Beware, really long post coming up.
I�ve been meaning to write up about what I�ve been doing with my Exige for ages now and it�s been almost a year since I stopped using it, in order to prepare it for some more serious use. Since I was only really using it for track days, I thought I might as well go the whole way and make it completely track/race orientated. I then also decided to enter the car into �Time Attack� so it could stretch its legs a bit more. I�ve still got loads more I would like to do but the most important bits are done.
The hard work�s all been done my Maidstone Sports Cars, Eliseparts and Simon Scuffham. I�ve done little bits of work here and there and have done the bodywork mods at the back of the car to make the wide wheels fit, basically copying Steve Guglielmi.
Andy and the guys at Maidstone Sports Cars have undertaken all of the fitting work and basically got the car back on the ground and rolling, with me spending a few days with them learning how things go together etc so that I have a better understanding of it all. This was all very helpful as I may now stand a chance of fixing/adjusting something at a race meet if required.
Geary has supplied all of the race kit, including his race-spec rosejointed S2 T45 wishbones, race-spec S2 billet uprights with upper and lower rose-jointed bearing mounts, race-spec steering arms, T45 wishbone toe links, 4 pot front and rear callipers and Pagid RS14 pads, Quantum 2 way race dampers, floating bells with 304mm AP discs, S2 wheel stud conversion kit, S2 driveshafts, AP bias valve along with various other little bits and bobs. The quality of all this kit is awesome and it�s already been proven to work brilliantly by the guys out in Australia.
Scuffers has helped with the design and testing out in Australia of most of the things above and has also designed the wheels which we have had made in Spain by Braid. 9.5� rears and 7.5� fronts. I�m running Toyo 888�s as they�re the control tyre for Time Attack. 255�s at the back and standard width fronts squeezed onto the wider wheels to try and stop side-wall flex as much as possible. Scuffers has worked out all the damper specs and general set-up and has been on the end of the phone the whole time for support.
Anyway, the first Time Attack event was held last Saturday at Oulton Park with a test day on the Friday. A friend and I set off on the Thursday morning and stopped en-route at Eliseparts where Geary and Scuffers very kindly helped fit some last minute parts and made some small set-up changes.
Friday was test day and again Scuffers kindly offered to come up to help with set-up etc (and rag the nuts off my car). I was pretty nervous as I hadn�t really driven the car for a year, had never been to the circuit and basically had a new, untested car which had finished being built on the way up to the circuit!!! The car felt good from the outset but gradually got better and better as the day went on, with Simon making changes here and there. We were all quite excited that it worked so well out of the box and that there was still loads to do to make it even better.
Basically, the Quantum dampers are simply awesome. The Nitrons I used to have were great and I can�t fault them whatsoever. However, there is something about the new set-up that feels a little more special. The way they make the car respond with small changes is unbelievable and I�m very happy with my choice.
Then there�s the braking. As on the Australian race cars, I have AP 4 pots at the front with Eptuning 4 pots at the back, RS14�s, floating bell discs, AP bias valve, AP master cylinder and RBF 600 race fluid. It�s in a completely different league to anything I�ve experienced/tried before and has to be felt to be believed. I was a little worried that some of the feel would go or that there would be a slightly longer pedal etc, etc. However, the feel is better, there isn�t a hint of fade, the stopping power is huge and most importantly I have 100% confidence in them.
The rest of the kit fitted must also be making a big difference to the way the car behaves because everything is pin-point accurate and confidence inspiring. The car is now ultra stable and I could feel that there was a massive improvement on what was before an already heavily track orientated set-up. In fact it was so good that for the first time ever, I managed to make myself feel really sick with my own driving and had to drive out to a pharmacy at lunchtime and buy some drugs to sort it. I think Scuffers also enjoyed the day and was very, very impressed with the way it went. I just about managed to learn the track by the end of the day but was a mile off Simons pace.
Saturday had arrived. Time for me to take part in my first ever Time Attack event in the �Club Challenge� category at an unfamiliar circuit. Not ideal!!! I was bricking it and worried about being a dangerous mobile chicane, with most of the cars having considerably more power than me and the drivers more experience. Anyway, the time came for me to go out for the 15 minute warm-up and I used all of it to try and work out how to go quicker. The idea is to set the fastest lap time, so is basically like a qualifying session. I came in feeling a bit disappointed but was surprised to see that I was quickest in my group. My datalogger had been reading 4 or 5 seconds off!!!
Then during practice I knocked another second off my time and came out 2nd on the time sheets.
Nothing before had counted for anything but next was qualifying which I believe we get points for. I went out and took another second off my best lap. This put me 2nd overall again from memory and meant that I would go through to the final.
The final came later than planned, after some race trucks doing demo laps decided to smash each other to pieces, spreading debris and fluids all over the chicane. I nervously went out to start my laps and whereas previously there had been a fair bit of space to get a good run, there was now very little room and I was finding it impossible to get in a half decent lap. I came in after the flag went out feeling gutted and thinking that I�d be right down the list. I pulled into my pit garage and was greeted with a handshake and a �well done�. Somehow I managed to get first in rwd class and first overall and had taken another second off my last time. And that was with a really shite lap. 2nd and 3rd place went to last years winners which were 2 Supras with 800bhp and 900bhp. Christ, there is so much more to come from this car if I can learn to drive it properly. I�d love to know what time Simon would have done if he had been driving.
Steve Guglielmi in Pro Class driving his monster power Audi Exige also did very well coming second. He actually set the fastest time of the day but ran out of Nitrous Oxide in the final.
So all in all I had a great first outing and now have a lovely trophy sitting on my mantle piece. The weekend was a real buzz and it�s always nice to see such a wide range of cars competing. I�m really looking forward to the next one. It�s Knockhill on 16th May, so not long to go and no idea whether it will suit my car or the higher power ones. Again, I�ve never been there.
Anyway, all the write-ups and pictures can be found on the official Time Attack site and on Speedhunters. I�ll post up my results after the next event in a few weeks time.
Ta
