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

[re japi]

That is massive weight saving!!!

Lähetetty minun G8141 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

[Mr Spiller]

Wow , that's a huge weight saving
Do you need to do any alterations to the door area of the roll cage now ?


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[clive]

The race car finally hit the track yesterday with a test session at Brands.

Test was mainly for all the mods over the winter, gearbox etc and testing the Michelin tyres Pro Tyre helped me with from the British GT series, they kindly sent me three sets of tyres the same as they fit to the McLarens!

Mixed day but it came good.

1st   session saw a huge vibration on the straight which led to a black flag,which was good info as they could see the effect that the viberation was having on the car.

Turned out the air was turbulent it was making the car porpoising up and down due to the spitter bending out of shape. Pulled the splitter up and bent the lip back into place.
Within three laps the lip had straightened itself out angled itself downward and even the nose was pulling itself of the car.
My one allowed helper was Malcolm and as you will see in the picture with his help we cut the splitter lip back to the nose.

This next stint produced 29 trouble free laps with the car being faster down the straight and still able to get through Paddock hill bend the at the same rate of knots, so this means I still have the same downforce under the car as before sans big lip spoiler and winglets!!
(You can see before and after in the pictures)

One interesting thing was the I had two   Ginetta G55 GT4 race cars out with me.

Almost every time over the years I have had these on track with me when testing and let alone down the straight, normally they eat me through the corners and under braking.

I dually moved over as they were racing each other, then put my head down and gave chase, and reeled them in, putting 8 laps in all within a few hundredths of a second, plus lapping cars every lap   !!.

To my surprise at the end  of the main straight I found my self lifting, also able to brake as late as them, indeed I outbraked one into druids!!

So so happy with the car in it's new "lower" downforce guise plus the tyres are better than the WTC Yokohama Tyres I was on last year.
Mallory Park on the 22nd of the month with Track Attack on "normal" tyres, the Donnington the next weekend on race tyres.

[clive]

Malcolm will eventually post some more pictures for the day.

[Mr Spiller]

All
I'm all
A damn good test day then
Good news
How did you find the gearbox ?


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[boosted]

Brill news!
Package arrived very nice professional brochure. Written perfectly. I had 2 copies so let the  Peaky Blinder Jamie have 1 as he was visiting.
Must be hard changing gear clutchless?
Christine is long gone but youve picked up Uri Gellar now with all the metal bending...

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[clive]

Uri Gellar  Yes, I was staggered at the air bending capabilities to roll the alloy lip out dead flat.

As said so pleased they pulled me in and told me what they were seeing, I could only feel the vibration, but they could see the front of the car literally being pushed up and down by the air not knowing what to do and where to go!.

Gear box is awesome and up changes are instant and as fast as I can lift my foot off the throttle and put it back down again, shame we had no video but at some time you will see what I mean.

Only down side is, I like to be kind to a car and you can't change down nice without  a big  CRUNCH! Using the clutch actually made it worse. Had it not been for the speed of the gearchange I would not have been able to live with those  Ginetta's   

Next time out I will try and double de-clutch but without the clutch, in other words, take it out of gear rev the engine then change down, as said no issues going up the box 

[Casey]

Well, here's my report on yesterday. Firstly, thanks to Clive for inviting me along  The weather was cool, but plenty of sun in between a few cloudy spells.

Clive was parked up in just near the bottom of Paddock Hill and all access to the usual good places to take photos were locked off, so my photos aren't that good, taken with a 300mm lens from where we were parked, trying to get a clear shot over (or through) the  the wire fence! I'll post a few track shots in a 2nd post.

Amazingly, from our position in the Paddock, I could see the main straight marshal's post and saw a black flag come out and knew from my timing that Clive might be the "victim" and, sure enough, I knew it was him when he came into view a couple of seconds later. I wondered if it might have been noise, as Clive was aware he was near the limit - enough though his car sounded quieter than many others as he passed me on track. It was a relief when he reappeared later in the session, but I had no idea at that point what the issue was.

When the 1st session ended and he came back to the paddock, it was immediately clear the splitter wasn't sitting right, closer inspection showed the whole nose cone was being pulled downward (possibly as a result of the splitter catching on the track surface), with a clear gap appearing under the nearside headlight (see pic). The extent of the contact with the track was apparent in the 3rd pic, when we took the nose cone off and looked underneath!

We had a short period before the 2nd session, so we set about hacking off the whole of the splitter with the tools to hand - some tin snips. A short while later, with some nice, blue, gaffer tape over the hacking, the nose was back on, with about 10 minutes to spare before the 2nd session.

2nd post to follow shortly.....

[Casey]

I didn't do any timing on the first session, but did time most laps on the 2nd session and was impressed with the times and consistency. I could see Clive was enjoying himself out there, initially with a Boxter, then a Sierra Cosworth and then with 2 white Ginetta G55's. Seeing him overtake one of the G55's at Druids was quite a surprise, and then to stay ahead and chase the second one was epic!

Clive ran consistently throughout the entire 30 minute session, which was an amazing test for the car (and driver!). When he came back into the paddock both Lisa and I noticed he had a wide smile on his face   

With just the nose/splitter to tidy up for Clive's race, he and the car seem well set for the start of the season 

Here's a few pics from the 1st session. In the first 2 pics, Clive is overtaking two cars on the entry to Druids by going between them 

The 3rd pic is the first time down towards Graham Hill bend, where you can see the splitter centre part is clearly OK, and angle updwards. The next picture is about 3 minutes later, as Clive comes into view at the end of the main straight, and you can see the splitter is now facing downward.

2nd session pics soon....

[Casey]

Overtaking a Ginetta G55 into Druids:

[Casey]

Out in front 

[boosted]

So care to Share the time? Or is best kept quiet atmo..
5?...mmm 52 would be nice? Pm fine Casey.

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[clive]

So care to Share the time? Or is best kept quiet atmo..
5?...mmm 52 would be nice? Pm fine Casey.

52  Clive HAYNSFORD LAP LAP TIME DIFF  TIME OF DAY SECTOR 1 SECTOR 2 Mazda  RX8

IDEAL LAP TIME :  53.025  BEST LAP TIME :  53.316 DIFFERENCE :  0.291

Track was not good and slow, never is when Radicals are about as they shed so much rubber and junk on the track, they had their own sessions.

We had them at Brands last Thunder race and everyone complained they had lost a second during the race over qually due to the Radicals hitting the track.

Worked out already where I can be quicker and why I didn't sus out the gear box (I do my own de-brief after every time) 

Trust me those  Ginetta were really pushing as I could tell with some of the desperate late braking and loss of tyre grip

[boosted]

Epic. Well done.

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[Jamie R]

Sounds like a good productive day

Big fat tick in the box


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