39 replies to this topic

[edsmini]

wow the new car looks great chris, hope to see you at mallory park, if you are going to be finished in time, its not taken you long to build this one but i can imagine the hours you have put into the frame

Ed

[z cars chris]

i dare not count the hours and its not finished yet
will post some more when its in colour
chris

[edsmini]

i dare not count the hours and its not finished yet
will post some more when its in colour
chris

i am showing the mini at the bo'ness hill climb this saturday, then i will go to mallory park on sunday to watch you kickin ass with the new car , looking forward to seeing it, good on you chris

Ed

[snooopy]

hows it looking chris..
very nice car you have there

[z cars chris]

a word of caution here guys
if you spin a hayabusa powered car it can if you dont dip the clutch quick enough ty to spin the starter clutch backwards and destroy the starter
on pre 08 models this was a nuisance but not too bad just replace the starter
on 08 onwards models they changed them and i didnt have my clutch dipped when i spun so it destroyed the starter sprag clutch
this has a row of fine teeth on it to engage with the starter itself
it ripped all the teeth off the clutch and they fell into the sump
ive now found out that the gauze in my oil pickup had moved allowing the bits to be sucked into the pump completly destroying it
i couldnt get oil pressure up when i was trying to start the motor then found all this when i stripped the oil system
ive just replaced the oil pump and got good pressure but now the water pumps playing up
its driven by the oil pump so i will have to investigate tomorrow morning
ive had a 16 hour day at it today and have run out of steam
we will be there by hook or by crook
chris

[THE STIG]

pics of car at mallory today

can see how low it is with paul standing net to it

[alowry]

The car looks fantastic! how'd it drive? What did you think of the new aero parts?

Adam.

[TR7]

here is some pics of car in paddocks & in the race hope you like

[De Blerende Beetle]

Doesn't this Mini need a spoiler on the roof to give it more downforce? And why don't I see any race Mini's with the steeringwheel deadcentre?

Gr Sander

Edited by De Blerende Beetle, 15 September 2009 - 03:20 PM.

[russelli]

few pics from Mallory

http://picasaweb.goo...ryPark13092009#

[THE STIG]

Doesn't this Mini need a spoiler on the roof to give it more downforce? And why don't I see any race Mini's with the steeringwheel deadcentre?

Gr Sander

weight is already over the rear wheels so does not need extra down force

they never made a mini with the driver in the middle ,cars have to be based on production cars so have to be right or left hand drive

[AllanMcD]

It will have plenty weight over the front R/H wheel
Allan

[De Blerende Beetle]

Doesn't this Mini need a spoiler on the roof to give it more downforce? And why don't I see any race Mini's with the steeringwheel deadcentre?

Gr Sander

weight is already over the rear wheels so does not need extra down force

they never made a mini with the driver in the middle ,cars have to be based on production cars so have to be right or left hand drive

Strange that all other racecars do need a spoiler altough they have the engine in the back, such as Porsches, Formula Cars, etc and the Mini can do without.

And if I am correct the weightdistribution is somewhere near 40/60 ?

[z cars chris]

ok
just a race report ive been on a long trip round france italy german and belgium straight from mallory so im a bit whacked right now
anyway first impressions are bloody hell its a lot different to the old car
the aero package has made a huge difference to the car and front end grip is up massively this sounds good on paper but meant that i struggled to cope for the first two or three laps as it was turning in too quick this made the car feel nervous and luckily a guy went off and practice was stopped
i quickly altered the front anti roll bar to full soft and went out again
it was better but back end felt nervous another crash allowed me to pull the rear roll bar off altogether and the car was improved again
finished practice and had a breackfast to think about things then worked on the car before the race altered the toe in front and rear and went racing
car was better but still not right around the back end didnt know what it was until i braked very hard for gerrards this is sixth gear flat out big stab of brakes and click fifth the bury the throttle and go normally it was there that i twigged the rear of the car was lifting and losing traction transferring weight to the front end which has plenty of grip and then you are pivoting around the front axle and the car feels nervous
realised that there wasnt enough droop in the rear suspension and that was why the car felt nervous over bumps and under brakes
happy with that i decided to come in which turned out to be a good idea as when i lifted off to turn into the pit lane the throttle stuck wide open, if id hammered into gerrards as normal i would have been in the gravel
initially i was a bit disappointed with the results of the first race but on reflection weve completly changed the whole car it was designed and built in 4 weeks and having now looked at it i can see where i need to go to get back on the pace
i measured the droop today and i only had 5 mm of droop which is not enough by any stretch of the imagination
ive fitted a pair of longer shocks which now give 1.5 inches of droop and i can lower the car to 35 mm ride height as well
the aero package seems to be working as the front end grip is very much better and the diffuser was shaking the whole car above 80 mph i will need to mod it a bit and get some better fixings but on the whole im well up for it again
you only need to look at where maclaren and force india were a few months ago to realise that the cars there now all i have to do is sort it out
we cant run in the middle of the car as its saloon based and rear spoilers would work but they need fixing to the rear of the car and below the roof line which sort of defeats the object a bit i will play with the diffuser for a bit and see where i get
chris
just checked the

[AllanMcD]

I thought the lowest ride hight you were alowed was 40mm ?
Allan