Blimey! Apologies all for the lack of updates. I've not been able to administer the server for 2 months now! As a result, I've now relocated the site which is being kindly done by those nice chaps at pistonheads.net so I urge you to go and have a look at them (there's a dedicated Locost section in the gassing station too!). Believe it or not, the second car is nearing completion. I've got to get the pictures from my brother (still!) but I'll make a concerted effort to do a major update next week.
As far as my car goes, well, a couple of weeks ago I dusted the old girl down, refilled her with vital fluids and fired her up. After a bit of coughing and spluttering (no choke you see), I got her going and she sounded great! The only thing that I've done to it is to change the exhaust from the Stuart Taylor system to a Tony Law job with matched pipes. It sounds the same but will hopefully extract a couple more vital bhp.
Anyway, to shake down the car we booked a trackday at Donington with Bookatrack. At 160 quid it's cheaper than testing and would allow me to get the car (and me) settled in nicely. As a pre-season treat, the entire 'Bitza' team turned out. Martin drove his MR2 Turbo (big up da man - wicked stylee ;), Karl drove his Elise (with matching curling set and tongs ;) and Stu drove the Dutton (which sounds like a Lancaster bomber and handles/stops about as well ;). As a bonus, we'd booked Mike Top (Spydas Web) 3 time Kit Car champion, to come along and give us some 1-to-1 tuition. After all, you can never know too much can you?
So we set off Sunday afternoon in our happy little convoy as we had booked rooms (at a very reasonable 30 quid per person) in the Holiday Inn Express just down the road from the circuit. There, we met up with PetrolTed (see Pistonheads.) and had a couple of small sherrys to while the evening away. What's that? 11 pints - nah, you're confusing us with less responsible people ;) So another evening was spent talking bollocks and praying that the weather would be fair for a February trackday!
Well, out prayers were answered and we awoke to screaming hangovers.... I mean, blue skies and sunshine :) After a delightful breakfast (not), we trundled off to the circuit to get unloaded and swipe a pit garage for a change! Once we'd all signed on, it was time to get suited up and out to the session. In order to take Mike out with me, I'd installed a passenger harness and we managed to squeeze his foam seat in. I had to remove the handbrake to get it in, but hey, this isn't rallying is it - well, I hope not anyway ;) This bit of fine tuning made sure that we were a bit late in joining the first session, but out I trundled trying to remember how to drive a Locost.
Those first couple of laps were laughable. Not only did I have to re-tune my brain to driving the Locost, but with a passenger the already marginal brakes were now completely wooden! Still, once I'd got used to it I could concentrate more on my lines and by the end of the session, I was into a reasonable rhythm. So pulling back into the pits I wondered what Mikes verdict would be (gulp). Well, frankly I thought that I'd been crap, however, Mike said that there was very little that he could help me on - woohoo! My line into Redgate needed a bit of work as I tend to turn-in a bit early which makes for a scrappy exit and a poor run into Craner. Coppice was also a bit untidy as it's a blind crest, but we talked through some options and before we knew it, it was time to have another go.
This time things were A LOT better. For the first few laps I really concentrated on my lines first, then the speed. By the end of the session, we were almost flat-out everywhere leaving a trail of Elises, Exiges, Porsches and Caterhams in our wake. Locosts may be cheap, but they'll run rings round most road cars on a track. I even held off a 5.7 litre V8 Ultima for a couple of laps before he floored it down the back straight! 370bhp vs. 62 isn't a fair fight ;) Pulling in once again, Mike was very happy with what I was doing. I felt more confident and decided to have a look at the other guys.
Stu had a 'bit of a moment' in the Dutton at the Old Hairpin which, whilst he kept it on the black stuff, dented his confidence a bit. So, it made sense that Mike should take him out for the next session. Meanwhile, Karl asked me to come out with him to see what he was doing (wrong ;) and to see if I could give him any pointers. Talk about the blind leading the blind! :) Anyway, by the time we'd left Redgate (that's about 100 yards from the pit lane exit) two things were apparent. 1, he braked extremely conservatively and 2, he had a habit of coasting into the corner neither braking or accelerating and would then pump the throttle on the apex. Now this is fine if you're Colin McRae, but not when you're on a track in a shiny Elise!!!! Oh, 3, was that his lines were a little errr... dodgy. After a couple of laps pointing out the line, I held my hand up until I wanted him to brake (poor sod), anyway, we managed to cut his braking point in half and he still had plenty of room for error. 4 laps downs and I gestured for him to come in so we could chat. It's very difficult to explain where the line is when you can't hear each other for wind buffeting so I thought that practical demonstration was the way to go ;) So, in a moment of weakness, Karl let me take him round Donny in his Elise - purely for demonstration you understand ;) I wanted to show him the line and also that his car was capable of far more liberties than he was taking. It was very flattering that he had the confidence in me to do this. I took it easy for the first errrr...50 yards or so! For the next two laps I tried to show him how I would do it :) Well, after the first lap he did ask me to slow down - I wasn't trying to scare him, I actually thought that I was taking it easy! But you just get used to going at Locost pace and the Elise was pretty capable too. We pulled in after the 2nd lap and Karl seemed to be much happier with what he thought possible. Still, he had made me slow down (it was his toy after all!) so I offered to take him out for a few laps in the Locost ;) Karl strapped himself in with his knees in his mouth (the battery box in the passenger footwell didn't leave much legroom!) and off we went. I let the tyres warm up a bit and by the time we'd got to McLeans we were ready to rumble. Well, much grinning, holding onto the rollbar and double thumbs up later and we pulled back in to the pits. The best part of the day for me was Karl getting out and telling me that it was the high point of the day for him!
So, I did the same ride for Stu and Martin who, whilst not being so animated (probably though fear ;) seemed to enjoy it just as much. I did some more sessions on my own to really push the car - it felt COMPLETELY different - and I felt a lot more confident about Donington. Mike continued with his tuition of the others and we all came away feeling that we'd learned something. At the end of the day, my conversation to Mike turned to setup and I decided to ask Mike to take the Locost out to give me some feedback. Well, I'd always thought that the car was pretty neutral and Mike confirmed just that! So, somehow, when I'd put it together, I'd fluked a decent setup! It's amazing what an MDF camber guage and some dodgy tracking mats will do ;)
Donington is only a few weeks away and I feel ready for it. We'll miss Mallory (no great loss) as we're skiing, but hopefully, come the 17th we'll be ready to get on the scoresheet!
Cheers - CJ
So what's new. Well, as I mentioned back in - blimey - November, we're started build No.2. The car is now at the rolling chassis stage and my brother has been taking photos of the build. I've got to collect the camera card so that I can upload them here this week so check back soon. I've covered the building aspects of a Locost racer the first time round, so this time, I'm going to try and explain a bit more about setting one up for the track as well as giving an accurate record of the costs involved.
That's all for now, check back soon.