clubstylus

2009 ENTRIES & RESULTS to follow

A brief intro.

I bought the Stylus as a kit in ’98 with the intention of entering a few sprints & hillclimbs after it was built. Trouble is, as you all know, time fly’s by, and whenever I thought the Stylus was finished – something went wrong. So after some well known problems such as - Goodwood sprint in 07? Only managed 1 practice run before the engine started cutting out. And the Stylus track day in Llandow – misfiring & running badly (but did get some good track time). I eventually found someone able to think openly about engines/fuelling/ignition (Ray West Tuning at Thruxton) and after a day plus!! On the rolling road with a few new bits, the car starts & runs perfectly.

So 2009, and time to try a bit of sprinting again. I looked at a few championships and entered the BARC SBD championship.
http://www.barc-speed.org.uk/

Venue.....................Date
Gurston Down.........18 April
Wicombe Park ........25&26 April
Bentwaters ............17 May
Lyddon...................30 May
Pembrey.................6 June
Pembrey.................7 June
Abingdon................13 June
Castle Combe.........27 June
Llandow..................18 July
Hethel ....................2 August
Curborough.............8 August
Goodwood..............22 August
Loton.....................13 September

I’m entered in class 6 – Road going kit cars over 1700cc.

Got the entry list from Llandow back. Up against quite a few Westfields. Including my Pembrey battle with the 4.5 Westfield, so hopefully some decent sport to be had. Will be camping nr the circuit friday night. The sprint is Saturday - 1 1/3 laps. Then back to cheer Rob on at Gurston (Sunday).

Hope you get a great result at Llandow and thanks for your support for GURSTON
Haven't looked at the Stylus since Goodwood or prepared it yet . Still building the deck etc etc
I can see you've got a HETHEL event on the 2nd Aug, so maybe wont see you on the 1st at Goodwood / BRIGHTON & HOVE

Llandow 18th July. We were late for leaving home so didn’t arrive at Llandow until 9ish Friday night. Unloaded the car & trailer, pitched the tent & went to the Indian. As I’ve been busy in the week I hadn’t got the Stylus ready yet.

But I had changed the seats. The original ones were from PP with the driver’s seat had a runner. This was no good for Liz. Although the seat could be pulled forward enough, it was to far reclined, requiring padding on the back. Also they do not have head rests. For the IVA seats need headrests or a remote head rest can be used but the seat has to be fixed. This is shear government nonsense, as there is not a set distance from the seat back to the headrest. So to comply the seat could be fixed in either its most forward position, or its most rearward position, with the headrest fixed to the roll bar. But if the seat is adjustable with the headrest fixed to the roll bar it will fail. Anyway to satisfy the IVA I bought the cheapest seats I could find on eBay. They are higher & upright. When we sit in the car our heads are above the roll bar. A scruitiner came over to Liz whilst she was queuing for her run to inform her of this. My head is of course even higher & the windscreen top is straight in my line of sight! But at least the IVA are happy.

Well I did not have time to do any checks before our 1st practice run. I fired the car up & it pumped black smoke out like it was a diesel dumper from the local building site. I got Liz to drive around the paddock – this didn’t help. She went out for her 1st run, still pumping black smoke, until she got back to the pits when it started running normally. I then went out with the most awful handling car. Each run was 1 & ¾ laps. I nearly came in on my 1st lap. Another mod I had carried out was uprating the rear springs to 200 lbs, I thought this perhaps the reason for the awful ride. However I discovered when I parked up that only 1 wheel was properly secured!! So both our practice times where off the mark. 8 seconds off the leader !!

The Westfield club had a track day on the Friday, which all our competition had been at, this was getting challenging. The 2nd practise run came in at 2.5 seconds down putting me 3rd out of 5, with Liz coming last.

1st timed run & I was late on the brakes for the Control Tower & Bus Stop section. After a lot of tyre squealing I managed to get round the corner, but messed the section up - I ended up 2.5 seconds down. Anne, whom I competed against in Pembrey, set the best time.

Final run & I got a good time, but half a second of the new time set by Ben. This kept me in 3rd with Anne 2nd, with another Westfield 4th. Liz managed to get an extra run, as someone kicked up a bolder at the Bus Stop with a marshal getting ready to race across & collect it. She managed a very good time & was only 1 second down on her nearest competitor at the 1st lap timing beacon. She finished 5th in the end but her time difference was only 10% down on mine!!

Well I’m sure if we had done the track day, the previous day our positions would have been better, as I only had to improve ¼ of a second a lap. However I still got maximum points for the SBD championship & set the class time target for next year.

Snaps http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kev.padley/Llandow180709#

Hand held video clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtEeBSPr528

Sounds like you were pushed for time before you went but you had good fun though Sprinting's always like that --- never seen the track before but need to go out all guns or at least for the first season Every event I did for my first year was an unkown track to me but it all gets stored between your ears for next time

Great stuff

Did you go to HETHEL on Sunday 2nd Aug' Kevin

Didnt go to Hethel.

We are loaded up & about to leave for Curborough, so wont be able to meet everyone tomorrow - but someone has to keep the SSC flag flying.

The Goodwood event has been cancelled & we are away for the Loton round. So this is the last event for us this year. Unless ......


Had a great day on (both) the bikes on Monday at Cadwell Park. I should try the car there one day.

Anyway - the entry list for the class. Dont think we have had so many competetors before.

27 Terry Dutton Burton-on-Trent Caterham 7 HPC 2000 Lifeline
28 Jan Snape Hinckley, Leics Westfield SE Narrow Body 2000 Lifeline
29 Paul Bowden Linton, Cambs Caterham Seven 1800 AEMC/ASEMC
30 Les Buck Oxford Lotus Elise SI 1796 SBD
31 Emma Melhuish Kings Heath, B,ham CMW Snake 1796 Lifeline
32 Kevin Padley Southampton SSC Stylus 1998 SBD
732 Elizabeth Padley Southampton SSC Stylus 1998 SBD


Have a good time on Saturday & I'll keep you posted.

Kevin

Good luck both of you --- Tim's missing out on all this free Stylus PR between us all over aye

Well an interesting day at Curborough. As I’ve already stated our class had the most entrants we have had all season. This is strange as the up to 1700cc class only had 1, which normally has loads.

It was a 2 lap course, and a bit of a free for all during the practice runs with cars going out when they felt like it, not the slick running of Gurston Down (also a BARC run event) that we had at the start of the year. The weather was cloud free & blistering sun for a change this year.

My 1st run and I come in 5th out of 7 at 7 seconds off the pace. Well it was my 1st time at this circuit. Liz came in 6th. I was told latter that a bit of wood fell off the car after the 1st lap!! When I jack the car up I place a piece of wood on the jack. In this case an off cut of decking. The last time I jacked the car up was earlier in the week. The wood must have stayed up somehow & I never noticed. The car had been loaded on the trailer, towed for 4 hours, unloaded plus 1 lap of the circuit before falling off!

2nd run. I tried to hard to catch up the lost 7 seconds, Did a couple of 90deg spins & set a slower time. Liz quickened her time by 2 seconds, so still sound in 6th place.

Run 3 – 1st Timed run. I was keen to claw back all the time I could. Did the best run of the day (for me) ended 5 seconds adrift & pulled up to 4th, passing a Lotus Elise. Liz posted a similar time to her fasted practice.

Run 4 – 2nd timed run. I thought I knew the circuit a bit by now & tried to make the 1st corner a winner. Well I got round the corner and managed to stabilise the car enough to be all over the place for the 2nd corner. This of course lost me loads of time, making my previous run the best. The Lotus driver did not improve so my 4th was secure. Liz kept improving, as she does and secured the 6th position. She is well pleased with this as it’s the 1st time she beat someone & she started to get the car sliding a bit on one of the corners. She is now looking to do some more sprints or track days before the years out.

The results & times have just been given out. They are good reading (as in interesting). My 64ft times are stable at around 2.6 seconds, with the faster boys doing 2.4 seconds. I don’t know if the difference is due to an LSD or technique. My fastest speed down the straight was on my very 1st run, and was comparable to the quicker times of the class leaders. So the Stylus is obviously quick enough. I just lost all my time by over driving and sliding everywhere.

Yes , I know that feeling Kevin My first event I was 8th out of 8 --- that's what set me on the road to analysing what was going on in and through each corner on every different venue I went to That , followed by my own ideas on set-up gradually got me a 3rd , 2nd and eventually a 1st in class.
The major factor in my improving though was always meeting the same very quick guy at every venue , over a 5 year period . He was also improving each time too but it does serve to spark you off
I think you're both doing very well -- it's just time in the car

Link to photos of Curborough. Non action ones only Im afraid, but does show the competition. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/kev.padley/Curborough#

And the usual naff hand held video (sorry), I took the dvr to set up on board video but ... left the camera on the bike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9UzGWrUnY

Certainly looked like a nice dry day

Well done Kevin My ' STARTLINE ' BARC magazine's just come in the post and I note in the MIDLAND CENTRE section that you were 1st in class 6 for the SBD championship with 108 points

I wasnt going to boast about it. Becuse whilst I had a fair amount of competition at each event, there wernt many regulars - bar the wife.

Also I noted a girl competing regularly at one of the circuits has won an award (1st in class or best novice). Liz beat her by 5 seconds at that circuit.

Gearing up for next year now.