step forward in laptime. I am now confident that once I work on the setup and do more than one lap then I can do even better so it is looking much more positive.
I have got to thank Pure motorsport, Cooksport, Renparts and most importantly BTM because the car would not have been at Donington without them saving the day at the last minute. Also big thanks to Tony as always for just been generally awesome and always been on hand! Without the help and support from all the above and also lot’s of other members I doubt I would still be keeping going with this car after all the problems I have had with the car so thank you!
Even though the car only did 19 minutes track time I will do a full re-prep and need to fix a leaking PAS pipe, Leaking oil filter, braking issue and the high speed vibration. I am fairly sure I am going to enter Donington and also do a test the day before but need to just assess the finances as it’s been a very expensive couple of weeks!
Thanks as always for ready and sorry for it been such a long read
I’m sure I’ve still forgotten some stuff lol
Below is the only video I got as I forgot to turn it on for the quick lap and then obviously the day was over! Phil very kindly took some photo's so i'm looking forward to seeing them although I imagine they are limited in quantity due to such little track time lol!
[video=youtube_share;KaysZcfNwJ8]http://youtu.be/KaysZcfNwJ8[/video]