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

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

No write up for silverstone?

[Pushrod King]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

No write up for silverstone?

You were there,why don't you do a write up

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

In the mean time while Graham does his write up heres a pic of his car that I think he'll like that I just found on my camera from Lydden

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

nice picture its good to think i actually had two engines on track that day they both behaved impecably

it goes without saying the cars werent in that order for long

i cant do a silverstone write up yet, i havnt done the pre silverstone write up prep!

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

actually i didnt do that much prior to the event

i looked at the now battered front bumper/spoiler which after my lydden grass tracking
is totally missing its splitter and one corner



and decided not to do anything with it! its getting late in the year not many events left, and im short of time, plus it was an ideal chance to try the car without the splitter at a fast circuit as i certainly didnt notice any difference after loosing it at lydden.

other pre event mainanace, a quick brake pad check, i swapped the wheels around and turned some tyres around on the rims to extend ther life a bit longer,

a close look at the gearlinkage showed it was broken! its a rose jointed race linkage, but it has something of a design flaw, the stabliser part of the linkage which was broken in two places bolts both to the gearbox and solidly to the trans tunnel via a rose joint, effectively it acts as solid link preventing any fore and aft movement in the engine and box, they basically dont move anyway but i guess the strain of several seasons of thenm trying to move slightly took its toll and broke the linkage, which lost a lot of the precision out the gear lever, maybe that had a part to play in my lydden gear selection issues

unfortunatly repair of the broken bit wasnt possible, after lots of thought i deceided to bolt the stabaliser to the gearbox tunnel rather than the gearbox, my only worry being that if teh engine and box move further under laod than i though it might pull itself out of gear once on track

the only other thing i did was to act on an idea from jimbo and install a couple of computer fans to give me some demisting equipment, they actually blow a suprisng amount of air and consume only a tiny current

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

onto silverstone which for me like most others was effectively a new circuit, whilst i've raced on the silverstone national circuit when it converts to the gp only two "known" corners remain,

the GP circuit may be 3.2 miles long but with over 50 cars on track, qualifying was pretty manic, with everyone ending up bunched up, mainly because it seemed all the cars witrh big straightline speed wobbled very slowly round the bendy bits, i spent most of my qualifying session in the company of bill richards with his ultra quick 16v kad mini, having bill for company meant i know i would of had resaonable pace but knew ultimately i wasnt going to be really on the pace as such a long circuit means few laps.

ultimately i qualified a reasonable 30th out of 52 cars with a 2.21.1sec lap, some way off the rest of my class but not an impossible task to catch them,

back in the paddock we topped up the fuel and that was about it, incidentally i used 3 litres a lap!

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

race one, i made a decent start and managed to pick off one or two, i spent a couple of laps in the company of a toyo shod tin top rover tomcat, the tomcat had the legs on me on the straight and held me off for a fair while, in the end my cars superior braking and corner speed won through, once past the tomcat i quickly pulled away and made up another place or two and was gaining on steve danns class B turbo golf and peter taylors class A RS500, the RS500 was suffering from missfiring as it cam up on boost but still had a very good turn of speed, my best chance of passing them was catching them under braking and using my non turbo instant grunt to go round them through the tight abbey complex and hopefully hold them off into luffield the closeness and tightness of that part of teh circuit being my only real chance , approaching abbey i cursed as i saw frantcially waved yellow flags, "sh*t" i couldnt attack them, then i saw the reason something i instantly recognised, it was the exhaust off dave whites sierra which was right on the apex, i dunno if i felt more hacked off it was effecting my race or bad for dave,

i just hoped it wouldnt still be there next lap, it was! and the one after and the one after that! i knew i was running out of laps now to get further up the field, the last time through neither the sierra or steve danns vw pulled away quite so much, the sierra still missing out the corners and steve by now apparently having a puncture having hit daves exhaust, i got close to then under braking into brooklands and alongside steve dann into luffield, and as we got into luffield2 was alongside pete taylors RS500 and just pulling head right at that point i came up to lap a back marker in a metro, with barely enough room i darted to its right pulling just ahead of peters RS500 and nailed the throttle and hung on as we headed to the start/finish line where i could see the chequer, i didnt make it to the chequer first though peter sierra stormed past just before the flag like a saturn5 rocket,

when the results came round i was amazed to see i had beaten peter, how? what peter and i both saw as the chequer was a duplicate chequer, the actuall finish line isnt the same as the start line its closer to the last corner and neither of us had seen the first flag,

my best lap had improved to 2.18.6 and had improved my 30th position start to finishing in 21st and one place behind my nearest class rival

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

race two, i made another good start and picked off few cars at the start and by going round the outside at becketts, some though being much faster class A cars would easily retake me on the hanger straight and stay ahead, although one car i kept behind was dave ushers m16 power peugoet 205, well for a while anyway, a lap or so later going down hanger straight i could see him absolutely reeling me in, he just breezed past, not to give up too easily though i braked very late into stowe corner and took the place back, same again a lap later i could hold him off the rest of the circuit but not down the straight, infact each time he passed me he did it earlier on the straight the last time early enough i couldnt attack in in the corners afterwards, half a lap later richard brent was on my tail having started from the back, he was on a real mission, catching me exiting luffield we had similar straightline speed i resisted moving over a bit to tighten my line into copse so he couldnt go up the inside he went the long way round, a very long way round nearly off the island, soon he was gone and past dave usher too. i eased my pace slightly realising i was running last in class and knew i had to make my tyres last two more meetings, half a lap later i was catching richard, clearly he was wounded, i started pushing again seeing the last lap board i pushed harder and started riding the kerbs which i had been deliberating staying away from, it was a slightly hollow victory repassing him, but a place is a place.

my final finishing position a creditable 15th overall out of a 48 car grid, best lap had improved to 2.17.3

back in the paddock i was saddened to hear that richard didnt actually finish the race, bad new for both of us, although i was pleasently suprised to see in the results i had beaten richards arch rival gareth porter who has a stunningly powerfull mi16 engined 205, how? apparently he had gone off in the first corner and was working his way back through the field, had richards car not slowed i wouldnt of speeded up and gareth would of probably caught me

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

the pm.

loosing the splitter made no differece! only once did the car understeer when i simily entered a corner way too hot, even then it wasnt terminal,

as i found in race two the rear damping was a bit too soft for the very high speed stowe corner, the backend was a bit bouncy,

the eligabilitity scruit pulled me in for a look at my car, and weighed it at the same time it was 879.5kgs on a very low fuel load so it weighs about what i thought it still did, whch is about 100kgs less than when its was turbo'd, but ultimately still too heavy for the class.

i've been thinking long and hard to try and wrk out why the car is more competetive at lydden then at the faster circuits which is the opposite of what everyone including myself expected, the answer has to be lydden plays into the cars strengths, its a very stop start circuit with a healthly hill, the car is very good on the brakes and has lots of grunt out the corners,

clearly the barn door areodynamics is hurting it, i was at peak power down hanger straight but 125mph seems to be about it in a straight line, because peak power is so wide i could of been pulling another 500rpm and still been at peak power, so i think i need to drop the diff ratio again, it wont give me any more power at the top end but i will have more torque at the wheels and accerate faster onto the straight

[team_zi]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

i used 3 litres a lap!

Ruddy 'ell. You sure thats right Graham?

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

Ruddy 'ell. You sure thats right Graham?

sure is, i used 30 litres each time i went out, the final race i came back in on fumes, the levels so low in the tank its below the sight glass, so if you account for a warm up lap which was at 95% full race pace, and slowing down lap i covered 29miles for my 30 litres, obviously i used a bit warming it up in the assembly area etc etc.

several cars almost didnt make it to the end because of low fuel levels,

almost irrespectic of the circuit it seems to consume 1 litre a mile, lydden is better at about 075-0.8 per mile, but that place has no straights as such,

this is good fuel consumption the turbo used more than twice the amount of fuel!

[stephen bahr]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

this is good fuel consumption the turbo used more than twice the amount of fuel!

race the passat, problem solved

You were there,why don't you do a write up

so were you, what's your point? you do a write up, saw more of the car than i did, albeit the back of it.

[team_zi]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

this is good fuel consumption the turbo used more than twice the amount of fuel!

Good grief!!

[david_white]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

I think my car was using nearer to 2 litres a lap, if not a touch less. bargain

[Graham]

Re: A racing bmw 316, 240bhp Atmo M10

so were you, what's your point? you do a write up, saw more of the car than i did, albeit the back of it.

OUCH, thats harsh stephen, i dont suppose nick saw anything of my car i certainly didnt ever see nick on track