Noble Track Day

[Nildram]

Hi folks,

I'm considering getting my Noble out on track in March, and thinking of doing Bedford Autodrome on either Sat March 8th with Palmersport, or Sat March 22nd with RMA. Would be good to get a few Nobles together on the day, if anyone's interested.

Bedford has the advantage of being mainly left handers, with no really long corners, so shouldn't hurt the engines, even without the latest planned fix from Noble.

[martvr]

I'd love to join you but I'm not so sure about the problem being restricted to right hand corners only. I understand that the oil pump pick up is in the middle of the sump. I suspect the reference to failure during right hand corners may be more a statistical thing because the majority of our tracks are clockwise.

I must say I'm beginning to get a bit frustrated with the delay in coming up with the planned fix . Anybody got an up to date picture from the factory?

[Nildram]

From my conversation with Lee, I got the impression that the right hander bit came from the Americans who have experienced similar problems in a car (Corsair?) using the same engine.

Anyhow, I think the risks are extremely slight at a venue like Bedford. Take it round Mallory or Brands and you're asking for trouble, though!

[noblem12]

I had a long conversation with the technician at Mole Valley about this problem. In his view, there should be no problem whatsoever if you use the car on a track in a sensible way, i.e. don't drive mad for 5 hours without cooling down periods.

I heard the same story from a number of other dealers/technicians.

Still does not address the underlying issue but gives a least some comfort in terms of doing the odd track day without thinking all the time about what might happen to the engine.

I am interested in coming along on 8th March - let me know if you are going.

Chris

[martvr]

Sorry, the main point I wanted to make was a growing frustration with the factory in coming up with a resolution. Until such time, we have it in writing that it is the owners who carry the financial risk of engine failure on the track.

Surely failure is down to a combination of various things the most significant of which are your driving style (i.e. how fast round the corner and therefore the g force generated), the amount of grip and the length of the corner. You can damage your engine in just one corner. Lee is able to reproduce these conditions at Bruntingthorpe and does so to test the mods on trial so who better to judge how vulnerable the position. I agree the failure rate is low considering the number of cars and the track miles accumulated. Perhaps that is also a function of our ability to push the car hard, something which will increase with familiarity and practice. The point is that the factory consider the risk is real enough to exempt themselves from the liability of any further failures.

I’m not sure I understand the inference that you will be ok as long as you don’t drive mad for 5 hours without cooling down periods (I don’t suppose it takes Lee that long). That is normal sensible guidance for any track day although perhaps the oil would be hotter (read marginally thinner) as a result and therefore will migrate quicker. Otherwise surely the only value of such a statement is that you will go round the corners more often. Oops, starting to ramble now, time to shut up.

[Nildram]

When I spoke to Lee, he pointed out that they had only ever seen a couple of failures and it has never happened to him despite extensive track use.

The standpoint from the factory shouldn't IMO be taken too seriously. They're just legally covering themselves, and I have no reason to suspect they would behave unreasonably in the event of a problem.

[Nildram]

Hi folks,

I've now booked this (Sat 8th March). If anyone else is interested, you can book online at www.clubautodrome.com/