Congrats to Mark Barrett for taking overall honours in the Orange Beastie at the Circuit Driver Speed Championship ar Silverstone !!!
Mark is running with a very similar spec engine to mine, so this is very interesting news …
(Dave Andrews is the best engine man I know )
Come on Mark, don’t be shy, tell us all about it ??
WELL DONE MARK!!!
Ian
ps. S1 or S2?
Thought I linked to the story HERE
As you can see, it is an S1, of course !!
Less drag from having no aerial - clever!
Ian
Modesty forbids…oh go on then 
Not sure if people want to know more about the car or Silverstone.
Following work by Dave Andrews over the winter, the car was 200bhp on Emerald’s Norfolk rollers - but with more to come when it gets “looser” and a better exhaust. As Mike says it is similar to his, DVA head, 1227 Pipers, big valves - standard VHPD bottom end, Emerald ECU and EBD Ultrabore manifold.
Bushes have been changed for Eliseparts Nylatron and Brakes have Pagid Pads, but otherwise the running gear is standard.
The other thing I have been trying to do is get the weight of the car down within the legality of the sprint regs.
Therefore, all the heatshielding in the engine bay (the foam backed stuff) has come out to be replaced by a thin material I got from Demon Tweeks. The foam backing to the cover over the ECU has gone. The heatshield under the boot floor (above the exhaust) has gone. The passenger seat is now a tillet seat from a kart (saves 8kg and costs bugger all - go and see your local indoor kart centre!) The radio, speakers and all their wires have gone.
In the engine bay, the Charcol Canister, Vacuum reservoir, Baro sensor and loads of associated crap have gone. Oh yeah, the aerial has gone too (Well spotted IDG)
Next steps are to get rid of the battery and use a Lawnmower Battery (bugger buying one at Lotus prices) with a slave battery on an Anderson lead. Foglights are going - both to save weight and increase airflow through the rad. I am even thinking of getting rid of the heater - who ever uses it anyway!!!
Anyway, Silverstone. The overall honours bit makes me feel a bit false, but I will take the temporary glory. The Silverstone event runs over 2 days with classes split between the 2 days Class 1-11 on Day one and 12-16 on day 2. In theory the classes get faster the higher the number.
The first day was bloody soaking - I like the wet from loads of years of karting, so the Orange monster and I spent mush of the day going sideways :0)
Everything with more power was really struggling - I was getting lurid wheelspin in 4th at about 105 MPH (whilst going sideways - yee haa) - Geoff Kershaw (the owner of Turbo Technics in his 650BHP 4WD Sierra) was getting wheelspin in all gears at any throttle position - mad!
The end result was actually 3rd overall on the event, but best placed Circuit Driver contender - The 2 people that beat me were also class 8 - but in different championships. Both Caterfields and both with 250BHP or more (1 had 320BHP and weighed less than 500KG - you do the maths!!!)
From that high we went to North Weald for round 2, the morning was wet so times meaningless. The afternoon dried and the car was on for a class win (by approx 3 seconds) when the bloody high pressure fuel pipe came loose and started sucking air in - big misfire and all power gone - went from 85mph to standstill before picking up again on half power. Missed the class win by 3 seconds - bugger :0)
Cheers for the support all!
Mark
Cheers Mark.
Do you know what it weighs in at with all those mods?
Ian
Hi Ian
I’m not sure - I was aiming to get about 50kg off the car before the winter - but as time has gone on it’s abvious that there’s just not 50kg to come off!!!
I would guess it is around 20kg lighter as it stands - the battery could lose another 10 - and the Heater around another 5. The key to everything I have done on the weight saving is that I have removed things that are not needed, rather than spend loads of money on lighter fuel tanks etc (no criticism to those that do - I just can’t afford it!!!)
For those worried about ditching heat shields - I did 1,000 miles of running in on the roads, including 350 miles non-stop one Sunday and there seemed to be no adverse affect in terms of heat build-up. Normally my car is used for 1 mile at a time, so even less of a problem for me.
Mark
Cheers again Mark
I don’t know where you are in Hampshire but if you’re free on the 25th you could always pop along to a little gather and show us the car (while gaining some well earned pats on the back!) - see here
Ian
Hi Ian
Sounds good
I am in Portsmouth, however work in Basingstoke, so I know this place - great for a meet.
Could be esaily tempted, although that will be the weekend before Curborough - so is conditional on the car being back together and ready (I am an endless tinkerer!!!)
Cheers
Mark