Rounds 5 & 6 - 14th/15th May at Brand Hatch (Indy).

Last But Not Least

So Pembrey race weekend finally arrived, and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, Friday’s testing was a bit of a washout. We were supposed to have 3 sessions but unfortunately someone crashed rather hard in the first session and it was red flagged after 12 minutes so they could clean up. The other two sessions were then grouped together but not until 4.30pm, by which time the heavens had opened up. Given my lack of experience in the dry I didn’t really fancy pushing my luck in the wet!

Fortunately, Saturday was a glorious day. So after getting my self sorted out with scrutineering, my slot on track finally took place. I didn’t do brilliantly. In fact I pretty much qualified last. But I didn’t really care. The car was still in one piece and I was having fun. But the most fun was to be had in the racing.

Race one came and went pretty quickly. I started near the back and it pretty much stayed that way. There was another car I was swapping positions with – until he went very wide at Hatchetts, got on the grass, and went straight into the tyre barrier with an almighty thump. After that I was pretty much on my own and just took advantage of that fact to try and learn the track. My average time was 1.14. Far too slow! About 3 seconds too slow.

Race two on Sunday was much better I thought. I got a cracking start off the line and made up a few positions by the first corner. My lines were also improving, but I think I was still going into corners too fast, as the car was rather skittish. It was going well for a few laps until I went wide at Brooklands and took the scenic route around the corner. This allowed everyone to stream past me and meant I was playing catchup again. I did catch up with another car and we diced a bit, but ultimately I came last. However my times were improving and my best lap was better than another driver. So that gave me hope. I’m pretty sure that if had the other testing sessions I would have been a lot more competitive. But c’est la vie, as they say. Hopefully I can improve at Croft…

The Final Countdown

Not long to go until Pembrey. Hans harness and points are in. The new Rakeway half-shafts are in. Fire extinguisher has been serviced. The car is stickered up (apart from race numbers) and ready to rock. Lots to worry about and lots to remember. I have no idea of my pace so I could quite easily be at the back. I don’t care. I just want to get round the track in a respectable time and in one piece! Watch this space…

Revenge Of The Tillett

A simple plan. Remove tillett seat, fit new harness, add more spacers to recline seat a touch more, replace seat. I knew it would never be quite that simple but once again the tillett turned into a total bugger to fit. First we had to get it out. The trouble was we couldn’t slide the seat back far enough to get the allen key under the seat and into the front bolt head. After some head scratching we loosened off the back bolts and this allowed an extra inch of backwards movement which gave just enough clearance.

The next step was quite straightforward and involved removing the current harness and replacing it with my new red Schroth harness. It cost a bit more than I would have liked, but it fits the car and is far easier to adjust than the old Luke harness. Not to mention that the Luke harness expires next year so it would have to be changed anyway. Now all I need to do is get the car to Arch motors so they can move the shoulder belt mountings for my HANS device.

Once the harness was in and the bolts torqued up I then proceeded to add some more spacers to my tillett. It was feeling a little bit too upright during the last track day. I would have added more spacers the first time I installed the seat but for some really annoying reason, tillet supply very short bolts with the seat. The threads only just fit with the current spacers. I ordered some longer bolts a couple of months ago and this was the time to finally use them. They fit perfectly with the additional spacers and then it was time to get the seat back in the car. Once again we had the problem with the mounting bolts. We bolted down the back of the seat first, but once again the seat wouldn’t slide back far enough. Clearly something was obstructing it. Possibly because the floor was not quite flat and the pressure on the seat runners was causing it to warp slightly. So out it came again. We manually adjusted the runners to expose the front bolts and tried again. We screwed down the front bolts hoping the the seat would at least slide forwards, if not back. Fortunately it did slide and then we were able to get the rear bolts screwed down. I’m sure just by reading this it doesn’t sound too traumatic, but the whole process of seat out, change harness, seat back in, took about 5 hours. And that was just Saturday. I still had the new brake pads to fit…

Sunday was a glorious day. Which was just as well because I spent most of it outside fitting new brake pads! This was a first and so I was a little nervous about doing it. However I had some good instructions from Dr. B (previous owner) and while going through the motions it did seem rather straightforward, if a little awkward. We got quite a shock when I slid the old pads out. They were practically disintegrating in my hands! Perhaps the last track day just sent them over the edge. They weren’t completely destroyed but I certainly would not want to go round a track knowing the state they were in.

Once those were out I was able to rub down the brake disc with some emery paper and clean off all the crap from the old pads. Then copper grease was applied to the back of the new pads and they slid in nicely. The pads were pretty close together and there was no room for a disc between them so dad improvised with some brute force to push the caliper pistons apart. But not before I unscrewed the brake fluid reservoir lid to reduce any back pressure.

Finally the caliper slid on and we bolted it all back up and repeated the process on the other side. Then I went for a little test drive to make sure everything still worked. Fortunately it did. I had decided to go for some Pagid RS15 pads. They are a hard racing pad and braking wasn’t awesome but then the pads are designed for racing and so will require some heat in them first. On the plus side, they should be pretty good when hot and will last the year without needing to be replaced.  It’s just a shame that my next track outing will be testing at Pembrey. I’ll have to take things a little carefully so that I can get them bedded in otherwise I may be visiting the Welsh scenery!

Slow In, Fast Out

Sunday was Bedford Autodrome track day. I’ve never been around the track there so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The track configuration we’d be running on would be the GT circuit which is pretty long at around 3.8 miles. Of course the first thing I had to do was arrive in one piece. I very nearly didn’t. It was a pretty chilly morning – the temp readout on my car was showing -2. A few miles from the track we were diverted up a twisty country road which was pretty icy. So icy in fact that my traction control light started flickering and the car (and trailer) began to slide out to the middle of the road. Fortunately car and trailer were sliding in unison so there was no jack-knifing. I backed off the gas and it settled down, but I could see the black ice glistening on the road. So I carried on very slowly and to hell with the queue of cars behind me. And then it slipped again! It was a little unsettling but we finally made it to the circuit in one piece!

It was a cold day, but fortunately it was dry and bright. After the usual safety briefings and noise checks we got the car into the pit lane and the day could begin. This was the first time since getting the car that I had the chance to drive it hard. So I was a little nervous about stacking it on a totally unfamiliar track. However that didn’t stop me! My cousin Spencer was brave enough to go out with me on the first few laps. I took a couple of laps to warm up the car and brakes, and then started to push it a bit. In the process of doing this I had one or two sideways moments in the low speed corners. Basically I was going too fast around them. The car was surprisingly easy to catch as the back started to come around, and going full throttle down the back straight and breaking hard at the end was a real thrill. The car was squirming but didn’t feel unstable. Unfortunately, Spencer was a little less enthusiastic than me. And he didn’t go in the car again afterwards. However, I was having a great time!

There were a couple of red flag incidents. The first was where two cars collided. There must have been a damp patch on the circuit as the first car spun off and then the car following did exactly the same thing, and spun into the first car! Fortunately nobody was injured, but bumpers, pride and wallets were hurt. The second was when a white Sierra Cosworth overtook me like a lunatic. The car looked almost out of control as he braked in front of me and went around the corner and I remember thinking he was on the verge of crashing. Two corners later I caught up with him as he had ended up in a ditch! Again nobody was hurt but he lost a few bits of bodywork.

I also booked in a session with an instructor who really helped me go faster and smoother around the track. It’s hard to explain the feeling but there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had when you get the line just right going in to a corner and feeling the car begin to drift out wide as you power out of the corner and onto next straight. I have much more to learn but I feel much more confident with the car. I was braking much earlier than I needed to, but much of that was due to me not trusting the brakes just yet. Of course they work, but I have yet to learn their limits. I was also only changing up at 6000 rpm. I’ve since found out that the car will happily go to 6500 rpm, so that’s something to remember!

So it was a fantastic day out and the car exceeded my expectations. I’m just wondering how I’ll react when a whole grid of cars are all trying to occupy the same bit of track in a competitive race!

I haven’t got around to fitting a camera to the car yet, but I found a YouTube clip of another (faster) Caterham going around the Bedford GT circuit. It is pretty flat and featureless, however there are one or two ditches that will punish you if you really get it wrong.

Sorted

It’s been another busy weekend on the car. At the moment it seems to be taking up all my spare time but it has to be done. This weekend I was finally able to get the car sorted out at my cousin’s workshop. I decided to drive the car rather than trailer it. While it wasn’t raining or snowing it was fairly cold but I was fully togged up in my fireproof undies, race suit and helmet. I may have looked a little keen but it certainly kept me warm and comfortable. Only my hands were starting to feel the cold through the gloves, but I put that down to keeping the wheel straight while on the A1. One thing that did become apparent is that I need to recline the seat more. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it can certainly be improved. However taking the seat out again to fit some more spacers is a bit of a job, so I will leave that for a couple of weeks.

We sorted out the tracking and set some toe out on the front left. Before adjustment we had a substantial amount of toe in, which accounted for the lousy handling in a straight line. We left the front right as it was looking ok. A big thanks to my other cousin Spencer who used his brute strength to loosen off the tracking rod nut. If it wasn’t for him and Howard stringing around the car to sort the tracking I’d still have a wonky wheel!

Once that was done we progressed to the corner weights. As it happens, we didn’t really have to do any changes there. The balance was pretty good with the only issue being that the car was little on the light side. For the record, my current corner weight values are LF:151.5, RF: 158.5, LR:146.5, RR:155.5. Overall weight 610kg. However, I need to add 8kg of lead ballast to the passenger side so that I can account for less fuel and missing bodywork. When that has been added the balance should be spot on. Or at least good enough. I don’t think a few kg here or there is going to make too much difference!

I also decided to change the tyres over for an older used set. I am taking the car to a track day at Bedford Autodrome next weekend. It will be the first time I’ll have driven the car in anger. I just hope the wheels don’t come off!

Hey Good Lookin’

For the first time in about 3 months it seemed to be a decent weekend. No rain, no snow, and temperatures which were not sub-zero. The perfect weekend to sort out the nose cone and grill. It took a bit of effort though. It seems that standard S3 nosecones come a little bit on the narrow side. At least for my Cat. It didn’t want to squeeze around the bushes on the front anti-roll bar, and was also a bit tight around the suspension. Cue face mask and hacksaw to thin it out a little bit.

After much hacking away we (my dad and I) finally made it fit! Although not before dad managed to scratch it! However as he was the one kind enough to pay for it I will forgive him this time. Once that was sorted I turned my attention to the grille. I’ve had the 7 motif grille for a while and had read a few things about fitting that along with a mesh grille to protect the radiator. The easy option would be to have ordered a made to fit mesh grille from Caterham, cable tie it to the 7 grille and then insert. I took the not so easy option.

Before worrying about the mesh though, I had to paint the 7 motif. I decided to paint it mostly black but leave the 7 logo white. Using my Halfords spray paints this was a relatively straightforward if time consuming task. I masked off the various parts of the grille, sprayed, allowed to dry, and resprayed. Once that was done I could worry about attaching the mesh on Sunday.

Having popped into B&Q on Saturday morning, I purchased a half metre square of silver mesh. The plan sounded easy. Buy mesh, cut out around 7 grill, cable tie together and insert into nosecone. To be fair, that’s pretty much how it went, but cutting the mesh involved a fair amount of effort with the cutters. It took about 2 hours to cut, attach and insert. I think the Caterham parts option would have been a bit easier, but perhaps not quite as satisfying.

Anyway, I think it’s starting to look pretty good now. The paint damage down the side of the car has been repaired and it’s starting to look quite smart. Of course this won’t really affect the performance, but at least I can look good while chasing the pack!

Cat Is Getting A Nose Job

After cleaning up the the car this weekend, my dad and I decided that it really would benefit from a new nose cone. The current one is looking rather worse for wear. In fairness, it is still perfectly usable but we finally took pity on the rest of the car and will replace it. The old one will come with on all rounds to be kept as a spare in the event of any incidents. The new one is currently on it’s way from the Caterham spare parts department. Cat will look much prettier soon. Although I might need to change her name to something a little more original…