So, you will remember from last time’s gripping installment that I’d decided to bite the bullet and get an ’08 engine. But, before rambling about that, here’s a half decent photo of the car at Brands earlier this year, albeit before aero mods and the improved oil cooler ducting.
Author: Tim Hoverd
Too slow…
Last weekend was the first of out visits to Snetterton this year. We were running on the 200 circuit which is pretty much the same sort of layout at the original circuit, albeit with the hairpin at Montreal which is huge shame after losing Sear and the left hander at Murray’s which is a replacement for the original Russell chicane. It’s a shame to lose the original Coram corner and, also, Jim Russell’s name from the circuit. The interesting bits of the new circuit are all on the 300 circuit, as I tested on earlier this year.
White car man
As discussed, I bit the bullet and remade some of the suspension components. First up is the rather short rear upper wishbone, as in the photo. It’s the iridescent white component. (I’ve got fed up using POR-15 which always goes a weird non-grey colour so I’ve decided to start spraying things like with rattle cans. As, oddly, Halfords don’t sell rattle cans for grey cars I settled on white as a decent light colour. Black would be nice but I’m paranoid about being able to see cracks appearing.
Onwards and upwards
Yet again, too long since the last update. I’ve just been moving forwards very slowly on many fronts so this is a sort of catching-up post.
I finished the oil cooler duct, as seen in the photo. I hope it’s going to have some effect, if it doesn’t I’ve got a couple of ideas as to how to persuade more air to do into it. It’s not particularly pretty though.
Too much to do
Since the last meeting at Brands I’ve had a collection of things to do. You will remember that I said I’d broken my finger in the first race at the weekend. So I did but it’s really rather minor. I did manage to work out a way of continuing to work on the car which involved modifying a pair of work gloves by cutting two of the fingers apart and gaffer taping them together. I was quite pleased with that, although the hospital have now unstrapped my finger and it’s floating free so these fetching gloves are now looking for a new home.
Falling back
Forgive me, it’s been ages since my last post. I have no decent excuse other than worrying about a PhD thesis to write… I haven’t actually written it you understand, just worried about it.
Pressured and punctured…
So, at long last it was time for the J15’s race debut. In fact it was two debuts as I’d entered the Allcomers race as well as the RGB race so as to get a bit of track time. That meant scrutineering at 0730 but, as you’d expect, I’d woken up by 0530 anyway and after struggling to get back to sleep I gave up.
Spoilt In Snetterton
So, it was back to Snetterton for the final test. This was a Club MSV OPL trackday. So, no lap timing but I really just wanted to get comfier in the new car.
Spoiling it
It’s getting closer and closer to the first race, although I’ve got one more test before then, but I’m thinking more and more about the race. (That is, I’m getting very nervous!)
So, I’ve just been doing a few bits and pieces really. First up was fixing a small problem. I found at the recent Snetterton test that when I climbed into the car I tended to whack my knee on the connector on the bottom of the Palm, breaking it! So, I’ve put a little extension on the bottom of the mounting plate to hopefully support it a bit better.
Back on track at last
Well, I finally got he J15 on a race track! I took it to a test day on the Snetterton 300 circuit a couple of days ago.
This is a new layout for Snetterton so it was a new circuit to learn as well as a new car.