Dedicated Track Car Progress Thread

Today (Saturday) not quite as successful as Friday but I still got a few bits done.

At Silverstone and again at Oulton I had a quite noticeable issue.
I was seeping a little oil, not enough to leave spots but as it was directly onto my manifold, enough to smoke like |I was on fire whenever I pulled up.
Never gonna please the scrutineers that..
It took some finding as it really was a tiny leak, but i tracked it down to the driveshaft oil seal. (set in too far looking at the shiny driveshaft showing)
So i popped the OS driveshaft and replaced the offending seal. (fitting it to the correct depth)
All nice and easy as all the bolts have been off, cleaned and torqued recently.

Next up was the cams.
I`d forgotten just how bloody fiddly it is, with the engine in..
With the cams exposed, I set about finding tdc, not hard but the timing bar refused to fit in.
Just as I ran into this little headache, the heavens opened. Blowing straight over my shoulder into my open engine.
So i had to bail on that job `till tomorrow. If it`s dry...

So not as good as yesterday but still a good step of the way.

For tomorrow, if it`s dry, cams.
If it`s wet, seats/interior and bumper

trublustu said:

[post]348864[/post]the heavens opened.

Click to expand...

Typical British weather! Good news on fixing the oil leak, I used to have an oil leak from the rocker cover onto my exhaust manifold. Was the worst smell I ever smelled ;p

I wonder what's worse, mud or gravel when off the track. I would guess mud does less damage but harder to clean off!

Sounds like you're making good progress anyhow Stu

And so onto Easter Sunday.
We are having real quality bank holiday weather, not quite the monsoon wthat hit yesterday, but 4 seasons in one day!
Fortunately the breaks in the rain/hail were sufficiently sunny to get my engine back together, with no more than a clean rocker cover fitted.
I did find the mud had got to my aux belt and some pulleys were cruddy.


All cleaned before refitting
Started first turn of the key.

While the weather was harsh, I just got busy inside the car.
I recently acquired a pair of quite filthy, Cobra adjustable seats, on Cobra subframes.
I already have a pair of spongy 4x4 lightweight bucket seats.
I have been using standard (late) Puma seats and I am not a great fan of them.
They seem to encourage you to lean out of the seat. Giving a great driving experience, but not what I want on track.
I want to be almost held in by the seat.
The Cobra seats are in good nick and would be great with a clean, but the buckets get hold of you much, much better.

With the subframes weighing 7 1/2 kg and the Cobras weighing 15 kg this would be a heavier set-up than standard.
The buckets come in at 7.5 kg and win out. Two Cobra adjustables for sale.


As the car is getting set up in `Sprint trim` only one seat is going in for now
This removes a further 23kg for the sprints

Another little task I undertook today was looking at replacing the upper grille with mesh.
Here`s the result (saves another 500g)


I`ll be fitting a couple of LED D.R.L`s for poor conditions and painting the mesh and metalwork black.

As for Easter Monday, I`ll be finishing off my door card and cosmetics.
New bumper will get some attention too.
That`ll be fitted next Saturday before we set off.

Has the fixing of that lambda loom sorted out the idling issues you had?

It did just that. Wild.E
I`d noticed that the exhaust smelt really rich and started checking the fuelling as well as air flow.

Thanks for the messages, asking after the lip spoiler supplier.
My purchase history doesn`t go back far enough and that supplier I mention earlier is a duff link.
So I`m gonna have a good search later to try to find something suitable to recommend.

And so Bank Holiday Monday rolled around.
My job list still seemed impossibly long and I cracked on with gusto..

I`d decided to give the car fresh pads anyway, so hadnt inspected them since Oulton.
And I found one of my pads had the the least friction material left as I have ever seen.
[image]5588[/image]
I recon If I`d finished my last lap I`d have ground metal..
as it is the back plate has barely touched the disc and hasn`t marked it (phew!)
So new pads all round and a pressure bleed just for good measure.

After staying away from any go-faster stickers, I`ve decided to give the car some character.
Mainly because it`s going to be very publicly competing in the sprints this year,
so I wanted to give the car some individuality.
Unfortunately I had to give in.
I`m no vehicle wrapper and the first couple of stickers I applied were so bad, I stopped before I cocked it all up.
I`ll be contacting a local guy to see if he has a spare half hour Saturday morning, to stick some go-faster stripes onto my car!

I also had a play with the front bumper. I removed the lower grill (another 550 grams) and with a bit of stretching I fitted some more of the mesh hat I fitted to replace the upper grille. It`s a full kilo of weight saving, better stone protection for the radiator and better airflow through it. win-win-win

[image]5589[/image]

I also spent a bit of time inside the car doing some simple cleaning.
There were nuts and bolts, grit, tools and other detritus everywhere.
No longer, all clean.
I also had a play with the seat position to get the right feel.
It`s totally different to the Puma seat and I`ll play with it a little more at Blyton..

Speaking of which.

My first attempt at an organised competition, the 2016 Javelin Sprint Series, starts next Sunday (3/4/16)
The first and second meets are at Blyton Park, near Gainsborough.
It`s the track I have driven the most and as the only Puma entering, I hope to fly the flag for the little Blue Oval

If anyone is free Sunday, you are welcome to pop along (it`s free) to offer moral support and hearty cheers..


p.s.
I`d better pull my finger out and buy/cut some plywood for my splitter
and get my soft tyres fitted to their rims..

Hi Stu
If not for the Sherburn meet I'd have come along to give you some moral support.
Barry

No probs Barry, cheers.
I`ll be flagging up each event, it`d be great to see you at any of the meetings.

I may even write a dedicated Sprint Series thread, especially as i`m in the only puma taking part (so far)

I am too far away to come, but I hope you will do better than you hope!

I'll see you there, I'll come in the Puma to offer moral support

That`s great Yvonne.
It`ll be good to see you again..

That grille looks great, have some mesh laying here as well. How did you go about fitting it? Some helpful tips would be appriciated

Hi KoNLaR,
Fitting the mesh was quite straightforward.
Once the lower grille is removed the lugs are quite easy to cut off, I used a dremel to tidy the bits that were left.
I was quite rough with this as my car is not built for show, but it can be tidily done I`m sure.
The back edge of the `hole` is quite flat and the bumper moulding around it is quite chunky.
so with the mesh laid out I simply used 15mm self tapping screws with washers every 4 or 5 holes around the edge, starting from the middle.
I would recommend painting the lower lip at the back of the black `filler` bit of the bumper black for best effect.
Here`s some pics..

[image]5603[/image]
[image]5604[/image]

The other mod is the `MkIII splitter`

As I`m still coming up with the `perfect` design (in my eye)
Once again I`ve gone from `free out of the skip` materials.
In this case its a piece of 9mm MDF.
Yes I know, it`ll almost explode as soon as it gets wet! But thats long enough to give this version a few track sessions.

The mk3 has a few changes from the mk2.
I still have half of a Richard Mansfield fiberglass splitter which I used as a starting point.
One thing I wanted to combat was at the splitter ends.
The high pressure air being `split` would have been `folding` under the splitter ends in front of the front tyres, which I figure can`t be good.
So I extended the splitter, FRP style, so this air is dumped beyond the tyre.

[image]5606[/image]

I ditched the `D` shape and went for something more like the `C` shape of the FRP and most aftermarket versions.
Mainly so I can get the the oil filter and rest of the engine with the bumper on.

[image]5607[/image]

I thought long and hard on the negative effects bolting a splitter to the front of your car.
An obvious one being air resistance.
On a standard car all the air that hits the front of the car below the black bumper filler piece just folds under the car with little resistance.
By fitting the splitter it `splits` the air pushing it around the sides, but the area in the middle of the car isn`t doing much except catching air.
Now I didn`t want to remove the rubber skirt as this would be too much, cancelling out all the positive effects of fitting a splitter.
So I drilled a few rows of 10mm holes (95 of `em!) to relieve some of the pressure in this area.

[image]5608[/image]

Once fitted they are invisible (you can see the light shining through them here)

[image]5609[/image]

Finally I Added some splitter stays,
I used the same builders strapping as on the Mk2, as this is mega strong, aero friendly and I have a huge roll of it...
I attatched it behind the number plate `lugs` (now removed) through the holes in the black plastic filler and through holes in the splitter.
Attatched with bolts, out of sight.

[image]5610[/image]

Fitted it looks the part and it seemed to work really well at Blyton park.
Though I`ll need to see the pro photo`s to see whether its holding together on track.

[image]5605[/image]

I`ll probably fit end canards to the splitter when I make some canards for the bumper.
and possibly some rubber skirt as seen on ebay to catch a bit more air at the sides,

The car evolves..

Nice info there Stu k:

Love homemade R&D, great work mate

You`ll notice that my R&D deparment is based in my kitchen..
As I`ve been working `till 8pm all week, and I needed this done, my house has looked like a garage / joiners workshop.
My 18yr old daughter is not very happy, but hey..

:lol: all my work used to be in my 3rd floor one bed flat in North London until I moved to a house in August, you'll notice in my recent updates a stone paving background which is my now patio area/garden! :grin:

Show off..

I`ve been lapse in producing a track report but here goes..

Our small group arrived the evening before and camped at the track.
This is a first for Blyton as I`ve previously used a campsite just up the road.
I must say that staying at the circuit is a really good shout.
No really early start and you can leave the tent where it is `till later :thumbs:
With this being a sprint meet, it`s a different process to sign on etc. First thing is to get your car scrutineered.
So apart from forgetting to clip my harness in (they thought this was hilarious) I soon got my little scrutineering sticker.
Then it`s time to get a wristband and sit through a briefing.

The day is made up of a couple of sighting laps, 2 untimed practice runs then up to 8 timed runs, with lunch in the middle.
To my absolute delight the car sailed through the sighting and untimed runs without any clouds of smoke, so the weepy seal on the gearbox was finaly cured.
The seat took some getting used to, as now I was `grabbed` and not moving around,
So now it was down to business.

Leading out my group (Puma, Escort & 2 Clio`s)


So off we went. I was really REALLY disappointed with my first run of 1:25.53, which is about SIX seconds off my PB. (1:19.44)
So I started getting to grips with the new tyres/seating/driving style and took 1 1/2 seconds off my next two runs.

I was starting to really push it before lunch and managed to end up with all 4 wheels going sideways through The Wiggler chicane.

After lunch I had two decent runs, setting my best time of the day in run 5. (1:21.93)
Run 6 was a void run as I over cooked it into the final corner and wend off quite sideways in a cloud of tyre smoke!

Run 7 was a fraction slower than my best so far and I was fully psyched for my final run,
When some pillock in a MR2 managed to hit the timing gear.
No 8th run. Bugger.

11th in class. very average

So, onto car development.


My FRP cams have GOT to be fitted before this car turns out again.
Also, my gearbox was a absolute nightmare. :?
Going for 2nd from 3rd was a lottery! Getting any of 1st, 3rd or 5th. :lol:
That really slowed me as I was tentative changing gear.

It`s getting a new gearbox. Priority A1*...
At the same time the cams will go in.

I was almost neck and neck with a couple of MX5`s (just beating them both)
so at the next meeting I should be able to guess just how much time I lost in this round.

As for the cars handling, it was exemplary.
As you can see in the photo of me drifting above (which I saved) the car is quite balanced.

Here It`s cornering at 75-80 mph and looking absolutely planted
(I`m no fan of hanging a wheel in the air mid corner, I like my tyres ON the tarmac!
And the new splitter looks solid as a rock :grin:

Here, I`m giving it silly power out of the final corner, it`s understeering slightly, but with the back simply following the front.

I may play with tyre pressures very slightly, but I`m delighted with the chassis, I just need to get the motor up to speed.
(Oh yes, and smooth out the spare tyre well gap)