Silverstone 24hr
Discussion
Hi all,
As some of you guys know, we are entered into the Silverstone 24hr next week.
We have a strong driver lineup, with myself, former British GT Champion Jamie Smyth, Macau GP GT Race Winner Nigel Farmer and 2011 Singapore Touring Car Champion Gerald Tan, so we are hoping for a good run against some stiff opposition, including works teams from the likes of Aston Martin and Ginetta in the GT3 class alone.
We have gone over the whole car and refreshed many components, including running a new engine, clutch and starter ready for the gruelling race.
It is a fantastic event and it would be good to see some of the Ultima guys there!
Jonny
As some of you guys know, we are entered into the Silverstone 24hr next week.
We have a strong driver lineup, with myself, former British GT Champion Jamie Smyth, Macau GP GT Race Winner Nigel Farmer and 2011 Singapore Touring Car Champion Gerald Tan, so we are hoping for a good run against some stiff opposition, including works teams from the likes of Aston Martin and Ginetta in the GT3 class alone.
We have gone over the whole car and refreshed many components, including running a new engine, clutch and starter ready for the gruelling race.
It is a fantastic event and it would be good to see some of the Ultima guys there!
Jonny
UltimaCH said:
Just a side question, is the factory giving you any support? It may gave done something last year if I recall...
Yes they are, they are providing a spares package for us which is extremely helpful and very much appreciated.Unfortunately we don't even get enough tickets for the core team and drivers never mind additional crew, sponsors, visitors etc! We got plenty last year but there we go.
'Apparently' there is going to be live radio commentary and footage of the race streamed here:
http://www.radiolemans.com/
http://www.radiolemans.com/
New engine bought from PWP and fitted this weekend. Has run in the workshop for about 30 minutes so we will run it in during the first test session on Thursday. Seems to be running sweetly.
Interesting that it was supplied full of oil, so as soon as we started it up the tank overflowed and caused a total mess over everything - something to watch for the future! They also come without the coolant bung - so we had to do a 350 mile round trip to pick the one up out of our old engine. And obviously its an M28 fine pitch thread so nothing is similar!
Getting a Proshift bump and blip system fitted tomorrow and then we should be all set.
Interesting that it was supplied full of oil, so as soon as we started it up the tank overflowed and caused a total mess over everything - something to watch for the future! They also come without the coolant bung - so we had to do a 350 mile round trip to pick the one up out of our old engine. And obviously its an M28 fine pitch thread so nothing is similar!
Getting a Proshift bump and blip system fitted tomorrow and then we should be all set.
Storer said:
Jonny
I am amazed that when you took the flywheel bolts out to fit your flywheel, you didn't get flooded out with oil as I did on mine (before I drained the oil).
Is there a way of getting parking inside the circuit over the weekend? Otherwise we will have to park in one of the car parks on the outside with the associated trek.
Paul
I did, but took the sump plugs and oil line bungs out and nothing came out, so assumed (foolishly) there was nothing left. Think there was at least 4 litres in it still.I am amazed that when you took the flywheel bolts out to fit your flywheel, you didn't get flooded out with oil as I did on mine (before I drained the oil).
Is there a way of getting parking inside the circuit over the weekend? Otherwise we will have to park in one of the car parks on the outside with the associated trek.
Paul
Last year they had a supercar display area, I'm pretty sure you would be able to part the Ultima there. I'll ask the organisers for you. There is a bus service running for spectators though this year by all accounnts though too.
We have been informed that Britcar will be streaming the race live from 30 minutes before the start on the Saturday, link to the homepage is here:
http://www.britcar24hr.co.uk/
We are also pleased to announce that we will have a simulator (as seen in last year's Gadget Show 24hr Special) in our pit garage setup with the Silverstone circuit on for the public to come and have a go on whilst we race. Please feel free to drop by and have a go!
http://www.britcar24hr.co.uk/
We are also pleased to announce that we will have a simulator (as seen in last year's Gadget Show 24hr Special) in our pit garage setup with the Silverstone circuit on for the public to come and have a go on whilst we race. Please feel free to drop by and have a go!
What an extraordinary weekend....
We fitted a new engine ready for the event, and we headed out in practice on Thursday in order to run the engine in. The morning session was spent with the new drivers running in the engine and familiarising themselves with the circuit, whilst we tested the new Proshift system which was fitted to the car.
The morning session went smoothly, although we found that the existing ignition cut was interfering with the Proshift and causing some issues. We went out in the afternoon session to start building up speed - however on our first run, we had a failure of the new engine round Beckett's. The rod bolts had sheared and put a rod through the side of the case - luckily the heatshielding we have in place protected the tank from and puncturing too!
We disassembled the car and cleaned up the mess whilst a new engine was sourced. This was fitted overnight (it was slightly different to the standard LS7 as it had a different sump) so we had a few issues connecting up oil sensors, however this eventually went in and we fired her up halfway through the warmup session. We ran the engine in in qualifying (which was cut short by a broken oil rad) and in night qualifying (in which the engine chewed the drive belt). The root cause of the belt issue was that the main pulley crank bolt had come loose and mis-aligned the pulley, throwing it off. This was retorqued and the car sent back out, but the bolt came loose again, thankfully not throwing a belt the second time.
The bolt was retorqued and some last minute checks were completed prior to warmup on Saturday morning - in just three laps the bolt had come loose again, and we found that the box was jumping out of 5th gear. An inspection in side the box showed that the 5th gear dog had been chewed when the Proshift and our existing shift had interfered with each other, so we change the transmission oil and headed out to the grid.
On the way to the grid the bolt had come loose again (no more than 1 minutes running) so after the gridwalk, we pushed the car back to the pit and spot welded the bolt to the crank pulley - needless to say it then lasted all race!
Nigel started from the pitlane as a result of the spot welding, and quickly went from 37th up to 10th in the first hour or so. About an hour in we had reports of him losing drive. The car was towed back, and it was found that both sets of driveshaft bolts had sheared simultaneously. We replaced the bolts (after eventually getting them out!) and also spot welded the driveshaft adaptors to the stub shafts, and headed back out, 2 hours down after 3 hours or so.
The car behaved faultlessly as night fell, when one of the drivers was caught out into Luffield by some glare, and hit the wall on the outside of the track. The car was brought in, everything looked in tact, so some bodywork was patched up and the car sent back out.
About 30 minutes later we had reports of the backend becoming unstable - the car was brought into the pits, and it was found that the rear bearing, which had suffered the blow against the wall, had failed. The upright was changed in about 30 minutes and we were back out on circuit.
We continued without any major issues during the night - we had a slight off at about 4am due to driver error, which caused us to lose about 10 minutes as a brake duct was repaired and the grass cleaned out of the radiator and ducting. We were making up ground on the opposition at this point as the attrition started to creep up on our opponents, when disaster struck at 6am. The new rear bearing, on the side which had taken the blow to the wall had failed again, and we had no spares.
The only option was a call to Ted - we waited as short a time as possible (to not be too antisocial on a Sunday morning!) luckily he was awake (or woken?!) at 7:30, so we went and collected a new upright, which was brought back, fitted to the car and we were back out at 11:30. A massive 6 hrs lost for the sake of 1 bearing - lesson learnt! We completed a few more laps when the rain came - and it really did come down. We changed to wets just at the right time, within minutes the track was flooded, and lap times fell through the floor. With the dry setup on the car was very twitchy, however Gerald was making good progress.
Suddenly a message 'low oil pressure' came up on the dash - Gerald brought the car in, and it was found to be a faulty sensor (which had expired in the rain) so after 20 minutes or so Nigel was sent back out. A faultless stint from Nigel, and we cam in and disconnected the anti roll bars in order to improve the handling in the wet. Finally the race finished, we were down in 29th place but we had made it across the finish line without 'resting' the car as most of the teams had.
Many lessons learnt - more spares required, stronger driveshaft mounting bolts, better lights, and we got a reasonable wet weather setup out of the weekend too!
Thanks to everyone for their support and help throughout the event, especially Ted who provided us with the upright at short notice on Sunday morning, and PTR exhausts who made us an exhaust system which passed even the most stringent noise tests, when most competitors were black flagged at some point or other.
Oh yes...and the exciting news is, that thanks to TORA (The Online Racing Association) we now have the MacG Racing Ultima GTR modelled up in Forza 4 on the Xbox - available online...
More photos available here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.536159843...
Some video to come soon too!
Jonny
We fitted a new engine ready for the event, and we headed out in practice on Thursday in order to run the engine in. The morning session was spent with the new drivers running in the engine and familiarising themselves with the circuit, whilst we tested the new Proshift system which was fitted to the car.
The morning session went smoothly, although we found that the existing ignition cut was interfering with the Proshift and causing some issues. We went out in the afternoon session to start building up speed - however on our first run, we had a failure of the new engine round Beckett's. The rod bolts had sheared and put a rod through the side of the case - luckily the heatshielding we have in place protected the tank from and puncturing too!
We disassembled the car and cleaned up the mess whilst a new engine was sourced. This was fitted overnight (it was slightly different to the standard LS7 as it had a different sump) so we had a few issues connecting up oil sensors, however this eventually went in and we fired her up halfway through the warmup session. We ran the engine in in qualifying (which was cut short by a broken oil rad) and in night qualifying (in which the engine chewed the drive belt). The root cause of the belt issue was that the main pulley crank bolt had come loose and mis-aligned the pulley, throwing it off. This was retorqued and the car sent back out, but the bolt came loose again, thankfully not throwing a belt the second time.
The bolt was retorqued and some last minute checks were completed prior to warmup on Saturday morning - in just three laps the bolt had come loose again, and we found that the box was jumping out of 5th gear. An inspection in side the box showed that the 5th gear dog had been chewed when the Proshift and our existing shift had interfered with each other, so we change the transmission oil and headed out to the grid.
On the way to the grid the bolt had come loose again (no more than 1 minutes running) so after the gridwalk, we pushed the car back to the pit and spot welded the bolt to the crank pulley - needless to say it then lasted all race!
Nigel started from the pitlane as a result of the spot welding, and quickly went from 37th up to 10th in the first hour or so. About an hour in we had reports of him losing drive. The car was towed back, and it was found that both sets of driveshaft bolts had sheared simultaneously. We replaced the bolts (after eventually getting them out!) and also spot welded the driveshaft adaptors to the stub shafts, and headed back out, 2 hours down after 3 hours or so.
The car behaved faultlessly as night fell, when one of the drivers was caught out into Luffield by some glare, and hit the wall on the outside of the track. The car was brought in, everything looked in tact, so some bodywork was patched up and the car sent back out.
About 30 minutes later we had reports of the backend becoming unstable - the car was brought into the pits, and it was found that the rear bearing, which had suffered the blow against the wall, had failed. The upright was changed in about 30 minutes and we were back out on circuit.
We continued without any major issues during the night - we had a slight off at about 4am due to driver error, which caused us to lose about 10 minutes as a brake duct was repaired and the grass cleaned out of the radiator and ducting. We were making up ground on the opposition at this point as the attrition started to creep up on our opponents, when disaster struck at 6am. The new rear bearing, on the side which had taken the blow to the wall had failed again, and we had no spares.
The only option was a call to Ted - we waited as short a time as possible (to not be too antisocial on a Sunday morning!) luckily he was awake (or woken?!) at 7:30, so we went and collected a new upright, which was brought back, fitted to the car and we were back out at 11:30. A massive 6 hrs lost for the sake of 1 bearing - lesson learnt! We completed a few more laps when the rain came - and it really did come down. We changed to wets just at the right time, within minutes the track was flooded, and lap times fell through the floor. With the dry setup on the car was very twitchy, however Gerald was making good progress.
Suddenly a message 'low oil pressure' came up on the dash - Gerald brought the car in, and it was found to be a faulty sensor (which had expired in the rain) so after 20 minutes or so Nigel was sent back out. A faultless stint from Nigel, and we cam in and disconnected the anti roll bars in order to improve the handling in the wet. Finally the race finished, we were down in 29th place but we had made it across the finish line without 'resting' the car as most of the teams had.
Many lessons learnt - more spares required, stronger driveshaft mounting bolts, better lights, and we got a reasonable wet weather setup out of the weekend too!
Thanks to everyone for their support and help throughout the event, especially Ted who provided us with the upright at short notice on Sunday morning, and PTR exhausts who made us an exhaust system which passed even the most stringent noise tests, when most competitors were black flagged at some point or other.
Oh yes...and the exciting news is, that thanks to TORA (The Online Racing Association) we now have the MacG Racing Ultima GTR modelled up in Forza 4 on the Xbox - available online...
More photos available here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.536159843...
Some video to come soon too!
Jonny
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