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It was drying up when myself and @CraigHew left just before the dinner break And it was dry all afternoon at mine which is only 30 miles from Oulton so fingers crossed they had the same weather. They were all out braving it in the rain in the morning anyway,lunatics! @Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO had enough water in his passenger seat after the sighting laps to keep a goldfish in3 points
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Tel’s Tales Anglesey Sat/Sun 7th and 8th April 2018 After a very disappointing Easter Monday event at Croft which was wet, freezing cold and probably should never have started about 10 drivers were entered for this LDMC extravaganza attended by approx. 70 cars. The Croft event was abandoned before any timed runs had been offered, so we all scored a miserable 75 points (I will be discarding that score). We all arrived on Friday to find plenty of room in an almost empty paddock and plenty of space to get an electric hook up for our campervans and motorhomes. This was a bonus as it was quite cold and heating was essential as we had to leave the onsite café/bar due to too many staff and not enough business. Saturday Saturday morning saw a wet, gloomy start and the rain continued all day until 1700hrs when we finished sprinting! The day saw some great battles between all classes as well as individual personal targets irrespective of which class you were in. This would become the first event in 19 years that I have used wets all day rather than slicks and the competition was close and hard fought on a track that was wet but perfectly driveable and created a bit a level playingfield between cars of different specs/engines etc. During practice the pace was set by Richard Kerr and myself running around 10secs slower than the target time. It was good to see Mick Dent out again after his broken ankle caused a premature end to his 2017 season and his busa was going well. He also had his son as a secret weapon cleaning tyres and checking the car was going ok after the Friday trackday sessions. Their car would not start despite charging the battery and I quickly diagnosed a seized starter motor. Luckily they found a local supplier who had a secondhand one and they did not miss a run !. There was a lot of slipping and sliding mainly on the black stuff as well as a few spins but I did not witness any damage to Westfields. Mike West was enjoying the conditions and during the day he reduced his time down to 78.10secs from 82.74secs. John Loudon kept changing front springs for stiffer ones to improve grip and handling and it seemed to be working as the two of us were having a close battle in class G. Derek Hodder, Garry Bunn and Richard Kerr were after the class H points chasing Mick Dent. Steve Everall and Mick Skidmore were close in terms of times but running in different classes ( D and F respectively) We had 5 times runs and in the end Richard was quickest banging in a last run of 63.23 to better my time of 63.98secs and Mick Dent’s 64.10secs. We were 3rd,4th and 6th overall fastest with John Loudon 9th. Sunday Well it was a cloudless night and there had not been any rain but it was a cloudy start but it stayed dry all day and the afternoon was very good and we had a drying track to play on. Mark Anson had arrived at 0230hrs and was joining us in the Jedi. He had a few jobs to do fixing the front wing brackets and softening the trickshifter. During practice 2 Mark came back to the pits on a tow rope as it turned out he had fried some wires in his harness. This took him around 3 hours to trace the 12v power issues (or lack of power) but eventually he sorted it. I helped a bit by making him a nice cuppa tea. It really was a dream to be able to drive a dry track and push on a bit. We now saw Del and Garry showing the pace of their car whilst Rich K was trying to repeat his Sat performance. Unluckily for Rich when he came in after T1 the engine bay was full of oil and it looked like a blanking plate on the block had come adrift and ended his weekend. My weekend nearly ended too as I was way too quick into the left hander at the end of the garages and as I ran off the end of the outside rumble strip I hit the soft wet grass and soil to do a 360deg spin. I ripped off part of my carbon fibre floor but back in the paddock Steve, Mick Skidmore and John Loudon did a quick and great repair job to keep me running. The car looked like it had been used for grass tracking and the amount of soil and mud under the bonnet was ridiculous and took some cleaning up. Later in T3 Mick Skidmore ran over a rumble strip coming out of corkscrew and split part of his tub. In the end we had 5 timed runs and were well pleased with the day. Garry just beat Del and was 2nd fastest overall with Del being 4th, me in 5th and John Loudon 6th. Mark Anson with only 2 runs was 3rd overall so an impressive performance by him. That made 5 Westfield speed series drivers in the top 6. A newcomer was Chris Griffiths in his class H car and he was 9th overall behind Rich Kerr 8th. (7 cars in top 10!) We return in 4 weeks time to do the MGCC weekend. Terry Everall Class G Competitor2 points
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Thanks Monty, I'm going to see if I can shuffle the whole assembly forward a bit and generate a gap between the rear-tub and the rear chassis as IMHO it's toooooo close for comfort as it's physically touching ATM. This will mean i have to slot the bolt holes in the side panels a bit where the scuttle is bolted to the frame. but as this is invisible and sealed with adhesive foam strip it will not matter. Just means the scuttle comes off, yet again. Getting sick of taking this off and on which is why I had a night away from car building last night, just needed a brake.2 points
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Excuse me, but have I just read that correctly? At the Anglesey event last weekend, in Tels Tales 'That made 5 Westfield Speed Series drivers in the top 6' out of 70 cars? Really? If that is true and I have read it correctly then RUDDY WELL DONE GUYS...WELL DONE... from someone very proud to drive a Westfield because of your success.1 point
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Yes, very enjoyable despite the rain and nice to see old faces and new! Spotted that Andrew had his SLR so awaiting some action shots1 point
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Enjoyed watching the action despite the foul weather. Fair play the WSCC guys weren't hanging back...!1 point
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Apart from getting wet feat & legs on the way there, and my indicators packing up due to water ingress no doubt, what a day! So much fun sliding about. Nice to meet you guys and put faces to forum names!1 point
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There was very nearly a dry line by the end of play. Horrendously wet in the morning, rain stopped about lunch time, but occasional drizzle seemed to prevent the track drying properly. There were some impressive puddles and rivers to negotiate which made it interesting. Because of the conditions, there were a good number of stoppages, so it's fair to say I've had better days at Oulton Park. Will get some footage up if I can find anything worthy.1 point
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The magic wand has been fully loaded and what a cracking route I have on offer. All the best hills and roads of the southern Peak District, leading us to a lunch stop at The Knights Table, Buxton. I will have to book a table because this is a very popular pub on a Sunday lunchtime. * SO LISTEN EVERYBODY - LET ME KNOW BY SATURDAY EVENING IF YOU ARE COMING * or risk going hungry If we leave Halfords before midday we should get to the pub for 1pm, so I will book a table for 10 then, heck, wake up Julie, nobody will even ruddy turn up. After lunch, we will go off piste again for 40 minutes to finish at The Cottage Kitchen Country Cafe, Bottomhouse which is only 2 miles from the postcode in Winkhill. Don't be on a diet, the cafe has a rather good selection of cakes and it is only fair to start making our way through their selection. No pressure for you or your brother to come, Andrew, this is all a good plan regardless, but of course we would love to see you both. Below is a photo of the aforementioned pub, lets hope it is warm enough to sit at those tables on their terrace.1 point
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I am sure it will be wasted on Matt but Good One anyway! Is it from your personal collection? Glutey1 point
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Sorry my post was not supposed to be about the advice being given as wrong, as the reality is you do have to push harder. The actual general consensus was to to bleed them as well. It's just I went with the push harder for longer than I should have. I should of gone with my gut that they ain't right and bled them up sooner and upon doing so located the issue I had.1 point
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I'll be there. Will arrange with Tolf to see who else is coming1 point
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@CraigHew Thanks. I’ve just mailed valentinik for some pictures of his. I’ll get back to you if that doesn’t work out, if that’s ok with you. @IanK (Bagpuss) thanks for the offer. I have some amber lenses on my short length ones I can use.....presume they are the same lense? Cheers for the help all1 point
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Glad to hear all is OK now and everyone is on the mend. We do miss your input on the various posts........ actually, let me think about that...... no, honestly we do! Watched the whole vid and suspect you were the fastest away from the junction....... looks good1 point
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Have a great day, couldn’t make this in the end which is a good job as I’m off work with a foot I can’t walk on1 point
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We are getting there. My son had a few teeth removed that were buried (compacted) in his gums so needed to be put under. Coming to the end , tomorrow of 3 years of dental work, which is great, although you always worry when your kids get put under. He was fine and cocky within ten mins of waking up . Not sure who's gene he inherited there then ! . Family member was found collapsed in her home. She had fallen on Monday night in her bathroom and didnt know much. Was found 4 days later after managing to crawl out to the lounge and call for help. She has a broken ankle, a cut on her forehead from eyebrow to hairline and no much finger nails from dragging herself across the house. So, although we had spoken to her on Sunday, please be wary of our older family members. They maybe 100% the day before. Currently she has a cyst in her stomach which is going to be removed, which was the start of it all, after they get her blood to stabilise. Apparently, the house is a war zone with blood everywhere. All hands on deck coming up, be she wont be out for ages. On a better note, the car is looking good. I have some new dash lights to go in. Also a horn button to get rid of one toggle. I have also re-lacquered the carbon wing covers this weekend just gone and happier with them, although not perfect. Paint seems to react and worm, even though I had flatted right back. Left it to dry and then wet and dried them both. Still waiting my carbon rear wheel arch covers , so hope to get them for Stoneleigh. Not saying what day I am going to Stoneleigh, so I have less chance of assassination . I was spotted though leaving a car meet recently at about 9 mins , if you get bored of other cars1 point
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Was pondering on whether to do it to mine but decided to leave them, I would have gone for a series of round holes but as I'm OCD I concluded that they would never be perfect enough and it would drive me to distraction1 point
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Sorry to hear about the family health issues, can be a very worrying time for you all. Hopefully your son is on the mend too. All the best. D1 point
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Good to hear from you TJ. Hope things are on the up. See you at Stoneleigh. Adge1 point
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Hope family and friends are ok, good to know your alright and we can call off the search party! Maybe see you at Stoneleigh. John1 point
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With space in the garage currently at a premium the plan is to refurbish all the parts first and then carr out the assembly right at the end. The first job to do was the front hubs and uprights. I was suprised to find these were aluminum hubs rather than the cast steel sidecar units which they would have orignally been fitted with. Front brakes are still used BMC mini drums, the backplates were looking worse for wear so I opted to replace these rather than refurbish. Otherwise everything else received a good coat of paint, a regrease and then reassembly.1 point
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I can't believe it's been 4 months since the last update. i started a major kitchen refurb for SWMBO back in November so that has required most of my attention at the expense of garage time however that hasn't stopped me from doing a few small jobs when time had allowed. With the first car almost complete and only the chassis left to paint, I've turned my attention to the second JW4, the Carburol Special and who have been following this thread from the start wil recall it's hanging from the rafters. Like my first JW4 the Carburol began it's life racing in Formula IV but with the demise of the series it was converted by and adapted by it's then owner John Shaply in the mid-1970's for hillclimbs. Time hadn't been kind and when it came into my ownership the chassis was covered in a thin layer of rust and what other parts I had have all seen better days. The orignal aluminium panelling it carried during it's hillclimbing days has long since been lost but by chance I have a full set of Mk2 JW4 bodywork lurking in the loft of the garage. The Carburol Special begain its life as a JW4 Mk2 so the plan is to rebody it with this but critically retain all the chassis modifications and bracing that was undertaken by John Shaply. As I'll be building it for the "period look" I'll also be fitting a period engine so the Triumph Twin will be finding a new home.1 point
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Finally, I have my Sport E repaired and working again - just in time to miss the season! It's been a long haul - over 2 years actually. Last month I completed the wiring and so took the car over to Potenza Technology for electrical testing (my sponsor). Here is a picture of the car in the workshop alongside the original Westfield iRacer. The iRacer had been recently recommissioned (and painted) for a trade show. This is a quick car. About the same power and weight as today's Formula E cars. A car before its time I think. Initially my car was checked over for electrical safety and to ensure all the original safety features were still in place and working. Tick. After a nut and bolt check I we tried to drive it. First problem, the motor rotated backwards! I'd forgotten that the motor/diff had been reversed. Digging around in the Potenza document archive, we found the original instructions and passwords to reconfigure the power controller. The direction was changed and we tried again - it went forwards this time but cut out at 10 mph - not a great start. This fault was eventually traced to an interference issue caused by a missing ground strap on the power controller. The second test drive was much more successful with the car pulling away strongly. After a few tentative runs, I did a full power, zero to 'sorry officer' run. It cut out again this time under full power. After some head scratching and several more runs the problem seemed to go away. Anyway, I booked the car into Northampton Motorsport for a geometry check and dyno test. At Northampton, the high power cutout problem reappeared but only for the first few runs. It became clear that the battery voltage was sagging badly under heavy load causing the power controller to stop working. After a few runs the battery warmed up, the voltage drop was less and so the power controller continued to work. I'll have to add a power limit to the control software at low battery temperatures to stop it from tripping. Back in 2014, I had the original car dyno tested. The graph below shows the 2014 graph (red) alongside the new graph (blue). More power - yay, but the new power curve is now a different and odd shape. One factor is the gearing. This year the car is fitted with 15 inch wheels instead of the original 17 inch so the gearing is lower. This could account for the steeper initial slope. Also the original Sport E limited power to about 120 BHP at the wheels. I removed this limit (it's a race car after all) and now the controller gives maximum torque at all motor speeds but power now appears to be limited by the lower battery voltage at high speed. Overall a good result - especially considering the car is also 200Kg lighter than the 2014 car - it's still 660Kg plus me though. Now if I can just up-rate the battery before next season ........1 point