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Post by apextwin on Jul 4, 2018 12:25:37 GMT
Few extra pics courtesy of capture your car photography! "Ettores"  "Pardon Hairpin"  "Powering to the Esses"  |
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Post by apextwin on Jul 24, 2018 8:17:17 GMT
Gurston Down Championship 21/22 July 2018. Two blazing hot days at my local hill. Two single day meetings. Two practice runs each morning and two competition runs each afternoon, with both timed competition runs counting as an individual championship round.  Going into the event my PB was 36.68 set in June last year. Since then I had begun to find my tyres just losing their edge. After much deliberation a set of Toys R888R were purchased in 205/50/15 size. The R888R compound is not as soft as my previous SG compound R888 but the design in tyre construction is supposedly much improved. I had high expectations for the weekend and really wanted to see a new PB.  The class was filled with the usual suspects with, Mitsubishi , Subaru, Porsche , Audi and Nissan marques all represented. Andrew James has competed for many years at Gurston Down. He was returning after a 2 year lay off in his 540bhp supercharged 350z. He unfortunately suffered a roll over at gurston 2 years ago and this was his first meeting back after the repairs. Sadly for him he didn't make it to the competition runs in the afternoon after crashing heavily at Karousel. (Driver ok - car not so)  Practice was all about building up confidence in braking and entering the Karousel complex after having a few moments there in recent meets. The new tyres inspired confidence and felt predictable. Start times instantly dropped from my previous times on the older rubber. Timed run 1 resulted in a new PB of 36.43 and second in class. Timed 2 saw a 36.46 on the clocks and again another second place - losing out to Simon Neves mighty evo 6 both times. I went into Sunday feeling confident and ready to push harder up the hill. Practice saw 2x 36.66 runs. The tyres feel very stable under braking and offer great traction and grip very well cold off the bat.  Timed 1 saw another new PB with a 36.35. Im really happy with this time and feel theres not much more to squeeze out of the car with its current power level. Looking at my PB splits my theoretical best sits at 36.10. Timed 2 saw a bogged start costing valuable time and a mistake going in too hot to the final corner resulting in understeer resulting in a now disappointing time of 36.75. Onboard: New PB 36.35s Overall a fantastic weekend with the car performing so well. It really turns in so well now with the current setup and just feels so balanced and stable. My minds now thinking about what times will be possible up here with another 50+bhp..... It was also great to see the battle evolve in the Standard Mx5 class with the two top drivers pushing each other to break the record several times. Bit of a lull now in terms of events - just 2 more events for me this year - with the final 2 midland championship rounds rounding out my season. Prescott 1st / 2nd september and finally Loton Park 22nd/23rd September. Take home car of the weekend.... Has to be this Alpine A110.   |
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Post by mrwallace on Jul 24, 2018 11:56:14 GMT
Good going with new PB and glad to hear the R888R's did give an improvement, might have been even better in cooler weather not sapping engine power?
That Alpine is lovely too!
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Post by apextwin on Jul 24, 2018 12:02:53 GMT
Yeah the track temp was perfect - if the air temp suddenly dropped pre run it would help that final sector!
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Post by howardb66 on Jul 26, 2018 16:52:13 GMT
You should come & do Classic Marques; we’ve still got 13 possible events left to do.
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Post by baconsarnie on Jul 30, 2018 20:18:56 GMT
if i (ever) get mine running and there's some rounds left I might take you up on that to get some seat time this year!
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Post by apextwin on Sept 5, 2018 9:59:15 GMT
Prescott 1st-2nd September British and Midland Hillclimb Championship The penultimate event in my 2018 season was at Prescott near cheltenham. Hallowed as "The Lawns" its the home of the Bugatti owners club. The British championship rounds here always muster a large crowd, and the events have a brilliant atmosphere.  Last time out here in June I set a new personal best of 49.51. Now with some fresh R888R tyres bolted onto the car and improved track knowledge I was hopeful to set a new benchmark for myself and break into the 48s. During my pre event car check my heart sank as I discovered a large crack around my Flyin miata cast manifold.  After taking advice from a few fellow competitors they felt the best thing to do was to drive the car and see what happens. There is also a notable boost leak from the turbo to the manifold join, which has been present for a long time, certainly before the car was last put on the Dyno. I was travelling to Prescott with doubts about reliability, thinking that the car would be down on power and wouldn't be performing at its best. On the track in Saturdays practice the car felt as punchy as always and I immediately set two consecutive PBs. (49.34 and then a 49.02) This left me second in class after practice and confidence was high again with thoughts on getting the targeted 48 second run. Practice 2 didn't go entirely to plan with a big moment under braking to the tight "Ettores" section.  Way out ahead in P1 after practice was Stephen Moore in his formidable Evo6 (47.78) Paul Harris in his Evo 6 was just 3 hundredths slower than me going into Sundays competition runs. A close battle for second was brewing! As always there were some stunning cars in class including Rodney Eyles' Alfa 4C  Sunday dawned warm and dry - offering ideal conditions for quick times. The course rubbers in greatly over the weekend with all the single seaters laying down their super soft avon compound onto the track surface. I treated sundays practice run as a gentle warm up and was ready to for a 48 on the first timed run. A scrappy but fairly committed run saw a 48.97 pop up on the scoreboard. I was delighted with it but knew there was more time to find. I needed to find time too, as Paul in his Evo set a 48.84, leaving me in P3 after the first runs. All to play for for the second competition run then. I went through my onboard footage with my Dad and identified 3 or 4 areas to work on for the next run. Coming to the start line I ran over the plan in my head several times. I knew a well executed run could see me coming away with a trophy and the scalp of a rapid Mitsubishi. Final run onboard:  48.73 enough to take second in class by 9 hundredths of a second.  A great weekend all round. Loton park is next up and the last event of 2018 for me. Take home car of the event. Wallace Menzies 700bhp 400kg Gould GR59 please.  |
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Post by mrwallace on Sept 5, 2018 11:50:03 GMT
Well done!
Great read as always and a well earned drink for yourself!
Menzies Gould is impressive, some sight seeing it at Doune.
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Post by howardb66 on Sept 5, 2018 19:46:27 GMT
Good effort, well done! Just a guess but I recon that that’s the quickest an MX5 has gone up there?
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Post by apextwin on Sept 5, 2018 20:02:48 GMT
I believe so. Ive looked it up and Paul Websters Mod prod car on slicks held it on a 48.95 in 2012!
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Post by sandys on Sept 5, 2018 20:22:52 GMT
Nice one  |
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Post by niklas on Sept 5, 2018 20:42:54 GMT
Nice driving!
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Post by atlex on Sept 5, 2018 21:00:41 GMT
Amazing, and to pull it off with a boost leak.^^
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Post by apextwin on Sept 25, 2018 7:42:35 GMT
Loton Park 22nd-23rd September British and Midland Championship I was so close to being a no show at Loton. Were it not for the amazing service I received from Paul at Arrow 5 - who came to the rescue of my broken down car and installed a new clutch slave cylinder at the roadside. Sadly this was not the first time this season that my car had run into issues on the commute to or from the track. As I felt my clutch pedal go super light and gear selection become impossible I knew i was in trouble. I came off at the next junction and as a ground to a holt on the slip road I knew I would be going no further. The RAC were called and I was informed about a back log of jobs in the area and a 3 hour wait for a patrol to reach me. Not ideal. I was just on the out skirts of Winchester, and i knew there were two long shot options of getting the help and part I needed. I was amazed that Paul was happy to drop what he was doing at 5pm on a Friday night to come to help. 30mins later he arrived in his van and 45 minutes after that I was back on the road. Loton park was on. I was going to get to the final championship round of the year!  I cannot thank Paul enough and I would thoroughly recommend his garage and workshop services. I will be taking my car to him in the off season for some sill repairs. Check out his website: arrow5.co.ukAfter a late night getting to my overnight accomodation what I really needed was a good nights sleep. So when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate at 3:20am I was not best pleased. Thankfully it was a false alarm. Back into bed at 4:10am and I couldn't get back to sleep. Alarm at 5am. Back on the road. Not the ideal start to a weekends motorsport! Arriving in the Loton paddock it was obvious that it would be a slippery weekend. The track felt so greasy on the track walk especially under the trees in the first sector down to loggerheads corner. Caution was required for practice run one as the surface was lethal and felt like ice.  I needed some energy and a famous Loton park triple decker breakfast sandwich hit the spot!  I saw two decent improvements in pace on the two further practice runs and left for my B&B for the night sat 3rd in class. It would be a tough task to try and better Rob Lancaster Gayes Gt3 and Sean Toms Spec C Impreza the following day. Paddock shots:    Sundays weather wasn't much better. The road going classes were first onto the hill. This times the times would count. Trying to go quickly off the bat first thing in the morning with no proceeding practice is tough. I was too cautious and recorded a dissapointing time of 67.60 miles off the leading time of 64.97.  For the second run the track conditions had improved a little and I knew I had to go for it. The car left the line well, I was cautious into turn 1 as it had been slick all weekend and didn't want to blow the run at the first corner. I tried as hard as I dared in the grease and slid my way up to a 63.80 a big improvement from the mornings run. Could it be enough for the win........ sadly not both Sean and Rob went quicker still leaving me with a third. Although I didn't improve my class position it was one of my most enjoyable and rewarding runs of the year. Top 3 in class: Robert Lancaster Gaye 996 GT3 62.71 Sean Toms Impreza 63.35 Jon Maycock MX5 63.8 Onboard: It was great to be part of the event that would decide the British hillclimb championship. The top drivers giving it their all in the big single seaters to try and take the title. That honour fell to Trevor Willis after a superb season. His third British championship.  Take home car of the event? Peter Herberts 964 is just superb.   So that wraps up another season. Lots of work to be getting on with over the winter. |
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Post by niklas on Sept 25, 2018 8:28:48 GMT
Every time you post one of these I'm impressed. And consider moving to england to be part of it. Sweden has no real hillclimbs, not due to lack of hills, but lack of tradition I guess.
Great job!
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le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT