benedwards64 Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 £139 per round if you book early. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.RAD Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 It's sounding better and better! Will await the SS regs for next year and then have a serious think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 Last round at Cadwell tomorrow. It's going to be wet, and my tyre choices are either Federal 595RSRs or R888s. Should be interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickmaster Andy Lowe Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 Yeah, I'm thinking R888s. I tried the Federals round a damp Abingdon a while back and they were pretty awful. Just found the pics from Blyton have been published - managed to get a good sideways one of me. Think I was pushing pretty hard by this point (this was the eastern circuit, so I'd come from the right of the picture) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyPee Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Great sideways action (thought it was understeer until I read the caption and that you'd come from the right of the photo!). I've only dared go that sideways on the Westfield drift day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rory's Dad Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 I have no interest in competing but it seems that this straight forward and pragmatic approach could be really succesful particularly in terms of value fom money. It's all about stepping stones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Right, time for a final season update. A little later than planned, I’ve been off in Iceland for a week doing this: Anyway, back to the Westfield. Cadwell Park was the last sprint of the season, and allowing for the end-of season awards do the Toyota guys were holding it was being run on a Saturday. Having already had a mid-week panic with the cracked manifold I was still feeling a bit disorganised and out-of-sorts when I headed up the M40, and a traffic-ridden 5-hour drive to the hotel didn’t help much. Still, it was a lovely clear night when I turned up so I had high hopes for a dry day’s racing. I was woken up at 3am to the sound of rain crashing off the roof of the hotel lodge. Bugrit. So, off to Cadwell in the rain – we arrived fairly early but the paddock was already quite full, and unloading the trailer on the rain-soaked grass wasn’t much fun. I finally managed to get off and through to scrutineering, whereupon I measured 108dB on the noise test. ****. A bit of jiggery-pokery and we managed to get through with a barely-on-the-track-limit 105 and I was waved on my sheepish way, protesting cries of “I’ll get a new exhaust!” meeting stony-faced expressions from the Cadwell scrutineers. Oops. We finally headed out onto the sighting laps, my first time at Cadwell, and it was still soaking wet. There was a lot of standing water along the start/finish straight, and even more along Park straight. Plus there were a lot of leaves on the track through the woodland section. My tyres? R888s that are almost on the wear limits. Fortunately I had actually done a bit of homework this time round and had spent a fair amount of time learning the track on YouTube, and of course everyone else was in the same boat (almost literally!) as me. My first two runs I managed to keep pretty tidy, and when the timing sheets came out I was very surprised to see I was leading my class – ahead of a Duratec-powered Westfield and a Caterham on wets. My confidence started to build (despite aquaplaning at 100mph down Park a couple of times!) as the track started to dry, but this meant the more powerful Duratec car could get his power down and he ended up knocking a couple of seconds off my time which I couldn’t claw back. Still, I was happy with steady improvements in my times until the rain started again mid-afternoon, at which point I knew I couldn’t beat my best time of 1:50.45. My last two runs of the day were me taking the opportunity to explore the limits of the car in the wet a bit more – leading to a void run after over-steering over the kerb at Mansfield, and then on my final run carrying too much speed through the Gooseneck and cutting off the apex…. Still, you’re not trying hard enough until you fall off, eh? I ended up runner up in my class but down in 11th overall – not my best result but given that the Westy struggles to get over 100mph on track (@ almost 7,000rpm in 4th) I tend to be less competitive on fast tracks. I was also very chuffed to be awarded overall class runner-up for the season as well So that’s it for sprinting until March (probably, depending on Javelin’s calendar next year). I’ve enormously enjoyed my first foray into competitive motorsport and will definitely be running in the series next year. I’ve got a few bits to keep me busy over winter though – after cracking the manifold and, apparently, blowing all of the baffles out of the silencer it’s time to invest in a new system. It has always been a bit noisy (apparently you could hear me going round Cadwell from the main road….) and it has got steadily worse this year, so ideally I’ll be after a system that will see it comfortably under 100dB. On top of that I need to experiment with raising the gearing a bit – the 13” track wheels I have are currently running 185/60/13 R888s all round and one pair are pretty low, so I might try a pair of 205/60/13s on the rear to raise the gearing slightly (this would match the overall diameter of my road wheels, so I’ll try these on a track-day and see if an extra 5-10mph at the top end is enough). On the other hand I think my diff could do with a rebuild, so it may be worth biting the bullet and getting it rebuild with a different final drive. Some head-scratching to do there I think. Other than that it will get some routine servicing and another alignment check to make sure everything’s in order, and hopefully we’ll have some nice sunny winter days so I can get it out and about! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul n Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 great report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Aspden Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Great report Ben Sounds like your diff has quite a low ratio in it as a 3.89 diff round Cadwell shouldn't need 7000 rpm to get 100mph even with a 4 speed. I think a diff change will yield more benefit than a tyre size change. Might even see you next year given the MSA rule changes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 Thanks Paul(s!). I'm not sure which diff I have to be honest, but to complicate things I'm actually running a Fiat 5-speed box. There's a bit too much difference between 4th and 5th to make 5th much use on track, but I'll have a play around over winter and see what's what. It seems happier with the 15" road wheels which have a slightly larger rolling radius, and... well, it's cheaper than changing the diff! Dates for 2016 should be released in a month or so. Without wishing to detract from the WSS it seems like there's a little bit of interest in my Bambi-esque track adventures so I'll start a 2016 thread when the time comes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 If anyone is still reading this, next year's provisional calendar had been released: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 Ooh, and Happy Christmas everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Everall Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Looks ok but limited venues ad £139 per day aint cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark (smokey mow) Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Looks ok but limited venues ad £139 per day aint cheap!for those who want to try sprinting as a bit of fun though it's much cheaper than doing an MSA event as there's none of the current politics about tyres and roll bars to worry about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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