Created by Petrolheads, for Petrolheads

Marcus and I have just got back from a very damp practice morning ahead of the Sprint on Easter Monday. I can safely say that Marcus’s Radical is VERY fast, while SPR is alot slower – no surprise there – however our little Lotus should be competitive in her class. For Marcus this was the end of a four month wait to drive ‘The Red Devil’ as the Radical has been nick named. He was more than happy with his purchase and it certainly lived up to expectation.

You can read full details on my runs on the SPR Race Diary page.

The wife has caught the bug. Here is Jo preparing to go out on track with one of Goodwood’s driving instructors. After a slow and nervous start she soon got into the groove. Trouble was at the end of the day Jo said “when can I go again”!

Also note SPR’s new light weight Rota wheels (shod with slicks), they look great and help with turn in.

Living in a county baked by brilliant sunshine for what seemed like weeks, it was hard to believe the rain forecast for the Brands Hatch track day at a venue not more than 50 miles away … but after consideration we loaded up the Golf-mule support car with the wet tyres on the outside chance they might be required.  We left Surrey on a bright summer’s morning and hit the M25, crossing into Kent around 7am, …. and an absolute monsoon.  Arriving at the circuit  we found it overcast and damp.  We also found it very, very, very busy and the facilities in the inner paddock lacking, with the Golf-mule being relegated to the outer paddock because of space constraints.

Briefing completed, we hurriedly prepped for sighting laps behind a pace car before finding some time to prepare properly for our first runs.  I drove next with PC as passenger, taking it cautiously to learn the circuit and also through a passing rain shower.  We then swapped for the next session, at the end of which we both agreed the need for some extra power to keep up with the competition!  (That’s next year’s upgrades planned!)

Next up were solo sessions.  Having learned the circuit, the 12.00 session allowed me to push the car further, and the GP circuit is fantastic with a huge variety of challenges – most enjoyable and rewarding.  A break for lunch and PC’s solo session then preceded my most interesting moment of the day as I sought to perfect a ‘backwards’ racing line out of Paddock Hill bend as it drops away downhill.   I have absolutely no idea how it happened – although I have a suspicion that it involved a lack of talent – but the back of the car snapped away just past the apex of the corner and I completed at least one 360 before collecting it up and completing the lap with the car intact but pride definitely wounded.

In summary, the Brands Hatch GP circuit is fantastic – although apparently rarely used for some reason – and I’d definitely drive it again, but the logistics behind the day are more than a little trying.

For most of August, good ol’ Hell Yeah has been with Trevor. She’s being transformed:

Trev smoothing.

The shark-like profile in glorious primer

Big Mouth strikes again!

Oops. Broke her.

Back in the shop for more light work…

SPR took a trip to Silverstone yesterday to have a blast around the GP circuit. What welcomed us was a rather damp track after a night of heavy rain. To say it was like driving on glass would be an understatement, even on our sighting laps we spun at 40mph through Becketts – just crazy! With the track not drying out and a heavy shower at lunchtime the whole day was made up of driving at road speeds using a very conservative and smooth driving style to minimize the number of trips into the nearby scenery (at least a dozen red flags with one car going into the pit wall coming out of Woodcote). It also made us appreciate that SPR needs some adjustable suspension as we certainly could have done with softening the front of the car to try and maximize what little grip there was. One of the highlights of the day was managing to snag Vettel’s garage slot see pictures below.

Saturday 13^th November saw an SPR trip to Castle Combe  in Wiltshire, a very old style and very fast circuit with almost no run-off areas on some corners and minimal run-off at the remainder.  The reputations of the Avon Rise/Quarry corner combination precedes it and a YouTube search returned a multitude of high speed and high impact excursions.  The infamous reputation was further elaborated in both the Track Day joining instructions and the briefing session at the start of the day.

The day itself started out wet, with rain overnight and some light rain during the first session and continued to be damp throughout with grey clouds hanging directly over the circuit for most of the day.

We’d elected to run the road tyres again rather than the cut-slicks and found  the initial level of grip during a cautious set of sighting laps to be better than at Silverstone in October but the car still very nervous under braking and cornering.

On circuit, Tower corner rather than Quarry proved to be the more concerning challenge, coming at the end of a long, high speed section and requiring a greater than 90 degree turn to the right with absolutely no distance between the edge of the track and the barriers.

As the sessions continued, the track dried, the car became more predictable and handling confidence increased, allowing us to push for quicker times towards the end of the day – whilst still being wary of putting a wheel on the still wet grass.  Perhaps we’d just needed to scrub the road tyres in but they definitely worked better than at Silverstone.

There were a few spins from others but very few stoppages, making it both a challenging and hugely enjoyable day.  Castle Combe is already on the provisional track-day calendar for 2011, although this time on a baking hot day in the middle of summer with the slicks fitted.

Waiting for some pictures Nick?

The Aston is finally being retired as an everyday car. She has done nearly 40,000 miles in the past 4 years. The original plan was to run her for 3 before she became a weekend special. As she is a ‘keeper’ the time has come for me to order a run around.

It was Nick who introduced me to the 500 Abarth, its a terrific bit of kit. One test drive was all it took. I have placed an order and also gone for the optional SS kit which adds lowered suspension, revised ECU (boosting power), better brakes, and cool ‘rally’ style alloys. Also added is a sport exhaust (for abit more noise, pops and bangs) and a sporty red leather interior with matching exterior decals – who wouldn’t. Picture of the chosen colour and spec below. Car arrives in December – will make a lovely Xmas present from Santa!

Also investigating increasing the power output further by either turning up the wick on the SS unsealed ECU, or replacing the cars OE IHI turbocharger with the larger 1.4 bar Garrett unit from the Assetto Corse one make race car version. Either of these options will push output to 200bhp+ which is some serious grunt in a car weighing only 980kg.

So abit of change from a V8 to 1.4 litre turbo power (15mpg to 47mpg! helps the wallet in these harder times), so let the Wacky Races begin!

Finally a couple of shots of the new run around:

SPR has been to Minister Power to have their Lotus Elise 160bhp Sport engine upgrade. This is the same upgrade Bell & Colvill offered on the S1 from new. It involves removing the head and polishing and porting to 160 spec, fitting of Piper cams and vernier pulleys, refit head with new head gasket, cam timings reset with replacement timing belt and tensioners, new aux belt and waterpump. Bigger injectors are added plus we required x8 new exhaust valves and x2 inlet valves (this may explain the slight loss of power we had been experiencing due to a slight loss of pressure as the valves had worn and were not sitting snug). Finally to gain the max from the conversion we fitted a new 4-2-1 replacement exhaust manifold to our existing sports exhaust. Our original aftermarket air filter set-up was retained as it was found to be working very well in conjunction with the new work.

In addition, to make life easier getting in and out, we fitted a quick release steering wheel mech, as a revised unit has recently come on the market following the old units failings and withdrawal from sale.

As Jeremy Clarkson would say we now have poweeeer! The car is significantly quicker through the whole range. Max speed is now at 135mph+ (in 118bhp tune we could barely touch 120mph with the roof on). A shake down test at Bedford is planned for this coming weekend when we will discover exactly what she is now capable of recording.

I think we will need better brakes next to deal with the extra power and increased corner approach speeds 🙂