GTD Club Competition Calendar 2002

G

Guest

Guest
Hi,

I'm the competition secretary to the GTD 40's Car Club here in the UK, and part of my job involves organising the competition events that club members partake in. However before you get too excited the competitions that we specialise in are hill climbs and sprints and not circuit racing, that is just too expensive as a general rule. I beleive what we call hill climbing and sprinting is different in the UK to the US so if you want more details post a question and I shall try and come back to it.

I understand that members within the GT40 Enthusiasts club do some circuit racing in the UK so any questions specific to that would be best directed to that club.

As this is the events section of the forum below is a list of provisional dates for next year. Please note that they are provisional as they are subject to change although normally the dates by now are fairly firm.

* 2/3/4 May Isle of Man - Three Hills Challenge

* 13 July Lydden - Sprint

* 20/21 July Loton Park - Hill Climb

* 27/28 July Wiscombe Park - Hill Climb

* 3 August Goodwood - Sprint

* 7 September Lydden - Sprint

*!14 September Brighton - Sprint

* 23 or 24 September Longleat - Hill Climb

I have marked events with an ! for where Andrew Fordyce has beaten me. I have marked events with an * for where the shoe was on the other foot! See you at lunch on the 27th, Andrew.

A quick resume of the venues...

Isle of Man. Yup, we get to race on part of the TT circuit, around the Water Works and Gooseneck section for those in the know. The other benefit of this place is where the speed limit says national speed limit applies, there is NO SPEED LIMIT. Makes for fun trips back to the hotel although you still have to be responsible! Also the Ferrari Owners Club take part too so we re-live the Ford V Ferrari battles of the sixties with bottles of champagne up for grabs. It gets competitive!

Lydden. This 1 mile circuit is the one that the McLaren F1 team are in the process of buying and redeveloping. It is a good viewing circuit with 95% visible from one vantage point. Up and down hill too and great for long drifts.

Loton Park. This time we are with the Aston Martin Owners Club but they have got the Ferrari boys coming too so again its Ford V Ferrari. Porsche Club and Lotus boys possibly in attendance but only if there is space for all these great cars. Also a charity event with an attempt being made for tv coverage or magazine coverage.

Wiscombe Park. Picturesque setting but the scene is broken by the sound of F1 engines in specialist single seaters of the National Hill Climb Championship contenders. Tight twisty and scary if you get it wrong.

Goodwood. A spiritual home of real GT40s as they tested here on a rgular basis as not too far from Slough where they built them. We also have track days here so we all know this cricuit well. Fastest speeds of the year here with 150 mph quite feasible.

Brighton. Home to the Brighton Speed Trials a quarter mile dash but only against the clock not another car as in drag racing. Right on the sea front and the wind direction can make or break your best times. No one has got below 12 secs in a GTD yet but Paul got close in Roys car a couple of years ago with 12.01. Terminals up to about 137 mph.

Longleat. Racing up the driveway of one the UK stately homes, a good season closer. Owner keeps lions in the gardens so don't spin off to far!

Anyway, hope someone finds these dates of interest. I will keep an eye on the site from now on, only heard about it at our AGM.

Cheerio

Malcolm
 
G

Guest

Guest
okay,okay don't rub it in! Every dog has his day.
Andrew
 

Ron Earp

Admin
What kind of motors you fellows running in those cars? < 12 sec in a GT40 should be easily obtainable. Even at 2400lbs with driver and low 300hp, a break into the high 11s should be possible without bashing it.

Keep in mind I'm just curious as to what motors are common in the UK and hp levels, I'm not complaining or anything. I have to keep the baby tonight, thus have plently of time to post on the board this evening.

R
 
G

Guest

Guest
Hi Ron

Great to hear from you.

Our club members run a variety of engines, all yank stuff bar one. Mainly 302 but some 351 out there as well. Variety of carburation from single holley 4 barrel to 4 webbers to fuel injection. There are two turbo charged cars I know of, one is in Australia with a claim of about 800 bhp but that car doesn't compete here (obviously!), and Tony Marsh's 4.5 ltr Rovercraft based engine which is known to have 630 bhp. Both of these are twin turbo's. Paul and Roy's engine, the one referred to elsewhere on this site, has I guess about 550 plus BHP through a fuel injected system. My car has been dyno tested with 310 bhp at the wheels. Say 345 to 350 at the flywheel? All the above figures are, I beleive, flywheel estimates. As you can imagine, being in competition we play games with each other over power outputs as no-one really wants to be exactly pinned down but the above are as reliable figures as I could give.

Andrew Fordyce has 10 to 20 bhp more than me. Robin Batt stated his engine had about 450 bhp through Webbers, his being the car that Brian Redman recently drove.

As you can see there is plenty of power out there. Part of the problem for quick 1/4 mile times is not necessarily low power. This has to be translated into traction. Brighton Speed Trials are held on a closed public road with a general tarmac road surface. Some of us have also driven at Santa Pod the UK's leading drag racing strip. I didn't find a big improvement on trction at Santa Pob over Brighton.

However bear in mind the tyres play a massive role in this. Most of our cars are street legal and so run road rubber. These tyres used to be Goodrich Comp ta 2's (265 50 VR 15's) but no longer available. A whole variety of tytres are now used ranging from Pirelli P7 (Aston Martin tyres) to Dunlop Post Historic cross plies (which I use and like a lot). These dunlops are the tyres used by GT40s back in the 60's and most European real 40's and Cobra's use them today.

Some of our chaps use slicks and these do give improved times. Only one person I know has been seen using chemicals on the tyres to improve traction.

Tony Marsh is a great bench mark for times. He has tons of power but runs 17 inch rims and Pirelli P Zero's. He has traction control and launch control fitted. He is also an exceptional driver (came third in the Belgian GP of 1959 and is a 5 times National Hill Climb Champion and still competes regularly!).

The wind driection does make a huge difference at Brighton as does sunshine. South Westerleys are required for the best times. If not you get a lot of head wind or side wind causing big amounts of drag.

This next bit might shock you.

The average time at Brighton is in fact in the low 13's with terminal's of about 117. My personal best is 12.64 (slicks used) and a terminal of 127 which actually was on a separate run to my best time. My wife's previous run in my 40 at Brighton was 13.98 with a terminal of 111 mph. This beat two regular competitors that year (shall I name them?) and is a good first timers run. Under the same conditions I ran 13.2 with 117 mph. Only one or two of us (out of 10) got below 13 seconds that year.

Wheelspin control is the major factor for a good time as you most likely know. That is driver control as are gear changes. Lots of people have missed gear changes at Brighton as we all try too hard to be quick with them. This relates to both cable and solid link systems. The gear boxes can only operate so fast. 1/3 to 1/2 of a second per gear change is about all you can expect with a renault transaxle.

So throwing the ball back to you, what would you expect us to be getting taking into account the above info? Any tips to make me quicker will be useful. Your weight estimate of our cars is pretty much spot on although some people now are into losing weight off the cars to improve times.

Do your colleagues run data logging and telemetry as is getting popular here? It doesn't lie or exaggerate so is proven highly entertaining as the BS factor is slowly being removed and replaced with hard facts. My wife bought me a system for my birthday. Who's a lucky chap?

Oh and also only in the latter half of this season have Quaife LSD been in use in a number of cars. Reanult's as standard don't have LSD so this doesn't help at all. At Longleat the previous club record was blitzed most likely mainly due to LSD.

A peice of history that my interest you too.

Adrian Hamilton's GT40 used to run in the speed trials back in the sixties (1968 I think). I would have to look up the chassis number. About two years ago I spoke with the oragnising club who dug out their records. Bearing in mind the course lenght back then was 1/2 mile (and was so until 1993 or 1994) the times acheived by a real gt40 were in the mid 23 seconds. GTDs have competed on the same course and the fastest chaps were well below this time with low 20's and often below 21 secs. My best over the half mile was about 22 seconds with about the same bhp as I have today.

Hope I haven't bored the pants off you!

Regards

Malcolm
 
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