Edit: Blimey! I hadn’t realised that this article wasn’t published. I’d written it, saved it, made it ‘public’, but didn’t select the Published box. So it’s sat here, invisible to all but me. Sorry. It won’t happen again. Probably…
It was a bit of a rush to get the car ready, but we entered the BRSCC F3 (formerly ClubF3, formerly ARP F3) round at Snetterton to see how the car faired at low ride heights allowed in this championship – in Monoposto we have to run at 40mm minimum, which is due to some antiquated rule to do with banning ‘skirts’) – and to see how I coped against quicker machinery with a view to doing the championship next year.
With no pre-event testing it was always going to be difficult to get the car balanced, even taking advice of other people (who, of course, were different drivers, with cars in different specifications…). Setting the ride height to the 19mm we intended to use at the front posed a bit of a problem, as our workshop floor isn’t particularly flat. At 40mm it’s fine, but at 19mm the errors in the floor were too much to be accurate. A solution was devised, made from welded steel sections and kitchen worktop material from B&Q (!), which gave us a pseudo flat-floor that we could level up (using spirit levels) and do ride height, corner weights and everything else.
The tyre compound we normally use in Monoposto was considered by many (but not all) to be too soft to last the 25 minutes sessions the BRSCC enjoy, but we didn’t want to splash out hundreds of pounds on a set of Spec tyres just for one event. The result was that we bought a used set of Litespeed’s British F3 Cooper slicks (yes, that Litespeed, with ideas of entering F1) and got permission to use them in this race. Our car isn’t exactly standard F3, with a Mono engine, cantilevered wings, extended diffusers and a few other bits and bobs, so having tyres that weren’t of the correct specification wasn’t a problem. In fact, the Coopers are harder, and apparently most amateur drivers have difficulty going quickly enough to get the temperature into them to get the grip they can give – professional drivers, whilst also of a higher skill and with more money behind them, also have the benefit of a lot of testing and dedicated engineering back up.
At the track we were braced for being less competitive than we are used to, but Lady Luck wasn’t on our side all day, as you will see…
Practice
The aim was to do some laps, maybe make some chances, and see where we end up. The Cooper slicks were bolted on and off I went. The first thing I noticed was that the car was much twitchier at low ride heights, with a lot less ‘give’ in the suspension despite using the same springs. Down the straights we seemed slow in comparison to F3 engined cars. And we’d lost a bit of bodywork when the little ‘damper cover’ at the back flew off and landed on the track. This caused a red flag whilst it was retrieved (we got it back later, but it was a bit squashed), but not for very long.
The car was quite oversteery, which made getting on the throttle quite tricky. On one lap in Riches (the first corner, a fast right hander with very little braking) I had such a bit moment I swore I’d hit the lock-stops catching it. The datalogging afterwards suggesting this was an exaggeration, but it wasn’t one I’d made on purpose; I genuinely thought I’d run out of lock (and luck). Anyway, I caught it and lived to fight another lap. A quick (ha ha) pitstop was made to add a little rear wing to see what effect it had on the balance, and whilst it helped, the car was still oversteering a lot. In the end I came to the conclusion it was tyre temps – getting the fronts up to temperature is easy, by weaving and putting load on them in the corners by induced understeer. But heating the rears is more difficult – applying throttle and loading them in the corners is the only way really, and do get that load you have to go quicker… It’s a conundrum; you can’t go fast enough to heat the tyres which means you can’t go fast enough to heat the tyres… Presumably this is what they were talking about at Litespeed, and could be cured by lots of talent, bravery and seat time – three things we (I) don’t have.
Anyway, my times put me 10th on the grid in the first race, and 9th on the grid in the second race (the second best practice time determines the grid order of race two), which was a little slower than I’d have liked, but not that bad really…
Fuel was added, batteries were charged and the balance was discussed. It was decided that a bit more front preload would be added to stop the front bottoming out, a packer removed from the front to give more wheel travel in bump, and to fit the softer A53 compound Mono tyres (used in the first 4 rounds of this years championship, so coming to the end of their useful life anyway). A small oil leak was identified, but the source wasn’t found. It wasn’t bad enough to worry about, so it was left to cure back at base before Croft.
Race One
I formed up on the grid in 10th place, and when the lights went out I made a great start (perhaps still a touch too much wheelspin) and was up to 9th by the first corner. That became 7th in the Esses when two cars ran wide at the exit, and then 6th when I outbraked Stephen Clegg into Russell chicane. On the start-finish straight I was a sitting duck as we lacked the power to do much about being overtaken, but it was a close miss when Stephen turned into Riches; I only just avoided him. On the back straight I was then prone to being overtaken by Paul Sibley, but I was able to brake a lot later than him into the Esses and keep the place. This was probably because I was running softer tyres and too much downforce, but it might be confidence on the brakes and lack of power…
Soon it all settled down, with me defending on the straights, but being quicker through the corners than Paul behind and Stephen ahead, until the start of lap 3. As I turned into Riches the rear wing decided to give up the ghost, dropping several inches as the lower beam failed, greatly reducing the rear downforce when I needed it most. As such the snap oversteer was too fast for me to catch, and the high-speed slide/spin/slide saw me end up in a maize field (or possibly cabbage, I didn’t get a good look) with the engine running and me pointing in roughly the right direction. A bit of rallycrossing got me back on the track, but now I was missing the bonnet (flew off in the spin), the windscreen was flapping (the bonnet took out a mounting point on it’s way off) and the rear wing was at a dodgy angle. I did a couple of laps to see if it was safe and to determine if everything else was okay with the car, before calling it a race after 5 laps.
The downside was that our spare lower beam is for an F305 Dallara, and therefore doesn’t fit straight on the car. A few spacers and bodges got it on the car, with duct-tape holding the rain light on, and some repairs were made (using duct tape as the load bearing medium) to the bodywork. As I’d done just 5 laps we decided not the change or charge the battery, and simply added a few litres of fuel…
Race Two
We got the car ready in time for the second race, although we certainly wouldn’t be winning prizes for the best prepared car anymore. Not that that really mattered, as we felt that the car was in a reasonable state of health, even if getting into the top 6 was a bit of a dream… My second best practice time put me 9th on the grid, and so we duly formed up on the track.
As the lights went out I made a good start and was up to 8th, behind three cars, all of us circulating at roughly the same speed – Mark Harrison, Stephen Clegg and Jon Gray. Behind me Paul Sibley was at times very close, and at times a little way behind, and he was very quick through Russell chicane. However, I couldn’t get close enough to attempt a pass on those ahead, but neither could those behind. I was all set for a rather boring race to the finish… From lap 8 I gradually began to lose touch with the group ahead, probably as my tyres started to go off (soft compound that wouldn’t, apparently, cope with 25 minutes of racing) and the A24s on everyone else’s car came up to temperature. There was nothing I could do, and over driving just slowed me down even more. I tried to keep it steady, aware that Paul was beginning to catch me once again by a few tenths per lap. By lap 15 he was right with me, but unable to find a way passed as I was still better on the brakes into the major passing places. Watching my mirrors was slowing me even more though, and I was beginning to tire a little as I was so used to pacing myself for a 15 minute race, rather than 25 minutes (I shall work on my fitness a bit more!), but fortunately on lap 17, or thereabouts, my tyres and I got a second wind and my pace picked up a bit. Not enough to trouble those ahead, because they were now 12 seconds ahead, but enough to get some breathing space from Paul. Around this time my dashboard started to play up, with the shift lights flickering all the time, no response to the steering wheel buttons, and the predictive lap feature failing to respond – I don’t usually use predictive lap timing in a race, but with the buttons not working I was stuck on that display.
On lap 20 (out of an eventual 23) I passed Ray Rowan, who had spun exiting Sears onto the backstraight, so I was now 7th, which would have been a pretty good result all things considered. I pressed on, careful not to make a silly mistake, and I was no longer tired. Funny how your body responds; after getting a bit tired after 15 minutes, it had realised I was still going and given me some more energy.
Soon though the dash was playing up a bit more, with more flickering and funny readings. My oil temperature was getting a bit high as well, but not so high that I was concerned by it. Gradually a misfire started to occur, firstly only at high revs/load, but gradually at lower and lower RPM. Either I was running out of fuel, or the battery was nearly flat (it was the latter as it turned out, but I didn’t really know for sure). In an effort to save amperage, I switched off the dash and resolved to change gear by ear. This probably got me to the finish, but on the final lap I was having to limit my throttle use. Behind me cars were closing in fast, but I thought I could just about get to the finish. Alas, exiting the Esses for the final time it coughed, spluttered and misfired. That was enough for Phil Austin, Ray Rowan and Dave Karaskas to pass me before and after the Bombhole (Paul Sibley had sadly retired a few laps earlier), and I limped over the line a disappointed 10th. But at least I finished!!
My in-lap was slower than usual, as the car barely wanted to provide any sparks, and I made it to the final turn (Russells) before it died. So I ended the race being pushed into the pitlane.
Looking at the datalogging afterwards the voltage had dipped to around 9.5 volts towards the end, before I switched off the dash/logger. That usually means I can have either sparks or fuel, but not both at the same time. And so it turned out.
Would we have faired better if we’d charged the battery after Race 1? Probably. Should we fit a larger battery? Probably. And would we have gone quicker with A24 tyres? Arguable really. Our A53s were old, and any A24s we used would have been new. Maybe next time we race with the BRSCC F3 lot we’ll do a better job…
Conclusions
We entered this race for two reasons – to evaluate our car at low ride heights versus 40mm, and to determine whether we wanted to compete in BRSCC F3 properly next year (i.e. using the control tyres, fuel and an F3 engine).
Firstly, the comparison wasn’t a good one. We didn’t get a good setup or balance, and we were using ‘old’ tyres or excessively hard tyres. My best lap of the weekend was SLOWER than at 40mm (1m08.6 versus 1m08.0), and the Cooper tyres’ best lap was as good as the softer tyres. So we don’t know how good the car could have been…
Secondly, we have thought about BRSCC F3. The positives of the series are faster cars (slightly), longer sessions and a smaller mix of cars. The downsides are the requirement to use control tyres, the need to use a new set of tyres at every meeting to be really competitive, the need for expensive fuel and costly engine rebuilds, and less flexible rules regarding car development. Part of our enjoyment is the fact that we are allowed to tweak the car to improve it – see our cantilevered wings or extended diffuser. But ultimately it comes down to money – we can’t afford to be competitive in BRSCC F3 (regardless of driver talent, as we’d still have difficulty beating the experienced, quick guys even with a competitive car), and therefore Monoposto is ideal for us. Cheaper and slightly more technical freedom. With fuel injection allowed next year then our power levels should be comparible to F3 engines, along with the boost on partial throttle that injection mapping gives.
It was a nice experiment, and hopefully we’ll try it again some time, but it’s not for us as our regular championship.
