custardtart Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 Currently enjoying a bacon and egg sarnie in the paddock at Lydden, out of the way of the rain that started at 7am this morning! This wekend is a double header with a race on Sat and one on Sun. Saturdays race was an example of how competetive things are in Kits at the moment. A Taydec won from a Fisher Fury and a Sylva Pheonix with a Raw Striker following pressed hard by a Stuart Taylor Phasar. The Custard Tart had two issues, one was me not being quick enough and the other was pretty bad understeer which I'm hoping to reduce a bit with a few tweaks for race 2 this afternoon. I qualified 10th and managed to overtake a couple of people into the first corner only to get retaken a few laps later, eventually finishing 11th after a 10 lap battle with a Procomp LA Gold ended with him pulling away over the last few laps. For the tyre buffs, everyone was running AO42s and in the 30degree heat they went soft after only a couple of laps and lap times were fairly slow throughout qualifying and racing. The general concensus is that 32s don't have the outright grip of the 48 but being harder they will last longer on a really hot day so lesson learnt for next time. However, with the heavy rain today the 48s should be more consistent today. Had a chance to catch the Locost Final race and Nick Lear was an excellent 4th after starting 3rd although the pole sitter didn't make the start due to a snapped clutch cable. Dickie B had a titanic race after slipping several places off the start and working back through the field. It really was close racing as usual with less than a second covering the top fifteen. Sorry I can't be more accurate, I spent last night training hard for today so didn't get all the stats. Quote
DickieB Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 On Sat Nick came 4th and I came 15th. On Sun Nick came 5th and I came 18th. The chap in front of Nick took a whole load of gravel on lap 2 and threw a dust cloud behind him so thick you could not see anything. Nick backed off slightly, I had to brake hard - 4 behind me didn't and I lost 4 places! Must be getting old and cautious. Didn't see how Custard Tart did today, as he was racing after us. Nice to meet you by the way! Quote
conibear Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 Blimey how many cars in the locust race then One thing I notice about Lydden and it's not the good food at great value Its the lack of grip when you compare to other venues, I mean how quick do tyres go off around there Is it me Still its a great demanding track, that requires full committment Quote
DickieB Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 40 Locosts this weekend - our record is 53 (last year at Donington - a particularly good event I seem to recall) Lydden facilities are somewhat basic, and yes the tyres went offf quickly - plenty of sideways action to please the crowd (a small crowd it's true) Quote
custardtart Posted July 31, 2006 Author Posted July 31, 2006 Good to meet up with you Dickie and Nick too. I came 8th in the 2nd race so a bit of an improvement, will try and get some of the vid hosted somewhere which will have an example of the "Days of Thunder" moments mentioned before. Conibear, the track was really slippy on day two following some overnight rain even though it was dry and hot by race time. Laps were about 1 second slower than the day before Quote
conibear Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 Laps were about 1 second slower than the day before Isn't it amazing how this happens, you can actually feel it less grip can't you. Any ideas why?? Quote
adhawkins Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 Any ideas why?? The reason they spout in the F1 coverage is that it washes away the rubber that's been laid down... Andy Quote
conibear Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 Not sure thats the case with Lydden though. I was there early july, t'was very slippery and it hadn't rained for a long time Quote
adhawkins Posted July 31, 2006 Posted July 31, 2006 The surface construction, type of tarmac (or whatever) used, dust on the surface? Andy Quote
custardtart Posted July 31, 2006 Author Posted July 31, 2006 It's surrounded by chalk hills and gets very dusty - it was windy too- so lots of chalky dust could be the reason especially if the rain isn't heavy enough to wash it clean, then it probably leaves a smeary surface??? I had a touch of understeer all weekend which was really noticeable on the slower hairpin and annoying on the faster corners as it kept pushing my wide on the exit and made getting the power down early quite tricky. Thought about spacers on the front but don't have enough wheel stud length. The problem is that I have great traction at the rear and don't want to loose this. I've overtaken at least 2 places on all my starts this year and drive out of low speed corners is superb. I didn't want to drop the front pressures cos of the heat so upped the rears and softened the front dampers. This helped a tiny bit. I was already on the softest ARB and don't like the car without it connected. Will be trying to iron this out over the coming months and as this is a common westy trait will keep you posted on the changes tried. A big thanks to the Procomp chaps for their support throughout. Quote
conibear Posted August 1, 2006 Posted August 1, 2006 Yer, Procomp transformed my car, so a big to them. Around Lydden my car can have oversteer or understeer, depending on age of tyres. However, current trend with these new compounds is to have oversteer, which I think slows me up coming out of the slow corners, so gunner try to get a bit of underste er back and keep it. Matt, I think your totally right about Lyddens surface Quote
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