Glacier White 200 Cup

[burrellbloke]

The Clio was treated to an oil change this week. We usually change the oil after every three track days to make sure the engine is kept well lubricated. The engine is okay on oil consumption. After a track day at somewhere like Snetterton where the engine is worked really hard it might consume about half a litre of oil, but usually the oil is not in the engine long enough to need any real attention.

As usual I got the oil from Opie Oils. Fuchs Titan Race Pro S has always worked well in the F4R.



The oil came out looking good with no sparkly material.



The oil filter on the engine was last changed in October 2022. That was because the engine was in its original shell and that shell was crash damaged in November 2022. So the car had a pretty fresh oil filter when the oil was drained whilst the engine was moved.



The oil filter was changed this week for another genuine Renault one. @EthanMenace marked it up with the approximate engine mileage which is now different to the shell mileage. The car has not done many miles over the past year.



New sump plug and washer.



In goes the god stuff which is now red rather than a golden yellow colour.



I have got some new number plates to go on the car to replace the older dealer style plates which have holes in from when they were originally drilled and attached to the car with screws. The cleaner plates should make the car look a tiny bit cleaner.

I think that the car is now ready for Snetterton this week. It seems to be running well. Ethan is hoping to beat his lap time of 2m 18s at Snetterton, with any luck I won't be over 19 seconds a lap slower than Ethan like I was at Oulton Park!

We are both off to watch the BTCC racing at Brands Hatch this weekend. We have tickets for the Saturday to see the qualifying and some other bits like Porsche and Mini racing and we are then back on the Sunday to see the touring car racing and support races.

 

[burrellbloke]

I changed the plates on the Clio today. The plates that came on the car still had the second hand car dealers details on. They also had holes drilled in the top. We had removed the screws and stuck the plates on the car with some 3M Dual Lock but the old plates still looked tatty.



The screw covers had been stuck on the plates to cover the holes but they had fallen off of the front plates.



I took a gamble and purchased some plates from Amazon for £13. The plates are okay but look much better on the car.



@EthanMenace has invested in a 3D printer and is keen to complete our brake duct set up.



At the moment we have the fog lights removed and some Corvette brake ducts installed - but there is no direct air feed from the fog light aperture and the Corvette duct "intake". Air just rushes through and gets collected by the Corvette ducts. Ethan wants to design and print and fog light brake duct that channels more air to the Corvette duct and avoid losing cold air in the front bumper area.



Version 1 is printing now so we will see how many revisions we need before it works.

 

[LiamP]

Sign me up when you have a final revision

 

[EthanMenace]

No promises on when it’ll be ready…

 

[Helpimonfire]

Nice wallpaper Ethan

 

[EthanMenace]

Nice wallpaper Ethan

rude, what’s wrong with the hulk

 

[burrellbloke]

We went to Sneterton today for a MSV track day. I had been checking the weather forecast for the past 7 days and was hoping for hot sunny weather. It was 26 degrees on Sunday with bright sunshine. Today was wet, but I think that I enjoyed the wet today. I left Oulton Park last month feeling a bit frustrated that I had not really embraced wet track days.

We drove in the rain to Snetterton and when we arrived there was still light rain, but there was the prospect of the rain passing by about 10.00 am or 11.00 am.



We did the sighting laps on the road tyres and did the first two sessions on the PS4s as well. Ethan did a 2m 52s lap and I did a 3m 01s.

Driving round Snetterton in the wet was a different experience. You could not race down Senna Straight and throw the car in to Riches at 90mph in fourth gear like you would in the dry. It took a bit of finessing to find the limits of the tyres/grip to carry speed around the track. The Gripper has always proved to be a great way to get the power of the engine to the wheels but in the wet conditions the Gripper was not so effective stopping both front wheels spinning up on corner exits.



The track day was not very busy and I think that it was only half full, but there were quite a few race teams there. Lots of BMW Compact Cup race cars and a few Audi TT Cup race cars. A Lamborghini Huracane was one of the nicest cars. There was also an odd pick up truck that sounded very good. There was only one other Clio at the track day which was a 197. The driving etiquette of some of the race team drivers was bloody awful.

By about 11.00 am dry patches were appearing on the track and there were blue patches in the sky. We decided to put the track wheels on with the MRF tyres. Due to damp conditions the PS4s were very hard to get any heat in to. The MRFs were similar all day long, they did not get hot at all but did feel stickier than the PS4s.

Then something awful happened. One of the BMW Compact Cup cars managed to drop coolant and oil round the 3 mile length of the track. The track was closed for about 3 hours. Lunch was brought forward to 12.10 pm but even at 1.10pm the track was still unsafe to drive on. By the time the track reopened at 2.45pm the dry weather had gone and drizzle had started.

When the track reopened Riches and Montreal were absolutely drenched in an attempt to disperse the slippy fluids, but it just made them very difficult to get through them with any speed.



At this stage we both took turns in the car trying to improve our lap times and looking for grip on the circuit. I found that corner exits the most difficult skill to master today. Normally I get to an apex and floor the accelerator and just point the Clio in the right direction. Today I was coming out of corners with the car understeering. I was trying not to hit the accelerator too quickly and waiting for the steering wheel to be mostly straight before sending power to the wheels.

After Ethan did a solo session he had the revelation that wet lines had more grip. We both tried taking corners wider and did find that if we stayed off the racing line in the wet there was more grip to find.

Just before 5.00 pm the petrol warning light came and and we decided to call it a day. I managed a wet time of 2m 57s and Ethan had done a 2m 47s lap. We had both improved on our lap times by the end of the day when the track conditions were probably worse than when we had started the day.

I enjoyed today in the wet, but I am still longing for hot and dry track days next year. I managed to keep the car on the track all day - perhaps that is because I take fewer risks when I drive compared to Ethan and get slower lap times? Quite a few cars spun off the track today. Ethan did a few off road sessions today although he refuses to describe the off roading as spins because the car did not spin round by 180 degrees.

I will see if I can produce a highlights reel of the various slides, lucky escapes, spins and off roading sessions from today.

I genuinely think that today was our last track day for 2023. We have managed 8 track days this year which is not bad. The car is still in good condition apart from needing two new road tyres. The next task is to make sure the car passes its MOT in November so that we can carry on driving to track days next year.

 

[deekay16v]

I just love, how your car look on the track, one of my favourites here .. very nice stance Btw what spacer thickness do you run with CUP wheels?

 

[burrellbloke]

Thanks.

We use 20mm spacers with the Soeedline wheels. I think that the spacers fill the arches nicely.

We don’t use any spacers with the Ultraleggera wheels as they have an offset of about ET40.

 

[d6n]

Great write up as per. Do you not change the ducted headlight for road use?

 

[burrellbloke]

Not really, we are too lazy and the police have not noticed yet.

But - it will be swapped out for the MOT and the colder winter months.

 

[Beany]

You need to get Ethan 3d printing headlight vents

 

[Tarticmonkey]

Glad you had a good day despite the conditions and pilchard in a BM dumping fluids.

It always seems to be a wet day when this happens as I had a similar experience at Blyton Park a couple of years ago. I still remember the paddock being a rainbow after they drove up it to some diagnostic work on the car...

 

[S24nrc]

Figuring out the wet line is a great feeling. I felt like a hero in the 8 or so wet laps I did on the ring this summer lol

 

[EthanMenace]

Figuring out the wet line is a great feeling. I felt like a hero in the 8 or so wet laps I did on the ring this summer lol

Exactly how I felt

 

[burrellbloke]

This is Ethan's fastest lap from Snetterton:

Here is my slightly slower, but fastest, lap:

The videos show how much spray there was on the track.

At Snetterton I used RaceChrono on my phone to see if it would perform any better than Harry's Lap timer to collect data from the OBD port. For reasons that I do not understand Harry's Lap Timer does not like to play with my phone as it works sometimes, then stops, or just does very odd things in the middle of a session. I had used DashCommand in between Oulton and Snetterton to see if it could produce consistent data but that did not work either.

RaceChrono Pro worked perfectly when I used it in the afternoon. I have always wanted to be able to create track day videos that show basic data including speed, revs, gear, throttle and brake pedal. RaceChrono Pro does not actually take the data from the car to show what gear it is in. The gear is calculated by the video software RaceRender - although it seems to think that the car has a 5 speed box because 1st gear is so short. I have got round this by telling the algorithm just to add on a gear which seems to work.

 

[burrellbloke]

I put together a highlights reel of the slippy conditions at Snetterton last week.

 

[LiamP]

I put together a highlights reel of the slippy conditions at Snetterton last week.

Haha good work, glad I am not the only one who finds Snetterton tricky in the wet! I found I needed to be completely off the dry line and then pray when crossing it.

 

[EthanMenace]

Haha good work, glad I am not the only one who finds Snetterton tricky in the wet! I found I needed to be completely off the dry line and then pray when crossing it.

It took me till the last session to work that out but yeah thats I found it! Ridiculous lack of grip on the dry line in comparison

 

[burrellbloke]

The expensive MSV photographs (£30 for 10 photos) have arrived.



The photo below is probably the driest the track got all day.



I am not sure if the photo below was just rain or MSV's deliberate attempt to soak turn 1 and 2 to disperse coolant and oil.



I am still enjoying the cup spoiler adding that little touch of class to the rear end of the car.



Finally, the last photo shows that the new exhaust clamps have done their job as the exhaust is no longer banging on the rear beam or visible in side shots.