Bedford Report

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 8:21 pm

Decided to load the car on the trailor outside the house and lucky we did, as the straps they had given us were too short....:frown:Lucky that we still had our old ones. So with the car stapped down we set off for bedford in a cold frosty morning / day ahead of us.

We arrived at Bedford shortly after 0745hrs and decided to go and sign on before unloading the car, once in the nice warm reception we decided that we might as well stay there till the briefing......

Briefing over and it was time to get to work:auto:.The plan was that I would go out first during the sighting laps so that Alan could get a picture of the car, which we needed for a perspective sponsor, but as the way of things lately that didn't happen as we were slightly late in getting ready.....so i had to go it alone.

Once out on track surprisingly i felt relaxed but track rusty...very rusty......I decided to catch up with some cars in front so that i could follow them and get use to the track. Easier said than done. Once on the back straight i thought ok lets see what this can do..... The power delivery was smooth and relentless and i was still changing gear early before the shift light. The grip in the corners was good and even when the back end twitched it was never more than a twitch. After a couple of laps I thought I would pit so that Alan could get a few quick laps in......Then it dawned on me......Where's the pit entrance...........

My lines were off and i didn't have confidence in the brakes, but most of all I was lacking in seat time and it really showed.

Alan was under orders to take it easy for the session and he did....until he got off the paddock....

.he looked quick. I was on the corner of the pitlane trying to get some photos of Alan on track. After 3 laps he had vanished from where I thought he should be............Then he came into sight, driving slowly with his indicator on......BOLLOCKS.......As he came into the pit lane he was waving his arm at me...through the sunroof.....WTF.......

The plated sunroof panel had blown out on the back straight at 120mph, Thank God no one was behind him. As he came into the paddock he stopped and ran over to the marshall to inform him as to what had happened, this brought out a red flag as Alan didn't see where it had landed. A couple of minutes later one of the safety crew came into the paddock, laughing, with the missing item in the back of his truck It had landed behind the safety barrier...Thank Feck....After a quick chat with the head marshall they were happy for us to fix it and gaffer tape it and then to go back out, once they inspected it......This took a while causing us to miss the rest of the morning. Inspite of this we were in good humour and Alan said 'If this is the worst that happens today, then I can live with that

Part 2 to follow

Post by **Stuart** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 8:46 pm

:smash::thumbs::auto:

Bart · Post by **Bart** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:02 pm

some pics

one of me just coming in after the sunroof bloo out.

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:10 pm

Lunch over and time to get back out there. So I strapped my self in and rolled out onto the track. Alan had said that the brakes were better than on Herbie and that i was just 'A short arse who couldn't reach the pedals', cheers mate......So i decided to take his word........WHAT THE Feck was i thinking.........On a few occassions I found myself leaving it a little bit too late causing the car twitch heavy undr breaking thus putting me of position for the corner, after a couple of laps I had to tell myself to calm down as I was getting a bit sloppy with my driving.......What a great session and i came in with a big grin on my face.

I decided to go out with Alan to see his lines and well he coped with the brakes so hopefully help me out in my next session.....

After a 12 month project build, 2 failed engines and countless man hours, you would have thought he would have been a little easy on the car.........Nooooooooo........He was on it from the off, far more corner speed than me, much later on the brakes and he used bits of track that i hadn't even seen.....He was totally brutal with the car showing it no mercy what so ever. For a while we were following a yellow Renault 192 that was quick through the bends and not shabby down the straights either. This was fun, but I could see that Alan was determined to get past, so he changed his lines to put himself on a different piece off track coming out the bends and this worked. He was soon past the renault and off running. By now Alan had started to change gear on the shift light and on the next whilst on the back straight we both heard a metallic sound, followed by a loud pop.........then daylight.

The roof panel had gone again, same part of track and again at 120mph......Again Thank God no one was behind us but at that Alan said 'Thats it.... lets call it day. I'm not ruining evryone else's day or taking someone out'.

So we returned to the paddock, spoke to the marshall about what had happened and told him that we would not be going back out.

We had a great day, good fun on track, lots of laughs and inspite of Alan best efforts he only managed to blow the roof of the car.

The verdict of our first test day

Engine..............................Good
Brakes..............................Not so Good
Rear End..........................Good
Front Suspension.............Not Good

Rob S · Post by **Rob S** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:17 pm

If all you lost was the roof panel, by your standards that's an epic day!!
Really pleased it took the Bart treatment, can't imagine how you would have tortured him if he'd mullered it

Looks good to see team TNT back out where they belong!

Bart · Post by **Bart** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:24 pm

rob my saying for most the day being what ever it was for like making the tea, "im going to f##k it up" paul was wetting himself.

absolute great day and had a larf with the marshels they kindly let me
use there hut to take some pics.

Bart · Post by **Bart** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:28 pm

were back,
were bad,
pauls black,
and im mad.

Tonynos · Post by **Tonynos** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:49 pm

Sounds like you had a great first test day. Well done guys it's about time you had some luck.

qcs tom · Post by **qcs tom** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:09 pm

I'm glad everything picking up for u both now. Bet your both glad to be back on track with it.

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:19 pm

Thanks guys, it feels really good to be back out there.

When the roof panel blew out the second time and we were heading to the pits slowly, that Ferrari came past us and Alan instinctively started to speed up

. When i brought it to his attention he said 'Did I,'......

I think Bart had taken over at that point:banghead: