TheCracker's 2011 race season - Silverstone Finals - Video up!
- Thread starter TheCracker
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Getting to the bottom of why they're not working efficiently is the tricky bit. Being non-road legal means trying things trial and error style leaves you with only qualifying and race sessions to see if what you've done has had any positive or negative results. A strip down and re-build during the off-season will probably do the trick.
At the moment they're working well enough, just not as well as they should do or have done in the past. They're not giving me the confidence to break late and therefore not able to out brake someone into a corner. It also makes me cautious in situations where a slower car may or may not close the door on me between turn-in and apex. On the up side, i'm consequently carrying more speed into medium and slow-speed turns then i previously thought possible!
- 23,448
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Silverstone Finals - Oct 22nd
In-car camera unfortunately didn't work last weekend (due mainly to me failing to press the record button...
)
Thankfully somebody recorded it from the BRDC stand. Quality isn't great, but that's only to be expected with the given tools.
Brief race report: Qualified 7th out of 41, which was nice. Brakes felt better. Diff/final drive ratio still wasn't really suitable for the circuit. So considering those points and the fact that there's only 4 real corners on Silverstone's National layout, i was quite pleased.
Pulled into the pits before the session ended due to the radiator overflow leaking and covering the screen, and some rattling that had started to get pretty bad. Post qualifying inspection showed that the manifold pipe on cylinder number 3 had lost one of the stud-bolt and nut that holds it in place and the remaining nut had worked itself loose. A spare stud and bolt was sourced, but due to it's location on the block and the way each separate pipe in the manifold wraps around each other, it's not a simple fix. We botched it together as best we could and were confident we had solved the rattle.
The warm-up lap before the race indicated that our botch had worked, so all i had to worry about as we lined up on the grid was making an uncharacteristic decent get away. Lights went out and i finally managed to nail it, passing a slow starting Falcon around the outside of Copse. I found myself on the dirty outside line at the Maggotts hairpin and ran wide on cold brakes and tyres losing about four places in the process. Spent the next 7 or 8 laps in a great tussle with an Alfa Giulia, another Cortina and a couple of Anglias.
All was good until we caught some back markers on the run down to the fast right hander at Copse. By this time we'd dropped the other Cortina slightly and as we braked and turned into the corner we were a tightly packed train of four. The first 3 cars got through ok but as i drifted through the apex i could see that one of the lapped cars, an Imp, had seen us coming and taken a wide line through the turn. Unfortunately my tight line and his wide one were about to cross/meet at the exact same section of tarmac. I tried to tighten my line slightly but managed only to tip the finely balanced car into oversteer. I ever-so-slightly tapped the Imp, but it was enough to send me into a spin back across the track. Luckily no one collected me and i ended up on the narrowing strip of grass between the track and the longer of the two pit exits. With the car stalled and the starter motor not working i had to retire. Or so i thought.
By the time the marshals had pushed me to the barrier and i'd got out and taken my helmet off, i could see red flags being waved. Over the marshal's radio i could hear that an incident at the other end of the circuit had left a car stranded in a dangerous position. Further info told us once it had been recovered the race would begin again as a five-lap sprint race. i pilled back into the car and got the marshals to push start me. I would have to take the re-start from the end of the pitlane and from the back of the pack, but at least i'd get a finish.
Five or so minutes later the start lights went out again and the pack went passed. Once clear, the 3 or 4 cars and myself lining up at the end of the pitlane were waved off. We'd already caught some of the slower cars by the end of the back straight, so were back in the thick of things fairly quickly. Accelerating out of the Maggotts hairpin on the 2nd lap there was a huge bang from the back of the car and the revs flaired. I knocked it out of gear straight away and coasted off to a suitable parking spot. Race prematurely ended. For a second time.
Didn't have chance to look at what had caused it, but we suspect it's either the diff or a half-shaft. It's possible that the slight rattle i heard at the beginning of qualifying was something quite separate from the exhaust manifold, and an early sign of something well on it's way to failing. Looking at the video footage below, although there's a lot of cement dust on the racing line, it looks as if my car is finding it where other cars don't. Could be that something mechanical is struggling and producing smoke too.
Disappointing to end on this note after a full season and a half of almost no troubles, but that's historic motorsport for you. On the plus side, collisions and mechanical failures aside, i would have had the pace for a 5th, 4th or even 3rd place finish.
Classic 3-wheeling LC action:
In-car camera unfortunately didn't work last weekend (due mainly to me failing to press the record button...
)Thankfully somebody recorded it from the BRDC stand. Quality isn't great, but that's only to be expected with the given tools.
Pulled into the pits before the session ended due to the radiator overflow leaking and covering the screen, and some rattling that had started to get pretty bad. Post qualifying inspection showed that the manifold pipe on cylinder number 3 had lost one of the stud-bolt and nut that holds it in place and the remaining nut had worked itself loose. A spare stud and bolt was sourced, but due to it's location on the block and the way each separate pipe in the manifold wraps around each other, it's not a simple fix. We botched it together as best we could and were confident we had solved the rattle.
The warm-up lap before the race indicated that our botch had worked, so all i had to worry about as we lined up on the grid was making an uncharacteristic decent get away. Lights went out and i finally managed to nail it, passing a slow starting Falcon around the outside of Copse. I found myself on the dirty outside line at the Maggotts hairpin and ran wide on cold brakes and tyres losing about four places in the process. Spent the next 7 or 8 laps in a great tussle with an Alfa Giulia, another Cortina and a couple of Anglias.
All was good until we caught some back markers on the run down to the fast right hander at Copse. By this time we'd dropped the other Cortina slightly and as we braked and turned into the corner we were a tightly packed train of four. The first 3 cars got through ok but as i drifted through the apex i could see that one of the lapped cars, an Imp, had seen us coming and taken a wide line through the turn. Unfortunately my tight line and his wide one were about to cross/meet at the exact same section of tarmac. I tried to tighten my line slightly but managed only to tip the finely balanced car into oversteer. I ever-so-slightly tapped the Imp, but it was enough to send me into a spin back across the track. Luckily no one collected me and i ended up on the narrowing strip of grass between the track and the longer of the two pit exits. With the car stalled and the starter motor not working i had to retire. Or so i thought.
By the time the marshals had pushed me to the barrier and i'd got out and taken my helmet off, i could see red flags being waved. Over the marshal's radio i could hear that an incident at the other end of the circuit had left a car stranded in a dangerous position. Further info told us once it had been recovered the race would begin again as a five-lap sprint race. i pilled back into the car and got the marshals to push start me. I would have to take the re-start from the end of the pitlane and from the back of the pack, but at least i'd get a finish.
Five or so minutes later the start lights went out again and the pack went passed. Once clear, the 3 or 4 cars and myself lining up at the end of the pitlane were waved off. We'd already caught some of the slower cars by the end of the back straight, so were back in the thick of things fairly quickly. Accelerating out of the Maggotts hairpin on the 2nd lap there was a huge bang from the back of the car and the revs flaired. I knocked it out of gear straight away and coasted off to a suitable parking spot. Race prematurely ended. For a second time.
Didn't have chance to look at what had caused it, but we suspect it's either the diff or a half-shaft. It's possible that the slight rattle i heard at the beginning of qualifying was something quite separate from the exhaust manifold, and an early sign of something well on it's way to failing. Looking at the video footage below, although there's a lot of cement dust on the racing line, it looks as if my car is finding it where other cars don't. Could be that something mechanical is struggling and producing smoke too.
Disappointing to end on this note after a full season and a half of almost no troubles, but that's historic motorsport for you. On the plus side, collisions and mechanical failures aside, i would have had the pace for a 5th, 4th or even 3rd place finish.
Classic 3-wheeling LC action:
Last edited:
- 7,113
- Lisboa
- FLAT_TWELVE
Hey, video is nice and shows you've mastered the "save your front-left tire" technique! 
It was a bit cruel to have the race ending like that, after what happened. But anyway, it's all part of racing historical (and even non-historical) cars
Looking at the footage I wonder if I would ever be able to race a car for real like you do. I think I would chicken out, afraid of wrecking my car, or others' cars ...
It was a bit cruel to have the race ending like that, after what happened. But anyway, it's all part of racing historical (and even non-historical) cars
Looking at the footage I wonder if I would ever be able to race a car for real like you do. I think I would chicken out, afraid of wrecking my car, or others' cars ...
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- GTP_TheCracker
A bit of light damage is unavoidable, but with historic motorsport at least, people don't really want to bend their cars, so drive accordingly. Panels even for production based cars like ours, are hard to come by and therefore expensive.
- 23,448
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
- 23,448
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
The car was raced at Cadwell last weekend (i couldn't make it). The front calipers were re-built over the winter after i'd complained about the car not stopping well last season, but a seal failed on one of the rear ones during qualifying and all the fluid got pumped out over the track. Fixed over night, but during race one the front left wing got crumpled at the hairpin due to a damp patch under some of the overhanging trees. Apparently the fresh engine wasn't running well either - which could be down to water getting into some of the electrics when the radiator hose failed at Silverstone at the end of last season.
We should be out at Silverstone in the beginning of May, possibly with the second car too, so fingers crossed.
We should be out at Silverstone in the beginning of May, possibly with the second car too, so fingers crossed.
