2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

[Helpimonfire]

which sunstrip did you get? i'm thinking i need this given how low my seats now are, but was worried about the wipers ruining it on the outside. wonder if any work well on the inside?

that said, my wipers don't seem that reliable atm and need recalibrating i think, lol.

It's only a cheap one from eBay. 1400mm by 300mm I think. Then just cut out around the rain/light sensor so the wipers don't go mental!

 

[NickD]

Too many gear changes. It might seem perverse to say, because lower gears give better acceleration, but mostly in your head you brake more, so lose speed, to get into a lower gear than you need. You never recover that speed.

 

[Helpimonfire]

Onto a trackday that I'd been bullied into booking. Bank holiday Monday with Opentrack at Snetterton.
As per usual the car ran well all day long, got abused by myself and 2 others and using the Racebox, we were all within 2 seconds of each other which was impressive.

No I haven't bought a fancy new helmet. At the wheel is Northern YouTuber Dan Silvester, otherwise known as DannyDC2. He's an actual racer with several racecars of his own and drives for Darkside Developments in their Audi TT in various 750MC and BRSCC events. The video review of my car will be an interesting one as he's owned a 182 in the past but like many others, never cared for the 197/200. Spoiler alert. He loved this one. Video will be out in a month or so, I'll link it in here when it goes live.

Bonus pic. My mate spent around £5,500 upgrading his Golf R as previously seen in this thread. Those of you coming to Snetterton on the 25th will see him as he'll be with us too. By around 3pm he was very bored of his expensive Golf and wanted to swap cars so here's a picture of me being very bored at the wheel of the R. Cracking car, very digital with no real feedback. Blisteringly fast though...

 

[Helpimonfire]

Only things to do to the car now is a new set of front pads. Between the 3 of us we finished them off!

On to the data and laptimes...
I was struggling all day to get into a good rhythm and had lost a lot of confidence on track, not sure why but I was really struggling to commit to the first corner, my entry speed was around 5mph slower than Danny and around 2-3mph slower than Wes. Also both were quicker around Coram too. However, 2:20.27 wasn't bad at all.


Wes managed a 2:19.27, exactly 1 second quicker which shows how vital the first and second to last corners are, being the fastest corners on the circuit.


I won't post Danny's time as I think he's planning on keeping that for his video but he was quicker than me and Wes anyway! Not bad considering it was the first time driving the car. In the interests of fairness, the car was kept with the same setup throughout the day once I'd found a good balance of front end grip and rear end play/stability.

One other thing to note, I've been running the MRFs at 30psi hot, a mate of mine (Chris Young, he's on here somewhere) was running his MRFs at 40psi hot, same at the Type R Trophy boys and seemed to have all the grip, putting in a respectable time of 2:15 and change. But he does have more camber to take advantage of. So I'll have a play with tyre pressures on the 25th to see what happens!

 

[EthanMenace]

One other thing to note, I've been running the MRFs at 30psi hot, a mate of mine (Chris Young, he's on here somewhere) was running his MRFs at 40psi hot, same at the Type R Trophy boys and seemed to have all the grip, putting in a respectable time of 2:15 and change. But he does have more camber to take advantage of. So I'll have a play with tyre pressures on the 25th to see what happens!

This is interesting, we’ve been running them at 30 ish hot as well as I assumed that’s the way to go with basically all semi slicks. How much camber does he run?

Looking forward to the DannyDC2 video, a clio seems very different to most of the stuff he usually drives.

 

[burrellbloke]

It looks like you had fun. I am looking forward to Snetterton on 25th May 2023.

I have got some DS Uno pads if you are interested? They had immense stopping power but my discs did not like them.



I like RaceBox data. This lap was done by Mike Epps in October 2022 at Snetterton in my Clio.



I am going to guess that DannyDC2 would get a time similar to this.

 

[Helpimonfire]

Funnily enough @burrellbloke I've got a set of barely used DSUNOs in the spares box that I didn't get on with either!

 

[Helpimonfire]

This is interesting, we’ve been running them at 30 ish hot as well as I assumed that’s the way to go with basically all semi slicks. How much camber does he run?

I missed this post. Chris runs a lot more camber (3.5 degrees?) plus the cup racer front end.

Gave the car a well overdue clean last weekend, found out where all my brake pads have gone...
Lots of contamination on the wheels, now the car is no show pony but it was getting absolutely hanging. It's been cleaned again yesterday because we have lots of birds around our area and they seem to use our cars as target practice!


Bumper came off too for a check over of the radiator, hoses and general condition of everything, also made accessing the oil filter much easier. The oil was last changed in January I think but no filter change at the time so it was due. Fresh Renault filter and the OEM Castrol was on the cards... Dropping the old oil was very worrying though...

The oil was fairly clean but looking at the trail left in the drain pan worried me. I couldn't tell if it was glittery or if it was air bubbles in the oil as it hit the pan, ignore the shit on the left of the pan, that was crusty stuff off the bottom of the sump.

So I don't know now. After fixing some exhaust leaks the engine sounded healthier but this has made me wonder what will happen in 10 days time at Snetterton now. Oh well.

I'll send it 'til I have to mend it I guess!

 

[RSRowe]

Doesn’t look like there’s anything metallic, just dirty.
You’re tuning Titan race aren’t you?

 

[Helpimonfire]

Doesn’t look like there’s anything metallic, just dirty.
You’re tuning Titan race aren’t you?

I did until I realised I'd put the wrong weight in, I went back to the OEM Elf stuff. Could just be all the fancy detergents doing their job, the sun was super bright yesterday so it was hard to see what was in the oil, I think it's just a case of paranoia setting in after a bunch of F4R failures in the past 6 months.

 

[EthanMenace]

Not to encourage yours to go bang.....


this one is calling your name

 

[Helpimonfire]

Yeah I need to sort something out to come and collect it really!

 

[RSRowe]

I did until I realised I'd put the wrong weight in, I went back to the OEM Elf stuff. Could just be all the fancy detergents doing their job, the sun was super bright yesterday so it was hard to see what was in the oil, I think it's just a case of paranoia setting in after a bunch of F4R failures in the past 6 months.

Well this was my thinking. I know the Fuchs stuff usually comes out minging when I’ve changed mine

 

[Helpimonfire]

Well this was my thinking. I know the Fuchs stuff usually comes out minging when I’ve changed mine

To be fair I'd actually forgotten I'd used the Fuchs Titan stuff until you mentioned it. Maybe just all the gunk working its way through? Who knows. We'll see!

 

[RSRowe]

We will indeed. It’s not like it’s done bad for itself if it happens

 

[S24nrc]

Is the fully synthetic ester stuff that good for cleaning up engines then? My Megane engine I've just swapped in looks like its missed an oil change at some point and has some nice sludge/varnish I wouldn't mind running out with a few oil changes before I really start to lay into it.

 

[RSRowe]

I can say for certain, that Titan Race does have cleaning detergents in it. I’m not sure of others

 

[NickD]

One other thing to note, I've been running the MRFs at 30psi hot, a mate of mine (Chris Young, he's on here somewhere) was running his MRFs at 40psi hot, same at the Type R Trophy boys and seemed to have all the grip, putting in a respectable time of 2:15 and change. But he does have more camber to take advantage of. So I'll have a play with tyre pressures on the 25th to see what happens!

Lots of things to consider here. First, and quite an important thing, is that they will replacing their tyres far more frequently than you will. It typically used to be one pair per race meeting, or around every 1.5 hours on track. The tyre typically does not need a lot of camber to keep the footprint, however different spring rates, camber plus toe considerations all have an effect on the tyre. Typically running 3.5 camber with high pressure will load the inner, treaded edge of the tyre up in straight line traction and braking and can risk over heating it, but certainly will be a wear area.

 

[burrellbloke]

Lots of things to consider here. First, and quite an important thing, is that they will replacing their tyres far more frequently than you will. It typically used to be one pair per race meeting, or around every 1.5 hours on track. The tyre typically does not need a lot of camber to keep the footprint, however different spring rates, camber plus toe considerations all have an effect on the tyre. Typically running 3.5 camber with high pressure will load the inner, treaded edge of the tyre up in straight line traction and braking and can risk over heating it, but certainly will be a wear area.

Nick - what pressures would you suggest for hard compound MRF ZTE tyre at Snetterton for a Clio with a Gripper carrying a driver and a passenger?

 

[Beany]

@NickD could you also give me the lottery numbers Also