Oh and it could be worse, the scoop on Quo’s car nearly took the roof off and I seem to remember a storey of Sean’s car where something let go and tore the clam in half.
Yup Sean lost his roof at Donny with Jamie in the car and made a mess of the clam.
Russ lost his roof at Silverstone.
Christian’s roof lifted at Brunters but in fairness that was at 170mph!
To lose the engine cover it must surely be massive high pressure in the bay and low pressure above no? I too no nothing about aero but I do remember discussion about issues of airflow in the bay and the constraint being getting air out. Obviously with the super-scoop there lots of air going in!!
John, Sean or Jamie will no doubt have a view…
if i was starting from scratch thats probably the way i’d go but would be a shame to change as mapper complimented the setup and it can handle a lot more power in his opinion.
you can see why i’m concerned about just bolting it down more!
i was speaking to DJ race cars earlier in the week and need to send Simon Mcbeath an email about wing/splitter, would be interested to hear his opinion, i presume solid cover is better but given my Super Scoop (cheers Ben 
) would this be a problem?
This is whats under the cover…
i’m thinking make a more solid piece that goes from the scoop over the core trap and locks in (where rubber seals are) and then cover goes over? or is the pressure coming from the exit tray?
Why not weld bosses to the roll hoop to screw the aero catches into?
Not thought of that, we had thought about putting bolts through with spreader plates.
betting fatigue doesn’t help, and given that others have seen the whole clam rip clear!
I almost experienced this with my engine cover with the brackets holding my earocatches bending up. Luckily I caught it before going out for another track session. Anyway, our conclusion was that when lifting off the throttle, the air was backing up in the airbox, bending it’s lid up, escaping and pushing the engine cover upwards. All I did was beef up the mounts and during my rebuild I’ll also be putting a few louvres in the back of the airbox so that excess pressure can vent off slightly.
Give me a call if you want to chat about rear wings and front splitters. I’ve been through all this sort of stuff for hours and hours with Simon McBeath.
thanks Jamie
I didn’t see the cover come off but given where the marshals recovered it, its possible that it came off at maximum speed or at lift off.
Will give you a call on the aero and a couple of other things.
cheers
Every sealed type air box or cooler box at the back of the roof scoop I have seen has given issue on track at speed. We now run one on Christians car, but with exit vents at the front, so that any excess air spills out the sides. Engine does suck quite a lot of it though!!
Hi John, thanks for sharing your knowledge, again!
On my set up would you recommend drilling holes/slats at the back of the box or on all 3 sides and do you think cheese grater style holes directional from the core would be better in keeping the air from going straight out under load and escape easier under lift off?
or am i over thinking this?!!
Ok, more information it looks like what Jamie & John are saying would appear to be the what happened, logs show 131mph up to the ‘wiggler’ and cover came off as i exited and got back on it.
Your challenge is that you need all the air that you can, as you are running a cooler - anything wasted really is wasted. Christians is a massive air filter, so only air the engine doesn’t consume is being going out the side. Before we went to the side rads, we were considering putting a cooler where yours is, but discounted it due to the roof and engine cover staying attached issues.
We did toy with the idea of having a hinged flap on the sides of a sealed chamber, with a low pressure spring holding it shut, but discarded it as too much complication for something I was trying to avoid having to do anyway.
I’d avoid welding anything to the roll cage, some scrutineers really don’t like that!
I had a similar idea of small hinged flaps, found a 2" one for an old Porsche airbox to guard against backfires but same principle, was thinking a few of these dotted around the box configuration…
we’re going to give additional aerocatches and slats/holes a go and see if that works, if after that it still fails we’ll attach a parachute to the engine cover and be done with it.
Thanks Tim, Jamie & John for help (and a bit from Ben )
Drivers list for the first round of Time Attack 2015…
No lotus entrants for the season it appears, so just one hit wonders (OHW) this year but i’ll be out at Snetterton (2nd round) all being well! (and engine number 2 survives the Dyno!!).
Some tasty cars on show, 650bhp Noble in Pro 2WD, some spectacular Evo’s in Pro & Pro extreme classes as ever, i’ll be cheering on Damian Bradley in his legacy (Club 4WD) and Gavin Renshaw (PRO 4WD) in a yellow subaru (affectionately known as the ‘Banana’) as they’re both looked after by SD Motorsport.
My favourite video of a TA car, unfortunately retired now but TA in a nutshell…
https://youtu.be/YiQ6FcyiPag
PS just noticed a lotus at 1 min 7 secs!
Think that’s steve guglielmi
Thought it might have been, have heard it was a weapon…
Quick update…things have been a little slow of late due to one reason or another but at last are moving again…
Wing is off to be repaired by a carbon specialist, new engine cover catches/mounting points being sorted, air vets for the air box and new Enduro Hans harnesses inbound so hopefully back out in a couple of weeks.
Also ordered, one of Jamies/AT Powers Dry Sumps as well as a 2.2 stroker from Ian @Clockwise motion. K20, Omega pistons, billet crank, Darton sleeves etc wont be with me till July but hoping to get it in straight away, mapped and out for an event, can’t wait!!
Video from Blyton i should have post earlier, bit shaky but you can really hear the Quaife box/gear changes, has been the best thing on the car so far…
Wanting the gearbox!