Borough 19 MC Hethel Sprint - 5th May

Jason13 · Post by **Jason13** » Mon May 06, 2013 8:14 pm

Just a short report from me...

Hethel is a great course. its a slight shame the start line is at the end of the pits, as the first corners are now all flat out in something with limited power. I previously used to get into all kinds of trouble on the left / right past the pits, when the start line was somewhere near the start of the pits and you entered the sequence of corners with much more speed.

I ran in the modified 2ltr and under class, along with a mk 2 escort and xr2i. I had a chat with both guys, and they told me a bit about there cars. They were very much out and out race cars, fully stripped and running slicks, with a non turbo 2ltr cosworth engine in the escort. i might had had a slight bhp advantage, but mine is weighing in at 1080kg at the moment, the fiesta was at 720kg, and i suspect the escort was around the 850kg mark. so they were always going to be tough to match. The XR2i suffered a gearbox failure early on so they double drove the escort in the afternoon.

I was happy to keep improving my times, and knocked a second off with every run, ultimately finishing 2 seconds off their final times. I ran on soft compound A048's, i don't know how they compare to slicks, but i assume they are reasonably close in lap time.

I think if i want to fight at the top in that class, i am going to need to get the weight down. Plastic windows are the obvious place to start, i just have to square up in my own mind if i want to maintain any pretext of it being an everyday car, or treat it as a road legal competitive car first and foremost.

It was good to meet Stuart again, and say a brief hello to Gary and Danny for the first time. The two Evo's did look superb and added a bit of flair to the pits. Very cool launching off the line.

Unfortunately i did let the side down turning up with a filthy car, a point that was not lost on some of the other competitors. i guess i better stick it through the wash before Snetterton in 2 weeks time. I'll see what tuns up in the class next time, and maybe i'll have to loose a bit more of the interior over the summer.

Post by **Stuart** » Mon May 06, 2013 8:42 pm

A very honest appraisal Jason (the day, not the cleanliness!

)
As we discussed you're between a rock and a hard place really. A proper road legal car will always struggle in classes like that and your cage kind of puts you up into a class with cars that will always have better power to weight ratios.........I found the same when I had the M3 (although that was not road legal as you may recall). NA cars have to be so light to be in with a chance in my opinion, and yeah, you could strip yours further but the gains are likely to be pretty slight overall; sure you've done comparisons of lexan compared to glass but it can't be much on a DC2; surely?

If you ran as close as that to the other cars time wise, you did very well. 2 seconds over 3.5km with that kind of PTW disparity is pretty good I would have thought.....especially when you want to drive yours home afterwards!

Nice to see you yesterday. I may try to get Snett if I am around that weekend (No guarantees I'll have the valeting gear though

)

pablo · Post by **pablo** » Mon May 06, 2013 9:07 pm

Nice reports gents just a shame pictures weren't allowed.

Post by **Stuart** » Mon May 06, 2013 9:12 pm

Even had to abandon a planned photo shoot and magazine feature due to Lotus' abject refusal to engage with the Editor..........and they have worked with him on other projects for the last 15 years!! Never mind.

Jason13 · Post by **Jason13** » Tue May 07, 2013 9:56 pm

it seems that plastic / lexan windows aren't going to save as much weight as i expected. the standard rear screen is apparently 12kg, so with approx 50% saving over glass, that seems to suggest about 20kg saving all round if i got a full kit. Not a game changer by any stretch.

No rash decisions then, i'll enjoy what i've got for this summer, and plan a few bits and bobs for later in the year