Track car project - season 3

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Vix

Vix

Vix

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Season 1 thread:http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17834253&highlight=humphrey

Season 2 thread : http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17965778&highlight=humphrey

That's right, another year of racing for me and Phil, and of course our track car, Humphrey.

We have some more plans for the Humph this year although he is driveable at the moment. Pre season work has so far been as follows:

Moving of battery to front of car and replacement with a lightweight racing battery:

battery.jpg


Preparation for a chargecooler conversion - parts of which you can see in the pic above!

Because the battery has come out of the back, making sure the intercooler has something to sit on:

cooler.jpg


Internal and external kill switches for the battery:

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killswitch.jpg


Oil temp and boost gauges:

cockpit.jpg


Docking and power for Phil's Xmas pressie, a datalogger:

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This is pretty much how we will run him for our test day at Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire in 3 weeks time. Plans for the season include brake conversion, chargecooler, and perhaps a respray of nothing too bad happens!!

Toyota Sprint Season provisional dates and locations are as follows - give us a shout if you fancy coming along!

March 21st TSS Round 1 Rockingham
April 4th TSS Round 2 Barkston
June 6th TSS R3 Fakenham, Norfolk
July 24th TSS R4 Barkston
September 19th TSS R5 Woodbridge
October 16th TSS R6 Tockwith
 
Vix said:
...give us a shout if you fancy coming along!...

October 16th TSS R6 Tockwith
Click to expand...

It'd be rude not to for me! Have you seen their track before? I went along for the opening weekend last year and it seems alright, but no run off areas really :eek:

I look forward to the updates in this thread - the last 2 have made good reading :)
 
Very Cool!

Amazingly I've never heard of the Toyota Sprint Season! What is the series like to compete in? How 'serious' do people take it? The regulations don't look TOO strict (Not enough to prevent the car from being used day to day between events safety at least). I'd love to take part in something like that sometime!
 
Naf - shout us closer to the time - tickets are about £6 for spectators. Not seen the track before but am expecting it to be good if it's connected to the Tockwith Motorsports team!

Joshy - some people take it seriously, some just come a long in their dailies. The regs aren't to MSA spec so this makes it more accessible for those who want to compete with their own cars. You don't have to register for the full series either, you can just go to a one off event - you just wont earn points.

You don't need a Toyota anymore either as they have opened a novelty 'Class X' for those who want to have a go in a non Toyota car - again these don't earn points.

Check out http://www.toyota-sprint-series.com/forums/index.php for more details :)
 
I will do Vix, I really need to set about getting on the track myself - I had a chat with the lady who owns it (forget her name) with her husband a while back in our shop, I reckon I'll have a go before this years Nurburgring trip :D

The general consensus on PH was that it's an alright little track for blasting around, but not so much for a track day - so it should be fine for the sprints :)

There's a short video of a Caterham going round it: Clicky from when MinsterFM did a special event there last year. I'm unsure if they have done any more work to it though as whenever I go to our shop it's always either dark or I'm running late so can't go via the track for a look :(
 
Round 1 – Rockingham, Sunday 21st March 2010

We were approaching this round with some trepidation as last year saw us have a coolant issue, resulting in a trip to hospital for Phil! Coolant issue solved, and no major problems over the Winter, we were keep to actually get a time down at this event.

We stayed locally the night before, in order to get at the circuit for the 7:30 am start (urgh!). The first round is always a bit more hectic, as a lot of newcomers are milling around not sure what to do, and there is more to do generally with putting new sponsors stickers on the cars, buying our licences and generally trying to be prepared.

However, being in our third year now, Phil and I work like clockwork to sort everything out, and were scrutineered and noise tested (90db) quite early, leaving us time to find spare bits on the car to put stickers.

Once briefed, we were ready to make the sighting runs, giving us the first view of the track. It appeared to be the same as last years, from what we could remember, although other competitors were saying the corners appeared to be a little tighter.

The track used the fab banked oval at Rockingham, although cones marked out a bit of a layout so we wouldn’t just be driving round in circles all day!

We also had Phil’s new toy, a datalogger to play with, which would hopefully help me see where I was going too slow, and compare our good runs with our bad ones to see which were the best tactics!

Our first runs were 10 seconds apart and I felt I wasn’t getting anywhere. Phil was doing well and his times of around 94 seconds were competitive. Before lunch, I had managed to knock 5 seconds off my time, and Phil was nibbling away at his too. The car was going fine too, all was well!

Checking the data at lunchtime showed me a few places to get some speed in, and helped us work out when to be in what gear! In the afternoon, I started struggling with the gearbox, which hindered my progress, as it is really hard to change from 3rd to second, meaning the corners after long straights were taken slower than necessary. Grr. However I managed to get under 100 seconds by the end of the day, just, so I had achieved something!

Rockingham is mainly a power circuit so the MR2 was struggling a lot, and we didn’t expect any trophies. Phil was beaten by 2 turbo’d Starlets, a newcomer to the class pulling a fab time of 89.26, and the previous year winner getting 92.03 – Phil’s time being 93.10.

Of course I was last, but on pace for a change and we are looking forward to the next round in a fortnight, at our favourite track, one which rewards the nimble!

Pics later – at work at the mo ;)
 
Some track photos - non watermarked ones are by Norwich Motorsport Photography.

Phil looks on as Humph and I attack the straight:

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Phil driving - showing off the new sponsor stickers:

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Me driving and smiling:

IMG_4341.JPG


I guess I'd go quicker with my eyes open?

IMG_5314.JPG
 
Next track is our collective favourite - Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire. Not much time between rounds either, it's on Easter Sunday!
 
Oh, and I said I was last, but that was in my class, not overall, I actually did ok in the overall standings :D
 
They're not usually this close together, but we had round two on Easter Sunday.

Phil had changed the gearbox (in 5.5 hours, a new record!) for this event due to me needing two hands to change gear in the last one. As the weather had been shoddy, we hadn't had much chance to test it, but had at least checked it was still bolted on ;)

On our first practice run, Phil brought the car back to the paddock as he had difficult selecting second, urgh! I tried it on my run and yep, you felt like you were in second, til you lifted the clutch, and the car shouted at you. Back to the pits, and a few tie wraps later and the problem was bodged for the day. A rubber boot had come loose on the gear cable meaning that when you stretched the cable (ie selected a gear) it just sort of bunched up rather than stretched.

My target of the day was to beat my last year time of 66 seconds. Having done this on my second run, with a 63, I decided to try and get a sub 60 time, like the rest of my class!

Speaking of the rest of the class, the 300bhp Starlet was there again, so no sign of a big trohpy for us! Phil started focussing on a runner up time, and was fastest of the rest of the class by lunchtime with a 59.54.

We were't totally happy with the car though. We were seeming to have problems with getting the power down, and Phil was especially struggling with the starts. We were overtaken in the afternoon by the rest of the class and came home trophyless once again. There was only 3 hundredths of a second between Phil and the guy above him, it's not like we were well off the pace, just seemed to have a few niggles today.

Still, we have about 8 weeks to the next event so hopefully can have a good look at the car!
 
Round three - Sculthorpe, 6th June 2010

Our closest event, being but one hour away near the town Phil went to college in. Good job it's a local one as the tow car is still off the road, meaning it's an MR2 convoy early Sunday morning.

We had a bit of a hectic week as Humphrey is in the bodyshop and should have had his new coat of paint on for this weekend. Unfortunately he didn't so we had to spend Friday and Saturday making him sprint-worthy again. The regs say no primer or sharp edges, so we had to rattle can all the primed bits red, and re attach all the trim. So by Sunday we were pretty much shattered!

The other disadvantage of having Humph in the bodyshop was that we hadn't much of a chance to drive him and make any necessary tweaks. The first problem was that the new race battery had gone flat and didn't seem to be charging, however a few phone calls later got us a local friend with a spare!

The second problem arose on the route to the airfield, at about 7am Sunday morning, ugh.

broken.jpg


I actually think Phil is kicking the car in this pic :p The brakes had started binding and the pdeal had gone very hard. Phil had to get rid of some of the pressure in the braking system before we would continue.

However we got there in good time and started setting up:

paddock.jpg


Sakura looked after some of our sprinting tools:

sakura.jpg


Until we got the tent set up. We're looking quite pro now!

tent.jpg


Anyway, we were soon scrutineered, signed on and ready to do on a few sighting laps. We had been warned that the track was evil - 2 miles of airfield, and once the sighting laps were done, I could see why. It was a rally track! There was grass, mud, gravel, surface changes, still looked like fun though.

Two practice runs were had, no problems to report, then a slight hiatus whilst some bales on track were moved to apparently stop us driving into a container that the farmer had forgotten to move! hmm.

Phil's first run was 125.56, a few second off the pace, and mine was 133.93, fairly slow. Second run, Phil shaved some time off with a 124.10 and I had a happy play and got 130.80, which was to be my fasted time of the day!

Last run before lunch, Phil had a moment and got a 126.46, I had a bigger moment and got a 138.13!!

Lunch came and went and the day got hotter and more humid, although a large black cloud promised rain. Rain is fun and everything but we both knew there was more time to be had out of the car, and a wet track wouldn't help.

We managed a dry run four, Phil getting a 122.76, me having another massive tank slapper and getting a 137.10. Run five was also fine and Phil got his fastest time, a 122.21, me taking it easy got a 133.66.

The weather then arrived as I was queueing for run 6, and the timing equipment also failed which meant all timing stopped at run 5.

The fastest time in our class was 115.94, although this is from the car which is overpowered for the class. Runner up was 119.47 so Phil was still quite far off. We're still unsure as to whether the power is all there, and need to look into this!

Fastest time of the day was series founder, Adrian Smith in a Celica GT4-X with 103.49. That car was zooming!!
 
Went to help a mate with his rally cross car at Tockwith.. We found it lacking some what.

Try not to over steer and go off in field either, as there is a bit of a bank and from what we watched.. can flip a car quite easily.

Nice thread and looks like you are having lots of fun :D
 
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