After Brands the car was acting a little werid. Mainly on start up from cold! Idle was awful and sounded likeit was missing now ands then. After trying the basic's i made trip to Jade development to get him to plug renault clip in. Pedal senor and throttle body fault ! Apparanlty these throttle bodies dont like Kerbs. its causes the butterly to jump and buzz the engine revs without moving throttle pedal which in turn confuses it. He reset the throttle body and The car felt alot better on way home! Pheww problem sorted...
NOT!!
Car still acting up and unkown to me was running bit flat and under powered which i later discovered. So after speaking to Paul @ RS tuning the desision was made too get it up there to put on the rollers! The result ....
RED was pervoius when he mapped it
GREEN was what was doing
As can see its down on power and running rich! without going into detail the course of it after messing round for ages.... The powerflex bushes of all things! When he mapped it they were not fitted. Dread to think what torque loss was aswell!!!!
The issue was that the powerflex bushes where triggering the Knock senor !!! It was thinking was engine knock when there wasnt and was turning the timing 6 degrees out and chunking loads fuel in
Every time he run it off with knock sensor turned off it was fine!!! typcial eh! All sorted now hopefully and he re tweeked thr map accordingly, aswell as lowering the knock sensor level at low RPM which is where was been set off.
How it is now
too think at Pembrey when been beat by 1/2 second or at Brands when miss out by 0.1 of second... The missing time is there clear to see. if car was 100% id of MADE thst time up so easily!!! Gutted was understandment but was own fault should gone there sooner after the misfire issue at Prembry. lesson learnt but very harsh one.
All this was fixed in time for Round 4 at Oulton Park
! Going into the event knowing car was good now pushed me on even more and pleased to say walked away with 2nd/2nd and closed some time down to the Turbo'd tyre R !
Here's the race report - In morning sessions the rain allowed me and clio too come into our own, with times reflecting that! even out doing ben collins in a more capable car
Time Attack round 4 - Oulton Park.
Oulton park . My favourite track and one where knew could do well knowing that car was back too 100% after Paul at RST fixed it. Looking back the engine issue cost me P2 at brands but hey that's Motorsport . It can be cruel. It's All a learning curve.
Following the weather closely all week I was praying that it would Rain. Waking up Saturday morning I was greeted to dry weather and Arriving at Oulton it was still dry so it was looking like my rain dance on Friday night wasn't going to pay off lol! But during the drivers Briefing the heavens opened and the rain did just come down!! Enjoy driving the Clio In the wet and makes everything a level'er playing field .
PRACTICE - now by this point the rain had hit hard and there was a large amount of standing water, Bit too much in places. We all went out and ended coming in after few laps as car was just too stiff on front so come in and softened it up. Car felt better but still wasn't right. Stuck couple half hearted laps in which turned out put be p1 in group and 3rd overall.
WARM UP - The rain had continued but wasn't as heavy so track had cleared up abit. Mainly the standing water . We made few more changes to front suspension and car felt loads better during warm up. Managed to put few decent laps in and was gaining more confidence in wet finding the grip
Levels. Come in and again was p1 in class and P3 in group! . Think we took nearly 10 seconds out of my practice time. Also went quicker than Ben Collins AKA the Stig. May only been warmup but I'll be taking that one!!
Sadly after this the weather turned around. The rain didn't hold out as of hoped. The Sun come out and it went warm so didn't take much time for track to dry. Least now could try and out do last years time I set of 1.47.2
QUALIFYING - On went the semi slicks and few clicks turned back on too the Suspension. After getting feel for the drying track and altering tyre pressures I Banged few laps in near end of the session that did me what I needed to Take P2 ! Happy, that was my target. I needed to take p2. My time was a 1.45.2 so beating last years time.
During the last few laps I thought was a issue with car as steering felt funny. Lucky turned out that tyre was eating away at the arch liner which tied in with car still feeling soft on front.
FINAL - By now the track had fully dryed. Few more clicks on front suspension and whatever dad did to rear. Still won't tell me. Anyway P2 was MY target again. After a early red flag we come in and dropped front tyre pressures slightly. Back out on my out lap I had a slight moment going into Druids. Cold tyres and going too deep into corner resulted into a trip through gravel which managed to get out of and avoided any contact with the barrier! Trying not too knock my confidence I just built my speed back up. The final lap of the Final I put my fastest lap in which was a 1.44.9! Again that gave me
P2! Job done!!
Doing a 1.44.9 Smashed my
Last years time so that target was hit too!!
I did what set out apart from dropping the trophy ( base fell
Off) that wasn't in my game
Plan
lol.
Too my surprise the Clio Won best presented car of the Day! Winner!!
So all in all Oulton was a good day!! Just shame the rain didn't stay.
Thanks to everyone that has helped me leading up to Oulton. Thanks too Dad , mum , Manda , Steve and Tracy for coming to
Support me yet again means a lot, aswell as all of the sponsors!!
Hopefully will have some go pro footage soon
Now for a nice break leading up to Croft.
Time Attack Championship
RS Tuning Limited
Midlands Renault Specialists
Brosport Ltd
DPH Motorsport
KW Automotive UK
Powerflex
Renault Kalatzisport Team
Blueprint Nottingham
ALS Performance Parts
Godspeed Brakes
Pirelli Motorsport
Aslo Have give a mention too
Jade Developments and
Chevron Motorsport, thanks guys.
