Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Changing Classes and Engine along with it!!!!

+1

That's buggered my return dual drive at Curborough then..

That 4 point harness has earns it's keep.

Update 17 - Racing at Goodwood



We were hoping to get the Race Engine back in the car for this event but we are waiting for some final parts to arrive. The rest is sorted, initial build complete and final build underway, the install date has now been set.

So we were still racing with the interim engine, which tbh is proving to be quite competitive in it's own right.

The rain was torrential on the way down - Goodwood is not great to drive in the wet and it was Bad - Very Bad. One of our crew came down in his 4/4 and we were quite concerned by the shear volume of water on the road - literally rivers both sides and crossing the road on the hills. Luckily the rain stopped as we pulled in to the pits and fortunately the day dried up and in the end was nice and sunny - shorts weather.

There were a couple of adventures in the pits, helping out other competitors - as it happens in our class as well, a broken alternator bracket on one car causing the water pump belt to come off.. so no racing until that was sorted and the second being a snapped throttle cable - luckily we carry a spare so were once again able to get things going.

Due to an incident earlier in the year Goodwood sprints now start at the exit to the pit lane rather than 4 abreast across the track.. this has the net result of shortening the track and rubbishing out existing target times. So no extra point available... and afternoon times would be based on morning practice.

During the morning practice, we continued to struggle with the launch on this Engine, 1st Ratio - Fly/clutch combo. Without the Raw power of the Race engine, it's a fine line between the perfect catapult launch and bogging down. We also found that we were getting round the track "A LOT" faster than last year, Goodwood is a quick track on any day, however the approach speeds into the corners were a lot higher.

Over lunch, target times were calculated and set.

In the afternoon, all times came tumbling down, Missprint having a particularly close race with another Class 7 competitor Paul Bryan. Brian Lee pushed his car hard on his last run getting onto the grass following the chicane - a display of commitment and easily recovered. Mike Hughes's newly Zetec'd Rutherford Lightweight shows continual development and speed on the track - must have been the full display of support from his whole family as they had come along to watch. Clive Hall missed out on improving on his great time from last year in his well prepared Class 3 4/4 x-flow - but none the less put in a great showing at his perennially strong venue.

Mike and Jill Smith from ThamesMog dropped in with a chocolate cake to celebrate Mike's birthday - so a small party in the pits concluded the day.

In the end I managed to come in first, leading the field by 5.5 seconds and 7.5 seconds faster than my morning run. Chalking up another 10 points for me and Missprint battling hard to secure 2nd.

Next up... Curborough, the club sprint next month.

glad to hear the engine rebuild is going well,
looking forward to seeing all the sprint competitors
on the start line at Curboro next month,
I'm the muppet in the high vis
manhandling your cars into position.
praying for a dry day.

Great write up Cereal, it appears the season is going well for you and Missprint.
Keep going.

I'm looking forward to doing my usual stint at Curborough!

Update 18 - The Curborough 2012 Club Sprint



Hello again, I thought I'd better let you all know how things are going. It was, after all the 2012 Curborough MSCC Club Sprint last weekend. You would have all seen the info in Miscellany.

Whilst the race engine was ready to go back into the car, we've delayed plans to get it back into the car until the end of the season.. why, might you ask... well Woodstock the 1972 4/4 we purchased recently will be receiving the current temporary engine (it was just too good to give back) and the race engine will return to it's place in the blue and white car – however with injection rather than the current twin 45’s which will be staying with the interim engine in Woodstock.

Work is currently underway to strip Woodstock down before the re-build commences. When it's finished it's likely should be a mix of 700kg's with 190bhp. Probably a little lighter than the blue and white car as the 72 car's were slightly smaller/lighter than the 80's cars.

Anyhow back to Curborough... It's a course that is short, small, tight and technical. TBH, it's a course that I always find testing, there are few places to find time and small mistakes are punished severely. With many corners, good hooked up runs are few and far between, you always seem to walk away thinking there was an error that could have been better and unfortunately the times always reflect this. We knew that the Sprint car would be challenged, the 1st gear ratio is quite high and this causes challenges with the Fradley Hairpin where judicious flicking of the clutch is required to coax the car round the tight corner, this year also we would be complicated by the Diff locking up mid-corner inducing under steer. Hhhmmm. well. going to be a fun day then.

Missprint and I would need to drive the track faster than we have ever done before to stay in with a chance to win. (or even get close). We concentrated on feeling the flow, with the tarmac on Paddock Bend having been re-surfaced we needed to make new sighting points as the familiar 2 light patches of tarmac that used to be present were now gone!

It is however good to see that Curborough has experienced some renovation since it has just signed a 10 year extension to it's lease. Securing the future of the venue.

With a very low turn out (only 18 racers compared to the usual 30-35) we were going to be getting a lot of runs so as long as the track stayed dry the lap record times were looking good to get broken. There were due to be just over 20 racers but 2 cars broke down on route the night before, one broke a pushrod in the paddock before scruitineering and unfortunately another competitor lost steering control during practice and sailed into the boundary hedge/treeline. Luckily I think it only looked like wing and cowl damage which can be easily repaired. The cross head etc. all looked straight.

So it was left to the rest of the field to battle things out. Missprint and I blasted through practice. I put in my best runs before lunch, probably a combination of fresh concentration and jet lag - Missprint and I having only just flown back to the UK from New York the day before!

It was great to see Troy and Cooper from Northampton Motorsport come down (our engine builders) at lunch to see how things were going and have a good look around the paddock at the array of cars racing. Northampton Motorsport currently sponsor the Westfield Sprint Series.

Missprint and I were still out of sync and where I faded towards the end of the day Missprint came on stronger and stronger, continuing the head to head battle with fellow class competitor Paul Bryan who also has a Zetec engined 80's 4/4.

In the end, I managed to drop below the lap record by just over a second, securing victory with Missprint coming 4th overall. Not too bad as this is usually our weakest circuit.

To give you all an idea of the speeds we get upto I've mapped the track sections from the track map above against the telemetry info we have so you can see the speeds and distances we experience. At the bottom of the graph you have the distance in meters and on the left the Speed in MPH. Hope you all have fun looking through it, It's out fastest laps.

Mintymog and I really enjoy the day at Curborough watching the racing, and meeting Cereal.
There is a good view of the whole circuit from the bank and great bacon sandwiches and coffees.
Spectators are also welcomed around the pit area.
A really good day out, to be recommended.