This post intentionally nameless

It’s back to fettling the car for the next track outing, in this case to Brands Hatch. Somehow, this all seems very amateurish after listening/watching the Le Mans 24 hour race at the weekend; the level of preparation and care that must go into one of those cars is truly awesome. A chap I’m working with at the moment is a complete sportscar endurance racing anorak and he’s managing to convey his enthusiasm to me. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to the Birkett with renewed intensity. I’ve only done this race the once; my two other attempts foundered on the rocks of setting the car on fire and Anthea’s heart surgery.

First thing was the undertray. As I mentioned in the last post part of the front undertray had come loose and was scraping on the ground. The photo above shows the sorry state of what was going on. It’s not surprising that it was making an unpleasant noise. So, I remade the panel, this time arranging for it to, almost, engage with the underside of the splitter. I made it out of slightly thicker aluminium this time so with luck it’ll stay together. Of course, this doesn’t explain why this happened in the first place. It could be that the mountings just got old and failed or, perhaps, I whacked it on kerb. My money’s on the former explanation but there’s no easy way to tell.

I’ve mentioned before that I get a vibration in the car as I accelerate. I’ve looked in all sorts of places for what this can be. Dan suggested that perhaps I should just try changing, very slightly, the angle of the propshaft. Seemed a sensible suggestion so I took off the tunnel side panel in order to expose the centre bearing, as in the photo. You can also seem where the centre UJ has  spun a layer of grease onto everything in sight. But, it’s still pretty clean in here.

I undid the centre bearing mounting bolts and put a 5mm spacer under each one (where “spacer” is code for a couple of thick washers). Then I bolted everything back together. I’ve no idea whether this will do anything, but it’ll be interesting to see. Any sort of change would be interesting, as that’d say I’m on the right track.

While I was in the area I cleaned up some of the video wiring which had got a bit grubby from exposure to the elements. I think I’ll remake all this wiring without things like nasty Phono connectors, but that’ll have to wait for a break in proceedings in order to find the time.

For ages and ages and ages I’ve been thinking about getting a HANS device. As a consequence of the accident in the early laps of the Anglesey race I’ve finally succumbed. One of the reasons for my torpidity on this issue is that I’m offended by the price of them. This device here cost me the princely sum of £750. That’s for a carbon fibre component, two gel pads fixed by velcro, a webbing strap, two metal clips and two plastic runners that hold the strap on the back of the device.

Oh well. I did look at getting one of the Defnder devices which is a newly arrived competitor to the HANS. However, as it’s a lot heavier than the HANS, and my helmet already has the kosher HANS posts installed, meant that I decided to use the standard device.

The next problem with using a HANS is that the specs for the device require that the angle that the rear parts of the shoulder straps make with the horizontal is a maximum of 20°. In order to achieve this I welded another horizontal bar into the roll cage over which the shoulder straps can go, as in the photo. I couldn’t, to be honest, face masking everything up so as to re-spray the cage. Hence, I just painted the bar by hand. It isn’t perfect but it isn’t too bad.

The big issue now is just getting used to wearing the HANS. Everyone says that you get used to it after a very short time. At the moment, I feel like I’ve be installed in a straight-jacket. I’m also a bit concerned about my shoulder. I have an type III AC separation of my shoulder joint, caused by shoulder charging a mountain while skiing. The mountain won. In general this doesn’t cause me many issues, apart from the fact that I can’t throw a ball for toffee any more which has put paid to my international cricketing career. However, my shoulder is sensitive to getting bashed about and I’m worried that the HANS device will just turn out to be very uncomfortable. Time will tell, I guess.

Finally, I mentioned about the possibility of ducting some air to the oil/water intercooler. I’ve put some ducting and opened up a useful hole in the front of the car. This is where the original Fury designer thought that you were going to put the front indicator but in my case it’s  just been blank until recently. When I’m next out I’ll see if this has any effect; probably by trying it both with this duct in place and with the inlet taped up. In case you’re worrying, it doesn’t contact the suspension, honest…