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1Tristan CLIFFE175 (186)
2Malcolm SCOTT118
3Anthony BISHOP65
4Antonio IMPIERI64
5Richard PURCELL52
6Graham READ40

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Posts Tagged ‘testing’


The second half of the season starts with round 8 at Oulton Park this weekend. Omicron Motorsports will be there in full force as usual.

Oulton is a track that I’ve never gelled with, despite winning here in 2010 – although I was lucky to escape a high speed spin and stall in one piece after intense pressure from a faster Jeremy Timms all race – and so we return with a few ideas to help us. Plus, I have decided to do half a test day to help find a better car setup to assist me on my way.

Tony Bishop’s car has been rebuilt with a fresh engine (we have various dry sumps, camshafts, pistons etc that aren’t legal in Monoposto left over if you want them) and we hope he’ll be back up to speed after several disappointing outings recently. We know he and the car have the speed, but so far we have lacked consistency and reliability. We are obviously working hard to turn that around as quickly as possible!

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 June 2011 11:44

Our other driver, Tony Bishop, has bought the ex-Phil Moore/Nemesis Racing Dallara F304 for use in MSVR’s F3 Cup, which was formerly ClubF3 (and continues to be called that by most people). It needed a bit of work doing to it – the windscreen was broken, the reverse/neutral lockout cable had seized, the brake caliper seals were leaking etc – and it needed the setup reviewing as there were some very odd choices on the car to begin with.

I was asked by Tony to spend a morning driving the car, evaluating it’s condition, speed and setup. Below is a short video (the only video captured on the day, thanks to a dodgy battery terminal in our GoPro HD camera) showing me driving the Snetterton 300 circuit on Friday 10th June. My best lap was one or two laps after the camera stopped working, and I managed a 1m48.9. Not bad considering it was my first time in the car, the engine and ride height were considerably different, and I’d never driven a sequential racecar before.

Now, I have to say, I want one!

 

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Last Updated on Thursday, 16 June 2011 04:47

Apologies to those that actually visit this site in the vain hope that I’ll write something. I’ve been meaning to for months, but never actually finished writing a post. I have several drafts, but by the time I get anywhere near finishing it it’s out of date. So the quietness has continued. Hopefully until now (if I finish this!).

Tony's tub in primerThe last time I wrote about the cars we were just reassembling the new car for Tony Bishop. Well, that car is now complete, and has been raced at the last two meetings of the 2011 championship.

Once the car was finished, and seats were made, and engines were dyno’d and mapped etcetera, Tony had a test day at Snetterton on the 2nd March. Most things seemed to work quite well, despite old tyres and being new to H-pattern gear changes, and Tony's car nearing completionTony was getting more and more comfortable in the car. A few things that weren’t good enough we’re noted to be fixed, one of which was the gear change that Tony was finding very awkward. Alas, during the penultimate session of the day, Tony accidentally shifted from 4th to 3rd rather than 5th; the revs jumped to 8500rpm, the valves touch the pistons, and an overhaul was needed.

In the two weeks between that test and the first race the engine was fixed, and more stuff was done to the car, partly to improve stuff that was discovered in the test, and partly to implement stuff that we didn’t have time to do properly during the proper rebuild. But we finished the car, and arrived at Snetterton for the first meeting of the year.

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Last Updated on Thursday, 16 June 2011 05:33

Dallara F398 and Reynard 883 togetherI was due to go to Mallory Park on the 14th April 2010 to assist Lenny Coleman, who purchased our championship winning Reynard 883 late last year, get used to his new steed, advising him on how to get the best out of the car, and to get the setup to his liking. Having someone on hand who knows the car, and how it reacts to various setup changes is a big help, and part of the Reynard sale deal was to be present at his first test.

However, as I was going, we decided that is wasn’t that much more effort or expense to take our Dallara with us and give it a brief shakedown test to make sure that the problems we suffered at Brands Hatch last month were cured. Leaving home at 5am was a bit of a drag, and confirmed for me why we now stay overnight at race circuits!!! The testing fee was also pretty reasonably, at £102, which made the decision is little easier to swallow…

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Last Updated on Friday, 2 July 2010 01:53

It doesn’t show much, and it isn’t very interesting really (unless your a real car nerd like me, in which case its fascinating), but for your pleasure and enjoyment here is a few minutes of onboard footage from Snetterton on March 12th.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 March 2010 09:51

Loading Up All in all it turned out to be quite a successful and productive day for us at Snetterton on March 12th 2010. The aim of the day was to shakedown the new fuel injection system and engine, and iron out the faults that were very likely to occur. Of course, it would have been nice to have had no problems, but at least we can sort everything out now and go to Brands confident of good reliability.

The day started with a noise test, which we only just passed – first thing on the to-do list is repack the exhaust again (but with the silencer filling looser or tighter?!).  However, we were at least through, and could get on with the rest of the day…

The first session was just an exploratory one, with an installation lap followed by a quick check-over. The weather was not on our side, and the track was quite damp, meaning the wets had to go on. Fortunately it was the perfect chance to see how the car behaved with low grip, particularly its response to throttle during corner exits, where wheelspin can be so costly to laptime.  All temps and pressures seemed to be doing as they should, and nothing obvious was wrong with the car at the check, so I was sent out to do a few more laps.  However, a couple of laps later the throttle cable snapped – a threaded end fitting that was crimped onto the cable (by a reputable but now out of business cable manufacturer) had caused a stress-raiser, and it had failed at this point. Totally out of our control unlike the Mallory failure last year.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 March 2010 01:20