Tricked out Almera GTI
- Thread starter Redtop-155
- Start date
At Borne they call anything with rear wheel drive that's not a banger, a RWD hotrod, so apart from Gareth's Fireblade powered class 8, they mainly race saloons. BMW, Toyota MR2, a Supra and the like. Tongham is a totally different kettle of monkey nuts altogether though. From what I can make out there are around a dozen class 8's and 9's and they run them together. The 8's are standard bike engines with no tuning allowed, and the 9's are up to 2ltr, again with no tuning. Borne should be a breeze except for the cock in the Supra, cos he can't drive for shit, and runs on road tyres, and Gareth's class 8.
I've never raced at Tongham, so its hard to tell, but I'd guess it's going to be tough there, as all the special drivers have a lot more experience of them than I do, and power and weights should be pretty close. Most class 9's seem to run the Vauxhall redtop engines on twin 40's, which is why I wanted something different. I reckon I'm in with a shout against them, but only time will tell whether the SR20DE, was an efficacious choice though Chunky.
I've never raced at Tongham, so its hard to tell, but I'd guess it's going to be tough there, as all the special drivers have a lot more experience of them than I do, and power and weights should be pretty close. Most class 9's seem to run the Vauxhall redtop engines on twin 40's, which is why I wanted something different. I reckon I'm in with a shout against them, but only time will tell whether the SR20DE, was an efficacious choice though Chunky.
As an aside, Gareth and I were nattering the other night, and the subject came up about Santa Pod or similar. We both agreed that it would be a laugh to run our 2 specials against other cars, on the 1/4 mile. I also think it would be nice to meet some of you guys, and chew the fat over mods/tuning, etc. So if there is a meet soon, could someone let me know, and I will try to arrange for us to get there. Thanks
ATM I don't know Rowdy, I'm guessing at somewhere around 700 / 750kgs. As soon as my boy gets back from his holiday, I'll get it on the weighbridge where he works, and I can let you know exactly. Gareth's Firelblade engine one, weighs about half of that, so it should be interesting watching him try to keep the front on the ground.
Oh yeah! 
The car lived up to its expectations against the rwd hotrods, and blitzed them, winning on her first ever outing in anger, from right at the back of the grid. She actually lapped the field up to 4th place, and the cock in the Supra got lapped twice. Man what a rush, after all this time waiting. 
Here she is all covered in glory... alright mud and glory, as I came in after the first race. You can't see it from this angle, but I actually had my GoPro camera stuck on the side of my helmet, recording all of the action. Unfortunately all that can be seen is from the start, up to the first corner. The camera then looked like the side of the engine, and was caked in mud about an inch deep, so sorry guys no video this time.
I lined up at the back of the grid ready for the start of heat 2, confident in my abilities and that of the car. The confidence in my abilities was apparently slightly misplaced, because around lap 5 I ran a bit wide, trying to get clear of the dust cloud being kicked up by the cars in front of me, and I dropped the left rear wheel into the safety ditch that surrounds the circuit.
As the wheel came up out of the ditch, with the steering at full left lock trying to correct the slide, the sudden grip from the rear sent the car nose first into the ditch. The car then somersaulted back onto the track and landed rear first onto the engine housing and radiator.
Back on the trailer, and ready to go back to the workshop in time to get her back out next Sunday for racing at Tongham, against cars in the same class.
Not too much damage considering the speed and force of the impact. Inspection of her has revealed the following list of repairs to be done.
Left front corner: new bottom wishbone, and 2 new rose joints. Steering rack needs to be straightened, upright needs to be straightened, a new steering arm, and the bottom needs to be welded back onto the shock absorber.
Left rear corner: 1 new rose joint, and swing arm needs to be straightened.
Right rear corner: wheel is out of line, but the cursory inspection has failed to reveal the reason why, more detailed examination needed, possibly due to a bend in the inner rear swing arm rose joint.
New Radiator, and supports, and a rear brake light.
Last but not least, she needs a new uj in the steering column.
The worst part of the whole sorry story of her first outing, is that part of the front left wishbone was ripped off, and landed on a lady spectator and her grandson. Fortunately she saw it coming, and held her hand up to fend it off.
So what could easily have killed her, has left her with a suspected fracture of her hand, and a deep gouge in her head. The little boy was hit on the head as it dropped to the ground, fortunately after all of its kinetic energy had been spent.
I wish her and the little lad a speedy recovery.
As for the car... the feckin electrics are still working.
Here she is all covered in glory... alright mud and glory, as I came in after the first race. You can't see it from this angle, but I actually had my GoPro camera stuck on the side of my helmet, recording all of the action. Unfortunately all that can be seen is from the start, up to the first corner. The camera then looked like the side of the engine, and was caked in mud about an inch deep, so sorry guys no video this time.
I lined up at the back of the grid ready for the start of heat 2, confident in my abilities and that of the car. The confidence in my abilities was apparently slightly misplaced, because around lap 5 I ran a bit wide, trying to get clear of the dust cloud being kicked up by the cars in front of me, and I dropped the left rear wheel into the safety ditch that surrounds the circuit.
As the wheel came up out of the ditch, with the steering at full left lock trying to correct the slide, the sudden grip from the rear sent the car nose first into the ditch. The car then somersaulted back onto the track and landed rear first onto the engine housing and radiator.
Back on the trailer, and ready to go back to the workshop in time to get her back out next Sunday for racing at Tongham, against cars in the same class.
Not too much damage considering the speed and force of the impact. Inspection of her has revealed the following list of repairs to be done.
Left front corner: new bottom wishbone, and 2 new rose joints. Steering rack needs to be straightened, upright needs to be straightened, a new steering arm, and the bottom needs to be welded back onto the shock absorber.
Left rear corner: 1 new rose joint, and swing arm needs to be straightened.
Right rear corner: wheel is out of line, but the cursory inspection has failed to reveal the reason why, more detailed examination needed, possibly due to a bend in the inner rear swing arm rose joint.
New Radiator, and supports, and a rear brake light.
Last but not least, she needs a new uj in the steering column.
The worst part of the whole sorry story of her first outing, is that part of the front left wishbone was ripped off, and landed on a lady spectator and her grandson. Fortunately she saw it coming, and held her hand up to fend it off.
So what could easily have killed her, has left her with a suspected fracture of her hand, and a deep gouge in her head. The little boy was hit on the head as it dropped to the ground, fortunately after all of its kinetic energy had been spent.
I wish her and the little lad a speedy recovery.
As for the car... the feckin electrics are still working.
Yeah, an ace weekend for sure matey. I'm not too bothered about a cowl for the engine, because this weekend was really just to get a feeling for the car, setup, and handling, it was feckin mustard
Tongham is going to be the real deal, and from what I gather the track there is more hard packed, so much less dust. The dust is the reason they soaked the track at Borne, but for the second race, they decided not to wet the track, to give the hotrods a chance against me and Gareth, who was driving a special built mostly by by me, and powered by a 900 Fireblade engine.
I started the second race half a lap back, but couldn't see through the dust cloud to get past the cars in front, which is the reason I ran wide, and ended up binning the car.
Hopefully I'll be able to get some vids of the action next Sunday too, as neither the car or the camera should get caked in mud, or suffer a complete dust-out!
Tongham is going to be the real deal, and from what I gather the track there is more hard packed, so much less dust. The dust is the reason they soaked the track at Borne, but for the second race, they decided not to wet the track, to give the hotrods a chance against me and Gareth, who was driving a special built mostly by by me, and powered by a 900 Fireblade engine.
I started the second race half a lap back, but couldn't see through the dust cloud to get past the cars in front, which is the reason I ran wide, and ended up binning the car.
Hopefully I'll be able to get some vids of the action next Sunday too, as neither the car or the camera should get caked in mud, or suffer a complete dust-out!
Yeah it was good fun and a pisser all at the same time. I suppose I'm quite pleased I haven't for gotten how to race rear wheel drive cars as it's probably been 20 years since I last raced one, and a pisser because I binned it. Still next weekend is fast approaching and the old SR20 is still raring to go.
Thanks Chunky. Nobody from my circle filmed it, but I'll check out the facebook page maybe someone has put something on there. I'll get back to you on that one.
Trust me, the pulleys and oil filter are the last thing on your mind, when you chuck it sideways into a corner
at around 60mph on mud, knowing that at the very least there's a feckin great trench waiting for you if it all goes tits up.
As for Hunmanby, I doubt it, mainly because it looks like another of the more anal clubs for rules and only doing 4 laps. The guys that race on NASA tracks, tend to take things a lot more seriously (mucho mular £10k+ cars) than I do. So I know I wouldn't stand a chance against them, as my cheque book isn't as big as theirs, for 1 and 2 I can't be doing with all the rules. As the cost of the sport goes up, so does the amount of rules you have to adhere to. Take a look at their club rules and you'll see what I mean.
My son described the rules at Borne as "Yeehaawwww," and that's pretty much how I like it. Nobody takes it too seriously and it's difficult to tell the majority of the class cars from bangers. Tongham is a different league again, with a sort of inbetweeners rule book, but we're going up there next weekend, to see how we do.
We did think of racing Wessex Sands, but I think I'd end up spending more time getting loaded up, and banned for rules infractions than I would racing
As for the Pod, to right, if we can make it, we'll be there.