Clio 197 Cup - Time Attack Build Progress

[Alistair]

And there we go ... i THINK .. I THINK ... that is everything done for the car prior to race season.

Regulations allow (through a loop hole) to run a go kart seat so thats a nice weight saving for me.

currently in talks about having a new splitter and a defuser mate up for me this season, as well as purchasing a BYC wing to get a bit more down force and up my corner speeds (I need this as im at a massive disadvantage power wise in the class) So I'll hopefully have some useful aero

 

[GMballistic]

 

[Alistair]

View attachment 156700

Yeah, dead serious. I assume you're on about the seat? .. fully legal in TA for a passenger seat.

 

[GMballistic]

Yeah, dead serious. I assume you're on about the seat? .. fully legal in TA for a passenger seat.

That's brilliant. What a funny loop hole.

 

[Beany]

I presume no one will actually sit in that seat, but for the purpose of rules it’ll say the car must have 2 seats ?

 

[Alistair]

I presume no one will actually sit in that seat, but for the purpose of rules it’ll say the car must have 2 seats ?

exactly this yeah mate

 

[Alistair]

And that's ... hopefully the car up to regulations and finished for now!

picked up a new sponsor last week that specializes in aero features, so hopefully a new splitter, cannards etc will be up front as well as a nice big defuser to join the BYC wing i have on the plans also!

 

[Alistair]

Treated my self to a new car this week .. and tow car for the clio for this season.

2010 Ford kuga, 2l TDCI AWD - 2100kg towing capacity which is great!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Same engine as my Mondeo. Good spec? I love the heated and cooled seats in mine!

 

[Beany]

Can’t beat heater and cool seats

 

[Alistair]

Same engine as my Mondeo. Good spec? I love the heated and cooled seats in mine!

Unfortunately no heating or cooling seats!
its the 160hp titanium version, so good enough for what i need and still figuring out what it actually has that im not used to

 

[Alistair]

Got the stickers on for TA .. one looks off and wonky but i followed the body line of the car, i might change a few of them but we shall see when i get to scruiteneering and get told off! haha

got a few more to get on from the other sponsors then we're all sorted

 

[Alistair]

Today's job was changing the rear springs from 4kg to 8kg to get the back end a lot stiffer and let me have a bit more dampening adjustability now which will be handy.



Managed to set it up so I've got some rake in there now, it looks a lot in the photo but front / rear difference is only half an inch in height.



And after having one car's suspension sorted, the daily Kuga needed a new front spring, annoyingly enough it had snapped and we didn't notice on the test drive .. Rip me. Easy change as it has a new strut anyway

 

[Alistair]

Anglesey rounds one / two.

Car was ready, set and was a great laugh and a good drive being able to push harder than I've been able to.

Arrived Friday afternoon and got set up, tyre pressure and fuel where checked and sorted ready for practice in the morning.


Round one:

Round one was on the coastal circuit at Anglesey. Started off well getting used to the track again after almost a year since I've driven it, lap times started slow but got better over the day's outings, from a 1:26.3 down to a respectful 1:24.2 in warm up. Thinking it would be a good idea to change the suspension and tyre pressures to something else to try, ended me back up to a 1:26.001 .. not what we wanted! Changed everything back and hit a 1:24.7 in the finals, not bad but could have done way better. This put me 7th out of 8th which wasn't what i wanted.


Sunday bought me round two on the International circuit, adding two straights and a nice hair pin into it was a fun challenge.

Having learnt the other 90% of the circuit Saturday, I was straight up to speed and finding my feet with the new braking and turning points, which meant a bit of sideways action coming down into one of the corners which was good fun.
Started off well with a 1:52.5 and dropping way down to a 1:47.7 in the final run, ending up in 5th out of 7, missing out on fourth place by 0.05 seconds ..!!




Car ran faultlessly over the whole weekend, apart from an ABS / ESP warning lights coming on half way through the finals, but they seemed to have gone away for now. Will be checking over the car this week before cadwell in 2 weeks time.

 

[Alistair]

I'll attempt a better write up this week but .. cadwell went well, third in pocket rocket

 

[Helpimonfire]

I was watching the live timing on TSL and listening to the commentary. I love that an F4R engined Clio spanked a pair of K swapped Clios with aero... Nicely done mate!

 

[Alistair]

I was watching the live timing on TSL and listening to the commentary. I love that an F4R engined Clio spanked a pair of K swapped Clios with aero... Nicely done mate!

I wasn't sure I'd be able to stay in front .. But turns out the part I was gaining time on was section 2, which is the twistier part of the circuit, so their power helped them on the straights i think. But it was a good day, F4R all day long

 

[Alistair]

Always good to share some news in my motorsport venture. As a lot of you know I’ve been wanting to race properly for several years and being able to get into it this year is a massive step for me.
Last year I met the guys from JD Motorsport Engineering at a track day, where they were doing track side support at for me and a bunch of others that headed up to Snetterton. I got chatting to John at the end of the day and mentioned about Time Attack and my plans and ideas.
Fast forward 6 months, we met up again at Autosport International and they proposed an offer for the 2024 season.

Being a massive help with their motorsport knowledge, contacts and useful info about a world I’ve never been part of, this was a very easy yes!

After a great result at Round 3 at Cadwell, they have now decided to come onboard full time, to run the car for the season and as title partner, track side support and full race maintenance, parts supply and also to keep me in line

Being able to go from a solo driver to having a team to support me in my first season is an unexpected but welcome feat I never thought would ever happen. I never realised how much I needed someone hanging a board over the pit wall for me!

 

[Big Ben]

That’s awesome news. Congratulations. I’m sure everyone in here wish you all the best

 

[Alistair]

That’s awesome news. Congratulations. I’m sure everyone in here wish you all the best

Appreciate that mate, thanks!

I’m hoping it’ll be as fun as I’ve written it out to be .. they collect the car this weekend and then it’s almost an arrive and drive situation with my own car as they’re gonna bring it to each round for me