Nice day out in Bikesports yesterday

[BertBert]

Nice weather and some fun racing. Well done Hamlet, bad luck Martin.
Bert

[Count Johnny]

Yes, it was. 20 odd cars and all that.

Shame about the 'Exxon Valdiz' in qualifying though.

[BertBert]

Count Johnny said:

Shame about the 'Exxon Valdiz' in qualifying though.

Yes that wasn't too clever was it? What was the damage to your car?
Bert

[Count Johnny]

Hi Bert Bert

Mangled Splitter Support Structure;
Bent LHF Wishbone;
Broken LHF Bodywork;
Slightly Damaged Splitter/Diffuser;
Broken LHF Splitter End Plate;
Bent LHR Wishbone;
Broken LHR Rose Joint;
Broken Rear Bulkhead; and
Bent & Cracked Rear Wing Support Structure (so far).

What with lots of it being one-off stuff, or imported from the States, at least 5K's worth and quite time consuming to do.

Still, I did get to turn right twice and once to the left.

[BertBert]

Count Johnny said:

Still, I did get to turn right twice and once to the left.

Well it's not *that* bad then CJ!

At least we didn't get any of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoSaC05V3Q going on.

[Count Johnny]

BertBert said:

At least we didn't get any of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoSaC05V3Q going on.

Yes, saw that video. Would have hated to have been the outside car in my Speads! Or the inside car, for that matter!

750 Allcomers, anyone?

[BertBert]

Count Johnny said:

750 Allcomers, anyone?

[Count Johnny]

Count Johnny said:

Still, I did get to turn right twice and once to the left.

Actually, thinking about it, I actually got to turn left twice!

Unfortunately, my second left turn took place along Cooper Straight and led me straight to the barriers.

[mbm5]

Thanks BertBert.
The grid was spectacular with lots of great machinery. Hope the entries stay as high quality all year. Really liked the paddock atmosphere too - bikesports are a good bunch to race with.. I was more than a little dissapointed not to finish, but enjoyed the first few laps at least. I only have to replace a rosejoint - unlike the unfortunate Count. That is a beautiful piece of kit - hope you get back on track soon.
MB

[Count Johnny]

mbm5 said:

That is a beautiful piece of kit - hope you get back on track soon.

Thanks Martin.

Thanks to my little Armco contretemps, I should have had time to have a bit of a garage 'cruise', and a chat, but had a good few disappointed clients and other guests, in tow who needed sausage rolling and talking to.

Catch up next time, I hope.

[gixermark]

sounds a bit ouch :-(

any pics of the csr BEFORE the incident ?

[Count Johnny]

gixermark said:

any pics of the csr BEFORE the incident ?

Got this from last year:



And an in car clip, from this year, of Nigel Greensall doing a 46.51 lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xyVGvaZy5Y

And a big bill:



Heigh-Ho!

Edited by Count Johnny on Wednesday 20th April 07:44

[gixermark]

at least you can add humour with the bill !!

car looks well - will have to get a gander sometime when she's all fixed up again..

[gaxor]

Hi Iain,

Sorry to hear the first serious outing was such a disappointment. If there is any justice you will get a decent race sometime soon

[Count Johnny]

gixermark said:

at least you can add humour with the bill !!

Well, you've got to work the system if you want them to give your belt and your shoelaces back.

[Count Johnny]

gaxor said:

If there is any justice you will get a decent race sometime soon

Thanks Gary. It was lovely to see Shaun and to hear of the car's progress too.

And there's some snaps here:

http://www.snappyracers.com/album/160411Brands/sli...

Including me at the 2nd of my 3 corners.

Edited by Count Johnny on Wednesday 20th April 20:03

[BertBert]

hohohohehehe!
http://www.snappyracers.com/album/160411Brands/sli...

[aycee]

Count Johnny said:

Got this from last year:



And an in car clip, from this year, of Nigel Greensall doing a 46.51 lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xyVGvaZy5Y

And a big bill:



Heigh-Ho!

Edited by Count Johnny on Wednesday 20th April 07:44

I was looking at your rear wing with interest.I read somewhere very recently that during wind tunnel testing on a similar looking car, that a very low rear wing had less drag over the normal sticking up above the body line ones with no loss of downforce.I noticed yours seems tohave used both positions.Any reason?

Edited by aycee on Wednesday 25th May 18:57

[Count Johnny]

As standard, the Speads comes with a ‘normal’ profiled wing that is mounted in in the traditional manner.

The new, low mounted, wing – that we imported from the States - has a twisted tips and a generally fancy profile that allows it to sit in the aerodynamic shadow of the car and wrestle with the dirty air that spills off of the bodywork at the rear. You can probably see it better in this photograph:



Further, it is precisely located in relation to the trailing edges of the bodywork and the tunnels such that it creates an extremely low pressure area beneath the wing and activates the tunnels and underfloor like gang-busters. We can even measure a sizable increase in front downforce when we increase the flap on the rear wing which indicates that we are getting very good interaction right from the front splitter to the rear wing.

All of this – combined with the leverage that the rearward position entails – means we are developing ~ 1200lbs of balanced downforce at 137 mph with an LG of ~ 3.8. A more usual LG figure for a sports racing car (like say a Ligier CN car) would be 2.9 so, in fact, we are producing a lot (like 2 or 3 times) MORE downforce than the standard Speads and LESS drag.

A bit of a win-win, really. If only I was talented enough to exploit it all, we'd really be in business

PS
Just playing 'Fantasy Downforce', for a moment - what with downforce increasing as a square of speed - this means that, if only I could persuade the old girl to reach 200mph, we'd have around a metric tonne of downforce.

Edited by Count Johnny on Thursday 26th May 18:03