301 replies to this topic

[Captain Vimes]

You go side by side down through the curves at 11.50 in the race too.

Good spot, I forgot about that one. Was good to see you at Donington! You should come to one of the other races where the paddock is less spread out and all the Caterham drivers are parked up together - it's a great atmosphere!

[Pidgeon]

Fixed it for you!

 

You quite regularly see the BTCC boys go three abreast through there which I think is madness. They don't give a flying fcuk about smashing into each other and appear to have unlimited repair budgets.

 

[Captain Vimes]

ah bad news about the chasis   They dont seem to be very strong at all however easy to repair i guess..      bad luck though but stick with it, it must be great fun, am very jealous!  

One of the benefits of a Caterham is that they can be rebuilt from any accident at a sensible cost. But pokey out wheels mean they take the brunt of the damage in any contact. It is great fun. At the moment I'm better at qualifying than racing though so start amongst the very experienced and determined front runners and go backwards in the race, which is frustrating. I need to sandbag qualifying so I can make progress in the race or I could just build experience and race craft... I am absolutely loving the car though! It's so much fun on track. Predictable, easy to place where you want it and just keeps going long after I'm knackered! Plus I have no nagging thoughts about upgrades as the regs don't allow it - I bought a set of 2nd hand dampers last month for.... £50 as they're just the big standard stuff supplied on the base spec models. Having said that, an engine rebuild might release up to 5bhp.....

Edited by Captain Vimes, 30 August 2017 - 02:26 PM.

[Zoobeef]

 

You go side by side down through the curves at 11.50 in the race too.

Good spot, I forgot about that one. Was good to see you at Donington! You should come to one of the other races where the paddock is less spread out and all the Caterham drivers are parked up together - it's a great atmosphere!

 

 

Yeah I will do. It's a shame both out next ones are on the same day!

[Captain Vimes]

 

 

You go side by side down through the curves at 11.50 in the race too.

Good spot, I forgot about that one. Was good to see you at Donington! You should come to one of the other races where the paddock is less spread out and all the Caterham drivers are parked up together - it's a great atmosphere!

 

 

Yeah I will do. It's a shame both out next ones are on the same day!

 

 

Good luck with your race!

 

My last race of the season is 7-8th October at Silverstone. I'll find some tickets again if you're free!

[Captain Vimes]

Right, just to bring this fully up to date. After the long front and setup again by Rockey Racing (http://www.rockeyracing.com/about/) I headed to Snetterton for a track day last week. It's been 2.5 months since I've driven the Caterham (it's a pain not being able to drive on the road) and more importantly it was built by ME so I wanted to get some miles under my belt before going to a race weekend in case it fell apart on the 1st lap! Thankfully it didn't!
 
Had a great day and the lap times looked good too, with a best of 2:13.365. Here's last years qualifying times for reference:
 

 
So lap time is in the right ball park.. Track conditions vary and it can be difficult to nail the perfect lap in a short qualifying session so I'll just have to see what happens in qualifying. But good to know the driver and car are doing OK.
 
Interestingly this is the first track I've been to in the Caterham where I've also driven the VX so it was finally a chance to make a meaningful comparison. The key difference is... consistency. The Caterham will go round all day long and tyres/brakes remain completely unfazed leaving time to focus on what I'm doing with braking points, turn in points etc. As for performance, with only 135bhp the Caterham is slower down the straights but being lighter on it's toes and more focused in it's setup it carries more speed through the corners so over a lap I'm around a second quicker than the VX. Coram is like a totally different corner. I can just stay flat in 4th right round it and just brake for Murrays - very satisfying!
 
A couple of clear laps from the day:
 

 
That's it for now. Next race is at Snett on 10th Sept..

Edited by Captain Vimes, 30 August 2017 - 10:15 PM.

[Acidpopstar]

I'm following all this with much interest fella. Good luck for the next race! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ChrisS1]

Yes it's a great read thanks for sharing (although sorry to hear of your woes but its all part of racing and learning I suppose....not that it helps with the expense!)

[Captain Vimes]

Thank both! It is all part of racing (except the brake pedal failure which was just bad luck). As for the expense, I suspect the front chassis repair was probably cheaper than Joe's brake discs!!! I just hope the costs calm down a bit now!

[Captain Vimes]

Quick update....

Testing yesterday was horrible. Rain, rain and more rain. Aquaplaning down the straight, round Coram etc... no lights, no visibility. Had 2-3 half decent laps where I got down to 2:14.2 but otherwise lap times were closer to 3m. A boat would have been quicker.

In the final session, trucks had been out on track before us (excuses are coming) and left a smear of diesel on the track, mixed with the rain it was lethal. Predictably lots of spinning cars including me and I found the barrier bent wheel and suspension arm fixed it ready for qualy today.

In qualifying it started raining on the out lap so it was a strategic challenge to find some space and get a lap in before it came down harder - which it did very spectacularly.

Managed p5 for the first race tomorrow but no idea where for the 2nd as it's based on 2nd fastest lap. I was backing off to create space for the one flyer so could be at the back!

[SteveA]

Good luck for tomorrow Kev, hope the weather is with you.

[Zoobeef]

What time are your races?

[Captain Vimes]

9:30 and 15:05 but the trucks are racing and have destroyed the Armco so track is shut while they rebuild it. Who knows what time this afternoon will be... Race 1 was in the fog but started clearing. Very slippy at the end of the straights - just what I needed. Sliding all 4 wheels on the brakes into turn 1 ready for it to re-grip nearer the apex. Hmmmm... not great fun. Started P5 fluffed a gear change and dropped a couple of places. Picked one up later with a spinner and dropped one to end in 7th. Happy to have got it home in one piece and continued the run of 7th places... Race was stopped early due to an accident with 4 cars. The faster class caught the back of the slower class and tripped over each other. A t-boned car and twisted chassis was the result driver is OK. Starting race 2 in 7th. Hopefully it'll be dry.

[Captain Vimes]

http://livetiming.ts...ming.com/173621

[SteveA]

DNF? You OK?

[Captain Vimes]

DNF? You OK?

 

Still here. Been meaning to update this.. Managed to pick up a bug over the weekend in the rain/cold and ended up on antibiotics for a week... The joys of British club racing!

 

Anyway, race 1 was re-classified after a technical infringement so I actually got P6 in the horrible slippery conditions - my best result of the season!

 

Race 2 I started in 7th and was having a good battle with a group of 4 cars but lost the back going into turn 1 and nudged the barrier. Nose cone and track rod need sorting so didn't finish. My first DNF of the year.

 

Video of race 2:

 

[Captain Vimes]

After the torrential rain at Snetterton (Race 2 was the only dry ish laps I got after 3 days at the track) I've decided to skip Silverstone in October and wait for better weather next Spring before racing again. It's supposed to be fun and the weather just killed it.

 

So, 7 races this year and managed:

- 8th place - x2

- 7th place - x3

- 6th place - x1

- Best qualifying was 4th place at Donington.

 

For a 1st go in a very competitive closed regs championship, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I just want to do better next year...

 

To convert qualy results into race results I need to:

-Get better at the starts - difficult one to practice!

-Find some power - at Snett, even with a tow I struggled to gain down the straights and when the car in front missed a gear, he managed to out drag me to turn 1. Makes it very difficult to pass.. 

-Get racing seat time.

 

Learnt loads, had great fun, met some great people, got enough signatures to lose my novice cross and get a national A license next year. And most importantly, I became a racing driver.

Edited by Captain Vimes, 25 September 2017 - 11:46 PM.

[ChrisS1]

Well done Captain! Great first season

[Pidgeon]

very competitive closed regs championship,

 

-Find some power

 

Thanks for the write ups, but welcome to the world of 'equal' cars.  If you didn't read the latest MSA rag, Seb Priaulx and a couple of other were busted for having additional machining on their 'sealed' engines.

[Captain Vimes]

very competitive closed regs championship,   -Find some power

  Thanks for the write ups, but welcome to the world of 'equal' cars.  If you didn't read the latest MSA rag, Seb Priaulx and a couple of other were busted for having additional machining on their 'sealed' engines.

Not looking to do anything outside of the regs. Theres a couple of options to find a little bhp.. 1) exhaust. I damaged my original exhaust with race cat so have been running a full OEM system and cat. According to those in the know, it can cost anything from 2-10bhp depending on how blocked the oem cat is. 2) valve clearances. It has solid shims but hasnt been touched for over 10 years. Front runners regularly have the head rebuilt with valves re-seated and clearances reset. Option 1 is the cost of some welding so Ill give that a go. Option 2 can wait for now... Have you got a write up on the BMW Racing somewhere? You had a thread on here didnt you? Be interested to hear more.