Busy few months: FR progressing well...

[observer]

As some of you may know, I sold my Formula Vauxhall early in the year, I got an px deal which I could not refuse. It was a daunting move from a little Vauxhall with no aero to the mighty Formula Renault. I didnt know what to expect but even before I could even turn the wheel a fair bit of work was needed to be done. The car still had the regulation restrictor and was running at 40mm height (bastardised for club racing which effects the overall aero grip generated by the diffuser) Not Idea!

The car as I got it..minus a seat, belts not compliant, pedals in the wrong position, data logger uncalibrated, one dead wheel sensor and a few other bits that needed to be done cosmetically including spraying the roll hoop in white (yellow just looked odd)

Not to mention testing and getting the car to my liking.. It was to be a long process and a lot of fiddling around.



First thing to do was to take the car to the workshop and get it on stands and start to take the bits off

Roll hoop off and ready for all the pain to be stripped off, it had some 5 layers of paint











Several coats of Nitro Morse applied and this is what happend:



Once it was all cleaned, etch primer was applied



Next up the pedal assembly needed to adjusted.. very easy to do, as a total bitch of a job on my old Vauxhall Junior, but with this just remove 4 bolts and move to a closer position and reset the brake balance throttle cable and clutch.





Next up was the seat, moudled with bin bags, trimmed and covered in Tessa tape, (sorry for the lack of pictures of the actual seat making process) but the finished seat in place followed by new 6 point belts. The beauty of this seat is that you fit into it 100% perfect as its moudled to the body shape.


Old belts removed, head rest retrimmed in alcantra.



New belts in.




To stop the wishbones getting hot and weakening/bending, gold heat reflective sheet is added.



Data logger all rewired and configured.



Next Update: 90 Laps of the Silverstone National Circuit with Video to follow:

[lee303]

amazing bit of kit, must be great to drive, looking forward to more updates

[observer]

Thanks Lee. The car is pretty savage to drive once you take the restrictor out its pushing out 195bhp (165 restricted), but also the torque is pretty good as its an over square engine.

Another thing that took a session to get used to was not using the clutch on the way up or down with full flat shifting. Having always driven cars with clutches you tend to instinctivly use your left foot but you got to force yourself not to...





During the test on the Silverstone National circuit, I covered a total of 90 laps across 4x 45 min sessions.



Session 1 the aim was to get out on track and get comfortable in the car, I did a 10 lap run coming into the pits at the end where my driver coach would give me a run down on the data and where I was losing time. Out I went again and found another second and half by making sure I hit the all the apexes lap after lap (not easy)



End of the session we went through the onboard video and data and was told places where I was losing time compared to my driver coach (who has some 3 years experience racing FR in the UK) He was telling me to build my confidence up and not brake on the approach to Copse! Not easy when you aproach it close to 125mph. The idea is just a small lift and back on the power, though I was told to play with either keeping it in 5th or just holding 6th. 5th allowed a better exit, 6th would have been spot on if I was carrying more speed, I needed to be 10mph faster through mid point of the corner.

I had found another 2 seconds in this session and my times were coming down, I was now into the low 1 min min mark, the goal was to break into the 59's not impossible, but can be done.



Sessions 3 and 4 I was focusing more on the comlpex, the last section is very technical, its slow speed, I was losing a bit of time here as was I was taking too much speed off and not getting early on the power out of Luffield..Best was trying to brake later and later for Brooklands at the end of the National straight, literally I needed to just stamp as hard as I could on the brakes and turn into the apex! I did some 55 laps and just missed getting under the 1 min.

I had learnt a lot, though this was just testing, I got comfortable with the car. Next time I just need to push harder and throw the car around a bit more, brake later, power on earlier... will be fun trying!

[chip]

PROPER motorsport that, really really cool cars.

Will follow this with interest

[Kerr]

Best of luck with this project. The stuff of dreams for many.

As good as it gets for me is sim racing I'm afraid.

There is a good video on the iRacing homepage about how the best sim racer would transfer his online skills to the real race track.

The video lasts about 25mins and his best lap is shown in full at the end. The results are very good bearing in mind that the guy had never driven anything other than a Ford Sierra before.

Video is to the top right called Greger Huttu

iRacing.com | The Premier Online Sim Racing Game

[neil105]

Great insight nice pics of the car,when does your season start would be good to follow it

[observer]

Video from the end session 3:

[observer]

Thanks mate, the season starts in April at Snetterton, but looking to get a couple of tests in. I am expecting some new tyres to be shipped over in Jan, the company are curious to see how they work in the UK.

Kerr, Iracing is something I was looking at, can I run it with just a keyboard on a pc? I dont have any of the fancy seats or pedals/wheels. I am into GP4 which is a really good sim (ok the graphics are dated) but you can learn a lot about the physics and car setup. I will check the video out when I get home

[dewismotorsport]

Very nice car bit above my budget but when I grow up I want to buy one lmao

[sach]

very nice what engine is it? My college ownes one bit smaller then your 2.0 8v engine omex ecu. but missing loads of bits, think they got owed on it when they got it

also repaired and paint the body on one last year simuler to one above.

[observer]

I wish I was 18 and had the chance... Im 15 years too late so this is just a hobby for me now, its not on a path to anything serious.. Though I will be giving it all I got to get faster!!

[observer]

very nice what engine is it? My college ownes one bit smaller then your 2.0 8v engine omex ecu. but missing loads of bits, think they got owed on it when they got it

also repaired and paint the body on one last year simuler to one above.

What car is that? an older Formula Renault? yeah looks like a lot of bits are missing..whats their plan for it?

[sach]

Yes its Formula Renault not sure what one etc, I do level 3 paint, the motorsport class they going to get it ready for racing and run it. So far i have painted the frame from black to sliver started putting it together, seeing what missing thats all. Tbh I think it be epic fail as 1st year of running the course the college got two MR2 to work to the engine and increase power etc oh and try to fit a ferrari bodykits! these car were striped and thats all they done, waste tbh.

[observer]

I think its more fun and a great challenge to get the single seater up and running rather than making a MR2 look like a Ferrari

[sach]

I think its more fun and a great challenge to get the single seater up and running rather than making a MR2 look like a Ferrari

Yes total agree, i am sure most would love to work on the single seater, even build a high spec MR2. I enjoying being involved too when asked. may be you should come up an see it? college up the M1.

[Dave Dempsey]

Impressive stuff, that's a very nice bit of kit you v got yourself there Observer, nice to see some other form of motor sport on the forum aside from 1/4miles and track-days.

[observer]

Funny thing is I would like to take the car to pod and see what it does out of curiosity.. Wish it had TC, but they can do 0-100 in 4.6 or so seconds...

Where about on the M1 is it? Might pop along when in the new year would be good to see it.

[rc]

fantasic read, looks alot of fun, certainly the next level than any of us can ever dream of experiencing looking forward to seeing more progress and footage

what sort of 'bench mark' price would one of these be out of interest?

[sach]

Where about on the M1 is it? Might pop along when in the new year would be good to see it.

Junction 10 luton, takes me 30/45min from Juntion 2.

[lee303]

Thanks Lee. The car is pretty savage to drive once you take the restrictor out its pushing out 195bhp (165 restricted), but also the torque is pretty good as its an over square engine.

Another thing that took a session to get used to was not using the clutch on the way up or down with full flat shifting. Having always driven cars with clutches you tend to instinctivly use your left foot but you got to force yourself not to...

well that is about the only thing i can properly relate to, having got a dog box fairly recently, it does take a while to get used to flat shifting, other than that though its just different class, and even then i only flat shift up not down!!!!!!!!! will try to get along to a race if i can, be great to see it run! looks really good in the video already though, like you say you juts need seat time now, good luck!

[observer]

My old one also had a dog box, but this box is on a totally different level. We will be part of the MSV series next year, alond with Club F3, should be good once I can get upto speed, still need to find a couple more seconds out of the car. Does not help the fact that we will be losing some 25-35BHP compared to the Dallara F3 car even though we race in the same class, we must use restrictors (I think its a political thing to stop people with F3 Dallaras getting pissed off incase some young driver buys one of these and blows them all away)

[observer]

fantasic read, looks alot of fun, certainly the next level than any of us can ever dream of experiencing looking forward to seeing more progress and footage

what sort of 'bench mark' price would one of these be out of interest?

The cars are not that expensive, 15-25k depending on the aero spec, but to be able to test them on a circuit, you need a National B licence obtained via doing and ARDS course, so around 300-400. Then you need race clothing, another 600-2000 depending on what you go for. A trailer 1000-2000. Parts are silly, just a nose cone is 1600, front nose and wing £2800.. but its full carbon. So try to buy with a ample spares package.

Its no more expensive than a person modding or tuning a Jap car like a SKyline, Supra or Evo.. but much more fun!

[lee303]

My old one also had a dog box, but this box is on a totally different level. We will be part of the MSV series next year, alond with Club F3, should be good once I can get upto speed, still need to find a couple more seconds out of the car. Does not help the fact that we will be losing some 25-35BHP compared to the Dallara F3 car even though we race in the same class, we must use restrictors (I think its a political thing to stop people with F3 Dallaras getting pissed off incase some young driver buys one of these and blows them all away)

will try to get along to a round then, doing brands or silverstone?

[observer]

Yep trying to do as many rounds as possible next year, but once again all depends on the cash flow Hoping to do SPA as thats on the Calendar.

[lee303]

oh man, you HAVE to do spa, eau rouge would be such a rush in that!
got the dates for brands and silverstone? will stick them in the diary...