January 2001 Build

Tuesday 23rd of January 2001

Happy New Year!!

Blimey, where shall I start?!? After an extended absence (both the site and myself) we're back up and running and cooking with LRP - so to speak. The latter half of 2000 for me was spent working abroad so not much progressed on the car. However, 2001 should require a bit less travel so it's time to knuckle down and get racing! You'll probably have seen the first stage of this process as my race team was born:

It's Bitza-Racing if you didn't already twig ;) Anyway, so what's in store for me. Well, this Thursday I've finally got my ARDS test at Silverstone, so fingers crossed. Following that on Sunday I've got the first shake-down proper of the car at Bentwaters airfield on a bookatrack track day where I'll be taking some Digital Video footage which I'll post here (treated myself to a DV camera at Christmas to record my, ahem, exploits). All being well after that, I've got a proper test day at Mallory Park on the 20th of Feb. which hopefully leads me neatly into my first race (gulp!) at Mallory on the 11th of March.

Other news. The Locost-racing egroups list has gone from strength to strength and now has over 150 members including quite a few racers. I can't tell you how pleased I am that this has been a success and has actively contributed to decisions made for this years' series. Long may it continue!

Finally (for today). I've got some more bits arriving tomorrow for the car (and me) so once more, stay tuned for the regular updates.

Thanks for coming back! - CJ

Thursday 25th of January 2001

Well, it's D-day. Actually it's A-R-D-S day to be precise. Steve Lewis (the TVR Tasmin series organiser) had put together a day at Silverstone for the TVR racing wannabees and I decided to join them. Now, an ARDS test usually takes a couple of hours and costs about £150, however, this particular day had been put together to include a morning of driving assessment and rear-end (the car) control. So, for £295 all-in you get a full day of messing about, I mean, intensive training on Silverstone's Stowe circuit. For those of you yet to experience the ARDS, here's a run-down of the day:

1. 8:00 - Set off for Silverstone. Make sure you've got Drivers road licence and completed ARDS application with medical bit complete. Oh, and if you've got race boots, take them! Both the Elise and the Caterham have VERY close pedals which don't make control easy in a pair of size 10's.
2. 9:30 - Driver sign in and sit around nervously drinking espresso! Steve Lewis gives encouraging and useful advice with a warning not to ruin his 100% pass rate (with other groups). Nervous? Me?
3. 9:45 - Steve Deeks (the bloke in the MSA 'Go Racing' video) introduction to the day, instructors and the requirements of the test
4. 10:00 - Driving technique discussion. Ranging from "What attributes make up a racing driver" to the racing line, cornering, braking, force distribution etc. The applicants were then split into two groups who alternated between the 'Circuit' and 'Handling' activities.
5. 11:00 - Driver assessment. Basically the applicants all get turns in an Elise around the Stowe circuit. Firstly, the instructor takes you on a slow tour of the circuit with you as passenger to explain more about the lines, braking and turn-in points as well as gear changes (no heel-and-toe required which was a surprise?!?). The pace was then upped to give you an idea at race(ish) speed. The track was pretty damp after heavy overnight rain and Stowe (which is used as the Helicopter landing pad during the F1) suffers from a really slippery surface after rain as all the AVGAS and other crap comes to the top of the tarmac. This was ably demonstrated by my instructor as he locked up big-style into the hairpin (I tried not to snigger ;). But then it all became very real as we trundled back to the pits to change over drivers to allow me to try. Have you ever climbed into an Elise? Well, if not it's like trying to perform origami on your own body! Still, safely inside it was a quick clip up of the 6-point harness and away we went. Well, the next 15 minutes or were a huge laugh but require a LOT of concentration. With the surface being so slimy it was easy to give it large with the back end hanging out but as you will learn, this may look spectacular, but is ultimately slow! During this time I managed to encounter understeer, oversteer, rapid traction loss (I brief lock up into the hairpin which I saved - quite well I thought), in fact everything except for a spin. My confidence level had gone up immensely and the Elise was very reassuring to drive with fairly neutral handling and easy to control when on, or over the limit. I can see why people rave about them. I was pleased with my performance and my instructor was too. He had very few comments at the end of the session which I hoped meant I was doing something right!
6. 12:30 - Break for a quick lunch at the paddock cafe
7. 12:50 - Back to the Silverstone Drive reception for a session in the Caterham for the oversteer challenge and auto-test
8. 13:00 - Set a little way off the Stowe circuit, and area had been marked out with cones to represent a slalom course and 2 roundabouts. We took it in turns to practice donutting round the roundabouts (in both directions - sometimes at the same time!!) which was bloody hard work! The surface was really variable as the tarmac was drying, so you were going from wet to dry in the space of a few feet. Very hard to balance the car for a continous tail-out session. The Caterham was excellent, 150bhp and a six-speed box, not that you used anything more than 1st for the donuts. It was fitted with Avon Racing tyres on the front and Hankook Dark Horse (or something like that) on the rears which have all the grip ability of Bakelite - apparently one set lasts for a whole year of abuse!!! After the single roundabout it was on to figure of eights around the two. By this time I'd got a better feel for the car and with the increased speed it was a lot easier to balance the skid on the throttle. Finally, the session ended with the Auto-test. This was a timed session around the slalom course marked out with cones. Mike, our instructor (and Caterham Works driver!) took the car out first to set the pace. Needless to say he made it look simple enough, right up until he span at the top hairpin that is ;) It'll be a bit slippery up there then? Somewhat redder in the face he returned and I was Guinea pig for the 3 laps we were given. Well, I think I need GPS as I managed to miss the last pair of cones twice! I sustained a 10 second penalty on a time of 46 secs (so that's 36 seconds to you and me ;). The other three took their respective times (now that I'd shown them the course - doh!) and the best posted a 42. Mike went out again and posted a 38 just to show he could do it. I was annoyed with myself as had I not missed the last cone I'd have posted at least a second faster. Still - that's racing!!
9. 14:30 - Before you knew it we were back in the classroom to watch the MSA video - AGAIN !!! Then, one by one the instructors took us back out in the Elises to formally test our abilities. After a few sighting laps under their instruction you're left to your own devices whilst the instructor sits back and examines your technique. You naturally drive at about 90% to allow you to concentrate on the continuous stream of information you must process - sight corner and apex, brake point, gear change, more brakes, turn-in, even throttle, clip apex, power, correct oversteer, balance throttle,set up for next corner etc. However, at this point I learnt my most important lesson which was a bit of a confidence booster. Whenever there is a car in front of me "I MUST CATCH IT!!". I couldn't help it, the Red Mist descends (well, maybe pale red ;) and I had to catch the other car who had started half a lap ahead of me. Well, I did and whilst being unable to overtake (poor form given that I was being examined) I followed him round for the last lap and held onto his bumper into the pits. A disturbingly quiet ride back to the reception area and Duncan (my instructor) asked me to send the next victim in. So did I pass/fail/make him faint? His lips were sealed and I had to sit there nervously through the video - AGAIN! to await the written exam.
10. 16:00 - Written exam bit. After being given the opportunity to ask the instructors any final questions the exam begins. 15 minutes of being back at school feeling like a pratt paranoid that you'll fail and flush 300 quid down the swanee :( The paper is divided into 2 sections, the first must be passed with 100% correct answers the second allows 2 mistakes ONLY! The second section was quite ambiguous in the multiple choice answers and common sense should prevail.
11. 16:30 - Well, the papers are in and are being marked, the driving assessments too. So what was the result?
12. 17:00 - I said, WHAT WAS THE RESULT?!?!?
13. 17:01 - Well, we'd blotted Steve Lewis' 100% pass rate with 2 failures. One for driving ability and one on the written exam...
14. .. still I always hated exams..... hang on, I PASSED!!! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Felt really sorry for the two unfortunates but was very relieved to have successfully completed the course. To retake the written test costs £25 (not sure about the driving bit but I think it's another £150 :( ). Still, I was done. Got the results of my assessment showing Duncan's comments: "A good drive. Improved throughout, nice smooth driving style and will improve" - 'nuff said :) Said my goodbyes to the rest of the drivers, a good laugh they were too, and set off into the sunset in the Griff with a big smile on my face - a qualified race driver! Every roundabout and bend now became sight apex, brake-point, gearchange, turn-in and power but hey, that's what it's all about isn't it?

Well, licence application has been sent back to the MSA so provided they are happy with my health then it's all systems go! 1st shakedown of the Locost at Bentwaters on Sunday so updates on Monday for the results.

Sunday 28th of January 2001

Well, 1st shakedown session at Bentwaters (airfield near Ipswitch) was a bit up and down. First track session lasted, ooh, about 300 yards despite having driven the car a good few miles beforehand. Engine died at the second corner. Turned out that the points had burnt out (they were the original set as was the condenser - he says sheepishly). Luckily we'd forseen this eventuality and had spares. Duly fitted we were out again during lunch which gave us the track to ourselves just to pootle round and get the engine bedded in properly. This highlighted the second and third problems. The engine was running quite hot even though it was a cold day, the fan was running and I was keeping the revs down. It got to about 100-110 and I decided to come back in when - the engine died again. AAAAAAAAAarrrggghhh!!! Still had oil pressure, eveything seemed ok (except that the rad had boiled up). Got a tow back to pits and whilst trundling along realised that I'd run out of fuel! So no permanent damage done. So, out we go again based on a limit of 5 laps before coolant started being dumped. Finally managed a couple of sessions which allowed me to make it back under my own power. Overheated (again) and then carried on (getting pissed off now). To top it all, getting towards the end of the day, went out, lapped once and oil pressure started to drop. Started with 4 bar on firing it up which tailed off to almost 0 by the end. Fortunately I'd spotted this and pitted before any more serious damage was done. We can only suspect that the uprated oil pump has a problem with the pressure relief valve sticking. THIS REALLY PISSES ME OFF! as it's the SECOND pump that's done it. We blew the 1600 X-flow in the Dutton because of this. I can't believe that you replace this thing for a supposedly 'uprated' item and it's franky, shite! I'll be having words with Burton Power today as it almost cost me another rebuild.

So, I've come to the following conclusions:

1. Points etc. - Bin the lot with the dizzy, get an Aldon and the Lumenition optronic kit. (unless you know better)
2. Fuel - errr... fill the tank donut!
3. Cooling - bin existing rad and fan (doesn't pay to be cheap here) get uprated rad/recore and fit pacet fan. Recommendations on rad would be gratefully received!
4. Oil pump - moan at Burton and try to get refund. Re-fit standard unit that didn't complain for the first 83,000 miles of the car's life!

The high points included LOTS of positive comments about the car and the build quality, going mad in our Maestro which was following me (kept disappearing from my mirrors in a lot of smoke and understeer - total hooligans track day tool - see http://www.pistonheads.com for more details). Watching a Caterham R500 going mad - what a nutter piece of kit. Oh, and Locost Racer '99' was there. Can't remember the guys names but they're racing this year. They'd bought Ron's 1st ever car. Interesting comparisons were made with the 'Master's' car - I'd describe the build quality as errr... 'different' ;)

Wednesday 31st of January 2001

Well, got to the bottom (I hope) of the oil pressure problem. Removal of the uprated pump showed it to be seized almost solid! After stripping it down the pump vanes were scarred and the drive shaft housing showed signs of heat seizure :( Basically, it's knackered. This is the second pump that's failed on me, one from Demon Tweeks and one from Burton Power. I've decided to go back to the Ford unit after inspection of the original donor's pump which was in very good nick. Trouble is, it's almost 3 times the price at 99 quid plus VAT! A lot cheaper than a rebuild though. We checked the oil for swarf but found it to be very clean so hopefully the ends are still OK. It can be hand turned with no resistance at least. The failed pump would go some way to explain the cooling problem aswell as the oil couldn't have been circulating very well. But that's a job for the weekend.