Close racing
Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:29 am
A bit of onboard footage from yesterday. Racing very close. Not my best performance (lots of little mistakes), but makes as decent watch.
Just shy of 120 at the end of the back and main straights
Mostly, lots of curb is normal (make the track as wide as possible!), especially at the chicane and Clarkes (the right hander immediately after the chicane) - I even set the car up more softly to allow it - but I was on less than top form that day (full of cold!) and my accuracy was a bit off, so I did bounce over the big sausage curbs at Duffus (end of the main straight) and McIntires (90 deg right hander just after) a couple of times. They weren't deliberateJonMad wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:20 pm Damn, close indeed!
Random thoughts watching that included
- that's a lot of kerb
- keeping your foot in when off onto the gravel![]()
- looks twitchy
- you've got some balls and some skill
- almost got him again, just needed a slightly longer straight
- what was going on behind you at the time?
- fair play to them not crumbling under that
- I'm not fit enough to do that
Good job we are all athletes at the top of our game..Nefarious wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:22 amMostly, lots of curb is normal (make the track as wide as possible!), especially at the chicane and Clarkes (the right hander immediately after the chicane) - I even set the car up more softly to allow it - but I was on less than top form that day (full of cold!) and my accuracy was a bit off, so I did bounce over the big sausage curbs at Duffus (end of the main straight) and McIntires (90 deg right hander just after) a couple of times. They weren't deliberateJonMad wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:20 pm Damn, close indeed!
Random thoughts watching that included
- that's a lot of kerb
- keeping your foot in when off onto the gravel![]()
- looks twitchy
- you've got some balls and some skill
- almost got him again, just needed a slightly longer straight
- what was going on behind you at the time?
- fair play to them not crumbling under that
- I'm not fit enough to do that![]()
Twitchy is maneuverable (within reason!) so some of that is deliberately dialed in (and, as per my sig, if it's not on the ragged edge, you're not trying hard enough!), but it probably looks worse in this vid because I was being quite ham-fisted at times (partly being off-form, partly heat of battle).
I wasn't doing quite so well on the straights - Matt's engine is just back from rebuild and looking *strong*. Mine hasn't been refreshed since 2019, and in such a light car 2-3bhp makes a noticeable difference.
Behind? There's a car challenging, just out of touching distance for the first 4 laps or so (you can occasionally catch a glimpse of a white car in my mirror), but she apparently had a brake problem about half way through the race and dropped back far enough not to worry about.
Fitness? - That was 12 mins odd (and is pretty battering/tiring). At Race of Remembrance, we're got to keep it up for 12 hours (between 3 of us!)![]()
The combination of the black smoke you spotted with the gurgling noises I heard point to a carb issue. I'll change it and check it, and do a compression test before WHT.scotta wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:46 am Good battle with Matt though. He's found at least half a second with that engine refresh.
The engine runs on carbs and we dont have a revlimiter on this car - we did on the last one that did ignition cut but it fvcked up and caused us problems so we didnt fit one to this car.tim wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:31 am That was tremendous! Loved it.
Might just be my ears but it sounded like you're bumping into the rev limiter a fair bit before changing up?
Cos, y'know, Armchair expert.![]()
The perfect change point has been the subject of considerable analysis. The power band is narrow. Sub 5k you've got basically nothing. Peak power is 6k, but it starts dropping off quite quickly after that. By 6.6k you're back down at the same power as 5k. But you can only *just* space the ratios for that (and still have enough top speed with no holes. On current gearing, a 6.6k change point spits me out into 5.2k, 5.1k and 5.0k in 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but there's always a little drop on the clutch dip, so it's worth over revving slightly - 6.7-6.8k and suffering the drop off in top end power, in order to get into the power band of the next gear.tim wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:31 am That was tremendous! Loved it.
Might just be my ears but it sounded like you're bumping into the rev limiter a fair bit before changing up?
Cos, y'know, Armchair expert.![]()