A bit of a delay doing this post race report; a hefty work schedule after spending too much time fixing the race car in between each damned race this year has been eating up time.
Right. Following the Lydden race and subsequent discovery of the errant damper bolt – things should be pretty simple. Strip the motor, fit the race spec ACL Duraglide +0.030” rod bearings and re-assemble, look to see if there was any reason why the damper bolt came undone, then make sure it was re-assembled with fresh thread-lock. Simples. Yeah -right. Major problem – the flywheel would not come off the crank despite my best efforts with my 'butch' flywheel puller and a couple of tank-fulls of compressed air through my honking Snap-On air gun. Hmmm.... Out with the butane torch for a good warm up of the flywheel boss. Still no movement. Not good. A few whacks with club hammer and big drift, nothing. We are now in territory I have not been in for decades with any Mini flywheel issue. So I borrowed an oxy-acetylene set-up from the garage next door (big thanks to Derek at Derwent Garage) and gave it the 'hot blue spanner' treatment until the whole boss was cherry red. Nothing. More whacks with heavy duty equipment. Nothing. Poured another tank-full of compressed air in to it. Nothing. Re-heated to cherry red again – repeat.... Nothing. Drill three lines of holes to join together up the boss sides. Nothing. Finally had to drill radially around the boss centre close to the crankshaft. That got the outer section off. Had to use a chisel to get the remainder of the centre off the crank. Well and truly fret-welded on. From what I could see of what was left the flywheel internal taper must have been incorrect, that would explain why the flywheel was moving up the crank so far and causing problems with the starter motor. Now I had a trashed flywheel and crankshaft, so the +0.030” bearings were now literally spare parts....
The engine was re-built using yet another crankshaft - good job I'd recently had several done by MED... though I hadn't planned on working my way through them quite so quickly. A couple had been ear-marked for full-on new race engines. Ho-hum. I also decided to stay away from any of the steel flywheels currently available on the market right now, dug deep in to the coffers and lashed out on one of the superbly made KAD aluminium flywheel and back plates. Hopefully I wouldn't have to deal with stuck-on flywheels any more. All back in the car, it fired up first hit, everything fine after full warm up I set too with other maintenance which included fitting new brake pads – this time I went for the Ferodo F4R spec pads as I had heard good things about them. I had also planned on changing the gear change remote and lever to get away from the quick-shift set-up, but time was pressing on. I decided to leave it as is since I had not had any more gear change issues at Lydden.
Snetterton was going to be a busy meeting – qualifying and two races in the same day. Starting at 09:00 with qualifying, 1st race at 11:15, second race at 14:15... no time to deal with anything that should crop up. After qualifying I needed to check/re-set the ignition timing and the valve clearances with the engine 'race hot'. Qualifying was also going to be a bit lame as I had to bed the new brake pads in first, then properly scrub the new tyres in, then try for a decent time. All in 15 minutes. I'd got through my expensive buffed tyres in a few races instead of the expected full season, so I decided to forget going that route again and just stick to the one set of full treaded tyres. The set I had kept aside for wet weather had only seen a few tentative laps of Cadwell Park at the start of the year, so were barely scrubbed in. First two laps dealt with bedding the pads in, then another couple of laps carefully working the tyres up to full temperature, another very slow lap to let them cool of, then tried to set a good time – made damned near impossible because by then the bigger, faster cars were catching me up and lapping me so I was continually having to give way at inopportune (for me) moments. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find myself not on the back of the grid. Albeit by two places... but then we were suffering the poorest turn-out in Post Historic this year to date – a mere 11 cars. Tragic. Back in the paddock, bonnet removed and a good look over to make sure all was well in there. Nothing bleeding out or fallen off/come undone, I re-set the valve clearances and the ignition timing, sorted fuel and checked water and oil levels. All good to go for the race.
For some reason we were lead round on the warm up lap by a pace car. Odd. Never had that before. Anyway, back to the start line and formed up on the grid. Lights on, off, and away. Mediocre start followed by damn-near driving the Mini up the exhaust pipe of a Mk1 Lotus Cortina all but stationery in front of me! Reflex reaction took me left around him, and passed a short cue of cars stuck behind a static Jaguar XJ12. Making the dive in to the first corner somewhat interesting but less cluttered than usual. Recovering from the surprise of ending up more than half way up the small grid I got on with the business that is racing. All was going pretty well, got past a couple of cars and then found myself behind my mate Tony Crates in his Mk2 Lotus Cortina... here we go again. A couple of laps of sizing him up – and what appeared, to the spectators, as a good dice for position – I found I was faster everywhere other than that accursed long back straight. So I needed to get past him as soon as possible after that to build enough of a gap to stop him sailing past me towards the end of the straight again. And it was gong to have to be through the fast, sweeping Coram Curve leading in to the chicane leading on to the pit straight. Cued him up, got right along side him going in to the chicane... and he just turned in on me anyway! I had a hell of a time using all limbs and controls getting the car stopped, turned and avoiding driving in to him. Needless to say, coming out the other side I was well off line. Not wanting to loose too much ground on him up the pit straight I nailed it, peaked rpm in second, shift to third... except I managed to stick it in 1st instead... Damn near stood the car on it's headlights... Whipped it out of 1st and in to 3rd... and carried on.
Now, I tell all my customers that once you have over-revved the engine – stop. Immediately. It may cost you the race, but it is far cheaper than mangling the whole engine when the inevitable happens – one or more of the exhaust valve heads breaks off and gets lobbed about inside the cylinder. Ultimately trashing the piston, head, bore and feasibly con rod and crank. However, the racing Devil on my left shoulder whispered in my ear that the engine was running fine, so keep going. I could catch and take that pesky Cortina... He was whispering a good deal louder than the racing angel on my right shoulder who new what was about to happen if I persisted... 2 laps later it did. I heard the noise and instantly dipped the clutch and hit the kill switch. All too late of course... And that meant no 2nd race. Mind you, even if I had of stopped I didn't have enough time to strip the head off and change the exhaust valves anyway. No consolation for being a complete pratt though. So once again its engine out... except the re-build is going to be a lot more extensive as I could see the offending exhaust valve jammed in the crown of number 3 piston.. so that'll be a damaged head as well then.
What is more annoying is that I was to make my first foray in to the Swinging Sixties series at Mallory Park, Bank Holiday Monday, 31st August. And worse than that, I simply do not have the time to hand to do that re-build any time soon... Excuse me while I take myself outside and give myself a damn good talking to.
August 5 2010
From the beautiful setting and interesting and testing/demanding track that is Cadwell Park to the stark, tedious double drag strip, chain-link fenced edifice that is 'Stalag Silverstone'. Most definitely not a Mini-friendly circuit. The track is not very entertaining at all. Mostly two longish stretched of flat-out with two stops – one a hair pin (Becketts) and one a 'hurry up and wait' series of very, very slow corners that you have to literally trundle round at idle (Luffield complex). A circuit for the power-boys then except if it is wet. And we had a double header (two races) to do here. Great. The car was in good order post Cadwell, so nothing to do on it except over-inflate the tyres and load it on to the trailer. The weather reports were not too promising (basically 'grim, may be damp, cold, over-cast') but at least there was not likely to be snow as there was a couple of years ago. Though I suspect I would have preferred it if it had snowed – fun for all the family! Instead of going straight to the circuit Friday as usual, we decided to stay over with my sparring partner Steve and his good lady Alison. They live around an hour or so from Silverstone. Seeing as the weather was not looking like being too clement, and I had picked up a heavy, horrible cold from somebody during the week immediately before, we decided that the warmth and dryness offered by a proper roof was a better deal. Plus this being a 'double header' weekend for us – we had qualifying on Saturday and two races on Sunday. The drive down to Steve & Alisons was the usual aggro that is navigating the roads in the UK. Didn't even get out of Yorkshire before we hit a traffic jam on the A1 caused by a multi-car accident. And I REALLY need to do something about the brakes on the van – they are bloody awful and down-right nervous-making. Anyway – we made it eventually, with me feeling pretty crappy health-wise. A decent Indian meal and a few beers preceded an evening of general hilarity – finally retiring to bed a little later than perhaps we ought! Kick off was quite early Saturday morning. Saturday morning dawned grey, cold, windy and damp. At least both sets of tyres were now scrubbed in. By the time our qualifying session came around it was only damp, not wet so I went with the scrubbed tyres. It was Steve first time out for quite a while, but as he's always quick no matter what i decided to let him past me as we went out on to the track and to try and follow him. That almost ended prematurely – at the first corner (Copse) in fact, as Steve went it to it at quite a rate – somewhat quicker that I judged prudent in the conditions and straight out of the collecting area. He went VERY sideways. So much so that myself and the two cars with me (Dolomite Sprint and RS200 Escort) backed RIGHT off and waited. Steve collected it up and shot off down to Maggots, leaving the three of us looking at each other and obviously 'tutting' in our helmets and shaking our heads in a resigned fashion. The track was extremely slippery, not at all helped by various cars in previous qualifying session dumping oil here, there and everywhere. It was worse than Cadwell on brand new tyres was – so once again decided just to get the car back to the paddock in one piece. Result was Steve's quickest lap was 2.5 seconds faster than mine. Despite that he was only two spots on the grid up on me, and we weren't the slowest by some margin. Steve was pretty impressed with the engine I just built him – though how good would yet to be proven under dry racing conditions. Usual post qualifying check over and re-fuel undertaken, Steve discovered oil ejected from hat seemed to be the clutch/primary gear seal. Hmmm. He cleaned it up and decided to do the first race to see what happened. There have been issues with these seals on and off for a couple of years now – seems down to grossly inconsistent manufacturing. We then set off back to Steve's to warm up, get fed and watered and early to bed. Well – sort of early. Back at the circuit Sunday and the weather was distinctly brighter, warmer (not by much though), less windy and drier. Though I was still feeling pretty crappy with this damned cold thing. Down to the collecting area for the first of our two races of the day, out and round the circuit, back to the grid and lined up. VERY close together and almost line a-stern. Hmmmm. I wanted to get away and up behind Steve who was on the inside of the row in front of me. Lights on, off -and away. I haven't been making good starts for some time – having been excellent off the line for years. No idea why – I think it was because I was thinking too much about what I wad doing, where before I just did whatever I did sort of instinctively. So i determined not to think about it and hey presto! Great start. I couldn't get inside as a Mk1 Lotus Cortina was pushing through the middle (same bloke that pushed past me at Cadwell), so I went left and up the outside of the next row in front of me. Not a good plan as heading in to the right-hander that is Copse on the first lap means everybody is going to slide out left... where I was. I tried to hold position for as long as possible, across the kerbs, then way out on to the Tarmac apron before finally having to lift to avoid being pushed way of the track side. As soon as you lift slightly it's like you've been 'paused' and everybody else goes to 'fast forward'. Consequently going through the left kink (Maggots) then down to the big stop that is a hairpin right (Becketts) I had lost a heap of ground. Coming out on to the looonnngggggg back straight I was some 100 yards behind Steve. I doubted then that I'd catch him, and I didn't. I got tangled up with a Hillman Avenger and my mate in the Mk2 Lotus Cortina. I spent the whole race trying to catch the Cortina and fend off the Avenger. The two straight sections that make up the track between Becketts hairpin and the stupid Luffield complex meant I had to work very hard at getting the stop-go-slow-bendy sections sorted to get a good run out of them to try and stay in touch with the Cortina and ahead of the Avenger. If Avenger-man hadn't been so desperate to get by me for the bulk of the laps we could have helped each other catch up with the Cortina. But he wanted past at the soonest opportunity... Amazingly it took him until around the second to last lap to get past me – my Clubby was so quick pulling out of the slow sections that I made yards and yards on him that he struggled to regain on the straights – so it was mostly down to out-braking and track position in to the slow bits. I finally let myself down and he slipped past then drove WIDE to keep me behind to the chequered flag. Meanwhile I could see Steve ahead – having a very lonely race. BUT – at least he saw the chequered flag, so he was dead-chuffed. Downside was that clutch seal was leaking pretty bad. Rather than risk stacking the car because of oil on brakes or tyres or both he decided to take the car home whole and sort the clutch seal. A very mature decision! He was just so damned pleased he'd finished a race at last, and was even more pleased at how the engine went. Very impressed. I re-filled the fuel tank and a quick check round showed nothing else needing doing so we went off to watch some of the other championship races from our club. Then time to get prepared for my second race of the day. We had asked that the grid be a little more spread out and offset from race one as it was very cramped. The marshals duly complied. Red lights on, off, and another blinding start. I shot out left and up the outside of the two rows in front before pulling back in again. Pleased with such a good start I was hoping to get out on to that long back straight behind some of the bigger, faster cars to try and get as much of a tow as possible. Bad news was, several of the more, erm.. 'determined' mid pack drivers decided to have a bit of a coming together as nobody wanted to give way at Becketts for the first time. Sheer stupidity. As those luminaries on BBCs F1 coverage keep reminding us - you can not win the race at the first corner. 4 cars did not rejoin the race after that corner fracas. And of course it completely screwed up my excellent start and gain in position. I went wide out left to avoid all the tortured tin and plastic bits that was flying around. By the time I'd negotiated the mess, I was back behind that bloomin' Mk2 Lotus Cortina and Hillman Avenger! This time they had some distance on me, so head down and try and catch up. Except the harder I tried, the further behind I fell. I then did the one thing you should never do, and is totally uncharacteristic for me – I drove angry. Red mist came down and I started over-driving the car everywhere in an effort to catch them up. The consequences were inevitable – two missed flat-out (no lift on the throttle) up-shifts from second to third (a dodgey thing to do at the best of times with the vagueness that is the Minis gear change system) and a jarring brick-wall-hitting shift from 4th to 1st when already pulling 7,800rpm in 4th. Damn near grazed the glass off the headlights. That happened because I had started shifting down through the gears instead of slowing the car on the brakes then selecting the relevant gear for the corner like I usually do. The result of that was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Towards the end of that long back straight I felt a slight rumble, and dipped the clutch to shove the gear lever into neutral just as there was a loud bang and oil smoke everywhere.... obviously caused by a hole in the block and/or gearbox casing where the presumably busted centre main cap had made its escape. Idiot. So – load it on the trailer, take it home then strip it and take a look. This is the perfect illustration of what I try to explain to folk about main caps and main cap straps. If you drive the car properly, and do not use the gearbox to slow the car down (the brakes are FAR more effective at this) there is no need for a main cap strap. Especially if it is a cheap one that is not ground flat and square. So the vast majority of road-used engines do not need them. And race engines driven properly do not need them either. If you are an engine/gearbox abuser, you should go straight to a steel centre main cap or a proper, quality steel, ground strap. In which case the centre main is unlikely to break – but something else will eventually. You just move the problem to the next weakest link. So don't drive like an idiot.
05.06.10, Brands Hatch
I am not sure why, but I don't really enjoy Brands Hatch. It is a quite technically difficult circuit to set fast lap times on. It is most definitely one of those circuits that 'be slow to go fast' applies to. You can not hustle or hurry it. I am speaking from the point of view of having to use treaded tyres that don't give a tremendous amount of grip. And probably a circuit where 'loose is fast' applies... but I am still building confidence enough to make the car looser than it is now. Positively stable in comparison to my mate Steve Young's car. All the forgoing was very obviously illustrated by our qualifying session. More in a minute on that. So – having built the gear/diff assemblies in to a new casing to replace the aerated one from Silverstone (one third of my new 3-piece centre main cap was ejected through it), a steel 4-bolt centre main cap fitted to the block, and a replacement crankshaft fitted (the Silverstone explosion one was perfect aside from a 0.016” bend in it – straightenable according to my local engineering shop.... but I wasn't taking any chances) all reinstalled in the car and fired up for basic checks, all was in order for the trip south. I had considered doing a suspension geometry check/re-set-up but time became an issue with a still burgeoning workload. It will get done after Brands before we go to Thruxton. A mightily fast circuit where everything needs to be perfect in the suspension department. Having messed about with thermostat blanking devices of one sort or another over the past few years – the last ones being simply large flat washers with variously sized holes drilled in them – I decide to go back to running a thermostat. Something I would now be re-recommending to all my engine customers. Mainly for two reasons. One, modern unleaded or super-unleaded fuels appear to need engine coolant temperatures of 85-90 degrees C to get best performance from – that's why modern engines run at more elevated temperatures than those of some 15 or more years back, nothing to do with improving cabin heater performance! And two, completely erratic climate conditions we are now experiencing. The Brands race was set to be a fair test of whether the cooling system would cope as very hot and heavy conditions were predicted. And they were not incorrect! Having stopped off on the trip down for dinner with very good friends, we arrived at the circuit around 22:30 Friday night, quickly unloaded the car in a very vacant-looking paddock, and hit the hay. Saturday morning dawned very, very bright and sunny. An expanse of clear blue skies (excepting all the busy jet vapour trails) great my eyes as I emerged from the van. Lovely. Qualifying was at 09:50, so not too much hurrying around to sign on, get scrutineered, sort fuel levels, set tyre pressures, torque wheel nuts, and check oil and coolant levels. But as usual, before you knew it, it was time to get suited and booted and get over to the collecting area. We were qualifying session 3. The first two sessions had been stopped by red flags, and several cars in each session had liberally lubricated the track surface with the contents of their engine fluids. To say it was slippery would be an understatement once we hit the track. So much so that one of our brave boys managed to loose it on said oil, just sliding it in to the kitty litter at the bottom of the hill that is the fearsome Paddock Hill Bend. Red flags out, back to the pit lane and wait. We were then told we'd get 3 more minutes on track. I did think of not bothering as I couldn't see how I was going to get a faster lap time, but decided I'd paid my money, what the hell. Back out on to the circuit, some more slithering and sliding, and that was it. Qualifying over. Now, back to what I was saying in the opening paragraph. Because it was so damned slippery, and wanting to avoid the stupidity I fell in to at Silverstone, I drove very, well, laid back. Braking very early, careful and positive down-changes, waiting along time to get on the loud pedal – all of which resulted in a mere 3 tenths of a second off Steve's best, and both only very marginally off the lap record! Despite all the surface lubrication! Which was added to by two of our championship compatriots. Lesson learnt then. And Steve and I qualified 10th and 11th out of 17. The vast majority of which were serious engined/horse-powered cars. Very satisfying. More so for Steve as he had completed another full qualifying session with the engine running perfectly. Qualifying continued and every last one was red flagged for cars loosing it on the slippery surface and ending up in dangerous places. Back in the paddock, with the engine still hot I re-set the valve clearances and checked/re-set the ignition timing, retarding it two degrees because of the hot weather. Sorted re-fuelling and after the cooling system had cooled sufficiently, checked the coolant level. The coolant temperature gauge showed a steady 80 degrees C – so the 82 degree thermostat was doing it's job, and the cooling system coped easily. No coolant loss – so that was fine. By the way, another couple of benefits of running a thermostat is that the engine warms up much quicker, and makes sure there is a healthy amount of coolant pushed out the heater tap take off point. All leading to a more balanced water jacket temperature around the engine. Also negates pratting about blanking sections of the cooling system off in cooler weather. Food ingested, and a heap of water, off to watch some of the other qualifying and then the first race before once again clambering in to battle gear. This was going to be a very sweaty affair as the temperature had climbed considerably and it was very close. Threatening thunderstorms type thing. Twenty minute race coming up – around 18 or 19 laps. Usual drill – red lights on, off, and a not brilliant start, but not as bad as some others. Starting on the inside of the track, I determined to stay there. The outside line around Paddock first time round is not a good place to be. Unfortunately once again I made the incorrect choice as I got boxed in and stuck behind a line of cars hugging the inside line all the way up to Druids hair-pin. So the second part of my plan of sticking close to Steve went out the window. Having negotiated Druids, there was several cars between me and him and the ensuing Whacky-Racers style gaggles of cars that is the first lap of most races meant I struggled to catch up with him again as I was busy fending off some and trying to over-take others. A couple of laps in and I'd got past several road blocks and ended up out on my own, with Steve in a similar situation around 100 yards ahead. I have obviously upped my game in terms of driving ability as our laps times were within tenths of a second of each other – consequently I wasn't catching him. And we weren't catching the Mk1 Lotus Cortina in front of him either. However, a threat was looming in my rear view mirror. There was a Hillman Avenger catching me. He'd been skittled early on and was making his way up through the field. I was determined to make me the end of his progress. By now the tyres had given of their best. The engine was still absolutely singing, so the only place he was able to make up ground on me was Clearways where I just couldn't get the car turned fast enough to get on the power soon enough. The last few laps was a real fight. I purposely held him up in every corner I could because my little Clubby really hauls and I could pull away from him. Driving so defensively, Steve was easing away from he. I realised he knew what was going on as all of a sudden he was coming back towards me, having eased off. Anyway. I had my mirrors full of bright yellow Avenger, so that was my job – keep him behind. Hard on the brakes at ever corner, chug round just to keep him behind then nail it and the little engine responded in lion-hearted fashion every time. It was just Clearways.... Then another ingredient was added in to the mix. The race leader was fast coming up behind – a Triumph Dolomite being piloted by the immensely capable Nigel Garrett. Coming through Clearways I saw the first blue flag being waved. Crap. Can't pull over or back off now, that damned Avenger will come through. Hugged the inside of the track up to and around Paddock. Another waved blue flag. Damn – I've got to let him past before I get flagged again at Druids... but if I do that, Avenger-man is going to follow him through. Made all the worse by us already hugging the inside line. I could just step out left in front of the leader, he really wouldn't be impressed with that, so I rrsigned myself to both he and Avenger-man coming past me around the outside at Druids, which meant Avenger-man would have the inside line down in to the bend at the bottom of the hill. ARRGGHHH!!! They both swept passed, I took the fastest line possible through that bottom bend in order to out-drag the Avenger along Graham Hill Bend in to Clearways the try and fend him off there again. All to no avail. I just couldn't get the power down soon enough to then out-drag him to the line. It was damned close though.... a mere tenths of a second. So I finished 9th instead of 8th. Very hot and very sweaty. The car was all still in one piece though, the engine singing along. Coolant temp a rock steady 80 degrees C. And Steve saw his second chequered flag in as many races – so he was all smiles and a happy bunny.
June 27 2010
Following the Brands Hatch race, all was well with the car. Just as well – I was playing catch-up with grinding heads after my nice new grinder tool holder fell apart, and it took the makers 4 weeks to get it back to me. That and magazine work and an emergency engine build for a customer. I made enough time to give me a full morning on the car before having to load it up. Nothing bad came to light. As the race was the last day of a 4 day 'jolly' that included taking two friends along, I was travelling light as I was using the car. My van only has two seats in it and not the sort of vehicle to carry passengers in comfort anyway. The spares box consisted of a few ignition electrics components – and that's all! No tools, nothing else. I was relying on my mate Steve to take all his kit.
Unusually for us, we were second to last race so signing on, scrutineering and qualifying were all late morning and early afternoon. A leisurely start to the day then. We had stayed at my Mum's place for three nights – and she is just under an hour away from the track. The sun was beating down as it had done for almost the whole previous week. It was set to be the hottest day on Sunday – expecting 32 degrees C. As it turned out – the weather men were not wrong for a change! A good test for the cooling system then.
Breezed through scrutineering as usual. All scrutineers seem to warm to the Minis – bringing back fond memories of yester-year I suppose. Though there have been several very young trainees in attendance this year – and they appear equally smitten. Can only be a good thing. A very leisurely pre-race prep ensued. Though I tend to do as much as I can at home before leaving. All that is normally required is to set the tyre pressures – in my case letting them down as I blow them all up over their required amount at home on the compressor – saves the sweaty, exhausting practise of blowing them up with a foot pump. Eh Steve? Though I have to say – my nagging at him seems to be getting through as he had actually blown his up at home on the compressor too this time around! The main problems seemed to be getting around to watching the F1 race and England's game against Germany in between qualifying and racing...
Qualifying time came around so Steve and I chugged off around the paddock to the collecting area to discover the turn out for this event was as abysmal as speculated. What we do not know is if this is down to bad timing – what with football, tennis and F1 all on at the same time – or if it is the steady decline in entries we have seen over the past year or so. 12 qualifiers was all there was. Even if they all made the race it was likely to be a spread out and lonely affair because of the nature of the track. Very open and fast, very much favouring the big BHP-endowed cars. So that's everybody except us Minis then. Great.
Qualifying went sort of OK. I haven't been to Thruxton for a long time, and with the immediate landscape around the circuit being somewhat sparse, recalling turn in points etc. was a bit of a game. Steve just gets on with it and is comfortable with the car being all over the place – that's how he drives it and is quick doing so. I got held up a lot by what is becoming my second Nemesis – Yellow Avenger man. Tried the usual tricks of backing off to make room etc. but all to no avail. I kept coming across him in the bad places – of which there are many at Thruxton. Still – Steve hadn't roared off in to the distance so I was hoping for a decent time. Qualify sheets showed a different story – I was some 2.6 secs off Steve's best time. Hmph. He qualified 8th, me 11th. Still, if I made a good start I may be able to tag on to the back of him – which is what I have been trying to do for yonks now and never succeeded!
So – quick check over back in the paddock. Despite rude ambient temperatures (32 degees C) the coolant sat at a rock steady 82 deg C (the thermostat rating), oil at 120 deg C and oil pressure at 50 psi. Nothing had fallen off or bled out. The only worry was the front left tyre. Thruxton is pretty savage on tyres. My 'new' buffed tyres seemed to have been surviving well, but after qualifying the front right was rubbed right down so there was no centre groove left showing. Now what do I do? Leave it on and hope there was enough rubber left to last the race? Fit a new buffed tyre to the front? Fit the new buffed tyre on the left rear and the left rear on to the left front? This latter decision based on the fact the new 'green' tyre would be wasted before it had a chance to cure properly after 20 minutes arcing on this surface. Hmmm. I decided to run with the first option as I wanted to minimise tyre damage/wear for the coming races. I let a couple of extra pounds pressure out of the fronts to hopefully ease the centre ridge rising so much, using more of the tyre either side of the centre once they were hot. That done, we were ready to rock.
Time stretched on interminably – a combination of England struggling to work out just what it was they were supposed to be doing out on that large rectangular piece of grass, and Hamilton and Button trying to chase down a determined Vettel... another England v Germany match, oh – and a rude amount of serious sunshine with little shade to hide in.
Suited and booted once more, away to the collecting area to find we were already another car down – so only 11 starters. I thought to myself 'Could be a very lonely 20 minutes race this...'. Previous race mopped up we strapped ourselves in and set off on the warm up lap. It seems to be now generally considered that race cars not running slicks do not need a full warm up lap, then another green flag warm up lap. So we go out, one lap,form up on the grid then lights on/off and away. A reasonable strat by all meant a big gaggle of cars hitting the complex all at the same time. I managed to hang in there and come out the other side with 3 cars between me and Steve – my two Nemisis' (Nemisii?) the Mk 2 Lotus Cortina and Yellow Avenger plus a DTV Vauxhall Firenza. Cortina-man made hi car as wide as possible for a couple of laps – fending me off all over the place, allowing Steve and the other two to start pulling away. So I got brave, new where I was faster than the Cortina and planned to make a pass there and push him out to the edge of the circuit where he should give way... hopefully.... I made the move, pushed outwards as planned and low and behold – he capitulated! COOL! So now I could set off after the other three. And, stone me, I had catching them VERY fast. I seemed to be able to negotiate the nasty section between the complex and the flat out kinks much quicker. Then, just as I was within striking distance, I suffered a problem. Steve and I were both on 3.91FDs – a bit low for Thruxton. Should have been on a 3.76 FD. This meant that by the time I was approaching the last 'kink' before the long run up to the chicane I was already flat out with little performance left to play with. If the car got out of shape, I had no throttle feathering to checked the attitude of the car. This meant having to lift slightly approaching this kink, turn in, settle the car then nail it again. I had just done this, floated past the marshalls post (one of those 'aim at the marshalls post and you'll drift by it' deals), skipped over the bump on the exit – and the gearbox jumped out of gear! Already pulling 7,400rpm with my foot/throttle pedal fair embedded in the floor pan, the eventual rpm reached by the engine internals must have been horrific. I lifted, snatched the gear lever back in to top and nailed it again. All seemed to be well f or around 100 yards, then the engine lost power and a misfire started... Snicked it out of gear and coasted through the chicane and in to the pit lane. Bummer. I wasn't at all impressed, so we loaded up and headed home without too much chat. Amazingly the 260 mile trip only took 3-3/4 hours – didn't slow down once for any traffic at all!
I whipped the motor out Monday night and had a good look at the gear linkage to see if there was a definite cause of the gear jumping out. And I think I have found it. Where I have now bolted the remote unit directly to the top of the tunnel just behind the original gear lever hole, I used to have a bracket welded on there. When I ground it off, I appear to have thinned the metal down – with the action of rocking the remote unit backwards and forwards, and side to side, the tunnel metal has cracked, allowing the remote unit to move about quite easily. I think when I hit that bump, the engine jumped one way and the remote the other, plucking it out of gear. So I will be making a substantial aluminium sheet 'saddle' to bolt the remote unit to and then fix it firmly to the tunnel sides. Ads fort he engine – the reason it ran OK for 100 yards was because the rear main bearing shells had spun in the housing, blocking off the oil feed to no.4 big end bearing. This eventually over-heated and got flattened. The piston clipped the head, but only just enough to remove the carbon on it rather than collapse the piston crown. No bent valves. No head damage. Hopefully this will mean just sorting the crank (a grind at least) and re-furbing the con rod and fitting new rod bolts – though they both got hot enough to discolour, I think they will be mechanically OK.
May 6 2010
I am not sure why, but I don't really enjoy Brands Hatch. It is a quite technically difficult circuit to set fast lap times on. It is most definitely one of those circuits that 'be slow to go fast' applies to. You can not hustle or hurry it. I am speaking from the point of view of having to use treaded tyres that don't give a tremendous amount of grip. And probably a circuit where 'loose is fast' applies... but I am still building confidence enough to make the car looser than it is now. Positively stable in comparison to my mate Steve Young's car. All the forgoing was very obviously illustrated by our qualifying session. More in a minute on that. So – having built the gear/diff assemblies in to a new casing to replace the aerated one from Silverstone (one third of my new 3-piece centre main cap was ejected through it), a steel 4-bolt centre main cap fitted to the block, and a replacement crankshaft fitted (the Silverstone explosion one was perfect aside from a 0.016” bend in it – straightenable according to my local engineering shop.... but I wasn't taking any chances) all reinstalled in the car and fired up for basic checks, all was in order for the trip south. I had considered doing a suspension geometry check/re-set-up but time became an issue with a still burgeoning workload. It will get done after Brands before we go to Thruxton. A mightily fast circuit where everything needs to be perfect in the suspension department. Having messed about with thermostat blanking devices of one sort or another over the past few years – the last ones being simply large flat washers with variously sized holes drilled in them – I decide to go back to running a thermostat. Something I would now be re-recommending to all my engine customers. Mainly for two reasons. One, modern unleaded or super-unleaded fuels appear to need engine coolant temperatures of 85-90 degrees C to get best performance from – that's why modern engines run at more elevated temperatures than those of some 15 or more years back, nothing to do with improving cabin heater performance! And two, completely erratic climate conditions we are now experiencing. The Brands race was set to be a fair test of whether the cooling system would cope as very hot and heavy conditions were predicted. And they were not incorrect! Having stopped off on the trip down for dinner with very good friends, we arrived at the circuit around 22:30 Friday night, quickly unloaded the car in a very vacant-looking paddock, and hit the hay. Saturday morning dawned very, very bright and sunny. An expanse of clear blue skies (excepting all the busy jet vapour trails) great my eyes as I emerged from the van. Lovely. Qualifying was at 09:50, so not too much hurrying around to sign on, get scrutineered, sort fuel levels, set tyre pressures, torque wheel nuts, and check oil and coolant levels. But as usual, before you knew it, it was time to get suited and booted and get over to the collecting area. We were qualifying session 3. The first two sessions had been stopped by red flags, and several cars in each session had liberally lubricated the track surface with the contents of their engine fluids. To say it was slippery would be an understatement once we hit the track. So much so that one of our brave boys managed to loose it on said oil, just sliding it in to the kitty litter at the bottom of the hill that is the fearsome Paddock Hill Bend. Red flags out, back to the pit lane and wait. We were then told we'd get 3 more minutes on track. I did think of not bothering as I couldn't see how I was going to get a faster lap time, but decided I'd paid my money, what the hell. Back out on to the circuit, some more slithering and sliding, and that was it. Qualifying over. Now, back to what I was saying in the opening paragraph. Because it was so damned slippery, and wanting to avoid the stupidity I fell in to at Silverstone, I drove very, well, laid back. Braking very early, careful and positive down-changes, waiting along time to get on the loud pedal – all of which resulted in a mere 3 tenths of a second off Steve's best, and both only very marginally off the lap record! Despite all the surface lubrication! Which was added to by two of our championship compatriots. Lesson learnt then. And Steve and I qualified 10th and 11th out of 17. The vast majority of which were serious engined/horse-powered cars. Very satisfying. More so for Steve as he had completed another full qualifying session with the engine running perfectly. Qualifying continued and every last one was red flagged for cars loosing it on the slippery surface and ending up in dangerous places. Back in the paddock, with the engine still hot I re-set the valve clearances and checked/re-set the ignition timing, retarding it two degrees because of the hot weather. Sorted re-fuelling and after the cooling system had cooled sufficiently, checked the coolant level. The coolant temperature gauge showed a steady 80 degrees C – so the 82 degree thermostat was doing it's job, and the cooling system coped easily. No coolant loss – so that was fine. By the way, another couple of benefits of running a thermostat is that the engine warms up much quicker, and makes sure there is a healthy amount of coolant pushed out the heater tap take off point. All leading to a more balanced water jacket temperature around the engine. Also negates pratting about blanking sections of the cooling system off in cooler weather. Food ingested, and a heap of water, off to watch some of the other qualifying and then the first race before once again clambering in to battle gear. This was going to be a very sweaty affair as the temperature had climbed considerably and it was very close. Threatening thunderstorms type thing. Twenty minute race coming up – around 18 or 19 laps. Usual drill – red lights on, off, and a not brilliant start, but not as bad as some others. Starting on the inside of the track, I determined to stay there. The outside line around Paddock first time round is not a good place to be. Unfortunately once again I made the incorrect choice as I got boxed in and stuck behind a line of cars hugging the inside line all the way up to Druids hair-pin. So the second part of my plan of sticking close to Steve went out the window. Having negotiated Druids, there was several cars between me and him and the ensuing Whacky-Racers style gaggles of cars that is the first lap of most races meant I struggled to catch up with him again as I was busy fending off some and trying to over-take others. A couple of laps in and I'd got past several road blocks and ended up out on my own, with Steve in a similar situation around 100 yards ahead. I have obviously upped my game in terms of driving ability as our laps times were within tenths of a second of each other – consequently I wasn't catching him. And we weren't catching the Mk1 Lotus Cortina in front of him either. However, a threat was looming in my rear view mirror. There was a Hillman Avenger catching me. He'd been skittled early on and was making his way up through the field. I was determined to make me the end of his progress. By now the tyres had given of their best. The engine was still absolutely singing, so the only place he was able to make up ground on me was Clearways where I just couldn't get the car turned fast enough to get on the power soon enough. The last few laps was a real fight. I purposely held him up in every corner I could because my little Clubby really hauls and I could pull away from him. Driving so defensively, Steve was easing away from he. I realised he knew what was going on as all of a sudden he was coming back towards me, having eased off. Anyway. I had my mirrors full of bright yellow Avenger, so that was my job – keep him behind. Hard on the brakes at ever corner, chug round just to keep him behind then nail it and the little engine responded in lion-hearted fashion every time. It was just Clearways.... Then another ingredient was added in to the mix. The race leader was fast coming up behind – a Triumph Dolomite being piloted by the immensely capable Nigel Garrett. Coming through Clearways I saw the first blue flag being waved. Crap. Can't pull over or back off now, that damned Avenger will come through. Hugged the inside of the track up to and around Paddock. Another waved blue flag. Damn – I've got to let him past before I get flagged again at Druids... but if I do that, Avenger-man is going to follow him through. Made all the worse by us already hugging the inside line. I could just step out left in front of the leader, he really wouldn't be impressed with that, so I rrsigned myself to both he and Avenger-man coming past me around the outside at Druids, which meant Avenger-man would have the inside line down in to the bend at the bottom of the hill. ARRGGHHH!!! They both swept passed, I took the fastest line possible through that bottom bend in order to out-drag the Avenger along Graham Hill Bend in to Clearways the try and fend him off there again. All to no avail. I just couldn't get the power down soon enough to then out-drag him to the line. It was damned close though.... a mere tenths of a second. So I finished 9th instead of 8th. Very hot and very sweaty. The car was all still in one piece though, the engine singing along. Coolant temp a rock steady 80 degrees C. And Steve saw his second chequered flag in as many races – so he was all smiles and a happy bunny.
April 3, 2010 Cadwell Park
Getting the car ready for the first race was not quite the last minute flurry of panicked activity it usually is. Largely because the re-fit and re-furb were kept to a minimum following complete strip re-build plans shot to pieces by tradesmen being somewhat hard to pin down to get very necessary domestic work done. Most importantly the doors and windows in the garage. The special concertina type front doors have been falling slowly decaying over the past few years. Last year the extremely wet year accelerated that dramatically to the point where, after stowing the race car away after last years last race, I dare not open them for fear of then collapsing in to a pile of rotted wood, corroded hinges and reinforced glass panes. Anyway, the replacement UPVC double glazed units finally got installed – but well in to my mentally busy period at work with customer winter re-builds. Amongst the usual pile of heads needing doing, magazine articles and so on.
I pulled the motor/box unit for a check/re-fresh and replaced the rear hubs and bearings after finding them a little baggy at Rocking last year. Stripping the motor proved to be more of a trial than I was expecting. The flywheel usually pops off with a loud bang first time out with my super-dooper puller, bigger puller to flywheel bolts and mega-powered Snap-On Impact gun. Didn't budge. Put a full compressor air tank in to the puller bolt. Nothing. Whacked the bolt with a club hammer. Nothing. Poured boiling water on the taper. Nothing. Repeat. Nothing. Hmmm – that is not a good sign. Warmed the flywheel taper boss up with butane gas torch. Nothing. So I put another tank full of air in to the bolt, and the puller/flywheel started to creep away from the crank. With the compressor tank full again, I hit the bolt with the air gun again, and it slowly hauled the flywheel off the crank. The two pieces had fret-welded themselves together - something I have not suffered from for decades. And I am at a loss to know why. Same crank type, flywheel type and crank damper pulley and damper type I have used forever. The flywheel/crank taper fit was fine when assembled (in fact had been used together before without issue). The only item I used I have not used before was the Piper aluminium cam gear type duplex drive gear set. I can not see that being the problem, but in the absence of anything else being evident, may be it is. The good news was – the rest of the engine components appear to be in perfect condition including the crank bearings. If there had been some serious out of balance issue, I would have expected to see the bearings, particularly the mains, showing signs of localised over-heating. But they are perfect. I hate mysteries where you can not pin-point a cause/problem. So The engine went back together with a new crank and flywheel and we'll see what happens next time around. Oh – and I decided to give the 'Fisher' friction damper another airing in case the usual two-piece S damper I used (have used on everything I build) had an issue I could not see. Back together again, it went back in the hole at the front. Installation complete, whirred the motor over to get oil pressure, fitted the plugs and hit the button and it fired up. Cool. Got some heat in to it, switched it off and checked everything over. All fine. The only down side was not having time to get the engine either back on the dyno or even on a rolling road. Still – everything aside from the crank, flywheel and damper was what ran last season – so fuelling and ignition should not need changing.
So off to Cadwell. We didn't do the over-night thing since Cadwell is my second closest track after Croft. A mere 80 miles and an hour and a half travel time away. Off at 06:00 to be there at a decent hour to get unloaded and ready for signing on and scrutineering without being in a flap. The bad news was - the weather. The report was 'changeable'. When we arrived at the track is was pouring with rain so unloading the car was not what you would call a joy. It eased pretty quickly and subsided soon after that so not as bad as it looked it was going to be. I went and signed on, came back and then headed off for scrutineering. That went painlessly, all the scrutineers seem to harbour a soft spot for Minis, and a half-decently presented one doesn't have much trouble getting through. That done and dusted, it was time for a bacon butty and cup of coffee before getting prepared for qualifying. And here was a dilemma. Whilst chomping on said bacon butty and slurping coffee we watched the first qualifying session. We were third event. The track was wet, but seemingly drying quickly in the exposed areas. Cadwell has several tree-shaded sections that take a good deal longer to dry than those out in the open. I had two new sets of tyres – one shaved/buffed (whatever!!!!!!!!!) and one full tread. No time for a practise day meant neither were scrubbed. Would the drying track mean the buffed tyres would be the best option? Based on the fact I was going to be a bit 'rusty' after the winter lay-off and either choice would see me wondering what the hell was going on, I decided to scrub the mould release wax off the full treaded tyres in case I didn't get another chance on a damp rather than soaking track.
Out to qualifying, and let us just say it was a VERY nervous affair. Especially on the freshly re-Tarmaced sections of the track. I decided bring it home in one piece was the pre-eminent factor. Grid slot could be whatever it would be. I was optimistic for a dry race, from no other influence than observing the clouds, wind direction etc. I am no weather man but seem to be able to get a good idea on what it's up to. I firmly believed the race would be dry, so would be running the buffed tyres. However, the engine did not feel as sharp and quick as it usually did. Lifting off to change gear the engine revs dropped faster than usual, and it was no where near as crisp on the throttle as it used to be. Hmm. The engine temp was barely 50 degrees C despite blocking the auxiliary rad off and oil temp was barely making 85 degrees C. But I didn't think that was the source of the problem. I'd have a look at the plugs when I got back to the paddock. Back in the paddock I went through the routine checks including re-setting the valve clearances. Pulling the plugs showed a somewhat lean mixture. Odd as nothing that would influence this had been changed, and the weather would suggest a slightly rich running scenario. To make sure the motor was 'safe' I wound the jet tubes down 3 flats each. Everything else was fine, so fuel re-filled, water and oil checked. We left the wheels/tyres just in case my 'nose' got the weather prediction incorrect. Time for lunch and watch the first race to see what the track was doing. Looking very dry had us scuttle back and strap on the buffed tyres, and in no time at all we were being called up for the race.
A new system for pre-start this year to help hurry things along, instead of leaving the collecting area, forming up on the grid, a green flag lap before re-forming on the grid again to await the red lights the green flag lap is conducted straight out of the collecting area, then form up on the grid for the red lights and off. Cadwell have changed to a 2 by 2 grid and very close together. I guess to reduce the first corner mayhem by keeping the screaming hoard of metal rubber and glass as tightly packed as possible. Consequently, making a demon start wasn't on the cards. I got off the line very quickly but was immediately jammed up against the bumper on the Mk2 Lotus Cortina (yeah - my sparring partner from earlier times) so had to lift off. Bummer. Side stepping him in an act of faith I was roaring down to the first fast left up-hill sweeping corner with a very rapid Mk1 Lotus Cortina rushing up on my right side. Determined to get the better line to hold up to the second/third sweeping right bends I made a move to the right to hopefully hold him off. He simply stepped left and drove past me. Hmph. By this time that Mk 2 Lotus Cortina was also on after-burner and we were both closing down an RS2000 Escort. And that was the battle royal for the rest for the race.
And what battle! They were holding me up badly in all the tighter corners but easing away from me on the long fast sections. Oh – remember I was on fresh tyres that I had no previous experience on. I spent a couple of laps trying not to trash the tyres and get a feel for what they were about. It became rapidly obvious they were working very well indeed. OK Calver, time to do some of that 'driving sh*t'. The problem with Cadwell is – it is a bit on the narrow side. And the places were I was much quicker than the bigger engined cars was where the track was narrowest. Over-taking opportunities in those places were at a premium – the opposition would need to get way off line and damn near stop to give space to get past. So I concentrated on getting a good run out of the tightest bits out on to the pit straight to hopefully give me a run at them in to that first very fast up-hill left sweep where I knew I was faster than them as well. It took me a god few laps to lay the move on, but I managed to execute it perfectly on the RS2000, sticking to his boot lid in his wake until approaching that corner. I pulled out, held my nerve, didn't brake, and passed him on the outside of that bend to get track position in to the following fast right bends. Sorted. Now for the Mk 2 Cortina. Man, that is one wide car in the hands of it's owner....
I tried in various places to make a move on him, but he occupied most of the circuit and held me off. Twice I very nearly ran in to him going up the mountain where I was very much faster through that steep up-hill piece, then had to back off to keep from hitting him through the old barn section – a series of right, left, right, left slalom flicks to Old Barn corner itself – a stop, 1st gear, turn right 90 degree bend. With 80% of the race gone, the tyres started to go off. On the corner after the long back straight I was using 2nd gear but was now getting under-steer, so I decided to try 3rd to see what would happen. I made a good run from the pit straight up the sweeping left, round the double right hander and through the right kink on to that long straight (goes down then up hill before a shortish straight to a tight-ish right hander), getting along side the Cortina. I braked very late and turned in in 3rd gear... that didn't work – not enough drive so the car ran wide. 2 wheels on grass, 2 wheels on Tarmac I kept the foot in and carefully steered back on to the track. Of course I had lost the ground I'd made up on the Cortina, so it was back to plan A. get as close as I could to get a run on him down the pit straight and in to that sweeping left hander. 2 laps to go and i was executing the manouver very well – to find a back marker in the form of a Morris Minor right where it was inconvenient – just exiting Old Barn... He stayed out left, so I went right, assuming Cortina-man would do the same, except he hesitated, then went right – and put me on the grass/kerbs for the next kink right! I had no choice but to back off again, loosing the momentum I was building for the run down the pot straight. So I started the move all over again. Trouble was - this was the last lap. I worked the last slalom section perfectly, through Old Barn and on the gas early, swept in to that last right kink so fast I was pulling up along side the Cortina on to the pit straight. He beat me by around a foot at the chequered flag. Started 14th, finished 9th and a damn good race. I must get back to qualifying better to get ahead of this guy like I did last year. In the last few laps we were gaining on the small gaggle of cars ahead of use. Had I got away from Cortina-man sooner I may have had a tangle with them and a better over-all finishing position.
The engine ran much better in the race, though the coolant temp only made 60 degrees C and oil 80 degrees C. It is in one piece and has been sealed by the series scrutineer... Stalag Silverstone next...
