Clive's 400 BHP Super GT RX-8 Race Car

[lennycarloff]

Good look tomorrow.

[clive]

Going to need a good look tomorrow Jim

(I know what you meant, thank you )

We are on the National circuit this time and having never raced on this one  , first of all I need to find my way around it then maybe think about getting round it quicker   

[boosted]

Get youtube on.

Silverstone National i did it on the only Japfest we went too...nice n fast...

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[Lisa]

Clive is waiting to qualify at Silverstone for the next round of the Track Attack Race Club series today.

After weeks of glorious sunshine, it is pouring down with rain forecast for the whole day 😨

You can track the races live via https://livetiming.tsl-timing.com/183031, Qualifying at 10.00 then racing at 14.10pm & 17.35pm Car #52

[Lisa]

After a few weather adjustments came 7th out of a grid of 37.  Starting in 4th place for final race.  Best lap time 1.14.599  Winner best lap of 1.14.051   

[exiled-viking]

  well done Clive a good result 

[Lisa]

Alternator died in final race  - not doubt Clive will update on here tomorrow.

[boosted]

Just got in...long wet day but fun...
Me n Clive bit off head scratching on alternator front..its outputting some juice upto 13v from 12v battery but not 14.4v
Batt light dead..not coming on with ignition...
Sense and exciter wire confusing me again...its getting the 12v feed to turn on.

Qualify...Stevie Wonder lol hence 32nd on grid.

Race 1 32nd to 7th...woohoo...

Race got 11 mins dicing at the front...up to 6th but power issue.

Ill leave the rest to Clive...


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[boosted]

Piccys.

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[boosted]

Im doing some rough editing as we speak..with the forward facing cam so can post vids of yesterdays exploits. Philip is on hols so i thought id get these up and then post the sd cards to Philip so he can overlay the rear view cam etc. And work his majic as race 1 has recorded in 3 parts...
As you can see from Piccy below Not alot of visibility for qualify hence the 32 grid position...
Carl Hayward the hero suggested rain x and then left Silverstone and went and bought some which did the trick....applied on inside of windscreen no misting up!.
So race 1 32nd to 7th!!!
Race 2 7 to 6th i believe...then retire due to lack of amps...looks like alternator died...
Voltmeter in dash can be seen at 14v race 1 and 12v race 2...
Vids in hr or 2.
Long day yesterday was hanging this morning lol.


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[boosted]

so here are the vids.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r82TMUA1ohg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Zph0ptWTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0PyZCTuwYM
race 1 parts 1 2 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_t2AS8-Xo
race 2 full.

no point in doing qualify as cant see anything..." i just called to say wheres the race track "

[clive]

Silverstone Race Report.

First up, huge thanks to Jon and Carl for being pit crew for the day, they were a massive help.

In qualifying, I literally could not see the track as I had misted up windows and just followed some little cars rain light as that’s all I could see and knew if I overtook I would not know which direction to go, indeed at one stage he drove off and back on the circuit and I just followed him!
You can see in one of the pictures that I was trying desperately to wipe the windows with a towel to absolutely no avail!! 

Now faced with having to do something Carl disappeared off into Northampton and reappeared with Rain X and then with Jon knowing how to apply it correctly I suddenly I could see the track to go racing.

Having the Tein EDFC  really came into it’s own to let me soften the dampers plus the double rear roll bar helped turn the car without a hint of under-steer. I went to the grid knowing the wet has never fazed me, indeed I have won a lot of wet races in the past, “but” I knew I would need to be very cautious and patient with cars along the way.   Set up even in the wet was great and only the river running across Wellington straight really upset the car.

Only time I got frustrated was when I kept coming across double yellows with meant I had to crawl down the straight with no over-taking and had this not happened I may have had a chance of getting a higher place, however a 7th place from starting 32nd was OK I suppose, plus  I got a first place trophy for first in class, so that’s five trophy’s from six races this year.

More importantly to me was that my fastest lap in the wet was only 200ths of a second away from the winner which meant the car was competitive. 

Last minute decision with Jon helping on the quick to go onto dry tyres would have paid off as the car and me would have become quicker and quicker on the now drying one line track, but as you will have already seen the alternator packed up literally on the start line and I ran the car till it ran out of battery and had to retire .

Bottom line is, I had a great day and enjoyed starting at the back and having to fight my way through the field-----------however "if" I had started near the front I may had actually had a chance of winning.


Next race is only next weekend at Snetterton and for that I can put the turbo boost  back up as I had it turned down yesterday for the wet .

Below are three pics, one from each outing and you can see with the first race pic just how wet it was.         

[clive]

Jon, here we go, you asked about the output of the alternator, also it looks like the EWP only draws 10amps 

[boosted]

Cool 100 amps should be plenty..so age related failure.

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[Casey]

Hmm, I'm no expert on alternators,  but some observations on that graph. The amps output is very low at low revs, which explains why Clive was finding his race battery was losing charge at idle on extended waits on the gridline. The 2nd observation is the usable range of alternator revs is very narrow to get a decent output. That's not well suited to the rotary with an extended rev range. The last observation is that the alternator output cuts off suddenly at high revs and gives no output. If not geared just right this alternator will not do it's job very well. Is it possible at race revs the alternator has cut out, as per the graph and this has shortened it's life? As I say, I'm no expert and all the above may have been taken into account in gearing the alt to the engine revs, but gearing this unit precisely looks critical.