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

[Graham]

intake wise there wont be anything special to see on mine, what dave upto isnt particulary trick but wont arf help setting up engines for optimum.

ATM no plans to make further changes to car or engine, tractions going to be an issue as the 8v was lacking traction out of clearways and graham hill, my current plan is to concentrate on the new shell, assuming all is still well with it i'l put the current engine in the new shell with an exhaust suitable for wilder cams and race that in 2012, with an evolution engine in 2013

the plan is to be at brands got a ton of stuff to do first though and no time off!

[RWD fords rule]

the duratecs an intersting comparision! karl wandered in whilst dave was doing a power run looked at the results and commented this motor would murder most duratecs! 275bhp isnt hard to get from one, but not at 6700!

me i cant wait to drive it, niether can i wait to start on the next evolution put some big valves in it, 320 degree cams irecon i can have 350bhp @8k anyone want to lend me some dosh lol

Yeah that is a very good point, very low rpm for that bhp level, can't wait to see it in action, and the evo 2 will be insane!

[exboyracer]

That graph looks pretty good Graham, well done and good luck with the rest of the work needed on the car !

[caprimentle]

blinding result, well done graham now go out and bloody enjoy it some

[jchasey]

So you coming out to play in the Intermarques this year Graham or sticking to the DMN ??
John

[Graham]

bit of both depending on £££££££££

[stephen bahr]

bit of both depending on £££££££££

9 quid? i can help

[Roadsport]

9 quid? I can help :d

good one

[Toymex]

Good luck for the weekend Graham,it will be interesting to hear how the new engine compares to the 8v and how the lap times are

[Graham]

cheers although im still working on it, doing lots of 11th hour jobs, including finding the bonnet doesnt fit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Group4_Mark2]

That is what hammers and angle griders are designed for

Be good to see the blue car out again and see how it performs

[stephen bahr]

That is what hammers and angle griders are designed for

Be good to see the blue car out again and see how it performs

hammers and fibre glass don't get on

[Graham]

the bonnet sort of fits now! old age must of got the better of me because i've just sidetracked myself for a good hour replumbing the extingusher nozzles so the engine bay ones actually point to the likely source of any fire!

[caprimentle]

the bonnet sort of fits now! old age must of got the better of me because i've just sidetracked myself for a good hour replumbing the extingusher nozzles so the engine bay ones actually point to the likely source of any fire!

makes good sense, no point having them pointing at the radiator i spose lol

[Graham]

amoungst other last min jobs was refitting the rear ARB. although last year i lapped faster without it i think that was due to geometry changes,in theory no arb should of improved traction, it seemed worse without.

so rol bar back on i made brands, for a dry practisc the motor deffo feels strong and torquey,it fells differnt to drive much more grunt low down, and not needing much in the way of revs, during practice i managed a 54.6 sec lap of brands, not bad considering who long i've been out the seat and brakes that needed several laps to bed in again and derust the discs, that lap was 0.2 slower than my best lap with the 8v, but i was sure a lot more would come with more seat time

[Toymex]

Looked strong today Graham ,shame about the tyre choice, i am sure you will have a good race tomorrow if the weather behaves

[Graham]

race 1 was err interesting !! it had been drizzling for a couple of hours then actually rained when we were caaled up, 95% of the field including myself opted for wets, unfortunatly as soon as we got to the collecting area, the rain stoped and sun came out with no time to change wheels i just had to hang on and hope for rain or everyone to fall off, it didnt rain and the wets wobbled around on the dry track, things were made worse due to having to pit to sort a loose bonnet catch

the upshot was finishing stone last, but i did at least finish, 11 others didnt!

[Roadsport]

I agree Graham. Its amazing how much the times will improve as the driver gets warmed up. Happens to me at the start every season.

[Graham]

being on wets on a dry track and having to pit meant i knew i had no chance of coming anywhere worth talking about in the overall results so i didnt try to set a quick lap time, but instead choise to circulate at a reasonable pace that hopefully would both keep me from being a mobile chicane and not melt my tyres, as it happens despite a few odd unexpected slides the tyres held up and so did the lap times, i was still doing low 58's without the pit stop i would of finished well up the pointy end, had i been on slicks i'd of made the podium, especially when you look at nick proudlock who was one of the few drivers on slicks and he finished 5th overall

other stuff, you wouldnt beleive how different the engine feels, not only does it have a lot more grunt, the lower revving nature means on the same transmission and final drive means some places i dont go as far down the box others i have go further up it, chaning gear @7 as opposed to almost 8 actually feels very slow, traction out of clearways is way better with the arb on despite the extra power, traction out of graham hill is about the same, so i should have a net gain there, but a better lsd needs to be high on my priority list, coming out graham hill the revs just saw as if the clutch is slipping.

talking to bill richards who drives the fab kad mini clubman last night i've got him worried he wont be able to catch me in tomorrows race good for me but ubfortunate for bill who broke the gearbox in practise

[Group4_Mark2]

Good luck with the race. Looking forward to the write up.

[Graham]

it was with some relief that nothing fell off during race one and both catch tanks were still empty, now race two i was starting 14th, which was 2nd in class with what would probably be my main opposition bill richards was back in 24th position, i knew that when and it would of been when he got to me i woulld have a real fight on my hands, and the chances of catching the first in class man lee allen who was 4th was very very slim, on lap times i knew i could but as i had toi get through traffic to reach him and he had only faster cars in front of him so no traffic for him to deal with my mission had to be to hold my 2nd and attempt to get as far up the overal grid as possible,

i made a decent start picked off one or two cars, round paddock for the first tlme nice and clean on the outside druids got very crowded 3 abreast i had the middle line as i attempted to go round the outside (which rarely works) only to find rod birley going round the outside of me! birley starting at the back after yesterdays dnf, some of my thoughts from yesterday were right, the car had good traction out of clearways but very poor out of graham hill the revs just sawed like a slipping clutch, i pressed on dealing with a couple of slower cars as quickly as possible, then i spied bill in my mirrors, weighing at 600 kgs with nigh on 200bhp and slicks nearly as wide as mine bill 16v kad engined mini was going to make me work, the one thing i knew from yesterday was that my s14motors torque could pull a gap on bill but through the corners i wouldnt be able to touch him, keeping an eye in the mirrors it was obvious that over a lap bill was a bit faster and hadnt just caught me because of slower cars inbetween us,

time for a tactic change, no long was i going to try to pull away, the race from now was going to be a defensive one, what i had to do was cover my lines and not let bill even get a hint of an inside line, it was going to be slow in fast out, i'd learnt from my dice with him last year where i tried a bit too hard and he got his nose up my inside and having to go the long way round negated my power advantage,

and thats how the rest of the race basically was, lots of watching the mirrors very slow into clearways so i could hug the kerb, bills car changes direction in an instant and he doesnt slow much for the corners so it was vital i got it right,it was the same at paddock hill bend he closed right up every time, so my exit was off the normal racing line robbing him of the inside line into druids, which again i could just hold him off round, graham hill was tricky though my car wheel spinning the power away he could get alongside my rear quarter maybe even a bit further forward, one traction resumed the torque saved the day everytime giving just enough forward motion to edge away allowing me to move left cover the inside line at surtees go straight over the kerb, and turn into for clearways early from mid track, not a fast line but an excellent defensive one,

a couple of laps of this and i was knackerd! coming round the start line seeing another 6 minutes of race left i felt i wound never be able to keep it up, during this time we were catching nick proudlock who'd started 5th, we werent catching him fast mainly due to my defensive driving not being very fast in terms of laptime, but we were catching him non the less, a shame i thought because whilst we all want to finish as high as possible nicks not in my class i really wasnt bothered about passing him, but with bill on my tail i had too and had to get it right otherwise if nick held me up for even a moment bill would strike and with the race running out of time i wasnt likely to retake the place, it all got very close coming out of graham hill with only inches between the three of us, my very slow surtees/clearways line allowed nick to pull out a gap by paddock i'd pulled it back, i resisted the temptation to go round the outside knowing bill would dive straight up the inside and probably get the inside line into druids, so as we rounded paddock i kept right to cover the inside, going up the inside of nick at druids, that was rather an easy move so either nick had issues or was avoiding getting tangled up with me and bill, and thats how we finished, i was 8th overal and 2nd in class, bill 9th and 3rd in class and nick a very very creditable 10th overal

lap times well they were nothing to write home about being high 54's although to be doing high 54's whilst making the beemer harder to pass than a london bus in rush hour is pretty good going,
if the old girl had better traction out of graham hill and paddock where it was a bit lacking it would of been a different race as it would of given me a bit more breathing space to allow me to try braking late but im over the moon with the result.

got to say i owe a huge thanks to dave at emerald for mapping my car at the weekend, karen for allowing me to spend 3 out of the 4 days that we set for her moving playing cars,
various ts members for advise which i probably ignored but thanks anyway, and quite a few other ts members for buying stuff off me and paying up double quick otherwise i'd of never made the seasons start, more ts members for being patient waiting for me to do stuff for them thanks everyone, im still smiling from yesteday

[david_white]

Well done Graham, excellent result. Beating bill on merit is no mean feat

[exboyracer]

Well done Graham, a great result first time out!

[Graham]

cheers chaps

, i got a bit of a suprise when the car was weighed its put on 30kgs of weight! its now 1003kg with me and only a few litres of fuel on board, i couldnt figure that out for a while, but the 16v head does weigh more than the 8, i've put a glass windscreen back in, mainly because the plastic one was pretty knackered and i had a glass one, that with its heavy mounting rubber is prob another 10 or more kgs, putting the rear arb back on has added a few more so i guess the weight increase isnt too suprising,

im now trying to work out what to do with the diff to make it work better, as always no real money to spend, cheapest option is prob to get some new friction plates for mine and fit a group n shim kit which will up the lock from 25 to 40% although in truth having done an unknown amount of miles in a road car and 8 seasons racing i doubt the current diff will even have 25% lock its supposed to have, that option shouldnt dratically alter the cars handling which is a risk if i go for something more hardcore, although i might still end up in a similar position as now only less so,

other options are buy a new aftermarket slipper which will be about 1K or pay nearly if not as much for a secondhand motorsport unit.

[Tristan]

great stuff Graham , and you and the car will only get faster as the season progresses.

[Group4_Mark2]

Maybe now that you have so much more torque you may need to put back on that big boot spoiler you had in the past and try to plant all that power on the ground.

[martinpallot]

Buy an atlas escort rebuild kit for 160 quid from Gartrac and turn 50thou off the end plate. Leaving the big spacer out you can then fit all 4 plates to get around 50% lock and and 110lb of preload which will be plenty for a circuit racer. If the existing kit is from a road car and its anything like the 2 that ive rebuilt, the plates will be proper fooked.

[Graham]

cool, thanks for that i knew atlas bits fitted and you can get more plates in there but what i didnt know was how much to machine off what.

ultimately what it really needs is even more plates and different ramp angles, but that means lots of dosh

[FOSSIE]

Graham, I'm not familiar with the stock BMW LSD - how many friction plates has it currently got?

Fitting a full motorsport clutch kit, with 4 (new!) friction plates along with the right oil will make a big difference, drop me an email and I'll send you some gen on the plates.

[Toymex]

Well done Graham glad to hear Sunday went better than saturday ,sounds promising for the rest of the season i look forward to hearing of a few more battles with Bill and it will be interesting to see how you get on against that 205 as it looked quick in qualifying

[Graham]

TA, TBH i think i'd really have my work cut out against the 205, looking at it i would be surprised if the engine doesn't match my horsepower and its going to be a hell of a lot lighter into the bargain, but i'll certainly try

[Group4_Mark2]

Any photos or videos of the race for those of us who cannot be there. Graham, you are going to have to get an incar setup

[Graham]

Graham, you are going to have to get an incar setup

yeah i know, but its all ££££££

hopefull bill will post his in car on u tube

[Retromotorsport]

Graham...

[caprimentle]

glad to hear your enjoying it, after all thats what all the blood, sweat and tears for these things are for

[lee76]

on board the mini

[Dan]

well done graham

proper close racing that and v impressive to keep him behind you. that mini sure does keep to the track well

[Group4_Mark2]

Great footage of a very close battle. Dont know how both drivers kept on the track. It was very close for a while when the white Mark1 got in the way. What was that guesture out the window at the end

[david_white]

What was that guesture out the window at the end

Graham drying his sweaty glove I expect

Great battle there, very clean racing from everyone. How did the scooby not come into play again, looked pretty quick or did the front diff overheat like they normally do half way in?

Looks like the beemer has some grunt now, the mini has massive power to weight..

[Graham]

What was that guesture out the window at the end

YES YES YES