Yep - there certainly is

The trip there isnt to set a new land speed record, it is to enjoy the drive around the best track in the world and do some sightseeing in some of the best scenery around, eating by the campfire, and generally chilling out with my family and friends after a hectic 6 months.

I can't wait

 

im sure i seen the " bite me" plate at the ring in may this year when i was there

just been reading this,, seriously this is a PUKKA thread and such a good achivement,,,, shame about the " off " but it happens and according to a mate of mine who was in time attack aswell ( jc motorsport sti RA)there was a few offs in the wet mate and you got off very well out of it considering mate

where did you get the splitter from out of interest as im looking for something like this for my classic STI

 

The splitter was one of my creations not an off the shelf item. It is made from an aluminium/plastic composite. It took quite a lot of the side impact and bent but bent back down with some coaxing from a hammer and is as good as new. Try doing that with Carbon

 

Where did you get the aluminium/plastic composite from?

 

UK ABS Sales - Online Supply to the Public of Plastic, ABS, Acrylic, PVC and Polycarbonate Sheet

They do a limited range of pre-cut sizes or will get any sized sheet you require to order

 

unless your offering to make one for me,,,, dont supose you know where i could souce one by any chance,,, aint that bothered about carbon but would prefer it though

ps: where have i seen that dam plate before,,, its bugging me now !

 

Probably in the photos from Knockhill - that is the only time it has been on the car.

APR do a splitter like that as do Home - Carbon Mods

 

love the pic on the time attack website

 

i just love the look of the car, it looks like a pro race car,,, VERY impressed its DIY, seriously you should be proud of the work you have done,, you clearly have alot of skill ( and free time lol )

seriously though i love this car !

 

Thanks Ginge

As for too much spare time, I have had to prioritise a lot of the work on the car for each event to solve distinct issues or required improvements. There are so many things that I would have loved to have done if money and time werent an issue, but they are

 

I've had a change of mind on the brakes, instead of changing to Stoptech's I have decided to stick with Performance Friction discs on the standard brembo calipers. I have always been very very happy with these so decided against spending extra money on an upgrade as tempting as it was to do.

So... these, along the other parts will be put on by me on Friday and it will be back to close to it's original state then.

Also ordered a couple of ABS sensors from Grade A for £40 each (better than £165 each from the dealer) to see if that fixes the ABS warnings.

Friday is going to be a hard day and test my mechanical abilities. The jobs are:

1. replace lower wishbone
2. replace ball joint for Whiteline RC adjusted version
3. replace track rod end for Whiteline version
4. replace both front discs
5. raise the car by 5mm to cope with the nurburgring's undulations and kerbs
6. re-do geometry
7. replace oil cooler core
8. check all pipework

Should be fun

 

Hooraaahhh !!!

All warning lights are now gone :woohoo:

ABS sensors have been replaced with the £40 jobs from Grade A. These arrived next day and were a doddle to do so cracked on with them tonight - only took 20 mins to do the pair of them.

Also put my little 3 ohmn resistor into the airbar connector under the seat so now I have fully functioning ABS and Airbags.

Ride height has been upped too, so that should make it easier to trailer over to germany and should help with the ground clearance issues in the Karussel and other places where the kerbs are ridden extensively. It has had an effect on the geometry but that was all shot to pieces anyway to be honest

Next to do the suspension parts and brake discs on friday and it is all set.

 

Ah, good work Duncan. Glad you got most of the issues sorted mate.
Have a good time in Germany

 

Duncan did you just solder it in-line ?

 

Solder ???

Nah - just wedged it in and tank tape over the top - job done

Had a really productive day ... Paul at Zen kindly offered me use of a ramp today so that I could do the bits while I was picking up the discs and whiteline jobbies. So today I have done:

1. replace lower wishbone (the old one was scrap)
2. replace ball joint for Whiteline RC adjusted version (i have a spare too now)
3. replace track rod end for Whiteline version (also got a spare)
4. replace both front discs (how many bolts hold these fekkers on !!)
5. re-do geometry ... it was a looooooooooooooong way out
6. replace oil cooler core with a newer bigger core as the old on ewas split
7. check all pipework
8. replace gearbox mount with group N mount as the old one was bent by about an inch with the impact. Could not believe the damage on this, it must have taken a bit of a bash. :eel:

Got an amazing amount done, and am so thankful to Paul for this.

The trip home was awesome having to bed the brakes in according to Performance Frictions instructions... god love em

Nice to get home excited again and loving the car B)

 

Know what your saying about PF instructions, Paul kindly bedded mine in after we fitted the 2nd hand Stop-Techs, he pulled back into the workshop with smoke coming out of the front arches think there was a bit of heat generated.

Pleased you got love for the car with all the new goodies mate.

 

I will solder mine I think...i'm not paranoid I just like to worry

 

Solder means that you wont be able to re-install the OE seats though.

Cheers Andy - it was a pleasure to drive again and looking forward to the drive to elvington in the morning

 

Well, what a two weeks for the car.

170 miles of track at Brands then a turbo change forced by the lambda sensor coming off into the exhaust wheel then off the germany.

Over in germany it did around 550 miles on track and never missed a beat, not one hose popped off, not one drop of oil used and only about 100 ml of water.

I changed back to the Z rated PF pads for the trip as the ring isnt that hard on brakes once you know the track as you can carry speed through corners without braking.

This trip was the first I had done in the current set up. Last time over I had approximately 150bhp less than I do now. Quite a difference ! As a result, the speeds that I was arriving at corners was massively altered and I had to re-learn braking points and gears.

As an example I hit 130mph (gps speed) on the run to flugplatz, 148mph down to Schwedenkreuz and around 135mph down the foxhole. All of these were way over what had been achieved before. New lines were therefore required to be able to cope with these and smooth it. I also opened it up down the dottinger hohe straight and managed in excess of 160mph top speed very quickly before I backed off to cool it down before the exit I would love to do the full straight as I reckon 190+ would be possible.

Unfortunately there weren't many laps without some kind of roadworks so unfortunately i never got a full lap on it but still took 15 seconds off my best time from last time without trying. There is another 30 seconds or so to go IMO using the full width of the road.

Best recorded time this trip was 8min 31 with the roadworks and traffic that compromised lines. Sector analysis showed 8min 24 was what it should have been without these. Not bad for still just less than 100 laps of the track and a distinct lack of drama all the way around proving that there is way more to be had. I would rather creep up to the limit rather than take massive leaps over the limit after recent oulton park experience. (the last time that I had driven it on track)

Review of the components:

Engine - The engine was as strong as ever and still recorded 6 bar oil pressure after 3 laps on the bounce with oil and water temps in check. I never had to lift the bonnet all week. Just what the doctor ordered and exactly as specced with Area 52.

Charge Temps - with ambient temps at 27C the highest I ever got on the Charge Temps was 42C right at the top of the 2.4km uphill flat out section. Very pleasing.

Power - I ran baby boost on the saturday and sunday (on road tyres) with the traffic from a busy weekend as I didnt see the point of stressing it too much. This was at 1.5bar flat with ocassional peak of 1.7 bar up the hill once into 6th. I upped this to 2.2 bar peak and 1.8 bar flat for the rest of the week and needed all of this to stay ahead of the viper up the hill

I just let him past to get this shot into the Karussel:



Suspension - was raised slightly for this trip to allow a bit of clearance into the Karussel... good job I think (the suspension geometry was reset to cope with this and post crash damage):

Brakes - I got a very small amount of fade of the z pads from 3 laps on the bounce but this was down to excess heat (i had stolen the ducting from the brakes for the oil cooler and air filter) but they never failed to slow me down enough and soon recovered on the next straight (if there is one there ).

Pipework - even at high boost, the Murray Corp constant tension clamps held everything in place firmly and never popped one off.

Tyres - RE070 on the sat and sunday were as great as ever, these are awesome tyres and I think perfect for the nordshleife. 888's from Monday onwards got a little hot but seemed to plateau even with the laps on the bounce once I had dropped the pressures down enough to give headroom in the pressures. They ran to 33 hot psi in the end and this gave an immense amount of grip all the way around. Wear isnt too bad either from the miles done - I was surprised as I wasn't expecting to like them so much.

Fuel Surge - I finished one hot lap with the fuel gauge at below empty having got 5 laps to the tank. Problem solved for good and no issue with leaning out due to excessive fuel temperatures in the engine bay either. I will be fitting a fuel cooler at some point though to assist.

Aero - Rear wing was set relatively flat with a 10 degree angle to the main element. This was a good compromise between top end speed and down force for the 125mph+ corners up from bergwerk and 110 mph flugplatz & schwedenkreuz. Front splitter was also working well as I had to find a solution to the front assembly popping out from under the headlights from the force. Leading edge tape seemed to do the job nicely.

Mapping - I backed of the map a little on the timing side to allow a choice of fuels when over there and remove the need to take any octane booster. The DH 98 ron was fine but the Aral 100 Ultimate was perfect and never lit the knock sensor up at all. As such the map was not altered in any way while we were there. Flat shifting (which I absolutely love) was used to full effect and never caused any issues.

Summary : A great test of the car which it passed with flying colours. Love it 8)

A few changes will be made for the Snetterton round but this seems perfect as it is now to enjoy the final round

 

Was a great weekend for me and duncan's car was flying great piece of kit well done mate ....

 

Sounds a great trip there Duncan, with the car doing exactly what you wanted of it, and no dramas....

 

That was a highly condensed report - the full version is on Nurburgring - The Graham Family Trip to Nurburbring and Hockenheim

Thanks - It was incredible and the car never even needed to be looked at. Just what was needed

As for Hockenheim Tourist Day - mental

 

Duncan,
Good report and glad you had no issues!

I am at the Ring myself in September.

 

Hello, your report is very nice it was fun to read it and take a lokk at the pictures.

Do you have got sponsoren ? I don´t know how to say in English, I mean are there firm´s thay pay you money for driving ore give you parts ore something?

 

Thanks

In english = Sponsors (so pretty close)

I have some sponsors for Time Attack but none of them pay me to drive unfortunately

 

Thanks for the answer.

 

Had a full day at Snetterton yesterday testing in preparation for the last round of Time Attack. It was great to re-familiarise myself with the track after not having driven it this year

Some good time on track and again no issues ... superb - thats 700 miles on track now and not had to lift the bonnet

A very worthwhile of test in all aspects.

Unfortunately a complete deluge of rain stopped the comparative testing of aero settings but I am happy that there are further improvements to come in this department.

 

Still on the 321H Duncan?

 

Nope - its a bit bigger than the T+ - hasnt got a name yet but seems to pull quite well

 

So you have had to lift the bonnet in those 700 miles

Cool, that from Area52 or Zen?