First some thank yous (in no particular order) without whom I would not have been there at the weekend:

1. Mike, Jase and Mark at Area 52, for the work done in the run up and also for the support at the event
2. Gary at APT for helping to sort some of the boost issues pre event and for the information to wire in the AVCR
3. Paul at Zen for making it handle so well and for coming out of his way to try and rescue my old ECU last week
4. Peter Bugden(Budgie) for lending me an ECU
5. Simon Roe for dropping by for a few hours to get the car running
6. Alyn at ASP for great supply of parts and advice
7. Jason for letting me use his workshop and helping me to do the last few steps on the preparation
8 SwissTony for the Laptop that arrived at the circuit so that I can be back up and running with datalogging/mapping
9. Rachel and Annabelle for being understanding at being almost completely ignored for the last two weeks.

Anyway onto a report.....


Saturday ----------------
Having got everything sorted as far as I could before the event, we headed up to the Gilburn B&B in Shepshed on Saturday lunchtime to find a very warm welcome by Malcolm the owner. We were looked after so well and installed in a lovely clean room with comfy beds and good sized bathroom. Will definitely stay there again. Perfect

We headed up to the circuit and found Gary at APT to see his damaged car that he had put into the tyre wall that afternoon and to chat with the BigPower massive hoping to be there in time to see Bladey in the Final of the drifting. This wasnt to be but he can tell his own story lol.

Rob Barnes suggested that I might like to bring up the car for scruitneering that night so we headed back and I grabbed the car to get it through and get signed on for the morning meaning that we didnt have to get up quite so early. Duly passed and back to the hotel and try and scrub the tyres in on the way home

I had booked a table at a local indian restaurant that evening for a minimum of 15 but ended up being 25 of us in there - superb evening even though we were split into a couple o groups but a great way to pass the evening in some great company

Sunday ----------------
Woke up early - I knew I would hardly sleep - and opened the windows to find 3-4 inches of snow !! Not ideal for track action but it will certainly be interesting.

We had a lovely full english breakfast and plenty of coffee served up by malcolm at Gilburn and packed up and ready, headed up to the circuit for the day's fun.... gingerly on 888's

The track was wet and partly slushy but skies were clear so it was going to get better.

Duly briefed then out for the first warm up session .... jeeesh was it slippery !! Luckily i was prepared for it being that way so was making reasonable progress in 3rd place in the session with a 1.38 until it was stopped for 15 minutes due to a couple of accidents. They re-commenced the session and I headed out for a another lap at the end of it to see what the grip was like on a drying track. It was still patchy as hell and on that lap came out of the chicane onto the pit straight sideways in a mini Olly Clarke way then shot up to Redgate, turned in beautifully followed by the back of the car coming right round on me. Remembering Bladey's drift advice I decided it was manfoot time and gave it some driftign fully round the corner. Love it The session then ended - probably just as well as I was getting cocky. Ended up 8th.

1st Practice was on a dry track but for some weird reason they decided to combine the two groups of 30 cars into one and made it a free for all for 40 minutes to get on track. It was a nightmare getting any free space but in the end I completed only 1 full lap in a time of 1.27 as the IC hose came off and I lost power from the engine, pulling off onto the inside of Coppice to wait for recovery. This stopped the session but it did mean testing the new tow hook - which passed the test perfectly (cheers Jason) Mark, Mike and Jase were right on it when I got back to the pits and got me back out there once they had made some minor changes to the breathing system too and went out for the end of the session for an out and back in lap to test that it was all ok. It was

We had a lunchtime briefing prior to the qualifying session and whilst this was happening the snow started to chuck down ... hmmm

This was the time that it had to count. I checked the car over and headed out. The car felt great but traffic was appalling with everyone intent on getting there own fast laps so had a few laps ruined until I made some free space. The car started being very tali happy on the corners at this point and I was trying harder and harder to get a good time in the open slot that I had found, went very wide on the exit of Mcleans onto the grass but not quite in the gravel, the car was pointing straight up towards the next corner so I just kept it nailed bouncing my way over the grass and back onto the track to try again. The next last was ruined by fuel surge out of Coppice so decided it was not going to happen for me and whatever my best time that I had done would have to do. Oil pressure appeared low at this point.

Heading back to the pits the marshall commented on the oil smoke from under the bonnet of my car - hmmm not good. Into the garage and carefully opening the bonnet revealed the mess of oil under there which had shot out of the dipstick. It was literally everywhere and was all over tyres aswell - explaining the lack of grip and the lower oil pressure at the end of the session. I had checked the oil before the session and may not have put it back in correctly or there may have been some crankcase pressure that pushed it out. Either way, the end result was a ruined session and potential problems elsewhere. The engine sounded perfect though. I cleaned up as much as I could and after staring at the oiley bay for ages I eventually closed the bonnet and started to pack up for the day as the 1.24.159 was not quick enough to qualify for the final. I needed another 2 seconds off that at least. I am sure that both car and driver could have done that but that will remain as pure speculation.

We said our goodbye and headed home but when going out of the pits the smoke plume behind my car started to grow. Initially I dismissed it as oil on the exhausts and these heating up but it just seemed too much. Rachel was following me in the other car and couldnt even see me. I stopped and checked and sure enough it was coming out of the exhaust so I rang Mike and told him I was coming backs to the pits. By the time we arrived back there 5 minutes later, he had already arranged for recovery and storage overnight and for the car to be brought to their place the next day. Very impressive Initial diagnosis is that the turbo is the problem as the engine was smooth and quiet but until the turbo can be removed for inspection it is too early to say.

All we had to do was wait for the Chris the recovery man to pick it up in the now heavily falling snow. He arrived after about an hour or so and loaded up we waved goodbye to the car.

Heyho, its just the way it goes sometimes and I am just glad that so many positives had come out of the weekend. Sure the to do list is now slightly bigger but big steps are not without issues.

Bring on Knockhill - this time with the kinks ironed out of the car

 

View from Hotel at 6.00am



Donnington at 7.30am

 

Good write up Dunc and sorry again to hearabout the issues but both you and i know that running bigger powered performance cars will always have issues.

See you at knockers tho

 

Yeah, there are always going to be issues and mine were no more than other people had so I am not trying to make excuses for the results.

Back to the project though as it was never going to be fully complete for this one as time and budget would not allow this let alone the issues that tried to put spanners in the works in the lead up to it.

Fuel surge was not fixed in time for this and had to run a full tank of fuel at each session to try and avoid - not ideal carrying 55Kg of extra weight around. This will be fixed for Knockhill.

Oil Surge - almost solved but need to move the catch can to a higher and central position in the car to avoid oil being pushed up the sump drain pipe on long right handers.

Apart from that there are a few issues that need solving for the next one. The to do list is looking like:

Definite:
1. new or repair turbo or find the cause of the smoke i it isnt that
2. fuel swirl pot and additional fuel pump
3. relocate oil catch can
4. more rear camber needed with some adjustable rear arms
5. some more mapping to get this finished
6. change all IC clamps for heavy duty ones
7. weight savings

Possible:
1. some more aero improvements
2. stiffer ARB's

 

wow, a baptism of fire this year, great to hear you enjoyed the event and you car regardless. Hope the oil issue is nothing to serious, I look forward to the next episode

 

Photos of the day by Rachel and guest starring Annabelle modelling the BigPower Supporters T Shirt

 

Looks like you had a trying day, Duncan. Tried to come and say hi but by the time i knew what you looked like you were a bit busy with your car, Hope you get all the niggly things sorted for KH and they're not too serious!

 

i loved so much of the day and it was all made 100% worthwhile when a young lad asked me for my autograph at the end of the day when we were staring at the oil fest that was my engine bay

I dunno who paid him to do it but it made me smile all the way home

 

LOL! He came to see me too, very strange experience, i hope he knows who's is who's!

 

car looked very tidy Shame to see the smoke out of the back.. thought you had been through a deep puddle when I first saw it

 

David - did I pass you outside the cafe when I came back into the pits?

It was smoking like a good un

Thanks - these little things are sent to make us stronger

 

Sorry to hear of your woes.

Are you going to strip and inspect the engine to make sure your oil issues have not caused some damage to the bearings etc? Might be wise before you take it back on track!

 

Thanks.

There will be investigations to see if there is any collateral damage - not sure that it will be a full strip down though.

 

good read.

i was there on sunday too, in my Clio competing.

was an awesome day!

 

Hi Matthew - be good to see you hop over to bigpower.co.uk with the rest of the guys that are competing in it across the two classes. It looked a great car and you were putting in some great times

 

Yep, I was with my mate with the dodgy hair do.

 

 

How much stick did andy take for that!!

I nearly fell over laughing when he said he had to use straighteners every other day!

 

Nice to see you again Dunc, well done to get it there (and back), and see you at KH

 

ah right! cool!

will take a look and sign up! cheers for the heads up!

 

Funny you should say that, i didnt recognise him at first. At least he has the option of a silly haircut though, so i'm saying nowt.

 

Duncan,

Was great to see you again. Sorry about your issues....
But I know you will be back strong as ever at KH...

Now lets set the ground rules for KH... you have to break the 1.00min mark (I know this was your goal last year).....
I also know that you will be chasing my **** with all those ponies...
But should I get over my bad memories from last year I will give you a bloody good run for your money!

 

1 min is a definite this time assuming it is dry.

The issues will be solved for good for Knockhill and mapping finished so hopefully I can get closer to your power to weight ratio. It will be closer this time

 

will look forward to it....

 

i sense the competitive spirit rising Mike

 

I have just picked the car back up from Area 52 Autosport

Turbo is repaired and as good as new.

Thanks to Jase there for turning it around so quickly so that the car can go in to have its cage put in on Monday.

 

Roll Cage is almost finished

Will be a very nice addition to the car and now a blueprint is made I am sure they will be able to make the first proper bolt in (and removeable) cage for newage owners that arent full multipoint

I will post full details

 

Roll Cage done - I love it and it will be a good base for adding further pipework later in the year.

https://www.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-...bolt-cage.html

 

Looking good I did wonder if they were going to be able to get
it in the right way up after seeing all those upside down pics

 

catch can now moved to a high and central position:







Excuse the poor quality pics but you get the idea

All IC clamps changed aswell now bar two smaller ID ones.