Anyone have video from this event. Seems like it was very busy on the track with a good few trips into the gravel traps.
Anyone have video from this event. Seems like it was very busy on the track with a good few trips into the gravel traps.
To finish first, you must first finish
it would be but theres nowt else suitable as far as i know, bmw did do a set of motorsport ratios, but trying to find a set is like finding rocking horse poobut if you managed to fit gears and dog kit from something else to your casing would it be allowed without the penalty
was thinking more of using internals from t5,type 9 or something of similar dimensions to your box and modifying case rather than finding bits from another bmw,maybe crazy idea but with your ingenuity/innovation it might be possible
maybe, the plus point of my box is the internals are strong enough to cope with well over 400lbft all week long
Congrats on overcomming difficult problems in the races, and good luck with holding onto those Championship positions, 3 and 1 must feel good..
thanks gary it sure does, TBH i havnt been in such position since the days of my 2002Originally Posted by Retromotorsport
those Championship positions, 3 and 1 must feel good..
If you are after a dog box, this place has a 5 and 6 speed S/C kit available for the getrag 265 ( I assume thats what you are using) http://www.samsonasmotorsport.com/index.php?1584229044
From what I have heard iwhen others enquired its much cheaper than they envisaged. Otherwise SADEV do a GrpA 6 speed kit, but its close to 11k Euros!
i know wikipedia can be editied, and gear boxes can be changed, but i couldn't see 265 as on the list of being fitted to a 316, all i could see was a getrag 260.
and congratulations on 1st in class and 3rd overall keep it up
Last edited by stephen bahr; 08-05-2011 at 19:24.
Cars, because you can't get enough kicks out of walking fast.
its an e30 stephen i can use any e30 gearbox, which luckily includes the 265
Hi Graham,
Were you out at Brands this weekend just gone? Am sure it was your car I saw!
i was indeed, updates to follow
ok, gearbox is back from its rebuild, these are what was replaced, amazingly despite years of abuse and 500bhp being shoved through it nothing else was worn
as i posted in an earlier thread i think the engine had a oil leak, not severe but not good either, after replacing the middle bolt in the timing case/head joint it leaked less, but still leaked, i never though could find it, so i used an airline to pressurise the engine slightly via the breather pipe, and sprayed it with soapy water, the result was bubbles from the head/cam carrier joint, removing the cam carrier to fit it would of been a major undertaking
having found the leak,i scratched my head how to fix it, until i had another brain wave, if i could presssurise the engine via teh breather i could do the opposite!
i loosened the timing cover/cam carrier bolts slightly, applied some clear silicon to the outside of joint and vacuumed the engine, to hopefully slightly suck the sealant in, letting it cure for a bit i tightened the bolts again, and come the next race im glad to report no oil leak
i didnt take any pics but patched up bumper and wing damage from the last meeting, and disconnected the rear anti rollbar again (but left it still fitted just in case)
the roll bar didn't do much to improve traction before i rebuilt the lsd, but i was pretty sure it was helping make the car more oversteery afterwards.
the weather forecast for brands was pretty wet, something i really wasnt looking forward to, i've had practically no proper race experience in this car in the wet, when it has rained it just steamed up and i couldnt see a dammed thing.
on a damp track i was pleased to find the car behaved itself, lap times for everyone were a second or two off normal pace, although there was light drizle as the session went on it didnt seem to effect grip, until someone did a couple of laps leaving an oil trail, so i qualified with a seeminly respectable 56.4 lap making 14th overall, although that did leave me 3rd in class by a fair way
race 1, was again a damp track, but nowhere near wet so slicks were again the tyre of choice, it was hard getting heat into them and a lot of drivers had so very big moments, including pushrodking who whilst trying to avoid another spinning car had the mother of all tankslappers and grass tracking excursion, i made up a couple of places very early on as the traffic bunched up when rods WRC escort cut out and a couple of other cars went off, as the race went on it rained more but stayed quite light, i was glad i'd switched back to a glass windscreen and used plenty of rainx, with several going off and the cars in front of me seeming to have a good deal more speed, i choose to just keep it on the black stuff and bring it home, although i did make sure i pressed on enough to keep the bmw minis which are in my class behind me, the end result being another 2nd place finsih and 11th overall.
race two was proper wet, prior to the race the wets went on, adjusted the front roll bar from full stiff to full soft, and backed off the dampers all round, we had a two lap green flag lap and i really gave the rear tyres some big stick to try and get heat into them but it didn't really seem to work that well, and it was then go! no heroics off the line and into the first corner it was steady as she goes, into the hairpin for the first time was scary so much spray around viability wasn't much better than you get in a car-wash!, pushrodking although passing me somewhere was having major oversteer problems, his escort just snapped sideways every time he got near the throttle, it wasn't long before i passed him but that was more whatever was wrong with his car than any skill on my behalf, as the laps clicked down i felt quite comfortable in the conditions and realised i was catching my main class rival, bill richards, pushing a bit harder i closed more, the car was quite mainagable at teh pace i was doing, teh gearbox shifting very slickly, the engine so torquey that i was practically doing the whole circuit in 3rd gear, a few times the backend stepped out going coming out of clearways onto the straight but was easy caught, but everytime i got fairly close to bill there were either yellow flags or another car lapping very slowly, so the gap opened and i had to close it again, knowing i was running out of laps i pushed harder, i was feeling confident in the car and maybe should of been thinking about just bringing it home, but i wasnt i was pushing perhaps a a bit too hard, yep, you got it it went pair shaped, on bills tail out of clearways i got harder and sooner into the throttle and was making the move on him when rearend grip and talent ran out at the same time! for the second meeting in a row i found myself in a high speed spin down brabham straight, going across the grass and thinking shit here comes the pit wall this is going to hurt! fortunately it was a glancing blow to the pit wall, enough that i knew the front of the car wouldn't look pretty a quick look at the gauges still showed i had oil pressure, it was likely the rad was toast but as as i came out the spin i could see the last lap board and figured i was still on for a finish, and so i did, 3rd in class and still 11th overall, had i made the pass stick it would of been my 6th 2nd place finish
championship wise im still 3rd overall and 1st in class, although bills much closer now and with him already having dropped a score my advantage is much reduced, i really must finish ahead of him at the next round which is snetterton or hes highly likely to overtake me in the championship
at least this time the wing and end of the bumper that were bashed last time are still intact!
in hind sight, although not happy about having to repair the car again, i am happy that i was trying and nearly got the position that would of done wonders for my championship, as opposed to just trying to bring the car home.
thinking about it my rear wets are not only rather old now, but in all probability a couple of compounds too hard as they wer speced for turbo power a newer/softer set and i probably wouldnt of had another dice with the pitwall
Last edited by Graham; 15-06-2011 at 18:26.
Well done on the results Graham ,i am sure you will get it straight again in no time ,will Snetterton suit your car over Bills being a bit longer? what was wrong with Nicks car ,he normally likes the damp conditions
yeah snett should suit my car as long as i dont run out of revs, i raced at snett on the current gearing with the 8v but with another 35bhp i might see the limiter down the long straight, so i'll have to remember to take the laptop just in case!
i've got the legs on bill on the straights at brands and these days and can stay in touch in the bendy bits so hopefully snett go my way
nick said afterwards he found a dislocated rear spring
Bad luck hitting the wall. Is there any thing major bent or is it all cosmetic. Hope you get it back on the track soon.
To finish first, you must first finish
i havnt looked but i think its only cosmetic, i spun as they put the last lap board out, so i did two laps aftewards (one at race pace and a slowing down in lap) it drove ok, steering felt a touch odd but it always does when you have a bumper wedged against a tyre!
Hope so, I need you to stop Bill getting points so that I can defend my 2nd position in the championship.
i really must go down to one of these events, it always sounds so eventful, bad luck about the wall encounter but it is important to find the limit as you never know, it might of made the turn fine and you would of had bill!
also, absolutely love the way you sealed the oil leak, i would never of thought of that
i look forward to seeing the dent pulling, always fun to do once you get stuck it, its nice to hit the car with a hammer every now and then, remind it whos boss
its not dead till it's buried!
T.I.T engineering. "Feel the power!"
sounds like a plan
Congrats on continuing to a finish .. and good luck at Snett
What he said ^absolutely love the way you sealed the oil leak, i would never of thought of that
Nice result, next time try to cross the finish line backwards on the chequered flag lap
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Sorry i couldn't make it the race but sounds like you had a very good day and best of all finished the races, which with the old screen would have been less of a given..
I'm sure snett will favour your car more than bills so lets hope you can defend that championship position. Feel sorry for the front of your car though, seems to get all the punishment lately, I guess I'd better start work on the 2012 shell now so that this shell can retire gracefully at the end of the year.
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nice report Graham,
It was a tad wet spectating, unfortunately I had to leave before you last race
all the best for Snet
after pulling the front bumper off you can see the remnants of front panel are fubared, o/s chassis leg has gone up and back a bit, but as its only effected the crumple zone at its end i shall just bend it down for now, although the rads still got some water in it it is punctured rather than modify the car to take another rad it will prob just get a body filler repair for now
Time to start work on the new shell in earnest perhaps?
lack of time and funds holding the new shell up, its tough one, the more i work the more chance of having the money to do the shell but no time to do it and vicer versa.
what i really need to do it find a grand for a new cage, once thats in and the rear arches modified the shell could be pressed into service fairly quickly if needed
Full of drama!
At least the car isn't too bad Graham, and with your skills it should be back up and running in no time
What caused the dnf Graham nothing too serious i hope ,doesnt sound like a good weekend for Ts racers what with Nicks problems aswell
it lost a couple of sump bolts so leaked oil, no actual damage, strange really, because there wasnt a hint of a leak from it during testing, practise or race 1, it didnt actually leak much what it did leak went all over the exhaust and made a lot of smoke, well untill i switched it off then it poured out!
one bodyfiller repair on the rad
it passed a pressure test too
race was on saturday, but i went up to snett on fri afternoon for a bit of testing, i say testing more circuit familiarization, if we had been on the old snet i would of been confident of getting the better of bill, but with sear now being turned into a nasty very low speed flip flap thing i wasnt sure, its both cut speed down the straights and is very tight, i knew that such tight corner would play well into bills hands his mini changes direction in an instant, out on track it was as i feared montreal as its now called is slow, heeling and towing into it is vital to smoothly drop from flat in 4th down to second once i got the hang of it, it was a quick pitstop to wind some more damping into the front as the car was still on the wets brands settings , it was going well although the backend was very wandery under hard braking, a few laps in i had a front end vibration, i'd done a wheel bearing, so that was the end of that.
in the pits i spotted the bias valve must of been knocked giving more rear brake, so that was a quick fix and fitted my spare wheel bearing, nothing much to report on the next session the car felt pretty good, brakes better and i was confident were i was going and where to brake, i was quite enjoying myself until a familiar rumble re appeared i'd done another bloody wheel bearing! either they are making theres bearing from rubbish or im carrying a lot more corner speed than i used to because e30 front bearings rarely wear out but i've gone through a several this year!
overnight i removed the rear anti roll bar again, it was disconnected at brands and left that way so i figured i'd save a couple of kilos, i also tweeked the brake bias a bit more by lengthing the pushrod to the front master and spacing the rear master back a bit.
many thanks to andy/john and steve pipe for there help, they brought me a new wheel bearing and gave general help, especially needed when i went up to scruiteering without the bonnet fastened down, which caused it to fly up and tear a corner off which had be be repaired very quickly,
scruiteering was hard work, they were very unhappy with the amount of cracks in my screen, didnt like various holes in the floorpan which have been ther since the day the car was built!, oh and unstrapped my battery box lid took it off which clamps the battery down and then complained the battery was insecure!!!!!!!!!!!
for some reason i didnt really go for it in practise, i certainly know i was braking earlier than the day before, in a field that mostly consisted of spaceframed cars i qualified with a 1.27.4, 25th out of 38 and 3rd in class, the man i really needed to beat was bill who was a fair bit further up the grid bill posted a 1.24.7 which was miles faster, when i realised this i was kicking myself, leader of my class was in a different league he'd qualified with a stunning 1.20.3that said hes not currently in the title hunt so no real concern to me, but i had a long way to go to catch bill.
race one with a 38 car grid it was certainly crowded, i got a decent start, made up a place or two, which was later negated by the fact there were faster cars that had qualified behind me, as the race went on i closed on bill i felt i had the pace to pass bill but it wasnt easy not because of bill but because of a couple of spaceframed cars inbetween bill and i revving the s14 to nigh on 8k every gearchange i was faster down the straights and faster into the esses but round the tight bits being a lot lighter they were quicker particulary the new tighter corum corner, in teh end i passed them down teh straight and had gained enough heat in the tyres to hold them offf in the twisty stuff, so now all i had to do was pass bill, something never easy, in the end though i didnt have to when bill supringly pulled off a lap or two before the end
race two, dont remember too much, other than watching bill catch me in my mirrors during the first couple of laps, i knew he would, and hoped to hang on until my tyres properly woke up, it didnt quite go to plan though, peter taylor (rs500 sierra) was limping round slowly and we caught him at the montreal flif flap thingy, that held me up, and bill siezed on it and zizg zagged through teh chicane around us both, DAM!!! i now had to work really hard to catch and pass bill but it wasnt to be, when a couple of sump bolts decided make a bid for freedom and teh resulting oil leaked caused me to pull off,
had i of finished race two my championship would of had a good boost with bills dnf in race 1, as it is things are pretty static, championship wise im still 3rd overall, i still lead the class over bill infact i've stretched out my lead over bill by a single point more.
encouragingly i matched bills best lap times so roll on brands GP
Last edited by Graham; 27-07-2011 at 21:05.
omfg. ive spent the last 3 nights reading this from the start, sir not only are you a guru but u do all this on zilch budget and more or less on your own, ive often picked up on bits youve done/doing an think 2myself. wtmf surly ur beta of buying that but the things u do with what eva youv got 2 hand is awesome, id love 2 be a fly on the wall when ur in your garage mate, if any 1 eva needs motivation they should read this, thank u 4 all the wealth of knowledge you give thro you day 2 day doings you really are the master and that was a pleasure 2 read, keep it up mate and again thanks
a link from the last brands outing,race1 was damp at the start and was wet twards the end making life of slicks interesting, race 2 very wet, they just caught my trip into the pitwall
we need more of that on normal tv, great to watch, thanks for posting it up
That is some excellent racing. It is great to see such a variety of cars together from different eras of racing. The first race looked like fun but the second one must have been a nightmare.
If there was more of this on television it would help everyone in that it might generate a bit of sponsorship to help pay for the race cars.
To finish first, you must first finish
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