A race bmw 316, m10, s14, m20, turbo, na, its been the lot!

[Graham]

Hi graham what a car you have created sat here for ages reading the threads so much infomation so powerful do you ever race at snetterton?Have i seen you hanging out at l s u k in cowley rd in your yellow van??Good luck with the racing..

thanks, yes im one of the guys in yellow vans that frequents lsuk in cowley rd

[Graham]

hopefully he is racing at snetterton this weekend

me too

if the old girls on form i'll be nudging 160mph into the esses

i had a chat with dunlop about my complete lack of any grip at brands, they 100% put it down to the temperature, below 6 degrees air temp, they recon the tyres will never get hot enought to work, 10 degrees needs about 3 laps to get them hot, over 12 and no more than two laps, they recond i never stood a chance, apparently that same weekend the dunlop guys were out racing Gt's in the dry on wets because not one car in the field could make here slicks work in such low temps.

i did ask about a softer compound, they said yes they could do one but my car would wreck it in three laps

[penski]

i did ask about a softer compound, they said yes they could do one but my car would wreck it in three laps

Something to be proud of, fella!

Good luck at Snett. When are they doing the 'new' layout there? I haven't paid attention to it since it was announced in Motoring News a couple of years back.

*n

[Graham]

cheers

When are they doing the 'new' layout there? I haven't paid attention to it since it was announced in Motoring News a couple of years back.

a long way off yet i suspect, the planning applications are still bouncing back and forth

[andypipe]

I reckon that they should make it an indoor circuit. Been going there 15 years on and off, and been wet every time

[turbo m]

Can"t wait to read the next installment a bit peeved as iam working all week end so can"t get too sneterton.

[Graham]

sat didnt quite go to plan, i only did 4 laps of qualifying because a hose clip gave out and i lost all the boost before i really got going, still it put me 9th on the grid,

i had a brilliant race though, after disposing on one or two cars, i had a couple of lap dice with a RS500 sierra, got past him and then a couple of laps later did a vectra supertourer, then spent the rest of the race in a wheel to wheel dice with rick mays bonkers horsepower sierra, rick had the edge on top end power and i had an edge under braking and cornering, rick finished, 2nd in class and 5th overal and i was 3rd in class and 6th overall, given a few more laps and we would of finished 1,2 and i think i would of got the better of rick as my new big slicks are a lot better than the touring car rubber that i've been used to

so a brilliant day for me, i set the fastest lap in class too

not so sure about tomorrow though the forecast is rain, so its probably back to being near the back

[turbo m]

Well done sounds like i missed a good days racing did the weather affect the cars power or was it not to hot to affect it? Or maybe just right?

[Graham]

no the weather was great.

to be honest its got to be really hot to hurt the power, which is countered by the slicks working better anyway, but as its the same for all you dont really notice anyway

[penski]

Well done. Hope you go better today

What are your new slicks from if the old ones were touring car rubber? GTs?

*n

[Graham]

yes new slicks are GT rubber, as long as its not really cold, they grip better and last longer.

[Graham]

today was another blast, again Rick and i racing good and hard, although after turning the boost up even more Rick had the legs on me down the straights, but i was able to grab it back and a bit every time we came to a bendy bit, we were lapping a second a lap fater than the day before, sadly it started to rain just as alex ribbins blew up his pinto and washed one corner with oil, the rain was rather strange in that it only rained on some corners, at that point i went in to lets just finish this race in one piece mode, so once again i finished 6th overal and 3rd in class,

i got the constellation prise in that despite rick ramping up the power of his sierra to the full monty 550bhp i still got the fastest class B lap, in fact i smashed the record.

interestingly i got to just under 3 seconds a lap of rod birley and the skylines were only 1.5sec faster, so although it was only an ok result the cars definatly moving forward, and i had a hell of a drive

[penski]

Congrats on the LR

The DMN series sounds like an absolute riot...Just a shame I won't get an easy chance to see you guys out there as I'm at the other end of the country.

How did the Seat lot cope without their precious wings?

*n

[mk1matt]

[Dan]

exellent stuff. all the works paying off then should be a good season

[lee 1]

Well done mate bet your lucking forward to the rest of the season now

[Graham]

How did the Seat lot cope without their precious wings?

they made bugger all difference, one chap put his back on after practise and ran in class A for the race, yess he went faster in the race with the wing, by all of 0.001 of a second!

in fact as most of us go faster in the race than practise, i suspect the wing actually slowed him down

[Graham]

Congrats on the LR

cheers, i knew i had smashed it, but what i didnt reallise until i just now is that i smashed the lap record by 3 seconds

on the way home we were trying to work out who record i broke................
........
..........
.

we came up with quite a few names,

but it was the one guy we never even considered

.
.
.
..

.
.
.

it was in fact held by




..
..

.

.

a BMW


driven by


ME

[turbo m]

Well done mate what a great result makes all that hard work worth it.

[penski]

cheers, i knew i had smashed it, but what i didnt reallise until i just now is that i smashed the lap record by 3 seconds

on the way home we were trying to work out who record i broke................
........
..........
.

we came up with quite a few names,

but it was the one guy we never even considered

.
.
.
..

.
.
.

it was in fact held by




..
..

.

.

a BMW


driven by


ME

That's development work for you!

*n

[Retromotorsport]

I wish I had a camera in the pitlane to capture the smile in the Helmet of Graham, all you could see was the grin... and bear in mind its a full face lid ..

Graham, well done mate

[Graham]

im excited and want to go back ther again!

the winter mods of tweeking the rear beams mounts, moving the engne, the rear brake mods which have given a bit more stopping power or at lease taken some of the load off the front brakes because the pedal styied solid whereas it got spongy last year lapping a lot slower and biting the bullet and spending a fortune on rubber really paid off well, theres a lot more sped in the car, i just need to re calibrate the brain to drive it harder, because it was so well planted it was awsome espically round corum

[Graham]

the weigh in threw up a few suprises, nothing bad in my case, its been a couple of years since my car was weighed, then it was 965kgs, but since then i've gone 16valve, with bigger intercooler, fuel tank, extra fuel pumps, bigger fire extinghusher, i currently have a passenger seat in it, and not for getting bigger brakes and much much heavier wheels, at the weigh in it was 1103kg with me (95kg) on board and 40 litres of fuel in the tank, so its still about the same 965kg as it was

[penski]

What's the front/rear weight distribution now?

*n

[tom burgess]

I have to say that both car/driver were fantastically awesome the whole weekendas i said to you in the paddock "considering its a home brew" its an astonishing achievement.Well Done Grahamit was very well deserved

[Graham]

What's the front/rear weight distribution now?

*n

i dunno because it hasnt been corner weighted for a couple of years, it used to be somewhere between 52-54% nose heavy with me in it but since moving my seating position back 4 inches and the engine and box 1.75 back i'd say its about 50/50, it certainly feels that way

[Graham]

I have to say that both car/driver were fantastically awesome the whole weekendas i said to you in the paddock "considering its a home brew" its an astonishing achievement.Well Done Grahamit was very well deserved

thanks for the kind words tom, im quite chuffed with how things went, im rather kicking myself for not going faster as i could hold the car tight on the white line all the way round coram so i should really of been pushing a bit harder, i suspect i would of had rick not been right in from of me oversteering and understeering, my brain needs a bit of recalibrating with the car so much faster

[Retromotorsport]

Brain needs re-calibrating ... you mean you still have it in there
A lot of people have doubtedyou for doing what you've done, saying its foolish to try and homebrew a Class B on bugger all budget ... well whose laughing now, 2 finishes and a lap record .. and yes, after watching you follow Rick through russels .. your car sticks, ricks underpants must have been sticky

I hope for you that the major spends are over and the pennies in the pot can be spent on reliability .. I for one want to see that grin a lot more

[carpmart]

So reading these latest post gets me all fired up to come and watch one race. Whats your calendar from here? I need to avoid my race dates but would like to plan to come along and watch a race!

[Graham]

here you go

5&6 31st May 2008 Silverstone National
7&8 28th June 2008 Lydden
9&10 19th July 2008 Castle Combe
11&12 24th August 2008 Brands Hatch
13&14 6th September 2008 Lydden
15&16 4th October 2008 Lydden
17&18 1st-2nd November 2008 Brands Hatch

[4drmatt]

cracking thread and well done on the fastest lap!

A lot of people have doubtedyou for doing what you've done, saying its foolish to try and homebrew a Class B on bugger all budget

I didn't realise that this was the case, which makes the results you are getting all the more impressive. how many other home-built cars are in your class out of interest?

I will definately do my best to get along to Silverstone to support you and the other TS drivers.

[Graham]

cracking thread and well done on the fastest lap!



I didn't realise that this was the case, which makes the results you are getting all the more impressive. how many other home-built cars are in your class out of interest?

I will definately do my best to get along to Silverstone to support you and the other TS drivers.

thanks M8,

most of the cars in the DMN championship with the exception of the ex seat cup leons which are starting to appear in big numbers are home built to a fair extent, and they are all running on professionally built engines etc,

i dont think there is anything in the championship which is as homebrewed as my car, possibly ray barrows, but then he does work for julian godfrey and he is running well tried and tested ford YB and running gear, in my case not only do i have to everything myself with the exception of building turbos and mapping the engine, im developing a turbo'd car that no almost no one turbos on an absolute shoes string so whether is decking pistons and putting valve cutouts in them or shortening propshafts i do it at home,

the sensable thing to do would be for me to buy a sierra as all the parts and knowledge are out there at a reasonable cost but that just wouldnt be as much fun for me, and i simply couldnt afford it if i wanted to do better than just make up the numbers

[Graham]

i think this picture must of been taken in practise, because im on track on my own.

as you can see, i was taking a pretty tight line and not a spot of understeer, if you look hard enough you can see im on three wheels only, which is added by having zero droop front suspension, this helps keep the back end flat and greatly aids traction out the bends without needing a really agressive diff

[Graham]

heres one from the race,

http://www.snappyracers.com/album/Sn.../IMG_1093.html

its all got very close at times but no one touched, i would of course buy the picture but something doesnt seem to be working right so i cant right now, but im sure jon will catch up with me at some point

[Retromotorsport]

Graham, lets hope Jon will have more for you to buy at Silverstone, with you infront though

[david_white]

Car looked great on circuit Graham, and very strong in all aspects too. I'm sure you'll be giving Rocket Ron and Darren a run for their money at some circuits

How long do you think the new tyres will last, or is it too early to say? I'm still torn between the expense of wide 18's or the easy route of ex btcc stuff for mine

[Graham]

if you want cheap tyres go the btcc route, if you want tyres that work go the 18 inch, having used both there is no comparison, my car has tons more grip on the 18's even from stone cold, the btcc tyres cant handle the power and speed of our cars, after 5 laps rick was sliding around all over the place while mine was so stuck to the track i was hugging the white line all the way round the inside of corum, i know i have made other changes to the car but the biggest change has to of come from the tyres, last year i was 4 laps in before i could safely bury the throttle, this year i turned the boost up on the second lap, honestly the lap times i did this weekend were a walk in the park compaired doing the ones i did last year, and there was a good chunlk more time to come out the car, i honestly believe that given more practise the only car that could of beaten my laps times last weekend was rod, as it was his best lap was only 2.9 faster than mine and that was a lap record for rod

[GavinR]

Well done Graham

here you go
9&10 19th July 2008 Castle Combe

I'll have to come and see this one, I've got a free weekend then

heres one from the race,

http://www.snappyracers.com/album/Sn.../IMG_1093.html

its all got very close at times but no one touched, i would of course buy the picture but something doesnt seem to be working right so i cant right now, but im sure jon will catch up with me at some point

Going for the inside line I see

[Dave]

I've just caught up, and I can feel your smile.
Well done mate, glad to hear you are on the right side of things.

[Graham]

not much progress since snet, as seems to happen i put a full working car in the garage, went back to it to fire it up teh day before the ts rolling road day and it was dead, flat battery and alternator had packed up

i guess the alternator lost a diode or two at snett and gradually drained the battery while it sat in the garage, i dont normally use an alternator but every so often i fit one for an easier life and the bloody things always pack up, and its not like i fit old secondhand ones, i now think that its just a case of my engine/setup produces a certain vibration that breaks the things, so i'll be taking it off the car again before the next event.

i bought some new bigger expensive hose clips so i dont have any more hoses come off such as in practise at the last meeting






then it was off to the TS rolling road day, we had major issues with tyre slippage on the rollers, the final figure they recorded was 425bhp, but thats not right, im sure the tyres were still slipping at high revs partly because the peak power appeared in the wrong place by quite a big margin and the graph wasnt the right shape , but also according to the machine the boost pressure and mixtures were spot on, if it was only making 425bhp with a map to fuel for 490bhp it would of been very rich.

to be fair to the guys at T+R after the advise/bo@@cking i got from dunlop after the last time i rolling roaded it i wasnt prepared to half the tyre pressures like the guys wanted to.