Goodwood general test day

[stylussprinter]

I'm taking the Stylus to Goodwood tomorrow on a test day but only the afternoon session which is £135. Haven't driven it since last September so need to get back in the saddle before the 27th April BRMC Regis Goodwood Sprint . At least the trip to Abbeville woke me up somewhat . David will be there all day with his new build SYLVA J15 ,testing out the set-up/corner weighting I did on it a few weeks back .
Simon will be there to support and possibly Matt , if he's not already frozen solid from being there today , supporting David Rix at the GRRC Sprint
Can't see the tarmac getting very warm though so first session will lack some grip .

It's been trying to snow here this morning so loading may be horrible in the morning .

[stylussprinter]

Testing was not a good day Trouble starting to load in the morning so assumed it was the cold and or the water sensor to ecu . So put the electric fan heater against the head for half an hour plus poured boiling water over the sensor housing . Then it started straight off . At testing it started ok but after a few laps I couldn't get it out of 5th then both hands on it yanked it free. Stayed out for another lap because with clutch disengaged it was easily going in to each gear. Should have come in , it jammed in 4th going into St Mary's so limped back in --- end of my day
Lots to do other than motorsport between now and BRMC Sprint on 27th April , so haven't a clue whether I'll be there or not. Really not looking forward to another engine out/in plus sort box

[josephmoore]

Oh dear! Still, I guess this is what test days are for, eh?

It's rather exciting when it won't come out of gear, isn't it - I had that on my old 200SX. Pulled off the M25 down a sliproad with traffic lights at the end and realised there was no way it was coming out of 5th! In the end it would only come out of that gear if you were stationary, which was a bit of a bore until I could swap the box over...

[stylussprinter]

I wont be swapping it , it's a Quaife from the 2.8 and only done around 1500 sprint miles since Brian Hill rebuilt/strengthened it , so it'll be possibly rings or the selector pin -- pin would be cheaper providing it hasn't dropped out . Apparently if replacing a hollow pin you can fit a solid internal one as well --- didn't know that though , found it on turbosport tutorial type 9 rebuild thread today.
I could go for steel rings but then you simply wear out even more expensive parts so it'll be bronze if needed.

[stylussprinter]

I removed the tunnel cover to look at the quick shift end but it all looks good . Next took the bung out of the gearbox and drained the oil for inspection and put it through a gauze but it was as clean as a whistle , absolutely no residue whatsoever , no nasty bronze filings etc. Unless a ring has cracked but just not worn into filings yet , it seems a possibility that the selector has come adrift partially , pin poking out a little . All gears can be slickly selected without effort with engine running or not. Anyway , I removed the dashtop to try accessing the gearbox lid from there but I'd never get a drill under the windscreen to get the rivets out of the ally cover and even if I could , there's no way to get hands down there to do anything with the selector pin --- if that's the problem.
So I'm stuffed --- it's an engine out job just to look at the damn box --- ugh Refunds for the sprint run out by the 20th April and there's not a chance of me making that even if the box went straight back in after minor repairs , too many other commitments this month and next.
That being so , I won't be doing any motorsport till June is my guess

[stylussprinter]

Since mid February I've been emailing the GOODWOOD circuit office to book the first Tuesday in April (their normal general testing day each month) but no reply other than the automated one/thankyou for your booking etc. So as I've never yet driven the Stylus on the new 13 inch wheels/tyres (tyres will be greasy) I was getting itchy about getting in. There's a new event this year and going to be every year now ------------------- the 72nd members meeting on the 29th / 30th of March which originally was a closed event but now public due to lack of members to support it. THIS HAS MADE SOUND A PROBLEM , so they've had to cancel April's normal test day to balance it out.
Anyway , I phoned the office to ask if they'd make the following Tuesday the April test day ----- answer , it's not confirmed but will discuss it with the manager of circuit events and let you know . THEY HAVEN'T
My first event is the BRMC Goodwood sprint on the 19th April , so really need to scrub the tyres in plus decide what gears to be in for each corner with these smaller wheels/tyres(lower top speed -- but hopefully higher average speed)
There's a trackday at Abingdon on the 4th April but if not booked soon it'll be full then I'll be sprinting on greasy tyres on the 19th if Goodwood don't allow me a test either

[norma]

good luck Rob - maybe a few doughnuts in the car park will scrub the tyres in!?

[stylussprinter]

The A24 compound tyres I'm running need carefully scrubbing , 3 or so laps at 8 tenths then in to the pits for an hour to drop the temps to ambient temp --- after that I should be able to test them for grip as norm which should see them ok for competition on the 19th April . If I here nothing from Goodwood by Mon/Tues I'm booking the trackday at Abingdon if there's a space left

[stylussprinter]

Totally pissed off with Goodwood not bothering to at least tell me I can't test on the 8th April OR yes I can -------------so just booked up with Motorsport-events.com for Abingdon on the 4th April.
Hopefully , although not Goodwood circuit , I'll learn a little of how she goes on the new set-up plus scrub in the tyres

Any spectators welcome , even if just to criticise

[stylussprinter]

Typical --- A while back I looked on Goodwood's website and saw the diary section had a BELL & COLVIL LOTUS/MORGAN members trackday on 7th April (probably why I couldn't get general testing on the 8th)so contacted them to ask whether a non lotus car would be accepted --- answer no but we'd accept a borrowed Lotus or Morgan . So I then booked Abingdon (as above post) only to get an email from them today saying '' sorry but have now reconsidered your request and are happy for you to enter ''
TOO BLOODY LATE I'd have taken their offer over Abingdon if it'd been timely

[stylussprinter]

Stylus push loaded and ready to go in the morning .(Abingdon by 8-00am) Battery fully charged plus a fully charged Sealey RS102 jump starter which claims 600 cold cranking amps . I'll use the jumper straight off , rather than try the Stylus's Odyssey 680 first

[stylussprinter]

A good dry day for the tyre testing and the car started with jumpstart immediately -- didn't even try it on it's own baqttery. After that every start was without the jumper and no issues. The tyres felt like wooden wheels with 15psi from cold after the first session , measuring 18psi in the pits once off track.--- way too high , so no wonder the '' wooden wheels '' . Once carefully scrubbed at 8/10ths then cooling off for one hour , in theory there were ready to compete . Pressures were still highish at 16.5psi so dropped them to 15psi and went out again , pushing them harder . Much better grip and no wooden wheels I still thought the grip wasn't optimum so let them cool off back to 16psi and re-set to 14.5psi . Went out again and grip was awesome so left it at that but may possibly try 14psi for the Goodwood practice lap on 19th April. At that pressure the tyre temps across the tread inner/middle/outer were just 4 degrees apart , so camber set not far off and Goodwood is faster so then it should be even. Amazing what a good test session can find , who would think that the R888's would run best at 3psi higher than the Avons Car felt great and very quick off the mark.