MrLizard

It's been a while and there have been a lot of personal hurdles for the team this year. Having won the Britcar Production class championship last year we have a looooooooong list of things the car needed.

The torrential downpour at Oulton with no ABS or TC highlighted where we were losing some time, though it also highlighted how knocking in consistent laps can help (having finished ahead of a privateer Ferrari 458 race car) - as well as a good team strategy - diving in the pits just as we suspected a safety car would be released.

So we drew up a list including:

New suspension parts

Bosch ABS

New speed sensors

Look at Syvecs ECU TC settings

New front bumper

New splitter

Refurb brakes

New wheel bearings

New hubs

Spare discs and bells

Look at oil leak from gearbox

New wheels (x12) (car running square now)

New pads

Comms in car

Rework carbon doors

New cage

New shell

Stroke cats

Eat Biscuits

Look at flat shift with sequential box

fit lasers to front bumper (lights)

General service

Oil in gearbox/engine/diff

Brake fluid

Car on hawkeye

Nut and Bolt check entire car

We made good progress over the weekend knocking a few things off the list. Pictures below - the plan being that we will attack the second half of the season and do some testing in preparation for next year. As always massive thanks to Abbey who have continued to offer loads of support and advice as well as performing all the work on the car that requires any skill! Also for all your sausage needs please see Debbie & Andrews awesome sausage game!

Abbey Motorsport http://www.abbeymotorsport.co.uk

Debbie & Andrews https://www.debbieandandrews.co.uk/

We are hoping to get out later in the year to race as well as hosting a day for passenger rides in a few cars prior.

Interesting read, thankyou.

 

Love the rear spoiler what makes it?

Thanks guys

The wing is ings+1 i think (supplied by abbey) - it adjustable and was fairly easy to fit into the carbon boot.

Bit late in posting this and we have more news on the way but thought I should give people an update

http://www.teamlizardmotorsport.co.uk/blog/rain-and-trophies-oulton-park

Anyone travelling from south/west of Birmingham?

Myself and MisterKenny are planning to meet at the Toby Carvery, off the A45, at 8:45. Departing for SVM at 9:00.

 

Stonebridge Island, Coventry Rd, Coventry CV7 7HL

https://goo.gl/maps/HSAGLmgJr4L2

 

Unless anyone else has arranged a pre-meet point?

Hi Dave, I can meet you guys there as it's on -route for me.

I might also meet you there if thats ok

yer - the aston was very quick after a few laps, we will be rebuilding the engine over the winter so hope to get a bit of that pace back

Setting up and getting to bed…should be easier than this!

So we started the weekend in a bit of a rush having got stuck on the M1 on Friday night. How is there a traffic jam like this at 8pm? One secret shortcut later…we get in the garage and start setting up ready for race day…but not before having a snoop at the competition.

A few garages up, the FF Corse guys are busy building a huge red wall, behind which sat silently were not one, not two but three Ferrari 458s! Our neighbours (oddly also sponsored by a sausage company – what are the chances?! Debbie & Andrew’s for the win!) have just finished setting up their space frame Seat Supacopa and have left the radio on for us to dance around to. As the sun disappears, we have a nosey at some of the other teams’ machines, including a Ferrari 360 Challenge and a brand new BMW M3.

Anyway…tables out, car unloaded, wheels sorted and sausages at the ready! Just enough time for a swift drink at the pub and then off to sleep!

Premier Inn is usually a fairly standard place to stay, however, tonight the people on reception, as nice as they were, took 30 minutes to sign us in. They were ridiculously confused that one person was paying for more than one room – aaarghh too tired for this…just give me a bed! Breakfast is too late so we will have to skip that…good job we have a lorry load of Debbie & Andrew’s sausages with us – they’ll make a perfect breakfast sarnie!

Bright eyed and bushy tailed…

We arrive at the pits nice and early what with scrutineering at the crazy time of 7:30am, sign on at 7:40am and oddly qualifying before the drivers’ briefing…!?

We wait eagerly…nervously…for the scrut to look round the car hoping he approves of one of our latest mods…a catch can in the gearbox…it’s normal to use a Monster Energy drink can, right? Ok, maybe not but it was a last minute fix, it works and it’s properly secured…he looks over to me with a raised eyebrow, I shrug back and he moves on. Phew…that’s it right? Almost…a bit of a flag about the rain light not working until we realise he’s pressing the wrong switch and Mark needs some new gloves as his has a small hole in…Alan to the rescue! Ok…he’s happy, quick, get the card signed! Hurrah!

Time to see what we can do in practice & qually

In the practice session we are out with the whole grid, including some very, very quick cars. Abbey Motorsport have done a fantastic job of setting the suspension up and the car feels incredible in the

corners…there’s just *so much* grip. The car feels a little nervous but balanced with it, difficult to explain but I had enough confidence to brake later than the 997 cup car and try and carry the speed rather than rely on the power out of it. When we’ve previously been here, the first corner (Abbey) used to be a brake, shift to 4th and power out type of corner. Now, it’s a dab on the brake in 5th, turn the car in with minimal steering angle until you can start to feel it find the limit of its load and let the diff and the throttle do the rest. Loving it!

Both Mark and I have a go in practice to warm us, get to grips with the changes we’ve made to the car and the opposition. The 458 and the R8 LMS car are utter beasts but we are holding our own in the corners against some of the other cars. The biggest issue is the straight line speed - we are actually gaining on some cars in the corners and then losing it all on the straights. Let’s see what qually brings!

In order to be able to race, both drivers must complete 3 laps in qually. Sounds easy right…well last time out I managed to put it in the kitty litter after my 3 laps and Mark had to do the drive of shame behind the pace car for his 3 laps in the lunch break! (Whoops!). Funnily enough, Mark opts to go out first. He manages a few laps in the 17s and couple in the 16s. Time for me to jump in and clear my three laps. I manage a 1:20 then two 1:18s but I have not had a clear lap and I'm getting quite frustrated. The track clears and I get a good run out of club, time to nail it…1:16.2! Awesome! That puts us ahead of both the GT4 Clubsport and the Seat Supacopa…both cars are in classes above us! Feeling good.

Let’s go racing!

Did I tell you that Britcar has rolling starts? And that I’ve only ever done a rolling start in the virtual racing world of iRacing? Well, as you can imagine, that was quite a different (and to be honest a little scary) experience. I’m used to a chaotic standing start – the Zed launches really well from stationary. Having to judge the gap to the car in front and trying to get a run as the lights changed is exhilarating and definitely needed a different thought process.

I manage to get up the inside of the Seat and push an M3 onto the wrong line into Village. Taking the bumps well, I’m onto the Hanger Straight – here comes that straight line speed issue again. I duck to the inside line but the other car just have too many horses. I slot in behind the Seat and try to manage the gap. The car isn’t feeling as solid now, I’ve got a vibration on the front right wheel and the tyres feel like they have gone off.

Time to swap drivers and Mark jumps in to what I can only describe as rubber melting heat…yes my race boots were starting to melt! We replaced the Perspex on the boot lid and hadn’t got around to cutting the holes in it…I have to admit I didn’t think it would make that big a difference but without any sort of air con or even a fan, it really did and the cabin reached over 54 degrees…the GoPro nicely shut itself down to save itself…no such option for the drivers!

So a driver change takes a couple of minutes but it goes by in a flash for the pit crew...a bit more like this:

Mark has much more experience in driving round issues than me and it showed as he started driving lap times down and down. The Seat starts to struggle to keep his gap from Mark and suddenly we are gaining on him! Our pit stop strategy helped us out too, making up 8 seconds on the Porsche. We’re in business!

The checkered flag comes out and…Mark pulls past the Seat! We finish just ahead and take out first class win on our debut outing.

Sausage time!

We’ve all been looking forward to scoffing some Debbie and Andrews’s sausage sarnies at lunch but it’s not as relaxed as we planned. We’re out straight after lunch, which should be 45 minutes…a bit short but easy enough. Great plans and all that…we’re told race control has decided to make some time up and cut lunch short just as the pit crew spot an oil leak coming from our brand new shiny sequential gearbox…oh.

Fast forward twenty minutes and Rosie and Kirsty have fed most of the paddock sausage sarnies...

...and the crew have worked solidly to fix thee gearbox. It was as if a swarm of ants were attacking the car – there were limbs everywhere! I’m still not really sure how they managed it but we were *just* ready to go for race two!

High on adrenaline and fumes…here we go!

It’s Mark’s turn to start the race and he is obviously keen to push on. He makes a great start – he’s pushing the Aston along with the GT4 Porsche and the Seat in close pursuit. The GT4 has much more power out of the corners and he knows it – he’s all over the back of the Zed but Mark covers him at every corner. They swap places – and then they swap back – rinse and repeat until the GT4 makes it stick.

The diff has taken a battering and it just gives up sending the car into a spin on the exit onto the Hanger Straight. Mark quickly responds with a nice reverse J turn – we’ve got some places to make up now!

Steve jumps in and is on a mission. The pit crew report that the Seat has retired with a bent drive shaft – that’s one out of the way but leaves me feeling a bit lonely out on the track on my own. I’m pushing as hard as I can but I just can’t get back to that 1:16. I can tell the diff isn’t coming back, it feels like it’s not doing anything anymore and there is something off with the rear suspension.

The pit crew are feeding me information to make sure I keep the gap clear from the guy behind. I’m focusing on pushing just enough but not pushing me or the car beyond the limit.

We cross the line in P9 place and have earned another class win!

What a day! The team have done an incredible job and I’m utterly exhausted...I’m buzzing so much, I can’t really think straight – in fact all I’m really thinking about is getting back out at Oulton Park on 1 October…after a much needed rest.

The weekend reminded me of how much fun a properly set up 350z can be – all thanks to Abbey Motorsport and their expertise.

Big thanks have to go to Debbie and Andrew’s as well. The sausages clearly made all the difference.

See you all at Oulton Park on 1 October.

hi guys, i would like to come along but will struggle to get the zed there, is it jap only or can I come in the gt4?

It's too early! Or so my brain keeps telling me...I've checked the clock, which confirms it is indeed too early @ 5:00am! However, I know at the other end of this ridiculous morning we will be driving the Zed again and that can only be a good thing! I am currently cursing Tuesday Steve as he decided Wednesday Steve would enjoy packing the car at 5am in the morning more...he was wrong but I dont think I will see him again now.

Car packed and we are following tail lights down the M1 to Silverstone.

Test days are always exciting but this one especially because of two major points:

1. We are announcing a new sponsor, Debbie & Andrews and they have given us plenty of food to feed the whole pit lane.
    
   
2. We have a new Quaife gearbox and the car now sounds like a rattly old rally car!
   

Embarrisingly, the whole team are there before me waiting outside the pit garage in the new wing. I quickly say hello and dissapear to sign on whilst trying to avoid actually doing any real work. Rosie, Vanessa, various people called Mark, Other Steve, Alan and Simon are all busy setting the garage up, unloading the car and warming various parts up.

The spaceship airlock siren sounds, which in this case means that it's track time!!

The car feels utterly horrible. The suspension isn't right, the diff feels like it's a lemon, the tyres have no grip, the rev limit is at 4k rpm - oh and the brakes are new so they don't work either. This would all be fine if I had a track to myself but I'm surrounded by Radicals and other exotica. I try cleaning the tyres up a bit and bedding the brakes in but I'm not used to cleaning slicks up and it takes a little longer than I hoped.

The ABS is also not working but no bother, the weather is ok.

THE CAR IS ALIVE!!! So much front end bite, the grip is phenomenal, I feel like I can get the diff working now and im concentrating on trying not to over rotate the car through the longer corners. The gearbox is epic, the noise and the speed of the shift is intoxicating. We didn't have enough inputs left on the ECU to setup flat shift but we do have a spare now so hoping to get that in for Oulton Park.

Lunch is served, the team have been busy cooking about 180 sausages and have told the entire pitlane to come and help themselves. Everyone seems pleased with their lunch and some of the guys have even told their friends on route to the Silverstone cafe to come back. I managed to eat a single sausage batch and in the space of 1 hour we are left with 3 sausages left - crazy!

Right - back to the session!

I post a couple of 1:20s - come into the pits feeling like there is more time in the car and myself. Mark is talking about various things and asks the team to add a couple of clicks onto the slow speed rebound on the rear. The next 6 laps from me looked like:

1:19

1:18

1:17

1:17

1:16

1:16

Marks quickest of the day was a 1:16.2 whilst mine was a 1:16.3. We are both trying to work out where there is more time, Mark has a quicker top speed by some 5 and 10mph at two seperate points of the circuit, which suggests that there is time for both him and me to find! (More data analysis coming!)

Epic day with friends and family, really enjoyed the car today, the gearbox is just hilarious, flat shift coming and even potentially air shift paddles as well! The end of the day is always weird as you're full of adrenaline and then the spaceship airlock door noise happens and there is almost silence...

Until next time (which is Saturday the 13th August!) - wish us luck in the race!

Thanks to Abbey Motorsport for the continued support

Big thanks to Debbie & Andrew's for coming on board and helping a small team out with ideas bigger than their wellies.

Hi Shooze - its the ings+1 spoiler in carbon, they used to be silly money but not as bad now if you can find one

Another small update from TLM:

It has been a busy few weeks, we have another sponsor on board that we are excited about and will be announcing at Silverstone on the 10th August from the food industry!

Abbey Motorsport have stuck by us for a number of years now and it never ceases to amaze me the quality and effort they put in. Mark has been instrumental in getting the car ready for testing this year and has been working hard to push the car further.

I visited Abbey with my own spanner monkey to help out with some of the more cosmetic stuff and undoing bolt bits. TLM has recently purchased a new Quaife sequential for the car with bespoke ratios (specced by Abbey) that are all geared to helping the car along and flat shifting up through the gears. It is a lot of work to fit the new gearbox based on the fact that it has completely different fittings and goes back further in the chassis, meaning it also needs a new prop shaft and mounting plates - which given quaife ask you what car it is for you would think they might send some bits with it... Evidently you need to know what you are doing - which rules me out...

We may need to switch back to the standard diff for Silverstone in terms of final drive as we are using the 4.08 at the moment.

When we rocked up there were a few bits for us to do, the dampers need a refurb and some maintenance so we started to strip the car down:

wheels off

brake pad check (all too low since Donny on the slicks!)

Front and Rear dampers off

gearbox oil drained

exhaust off

front bumper off

splitter disconnected

gearbox out

bell housing off

clutch out

fly wheel out

Whilst this was going on Mark was ensuring the new box would fit and fabricating some bits to take it, including altering the cooling system slightly

Time to get to work!

Dampers off

Some bits off and the new box (on the right)

New clutch and flywheel - old clutch was slipping with the slicks on :s

We have remade the splitter out of some better wood after I destroyed the last one at Donny!

Simon painting the splitter

The plan is to shake the car down on Wednesday 10th August (anyone is welcome to pop along) in preparation for the Britcar race on the 13th August assuming all goes well! If anyone would like to attend please let me know and please like our facebook page (/shameless plug) www.facebook.com/tlmotorsport

Entry list

Thanks for all the support and special thanks to Abbey for their efforts and expertise - looking forward to racing now!

would like to but no nissan available :'(

Bring the Atom!

No atom either, Cayman gt4 now

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would like to but no nissan available :'(

I can get some more if interested m8

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i have a set of rota's for sale in white if your interested

 

Pics!?

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yes please - coventry

i have a set of rota's for sale in white if your interested

cracking post m8 keep up the good work

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Hi everyone, just wanted to announce that we have relaunched our website today -

http://www.teamlizardmotorsport.co.uk/

We are looking forward to racing with Abbey Motorsport in the Britcar series -

any feedback on the website please let me know

I should probably mention we are still looking for sponsorship so please get in touch for more details !

mine is a 56 plate with 27k on it

driven carefully...

I cut the lump near the transmission tunnel and re-welded ...

Has anyone any experience with Seibon products? been told they fit really well

 

Thinking about ordering this front lip :

 

http://seiboncarbon....ml#!prettyPhoto

 

Next question is who's best to order them from? can't see them on Tarmac's website.

Ordered mine from abbey, seibon stuff is ok but the wings were horrible to fit, not had xp with the lip, might be better tho

can i pop along in something that isnt a z?