Waikaraka Park Club Night - 02/02/08

The day began just like any other with a few small jobs to finish. All the hard work was done last week with replacing the electric fan with a manual fan by adapting a larger pulley to the alternator (this is the reason why we missed getting to Huntly by about an hour last week). Anyway the new fan is pulling through a much larger volume of air which should resolve the cooling problems we have been having.

The shroud was finished off, encapsulating the whole fan including the bottom and the bulk of which is also sealed with rubber. I also changed the outside right shock absorber to a different valving to stop the car bouncing so much through the turns.

Race 1.
Off the Back somewhere and the car went well I past a couple of cars but the amazing thing was that after 10laps the water temperature instead of being 120C (257F), was only at 85C (185F). I think the fastest lap was around 20.7 seconds.

Race 2.
We tightened the suspension up for the second race and I was off grid 1. Sitting there with one eye on the starter and one on the lights, which would go first? Ummm neither as it turned out. I thought I saw the starter begin to drop the flag and wanting to make a good start I dropped the clutch, unfortunately he didn't drop the flag! I hit the clutch and hit the brakes, then with no revs at all the flag dropped. What a hash of a start! no revs no power darn it, oh well. By the time I got power just about everyone had gone past. I tried to push the car as much as possible, but was trying to hard and lost it half way through the pit bend. Receiving a bump on the front for my troubles. Once again though the car finished the race at only 85C which was brilliant. I think the fastest lap was around 19.7 seconds that time, with most closer to 20 seconds.

Race 3.
After a speaking to about why I spun out, this time I'd try to drive around the turns and keep the car under control, rather than trying to keep the revs up and hang the rear end out. From grid 2 this time, and off the start I lost all power. Don't know where it went but a couple of seconds later it came back and off I went. Trying to keep the lines tight and tidy was paying off it seemed. While I was only holding around 4500 to 5000rpm through the turns the engine was producing enough torque to hold a small power slide which quickly straightened up to let the power get to the ground very smoothly. I could feel that the laps were faster than before and also were consistent, which for me is a huge bonus! Unfortunately at some point the fan belt broke and on the last lap I noticed the water temperature was back up to 120C and climbing. As I was running sixth I decided to keep going and at least finish, but by the time I got into the pits the temperature had reached 135C (265F) and we started pouring water on the radiator, but once it was confirmed the fan wasn't turning we switched the engine off and winched the car into the trailer. However my fastest lap was around 19.4 seconds, and with 3 other laps around the same pace, I was very pleased.

At the end of the night though I wasn't pleased to find in 30 laps I'd only used around 12 litres of fuel. The carburetor will need to come apart as normally I would use around 25 litres, which means the car was a long way done on power which would explain the hesitation at around 5500rpm.

So with a new set of tires, shock absorbers and more fuel that time should get even lower.

Catch ya....MadPhil