My 2 days at Spa

Spa 2009, 29th and 30th June with Gold Track

If you follow this forum you may already have seen my thread on the chassis surgery I put my GTD through earlier this year. The car had been sent down to Southern GT to have the rear 3 ft chopped off and a Southern GT rear end welded on. The purpose of this exercise was to lower the engine and to get improved rear suspension geometry. The planned test date was at the end of May at Silverstone but it never happened due to work commitments and also other car issues that I chose to resolve at the same time lengthening the whole project. However the car was ready on the 27th June and early on Sunday 28th June Steve and I headed off to Spa. This was to be the shakedown and test of the works just completed so a bit of a jump into the unknown considering I had never been to Spa before.

We met up with Glenn, Tammy and William on the M25 near Clacket Lane services and then went in convoy on to Dover for the ferry. This was the first time both Glenn and I had taken our trucks overseas so we were both happy that when we went on the weighbridge we were under the 7500 kg limit. It was rather surprising how much ancillary stuff we had brought and how the weight all added up ever so quickly. It worked out that I had brought about 600 kg of spares, tools and camping gear!



(giving the car a pre event wash and scrub up, loading the truck with lots of gear)

No one attacked me on the ferry this time (see thread on our Southern GT Le Mans trip for that saga) and it was a simple 4 hour drive from Dunkirk to Spa. On our arrival however we were denied access into the circuit until 7am the following morning as the race meeting over the weekend was still packing up. So first night we camped down at the karting circuit.



(our camp site for the first night)

Next morning up bright and early and in the paddock for 7am and signed on for 8am. Drivers briefing at 8:25 allowed Glenn to be first out on to the track at 9am. My car needed its brakes bleeding again having rebuilt the front callipers a few days before as I wanted to be sure that all air was out the system. Funny how air collects over a few days that doesn’t come out at the first bleed. All fluids checked and wheels done up tight, time for me to venture out on to the circuit.


(my car gets pre track attention whilst Glenn's gets out there)

Now this is my first visit to Spa so I had no idea what to expect. Certainly I had not been able to match the TV image from F1 broadcasts to the views around the paddock so this was the most nerve racking moment of the trip, especially with uncertainty on the car brakes and other systems. My car hadn’t been run properly since the Brighton Speed Trials the year before so I was searching my memory for jobs that hadn’t been completed that should have been! Funnily enough Steve, my co driver for this trip, chose to sit this ride out!

Showed my wrist bands to the marshal at the end of the pit lane and then it was go, go, go! In a tentative kind of way that is!



(my car on circuit)

This link takes you to a description of the circuit;

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This circuit is fabulous! It’s fast but with enough corners so as to not bore you with massive straights. The up and down nature of it throws great challenges at both the car and driver and there are areas where the up hill corners allow you to carry massive speed in where as downhill corners make you feel like you are about to be slung off the track with very little you can do about it.


(other cars on track, some slow, some fast, all having a great time)

My first track session was sedate and I spent most of the time checking mirrors to allow those that were very familiar with the track blast past. After about 10 minutes it was time to come back in to the pits to check tyre pressures and compare notes with Glenn. He was grinning as much as me! This was going to be fun.


(a happy Glenn)

Another short session showed that the layout of the circuit was beginning to imprint itself in my memory and also showed that further tyre pressure adjustments were required. In all from an initial 25/27 psi setting (front/rear) we had to let out about 10psi per tyre to bring them back down to the initial setting as the track and air temperatures, plus my driving style was forcing the pressures up unacceptably high. However once reset, the tyre pressures stabilised for the rest of the visit.

Another issue showed up quite fast. The race meeting over the weekend had thrown a lot of rubber marbles down onto the track surface. Our tyres were picking up these marbles when we went off line to let the fast boys through. This put a huge vibration through the car and this does unsettle you as a driver as you think the whole car is about to fall to pieces. Rose joint suspension doesn’t absorb any of the vibrations. Some of the biggest lumps of rubber we saw on the track edge were tennis ball sized with most being finger sized and shaped. Over the course of the first day most of this rubbish was cleaned off the circuit so the issue diminished but at first it was a real problem to keep your tyres clean. A couple of clear laps did clean the tyres up but it was unpleasant to drive through.

When Glenn and I went out together we had quite an effect on the pit lane. We were filming with three cameras between our two cars so were running in as close formation as was sensible (Glenn and I have differing opinions of what is sensible!) especially as by the end of the first day we had both lost our brake lights for some weird reason.

It was very evocative going round together in particular going from La Source hairpin down through Eau Rouge. Going past the pits you are about a foot or two off the wall flat chat in fourth gear and being down hill, you gain a lot of speed quickly, of which you have to lose a bit to make the exit of Eau Rouge. You certainly feel the gradient change from down to up hill and it is great how the change gives you more grip so you can basically just go through quicker than if it was a level road.



(Glenn (#5) and I (#9) run together, I seemed to be forever going to the fuel station, Eau Rouge is steep, steep, steep! and the circuit is not the only thing with great curves)

Glenn’s car definitely has a more powerful engine over mine and once in third gear and rising, he could pull away from me. However in the corners he is suffering from the classic oil surge issues and so was being sensibly conservative until the required mods are completed. Over a lap, and because this is my article, of course I was quicker! In fact we were quicker than most things there once we got the circuit layout right in our heads and it was great how the marshals blue flagged the slower cars out of our way. Over the whole visit there was never any issue with slower cars or poor marshalling and everyone should be complimented on that point.

It was hot all the time. Very hot indeed and with race suits on we had to keep our liquid in-take up. I was putting my balaclava under the cold tap to wet it through before putting it on as I find this really makes a big improvement in comfort.


(a hot Malcolm!)

The heat also had some unexpected side effects. Apart from raising tyre pressures quite high, the heat expanded my side mirrors which are made from moulded plastic with rubber seals holding in the glass. It was not long before both my side mirrors had simply fallen out which is quite an odd situation when you go to look at the mirrors expecting to see behind you, and all you see is a black gaping hole! And really quite amusing considering my previous position on mirrors and their use on track days! However I solved this problem in two ways, firstly by being the faster car out there so less traffic would catch me up but for those mega fast cars, I did have the benefit of a rearward facing video camera and screen in the car which combined with the rear view mirror in the car, kept me well out of trouble.

During the first day I was keeping an eye on tyre temperatures as well as pressures. My front Avon’s (215 60 15s) were used and quite worn from a track day at Silverstone last year. The outer edge temperature was much higher than the inner edge so I chose to increase my camber. This I did by pulling out the shims that GTD’s use to adjust camber. I pulled the lot out which in the pits took me from 1 degree to 2 degrees of camber. I thought this would be sufficient but after the next track session, I re-measured the camber at 3 degrees as the car had settled by being out on track. Now I thought this was too much but actually that was a wrong assumption as the tyre temperature on the outer edge and in the middle was still about 10 degrees more than the inner edge! Having put fresh front tyres on overnight 3 degrees does seem about right on my car for track work. Certainly I had a better turn in as a result.

At the rear of the car I had set it up with 0.75 degrees of camber and looking at the tyre wear maybe this could be increased to 1 degree without issue.



(I had wing mirrors for a while, quite high tyre wear on the front of the car!)

With the Southern GT rear end now on the car I had to work out new settings for the anti roll bar and dampers. A few sessions and with input from Glenn plus others there that I knew, a setting was reached which made the car very planted on the track. Initially I had suffered from high speed corner instability but this was dialled out with increased stiffness on the rear ARB. I then had a good front/rear balance but Spa is so smooth a track surface that I could have got away with one step stiffer front and rear, but time remaining meant that it was easier to stick with a good setup rather than search for the elusive perfect set up.


(when at a track day always be prepared and expect to do some maintenance as you go along!)

And how different is the new rear chassis set up compared to the old GTD set up? Amazingly different. The two major effects the work did were to lower the engine by 2 inches and to revise the rear suspension geometry. The combined effect of these changes meant that the back end never once stepped out of line except when I was power sliding it out of the chicane in 2nd gear. If you know my driving style you will recognise how different this is! I once got a tranny lock up on a down shift which was bad heel and toeing (see video) but apart from that the rear end of my car is now so well planted that I need to re learn how to drive my car quickly. It is a very radical and beneficial change and I can’t be happier with it if I tried. I will, from now on, be evangelistic about engine lowering to all other GTD owners! It is very worthwhile doing it.

In addition I have taken some video of the rear wheel at speed, please see the video link at the end of this thread. I also have exactly the same video angle from my car when I ran the standard GTD chassis after our trip to the Ring back in 1994. The Southern GT geometry is visibly better at controlling camber change through roll and bump scenarios. If you follow this You Tube link you can see the video clip of my car from 1994 GTD40 Car Club video;

YouTube - ford gtd40's tearing up the nurburgring

I will also have to bite my tongue and go and do some laps at Goodwood again as that is where I have the most data on times etc to give a better indication of just how much better my car is with the new set up. If you are thinking of lowering your engine, trust me it is worth doing it.


(panoramic shots of the circuit taken on our cylce ride after the 1st day had finished, Tammy shows us what real speed looks like, William in Glenn's truck, and mine and Steve's sleeping accommadation)

Some stats for the trip:

Laps completed: approx 95
Distance travelled: approx 415 miles
Fuel used: approx 205 litres
Oil used: approx 1 litre

Problems encountered:

Passenger fuel tank to filler cap joint leak where rubber fuel pipe had been re-seated but not sealed effectively so ran with this tank always empty.
Stone chip turned to 16 inch crack in windscreen, very annoying as now MOT failure.
Starter motor failure, brushes need replacing, but strong guys and gals to push start me each time kept me going helped by down hill pit lane.
Lost glass in both wing mirrors, but we found them trackside when we cycled the track late evening, very pleased with this!
Brake light failure, no idea why yet.
Split CV joint gaiter, had spares and more grease but very messy to change late at night after a few beers!
MSD output to tacho broke off, very odd!

The video is not yet up on You Tube so I will post it when it comes, sorry.


(end of the event and two happy chaps with a car in one piece!)

Wonderful write-up Malcolm, thank you! It is stuff like this that inspires the rest of us still building to keep at it!

Fantastic Malcolm, I see the video is up now
YouTube - Spa 2009 Video

regards
Dave

VIDEO - WOW! Cool!

Thanks for posting the link Dave, repeated here!

YouTube - Spa 2009 Video

Apologies for the poor editing, I am not a film producer! I had lots of video to choose from having filmed about 5 1/2 hours of driving on my car alone. However it will give you a flavour of Spa and hopefully encourage you all to go there, you will find it a very memorable experience. I loved it and can’t wait to go again. Bookatrack.com are at Spa a couple more times this year if you are tempted.....

I Had a chance to visit Spa in 2002 and again in 2004. Fantastic!

Just spoken to Mick Sollis who told me about this post. Cracking video and great news on both car performing well. Now where are the garage keys?
I will definitely be visiting Spa next year when my car is finished.

Great write up and it sounds like a lot of fun! Can't get the download link from YouTube as I don't have broadband right now, but will check it out soon. Great looking car Glenn! I sure hope you're enjoying it!

Ron

Malcom

I thought the video was great and I liked the editing. Would have been good if there was a speed display, as I'm sure the speeds you felt through your seat aren't quite transfered to the screen.
I especially like how quick you overcome the Porsche at around the 5 min mark.

Excellent stuff