August 2001 Vorsprung Durch Technic - NOT!

Sunday 12th August

Well, long time no posting! Well my loyal fans, not a lot to report on the Locost front (another engine is away being rebuilt) but I thought I'd do my bit for a folically challenged mate - James 'Slappy' Hall and his co-driver Warren 'Wazzer' Kerrigan and their team Ultima Racing (who race an Ultima funnily enough!). I thought it would be a laugh to experience things from the pit-crew's perspective for change, well, that and being able to mock their efforts ;)

So, the idea was on Saturday to turn up to their workshop, top up the gearbox oil, load the car onto the trailer and boogie on up to Cadwell for a pie and a pint before a good night's kip in a local hotel.....

Except that's not how it happens is it! First minor issue was the gearbox sump plug. Now although this had been removed a couple of weeks ago and the car not used in anger in the meantime, racing being what it is this actually means that the sump plug had magically welded itself in place! Much swearing, blow-torching and general plug mashing later and the plug finally gave up and came free - phew! So, a quick test drive to make sure everything was ready to rock and roll in the gearbox department and we were off. For about 3 miles that is when the Ultima chugged to a halt feeling as if we'd run out of fuel. Two points I'll make quickly are these:

1. Being in an Ultima is as close as you'll get to being in an arcade racing game! The way the road disappears under your nose with no perceivable bonnet is just weird.
2. There's nothing more embarrassing than giving it large in a lary yellow race car on public roads gathering admiring glances, only to be overtaken by all the numpties 2 minutes later when you're broken down by the side of the road!

We called back to the workshop for Wazzer to come out with some fuel and duly topped up the tank - well I say tank, more like topping up the engine bay as there was a pretty severe leak from the fuelling downpipe added to the fact that due to the routing of the pipework to the 100 litre tank, it tends to flow back alot making a full tank a half hour affair. But no joy. OK, let's try jump starting. Damn, no leads, Wazzer runs back to the workshop and picks up the jump leads (and tow rope just in case). 5 mins later and he's back. The Ultima was connected up to his car and we tried again. Nope. Not a thing. Bugger. So, out came the tow rope and we all trundled back to base (I was wondering whether my luck was catching at this point).

Several skimmed knuckles and copious amounts of fuel spraying later (Slappy certainly failed his fire safety badge in the scouts) and the problem was traced to a dodgy connection to the fuel pump. This was a bit weird as you could hear the pump whirr as you turned on the ignition. Well, except that there's THREE pumps - 2 low pressure and one high. The low pressure pumps weren't working so the engine was being starved of fuel. A quick chop job with the snips and a new crimp connection made and the Ultima fired up. It's a bit like standing in front of the speaker stack at a Monsters of Rock festival. Nice! ;)

So off we trundled on another test drive. The Ultima is quite, quite mad. Definitely a race car built for the roa.... errr.. track! Public roads, unless they're billiard table smooth, are a comibination of crashing jolts through the short travel suspension and just ummmm.. crashing! ;) It's a great car, totally wired into what you do with it. Let's hope these two know what to do with it tomorrow. We finally got the car trailered up and set off on the trek up to Cadwell. Told you it would be simple ;)

It was good to see that the Ultima Racing team follow our tradition of giong out and sinking a few sherberts the night before and a decent enough (and cheap) Italian and a couple of bottles of Vino Collapso saw us to bed with anticipation of the race ahead.

So, raceday dawned to absolutely crap weather. Overcast skies and steady drizzle didn't do much for your confidence in a 330bhp sabre-toothed-bastard of a car. We scoffed breakfast down and made our way to the circuit. Slappy and Wazzer run the Ultima in the Tom Rowe Centurion Challenge which is run by the Jaguar Owners Club. It's a great series with 100 mile races. Lots of Caterham Superlights in it with a couple of Elises and of course the Ultima. Now these organisers, being the gentleman they are, didn't require sign-on until 10:30 with scrutineering and qualifying later on. How sociable is that!? Makes a change from scrutineering at 8am for a race that would start at 5:30pm (if at all in Locost). Anyway, we fuelled and prepped the car. There was a lot of standing water on the track so going would be well slippy. I suggested dropping the tyre pressures to 20psi (from 28) of the Yokohama AO32R's which boot the car. Didn't want to go too low as it's a looooooong race. I run A032's at about 12psi on the Dutton but the Ultima's a fair bit heavier. Anyway, we'd see how they got on. Wazzer had never driven Cadwell before so off he trotted to the first-timer briefing and we were ready to rumble - rumble being the operative word with a John Eales 4.8l V8!

Unlike the Locost meeting the club were using the whole circuit at Cadwell which mean the addition of the Mountain, Hall Bends, Hairpin and Barn down to the start straight by the pits. Mountain was well slippy giving some good tail-out action, Hall bends are well slippy as they soak up the crap from the overhanging trees, the hairpin would be slooooow and barn just plain scary! The worst of it though seemed to be the start straight. With the rain bringing oil out of the surface and a load of standing water the straight was a nightmare. Two cars had had big impacts there already, a Morgan and an immaculate Lister Jag. Not a lot left of those. A start reminder to be careful with the old loud pedal.

Lining up in the assembly area the rain continued to fall making for a very damp and bedraggled pit crew (ie me!). I dunno, these boys didn't even have an umbrella between them let alone a car shelter - not like us professionals! ;) We had to leave Slappy to it as we needed to cross the track to get to the pits where Wazzer could make his driver change (both drivers - yes, that's right, there are two - must qualify). Slowly the cars emerged and it was an anxious moment waiting for the bright yellow Ultima to appear. But appear it did, well, if you call a cloud of spray appearing! Visibiliy was aweful and I didn't envy Slappy in the car. This was made worse as the windscreen kept fogging badly due to all the moist air. Not fun. Didn't seem to affect the Caterhams though who had obviously left their brains in the paddock and were going as if it was bone dry - big respect to these nutters. We had planned to keep him out for 5 laps in the 20 minute session which would give Wazzer about 7 minutes in the car. Well, that would have been fine except they cut the damn session short! The upshot of this was that Wazzer only made 1 and a half laps. Not exactly good for his confidence especially as it was his first time out at Cadwell.

So, off he went to the Clerk of the Course to explain whilst we set about refuelling, de-misting and de-heating (OK, so that was a bit tenuous. The car had been suffering from excessive heat as well as the clutch being a bit dodgy.

After much fiddling, the clutch problem stemmed from a short ratio slave cylinder which actuates the clutch arm (not repairable at the track so we spaced it out with some spacer nuts and washers) whilst we aimed to combat the cooling problem with some delicate removal, OK, make that butchering of the GRP bodywork under the spoiler hoping to aid airflow out of the engine bay.

Well, soon enough it was time to go out. The good luck's wished at the assembly area and Wazzer and I made our way back to the pits once again. After a dryish spell over lunch (typical) the rain had started to come down thick and fast. The organisers got them gridded up fairly quickly and reduced the race from 46 to 39 laps to try and save some time. It made a nice change to watch the lights go green from the pitlane as I knew 'I' couldn't fluff the start! Again, I didn't envy Slappy trying to get 330ponies to the track without the tyres doing an impression of a greased seal on an ice rink. He made a reasonable start and chugged off into the mist. Visibility was almost non-existant. A couple of minutes later and the leaders flew past, watching one of the mid field Caterhams coming out of Barn, he seemed to be straight but then lost the back end. A quick bit of fishtailing later and he ran onto the grass opposite the pitlane and smacked the tyre wall with a fair old wallop! Nasty. Fortunately he was in one peice and the race was quickly red-flagged (see, it's not just us!). It took a good ten minutes before the car was removed which allowed another 2 gallons of rain to soak into me undies. The marshalls then told us it was to be a 10 laps sprint only to decide about 5 minutes later that the meeting would be cancelled. Arse.

So, cold, wet but still in one piece, we loaded up and went home. All in all a good laugh. It was great to experience motorsport at a somewhat higher level (well, of budget at least) but for me, well, I'll stick to Locost ta! ;)

Saturday 18th August

Actually got some 'build' for the build diary for a change! Well, more 'dismantle' really. As you'll know from reading the Silverstone race diary, my original engine was sounding a bit ropey when I finished. This came as no surprise as I hadn't held out much hope for the cam followers as the bores had been badly scored after the first follower breakdown. They'd been honed, but were far from perfect so I'd expected accelerated follower wear. So wear was what I got! Draining the sump revealed far less material than the race engine - not hard - but the silvery swarf was unmistakeable. Ho hum ;) The rest of the engine was stripped and revealed, sure enough, worn followers 6 and 8 with 8 having gone conical again. Everything else was fine though and the cam showed no wear to speak of. So, at least the bits were serviceable. So, I've decided to ditch the block as it's just a follower grinder now! However, I'm now short of a block :( The original block is only bored to +30) so that's what I needed. Then inspiration struck and I remembered that I still had the block which I'd given to James when I first went to have my race engine built, but it was lined. This precluded me from using it for a +90 rebore but it should be fine for a +30. Another bonus was that it had already been acid bathed too. Just to check that the liners were stock size, I took a ring from the +30 pistons and checked the gap in the old/new blocks. Sure enough, the lined block was -30 compared to the one I'd just lunched. So, off went the lined block to a local engineering firm to be bored to +30 and faced. I'll rebuild it next week in readiness for a track day which we've booked at Bentwaters near Ipswich. Hopefully with more success than the last time we were there!!

Had another hiccup over the weekend with the race engine. I'd been warned by a fellow competitor that +90 pistons were in very short supply and had passed this on to the builder who assured me he could get them.... until my mobile went off that is! Sure enough, supplies had dried up with the manufacturers quoting delivery late October/November! So some frantic phoning around later and I'd managed to source 4 x +90 pistons between 10 suppliers!!! Nightmare. The race block is back from the engineers but needs to be skimmed which can't take place until the bottom end has been dry-built as the pistons aren't allowed to protrude above the block face (which, excluding the height of the head gasket, is pretty daft as the head is flat and you'd twat the valves unless you pocketed the pistons, which is also illegal). Fortunately this can be done with a salvageable piston from the old engine so the build continues. With luck, I'll have everything ready for Thursday - two engines if I'm really lucky although on past form that's hardly likely is it! ;)

Finally, I've been a bit tardy about preparing a head pad for my seat. Now, the scrutineers have picked up on this a couple of times but it seems daft as my seat is high backed and stops my head from being thrown back anyway! Well, not wishing to upset them and seeing as Procomp had put in a handy upright to mount it when they did the rollcage, we set about fabricating one. Here's how you do it. Cut out a disk from 18mm MDF (use a paint can to trace the outline) and the same size of disk from a sheet of ally (you may cut both at once for a perfect fit if you temporarily attach the ally to the MDF). Cut out a similar sized bit of foam from an old seat - NOT your mum's Nova. Get a piece of vinyl/cloth which is about half as large again as the pad, put the foam on the MDF and staple/tack the vinyl to the rear of the MDF disk. Once you've made a good job of it, attach the ally plate to hide the staples and attach to the bracket which we made out of a galvanised roofing strap! Bolt to the rollcage and voila - one totally pointless whiplash pad! ;)

Plently happening this week, so stay tuned!

Tuesday 21st August

Quick update. A bit of phoning round has revealed that my +90 pistons have arrived - woohoo! My old block is back from the engineers - yeehaa! my brother remembered that I needed new gallery and core plugs and ordered them - waahoo! I remembered that I would need new oil filters so ordered 4! - yaahoo! and I spoke to Grace and found out that they still didn't have a cam - doh!

So, it looks as if I should at least have the backup ready by Friday and after some encouraging words on the phone (read arse kicking) I should get the race lump back too which is what I really want. Fingers crossed - should find out tomorrow.

Evening now. Right, well I've picked up the rebored +30 block from the workshop and all the rest of the bit and so it's off home to start building. Now, the critical thing when building an engine, well as well as having all the bits!, is to keep everything spotlessly clean. Dirt is your engine's no.1 enemy. A bit of swarf on the bearings, some grit on the cam, it doesn't take much to destroy your hard work. Now, the block was filthy so I washed it down as best I could in white spirit but I'd rather have done it with a steam cleaner. I also washed down the cam followers. The followers are from and old engine but are totally unworn. I've decided to use these with the theory that many years of heat cycles would have hardened them up some. This engine is a right Bitza special! Anyway, that done, I bathed the rest of the parts and liberally applied build grease to keep everything slippery until I got oil pressure - or should that be 'if' I got oil pressure??!?

I decided to try and get a ring tomorrow (it was about 10pm by now) and persevere with the crank. Out with the build lube and first in were the thrust washers. Applied liberally, I wiped it over the bearing with my finger to find.... grit and lots of it! My paintbrush applied white spirit hadn't done the trick at all and the engine was still filthy underneath. What with that and the broken ring I decided that a job was doing was worth humpty-mooing, I mean doing well. So, somewhat exasperated, I stripped the pistons out again, cleaned them all AGAIN to make sure and re-lubed AGAIN!!! ready to rebuild. I phoned Martin and asked him to order me ring in the morning and I'd try again. As time ticked away...

Wednesday 22nd August

Right, after more arse kicking and 'a little help from my friends' ooh, 'I get by with a little help...' damn, sorry about that, got carried away. Anyway, Martin had managed to get a set of rings at vast expense but you can't buy them individually.

Still, at least I had some spares now. My brother had done the business with the steam cleaner and the block had come back from the workshop spotlessly clean and even painted! Cheers bro! Back in the garage at home, I prepared everything with lube ready for the re-rebuild. This time, even though my piston compressor had got worse, the pistons dropped in with no hassle. I replaced the middle ring on piston 3 and set about doing the crank. Bearing shells in place, I cleaned and lubed the crank and dropped it in. Seemed fine. I torqued up the mains caps to about 35 ft/lbs and re-checked. Fine. Torqued it up to 65 ft/lbs and set about attaching the conrods and ends. Same procedure, half torque them (about 20 ft/lbs which I know is not half but that's the minimum setting on my torque wrench OKAY!!), then finish them up and check at 35 ft/lbs. Right, everything just dandy I thought I'd give it a test spin. Uuuurrrghh. OK, lets try that again, UUURRRGGHHH - ARSE!!! The whole lot was seized solid. Deciding that fate was conspiring against me, I scratched my head trying to work out what to do. Then I wiped my hair with a kitchen towel as it now had loads of oil in it - doh! I came to the conclusion that the mains caps (from the old engine) couldn't be used with this one. I think the reason for this is that the rebored block is from a MKI escort and the mains from the old engine were from a MKII. So, I decided to strip the crank - AGAIN! and try with the original caps from the rebored block. Clear? Nope, I don't understand it either but stick with me ;) Mains off, bearings lubed, old mains cleaned and lubed, reassemble, half torque and check crank rotation with every main being tightened all OK. About half an hour later the bottom end was all back together and spun over smoothly with no high points. It actually feels a touch loose, but providing I've got oil pressure that could be a good thing.

Next up was the.....dun dun derrrr - the CAM AND FOLLOWERS. You see, these are the things that haunt my nightmares. Old cam and old followers. At least it was cheap this time! ;) I did the usual and smothered everything in Graphogen and each follower dropped casually into it's bore with no resistance other than the viscosity of the oil. Nice! Timing gear on and the rest of the gubbins and the bottom end was done. Fortunately I had quite a few gasket spares so the head went on with no worries. Head on, tappet clearances set. Wind it over. Re-check the clearances (pretty damn good really) and voila! Almost there. Last thing to go on was the water pump. Two of the bolts went in with no problems but (you guessed it) the last one which also holds the alternator tension bar had stripped. AAARRSSSSEEEE!!! Knew it was going too well. Still, I was almost there. Just the new gallery plugs, core plugs sump and the bolt to sort and it will be ready. Let's just hope that the race engine is too although, having spoken to Grace at 11pm they were hard at work on it so fingers crossed!

Once again, installation was done in record time. Well, it's not as if we haven't had any practice is it!! ;) Fluids were added and it was the usual bit of nail biting while I cranked the engine over on the starter waiting for the oil pressure light to go out. With the oil cooler and stuff this takes a fairly agonising time. Still, at last it went out and the plugs were put in ready to fire her up. Which happened immediately and sounded as sweet as you like. I wasn't sure that the carb was set up correctly at this stage but as I was only going to be running in at Bentwaters it didn't matter too much. So finally, the usual bits and pieces were stuck back on and I was ready to get some running-in done.

We all got trailered up and set off. Our merry little band included my car, a Subaru Impreza, a Lotus Elise, the Dutton, a TVR S4 and an Ultima MKIV! Should be a laugh then ;)

We had a couple of trackday virgins with us namely:

• Karl (MDF) Fisher - who has gone from saying 'trackdays, ooh no, I might damage the car - I don't want to thrash it, it might break' to ordering a superchip, sports suspension package and fitted a rear diffuser in about oooh, a grand and 30 seconds!
• Stu (my brother) - who I hope thoroughly enjoyed himself and surprised me by not stuffing the Dutton despite trying quite hard really ;)
• Daz (Mart's protege) - who discovered that the meaning of driving isn't about having Max Power stickers emblazoned across your windscreen whilst the rest of the car looks as if it's crashed into Halfords and all the 'performance' accessories have stuck to it.

So we hammered round with an open pit lane and only 24 cars in attendance! I think I'll summarise the driving styles and cars like this (see video evidence too!).