Ross Nicol
GT40s Supporter
Our first State race meeting at Phillip Island at the weekend was a bit up and down for me. Preparation on the car started 2 weeks ago when I tried to prepare the Lotus Europa for a Club day at Winton. It all went wrong on Saturday afternoon when I couldn't complete the installation of some new front Calipers (due to not having the correct plumbing) and after considering taking the 40 and not being able to find my race license at 4am I admitted defeat.Of course I found the license later that night but this debacle proved I needed to prepare for Phillip Island much earlier. So I managed to con Andrew East into driving for many miles to come and help me set up the suspension on Sunday the 19th. We spent the whole day on it and I was shocked to find how far out it was.
Right rear 5.5mm Toe in
Left rear 1mm Toe out
Right front 1mm Toe out
left front 5mm Toe out
Yep and I had raced it like that at 2 meetings in NZ with that set up.I can't blame anyone but myself as Russ Noble offered me the string lines and I said no it's ok. I did notice it turned in one direction a lot better than the other. Anyway I will check the setup before all future meetings.
Andrew and I set to work and finished up with.
Right rear 3.1° neg camber, 2mm Toe in
Left rear 3.1° neg camber, 1.5mm Toe in
Right front 4.1° neg camber, 1mm Toe out
Left front 3.9° neg camber, 1mm Toe out
We double checked the results before finishing and I wrote down all the numbers.
This left me with the rest of the week to change the oil, bleed the brakes and check pads, plus lots of other little jobs.
I have never been happy with the oil change procedure because merely draining the dry sump tank and refilling it with fresh oil always left a lot of old black oil in the engine and I thought there must be a way to flush the old oil out.So here is my new procedure. Drain the tank (as usual) fill with fresh oil, dismantle the tank return line and run the engine while draining old oil into tray. Top up tank as necessary. When fresh oil appears at drain point reconnect to tank. Replace filter.
I managed to complete all jobs by friday evening and loaded the car on the trailer before getting home for a relaxing night.
Up at 6am and on the road to Phillip Island at 6.30am.
Arrived at 7.45am and all preparation/paperwork completed on time. I was feeling relaxed, although I was missing Russ Noble's helping hands and good humour. The track was dry when we got out for qualifying and it wasn't long before I recognised how good the handling was. Turn in was good in both directions and the steering actually didn't feel heavy. I thought mmm maybe I didn't get the suspension set up right after the scrub radius changes. Anyway as normal I didn't push hard enough and only qualified in 13th place and behind a 240z by a tenth of a sec.
Race 1 on Sat afternoon and I fluffed the start a little as the red lights went out fairly quickly. I did jump the 240z and a few others until I came up on the back of Robin Bailey's MGB V8. It was good to be up on his tail as I knew he had qualified a couple of secs faster than me. He had all sorts of trouble with rear grip but we were neck and neck down the straight. Later Robin admitted to having 380hp which I'd say is pretty close to what I have at the moment. Anyway I had a lot of fun monstering our club vice president from behind all through the race, even though we were slowing each other down to 1min 49sec laps. Finished 10th
Sunday dawned and as promised rain and lots of gale force wind. Phillip Island is on the Southern coast looking out to Bass Strait and when it's cold and wet only an idiot wouln't have a garage. Yep you guessed it that idiot was me. Anyway just before the 2nd race on Sun morning the executive decision was made to change to wet tyres and I got my clothes wet in completing this task. Luckily I was able to change into my dry driving suit. Got off the start line ok and shot up behind the front guys but as we rounded Southern loop a P.... car 2 spots in front lost it and after a dab on the brakes I found myself doing the same thing. I ended up doing a 180 and onto the grass rejoining the rear of the grid. The car was handling well in the wet and I managed to pull back a few places and even a P.... driver who was slow in the wet. I nearly got past him but monstered him for about 3 laps before he crossed the line just in front of me in 9th place.
The last race 10 laps on Sunday afternoon turned out to be an 'if only' affair as My tyre choice proved to be very wrong. I was on slicks and as we sat on the dummy grid down came the rain. Several cars dived in on the parade lap to change tyres and didn't make the start but ended up a wise move. I started with only 2 cars ahead of me and was going ok but the rain got heavier and I was aquaplaning a lot. I completed 8 laps and finally had a tank slapping episode which shot me off the track and into the kitty litter. I was quite impressed though as I had set a lap time equivalent to a P.... driver and he was on wet tyres. I'm hoping to get the good motor in before the year is out as now I feel confident the handling is ready for it. Got absolutely soaked loading up for the trip home so drove all the way with the heater on high. Great fun motor racing isn't it. Next meeting Sandown 22nd/23rd May.
Ross
Right rear 5.5mm Toe in
Left rear 1mm Toe out
Right front 1mm Toe out
left front 5mm Toe out
Yep and I had raced it like that at 2 meetings in NZ with that set up.I can't blame anyone but myself as Russ Noble offered me the string lines and I said no it's ok. I did notice it turned in one direction a lot better than the other. Anyway I will check the setup before all future meetings.
Andrew and I set to work and finished up with.
Right rear 3.1° neg camber, 2mm Toe in
Left rear 3.1° neg camber, 1.5mm Toe in
Right front 4.1° neg camber, 1mm Toe out
Left front 3.9° neg camber, 1mm Toe out
We double checked the results before finishing and I wrote down all the numbers.
This left me with the rest of the week to change the oil, bleed the brakes and check pads, plus lots of other little jobs.
I have never been happy with the oil change procedure because merely draining the dry sump tank and refilling it with fresh oil always left a lot of old black oil in the engine and I thought there must be a way to flush the old oil out.So here is my new procedure. Drain the tank (as usual) fill with fresh oil, dismantle the tank return line and run the engine while draining old oil into tray. Top up tank as necessary. When fresh oil appears at drain point reconnect to tank. Replace filter.
I managed to complete all jobs by friday evening and loaded the car on the trailer before getting home for a relaxing night.
Up at 6am and on the road to Phillip Island at 6.30am.
Arrived at 7.45am and all preparation/paperwork completed on time. I was feeling relaxed, although I was missing Russ Noble's helping hands and good humour. The track was dry when we got out for qualifying and it wasn't long before I recognised how good the handling was. Turn in was good in both directions and the steering actually didn't feel heavy. I thought mmm maybe I didn't get the suspension set up right after the scrub radius changes. Anyway as normal I didn't push hard enough and only qualified in 13th place and behind a 240z by a tenth of a sec.
Race 1 on Sat afternoon and I fluffed the start a little as the red lights went out fairly quickly. I did jump the 240z and a few others until I came up on the back of Robin Bailey's MGB V8. It was good to be up on his tail as I knew he had qualified a couple of secs faster than me. He had all sorts of trouble with rear grip but we were neck and neck down the straight. Later Robin admitted to having 380hp which I'd say is pretty close to what I have at the moment. Anyway I had a lot of fun monstering our club vice president from behind all through the race, even though we were slowing each other down to 1min 49sec laps. Finished 10th
Sunday dawned and as promised rain and lots of gale force wind. Phillip Island is on the Southern coast looking out to Bass Strait and when it's cold and wet only an idiot wouln't have a garage. Yep you guessed it that idiot was me. Anyway just before the 2nd race on Sun morning the executive decision was made to change to wet tyres and I got my clothes wet in completing this task. Luckily I was able to change into my dry driving suit. Got off the start line ok and shot up behind the front guys but as we rounded Southern loop a P.... car 2 spots in front lost it and after a dab on the brakes I found myself doing the same thing. I ended up doing a 180 and onto the grass rejoining the rear of the grid. The car was handling well in the wet and I managed to pull back a few places and even a P.... driver who was slow in the wet. I nearly got past him but monstered him for about 3 laps before he crossed the line just in front of me in 9th place.
The last race 10 laps on Sunday afternoon turned out to be an 'if only' affair as My tyre choice proved to be very wrong. I was on slicks and as we sat on the dummy grid down came the rain. Several cars dived in on the parade lap to change tyres and didn't make the start but ended up a wise move. I started with only 2 cars ahead of me and was going ok but the rain got heavier and I was aquaplaning a lot. I completed 8 laps and finally had a tank slapping episode which shot me off the track and into the kitty litter. I was quite impressed though as I had set a lap time equivalent to a P.... driver and he was on wet tyres. I'm hoping to get the good motor in before the year is out as now I feel confident the handling is ready for it. Got absolutely soaked loading up for the trip home so drove all the way with the heater on high. Great fun motor racing isn't it. Next meeting Sandown 22nd/23rd May.
Ross