Sprinting a BBW Down Under
Discussion
Having imported my 450SE to West Australia last year I had started to try and get the local TVR owners more active socially by organising monthly meetings etc along the lines of a TVRCC region and I had nagged a Chim owner (Dave) into getting into competitive motorsport to raise the local profile. I then felt guilty watching him so it was about time I also got involved and hence Sunday 23rd Oct saw the inaugural WA TVR Sprint Challenge.
The Sprint is run over a 2.3km circuit at a driving centre near Perth airport and it's a fairly tight and twisty affair, although just how tight I hadn't realised when watching previous rounds !
Best 3 runs out of 4 are added together to give a score and with this round being the final the majority of cars entered were either heavily modified road cars, pure race cars or machinery more suited to this kind of event and consisted of WRX's, Evo's, GTR's, RX's, Elise's, Porkers and the odd special (GT40 replica, Chevy powered XJ coupe etc).
The target was to better Dave's times which would mean around 120 seconds but things started to go wrong on the convoy lap.
I found I was having to give it a fair bootful just to keep up with the GT40 in front (subsequently found out it had over 600hp from a twin turbo big block Chevy so not surprising) and at full throttle over 3000rpm the engine was just dying. This was the fuelling problem I still hadn't got round to sorting so a quick adjustment to the air flow meter spring and a couple of blats up the road outside to make sure it was ok led to a warning from the organisers - great start.
Also I had thought that I should increase tyre pressures to counter starting from cold and to reduce tyre roll. I must have overdone it because on the first run I didn't seem to have any grip at all. Not that it mattered the kind of speed I was managing anyway as I lurched from bend to bend on the wrong line trying to find a gear somewhere close to the one I should have used.
Heading towards the first chicane it was just a mass of cones and I couldn't work out whether it was right left or left right. By the time I had slowed down enough to actually determine this I crawled through and realised that the hairpin the other side was about 20 seconds away at that pace. Instead of just enjoying the scenery I learned how to compound errors and accelerated up to the bend which then tightened causing heavy braking and a change down to second, the resulting locking of the rears causing a neat 180. I then went on the grass turning round which counts as a wrong way and so no time given. Dave put in a solid 125 on his first run so the gloves were off !
Second run and mindful of the fact that I couldn't afford another ww I let some air out of the tyres and managed a 127 which I was fairly happy with as it was still a shocking lap. Dave had the luxury of a time on the board already and pushing hard he managed a spectacular spin onto the grass in the middle of the circuit for a ww himself.
Third run and wait in line until the WRX STI in front launches off the line and then into the staging area and watch the lights - no green for ages as I had managed to break the start beam as I drove up to it but couldn't hear the shouts telling me to back up. Luckily I was allowed to reverse for a new start otherwise that would have been longest lap ever !
Green light this time and start in your own time, blip the throttle and then pull away as revs fall (I can't afford another clutch) and then floor it with the clutch engaged. The back squirms around but minimal wheelspin and head off to the right, 2nd gear and left through a set of double cone gates on the skidpan before hard right, a left through the next gate and hard in 3rd, nice loud bangs as a squirt of fuel gets through to the exhaust on each gear change. Off the skidpan onto the road circuit and a 2nd gear right hander that seems to take ages to open up as you balance the throttle before flooring it once straight and into 3rd up to the first chicane. Pick the direction by sight as I'm buggered if I can remember which way it goes again and carry some speed through to the hairpin. Up the longest straight grabbing 4th maybe for a second before braking for the second chicane, too slow in so booted it exiting which gave me another chance to practice reversing at speed. Ploughing the field counted as a ww so I got back onto the track and limped back round the rest of the circuit, a mixture of 2nd gear bends punctuated by brief bursts. All Dave now had to do was put two times on the board and the inaugural trophy (I got one made up) was his and a smooth lap gave Dave his best time ever with a 123.
For the fourth run I put the spare wheel, jack, road map and a couple of large rocks in the boot to try and improve the handling (after my earlier warning I didn't want to push my luck with the organisers by getting my son to climb in). Grip was now much improved, aided by the fact that the previous spins meant I now had close to a couple of slicks on the back. The car felt good and sounded great - the commentator actually mentioning that he wasn't sure about these English things but at least it sounded like a real car ! An uneventful lap gave a disappointing 126 so honours were going to Dave anyway but in typical style he gave it some stick and ended up ploughing the same stretch of field I had earlier !
No harm done and even though neither of us actually managed to set 3 lap time's Dave's 123 was the quickest TVR lap of the day. For the points score ww's are given the time of the slowest lap of the round so we did actually post a result.
Were we competitive ? Not at all - Dave was second from last on the day and I was a long way behind him.
Did this matter ? Not at all - great fun, no one takes it too seriously and it's all fairly friendly. At the end of the day 17 odd corners and 2 chicanes in 2.3 km suits the AWD's and Lotus's - we were competing with each other and against our own times, not the rest of the field, and only finished a few seconds shy of the GT40.
I can recommend giving it a go it if anyone is in two minds whether to or not. As a spectator I always thought "I can do that" but in reality my driving skills are way short of most of these guys, admittedly some had extensive competitive circuit racing experience but an eye opener was the guy parked next to me before the start under the bonnet of his modified RX7 which had spat the tip of a plug on the way there causing serious damage. His partner dropped off their runaround Peugeot 405 MI16 and he entered that instead - chucked it round the circuit on two wheels and beat me by 6 seconds !
Anyway, now I'm bitten, can't wait till next years series but in the meantime I intend to get some professional driving tuition. Now where's that ad for a supercharger gone.
PS SHPUB - if you have any go faster bits from the purple shed you no longer need let me know !
>> Edited by chunder on Tuesday 8th November 14:11
The Sprint is run over a 2.3km circuit at a driving centre near Perth airport and it's a fairly tight and twisty affair, although just how tight I hadn't realised when watching previous rounds !
Best 3 runs out of 4 are added together to give a score and with this round being the final the majority of cars entered were either heavily modified road cars, pure race cars or machinery more suited to this kind of event and consisted of WRX's, Evo's, GTR's, RX's, Elise's, Porkers and the odd special (GT40 replica, Chevy powered XJ coupe etc).
The target was to better Dave's times which would mean around 120 seconds but things started to go wrong on the convoy lap.
I found I was having to give it a fair bootful just to keep up with the GT40 in front (subsequently found out it had over 600hp from a twin turbo big block Chevy so not surprising) and at full throttle over 3000rpm the engine was just dying. This was the fuelling problem I still hadn't got round to sorting so a quick adjustment to the air flow meter spring and a couple of blats up the road outside to make sure it was ok led to a warning from the organisers - great start.
Also I had thought that I should increase tyre pressures to counter starting from cold and to reduce tyre roll. I must have overdone it because on the first run I didn't seem to have any grip at all. Not that it mattered the kind of speed I was managing anyway as I lurched from bend to bend on the wrong line trying to find a gear somewhere close to the one I should have used.
Heading towards the first chicane it was just a mass of cones and I couldn't work out whether it was right left or left right. By the time I had slowed down enough to actually determine this I crawled through and realised that the hairpin the other side was about 20 seconds away at that pace. Instead of just enjoying the scenery I learned how to compound errors and accelerated up to the bend which then tightened causing heavy braking and a change down to second, the resulting locking of the rears causing a neat 180. I then went on the grass turning round which counts as a wrong way and so no time given. Dave put in a solid 125 on his first run so the gloves were off !
Second run and mindful of the fact that I couldn't afford another ww I let some air out of the tyres and managed a 127 which I was fairly happy with as it was still a shocking lap. Dave had the luxury of a time on the board already and pushing hard he managed a spectacular spin onto the grass in the middle of the circuit for a ww himself.
Third run and wait in line until the WRX STI in front launches off the line and then into the staging area and watch the lights - no green for ages as I had managed to break the start beam as I drove up to it but couldn't hear the shouts telling me to back up. Luckily I was allowed to reverse for a new start otherwise that would have been longest lap ever !
Green light this time and start in your own time, blip the throttle and then pull away as revs fall (I can't afford another clutch) and then floor it with the clutch engaged. The back squirms around but minimal wheelspin and head off to the right, 2nd gear and left through a set of double cone gates on the skidpan before hard right, a left through the next gate and hard in 3rd, nice loud bangs as a squirt of fuel gets through to the exhaust on each gear change. Off the skidpan onto the road circuit and a 2nd gear right hander that seems to take ages to open up as you balance the throttle before flooring it once straight and into 3rd up to the first chicane. Pick the direction by sight as I'm buggered if I can remember which way it goes again and carry some speed through to the hairpin. Up the longest straight grabbing 4th maybe for a second before braking for the second chicane, too slow in so booted it exiting which gave me another chance to practice reversing at speed. Ploughing the field counted as a ww so I got back onto the track and limped back round the rest of the circuit, a mixture of 2nd gear bends punctuated by brief bursts. All Dave now had to do was put two times on the board and the inaugural trophy (I got one made up) was his and a smooth lap gave Dave his best time ever with a 123.
For the fourth run I put the spare wheel, jack, road map and a couple of large rocks in the boot to try and improve the handling (after my earlier warning I didn't want to push my luck with the organisers by getting my son to climb in). Grip was now much improved, aided by the fact that the previous spins meant I now had close to a couple of slicks on the back. The car felt good and sounded great - the commentator actually mentioning that he wasn't sure about these English things but at least it sounded like a real car ! An uneventful lap gave a disappointing 126 so honours were going to Dave anyway but in typical style he gave it some stick and ended up ploughing the same stretch of field I had earlier !
No harm done and even though neither of us actually managed to set 3 lap time's Dave's 123 was the quickest TVR lap of the day. For the points score ww's are given the time of the slowest lap of the round so we did actually post a result.
Were we competitive ? Not at all - Dave was second from last on the day and I was a long way behind him.
Did this matter ? Not at all - great fun, no one takes it too seriously and it's all fairly friendly. At the end of the day 17 odd corners and 2 chicanes in 2.3 km suits the AWD's and Lotus's - we were competing with each other and against our own times, not the rest of the field, and only finished a few seconds shy of the GT40.
I can recommend giving it a go it if anyone is in two minds whether to or not. As a spectator I always thought "I can do that" but in reality my driving skills are way short of most of these guys, admittedly some had extensive competitive circuit racing experience but an eye opener was the guy parked next to me before the start under the bonnet of his modified RX7 which had spat the tip of a plug on the way there causing serious damage. His partner dropped off their runaround Peugeot 405 MI16 and he entered that instead - chucked it round the circuit on two wheels and beat me by 6 seconds !
Anyway, now I'm bitten, can't wait till next years series but in the meantime I intend to get some professional driving tuition. Now where's that ad for a supercharger gone.
PS SHPUB - if you have any go faster bits from the purple shed you no longer need let me know !
>> Edited by chunder on Tuesday 8th November 14:11
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