My British Racing Green '99 NB

[Trackphotos]

Had a great day at QR yesterday, improved by Clubman and Sprint layout times by 1.1 seconds each down to 65.9 and 62.3 respectively. Didn't have the gopro pointed quite high enough, so it exposed for inside the cabin and blew the highlights out on the outside view.

As expected, my new steering wheel kit turned up at home while I was at QR. Would've been nice to have it in for the track day, but oh well, no big deal.

Sprint PB:


Clubman PB:



And the new bits. Lots of room getting in and out when there's no wheel fitted, who'd have thought, right?

[Trackphotos]

Fun calendar ahead. Taking 3 days off work in July for track stuff.

June 20th - Lotus Club short track sprints at Lakeside on the driver training circuit. Only do about 7 minutes of track time across the day, more a social event than anything. They've always been fun.
July 11th - Hillclimb at Mt Cotton. It's a 2-day meeting, but I'm supposed to be working both days and can only justify one day off, so Saturday it is. Will see if I can get down to the 52s this time, although it appears I may have to run on my RSRs rather than my semis because NT01s aren't on the approved production car tyre list to run under Production Sports 1600-2000cc. Not interested in championship points, so maybe I'll be able to run on the NT01s anyway.
July 20th - Lakeside club day. Expecting a high 64, hoping for a low one. Would be ecstatic if I found the improvement in pace I found at QR, it would put me toward 63s if I did.
July 28th - Formula Ford Experience at Lakeside. 15 laps, praying for good weather and no traffic. I've heard from some people that they have gotten stuck behind other drivers so slow that they took over 2 minutes to complete a lap, which is an average speed of 72kmh; literally road speeds. I get that there's some apprehension in driving a race car for the first time, not wanting to risk damaging anything etc, but to go that slow tells me you shouldn't be on the track at all.

[Trackphotos]

Had fun at the lotus club timed laps thing on Lakeside's DTC. Ended up 14th of 32 entries, although I didn't actually check my laptimes until after I was packing up for the day. Turns out all 8 laps were within 7 tenths of a second, quickest was 54.2 and slowest was 54.9. I was mostly just having fun getting sideways here and there, I had forgotten how loose road tyres are compared to semis, particularly when you attack the brakes hard. Lots of fun, looking forward to the next one.


First lap of the day, very loose as I discovered the grip difference on road tyres. 54.9:


Last and quickest lap of the day, 54.2:

[Trackphotos]

Ran Mt cotton yesterday. Only did 4 runs, and unfortunately the timing system died after the first one so the rest weren't timed. Hand timing my on board footage though, my last run seems to be between 52.8 and 53.0, so I'm calling it a 52.9 and claiming 3 tenths improvement over last time. Had a little twitch at lover's leap exiting the first loop, but didn't get out of shape. Much more fun at Mt cotton with oem sway bars in, the car isn't so close to oversteer at the slightest hint of lifting the throttle.

[Trackphotos]

After 51 weeks away from Lakeside, in the dry at least, I ran the club day today. Somehow I managed to obliterate my previous best of 65.7, ending the day with two 63.8 second laps back to back in the final session. That put me fifth outright, and the quickest naturally aspirated car of the day. The phone lied to me in the first session and claimed I did a 63.2, which was disappointing after realising, but to come back only 6 tenths behind that, I'm very happy. Natsoft confirms both 63.8s, so I'm confident it's legit.

[Trackphotos]

Miataroadster short shifter arrived today. Chucked it in, first drive and it's clear how much of an improvement it is over stock. As good as the 5 speed is normally, this is something else. I chose the tall angled version, which puts the shift knob 3" taller and closer to the wheel. It feels natural, the throw takes about the same strength but the changes feel smoother, less notchy. Can definitely say that this will be fun on a track.

[Lokiel]

First time I've heard a report from a 5-speed with this shifter - it really improves the 6-speed's feel (and allows you to find reverse every time) but I didn't expect much difference in the 5-speed, other than being better positioned by being closer to the steering wheel.

Wish I could get one for my SP23 too - it's great in the SE but always takes a few gear shifts to get used to again when I mostly drive the SP23. The SP23's gearknob always feels like it's miles away when I switch back to it.

[Trackphotos]

Ran my 15 laps of Lakeside in a Formula Ford today. Incident-free (for me, at least), lots of fun. Gearbox was a bit crunchy getting into fourth, I suppose that's to be expected with hire cars. There was also a misfire exiting karussel each lap, bogged down a bit but only for a second or so, cleared up before the crest each time. Ran 7 laps, got flagged in for end of session. They asked me to slow down a bit on the corners, made sure my wrists hadn't started cramping up, and sent me back out again straight away. Another 8 laps, slower this time, but still heaps of fun.

It was surprisingly comfortable, no bruises or anything appearing, no sore arms/knees etc. Dad handtimed me at ~67ish seconds on one lap, but when the onboard footage turns up in a month or so, I'll time them out more precisely. All in all, totally worth the cost to do it at Lakeside. Would have passed on it if it were QR.

[Trackphotos]

Drove down to Racer Industries this morning and picked up a new race suit. The old one was a chemically-treated kart suit, not intended to be very fire-resistant. So new Sparco Sprint RS-2, two layer nomex one. More comfortable than the old one, a better fit, and no heavier. Maybe a little warmer, but not a lot. Also shortly after I got back, the Adaptronic ecu I ordered on Wednesday night turned up. That'll have to wait til after open sprints at Lakeside next weekend to go in, but I'm looking forward to playing around with it. As long as it's not as dodgy as the megasquirt was, it should be fun.

[Trackphotos]

I put the Adaptronic in the other day, running on the factory narrowband o2 sensor since I hadn't looked into how it would interface with the Adaptronic compared to the Megasquirt. Using the base map, it started up and idled smoothly immediately. Tiny little bit of hunting when coming back to idle from throttle, but only for a second or two. Even the AC idle-up worked perfectly without any tweaking. Basically it's everything the Megasquirt failed at being, so that's a nice change. The service from Mark at Adaptronic has been impressive too. I've ordered a cable to link it to the ecu, but for now I've swapped the oem ecu back in. Will run the open sprints at Lakeside on saturday, then I'll put the Adaptronic back in and start fiddling with things.

[Trackphotos]

Ran the open sprints at Lakeside yesterday. Car was slippery, more prone to sliding out than it was last time. No changes, same hot tyre pressures. Probably just me overdriving. Did 3 sessions, managed 64.2 on the third session with a couple of little mistakes. Line through Karussel was wrong, Hungry was skatey and I kicked the back end out at Eastern Loop by braking too hard right before turn-in. Vmax by Karussel was 175kmh, so not down on power compared to the last club day where I did a 63.8. Just my driving I guess. Now I need to get the tyres flipped on the rims, since the outside treadblocks on two of them are almost completely devoid of tread now.

[Trackphotos]

Since the open sprints are done and I won't be on track again for another month, I reinstalled the Adaptronic and went for a short drive. 100% unmodified base map, and still running on the narrowband sensor because I forgot to set it to use the wideband through the serial input. Rough start is due to the dodgy coilpack plug I still haven't fixed, rich on cold start but quickly leveled off. Based on 3km of driving, very impressed. Strong idle, acceleration enrichment is very good right off the bat, maybe a little bit abrupt on and off throttle but nothing major. Even the overrun fuel cut is enabled by default and works perfectly, AC idle-up and rad fan load accounted for etc too. Incredible the difference between the Adaptronic and the Megasquirt I fought with before.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEOzHkvaPqI[/youtube]

[Trackphotos]

Think I'm going to have to finally commit to a method of getting more camber. Still thick enough tread on the tyres, but the wear is uneven enough for me to be unhappy about it. Considering going the eccentric bush way for more camber, since the only other ways are to drop it more than I want to, or to do some largely illegal mods to the suspension arms. Suppose I'll just have to deal with having to regrease the bushes every now and then. 3.5deg front and 3deg rear is the goal, bushes should do the job.

[The American]

I wonder if anyone here has experience with the V8Roadater arms?

[Trackphotos]

Did the oil and filter this morning. Suppose it was about due, 800km on track and probably 2000km on the road since the last one. Might have to be more careful to keep on top of that next time.