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

[Toymex]

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

Ok Thanks Lee

[Graham]

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

brand june 2nd

pre race prep, well that consisted of swapping van engines and injector pumps! the race car got minimal attention, after the sump leaks i fitted a new gasket and ran it up to check it didnt leak and that was it! i left for brands the night before just in case the van gave trouble, which it didnt.

, for some reason which i cant remember i got under the car and saw the prob coupling was starting to disintegrate, no worries i thought i'll fit the spare, so dropped off the exhaust and prop, only to find the spare coupling didnt fit it was too thick, so i ended up just bolting it all back toigether again, just as it was getting really dark i spotted the sump leaking!!! WTF! and ended up doing the gasket again, finally finishing about 2am!

practise, it had rained over night and the place was still pretty damp, the paddock looked dry but i was sure the track wasnt and it was none too warm, i felt i wouldnt get any heat into the slicks and as my rear wets are hard as nails and unlikely to overheat i opted to practicse on wets, and decided i'd deal with the softer front wets by backing off if i had to.

driving up to the collecting area after just scraping through noise ( i've noise tested everything from 96db to 114 this year!) i started to worry it all looked bone dry, going up the lane again it looked very dry, exiting the pits the track looked damp cue relief! and as the traffic in front hit druids they threw up a load of wet, cue more relief, after a few laps to warm things, i tried pushing, i couldnt get seriously in the throttle out of clearways without it trying to spit me off track but qualifying felt ok if not fast, i knew i wasnt going too bad as i caught and passed my old mate bill richards, it was quite amusing to watch him understeering under power!

i'd qualified 4rd in class, behind a bmw mini which surprised me, a renault clio cup car and gavins pug, you can forget about the pug, i dont stand a chance of beating that if it keeps going, the clio is quick but beatable, and the mini i can usually deal with them, so thats good, behind me was bills mini and lee mcnairs intergra, which in terms of lap times i just pipped at the end. actual lap time was a slow 1min 1sec, but everyone was about 5 secs off normal dry pace.

[Graham]

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

after nipping up the sump bolts and bolting slicks on it was time for race 1, recently the starts have been slowed down which is good, it means the n/a cars like mine are able to stay tightly bunched up for the start, in my case its vital to get a decent start, because i cant seem to make up ground once everyone has there tyres up to temp, as the lights went out i headed for middle of the pack,got past the bmw mini, only to see the gaps closing up, so i dived left to try go round the outside at paddock, when there was a coming together at the front, at that time i was behind the clio still, but shot over to the right of it to get up the inside of it, as things unfolded and he slowed, druids was typical first lap crowded as i held onto the back of peter taylors rs500, i held my place, the clio came back at me at graham hill but an inside line gave him a slow exit, so i kept my place as i continued to cling to the back of peter taylors rs500. into surtees for the first time i had to adopt a strange line, as another honda integra rejoined following some grass tracking down the straight, still trying to hang onto the rs500, went up the inside of a 1.8 turbo seat and outdragged that down the straight, clearways for the second time of asking i left a bit of a gap and jezz francis was up it, and we had another drag race down the start straight, side by side to paddock, i didnt try too hard to hold jezz off, as he isnt in my class and knowing he had considerably more speed than i did, which it proved to be as he steadily pulled away..by now im second in my class, with lee, bill, a clio and mini all behind me, we'd left the mini but the others were all firmly on my tail, i needed 3 sets of eyes, to look left right and straight ahead at the same time, i could see them all ( along with pushrod king) jostling for position behind me, and we were back to defensive driving again, slow in so as not to leave a gap and fire it out the corners meaning they had to go the long way round which wasnt happening, that went on for about 11 minutes, it felt like 11 hours before the flag came out. towards the end of the race i pulled out a bit of a gap, not sure whether i wore bill out or what but my lap times speeded up a bit, doing high 54's which i was quite happy with.

dunno why i bothered type all this you might as well just watch it from bills seat!

[Graham]

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

nothing to do to the car after race one other than nip up a few more sump bolts!


race two, another good start for me, unfortunatly almost immediately we had another safety car incident, as a result of a lock up at the front and, yet again through no fault of his own jezz ended up in the gravel trap, so as in races before, when the safety car is out my tyres cool off, and i have no answer to bill he comes knocking immediately its in and that was it bill was soon past, leaving me clinging on to 3rd in class, which is where i stayed, i keep lee at bay, it only really got interesting when i caught tony paxmans warrier mk2 which isnt in my class anyway, that thing matches me on the straights but isnt so handy in the twisties, on his tail into surtees i got along side at clearways and we dragged it out down the straight, arriving side by side into paddock, holding the outside, we headed into druids literally side by side, playing chicken as to who would brake first, it was actually me, but tony braked harder, and my outside line allowd me to carry a bit more speed and make the inside line at graham hill mine, once i passed tony he just dissappearead, i have to suspect his escort is more set up for rallying as its higher and rolls around more than nicks mk1 does.


so there we go another finish, another second would of been nice but 3rds ok, but its all good points though i leave the meeting with small advantage over gavins pug, dam! he's doing a lot more finishing this year than he did last!

[Group4_Mark2]

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

Great write up as usual Graham, thanks.

What is it about the PUG that makes it so fast?

[Graham]

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

the pugs got as much rubber as me, only softer, it weighs massively less, trick gearbox, monster spec engine, and probably a better driver, or at least one who aways drives at 110%, so nothing really!,

[Toymex]

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

the pugs got as much rubber as me, only softer, it weighs massively less, trick gearbox, monster spec engine, and probably a better driver, or at least one who aways drives at 110%, so nothing really!,

Also i suspect a much bigger budget and a pit crew offering support

[Group4_Mark2]

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

Just watched the video. That was pretty much bumper to bumper for a long time. Bill nearly had you on so many occaisions. His car seems to be quite nimble around the turns but looses a bit on the long straights. What sort of top speeds would you be getting to on the straights?

Tom

[Graham]

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

bills car changes direction in an instant, which is why your dare not leave him an inch up the inside, from what i understand he runs toe out on the rear and basically simply lifts, the tail slides and he plants it again, as for top speed brands indy doesnt have any real straight so only around 120-125mph. a 54 sec lap, gives an average speed of 77mph

edit, bill reads this thread so if im wrong he will soon tell me!

[Graham]

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

Also i suspect a much bigger budget and a pit crew offering support

you aint wrong mate!

[lee76]

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

Parallel toe Graham. The Avons have a stiff side wall which makes the car nervous as it is and the Mini lacks straight line speed compared to the other stuff so I try to set it up so it has as least scrub as possible in a straight line. We have other tricks to make it pointy on the nose.

[Graham]

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

lydden june 17th.

post race prep, well that consisted of a trip to the isle of man and working on the LDV! and charging the transponder.

actually thats a lie, i've been watching some small cracks in a brake disc for some time, and decided to change the disc. while i was under the car decided to stiffen the front roll bar, as it turns out both were big mistakes!

unfortunaly the entry for lydden was pretty small, i was in a class of 4, gavin who i was never going to beat, bill who whilst ive never beaten him round lydden i have whilst chasing him and richard brent set fastest lap of the race against, so i know i have a slim chance of beating him if things go my way, and a bmw mini which normally dont trouble me unless lee allen's driving them!!

i was keen to see the effect of my new ly up plated lsd, i've always struggled for traction out the elbow big time

lining up for practise i struck a bit lucky as they let the short queue i was in go first, meaning i had only two cars in from of me one being pushrod king, now we all know lyddens surface is very poor these days, it eats tyres and at the same time doesnt seem to provide any grip, so not having a load of traffic ahead should help.
pretty much as soon as we hit the track i knew i was in trouble, firstly underbraking i had a judder so bad it was giving my blurred vision! i could barely hold onto the steering, secondly the circuit had zero grip! the car was sliding around al over the place, neither end had any grip, cronic oversteer into corners, cronic understeer through them oversteer on exit, essentially i spent the whole practise session sliding around behind pushrod who was himself sliding around all over the shop. the judder i just got used to and dont think it overly effected anything once i realised i must of fitted a warped disc (it was a second hand spare after all) the grip was a major issue though, on the plus side i had improved ( over previous years) traction out the elbow so the lsd was good

to give a clue just how little grip there was, 3 years ago with 30bhp LESS, a knackered lsd with the wrong ratio in it i lapped lydden in 46.08, best i could muster in practice was 47.054, judging by that previous very low 46 and by improved brands lap times i should of been doing low 45's, pushrod posted a best of 47.001 so was ahead, which was no surprise, backing up the lack of grip was ashley's supercharged pug which was behind me with a 47.095, classwise i was behind bill and gavin with the bmw mini somewhere behind me.

back in the paddock i removed the warped disc and put the cracked one back on! although fairly deep the cracks didnt yet penetrate right through the disc, so i figured it would hang together for races, especially as lydden isnt exactly a high speed circuit. i know when ever dave white helps me out at a meeting he comments that wheel changing would be so much easier if i used studs not bolts for the wheels, but in this situation bolts really pay off, as you can remove a disc or even hub without removing either the calliper of pads making for a quick swap over, i also sotened teh front roll bar again to try and kill teh understeer a bit.

race1

nick (pushrod) held his qualifying advantage, i could use the s14's extra grunt to close up on nick and without the brake judder could close up under braking, nick with his thinking hat on simply put his car in the middle of the track on the way into the elbow which is where i was much stronger, i had a look a couple of times, but didnt risk trying for a pass, there wasnt much to gain, a place on track which wouldnt actually count for anything, but plenty for both of us to loose if it went wrong, so i opted to just keep the pressure on and the pair of us spent the race more like a drift session, nicks car was like an early warning system, he would go sideways and a nano second later so would i. Had the race not been shortened i'd of probably got past as nicks lines over the kerb at the end of the straight and into chessents got ever more lurid, we finished 5th and 6th overall, with ashley's pug and al philips harvey gibb powered cossy behind us still, nicks best lap was a fraction slower than practise whilst mine had improved a little with a 46.9, everyone in front of nick and i were in the 45's which is why we ended up on track on our own.

race two, not much to say about that either! bill richards who should of been in front of me on the grid was a non start as he was also racing at brands!!
so off the start i had had a gap infront of me which i had to make sure i didnt close up, or i'd of been judged to of jumped the start, nick timed the start well and was slightly ahead as the lights went out, round the outside at the first turn as nick was sliding around occupying the inside line, i got a better drive out the corner and pressed home my power advantage to get to the elbow first, and thats where we stayed with the exception of ash coming through, he was brave coming round the outside of me as i wasnt sure if i was going to under or oversteer into him!

you might as well watch the onbaord from ash's pug.

a couple of thoughts, nick must have the strongest x/f i've ever come across, you'd never guess it didnt have something bigger if you didnt know, he also gets a hell of a lot of his lap pace through pure corner speed, he did dammed well to keep the pug behind him for as long as he did, especially when you take into account the pug has over 400bhp

[Graham]

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

im starting to give next year some thought, assuming the motor makes it to the seasons end in one piece it will have to be torn down for a rebuild, two seasons on old worn valves and second hand standard valve springs is more than enough! current thinking is to have some longer rods made, as pistons currently come nowhere near top of block, the pistons are supposed to be used with 150mm rods and 87mm stroke, but they are actually being used with 144mm rods and 91mm stroke, logic says have the rods made 148mm long the extra 4mm bringing the rod/stroke ratio from 1.5 to a better 1.6., not to mention giving me a heap more compression, as well as buying a 308 degree cam for the inlet and move the current 292 inlet over to the exhaust, if i finally find a way to ditch the pinto ashley manifold infavour of something better added together all the mods plus some new rings! should stop the torque nose diving after 7K, the aim is to find 300bhp without going past 8K (current set up was 275 @7K when first mapped) 300bhp isnt that big for an s14 , they will make over 350, infact rick wood claimed 380 for one of his, but at those power outputs they are very fragile due to having to rev to between 9 and 10k to get that much power.

300bhp will put me power wise on pair with gavins pug, i'll still give away a shed load of weight top him, but the extra torque of my 2.6 should help out.

edit: quote for the rods just came in £160 plus vat each!

[Toymex]

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

Sounds good Graham ,you had better get saving

[caprimentle]

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

new plans sounds fantastic, but i bet the cold winter nights in the shed dont sound as appealing