Britcar rounds 7 and 8 - Oulton Park

Britcar rounds 7 and 8 - Oulton Park

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Discussion

anonymous-user

54 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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I wonder if a deformable "honeycomb" rear crash structure might be a good idea to prevent damage to the transmission in similar "minor" offs? Would be very easy and lightweight to add to the back of the transmission or chassis?

Racing Roj

488 posts

163 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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Jonny
Must be extremely disappointing following the Friday test which I really enjoyed despite the rubbish weather.
I checked the on line timing and results yesterday whilst cheering Chris Froome on.
Hope to see you soon on a raceway.
All the best.

ROWDYRENAULT

1,270 posts

214 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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Jonny very spry to hear of your bit of bad luck. Hope it's no worse than what you suspect. Lee

T-Rev

109 posts

278 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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Hi Jonny, great news to hear that you showed the pace and reliability following all of your upgrades, but I'm very sorry about the incident that ended your weekend. I do hope the damage is not too bad and you can get it repaired and back on track soon.
Best regards,
Trevor.

pmjg66

2,707 posts

214 months

Sunday 6th July 2014
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Unfortunate shunts so early on,hope all get there cars up and running again soon...

Was there Saturday a good days spectating,a few clips of the day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fsidKQe1Fw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVgDrvWAdsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOuyE3XvGws

Edited by pmjg66 on Monday 14th July 13:50

macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Monday 7th July 2014
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Indeed, it was all very unfortunate - the car was performing beautifully so very frustrating that it had to end as it did. Still - we will bounce back as we always do.

If anyone has a spare yellow rear clam that would be great smile

The plan now is to split the clam and attach rear section of the clam to the chassis and hinge the front portion, in order to support the wing properly, which will allow us to run more downforce that we do currently.

V8Dom

3,546 posts

202 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
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hi Jonny

sorry been ill the last few days so couldnt post.

I met up with the guys on Saturday to see how everything was going. The team is a fantastic bunch of guys, very professional and the car looked fanastic.. The pace on friday was top class and being 3 seconds faster than everyone else such a reward to their hard efforts, unfortunately as you have all heard the 3 rd lap incident abit of a set back and very dissappointing.

Im sorry it didnt go well, but you will bounce back and with greater strength. The hard work will pay off and believe me there are some worried teams in the paddock, with their 200k-300k cars starting to see the back of the Ultima on track just like the days of Lee Noble in the 70's.

If there is anything i can do to help Jonny just ask. And thankyou for having time to have a good chat and allowing a close look at the car, much appreciated

Dom


macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Thursday 10th July 2014
quotequote all
Hi Dom,

No problem at all - just glad you had a good day despite the drama! Our pace was very good on Friday, particularly in the wet (as always), its just a shame that qualifying was the 'neither wet or dry' conditions which simply don't favour us at all.

Looking to get to the next round but it is going to be a push - seems to be no engine damage thankfully and the pinion shaft in the box is good, so just a bearing change and new rear casing in terms of the transmission. The rear clam could be the sticking point but will see.

Will update in due course. And another couple of shots to keep you entertained:




macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Monday 14th July 2014
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After 50 or so hours we have stripped the engine bay, cut out the offending spars and replaced them. The heavily damaged area included both verticals where the lower wishbones mount along with the gearbox and clam mounts. Both the verticals were cut out and entirely new bars put in place, with new lower wishbone mounting points manufactured.

The central lower cross brace was also cut out and replaced with a bar that goes straight across at the same level as the rest of the chassis - we don't run the standard LS7 sump anymore so it made sense to remove this - and we are getting the bellhousing machined so that it hangs down enough to protect the flywheel but does not protrude out the bottom of the chassis. A carbon fibre panel will be made to cover the opening under the ball housing.

Now that the underside of the car is all at the same level, we will have the option of running a flat floor right through which should give significant aero benefits. The bad news is that the flat floor we made to accomodate the lower cross member is no of no use!

Making progress!

V8Dom

3,546 posts

202 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Well done... sounds like its coming together for you and a leap forward too..
Can you let us all know the dates you are hoping to race this year?

Dom

ROWDYRENAULT

1,270 posts

214 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Jonny: I was contemplating the change on the lowered cross bar the next time the engine is out could you post a picture of this mod with the motor back in the car? I assume that you run a A.R.E. dry sump pan which is what I have on my L.S. great product I also use the A.R.E. valve cover with the spray bar for the valve springs. That said one of the fellows here that is building a KILLER GTR has opted for the Dailey products pan with the pump mounted directly to the pan. Same pan as on the picture I showed earlier in this discussion. really nice piece of kit. Lee

macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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ROWDYRENAULT said:
Jonny: I was contemplating the change on the lowered cross bar the next time the engine is out could you post a picture of this mod with the motor back in the car? I assume that you run a A.R.E. dry sump pan which is what I have on my L.S. great product I also use the A.R.E. valve cover with the spray bar for the valve springs. That said one of the fellows here that is building a KILLER GTR has opted for the Dailey products pan with the pump mounted directly to the pan. Same pan as on the picture I showed earlier in this discussion. really nice piece of kit. Lee
We run a Dailey sump - the design is significantly better and the installation far neater than the ARE, and the reviews that we have had of both certainly swung us towards Dailey. Bill is very knowledgeable and helpful, despite how busy he clearly is.

We move the bar forward slightly so that a rear end shunt would (hopefully) not result in the flywheel jamming on the bar and avoiding engine damage, as the flywheel hangs slightly below the sump (the pan is only 40mm or so deep). There is a slight cutout for the -10 oil inlet hose.

Not a great picture I am afraid...


macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
quotequote all
V8Dom said:
Well done... sounds like its coming together for you and a leap forward too..
Can you let us all know the dates you are hoping to race this year?

Dom
It is slowly coming together. Hoping to make it out for the next round, which is August 9th at Snetterton. Following that it is Silverstone GP on September 20th - we may also do some GT Cup too.

A bit of on board footage from qualifying at a very damp Oulton Park with Jamie at the wheel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykiguoy1yK4

Enjoy!

ROWDYRENAULT

1,270 posts

214 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Guys that's a great piece of video. The car looks to be really well balanced, thanks for whatever filter you used to get rid of the obnoxious noise that was in one of your last videos. I still wonder about the wiper being so apparent in the drivers main view area. I know you have said that its just ignored but my 40 years of flying helicopters and studying lots of human factor stuff says it takes a toll on concentration. Just trying to contribute a thought, speed which comes in the form of concentration at the task at hand is a subtle mistress. Lee ............ i forgot to thank you for the picture it shows exactly what I wanted to see

Edited by ROWDYRENAULT on Wednesday 16th July 16:07

macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
quotequote all
ROWDYRENAULT said:
Guys that's a great piece of video. The car looks to be really well balanced, thanks for whatever filter you used to get rid of the obnoxious noise that was in one of your last videos. I still wonder about the wiper being so apparent in the drivers main view area. I know you have said that its just ignored but my 40 years of flying helicopters and studying lots of human factor stuff says it takes a toll on concentration. Just trying to contribute a thought, speed which comes in the form of concentration at the task at hand is a subtle mistress. Lee ............ i forgot to thank you for the picture it shows exactly what I wanted to see

Edited by ROWDYRENAULT on Wednesday 16th July 16:07
Funnily enough we removed the wiper completely for this round - then inevitably it rained!

Not sure what we did differently on the video, but it is clear that we need a better microphone to pick up the base. Our early videos (from 2012) were taken on a series 2 GoPro which seems to have a much better microphone which picks up the base more effectively. This series 3 works well but the sound quality is very poor, which is a little disappointing.

UltimaCH

3,155 posts

189 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Any way to connect another mike to better pick up the bass sound?
Regarding the wiper, it moves around like it had too much play in the mechanism. Not normal to me and as Lee says, it must be a source of distraction.

Pedders

269 posts

284 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Always a big fan of your videos - thanks for posting.

I think I missed the upgrade to flappy paddle gear changes which seems apparent in the video - how are you getting on with it?

macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Thursday 17th July 2014
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UltimaCH said:
Any way to connect another mike to better pick up the bass sound?
Regarding the wiper, it moves around like it had too much play in the mechanism. Not normal to me and as Lee says, it must be a source of distraction.
I think there is an external mic - will take a look at some point.

The wiper is ****ed. Will swap it out for the next round - the splines on the wiper arm itself have given up.

Paddles are good - stripped the box to inspect for crash damage, and the dogs look brand new, so very pleased. Takes a significant amount of strain off the driver which makes a big difference.

macgtech

Original Poster:

997 posts

159 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
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So having repaired the chassis the next job was the bodywork - thankfully a very generous of our community, who shall remain nameless, offered us a clam that had been involved in a slight prang and needed some minor repairs - so we duly took the kind soul up on their offer and low and behold - we have a new(ish) rear clam! So a big thank you to the person who supplied this - without this there would have been next to zero chance of us racing in ten days time!

Sue to the complexity of the modifications to the rear clam, we decided to salvage the front half of the clam, cutoff the back portion and take the opportunity to solidly mount the rear section of the rear clam, complete with wing etc, onto the chassis. The new clam was dissected and the rear section was fitted onto a new frame which we built up - and boy is it solid. Can quite easily have two people stand on it without issue - this will enable us to run much more downforce than we could previously as we were limited by the clam mounting previously.



The front section of the rear clam was trimmed, tidied up and reinforced in a couple of places and hinged onto the rear section which was bolted onto the car - it works pretty well, just needs a bit of trimming at the front edge to make sure it open and closes cleanly.



So the 'major' work is done, now need to disassemble everything and rebuild the gearbox, which was put into place with no internals just to get everything aligned correctly, and a multitude of other small (but vital!) jobs like fill all the fluids, fit the rear light loom, do the tracking etc as well as tidying up all the edges and fits (not so vital!)...so there are going to be some late nights between now and the 8th August (next round at Snetterton) but hopefully should be OK...fingers crossed!

Storer

5,024 posts

215 months

Tuesday 29th July 2014
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Hi Jonny

Excellent solution Jonny and well done to the donor.

The 8th is a Friday so is the race Saturday or both Sat and Sun?

I hope to pop along.

Good luck, for a change.


Paul