S2 Avant Hillclimb/Track suspension settings

[raymor]

....the timed runs are from 1230 IIRC and practice is from 0900 onwards and for spectators I hope it's dry. But I'd rather a shower or two before the runs , every little helps

I fab'd up a replacement mid section pipe for the exhaust and removed the silencer so at least you can hear it coming... but apparently it's still quite quiet at launch @ 100db

[raymor]

Forrestburn Hillclimb

Well, last weekend was the two rounds of the Scottish Hillclimb championship at Forrestburn Hillclimb.

Tyres were dropped to 33psi fr and 31psi rr respectively in an effort to generate more heat/grip

Saturday was dry and I got 3rd behind the two 570hp, sequential gbox, aero EVO's but in front of the stripped out Scooby STI. There was only 5 in the class, but I got the 3 points I wanted.

Sunday was dry in the morning and variable in the afternoon, so I put the RARB up to full stiff to see if I could get some more grip coming out the two hairpins. All it brought on was handfuls of oversteer in the Esses and 2 seconds slower, so back it went. Sunday also brought home to roost a bodge of a repair that I'd forgotten about. The alternator stopped charging and the timed runs were done on 11volts...the bodge was reaming out the diode pack retaining holes to close the brush to armature gap. It worked the first and second time, but not the third and the maddening thing was that unbeknown to me at that time, the same diode pack/brushes were sitting inside the alternator attached to the Imp's 4.2 V8

Sunday's first timed run was during a downpour and then on the second timed run I overcooked both hairpins and lost 3rd (+1 point) to the Scooby by a tenth of a second - that hurt - but was a valueable lesson learnt nonetheless.

I've amassed a lot of video now and need to spend some time getting it off the camera, but to give you an idea of how twisty Forrestburn is, check this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s8MqfiKVSNA - My best run was around a second slower...

I also need a new clutch as the current one is beginning to slip. I'm now faced with the dilemma of whether to sell an organ or the 1st Gen S8 Avus 18's I've got in the garage . My budget is blown, but I'm determined to finish the Championship.

cheers
Raymond

[Smith_S2]

so you bought the V8 for Imp, interested to see what times you come up with when that is up and running!!!

Some blind corners on the Forrestburn track, looks very scary!!!

Good luck with the rest of the season

John

p.s. those avus aollys are mines, but not the ones your selling!!!

[raymor]

...

[s2driveruk]

sure is pretty blind, definately handfuls of commitment required, looks like you're doing realy well

Go the whole hog and finish the championship quite tempted to do a run or two myself!
Cheers
David

[raymor]

It's funny though, because Forrestburn is more open the blind corners don't feel as scary as Doune - Doune just feels like an armco tunnel waiting to give you a permanent set of go faster stripes if you mess up!

I did have to program my brain to keep it flat out over the second crest and the second but last crest and even then I could/should have been more committed. It is good fun though and the wear and tear on these events isn't huge... I would recommend them to anyone

[Rusty]

If you have a stiff RARB you have to be on neutral throttle at least when entering corners or it slides bit time, fun and spectacular but not fast. I have this problem but when you learn how to handle it the on power grip is far superior... unless you're talking about power slides on the throttle in which case ignore me.

[raymor]

Andy,

The problem is that Doune and Forrestburn aren't long sweeping bends with a recovery margin, they are incredibly tight and no wider than a single track B road with passing places. There comes a point whereby the poor weight distribution over the rear axle cannot generate enough load on the tyres to give the grip required to offset the extra stiffness of the RARB on full.


Fintray on the other hand only has 3 corners and is a bit wider and requires a neutral to oversteer posture on corner two - so full stiff RARB is fine (in the dry)

Left foot braking also tends to make the rear end a bit squirmy, but that's easy to control and keeps the power/grip/turn in balanced with none the seesaw/lag/power off malarky.

It's fun though...

[raymor]

Oh dear...

Well, the last event was Fintray and it was very very wet and very eventful.

I spent a day changing out the clutch for a SPEC3+ and a day nearly finishing the repackable rear box which would have saved another 7kg's and meant that I could have run the car to each event noise limit - 108db is the most stringent. But the clutch was the important thing as it had been slipping at the previous event. So that was duly completed the week previous

I got up there on the day and it started to rain about 10am and just didn't stop. Driving in the rain doesn't bother me, in fact it gives an obvious advantage - but driving with wet feet did... rubber racing boot soles and rubber pedals + water is not a good combination.

Anyway the first two practice runs were straightforward and put me 8th from 15 not too bad. I also realised that I was losing a lot of time in the first corner by braking too early.

The time for the first timed run in the afternoon had come and there was plenty of grip for the 4wd cars.

A great launch, dropping the clutch at 4600 and it spun a little, gripped and shot off... 2nd .... 3rd at 6500rpm and then heavy brake application (heel&toe) and did my foot not slip off the damn brake and hit the accelerator! Oh dear... back on the brake only and I although I hoped it would go round... but once you're in the understeer groove at speed you need a wide track for recovery.

Fintray is about as wide as a single track road so it slid gently onto the grass and was still turning with understeer and then whack! The nearside corner dug into the embankment and flipped it on it's roof

It's an interesting one being upside down and looking at the roof lining... when I noticed a couple of puffs of blue smoke I beat a hasty exit kneeling on the roof lining (nice and soft on the knees ) and got out with no damage to me, but I knew the Avant had had it.

They'd never recovered a car that heavy, so it took them about 45mins to get it righted and removed.... but there was a Doctor on hand for me and if you're going to roll it - there isn't a safer place.

The Avant is now sold and to be honest, I did pretty well out of it - yes I'd invested £1000's and hundreds of hours in it over the 51/2years of ownership, but I loved every minute of it (ok the odd mad rage moment) and will do it again.

The damaged car went to Coneyhatchers (Brian) who bought it for spares for his S1 E2replica and the interior to Smith S2 and Madpugger got the S8s... so it's went to good homes. So while I feel a little sad about it going, I have to face the fact that I'd probably never have voluntarily sold it! It's actually worked out really well and it's been a quick end and it was ME that did it - it wasn't some moron who crashed into me and who couldn't give a toss - that WOULD have been a sad end.

What's the future in cars for me... well I now have no alternative but to complete my 4.2 V8 Audi mid engined Imp in time for next season (I've now got a budget) - it'll be in 'Sports Libre class 3' and while I was convinced that I'd be happy without a road car, I couldn't really give up all the Audi/Quattro/Turbo experience that has been so hard won - so I bought this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=018

The theory being that I can always keep that and buy an Avant diesel sometime in the future, but the wife wouldn't wear it if it was the other way round!
I'll give myself a couple of years using it as a road car while I build the Imp and at the same time I'll start amassing parts for something special for the coupe

C'est la vie.... but I would recommend hillclimbing/sprinting in your S2 to anyone. Just keep your feet dry or put some non slip grip tape on the middle pedal!

A HUGE thanks to my sponsors for this season MRCTuning... Dougal and the team are superb and the place to go if you want power and reliability.

.... and thanks also to Aelred for sorting me out a clutch in quick time - shame I never got more use from it!

cheers

Raymond

[S-Express]

glad you saw the bright side of it!
sorry to see the S2 so messed up tho

[raymor]

Nothing else for it really... just need to keep going

I'm fine and it's a car at the end of the day

It would have been a bigger deal had it not turned out so well financially or if I'd had to part it/sell it/strip it myself - that would have been more of a wrench!

[Rusty]

Ah crap Raymond, bad luck. These old beasts are heavy and once you're off line they take a lot of luck to get them back, I gave up with heel and toe a long time ago, the pedals are all wrong and the gearbox too slow to make it worthwhile IMO. Glad you managed to get some ££s back for the next project, keep us all updated and I hope you'll stick around as you've had some great experience that can help those who like to race rather than polish Those typ85s are great, nice and light and the KV engine has loads of torque, just needs some toys and you'll be 'right

[raymor]

Just the way it goes Andy. Heel n toe is how I've driven for the last 20 odd years and the S2 gearbox was too baulky to engage 2nd at very high speed without it...

I'll just amass parts at my leisure at the moment and finish the project in the garage... I'm on the lookout for a 2.5 5cyl bottom end at the mo

I'll be on the forum every now and then - it's hard to break a longstanding habit!

[shark_90]

Sad to see the S2 in a state (looks the same as mine) but as you say it's a car at the end of the day. Looks like Hill climbing is a lot of fun!

And I heel and toe in everything I drive.. even the recovery truck!

[Acidburn]

Sorry to see that happen to the car, looked a nice one but glad you got a new car, wondered who got that coupe quattro as I was watching it on ebay. Hope you got it for a good price.