*********UPDATE*********
Harewood Hillclimb Third Competitive Event
Another competition just finished and this time a 2nd place!
Not much done car wise since last update, very busy at work (both jobs) kids to look after, guy with violin playing in corner of room as I have no time to kick him out, you know the score....
What I did decide to do on Friday night (yesterday) was make a bracket for the Chinese camera out of some aluminium/brackets/bolts I had in the garage, it looks good enough but the problem is, as you will tell from the video below, the seat must shake/vibrate when driving so it ends up shaking the camera. I will look for another solution for next time. I also learnt that if you leave the camera running for 3 hours, you get a recording of the bonnet then the camera dies so I didn't get to record my fastest run of the day but my fastest practice run is uploaded to youtube which was still better than my quickest run last time.
Anyway, I was glad I made the bracket for another reason. I decided to check oil etc and start the car, leave it running for 10 mins to check everything was ok. In hindsight this was a good idea as after 5 minutes the belts started squeeling like a pig, I opened the bonnet to find coolant dripping onto the belts and the belts slipping and spraying it all over. A simple top up the reservoir and tighten the top hose clamp was all that was required. But if I had just driven it to the track, I may have not heard the squeeling on the motorway, lost half my coolant, overheated, belts fooked up everything they control, car wrecked, zombie apocalypse started and so on, so the pre checks were a great decision.
Onto today and the Hillclimbing. It was a very mixed bag but pleasing overall. I will briefly talk through the runs:
Practice Run 1 (26psi all round) 66.63 seconds - Considering my best time prev was 65.99, this was a very pleasing first run of the day as no-one ever sets a great time first run, track/tyres/temps all cold and you are feeling your way round, exploring the grip, braking points etc so to post a 66.63 was a good start.
Practice Run 2 (30psi all round) 65.32 seconds - Now I am posting the tyre pressures as Kieren and myself (and others) were having a debate on whats the optimum pressure to run, now this will vary from car to car, tyre to tyre, track conditions ect. but on a dry day in the Zed with Nankang AR-1 tyres, Kieren thought 30 psi was best and that's what he was running so I gave this a go and ended up with a fantastic time which would have broke the class record (I think) but practice runs don't count, so armed with this data I immediately went back to 27psi for the first timed run as in my head that would be better as the track warmed up and rubbered in.
1st Timed Run (27psi all round) 66.52 - It felt like a completely different car, sliding and understeering on every corner, lighting up the rears out of the corners. I had a big moment at what is known as orchard (see video below) Video finishes early as camera died, but I was pushing as I had the never achieved 64 seconds in my thought process now, I put the errors down to me simply overdriving the car and pushing it too far, so I was very frustrated after that and needed to put a banker run in next as due to crashes time was running out and it was looking like only 2 timed runs.
2nd Timed Run (27psi all round) 65.84 seconds - A safer run as I concentrated on being clean rather that late braking etc. but the car was still sliding all over and just not the same grip as practice 2, it felt like I was going backwards but at least this time got me into 2nd behind @Kieran O'Quick in his 350z (his quickest was 64.80 at this stage) So I decided to put the pressures back to 30 all round for the final run which luckily we just had time for.
3rd Timed Run (30psi all round) 64.78 seconds - Car felt much easier to drive, less tyre squeeling and even now, its hard to comprehend that a few psi can make a second or more difference. I crossed the line to be in 1st place and yet another class record until...….. just like last time Kieren follows up 15 seconds later with a 64.57 to take the win and class record straight back. A big well done mate, people check out his youtube video (posted by Alex Dunn) I even sensed a big sigh of relief on his part, so once again the 350z boys are leading the way, 1st and 2nd I now have a crystal wine glass to add to my tumbler. If you see a case of them for sale on ebay, that's probably Kieren selling them with the amount he has won.
Time Sheets below, All my times with sector times on the right, class times on the left:
Photos below of Our class and the wax and shine race car in all its glory
And finally, video below of me nearly binning it as its more interesting than a smooth run.
That's all folks
