Britcar Silverstone 24Hr Race - 1st/2nd October
Discussion
OK, so we are all packed up and setting off to Silverstone now. For those at the event, we are in garage 9a, sharing with Optimum Motorsport who are running a Ginetta G50. Would be good to see as many people as possible, so please swing by and say hello!
Had the wonderful news yesterday that a major sponsor has pulled out, which could make things interesting, but I am sure we will find a solution!
Live timing for the event is available here:
http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=club&season=201...
Day Qualifying is 12:30 - 13:45 on Friday, and Night Qualifying is 20:00 till 22:00 on Friday evening. The race start is at 16:30 on Saturday.
Wish us luck!
Jonny
Had the wonderful news yesterday that a major sponsor has pulled out, which could make things interesting, but I am sure we will find a solution!
Live timing for the event is available here:
http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=club&season=201...
Day Qualifying is 12:30 - 13:45 on Friday, and Night Qualifying is 20:00 till 22:00 on Friday evening. The race start is at 16:30 on Saturday.
Wish us luck!
Jonny
And left it far too late for camping, doh. bluesatin said:
any news on how the ultima is going?
P46, 59 laps behind the leaders....Something happened but back to blistering times now!!!
http://www.tsl-timing.com/eerc/livetimingBritcar.h...
That's a big shame, it looks like when it's running it's very competitive.
I wonder if the ATL side pod tanks would help alleviate this - no doubt the slightly mental tempratures over the weekend haven't helped.
I guess things like this highlight how commendable what Jonny and crew are doing with such an under developed car - and I mean that with the utmost respect to MacG and Ultima. Ferrari, Porsche, Mosler etc have huge and lengthy development cycles and budgets which are difficult to compete against. Hopefully this won't put Jonny and co off though, the car has huge potential, "just" need to sort these issues out.
I wonder how Grasser get round this?
I wonder if the ATL side pod tanks would help alleviate this - no doubt the slightly mental tempratures over the weekend haven't helped.
I guess things like this highlight how commendable what Jonny and crew are doing with such an under developed car - and I mean that with the utmost respect to MacG and Ultima. Ferrari, Porsche, Mosler etc have huge and lengthy development cycles and budgets which are difficult to compete against. Hopefully this won't put Jonny and co off though, the car has huge potential, "just" need to sort these issues out.
I wonder how Grasser get round this?
This was 2 hours before kick off; a few last minute (major) mods. They had trouble with noise restrictions with the limit being 102dB and coming in at 108. It was interesting seeing how long a pipe they could fit in, helped by the up and over exhaust manifolds that get close to the bulkhead:
Down side was having to cut clearance slots in the rear clam:
This was back in the garage after they ran into fuelling issues, notice the melted GRP!
Down side was having to cut clearance slots in the rear clam:
This was back in the garage after they ran into fuelling issues, notice the melted GRP!
Well what an epic weekend - I will start at the beginning and try to remember everything - there was a lot going on! Bit of a 'war and peace' so sit back...
We arrived on the Wednesday night and set up camp, sharing a garage with Optimum Racing who were running a Ginetta G50. We organised the garage, carried out a few last minute tweeks then went to bed.
The Thursday was the official practice day - our three drivers had previously driven the car numerous times and were familiar with the circuit so we decided to opt out - given that we had almost 4 hours of qualifying. We cleaned the car up and took the car over to Parc Ferme for scrutineering and noise testing. The car passed scrutineering without any issues, however the noise test was another matter. We knew we would be quite close to the 102dB limit, (and there are certain things you can do to get the noise down a couple of dB fairly easily), however we were at 107 (somehow 3d) noisier than the previous weekend?!) so we had to do something about that.
We tried a couple of options during the Thursday afternoon - restuffing the backbox, playing with exhaust tips to point them in different directions, but we could not get under the 102 limit. We decided to retro fit one of the extra silencer back boxes that Ultima offered, so a quick call was made to Hinckley and a member of the crew set off in pursuit of the extra backbox. This arrived late Thursday night so we fitted it, tweaked the mapping and passed the noise test - problem solved....
Qualifying Friday morning. Drivers up bright and early and Adam Wilcox hit the track first, having left it around 20 minutes to get some space on the crowded track. The plan was to each do a few laps, and the quickest driver would go out on new tyres to put in a quick time. Two laps in, one of the crew on the pit wall turns round and says 'the car's on fire'. Adam comes rolling down the pitlane with the extra (Zircotec-ed) back box glowing orange and the clam in flame. A quick spritz with a couple of fire extinguishers soon put out the blaze - but the damage was quite clear.
We decided to change the car back to its original configuration, so, clam off, a quick clean to get rid of the highly corrosive extinguisher powder, tail pipes back on, and away we go. Unfortunately all 3 drivers had to run in qualifying, and we had 12 minutes left by the time Jamie hit the track - and I still had to do my run! Jamie managed 1 lap and I jumped in, which gave me 6 minutes for a qualifying session. One fast out-lap and one lap with huge amounts of traffic - I managed to cross the line just before the chequered flag for one quick, clean lap. Unfortunately there was traffic round the back of the circuit round the new pit complex, which lost me around 1.5 seconds, losing me a front row spot, and we ended up 8th on the grid.
Coming into the pits, there was a large gathering in front of our pit box, including scrutineers and fire marshals. Apparently we were 'quite a long way over' the drive by noise level during my laps. It turns out that the cats had melted and blown out, pushing us over the limit. The fire marshals inspected the car and said they were happy with our response, but we would need to remove the damage bits of bodywork.
So, it was noon, we needed a plan B for the noise issue, and we could not run our original system as it had burnt out all the cats and the wadding. Along comes Pete Ellis from PTR exhausts, and we formulate a plan. We start cleaning up the car, and he heads back to his workshop which is just down the road, finishes off some jobs for the Aquila and a clio (who had exactly the same issues) and starts making up a new system for us. We clean up the car, load it onto the trailer an get it over to his workshop by 2pm. Pete starts his magic, and helped (hindered?) by three of us, we roll back to Silverstone at 8:30pm (30 minutes into the night practice session) with some huge silencers on the car. Noise test underway, and, we fail. 105dB. Better than the 120 we were at a few hours earlier though....
We try various options, different maps, tailpipe configurations etc, but can't get the car under the 102 limit. The rules state that each driver must drive during the night practice session. Credit to the scrutineers, they let each driver do 1 flying lap during the session, and we had till morning to get the car quieter. Smyth headed out, followed by Wilcox, then myself, and I clocked the 4th quickest time (which I was pleased with as it was the first time I had been on a circuit at night!). We packed up, tidied the car up a bit, formulated a plan for the morning and went to bed.
Raceday - we had a car that was too loud, covered in melted bodywork, but it was very fast, and should have taken a front row grid spot. Helped by Pete again, we did some work to the exhaust system and FINALLY passed the noise test. There was a 30 minute practice session in the morning, and each driver got some laps in with the new system fitted in its quieter configuration. This caused some excessive heat build up under the clam, so we had to fix this before the race. After warm-up, with the car running well, we had 3 hours to modify the bodywork to accommodate the new huge silencers, tidy up all the burnt parts, set the car up and carry out all our regular checks - which in itself is normally about 3 hours work.
The crew set to work - we had huge crowds gathering round the pit bay as we hacked bodywork up, riveted heat shielding on left, right and centre, and carried out all the pre-race checks. The teamwork was second to none, and somehow, with zero time remaining, I was sat in the car and driving up to the assembly area for the start of the race. At this point I would like to apologise to anyone who wanted to speak with us - it was all a bit fraught, and I know a lot of people had come round to see us, but sadly we couldn't get round everyone given the circumstances!
The strategy was to go out and hit 2 minute 15 second laptimes, regardless of what the other cars were doing. We could continue with that time all day and night, so it would not stress the car. After relaxing on the grid for a while in the baking 29 degree heat, we set-off on the rolling lap. The start came and I dived up the inside of the Mosler ahead of me, and made up 3 places into the first corner. The first couple of laps were scrappy, with people racing like it was a 3 lap sprint race! I settled down into the pace we agreed to run at, which meant I let a couple of cars through - it's best to give yourself room from other cars so that any debris or crashes are easily avoided - repairing damage can take a long time, and the crew had worked hard enough already!
The plan was going well, but around an hour in, the car started misfiring. We tried to remap it, but it was showing signs of fuel starvation. We tried 3 different maps to no avail. We decided to come in, and check the fuel system. Both pumps were running, but the fuel system, which had been relocated behind the mesh in the driver side pod, was running so hot you could not touch the pumps or the filters. We scrabbled around and found some tube and a radiator, plumbed in the cooler and the new HP pump and away we went. The misfire soon came back, more aggressively than ever, so we figured the engine bay was getting too hot - we cut a series of holes in the clam with a hole saw around the manifolds, and sent the car out again. The misfire was alleviated for a bit, but then it returned. The car was remapped again, and Wilcox was sent out. 10 laps into his stint, he reported that the car was misfiring really aggressively, then suddenly he disappeared. Nothing. Turns out he had stopped just before the pit entrance, so the recovery truck was sent out to get him. It turns out that the left hand rear drive flange had sheared off, causing the disc to mangle up in the calliper and destroy the hub. Thankfully the factory support came into its own here, and we quickly re-assembled the car with new parts, apart from the calliper which we did not have a spare for. It seemed that the misfire, which was severely aggressive when I drove it, had got worse and the shock loads had caused the flange to fail. We also swapped the LP pump during this stop.
Smyth went out again, and did around 10 laps at good speed, significantly quicker than the opposition. However the car started misfiring again, and he was at about 5000RPM in 3rd, when it misfired and it broke 3rd gear. He came back into the pits, and the decision was made to retire the car. We had tried in vain to cure the misfire, but we simply could not manage it during the race. We had (just) made it to the 2nd day of the race, the crew were exhausted after 3 days solid work with little sleep, so it was time to call it a day.
The car had once again proved itself to be fast, and there is a huge amount yet to develop on the car. It emerged the next day that the majority of other teams running LS7 engines had exactly the same issues as we did - two TVR's blew up gearboxes because of a severe misfire, one Marcos and one Mosler got through 2 engines. The other Mosler ended up in the wall at 120mph when the throttle stuck open at 120mph. We are going to discuss this with our engine builder, as the evidence points to a fuel issue. The cause was certainly fuel starvation however the root cause of this is still TBA.
Wandering down the pitlane at night, it was amazing to see the problems other people were having - one team changed two engines in the race, others changed fuel tanks, radiators, gearboxes, diffs, driveshafts, and some even tore bits off road cars that were in the paddock in order to continue! It was a great event, and despite the fraught nature of it, we have developed the car more in 3 days than we could have in regular circumstances in 3 months. We also made a new friend in the shape of Jason Bradbury from the Gadget show, who loved the car - Ultima have a new fan! I would like to say a huge thank-you to the crew who worked tirelessly throughout, and Pete from PTR exhausts, without whom, we literally could not have raced! Also thanks to the Ultima Factory once again for the parts they provided, and you guys who supported us throughout the event, as well as our sponsors Just Doors UK.
More photos to come when I get them through from our photographer!
Thanks again
Jonny
We arrived on the Wednesday night and set up camp, sharing a garage with Optimum Racing who were running a Ginetta G50. We organised the garage, carried out a few last minute tweeks then went to bed.
The Thursday was the official practice day - our three drivers had previously driven the car numerous times and were familiar with the circuit so we decided to opt out - given that we had almost 4 hours of qualifying. We cleaned the car up and took the car over to Parc Ferme for scrutineering and noise testing. The car passed scrutineering without any issues, however the noise test was another matter. We knew we would be quite close to the 102dB limit, (and there are certain things you can do to get the noise down a couple of dB fairly easily), however we were at 107 (somehow 3d) noisier than the previous weekend?!) so we had to do something about that.
We tried a couple of options during the Thursday afternoon - restuffing the backbox, playing with exhaust tips to point them in different directions, but we could not get under the 102 limit. We decided to retro fit one of the extra silencer back boxes that Ultima offered, so a quick call was made to Hinckley and a member of the crew set off in pursuit of the extra backbox. This arrived late Thursday night so we fitted it, tweaked the mapping and passed the noise test - problem solved....
Qualifying Friday morning. Drivers up bright and early and Adam Wilcox hit the track first, having left it around 20 minutes to get some space on the crowded track. The plan was to each do a few laps, and the quickest driver would go out on new tyres to put in a quick time. Two laps in, one of the crew on the pit wall turns round and says 'the car's on fire'. Adam comes rolling down the pitlane with the extra (Zircotec-ed) back box glowing orange and the clam in flame. A quick spritz with a couple of fire extinguishers soon put out the blaze - but the damage was quite clear.
We decided to change the car back to its original configuration, so, clam off, a quick clean to get rid of the highly corrosive extinguisher powder, tail pipes back on, and away we go. Unfortunately all 3 drivers had to run in qualifying, and we had 12 minutes left by the time Jamie hit the track - and I still had to do my run! Jamie managed 1 lap and I jumped in, which gave me 6 minutes for a qualifying session. One fast out-lap and one lap with huge amounts of traffic - I managed to cross the line just before the chequered flag for one quick, clean lap. Unfortunately there was traffic round the back of the circuit round the new pit complex, which lost me around 1.5 seconds, losing me a front row spot, and we ended up 8th on the grid.
Coming into the pits, there was a large gathering in front of our pit box, including scrutineers and fire marshals. Apparently we were 'quite a long way over' the drive by noise level during my laps. It turns out that the cats had melted and blown out, pushing us over the limit. The fire marshals inspected the car and said they were happy with our response, but we would need to remove the damage bits of bodywork.
So, it was noon, we needed a plan B for the noise issue, and we could not run our original system as it had burnt out all the cats and the wadding. Along comes Pete Ellis from PTR exhausts, and we formulate a plan. We start cleaning up the car, and he heads back to his workshop which is just down the road, finishes off some jobs for the Aquila and a clio (who had exactly the same issues) and starts making up a new system for us. We clean up the car, load it onto the trailer an get it over to his workshop by 2pm. Pete starts his magic, and helped (hindered?) by three of us, we roll back to Silverstone at 8:30pm (30 minutes into the night practice session) with some huge silencers on the car. Noise test underway, and, we fail. 105dB. Better than the 120 we were at a few hours earlier though....
We try various options, different maps, tailpipe configurations etc, but can't get the car under the 102 limit. The rules state that each driver must drive during the night practice session. Credit to the scrutineers, they let each driver do 1 flying lap during the session, and we had till morning to get the car quieter. Smyth headed out, followed by Wilcox, then myself, and I clocked the 4th quickest time (which I was pleased with as it was the first time I had been on a circuit at night!). We packed up, tidied the car up a bit, formulated a plan for the morning and went to bed.
Raceday - we had a car that was too loud, covered in melted bodywork, but it was very fast, and should have taken a front row grid spot. Helped by Pete again, we did some work to the exhaust system and FINALLY passed the noise test. There was a 30 minute practice session in the morning, and each driver got some laps in with the new system fitted in its quieter configuration. This caused some excessive heat build up under the clam, so we had to fix this before the race. After warm-up, with the car running well, we had 3 hours to modify the bodywork to accommodate the new huge silencers, tidy up all the burnt parts, set the car up and carry out all our regular checks - which in itself is normally about 3 hours work.
The crew set to work - we had huge crowds gathering round the pit bay as we hacked bodywork up, riveted heat shielding on left, right and centre, and carried out all the pre-race checks. The teamwork was second to none, and somehow, with zero time remaining, I was sat in the car and driving up to the assembly area for the start of the race. At this point I would like to apologise to anyone who wanted to speak with us - it was all a bit fraught, and I know a lot of people had come round to see us, but sadly we couldn't get round everyone given the circumstances!
The strategy was to go out and hit 2 minute 15 second laptimes, regardless of what the other cars were doing. We could continue with that time all day and night, so it would not stress the car. After relaxing on the grid for a while in the baking 29 degree heat, we set-off on the rolling lap. The start came and I dived up the inside of the Mosler ahead of me, and made up 3 places into the first corner. The first couple of laps were scrappy, with people racing like it was a 3 lap sprint race! I settled down into the pace we agreed to run at, which meant I let a couple of cars through - it's best to give yourself room from other cars so that any debris or crashes are easily avoided - repairing damage can take a long time, and the crew had worked hard enough already!
The plan was going well, but around an hour in, the car started misfiring. We tried to remap it, but it was showing signs of fuel starvation. We tried 3 different maps to no avail. We decided to come in, and check the fuel system. Both pumps were running, but the fuel system, which had been relocated behind the mesh in the driver side pod, was running so hot you could not touch the pumps or the filters. We scrabbled around and found some tube and a radiator, plumbed in the cooler and the new HP pump and away we went. The misfire soon came back, more aggressively than ever, so we figured the engine bay was getting too hot - we cut a series of holes in the clam with a hole saw around the manifolds, and sent the car out again. The misfire was alleviated for a bit, but then it returned. The car was remapped again, and Wilcox was sent out. 10 laps into his stint, he reported that the car was misfiring really aggressively, then suddenly he disappeared. Nothing. Turns out he had stopped just before the pit entrance, so the recovery truck was sent out to get him. It turns out that the left hand rear drive flange had sheared off, causing the disc to mangle up in the calliper and destroy the hub. Thankfully the factory support came into its own here, and we quickly re-assembled the car with new parts, apart from the calliper which we did not have a spare for. It seemed that the misfire, which was severely aggressive when I drove it, had got worse and the shock loads had caused the flange to fail. We also swapped the LP pump during this stop.
Smyth went out again, and did around 10 laps at good speed, significantly quicker than the opposition. However the car started misfiring again, and he was at about 5000RPM in 3rd, when it misfired and it broke 3rd gear. He came back into the pits, and the decision was made to retire the car. We had tried in vain to cure the misfire, but we simply could not manage it during the race. We had (just) made it to the 2nd day of the race, the crew were exhausted after 3 days solid work with little sleep, so it was time to call it a day.
The car had once again proved itself to be fast, and there is a huge amount yet to develop on the car. It emerged the next day that the majority of other teams running LS7 engines had exactly the same issues as we did - two TVR's blew up gearboxes because of a severe misfire, one Marcos and one Mosler got through 2 engines. The other Mosler ended up in the wall at 120mph when the throttle stuck open at 120mph. We are going to discuss this with our engine builder, as the evidence points to a fuel issue. The cause was certainly fuel starvation however the root cause of this is still TBA.
Wandering down the pitlane at night, it was amazing to see the problems other people were having - one team changed two engines in the race, others changed fuel tanks, radiators, gearboxes, diffs, driveshafts, and some even tore bits off road cars that were in the paddock in order to continue! It was a great event, and despite the fraught nature of it, we have developed the car more in 3 days than we could have in regular circumstances in 3 months. We also made a new friend in the shape of Jason Bradbury from the Gadget show, who loved the car - Ultima have a new fan! I would like to say a huge thank-you to the crew who worked tirelessly throughout, and Pete from PTR exhausts, without whom, we literally could not have raced! Also thanks to the Ultima Factory once again for the parts they provided, and you guys who supported us throughout the event, as well as our sponsors Just Doors UK.
More photos to come when I get them through from our photographer!
Thanks again
Jonny
Edited by macgtech on Monday 3rd October 10:17
UltimaCH said:
TOP hats off for trying. Better result next time. Looks like heat and related issues are a MAJOR problem and when solved, the GTR should be one very serious race contender. Keep up the good work!
Indeed - the heat should be straight forward to solve (!), though the misfire was certainly down to fuel starvation; numerous other teams running LS7's were struggling with exactly the same symptoms as ourselves - some with far more dire consequences than we had. Going to investigate it further but it seems we need to be looking at common factors - maybe the fuel.Sounds awesome but very frustrating, especially as other teams appear to have had similar issues.
It's a good reflection of how capable a starting point an ultima is for racing, it's serious budget and machinery you're competing against!
It can only be a matter of time before a podium finish!
It's a good reflection of how capable a starting point an ultima is for racing, it's serious budget and machinery you're competing against!
It can only be a matter of time before a podium finish!
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