The trials & tribulations of racing a Clio

[scotiamr2t]

Yes. I even ordered it until I discovered it won’t fit under my wheels. Thanks to yours and Ilya’s posts


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BG developments will make you a kit with a 295mm bell and rotor with AP calipers. I have the template for them I could email you

 

[robzracing]

BG developments will make you a kit with a 295mm bell and rotor with AP calipers. I have the template for them I could email you

That would be Fantastic! Please do.


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[EVO 4LEX]

Must be due an update by now? I’ve just placed an order for some doors so keen to see how you got on with fitting of the other side with regards to hinges and then how good the windows are and if you did trim the aperture back?

 

[robzracing]

Must be due an update by now? I’ve just placed an order for some doors so keen to see how you got on with fitting of the other side with regards to hinges and then how good the windows are and if you did trim the aperture back?

Yes, update overdue! The other door went on fine with a set of hinges I found on EBay and the brakes finally arrived last week. Windows not fitted yet as I'm about to mould the carbon roof which is priority before our first race at Thruxton 2nd May. Windscreen comes out next week and once all that's done there will be a big update, I promise!

Brakes thanks to BG Developments via @scotiamr2t

 

[donnylad]

They look super sexy!

 

[robzracing]

So Brakes are all on. 15" Ultraleggeras fit with room to spare over them which is a relief! Only hitch is the brake lines are not long enough so I've had to order a new set.

In other news, the screen is now out ready to mould the new roof and I've also had a chance to try out the new Quickjack which, frankly is a game changer. So much time saved and far better access.

 

[Chambers_RS]

More info on the jack needed 👌🏻

Brakes look good 👍🏻

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

More info on the jack needed 👌🏻

Brakes look good 👍🏻

 

[robzracing]

More info on the jack needed 👌🏻

Brakes look good 👍🏻

Ilya's video is of basically the same thing. Best price I found was Costco.

 

[Nafoff]

More info on the jack needed 👌🏻

Brakes look good 👍🏻

Group buy.....

 

[Chambers_RS]

Ilya's video is of basically the same thing. Best price I found was Costco.

What’s it like? And how safe do you feel under it?
I’ve been looking at mid raise scissor lifts as I sell them through work but this maybe an option as they take up less room.

 

[robzracing]

What’s it like? And how safe do you feel under it?
I’ve been looking at mid raise scissor lifts as I sell them through work but this maybe an option as they take up less room.

It's a solid piece of kit to be honest. It locks out at 2 heights and once locked there's no way it's going to come down and the car is rock solid on it. One reason for buying this was the ability of taking it to the track. I should just about be able to fit it in with all my gear.
Also, until I build a new "proper" garage/workshop I don't have the height for a 2 post lift (yet).

 

[robzracing]

Last night I "de-sponsored" the car ready for my own company sponsor livery to go on. And today my new rods arrived from Pure Motorsport which, along with a new set of JE pistons that arrived from the States last week can now go off with the rest of my new bottom end to be dynamically balanced and assembled.
This second engine is being built to the same spec as my current one and will enable me to run them in rotation with zero down time while one is refreshed as well as having a spare engine ready should I have another catastrophic failure at any time. Let's hope it gets built before one of those occurs!

 

[Hollidog]

Very keen to see progress on the roof! What do you estimate weight saving to be?

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

Very keen to see progress on the roof! What do you estimate weight saving to be?

Around 7kg [emoji41]


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[robzracing]

Finally made a start on the roof!
After one final round of cutting, polishing and filling the holes yesterday, this morning I started by applying 3 coats of release wax to the roof before sheeting the car up.

Once this was done I applied some filleting wax to the tight return on the edge of the roof above the doors. This fold is over 90 degrees so if I moulded the carbon fibre into that I wouldn't be able to release it from the roof once dry.

Then it was about getting set up and organised because I knew once I started I would have to get it finished.

Luckily I had chosen the slow cure hardener which would give me 90 minutes work time per mix which turned out to be perfect.
So, three layers with the middle one turned 90 degrees so the weave on a bias would give the roof strength. Only down side to doing this is that the roll of material is only 1.2m wide so it needed a join. If this turns out to be visible hopefully I can loose it with a thin skim of filler or failing that I'll design a pattern into the livery for the roof so you can't see it.

So a solid 5 hours later the roof is finished with a layer of peel ply over the top which should give it a smooth finish.

I've left it to set over night and we'll see in the morning whether it's all worked. (and whether I can actually get it off the roof!)

More tomorrow...

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

Finally made a start on the roof!
After one final round of cutting, polishing and filling the holes yesterday, this morning I started by applying 3 coats of release wax to the roof before sheeting the car up.
View attachment 1533390
Once this was done I applied some filleting wax to the tight return on the edge of the roof above the doors. This fold is over 90 degrees so if I moulded the carbon fibre into that I wouldn't be able to release it from the roof once dry.

View attachment 1533389

Then it was about getting set up and organised because I knew once I started I would have to get it finished.

View attachment 1533387

Luckily I had chosen the slow cure hardener which would give me 90 minutes work time per mix which turned out to be perfect.
So, three layers with the middle one turned 90 degrees so the weave on a bias would give the roof strength. Only down side to doing this is that the roll of material is only 1.2m wide so it needed a join. If this turns out to be visible hopefully I can loose it with a thin skim of filler or failing that I'll design a pattern into the livery for the roof so you can't see it.

So a solid 5 hours later the roof is finished with a layer of peel ply over the top which should give it a smooth finish.

I've left it to set over night and we'll see in the morning whether it's all worked. (and whether I can actually get it off the roof!)

View attachment 1533386

View attachment 1533391

More tomorrow...

top work mate! so you decided to skin it rather than make a mould first. when trying to lift it. peel all corners first and along all the edges! don't be tempted to lift from the front. how many layers? and what weight reinforcement?

 

[robzracing]

So, roof has demoulded ok and I'm glad to say that at 2.6kg I should go a little faster! The surface looks a little bumpy in places but I think there's enough resin over it so that it can flatted with a sand and then it will be ready to be wrapped.

Also spent Sunday wrapping the 2 fibreglass doors and annoyingly didn't quite have enough to do the boot so that will have to wait until next weekend.

This evening I started drilling out the welds on the steel roof and hopefully tomorrow I'll have that off and be ready to bond the new one on.

More to come....

 

[R29TJR]

Great work Rob. Love stuff like this.

 

[robzracing]

Thursday I freed up some time to crack on with the roof and before lunch I had the steel roof off the car. Oddly a harder job for having welded this one on myself a few years ago. Welds don't drill out as easily as spot welds but it was nothing an angle grinder couldn't handle.
More surprisingly was the weight. I had expected around 10kg, so at 12.3kg I'm now making a net saving of 10kg with the new roof.

I recon this could be a more noticeable improvement to handling than even the fibreglass panels as losing this much weight from the highest point of the car is going to lower the centre of gravity significantly.

Been a while since I've seen the cockpit from this angle and hopefully it will be the last time.

Thursday evening, after a bit of trimming and tidying I bonded the roof in and left it over night with some strategic clamps and weights around it to hold everything tight.

There it stayed until this morning when I began the unenviable task of sanding it smooth. That resin is super hard and I ended up running over the whole roof several times with 60 grit in an orbital sander before giving it all a light skim of filler to lose the lines of the Peel Ply and the 2 areas where I had to make joins on the centre sheet of carbon.
The whole roof was then sanded back again with a DA sander and then finished by hand, block sanding progressively down to 400 grit.

This seems to be smooth enough now hopefully for the wrap to take to it. We'll see tomorrow.

I had a bit of time at the end of the day to wrap the new CM Composites Cup spoiler ready for the bootlid once the Lexan rear screen goes in on Monday.

More tomorrow.

 

[Greeny.]

Love the dedication Rob, not sure I’ve seen someone do this with a roof, interesting to see!

 

[robzracing]

Love the dedication Rob, not sure I’ve seen someone do this with a roof, interesting to see!

Have you not been following @RuskiWeldShit ? Ilya and I have been discussing the roof for some time. Sadly, he beat me to it by about 3 weeks but he's slowly making his whole car out of Carbon Kevlar. He is a crazy Russian though and I can't compete with that!

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

Have you not been following @RuskiWeldShit ? Ilya and I have been discussing the roof for some time. Sadly, he beat me to it by about 3 weeks but he's slowly making his whole car out of Carbon Kevlar. He is a crazy Russian though and I can't compete with that!

Hahah thanks man! It’s one competition I had to win hahah. In all honesty I was hoping you will do yours first (you know learn from mistakes and all that [emoji12]) but than we had a scorching 25deg summer day and I thought right this is my window! Who know what actual summer going to bring us. But mine is heavier by 250g. And oddly enough my metal roof was just shy of 10kg. Either way like you say this much weight from up top has to be good!


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[robzracing]

Early start today and before doing anything else I test fitted an offcut of vinyl to make sure it would take to the roof.
All seemed ok..

So with help from the wife we went about wrapping the roof and had it all done in about an hour or so. I have to say it has come out just as I wanted it and I think you'll be hard pressed to spot it's any different to a standard roof. (unless you look up inside the car!)

With the roof done its full steam ahead to get the car assembled and ready for Thruxton next Sunday.

Tailgate was refitted, new Lexan screen bonded and spoiler bonded on and can set over night

Then on to the doors which first needed the glass surrounds painting satin black.

And ready for new windows.

So next will be completing the doors tomorrow and the new heated screen should be fitted tomorrow too although I don't think it will be wired in for Thruxton. There is already a list of work for post Thruxton and pre-Brands Hatch!

The new livery has been printed up so that will be applied this week. Brakes need bleeding and a full string alignment and corner weigh to do and we'll be about ready.

 

[Nafoff]

Nice work on the window frames, I need to do that with the windows in.... Looks good though.
Got an update on my single wiper soon, thought I'd let you know as it was inspired by you.

 

[numbers_]

But mine is heavier by 250g. And oddly enough my metal roof was just shy of 10kg. Either way like you say this much weight from up top has to be good!

Probably to do with the big blob of sound deadening on Rob's

 

[robzracing]

Well, after a couple of late nights she's about ready.

The screen went in yesterday evening and then it was just a case of fitting the new Lexan windows to the doors and hanging them, followed by applying the new Livery.

The doors could benefit from a little more adjustment but they'll do for the weekend and I can revisit them when i have more time.

After that it was time for the weigh in!

I recon there's about 30ltrs of fuel in the tank after the 7 laps of Combe last year, which equates to about 23.5kg.

So all in all a dry weight of about 850kg which I'm happy with.

So just some camber adjustment and spanner check to do tomorrow then its just prep and loading up. Keeping everything crossed.

 

[robzracing]

Thruxton 2nd May
Saturday morning began with packing the van before hitching up the trailer and loading the car. Feels like an age since I last did this!

I set of for the 2.5hour drive at about 11.30 with a planned stop in to see my parents on the way before arriving at the track at about 3pm. first things first was to have a new set of AO52s fitted to my TD 1.2s ready for either Brands or Donington depending on how my current set looked after this weekend.
Within half an hour of that I had sold the part worn AO50s to a fellow competitor so I didn't need to bring them home.

Towards the end of the day the paddock began to thin out as the day's racing came to an end so I staked a claim in the designated Tin Top area for Sunday and set about setting up.
Just minutes after I had the car under the gazebo the mother of all hail storms hit and I began to pray that this wasn't a sign of weather to come tomorrow.

all set up. Quick Jack earning it's keep

SUNDAY -
After another pleasant stay at The Holiday Inn at Stone Henge I arrived back at the circuit for 8.30 and Jon arrived soon after from his hotel near Bristol. We had plenty of time to catch up, go over the changes to the car, set tyre pressures and discuss strategy before qualifying at 12.30.
Everything felt good but it was with some trepidation that I took the car to the assembly area trying the gearbox for the first time since the rebuild and then on to the track to test the whole package for the first time...

Assembly area, ready for qualifying

2019 was the last time I raced here so it took a couple of laps to start settling in begin turning up the wick. The car felt great and I could tell there was plenty of potential that I was still to find. Sadly after 10 minutes a safety car was deployed for a stranded car so I opted to pit and let Jon out to complete qualifying. He had never raced at Thruxton before and as he's a paying driver I needed to let him have as much time as possible.
We had already decided that after last season, the aim was to get to the end of the race and not worry about position but of course we are both racers... And fortunately for me Jon is a talented driver despite having far less experience than me. He set our fastest time and put us P6 on the grid of 27 cars. We were happy with that!

It is clear that the car is much more lively with the weight loss and an absolute joy to drive on the limit. For Thruxton though you really need a whole bottle of Brave Pills to get the most out of it and clearly Jon was half way through his bottle already!
Interestingly, in a demonstration of the constant march of progress in racing, my P5 qualifying position in 2019 was a whole second off our P6 time this year!

Anyway, we spent most of the afternoon feeling quietly confident and maybe a little smug that we had nothing to do to the car other than top up fuel, reduce tyre pressures, (fronts were 34psi and rears at 32 after quali) and carry out a precautionary bleed of the brakes (which were awesome by the way). All was calm in Camp Lord Motorsport. Until we were called to the assembly area before the race at 4pm.

Suited up, I jumped into the car while Jon started to walk over to assembly and I pressed the start button.. nothing!

I guessed straight away that the signal lead must have come off the starter so we made a frantic attempt to jack the car up and get under to reconnect it but all to no avail. We ditched the idea called for help to push and I reached the assembly area with 30 seconds to go before were were sent out on to track.
My head was all over the place... Not my normal Zen state before a race start and also in the panic the cameras had not been turned on either.

I reached the grid and before long the red lights came on. And then off very quickly and of course I lit up the tyres getting mugged by 4 or 5 cars into the 1st corner.
It's been a while since I've started a race right in the middle of the pack and I was quickly reminded that it gets the juices flowing very quickly!
I managed to keep it clean through the complex, passing a couple of cars before heading out onto the back part of the circuit where the speeds build quickly. On lap 1 this is where the drama happens when tyres are cold and blood is hot. But again all went well and continued the chase to recover my position.

By the end of the first lap I was back up to P7 and tucked up behind a quick little Fiesta where I stayed, briefly changing places with him for the next few laps until I finally made a move stick on lap 6 which brought us up behind an altogether trickier competitor in a Proton and with a reputation for aggressive defending. But within 1 lap I forced a mistake from them, using the newly found awesome stopping power and got past hoping that he may hold up the fiesta who was still hot on my heels.
This strategy worked for a couple of corners but then the Fez was behind me again.

This is where I should have finished the last of the brave pills and taken Church flat but I must have left them back in the paddock because I just couldn't quite get there and consequently, each lap the Fiesta would be on me again by the end of the lap.
During this battle we managed to reel in a couple more cars ahead until I was up to 4th. And it nearly all ended when our Fiesta friend decided to go for a gap on the inside into turn 1 that really wasn't there and punted me in the rear quarter sending me into a 100mph drift. In my mirrors he was also taking the corner sideways but we both held it and continued our battle.
By lap 11 I was in 3rd when the safety car was deployed again so I dived into the pit to hand over to Jon.

Our mandatory 2 minute pit stop got elongated by another 22 seconds when he was held at the pit exit while the Safety Car came past and we rejoined the race in 8th. However, there were still a few cars ahead still to stop so we were comfortable with the position.

And sure enough, although Jon had a much quieter race than me, he constantly banked some great lap times even though again the tyres overheated towards the end and he brought the car home in 4th, 7 seconds behind 3rd but not a gap he would have closed. Had there been no safety car it might have been different but then the whole race might have been different.

More important than our 4th place was our 1st in class and over a lap ahead of 2nd. We really couldn't have asked for more.

So, some damage to repair to add to the list before Brands on the 22nd but nothing major. Just how I like a weekend's racing to end.

 

[robzracing]

Although our cameras weren't running at Thruxton this footage from onboard Jon Lannon's feisty Saxo pretty much captures the whole of my stint.

 

[robzracing]

Full race report coming soon.
It was awesome!


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[donnylad]

well done rob, look forward to reading that!

 

[robzracing]

Brands Hatch 22nd May
Well, last weekend kind of started on Thursday last week when @Rob Quantrell and I headed down to Brands to set up our gazebo for the weekend. The idea being that we could rock up nice and relaxed on saturday morning and just unload the cars straight in without the faff of setting up a double sized gazebo which takes a bit of time.

We left Brands on Thursday afternoon at about 2pm all done and feeling mildly smug that we were the first TinTops there with the perfect pitch, complete with a hook-up to power and water.

At 5pm that day I received some photos from a racing colleague of our gazebo looking less than secure in the increasingly gusty conditions and by 9pm he and several members of one of the larger F3 teams had held it down to the ground to stop it heading up to Druids and subsequently decided to dismantle it to save it for us.
So that plan didn't work.

Through Friday as more people arrived at Brands I was increasingly worried that we would lose our place, not to mention the thought of getting down there to find the gazebo broken or half missing. So late on Friday we made the decision to head down again to set it back up as the wind had now eased a little and also to take the cars down early instead of Saturday morning.
So I quickly booked a room in a local hotel and headed off. Rob also came down but he had to go back home for family commitments before coming back down again Saturday morning.
For our local track we covered a lot of miles between us over the weekend!

So Saturday morning came and fortunately some drying conditions. We weren't due to qualify until 10.45 and there were several sessions on track before us mainly of cars using plenty of aero so we were hopeful of a dry qually.
We had nothing really to do to the car other than change the wheels over onto a new set of AO52s and set the pressures.

I've only driven Brands GP once on a track day about 7 or 8 years ago so it was going to be interesting. Although of course, probably the majority of the grid hadn't driven it before or had limited experience like me.
There is also a shortage of Youtube footage to watch other than BTCC cars or motorbikes. So not much to go on.

I went first into qualifying and tried to get up to speed as quickly as possible to find the limits of the car (and myself) and start setting some quick times. With only 30 minutes for qualifying, (15 minutes each) it goes very quickly and if a safety car comes out or it rains suddenly an early lap time can pay dividends.
I was running in P3 when the safety car was deployed and we decided to swap over while it was out.
John went out with 10 minutes left and luckily within 1 lap the safety car came back in.
As people got comfortable and inevitably quicker we dropped down to P10 as John tried to get to grips with the track. Then as the clock ticked down to zero he managed to hook up behind the Simpson and Simpson Peugeot 306 who are always quick and on the last lap popped us into 4th right behind the Pug!

Needless to say, we were happy with that and now we had 6 hours before the race to either bask in a little glory or start thinking about all the things that could now go wrong!
My mind flitted between both states throughout the day. Happy to speak to anyone who came to discuss/congratulate us on a successful qually and equally happy to get under the car or in the car looking for anything that might be loose or about to break.
I found nothing and again, other than adjust tyre pressures again. (they were too high once again after we came in) And brim the fuel tank there was nothing to be done.
I did buy another couple of AO52 tyres though. just to replace the 2 fronts that at Thruxton had got too hot both in qualifying and in the race so were looking a little second hand. So we have another new set for Donington next weekend.

I should add here that @Rob Quantrell and his race partner John who we were sharing the gazebo with were having a very different day to us.
Their Clio decided to drop on to 3 cylinders on the way to qualifying and the decided to die completely. As a result they didn't get out for qualifying and instead set about finding the problem.
This was tracked down to a failed alternator which, thanks to the great club that we race with was replaced by @Russ Rallye's spare.
Once all up and running the organisers allowed them to do their mandatory 3 laps each behind the safety car during the lunch break. So they were to get a race from the back of the grid which would be fun!

After watching the British GT championship qualifying sessions we had a leisurely prep for the race.
Cameras were all set after the Thruxton c**k-up with a new "Wired Remote" set-up for both front and rear cameras making it nealry impossible not to get footage. (unless I forget to put a memory card in I guess)

Changeable weather had been hanging over us all day and we had been looking at satellite images regularly throughout the day.

Sure enough as we all entered the assembly area half an hour before the race the heavens opened. The Ginetta academy that was out on track had it worst as they all proceeded to slide off the track and keep the safety car busy until the end of their race. By which time the rain had stopped and the sun came out.
We were told there would be 2 green flag laps to give us a chance to warm the tyres and get a feel for the grip levels of the track. It was going to be interesting.

Green flag laps complete, lined up on the grid I was determined not to light up the wheels like Thruxton which on the damp track was going to be interesting. I had some last minute dilemmas whether to pull away in 2nd or gently in 1st and as the 5 second board came out I opted for 1st.
The lights went out and I managed to pull away fine. Not perfect but no wheel spin and I headed into Paddock Hill Bend in 3rd and chasing.

The first few laps were intense. Swapping between 2nd briefly and 3rd and 4th and back to 3rd and back to 4th with a couple of other cars but mainly with Martin Addison in his Pug 106 rocket. Graham Hill bend strangely seemed to get greasier for a short while, resulting in quite a hairy sideways moment while in P3 with P2 just in front doing exactly the same!

We had another short safety car period while someone was recovered from the gravel trap on Paddock Hill and managed to get a good restart once the safety car came in. The top 4 or 5 cars managed to pull out a bit of a gap to the rest of the pack so I came in to hand over to Jon in a strong position.

Andrew Windmill in P2 at the time would be serving a 30 second success penalty for his win at Thuxton which meant we had a good chance of a good result. The track was drying quickly and Jon set about doing what he does putting in strong consistent laps.
We had slightly dropped the ball in the pit stop when P5 behind us managed to jump us in the pit as we were not quite tight enough on the timing and I had to hold Jon until our rival went past. Jon passed him on track within 4 or 5 laps though putting us into 2nd and closing on the leader 2 or 3 seconds a lap.
Sadly a red flag finished the race 7 minutes early with us 7.3 seconds behind the lead. It would have been close and Jon was dissapointed not to have had a crack at the lead.
The silver lining however, is that we have another rival with a 30 second success penalty potentially putting us in a strong position going in to Donington next weekend.
Regardless, we were ecstatic with P2 and another 1st in class. 2 for 2!

Need some time to edit the onboard into something watchable.