clubstylus

Weather is looking much better for Goodwood on Saturday , changed from cloudy to sunny as of today

Great weather today at Goodwood , nice dry , sunny grippy circuit. A 111.98secs practice , about like last year's PB (a touch slower) . First timed run I pushed really hard trying to top 110 sec's and amazed to get 109.74 sec's . Didn't believe I could beat that then sitting there after lunch analysing my full run , thought if possible , I might get some time by arriving even quicker at Madgewick , if the gear changes from the pitlane 1st 2nd 3rd then 4th max at 7000rpm were slicker , although that corner has a rise which hols back revs a bit.
Not sure quite how that extra speed happened but it was quicker , no braking or lift as before -- however , three opposite locks were required to get through it without arriving on the grass - phew
It did the job for me , although possibly my overalls might be another colour in places The time was 109.04 sec's - made my day That's 4 sec's off my PB at last year's first sprint in the Alfa GTAm

Just looking over the 2018 Class A4 ACSMC regs , that the coordinator said were going to change. ie. the 1.4 ratio applied to turbo and super charged cars , going up to 1.7 ratio -- also until 2017 the max engine cc's was 2000cc inclusive of turbo/SC for A4 but went up to 2300cc - that allowed 1600cc turbo and SC engines at 1.4 ratio sneak into A4 .
Hence being 3rd in the class championship in 2017 , whereas I was 2nd in 2016 . HOWEVER the coordinator didn't move that ratio up to 1.7 NOR change the max engine size back to 2000cc , which it's been for nearly 20 years . The class winner was a BMW COOPER WORKS specially developed turbocharger car , throwing out well over 300bhp . The owner told me it was not fully developed and was on going , presently at 325bhp . The power it probably has this year easily puts it in class A5 , along with cars with similar and less power

It doesn't seem sense to me , as even the other cars in class have a max of 200bhp/quick Clio --- simply cannot understand why it was changed in the first place from 2000 to 2300cc
Obviously it's demotivating to know at the outset that regardless of skill against the other higher bhp cars in class than my 150bhp Alfa , it simply is not possible to win against that huge power difference . I haven't entered the ACSMC championship for 2018 - so buying a classic to stop wasting cash on developing the STYLUS further ROPS wise , was a waste of time and money . REGS have kicked me into touch yet again. No idea what to do now

Got bored car wise re- my last post , so have entered the Lancia Motor Club Goodwood trackday on the 31st March with the GTAm , nice of them to give me an invitation , probably short on entries and difficult to justify at 2018 Goodwood price hike 20% . Still good value at £224 a full day though. Obviously didn't like the idea of having the STYLUS on their day