A very wet and slippery trip around Curborough, came 2nd in the Road legal class on the day to a Caterham R500, but they were timed slightly differently to the CGTI events so nothing comparable sadly. The outlap, 1 flier, and a finishing lap were 1:25.1 in total when it was dry. No idea how that relates to the CGTI timing though [video=youtube;WrJTlLiqkg8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrJTlLiqkg8[/video] Spa in the wet in October this year: [video=youtube;Ls6M9q7GUuM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls6M9q7GUuM[/video]
and quite literally my favourite track session to date. Audi Driver International at Combe this year. Bill was in the ibiza that we all know and love, running on AD08, and I'm following in the A3 running on yoko slicks, with my 65yr old Mum in the passengers seat who loved every minute of it! [video=youtube;RPrZBNN3dn0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPrZBNN3dn0[/video] [video=youtube;qkIna2yJ5GA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkIna2yJ5GA[/video]
brakes have now been dropped off with Bill at Badger 5 to have the carriers made, so hopefully I'll get them back and ready to bolt on. I've also purchased an alloy rad, and will be doing all sorts of ducting work to get the air flowing where it should be, in an attempt to keep the temperatures under control. It's not been an issue previously, but with the added power recently and reduced airflow caused by the splitter, some work is needed to keep things working as they should.
So, I dug the car out from it's winter sleep on Sunday, pumped up the tyre, emtpied the water from the footwells and took it for a drive Making air flow where it needs to flow in order to keep the cool things cool and the hot things hot, and the car stuck to the ground. This new voyage didn't start out too well, with my heater motor packing up yesterday So that's first in the list of making air go where it's needed! I'll be moving things around at the front, relocating the oil cooler, as well as moving the rad and IC slightly to bring them together to act as one unit in terms of airflow through them, and also tucking the IC core in a bit at the bottom so I can fit a new and less broken front valance. Whilst I was having the entire front end apart, it seemed a shame not to fit something shiney to make all the effort feel worth while, so after a few beers on new years day with Big Bad Dad, we put in a rather cheekily low last second bid on an auction, and to our surprise, we came back as the winners! Twin core, much thicker, larger capacity end tanks, and generally very shiney. Hopefully this, coupled with some appropriate ducting will keep the coolant at sub 100 degrees for extended track sessions
A box arrived last week: Brakes are almost ready to go on Just need to give the brackets a coat of etch primer on the exposed surfaces and some satin black: Discs will most likely not be used long term, but I needed something to use to get the system up and running and tested. These are AP rotors, around half worn currently.
Went round to AndyPs last night to use his pillar drill. Godspeed bells drilled out from 6mm to 1/4'' for the AP 1/4" UNF rotor bolts. And loosely assembled for now: Just need to make sure I have the correct E8 socket to tighten these, then nip them all up to 14Nm this evening
Some interesting reading and great work in here, and the car looks seriously mean with the new aero additions. I saw the car via Jardo's facebook earlier coincidentally and thought I'd come and have a browse at the thread here, so a well timed update haha I'm more than a little jealous of your brake set-up too
Thanks Tom. I'm really looking forward to getting the brakes on too. I've had so many different brake setups, and never been happy with any of them really. Every time I think I've found a good solution with the brakes, I improve something else on the car, and the first flaw to show up is the braking again. Once these are on and I know for sure I like they way they work, it's likely that I'll upgrade to a larger floating disc using some radial spacers behind the calipers. I knew by making these for a 330x28 though that it left open several options for further upgrade paths.
Very nice build be good to see it at Bedford. Have you done Bedford before without the aero mods to get an idea of how much they will have improved things?
Cheers I've never been to Bedford before at all no, so I'm really looking forward to it. The only track we've repeated since fitting the aero is Castle Combe, where the difference was incredibly noticeable. Previously it felt really very nervous approaching vmax up Avon rise before braking, yet with the aero it was MUCH more stable, and allowed us to dip into the 1:17's for the first time, although this did include a change of tyres also from previous times at Combe. I also noticed I was able to get on the power much earlier, and turn much sharper in fast bends without suffering from understeer like we used to. I'd really like to get back to Donny with the aero and slicks on now, I think the aero will really help with things like Craner curves and other similar high speed corners
Prawns recipe for Saturday lunch: Take one set of caliper carriers; Sand down, clean off. mask off key areas for mounting surfaces, and apply etch primer: Decide that after paying 12 for a can of etch primer, you're bloody well not paying another 7 for some satin black, so you'll find something in the garage! In my case, a nice shade of Rover gun metal grey. Apply top coat of your choice, followed by clearcoat. Place the painted caliper brackets, on a pre heated baking tray, and into the oven at 100 degrees for 1 hour: Allow to cool, remove masking, and enjoy your lunch:
So, I started Sunday with some fairly tired looking brembos. Still in good working order, but past their best looks wise. These were soon removed, to make way for these They fit really nicely, very happy with the brackets. And LOADS of room behind the OZ Super T's So, keen to look ahead to bigger and better things still, I decided to find out just how large a disc I could get away with in the future. I lined up 7mm of spacers, which would take the caliper out to the effective position for a 344mm disc (330mm + 7x2) Fitted like so: Obviously you could never run like that, but it puts the caliper in the right place to check disc fitment. Clearance was a bit on the tight side, but still around 2mm in there, and I'd gain a little more room by going for a commonly available 343mm disc: I tried on a Rota also to see if they would clear as well. need to check all wheels to be sure before making any decisions. LOADS of room behind the rotas Pads in: And they're done Road wheels back on: Road test results: Pedal feel is fantastic, power seems absolutely top notch, it's hard to say whether they're better than previous setups, but I've always run aggressive pads that can easily overcome the tyres anyway, and that still occurs, couldnt' ask for any more power. I've got a slighty bit of judder at the moment under light braking, probably caused by old discs with old pads all needing some time to settle down. I might look into having them skimmed if anyone knows of anywhere in hampshire? Over all, very happy with them, just need to sort out the mild judder and get it on track at Bedford next month
Cheers I'm really looking forward to Bedford now. Drove it to work this morning, brakes seem to be cleaning up nicely. Still a little bit of a vibration on light application around 40-50mph, but otherwise fine. I think it'll clear up in time. it's raining, so here's a needlessly edited picture or two
Got a few hunderd miles on the AP brakes now, and we're absolutely LOVING them. they're just fantastic, and soon to be even better Today we had our Pirelli wets fitted to my old TT rims (that my mate Jamie managed to ruin ) These are Pirelli WH 245-620 race wets. They really are rather stupidly good! Bring on the wet trackdays, we're ready!
Final piece of the braking jigsaw puzzle should arrive this week, and should eliminate all forms of judder once and for all! Big thanks to our friendly Badger for producing these for me
they are new bells to take an AP floating bobbin set, to float my existing discs. Bill has made these specically to use the AP bobbins allowing my to keep my current AP rotors and make the setup fully floating A lot like this for example:
