cant seem to get the vid links to run is it me or everyone

 

No Pete, Dropshots is **** since they 'improved it'

 

Hi Guys,
Haven't been on here for a while so got a lot of catching up to do.
Sad to hear that Geoff has damaged the car, but glad to hear he is OK.
Geoff was getting on with the performance of the car extremly well especialy at Gurston, where he dropped at least a second off his PB last weekend.
Rich

 

I think the damage to Geoff's car looked worse than it is.
The NSF wheel is back 4'' minimum with a bent rack and lower arm, but I hope the rear 'ALK' pivot to the chassis is ok.
The passenger's door is 3mm too far back which would worry me.

He is going really well in that car tearing seconds off everywhere, a great credit to him.
He is not the first to get caught-out at the bend.

 

Hi Rich,
yep, three great weekends; new PB's at Castle -1sec, Gurston-2secs, Prescott-2.7secs, then a driver faster than car moment at semi....ouch ! (a big hit).Desparate to be ready for Doune in two weeks time.
Back is very sore this morning so I've not been under the car yet but it's looking like £1k for starters, just hope Graham's not right about the door pillar!First parts ordered and on their way, wonder if I can make Shelsley this weekend?
Thanks to all for their concern and encouragement.

Graham
I phoned API this morning and as instructed said "I'm a friend of Graham Loakes" to which your man replied "is that a good thing or a bad thing" !!
As you said though David's very helpful, many thanks for pointing me in his direction and for your help at Precott.
Cheers Geoff

 

I think you'll find both Pete were in the 45's mate.

Pete 45.60, me 45.78.

 

Sorry:
Looking again at the mass of times Trish took:
I've got first race runs as GL: 46.60
RH: 46.61
PH: 46.24

My mistake!

 

"In a real quandry if I should sell or go 2.5/ppg?"

Let me think!!!

Do us all a favour and stay on the scene

 

That will cost me £6K to £7K.
Add that to a possible 12K = enough to up the stakes.

People at the last hillclimb said they thought it too cheap at £12K and some thought something was wrong with it 'cause it was so cheap!!

Another thing is though, Rob will be getting a monster new car I think for 2008. His brother the same hike in his EVO, both with 'sponsors'. This game is getting hyper!

I do know of a fully race prepared 105E 'cheap' and an offer to co-own it too.
That is tempting.

Thanks for the kind thought though Mark.
You have lost 3 seasons now with your 2.5.....

Graham.

 

Graham

If the money is available, why not try 1 more year in the Scooby with a 2.5l engine & more power / torque, and a PPG style gearbox? OK g'box will be £4k ( fit a Quaife ATB front LSD too ! ) and engine - £3k ish??? dunno. so £7k total approx.

Recover some of the cost by selling what you have fitted now - g'box, engine etc. ... 3 way ast's for 1 way ASTs ..!

What would a new car cost, and race prepping, or a race prepared car cost? Suppose it depends on what class you are in....

hope you will post on here what ever way you go!

N

 

PS - can you not approach your company, or those who you use professionally or personally for sponsorship ? Even if each sponsors only a bit of the car, as PS do for the suspension?

You do seem to do pretty well in each event, top 2-4 in class at least! Must be news worthy !

 

Good thoughts and the same as mine for the last 12 months.

Powerstation sponsor me now in the form of FREE AST systems, and I've discussed/exposed/debated endlessly about them and Whiteline parts and the effects of many combinations backing them all up with actual testing in a very real world!
I am sure they have benefitted from this as I have over the last 3 years.

There is a restriction though to sponsorship, and only so much you can write about. There are things I would like to try outside of AST.

In selling the car the AST's have to go back to PS rightly so as they are very expensive and not mine!

As to the engine/trans calc, you are right, and I have a very nice 'no strings' offer of help from a big specialist for the engine and the gearbox so it is the easy/tempting answer for 2008.
It will simply be more money that will be lost in 12 months time.
Have to remember that the cars at the top of the class are about to rocket to 500++ bhp and dog/sequential transmissions/serious sponsorship for 2008, so all the investment will allow me to stand still!
A real cross-road before me.

The class has moved from club racing to another level. This is very typical and runs on a 7 year ish cycle, I've witnessed it twice now.

Been offered a replica Lotus 23B @ 400 bhp/tonne @ £15K on the button.

Wind and flies in your teeth and more suitable for the Old Fart. (but I don't have a flat cap, or a trailer either... )

Graham.

 

I'm a Slower and Older Fart than you, but I do have a flat cap and a trailer....

care to tell more?

Geoff

 

Bit of a no brainer I'd have thought. Your car + PPG

 

Graham

I'll buy you a flat cap!

 

If the level of competition in the class is putting you off then you should think what you want out of the sport. No class has scope for development like ours with cars in most other classes being so refined that records are taken by the ultimate machines within the regs and by mere 1000ths of seconds. From my short time in the sport it seems class C1 the sky is the limit time wise, whereas c2 etc. the limits seem to have been found and are just slightly pushed by a slightly better driver, or slightly better car.

Roy's records of last year when I first started seemed insane but as my experience has grown and the car developed, still within my very tight budget and no where near the limits of what is possible in the class they now seem quite slow, great times for a road going car on sticky rubber but we are not in a roadgoing class. In simple terms Roger Banks audi is really the only true mod prod racer in our class and our half breed road/race cars are a bit of a cop out way to race in the class, keeping one eye on resale value and the spec of the car to suit once we have lost interest is not really racing and it is/was only a matter of time before the bar got raised to the correct level. Just look at Martyn Pike's escort, he is hardly going to pop to the shops in that, or John Bradburns westfeild. These are the other mod prod cars and for some reason our class has been, until the A4, stuck in a semi road going class limbo for no apparent reason.

Also being happy with coming second every meeting last year yet being unhappy with coming fourth/fifth every meeting now in the face of stiffer competition is a huge contradiction in my opinion. 1st is where eveyrone should want to be no matter how against the odds. I didn't like being 4+ seconds off the pace last year so I did something about it not knowing where my financial investment would place me every single meeting but knowing I wanted to do better and just tried to spend my money wisely. I started the season 4th, then 5th but was determined to do better, not to give up.

Not finding the class positions you want in C1 since the bar has been raised by new competitors in the class will not be helped by moving to another class where the bar was raised many years ago and will seem a lot further off than it does now in your current situation.

So it's time to put up or shut up for all of us, we can roll over for the A4, compete against ourselves and enjoy the driving experince. Or say bollocks to it and take our cars to the most competetive level we can on our budgets no matter how small compared to Rogers and go after him and see what positions we end up in the process.

I know what I intend to do and I think you should join me, are we racing or having a nice day out? That is the only desicion you have to make mate and the answer will not be found in some other class bringing up the rear.

You can be competetive in the face of faster machinery as you proved at the weekend!

Also you cannot play the age card, just look at my Dad, 11 years older than you and stupidly fast!

It seems you are going to spend money no matter what direction you go in the sport so spend it wisely.

Not having a go mate but you need to have a good think about it. If driving the impreza is leaving you cold and you think even with another 150bhp it still will then move on but make sure you move on for the right reasons. This is after all Motorsport.

Rob.

 

I hope the upcoming holiday will clear things for me.

The class until a few years ago was road going, list 1A's, the changing tyre specs changed all that.(Shelsley still list the class as road going)

To chase the front runners will cost about £7K to improve the car to a max road spec and the car(s) at this level are as quick as the C2 cars.
I am sure resale value will have dissapeared by then, our base cars are worth £4K max?

Several of the classes I am thinking of are handicaped, so it can be a change of class means getting first, which I agree should be a goal but with a firm eye on realism.

That last sentence brings me to the age bit. Your Dad is the exception rather than the rule I think!

Graham.

 

Geoff:
Seen this?
22B Bulletin Board: 422bhp Type R V5 Sprint Car

 

Have now thanks , bit like you I suspect , just adds to the confusion!

Still hoping to shake down car and driver at Shelsley.

Cheers Geoff.

 

Not as good value as mine!!

 

Quite a spec but in need of another 5K to open it to full potential, and murder to your back to get the slicks off the back seat through the doors...
If you bring the car in off the IOM though, do you pay VAT etc ?

Had a long talk with Trish last night about it all.
I think she is for the 2.5/ppg /321 route for simplicity and I've a good local expert ready to help me.
Rest of the car is ok with some brakes.

Another major point is also that a lot of my hillclimb friends are in 2B/C1/C2 and Sports Libre are miles away in the paddock which makes the day less of a 'good day out' as Rob would say. Knowing you lot is a big part of the fun tbh.

Rob:
Can you get the sticky compound in 17's from AVON? (ie A15 isn't it).
Can't believe it's Shelsley in a few hours time!
Hope to see you there Jeff! (Martin: you too?)

 

The women often come to the most logical decisions.

I'd love to be there, but in too much pain.
We've had to cancel our hol too - ****.

Have a good one.

Martin

 

Well said Rob.

True mod prod cars are the what the class is about. The Midland and Leaders championships are the only events where proper racing modprod saloons are not up against the V8 Westfields, 911s etc.

Not all of us can manage to go as far as Roger Banks has, or even the slicks and trailer route, but 1b tyres and removing as much weight as possible including the interior can be a good start. Just look at the Peugeots in the up to 2000cc class for different stages of modification.

Just beware of the rules on rear spoilers though, factory options eg P1/22B style are legal but free standing wings are not. (Such as on the time attack machine)

Enjoy Shelsley this weekend

 

Thats more like it graham, lets have a race next season and enjoy it in the process, like rob said we where way off you and roy when we started but stuck around and gave it a crack and it paid off, rob and I have had some great battle's! apart from prescott he has progressed ahead of me on the other hills with some clever low budget work on his car and his confidence in his car, but im not going to sit back and watch him **** off into the distance im going try my hardest to catch him up (with a nice turbo). I think you should do the same! and maybe do some more B meets again to keep your intrest up and keep your eye in!

Pete

 

Also that dropshots link is really anoying! I really want to watch that clip!! is it the web site that is playing up??

 

Graham.

Half of what hillclimbing is about is the people and the banter, I have met and made many good friends and all you have to do is go spriniting to realise what speed racing is like without the good people, just rubbish. I was more making a point that leaving a class due to feeling you cannot compete to move to a class where you really cannot compete, or there is no real competition (i.e. handicapping) is a contradiction in itself. We do all spend a lot of money on this and we should want to do as well as possible every single run and let the results fall as they may.

Handicapped competition is just rubbish. Beleive it or not before Pete and I started racing we played golf for many years to a high standard and having to compete against truly awful people yet lose week in week out due to handicapping makes a mockery of the time and effort you took to get good in the first place!

I said above first should be the goal for everyone, metaphorically speaking, but I totaly agree that you need to keep a check on reality. My point was you cannot think of it as a formula, i.e. Spend £3k finish 5th, spend £6k finish 4th. It just does not work like that. Look at Roger he must have spent dangerously close to £80+k on that car yet on the day he got beaten by my car which total spend is less than the cost of just his brakes!

C2 is still leagues ahead in times, shelsey 28.88, prescott 43.20 and Loton 53.12 are times which no C1 car has yet come even close to, but we can only try to change that.

I agree my dad is the exception as he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic when he gets in a car, but again I was trying to make a point.

My tryes are Avon A15 in 210/620/17. my first set didn't last too long due to massive under inflation and sprints at MIRA. I don't see why a set could not last 2 seasons with the correct care.

Listen to Trish, 1. if it doesn't work out you get to say "I told you so", and 2. I reckon she could kick your ***.

It would not be the same without you up with us lot doing your best Marvin the paranoid android impression, and giving us all the entertaining quandry of "what on earth could he be doing under that car this time!?".

Get some weight out of your car, you have a stereo in that only works in japan for God's sake!

There are your points answered IMO, probably all wrong but thats the joy of public forums.

Lets make it a proper mod prod class and make Roger's domination as difficult as possible and see where we all end up in the process.

If you need anymore convincing drive my bloody car! I must have offered 10 times now!

Pete is right, hone your skills in the B's to take to the A's!

Geoff: I hope you make it to Shelsey mate.

Thomas: I'm glad we agree it's taken me a while to come round to that school of thinking but it is the only way forward.

Wadsy: I hope you feel better soon mate, all the best.

That's my, bit now everyone off to my thread!!!!!!

Rob.

 

That's worn me out....

If I go 2.5/ppg then might as well rip the bloody car out and resign to it being a 'racing' class which so annoys me.
Can always wear ear plugs for the longer journeys!

So rid 100Kg from the old dear, new 2.5 with drop-ins, a correct non lagg 321, the new API clutch and a synchro ppg. 750cc injectors and a real max-boost map from Pat or Andy. Add a large packet of M&S Y fronts with super absorbant liners....
That must be about 480 x 450?

I should hollow the doors with just the fronts working and some radial 17's with a set of AP's, but chucking out the Jap radio/casette will take some doing, and if it annoys Rob keeping it so much the better!

Weld in the cage and link it to the shell.

Just cannot take it off the road as a road car I want it to stay as one. (I hate towing too Rob)
Discard the magnetic panels for the numbers (ever weighed them?) and loose a stone or two to get down to the flyweight class by buying some new overalls that are a size too small.

Insatll some snazzy graphics with one of my cartoons in there somewhere.

Now look what you have all done.

But then there is the suspension.....

Graham

 

Don't know where you went sprinting but if you got your head out your **** for five minutes you'd realise that this is a regular topic. The shall I shan't I is becoming somewhat nauseous. FFS make a decision and stiuck to it.

 

Oh dear, complete gibberish.

 

Rob:
Gerry is having a pop at me!
I think I may as well give in and plan the mods out.
The issue is the car isn't worth much despite all the graft. To do what I would like to do will need too much and there are other commitments on free money.

I'm sure I was better off 10 years ago!
Maybe the Bonus will kick-in after all at work.

Graham.