Oulton Park Tuesday 24th November. Short notice I know

Oulton Park Tuesday 24th November. Short notice I know

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Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Tuesday 17th November 2015
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Circuit Days are running an openpitlane day at Oulton Park next Tuesday.

After my major issues at Silverstone Yesterday, Chris @ Circuit Days has made me a `too good to refuse` offer on Oulton Park next Tuesday biggrin

There are plenty places available and he`s offering a late booking discount of only £100 with a garage included.

Anyone else going or fancy booking ?

Steve H

5,311 posts

196 months

Tuesday 17th November 2015
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Bargain of the month, see you there beer

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Tuesday 17th November 2015
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I MAY be, but will not know until the weekend, as I need to remove both exhaust manifolds to weld in my (blown out) Lambda sensor & make sure it does not happen again.

Any idea how many spaces are left?

Steve H

5,311 posts

196 months

Tuesday 17th November 2015
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You should be able to get in although there may not be any garages left by then.

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
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That sounds interesting, as soon as I have (hopefully) finished on Friday I will have a check of the forecast & be looking to check it out, not bothered about a garage really, normally just find somewhere to pile my stuff up, although I haven't done Oulton before.

Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
That sounds interesting, as soon as I have (hopefully) finished on Friday I will have a check of the forecast & be looking to check it out, not bothered about a garage really, normally just find somewhere to pile my stuff up, although I haven't done Oulton before.
If you book but the garages have gone, you are welcome to put your stuff in mine smile

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
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Wh00sher,

Thanks ever so much for the offer, if I do book I will take you up on that, and will chip in gladly........ But only if you let me past on camera at least once. biggrin

Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
Wh00sher,

Thanks ever so much for the offer, if I do book I will take you up on that, and will chip in gladly........ But only if you let me past on camera at least once. biggrin
No need to chip in, the garages are `free` both in availability AND cost at the moment biggrin

I`ll let you past, No problem. But then follow behind and overlay a throttle trace but divide it by 50% so it looks like I`m coasting to keep up with you.. laugh

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Wednesday 18th November 2015
quotequote all
Wh00sher said:
E-bmw said:
Wh00sher,

Thanks ever so much for the offer, if I do book I will take you up on that, and will chip in gladly........ But only if you let me past on camera at least once. biggrin
No need to chip in, the garages are `free` both in availability AND cost at the moment biggrin

I`ll let you past, No problem. But then follow behind and overlay a throttle trace but divide it by 50% so it looks like I`m PUSHING you.. laugh
FTFY. thumbup

Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Thursday 19th November 2015
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Just a heads up, the £100 with free garage offer is now limited to the next 10 places smile

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Monday 23rd November 2015
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Wh00sher,

Have signed up this morning & also managed to secure one of the £100 inc garage slots, so once again thanks for the offer, but I am now OK with the garage, see you there.

Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Monday 23rd November 2015
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
Wh00sher,

Have signed up this morning & also managed to secure one of the £100 inc garage slots, so once again thanks for the offer, but I am now OK with the garage, see you there.
Excellent ! See you in the morning. smile

Steve H

5,311 posts

196 months

Tuesday 24th November 2015
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It started wet today and then rained a bit more to make sure laugh

Great day out though and after years of being on the same events as him, I finally had the chance to get out for a few laps with Nige (Wh00sher) and had great fun seeing how well his Frankenstein Golf made it's way round the soaked circuit clap.

Wh00sher

Original Poster:

1,592 posts

219 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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After Silverstone and the Drive flange replacement, I wanted to give the gearbox a fighting chance. I don`t have time to remove the box / strip it and replace so I refilled with some cheap gearbox oil from the local motorfactors. Put it on axle stands, put some large Neodymium magnets on the drain plug and casing around the diff.

Ran it up to temp in 5th on fast idle, then drained the oil. NO debris stuck to the drain plugs or magnet

Refilled with fresh Millers and I was ready for Oulton.

Crap drive over on the M62, traffic was particularly bad, added another 30 minutes to a 90 minute drive, but arrived, signed on and unloaded the Golf.


Steve didn`t have to shout to make himself heard, it was the quietest day I can recall being on. A shame for Circuit Days but lots of tracktime for us. Weird how there are those occasional days that don`t fill up for no particular reason


On the way back from the Briefing Matt saw this....


Moving swiftly on....

The paddock was quiet !


Noise test at 89db, then sighting laps. It was raining but not too heavily.

First session with Matt, pretty greasy and being on well worn Pilot Sport Cups didn`t help. If you`ve driven on them in the wet when they are worn, you`ll understand how bad they are. If you haven`t, trust me, they are rubbish..

Took Stan out for the 2nd session, Wilko `exceeded track limits` a little...


The rain was still falling, so I thought it prudent to fit the Silverstone Wets. I`d bought them last year, but never used them.

Next lap out and the car was instantly better. Less sharp on turn in, but so much more grip and less aquaplaning !!


Out with Matt again and a little slip from the rear going round Island...


Unfortunately, I`d run out of Anti-Fog, so the top and sides of the windscreen was fogging up, which meant after the first couple of laps, all you could see on the footage was mist.


I was struggling for traction in 3rd, so switched to the `wet` map. This is just a lower, more progressive boost target and made the car much more driveable.

Caught this Ginetta, followed him for a lap and then he moved right towards the pitwall approaching the start / finish. I took this an a definate invitation to pass.

Seems I was mistaken...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v79uA-bt02s


Took Tabs out before lunch, wanted to show him how the different maps affected traction. Went through them all, from actuator pressure only to full `Max boost`. Funnily enough, it wheelspan as soon as the boost built.


Had a cracking session with this Evo. I couldn`t live with him out of the corners, he just disappeared whilst I wheelspan, but I was better under the brakes. Made for a great session and he appeared to enjoy it as much as me.


Several months ago at Anglesey, I`d planned to do some more `testing` of the Aero and airflow. Unfortunately, the cracked exhaust manifold meant that never happened.

Stuck on a load of wool tufts I`d already prepared and stuck to a sheet of greaseproof paper, went out and Matt took some close-ups.

The airflow is still UP the rear screen. I hoped the roof spoiler would reduce this and it has to an extent. Lat time I did this, the air was flowing up from the middle of the rear panel, under the tailgate


Now, that area is flowing down and the upwards part is midway up the tailights. What does it mean you ask? Good question !! I`m not sure...



I`ve added some lines to show the flow path around the front wheel arch and splitter. As expected, the air is being sucked under the splitter nicely, it`s flowing over the wheelarch then being drawn back down towards the sills.


As it approaches the rear wheel, it is being sucked under the skirts and into the wheel area. I`d hoped the skirts would help reduce this, but it`s still and issue.


Gurds and I have discussed it and we suspect it needs a clearer `break`, something with a more definite profile.


Yes, I know, I know...laugh


The splitter end-fences certainly had an effect on the airflow. It stagnated the air right in the centre of the airdam and in the area ahead of the wheelarch.

It`s led me to believe I wouldn`t benefit from canards at the angle I thought. The air is already flowing that over the arch way so they wouldn`t actually do anything. The brake ducts are getting loads of air though, which is great news.


Next time, I need 4x the number of tufts and a drier day. Even if this doesn`t add any performance benefit, it does help me understand what`s happening and seeing how my theory is borne out in practice.

Just before lunch, we popped over the the scrutineering bay to weight the car.


With almost NO fuel, it was 992kg. I`m really please with that. Last time I weighed it was pre-Turbo, that was 1016kg..


With the larger radiator, an intercooler, larger exhaust, new manifold, a Turbo and all the cage mods I`ve done, I`ve still been able to save almost 20kg off the total weight !




After lunch Tabs disconnected the N75 valve to try running on actuator pressure only. He found it FAR more driveable. Right up until Wilko went offroading again..


In between session it was good to meet up with a few people, including Andy form PH who popped in to have a chat.

Followed Rich in his Porsche. He`d arrived at lunchtime and sorted some tracktime out with Chris. I`m not sure this was intended...


Steve had asked for a passenger lap so I took him out for a session. "No, really, Darren is only this tall..."


Still pretty wet, but enjoyable all the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwcHKE9sIag

I always have a wry smile when the passenger tightens their harness midway through the session.


Back into the pits and a deserted pitlane.


Came in when I felt a vibration, thought something was loose. I did find a small amount of play in a trackrod end, but it was simpler than that. A puncture. On a tyre with under 160 miles on it. ARRGHH!!!


Finished the day having covered 200 miles without a single mechanical issue. A puncture, whilst irritating is a small issue and the gearbox / driveshafts were trouble free.

Final outing is Brands a week on Friday !

Steve H

5,311 posts

196 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Wh00sher said:
I always have a wry smile when the passenger tightens their harness midway through the session.
I saw you were giving it the terminator death stare and figured I wouldn't take any chances laugh.

Great bit of kit Nige and nicely pedaled cool.

mauricegb

67 posts

118 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Great write-up, amazing how it was so quiet.

E-bmw

9,244 posts

153 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Nice up Nige, a good day indeed, will definitely go back in the dry for another go.