DW's (new?) Sierra 3dr YB race car

[Retromotorsport]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

whose idea was it to go this early ?

[Group4_Mark2]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Good luck on the first outing. Post video as soon as possible.

[Graham]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

i do have to say that daves car felt really good straight out the box, very stable and very well planted brakes were ace, i recon with no changes whatso ever to the car except for perhaps inproving the gate on the gearbox ( it was incredably easy to hit 5th instead of 3rd) i recon i could lap brands indy in 56's which is well respectable given the cars power and current weight

well done on the build boys

onh and dave had a great day behind the wheel on sat, but i'll leave him to tell that story

p.s. a big thanks to dave for letting me loose behind the wheel of his new car, i normally dont like driving other peoples cars, but despite having driven my own car that same day which is a lot lighter and more powerfull making daves car seem quite tame, and the sierra being literally straight out the box, i was really enjoying rowing it round brands, thanks again dave

[alladdin]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

[david_white]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Well i'll give the short version for now, maybe Gary would be better at remembering it all than me but here goes.

Got signed on with my shiny new licence ok and car flew through scrutineering which is great when the car is so new. I introduced myself to barry, the clerk of the course and he said have you never raced the GP before, to which I replied no i've not raced..... before. He laughed and shook my hand to say thanks for seeing him and good luck for the day

Qualifying was a total unknown so i went out and got the car warmed up for a couple of laps and then Gradually built up my pace bit by bit whilst not overstepping the limits, not wishing to make a tit of myself the first time out. However i did have plenty of confidence to push harder as the car handles like a dream straight out of the box. having had Graham test the car on Friday and finding the tyre temps to be good it gave me the chance to drive the car harder than i expected.

The engine felt amazing and the brakes spot on so although car after car were passing me I had a big grin on my face. It was very busy on track but I was quite happy to just qualify even though i expected to be dead last. As it turned out I had managed 39th out of 45 cars and was doing 154's were the ideal pace for my class would have been a 1.50, so not too bad really. One big step done at least

Race 1, the rolling start was very slow and even 2nd gear almost became first for the start, but I made a decent start from the inside and the power I had meant that I had to quickly move around a few cars on the outside rather than back off. I hung on round the outside of paddock but my cold slicks (sorry for my gay weaving Andy) were no match for the toyo shod tin tops and a couple of them came back at me.
At druids it was avoid the chaos as Richard Brent went through the kitty litter but a good run down to Graham hill got me along side a few cars and by the next turn I had out dragged a couple of them. Another 3 door in front of me had a coming together and I found myself staring at his passenger door, I decided to go behind him but he started to slide off backwards as i did so I had a narrow escape.

As I settled down I found myself behind a pinto powered zakspeed mk2 and I managed to get a good run at him on the back straight and outbraked him into the next bend. I started to catch the next car but coming round again onto the back straight the car lost all power. I could feel the engine running but it wouldn't respond... It took the whole length of the straight to realise that I had knocked the ignition switch off with my arm whilst fighting with the synchros in 2nd gear, I turned the switch on and we were running, just as the escort repassed
I then got on one and got back behind the escort and I got on the power early coming onto the pit straight (same lap still), a bit too early as I got a bit sideways but I still out dragged him, leaving me on the iside for paddock and confident that the tyres would hang on.

By the end I caught ken in his blue mini, although I'm not sure if he had a problem and managed to stay in front of the cossie powered 3 door to take 29th place and in one piece

[david_white]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

race 2 was always gonna be about tyre choice, but then 5 mins to go the heavens openned and the wets we'd just fitted were gonna be the only way to go. Everyone else started slinging on wets as the dry line had disappeared and we started the race behind the safety car.

This was gonna be an unheroic drive and I just wanted to try to finish without binning it. As we got going a few people came off and visability was poor, especially as there were a few really quick cars coming past that had started from the back. A few of the small cars that had finished behind me in race one just drove around me like they were on rails but light weight fwd cars with not too much power were probably the best thing to be in with those conditions. The little mk2 fiesta that went passed me didn't have anything on the straight but was unbeleievable in the corners. I somehow found myself behind the turbo sierra on the warm up lap so I had to battle with him again, getting him into paddock on lap 2 I think. I think he also had trouble with steaming up windows and later pulled off. But I had still beaten him twice on merit and had set a quicker lap than him at least in race one.

Having fixed the ignition switch problem between races (cheers Gary) I had a nice clean run and just made sure not to over test the limits. and on the last lap after moving well out the way for Rod had let a rover tomcat turbo catch me. He showed his nose approaching druids and I though, ok its yours. He's not in my class and besides he had more speed tan me through paddock so there was no point holding him up. The lap finished and I had finished 31st out of 44 and I have to say I'm still grinning now.

A big thanks to all involved in getting me there this week and looking after me and also to everyone that turned up , your support was a big help and I just hope you enjoyed it and I didn't dissapoint too much.

Apart from a bit of a smoke screen in race one caused by the catch tank being too low (plus 8 hours of engine running by that point, so it was a bit full) and the gate between 3rd and 5th fecking about all the time the car was a million times better than i could have ever hoped. All we had to do was Gary raised the back end a little to keep the camber correct and we backed off the dampers for the wet race, but apart from that the car didn't need thinking about on track, it was that good to drive. And Linford is one awesome engine

Oh shit that was supposed to be the short version of the write up

[Graham]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

im just so chuffed you had a good weekend dave, first race for both you and the car, especially considering you havnt been doing anything at all on track lately so to have good finishes no problems is amazing, well done dave, great car you've put together, im proud to of been able to play a small part in it

[dangerousdave]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Nice one dave glad race 2 went well for you, had to go as the speed series endurance was boring me, it was pissing it down, and had to be back for 6

Good to see all the faces again, and congrats on a trouble free weekend

[duncan]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

great news dave i think that counts as a result all things considered

[david_white]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Thanks chaps, a trouble free, relatively, weekend was more than we could have hoped for and to have the car behave so well is a testiment to all of the hard work everyone has put in over the last few months.

Graham, don't play down what you've achieved, that engine was superb out there and was both grunty and very very forgiving. Following the safety car after the crashes in race one I was using higher gears to keep temps down and the car would still pull well out of the 2nd gear turns using 3rd!

I was glad to get a 1.52 in the first race and think another couple of seconds would have come off given a dry second race which could have got me in the hunt. The main thing for now though is that i get as much time in the car as I can and start to learn the circuits as this will find more time than modifying the car

[david_white]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Just some pics from one of the lad's phones. Should be some good action shots from Snappy racers in a day or two hopefully

[Graham]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

The main thing for now though is that i get as much time in the car as I can and start to learn the circuits as this will find more time than modifying the car
__________________

very very true dave theres much more performance improvement to come from you and you really getting to know the car than by tinkering with it, my ethos with a car is unless theres something drastically wrong, is to usually to do a couple of events at least inbetween changes to the spec,

the only things i would do with it this season would be to sort the box and fit an oil cooler, although im still at a loss as to why your engine and set up which is so similar to mine using similar but slightly lower revs and making less power is giving the oil such a hard time temp wise, i suspect the answer there is just down to my car having a more "open" front end with oil filter more in the airstreem and the oil tank taller and thinner, posssibly the biggest factor is my nice big alloy rad runs with a 10-15 degree lower coolant temp

[david_white]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

posssibly the biggest factor is my nice big alloy rad runs with a 10-15 degree lower coolant temp

Can i have it back then and you can have a leaky cossie one?

[trickymex]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

I'm very impressed and happy for you mate

everyone involved did a great job

[tom burgess]

Re: DW's (new?) Sierra N/A PINTO race car

Well done DaveI was surprised how well you and the car were going.Did well in the wet race just to stay on tracknow you can just build youre confidence and go for it