Post by DocJock on Nov 29, 2013 9:52:01 GMT
Sunday, May 18, 2008
1187 Miles, average 17.3MPG Big fuck off smile
Got my datalogger back from Race Technology on the Friday afternoon and as soon as i finished work rushed out to do some soldering, the GPS lock light was working but the status light in the centre of the stop start button wasn't. Took the dash apart (again) and found that a friends soldering work way even rubbisher than mine, nipped to Maplin to get another 1k resistor, resoldered, dash back together and all was working well. it wouldn't be the same without some last minutes repairs would it?
Sat morning and up early as I had to pop in to see Faz on the way, i had Jon (JON from here) in the car and was followed by Dave in the blue M3. Chris in his Alfa + passengers was going to meet us at Clacket services. Faz was his normal self but I couldn't convince him to come despite trying.
Off to Clacket where Chris turned up late then off to Folkstone at a high cruising speed as we were running behind. I was pulled over in the car park by my good friends the police for having an illegal front number plate but they were nice enough about it, no gripes there. New one is on it's way.
Met with that twat Manny at the petrol station in Calais and off we headed towards the 'ring.
After about 100 miles Manny needed a piss and as he was leading the convoy we all ended up in the services, seemed like a decent chance to fill up and everyone did apart from Chris as "we've only done 100 miles, why should I fill up". Me telling him that we wouldn't stop again before the 'ring made no difference as the stuborn twat had made his mind up (either that or he was trying to impress everyone with how frugal his lifestyle estate is). The next part of the journey consisted of Manny and I crusing at decent speeds while Chris completely failed to drive in convoy and kept getting left behind with Dave following him. If it were me I'd have overtaken him and joined in the fun at the front but Dave is a very calm and patient man (something that was to be tested this weekend)! At one point Manny had a wobble while cornering at about 130mph, it looked quite funny from behind Big fuck off smile I decided to show Manny what an extra 150bhp looked like at one point and everything was going swimmingly apart from Jon constantly complaining about the ride quality of my car Wink
ring ring, ring ring.
"Hello, it's Kevin (Chris's passenger), Chris is going to run out of petrol" - what a fucking twat (Chris, not Kevin).
Manny's TomTom was apparently unaware that a large part of our route had a blockade across it and was shut so we pulled over and wondered which way to go. At this point Chris threatened to hit me (very funny) as it was my fault he was going to run out of fuel of something, retard. I pointed out that perhaps if he'd filled up when every other car in the convoy had he'd not be in theis prediciment.
Manny rerouted us and off we set with instructions to stop for petrol whenever we saw it. Eventually we got to the 'ring, went and found Danny near the F1 circuit then went to the hotel (tiergarten was full so I was elsewhere) and checked in. After dumping the stuff we met up with Dangerous Dave's parents, sister, missus and kids who were over to scatter his ashes and see what all the fuss was about. Getting to the circuit involved a 15 min discussion on who was going in which car for a 5 min journey Wink
Once at the circuit Dave's dad Terry hopped in the back alongside Manny and Jon sat in the front, went out and did a vital sighting lap. it is fair to say that the good people at Intrax had not anticipated 2 large fellas in the back of the car and the karousell when they developed the suspension. Crunch crunch, scrape, followed by some smoke out the back and a curious smell of plastic being melted. Nice. the queue to get off the circuit was huge and whilst we were queuing in it the heat got the better of Terry who was sick in the back - nice work keeping it contained in his hands though, was much appreciated! We dropped him off and he walked back to the car park. Did one other lap with just Kevin and I in the car and that felt much better apart from the front brakes locking really, really easily on the bumpy surface. The turn in wasn’t all that but that was expected with the camber I was running.
Back at the circuit I asked Dave if he'd been out - "er, no. I've locked my keys in the boot". lol Big fuck off smile Unlucky Dave strikes again! He was surprisingly calm about the whole thing despite being stuck in racing boots due to his shoes also being in the boot Wink
After the obligitary 15 min conversation about who was sitting where a few of us then went to PF to say goodbye to dangerous Dave, it was quite horrible to be honest as it bought up a lot of stuff that I thought I'd dealt with and moved on from, was nice all the same in a weird way and cool that he is left at one of his favourite corners (just before the jump).
We had a table booked at the PK for 20:30 so at 20:25 I tried to round up the troops for the short drive there. 15 mins later after some world class faffing about and discussing who was sitting where we got into the cars and drove the 5 mins there Wink
The PK was rammed and the service worse than I've ever seen, not really an issue but for 2 very sleepy kids who wanted their beds! Early night as I wanted to be up early to we headed back to the hotel after 15 mins of buggering about decided who was sitting where. I ended up with Lorna + the 2 nippers in my car so just drove off to get the kids in bed ASAP. After that we headed to the bar at the hotel for a quick nightcap. After about 20 mins I got a drunken, abusive phone call from Chris for driving off and not waiting for him. To clarify I had been to the hotel the same number of times as he had (once) and the directions were turn left, turn right, keep on until you see the hotel.
Next morning I was up at 6:30, showered & breakfasted early and arrived at www.rsrnurburg.com with Jon and Dave at 7:30 to use their trolley jack (cheers Dale, owe you one) and for Dave to ask advice from Ed on what to do about his keys that were still in the boot of his car in the ‘ring carpark. This was the first time I’d changed the camber and I was pretty please with how easy it was. Jack up the side, undo 5 bolts, push wheel inwards and do up bolts. While there I took 3 clicks out of the front of the car to try and get more grip at the front for braking.
What a fucking difference! The front end was fucking awesome (Jon drove it and thought it to be on a par with his GT2), so much turn in and grip, the suspension has made the car feel simply awesome. Did 4 laps in the morning, 2 with Jon and 2 with Sean, Tom Schirmer turned up and freed Dave’s keys from his boot allowing him to do a lap where his PAS seemed to fail leaving him with heavy steering. We then headed off back to the hotel to check out. The ‘ring was mentally busy, queues for the roundabout were just silly, there were about 4 or 5 proper length closures throughout the day. During one of the closures AC, CG + Stee from www.axisofoversteer.com came and said hello, really cool guys, shame we were off to Spa as it’d have been nice to spend the evening chewing the fat with them). I managed another lap with Dave in the passenger seat where in which Sean followed me out and didn’t come past for the first time ever! Big fuck off smile Big fuck off smile Big fuck off smile, another with Greg who pointed out some useful things regarding braking in certain areas and a further one with Chris. One this one there was a bike off at Brunchen and we cruised back into the queue for the car park to see the ‘ring was shut and a while later were told that is how it would stay for the day. Overall a good day, am quicker there than I have been before and have some key things to work on - AngstKurve, right before Karousell that I can never spell, braking for H Acht and general entry speed, often find myself braking too much, turning in and accelerating hard well before the apex, lack of confidence in my ability to get the car turned in that needs to be overcome.
Back to RSR to change the camber back to road settings, met Carlos there who had managed 19 laps that day, good work! Dinner at the PK with the normal we should do the VLN & 24H conversation Wink before heading off to Belgium to Greg’s place.
Woke the next morning to the stunning views surrounding Greg’s house and headed down to the circuit early, changing my camber involved borrowing a trolley jack from Manny and then going off to find a paving slab + a brick to drive onto in order to be able to fit said jack under the car (need to buy some wood to take with me in future). Noticed that the induction flap in the intake system was sticking – something to get sorted… I set the dampers using some settings from a fellow Intrax user and trundled out for my first session.
Hmmm. Car didn’t feel great, ABS cutting in very early, even at high speeds at the end of Kemel. Turn in was fan fucking tastic though and the suspension was still subtle enough to ride the curbs which was validation of what I’d been expecting from the dampers.
The garage next to us had a guy from Luxemburg in, his car was an E36 M3 GT with 2 turbos, suspension, half cage & the ceramic brakes from a McLaren Mercedes SLR Cool as fuck He was having some issues with over fuelling though and were trying to find the cause. In the end they got it sorted, dodgy soldering on a resistor in the MAF wiring. Nice guys though, one of his mates was a data engineer and another was an F3 driver who gave me some useful things to think about regarding steering technique.
Next session out and Manny jumped in the scary seat, car felt much better though the brakes were still hitting ABS a bit too much, traffic was an issue but it was in this session that I did a 2:57, my previous best was 2:59 and was with a clear lap so that shows the difference the suspension has made. The datalogger shows my theoretical best lap to be 2:52 (I know that this doesn’t work 100% as a good sector time could compromise the following sector). My target next time out is a 2:55 and I think that should be achievable. Also interesting in the logger is the throttle pattern, I was getting on the throttle too early, coming off it, getting back on it, coming off it and finally getting back on it for good, loads of time to come though building it more progressively and not too soon. Also some further proof of something that DJ picked up on a few years back where I’ll build the throttle gradually to a certain level then pause, straighten the car out and increase to 100% throttle in one hit. I know that some may consider the logger to be too geeky but it really shows me where I can improve so I’m dead pleased with it!
More sessions followed, took Dave out, one of the guys from the next garage, a fellow CSL owner, Gerry & an instructor. The instruction wasn’t quite was I was hoping for – more lines than driving technique and the instructors main idea on how to improve my lap times was to learn to left foot brake, Spa wasn’t really the time and the place for that but I’m gonna look into buying the auto brake pedal to allow easier access for LFB.
While out with the instructor I overcooked the exit of Phouon and ripped a brake duct off on the grass – lucky I did as it meant I saw the inside of the front right tyre which was somewhat fucked and meant an end to my day. Not sure if it is as a result of the ABD triggering, not enough weight transfer, too much camber? Camber set back, dampers backed off and I jumped in with first Sean and then Manny for p-rides. Spazzers car felt a bit rubbish at the front end but Manny was on the case – funny as fuck with powerful cars coming past him then getting blue flagged up Eau Rouge Big fuck off smile after that a slow trundle home. Finished the trip with a launch control at the services Big fuck off smile
Spoke to Simpsons who think that softening the front a little and stiffening the back will get more weight transfer and sort the ABS issues, I wonder if you could also just raise the rear a little bit? Will get it booked in a take their advice. The front right is a known thing apparently, they were saying when racing they could get 4 hours from a set of slicks anywhere in the UK and at Spa the front right only lasted an hour. The fact that I am getting similar wear patterns shows I’m not doing anything too spastic. Think I will investigate full slicks for trackdays and I can’t afford to murder cup tyres at that rate! Will show them pics of the wear as it may be I have too much camber for my driving style? Will get to the bottom of it I'm sure.
Overall happy with how the car behaved and a good trip. Looking forward to August Big fuck off smile
1187 Miles, average 17.3MPG Big fuck off smile
Got my datalogger back from Race Technology on the Friday afternoon and as soon as i finished work rushed out to do some soldering, the GPS lock light was working but the status light in the centre of the stop start button wasn't. Took the dash apart (again) and found that a friends soldering work way even rubbisher than mine, nipped to Maplin to get another 1k resistor, resoldered, dash back together and all was working well. it wouldn't be the same without some last minutes repairs would it?
Sat morning and up early as I had to pop in to see Faz on the way, i had Jon (JON from here) in the car and was followed by Dave in the blue M3. Chris in his Alfa + passengers was going to meet us at Clacket services. Faz was his normal self but I couldn't convince him to come despite trying.
Off to Clacket where Chris turned up late then off to Folkstone at a high cruising speed as we were running behind. I was pulled over in the car park by my good friends the police for having an illegal front number plate but they were nice enough about it, no gripes there. New one is on it's way.
Met with that twat Manny at the petrol station in Calais and off we headed towards the 'ring.
After about 100 miles Manny needed a piss and as he was leading the convoy we all ended up in the services, seemed like a decent chance to fill up and everyone did apart from Chris as "we've only done 100 miles, why should I fill up". Me telling him that we wouldn't stop again before the 'ring made no difference as the stuborn twat had made his mind up (either that or he was trying to impress everyone with how frugal his lifestyle estate is). The next part of the journey consisted of Manny and I crusing at decent speeds while Chris completely failed to drive in convoy and kept getting left behind with Dave following him. If it were me I'd have overtaken him and joined in the fun at the front but Dave is a very calm and patient man (something that was to be tested this weekend)! At one point Manny had a wobble while cornering at about 130mph, it looked quite funny from behind Big fuck off smile I decided to show Manny what an extra 150bhp looked like at one point and everything was going swimmingly apart from Jon constantly complaining about the ride quality of my car Wink
ring ring, ring ring.
"Hello, it's Kevin (Chris's passenger), Chris is going to run out of petrol" - what a fucking twat (Chris, not Kevin).
Manny's TomTom was apparently unaware that a large part of our route had a blockade across it and was shut so we pulled over and wondered which way to go. At this point Chris threatened to hit me (very funny) as it was my fault he was going to run out of fuel of something, retard. I pointed out that perhaps if he'd filled up when every other car in the convoy had he'd not be in theis prediciment.
Manny rerouted us and off we set with instructions to stop for petrol whenever we saw it. Eventually we got to the 'ring, went and found Danny near the F1 circuit then went to the hotel (tiergarten was full so I was elsewhere) and checked in. After dumping the stuff we met up with Dangerous Dave's parents, sister, missus and kids who were over to scatter his ashes and see what all the fuss was about. Getting to the circuit involved a 15 min discussion on who was going in which car for a 5 min journey Wink
Once at the circuit Dave's dad Terry hopped in the back alongside Manny and Jon sat in the front, went out and did a vital sighting lap. it is fair to say that the good people at Intrax had not anticipated 2 large fellas in the back of the car and the karousell when they developed the suspension. Crunch crunch, scrape, followed by some smoke out the back and a curious smell of plastic being melted. Nice. the queue to get off the circuit was huge and whilst we were queuing in it the heat got the better of Terry who was sick in the back - nice work keeping it contained in his hands though, was much appreciated! We dropped him off and he walked back to the car park. Did one other lap with just Kevin and I in the car and that felt much better apart from the front brakes locking really, really easily on the bumpy surface. The turn in wasn’t all that but that was expected with the camber I was running.
Back at the circuit I asked Dave if he'd been out - "er, no. I've locked my keys in the boot". lol Big fuck off smile Unlucky Dave strikes again! He was surprisingly calm about the whole thing despite being stuck in racing boots due to his shoes also being in the boot Wink
After the obligitary 15 min conversation about who was sitting where a few of us then went to PF to say goodbye to dangerous Dave, it was quite horrible to be honest as it bought up a lot of stuff that I thought I'd dealt with and moved on from, was nice all the same in a weird way and cool that he is left at one of his favourite corners (just before the jump).
We had a table booked at the PK for 20:30 so at 20:25 I tried to round up the troops for the short drive there. 15 mins later after some world class faffing about and discussing who was sitting where we got into the cars and drove the 5 mins there Wink
The PK was rammed and the service worse than I've ever seen, not really an issue but for 2 very sleepy kids who wanted their beds! Early night as I wanted to be up early to we headed back to the hotel after 15 mins of buggering about decided who was sitting where. I ended up with Lorna + the 2 nippers in my car so just drove off to get the kids in bed ASAP. After that we headed to the bar at the hotel for a quick nightcap. After about 20 mins I got a drunken, abusive phone call from Chris for driving off and not waiting for him. To clarify I had been to the hotel the same number of times as he had (once) and the directions were turn left, turn right, keep on until you see the hotel.
Next morning I was up at 6:30, showered & breakfasted early and arrived at www.rsrnurburg.com with Jon and Dave at 7:30 to use their trolley jack (cheers Dale, owe you one) and for Dave to ask advice from Ed on what to do about his keys that were still in the boot of his car in the ‘ring carpark. This was the first time I’d changed the camber and I was pretty please with how easy it was. Jack up the side, undo 5 bolts, push wheel inwards and do up bolts. While there I took 3 clicks out of the front of the car to try and get more grip at the front for braking.
What a fucking difference! The front end was fucking awesome (Jon drove it and thought it to be on a par with his GT2), so much turn in and grip, the suspension has made the car feel simply awesome. Did 4 laps in the morning, 2 with Jon and 2 with Sean, Tom Schirmer turned up and freed Dave’s keys from his boot allowing him to do a lap where his PAS seemed to fail leaving him with heavy steering. We then headed off back to the hotel to check out. The ‘ring was mentally busy, queues for the roundabout were just silly, there were about 4 or 5 proper length closures throughout the day. During one of the closures AC, CG + Stee from www.axisofoversteer.com came and said hello, really cool guys, shame we were off to Spa as it’d have been nice to spend the evening chewing the fat with them). I managed another lap with Dave in the passenger seat where in which Sean followed me out and didn’t come past for the first time ever! Big fuck off smile Big fuck off smile Big fuck off smile, another with Greg who pointed out some useful things regarding braking in certain areas and a further one with Chris. One this one there was a bike off at Brunchen and we cruised back into the queue for the car park to see the ‘ring was shut and a while later were told that is how it would stay for the day. Overall a good day, am quicker there than I have been before and have some key things to work on - AngstKurve, right before Karousell that I can never spell, braking for H Acht and general entry speed, often find myself braking too much, turning in and accelerating hard well before the apex, lack of confidence in my ability to get the car turned in that needs to be overcome.
Back to RSR to change the camber back to road settings, met Carlos there who had managed 19 laps that day, good work! Dinner at the PK with the normal we should do the VLN & 24H conversation Wink before heading off to Belgium to Greg’s place.
Woke the next morning to the stunning views surrounding Greg’s house and headed down to the circuit early, changing my camber involved borrowing a trolley jack from Manny and then going off to find a paving slab + a brick to drive onto in order to be able to fit said jack under the car (need to buy some wood to take with me in future). Noticed that the induction flap in the intake system was sticking – something to get sorted… I set the dampers using some settings from a fellow Intrax user and trundled out for my first session.
Hmmm. Car didn’t feel great, ABS cutting in very early, even at high speeds at the end of Kemel. Turn in was fan fucking tastic though and the suspension was still subtle enough to ride the curbs which was validation of what I’d been expecting from the dampers.
The garage next to us had a guy from Luxemburg in, his car was an E36 M3 GT with 2 turbos, suspension, half cage & the ceramic brakes from a McLaren Mercedes SLR Cool as fuck He was having some issues with over fuelling though and were trying to find the cause. In the end they got it sorted, dodgy soldering on a resistor in the MAF wiring. Nice guys though, one of his mates was a data engineer and another was an F3 driver who gave me some useful things to think about regarding steering technique.
Next session out and Manny jumped in the scary seat, car felt much better though the brakes were still hitting ABS a bit too much, traffic was an issue but it was in this session that I did a 2:57, my previous best was 2:59 and was with a clear lap so that shows the difference the suspension has made. The datalogger shows my theoretical best lap to be 2:52 (I know that this doesn’t work 100% as a good sector time could compromise the following sector). My target next time out is a 2:55 and I think that should be achievable. Also interesting in the logger is the throttle pattern, I was getting on the throttle too early, coming off it, getting back on it, coming off it and finally getting back on it for good, loads of time to come though building it more progressively and not too soon. Also some further proof of something that DJ picked up on a few years back where I’ll build the throttle gradually to a certain level then pause, straighten the car out and increase to 100% throttle in one hit. I know that some may consider the logger to be too geeky but it really shows me where I can improve so I’m dead pleased with it!
More sessions followed, took Dave out, one of the guys from the next garage, a fellow CSL owner, Gerry & an instructor. The instruction wasn’t quite was I was hoping for – more lines than driving technique and the instructors main idea on how to improve my lap times was to learn to left foot brake, Spa wasn’t really the time and the place for that but I’m gonna look into buying the auto brake pedal to allow easier access for LFB.
While out with the instructor I overcooked the exit of Phouon and ripped a brake duct off on the grass – lucky I did as it meant I saw the inside of the front right tyre which was somewhat fucked and meant an end to my day. Not sure if it is as a result of the ABD triggering, not enough weight transfer, too much camber? Camber set back, dampers backed off and I jumped in with first Sean and then Manny for p-rides. Spazzers car felt a bit rubbish at the front end but Manny was on the case – funny as fuck with powerful cars coming past him then getting blue flagged up Eau Rouge Big fuck off smile after that a slow trundle home. Finished the trip with a launch control at the services Big fuck off smile
Spoke to Simpsons who think that softening the front a little and stiffening the back will get more weight transfer and sort the ABS issues, I wonder if you could also just raise the rear a little bit? Will get it booked in a take their advice. The front right is a known thing apparently, they were saying when racing they could get 4 hours from a set of slicks anywhere in the UK and at Spa the front right only lasted an hour. The fact that I am getting similar wear patterns shows I’m not doing anything too spastic. Think I will investigate full slicks for trackdays and I can’t afford to murder cup tyres at that rate! Will show them pics of the wear as it may be I have too much camber for my driving style? Will get to the bottom of it I'm sure.
Overall happy with how the car behaved and a good trip. Looking forward to August Big fuck off smile