some serious motors this year are coming from scoobyclinic and kevs new one is one of them, ha ha cant wait

 

Be good to be back out in anything at this point, Adam! New thread is close, just got a project to finish off first!

 

adam? its mat kev
ad's is special x
put up one teaser pic mate, make it blurry so you dont give too much away

 

That Adam ^^^


Pics can wait, no one's that interested i'm sure

 

Are you having a bubble?

 

Guess who's going to the Time Attack party this Saturday?

We made a very last minute decision (as in last week!) to compete this year, new car is turning out to be monster of a job and needs another year on it i reckon!

So out with the old car for another year, test a few bits for the new car, gauge where the competition is and if nothing else dust the cobwebs off my driving! Not been on track since the last round at Snett. in 2008 so could be a tad rusty By all accounts i'll be at a big power disadvantage to most cars in Club Pro so nothing like a challenge! Only target i've given myself this year is to beat my old times.

Car is pretty much unchanged so not much in the way of development, turbo is smaller GT30 instead of the GT35, but is one of Scoobyclinic's Billet XTRs so hoping for nearly the same power but improved spool out of the corners. We're running the new Scoobyclinic 5spd gearkit, having got through 3 PPG/PAR gearkits in 2008 we're hoping for more reliability! Apart from that, it's still got the original HotBits suspension that's done 3 seasons now and the AP brakes have gone replaced with CompBrake 6 pots with Mintex experimental pads, worked well in ScoobySprint last year but we've never tried them on track!

Jobs for tomorrow, corner weight and geometry and then put some stickers on it

 

Awesome stuff Kev

Can't wait to see it used in anger once more.

 

This will be a good test for SC's new products on the car, good luck Kev

 

Great to see you back Kev this should make the rounds a better spectacle than they were last year

I know exactly where you're coming from with this and it's for this reason I'm not running tomorrow, this way it should be right for Knockhill. A few hours every evening with help from a couple of good friends just didn't provide enough time to get the build right, we altered the spec to get it to the start line for round 1 but I was never comfortable with this and decided to pull it at the last minute.
Family wedding today doesn't help matters either
Gutted I'm not racing though

I'm confident that's achievable Kev Weather conditions looking good for tomorrow, good luck

 

Was just going to text you to see if you need to pull an all nighter to get it finished off or if you'd made it. Shout if you want a hand in getting it ready for KH

 

Cheers Zak, hope the car is coming along nicely for KH


This is the first chance i've had to sit down and write something from Oulton so my recollection might be a bit hazy for the most part!

We left the decision to enter Time Attack to the last minute, the new car was never going to be ready but we needed to get back out there, test a few parts (Scoobyclinic's new billet turbos, gearkits, etc.) and to see where the competition had moved on to. The car hasn't changed a great deal since 2008, we're now running the new SC billet GT30 instead of the GT35, the 2.3l engine is now onto it's 2nd season without a rebuild, how much more abuse will it take? We've still got the same HotBits DT2 fast road suspension from 2006, never been rebuilt and still going strong! And the AP brakes have gone, replaced with CompBrake 6 pots, other than that it's how it finished 2008 bar a few safety item like electrical cutout & fire extinguisher (more about that later!).
Judging by our times in Club from 2008 compared to Club Pro's of last year it wasn't going to be easy to get top 3, let alone a win. So most of my focus for the year is to just beat my old times, get a feel for driving again and hopefully learn a few things that should filter down to the new car, 2 years out wouldn't have been ideal preparation!

The weekend started a day earlier than normal with the round being on a Saturday, so Friday was spent tinkering with the car, nothing major, the geometry needed resetting as it's been setup for drag racing for the early part of this year, this took a bit longer than expected as one of the rear adjustable arms was seized, set back number one
Then on to corner weighting for the afternoon, i got as far as disconnecting the rollbars when there was a shout to get the car on the dyno as a slot had opened up, mapping the car was more important (in it's current state the car was very lean for drag and probably wouldn't last the whole day) so i drove it round to the dyno, at this point i may have been rushing unnecessarily and reversed the car not exactly straight shall we say and in trying to correct it by driving back off the dyno i kind of got it a bit sideways and ended up in a bit of a pickle
Few blocks of wood later and we're strapped in ready to map..........and then fuel pump dies on us on the first pull, set back number two! Sourcing a fuel pump up to the job takes us far too long and by the time i've got the new pump fitted and the car back on the dyno and mapped it's gone 6pm! I get 3 settings to play with; 1.2, 1.4 and 1.8bar - the latter making 520/540. It would have made more but we maxed out the injectors and i'm told only to use the 1.8bar map if needed (i.e. the final). Despite the figures being on the low side for what is going to be a tough class to win with cars expected to be making 600+, the graph looks really nice and i'm confident i can at least be on the pace from my previous outing there in 2008. We strap the car onto the trailer and head home, corner weighting will have to wait another day, just means i've got a busy morning ahead of me!

Saturday morning 5am is my wake up call and we're on the road by 6am. Arrive at Oulton at 7.30am and get unloading, E85 plays it's 'i'm not starting from cold' trick as usual and finally the car is in the garage and i can start connecting the rollbars, easier said than done with only one jack! Finally they're done and i get signed in, briefed and all that's left to do is apply the sticker pack.
Morning warm is upon us and we start off with the low boost setting, since 2008 the compression & rebound settings have been buggered about with that much that i've got no idea what i used to run with so i play the guessing game and set them all somewhere in the middle, not to worry, i've got 3 sessions to get them right! Out on track and you can immediately see the difference in speed from the Club class, cars are flying past me and i'm beginning to think we've bitten off more than we can chew. I decide to take a few laps to acclimatise with the car again, it's been a year and a half since i've been on any race track and TOTB last year since i've driven the car!

I get a lap or so under my belt and i start to feel what i thought was a really nice draft on my legs, a corner later and it's gone from a draft to a very damp feeling, i look down and there's a jet of water spraying on my legs, it takes me a few moments to realise that the fire extinguisher has set itself off for no reason whatsoever! Smoke starts to plume from the bonnet as the extinguisher floods the engine compartment and I decide not to try and make it back to the pits for fear of dropping fluid on the track and for the engine to ingest any of the fluid. I park up just before Druids and sit out the rest of the session wondering where we're going to get a replacement from, not to mention any damage under the bonnet!
I get a tow back to the pits and explain to everyone what a crazy start to the day i've had, the decision to buy an electrical extinguisher is starting to look like the wrong idea! We do a bit of asking around to see if we can borrow another or buy one, anything! We then get a break as we're told we'll be able to run with a handheld in the car. More asking around and we're not getting anywhere, we then have an idea, the other Scoobyclinic car is running my old handheld and i've still got the fixing holes in my car, so the plan is to swap the extinguisher from one car to the other throughout the day, pain in the **** but it's our only option!

Practice is next up and i'm feeling lucky to be still in the running rather than packing up already, having had no time in the car in the warm up i've got nowhere with the car setup and leave it as it is, it didn't feel too bad. I also decide to up the boost to 1.4bar as i need to see where we're at pace wise. After a few warm up laps i decide to try and put in some good laps in, the traffic in Pro/Club Pro is almost no existent and i get plenty of space to put some laps in, i see a 1.32s show up on the dash late on in the session and know at least i'm on my old pace from 2008, i just need to get into the 1.31s to achieve my goal of beating my old personal best. Back in the pits and i find out i was fastest in the session! I set a time of 1:32.240, just 0.3 off my best, i'm not getting ahead of myself at this point as i'm sure there's a lot to come from everyone else but i'm pleased to see the car has the pace even on the middle boost setting, a rough guess around the 480/500 mark would mean with another 40bhp to come i could dip into the 1.31s if got a the lap together.
The car had behaved brilliantly, the tyres seemed to last longer than i remember, i could even get 2 hot laps in without too much lose of grip. The new Scoobyclinic gearkit we were running was on it's best behaviour, makes a change from the PPG i ran in 08!
One thing that did worry me throughout the session was the brakes though, the pedal was going long halfway into the session, as if the fluid was boiling. A quick bleed before qualifying confirmed our suspicions, we really needed to flush the whole system but the front calipers would have to do! In all the messing about with swapping the extinguishers and bleeding the brakes i'd forgotten to take time to think about messing with the suspension, my times and feedback suggested it was best to leave as is, if it aint broke!

Qualifying time and we're last out again as we're still swapping the extinguisher, the session goes the same way as practice, i stay out for the whole session, couple of fast laps followed by a slow down lap, the brakes feel great at the start of the session but i'm soon back to long pedal travel, not as bad as before but it's still messing my braking zones up, one lap they're ok the next they're not, so i end up braking just that bit earlier to be on the safe side. I see 2 or 3 low 1.32s come up on the dash i realise that's pretty much it for this boost setting, i'm on the limit and the only way i'm going to better my time is to up the boost. I decide to leave it as it is for the rest of the session, get to the final in one piece and take it from there, question is, what had everyone else done? Back in the pits and i'm told i've qualified 3rd with a 1:32.045, still not beat my personal best but i'm not overly worried, what was more concerning though was Marcus Webster had posted a 1:31.3, if he had more to come for the final then we're in trouble!

In the lead up to the final i start to see the massive divide in budgets, people are filling their cars up with race fuel, fitting brand new tyres and then there's us with the same tyres the car started last year's ScoobySprint series and a jerry can of Morrison's finest! Our plan for the final is to run at 1.4bar at first, get a banker lap in then up the boost, only problem with that is i can't reach the map switch when strapped in so i'll have to pit for that! Another thing to add to the list of mods for round 2
With 30 mins to go we find out that Matt in the other car had reached the final of Club so the change over for the extinguisher is going to be very tight! Oh, and it's at this point i remember we haven't bleed the brakes, i'm reluctant to do it this close incase anything goes wrong so we leave it hoping they'll be the same as qualifying where i could just about live with them.
Extinguisher swapped and i'm out on track, i do a quick outlap and i'm about to go into the last corner to start my lap and i'm caught out of nowhere by the Pro wining car of CPR, i have to compromise my line and pull over to let him through, i start my lap not exactly up to speed but continue with it as i know i haven't really got time to do another warmup lap, the brakes feel great (probably because they're not up to temp yet!) and i see a 1.31 as i go over the line. I immediately back off and make my way to the pits to up the boost and to get an update on how everyone else is doing, i don't quite remember what i'm told but i set off with 1.8bar on tap
Instantly on exiting the pits i notice the difference! Why could we have used this all day! i make my way round to start my lap and know i need to make this one count, the brakes aren't going to last the session if previous ones are to go by. Halfway into the lap and i'm approaching the chicane, i can see Guglielmi in his Lotus, has he seen me? I get through the chicane and we're going up Deer Leap, i think he's seen me as he appears to move over slightly and at the last minute he's back on the racing line and i get stuck behind him through Druids, i pretty much give up on the lap there and then but manage to squeeze past him on the grass exiting Druids and finish the lap, to my amazement i see a 1:30.9! I try for another lap, but the brakes are getting worse, i miss the first corner but try in vane to keep the lap going, i get to the chicane again but there's no chance of me stopping and i go straight through, that's it i think, they were my best chances for a good lap and i blew both of them! I compose myself and try and stay off the brakes as much as possible for the rest of the lap hoping they'll come back to me.
I get back to the start line and feel the brakes are ok and go for another lap, first part goes ok but i catch Guglielmi at the chicane again! I back off instantly this time and try and find myself some space on the track and cool the brakes again. This is it, my very last chance, i know i'm past the best of the tyres and most definitely the brakes but i'm not one to give up, the speed is there with the extra power i just need to brake earlier!
I get the first 3 corners spot on, brake well in advance into the chicane this time round, then into Druids i make a small mistake on the brakes making me take too tight a line in, into the final corner and i catch Duncan on a slow lap, i just about get around him in time for the corner but the brakes are really getting bad now, i don't slow down enough but just throw it into the corner hoping it grips, i lose the rear end slightly but hold it together and power over the line. I go to brake for the first corner and nothing, foot to the floor! First thoughts are this is going to hurt, i pump like mad and make a line for the apex rather than straight on into the barriers, i get just enough pressure to slow me down to make the corner, that was close and probably the scariest moment i've ever had on track!
By the time i've recollected my thoughts the time had gone off the dash so i've got no idea what the time was, the lap was ok, nothing special at times but was it enough? The in lap was interesting, the brakes never came back and i ended up doing the full circuit as i couldn't slow down for the hairpin, i missed the chicane again and couldn't stop when i got into the pits! I got out the car and was told i was 2nd with a 1:30.378! To do that with all the problems i had to drive around (literally at times!), i was amazed! Webster was only 0.5 ahead, without my problems the win might have been achievable, something i hadn't thought possible at the beginning of the day.

Now for the thank yous, Kev, Mark and all the guys at Scoobyclinic, for being patient with me when i keep asking for advice and help when they should be doing other things for keeping the car going....and going, and for letting me test the new gearkit, so far so good! Pat for the awesome map as usual, Mikee for all the support and being my one man pitcrew for the day, all the sponsors on the car, every little helps! And lastly to everyone who turned up on the day, don't think i've seen quite a crowd like that at any TA event before


Knockhill is next up in a week or so, will hopefully have the brake issue sorted by then and maybe a bit more power with the new injectors. I won't be there due to work commitments, but i have a very able stand in driver for the event. Gutted i'm not going as it's one of my favourite tracks, but work comes first on this occasion!

Video & photos to follow....

 

That's a lot to read

 

Some from the podium

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XImkEV3xXbs

Video from the final, caption pretty much tells you what you need to know

 

Dyno graph from the Saturday

 

f,ing hell that looks quite brutal the way the boost comes in, but in a good way

 

brilliant pics + write up

 

Apologies for the lack of updates, w*rk keeps getting in the way!

After Oulton Park there was only one thing that needed sorting, namely the severe lack of brakes! It soon became obviously when we removed the calipers to find fluid pouring out of the pistons, would appear i'd managed to destroy the seals! So in went a set of AP race 4 pots. Other than that a small tweak on the map with the new injectors in gave us a small improvement to 550/550 on the 1.8 bar map.

The Knockhill round 2 was just over a week ago and unfortunately i couldn't attend due to prior work commitment (doesn't pay to sign up to a championship at the last minute!) Andy Harvey very kindly agreed to take my place and do the trip up to Scotland, he knew the car well from driving it last year in the ScoobySprint series so the car was in good hands, or so i thought Here's his recollection of the weekend:

While i had a break at the wedding (photographing it before you ask!) i had chance to to login and check the timing sheets, early part of the day and i was confident of a good result, by the time the qualifying results were up i was distinctly downbeat, not knowing what had gone on i presumed the worse and expected a text describing the demise of the engine. Nothing materialised until i got a text a couple of hours later saying we'd won; how the hell did that happen?!? After hearing about the trials and tribulations it was probably best i wasn't told at the time!




The championship table's starting to look very good, some unfortunate luck on others behalves (you never want to take advantage of other's bad luck) but it has left us with a dilemma, do we stick with the current setup and keep doing what we're doing, or do we do what we entered this year for and test the new parts for the new car, we might go the wrong way and bugger the car up! One decision has already been made and the 15 year old R160 rear end is being swapped out for an R180, decisions on the other parts will be made in the coming weeks, i've got my work cut out fixing the front end for a few weeks yet - the one thing i told him not to do was put it in the wall! lol

Photos & video to follow...

 

Video of the winning lap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co63WV_nbzU

 

Photos courtesy of John Stewart






Moment of impact!








The damage






Duck tape to the rescue!!










And finish the day off in the gravel just for good measure!

 

Few more from other togs

 

Awsome write ups for the time attack progress.... Shame about the crash(s)! Very nice car too, hopefully I'll get to that level and to time attack one day ... student budget aint letting me get there quickly at the moment

Keep it up!

Gaz

 

love the pics Kev well done mate!

 

After Knockhill we had a bit of work on our hands, not just to the obvious cosmetics but the rear diff needed looking at, so out it came and replaced with a Cusco RS diff. The cosmetics wasn't so simple, we decided to go with a C-West front bumper hoping for better aero and the front splitter was redesigned so it mounted directly to the chassis rather than pull the bumper off the car, as can be seen in the previous photos from Oulton. We gained some weight but it would be worthwhile with the improved grip. The front wings were replaced with standard wings but modded to let air out from the wheel arch, simple yet effective! It was at this point we decided the car could do with a full makeover so replaced the doors with some lightweight ones and facelifted the rear bumper, a fresh coat of white and the car was ready for it's new graphics.

The Saturday before Brands was spent finishing off all the work and finally getting around to corner weighting the car, with all the changes the weight would have shifted, indeed it had as the cross weight had moved to nearly 54%. We managed to get it to 49.3% before we had to leave, close enough!
Oh, and with all the changes to the car the weight was down to 1070kg dry

Sunday arrived and the forecast was spot on, hot! Seeing as the first session wasn't till just after 11am i stayed in shorts & tshirt up until the last minute The warm up would just be to bed the new pads in and get a feel for the track and how the car drove with the changes, after a few laps of gently getting the pads up to temp i got a bit of a vibration through the steering wheel and brake pedal, up to the point where i was braking early to compensate, it didn't feel that serious to pull in and miss valuable track time so kept going for the rest of the session. Into the pits and i had various diagnosis' of the problem, warped discs, pad deposits and wheel bearing failure. Not an ideal start to the day, or for the rest of the day if it was the latter!

During the lunch break i was asked if would take part in the bike vs. car battle, each of us would complete a couple of warm up laps and then go for a flying lap, the bike had won every time since the beginning of last season so the challenge was on! The bike in question was a Triumph 675 cup bike, with similar power to weight as my car is was going to be a very close run thing...

Practice session arrived and we turned the boost up to 1.6 bar (around 500bhp) and it soon became apparent that the vibration was still there but again only after i'd completed 1-2 laps, it wasn't as bad as the first session but still very distracting when braking and turning in, so just got on with trying to up my pace and soon got below my personal best from 2008. First target of the day achieved!

Back into the pits and i had to sit in my car for 5 mins while the bike went out and did his thing, boy was it hot, the first thing i wanted to do when i came back into the pits after being out there for 20 mins was to jump out the car not sit in it for that long. I finally made my way out of the pits and did my thing, lap time looked good on the dash with a low 52 sec. Back in the pits and it turned out that i had beat him, first time for everything!

That was the fun over and it was time to get down to the serious stuff of qualifying, i decided to make no changes to the car, stay on the same tyres (now over a year and a half old!) and stick to the mid boost setting to save the engine from any undue stress - it's into it's 2nd year now without a refresh which is pretty good for me! We were now into the hottest part of the day and the tyres were feeling it, i managed to get a good lap in on the 2nd lap as everyone was on it, so no chance of hitting anyone on a slow down lap. Gave it a rest for a lap then went for another quick lap, it was good but not as fast, i wasn't going for another lap after but had good space on the track so decided to go again, but it was slower than the previous two, gave it one more slow lap then gave it one last push and managed a 51.411, a second faster than my previous best At this point i decided i'd done enough and parked it up in the pits and sat out the rest of the session knowing i'd done enough to qualify and maybe enough to be quickest too! The session finished with my being fastest but there was concerns over the engine, it had gotten really warm and very close to boiling over, time will tell if i'd done any long term damage and at the time we decided to run the final on the same boost setting just incase!

After a few delays for oil on the circuit from the club challenge finals we were off out for the final, i didn't get straight out as we were still preparing the car, and managed to get caught by everyone on their first hot laps, and of course when i got round to my first hotlap i caught them all on their slow down laps, not ideal and i got a 53.3 on my dash, not quick enough as a safety net before we upped the boost so went for another quick lap straight after, this time the track was a bit more empty and got a 52.6. I pitted straight after and got the car checked over, the tyre pressures were a bit low but didn't have time to do anything about them and was sent back out on the 1.8 bar setting. Instantly i felt the increase in power and was confident i could better my qualifying time, i just needed a clean lap and i got it! I came across the line and saw a 51 sec dead, that had to be good enough but felt i could go quicker again, but as soon as that thought had crossed my mind the red flag came out and the session was stopped. Back in the pits and the timing screen showed i had a big lead, could i be caught? I took the decision to call it off for a day, save the car and the engine and sit back and watch the final 5 minutes of the session tick by, every car that passed the pits i was expecting to jump ahead of me on the timing screen, a very long 5 minutes later and i was still on top and could afford to celebrate a clean sweep of qualifying and the final

Two wins and second now this season is more than i could have hoped for, the small changes we've made to the car this year have transformed it from what i already thought was the maximum we could get out of the car. The next round at Cadwell at the beginning of August is going to be a completely new challenge, having never driven it (and won't get the chance to beforehand) it's going to be tough, but it's the track i'm most looking forward to driving this year....and we've got a few more parts to try out too hopefully

My usual thanks go to the guys at Scoobyclinic for all their work getting the car ready in time, not an easy task when you've also got to paint nearly the whole car! Thanks to Mikee, Beef, JB and Leigh for making the trip down there and back and keeping the car running all day.

 

Very well done Kev and the SC team

 

Did Fee give you a move on and tell you the target time you needed :P

 

Well done Kev and to the Scoobyclinic crew, cracking result. Car looks great btw.

 

Photo of the car in it's shiny new livery:

 

Well done kev.

 

Thanks Collection of photos from the weekend...

New paintjob before the TA decals went on: