2020

2019 ended as a bit of a damp squib, whatever that is, and hence we were looking forward to 2020. As everyone knows by now, that turned out to be a very bad idea. I think there’s a good chance the most of 2021 will go the same way as well, especially for those of us that are now marooned in Tier 4. (Hopefully that expression won’t mean much in a few year’s time.)

As you can probably tell, I wrote that a while ago and we’re now in the depths of the mysterious catacombs of lockdown#3. However, there is a glimmer of light in that lots of vaccinations are happening, some of them administered by me!, and perhaps as we get into the summer things will look better.

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There’s a new season arriving

Velocity stacks-003So, here I am again with a few things to write about. The new season is approaching fast and, what’s more, it’s not quite so bloody cold in the garage and as such it’s rather easier to spend time in there.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it but I stopped working full time at Christmas and that’s supposed to make it a lot easier to do car things. Doesn’t seem to have quite worked out that way yet though… Continue reading “There’s a new season arriving”

So near but so far

Battery clamp-001I’m getting closer to the end of all this, but there’s still a long way to go. I’ve got a few things to say, though, which is quite good considering I’ve been out of the country for a week recently. A consequence of getting closer to the end is that there’s a whole lot of more bitty things been going on. Hence this is going to be a bit fragmented.

First up, and with its own photo, is a better strap to hold the battery in place. Told you it was going to be interesting, didn’t I? Continue reading “So near but so far”

Silverstone bound

Well, it’s really close to the first race of the season now, so it’s time to make sure the car’s ready to go. To be honest I feel very unprepared but we’ll see how the Silverstone test day goes. As you’ll know the only test I’ve done this year was the trackday at Rockingham (see the photo above courtesy of Charlie). I really should have put more time into it but haven’t managed to find the time.

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Recombobulated

It’s getting back to normal service here. especially as I’ve just finished the first final draft (yes, I know that doesn’t make sense) of my thesis. So,I thought to myself, “I’ll update the blog before I go to bed”. See? I really care.

After all the stuff I’ve done recently, a sensible person would get the car to a dyno to set it up properly. However, I just won’t have time for that so I decided to fit the wideband lambda sensor on the car. When I designed the wiring loom I included wiring for this sensor, which I had installed on the Fury, but I never got around to installing the sensor. As I’d put the boss into the exhaust it seemed that now was a decent time to install it.

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Exhausted, completely knackered

After all the faffing around with the exhaust I put the old exhaust system back on again, feeling bad that that wasted a set of header seals which are some alarming price. Like that I could get the car ready to go to Silverstone. This was the annual club August bank holiday weekend meeting where all the formulae get a race, meaning that everyone gets just one race.

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Exhausting work

OK, I’m back. It’s been a while but we’ve been on holiday and I spent a week away at a conference which explains the lack of progress.

In fact, if I’m honest there isn’t really much to say anyway. After the Snetterton race I’d decided that I needed to sort the exhaust system out. I spent a while phoning around a few builders without any joy. I’d imagined that they’d all be twiddling their thumbs at this time of year. However, that appears to not be the case. So, after discussing it with Andy I thought I’d try something that I’ve been meaning to have an experiment with for a while. This is making my own exhaust. After all, it’s just a pipe and as Andy manages to make them out of a collection of mandrel bends, why can’t I?

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Not quite what I intended

Oh well, that didn’t quite work out as I intended. We went to Snetterton last weekend for the next race in the RGB championship. I was hopeful that the new engine would do something useful, although wary that the bodged around exhaust wasn’t really going to help. Also, the car hadn’t been been on a dyno which wasn’t going to help.

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