Brands 16th April

[erictharg]

At Brands Hatch this Saturday, if any fancies coming along. If you do, let me know as I have a couple of spare tickets.

[Mknight702]

Damn and blast, we're off up to Scotland on Friday.

[sgrant]

damn and blast, we are off to the lakes on Saturday.

Why does this always seem to happen?

s

[erictharg]

That's easy! It always used to happen to me when our girls were younger and my priority was being the good family dad. That's what you do. Then hopefully you get older, so do the kids, and they'd sooner be out with their pals than going for a nice walk with mum and dad. And you get your life back. Excellent!

[erictharg]

Brands Hatch 16 April.
Much better day. Dry and warm for a start. Dull 2 hour drive (all motorway) but at least a late start (11:00 practice) meant didn't need to leave home until 07:30. No problems with scrutineering. Tried upping the tyre pressures following chat with Midget racers on their forum. I had been running 16F, 18R (as Caterhams according to Yokohama) meaning the tyres are like BluTack. Very sticky but not very progressive. Practiced with them at 20F and 22R. Much nicer to drive - drifting again. Practice busy as grid mixed with Kit Cars and MR2's, so didn't get a clean lap. But, had 5 cars behind me so highest grid start yet.
Bad start again (slight downhill grid at Brands means you have to hold the car to stop it rolling forward - should have used the handbrake!) so I'm almost last into Paddock for the first time.
Got around the outside of Druids to pick up a couple of places. Got past two more MR2's; one on the inside of Druids, one going into Paddock. Basically having a good race. The Kit Cars MK Indy I had fun with at Mallory is gaining on me though. As ever, faster on the pit straight but I'm faster through the corners. But he's getting faster. I'm still slightly ahead coming out of McLaren on the last lap but he's coming up fast towards the line. Got him by 0.01 secs! Had a good chat with him afterwards and we're both looking forward to Cadwell for another ding dong (8 May). I ought to confess the driver is maybe 70 years old though. But not a novice!
Car ran fine. New silencer no quieter than the old one though. Still bang on 105 dbA. £100 and 2kg more weight for nothing. Need something better. Best news though is that when I did Brands last year (my first race) my best lap was a 1:05.47. Managed a 59:71 this time. Big improvement. Felt good. Car broke away into pretty lurid oversteer a couple of times during the race but came back very nicely. Novice cross gone; licence to upgrade for Spa in June.
Will play some more with tyre pressures at Rockingham track day on Sunday. An SR&GT newcomer brought his GT40 replica to race, but had a fire so had to sit it out. He hopes to be out at Snetterton though (21/22 May). Should be fun to watch.
Found a possible new member for the register. Guy turned up at Brands in an series 1 Eleven. Had racing history, but he'd restored it for the road. Very nice and tidy to. BRG with the hump. Gave him my email to link him to our little forum.

[techbod]

Sounds like a great time plus some improvement is evident!

Is Rockingham this coming Sunday? Might/might not be able to make it - bought a t25 camper which has gone from needing a tidy up to ordering panels and weekends spend grinding and welding - and its got to be sorted in 6 weeks for a booked holiday - but taking photos at Rockingham would be a nice break so I'll see how much I get done Fri/Sat.

The 16/18 psi is a starting point on the Caterhams. I think Stephen runs them (on the Cat not the Westy) nearer your pressures and mine are nearer 18/18 though I'm still playing with them.

Is your silencer re-packable? You might be able to get some extra wading in there if a circuit requires it?

[Mknight702]

I'll have to check my diary, but she isn't available at the moment!

Congratulations on having a good clean race, sounds like you had fun. Wish we could have been there.

[erictharg]

Yes - Rockingham this Sunday for a play. Anyone wants to come along is welcome. I'll have the passenger seat in for rides! Book a Track don't charge for passengers / spectators. If you do want to ride bring a helmet if you can - mine are all pretty small. Brian can't make it unfortunately, so it looks like me and loads of Caterhams, M3's and GT3's. But if you get the chance to come along it would be great to catch up with any of you.
After talking to a Custom Chrome who make the silencer I bought they advise making a simple mod to the silencer that shouldn't add much back pressure but should reduce sound level by 3 - 4 db. It involves slotting the perforated tube and adding a couple of semi circular perforated deflectors to force some of the gas to go into the wadding instead of striaght down the hole...So I've tried it on the original Westfield silencer (because it's small and light) to see if it works well enough. If I send them the one I bought they'll modify it for minimal chaarge.

[Chris Todd]

Hi
I am the guy that turned up at Brands in the Series One!
Met with Charles and he passed on the details of this site so thought I had better register.
I have shared a beer with Stephen Grant before now so really should have signed up before, but hey never too late.
Chris

[techbod]

Hi Chris,

welcome
Charles said he had met you and given you this URL - glad you made it here!

cheers