27th April 2011 - Mallory Park Test
Today we went along to Mallory Park to do a morning test session. We wanted to make sure the car worked before racing at Brands in 10 days time. It was very, very cold when we arrived but at least it was dry. The day didn't start well as the van was hit by a race transporter while entering the paddock. Only a scuff tho.
Some of the locals came over to have a look at the car and were impressed, well we think they were, they were making positive noises.
We had a list of things to check and had 3x 30 minute sessions during the morning. Tony was in the driving seat again and, looking super sharp in his new race suit, took it gentle for a 5 lap shakedown run as soon as the track opened. A quick check under the bonnet for leaks and a chat about how it all felt. The gearbox was working fine and he could reach the gears much better now we had relocated the sticks neutral position. Last season he had struggled at times with 3rd and 5th gears. His arms are slightly shorter than mine. A quick tyre pressure check and off he went for a quicker run but still taking it steady and building up slowly. A best lap time of 56.5 seconds was a good indication that we could improve on our 55seconds lap from last year.
Session over and all was well. Tyre temperatures were looking very decent and the traction and braking (our 2 weak areas) had been massively improved. Pleased already.
Fred and Sam from BTM Performance had turned up to give us a hand and in the next session Tony was told to push on a bit, to see what the car would do. After 3 or 4 laps to warm up and another tyre pressure check he went out to set a decent time. Within 2 laps he was down in to the 54 second bracket and quicker than last year. Another quick pit stop and we made some adjustments to tyre pressures and damper settings to dial out a little oversteer. Tony improved his times again doing a string of 3 quick laps while he had a clear road. 53.8seconds, 53.5seconds and 53.6seconds.
We were pretty happy with that to say the least. The car came back with around 10 litres of fuel in it and had a pretty good balance. So we decided for the 3rd session to make no changes initially and see what effect fuel load would have on the times. So topped it up to around 40 litres, the level we would start a race with.
3rd run and a couple of red flags broke up the session but the fuel load hadn't changed the balance much. Tony could consistently run in the high 53 second bracket with a few around 53.5 seconds as before. Is there a 52 in the car? time will tell. Last year the car could do 55's all day long, now its doing 53's. With a 1.5 second improvement over the quickest lap time. How much of that is the circuit, as it was resurfaced over the winter and a lot of bumps removed, and how much is the car is hard to tell. But the car IS better to drive and our weak areas have been improved upon. Can’t wait for Brands
So we packed up, pretty happy with how things had gone and headed for the chequered flag cafe. Our friends came over for another chat just as we were leaving.
We headed to Burpspeed HQ to give the car a check over and get it ready for Brands
One thing that didn't work properly today was the pit lane speed limiter. We had trouble reading wheel speed at anything over 12kph. A quick call to
Matt at Tour-De-Force and the problem was found. We are using a hall effect speed sensor off the stock ABS pickup ring on the left hand driveshaft. It has 44 teeth on it, far too many for the sensor to cope with as it all becomes a blur for it at speed. We had to remove the shaft and Tony got busy with grinders, files and dremel to get it down to 11 teeth.
While he was busy doing that me and photographer Dan finished off a few other jobs, applying the livery and series decals.
1st call Auto Rentals of Gloucester are with us for a second year and we thank them for their support.
It was dark by the time we had finished, yet another early start and late finish. The car still has a few jobs outstanding. The de-mister has a wiring/switch fault that needs looking at but we are now reading wheel speed consistently and the pit limiter is working. An aero catch broke on the bonnet as we were putting the car to bed so we have some work to do at Brands before we get started.
Overall one of our better days tho.....
