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

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Graham, have a go with the electric floor tile scrapers on that underseal.. or if your passing borrow my air one, not a lot beats it,

He's right, that thing cuts through underseal like butter

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

graham the o/e loom went years ago it weighed about 25kgs! so i made my own which does only what it has to nothing more

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

the last bit of my weight reduction program for the minute was to take out the now redundant boost gauge and the fuelpressure gauge, it saveed all of 385grams



friday night we set off for lydden, its dmn on sunday but i decided to do the intermarque races on saturdy to reaqaiunt myself with the circuit before my championship race,

the grid was mostly shilouttes and caterham type tiger cars with a few v6 eurocars and few other things thrown in,

i wasnt sure how qualifying had gone the car felt ok but as per before it was very loose at the rear until a long way into the session, but the circuit flowed quite well i only needed 3 gears 2nd,3rd and 4th but the gearing seemed to suit well, the tight 100 degree lefthander was just where the power really starts in 3rd and i could hold 3rd all the way up the hill to north turn which was taken in 2nd,i quailified towards the rear of the grid with a 47.75 one slot behind a 1600 caterham which was also in my class which gave me a goal in the race, i just knew i would have to be brave and push very hard early on if i was to do any good in the race. after practise i stiffened the front shocks some more to try and tame the back a bit more, its only at low speeds i really have an issue perhaps it being a quite hot day was helping on teh tyre front.

race one i got a decentish start but only managed to hold my my position but the cars infont gained quite a gap on me, the reason being i was run very wide and had to take to the kerbs to avoid john cross on the green flag lap, which meant i would have to work really hard to catch the caterham i needed to if i was to get a class victory,lap 2 or maybe 3 it went a bit pearshaped wrong slotting it them missing a gear at north turn hairpin which not only allowed pete reeve to get past, pete reeve was driving a yb powered 300+bhp tvr tasmin, but also my target caterham to escape, it took several laps to get past the tvr which had a decent turn of speed, infact in teh end its was one long long manouvore, we went side by side through the tight devels elbow, i had the and had a drag race upthe hill, i couldnt out drag him though, niether could i do him on the brakes as he went defensive into north turn, i switched to the outside, we were side by side again, and down hairy hill, and into paddock, thoose of you that know lydden know that paddock bend is not a bend to go side by side round the outside of someone, neither of us gave way and it was side by side down the main straight into chessents, i was sure i was better under braking here and so it proved, but i had done pretty much a whole lap inches away but alongside the tvr, once past i got into a rytham and caught up with john cross in his turbo seat cupra, you have to be brave to drive side by side with john the risk of panel damage seems high as hes always seems to be in the thick of it, i got a good run on him into the elbow and had made the corner mine but was carefull to leave john lots of space, it was a good job too as he took a "bite" out of my n/s





apparently he had a tyre delaminating, the only od thing about it was the tyre in question was n/s which isnt really doing anything in that corner, despite the hit and resulting slide i kept it on the island and got john behind me the next corner, a good few hard laps later i'd caught the caterham i wanted to beat and managed to pass him too, i was overjoyed, i had a class win, depite my early mistake and i'd had a really hard 20 lap long battle, my fastest lap was a 47.013 which i was really pleased with as it turns out thats a pretty good laptime with reference to sundays DMN,

race two wasnt quite so good, i pushed hard early to keep the caterham, tvr, and eurocar etc behind me, but ended up in something of a no mans land all on my own, my best lapwas a tiny fraction slower than in race one, but everyone else had lost more speed so effectively i had actually gone faster, overal im delighted two races two class victories, it doesnt get much better than that

the dent just popped out teh door, the sill is a bit dented but nothing to worry me about

[exboyracer]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Nice write up Graham, and congratulations on the class wins

Good luck for the DMN

[Retromotorsport]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Well done Graham.. and yeah..we know that Jon likes a sill ...

[Pushrod King]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Well done Graham,can't the driving standards officer do something about Mr Cross' driving)good luck for today

[mervhill]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Bit unnecessary really, giving you a nudge like that, I'm sure there was plenty of room for him not to have done that. Some people should just know when they've been beaten.

Great work though Graham, and well done, a successful day to say the least!

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Well done Graham,can't the driving standards officer do something about Mr Cross' driving)good luck for today

the coc saw it, but as no observers reports came in there was nothing he could officially do,

as for sunday that was a couple of blindingly good races, no time for a report now but its gonna make good reading

[andypipe]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

[Retromotorsport]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Methinks we have a winner ...

[andypipe]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

Not quite, but a very good result that surprised a few people

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

I would say that Graham and the portly BMW were nothing short of a revelation on sunday. I'll let graham do the whole write up but the main thing is that he finished on the tail of Brenty and Bill Richards in both races, meaning two second in classes and set the quickest lap of anyone from class C, D or E for BOTH races.

Yes thats right, around Lydden a well known fwd circuit where light weight is key Graham took the big old beemer and monstered two of the quickest saloon cars around, a feat that none of us would have thought possible before the weekend and it even put the wind up richard Brent, forcing him to change tyres for the second race. Bill and Richard were awesome as usual but the fact that Graham got fastest laps is a massive breakthrough, oh and did I mention that the Guru also got driver of the race

Alex Ribbens was also on form but unfortunately a recurring missfire stopped him from joining in with the bullying of the two 'little' cars.

Overall a great day out and hopefully next time I see Grahams car race it will be from the window (or mirrors) of my own car

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

saturday night stephen and i stuffed our faces at the on site BBQ cortesy of bob morris's celibrations to celibrate the mini's 50th anniversary, well done on teh whole mini thing bob

then we checked over the car, in particular the front brakes, the discs are getting a bit past it and sometimes but not always rather juddery, i had new pads and discs with me but decided as the pads should last through sunday i wasnt goiing to risk changing anything, appartfrom which i wasnt sure if i had the right tools or spare nuts/bolts ( allen bolts and nuts that hold the discs to the bells are A/F unlike every other thread on the car,

so in the end we didnt actually change anything other than add another couple of clicks into the front shocks putting them on near enough full stiff, refuel and charge the battery

i must of been in a more gambling mood sunday morning because i looked at the rear spoiler.




which does look like its straight of a saxo last seen cruising teh local high street and halfords car park and did this to it.
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well thats another 3-4kgs off the cars weight, saturday althoug a tad loose around chessonts drift, the car was rock solid through the must faster paddock bend, so i thought i'd risk it with only the small rubber spoiler.

it was going to be a hot day and i was hoping that would play into my hands, the hot temps would help my hard tyres to work, and as i found on saturday although they would take a long while to come in they wouldnt go off towards the end unlike everyone elses.

my target for the day was to hopefully beat Dave usher in his t/b'd mi16 engined 205 ( which has plenty of straight line speed and all the weight of a fag packet) and to very hopefully get near james lindridge in his very quick xe powered astra, this on paper was a tall order, last time i came up against those cars they were streets ahead, and lydden favouring small light cars i couldnt see how a 28kg weight reduction over my last outing would make that much difference, richard brent wasnt really on the radar at all,

my plan for practise was go get out at the front and push really really hard and risk falling off to try and get the tyres to work before the quick boys were upto speed and latch onto one of them and hope they could tow me round, it didnt quite work like that though.........

i went out first and fast followed by bill richards, it wasnt long before he went past with his 16v kad engine with the car dancing on two occasionally three wheels, i pressed on soon after alex ribbins came past in his class D pinto powered mk2 he just had way more grip than me round chessonts, a few laps later thoug and i could stay with him on the bendy bits, up hill out of devils elbow i could climb all over the back of him, and was obviously far stronger under braking into pilgrims, a few laps in he let me past and i pressed on until the chequered flag, i never say anyone else that session so i never got the chance to tag onto a fast class C car, so i had to hope that i pedalled hard enough

when the grid sheets came round

i'd posted 3rd fastest 46.939, which seemed so much faster than yesterdays best of 47.013 i had 0.4 second advantage over usher and lindridge and was a similar amount behind brent, i was in business

come the race i knew it was vital not to loose too much ground early on and decided to risk a ticking off by the coc, by leaving the pit line with a lot of wheel spin, and did a rolling burnout going out to the grid, come the green flag lap i left the line with enough wheels spin to earn browny points at the pod

i pretty much held my own off the actual start. alex ribbins seemed to blast past everyone and all got very hairy round chessonts, where usher and lindridge made it past, for afew laps i just hung in there, then the tyres woke up, i closed up on usher and his 205, we must of only been thousnaths of an inch appart going into the elbow as i was better under braking and my motors big lungs and torque ( i can take the elbow in 3rd and it will pull hard right up the hill still in 3rd the others all use 2nd and 3rd) proved a match for the screaming mi16 up the hill but i wasnt close engough to get him, a lap later it was another story, i couldnt get far enough past the 205 to take the inside line, so i went the long way round and out gunned the 205 down hairy hill, getting just far enough ahead to make paddock bend mine, 1/2 a lap later i was on james lindridges tail into the elbow up the hill out the bend it was a similar story to earlier with the pug i almost got round the astra at the top hairpin but james held me off, next lap it was a repeat into the elbow, and up the hill, we ran side by side down the hill and through paddock bend it was so close i could hear the crowd breath in, but we never touched, by pilgrims i had the place i was upto 3rd, then it all went a bit pete tong, i remember missing a gear and daniel burden ( mk5 2.0 zetec escort) caused chaios by spinning out at the entry to chessonts and the red flags came out race stopped

but they restarted it, again alex got one hell of a start and went round everyon except bill richards who had lead all along and richard brent in 2nd, having losst a couple of spots i was really fired up and i think whilst we waited for the restart some of the heat from the seriously hot brakes and wheel centres ended up in the tyres, i was a man on a mission, and despatched alex, dave usher and james lindridge in short sharp oredr and got myself right on richard brents bumper, you couldnt of got a fag paper between us at the elbow and at one point even had a look up the inside going into paddock, but i ran out of laps, had the race been 15mins like yesterday (20 laps) not a 15 lapper in certain i would of got past, but its was one hell of a result 3rd overal and second in class behind richard, which possibly against anyone else would of been a win, i have to take my hart off to everyone i raced against in that race, so many corners so close so many times and not a single touch

my car once the tyres were hot was awesome, it was on rails, i was really suprised being about 200kgs over weight i really thought i would be an also ran at such a tight twisty curcuit,

other statistics, i had fastest lap with a 46.441 which on pace alone would of been worth 3rd overall in the class A/B race.

race two i dont remember in such detail, sadly james lindridge didnt start prefering to rest as he was also racing a mini in the mini race which was straight afterwards, of the start i dropped again behind ushers peugoet and alex had another lightening start, meanst while richard and bill were pulling away at the front by the time i was past the pug and alex's escort my tyres were working but was a distant 3rd, i managed to bang in constistant 46.5 sec laps and reeled richard in who then drove a very clean and clever but defencive race, i never got the better of him but came away happy that i've taken the fight to the lightweight fwd hatches in there natural habitat in my hgv weight rwd tub, the guru's back boys you'd better keep an eye on those mirrors im coming through

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

as for the spoiler did it notice? did it hell! the best i went with it on was 47.01, off 46.44 ok i would of probably got quicker with or without, but it made absolutely no difference on the fastest corner of the circuit, the backs still a bit loose but thats only in teh low speed stuff and gets better the more i stiffen the front, and as for the front well its just stuck like the proverbiable brown stuff to the blanket ( as long as the tyres are hot that is) and my diff wants a bit more lock but right now its just dandy and im chuffed to bits

[#90]

Re: A racing bmw 316, hopefully the worlds most powerfull Atmo M10

You should be chuffed to bits Graham / it was two fantastic drives.. I had 2 drive flat out just to keep you behind and make the 205 the width of a bus.. I actually enjoyed all my races on sunday and look forward 2 normal service being resumed at Brands