Silverstone 24 Hours 2006

[Malcolm]

It is my ambition to drive in this years Britcar 24 Hours of Silvestone and to this end I have been in discussions with a couple of teams who intend to run a BMW M3 36 Evo. However to make it work there is the thorny issue of finance. My pockets are not so deep as to just shell out the required funds.

I have already landed some sponsorship from local companies but there is room for more sponsors, including a personal main sponsor.

To run a car that will last the 24 hours, the total budget required is between £20,000 to £30,000. The final sum will depend on how high the team wishes to aim up the field. This is to be split 4 ways between drivers. Therefore I have to raise another £3,000 to £5,500 for my share. The opportunity exists for any interested party to part sponsor or to fully sponsor me to take part.

There is logo space on the car and overalls plus there is expected to be satelite television coverage. In 2005 the race featured as a major item on the TV show 5th Gear when Tiff Niddell and co ran a car.

Whilst placing a posting here is a long shot on my part, if anyone is interested in helping, please PM me and we can discuss your ideas/requirements.

[Malcolm]

Coming together slowly so currently I am confident I will be at the start line.

I have yet to commit to a team and have widened my options to include looking at teams running Porsches. The best one of these to date is a team running a 993 RSR, the ex-Sunocco team car from Belgium. These cars compare very similarly to the BMW E36's and the budgets are similar too.

Given a choice (such as I face) which would you prefer to race? They each have roughly the same power outputs, good reputations as endurance cars, weigh the same, have the same toys on board and should last the distance. Just have engines at opposite ends.

It has been said that GTD's handle like Porsches. Once they go, they are gone. I thought this referred mainly to the earlier 911's and not later cars. Anyone driven both hard?

I have thought to run this thread like a build thread as someone else may be sitting on the sidelines thinking about doing something like this for themselves. It may be enough incentive to go out there and try it for themselves. It is quite exciting already, and I haven't even secured a definitive drive yet!

[Malcolm]

This is proving to be a very interesting if time consuming excercise. Everyone wants to help but funnily enough not everyone has spare advertising cash. I am finding that my contacts then put me in touch with their contacts as a way of helping and before I know it I am writing applications to monster big companies with contacts on the Board! I have been talking with a vast array of people from race organisers, team principles and top flight race drivers, all happy to help and guide. As well as some good business people. If I gain nothing from this apart from the experience of trying it will have been worth it. I wonder where this will end up?

The only issue that really bugs right now is that this year Wendy is driving at the Brighton Speed Trials in our GTD which is on the Saturday 9th September and of course the 24 Hour race starts at 4pm that afternoon. Can't be in two places at once. So now we are trying to get a small team around Wendy so she can run the 40 at Brighton without me, get home in one piece, and then come up to Silvestone by say about 9pm. It must be possible as the marshals from Brighton are due at Silverstone that night to marshal there! I can see why top drivers have management teams now!

[Malcolm]

Success! I am pleased to announce that I have been pencilled in to drive for John Clonis in this years 24 Hours of Silverstone in his Porsche 993 RSR.

I have been sponsored by three local firms (see below) and I am very grateful to them for their support.

The Porsche is currently in Germany having its engine and gearbox fitted, after which it gets it Silverstone suspension set up before returning to the UK for final assembly. When I get to my office computer I will post some pictures of the car prior to it being sent to Germany. It is a well prepped car and I have high hopes of it reaching the finish line.

The next stage is to have a test day in the car to prove that I can do what I have said that I can do (else I am out!) and this should happen mid August (ish).

I am hearing rumours of other drivers who will be driving in the race and there are names that everyone will have heard of, which is a little daunting to say the least. The names cover ex F1 stars, Le Mans drivers plus UK and European Touring car drivers, past and present.

80 cars on the grid is expected and the feedback I have had both from our team and others who should know, is that our car is capable of a top 20 finish.

8 weeks to go!

The web site for the race is at
www.eerc.co.uk/24hrsite

with the race organisers web site at
www.eerc.co.uk


My sponsors are

Menzies, a leading south east of England accountancy practice
www.menzies.co.uk

Cobb Ltd, a construction and renovation company based south of London
www.cobb.co.uk

and Brackenwood Windows, a windows, doors and conservatory manufacturing and installation company based again south of London.
www.brackenwood.com

Others are helping in other non financial ways and when more details are known and confirmed I will make mention of these most welcome supporters.

[Ron Earp]

Hi Malcolm,

that is some fantastic news, a serious ride! So you have a sort of "driver interview" to sort through huh? Good luck with that, I hope that it comes out positively and you don't have any issues.

I've never driven a Porsche 911 with that sort of power or grip levels. I bet you're going to have a blast though, and driving something that is well preppared is always a pleasure. Good luck and please keep us posted. Have you any pictures or anything of the car to post?

Ron

[Malcolm]

Hi Ron

It is your bl**dy fault I am doing this, just so you know, as having driven with/for you last year at VIR I am rather taken on wheel to wheel racing.

Will post car details and pics during this coming week.

Interviews? Don't you have to do really well for those? Last year the race was watched by 180,000,000 globally via Sky. A bit more than the 10,000 to 20,000 we get at Brighton Speed Trials. I don't fancy doing interviews! But just in case the team does have a PR guy to advise.

Should warm me up for VIR in November!

[Malcolm]

Herewith two pictures of the car prior to be sent Germany. It is not yet finished!!!!

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

well done Malcom
too great news to see u in a serious 24 hours race.
I read the post late, but maybe..if u want just also ask and kkep infos for a new 24 hours u can contact the team i worked for

http://www.jasmotorsport.com/

The chief mechanic was a Btcc superstar technician (mads Fischer, danish guy a sort of brother of Tom Kristensen).
They have years of experience in wtcc and endurance races (he made the daytona winning porsche gt1 evo).
They made also ITC/DTM alfa 155 and Ferrari 575 gtc
The few i know about costs are for the wtcc season with wtcc accord (about 50.000 euros for each race) and is less than prices u wrote before.
they also make 24 hours ..usually Nurburgring ones.(230 cars at starting grid..they finish 32)
The final result depends too much from the driver.
Our accord was in pole position if driven by Fabrizio Giovanardi and works perfectly for long distances endurance racing(they use a lower step developement car..usually from danish tourism championship.Is the car Marko Martin used for his return to race),this cause the wtcc one is too delicate for endurance.

Just try ask theme for the next race...I hope u will go on in such serious ones

my personal best wishes for u at the race..hope i can see u in tv (will found some web tv for that).

wasnt possible to race with the gt40?.If setted for endurance races....that will be its place

Paolo
Forza Malcom !!

[Malcolm]

Thanks for the encouragment Paolo, very welcome.

Latest news is that the car is coming back to the UK on 21st August. John went to see it yesterday and it is progressing well. Snag is he forgot his camera so I have no pictures to see or show! However this sunday I travel north to see the spare car to familiarise myself with a left hooker Porsche in race trim.

On 16th August is the press day at Silverstone for the race, just before the club track day (must get my 40 ready by 15th) when I plan to go see what is what there.

All systems go.....

[Malcolm]

Well I have now been fitted to the sister car. The race car comes back from Germany this week, and I also went to the Press Day. Both very interesting trips. I have also made my first payment to the team.

I do have pictures but as yet can't edit them on this computer to the right size for posting but will work on that as soon as I can.

So what have a I learnt?

I have met some members of the team and they are really nice guys. Hope we can all stay that way under whatever pressure comes our way!!!! Unusually for me I intend to keep my mouth shut and do as I am told for once! Listen and learn.

The team is on the way to being fully prepared. John is in Germany again this weekend to see the spare engine on the dyno. The race engine, now fitted, tested well. Power to weight ratio will be similar to my GTD.

There is much discussion on gear ratios and a decision has been made. We have a 6 speed box with a tall 6th gear which we do not plan on using unless we need to conserve fuel. Expected gears for racing will be 3rd, 4th and 5th only.

We are running a 120 litre fuel tank over the front axle line. I am told it will affect steering as the weight reduces in a stint. Stints will be at least 2 hours long. The GT3 Porsches are limited to 100 litre tanks as they are in a different class to us. We are mainly up against Marcos Mantis's and BMW's M3 E36 and E46's in our class. We seem to be the only Porsche 993 in the race.

In other classes there are Moslers, lots of GT3s, a Harrier and interestingly for me a Prosport LM3000. I wonder if their gearbox will last? These cars are limited to only 90 litre tanks. You can see there will be some fun on pit stops as some will have to make many more stops than others.

I spoke with one of the Mosler teams. They have a seat available and asked me to mention it about. Asking price to be the 4th driver is £15,000 plus VAT. You have 20 days to save up! I reckon you could knock that down a bit.

The press day was interesting but I couldn't stay that long due to a work commitment. 30 cars were testing that day and they looked awesome as they went past the pits.

I spotted David Leslie in a BMW (our class) and Mike Wilds in a Mazda RX8. It looked like a works supported drive with the two cars in the Le Man winning livery from some years back. Those RX8s made a different noise to everything else. That be Rotary engines for you.

I saw a single seater version of the Lotus Exige with a 2 litre Honda engine in the back. That looked very interesting. But very small compared to other cars.

The Marcos's are running 4.6 Ford V8's. One only lasted 40 miinutes before it was craned back into the pits with the front right corner mashed up. However it was fixed quite quickly, looked worse than it was.

I now have the schedule for the race weekend so can see just how busy we are going to be. Won't be bored that is for sure!

On the 24 Hour web site, see above for address, there is now posted a full list of drivers confirmed to date. See how many you can recognise. Quite a few! And then there is me.

I have a booking with my local newspaper with one of my sponsors soon with their PR guy. Better get the oil off my overalls from the track day!

Our team has some testing planned for as soon as the car returns from Germany. We need some miles on the car to make sure nothing will fall off!

Our team now comprises

Drivers
John Clonis (team/car owner)
David Streatham
Alistair McKinnon
Malcolm MacAdam

Crew
5 Mechanics from BLS Automotive
1 PR spokesperson/corporate liason
1 Physio (slap and tickle man)
1 Photographer (Keith Baker)
1 Telemetry whizz (Paul Thompson)
1 Catering person

What we could do with is a motorhome for the paddock for the physio guy to work from plus a place to chill out. We have proper rest/sleep rooms etc already booked so this is a nice extra if we can get it. If you can help there will be free tickets for you. Blooming big caravan would be an alternative. PM me if you wish to be involved.

I have an interesting list of bits to supply. These include corner weight scales, compressor, tumble dryer, table and chairs plus tea urn! Not my usual race track supplies list!

If anyone is interested in getting discounted tickets for the weekend I can supply at £15 each if you let me know soon enough. These are full access tickets except for the actual pit lane itself.

[Aloys]

Last week a friend of mine had his cobra tested on the Manthey Dyno near the Nürburgring. Manthey-Racing is specialized on Porsche. When I saw the picture of that Porsche above I remember seeing one that looked at least very similiar in one of the Manthey-Halls. Could it have been THAT one??
Anyway, I have huge respect for someone to climb into that machine. Best wishes to you Malcolm.

[Peter D]

Go Malcolm !!!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

[JackW]

A very interesting thread indeed Malcolm. I am really looking forward to hearing how you go, what went wrong, what went right, what it was like onthe winners podium, how you decided NOT to keep your mouth shut and told the crew what for (ha ha). Best of luck in the race, whatever happens I am sure it will be an absolute blast.

Cheers

Jack

[David Morton]

Malcolm,
Add to your list a hairdryer (for helmets) and a few tubes of Berocca tablets www.berocca.co.uk

[Malcolm]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, it does help me along with this adventure!

David, I have always avoided using these energy tablets or drinks in the past, going way back to college when some guys took stupid amounts of stuff to get through exams etc. Some of the competition crowd in the GTD club drank Red Bull prior to their drives and said it helped them. I thought it tasted foul!

Do you really think that that an energy drink or tablet would benefit? The latest I would get my first stint is roughly at midnight. Then it would be at roughly 6 hour intervals. All being equal of course. Obviously there is a period of winding down and getting ready. I do not want to try something new in case it back fired. My "training" right now is based upon increasing stamina so I can keep going for the whole stint. Anyone else got any thoughts on this one?

Hair dryer sounds sensible. Hope Wendy will let me borrow hers. At least the "kitchen" sink is already in the pit garage at Silverstone.

[David Morton]

It's basically vitamin C with trace elements. I think it was one of the Physio's in Audi Veloqx who used it mixed with mineral water and maybe glucose? for one of the drivers. I've used it for years - it's not an 'upper' or habit forming. Just quite nice and refreshing without sugar.