Cheers for the support and bollockings
TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
It has been more frustrating than people can imagine. Blood, sweat and tears have been spilt over this car and if it was down to our failings or inabilities that we had these problems then we would have thrown in the towel by now. Where not finished with Time Attack. In 2012 we should have finished 5th in class had we not had issues that we really shouldn't have had or that could have been easily sorted on the day. Infact if the organisers hadn't changed the rules after round 2 we could/should have finished 3rd in class. But thats another storey.
Cheers for the support and bollockings
Cheers for the support and bollockings
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Not long got back in from Ford Fair at Silverstone 
Bloody knackered and hungry now so i will do a report tomorrow. Video footage should hopefully be up later in the week.
Bloody knackered and hungry now so i will do a report tomorrow. Video footage should hopefully be up later in the week.
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Ford Fair – Silverstone
After a nightmare run up to Ford Fair Alan's mood was well an truly south of the south pole and I don’t blame him, but when he threatened to take it out on the car, that I had to draw a line to. Once he got in the car to drive it back after collecting it from the tuners the boyish grin soon came back to his face.
Saturday and time to get ready. Started off with a 2 hour drive through and around brum. Things to do and the trailer to collect. We spent the whole 2 hours just having a laugh and chatting about pasts, about snooker halls we played in, pubs we went to and the shit we got up to. All this stuff happened years before we even new each other and years apart. Weird or scary? Still not not sure which one
Anyway finally got back with the trailer and we still had a couple of jobs to do to the car. Wash and polish it (yes it does get polished, usually by Wayne though...), swap the wheels over as the weather forecast for Sunday was looking good and then to load everything onto the car and get the car on the trailer. It pissed it down and as we were leaving at 5am Sunday waiting for the rain to stop was not an option so up went the gazebo. Truck loaded and wheels swapped but still it rained, so the car was only given a wash and a quick polish.
Have you ever tried loading a car with semi-slicks onto a tilt bed trailer in the wet........
Sunday.
We all met up at the petrol station at 5am, as we wanted to avoid the the traffic into Silverstone and Alan and Wayne were also taking their cars and needed to fill up. It's so nice travelling at that time and in convoy and Alan has just told me today (whilst returning the trailer) that he got 140+ miles to a ¼ tank....When I asked how the hell did he do that he replied slip streaming....no wonder I couldn't see him in my mirrors all the way there, I was towing him..........
Arrived at the circuit at 06.30 and the place was busy. I took out a few cones driving in, well they should have made those stupid cone lanes wider. Once we were parked up and started to unload the trailer Alan went into his usual stress head mode, under tray to fit, bumper to fit and the front wheels had to come off as Alan had noticed that we had left the 7mm spacers on the front. No biggy you might think but we have 10mm hub centric spacers fitted to the wheels, so 17mm in total. So to calm Alan down I put the kettle on and the calm was soon restored.
Once the car was all done me and Alan went off to sign on, Alan driving, me for a pax ride. We also had to make contact with 2 people as Alan was giving a couple of passenger rides as well. Once that was all sorted I left Alan to have his drivers briefing and I returned to the car to find Wayne had at work giving it a good polish.....
After a nightmare run up to Ford Fair Alan's mood was well an truly south of the south pole and I don’t blame him, but when he threatened to take it out on the car, that I had to draw a line to. Once he got in the car to drive it back after collecting it from the tuners the boyish grin soon came back to his face.
Saturday and time to get ready. Started off with a 2 hour drive through and around brum. Things to do and the trailer to collect. We spent the whole 2 hours just having a laugh and chatting about pasts, about snooker halls we played in, pubs we went to and the shit we got up to. All this stuff happened years before we even new each other and years apart. Weird or scary? Still not not sure which one
Anyway finally got back with the trailer and we still had a couple of jobs to do to the car. Wash and polish it (yes it does get polished, usually by Wayne though...), swap the wheels over as the weather forecast for Sunday was looking good and then to load everything onto the car and get the car on the trailer. It pissed it down and as we were leaving at 5am Sunday waiting for the rain to stop was not an option so up went the gazebo. Truck loaded and wheels swapped but still it rained, so the car was only given a wash and a quick polish.
Have you ever tried loading a car with semi-slicks onto a tilt bed trailer in the wet........
Sunday.
We all met up at the petrol station at 5am, as we wanted to avoid the the traffic into Silverstone and Alan and Wayne were also taking their cars and needed to fill up. It's so nice travelling at that time and in convoy and Alan has just told me today (whilst returning the trailer) that he got 140+ miles to a ¼ tank....When I asked how the hell did he do that he replied slip streaming....no wonder I couldn't see him in my mirrors all the way there, I was towing him..........
Arrived at the circuit at 06.30 and the place was busy. I took out a few cones driving in, well they should have made those stupid cone lanes wider. Once we were parked up and started to unload the trailer Alan went into his usual stress head mode, under tray to fit, bumper to fit and the front wheels had to come off as Alan had noticed that we had left the 7mm spacers on the front. No biggy you might think but we have 10mm hub centric spacers fitted to the wheels, so 17mm in total. So to calm Alan down I put the kettle on and the calm was soon restored.
Once the car was all done me and Alan went off to sign on, Alan driving, me for a pax ride. We also had to make contact with 2 people as Alan was giving a couple of passenger rides as well. Once that was all sorted I left Alan to have his drivers briefing and I returned to the car to find Wayne had at work giving it a good polish.....
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Session 1.
I decided to watch this session from a bank on the Wellington straight. It soon became apparent that all was not right as he just looked slow and didn't seem to be using as much track as normal coming out of maggots. Even Wayne commented that he looked slow......
Whatever it was it wasn't bad enough to force him to come in, as he said out for the full 20mins of the session.
Once he was back parked up we jumped on the car, Wayne carrying out the checks and me questioning Alan to find out what was wrong. What a relief I felt when it said, it's the tyres. The bigger profile affect the gearing just enough to upset his entry and exit speeds, slightly lower revs so slightly off boost at the point he felt he should be on boost. Simple I said, corner quicker, you've got more grip than you had last year use it.
To which he replied. I've got no grip, I can't get the tyres to work, it's a completely different circuit to Donny.
Tough, I said. This is what we've got so make it work.
I decided to watch this session from a bank on the Wellington straight. It soon became apparent that all was not right as he just looked slow and didn't seem to be using as much track as normal coming out of maggots. Even Wayne commented that he looked slow......
Whatever it was it wasn't bad enough to force him to come in, as he said out for the full 20mins of the session.
Once he was back parked up we jumped on the car, Wayne carrying out the checks and me questioning Alan to find out what was wrong. What a relief I felt when it said, it's the tyres. The bigger profile affect the gearing just enough to upset his entry and exit speeds, slightly lower revs so slightly off boost at the point he felt he should be on boost. Simple I said, corner quicker, you've got more grip than you had last year use it.
To which he replied. I've got no grip, I can't get the tyres to work, it's a completely different circuit to Donny.
Tough, I said. This is what we've got so make it work.
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Session 2
In this session he was taking Chris out,a lad from the street cruise scene. (Who has done it all, so he thought). For this session Alan had made some slight changes to the tyre pressures all round and the car was looking much quicker out on track. We were watching this session from the stand nest to the Brookland Suite........
Everything was going well until a white cossie that had been throwing out weird looking flames decided to drop oil on the turn in to Brooklands. As Alan then approached we were asking the question and yes Alan found the Oil. You could hear the gasps in the stand and Alan went sideways. Luckily (I refuse to say skilfully – as his heads big enough.....) it was only a small slide and he was back on it. Again he said out for the full 20mins of the session.
When they came in and Chris got out the car he told me that Alan had also had another slide through Copse, which Alan again put down to oil on the track.
I think Chris now has different view on things. The poor lad was totally soaked from head to toe in sweat......
Session 3.
Having made no further changes or fixes to the car it was my turn to go out. The first 2 sessions were in the intermediate group and this last session was in the advanced group. Now before I continue I must apologise for the lack of video footage from this session, we don't know why the new camera didn't record and are totally gutted about it. I will contacting Silverstone and asking them to give the drivers briefing for the advanced groups in 'sign language' as I am sure the feckers are deaf in that session.
NO Overtaking in the breaking zone = Overtake in the breaking zone
NO overtaking through a corner = Overtake in the corners
Was an awesome session, feck me, I thought I was actually in a race as NO one wanted to let you pass. For the first couple of laps Alan was driving hard but sticking to the track day rules but each lap he was getting overtaken either in the breaking zone or on the exit of a corner and a couple of times he got passed exiting Luffield onto the old start finish straight but it was always when he had slower cars in front and in order to pass Alan they were basically flat out down the kerbing.
This really seamed to wake Alan up and he took things to the next level and didn't get passed again.
Apex of copse, 2 wheels on the grass
Maggots. Alan’s new favourite overtaking point. As people would break before the left kink into maggots Alan stayed on the gas passing them and then braked in that short straight bit before the tight right hander onto Wellington straight, momentarily looking the fronts on 3 separate occasions. Turn in hard, cut the grass and breath (the last bits for me).
His new approach for Brooklands, Luffield also worked well.
Carry more speed into Brookands, hard on the breaks, bang it into 2nd, keep a tight line round Luffield, power out and immediately up into 3rd.
For me the 2 events in that session that stick in my mind are.
1. Going through Luffield behind a Gaggle of fords, as we got onto the start finish straight it was clear that no one was going to move over to let the Racing puma and Alan go through. So both decided to go around the other 3 cars through copse. The Puma braked after Alan did, which actually surprised me as Alan does break really late. Oh, wait, he shot off the track at copse and had to take the Touring car route whilst Alan passed the 3 cars though the bend. The Puma then rejoined still infront of Alan but on the approach to maggots Alan got passed.
2. The white Burton Power MK3 Focus RS. Inspite of the clear fact that Alan had caught up with him, there was no way on gods green earth that we was going to let a Sierra pass him. On 3 separate occasions when Alan tried to pass on a straight (bearing in mind we only had 350bhp, so were slowish down the straights) he refused to lift and let Alan through. Then on approach to Brooklands he stuck it in the middle of the track stopping Alan from passing under breaking. He then used the same tactics at Copse, by which point we are close. At this point I’m fairly sure that Alan got out and Bart got in as on the runner up to Maggots he simply tail-gated the Focus, The maggots Alan braked even harder causing the fronts to momentarily lock and this was enough to force the Focus driver to put his indicator on as if to say, ok I’ll let you pass me on the straight.
This really isn't how Alan normally drives and I’d be the first to kick his bollocks into this throat if he drove like this on a track day. But if people want to play rough he is more than capable of holding his own. Very impressed with how he drove, but if he ever does it again I’m taking his toys away..........
That’s now 2 track day events in the space of a month where the car has run without any issues and the only thing we did to the car to get it ready was to fit the new rear door cards, paint the passenger footwell and give it a wash and polish (Thanks Wayne).
In this session he was taking Chris out,a lad from the street cruise scene. (Who has done it all, so he thought). For this session Alan had made some slight changes to the tyre pressures all round and the car was looking much quicker out on track. We were watching this session from the stand nest to the Brookland Suite........
Everything was going well until a white cossie that had been throwing out weird looking flames decided to drop oil on the turn in to Brooklands. As Alan then approached we were asking the question and yes Alan found the Oil. You could hear the gasps in the stand and Alan went sideways. Luckily (I refuse to say skilfully – as his heads big enough.....) it was only a small slide and he was back on it. Again he said out for the full 20mins of the session.
When they came in and Chris got out the car he told me that Alan had also had another slide through Copse, which Alan again put down to oil on the track.
I think Chris now has different view on things. The poor lad was totally soaked from head to toe in sweat......
Session 3.
Having made no further changes or fixes to the car it was my turn to go out. The first 2 sessions were in the intermediate group and this last session was in the advanced group. Now before I continue I must apologise for the lack of video footage from this session, we don't know why the new camera didn't record and are totally gutted about it. I will contacting Silverstone and asking them to give the drivers briefing for the advanced groups in 'sign language' as I am sure the feckers are deaf in that session.
NO Overtaking in the breaking zone = Overtake in the breaking zone
NO overtaking through a corner = Overtake in the corners
Was an awesome session, feck me, I thought I was actually in a race as NO one wanted to let you pass. For the first couple of laps Alan was driving hard but sticking to the track day rules but each lap he was getting overtaken either in the breaking zone or on the exit of a corner and a couple of times he got passed exiting Luffield onto the old start finish straight but it was always when he had slower cars in front and in order to pass Alan they were basically flat out down the kerbing.
This really seamed to wake Alan up and he took things to the next level and didn't get passed again.
Apex of copse, 2 wheels on the grass
Maggots. Alan’s new favourite overtaking point. As people would break before the left kink into maggots Alan stayed on the gas passing them and then braked in that short straight bit before the tight right hander onto Wellington straight, momentarily looking the fronts on 3 separate occasions. Turn in hard, cut the grass and breath (the last bits for me).
His new approach for Brooklands, Luffield also worked well.
Carry more speed into Brookands, hard on the breaks, bang it into 2nd, keep a tight line round Luffield, power out and immediately up into 3rd.
For me the 2 events in that session that stick in my mind are.
1. Going through Luffield behind a Gaggle of fords, as we got onto the start finish straight it was clear that no one was going to move over to let the Racing puma and Alan go through. So both decided to go around the other 3 cars through copse. The Puma braked after Alan did, which actually surprised me as Alan does break really late. Oh, wait, he shot off the track at copse and had to take the Touring car route whilst Alan passed the 3 cars though the bend. The Puma then rejoined still infront of Alan but on the approach to maggots Alan got passed.
2. The white Burton Power MK3 Focus RS. Inspite of the clear fact that Alan had caught up with him, there was no way on gods green earth that we was going to let a Sierra pass him. On 3 separate occasions when Alan tried to pass on a straight (bearing in mind we only had 350bhp, so were slowish down the straights) he refused to lift and let Alan through. Then on approach to Brooklands he stuck it in the middle of the track stopping Alan from passing under breaking. He then used the same tactics at Copse, by which point we are close. At this point I’m fairly sure that Alan got out and Bart got in as on the runner up to Maggots he simply tail-gated the Focus, The maggots Alan braked even harder causing the fronts to momentarily lock and this was enough to force the Focus driver to put his indicator on as if to say, ok I’ll let you pass me on the straight.
This really isn't how Alan normally drives and I’d be the first to kick his bollocks into this throat if he drove like this on a track day. But if people want to play rough he is more than capable of holding his own. Very impressed with how he drove, but if he ever does it again I’m taking his toys away..........
That’s now 2 track day events in the space of a month where the car has run without any issues and the only thing we did to the car to get it ready was to fit the new rear door cards, paint the passenger footwell and give it a wash and polish (Thanks Wayne).
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
One of the passenger rides that Alan gave at Ford Fair was to our tyre man. As a direct result of that he has today given Alan a price on a set of wet use tyres for next seasons Time Attack. Well happy, as we've used before and always wanted to have another set for wet use.
So as long as Time Attack dont go to a control tyre we are all set for tyres for next season.
So as long as Time Attack dont go to a control tyre we are all set for tyres for next season.
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Thought I would give a bit of feedback on the tyres we've been using.
Maxsport RB5-F3
Having now used them at both Donington and Silverstone we are starting to get an understanding of them. Silverstone was a hotter day than at Donny so we started off with the same pressure settings, however Alan was unable to get them to switch on, so to speak, and really struggled with grip. This was rectified by dropping the pressures 1psi.
The tyres are a 225/45/17 (only size available in 17's). They are very, very noisey on track, and can be heard whinning from the pit wall. Going through Copse at circa 90-100mph you could feel the tyres wanting to pull the car staright but there was no sliding.
After 2 events both on hot days the wear is light (medium compound). The only real issue that we are having with them is tyre fold. On hard cornering you can feel (Alan), the tyre wall folding or the car bouncing, skipping as the tyre wall flexes. This may be a pressure issue.
I would have to say that value for money an excellant buy, just wish they did them in more sizes.
Maxsport RB5-F3
Having now used them at both Donington and Silverstone we are starting to get an understanding of them. Silverstone was a hotter day than at Donny so we started off with the same pressure settings, however Alan was unable to get them to switch on, so to speak, and really struggled with grip. This was rectified by dropping the pressures 1psi.
The tyres are a 225/45/17 (only size available in 17's). They are very, very noisey on track, and can be heard whinning from the pit wall. Going through Copse at circa 90-100mph you could feel the tyres wanting to pull the car staright but there was no sliding.
After 2 events both on hot days the wear is light (medium compound). The only real issue that we are having with them is tyre fold. On hard cornering you can feel (Alan), the tyre wall folding or the car bouncing, skipping as the tyre wall flexes. This may be a pressure issue.
I would have to say that value for money an excellant buy, just wish they did them in more sizes.
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Even though we have now done 2 events with the car without issue we haven't forgotten and are not ignoring the fact that we still have issues to sort out. So with that in mind i am going to be 'tea boy', for a day 
Re: TNTRacing - XRCosworth
Day out in the shires
Took a nice little drive across to Norfolk yesterday but to save braking our backs and making our ears bleed we trailered the race car. The downside was it meant I had to listern to Alan for 4 hrs going into great depth about his new idea to reduce drag on lorries
He did raise a couple of good points,
1 being ANPR's - How do they work in relation to cars on trailers, would they still ping up? Our car is SORN'd but whilst on the trailer it still had the rear number plate on!!
Anyway we arrived at APT just after 9am wondering what the day would hold for us and how long it would take before Gary said 'Rip that shit out and fit a proper engine'. Not that long actually
We unloaded the car (Thank feck it started) and parked it in the by a rubbish pile (mmmm was that a hint). Shortly after Stuart turned up (Thank god Alan had given the car a quick wash the day before). Really good to catch up with you again
So, back to the car.
Good points....
All 4 tyres were the same make and not a budget brand
It started with the key, just.
The head lights worked............
The engine.... All the correct parts are there and we didn't shop at Poundland to get them, however.
(At this point I just want to make it clear that RGS have NOT done any work on the car, they dyno'd the car and went to adjust the boost when they came across certain issues. Gary then offered to have a look at the car and give us some answers).
So what did he find?
1. Small boost leak (When we fitted the new intercooler)
2. Boost solenoid wasn't working but is now.
3. Boost controller (was disconnected as it kept tripping the boost past 21psi and would go into limp home mode). Just needs setting up properley as it works fine.
4. Wastegate plumbed up wrong
5. Cam settings checked - Slightly out
6. TDC on crank pulley is not TDC on engine
7. Engine ignition timing is 7.5degs different to that being shown in the ecu.
Then we get to the Omex ecu!!!!!!!
The only good thing that Gary had to say about the ecu was........hang on a minute....... He didn't have anything good to say about the ecu. In fact he wanted to make some small adjustments but he felt it was far to risky. Thats putting it lightly with regards to what he thought.
Both myself and Alan would like to say a big 'THANK YOU'. to Gary and his team for the excellant sevice, atmosphere and banter.
Also Thank You for taking the time to explain everything to us.
Took a nice little drive across to Norfolk yesterday but to save braking our backs and making our ears bleed we trailered the race car. The downside was it meant I had to listern to Alan for 4 hrs going into great depth about his new idea to reduce drag on lorries
He did raise a couple of good points,
1 being ANPR's - How do they work in relation to cars on trailers, would they still ping up? Our car is SORN'd but whilst on the trailer it still had the rear number plate on!!
Anyway we arrived at APT just after 9am wondering what the day would hold for us and how long it would take before Gary said 'Rip that shit out and fit a proper engine'. Not that long actually
We unloaded the car (Thank feck it started) and parked it in the by a rubbish pile (mmmm was that a hint). Shortly after Stuart turned up (Thank god Alan had given the car a quick wash the day before). Really good to catch up with you again So, back to the car.
Good points....
All 4 tyres were the same make and not a budget brand
It started with the key, just.
The head lights worked............
The engine.... All the correct parts are there and we didn't shop at Poundland to get them, however.
(At this point I just want to make it clear that RGS have NOT done any work on the car, they dyno'd the car and went to adjust the boost when they came across certain issues. Gary then offered to have a look at the car and give us some answers).
So what did he find?
1. Small boost leak (When we fitted the new intercooler)
2. Boost solenoid wasn't working but is now.
3. Boost controller (was disconnected as it kept tripping the boost past 21psi and would go into limp home mode). Just needs setting up properley as it works fine.
4. Wastegate plumbed up wrong
5. Cam settings checked - Slightly out
6. TDC on crank pulley is not TDC on engine
7. Engine ignition timing is 7.5degs different to that being shown in the ecu.
Then we get to the Omex ecu!!!!!!!
The only good thing that Gary had to say about the ecu was........hang on a minute....... He didn't have anything good to say about the ecu. In fact he wanted to make some small adjustments but he felt it was far to risky. Thats putting it lightly with regards to what he thought.
Both myself and Alan would like to say a big 'THANK YOU'. to Gary and his team for the excellant sevice, atmosphere and banter.
Also Thank You for taking the time to explain everything to us.