[race_prep] Our Hillclimb/sprint 205

[Sandy 189]

Being very busy has meant a lack of updates, thankfully we've been having a very successful and trouble free season so far, either Paul or Colin have won their class at every outing and mostly set new records in the process! Championship positions won't shake out properly until enough qualifying rounds have been done, but it's looking good in the HSA, BARC and ASWMC class positon and not too bad in overalls as well.

 

Yesterday Paul and Colin were on the BARC round at Llandow, which is one they'd been looking forward to and Colin's best 78.17s was a class win by 5 seconds over the next car, fastest Saloon (not inc Sports Libre Puma) and 12th overall out of 96 entries. Results: http://www.tsl-timing.com/sprint/2013/133081.pdf

 

Today they are at Llys y Fran.

[welshpug 1,622]

I popped along with my camera and said hello to the guys, difficult to get decent pics at this venue without a tabard of invincibility, or some talent!

 

but here's a few on FlickR http://www.flickr.com/photos/welshpug/sets/72157634822077055/

 

 

 

[Matt Holley 11]

Another good day for you guys then and great pics Welshpug.

 

I see they run a separate class for the Elise, I wish they would do that around here, the class I would be in with the 106 looks a lot more competitive without them.

[welshpug 1,622]

got a video on my phone too.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/welshpug/9380851590/in/set-72157634822077055

[calvinhorse 870]

A credit to you sandy! It looks so mean!

 

If it keeps winning everything it's gonna get banned tho..

[Batfink 201]

Nothing to ban on the car lol. That's the great thing about it

[calvinhorse 870]

I'm sure Wayne Schofield said the same thing.

 

I wasn't having a dig I was just making a joke of how rules get altered

[Batfink 201]

Well bike engines have in most series been separated. He did well to drop in the euro saloons and win the championship. His car was as fast as the group a cars most of the time so it's right in that instance. Saying that I still think you can build a championship winning car in class d!

 

To change Colin's car would require a complete change to mod prod and the reality is it would affect everyone rather than a specific car

[Sandy 189]

There's certainly been alot of back stabbing types sending various officials and scrutineers to cause grief, without anyone actually owning up or putting money down in the correct way. But in each and every case the officials and scrutineers have been satisfied that the car is built within the rules; we thought we might get that sort of attention, so we were double watertight about how we built and specced the car (it's probably one of very few cars in its class that are actually under 2000cc, rather than 0.5mm or 1mm oversize etc for example). But as said, it only takes one person with the hump and some influence to make life harder and the trouble makers we have identified, have not even been in our class! But strange that Keith Murray's 1.4 turbo 4wd 2 door Audi 80, which is alot more hard to define, as to what it should be, seemingly goes unquestioned!

[welshpug 1,622]

the closest car in class at this event was running about 50 bhp less, though weight wise I'd bet a MK1 golf is not far off at all!

 

given the fairly long straights compared to some venues 5 seconds from a 50 bhp deficit isn't bad, and highlights power is nothing without control when a 650 bhp Puma 4x4 was only 2 seconds quicker than colin and paul

[calvinhorse 870]

Sandy, are the other competitors Motorsport based like you and Colin?

[Sandy 189]

It depends what you mean by "Motorsport"?! Everybody's doing motorsport and we're not a professional team with massive resources and development/testing facilities; just keen lads working on our instincts on a limited budget. There are alot of people running vastly more expensive engines and going slower for example, even among the Seven types and single seaters.

 

5 seconds is a big gap to us, Colin's old 205 was running about 50bhp less and wasn't that much slower on the same events; probably about a couple of seconds or so there. Likewise at Combe, among similar cars, about 20bhp/second is typical and the bigger margins are between chassis' and drivers.

[Sandy 189]

At Llys Y Fran, Paul beat Colin and apparently had 3rd in the top ten run off! Some video here c/o Tigger Dave:

[HERMAN 33]

Its been said before but sounds so good.

[calvinhorse 870]

It depends what you mean by "Motorsport"?

I mean you build engines for race cars and Colin preps race cars. The business end of Motorsport

 

Just wondered if any other competitors did similar or are they just doing it for fun on a weekend? Buying engines rather than building them, just trying to understand where the rivalry comes from

[Sandy 189]

I think there are lots of competitors who take their fun every bit as seriously as we do, whether they're in the business Monday to Friday or not.

[Sandy 189]

Bit of an incident at Wiscombe on Sunday. It was wet and slippery all weekend, Colin and Paul struggled with old wets on Saturday, then gave up on them on Sunday and put the slicks on instead. The times improved massively, but on his first timed run, Paul ran a tiny bit too close to the sleepers on the inside of "Bunny's Leap":

http://youtu.be/qWAhq_NerqU

Thankfully he was fine, but the wheel and tyre were destroyed, the steering arm broke and obviously there will be some wheel alignment issues to repair!

[petert 550]

Wow. The preview looks like it was going to be a lot worse.

[Sandy 189]

Yes, he was bloody lucky it wasn't any worse!

[welshpug 1,622]

Strong enough for rallying then extreme product testing

[TT205 42]

Bunny leapt alright!!

 

That really looked like he was going over - sometimes a damp track is an advantage

[rallyeash 155]

Bloody hell! Bit lucky there!!

[Fernando Martins 2]

keep racing

[Sandy 189]

Featured in the new issue of "Performance French Car"

[wicked 103 3 Cars]

Nice... new issue = sept/okt or nov/dec?