Yellow cage, sunshine and new seat

The lovely weather this weekend meant I could get the car out of the garage for a change and a good opportunity to take a few photos for a change.

First item to notice is that we have changed over to using the 13" rear wheels, party cost, partly aesthetics and this is the main part of my next test in a weeks time.
From the front here you can see the newly painted yellow roll cage. This a throw back to the Fury which could be stopped from a distance because of the yellow cage, so John suggested we do the same for the new car. So, we did. Well John did!
The next job on the list was to make the final wave of modification to the foam seat so as to provide leg support. In this photo you can see the final shape, giving much better side support for my left leg to help support in the high speed corners when the g-force builds up. Because we are on road legal tyres and are not allowed to run wings, the g-force values are not excessive, during the first test in the new car I realised the without side leg support, my left leg was being pushed to the side quite a bit. Its not an issue to hold it in place but it does increase the time it takes to bring my left back for a quick gearchange or even more importantly some left foot braking. It seems strange to read that back but its surprising how subtle you need to be with these light weight cars and when your cornering at over 100mph, be quick and accurate on the pedals makes quite a difference to the times. After the photo was taken, I finished applying the blue tape covering.

Down at the front left corner of the seat, you can also see on the photo the new Neuros solid state video recorder which is sat (if not fixed) on top of the DL1 data logger. Hopefully I will have the bullet cam before the next outing at the weekend so we can test the plan for improved footage for the 2008 racing season. You can also see the note on the steering wheel to remind me that I have new brake pads installed and that I need to bed these in next weekend. The Ferrodo pads have quite a essay to describe the bedding in process!

One final photograph of the car as it stands as we head to the second pre season test. I hope to have the new air intake design and colour scheme in place following this test and then we should be ready for the first race of the season. When is that again, oh yes just 5 weeks time (or 24 days)!

Brake Bais

Not too much progress as I am still recovering from the Flu. I did however manage a short time in the garage this afternoon to modify the ali panels in the footwell so that I could fit the new Brake Bias adjuster to the brake pedal. I have attached the other end to the dashboard just to the right of the speedo which means I can turn it with my right hand. There is one small adjust left to do, to shorten the cable a touch to remove some of the tension but we are nearly there. This should enable me to really get some confidence in the braking and reduce the lap times a bit more.

Bias Adjuster, Snet telemetry and Palm

I was not expecting to do much of an updte tis week as I am supposed to be in the USA. Instead I am mostly in bed with the Flu. Despite this, there is some progress.

Firstly the new Brake Bias adjuster has arrived from CompBrake. During the first test at Snetterton, I never really got 100% comfortable with the feel for the brakes, especially braking through the left hander into the Esses.


Looking at some comparison data from Robs last race at Snetterton, he definitely brakes later than I did in my first outing in the BDN and even through I carry a higher apex speed through the right hander of the Essess, Rob is quicker through this sector than I. Something to work on and this bias adjuster should get me part of that way. I hope to be able to to both extremes of front and back bias to get a feel and then find a suitable starting position. When qualifying for Snetterton in the Fury, I used to make a couple of brake adjustments throughout the lap to cope with the straight line braking into Riches and Sear and then more front bias for the braking whilst turning for the Esses and Russells.

The tyre situation has not progressed quite as well. Polley don't have any 15" AO48Rs in stock and don't expect to until the end of Feb. Looks like I will be testing 13" wheels on the rear!

As I may have mentioned before, the plan is to run a Palm Pilot on the BDN to give timing related information, fed directly from the DL1 telemetry box as per Tim and Colin Chapman. Tim has been very kind to make a few adjustments to the code to support sector times, the first development of which can be seen in this image. I very much like the idea of also being able to see an elapsed time counter as our Qualify and Race sessions are time relating and during 2007, I always wondered how long was left and had to work it out from the lap counter whilst in the heat of battle.

If I am feeling better by the weekend then we may also get the front brake seals replaced and make a start on the bias adjust fitting. The next test is planned for the middle of February.

Jones in 3 way newspaper scandal

New Year Press Coverage
A few weeks ago, I received a call from Lewis Beales, a journalist we had met at a couple of the RGB races this year. The interview with Lewis covered the ups and downs of last year, my reasoning for moving to Class A for this year and my aspirations for the 2008 season. During the first week of the new year the article, slightly modified for each different paper, was published in the Eastern Daily Press, Eastern Evening News and the Wymondham and Attleborough Advertiser. You can click on the image here to see a larger version if you would like to read the article taken from the EDP.

Meanwhile, not many developments on the new car since the new year, due to work commitments and being hit with the Flu. I have however developed a list of the items I need to do or purchase before the start of the season which is just 9 weeks away on March 16th. The list mostly comprises of consumables but after a very informative visit to Tims, I now have an idea for a bullet camera and solid state recorder to use with the BDN as well as how to link up a Palm Pilot to the DL1 so I can view lap times and some live telemetry data live in the car. My level of understanding of the DL1 telemetry analysis software is greatly increased as well and I have a list of areas resulting from the first test at Snetterton that I can work on to reduce the lap time based on improving my driving and a couple of areas of investigation on the handling side.
The 750 motor club website has the finalised calendar for 2008 here in PDF format, along with the finalised regulations again here in PDF format. No major changes except for the rain light needing to be on permanently and the introduction of a new 'Wet' pattern version of the current Yoko AO48R, which we saw in the draft regs at the end of last year.

2007 - End of year

One final posting before the new year celebrations kick in.
Just a few updates for the car over the Christmas period. I now have a fully calibrated fuel stick which will be especially useful as I plan to run some extra fuel as the ballast I need in the short term until I get the car to a point where I want to corner weigh and set the location of ballast. I have also removed the spare upright part of the roll cage that Rob used to mount a head restraint. This is way above my head and the resulting gap is perfect for a modified air intake for the air box, as per a single seater.

Apart from those small items, we have a couple of modification to make to the cockpit, extending the seat to better support my legs and some sort of simple left foot rest beside the clutch. Not quite as industrious as some others like Tim but the car was in very good shape when we picked it up which is nice.

The new year should see an order going into Demon Tweaks for some consumables, such as chain oil, engine oil, etc, which will mean we are fairly well setup of a few tests. One the list of items for the next two tests are:

1. Test with a lower front ride height to see how that effects the mid corner behavior in medium to fast corners.
2. Continue the tests started in the last session to understand what the car feels like with a full range of adjustments on the rear dampers and the front anti-roll bar.
   
3. Test on a rather more complex circuit than Snetterton, something like Cadwell for example so I can get a feel for undulation and rapid changes in direction.

One last big thank you to the many people who have helped me over the last year of racing and Happy New Year to all. Just 11 more weeks to go before the first round of the 2008 season!

Derek

BDN - First Test

Snetterton, Saturday 15th Dec. Cold but dry and almost sunny at times.

Aims

1. Shake down of car although not expecting any major issues, we had made a new seat, modified the steering position, dash mountings and break pedal setup so there were items that needed testing.
2. For me to get used to the car and its basic balance, increased power over the Fury
3. For John to get used to the operational support side of the car, ease of turnaround from a session (fueling, visual checks, ease of access, bodywork removed etc
4. For us to gather some basic information as to suspension changes and the resulting feel of the car.
5. Initial weigh in
6. Feel and running of the car in cold conditions (oil and water cooling) as it may be like this at snett in March for the first race.
   

Shake Down went brilliantly.
We spent a few short sessions just getting used to the car and finding a good starting point for the brake bias. Steering position is great, small padding area needed for left arm, dials all accessibly, telemetry working. The seat is good but I could do with more side of leg support as well as a better clutch foot rest for the high speed corners.

Basic Balance
Very good, in fact I got into the swing very quickly and was able to try lots of different styles. Balanced is a good word for the car, I do of course need to get more used to the added speed and therefore the larger amount of time spent slowing down as well as the ability to use the wider power band to smooth my inputs. A good example of this is the first corner at Snett. Initially I was going from 6th down to 4th for this corner, running a good line through, on the power for the 2nd apex and full throttle from there to the braking zone for the 2nd corner. Arriving at that braking zone at the top of the rev range for 4th gear. This felt good but gave a lot of work to get down 2 gears before turning in to the first corner. After chatting with Paul I tried going down just 1 gear, carrying more speed into the first corner and using the extra pull of the ZX12 out of the corner and found myself arriving at the braking zone for the 2nd corner considerably faster! Now of course that leaves me more work to do for that 2nd corner but hey!
All of this is just observational at the moment as I am yet to download the telemetry let alone compare to Robs data from the 2007 season.

Operational side – well we found it takes a little practice to remove the rear body work and this is a common activity as its needed for every refuel. We may alter this but for now we either need to bond in the fastener sockets as they ping out when you remove the bodywork or change to using a different type of clip as used on the front bodywork. Re-fueling is easy especially with the new setup we have. It uses quite a bit more fuel though so we need to get used to that and we now have a good way of measuring the fuel level so I can calibrate this in the garage over the next few weeks.

Setup
At the end of the day, we made some basic suspension changes, mainly focusing on the front dampers and gained the results we expected which was great. We tested full stiffness on the front dampers and then a middle ground as the base setup was almost at full soft on the front. Our next change will probably be to change the rake of the car, adding some forward weight and seeing what effect that has on aero balance as well.

• Initial turn in gets my thumbs up.
• From there to apex is a little pitch sensitive for my liking but there are quite a number of options, including trailing throttle to work the rear a little more.
• Apex to exit is again very good, maybe a little soft in roll for the dry but I need to try a more technical circuit to be sure its not just masked by grunt!

Post Christmas Diet needed?
Weigh in was excellent, with almost zero fuel we are well under the min weight so we can either used extra fuel in reserve as ballast and give some margin for red flags/restarts etc (tank is foam filled and in the centre of the car so no movement or balance issues) or we can use ballast to help corner weights.

Cold Weather
In the 4deg weather we had at Snetterton we needed to partially block the water radiator at the front as well as the oil cooler mounted in the passenger side pod so as to get any decent operating temperature! Tyre temperature was not difficult to achieve and was more balanced on cold tyres than the Fury used to be.

So overall a very good day was had. Car worked well, it has given us the confidence to continue on with some of the upgrades we want to do over the Winter period and I am lookind forward to 08!

2008 Challenger - BDN race car

Before I go into a lot of detail about the new car, I had at least mention that we had a great time during the Birkett 6 hour race at Silverstone. I have some notes and photos that I will make into a post of its own.

A couple of weeks ago, John (now named Champion race engineer!) and I headed all the way over to Herefordshire to collect the 2008 race car. Brian, Ian and Rob have continuously developed this car of the last few years, culminating in a good number of race wins this year in Robs progress to 3^rd overall in the 2007 RGB Championship.

Their focus has now moved onto developing an S3 model and so the option of buying the current S2 presented itself quite a few months ago. Brian and Ian gave us a very extensive walk around the car, going into details of how and why it has been developed as it is. Along with the documentation, it was a great handover.

The car has been in its new home for the last 2 weeks and each time I have been in the garage, the car has become increasingly less complete! Rob, as many who follow the RGB series will know, is about 9 feet tall and therefore his seating and steering wheel position are quite different to my requirements. John and I have so far, reposition the steering column and made a new seat, along with fitting my new 6 point harnesses. As we have moved everything down by quite some distance, we have also dropped the dash lower in the cabin which allows us as a next step to remove the top 2” form the trailing edge of the front clam, as it attaches to the dashboard.

My seating position is quite laid back and my eye line is well below that of the existing bodywork so this is the last of the items on the must do list before I can get the car out on track. One main benefit we are hoping to gain from this modification is to allow substantially more air to reach the rear spoiler where before it was being direct over the passenger compartment and missing the rear of the car.

To further this improvement we also have plans to relocate the air intake from in the centre of the car and instead make use of the body work cowling that sits behind the driver head. As my head is so much lower than before, we can use the top of this cowling as an air intake a bit like an offset F1 air intake.

The first planned outing for the new car is Saturday 15^th at snetterton so all we have to do is keep the car in working condition, holding off from any major work before that point. Once I have a base line indication of the cars feel and performance with me driving, we can look at the bodywork of any other modifications to suite.

We have kept the same DL1 telemetry setup as used last year so we should be able to do some good back to back comparisons to see which areas I need to concentrate on with driving and where any improvements may have come from modifications.

An exciting few months ahead I think, despite the lack of racing and full steam ahead for the first races of 2008 in March. Only 4 months left!!!

Some more progress.

In the last week we have brought the car back into working condition with one exception.

The seat is now complete, although I need to get some more gaffa tape to make it look better. The seat belts are in and although we were concerned with the top adjusters being too close to my neck, all seems to clear ok. With the steering column in the right place, seat and belts sorted , we were able to see the line we need for the front body work. This was marked up against the top of the dashboard and cut away. The view out is much improved, it should help more air get to the rear spoiler and it also improved the look of the car as well. More of the impression of a radical from the front.

The one item that is holding us up at the moment is that we found a considerable amount of play in the bias adjustment for the brake pedal. John is sorting out the spherical bearing for this as we speak and should be back by the weekend. Of course we will then need to find a way to estimate the correct bias from which to start!

So with the exception of new tyres, that is all of the ‘have to do’ items completed. It would seem that Polley don’t have any 48R tyres in stock at the moment so I cant even replace the existing used set let alone test the new ‘wet’ tread pattern for next year. Not a very good state when introducing a new variable that all of the drivers will have to take into consideration.