Brands Hatch GP

As an extra event in the TTRS calendar there was a single race at Brands Hatch on the GP circuit.

Arriving in the paddock I discovered that the car is very hard to start with its new map. Heading for the 15 minute qualifying session the car was running very badly and I headed out onto the circuit with very limited power and an engine that seemed like it would only run on three cylinders. Suddenly after three laps it burst into life and decided to perform flawlessly.

In qualifying I spent a few laps getting used to the new part of the circuit and scored a time of 1.51.2 for a grid position of 14th. During qualifying I noticed that the brake bias means that the back likes to come loose during heavy braking and when the tyres get hot the back gets very ragged making it difficult to get on the power in the exit of corners.

I called Luke from Enhanced Performance who set the car up about the poor running and he came with his laptop at short notice to adjust the cold fuelling map. This had the effect of making the car run better at lower temperatures.

Joe my racing partner and I softended the rear damping to try to cure the power on oversteer and we elected to ignore the rear brake bias for now.

The race itself was great. The first and second laps I spent trying to pull away from better handling lower power cars and eventually got free on the third lap to spend the next four laps chasing Brian Jordan in his big BMW 635. I followed him getting closer and closer and took an opportunity at the sharp Surtees bend where he ran wide. I pulled through on the inside, controlled a small powerslide and pulled away to the chequered flag half a lap later.

A great image of the Cosworth following Brian Jordan's BMW 635:



And the Cosworth in qualifying and trying to escape from Matt Knight's Corsa:

Having started 14th I was pleased to finish 11th. Best lap 1.51.4. All timings from the TSL Timing site.

Here's a video of the race from a BMW E30 further down the field:

And some action in qualifying showing my car at the start of the vid:


And another view of the race, just behind me at the start:

Brands Hatch

Had an annoying first race of the season at Brands Hatch in March. The car handled well and felt well balanced but had developed a misfire at 4,500rpm and it would not rev any higher. Through qualiying and two races we failed to diagnose the problem and I finished both races well down the field. We changed the plugs and checked the electrics and sensors.

After getting the car home I got some advice and checked the phase sensor and the crank position sensor which turned out to be out of adjustment. I adjusted this to 0.8mm and the car seems to be working well now. Next race is at Silverstone National on April 19th.

First race finished 22nd, second race finished 19th. Best lap time was 1.00.5. All timings from the TSL Timing site.

Testing at Brands

Had a day at Brands and had a few problems with the car but we got the front suspension adjusted OK and did a few laps. I discovered that one of the front hubs I fitted has a bent plate which causes one of the front wheels to wobble so I need to sort this out before the first race.

Here's a pic in the paddock showing the dream team - Charlie left, Joe right.



Some technical stuff: We set the front tracking to 1.5mm toe out measured at the tyre wall. I drove with the dampers set at full stiffness and the car kangarooed down the straight at Brands. Then we went for half stiffness with an improvement - the car felt less inclined to power slide on exit from corners. We finished the day with the car set at 25% stiffness - halfway between fully soft and the mid point. The dampers have 18 clicks of adjustment on the front and around 44 clicks of adjustment at the back. For the front we wound 14 clicks back from the stiffest setting. On the back we wound back to full softness and added 10 clicks.

We set the front and rear ride heights roughly but need to take a measure from a point on the ground to a point on the car to make sure this is accurate. Currently I feel the rear suspension is too low, we'll test this with the thermometer which should tell us if we have too much camber.

Thanks again to Joe for taking notes.