Kieran O'Quick

Damn, how annoying is that?

To go all that way and the loud pedal doesn't turn up. Exact same place every time. You seemed to take it pretty well mind.

Great stance

2nd in the flipping Connaught Championship? What a result. To almost win a championship is a hell of a thing. Damn, I wish you'd won it. Who got it in the end?

There's bound to be more entants next year isn't there? It's a great series. The choice of circuits is amazing.  

Big Satan Wing? 

56 minutes ago, Adrian@TORQEN said:

 

At least you didn't call it a "mountain"... Some of us climbed Mount Blanc on Saturday, just saying ... 😘

 

 

 

 

 

Please tell me you weren't doing deadlifts up there too... wth? 😀

2023 Season Review: All about the Rubber.

Last year was a bit of a mess with the tyre situation. Couldn't turn it at all which feels so wrong in a Rwd car. But I persevered, wrestling understeer and got as much out of it as I could.

The Yokohamas were back in stock for this year so I got some big fronts at last. The handling change wasn't exactly subtle. The first few events were plagued with ridiculous oversteer. Which was fun but not quick. I eventually figured out that the tyres were slow to bite - so you'd have a decent bit of lock on before it would suddenly dive to the inside. The back would then come around and the fun started. 

The answer was to steer less than seemed needed, wait a beat and trust that it would dive in. It took a bit of nerve but it worked and the times came down. The trouble is, this style of driving doesn't become instinctive and shouldn't really. So you forget and end up smoking out of the corners every other event. But it's still a whole world better than understeer. 

It's probably not so much the tyre as the tired chassis. A tighter setup would potentially iron out the lag. Who knows. 

Halfway through the year I got nagged into getting a proper seat which I'd been resisting. I found one on rails from a breaker that was such a steal I couldn't say no. Everyone who ever gets one raves about them and bah, turns out they're right. A normal seat is like having a bath with your socks on -  if  you know what I mean.

The other rubber issue was that the tyres came in a higher profile. This didn't look like a big issue but it hit the acceleration noticeably. As in, a couple of tenths here and there. So I didn't beat last year's time. But I managed enough 3rd place finishes to grab 10th in the championship. And it didn't break and I didn't bin it, there is that. 

Some fast times again. Great driving. The only ones ahead of you were the cheating boosted gang.. 

Jeez, 14k is a bit far for a 'fun' run on a hot day. Must have been carnage for the unprepared. 

Crazy game. You got only one chance each day and still delivered. Impressive. 

Disappointingly mature to not open the windows for the tunnel blast. 

2.43 start is crazy. Best I ever did was 2.49 on really hot MPSS . Never beat that with any of the trackday tyres. 

Great to see a Zed so far up the leaderboard. Pretty exotic stuff ahead of you. 

64.98 is a decent knock for April. There can't have been many people there beating you on a power-to-weight basis.

Great bit of info on the tyre pressures. At least you know for the rest of the year not to be tempted to go low. Yokohama? What do they know....

Loving the weekly updates - well, apart from the fact that you beat my Anglesey time by a full second.

You're going to be well used to the car this year. Match sharpness and all that. Expecting a PB this weekend now you're on the wider tyres? 

You said you didn't hit an apex on the top half...

We all just assumed you were taking the wet line.

That didn't look like fun out there at all I have to say. A single lap in the wet is horrible. 

37 minutes ago, Rhysos said:

Me too and a formal complaint raised with the dealer I bought it from, not that it will probably result in anything.

I wonder if the first owner traded it in because he had a miserable time owning it? Is it possible to let him know? 

9 hours ago, pintopete58 said:

NICE .

I Think you should have a mini meet get some loud Zs and stuff pre worn your good neighbours 

Yeah, but can you win that war if you start it? You don't want Airbuses rattling your windows at 2am on a  Sunday...

2022 Season Review: sh1te year

(Caveat being, it's amazing and blessed she's still going at all, yay Zed)

My Extreme R5 tyres were banned this year so I ordered a set of R7 (50 degrees v 70 degrees) to stay competitive. Only the A-hole at Extreme wound up his company and took my money. 

So because of that MoFo I had to dig out some old Nankangs from used stock and emery them down and they did OK. Scraped a 64 second run with a bit of squealing.

Demon Tweeks were slow getting new stuff out but I managed to get some big fat rears in Yokohamas.

Maybe rake was the answers? As you'd figure, the traction was incredible but the understeer threw me off at the second corner Ha. Who saw that coming... 

Budget for the year was weak because of the SoB at Extreme Tyres so when the diff opened up it was an annoying extra expense. Turns out a Kaaz 1.5  gives out after about 5 years hillclimbing. That's roughly 300 hard starts and 300 unnecessary powerslides for fun over the finish line. Fair enough.

The guys at Slidemotorsport rebuilt the diff crazily tight and it was lovely to drive for the rest of the year. Locking and unlocking as it should. Glorious.

Meanwhile my class records were getting hammered and  championship hopes were disappearing. The over-2 litre  road class is basically unlimited. I've got 395 bhp but a couple of S2000s turned up this year with over 400.

Normally you can bat away Astons and Porsches with big power but these guys could drive a bit for a change. And they weren't bothered about bending a Honda so drove like the wind.

I messed around with Toyos on all fours - the traction was great but they didn't corner as well as hot old Nankangs. But Nankangs had no cold traction. Proper hard field work discovering this but I'm damn quick at changing wheels since.

Despite it all the car was still huge fun to nail around the tight fast track. And it's a beautiful spot. C'mon other Zeds, get up here. 

Power seemed to drop off towards the end of the year. I took a lot if liberties and drove beyond what was sensible at times but the time wasn't there. Some parts need refreshing I'd say. 

Glen in the black Z  had a mental year in the barriers and on the low-loaders but he out scored me and, wow, looked more concourse at the end. We both got in the top 10. C'mon Zeds. 

Didn't the Waukesha guy try this argument? 

Fair play to you for getting out and finishing off the season. Hell of an effort. 

And to be still pushing enough to go off. Brilliant.

On 15/09/2022 at 21:11, 350_Jer said:

PM on it's way

 

Sold to Jer. You'll have some fun on them I hope 

All 255 35 on rears. Purchased new this year and only used for a couple of hill climbs. They haven't even been up to temp yet. More suitable for someone who'll track them. 

Collection preferred. Leeds or Halifax based.

You beat quite a few big power cars there on a wide track. Go Zed. 

Just need some leaf blowers for the brakes now. I'm guessing they don't let you cruise up and down the paddock to cool down there. Typical, no warm-up or cool-down allowed. 

Also saves on the back ache...

It's a slow job on the Zed compared to some cars. A few bits to remove to get to all the plugs. But it's straight forward, no bolts are going to be stuck or anything. 

Have to say it sounds brilliant. I leave my window open to listen to it... 

.... also nice of you to give me a 2 tenths head start 😄

Nice shots. What a great mix of cars. I love the pic of the Proton hatchback hassling the Radical*

* Disclaimer, I'm guessing that's what they are?