Well ive booked my first proper track day in the car to get it all shaken down and find out what will break first, the engine or my aero!!
does anyone have any tips for snetterton? saw on the list that a few lotus are going, anyone on here
Who’s running the day?
Javelin
I’m booked in. First time I’ve been at Snetterton in a while as been having some noise issues.
Hopefully sorted now. See you there.
If I could afford it I’d be there too.
Looks like the day is full now. Pretty good Lotus turn out. 8 Lotus and 14 VX220. Looking forward to it.
Yeah have a great day guys, wish I could be there. I had hoped to get to Snett this year…
So? Come on then let’s har about your day lads…
Aargh just typed two pages then got a ‘general sql error’ on posting. Teach me for trying to use the iPad.
Don’t have time to type it all again just now but will post tomorrow.
Suffice to say good day had by all, car ran really well. Will let Lee post on his experiences but seemed pretty positive to me, car was still running at the end with only a few relatively minor teething issues. Hope you enjoyed it Lee.
Sounds like a good day. It seemed like perfect trackday weather yesterday, clear, warm, no wind,…you lucky gits.
Did you manage to get a pax with a Will Lee? If you’ve not been on circuit for a while that would have been a great way of recalibrating your brain!
Hopefully you’ll get the chance to type in your write up again Will.
So here goes again.
Yesterday was the first time I’d been back to Snetterton in more about 18 months, and the last time I’d been I was sent home in disgrace for being a little noisy, 107db static, so that’s been limiting my choice of trackdays, so it was time to get it sorted out. Please to say that yesterday the car sailed through 97db static, quite a dramatic difference, and still on a 3" straight through system. And it still has a nice pop on the overrun. More on that later 
First thing was to make enough room for the most silencing I could get in there so went with a GT3 style diffuser similar to the one that Gav has on his car, then off for a trip to Chris Tulletts. Car now has two full width silencer boxes, and a silenced decat. Many thanks to Chris and the team, as I’m now going to get much more use from the car again.
Car then went back to Emerald to check the map. Initially it was a little down on power, but this was found to be due to a cracked weld on the chargecooler, rather than the new exhaust, so once that was fixed and remapped then car is back up making just over 325bhp and 210lb/ft. Running much nicer too, returning to idle much more smoothly, all be it still quite a high idle due to the cams.
While I was having some bits done, also took a trip over to Proalloy to get a new custom intercooler boost pipe with more clearance for the dry sump tank. Don’t have any pictures, but delighted with the result. Much better than the arrangement I had before.
Some pics of the exhaust and diffuser.
Posting before I lose it again. More to come.
So the trackday itself was great. Fantastic day for it, handy when you’ve booked late and there aren’t any garages spare Managed to get the deck chair out between sessions though and catch some rays among the banter.
Looking at the signup it seemed as if it would be pretty busy, think someone mentioned either 70 or 90 cars, but Snetterton is big enough that it never seemed busy. Couple of times where we had to wait to pass a slightly longer train of cars, but never felt we were being held up.
Pretty good mix of cars there as well. 10 or so VXs, 6 or 8 RX8s, numerous TVRs, and 4 other Exiges, Lee, an SC Honda S1, and a couple of S2s. Usual variety of other stuff there too, from stripped out Civics, to classic 911, and on to a lovely SR3. I thought driving standards were pretty high. No race cars there pseudo testing, just a bunch enthusiasts having a great day out.
Was pretty rusty in the first few sessions, but started to carry a bit more speed by the end of the morning. Its the first time I’ve properly done the new 300 layout, which shows how long I’ve not been getting the use of the car. Used to be there 3 or 4 times a year. Corum is now a real challenge, instead of opening up, it tightens right through to the breaking point and as you go from accelerator to brake, car just lets you know you’ve not to take too many liberties. Did have one moment early afternoon where one of the car immediately in front of me dropped oil there and that certainly put my eyes out on stalks, but kept it off the grass, and no harm done. There were a few red flags through the day due to mechanicals, but nothing that took too long to recover.
On the down side, looking at the video footage, some of my old habits are back. Need to remember to put my hand back on the wheel between gear shifts. Also still can’t get Riches right, always realise I could have carried more speed once you are past the apex, but that’s not what my head’s telling me on turn in on the next lap. Anyway minor things, because elsewhere the car seemed pretty hooked up, and there wasn’t much there quicker.
Spent the afternoon, taking some people out for PAX laps, including Lee. All remarked on the brakes, although I’m starting to get used to them now, so might do something about the rears next year.
Main talking point though seemed to be the rather rude flames the car was sporting on the overrun. Might need to get that looked into before the packing on that lovely new exhaust goes for a walk, but in the meantime, makes for some fantastic noises 
I’ll post some video when I get some proper time.
Roll on the noisy day at Donington. See you there.
Gratuitous pic of the deck chair. Amazing what you can get in an S2.
Nearly forgot to mention, as well as being great to meet Lee, Jamie also put in a brief appearance in the morning. Good to see you Jamie!
Also had a great chat with an older couple over lunch. He’s raced 7s in California in the 70s before selling it on when he moved on to a Type 51. Had the pictures with him in the car to, so spent quite a bit of time hearing about that. Great the people you meet around these cars. Just a pity I can’t remember the names.
They mentioned the Fressingfield Oily Rag Club, which seems to have a brilliant program for guest speakers.
http://www.forclub.org.uk/RollOfHonour.php
I need to get out more.
Great write-up Will, well done for typing it in twice 
Car is looking great and it sounds like a proper day out.
Like you say…roll on the noisy day at Donny…where this time you won’t be rivalling that unsilenced F360 racecar for noisiest car attending
Great read Will after all your previous dramas. It must be really satisfying to have built and developed the car to its current stae. And now to be getting some good use out of it. Hope Donny goes well.
Was really nice to meet Will, a proper gentlemen and invited me to take me out as a passenger which was a real learning experience…as other people have mentioned he hits the brakes so hard it feels like a donkey has kicked you in the stomach, it really made me think about how i need to start hitting my brakes much harder as I was never anywhere near a lock up all day and I know with hindsight I could brake alot later.
What i found interesting the most is I had just been out with an instructor who was giving me pointers on what im doing wrong and trying to get my simple mind around the facts on how to go fast around a track, literally as soon as he had stopped speaking I hoped in with Will and got the actual experience of the types of lines the instructor was explaining to me, so as well as alot of fun, it really helped to learn what i should be doing.
It was also interesting to compare speeds through places like corum etc to my own car.
Ok so my write up of the day.
It started earlier in the week by trying to get the car ready, put new tyres and PF pads on the front, checking fluids and trying to make sure I brought enough tools with me.
Headed off from my house around 2pm on the sunday, first time I has also towed a trailer before so that took a bit of getting used to.
I arrived down at Breaklane lodge at about 6pm, hung out with the vx220 group till around 10pm, then drove to the circuit, put my seat back and tried to sleep in the car, didnt help that it was also a truck stop and they were coming in and out all night so didnt really get any sleep, which was compounded by butterflies and worries.
So drove into the grounds at 645am and started to setup, pulled the car off the trailer and raised the rear up slightly as i though the rear tyres were to close to the arch, ended up with around 15mm clearance.
Then went to noise testing and got 93db which i thought was pretty good since its just an small ebay back box with no cat.
Listened to the briefing trying to remember everything they had just said and went back to my car.
A nice guy I met in the lodge the previous night came over to see me and said his car wasnt ready but had paid for a garage that he couldnt use and let me make use of it for free which was very generous of him!
So I pull out the pits to do the sighting laps, just as I leave the pit lane i change up to 3rd and put my foot down…now bare in mind on normal road tyres I can put my foot flat to the floor and get no wheelspin, so you can imagine my shock and horror when it lights the wheels up and points me towards the armco, which because i just wasnt expecting it took me by surprise, luckily i managed to straighten it up and continue on…would have been perfect as a starting point that i crash on the sighting lap!
So I then realised brand new kumho v70s that havent most more than 20metres will still be greasy so i take the next few corners like im on ice incase i understeer off like an idiot.
On the second lap i drop back a little to allow me to carry a bit more speed though a corner to find theres a little bit of understeer on corner exit, nothing like as bad as when i went to curborough but still there.
I knew what Matt Bentley had told me on facebook so took his advise when I came in and increased the front camber from 1.75 to 2.5(i wanted to test less static camber as I gain more camber under bump than a standard car)
I set the pressures at 20/22 to start off with and then went out for my first go at speed.
Now bear in mind I havent done a track day in a over a decade, the last and only one i have done before was in a renault 5 turbo in the wet at donnington and you can see the level of experience I have.
This is the video of how it went, the vid cuts off early but im basically coming back to the pit lane to cool off and think about whats happened.
10540001 - YouTube
Jamie Willson had timed my first lap which i didnt know about and turns out for all the mistakes and issues it was a 2.13 which actually would have put me 2nd in my class at time attack the last time they were here which surprised me, I found out he was timing me on the drive home that night, im sure you can all have a guess about what the car can do without the issues.
Came back into pits to check tyre pressures and the fronts we still cold and had only risen from 20 to 22psi, the backs were a little better and gone from 22 to 26psi, i decided rather than up the pressures at the front because i saw myself as pretty slow through the corners and under brakes, the pressures would start to rise as i really learned what i was doing and started to push.
Which leads me onto why that lap was never bettered.
When back in the pits and added a bit more fuel(turns out im using roughly 2litres per lap) i get myself motivated and head back out there, the first half of the outlap feels ok but then im getting the odd misfire and stutter, but kept driving, then I can feel something isnt right im and 10mph slower down the back straight, the sound is like something is leaking, which made me think one of the boost pipes had popped off or was something similar.
Upon popping the engine cover after much looking I notice all 4 off the bolts are loose on the turbo/manifold flange and that 2 of the bolts no longer had nuts on them!! so the noise i could hear was exhaust gases filling the engine bay.
ran around everywhere looking for someone with any M10 nuts and manage to source a couple, only issue was now the manifold was glowing orange when it came in so would be hot for a long time, so i tried to tighten the bolts up, 2 of them i could do, the third one I had to take the turbo beanie cover to get to and the 4th one its impossible to do on the car, so had to leave that loose and hope for the besrt.
i turned out hoping wasnt good enough and it wouldnt stay on at all, so i ended up blow exhaust gas onto my spark plug cover and melted it and the temps in the engine bay were so high that the ITG foam filter basically fell apart so when i looked at it later it was missing a big chunk of it.
I also lost a supporting plate for my front splitter which was a pain so I will have to make another some time this week.
need to investigate all massive inlet temps, the water in the system is red hot so it makes me think the heat is being transfered out of the air, my logical conclusion is that the rad isnt up to the job.
So ive got to make some changes to the car, the first is to get the correct bolts and nuts to keep it all together at variable heat temperatures and the next is to repair the carbon brace which the exhaust kill in 2 laps.
Did go anywhere near full throttle for the rest of the day as the temps I was seeing were mad, which was alot compounded by the entire engine back getting blasted with red hot gases.
But i did get out there with an instructor to try and get him to help improve my driving, at this point I learned what the yellow cones are for and that because i didnt know what they were i had been turning in very early and messing up my lines.
Im hoping that more time in the car, learning the lines, another 35bhp and actually learning to use the downforce to increase the corner speeds(think i can do all of corum around 95mph) should get me to around 2.05-2.07 but we will see, cant run before you walk.
Getting a four bolt flanged turbo to stay on is going to be a nightmare, Believe me I have been there, done that and have several dirty t shirts. Firstly you need to mount the engine a lot stiffer. The exhaust system on an Elise has very little give, so doesn’t move very much at all. The engine obviously does move, so something has to give. Don’t just think going v-band will cure it either as you will just move the problem to the next weakest link, which will be the bolts that hold the exhaust housing onto the turbo core. Look at your engine mounts and stiffen them up as much as possible, especially the fore and aft movement.
thanks for that sean, im running a EP engine mount and lower mount aswell and the sleeve in the gearbox mount, I have thought about stiffening up everything even more by solid mounting the entire setup but havent gone that far yet.
This was the mess I made after a full day there
also a bolt dropped down the cambelt when i got home making this an interesting day.
So ive bought a new larger airfilter and going to put it away from the engine in the passenger side duct so it can get cool air and not cook, fitted k nuts onto the manifold/turbo, made a new splitter brace and im just slowly working through the issues i had on the day.