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

[exboyracer]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

[Tristan]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

holy fcuk! that was well shot!

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

having rebuilt the slipper i was a tad nervous heading out onto track at brands for practise, it soon became obvious my traction issues had all gone, not supringly the backend of the car was on cold tyres a lot more nervous tending to oversteer so places where i had previously just held it flat i found myself backing out the throttle a bit, it also made the back end looser under hard braking, but qualifying went without incident , other than 3rd gear syncro gave up the ghost making chaning down into 3rd near impossible, so i opted to go from 4th to 2nd for druids grabbing 3rd on exit (it upchanged okish) and holding 3rd into the limiter towards graham hill to avoid going up to 4th then fighting for 3rd again, so despite a wounded gearbox and snatchy slipper i qualified 8th overall, and 3rd in class, which sounds worse than it was because 2nd in class man bill richards was alongside me on the grid, i knew i had a chance of a good result, all!! !?? i needed to do was get ahead of bill into paddock and hold him off for 17 laps class leader gavin thompsons pug being so rapid neither bill or myself realistically stood a chance of beating it,

pre race prep just consisted of upping the limiter by 200 rpm to 8200 to ease the the gearbox difficulties

off the green flag lao i sort of did a rolling burnout and then really worked the front tyres, knowing that i could out grunt bill i just had to be well on it and able to attack paddock and druids at full race pace on the first couple of laps

it worked too bill was quick off the start but i was quicker and threaded the beemer through a narrowing gap to hit paddock ahead of bill, proof in the link below!

http://www.snappyracers.com/album/010511Brands/slides/IMGL9603.html

unfortunately into druids for the second time the throttle pedal which is a std factory part broke! i could occasionally get throttle, it broke near the top,whilst coasting down the straight i gave a couple of swift kicks to the bottom bit that came away too, under braking it slid towards me, and i was able to reach done grab it and throw it in the back of the car, using a very awkward foot postion, i found i could just about work the remnants of the pedal, but with a the throttle stop still attached to the floor it was like trying to drive with a 6 inch stiletto heel, my race for a decent position was over, so all that was left was to carry on and get a finish, and retake as many positions as i could to try and get near to bill for race 2, by this time the class leader had parked in teh gravel big time and so too had another one of my class so i was still on for decent points just needed to close on bill to give me a chance against him in race two, well for a while things were going to plan, the throttle being a bit hit and miss meant i was lapping a second or so off pace and trying to smoothly accerate out corners was deffo difficult, but i was progressing back up the field, coming through clearways i got a couple of taps up the back from a scooby coming up to lap me, and so made sure i held a tight line close to the pitwall onto the straight, only to find the scooby trying to go between me and the pit wall, contact was inevitable, and i was spun out, spinning on the straight at about 90-100mph wasnt fun i thought crist this is going to hurt! luckiy although i clipped the pitwall whilst spinning i ended up going back across the track, and fortunatly found myself rolling forward in the right direction but stuck in neutral with a floppy clutch pedal,a couple of jabs at the gearlever i got third then 4th and finished the race doing the last couple of laps in 4th only, oh to of had a dog box!
much to my surprise after broken pedals and being punted off i still wasnt last, almost but not quite, and as apart from bill the rest of my class were parked in the gravel i was 2nd in class, so decent points scored

my bumper and spoiler were wrecked so they were removed, the clutch was investigated, unknown to me the the braded clutch hose had been rubbing where it couldnt be seen and worn through the braiding, and during the spin i must of stamped on the clutch pedal hard enough to burst the inner pipe, at this point andy pipe and dave white decame heros and using bits they borrowed from around the paddock made me a new pipe, and helped me bleed the clutch, dave removed the throttle stop and i had a drivable car again a couple of jubillee clips and spring platform spanner made the throttle a bit more manageable, and like that i headed for the grid of race two,

with a lot of dnfs in race one despite finishing near last i started from mid field, with a strange throttle and it was strangle because it was both in the wrong place and was giving different leverage to what i m used to it wasnt easy working my way up the field, in particular with yellow flags hampering progress where i was stronger than the opposition giving me zero chance of catching bill, the flags getting more prevelant when the ultra fast pug pulled off again, the final result being finishing 10th, second in class again, which championship wise puts me in a surprising position, 1st in class and 3rd overall

[team_zi]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Exciting enought to read, so god only knows what it must have been like spinning at that sort of speed. Crazy!

[stephen bahr]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

brands hatch and people trying a manouvere that clearly doesn't work on the straight seems to be a theme, i remember when it happened to bill, and all i saw was that light blue go over and over, thinking it was you and i was so grateful to see you pull in just fine, so in that respect i'm glad brands wasn't possible.
shame about the spolier and the pedal etc. it can only be seen as ironing out the weak points though, very well done dad xxx

[exboyracer]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

'Exciting' times there!
Well done on salvaging some points, and 1st in the championship table too!

[RWD fords rule]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

That was an eventful weekend! Good on you for keeping it going and getting good points on the board

Synchro boxes are a pain in the ass when the baulk rings fail, I think a dog box is the only way to go really, just a pity they are so expensive

[Tristan]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

that fecjker in the Scooby actually punted you up the ars3? and sent you off? And is he now picking his teeth up with broken fingers?

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Synchro boxes are a pain in the ass when the baulk rings fail, I think a dog box is the only way to go really, just a pity they are so expensive

to be fair to the box it hasnt had a rebuild since 2005!

i'd love a dog box but as far as im aware there arnt any dog kits for my box, and the rule book wont allow alternative boxes without a very hefty penalty

[chatteris]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

this might be a daft question but if you managed to fit gears and dog kit from something else to your casing would it be allowed without the penalty

[Group4_Mark2]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Anyone have video from this event. Seems like it was very busy on the track with a good few trips into the gravel traps.

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

but if you managed to fit gears and dog kit from something else to your casing would it be allowed without the penalty

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 poo

[chatteris]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

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

[Graham]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

maybe, the plus point of my box is the internals are strong enough to cope with well over 400lbft all week long

[Retromotorsport]

Re: A race bmw 316, now S14 powered again!

Congrats on overcomming difficult problems in the races, and good luck with holding onto those Championship positions, 3 and 1 must feel good..