Turbos.
The NSX hasn't had much season so far this season. Having had the engine built with ITBs, it has had two test days, but both of these were cut short. But early in the year, we entered the NSX into a couple of Britcar rounds just to see "what she'll do".
So we rocked up at Donny on Friday for a pre-race test day. Instead of my old man, i'd be sharing the seat with GT1/LMP1 driver Rob Barff, who we often use for instruction. It was my first visit back at Donny for over 5 years, where coincidentally it was my first ever race in our original NSX.
After letting the other Rob go out in the first session, there were issues with steering. Despite having 'race' power steering, it was providing next to no assistance and also the steering wheel was about a quarter turn to the right instead of dead-ahead. In my session, i found it was a very physical car to drive. I was getting tired after a few laps! However, it was nice to have a bit of extra poke after the Elise, and the seating position was ace!
The car got stringed up, to see if the geometry was out to cause the steering issue.
In the meantime, i checked out what else was on track.
Forgot Donny was right next to an airport too!
Strangely, the toe angle was way out on the front wheels. You can't exactly just take the steering rack out, so the guys had a look around but couldn't see anything obvious. So we finished the day with dodgy steering, albeit with the power steering much improved thanks to some mapping work. We also ran without the airbox, as the car seemed a bit slow.
In the morning, we found out the butterflies were only opening about 80%, which is why the car felt slow! This was then fixed, and the boys also took out the steering rack to find it was falling apart.
I still wasn't particularly happy with the car, the steering being massively heavy, especially when reactive (i.e. controlling slides). The previous day i'd spun, correcting the first slide but literally running out of energy to correct the next! But at least the weather was on my side, as it was dry despite the dodgy start.
Eventually, the job list was done and we were able to qualify, ending up 4th in class, just a few tenths behind the two in front.
We were so lucky to get the good weather, just 20 minutes before the BOSS F1 cars had to abandon their session due to the monsoon!
Overnight, the boys rebuilt and reinforced the rack for the race.
General checks were done, together with a final geometry change. We found a wet set up (i.e. soft everywhere) was the best for feel/confidence as the car was board-stiff beforehand. Will get round to changing for softer springs...
I was on to the assembly area to get on to the grid.
The marshalls, god bless them, cocked up and i was in the wrong grid position. On the green flag lap, i cheekily overtook a couple of people to get to the right place!
I got a great start. A crash up front caused people to be a bit nervous, so i grabbed a couple of positions.
I also found some killer lines...
This was my first race of the season in slicks, and it took me a few laps to accept they needed warming up! Fortunately, being quite a long wheel base, slides were easy to manage.
20 minutes in, i was getting pretty knackered. The power steering didn't seem to be doing its job and now the steering was pointing left. I had found a consistent pace though, so was OK. That is until suddenly the car made a massive clunking noise...and i lost drive. It sounded exactly like when the driveshaft fell out of the Elise at Silverstone. I crawled back to the pits, jumping out when i saw smoke.
The diagnosis? A little alu spacer on the driveshaft got hot, releasing the driveshaft out, through the exhaust (hot grease got set alight in the process). It was actually minimal damage really, but of course there's not much you can do with one-wheel drive!
So it was a disappointing end, so i didn't take any after pics... but i will try and find more from other people over the next few days. There is a lot to work on, but we have plenty of test days booked for the rest of the season so we can have a proper go next season
Oh, and it could have been worse...
So we rocked up at Donny on Friday for a pre-race test day. Instead of my old man, i'd be sharing the seat with GT1/LMP1 driver Rob Barff, who we often use for instruction. It was my first visit back at Donny for over 5 years, where coincidentally it was my first ever race in our original NSX.
After letting the other Rob go out in the first session, there were issues with steering. Despite having 'race' power steering, it was providing next to no assistance and also the steering wheel was about a quarter turn to the right instead of dead-ahead. In my session, i found it was a very physical car to drive. I was getting tired after a few laps! However, it was nice to have a bit of extra poke after the Elise, and the seating position was ace!
The car got stringed up, to see if the geometry was out to cause the steering issue.
In the meantime, i checked out what else was on track.
Forgot Donny was right next to an airport too!
Strangely, the toe angle was way out on the front wheels. You can't exactly just take the steering rack out, so the guys had a look around but couldn't see anything obvious. So we finished the day with dodgy steering, albeit with the power steering much improved thanks to some mapping work. We also ran without the airbox, as the car seemed a bit slow.
In the morning, we found out the butterflies were only opening about 80%, which is why the car felt slow! This was then fixed, and the boys also took out the steering rack to find it was falling apart.
I still wasn't particularly happy with the car, the steering being massively heavy, especially when reactive (i.e. controlling slides). The previous day i'd spun, correcting the first slide but literally running out of energy to correct the next! But at least the weather was on my side, as it was dry despite the dodgy start.
Eventually, the job list was done and we were able to qualify, ending up 4th in class, just a few tenths behind the two in front.
We were so lucky to get the good weather, just 20 minutes before the BOSS F1 cars had to abandon their session due to the monsoon!
Overnight, the boys rebuilt and reinforced the rack for the race.
General checks were done, together with a final geometry change. We found a wet set up (i.e. soft everywhere) was the best for feel/confidence as the car was board-stiff beforehand. Will get round to changing for softer springs...
I was on to the assembly area to get on to the grid.
The marshalls, god bless them, cocked up and i was in the wrong grid position. On the green flag lap, i cheekily overtook a couple of people to get to the right place!
I got a great start. A crash up front caused people to be a bit nervous, so i grabbed a couple of positions.
I also found some killer lines...
This was my first race of the season in slicks, and it took me a few laps to accept they needed warming up! Fortunately, being quite a long wheel base, slides were easy to manage.
20 minutes in, i was getting pretty knackered. The power steering didn't seem to be doing its job and now the steering was pointing left. I had found a consistent pace though, so was OK. That is until suddenly the car made a massive clunking noise...and i lost drive. It sounded exactly like when the driveshaft fell out of the Elise at Silverstone. I crawled back to the pits, jumping out when i saw smoke.
The diagnosis? A little alu spacer on the driveshaft got hot, releasing the driveshaft out, through the exhaust (hot grease got set alight in the process). It was actually minimal damage really, but of course there's not much you can do with one-wheel drive!
So it was a disappointing end, so i didn't take any after pics... but i will try and find more from other people over the next few days. There is a lot to work on, but we have plenty of test days booked for the rest of the season so we can have a proper go next season
Oh, and it could have been worse...
