bargin racing

On the ball as ever , thanks Billy

Oi numb-nuts, have you received any tickets yet?

Not sure if this is an e-ticket entry again?

nah nuff ink my end

Bugger ! Have you seen the weather forecast lads don't forget the wellies

Ed's already sent me a text, saying how he's going to leave the Hornet in his dust (well slime with this weather)

Forecast looks better now, but still moist

COCK its raining again!

please be a little  

Come on boys any kind of report to make

it was wet

The Mk4 had not been on track since the Plum Pud, and it had not been out much before that, consequently this would be a good opportunity to get it back out again. The weather forecast leading up to the event was for rain through Friday night, light showers through the morning then a dry afternoon. Therefore, it should have been a damp/wet practice, damp first race and two dry races. Due to its light weight, the Mk4 has been a real handful in wet races when it has been on list 1B’s, but with race tyres it regains its composure. Ian had given me some nearly bald racing wets off a Ginetta, which were 15” diameter and so would not upset the gearing too much, and this would be a good time to try them out.

So preparation for the race was to get some of the new Toyo R888R tyres to replace the worn out A048s on the back, which would sort me out for the dry races, then sort out some spacers to go with the wheels I had set aside for the 15” wets. The spacers arrived, but I had to make up some shims as well. Unfortunately, whilst Tyre Leaders were the cheapest for the Toyos (I ordered them on the Monday and they were supposedly in stock), they sent me an e-mail on Friday morning to say they had cancelled the order

The drive up the M6 was crap and took ages, but we had a good spec in the paddock right next to the assembly area entrance. Saturday morning came and it was still dry but the rain started at about 8:00 and got steadily worse Qualifying was wet, but no standing water and the 15” wets worked well putting me 10th on the grid out of 21 with a 2:15.439.

The rain got worse just before the first race, and there was now standing water at Old Hall. The front 13” wets have plenty of tread and they were clearing the way through the water for the bald rears, however on turning through the first corner, the rears were no longer in line and so aquaplaned resulting in the car suddenly spinning Thankfully, no one hit me, but despite managing to complets a 360, keep the engine running, get back to pointing the right way and down to first, there was no traction on the wet grass and I rejoined dead last with a big gap to the next car. Took it steady for a couple of laps till the other cars had cleared most of the standing water, and was then able to up the pace passing several cars and coming home in 15th place behind Ed (though he was 17 secs down the road and not in sight). Fastest lap was 2:18.572.

For the second race, I fitted the 13” wets all round, so good grip but this dropped my top speed by 15mph as I was now hitting the rev limiter in top on the straights. I was next to Ed on the grid and it took me a few laps to get past. However, I had a black/orange for noise near the end of the race and took my last lap down the pit lane, but had worked my way to 10th with a 2:16.604.

Did a bit of work on the exhaust and they let me out again, this time with the 15” wets back on the back. There was a narrow drying line for most of the track, but also very greasy just off this line. As the wets are so old, this was not a problem and they were working well. I was holding position behind three cars waiting for them to sort themselves out before making a move, but then got called in again at the end of lap 2 for noise. I had posted a 2:10.297 on the second lap, with conditions improving all the time, so reckon I could have finished 7th.

Lessons learned:

After using Ian's 15” wets it confirmed the Mk4 is good in the wet with the race tyres on rather than List 1B’s (sidewalls way too stiff).

Whilst Tyre Leaders are selling the Toyos cheap, don’t rely on them for delivering them!

Bearing in mind these facts I now don’t intend to buy any more List 1B’s for the Mk4, but just use race tyres. I already have some suitable slicks and wets for the front, so I am now on the lookout for some 15” used slicks and wets for the rear. The A048's on the front of the Mk4 still have life in them, so they will probably go on the rear of the Mk2, as they are almost worn out.

All in all it was a cheap days motor racing on a great circuit that gave more insight into running the Mk4 in the wet.

Special thanks to Zoe for keeping me fed

a have alovely selection of 13" Acb10's. Proper race tyres

Finals and paddock plan are here:

http://www.msvracing.co.uk/cars/calendar/2015.aspx

No timetable or entry list yet. As well as the F4, theres going to be Ginetta Juniors and also Mini Se7en/Miglias, so should be some good racing.

Timetable and finals are here:

http://www.msvracing.co.uk/cars/calendar/2015.aspx

Note on the timetable that there will be fireworks after the racing on Sunday to celebrate Ed's and mine birthdays

Its looking a bit damp for the first part of Saturday, but Sunday looks OK if a bit windy.

I fixed the Mk2 last weekend and took it for a 25 mile run, so currently looking at getting the Mk2 on the rollers tomorrow, and taking that instead of the Mk4. However, if I don't manage to get it on the rollers, the silencer for the MK4 has been repacked.

Sounds like fun, if it was not November and I had some free time.

I hope to get there for 5 on Friday. Havnt had time to check but I assume that we can get scruted and signed on? before 6.30 ish????

I think you can sign-on the previous evening, but not sure about being able to get scrutineered. I hope to be there about 7.

They will tell you where to park, so please ask if they can save me a space next to you.

OK will do

The Mk2 was on the rolling road yesterday and the TPS/Megajolt laod settings were reset. Dropped the part load advance above 6,000 by a few degrees on the map, and by a couple of degrees above 5,000, as the detonation at Snetterton had occurred during going round Coram in 3rd (about 7,500rpm) and started whenever I was lifting slightly to stop the car drifting across the track, so suspected the part throttle extra advance was too much. Fuel mixture at high load was fine and a few degrees was taken out the max advance, which made three more HP, then put a couple back in made a little more. No sign of detonation during these runs, so hopefully the engine will be ok. Unable to do any power runs as the wheels were spinning (diffuser catching on rollers), so was doing acceleration runs against a set load of 180 lbs/ft on the rollers. However, I am hoping that it will only be a couple of HP down (lower comp ratio due to using a standard head gasket now) on when it was on the rollers last year.

So the plan is to take the MK2 this weekend and see how she goes. Don't reckon I will be there till 7:45 now.

Epic weekend of racing

Saturday was wet, but managed to get through scrutineering before the rain started. Wet qualifying and two wet races. Lots of action on first lap of first race, which resulted in a few retirements. However, had two fairly lonely races, but the Mk2 ran fine and no problems with the engine

Sunday was quite cold and the track was still damp from the day before so kept the wets on, then switched to slicks for the two races, though the track never completely dried out. Ed and I had two epic races and I will leave all the details till later, suffice to say that Ed took the chequered flag in the first race just 0.776 seconds ahead of me, but I had the fastest lap a mere 0.08 seconds faster than Ed. In the second race, I was first to the chequered flag by only .598 seconds, and this time Ed had the fastest lap just 0.141 seconds quicker than me. Consequently, you can imagine how much fun we had in those 20 minute races

down loading footage at the mo search ed fuller MSRV snetterton (predictive text!!)

Edit .......now changed to MSVR

Next lot on its way Search for ed fuller Snetterton MSVR Allcomers (still dont know how to edit!)

Thanks Ed

Race 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_KXt7zs6Xk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaHJgAOGaMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duRELD1817E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LAP5J9CY5s

Race 15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTBh1s5QYc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykx1E-Q8KQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2BkDEBwQ3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZiax1Dmzk

Great stuff

Part 3 of the first race had me giggling again, especially when the Caterham spins out through Riches

Lessons learned from the weekend are that I still need to sort out the exhaust manifold as it needed welding twice. Although the engine is solid mounted, I think the gearbox needs solid mounting as well as I could here something banging in the transmission tunnel area during some fairly aggressive tyre warming swerving during the green flag laps on the Sunday.

The rear end needs to be a bit more lively as the car has a tendency to understeer once settled into a corner. The car was fine through most of the corners, but noticeably slower through the middle part of Coram. I need to look at either increasing stiffness of the rear anti-roll bar, or making a stiffer one.

Racing on the slick racing tyres in the damp is so much easier than on the List 1B's as there is more feedback through the softer sidewalls and the car also responds quicker if things start to go wrong. The compound on the old FF front slicks I am using is way too old and hardened, but they are still much better than the 1B's.

Thankfully, the engine appears to be working OK and not detonating, plus I don't seem to have lost much power by retarding the ignition and also lowering the compression ratio.

Should I look at MSVR all commers insted of 750, the softer side walls of my Acb10 stock will come in handy.

Hi Jack,

I am still going to use List 1b tyres for things like the MGCC Heritage race as I still need them to run the car on the road. But for various allcomers races, I am looking at using old racing tyres instead, especially when they only cost me less than a tenner a corner.

I am just going to wait and see what allcomers races calendar MSVR come up with and whether it has a good mix of venues and dates. if that's the case, then I don't see the point of paying for 750MC membership and a guest fee of £25 per event to do the Sports Specials.

Billy,

I agree.
I am also waiting to see what MSVR come up with.
Unless I dig very deep into the back of my sofa, my car is not going to bag any pots in the 750mc.
It is fun and like for like but, I can not keep up with the money some of these chaps are pumping in.
I will keep the 1b's for posh raced and the ACb10's for the fun stuff.