Our BRSCC MX5 Race Car - #177
Discussion
A link to our racing blog: https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/
Background
It's probably worth explaining a bit of our history, I've personally been terrible at having a Reader's thread, so this is a bit of a dump of the last few years. Myself and em177 (a fellow PHer) have a bit of a problem. If you go through our car histories, you'll understand. Between us we have owned over 20 MX5s and Eunos Roadsters. Turns out the problem was contagious and soon started spreading to family members (my Dad owns 3 atm) and friends (we have converted over 10 people to the church of the MX5 at last count).
We've spent the last 5 years faffing around at tracks across the UK and Europe. We've become Belgian Beer and chocolate aficionados. All (well, most of the time) in a plucky, little mx5 of some description.
This is from our Eurotrip in 2010:
And again in 2012 (I was a MR2 heathen at the time):
And again in 2013:
And again in 2014:
We've also been to Le Mans a few times. The last of which was in a duct taped LS400 with Chris Harris' face on the bonnet.
All in all, we've had a pretty decent run in terms of Euro Trips and track days.
Racing
Enough with the nostalgia. This year we wanted to do something bigger, and it made sense to do it in a MX5. After our antics of the last few years, we have built up a reasonable knowledge of the car as well as an excellent support network. We had alwasys discussed racing and how we would do it.
One night, while drunk in the pub, we fired up eBay and found a "ready to race" car. We hadn't been actively looking but knew what the rough prices were. This one was cheap. Some would say suspiciously cheap - after 8 pints of Deuchars, we did not say this. We began talking with the guy selling it and arranged a price. I woke up the next morning with a hangover, a paper trail, an angry wife and a logstical problem. The car was in South Wales. We were in Scotland and we had nowhere to store the car.
Step in Adrian at Border MX5s - he offered to store and begin work on the car with my father, preparing it for the next championship year, in his workshop. Can't thank him enough for this as our only alternative was to leave it outside under a sheet over winter.
My Dad worked through the winter, but being honest, we never expected it to be ready for the first race. The man is a miracle worker, knowing when to enlist the expertise of Fraser and Dan at AK Automotive in Gateshead to help build up our very own race car.
By March the car was ready to go and we were at our first test at Teesside Autodrome:
For reference, this is how the interior now looked:
(Our shoe string budget doesn't stretch to a proper lap timer, so we're currently using an old Nexus 7 with an external GPS device and a premium version of the Trackmaster Android app).
We completed one more test day at Croft after AK Automotive skimmed the head and ported the valves. The car felt instantly better but at this point we were still running second hand, 4 year old tyres.
Our next stop would be the Silverstone national circuit for the first race of the year...
Background
It's probably worth explaining a bit of our history, I've personally been terrible at having a Reader's thread, so this is a bit of a dump of the last few years. Myself and em177 (a fellow PHer) have a bit of a problem. If you go through our car histories, you'll understand. Between us we have owned over 20 MX5s and Eunos Roadsters. Turns out the problem was contagious and soon started spreading to family members (my Dad owns 3 atm) and friends (we have converted over 10 people to the church of the MX5 at last count).
We've spent the last 5 years faffing around at tracks across the UK and Europe. We've become Belgian Beer and chocolate aficionados. All (well, most of the time) in a plucky, little mx5 of some description.
This is from our Eurotrip in 2010:
And again in 2012 (I was a MR2 heathen at the time):
And again in 2013:
And again in 2014:
We've also been to Le Mans a few times. The last of which was in a duct taped LS400 with Chris Harris' face on the bonnet.
All in all, we've had a pretty decent run in terms of Euro Trips and track days.
Racing
Enough with the nostalgia. This year we wanted to do something bigger, and it made sense to do it in a MX5. After our antics of the last few years, we have built up a reasonable knowledge of the car as well as an excellent support network. We had alwasys discussed racing and how we would do it.
One night, while drunk in the pub, we fired up eBay and found a "ready to race" car. We hadn't been actively looking but knew what the rough prices were. This one was cheap. Some would say suspiciously cheap - after 8 pints of Deuchars, we did not say this. We began talking with the guy selling it and arranged a price. I woke up the next morning with a hangover, a paper trail, an angry wife and a logstical problem. The car was in South Wales. We were in Scotland and we had nowhere to store the car.
Step in Adrian at Border MX5s - he offered to store and begin work on the car with my father, preparing it for the next championship year, in his workshop. Can't thank him enough for this as our only alternative was to leave it outside under a sheet over winter.
My Dad worked through the winter, but being honest, we never expected it to be ready for the first race. The man is a miracle worker, knowing when to enlist the expertise of Fraser and Dan at AK Automotive in Gateshead to help build up our very own race car.
By March the car was ready to go and we were at our first test at Teesside Autodrome:
For reference, this is how the interior now looked:
(Our shoe string budget doesn't stretch to a proper lap timer, so we're currently using an old Nexus 7 with an external GPS device and a premium version of the Trackmaster Android app).
We completed one more test day at Croft after AK Automotive skimmed the head and ported the valves. The car felt instantly better but at this point we were still running second hand, 4 year old tyres.
Our next stop would be the Silverstone national circuit for the first race of the year...
Edited by bicycleshorts on Tuesday 28th July 13:38
Silverstone - Rounds 1 and 2
Silverstone fell on Easter weekend. This meant a leisurely travel down to Silverstone for the test day on Friday, practice/quali on Saturday and the races on Sunday. With a slow drive back on the Monday.
Or so was the plan, it worked out slightly differently with myself and Euan being delayed in Scottish airports until 10.30pm . Silverstone looked a long way away.
We had set a target to be in the A group by the end of the season. We managed this in the first race, much to our shock as well as everyone elses! We were the only car on the grid with a novice cross.
Rather than retype it, you can read our full report here (including YouTube videos):
https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/04/1...
Silverstone fell on Easter weekend. This meant a leisurely travel down to Silverstone for the test day on Friday, practice/quali on Saturday and the races on Sunday. With a slow drive back on the Monday.
Or so was the plan, it worked out slightly differently with myself and Euan being delayed in Scottish airports until 10.30pm . Silverstone looked a long way away.
We had set a target to be in the A group by the end of the season. We managed this in the first race, much to our shock as well as everyone elses! We were the only car on the grid with a novice cross.
Rather than retype it, you can read our full report here (including YouTube videos):
https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/04/1...
Indeed! Though the way prices are going, beginning to wonder if they have had their moment in the sun for cheap motoring.
Our next blog post will be a detailed technical specification of the car, showing what is removed (or more accurately what is left!). Just collecting pictures for this at the minute.
Our next blog post will be a detailed technical specification of the car, showing what is removed (or more accurately what is left!). Just collecting pictures for this at the minute.
bicycleshorts said:
Indeed! Though the way prices are going, beginning to wonder if they have had their moment in the sun for cheap motoring.
Our next blog post will be a detailed technical specification of the car, showing what is removed (or more accurately what is left!). Just collecting pictures for this at the minute.
any chance you can log the weights of anything removed? Im looking to shed some weight but i need to know what i can live without, Our next blog post will be a detailed technical specification of the car, showing what is removed (or more accurately what is left!). Just collecting pictures for this at the minute.
cheers
D
Just a quick update - the race report from Silverstone is now available to read here: http://www.brsccmazda.com/race-reports?id=47 . We received a few mentions which is great for us and our sponsors!
Just need to keep up the good work for Brands Hatch next weekend. We've both had our noses in track guides for the last month trying to learn the track inside out (there's no testing available). The Blancpain cars mean it'll be a fantastic weekend whatever happens, if anyone is interested in coming along, tickets are available here: http://www.brandshatch.co.uk/calendar/2015/may/bla...
In other news, we weren't fond of paying for lots of flights, hotels and taxis for the entire season so have bought our own mobile hotel!
This beast will be responsible for getting us from deepest, darkest Aberdeen to tracks all over the UK.
Just need to keep up the good work for Brands Hatch next weekend. We've both had our noses in track guides for the last month trying to learn the track inside out (there's no testing available). The Blancpain cars mean it'll be a fantastic weekend whatever happens, if anyone is interested in coming along, tickets are available here: http://www.brandshatch.co.uk/calendar/2015/may/bla...
HaylingJag said:
any chance you can log the weights of anything removed? Im looking to shed some weight but i need to know what i can live without,
cheers
D
I'll do my best. Our car has to be 960kg including 5L of fuel and driver. I weigh 85kg and still need some ballast so it's been a strict weight loss regime for the car! Especially when you include the dirty great rollcage in there.cheers
D
In other news, we weren't fond of paying for lots of flights, hotels and taxis for the entire season so have bought our own mobile hotel!
This beast will be responsible for getting us from deepest, darkest Aberdeen to tracks all over the UK.
Edited by bicycleshorts on Friday 1st May 12:02
Forgot to put this up here. For anyone interested, the first 2 rounds (4 races) are up from Silverstone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHappkNi3c4
The cars are fairly stock MX5s, meaning an evenly matched field and very close racing. The production of the videos is also excellent (imho) for club level racing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHappkNi3c4
The cars are fairly stock MX5s, meaning an evenly matched field and very close racing. The production of the videos is also excellent (imho) for club level racing.
The mk3s are at Rockingham this weekend. We shared the weekend with them at Silverstone but not this time.
You can find more info about each series here:
http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/BRSCC-MAZDA-M...
http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/BRSCC-MAZDA-M...
Here's a pic of Dan Irving, in one of the AK Automotive mk3s from testing yesterday. The cars look fantastic in the flesh.
You can find more info about each series here:
http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/BRSCC-MAZDA-M...
http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/BRSCC-MAZDA-M...
Here's a pic of Dan Irving, in one of the AK Automotive mk3s from testing yesterday. The cars look fantastic in the flesh.
Brands Hatch GP - Rounds 3 and 4
Following the high of Silverstone was going to be difficult, but Brands Hatch delivered. As we were sharing the weekend with the Blancpain GT championship, we would have the rare chance to race on the GP configuration of Brands.
The weekend would be a mixture of highs:
And lows:
You can read the full report here:
https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/05/1...
Following the high of Silverstone was going to be difficult, but Brands Hatch delivered. As we were sharing the weekend with the Blancpain GT championship, we would have the rare chance to race on the GP configuration of Brands.
The weekend would be a mixture of highs:
And lows:
You can read the full report here:
https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/05/1...
Castle Combe - Rounds 5 and 6
Well, we had an eventful racing weekend at Castle Combe. Certainly giving our AK Automotive mechanics a hard time!
Following a crash in practice, we found ourselves at the back of the grid for both races. We worked our way up from 21st to 7th in race 1, and 21st to 6th in race 2.
The full race report is here including on-board videos: https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/05/3...
Well, we had an eventful racing weekend at Castle Combe. Certainly giving our AK Automotive mechanics a hard time!
Following a crash in practice, we found ourselves at the back of the grid for both races. We worked our way up from 21st to 7th in race 1, and 21st to 6th in race 2.
The full race report is here including on-board videos: https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/05/3...
Edited by bicycleshorts on Sunday 31st May 12:08
Edited by bicycleshorts on Sunday 28th June 11:46
Just had an email from one of our sponsors ( www.bordermx5s.com) who is currently respraying the car in his booth.
This picture gives you an idea of just how much the side bar actually protrude into the door. You can also see our cold air intake feeding into the standard airbox (as per the championship regs).
Paint on. Car should look good as new at Rockingham next weekend!
This picture gives you an idea of just how much the side bar actually protrude into the door. You can also see our cold air intake feeding into the standard airbox (as per the championship regs).
Paint on. Car should look good as new at Rockingham next weekend!
Edited by bicycleshorts on Monday 6th July 22:54
The TV highlights from Castle Combe are now online. Both Euan and I get our fair share of coverage as we worked our way up from the last row of the grid in race 1B and 2B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALpj7VFBbus
The Rockingham race report will be up this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALpj7VFBbus
The Rockingham race report will be up this weekend.
Rockingham - Rounds 7 and 8
Two weeks ago saw Euan have his first solo weekend with the car as I was on a charity walk in the Highlands.
Gearbox issues during the Friday test session would cut his time to prepare the car short, but it was irrelevant in the end as a soggy Rockingham greeted him on the Saturday.
Euan finished well in both races, getting a top 15 in race 1A and a top 10 in race 2A. This is our best result to date and I'm not at all bitter that I wasn't there to see what I could've done
You can read the full write up, including on board videos here: https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/06/2...
Two weeks ago saw Euan have his first solo weekend with the car as I was on a charity walk in the Highlands.
Gearbox issues during the Friday test session would cut his time to prepare the car short, but it was irrelevant in the end as a soggy Rockingham greeted him on the Saturday.
Euan finished well in both races, getting a top 15 in race 1A and a top 10 in race 2A. This is our best result to date and I'm not at all bitter that I wasn't there to see what I could've done
You can read the full write up, including on board videos here: https://milneforsterracing.wordpress.com/2015/06/2...
So this week we head off to what looks like it will be a wet Cadwell. We are testing on Thursday/Friday, qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday so will be a busy few days. The Mk3 super up will also be there so should be a fantastic weekends racing. Will hopefully see some of you there, feel free to come say hi!
The BRSCC TV coverage is now available online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLM2iJXSZQk
Great watching the lairy driving: no TC, ABS or electronic driver aids here. Some were caught out though with a few excursions into the gravel/tyres/pit straight wall!
Great watching the lairy driving: no TC, ABS or electronic driver aids here. Some were caught out though with a few excursions into the gravel/tyres/pit straight wall!
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