Ross Nicol
GT40s Supporter
Well here we are again, filing a report from a pretty eventful weekend.The lead up last week included fitting new front brake pads, checking the suspension settings and lots of cleaning. On wed evening I decided to remove the starter to run some checks for an intermittent problem I've had where the solenoid would tick but the starter wouldn't rotate. I eventually found the fault, the wire to one brush was not connected.Whether it had blown off under stress I couldn't be certain. As there was a small amount of polling I decided to buy a new starter which fixed the problem and the car starts much better (well it did!). Time ran away from me and I wanted to do some brake pad bedding in while driving the car around the block at the factory. Friday night was the earliest I managed to grab some time and off I went accelerating and braking my way around the block. I did about 20 to 30 braking actions at about 50
% but it did take about 20 mins to complete. I parked the car back outside the factory and had just settled into a beer with my friend Kevin when the Police showed up. They had recieved a complaint from the post office around the corner and Wanted to know what I was up to. I don't suppose there was much the cop could do as I wasn't driving the car any longer, so he departed after serving me a stern warning not to continue.
Saturday morning dawned fine as the forecast had predicted and I loaded the 40 onto the trailer at the factory and made my way to
Sandown. A variation to our normal format meant we would have 2 qualifying sessions sat morning and afternoon followed by 3 races on Sunday.I found one of the rose joints on the gear shift loose(causing a very sloppy shifter) but we had enough time to get to it and solve that issue. The morning session went off ok but I didn't seem to be able to get under 1min 22sec lap time, however the handling was ok and the brakes came up fine. Towards the end of the afternoon session the car was sounding different on the rundown and when I finished we checked the exhaust system but found nothing. There was quite a bit of oil leaking under the car and I put it down to the front seal allowing oil to spread onto the chassis and drip from there. Again I couldn't better a 1min 22sec lap time and I made a decision this would be the last race meeting for this motor.
Back to the track Sunday morning and ready for the first race. We were held up on the dummy grid for a while while a big prang was cleaned up during the sports sedan race which preceeded ours. We were to have 2 warm up laps and as I started around the first lap it became apparent my throttle was jamming open and not allowing the motor to drop to it's normal idle speed. I figured this must have been the reason for the different run down sound on Saturday. I blipped the throttle relentlessly to see if the problem would go away but it didn't and we cam round to form up on the grid. I called over a flag marshall and told him I would pull out but it was too late and I chose to start and give it a go. I found The brakes would still pull the car up even though they were fighting the partially open throttle. I was holding my own and the car was handling superbly. I was into the race by about 4 laps when I started up the back straight. I can't remember exactly which gear I was in most likely 3rd when all of a sudden Bang! then nothing. I got the car off the track in case there was oil coming out of the car and coasted to a safe spot. I had a feeling I would not be running any more on that day and when the flatbed truck dropped me off oil was still emanating from under the car.
So my old nail of a motor that I have abused for a good few years now has gone (see the pics below) Now I am forced to get the race motor in to continue this season. I can't wait.By the way I packed up and came home early and mowed the lawns. The things you don't have time to do when preparing for a race meeting.
Ross:thumbsup:
% but it did take about 20 mins to complete. I parked the car back outside the factory and had just settled into a beer with my friend Kevin when the Police showed up. They had recieved a complaint from the post office around the corner and Wanted to know what I was up to. I don't suppose there was much the cop could do as I wasn't driving the car any longer, so he departed after serving me a stern warning not to continue.
Saturday morning dawned fine as the forecast had predicted and I loaded the 40 onto the trailer at the factory and made my way to
Sandown. A variation to our normal format meant we would have 2 qualifying sessions sat morning and afternoon followed by 3 races on Sunday.I found one of the rose joints on the gear shift loose(causing a very sloppy shifter) but we had enough time to get to it and solve that issue. The morning session went off ok but I didn't seem to be able to get under 1min 22sec lap time, however the handling was ok and the brakes came up fine. Towards the end of the afternoon session the car was sounding different on the rundown and when I finished we checked the exhaust system but found nothing. There was quite a bit of oil leaking under the car and I put it down to the front seal allowing oil to spread onto the chassis and drip from there. Again I couldn't better a 1min 22sec lap time and I made a decision this would be the last race meeting for this motor.
Back to the track Sunday morning and ready for the first race. We were held up on the dummy grid for a while while a big prang was cleaned up during the sports sedan race which preceeded ours. We were to have 2 warm up laps and as I started around the first lap it became apparent my throttle was jamming open and not allowing the motor to drop to it's normal idle speed. I figured this must have been the reason for the different run down sound on Saturday. I blipped the throttle relentlessly to see if the problem would go away but it didn't and we cam round to form up on the grid. I called over a flag marshall and told him I would pull out but it was too late and I chose to start and give it a go. I found The brakes would still pull the car up even though they were fighting the partially open throttle. I was holding my own and the car was handling superbly. I was into the race by about 4 laps when I started up the back straight. I can't remember exactly which gear I was in most likely 3rd when all of a sudden Bang! then nothing. I got the car off the track in case there was oil coming out of the car and coasted to a safe spot. I had a feeling I would not be running any more on that day and when the flatbed truck dropped me off oil was still emanating from under the car.
So my old nail of a motor that I have abused for a good few years now has gone (see the pics below) Now I am forced to get the race motor in to continue this season. I can't wait.By the way I packed up and came home early and mowed the lawns. The things you don't have time to do when preparing for a race meeting.
Ross:thumbsup:
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