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

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

bill richards screen is plastic and that badly misted too,

re rainex snti fog etc, i have tried it on off cuts and it CAN damage the screen

[mrjimbo]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Try a couple of computer fans, it's worked for me in the past.
They're also very light aswell.

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Try a couple of computer fans, it's worked for me in the past.
They're also very light aswell.

yes been considering that one, also consdidering using some lightweight alloy ducting tube wrapped around part of the exhaust to act as a heat exchanger so i can blow warm air at the screen

[alladdin]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

could you duct it from a high pressure area behind rad maybe ? if you still have any original dash vents then a puter fan at base of the dash ducted as above ?? no doubt you have already mulled this ploy

[robt100]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Second wiper on the inside no good then? Could make for an intresting view

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

A silicone wiper for the outside would probably be better than a rubber one, might scratch the plastic less too

That won't help the inside of the window but i'm sure some flu pipe ducted in there will sort it

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

fisrt stage of the anti misting up fixes, well it might not help misting up, but whats not there cant mist up, so whatever happens from now i will always be able to see in the mirrors obviously the shape of the hole is dicated by seating and mirror postition, this hole is slightly weird shaped the other even more so



somthing that did unnerve me about the way the car went at brands is that it was rather backendy in the very high speed corners, not something im used to, in a way it wasnt suprising as i not only have removed quite a chuck of weight from the car, most of which has come off the back but also am now running a very small rear spoiler as oppsoed to the big wing spoiler which was on the car before and i havnt tackled any real high speed corners since i took it off, so after a coupleof false starts as further modifying existing spoilers and boot lid into a duck tail design, i realised the simplest, lightest, neatest and most rigid way to do it would be to cut the back section of the boot lid off and attach an alumiunium spoiler directly to the body work, the spoiler is hand formed mainly using a rubber mallet to beat it into shape using an old RSJ to get the sharp creases


after finshing the spoiler i realised it was now just a small step to replace the rest of the bootlid with alloy, so hey presto more downforce and i've saved 4kgs of weight, shame richard tells me he's lost 12kgs out of his 205

you can also see the second anti fogging stage, a row of holes in the rear window

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Good stuff Graham, get some paint on it

[robt100]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Can just about see my kurust on the seat of your bike in that pic. Got to pick that up along with the air filter and the left overs from my gasket set when im up that way next! Might have the engine idling properly by then! (30mpg is my best so far.)

[team_zi]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Graham, could you not use spinning disks in the side windows, like the stock car drivers use to keep their visors clean. The wind propels the disks round, and the centrifugal force keeps the perspex clean. Would look better than those holes you've cut.

This one is electrically powered. Bit OTT, but it gives an idea of how they operate.

http://www.speich.com/htmlEN/cvs/cvs.htm

What do small boats use to keep their cabin windows clear? They must suffer from the same sort of condensation problems as us.

Maybe worth a test?

http://www.force4.co.uk/6536/Force-4-12v-Windscreen-Demister.html

http://www.force4.co.uk/1946/Force-4-Windscreen-Demister.html

Or what about an electrically heated screen?

[stephen bahr]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

yes been considering that one

My computer is fine how it is
shame about brands, theres always another time to beat richard
spoiler looks rather good, dont paint it! more weight

ohh and you wont be able to contact me on my phone, you may not be suprised there ,but i left it in a bag that i dropped off at home on the 1st.

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

ohh and you wont be able to contact me on my phone, you may not be suprised there ,but i left it in a bag that i dropped off at home on the 1st.
__________________

oh hello son, i have been trying to ring you to no evail, good to see your still alive and presumably well !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Well done Graham, a good result I'd say yesterday.
He managed to set a decent pace in the qualifying, then went 3 secs a lap quicker in the first race while having a great fight with Graham Richardson in his very powerful 16v ecotec Nova.

Second race and Graham went yet another 2 secs a lap quicker to take him to within a second or so a lap off Richard Brent who had some prior circuit knowledge and is always super fast in his 205.
The only other class C car is another 205, but that one even left Richard for dead as on a circuit like that no amount of driving skill is gonna make up for someone in a similar car having a 70bhp advantage (we think its in the region of 280-300bhp ex supertourer spec!!)

So all in all graham picked up 2 3rd places, survived the fastest track in the country (a few didn't) and went quicker every time he went out. As I said to Richard Brent, another 20 or 30 laps and I think Graham would have been catching you

Apart from that Rod Birley didn't win either race, Bill Richards exploded his cluch and drop gears in the only mini there and the skylines were quicker than everyone only to suffer turbo and engine failures respectively.
I must say that Darren Bly in the white skyline put on the best show ever, fighting to the front in the first race and leaving the others for dead only to have yet another catastrophic turbo failure on his last lap of what would have been a huge victory.

Oh and Rod Birley came away with quite a bit of damage after a constant battle both with nick williamsons escort cossie and some very unforgiving curbs that he went smashing over the top of sideways

Great day and some of the best saloon racing you'll see anywhere

[stephen bahr]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

go father go!
writeee up

oh and who was there for pictures, was it john?

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

nice write up dave it was a great day, in thruth the circuit isnt as fast as people say in terms of terminal velocity i dont think its any quicker than snetterton but its have some very fast corners which need big balls.

from my angle, i was well aware that i wasnt likely to really achive anything great results, with a car 200kgs heavier than either richards or gareths peugoets i didnt think my 20bhp adavntage over richard would be enough to get the better of him and being about 60bhp down on gareth i didnt stand a chance of even seeing his wheels,

with it very cloudy and threatening rain we lined up in the assembly area alongside the now imfamous richard brent, who had confideded in me that he had driven the circuit before where as i didnt have a clue where the circuit went beyond looking at its shape in the blue book, my plan was to try and hang on to richards tail and get him to tow me round, it didnt quite work though, out on circuit we were almost at the back of the pack, myself on richards tail, considering me a threat he refused to stick his foot hard in so we circulated at the back of a pack of about 6 cars, when eventual double race winner nick williamson (wrc escort) came thundering through to lap us all, it was like the parting of the biblical waves as as the pack split to allow nick through, richard got lucky and tucked in behind him and graham richardson tried likewise, so that was it richard gone and i was behind grahams nova, now up to now grahams car has been famously understeery and despite light weight and a 1600 16v engine not very quick in a straight line and i could of simply driven round it, but he now has a new much much stronger engine so i couldnt drive round him as he could gap me a bit in the fast parts of the circuit and hold me up in other parts apart from which we were both learning where we were going, towards the end of the session there was a very light sprinking of rain, which i ignored and pressed on finding no loss of grip in the end i qualified with a 1.35.6 which was some 6 seconds off richard brents pace and 20th place out of 26 most of which was due to the bulk of the field being made up of fast class A+B cars, ultimatly i knew a huge chunk of that was down to lack of circuit knowledge and needing to grow bigger gonads to keep my foot hard in on the circuits fastest corners. what was pleasing was the new rears spoiler seemed to be working as ther was no repeat of the way the car felt at brands which was loose at the rear in the high speed corners.


race one, rolling start as usual which doesnt work well at thruxton because the close vicinity of the chicane to the start line meaning if you anywhere near the back of the field the leaders are aleady racing away before you even get to the start, my race consited of a terrific 3 way dice between myself graham richardson in his class D nova and andy woods-dean who runs an atmo 2013cc 16v renault megan in class B, it was a brilliant race the fact we were all from different classes didnt matter as we traded places whilst still learning the circuit, on the whole it was hard to fault my cars handling out the slower speed stuff i had a speed advantage and i loved the flip flop nature of the complex being able to just brake hard and sling the car in without a hint of understeer and the backend beiing pretty well rooted, through church the fastest corner of the circuit it was a case of just trying to hang on and keep my foot in as ai knew graham in particular had the legs on me as we headed down the the chicaine wher i had to use varied defensive lines, he could take car lengths out of me, not sure whether thats just down to him having a lot more top end power than me or if my spoiler is working too well at high speed i suspect a large chunk of the later, a couple of times i arrived at the chicane way too hot and it all got a bit of a handfull but each time i sorted it out and more importantly stayed off the tyre eating curbs, in the end i finshed behind graham ahead of woody in the megan, but all three of us concluded the positions were unimportant it was the fantastic and totally clean but really close racing and position swapping that made it one hell of a good race i actually finished 17th and had sliced 3 seconds off my qualifying time.

a quick look over the car in the paddock showed nothing amiss, on post race reflection i realised the car wasnt happy through church the fastest corner the back felt poogo-ey i knew the key to a faster lap in race two was to carry more speed through there and that would in turn stop me having to drive the chicane defnsively, we wound a good handlfull more clicks into the rear shocks, leaving them near full stiff, this was either going to help or make the car a real handfull, championship wise i had nothing to loose really as long as i didnt bin it i was 3rd in class out of 3 with no hope of doing better, so all i really had to do was keep it on the island, effectively race two would become a test session

race two, remembering what the start of race one was like i made sure to keep really tight at the start and had a good start pretty soon i was again battleing with woodys megan who made it past at which point i once again had grahams nova for company, the rear shock adjustment was a good one through the car was much more stable through church and i found by using a different line to most through village the previous corner i could carry more speed down towards church which proved vital to not having cars climbing over the back of me prior to the chicane, i was catching barry vincent in his rover turbo which wasnt short of straight line speed and put a move on him up the inside at church which stuck, and barry fell back into the clutches of grahams nova, so in the end i finished 15th overal having had another fantastic race, my best lap was now in the 1 min 30s which was another 2 seconds faster

in all it was a fantastic meeting two really good races the chance to try a new (to me) circuit and the car developemt has continued in the right direction, and as a result of the meeting i have some ideas as to how to take the car forward before lydden, but as my mate richard will be reading this you like him will have to wait until after lydden to read about them