Britcar 24hr Race - Silverstone 1st-3rd October
Britcar 24hr Race - Silverstone 1st-3rd October
A pit stop
Getting the moneysworth out of the tyres!
Although the Silverstone TV signal was awful, we had some 720p in-car footage on the laptop
Start of gearbox change
Gearbox drop
New gearbox ready to go
Car going back out
Saggaris in the next garage, epic gearbox problems
370Z being recovered
6 pot fixed calipers with bell & rotor discs
Realised I totally forgot to explain the gearbox change...
The car qualified in 45th place of 60 cars. I wasn't there for day qualifying so not sure what happened to establish that position. The race started well and we started making up places, but on the first driver change, Simon reported that the car had been popping out of 4th gear and he was having to hold it in place. This had left him understeering wide out of Copse on more than one occasion! While Alric was doing the 2nd stint we reviewed the in-car footage and saw the gearstick popping out a few times, but when asked on the radio Alric said it was fine. 3rd stint was driven by Lee and he immediately reported problems with 4th popping out again. We started moniting how much time we were losing per lap with the gearbox problem and could see the times getting worse. Lee then radioed in to report it popping out in 5th as well and the lap times started rising exponentially - we just couldn't build up speed on the straights and have a decent corner entry at the end of them with the driver constantly fighting the stick. So, the car was brought in for a box change.
The team had used a gearbox from a previously built car that the owner had spent quite a bit on - it had a replacement longer 5th gear, and a 1.5 way aftermarket diff. For 4th and 5th gear popout problems the synchromesh is usually the cause, and Rogue had brought a spare E153 transmission with them. However because the likelyhood of gearbox failure was not deemed very high, the box was not prepped with a slave cylinder, shifter assembley etc. as well as the box having standard gearing and diff. All ancilliaries had to be swapped off the old box, and then upon reassembly the driver's side driveshaft wouldn't go in to the standard diff! Another halfshaft was acquired and the driveshaft reassembled, all put back together and off it went.
Because of the driveshaft issues and the extra time associated with draining and refilling Rogue's custom transmission cooler assembly the pit stop was approaching 3 and a half hours. However once the car went back out it started putting in 2:25 laps again instantly with Patrick driving the 4th stint (his first time driving a Rogue car in the 24hr race in 3 years!!). All was still going well at 3am when the fog came down and there were 60 laps of safety car. I went home at this point!
When I got back at around 10:30 Sunday morning all was still going well but shortly afterwards when Alric was driving an E36 BMW drove into the side of the car! Alric recovered it and drove straight for the pits with a broken driver's side tie rod. The car was reassembled and sent back out but not with enough time to completely redo the front wheel alignment. This meant the car was a bit unpredictable in high speed corners for the rest of the race.
The car eventually finished 45th (yes, the same place it started!) but with over 4 hours spent in the pits the true result could have been MUCH higher (25ish we estimate). But 24hr racing is always fraught with failures Patrick said he had 3 aims for the race, to finish, to finish ahead of the Nissan 370Z, and to finish ahead of the Lotus Evora. At the end of the race we were 10 laps up on the 370Z and 4 laps behind the Evora.
Here's a Rogue pitstop... at 6 minutes F1 it certainly aint It's interesting to hear the knowledge transfer between drivers, they have enough time to do this as there are rules about how many people can work on the car at once, you can only fuel while no other work is being done, the drivers must be out of the car while fuelling and other work takes place, etc etc.
[youtube]WCzrm696U5E[/youtube]
Vid not working:Sulk:
Looks like you had an eventful weekend.
' Nothing feels quick when your other car has a 1000bhp - JamieP
Quote:A Supra without a spoiler is like a Gypsy's dog without a Nob.
did you ever find out what that Jazz was powered by other than fire?
' Nothing feels quick when your other car has a 1000bhp - JamieP
Quote:A Supra without a spoiler is like a Gypsy's dog without a Nob.
Vid works ok here Phil... I tell you what, I did have a mainly DRY weekend :lol: aside from Friday.
No Dan, none of the programme places were open so I never got one! Bit miffed about that, they came with loads of freebies. I'll have a look and see if I can find out from the team's website.
working now!! must be a youtube glitch