Satchshift was nice, took a bit of getting use to but a good investment.

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Rallye Race Car

I'm so pleased the removal of the Manifllow didn't lose you to much Dan ..
The cars looking amazing m8 ...
Are you getting yours windows from http://www.plastics4performance.com/ if so pay the extra & get the hard shell ones m8
They are Scratch resistant polycarbonate & they can do them in grey tint !
The rear quarters behind the door are available in bonded instead of opening with black Obs band m8 ...all shaped as original ...
Don't buy the Perspex / plexiglass ones = Mickey Mouse ones that shatter like glass in a Accident....

When I get my fibreglass Twin skinned tailgate I'm going Back windows & quarters only in Grey tint only problem is 4wk ordering wait

Cars looking amazing keep up the updates coming please

Ok Dan
Keep all the pics coming m8

Since the last update I've done another Snet session which revealed a new oil leak which was easily sortable. We've also been back to Snet for the first race of the year over the Easter weekend.

As you may remember Storm Katie was lingering around over that weekend which meant the weather played a dominant role. In the run up to the weekend the forecast was heavy rain on pretty much the entire Sunday with it potentially drying up late in the afternoon. Our qualifying was in the morning and the race the afternoon so it was looking likely to be a wet quali and dry race. That wouldn't have been too bad as everyone is a bit race rusty and with a 40 car grid the last thing you want is a pile-up at the first corner of a wet race! As it turns out the weather was completely the opposite.

Quali looked to be damp but ended up being dry and so we made the decision to not run the rear wing and just the splitter. The drag it creates would have cost us too much straight line speed and lap time. I hadn't had much chance to test this configuration and found that the car was really unstable at the rear, wanting to step sideways at pretty much every opportunity. I couldn't get used to it in the 3 laps I had in qualifying so was quite off the pace. Ben went out for his laps and was much more comfortable in the car and put us 10th on the grid, 2nd in class with a 2:16.643, only 0.04s away from the class leader in 8th. Pretty annoying considering class pole is worth a championship point. As we weren't sure how damp the track would be we ran a soft setup so the car was pretty grim to drive, wallowing all over the place, which didn't help the lap time either.











Unfortunately we hadn't noticed there was a sharp piece of metal on one of the inner arches which, as the setup was so soft, was hitting the tyre and ruined it. Balls.



In the run up to the race the rain came, and it came hard. Luckily we had the gazebo up or I've been soaked just standing outside for a few seconds! Obviously at this point we had decided to fit the wets as the track was soaking and started to take the wheels off when I decided to check the forecast one more time. It said that rain was coming but was due to arrive after our race. With the high winds and strong sun I thought the track would dry out to the point that running the dry tyres would be a better option. Not completely convinced by this I left the setup soft and put the rear wing on to stabilise the car in the opening few laps when I thought it would be most wet. How wrong I was!

While sitting in the assembly area waiting to go to the grid it started to lightly rain. During the warm up laps the rain started to get a bit heavier but nothing major. Then, at the end of the first lap of the race, it came down hard again. Going in to turn 1 it looked like a lake rather than a track! The rain stayed for pretty much the entire race and, with most cars running dry tyres, made for an interesting race. I'll post the summary I wrote on Facebook on the way home:

"3rd in class after a pretty crazy race! Heavy rain arrived at the end of the second lap and we were on dry tyres which made for quite a lack of grip. Others around us were struggling more though and we managed to make a few places up to be sitting second in class at the pitstops. We had to be careful of the hard charging Mini of Amery and Gibbs who were catching at a serious rate. After our near perfect pitstop (not luck, honestly!) we came out still second in class although were soon after overtaken by Denslow in his Fiesta. In the second stint Ben was having issues with heating the front tyres up meaning lap times were not ideal and allowing Denslow past. This was compounded when a safety car bunched the field up. There was just 1 lap left at the end of the safety car period to keep Gary Burstow behind and keep 3rd in class. Ben somehow managed it and the final podium spot was ours!"

Putting the wing on was a very good choice as it made the car so much more stable and driveable in those conditions with the wrong tyres on. I enjoyed my stint and was putting in some reasonable lap times. The diff was having a nightmare when putting the power down, it juddered horrendously out of most corners meaning traction wasn't great.

Very pleased with the result. It's all about points this year and we need to get more next time but it's a good start.
















Rather than doing a full race video I've made a highlights video cutting out all of the boring bits where we're just driving round

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJk8ER63fEQ

Roll on the next race at Silverstone!

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Rallye Race Car

I'm not sure tbh. There are always things I want to change and improve but we're passed the cheap stuff now in to the expensive stuff. Have to balance it out between other things like changing the road car, etc.

Things I'd like to do:
- New gearbox
- Rebuild rear beam
- Seam weld subframe
- Add some extra strength to the rollcage
- Tidy up wiring behind the dash

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Rallye Race Car

But as you say, you're not racing and you're not chasing lap times in the same way. When I'm racing and there's no one around to give you a benchmark it's difficult to know how fast you're going as you only get laptimes via the pitboard and they're a lap out of date. With the dash I can see sector by sector how I'm doing compared to my session best. Not only that but I also get obvious warnings if the engine is in unhappy. For example if oil pressure goes too low (something I'm concerned about) I get big red flashing lights to let me know. Also useful for my brother as he's useless at checking the dash

The Omex can log but when it's in the data logger I can compare values against GPS positioning. It means if there is an oil pressure drop I can see where on circuit it is.

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Rallye Race Car

go rallying, its cheaper per mile and 99% of the time panel dage is entirely you own fault :p (or the navigator, always blame the notes )

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need a part number? get on here - http://public.servicebox.peugeot.com

Bring on the Trumpets.

It's been a while since I updated this again. We ended the season with a DNF at Brands Indy due to a wiring short. After that I lost massive motivation in the car and thought about selling it, last year wasn't great and was expensive! This year my brother isn't racing with me and I'm spending less on the car so won't be racing until June giving me a bit of time to sort some stuff out.

First up I got the front of the car straightened out properly. After the crash at Donington I only got the door straightened not the whole car, turned out the A pillar had a crease in it. The bodyshop guys did an excellent job at removing the crease and generally making the passenger side line up again. While a small change it has made me much happier, I hated seeing the bumper misaligned and all the other stuff that was wrong. No pictures of before and after unfortunately, but after looks like a normal car again

Secondly I had the diff serviced. 3J replaced the plates and housing along with some other stuff. I did a bit of a trackday at Brands (more on that later) and it felt better, so that's promising! Again, no photos. It's a diff, you should know what they look like!

Thirdly I took the car up to Carl Chambers to have the top engine mount replaced. I'd had consistent chassis cracking with a Vibratechnics race mount so decided to replace it all together, also cuts out quite a bit of weight.





Fourthly I put some more covering around the engine bay wiring loom. My fault for not protecting it better first time, but hopefully no more shorting! I plan on rewiring the entire thing soon anyway so it's only a temporary measure.

Fifthly I went to Brands for a trackday with a couple of the guys I normally race with. Due to the diff being serviced I had to bed it in again, normally you'd do this on the road but I can't really with mine. I did about 40 laps trundling round until the clutch decided to give up. Great. Haven't taken it apart yet to find out what exactly has gone wrong but having spoken to Miles, Carl, and Pete the general consensus was that it's not surprising a standard Valeo clutch has died after 4 years of racing and the higher power! Best option seems to be a Helix paddle clutch so I'll have to sort that out at some point.

Sixthly, we got a new toy



It's quite sizable in comparison to the van and trailer



But the Pug just about fits



Plans for this year are limited. I want to rewire as I mentioned and to refurb the rear beam with new geometry and bigger ARB. Sadly the clutch has put a dent in those plans so we'll have to wait and see.

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Rallye Race Car

Now that I've had the winter off I'm quite looking forward to racing again. I've always raced with my brother and he is faster than I am so every race I'd know I could go faster and it started to get annoying. Racing by myself should mean that although we don't get the overall results, I'll enjoy it more as I'll be racing with people of my own level all the time.

I'm hoping to be out at Rockingham in June, that's the current plan. Although I will need to do a trackday / test day before that.

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Rallye Race Car

Race tech dash is pretty awesome, has everything I need when out on track. I have the Dash 4 Pro connected to a DL1 Club logger that is also fed by the ECU. All sensors go in to the logger then get fed over to the dash, so I can log things like fuel level

Took a bit of setting up but once going it was easy enough. I have various alarms setup so if fuel pressure / oil pressure drops or water temp rises I can see. It's very useful to have lap times on the dash as well as I'm racing.

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Rallye Race Car

No sensors, I paid extra for the oil and fuel pressure sensors. The 4 isn't for a road car, it wouldn't pass an MOT, only the 2 is.

It reads a fair amount from the Omex, pretty much anything the Omex has it can get. I get water temp, throttle position, RPM, battery voltage, and other stuff I can't remember!

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Rallye Race Car

Still waiting for a box with a dash in this end!

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- Bespoke rollcages/additions/adjustments. Half cages right up to complete custom spaceframes - MSA/FIA spec, CDS, ROPT, T45, etc - PM me
Email me!
Custom-made polybushes available - need an odd size or fitment? - anything from batch work to one-off pieces.

Lap times are only really important if you're racing, on a trackday you're not supposed to time so no real point. Although if you accidentally hit the "start logging" button....

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Rallye Race Car