Our track project - including diary of a Sprint N00b... - Page 13

kaiowas · 22-05-2008, 08:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flibster

Is that true carbon or fibreglass with a layer of carbon?
From the closeup - I'd go with fibreglass.

Still - much better than aluminium.

Not sure I had a quick look but didn't really know what I'm looking for, wouldn't surprise me if it's FG but then they're only 0.8mm thick and I wouldn't know whether you can get 2 layers of carbon plus FG into that sort of thickness. The pair cost £85 anyway so I'm sure you'll be able to work it out just from the material cost.

Even got a couple of offcuts in amongst the packaging (I think they were there to stiffen everything up) which I can muck about with and maybe make something nice out of. CF mousemat is the only thing I've thought of so far

vix · 25-05-2008, 10:59

25th May 2008

The clutch arrived in the nick of time on Friday just as Phil was getting ready to take the gearbox out. He fitted it easily but then spent about 6 hours trying to get the grearbox in as it was having one of it’s awkward days. We had been lucky before when we fitted the new box that it had just fitted nicely, obviously we weren’t going to have that luck again!

Phil eventually left it on Friday and decided to come back to it Saturday!

Here is what we started with on Saturday morning:

Observe our shiny new clutch! Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to take a comparison from the old broken one.

It took Phil another few hours to get the gearbox in but eventually it slipped into place. We fortunately didn’t have the problem we had last time with trying to get the engine mount back into place so that part of the job was much less stressful.

Phil then went to start the engine. I think he’d got over excited about trying to test the clutch because he had forgotten to re fit the exhaust!! Cue a rather spluttery and loud start up!

After re-fitting the exhaust, Phil took Humphrey for a run. The passenger seat was still out from the sprint, and there were four wheels in the passenger side anyway so I stayed at home, by the phone in case a rescue mission was needed. It wasn’t and the new clutch is fine, but I think I’m going to have to have a drive of him before the next sprint as the bite point is now very low.

The only other thing that was done today was a bit of extra weight saving by cutting the rear bumper bar out of the bumper. This is a large metal bar, and really does weigh a lot!

Again, Phil did this too quickly for me to take a picture. I can’t help much at the moment as I’m revising, hence the write ups at the moment are more like ‘what Phil did today…’.

I took some pictures around the place today as we have made some other changes to our fleet of cars.

Mister Two is nearly stripped and ready for scrap

He is currently a ‘skip’ for all our bits of metal we are cutting off Humphrey, in order to get the weight up!

The garage:

There is the best part of two cars in there with probably some parts in triplicate. Once the sprint season is over, it’s my job to sort all this stuff out, Phil to decide parts to sell and parts to keep, and then we might be a bit more organised.

As you can see, even the roofspace is full of bodywork.

It’s raining today, so we aren’t sure what to do. Might have a day off and go watch some racing – get some tips!!

The amount of female interest in the Sprint Series has grown, and they have introduced a trophy for fastest female across the classes. Humphrey is capable of beating the faster cars so I really need to concentrate and try and get my times respectable.

Zirax · 25-05-2008, 12:35

I think the answer is simple, you need a bigger house. Preferably one with a double garage.

Problem solved.

Just had a thought.... Carbon sun visor?

vix · 25-05-2008, 15:14

We needed that a long time ago!

We don't need a sun visor as we have the sunstrip. Unless Sakura would like one

vix · 30-05-2008, 17:39

Phil has had a productive afternoon:

Doorcards have been fitted:

As they came with no holes except for the door release he has also relocated the electric window switches so that we can still get some air whilst driving!

More weight saving has taken place, the fans from the front of the radiator have been taken out. A Mk1b side vent has replaced the Mk1a vent as they were much lighter. Only problem with this is it’s off Mister-Two so it’s blue, however it doesn’t look that bad! Mud flaps have also been removed, not much weight saving but it’s a bit. (And someone wanted to buy them!)

Some of the wiring has also been tidied up, as when we removed the two(!) immobilisers we kind of left the wiring dropping about, which is obviously a potential hazard. Phil has become a bit obsessed with removing any wiring he can find whilst still keeping things we need. It’s getting crazy in there!

Whilst tidying up the floor today ready for painting, Phil noticed a little rusty hole, so Humphrey is off back to the body shop tomorrow to have that patched up before it gets out of hand.

It’s tiny so not a very big job! Shame one of us can’t weld!

vix · 31-05-2008, 19:27

31/5/08

Humphrey returned today with a welded up hole, hurray!

Cost us all of a tenner!

Phil then undersealed the area, and then set to work preparing the area to be painted with a wire brush, and then applied the primer.

Waiting for the primer to dry

and then applying the red paint

As there was nothing else he could do whilst the paint was drying, we nipped to Snetterton to watch some historic racing.

vix · 01-06-2008, 20:29

1/6/08

Phil has been removing more unwanted wires from the loom this morning, I’m worried he’s going to go over the top!!

Anyway, fortunately he finally got bored, and started preparing the old rusty dash bar for painting. This is the bar which is usually covered by the dash unless you have a stripped out race car!

Phil covered it with a few coats of Hammerite and it’s currently in the garage drying as it has a few runs which need sanding down.

vix · 04-06-2008, 19:50

4/6/08

So the Hammerite option didn’t work for some reason, and Phil has been spending the last few evenings prepping another dash bar. This one’s red:

kaiowas · 10-06-2008, 08:35

Round 3 at Teesside Autodrome this weekend.

The Teesside rounds are slightly different in that they run on a Saturday evening rather than all day Sunday. There's also the benefit that this event isn't on MoD property so spectators are able pay on the gate as opposed to having to give details in advance so if anyone in the North East is at a lose end this Saturday night feel free to pop along, proceedings are due to start at about 4pm and will run through to about 11pm or so. Entry is £5

The car is all pretty much ready to go, I'm using it for work all this week just to make sure everything is still OK as it's mostly been standing since the last round plus I've pulled lots of things apart. Just some last minute checks on fluid levels and stuff to do before we set off on Friday.

vix · 19-06-2008, 21:16

A bit of a late report this week as I have had exams and revision most of the week.

The Teesside sprint was held at Teesside Autodrome on the 14th June. It was a bit different in the fact that it started at 4pm and would go into late evening. We had been warned to make sure our lights were working! I was a bit nervous as I usually improve during the day and didn’t want the darkness to impede on my learning curve!

I think they decided to make the Teesside events (there is another one in October) evenings because of the amount of time it takes people to get there. The majority of entrants I think are South, and many championship contenders did not enter this round due to the travel time. Phil was rather pleased to notice the Starlet which usually beats him had not entered this round!

We were lucky in the fact we could have a stop off at my parents in Yorkshire before carrying on to Teesside, however due to my exams we would have to make the full journey back on Sunday.

So, Saturday morning dawned cloudy but dry and we set off from my parents with me in a bit of a panic as I realised I had no time to revise. (You will notice me being in a panic this weekend is a recurring theme). We had a good, uneventful drive up to Middlesborough. Living in Norfolk, you forget what it’s like to have good roads to get you places instead of B roads with tractors!

We had decided to see if we could check in at the Holiday Inn before we went to the track, to save us having to do this at midnight, or whatever the time the event would finish. However this was not possible but we did meet a few other competitors in the car park who had stayed the night before. A few of the MR2 Mk2 competitors were there, and Phil noticed that all of them had removed the rear spoiler. It was something he had been considering as it’s a weighty lump and really offers no benefit to the kind of driving we are doing. So when we got to the track (early), he decided to remove Humphrey’s spoiler too. Shame he hadn’t thought about this at home as there was lots of lovely moss and general muck where the spoiler had been, and we could have cleaned it up. Never mind.

Time went by, and after a little sleep in Sakura, I went back to the hotel to check in. Unfortunately on my way back to the track, even with the satnav, I got inexplicably lost, and the satnav offered no help except suggesting right turns at non existent roundabouts. In the end I literally doubled back on myself and finally got back to the track, in a bit of a stressed mess.

The paddock had started to fill up now, it was tiny as Teesside is mainly a kart circuit so there isn’t much room for full sized cars. Sakura had been relegated to the car park.

In no time at all, and feeling a bit calmer, we attended the briefing, in which we were told the track was three-dimensional, which was interesting. I dashed to the car park for Sakura to do the sighting laps, and took a fellow competitor with me for advice. The track certainly was three dimensional, with a nice left hander leading up quite a steep hill, ending with a right turn, almost a hairpin going back down. Fun.

I felt a lot more confident on this track than I did at the last event, I’ve always enjoyed hills so maybe that was something to do with it! The track was challenging but you had time to think, which wasn’t how I felt at Barkston. In fact I can hardly remember the layout of Barkston but I can remember Teesside. From the start there was a very tight chicane, then a small straight to a right hander, and then the left going up the hill. At the top of the hill it was completely blind going right, so a little daunting at first, but then into a very long straight. At the end of the straight was another tight chicane, which was a total pain was it was difficult to spot. After the chicane was a super-long right hander and then a small straight to the finish.

This was my first time driving Humphrey with the new clutch and I successfully managed to stall him within 3 seconds of being in the driving seat! Fortunately that was driving to the start, as opposed to driving off the start!!! I did have a few bunny rabbit starts though. My face must have been a picture!

After about 3 good runs, the rain came down. And did it rain! We took shelter under a nearby competitors gazebo. Of course my nerves set in then and I did quite a slow time. My times in this event had improved greatly and I was almost competitive. About 3 seconds off everyone else, but it’s better than the 14 seconds I had in the first round! You can tell how slow I was though as my times were comparable to the other female Mk1 driver who had either spun or gone off in each of her first runs.

My most memorable moments were just after the rain, at the top of the hill I suddenly felt like I wasn’t quite moving ‘right’ and realised I had got on a 4 wheel drift! Yahoo! Thing is I then got all excited and got a fit of the giggles which stopped me concentrating on the rest of the track! On my next run I had a total brain lapse and thought I’d missed the chicane, slowed down too much, then realised I hadn’t. Duh.

Phil had some great times throughout the day, however never improved on his first run. Not that this mattered too much as he managed to scoop first in class, and a whopping trophy to boot. The male driver of one of the other Mk1s in our class got runner up, the female driver of that car got fastest female. It’s a good car!

It had stayed light and so o need for lights too, and we managed to get back in time for last orders at the pub. I’m just wondering what the Winter event will be like – might be needing snow chains for that hill!

Some of the professional pics for the day can be found here:

http://www.norwichphoto.co.uk/tss/r3...ult/index.html

25-05-2008, 10:59	#122
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	25th May 2008 The clutch arrived in the nick of time on Friday just as Phil was getting ready to take the gearbox out. He fitted it easily but then spent about 6 hours trying to get the grearbox in as it was having one of it’s awkward days. We had been lucky before when we fitted the new box that it had just fitted nicely, obviously we weren’t going to have that luck again! Phil eventually left it on Friday and decided to come back to it Saturday! Here is what we started with on Saturday morning: Observe our shiny new clutch! Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to take a comparison from the old broken one. It took Phil another few hours to get the gearbox in but eventually it slipped into place. We fortunately didn’t have the problem we had last time with trying to get the engine mount back into place so that part of the job was much less stressful. Phil then went to start the engine. I think he’d got over excited about trying to test the clutch because he had forgotten to re fit the exhaust!! Cue a rather spluttery and loud start up! After re-fitting the exhaust, Phil took Humphrey for a run. The passenger seat was still out from the sprint, and there were four wheels in the passenger side anyway so I stayed at home, by the phone in case a rescue mission was needed. It wasn’t and the new clutch is fine, but I think I’m going to have to have a drive of him before the next sprint as the bite point is now very low. The only other thing that was done today was a bit of extra weight saving by cutting the rear bumper bar out of the bumper. This is a large metal bar, and really does weigh a lot! Again, Phil did this too quickly for me to take a picture. I can’t help much at the moment as I’m revising, hence the write ups at the moment are more like ‘what Phil did today…’. I took some pictures around the place today as we have made some other changes to our fleet of cars. Mister Two is nearly stripped and ready for scrap He is currently a ‘skip’ for all our bits of metal we are cutting off Humphrey, in order to get the weight up! The garage: There is the best part of two cars in there with probably some parts in triplicate. Once the sprint season is over, it’s my job to sort all this stuff out, Phil to decide parts to sell and parts to keep, and then we might be a bit more organised. As you can see, even the roofspace is full of bodywork. It’s raining today, so we aren’t sure what to do. Might have a day off and go watch some racing – get some tips!! The amount of female interest in the Sprint Series has grown, and they have introduced a trophy for fastest female across the classes. Humphrey is capable of beating the faster cars so I really need to concentrate and try and get my times respectable. __________________ Last edited by vix; 25-05-2008 at 11:06.

25-05-2008, 15:14	#124
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	We needed that a long time ago! We don't need a sun visor as we have the sunstrip. Unless Sakura would like one __________________

30-05-2008, 17:39	#125
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	Phil has had a productive afternoon: Doorcards have been fitted: As they came with no holes except for the door release he has also relocated the electric window switches so that we can still get some air whilst driving! More weight saving has taken place, the fans from the front of the radiator have been taken out. A Mk1b side vent has replaced the Mk1a vent as they were much lighter. Only problem with this is it’s off Mister-Two so it’s blue, however it doesn’t look that bad! Mud flaps have also been removed, not much weight saving but it’s a bit. (And someone wanted to buy them!) Some of the wiring has also been tidied up, as when we removed the two(!) immobilisers we kind of left the wiring dropping about, which is obviously a potential hazard. Phil has become a bit obsessed with removing any wiring he can find whilst still keeping things we need. It’s getting crazy in there! Whilst tidying up the floor today ready for painting, Phil noticed a little rusty hole, so Humphrey is off back to the body shop tomorrow to have that patched up before it gets out of hand. It’s tiny so not a very big job! Shame one of us can’t weld! __________________

31-05-2008, 19:27	#126
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	31/5/08 Humphrey returned today with a welded up hole, hurray! Cost us all of a tenner! Phil then undersealed the area, and then set to work preparing the area to be painted with a wire brush, and then applied the primer. Waiting for the primer to dry and then applying the red paint As there was nothing else he could do whilst the paint was drying, we nipped to Snetterton to watch some historic racing. __________________

01-06-2008, 20:29	#127
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	1/6/08 Phil has been removing more unwanted wires from the loom this morning, I’m worried he’s going to go over the top!! Anyway, fortunately he finally got bored, and started preparing the old rusty dash bar for painting. This is the bar which is usually covered by the dash unless you have a stripped out race car! Phil covered it with a few coats of Hammerite and it’s currently in the garage drying as it has a few runs which need sanding down. __________________

25-05-2008, 12:35	#123
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	I think the answer is simple, you need a bigger house. Preferably one with a double garage. Problem solved. Just had a thought.... Carbon sun visor?

04-06-2008, 19:50	#128
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	4/6/08 So the Hammerite option didn’t work for some reason, and Phil has been spending the last few evenings prepping another dash bar. This one’s red: __________________

10-06-2008, 08:35	#129
kaiowas The Stig Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fightertown USA Posts: 1,458	Round 3 at Teesside Autodrome this weekend. The Teesside rounds are slightly different in that they run on a Saturday evening rather than all day Sunday. There's also the benefit that this event isn't on MoD property so spectators are able pay on the gate as opposed to having to give details in advance so if anyone in the North East is at a lose end this Saturday night feel free to pop along, proceedings are due to start at about 4pm and will run through to about 11pm or so. Entry is £5 The car is all pretty much ready to go, I'm using it for work all this week just to make sure everything is still OK as it's mostly been standing since the last round plus I've pulled lots of things apart. Just some last minute checks on fluid levels and stuff to do before we set off on Friday. __________________ Anal Fish Porn

19-06-2008, 21:16	#130
vix Penelope Pitstop Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,426	A bit of a late report this week as I have had exams and revision most of the week. The Teesside sprint was held at Teesside Autodrome on the 14th June. It was a bit different in the fact that it started at 4pm and would go into late evening. We had been warned to make sure our lights were working! I was a bit nervous as I usually improve during the day and didn’t want the darkness to impede on my learning curve! I think they decided to make the Teesside events (there is another one in October) evenings because of the amount of time it takes people to get there. The majority of entrants I think are South, and many championship contenders did not enter this round due to the travel time. Phil was rather pleased to notice the Starlet which usually beats him had not entered this round! We were lucky in the fact we could have a stop off at my parents in Yorkshire before carrying on to Teesside, however due to my exams we would have to make the full journey back on Sunday. So, Saturday morning dawned cloudy but dry and we set off from my parents with me in a bit of a panic as I realised I had no time to revise. (You will notice me being in a panic this weekend is a recurring theme). We had a good, uneventful drive up to Middlesborough. Living in Norfolk, you forget what it’s like to have good roads to get you places instead of B roads with tractors! We had decided to see if we could check in at the Holiday Inn before we went to the track, to save us having to do this at midnight, or whatever the time the event would finish. However this was not possible but we did meet a few other competitors in the car park who had stayed the night before. A few of the MR2 Mk2 competitors were there, and Phil noticed that all of them had removed the rear spoiler. It was something he had been considering as it’s a weighty lump and really offers no benefit to the kind of driving we are doing. So when we got to the track (early), he decided to remove Humphrey’s spoiler too. Shame he hadn’t thought about this at home as there was lots of lovely moss and general muck where the spoiler had been, and we could have cleaned it up. Never mind. Time went by, and after a little sleep in Sakura, I went back to the hotel to check in. Unfortunately on my way back to the track, even with the satnav, I got inexplicably lost, and the satnav offered no help except suggesting right turns at non existent roundabouts. In the end I literally doubled back on myself and finally got back to the track, in a bit of a stressed mess. The paddock had started to fill up now, it was tiny as Teesside is mainly a kart circuit so there isn’t much room for full sized cars. Sakura had been relegated to the car park. In no time at all, and feeling a bit calmer, we attended the briefing, in which we were told the track was three-dimensional, which was interesting. I dashed to the car park for Sakura to do the sighting laps, and took a fellow competitor with me for advice. The track certainly was three dimensional, with a nice left hander leading up quite a steep hill, ending with a right turn, almost a hairpin going back down. Fun. I felt a lot more confident on this track than I did at the last event, I’ve always enjoyed hills so maybe that was something to do with it! The track was challenging but you had time to think, which wasn’t how I felt at Barkston. In fact I can hardly remember the layout of Barkston but I can remember Teesside. From the start there was a very tight chicane, then a small straight to a right hander, and then the left going up the hill. At the top of the hill it was completely blind going right, so a little daunting at first, but then into a very long straight. At the end of the straight was another tight chicane, which was a total pain was it was difficult to spot. After the chicane was a super-long right hander and then a small straight to the finish. This was my first time driving Humphrey with the new clutch and I successfully managed to stall him within 3 seconds of being in the driving seat! Fortunately that was driving to the start, as opposed to driving off the start!!! I did have a few bunny rabbit starts though. My face must have been a picture! After about 3 good runs, the rain came down. And did it rain! We took shelter under a nearby competitors gazebo. Of course my nerves set in then and I did quite a slow time. My times in this event had improved greatly and I was almost competitive. About 3 seconds off everyone else, but it’s better than the 14 seconds I had in the first round! You can tell how slow I was though as my times were comparable to the other female Mk1 driver who had either spun or gone off in each of her first runs. My most memorable moments were just after the rain, at the top of the hill I suddenly felt like I wasn’t quite moving ‘right’ and realised I had got on a 4 wheel drift! Yahoo! Thing is I then got all excited and got a fit of the giggles which stopped me concentrating on the rest of the track! On my next run I had a total brain lapse and thought I’d missed the chicane, slowed down too much, then realised I hadn’t. Duh. Phil had some great times throughout the day, however never improved on his first run. Not that this mattered too much as he managed to scoop first in class, and a whopping trophy to boot. The male driver of one of the other Mk1s in our class got runner up, the female driver of that car got fastest female. It’s a good car! It had stayed light and so o need for lights too, and we managed to get back in time for last orders at the pub. I’m just wondering what the Winter event will be like – might be needing snow chains for that hill! Some of the professional pics for the day can be found here: http://www.norwichphoto.co.uk/tss/r3...ult/index.html __________________