HOT - Brands Hatch

Probably my last track day of the year, I went with HOT (Hondas on Track) and LOT (Lotus on Track) to Brands Hatch for an evening session. With heavy rain in the morning the day did not look promising. It eased off from late afternoon however this turned to an almost permanent mist of light rain making the track surface extremely greasey.

I had been looking forward to Brands for a while since:

a) I had not been there for over a year
b) Some chaps from the forum would be joining in
c) It would be my first proper outing in the teg (at 100%) since the breathing and transmission mods. As you may recall, at Donny I was running in limp mode.
d) It would be a good way to finish off my front tyres which were on their way out

The sighting laps started out suitably cagey for everyone. Feeling the grip start to go on your sighting laps certainly did not instill confidence!

Sighting laps over I came back into the pits, gave it 10 minutes for the track to pad out then headed back out for some action. Being uber careful I took my braking points very early, especially at Paddock Hill. The last thing I wanted to do was fly off into the gravel trap like I had seen from videos of the same event last year, albeit they were practically driving in a tropical rainstorm.

Having the car continually twitch as I straightened up from Clark Curve instilled even less confidence. However as I put down more laps I got used to 'twitching' the car and found it quite fun throughout the evening. Paddock Hill caught out most people at least once. Myself three times where on two of those occassions I was drifting sideways down the hill! Thankfully I was able to catch them all before they turned into spins.

Overall it was a good night out and the car in terms of power and pickup performed well; I was very pleased in that respect. My front tyres were on their way out so given the conditions I thought they held out well. Brakes... I took it easy on them given the conditions, or maybe I was just thinking of their second hand value when they are taken off lol.
What I could have done with was more grip on the rear of the car for fast corners. Bring on the J's GT wing I say :)

Some pictures taken by MSV and Ben from the DC5 forum below.

Lurking behind this classic

 

Paddock Hill in the background

There should be a video of one of the DC2's following me which I'll post up once it becomes available :)

O2 Sensor. Goodbye Buddyclub Strut brace. Hello Mugen strut brace

I had felt the car was slightly sluggish ever since a bit before Japfest 2 but just assumed I had got used to the power. Additionally my idle was lumpy :(

It had turned out my primary O2 sensor was failing so the car in effect was running in limp mode!

This morning I was down at TGM to get my O2 sensor swapped out for one Tom had ordered.

After the 1 minute job of swapping in the new sensor I went for a test drive....

WOW. That familiar feeling of how my car used to run was immediately apparent. Pick up and throttle response was noticeably better and at idle the car was no longer lumpy - result! 

Whilst I was there I had arranged to meet a friend who I had sold my unfittable (for my engine bay anyway :( ) Buddyclub P1 Racing strut too. He fitted it there and then as I wanted to see it fitted :)

Dave test fitting the brace with his existing Spoon ETD bracket he had just cut down to fit along side

Before

After

Additionally, I had for once remembered to pick up the Mugen rear strut brace I had bought from Monz a while back. When I got back home I got cracking with the fitting

Some cutting of the interior trim behind the seat is required. Luckily this was done by the previous owner so saved me some time!

One side bolted in

Job done - view from the rear passenger seats

View from the boot

Securing the Oil Cap

What I didn't mention about Japfest 2 was that I was all over the place on track, I wasn't able to concentrate completely on any of the racing lines. Most of it was driving error thanks to me mis-shifting (selecting 5th instead of 3rd), and a few other distractions one of which was the engine light suddenly appearing..

After coming in from our session I opened up the bonnet and saw that my oil cap was the tiniest turn from coming off!

Cap tightened I decided to always keep the spare oil cap in the car for track days and to secure the existing one this week.

The first time I've seen an oil cap secure down was with a bracket and wire on a J's Racing car (you can tell this picture is old as they are still using the GruppeM haha).

I wanted a neater solution so I used a spring instead. An idea I got from Rob's car at HOT

And whilst I had the bonnet open I thought I would take one of the engine bay :)

Japfest 2 - 2011

Yesterday was Japfest 2 at Donington. Good turn out by the itr-dc5 forum; great bunch of people who made the day more enjoyable. A number of us were on track but it was a bit hit and miss as there were 2 red flags in our 15 minute session :(

Luckily nothing serious happened; only 2 offs into the gravel at the chicane before Goddards.
(Very) short footage below of us going back on after the 1st red flag.



.....And some pictures

Thanks to my acting wing man on the day F2K for taking some snaps of our session

Helmet refresh

I was getting bored of my Lid but still wanted to keep it discreet :)

Works Bell Rapfix II and Short Boss

Finally after a 6 month wait my Works Bell goodies have arrived! Amazing quality.

South Mimms Part 2

Some of the biggest meets in the UK that's not a formal paid event are the ones at South Mimms service station on the M25.

Today was the second South Mimms meet of the year and was absolutely scorching!

I won't bore you with words, but will instead show you 'some' of the cars that were there.

Not taken by me but couldn't not put up a picture of a Supercharged S2K with Spoon aero kit!