Opinion is divided: there are those who say that just putting a number on a car makes stuff fall off. Those of a more optimistic nature say that it is putting a car on a race track that makes stuff fall off. On Saturday I attended a practice session at Killarney. I had a whole bunch of new things I wanted to try. Some in my head and some in the car:
· New brake pads (EBC Yellow Stuff)
· New timing software (see http://www.racechrono.com)
· Stiffer front ARB setting
· A new coolant additive (Redline WaterWetter)
· Some different lines
· Some different gear selections
Luckily for me, my practice sessions were severely curtailed by a spark leak.
After no more than 5 laps in the first session I noticed that a red light had come on on the dash. My first reaction was panic, brought on by a worry that oil pressure had disappeared, but the panic passed when I realised that the oil pressure was healthy and that the offending light was the alternator light. My initial thought was that the fan belt had jumped off, and that I now also had no water pump, so I pulled off the circuit at the first safe place to do so, at turn 1, and parked the car behind an earthen bank out of harm’s way. The fan belt was in place, so there was nothing to do but wait for the session to finish.
I was able to drive back to the pits, with Blossom coughing and spluttering at low revs. After a wait for the engine to cool down I set about investigating. Blossom’s wiring is a bit of rat’s nest, and I had changed the rev counter (and then changed it back...it’s a long story), so in keeping with the idea that “a new problem is most likely caused by the last thing you changed” I investigated the dash wiring, looking for a short or a loose wire. Disconnecting the rev counter and re-connecting it made no difference. Disconnecting the multi-plug from the back of the alternator and re-connecting made no difference. The power wire at the starter motor that had burnt through some months ago when it wandered up against the exhaust manifold was hale and hearty. The ECU was securely plugged in. Much head scratching ensued.
Lying on my back, half in and half out of the cockpit, tracing the wires from the multi-plug through the rat’s nest it occurred to me that these were all tiny, spindly little wires, and that there ought to be a big-ass cable to take juice from the alternator back to the battery. So, find a cable from the battery, trace it back towards the alternator and find a big-ass cable, broken off and dangling there...very close to a big-ass terminal on the alternator. That’ll be it then! Like most problems, it was really obvious once it had been solved.
Now my mom knows very little about cars. Her usual diagnosis whenever there’s a car problem is “It’s probably a loose wire.” It’s scary how often she’s right. And this time she would once again have been on the money. Five minutes after finding the offending loose wire, the spark leak was cured, the alternator light was out and Blossom was running sweet as a nut.
I’d been out at 1 o’clock for the first session, and at 3:35 I was getting prepared for the 4 o’clock session when the circuit announcer proclaimed that all sessions would now be 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, which I took to mean that the next session for Sports and GT cars would now begin at 3:45. Leisure went out the window, and I suited up, strapped in and headed out to find myself lapping amongst the Classic Car guys. It wasn’t a big deal, as my lap times are probably in the middle of theirs, so I was neither dangerous to them, nor endangered by them. And as a bonus, for once I got to experience what it’s like to be the guy reaping the benefits of blue flags being waved.
As for the new stuff:
· The EBC Yellow Stuff pads seem to be comparable to the previous (and much more expensive) Mintex 1144’s.
· The RaceChrono software worked well. It didn’t work with the GPS receiver in my pocket, but for the second session I taped the receiver to the transmission tunnel and it worked a treat.
· The stiffer (front) ARB, as expected, makes Blossom slightly reluctant to turn in, but seems to be better for corner exit. A bit of trail braking seems to help with getting the car to turn in, and is probably a good thing, extending the braking zone into the first phase of the corner.
· The WaterWetter lived up to its claim – coolant temperature is down slightly.
· I didn’t have enough time to try one of the two line changes that I had planned, but the other, which is more of an adjustment than a change, seemed to make for a smoother and faster route around the corner concerned.
· The jury is out on the use of second gear in turns 2 and 5. At this stage I think I’ll continue to use third gear unless things are crowded and slow, which may make the lower gear beneficial.
My lap times were slightly disappointing, being about 2 seconds off my best, but the car was at least (and at last) running nicely. The good news was that the lap times were all heading in the right direction, with each lap slightly quicker than the preceding lap. The good luck in having my practice session cut short was that I would much rather have this sort of problem on a practice day and next weekend I’ll be racing!
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