TrackDriver Magazine 20

where every track driver turns

issue 20

£5.95

suspension Understanding race car dynamics

Alex Zanardi, the man who never gave up n Rookie2Racer – a star in the making? n Coaching Corner: why ‘feel’ counts n

first words

S

Looking forward

o, not the regular bearded gentleman at the top of the page this issue. Have no fear, the legendary Mr Hales hasn’t disappeared but has been unavoidably distracted and unable to undertake all of his TrackDriver duties this time around.

Therefore I’m stepping into the breach. You may already have noticed my name cropping up in TrackDriver’s pages over the past couple of years – I’ve been developing my own Audi TT race car which we’ve been covering both in main features and in the Team Cars section. I also run TrackDriver along with Mark. He and I are chalk and cheese, or perhaps more pertinently, analogue and digital.

Mark is a highly respected old school racing driver with a passion for the oily bits: I’m a newbie racer taking the digital path of simulators, ECU remaps and turbos.

Together, however, we complement each other. We each learn from the other in a two-way exchange of accumulated experience and new knowledge. Which is a situation mirrored by the magazine publishing industry these days. Do we persist with physical paper magazines, or switch entirely over to digital online offerings? For now – from our perspective, at least – the answer is that we do both. Mark and I both prefer the look and, crucially, the feel of a traditional paper publication; some readers and many advertisers tend to think you’re not a ‘proper’ magazine unless they can hold it in their hands. But to resist creating a digital version means severely restricting our readership.

Our plan is to continue to print an ‘old fashioned’ magazine and complement it with a digital, paid for subscription.

You may remember that when TrackDriver started it was free. That was because we wanted to wanted to build up a strong readership. But economic pressures mean we must now make a modest charge, even for the online version, for TrackDriver to survive and expand. The reality is that it costs as much to create a digital magazine as it does a paper one – paper and printing costs are comparatively small compared with the price of photography, track hire, writing, design and production, outgoings which have to be shared across both formats. But TrackDriver remains the UK’s only trackfocused magazine, so we’re hoping that you will continue to support us.

Meanwhile we’ve been making improvements to our overall digital offering. We’ve updated the TrackDriver website and made it simpler to subscribe, and created a useful company directory of motorsport contacts and

Portrait: David Stallard. Background image: Jakob Ebrey

suppliers. There’s also a new classifieds section that we’re running in collaboration with Motorsports Auctions, and we’ve uploaded a bunch of our past technical articles that we hope you will find of both educational and practical value. Soon to go live will be a ‘Kit’ section with links to the equipment that has featured in TrackDriver’s Gear Guide, and you can also sign up to a TrackDriver Newsletter emailing for the latest news as it happens.

One of the benefits of the newsletter is that we’ll be able to keep you up-to-date with the progress of the winner of TrackDriver’s Rookie2Racer competition, which we launched at the Autosport show in collaboration with the 750 Motor Club and Mini Super Cooper Cup. As you can read in this issue of TrackDriver, the aim of the competition is to take eight people who have never raced before and have them battle it out on the track for the chance to race for real later in the year. We now have a winner and our rookie has much to learn before strapping himself into a Mini Super Cooper race car and waiting for the lights to go green this October at Donington Park.

Mark will never forgive me if I don’t mention a little more metal within his editorial domain, and the Geneva motor show gives me a good chance to do just that. There were enthusiasts’ car launches galore at the annual Swiss shindig, and at all ends of the scale. Hot hatches with an eye to claiming Nürburgring lap records included the new Honda Civic Type R and the SEAT Leon Cupra ST 280, and they were joined by the Ford Focus RS and Vauxhall Corsa VXR. New supercars were everywhere – Lamborghini Aventador SV, Koenigsegg Regera, Audi R8, and Ford GT, to name but a few.

And then there were the sports cars where the track element of their development really shone through.

The Ferrari 488 GTB, for instance, and Lotus Evora 400.

Porsche’s cracking duo of Cayman GT4 and 911 GT3 RS; McLaren’s 675LT and P1 GTR. And then there were the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 and Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, both overtly track-focused.

Yes, most of these cars, even the hot hatches, are beyond the financial reach of many of us, but the exciting thing is that the major car manufacturers are taking circuits, and track driving, seriously. And they’ll want to see the UK’s circuits kept in fine fettle, which should be good news for us all • Carl Owen: Managing editor

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where every track driver turns

issue 20

£4.75

suspension understanding race car dynamics

REGULARS 03 first words

Alex Zanardi, the man who never gave up Rookie2Racer – a star in the making? n Coaching Corner: why ‘feel’ counts

Managing editor Carl Owen grabs his chance to say a few things

n n

EDITORIAL T: 01507 357140

E: editor@trackdriver.com

TrackDriver 96 Chesterfield Road Matlock Derbyshire DE4 3FS

06 NOTICEBOARD

rack-biased road cars from Porsche, T Lotus and others, and new Formula Libre for homeless single-seaters

27 RAMBLINGS

Identical cars and similar lines, so why is the other bloke quicker, muses Dron

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and

64 coaching corner

How you sit in your car and handle the controls will make you quicker

80 walker’s wisdom

In an unfamiliar role, Dave Walker ponders how to reduce race speeds

are registered Trademarks.

All rights in the licensed material belong to TrackDriver and may not be reproduced, whether in whole or in part, without their prior written consent.

86 Team Cars

Big progress with the TT and MG, while Tony relives the Alfa’s 2014 season

The Editors of this magazine give no warranties, guarantees or assurances and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised herein.

92 gEAR GUIDE Editor Mark Hales Managing editor Carl Owen Editorial design Ryan Baptiste Sub editor Brett Fraser Technical contributors Ray Collier, Dave Walker Track test contributor Jim Cameron Contributing Racer John Mawdsley Digital editors/app design Martin and Oliver Dickens Advertising sales manager Sandra Owen Marketing manager Tony Murray Contributing writers Andrew Bentley, Paul Cowland, Peter Dron, Linda Keen, Nigel Rees

Regular contributing photographers Owen Brown, Jakob Ebrey, Jeff Bloxham, John Colley, David Stallard www.davidstallardphotography.com, Andy Morgan, Paul Harmer, Ralph Lunt, Jenny South, Keith Lowes, John Laycock, Andy Glenister, www.frozenspeed.com

Contributing photography/illustration Anatoly Streblev, Andrey Artukhov, Danil Kolodin, Carl Owen, Tony Murray, Ray Collier

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ur pick of the kit that’s not always O essential, but is highly desirable

CONTENtS issue no 20 2015

FEATURES 28 ZANARDI INTERVIEW

Losing your legs would devastate most of us, but not Alex Zanardi

34 ROOKIE2RACER

Our mission: turn one road driver into a fully-fledged racer

40 CAR SETUP: SUSPENSION Suspension geometry, springs and anti-roll bars examined in detail

50 LIVING THE F1 DREAM

John Mawdsley drives an historic F1 at Silverstone and around Moscow!

58 tom onlsow-cole

One of Britain’s most versatile racers tells us what drives him

72 WINTER TYRE TESTing It’s fun testing winter tyres, even if it’s for a serious purpose

82 TAROX BRAKES

Our company profile reveals a family-run Italian specialist with a passion for quality and motorsport

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TrackDriver on Track

In the first of a new series, Carl Owen begins an exploration of the UK’s trackdays and test days

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e continue our tour of Britain’s race tracks, looking at what the circuits are like, what facilities they have, how enjoyable and challenging they are, and who was there on the day. There are now so many opportunities available to drive your own car on most of the UK’s tracks, as a quick glance at our Trackday/Testday diaries in the back of the magazine will reveal. Remember, for a trackday you just need a valid driving licence (both parts), a car, a helmet and sensible clothing with long sleeves. For a test day you need an MSA racing licence, full race gear including helmet, race suit, gloves, shoes etc, plus an MSA-approved race car with roll-cage and other safety features.

Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground

Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground is a disused B52 bomber base in Leicestershire and has been the backdrop for many

of something interesting to look at. Small-scale car makers – and even some big ones – often use Bruntingthorpe for dynamics testing sessions, its two-mile main runway ideal not only for top speed runs, but also for boring, repetitive low-speed stuff. TrackDriver was there for the launch of the Sin Cars R1 road car and had a fun few laps in this race carderived supercar (see the Noticeboard for the further details).

This track comprises the aforementioned main runway straight which is long enough to get scary (particularly trying to work out the best place to start braking when your car is going flat-out), and various curved sections of apron boasting both long sweepers and some very tight bends. The mainly concrete track is a little rough in places but is bearable. There are no facilities out on the track other than a Portaloo, but the main hangar complex has slightly plusher toilets and a café.

Anglesey – Coastal

The Anglesey race track may be a long drive away for most of us, but it’s definitely worth it. The relatively recently revamped

a TV show. The site is liberally sprinkled with redundant aeroplanes (both military and civil) and is also used for storing hundreds of fleet cars prior to auctions, so you’re never short

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track is challenging and interesting, especially the famous corkscrew section, and there are several elevation changes adding to the excitement. On top of that you have a stunning backdrop of the sea lashing against the coastal rocks and cliffs. There are four circuit configuration and we drove the preferred coastal variant.

We were there with the Classic Sports Car Club (CSCC), racing our Audi TT in the Modern Classics event. The field comprised a wide range of largely sports cars and coupes, including everything from Porsches (Boxsters, 968 and 924), Lotus Elises and Ginettas, through to a Seat Leon, Renault Mégane and our main rival, a Subaru Impreza WRX. Facilities are excellent, with a café serving freshly prepared food, a bar, free camping with toilet blocks and showers, etc. There are also nice clean pit garages available – they cost extra but because of the exposed location, definitely worth it. One word of warning, if you do decide to camp it can get very windy: we did and at several points I thought the tent was about to set off towards Ireland! Everything is nicely grouped together in one spot, so once you’re settled in you can walk to the café/ bar and camping.

Snetterton

Snetterton, a little way south of Norwich, is an MSV-owned track, (in a collection that also includes Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park and Bedford Autodrome), and has two main circuit configurations, the 200 and 300. We drove on the shorter 200 configuration, again with the Classic Sports Car Club (CSCC), for the season finale of Modern Classics (winning

our class and taking the title for 2014). We also took part in the New Millennium showcase race, a new class for 2015.

Snetterton 200 is largely flat with the exception of the Bomb Hole – which as its name suggests is a large crater that

creates a fab cambered corner – and the start/finish straight which is slightly uphill. Whilst the 200 circuit is shorter than the 300, you still get the main straights for some high speed action. Another corner of note is Coram, a seemingly endless high-speed right-hander that tests your car’s balance. As with all MSV tracks the facilities are excellent, with pit garages, a good café, camping facilities, ample toilets and a shower block, etc.

BARC INTRODUCES NEW FORMULA LIBRE CHAMPIONSHIP

The keen-eyed BARC (British Automobile Racing Club) has spotted three types of single-seater racers that no longer have their own UK championships and created one that they can run in – the 2015 BARC Formula Libre Championship.

Cars eligible to compete in the 16-round championship are the latest spec Formula Renault 2.0, pre-2012 Formula 3 and Formula BMW. The championship will be run across six events, with up to three rounds per venue.

The Formula Libre Championship kicks off at Snetterton on 9/10 May, and will also visit Rockingham, Thruxton, Croft and Oulton Park during the course of the season.

For further information contact the championship manager, Will Fewkes, at wfewkes@barc.net, or alternatively there’s the old fashioned method of calling 01264 882208.

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PORSCHE STEERS BACK TOWARDS

New 911 GT3 RS and Cayman GT4 models have the circuit in their sights and have been engineered accordingly

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t may make the bulk of its money these days from flogging SUVs, but Porsche is keen to prove that sports cars still represent the core of its corporate being as it unveils a pair of cracking track-focused models – the new (991) 911 GT3 RS and Cayman GT4..

Conceived and developed under the leadership of Andreas Preuninger – the current manager of Porsche’s GT road car division, and previously boss of motorsport – both cars are said to put driving pleasure ahead of the need to produce class-leading performance or horsepower figures, although neither is under-endowed in those departments. For those of you who require a Nürburgring lap time to put cars into context, the GT3 RS has zapped round in 7:20 (nine seconds quicker than the Porsche Carrera GT), while the

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GT4 stopped the clock at 7:40. As we said, both cars are quick enough…

The 493bhp GT3 RS is based on the ‘regular’ GT3 version of the latest 911, and features a magnesium roof panel and carbonfibre lids for the engine and luggage compartments, as much to lower the centre of gravity as reduce the weight, which is down a paltry 10kg. Further work has been done in addition to the standard GT3’s already pretty aggressive aero package, the key features being a prominent front splitter, cool-looking vents in the top of the front wings that cut the amount of lift on the front axle, and a whopping race-like adjustable spoiler at the rear.

Broader front and rear tracks are complemented by the widest tyres of any standard 911 model yet produced – 265/35 ZR20 at the pointy

end and 325/30 ZR21 where the engine lives, mounted on gorgeous centre-lock alloys. A fully variable limited-slip diff, rear-wheel steering and Porsche’s Torque Vectoring Plus system support the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s’ extreme grip.

Although the new GT3 RS’s engine capacity and power output mirror those of the 997 generation of the car, the flat-six is of the latest direct fuel injection design. Still, peak power doesn’t arrive until 8250rpm, so you do have to rev it like a race car to extract maximum performance – that, by the way, brings you from standstill to 62mph in 3.3sec, zero to 124mph in 10.9sec, and on to a top speed of 192mph. (And it’s rumoured that if you configure that towering rear wing to its minimum drag setting, you might just be able to clip 200mph.)

Inside you find carbon buckets based on those

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THE TRACK from the 918 Spyder and if – like many, we suspect – you tick the Club Sport Package option box on the order form, you get a bolted in roll-cage in the rear of the passenger compartment, preparation for a battery master switch, a six-point harness and a fire extinguisher. And as if to demonstrate that Porsche moves with the times, if you go for the optional Sports Chrono Package you get the Porsche Track Precision app, that provides GPS measurements of your on-track performance: you can use the information this provides to become a better driver, or to prove to your GT3 RS-owning mates that you’re quicker than they are… Another tricksy novelty is a pit lane speed button.

Sure to be the most contentious element of the GT3 RS is that, in common with the regular GT3, it’s available only with a seven-speed PDK

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transmission: there’s no manual. Haters are always gonna hate, but at least the ’box has been specifically retuned for use in the RS. The basic price for the GT3 RS is £131,296.

If you’re still choking on the notion of an automatically actuated dual-clutch manual gearbox in a high performance Porsche, the Cayman GT4 may sate your thirst for the traditional ways – it’s manual only, paddleshift isn’t even an option. And further good news is that the engineers extensively raided the GT3 parts bin for the most extreme version of Porsche’s mid-engined coupe to date, for items such as the brakes and some suspension components.

The GT4’s 3.8-litre flat-six engine was looted from another (991) 911 derivative, the Carrera S, and is tuned to give 380bhp at 7400rpm and 310lb ft of torque that plateaus between 4750 and 6000rpm.

It also features a lightweight dual-mass flywheel

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that helps give it a very different character in this application than in the Carrera S. Top speed for the GT4 is 183mph, and its 0-62mph figure is 4.4sec.

The GT4’s aggressive aero package and 30mm drop in ride height make it look much more of a beast than any other Cayman – even the hotshot of the previous generation, the Cayman R. Much more than just an extreme tart-up of the standard Cayman, the GT4’s engineering changes run to a stiffer, stronger bodyshell, front axles and suspension from the 911 GT3, electric steering also from the GT3 but with re-programmed software, all-new forged aluminium doublewishbone rear suspension and new rear axle, and GT3 dampers all-round.

The GT3 also donates its brakes, (perhaps a little over-sized for the Cayman, but then you can never have

too much braking…) including the option of carbonceramic discs.

The optional Sports Chrono Package brings you the wonders of dynamic engine mounts, Porsche Torque Vectoring, Porsche Stability Management and a limited-slip differential. And in recognition of the fact that some buyers may not be as familiar with manual gearboxes as some of the diehards, the GT4 has a ‘blipping assistant’ to help you with your heel and toeing – it can, and should, be disabled.

Prices for the Cayman GT4 start at £64,451, which if you view it as the sporty alternative to a 911, makes it a bit of a bargain.

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PERFECT TIMING ERA-300RB-1AER

Casio Edifice represents the perfect mix of intelligent functionality, innovative technology and precision. The motorsport inspired Limited Edition ERA-300RB designed in collaboration with Infiniti Red Bull Racing features a twin-sensor thermometer and compass.

www.edifice-watches.co.uk

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LOTUS COMES BACK FIGHTING Down but far from out, Hethel’s engineering team has created three thrilling new models with motorsport in their DNA

Evora 400 is more than just a facelifted version of the original model; with 400bhp it’s Lotus’s fastest road car yet and is hugely quick around the track

Reinvigorated under the leadership of (relatively) new CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, Lotus has returned to doing what it does best – confronting adversity through the intelligent application of very limited resources, and creating some cracking cars as a result.

None of the recently launched trio – Evora 400, Exige S Club Racer and Elise S Cup – is as sparkly new as the Lotus PR machine would like you to believe, but as refinements on an old theme go, they’re nevertheless appealing. Most different to its predecessor is the Evora 400, which Lotus claims has about two-thirds new components.

And while its overall profile is little altered from when the Evora was first launched in 2008, more aerodynamically aggressive front and rear bumper units lend the Evora 400 an air of serious intent.

And Lotus wants the mid-engined Evora 400 to be taken very seriously, proclaiming it as the company’s quickest road car to date: as such it steals the Esprit’s crown and elevates it to the role of Porsche 911 rival. Propulsion is courtesy of a 3.5-litre V6 sourced from Toyota, and thanks to supercharging and charge-cooling it produces 400bhp at 7000rpm and a peak of 302lb ft of torque that it maintains between 3500rpm and

Exige S Club Racer loses a few kilos and is being touted as the most extreme version of the Exige to date

6500rpm. Those outputs combined with a 22kg weight saving over the previous generation Evora S, give the 400 a top speed of 186mph and a 0-60mph time of 4.1sec.

Sharing the same basic engine as the Evora 400, although not in such a high state of tune, is the Exige S Club Racer. It’s being heralded as the most extreme road-going version yet of the current generation

Featuring lots of kit from the racing version, the Elise S Cup is aimed at trackday enthusiasts

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Exige and features lightweight door cards, seats, battery and centre console. For all the weight shaving it’s only 15kg down on the standard Exige S, but as a percentage of total kerb weight that’s more of an achievement than it looks on paper. The Club Racer tips the scales at just 1161kg, so when you chuck the engine’s full 345bhp at it, the mid-engined coupe scarpers from standstill to 60mph in 3.8sec and screams on to a top speed of 170mph.

The 217bhp Elise S Cup won’t be as quick as its two siblings, but we’d hazard a guess that it will be just as much fun – probably more so – around a circuit. Aimed squarely at the trackday enthusiast, the S Cup shares its aero package – front splitter and barge boards, rear wing and diffuser – with the Elise R racer. The rest of its spec is track-inspired, too: Bilstein dampers, Eibach springs, AP Racing front calipers, Brembo rear calipers, specially tuned ABS, uprated double shear rear track control arms, roll-hoop and wiring harnesses for a kill switch and extinguisher system.

Standard tyres are Yokohama Advan Neova AD07s, but the options list offers up stickier varieties, along with FIA-approved seats, harnesses, towing eyes, lightweight battery and a performance induction kit.

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CATERHAM REJIGS THE SEVEN LINE-UP When Caterham says it’s introduced three new versions to the Seven line-up, what it really means is that it has changed some spec and renamed some models.

For 2015 the base model three-cylinder Seven 160 and range-topping supercharged Seven 620R stay as they are, but the models in between have been revamped. One above the 160 and taking over from the old Roadsport 125 is the Seven 270, powered by a 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine producing 135bhp. Next comes the Seven 360, powered by a 180bhp version of Ford’s Duratec 2.0-litre (also used in the R300 race cars): it takes over from the outgoing Roadsport 175. The 2.0-litre Duratec also features in the new Seven 420, although in this application is tuned to give 210bhp: this version steps in for the old Superlight R400.

As well as fresh model names, Caterham has streamlined the equipment packages for the Seven, all versions now available either with the S Pack (£2995) or R Pack (£3995).

While the kit offered in the S Pack is tailored more towards road use, the R Pack is aimed at track-goers and includes a limited-slip diff, lightweight flywheel, sports suspension, 15in wheels with wider tyres, an uprated brake master cylinder, carbonfibre dashboard, composite race seats, four-point race harness, Momo steering wheel and a shift light.

ZIPPIER ZENOS

Norfolk-based Zenos Cars has launched a more powerful version of its track-biased lightweight roadster. Called the E10 S, it’s powered by a 250bhp Ford EcoBoost turbocharged 2.0-litre motor that’s claimed to punch the door-less, roof-less Lotus/Caterham/KTM rival from zero to 60mph in less than 4.0sec and push it on to a top speed of 150mph.

Being a handbuilt, low-volume sports car, we guess you can spec your Zenos any way you want, but for the sake of convenience the company has assembled a Track Pack for the E10 S. This comprises a six-speed gearbox in place of the standard five-speeder, limited-slip differential, lightweight alloy wheels, composite seats, four-point race harnesses, quickrelease steering wheel, and adjustable platform dampers.

Standard price for the E10 S is £29,995, rising to £33,995 if you tick the box marked ‘Track Pack’.

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Track driver Dunlop trackday tyre questionnaire

Dunlop Tyres is once again researching the trackday tyre market and has asked TrackDriver’s readers to help in that research.

Whether you have a dedicated trackday weapon or use the family hatchback, or even the company car with the registration taped over (which, of course, we don’t condone…), then we need to know. Well, at least the type of car and tyre…

To make it worth your while all respondents will be entered into a draw and Dunlop has generously offered the prize of a set of tyres up to the value of £1000 from either the Dunlop Sport Maxx road tyre range or the Dunlop Motorsport range.

There are also five pairs of tickets to any round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship for the runners-up.

Thanks in anticipation of your help.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15

How many trackdays do you attend per year?

Which circuits do you drive on most often?

Do you have a favourite trackday operator?

What is the make and model of your trackday car?

Is it road legal?

What brand and name of tyre do you currently use?

What sizes do you use?

Where do you buy your track tyres? (Regular tyre dealer, specialist, online, etc) Do you intend to do more or fewer trackdays in the future?

If the answer to 9 is fewer, is this budgetary or for other reasons?

If you are UK-based, do you plan to drive at any non-UK circuits? If so, which ones?

Do you hold – or ever held – an MSA licence?

If not, do you plan to obtain an MSA licence?

What are the most important factors in your choice of track tyre?

- Durability - Lap time - Wet grip - Feel and feedback - Road noise - Price - Availability

Is there anything else we have missed or forgotten to ask?

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LE MANS 24 HOURS 2014

WiNNiNg teaMs CHOOse DUNLOp tyRes the Le Mans 24 Hours race provides some of racing’s most challenging conditions. in 2014 Dunlop teams filled all three podium places in the only class in which tyre brands compete head to head*.

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tyRES: DUNLOp

2014 LE MANS 24 HOURS (LMP2 CLASS) 1: JOtA SPORt - Zytek NissaN (#38 DOLaN / tiNCkNeLL / tURVey) 2: tHiRiEt by tDS RACiNg - LigieR NissaN (#46 tHiRiet / BaDey / gOMMeNDy) 3: SigNAtECH ALPiNE - aLpiNe NissaN (#36 CHatiN / paNCiatiCi / WeBB)

tHiRiEt by tDS RACiNg #46 tyRES: DUNLOp

SigNAtECH ALPiNE #36 tyRES: DUNLOp

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* THE FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP LMP2 PROTOTYPE CATEGORY, INCORPORATING THE FIA ENDURANCE TROPHIES FOR DRIVERS AND TEAMS.

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IT’S A SIN…

Bulgarian supercar maker shows TrackDriver its new road and race cars, and surprises us with the price

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artly manufactured in Bulgaria but with final assembly in Britain, and V8 crate engines supplied by General Motors from the US, this is the Sin Cars R1, designed very much with the track in mind. It’s the brainchild of Bulgarian national and ex-racer, Rosen Daskalov, who plans to make both road cars and GT race cars, which will emerge from a new factory in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

The Sin Cars project has been on the go for five years already, but as Daskalov confessed at the mid-engined R1’s launch at a rain-lashed Bruntingthorpe, the journey thus far has been a rocky one. Not one who is easily deterred, though, Daskalov has now reached the stage where Sin’s line-up includes three different specs of road car, together with GT3 and GT4 race cars: all are built around the same spaceframe chassis that uses FIA-homologated T45 tubing and incorporates a built-in roll-cage.

In common with other low-volume sports car makers, Sin uses turnkey engines, in this instance big capacity V8s crated into the UK from GM’s US divisions, which bring benefits in terms of emissions compliance and reliability. The Sin R1 road car employs the services of the 6.2-litre V8 found under the bonnet of Corvettes and Camaros; in this application it’s knocking out 444bhp, and can be teamed with a six-speed manual snaffled from the previous generation Porsche 911 GT3, or a sixspeed sequential. Sin race cars get GM’s LS7 V8, which a 7.0-litre unit banging out 602bhp.

The Sin’s styling is strong on drama, and whether or not you like it, there’s no doubting that it evokes a sense of purpose. The bodyshell and cabin tub are

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made of carbonfibre, produced in Bulgaria, which contribute to the road car’s 1150kg kerb weight and 393bhp per ton power to weight ratio. Claimed performance figures for the road car include a 3.5sec 0-62mph time, and a top speed of 186mph.

As part of his passionate presentation at the R1’s Bruntingthorpe outing, Daskalov spoke of wanting to make his cars affordable: with prices starting from around £70,000 for the R1, he’s being more realistic than most niche manufacturers (the Noble M600 at £200K, for example), although it should be noted that Porsche’s new track-focused Cayman GT4 is similar money. Still, as a trackday prospect, binning your Sin R1 should have lighter fiscal implications than flinging your Ferrari or Aston into the barriers…

Having a comparatively modest base price for the road car has advantages for race teams, too, especially as the Sin R1 features pushrod double

wishbone suspension and AP Racing brakes even in its most ‘humble’ setup. Motorsport versions have already seen action at Silverstone and Donington at the end of last season; at the latter, a Sin in GT3 spec grabbed a third in class finish. And several European teams are campaigning Sins in GT4 during 2015.

TrackDriver’s in-car experience of the Sin R1 at Bruntingthorpe was fleeting and involved only a passenger ride – MacG Racing’s Jonny MacGregor was our chauffeur, and despite the track being bumpy and sodden, he did his best to demonstrate the car’s outer limits of traction. But while the conditions were far from ideal and our time in the Sin far from long enough, the overwhelming message through the chassis seemed to be how well balanced it is. We can’t wait for TrackDriver’s chance to properly explore the Sin’s handling and performance.

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FERRARI’S NEW TURBO ERA BEGINS The need for tighter emissions controls affects all car makers, not just those in the mainstream, so from now on turbochargers will be a feature of all new Ferrari engines, to help clean up what emerges from the tail-pipes.

First of the new-wave forced induction Ferraris is the gorgeouslooking 488 GTB, the boosted 3.9-litre V8 of which produces 661bhp.

It’s teamed up with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, which as well as offering superior performance than a human-propelled shifter, contributes to better fuel economy and therefore lower emissions.

In deference to the fact that more poseurs and playboys are likely to buy the 488 GTB than hardcore drivers, Ferrari has armed the car with a sophisticated stability control system with a wide range of adjustability: in fully nannying mode it’s said to protect inexperienced drivers while still making them feel like driving gods, whilst at the other end of the scale you can shed the electronic shackles altogether.

Doubtless the 488 GTB will be a great car to drive, but will the turbocharger rob the V8 of Ferrari’s spine-tingling howl? We’re looking forward to finding out.

LISTER DELIVERS FIRST CUSTOMER ‘KNOBBLY’ The reborn Lister Cars has completed the first customer example of its limited run of ‘Knobbly’ continuation cars.

Built to exactly the same spec as the 1958 original, the Lister is powered by a 330bhp race-prepped Jaguar 3.8-litre straight-six, as also found in the D-type Jag: the continuation cars meet FIA Historics regulations.

Lister claims to have presold all 10 Knobblys it plans to build in its Cambridge factory, and is now considering a further three ‘final editions’.

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The Choice of Champions Seats | Harnesses | Tow Loops | Window Nets | Brakelines

Tel: +44 (0)1424 854499 email: sales@corbeau-seats.com www.corbeau-seats.com 100% British Manufactured

17 Wainwright Close, Churchfields Ind Est, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN38 9PP

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WE’VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD…

Hot hatches have always been a mainstay of the trackday scene and this year there’s a cavalcade of exciting new models to enjoy, several of them developed very much with track work in mind.

Clio Renaultsport 220 Trophy EDC

A big mechanical makeover for the quick Clio sees a bigger turbo and improved breathing pump up the power to 217bhp. The Trophy also features beefier suspension, a quicker steering rack, 50 per cent faster shifts from its automated transmission, and the addition of Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres.

Ford Focus RS

Ford’s Focus RS models have always been known for big horsepower figures and sometimes wayward handling – the new model has 316bhp and all-wheel drive to help keep it in check. Ford promises driving pleasure is nevertheless better than ever; the adjustable stability control offers ‘Normal’, ‘Sport’, ‘Track’ and ‘Drift’! And with track work in mind, the vented front discs are an impressive 350mm in diameter.

Honda Civic Type R

Never short of power or outright speed, the Civic Type R has traditionally lacked the all-round dynamic shine of rivals. With the new model Honda is hoping a Nürburgring lap time of 7:50.63 will help greatly in the credibility stakes, as will a top speed of 167mph and a 0-60mph time of 5.7sec. Adding a turbocharger to the 306bhp 2.0-litre VTEC engine will counter previous criticism of a lack of useful torque.

SEAT Leon SC Cupra 280 with Ultimate Sub8 Performance Pack

A previous holder of the Nürburgring front-drive lap record until Renault snatched it back, SEAT is retaliating with a special performance pack for the Leon Cupra. The pack rips out a bit of weight from the Cupra and gives it bigger brakes with Brembo calipers, as well as lightweight 19in alloys, while on the options list are semi-slick Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s.

Vauxhall Corsa VXR

Previously a bit of an unruly brat, Vauxhall has paid more attention to the upbringing of the latest Corsa VXR. Koni has helped develop sophisticated electronic dampers for the little hatch, while for track work you can completely disable the ESP and traction control. A new optional Performance Pack features a Drexler limited-slip diff, bigger front discs and more focused control for the dampers.

Peugeot 208 GTI 30th Anniversary

Special editions are seldom very different to the standard model, but the 208 GTI 30th Anniversary has been tickled by Peugeot Sport. It has slightly more power and torque than standard, unique spring, damper and steering settings, wider rubber and, best of all, a Torsen limitedslip diff. All of which convert the GTI from competent to outstanding.

Let’s hope the standard car gets the Anniversary kit, and soon…

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2015 CSCC New Millennium Series The Classic Sports Car Club is pleased to announce a new 40 minute race series ‘New Millennium’.

Designed for post year 2000 production based cars (and their racing variants) running to the clubs philosophy of simple rules for a single driver or two driver team.

Cars may have non-standard splitters and wings front and rear. The original silhouette must otherwise be retained including the wheel arches which must remain as produced by the factory. List 1A or 1B e-marked tyres and engines of a type originally fitted to that model.

Sequential gearboxes are acceptable.

: Class structure 0cc 350 Class A Over cc to 3500cc 1 Class B 300 cc to 3000cc Class C 2001 2000cc ion Class D up to ve forced induct ri d l ee h w t on ally Class E Fr heel drive norm cars and front w ove 2 litre aspirated cars ab

Provisional calendar dates: April 11th/12th Snetterton (300) May 9th/10th Silverstone (National) May 30th/31st Brands Hatch (Indy) June 26th-28th Spa Francorchamps July 11th/12th Rockingham (Int. Super Sportscar Long) August 1st/2nd Mallory Park September 5th/6th Donington Park (National) September 12th Silverstone (GP) October 31st/ Brands Hatch (Indy) 1st November with Night Races!

More details and series regulations can be found on the CSCC website - www.classicsportscarclub.co.uk

www.classicsportscarclub.co.uk info@classicsportscarclub.co.uk 0844 8843260 Classic Sports Car Club @CSCCRacing

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SILVERSTONE CLASSIC COMMEMORATES 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Already celebrating its own 25th anniversary, Silverstone Classic is set to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain with a pair of special races for British GT and saloon cars.

The Battle of Britain races are 20-minute events, and to be eligible your car must be British and made between the start of 1947 and the end of 1965.

The races are being promoted by Masters Historic Racing and are part of Silverstone Classic’s 22-race programme over the long weekend of 24-26 July. In addition to the Battle of Britain races there will also be an air display by a (Supermarine, not Triumph…) Spitfire and other World War 2 aircraft.

For regulations and entry forms visit www.mastershistoricracing.com, or if you just want tickets for the Silverstone Classic, let your fingers wander along to www.silverstoneclassic.com.

NEW TOYO TRACK TYRE REMAINS ROAD-LEGAL

With recent changes to tyre legislation, not all trackday tyres remain roadlegal – Toyo is making a big deal out of the fact that its new Proxes R888R race and trackday tyre is one of the few of its kind that can be driven to and from the circuit.

Successor to the popular Proxes R888, the new tyre is a clean-sheet design said to offer improvements in every area, from warm-up characteristics to dry grip, and steering response to long distance consistency. And it has been extensively tested for the UK market by BTCC and British GT star, Tom Onslow-Cole.

As with its predecessor, the R888R is destined to be used as a control tyre in various race series as well as being ideal for the trackday market. The new tyre won’t be available in a full range of sizes from launch, but the R888 will continue to be produced in sizes that will fill in the gaps. For a range of stockists visit www.toyo.co.uk.

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TITBITS • TITBITS • TITBITS • TITBITS • TITBITS

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Two rounds of Caterham’s flagship British race series, the Bookatrack.com Superlight R300 Championship, will be shown live on Motors TV. Real time action will come from the Silverstone event in May, and August’s Brands Hatch race. More details can be found at www.caterham.com.

The Motor Sports Association (MSA) has been a driving force in pushing through something called the Deregulation Bill, which contains a framework for running motorsports on closed public roads without the need for an expensive Act of Parliament for each event. We’ll have to wait until after the General Election in May before all the elements of the Bill are finalised.

Dunlop has signed a three-year deal to become the exclusive tyre supplier to the LMGTE and GTC categories of the European Le Mans Series. Dunlop also supplies tyres to teams in the LMP2 category.

It’s all change on the FIA’s official website, completely revamped to give it a fresher look and more exciting content. Check it out at www.FIA.com, where you’ll find a world’s worth of motorsport news and video content.

McLaren’s Young Driver Programme has announced that rookies Andrew Watson (19) and Ross Wylie (23) will race a McLaren 650S GT3 in the 2015 Avon Tyres British GT Championship. The car is being campaigned

by McLaren customer team Von Ryan Racing.

Having campaigned a Civic estate car during 2014, for 2015 Honda will be running the new Civic Type R in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Honda is hoping that motorsport exposure will help give the new Type R road car the sort of credibility that previous generations never quite attained.

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• Track Days • Tuition • Testing • Sprints • Club Weekends

For TRACKDAY dates see CALENDAR page at www.blytonpark.co.uk Contact Email: richard@blytonpark.co.uk Tel: 01427 628 922 Mobile: 07967 442 352

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SHOW

TIME!

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The annual season-opening Autosport Show seems like ages ago now, but some of the things that we saw there have got us thinking…

Mark Hales and Carl Owen give us their personal views of proceedings

I

f we had a quid for every time someone asked whether this year’s was a bigger/smaller/better/worse show than last, we would probably have had enough for a decent supper… Fact is though, when you’re working on a stand you almost don’t notice the stuff which is actually the Autosport Show’s raison d’être. Our job is talking to people, and whatever we think about the event, it’s a very good place indeed to do that, because everybody makes the early year trip to the NEC. That said, this year I did think there was more metal, as in more cars to look at and more of them from the less professional end of motorsport.

Only a personal view, but I like that because it’s somehow more accessible. There were, of course, some current Formula One cars there and if extracting them from their ever-more rarefied environment means you can actually get close enough to touch one, they become easier to relate to. Compared with their 1960’s or ’70’s predecessors – and there were a good number of those on display as well – last year’s Mercedes or Red Bull or Sauber make a stark contrast.

You can argue about the relevance of a front wing that large and that complicated, but how it actually works is beyond me. But then just imagine the driver’s view from the cockpit. Trying to aim the thing from where they lie when they can’t possibly see the track ahead, and at the speed they travel, is a completely different discipline. And then they go to Monaco…

That, I guess, is progress, because there was a time when a grand prix car looked much like an entry-level single-seater. Your starter for 10 is to name the similar chassis which did service as a Formula Ford, Formula 3, Formula 2, and yes, a Formula 1?

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But back to the show and the things I did notice. Of the domestic race car makers, Radical has made a very good business exporting just enough of a modern grand prix car’s ambiance to a non-professional market. Radical gave the show a miss last year but this time had a huge stand, filled with the latest evolutions of all the range, including a Spider version of the closed-top GT, powered by a 3.0-litre version of the sometime Suzuki-derived V8, and an updated edition of a Radical staple, the SR3. All of them looked better detailed, more finished and ready than in some years. And Radical says we can have a go in all of them as soon as the weather improves. So we will. Quaife put on an impressive display, launching over 30 new products whilst also celebrating its 50th anniversary, winning the award for best stand in show in the process. It was also interesting to see the number of universities at Autosport, most of them exhibiting their latest Formula Student car.

I don’t know as much about this as I should, but apparently it started in America, way back in 1981. I trawled the 177-page online rulebook in search of engine regulations and couldn’t find any, (although I did see the bit that said there were 100 changes this year, mainly intended to assist teams in producing a ‘rule compliant vehicle’), but I think petrol engines have to be of 500cc or less with an inlet restrictor. The emphasis of the Formula is on design and construction rather than the on-track contest, although ultimately that has to be a large part of how success is measured.

I spotted one with wings that doubled the size of the car, but a stereotypical boffin-to-be patiently explained that because the cars don’t travel that fast – the track is typically in a supermarket car park or similar, so the emphasis is on acceleration and agility – the amount of drag is low, but any increase in downforce is highly relevant. They haven’t tested it yet but we’ll keep an eye on that, too. The University of Bolton had the launch of the new Ginetta LMP3 racer, the first of which has been purchased by the University with a plan to use it as a platform for teaching as well as competing in the Le Mans series throughout the season.

Meanwhile, on the TrackDriver stand…

On the TrackDriver stand our main focus was the Rookie2Racer competition in collaboration with the 750 Motor Club. Phase one of the prize here was for eight lucky budding race drivers to go head-to-head at a 750MC trackday at Donington Park. Emerge victorious and the ultimate prize is very special indeed, culminating on October 3rd with a drive in a Super Cooper Cup Mini R53, prepared by Eliot Dunmore Motorsport, in the final round of the 750MC’s Cartek Roadsport Endurance Series. Along the way the Rookie2Racer winner also gets to enjoy a year’s membership of the 750MC, is put through their ARDS test, receives expert pre-race coaching, and is supplied with a full race suit courtesy of HRX, a helmet with Hans posts from Hedtec, and a custom helmet cover thanks to Caracalla. Altogether a pretty hot package.

Feedback from Autosport attendees and exhibitors suggests that trackdays remain popular. The MSA had a large stand (two, in fact) at the show, and it definitely has a role to play in helping the trackday market to expand further still and to help it gain greater credibility. Occasional TrackDriver columnist (and MSA executive) Ben Taylor is on record saying as much, and that he feels trackdays should be seen as part of motorsport, an assertion that has rung alarm bells in some quarters.

We need to see what the MSA has in mind before we get too exorcised, but let’s view it as positive for the time being.

Far left, top: TrackDriver’s Autosport stand was dominated by the Super Cooper Cup Mini that one lucky aspiring racer will get to compete in at Donington this October as part of the 750 Motor Club’s Rooker 2 Racer competition, in association with this magazine. The winner’s prize also includes a full race suit from HRX (left). Over the last few years it has become a common topic of conversation to question the success of the Autosport show, but there’s nothing quite like it for bumping into old friends and interesting people, including David Coulthard (left), not to mention for discovering exciting new oily bits such as could be found on the Quaife stand (above, left). And Autosport remains an important venue for launching new race cars, such as (above) the new Bulgarian-designed Sin Cars GT3 and GT4, which are partmade in Britain and feature American GM-supplied V8 motors

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22

ramblings STACY SAYS

Dron exits the pits during the Donington Relay.

TVR Competition Manager, Chris Schirle, can be seen running, in blue coat

The mystery of victory

I

had been warned that Chris Schirle, TVR’s Competition Manager/chief engineer, could be ferocious. Our first encounter, at Oulton Park, confirmed this.

He nodded silently when I introduced myself. Regular driver Steve Cole did a couple of warm-up laps. Another chap was due to drive the yellow 420 SEAC before me. This other driver spun on his out lap. Schirle called him in immediately and tersely invited him to disappear. Then it was my turn.

Chris gave me a pep talk, accompanied by unblinking, steely blue eyes. He told me that nobody in the team had wanted me to drive the car; he had agreed only because TVR’s PR man had made the arrangement. The tirade continued, with warnings and threats.

As I began climbing into the winged racer, I asked, “Tell me; what’s a good time around here in this?” He gave another fierce stare, then replied gruffly, while a grinning mechanic helped tighten the harness: “If you get round in under 1 minute 34, I’ll make sure you get a ****ing grand prix drive.”

I promptly stalled. Next time I got it right and exited the pits.

I had visited Oulton several times but never driven there. I had no previous experience of driving on slicks. My first flying lap was signalled as “1-40”, encouraging as I had been cruising, learning the dips, bumps and swooping curves of Cheshire’s mini-Nürburgring. Gradually, I whittled this down to 1min 32.5sec. From then on Chris and I got on very well. He invited me to join the team for the weekend’s race, a four-hour relay.

The team consisted of three TVRs. I was engaged as fourth driver, sharing the SEAC with Cole. Steve did the first and final stints. After one of our team cars conked out, I ended up driving for an hour and five minutes. I had never previously completed more than 15 consecutive laps of a circuit. I played squash at least once a week at that time and was fairly fit, even though I was a smoker, but I soon found that previously unknown muscles were aching. Also, I had pushed the seat rearwards one notch and my back seemed to have come into contact with a cross-member, which was mildly uncomfortable. Maintaining full concentration was the toughest thing, though, particularly because of the performance variation of the cars. After a difficult patch halfway through my session, I found a rhythm.

The SEAC was the third-quickest car on track at any time.

There was a team of beautiful, super-rapid Chevrons. They appeared as if from nowhere, flashed past and vanished into the distance. There was a 911 gang whose cars just had the edge over the TVR on the straights, but we easily outperformed most of the Porsches. There were about 30 teams altogether, with all sorts of cars – Caterhams, BMWs, Minis, Fiestas, a Lotus Elan…

The slowest team was the most bizarre: a Lotus Cortina, an Austin A35, a Morris Minor and a Ford Mustang.

With all this traffic I never had a clear lap. Nevertheless, almost all my laps were around 1min 35sec (we were running on harder-compound tyres than on the previous day). One lap lasted over 1min 37sec, when I spent too much time looking in the rear-view mirror at the quick 911 bearing down on me. He was gaining along the pits straight but as I descended towards Cascades, he had dropped back, probably having had a moment in Old Hall. Then suddenly he was catching me again. I missed my braking point for the banked Island bend, scrabbling around the outside but just avoiding the necessity to run away and join the Foreign Legion.

The breakdown of one of the team’s cars dropped us to 19th place overall but at the finish we were up to fifth on the road and sixth on handicap. Mr Schirle was smiling after the race and complimented me on my consistency. Yes, but I was consistently doing 1m 35sec while Cole was consistently just below 1min 34sec. As anyone who has ever raced will attest, it’s that last second or two that’s the toughest part.

Some years later, in qualifying for a Tuscan Challenge round at Castle Combe, I had the opportunity to follow Steve for several laps. I hoped that there would be one bend where I was getting it wrong. Then I might rectify that, by changing my braking point or the line. Alas, it was not like that: we were both braking at the same points and our lines seemed identical.

Yet I was losing a tiny bit at every bend. I ended up sixth (out of about 24) in qualifying, finishing eighth. Steve was on the front row and he won the race. You ask yourself: how does he do that? Unfortunately, there is no obvious answer • PETER DRON

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MIND OVER CATASTROPHE The loss of both legs might crush the soul of a lesser man, but for ex-F1 star Alex Zanardi, it was just another tough obstacle to overcome

Alex Zanardi has achieved much in his career, as a race driver and latterly as an athlete.

He overcame a massive accident in a US Champ car which cost him his legs and went on to claim Olympic gold. His biggest asset, though, is one that cannot be seen: his strength of mind. In the first of a two-part special, psychotherapist and sports mind coach, Linda Keen, gains a fascinating insight into his racing, winning and approach to life in general Photos: BMW Group-Sport & Gary Hawkins

L

ast November, American chat show host David Letterman, said at the end of his interview with the Italian athlete and racing driver Alex Zanardi: “You don’t have legs but you are not handicapped.” What an understatement…

Letterman was interviewing Zanardi at the completion of his first-ever Ironman Triathlon at the famous Kailua-Kona event in Hawaii last October, when he crossed the line 272nd out of 2187 finishers.

The Italian’s challenge comprised a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run.

A feat of endurance even for a fit and able-bodied person such as McLaren Formula 1 driver, Jenson Button, but with no legs Zanardi had to compromise by utilising a wet vest to keep his body afloat for the swimming section, then took to a self-developed handcycle for the biking segment. In a superhuman feat he completed the Ironman on an Olympic wheelchair, and crossed the line in 9 hours, 47 minutes and 14 seconds. He tweeted triumphantly at the finish: “What a feel: thousands of people cheering you at the line and the speaker shouting: ‘Alex Zanardi, YOU are an IRONMAN!’” And if you’ve never heard of the ex-Formula 1 driver and double CART champion through his motorsport endeavours during the ’90s and early 2000s, then unless you slept throughout the 2012 London Olympics, you must have heard of the Olympian double gold medallist.

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The great survivor

Zanardi’s is an exceptional story. Here is a man at the age of 48, who continues to challenge himself mentally and physically, not only in motorsport and para-cycling, but in every area of his life. The Ironman Triathlon is just the latest in the achievements of this unique human being.

And yet this affable Italian is lucky to be alive.

Following a relatively inauspicious Formula 1 career in the early ’90s, Zanardi switched to CART, culminating in two outstanding titles with the Chip Ganassi outfit in ’97 and ’98. These titles resulted in Zanardi being recalled to Formula 1 with the Williams team, a relationship which lasted just one season before Alex returned to his happy hunting ground in CART, where he landed a drive with Mo Nunn’s team. For most of the 2001 season, Zanardi was pretty unsuccessful until a race in Germany’s Lausitzring when he found himself in the lead with 13 laps to run. A final ‘splash and dash’ pit stop saw Zanardi exit the pits before spinning broadside across the track and into the path of another car. The resulting horrific side-on impact saw Zanardi lose both his legs and most of the blood in his body.

How he survived is anyone’s guess, but survive he did.

What followed afterwards can only be described as a miraculous recovery and comeback: in 2003 Zanardi was behind the wheel again to finish those 13 laps of the Lausitzring, achieving lap times which would have qualified him in fifth place for that fateful race.

Man of Iron

Smiling in the face of adversity – Alex Zanardi’s extraordinarily positive mental attitude has seen him win Olympic gold despite the loss of his legs in a motorsport accident

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Above: Zanardi raced this hightech handcycle around Brands at the 2012 Paralympics and came away with two gold medals

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Return to racing – cars and hand-cycles

People like Alessandro Zanardi are a rare breed. He can only be described as a super-achiever with a mind-set to match and I was interested in what we can learn from his mental attitude and approach to life. I had the privilege of interviewing him in his role as BMW Ambassador at Brands Hatch last year, when he was competing in the ROAL Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 in the Blancpain Sprint Series. Having spun out of the qualifying race into the gravel at Clearways, from last place on the grid in the main race Zanardi charged through the field to finish an impressive fifth.

It was a great result and he was clearly delighted with his performance.

Prior to this, the last time Zanardi had been at Brands Hatch was when he won two Olympic gold medals and a silver in para-cycling. How did he reflect on his return to the Kent circuit?

“I was very happy to be at Brands Hatch simply because it’s a place I love. Considering that it was my second race ever after four years of nothing other than cranking my hand-cycle, I was very much looking forward to that race to boost my motorsport campaign.

“I don’t want to underline this too often, but for sure having no legs makes this slightly more complicated compared to others… And the position is it’s very tough now, because the GT championship used to be basically a field for – pardon the

expression – ‘old farts’ who had done their best, already delivered what they could in the past and just because they were addicted to racing, they’d still find a nice hobby for the weekend.

“But these days, with escalating prices and the difficulty in finding good drives in Formula 1 or other competitive categories for professional drivers, even young and very talented kids are looking at GT racing as an excellent way of keeping themselves on hold for better opportunities in single-seater racing and Formula 1. You have to be at the top level if you want to compete for championship points, let alone a race win. So fifth place in consideration of everything I’ve said – and despite all the troubles I have to overcome – starting last in race two and finishing fifth is an achievement.”

Going back to that amazing Olympic Games feat at the Kent track in 2012, what did Alex recall from the Paralympics?

“It was fantastic at different stages. When they announced that our venue was going to be at Brands Hatch, at that point ironically, I’d just discovered that I’d raised the level of my game sufficiently to qualify for the Paralympic Games. I mean, it was no longer a doubt. At that time I was already competing at an international level with honest results. I finished second in the time trial in the world championships in 2011 and when it was announced that the venue for the Paralympic Games for cycling was going to be

Man of Iron

“ If you are someone who’s still spending half of his day, every day, wondering why this happened to me, how am I going to live with no legs or whatever, this type of attitude unfortunately is not going to serve you any good at any level, and especially in a competitive sport like para-cycling” at Brands Hatch, I said: ‘Wow, this is a sign; it’s a holy sign that it is going to be MY Paralympic Games.’

“Technically it didn’t mean much because you still have to crank the bicycle up a hill and knowing the circuit doesn’t make any difference. Nevertheless, it was certainly psychologically in my favour for my Paralympic campaign.”

Mental grit

I was lucky to be at Brands Hatch with my family when Alex won his second gold medal. It was a day I will remember forever, seeing these amazing athletes who’d overcome physical adversity through mental toughness. But it seemed that many people were there to support Zanardi; did he feel that?

“Oh wow, yes I did. Not that I deserved to be known, to be popular, because let me tell you that I got to meet marvellous people in this new sporting adventure of mine. I met fantastic people who are life winners, and to be at that level in Paralympic sports, it really means that everything that can happen to you in life is well behind you, because otherwise you wouldn’t be there.

“The level is very high and it takes time and

dedication. If you are someone who’s still spending half of his day, every day, wondering why this happened to me, how am I going to live with no legs or whatever, this type of attitude unfortunately is not going to serve you any good at any level, and especially in a competitive sport like para-cycling where the level of competition, as I said, is incredibly high.

“All the guys who are involved in this game, all have personal histories, personal stories that are at least as good as Alex Zanardi’s. Of course, the main difference is that, for sure, these guys did not have the same exposure I had through my life. When I finally ended up winning the Games, why was that result great? It’s simply because people at home watching realised I was not racing on my own; it was not just Alex Zanardi being great among a group of idiots; it was exactly the opposite. Zanardi was great because he was able to challenge and win against great competition, and so to be there in London was already a great achievement for me.

“Everybody knew that when I won. But I knew that before then, because I knew what I had to do just to be there. In London, once it was finally for real, it was great but honestly, I didn’t feel the importance of the occasion as much as, for instance, all my team-mates

Inset picture: Zanardi behind the wheel once more, this time in a BMW Z4 GT3 with hand controls, in which he raced in the Blancpain Sprint Series

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from the national Italian team. At the end of the day, life and what I did in my sporting career allowed me to perform despite the feeling of the importance of what you’re doing, which can often really play against you.”

The importance of focus

“Yes, it was fantastic to be involved in the Paralympic Games, it was fantastic to enter the Olympic village.

But I was able to control my emotions and reduce everything to a technical gesture much more than my opponents. This is probably because I was once in Michigan International Speedway with 200,000 people in the grandstand. I was sitting on pole position waiting to start my engine, with Mariah Carey singing the national anthem and F16 fighter planes from the navy flying by and the speaker calling, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’, and then the cheer of the spectators was louder than the roar of the engines! I mean, to drop the visor of your crash helmet and regain the focus it takes to drive a clean and an efficient race, is something that you cannot buy from the grocery store.

“You have to pay with mistakes in favour of your passion and down the road you will gain the experience it takes in order to be able to control all these emotions and be able to perform despite what’s happening around you. And so that’s probably where my experience of a racing driver played a very, very important role of what I was doing there [at the games].”

I remember watching Zanardi on the grid for his para-cycle race and as the race started so quietly – after all Brands Hatch is a race track – he looked to

“ The speaker called ‘Gentlemen start your engines’ and then the cheer of the crowd was louder than the roar of the engines; (in the face of that) to drop your visor and regain the focus required to drive a clean, efficient race, is something you can’t buy from a grocery store” all intents and purposes like someone out on a Sunday afternoon ride, chatting away to the guy next to him as they set off. How did he manage to be so composed at such a time and what was going on in his head? Alex says that preparation is the key to success.

“On one hand, I was very confident in what I’d done up to that point. Everything was perfect for me, even in the timing of the Games. I had no doubt in my mind about, for instance, what material to use in one race or the other. I had tested everything very meticulously. I knew which wheels to use, I was very happy with my hand-cycle and my positioning with the crank measurements, with all the things that were big doubts just a few months before the Games.

“Although winning was not really like a ‘must’, I knew I could win. Prior to that point honestly, I was chasing the others, and the chase ended just before the Olympic Games, so I knew winning was an option.

And even if you don’t win, you don’t get punished you know… Winning’s nice, but at the end of the day the others are there too and you have to accept the idea that they may do a better job and be at the same point in preparation.

“I knew I’d done my homework very well and I was just anxious to find out how this would correspond in

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Man of Iron

Far left: elation at completing the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii last year. Zanardi was 272nd out of 2187 starters: his finishing time is on the board

comparison to the others. It’s as simple as that. I tell you, it would have been a big disappointment to find out that the best I’d worked for up to that point wouldn’t have been enough to at least bring home a medal. I was not entirely sure but pretty confident at least.”

Belief in the power of the mind

Mind coaching is much more fashionable now than it was, and a great many top-level sports people see it as part of their training. So the burning question for me; with all Zanardi’s natural attributes, had he ever had any mind coaching during his career?

“No, actually, I didn’t, and although it appears pretty obvious and clear today, it was not that way when I was in my 20s and I wish it had been. I would definitely not have crashed the same number of cars

talented as me, as wishful of getting the same result I’m aiming for, and you have to respect that.

“You also have to respect that once you have done your best, you just have to cash whatever is possible that day. And this means that if you are fifth that is probably enough. If you try to go for fourth you’re going to crash and go out. That is the main difference between a guy who has raced many times and a beginner.

“A beginner can become very clever if you give him a winning car, because if he’s talented and he’s got a good car underneath him, once he’s in front he’s going to be happy with that. He’s going to have a very steady and clean race. But if you give him a car that’s only good enough for 20th, and he’s going to try to get into 10th place, that’s not possible and he’s probably going to crash the car.

“ Quite honestly, I have found myself in that situation in the past where I was not good enough to do this job.

In Formula 1 in 1990 I was making mistakes, and every time you make one you restart much further back from where you were. And this means having to work just to get to the same point where you were before” and probably won many more races, but in those days nobody would talk about those sort of mental programmes and mental coaching. We just had to basically find our own way ourselves. And let me add that actually you could see that people were making many more mistakes than they do these days.

“These days, kids jump on karts, and they look like they’re ready to deliver. So yes, I do not doubt at all the benefits of such a programme; it’s simply that they were unavailable and nobody talked about it anyway. The only coaching I had was from my dad, who did a fantastic job in one way but, of course, he too was no expert.”

It appears that Alex used his instincts and innate ability then, but what did he do to control his nerves and keep his mind clear when he raced?

“At the very beginning I was very confused. I had very confused ideas about how to do this and that’s why I was making a lot of mistakes because I thought I had to do something. I had to adopt a certain procedure in order to feel confident, in order to be able to deliver to the best of my ability without making mistakes. I thought I had to come up with something special, something magical in order to achieve that sort of condition. Whereas it’s different these days; I have that sort of condition which comes from the simple fact of knowing that other people are there, as

“And in those days, I have to tell you, all the talented guys were crashing a lot because there was nobody there telling them: ‘Listen, today, you can only be as good as your car. Don’t try too hard, be prepared for an opportunity if it comes but you cannot create it by pushing any more because you could crash.’

“Yes, for sure, mental coaching at this level is very important. By making too many mistakes, you don’t only crash the cars you’re driving, but you can also destroy your self-confidence or – very cynically – this could be a big loss of an opportunity and a big loss of talent if you’re not able to control that problem. And quite honestly I have found myself in that situation in the past where I was not good enough to do this job.

“In Formula 1 in 1991 I was making mistakes and every time you make one, you restart much further back from where you were. And this means having to work just to get to the same point where you were before.”

To be continued… In the next issue of TrackDriver, Zanardi discusses the difference between his life in Formula 1 and CART, and his ultimate challenge – finding the motivation to rebuild his life following the crash in September 2001 that cost him both legs, returning to motor racing with BMW and becoming a Paralympic Gold Medallist and Ironman.

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Rookie2Racer 2015

You’ve never been racing? Then you’re just the person we’re after… In conjunction with the 750 Motor Club, we pitch eight novices head-to-head to discover who will get to race a Super Cooper Cup car later in the year Photos: David Stallard and Carl Owen

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grey, windy day in March and eight slightly nervous souls arrive at Donington Park with a common goal: can they make the transition from fast road driving to become a race driver? We were about to find out in the final of the Rookie2Racer competition 2015.

The event was hosted by the 750 Motor Club and was its inaugural test/track day for members in preparation for the forthcoming season. It started with signing on and then the driver briefing led by professional driver/instructor Andrew Bentley. The eight lucky finalists had been chosen at random from TrackDriver magazine subscriptions at the Autosport show and most had never driven on track, let alone at Donington Park.

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The day was split up into eight track sessions and each contestant enjoyed the benefits of an instructor for half a session. And in an attempt to allow the drivers to learn the track in advance of actually going out on it, we set up an iRacing race car simulator in the pit garages.

The eight Rookie2Racers were: 1) Jonathan Leeper 2) Barry Trumper 3) Chris Calver 4) Steven Rippin 5) Mark Neville 6) James Tumilty 7) Jessica Inocco 8) Nicholas Underwood

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Our steed was a Renault Mégane Cup, property of the 750 Motor Club, and blessed with plenty of power and new discs and pads. TrackDriver’s tame racing driver and regular ‘Coaching Corner’ contributor, Andrew Bentley, opened proceedings with a talk about safety and what we were looking for: compliance, awareness, speed and control. The idea being that it wasn’t necessarily the fastest driver who would win, but the one with the most potential to learn: “speed can come later,” commented Andrew.

Most of the drivers went on the simulator before their first track session, which proved invaluable.

We had a full iRacing simulator setup with a force feedback steering wheel and pedal box including a hydraulically simulated brake pedal. On screen was

the newly created Donington Park Circuit and we used the MX-5 Cup car with a manual gearbox and clutch pedal to make it as realistic as possible. The first challenge for the drivers was to learn the circuit, but in doing so it was interesting that they also started developing their braking and turn-in points that would transfer to the real car as a good base point.

As the drivers returned from their first session, many commented on how the simulator had helped immensely in learning the track layout. There were lots of cheesy grins: nothing compares to driving a fast car on a race track and they were now definitely converted. A special mention goes to Jessica, the only female driver on the day, who was one of the last to go out and clearly a little nervous. I could see her vice-

Our eight rookies before starting their journey to becoming wannabe Racers, posing with Super Cooper Cup race cars

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Renault Mégane used for on-track training, but competitors also had the chance to learn the circuit on a realistic simulator

like grip on the wheel as she waited to set off in the Mégane. Upon returning she was almost giddy with a combination of adrenaline and excitement; she just wanted to go out again!

After a short break for lunch it was back on the simulator and on the track, although the weather slowly deteriorated and turned into quite heavy rain that would really put these novice racers to the test.

The drivers were now queuing up for the simulator to try eeking out any tiny advantage. In the morning most of the competitor’s simulator lap times were around the 1.29-1.35 mark, with a target set by myself of 1.23.4. With the circuit learnt the times were now falling: there were a couple of 1.26s and a 1.25 then Chris Calver managed a low 1.24 which would be the winning simulator time of the day. What was interesting watching the different driving styles on

the simulator was the correlation between Andrew Bentley’s notes in the real car and my notes observing the simulator.

Quite a few of the mistakes were the same, such as people driving with one hand on the wheel and one on the gearstick. On the whole the contestants were fairly good under acceleration and accelerated progressively, but the main loss of time appeared to be under braking and changing gear. Almost all of them braked hard approaching a corner and then came off the brakes abruptly before turn-in; this would then transfer the weight backwards and promote understeer so they would run out of track. The obvious solution, which was a mistake, would be to then brake even earlier to reduce the corner entry speed so that they made it round.

The preferred solution would have been to brake

“ Almost all of them braked hard approaching a corner and then came off the brakes abruptly before turn-in: this would then transfer the weight backwards and promote understeer, so they would run out of track”

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“ In the morning session it was pretty neck and neck as they all improved, but during the afternoon’s wet session it was Mark Neville who impressed most” later and harder, then trail the brakes into the corner to keep a little weight over the front wheels to promote turn-in and balance the car. This, combined with a lack of heel and toe to balance the engine revs (which in turn would cause the rear diff to lock on the simulated MX-5, unsettling the car even further) would ultimately cost them time. Admittedly trail-braking and heel and toe are advanced techniques, but the great thing about the simulator is that you can drive and drive until you get it right – you can also look at your replays and brake pressure telemetry data to fine-tune your skills.

Also during the afternoon session race car drivers Eliot Dunmore and Susanna Kenniston from EDM gave our drivers some high-speed passenger laps in the new Super Cooper Cup race-prepared Minis (see side panel). It’s one of these Minis that the winner of the Rookie2Racer competition will be driving at the end of the season in a 750 Motor Club Roadsports race at Donington.

After all of the track sessions were complete it was

decision time. In addition to Andrew Bentley and I discussing the merits of each driver, Andrew also had a Vbox data-logging system so we were able to even compare the drivers side-by-side using the GPS telemetry. In the end it came down to three drivers, Chris Calver, Mark Neville and James Tumilty. In the morning session it was pretty neck and neck as they all improved, but during the afternoon’s wet session it was Mark Neville who impressed most with his smooth, consistent driving style and ability to take instruction.

Next steps to the grid

Rookie2Racer contestants got to spend plenty of time on simulators and got some classroom tuition, too.

Above: the Super Cooper Cup cars the winner will get to race

Mark will now get put through his ARDS test to get his first race licence. He will also receive expert tuition, a custom race suit from HRX in Italy including shoes, boots and gloves, etc, a Hedtec Hans helmet, and a custom helmet case from Caracalla. Finally he will get to race in the last race of the season with the 750MC at Donington in the Roadsports class. We’ll be following Mark’s progress in TrackDriver throughout the 2015 season.

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A WORD FROM THE WINNER

Rookie2Racer winner, Mark Neville, tells us about the experience Above: to the winner, the spoils… Mark Neville poses with his garland, trophy, and the Mini he will race later in the year

“I

t was an amazing experience to get behind the wheel on a professional track like Donington for the very first time. I cannot thank Carl Owen of TrackDriver and Andrew Bentley enough for instructing us throughout a brilliant day. Not only was it great fun but also a great learning opportunity for me, both on the track with Andrew and on the iRacing simulator with Carl.

My first run of the day in the Renault Mégane Sport was in the dry. I was nervous to start with but Andrew soon made me feel relaxed, which in turn gave me more confidence. I stepped out the car with a beaming smile thinking to myself ‘I really want to do that again!’

The rain came down around lunchtime, so having just got used to the Mégane in the dry, now it was time to experience it in the wet.

I was far more nervous about going out in the wet, especially after the red flag was brought out a few times because of cars spinning off the track. After a few cautious laps my confidence grew and I was amazed at just how much grip I still had even with the rain pouring down. I feel very lucky and privileged to be given this opportunity and I can’t wait to get out on track in the Mini Cooper S.”

SUPER COOPER CUP: WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

Series organiser, Eliot Dunmore, explains the inspiration behind the new series, and the costs and setup of the car

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he Super Cooper Cup is a new race series for the (BMW) Mini Cooper S, also known as the R53. It’s based on the standard Cooper S available from 2002 to 2006, but excludes the John Cooper Works and special edition GP cars because of factory fitted internal engine modifications.

The Super Cooper Cup (SCC) came about from me starting to build what I thought could be a really quick car if it was extensively modified. The early Cooper S was becoming really good value, and I thought it could sit very nicely between budget and top-line one-make race series. This particular model wasn’t being used by any other one-make series, the car looks modern, it’s instantly recognisable and is a hugely successful and popular brand, with a massive following. I like to think of the Super Cooper Cup as ‘value’ rather than ‘budget’ and hopefully bridging a gap in the current Clubman market.

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The car has been designed with the Clubman competitor in mind, so there’s no reason why someone couldn’t build one on the driveway at home. Base cars can be bought from around £1500, and the basic build kit costs around £5500. So although not a budget racer, it’s not expensive either. EDMsport could build a professionally finished turn-key car on a customer’s base car from around £8500.

SCC has developed a tune-up kit for the R53 Mini comprising a 15 percent reduced supercharger pulley, an uprated intercooler, and a series control ECU calibration. The tuning kit has two important functions. The first is to simply make the most of the available power; secondly to create parity between the early and late cars which came from the factory with 163bhp originally and then 170bhp after 2004.

Thus modified, the SCC cars produce 210bhp and throughout the season we will conduct power testing to ensure fair play. A specific SCC control lightweight flywheel is permitted to replace the original dual mass flywheel, while the clutch is free. A limited-slip diff is permitted, however all other transmission parts must be original equipment. As for the chassis, there’s a control damper set and spring rates are free. SCC believes that tuning freedom in the spring rates will create a car that can be set up to suit every driving ability, be that a complete novice or seasoned racer.

Plans are to concentrate on the R53 class, and build the series so that we have standalone grids as soon as possible. When we get to that point we’d like to introduce another Mini model that we already have our eye on. The SCC has joined forces with the 750 Motor Club this year, which can only help the series go from strength to strength. The first race is in April at Brands Hatch, with a further six rounds throughout the season.

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car setup

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car setup

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RACE CAR DYNAMICS

HANDLING AND ROADHOLDING In the last issue we focused on tyre characteristics, their effect on vehicle handling, and some of the basic principles of vehicle dynamics. In this issue we’ll explore the effects of suspension geometry, steering geometry, springs, anti-roll bars and dampers on the handling of a race or trackday car Words: Nigel Rees. Main image: Jakob Ebrey Photography

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Suspension Geometry and Kinematics Last time we explained the effects of camber and vertical load on tyre performance. A car’s suspension geometry and kinematics directly influence the ‘real time’ camber angle and vertical load on the tyres as the car rolls, pitches and heaves with braking, acceleration and cornering. (Heave is vertical movement of the chassis in bump and droop).

When designing or developing suspension, we try to optimise the following key parameters: n Roll centre height (and movement with bump and roll). n Camber change with bump and droop. n Camber change with roll (roll camber compensation). n Track change with bump (lateral deflection of the contact patch). n Pitch centres – anti-dive and anti-squat geometry.

Taking these in order, the roll centre is the point around which the car rolls. The line joining the front and rear roll centres is called the roll axis. The roll centre is in fact an imaginary point defined by the length and angles of the suspension links. Figure 1 shows how the roll centre location is defined for a conventional double wishbone suspension system.

(See sidebar.)

Figure 1: roll centres Generally, we favour roll centres located at – or very close to – ground level. Roll centres significantly above ground level cause ‘jacking’ – ie the tendency of the car to lift when cornering, effectively ‘climbing over’ the suspension links. High roll centres at the front, while undesirable, can often be managed by restricting droop

Figure 1 The method for finding the location of the roll centre shown in Figure 1 is called the theory of instantaeous centres. While the theory is rigorous, it does not take into account tyre deflection. The SAE definition for roll centre location is ‘The point in the transverse vertical plane through any pair of wheel centres at which lateral forces may be applied to the sprung mass without producing suspension

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roll.’ This can be calculated using a method based on the forces in the suspension links. In general, it gives the same results as the instantaneous centre method – but neither takes into account tyre deflection. At GSD RaceDyn, we use both methods and take into account tyre compression when calculation dynamic roll angles and related contact patch forces.

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travel (see sidebar regarding current F1 cars). However, high rear roll centres cause unstable snap oversteer. This is bad enough with conventional cars, but cars with significant underbody aerodynamics are very sensitive to ride height and pitch changes – jacking due to high rear roll centres can therefore cause severe instability. High roll centres also bring another significant disadvantage.

With high roll centres, a higher proportion of the lateral load transfer when cornering is transferred through the suspension links (as opposed to the springs and anti-roll bars). This significantly reduces the effect of anti-roll bars and springs on the handling balance of a car, making it much more difficult to establish good balance.

Finally, high roll centres also result in excessive track change/lateral deflection of the contact patch, causing ‘twitchy’ handling.

Regarding movement of the roll centre with bump and roll, it is very important to keep the roll centre height close to stationary with respect to the chassis – if not, the roll moment (see previous article) changes with bump, altering the handling balance. Lateral movement of the roll centre with roll is less important – but more difficult to control. Fortunately, with most modern race cars, we can contain roll well within two degrees, so lateral movement of the roll centre is very rarely an issue.

So what’s going on with F1 front suspension?

Many of you will have noticed that the front wishbones on current F1 cars are angled steeply downward from the chassis toward the wheels. This gives a very high front roll centre – which we have just said is undesirable because it causes jacking…

For aerodynamic reasons, F1 cars use a very high nose, guiding air down and aft to a bib/splitter (tea tray) arrangement, which must run at very low ground clearances – around 15 mm at high speeds. The front suspension wishbones are attached to the high nose to avoid interfering with the flow to the bib splitter. The wishbones are shaped to act as flow guides. Because of the high attachment, the wishbones inevitably angle downward from the chassis – hence the very high roll centre. Aerodynamic priorities have forced geometry compromises which the suspension engineer must deal with.

In this case, droop is restricted to contain the jacking force and extremely stiff springs are used to maintain the 15mm ground clearance. Basically, the front suspension barely moves and the tyres provide the majority of suspension movement.

Because the tyres are largely undamped, the cars tend to bounce on the front tyres in slow corners. Engineers have developed sophisticated solutions to minimise this bouncing, including tuned mass dampers (now banned) and inerters or ‘J’ dampers, which are beyond the scope of this article.

Now, if we look at the rear suspension of a current F1 car, it is very different to the front. The rear suspension must be relatively soft in both bump and roll – and have significant droop travel – to ensure good traction and balance under power. Hence the geometry is important – and quite conventional – with a low roll centre and moderate camber change.

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Camber change with bump, droop and roll Here we are again faced with compromises and conflicting requirements. In order to maintain optimum camber when cornering, we need good roll camber correction, which means negative camber with roll and bump. However, under braking, we would ideally keep the tyres upright, so we need to limit bump camber change. With more modern single-seaters on very wide tyres, we will generally contain roll and engineer less camber change. With softly sprung Historic cars on narrow tyres, the designers tended to use more camber change to optimise camber when cornering, relying on the narrow tyre to tolerate excessive negative camber under braking. Different compromises are needed for different cars – and different tyres.

It is interesting to note that prior to the adoption of raised noses, narrow chassis, wide-track single-seaters could use long, converging wishbones to achieve very good roll camber correction with minimal camber change in bump – and low deflection. A very good solution.

Track change with bump/contact patch deflection It is important to minimise track change/deflection, because in excess it causes twitchy handling and excessive tyre heating and wear. Generally, if we can achieve a sensibly low roll centre, deflection will also be acceptably low.

Pitch Centre – anti-dive and anti-squat Nose dip (dive) under braking and tail dip (squat) under acceleration can be reduced by tilting the inner wishbone pivot axis to the horizontal. This may also allow us to run softer springs. Care is needed as unwanted effects, for example castor change, may be introduced.

Steering Geometry The steering geometry on a race or trackday car should give precise, accurate steering, good self-centring, reasonable loads at the steering wheel rim and good feel – the steering should become progressively heavier as cornering forces increase, then lighten just before the limit of adhesion is reached. At a detailed level, the function of a really good steering system is surprisingly complex.

Key parameters are: n Steering ratio n Castor angle n King pin inclination/steering axis inclination n Scrub radius n Ackermann n Bump and roll steer (kinematic steer)

Steering Ratio Steering ratio is defined as the number of degrees rotation required at the steering wheel to achieve one degree change in steering angle at the road wheels.

Road car steering ratios are generally in the range 12:1 to 20:1. Race cars vary between 8:1 and 16:1.

A lower numerical ratio gives ‘quicker’, but heavier steering. For single-seaters and sports racing cars, we (GSD Racedyn) prefer ratios in the range 11:1 to 15:1, depending on tyres used, weight of car, etc. Steering ratios can be altered by changing the ratio of the steering rack (or steering box), or by changing the length of the steering arms. Shorter steering arms give a lower numerical ratio – ie, quicker steering.

Castor Angle This is the inclination of the steering axis to the vertical, when viewed from the side of the car (see figure 2). Castor provides a self-centring force to the steered wheels. Larger castor angles give heavier steering. Typical castor angles vary from two degrees or less (cars with very large aerodynamic downforce) to six degrees. Exceptionally, castor angles up to 12 degrees may be used on cars with high levels of differential locking, or other unusual characteristics.

Figure 2 King post inclination/steering axis inclination is defined as the angle of the steering axis to the vertical, when viewed from the front of the car. See figure 3.

Scrub radius or pivot angle radius is the distance between the front wheels’ centre line and the point at which the projection of the steering axis meets the ground, when viewed from the front of the car.

See figure 3.

Figure 2

FORWARD

CASTOR [positive shown] Mechanical trail

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Figure 3 A large scrub radius is generally undesirable, as it causes steering ‘kickback’ over bumps, ripples and kerbs. In conjunction with castor and King Pin Inclination (KPI), it also causes heavy steering as the wheels move vertically with the application of steering lock. Note that the combination of KPI and scrub radius effectively lifts the car with application of steering lock.

The combination of castor and scrub radius causes the inside wheel to move down with steering lock and the outside wheel to move up. This is generally an undesirable effect, though it is sometimes used to reduce the vertical load on the inside rear wheel to reduce power understeer on cars with early Cam and Pawl type limited-slip differentials, which lock solid as soon as power is applied.

It is also worth noting that manufacturers such as Audi use negative scrub radius to provide a correcting force at the steering wheel when a single front wheel locks under braking – a very good safety feature.

While requirements vary with different cars, we at GSD RaceDyn generally favour small scrub radii (< 50mm) and castor angles designed (in conjunction with a tyre’s self-aligning torque) to allow the steering to lighten as the cornering limit of adhesion is reached.

Ackermann steering Ackermann steering is the steering geometry mechanism by which the inner front wheel is turned slightly more than the outer wheel to allow for the fact that when cornering, the inner wheels describe a smaller radius because of the track width of the car.

For road cars, where the tyres run at very small slip angles, use of full (100%) Ackermann geometry works very well.

However, with track or racing cars, the outside front tyres are much more heavily loaded than the inside front tyres, therefore run at a much higher slip angle.

This was understood in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when many race cars were designed with negative Ackermann, so that the outside wheel turned more sharply than the inner. (Not much fun to push around the paddock, by the way). This trend reversed in the 1980s with the advent of radial tyres which run lower slip angles, and high levels of downforce, reducing the percentage difference in vertical load between the inner and outer tyres.

We have found through both theory and experience that – for most racing cars – anything between 40 per cent and 80 per cent Ackermann will work well.

Full Ackermann is not necessary. We have tested with varying Ackermann percentage levels – and unless we apply extremes, the driver can rarely tell the difference. However, we encountered two cars to which excess (180 per cent plus) Ackermann had accidentally been applied. This did cause significant problems, so it is always worth checking.

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Bump and Roll Steer (Kinematic Steer) Ideally, steering systems should be designed such that the steering angle does not change with suspension movement in bump, droop and roll. In practice, most road cars are designed with a small amount of toe-out on bump at the front, which gives roll understeer – a safe, stable condition. At the rear, road car manufacturers design in a small amount of toe-in on bump – which also gives safe roll understeer. In the case of race and trackday cars, we attempt to eliminate bump and roll steer. However, it is surprising how often we encounter cars race with kinematic roll oversteer – a highly unstable condition. Correction usually involves adjusting the steering rack height or using spacers to adjust the height of the track rod outer pivots.

Spring Rates, Wheel Rates, Frequencies and Spring Selection The spring rate is the force required to compress the spring a given distance. It is usually measured in pounds per inch (lbf/in) or KiloNewtons per Metre (KN/M). However, the spring rate alone does not define the suspension stiffness, because the suspension linkage is normally designed in such a way that movement at the spring is less than movement at the wheel. This is known as the Motion Ratio, defined as: Motion Ratio = Wheel Movement/Spring Movement.

Motion ratios vary widely, but are usually between 1 and 2. Figure 4 shows how the Motion Ratio is calculated for a simple rocker arm system.

Wheel Rate is defined as the force required to move the wheel relative to the chassis by a given distance, again measured in lbf/in or KN/M. The relationship between Spring Rate and Wheel Rate is: Spring Rate = Wheel Rate x (Motion Ratio)2 There are many different types of suspension system – and while this article has focused on double wishbone systems, the principles apply to all other types. The majority of race and trackday cars use double wishbone or McPherson strut systems at the front. At the rear, double wishbone systems and semi-trailing arm arrangements are widely used. De Dion axles and live or beam axles – with various location systems – are also common. All of these systems can be engineered to give reasonably good characteristics, though it is difficult to achieve ideally low roll centres with De Dion and live/beam axle setups.

Swing axle systems are to be avoided because of exceptionally high roll centres, massive jacking and excessive camber change.

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Figure 4 So, to achieve a wheel rate of 100lbf/in, with a motion ratio of 1, we would need a 100lbf/in spring, but if the motion ratio was 2, we would need a 400 lbf/in spring to achieve the same 100lbf/in wheel rate.

To illustrate this point, the 1000cc F3 car I used in sprints and hillclimbs in the late 1970s had rocker arm front suspension with a motion ratio of 2.7, so we had to use 800lbf/in springs to achieve the desired 110lbf/ in wheel rate.

In order to select appropriate spring rates for a car,

we (GSD RaceDyn) start by using our own simulation software to analyse pitch and nose dip under braking from maximum speed, taking aerodynamic downforce into account. This will give us a ‘first cut’ view of the front and rear wheel rates and spring rates necessary to contain pitch and nose dip (dive) within acceptable limits.

We will then look at the suspension’s natural frequency of oscillation (ie, the rate at which the car bounces up and down on its springs). This is measured in Hertz, or Cycles per Second. Natural frequency depends upon wheel rates, sprung mass and unsprung mass. Heavier cars require stiffer springs to achieve a given frequency.

It is interesting to look at the effect of suspension frequency on physiology: n Frequencies below 1 Hertz cause motion sickness (eg 1950s Vauxhalls and Chevrolets). n Frequencies between 4 and 8 Hertz are known to cause rapid fatigue in humans. n In cars with little or no aerodynamic downforce, frequencies over about 3.8 Hertz cause excessive tyre contact patch load variation and reduced grip.

Current road cars are typically in the 1.6 to 1.8 Hertz range. In general, depending on the type of tyre used and the aerodynamic downforce generated, we tend to choose frequencies in the range 2.2 Hertz to 3 Hertz. However, with high downforce cars using underbody aerodynamics, we are often forced to run very stiff springs with frequencies over 4 Hertz. We try to make front and rear frequencies different, to avoid resonance. In general, we would use a slightly lower frequency at the driven end of the car.

The foregoing is just an outline. Selection of appropriate springs is very important, and is not a simple matter.

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Anti-Roll Bars Conventional anti-roll bars (ARBs) are simple torsion bars mounted across the chassis, in bearings, with lever arms connected by drop links to the suspension links. In bump or droop, the ARB has no effect, but in roll it provides a force resisting roll. There are several ways of representing the relative stiffness of an antiroll bar, but we prefer to state the Effective Wheel Rate in Roll because of the ARB, in lbf/in.

Figure 5 shows a typical conventional ARB – but there are many variations.

to judge the relative stiffness of two different ARBs visually. We often see large diameter ARBs that look stiff, but are virtually ineffective because of a poor motion ratio or long lever arms. Conversely, the Williams Honda F1 from the mid 1980s used a tiny, exquisitely engineered, short front ARB with excellent motion ratios and very short lever arms. It looked as though it wouldn’t do anything – but it was actually massively stiff in roll.

Finally, we must look at the interaction of the spring and ARB with the tyre. In the last article, we covered the ‘spring in the tyre’. In roll, the spring and ARB act in parallel – ie their stiffnesses are additive.

However, they act through the tyre in series, which means that total roll stiffness can never exceed the tyre spring rate.

The graph in Figure 6, below, shows this clearly.

Figure 6

Figure 5 In the article in TD19, we showed how ARBs do far more than reduce the roll angle/resist roll. They play a very large part in governing the car’s handling balance in all stages of the corner, but particularly in the exit phase, under power. We also showed how a rear wheel-drive car needs front roll stiffness much greater than rear, to give both traction and balance.

The reverse is true of front wheel-drive cars, where stiff rear anti-roll bars are required to give good traction.

The following factors govern the stiffness of an ARB: 1) Torsional length – longer is softer.

2) Lever arm length2 – shorter is stiffer. Shortening by half stiffens by a factor of 4.

3) Motion Ratio2.

4) Bar Diameter4 – for example, a 1 in OD bar is not twice as stiff as a 0.5 in OD bar – it is SIXTEEN times stiffer.

Note that all grades of steel give the same stiffness, but the better grades (eg EN16T) are less likely to break or ‘take a set’ if the car is kerbed heavily.

The key point here is that it is almost impossible

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Figure 6 also shows the process we use to calculate ARB stiffness and total roll stiffness.

In the next – and final – article in this series, we’ll take a brief look at dampers and limited-slip differentials. We will then try to pull together everything we have discussed and show how it could be used to: n Make and evaluate changes and improvements to a car during a test day. n Evaluate the best lines and driving styles to suit a particular car.

car setup

masterclass with Mark Hales

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LIVING

THE DREAM Most of us have had fantasies of driving an F1 car – John Mawdsley turned the dream into reality, first in Moscow, then at Silverstone.

Did it matter it was an historic Formula One car? Not a bit Photos: MOSCOW – Anatoly Streblev, Andrey Artukhov, Danil Kolodin: SILVERSTONE – Jakob Ebrey

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Historic f1 drive

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Above: author Mawdsley tries on the ex-John Watson Surtees TS16 for size. Even if he hadn’t have fitted he’d have squeezed himself in for his first ever Formula One drive

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T

he text that June morning was so ridiculous it couldn’t possibly be a joke. It read: “Do you fancy driving round the Kremlin and Red Square in the Surtees?”

The invitation was thanks to a friendship with Chris Perkins, the owner of a couple of historic Surtees F1 cars and a regular competitor in the Masters F1 championship. Over the previous couple of years Chris had suggested that I should have a go with F1 power and although initially I thought he was humouring me, it had become apparent that even though I had a lack of single-seat experience, he really did mean it. So, just two weeks later, I found myself looking at St Basil’s Cathedral from the cockpit of the ex-John Watson Surtees TS16 of 1975 vintage and experiencing the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.

The previous fortnight had been frantic. The cars are looked after by Mirage Engineering near Snetterton and needed to be prepped for airfreight to Moscow. The visas were expedited by the organisers, but we had little detail of what was expected of us. The internet provided some information; Moscow City Racing has been going for about eight years and previous invitees included both Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button, and perhaps most famously Kamui Kobayashi, who had a wheel-losing moment in the Ferrari F60. This year the organisers wanted a couple of older cars to run alongside a 2010 Ferrari and a 2012 Caterham, some DTM cars, a Dakar Truck and the irrepressible Terry Grant in his stunt car.

We found the cars – the TS14 in Brook Bond Oxo colours for Chris, and the yellow and blue ex-Watson ‘Matchbox’ TS16 for me – parked securely in a tented garage, under the watchful eye of the permanent 24hour security guys who looked like they could deter 007 with just a glance. The one thing Moscow doesn’t seem to be short of is police and security men and our ‘all areas’ pass gave us a glimpse of what it must be to be a celebrity. Our status was further heightened by a visit to the garage of Jean Alesi: he spent a happy hour or so sitting in the cars and chatting to us just like it was an Oulton Park clubby, albeit being occasionally interrupted to be interviewed by Russian TV and assorted journalists.

The organisers had given us a couple of ‘laps’ practice before the demonstration runs began, so I used the opportunity to rehearse the starting procedure. From the start line the track took a left onto the bridge across the Moscow River up to St Basil’s Cathedral. It then took a hairpin right, back towards the river, right again underneath the bridge and along the waterfront alongside the Kremlin Wall until its end, and thence a U-turn and back. A London equivalent would be taking an F1 car from the London Eye across Westminster Bridge, turning right onto the Embankment and doing a U-turn at Blackfriars to come back again. Now there’s a thought…

I always find it impressive when a DFV starts up: it’s even more so when you are sitting just ahead of it and your right foot is controlling it. The raw power seems to affect every sinew of your body and although my

Historic f1 drive

DFV was only putting out 500bhp in its short stroke configuration, I had to concentrate on the important matters at hand. It would be very easy in these situations – new car, new circuit, massive crowd and the media coverage – to get a serious case of sensory overload and make a mess of things. My adrenalin levels and heart rate were at maximum when the motor fired up, but I managed to focus and shut out everything around me.

Pumps on, water and oil temps good, pressure good and revs just under 4000 for the time being until a bit more temperature was in the reciprocating parts to make them work properly.

First impressions? Well I didn’t succumb to the pressure and had enough nous to mitigate the possibility of a stalled first start by getting engineer James to give me the gentlest of rolling starts, allowing me to roll off the on/off switch of a clutch pedal without stalling. It saved embarrassment and gave me the chance to suss out the very bumpy track slowly enough to risk a few tentative waves to the crowd. Then I had the opportunity to start opening the DFV up alongside the Kremlin wall.

After a few runs I started to enjoy myself and Chris and I became bold enough to perform a couple of mock starts for those parts of the crowd situated away from the start line. A bumpy street circuit is hardly the place to find

out how an historic F1 car handles, but as performance goes I achieved 9000rpm in fifth, which is about 140mph, in front of the Kremlin. Not many people can say that without a trip to Lubyanka.

It was a fabulous weekend, all courtesy of our generous Russian hosts who organised both the event and our comforts in an exemplary fashion, even supplying us with air-con to the tented garage. However, throughout the weekend I found myself wondering about the Silverstone Classic which was only two weeks hence. I mused that Silverstone would be the place to really find out how these cars worked, wouldn’t it?

Would it be possible to get an entry? How much would it be? Could I find the money? I’d just been bitten by a very expensive bug.

I resolved to set myself a budget and made a commitment to ask Chris at breakfast what he thought of the idea. If his response was positive and the budgets were at least close then, subject to the agreement of the great people at Masters Historic Racing, I might be able to find out for real if I could actually pedal this car. Next morning I broached the subject, venturing a question about possibly getting an entry for the Silverstone Classic Masters F1 race. Chris was enthusiastic about it and so a deal was done – yikes.

Below: Moscow street circuit event wasn’t a race, but it did fire up Mawdsley to have a crack at the Silverstone Classic

“ A bumpy street circuit isn’t the place to find out how an historic F1 handles, but I achieved 9000rpm in fifth – about 140mph – in front of the Kremlin, but avoided a trip to Lubyanka”

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“ First impressions, even at a relatively relaxed pace, were very positive. The DFV proved easy to control and with progressive application of power the huge rear Avons withstood any abuse I could give them”

Above: grand prix cars from the 1970s now seem so quaintly simplistic, yet this Surtees with its DFV engine still packs an impressive punch

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Two weeks later at the Silverstone Classic…

Two weeks later I drove up to the entrance at Silverstone ready to try the Surtees at a place it was really built for.

Testing started after the usual DFV warming up process of pumping hot oil around the motor to free everything up. Forget to do this and you have a very expensive bill, as all the fuel metering and timing goes to pot. Once warm enough, the engine was started and I slithered into the cosy tub of TS16-4. The pedals were adjusted from their Moscow positions and I felt ready to have some exploratory laps of bedding in at limited revs, which allowed me to quickly reacquaint myself with a track I hadn’t driven since the 2011 Britcar 24.

The Silverstone Historic GP circuit is exactly as the usual GP track, apart from Vale. I’m not entirely clear as to why, but in Historics they replace the Vale chicane with a flowing left-right sequence before entering Club. The left entry is about 200 metres before the usual Vale and is slightly unsighted from the dip which, once committed, allows you to see the right-hand part of the sequence.

This heads down a slight depression and into the long right-hand sweep of Club with its huge run-off area. We all know that Silverstone GP is fast, but in an F1 car, even a 40-year old one, it was clear I was going to have to get my mind around the speeds that could be achieved here.

And that helped raise my awareness of the responsibility I now had under my right foot. Added to which my singleseater experience is very limited, as it is with slicks, wings, Hewland ’boxes and, of course, engines that produce 1bhp per kilo of weight. I also took little comfort from knowing that the insurance only covered part of any potential loss following an indiscretion.

Moscow had shown me that the ’box could be awkward, with first gear being a dogleg left and back, followed by second as the first part of the normal H. First would only be used to move off as our races would be rolling starts, but the really tricky change was from third to fourth across the gate; there was always the possibility of snatching second by mistake. I was by now reasonably acquainted with the clutch bite and on leaving the pits found a smooth getaway from an amazingly tractable DFV – using about 4000rpm made it relatively easy to get going. Into second as quickly as possible, I shot out of the International Pit Lane and on up to Village and The Loop.

The first few laps were exploratory and a quick visit to the pits confirmed that temperatures and pressures were all OK. First impressions, even at a relatively relaxed pace, were very positive. The DFV proved easy to control and with progressive application of power the huge rear Avons withstood any abuse I could manage to give

Historic f1 drive

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them at this early stage. The fronts, however, seemed tiny by comparison, yet at these speeds proved easy to point at the apexes. But it was the speed with which the car accelerated and gained speed on the straights and the performance of the brakes that were particularly impressive. I initially expected the fronts to lock up under the retardation but no, I must have been trying to measure their performance into Brooklands against my Golf on Toyos…

Throughout the next couple of sessions confidence started to build. The gear changes caused me the most problems, so I resolved to just use third, fourth and fifth, and accept the loss of time through the slower corners as the price I had to pay for learning the car. Village and The Loop were the trickiest, although I can’t say I have ever really liked these corners in any car. The DFV was bogging down and not really coming back on song until just before Aintree, but using fewer gears allowed me to get to know the car and concentrate on parts of the circuit with higher speeds.

Luffield presented slightly less difficulty, but again the engine bogged down and I had to wait for the DFV to crawl back on cam on the approach to Woodcote, where I was quickly up to fourth and then fifth. By the 100-metre board into Copse, and with 10,000rpm showing, I had a confidence dab and changed to fourth.

“ It’s the combination of the lightness of the car, its wings, huge brakes and the grip of the tyres that conspire to make the distances shrink to almost unbelievably short lengths”

Through Copse the TS16 felt predictable, although as the speed built in these high-speed corners the car started to understeer, meaning a tentative application of power rather later on in the corner than I really wanted. After a few runs I was leaving the braking in the run-up to Maggotts until just before the left apex, and changing down to fourth and then third for the left over the brow of Becketts.

Gently on the power for the right-hander, moving across to the kerb on the left of Chapel in fourth and snatching fifth well before the bridge, the engine revved freely all the way to its limit of 10,000rpm, which equates to 163mph. Hangar Straight seemed quite short and all too soon I was moving across to the left for Stowe and trying hard to get the braking right. I was also looking for the apex over another brow on the right, before straightening up to meet the left kerb on the exit.

Urgently down to Vale, braking at the pit entrance still in fourth, and then left with a smooth point and turnin and progressive application of power through Club and past the pits to Abbey: there I was undecided about whether to down-change to fourth or keep things easy in fifth. After Abbey the left-hander became a real corner which can throw you out too far to the right, leaving a bit of a scramble back over to the left to make sure you are not overcommitted into Farm and the lefthander at The Loop.

After 40 or so laps I thought I was starting to put things together. I was still too urgent with the car but had started leaning on the tyres through the faster parts and under braking. And although the gearchange was still causing me some problems, I was ready for qualifying, which I resolved to use as a further test session. There would be little point in going for a time,

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which may put me in more traffic at the rolling start than I would be comfortable with. I had also been told that some of the drivers had an ambivalent attitude to mirrors. I guessed they also had deeper pockets too, so I was happy to qualify wherever my pace would put me… just not at the very back, please.

In qualifying I found some space on the track so I could continue to work at my own pace. The Mirage boys had raised the rear ride height in an effort to dial out the understeer and we set to making sure I was concentrating on my lines and smooth application of power and braking. Aside from Farm and The Loop, I was starting to learn how to commit through Abbey, Copse, Maggots/Becketts and Stowe, but was still a little circumspect through Club (that pit wall looks mighty solid from the cockpit).

I was also starting to work the brakes and was astonished by the retardation into Brooklands and Stowe, where approaching at just over 160mph means getting it right is easier said than done. It’s the combination of the lightness of the car, its wings, huge brakes and the grip of the tyres that conspire to make the distances shrink to almost unbelievably short lengths: my mind was still behind what was possible. The tyres were also getting to a working temperature and I was relatively happy with a 2:10 which thankfully hadn’t put me at the back of the grid but 27th out of 31, alongside Frank Lyons in his McLaren M26 .

Come race day and I had to attend the drivers’ briefing.

Now I have been to a few of these over the years and this one was little different, except for the fact we sat on nice comfy chairs in the Wing Media Centre and there wasn’t a single mention of penalties if we put two wheels off the track. Funny that.

Historic f1 drive

The rolling start was a bit of a blur, with obligatory warm-up lap weaving to get some heat into the tyres and make sure the brakes worked. As we rounded Club I managed to out-drag the Richard Smeeton March 721G on the haul up to Abbey, where I went around the outside of Frank Lyons whereupon I managed to get past Mark Higson’s March into Farm and then the Williams of Richard Barber. I tucked in behind Gregoire Audi’s Shadow down to Brooklands and smiled to myself at the good start. By lap three, Tommy Dreelan’s slow-starting Williams had got me into Brooklands, and I chased him all the way to the red flag at the end of the lap.

Unfortunately Sid Hoole in his Ensign had inexplicably turned left on the pit straight just before Abbey and had caused the race to be stopped. After a 15-minute delay I found out one of the foibles of DFVs. They don’t like being started when they’re hot. After a mighty effort the crew bump-started me up the pit straight and after kangarooing all the way to Farm, I finally got it away. By this time I was a full minute behind the pack, which was by now setting up for the rolling start: I finally crossed the start line some 43 seconds adrift. After a further six rather lonely and uneventful laps, I managed to finish as the last of the un-lapped runners, just behind Frank Lyons, and 17th out of 23 finishers. As for lap times, I got down to a 2:07.8, my final three laps all being within a 10th of one another.

Race two was a much busier start and I got mis-gridded down in 18th. I managed to get by the Ensign of James Hagan and the McLaren of Lyons on the inside of Farm, tucking in again behind the Shadow of Audi. Then I outbraked myself into Brooklands and was pounced upon by two Ragno Arrows and a Lotus 78. Next lap and gearbox

problems were really affecting performance and even the M19 McLaren got me into Aintree. To top it all, the dreaded understeer had come back with a vengeance and I hoped that no one I knew would see my lines through Brooklands. I don’t think I managed a single apex all race. After visits to the Astroturf at Brooklands, Copse and Club, and with insufficient time or talent to work a way around the problem, and with the gearbox getting worse, I decided to call it a day on lap six.

Disappointed? Yes, a little. I had set myself a target of 2.05 and am convinced that without the understeer and gearbox issues I would have gotten down to a 2.02 – still not quite at pointy end of the grid but no disgrace. I was totally exhilarated and drained of energy and emotion. In 1972 when sitting on the grid for my first race, I always knew I would race in F1. If I had known it would take me 42 years to achieve my ambition I don’t know what I would have done. But believe me it was worth the wait; the experience will stay with me forever.

Grateful thanks go to Chris Perkins for having faith in me not to bend his car and giving me the privilege of fulfilling a life’s ambition; to Darren and the boys from Mirage for looking after me; to Masters Historic Racing team for allowing me to race at such short notice, and for their cheery hospitality and welcome.

Thanks also to Kolben Specialist Cars of Wirral and to Advantage Motorsport.

Coming back to earth two weeks later, I was back at a cold and very wet Silverstone. I put all I had learned into action and qualified my Golf on pole – it wasn’t Moscow and it wasn’t F1, but it felt good to be back in the real world.

Above: Moscow streets are all very well, but if you really want to let rip in an historic F1, the Silverstone Classic is the place to head

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The TrackDriver Interview

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TOM ONSLOW-COLE From zipping around car parks in an off-road kart as a kid, to racing an Aston GT3 in his late 20s, Tom Onslow-Cole has lived the motorsport dream. Here he talks us through his career to date, and explains that to be successful you need to be a businessman as well as a racer Photos: Paul Cowland

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Track Driver: At 27, you would be a senior statesman in Formula One, but in the rest of the professional motorsport world it means you’ve built up a portfolio of experience in different race disciplines. How did it all start ?

Tom Onslow-Cole: Like many other drivers, my race experience began with karting. You could say it was encouraged by my dad, who has been a huge support and influence on my motorsport career; and he’s still very present in everything I do. Back when I was eight or so he thought it would be a good idea to buy me a small off-road go-kart – something fun we could do together – and we would go to quiet car parks and an abandoned tennis court for me to hack around.

TD : A small beginning but an important one…

TO-C: Yeah, because it all escalated from that point, really. Soon afterwards – I think it was for Christmas in 1996 – he bought me a proper track kart, initially with no intention to race because we didn’t have the money for that. But even during non-competitive practice sessions at the kart circuit he could see that I had got very fast; and then when I did eventually start racing against others and won my races, we got bitten very hard by the motorsport bug.

TD : Was that the royal ‘we’ or both of you?

TO-C: Oh, no, definitely both of us. My dad has been as passionate about this as I have.

TD : How did you go from karts to touring cars?

TO-C: At a very early stage I fell in love with the British Touring Car Championship and wanted to head in that direction. We knew that the budget required to get into any formula racing was huge, way out of our league, so we felt that a touring car career was a much more realistic goal; and that was just fine by me. My dad was always of the opinion that my abilities should be stretched and that the route to the top should push me hard. So we always took the opportunities to move up a class as soon as we could, rather than hanging around that extra year to take the title and potentially slowing my development.

TD : How did that work in practice?

TO-C: It became apparent when I was 14 and moved out of karting into a junior car racing series. It was a fun time; we ran the car ourselves and worked on it together under an awning attached to our van. I had some race wins and fastest laps that year but within no time at all I took the next logical step, which was to move into the Renault Clio Cup – another relatively affordable series. In 2006 I won that championship, which then opened some doors for me in Touring Cars.

I used that success to get in and talk to some BTCC teams, where I managed to convince Team RAC to give me a seat on the grid in 2007. It all happened quite suddenly, so I had to stop and reflect on the fact that I had just realised my boyhood dream.

TD : What are your favourite memories from that time in the BTCC ?

TO-C: I remember two standout years. The first was probably in 2008, my second year in BTCC, with Vauxhall alongside Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal in the VX Racing Team. It was hugely enjoyable and

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“ My dad was always of the opinion that my abilities should be stretched and that the route to the top should push me hard. So we always moved up a class as soon as we could rather than hanging around an extra year to take the title and slowing my development”

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my first experience of a really big team. Although I’d raced for Team RAC the year before, VX Racing was the largest and most successful team on the grid. It was my first true experience of the commercial side of BTCC and what it felt like to be a cog inside a winning, machine-like team. I really enjoyed it as a taster of what a career in motorsport might be like. My other highlight was my time in the LPG Ford Focus with Team AON in 2010. That was a seriously quick car and one that got me closest to a championship win.

TD : A big outfit is very different to a two-man team.

Did you enjoy toeing the corporate line?

TO-C: I’ve actually always got on with the corporate side of it all, which is just as well because it’s become a bigger and bigger part of life in motorsport. I’ve been very fortunate to have some good personal backing that started in the touring car days and has stayed with me into GTs. So I dedicate a lot of time to working with my primary sponsors – Casio Edifice, Milltek Sport and Rockstar Energy – and I’m delighted that through my success and step forward into GTs they are

also now being associated with high-end marques such as Aston Martin.

TD : Was your move from BTCC to GT as much a business decision as a sporting one?

TO-C: When I fell in love with touring cars as an eight-year-old, people like Jason Plato and Matt Neal were already racing and had fantastic careers. I love motorsport but I also realise that it has to be a viable business too. Unfortunately, the business side of BTCC has dropped away in recent years. I think at one stage 13 major car manufacturers were involved in the sport but now there are only a couple of official works teams, and even those aren’t as financially involved to the degree they once were. The business of BTCC now involves bringing partners to the table and earning your money through an excess.

Left: Despite three podiums in the Team Hard VW, Onslow-Cole didn’t think the car was a championship winner so left the team

TD : Do you think that business man and racer can coexist more easily in GTs? TO-C: Initially it did feel strange. Endurance racing is a very different discipline but there are also lots of

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Below: Having raced a Nissan GT-R in GT3, last season saw Onslow-Cole move on to the Casio-sponsored Aston Martin GT3, which he put on the podium several times

similarities carried over, so I didn’t find it too difficult to make the adjustment. The cars themselves tend to look much bigger and more imposing than the relatively compact vehicles of the BTCC, but from my perspective behind the wheel it didn’t feel that way.

I started this season in the Strata21 team’s Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, one of the tallest and broadest cars on the grid, but I was surprised to discover how nimble it felt and how eagerly it responded. The GT3 car wasn’t significantly more powerful than the road-going GT-R, but with 400kg removed from the kerb weight, no electronic wizardry to sort out driver issues, and only rear-wheel drive – four-wheel drive is ruled out in the regulations – it was brutally fast yet deceptively agile.

TD : You’ve switched from the GT-R into an Aston GT3, how do the cars feel different ?

TO-C: They’re very different cars. The Nissan is probably more suited to racing abroad, whereas in the UK we seem to have tight, twisty and bumpy circuits that I feel the Nissan wasn’t really developed to cope with. The Vantage GT3, however, is an amazing all-rounder, it feels much better suited to UK circuits over the Nissan and comes into its own on larger European circuits. I guess it helps that it is a strong British brand that’s built and developed in the UK. Transitioning from the GT-R to the Vantage was pretty smooth, it’s an easy car to drive for both professionals and amateurs.

TD : Not too easy, surely...

TO-C: Thanks for your concern... What I meant is that from a manufacturer’s point of view it’s nice to know that they’ve put together a very driver-friendly car that drivers with different levels of experience feel comfortable enough in to go out and push hard.

TD : How has the year been for you and what does 2015 hold?

TO-C: Well, 2014 has been really successful. We’ve visited the podium a number of times in the UK and Europe. For the 2015 season my heart still lies with GT cars. I’m putting a few things together at the moment and the signs are looking positive, but I can’t reveal any more just yet. All I will say is that I’ll definitely be racing something, somewhere...

“ The Vantage GT3 is an amazing all-rounder; it feels much better suited to UK circuits than the Nissan and comes into its own on larger European circuits. I guess it helps that it is a strong British brand that’s build and developed in the UK. It’s an easy car to drive for both professionals and amateurs”

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GET WITH THE PROGRAMME

Tom’s racing experience is best demonstrated behind the wheel but his wealth of theoretical knowledge is also put to good use as one of the performance managers in the MSA Academy, part of the threeyear Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASA) programme at Loughborough College.

Each year the Academy coaches 60 drivers, and part of Tom’s role is to help plan a classroom-driven curriculum to help students learn what it takes to be a racing driver. Included in the course are the technicalities of driving and chassis setup, as well as specifics about engine and tyre technologies, sponsorship, career management, psychology, and fitness routines. In addition to that, Tom is mentoring three young drivers who have been selected for a position in Team UK, the pinnacle of the MSA Academy talent development pathway.

The MSA has promised to become more directly involved in motorsport, and Tom is keen to promote the building of a relationship with the association as a relevant means of making progress in a motorsport career .

The Casio connection: online coaching

Casio has a long heritage in motorsport, from its sponsorship of the NISMO racing team in Japan and the Infinity Red Bull Racing Formula One team in the UK, to its personal sponsorship of Tom Onslow-Cole through its motorsport-inspired Edifice range.

Tom is currently working with Casio on a forthcoming series of YouTube video tutorials aimed at improving amateur racers’ track driving skills. Entitled Speed Secrets, and available on the Edifice website and YouTube channels in 2015, each video guide will feature tips and general instructions from Tom as he takes us on hot laps at different UK circuits.

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coaching corner

TOUCHY-FEELY

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coaching corner

The more you physically connect with your car, the more you can feel what it’s doing, the quicker you will go. Man and machine in perfect harmony, as BMW famously once said…

Words: Andrew Bentley. Images Jakob Ebrey Photography

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n previous articles I’ve covered the areas of vision and braking. Both vitally important to get right, because if you don’t you won’t corner efficiently.

Once you’ve mastered those two, you can move on to the fun task of sending your car round the bend as quickly as possible. In pretty much every situation, your target is to carry out each process in such a way so as to minimise unnecessary inputs or variations to any of the controls, and you can only do that if you know what’s going on beneath you. In this article I’m going to look at the relationship between driver and car. We’ll examine how we can set ourselves up to recognise and use the barrage of signals the car is giving us and also how that will improve all aspects of our driving. We’ll shine some light on two of the most often overlooked areas of performance in driving – seating position and steering technique. Perfecting these will help us translate what the car is saying to us and enable us to then tell the car exactly what we want it to do and when.

Your efforts will pay dividends in the long run.

Whether you’re a newbie to track driving or a seasoned pro with countless track miles on the clock, you’ll be sure to find an advantage. If you’re starting out it’s crucial you get the foundations of your driving correct from the outset. If you’ve seen and done it all before, the margins in which you can gain will be smaller, but use your past experiences to relate to and fine tune your technique, and you’ll be able to push harder and become more consistent.

Of pants and hands…

Once, during some downtime while doing filming work for a car company, I offered to pick up from the airport a senior engineer of the manufacturer whose car I was skidding around in for the cameras. Five minutes into the return journey, and with him having no knowledge of my role on the film set, he said, “You race cars, don’t you?” At that particular point in my career I had only been racing a few seasons, so I was surprised that a leading engineer from a major car manufacturer had recognised me and knew who I was… But it turned out he actually didn’t have a clue: he’d just noted the tell-tale signs of how a racing driver sits behind the wheel. Close, upright, good bend in the arms, hands fixed at quarter to three at all times, head constantly moving round the corners ahead of the car.

We’ve all heard the old adage about ‘driving by the seat of our pants’, which is an expression shaped by the truth (more on that later). But I’ve come up with a new and equally appropriate phrase: ‘drive through the palms of our hands’. Many drivers I see on trackdays (and somewhat surprisingly a handful of race drivers, too), ‘feed’ the wheel. When we were learning to drive we were pretty much all taught the ‘BSM shuffle’ and were promised that if we were to cross our hands we’d both fail the driving test and lose control of the car.

These days that’s wrong on both counts – you won’t fail your test and you certainly won’t spin off the road.

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coaching corner

Touchy-feely

Modern wheels actually aren’t wheels at all: there’s no way you can’t have your hands at quarter to three because there’s nowhere else to put them!

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The reason I mention this is because it’s very important that you DO cross your hands.

You have to, in order to keep your hands fixed on the steering wheel while turning a corner. Your hands, along with your torso and feet, form a tactile, physical connection with the car. And with just your feet and hands on the controls, why on earth would you want to break part of that mainline of communication? A few people suggest that if you were crossing your arms when the airbag goes off you’ll punch yourself in the face: I can see how that would happen, yes. But you generally know when you’re going to hit something, so you can always just move your hands. And anyway, one of the main reasons you’ll lose control of the car in the first place is because you have the incorrect steering technique, so if you’re steering properly, you’re much less likely to be in that situation.

We need our hands on the wheel at all times while cornering because the car is feeding information to us.

Information we need to be listening to. Information concerning grip, load and steering angle. These things are essential for our successful navigation of a bend.

Now we know that, it’s common sense to keep our hands on the wheel. However for some, trying to break years of ingrained muscle memory, on top of everything else they have to deal with, is too hard. I say to those who struggle with this, “don’t give up!”

You must master the incredibly simple task of not letting go of a steering wheel.

I’ve coached clients on experience days who have struggled massively with exit lines, power application and a number of other corner-related issues. Then, after

just one lap of focusing entirely on keeping their hands fixed in the quarter to three position on the wheel, the transformation was huge. Their enjoyment level improved exponentially, as did their pace and line. They were subsequently able to feel the car and understand what it was telling them. They had a connection.

Assume the position

If you want to see where a driver’s hands should sit, just take a look at an F1 steering wheel. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s not a wheel at all. It’s pretty much two grips at the ‘quarter to three’ position with a TV screen in the middle, surrounded by a lot of dials and buttons. The two grips are the only bits you need to hold: any other parts of the circle, top or bottom, are superfluous and would get in the way. By having and maintaining your hands at the quarter to three position, your brain has a nice, easy reference as to where straight ahead is. Straight ahead is when your hands are level. Simple. This is important as it removes the need for any kind of thought process to determine the direction of the steering. It also means you are able to apply an equal and balanced load to the steering in both a pushing up and pulling down motion.

Once you do manage to get to grips with holding the wheel correctly, you’ll find it’s pretty much selfpolicing. There isn’t a car out there that can do more than 30mph around a corner that requires more than a 180deg steering input. So, if you’re having to add more lock than 180deg – the point at which you would have to take your hands off the wheel to crank it further round – and you’re over 30mph, the car

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will be losing grip at the front and understeering. To solve the understeer issue, take some steering lock off and slow down a bit. See, self-policing! The tightest corners on any race track in the UK are the hairpins at Croft and Mallory Park, both of which can be negotiated without the need to take your hands off.

Our hands play a very important part in our balance as well. They are pretty good at knowing what to do to help us maintain it. Just think about what we do with our arms when we’re walking on sheet ice or a balance beam in the gym. You’d hold your arms out, moving up and down, helping you to go where you want to go.

Just like we do when we’re holding a steering wheel.

They move about to help shift our weight but also to assist our brain to understand what’s happening with regards to the movement and rotation of our body.

Proprioception is your mind’s ability to sense where all

index finger, then open your eyes and check your aim.

Do it a few times and see how close you get. Not very, I wager. Now, do it with your eyes open. If you achieve anything other than a 100 per cent hit rate you need to put the pint down…

Can you see how your hands and vision working in harmony might be useful for driving around corners?

I hope so, because it’s stunningly simple but ever-so crucial. Imagine targets on the apex and exits of a corner: look at them before you get to them and your hands will follow on the wheel. Do this you stand a pretty good chance of hitting that bullseye.

One of the main reasons drivers have poor steering technique is because they have a poor sitting technique. When I first coach a new client, I ask them to get themselves into a comfortable driving position.

Then, once they are sat in their usual place, I ask them

“ By having and maintaining your hands at the quarter to three position, your brain has a nice, easy reference as to where straight ahead is. Straight ahead is when your hands are level. Simple. This is important as it removes any need for any kind of thought process to determine the direction of the steering” your body parts are in relationship to each other and how much effort is being put into their movement.

Put your arms out to the side and wave them up and down. You know exactly where they are and what they’re doing.

Now close your eyes and wave them again. You know your arms are moving up and down because you can feel them, and you still know what they are doing.

Yet it’s a bit harder because you now need to have a little think, just to double-check exactly which way they are going. To do this, we actually create a mental image of them moving around. It might not seem much but having to think about something takes time.

And time is what we have precious little of on track.

You may want to do this next one in the privacy of your own home, but if you don’t have a dartboard to hand, you’ll have to go to the pub. Stand the regulation 2.369 metres from the board, shut your eyes and point at the bullseye with an outstretched

to move the seat forwards into the correct positon. I’d say a good 80 per cent of people sit too far back, with the remaining 19 per cent just about close enough and the final 1 per cent getting it right first time.

Occasionally the reply is that they have seen a photo of the great Fangio, arms outstretched, wrestling a post-war GP car around a hay bale-lined bend. If it was good enough for him…

That is certainly the perception of how drivers used to handle their cars, yet a quick image search on the web shows this not to be the case, with Fangio, Moss et al seated relatively close to the wheel. They needed to because those cars were heavy and needed a lot of help and persuasion to get round those bumpy tracks. Sure, they didn’t sit as close as contemporary race drivers do now, but back when they were driving, the engineers had little time for the driver’s comfort, human performance or indeed safety. Things are different now.

Driver ergonomics play an important role in the design

Below: the driver of this Caterham sits in the correct position, quite close to the wheel, giving him plenty of leverage

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coaching corner

Touchy-feely

The best position for the steering wheel is near vertical – in most road cars the top of the wheel is further away than the bottom, so as you turn the wheel one arm is stretching further than the other

of race and road cars. Teams of engineers focus on seating the driver for safety but also physical efficiency.

Your legs are the easy bit. Very simply, if you have a clutch you must be able to push it to the floor without stretching. A good bend in the knee will ensure you have enough strength to control the pedal release with some finesse. Because the clutch is the pedal with the longest ‘throw’, and assuming your legs are roughly the same length, both the brake and the accelerator will be accessible to your right foot without a problem. Your heels should be in contact with the floor while they are on the pedals. In road cars that’s rarely an issue. In a number of race cars I’ve driven, there have been plates made for the heel to sit on. A simple bit of aluminium

If you’re too far away from the wheel, your body realises that you’re losing efficiency in that right lever as it pushes up, so it will reset itself for better purchase by letting go and lowering itself to a better point. Your body needs to do this because an outstretched arm has nowhere near as much lifting ability as a bent arm.

Prove it to yourself by lifting a heavy shopping bag up to work surface height with an arm bent at 90deg in the elbow and hold it there. Then repeat with a dead straight arm. So, we must have the seat in a position that allows us to have our hands fixed on the wheel at all times through the turning cycle.

In a race car we’re strapped so firmly into the seat with a harness that it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt your

“ In a race car we’re strapped so firmly into the seat with a harness that it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt your shoulders and waist, you need to do them up a little because the belts are too loose. Being so tightly wrapped means our shoulders are held against the back of the seat; again this allows valuable feedback from the car to be transferred to us” bent through 90deg a few times is adequate.

Sitting too far away from the wheel causes problems when we are trying to steer. It means we’re unlikely to be able to hold onto the wheel around the tightest corners where the full 180deg rotation of the wheel is required. For example, if we imagine that we are turning around a left bend, your right hand will be pushing up and your left will be pulling down.

Because of the way the steering column has to fit through the bulkhead, the wheel is at an angle that slopes away from you, so the top of the wheel rim is further away from you than the bottom. This is less prominent on a full-spec GT race car and almost nonexistent on a single-seater, but on any road car it is very much the case. Your left hand will therefore be moving down and closer to you while your right is moving up and away.

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shoulders and waist, you need to do them up a little because the belts are too loose. I’m not talking about excruciating pain, but definitely a feeling of firm pressure with no room to be able to move around. By being so tightly wrapped in it means our shoulders are held against the back of the seat; again this allows valuable feedback from the car to be transferred to us. The more firm or fixed points of contact we have with the car, the more information we will be able to detect. Even if you don’t have a full harness, by being close enough you’ll not be tempted to lean forwards and away from the seat.

Pilots v F1 drivers

As I previously mentioned, ‘driving by the seat of your pants’ isn’t just a catchy phrase, it’s based on fact. Back in the late 2000s the Williams F1 teamed

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coaching corner

Touchy-feely

Fighter pilot or F1 driver – who is more sensitive to subtle movements?

The answer may surprise you but you will have to read the text to find it out

up with QinetiQ – the British defence technology company – to look into the similarities between F1 drivers and fighter pilots: I’m pretty sure if there were ever a job swap day between the two, there would be no end of volunteers. The ability for both race drivers and pilots to filter the barrage of information being thrown at them, only taking what is relevant and then prioritising this in order to act, is a common talent.

But it doesn’t stop there.

It’s the ability to be able to detect these subtle movements early on that allows a top driver to start planning what he or she is going to do. If anyone has ever done any drifting, they’ll know that the margin between holding a slide and not is wafer-thin.

If you were to watch some in-car footage of a driver’s successful and failed attempts to hold the slide, you won’t really be able to spot the difference with the naked eye, but from inside the car you can feel it.

“ Not everyone has these super-human neurological pathways. But we can maximise what we have got and give ourselves the very best chance of getting it right by doing the basics. Get your seating position correct and work on that simple but effective steering technique. With these things in order you’ll have the best possible base on which to build. Remember, driving is a relationship” There are physiological comparisons, too. A test was carried out to see who could best detect slight rotational movements, or yaw. The test group of three F1 drivers, three top-end fighter pilots, and three ice hockey players –they tend to have better than average balance. In turn each was securely seated on a rig that would rotate right and left randomly. Each movement was subtle and when they felt it they had to push a button. Reaction times were also checked. In order to minimise the variables, participants were blindfolded.

The ice skaters ended up in the last three places, while one of the F1 drivers was a match for the fighter pilots.

However, the two remaining F1 drivers were head and shoulders ahead of the other test subjects: their reaction times were faster than anything recorded previously and uniquely they managed to detect every movement.

QintetiQ concluded that the spine, from the coccyx to the third lumbar vertebrae – basically your backside – played a vitally important role in receiving these slight movements of rotation or yaw then transmitting them to the brain at over 4.5 billion bits of information every second. So yes, you do basically, on some level at least, drive by the seat of your pants.

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On a track, we are trying to hold the car on the grip limit of the tyre all the way through a bend. This means when a car is being driven on the absolute limit, an incredibly slight slide is always being held.

Those drivers with greater awareness of what’s going on with the yaw of the car therefore have a much bigger window of opportunity to make the inputs and get the car where they want.

Of course, not everyone has these super-human neurological pathways. But we can maximise what we have got and give ourselves the very best chance of getting it right by doing the basics. Get your seating position correct and work on that simple but effective steering technique. With these things in order you’ll have the best possible base upon which to build. These are elements of driving that are often overlooked, yet they can make a huge difference to not only how we feel in a car, but also how we feel a car. Remember, driving is a relationship. You’re trying to make a big heavy object move fast and do things it doesn’t always want to do. So, sometimes you have to compromise, listen and work towards a solution. It truly is the search for perfection through connection.

coaching corner

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Tyre Tyretest test

SNOW PATROL Although winter tyres really come into their own in temperatures below 7°C, for tyre testers the fun starts when thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s snow and ice on the ground.

Our tame tester, Ray Collier, dons hat and gloves to report from the Arctic Circle Photos: Owen Brown

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A

s winter approaches some of us pack away our racing cars and use the closed season to think about performanceenhancing modifications. As we have been looking at the influence of tyre choice over the last few issues of TrackDriver, we thought it might be interesting to examine the dynamic capabilities of winter tyres. Not for track work, obviously, but simply because we all like to keep having fun in our road cars, even when it’s cold outside.

For those readers who don’t know, I run a tyre testing company called Tread, and towards the end of every year, when others are tucked up safely in their garages or scoffing a few mince pies, my team and I head out to Finland to help develop the next generation of winter tyres. Seasonal rubber is a legal requirement across large tracts of Europe, and gradually the UK market is waking up to the benefits of winter tyres, too. But perhaps what many people aren’t aware of is the fact that the performance of a normal summer tyre drops

quite considerably when the temperature dips below 7°C; for that reason summer tyres aren’t tested below 5°C. Also little known is that the wear rate of summer tyres increases at low temperature. And all this before we’ve even seen the first headline where an inch of fresh snow has closed the M1…

So what is involved in a winter tyre test? Well, firstly everything needs to be thoroughly planned as consistency is critical in winter conditions as we don’t want anything influencing the results – the two main potential problem areas are temperature instability and track variation. To remove these influences we need to go to a location where the temperature and tracks are consistent and nowhere is better than Testworld in Finland. Testworld’s owners have many years’ experience of winter track preparation and the winter temperature in Finland is a nice constant -18°C: there are minimal hours of daylight and that lack of sunshine ensures that the temperature is stable throughout the day.

“ Before we can head onto the track the surface has to be prepared.

This is usually done the previous night as the snow has to be packed and graded, and the ice sections brushed and polished”

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Tyre test

Job one is getting all the tyres measured and mounted in the UK so we can analyse the relevant properties at a normal ambient temperature – it also means that the tyre fitter doesn’t freeze to death while putting 80 tyres onto rims in the workshop. Everything is then packed into a large van for a few days’ drive north, eventually stopping 185 miles inside the Arctic Circle, home of Testworld.

If we’re using rental cars as test vehicles then we have to disable all their stability and traction control systems – although the ABS remains active – to ensure it’s just the tyres we’re testing and not the individual car’s electronics. We also keep the cars and tyres in an unheated store so that they’re at the same temperature as the ambient conditions: I see quite a few tests where journalists complain of a performance drop during the test which is because of the tyre

being stored in a heated garage and then being taken outside for testing.

Before we can head onto the track the surface has to be prepared. This is usually done the previous night, as the snow has to be packed and graded, and the ice sections brushed and polished. During testing we also have a grader, which is towed behind a 4x4: handling tests cause the snow to ice up and rut, so to ensure each set of tyres receives

To ensure the data collected is all about the tyres and not the car’s electronics, the traction and stability controls are disabled: this can lead to some entertaining moments for the test drivers

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the same surface one of the engineers drives the grader round the track after each tyre is tested.

As in other forms of tyre testing, winter tyre tests are conducted to reduce the influence of tread wear. So the ice acceleration and braking are carried out first, followed by the same pair of tests on snow. Testworld has built its tracks on snow-covered land rather than frozen lakes, as the surface is more stable year to year; the team there also stores snow throughout the winter so that there’s enough of the white stuff available to maintain the tracks all the way to the end of the season.

During these tests you start at one side of the track and once you reach the end you turn around and move the car half a width across and repeat the test. This ensures each tyre has a fresh surface and any directional influence is removed from the test. I use a mathematical algorithm to throw out any results too far from the average, thus mitigating the effect of the odd random reading.

After the acceleration and braking tests are done it’s onto the more fun bits. The ice handling tests require a great amount of skill because the co-efficient of friction, or Mu, is so low.

And as a driver you have to ensure that you don’t influence

“While snow looks fluffy in the photographs, in reality it’s not, the stuff forming the banks edging the tracks usually taking the form of hard-packed ice and often hiding big rocks. If you crash into a snow bank it takes a very big tractor to pull you out again”

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the result by going faster and faster, or by anticipating the car’s behaviour – I tend to assess my lap times as well as my subjective scores. I frequently also repeat the tests during the day using the reference tyre as a way of keeping tabs on whether my lapping remains consistent, and that the track conditions haven’t changed significantly. If you clip the apex any snow must be brushed away so it doesn’t change the grip level and it usually costs you a beer to the proving ground maintenance guys.

After the ice testing comes snow handling, which is my personal favourite of any tests summer or winter. Speeds can exceed 80mph on the faster tracks and the precision required is very high: a big SUV like our Touareg will go a long way into the snow bank if you make a mistake. And while snow looks fluffy in photographs, in reality it’s not, the stuff forming the banks edging the tracks usually taking the form of hard-packed ice and often hiding big rocks. Meanwhile, the extreme low temperatures make plastics very brittle, so it’s all too easy to smash bumpers and underbody covers. Also, if you crash into a snow bank it takes a very big tractor to haul you out again: the cost is more beer plus teasing at the bar, coupled with the risk of tyre damage which can end the test.

Tyre test

The Tread test team chilling outâ&#x20AC;Ś Lucky for them, the tyres are all pre-mounted onto wheels back in a workshop in the comparative warmth of the UK

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Tyre test

Top: with poor tyre balance even a front-drive Golf can oversteer. Above, left: section through a winter tyre. Above, right: measuring tread block temperature

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When testing I’m looking for steering response both initially and then when the car is in the curve, plus the response in slip – can I tighten the line with more steering or does the grip saturate and the car slide wide?

I also look for the handling balance: is it understeer biased, neutral or oversteer dominant? Even a Golf Mk7 with the ESP off will oversteer easily if the tyre balance is poor. The braking feel, slip point, acceleration grip (traction), and steering weight and precision are all key factors. We also consider more extreme situations, such as mid-bend lift-off and braking in the turn, all of which have a weighting factor applied to ensure every attribute of every tyre is assessed.

Engineering a good winter tyre is not all about a grippy compound; the tyre’s structure has to complement it, and winter testing is much more critical for assessing these traits. But without this analysis and feedback the engineers don’t know which features within the tyre are working or require changing to improve the performance. As it’s not a one-stop test we evaluate all the results and then build new tyre

specifications, returning to Finland after a few weeks to make sure the changes have worked.

In the meantime the wet and dry performance of the winter tyres will have been evaluated to ensure they work just as well on wet and dry roads. Ultimately the compromises of using a winter tyre in regular conditions are very small, but by comparison a summer tyre in winter conditions has a huge performance drop. So my recommendation is to fit a set of winter tyres around the end of October and smugly pray for snow: if it does come you’ll be able to pop out for milk via the M1, waving at the news reporters as everyone else slithers to a halt on the hard shoulder.

Tyre test

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LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE Historics are getting too quick, apparently. Speed guru Dave Walker mulls over ways to reduce their pace and to make the racing more even-handed. His final solution should make you smile…

Image: John Colley

O

ur esteemed Ed has asked me to think about how to slow cars down. Not a request I have ever had before: everyone normally wants more power and more speed. It seems that the powers that be are worried about the speeds being reached by some Historic race cars and are thinking about rev limiters becoming mandatory. It is being put forward as a safety issue. It seems that once you guys get out on the track you treat it like a race. If you all played nicely speed would be less of an issue. Okay, that’s never going to happen….

Initially you might think that a rev limiter would do the trick, but you have to consider exactly what you are trying to achieve. If it is a reduction in top speed, how do you decide what top speed is ‘safe’ for what car? You can’t just have one top speed for all cars because the smaller cars will never get to the sort of speeds the bigger-engined cars can reach. If rev limiters are supposed to limit power that will not necessarily reduce speeds. If you are given a rev limit, as an engine builder, you straight away start to look at how to increase torque across whatever rev range you have available.

Actually this is what you should be doing anyway, but big

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“ What I finally came up with is so simple I wonder I didn’t start there. It is exactly the same for everyone, costs almost nothing and is the simplest thing in the world to police” BHP numbers sell engines. With a mandatory rev limit I think the cars might actually go a bit faster once everyone gets their head around the torque spread issue.

So I started to think about tyre sizes. Corner exit speed depends on how well you can get around the corner and by reducing grip you will bring exit speeds down. However, this favours the big-engined cars that rely more on grunt than handling. I am reminded of the great battles between the Ford Galaxy and the Lotus Cortina back in the day. To try to keep things even you would have to have a different tyre specification for each type of car – it is all so artificial that I dismissed it.

walker’s wisdom

Restrictors on the intake might work better. You could have a restrictor size based on engine capacity, but then it makes a big difference where you put the restrictor. Yet another set of rules where you need to have a different specification for each different engine. This rule-making business is not as simple as you might at first think.

What I finally came up with is so simple I wonder I didn’t start there. It is exactly the same for everyone, costs almost nothing and is the simplest thing in the world to police. In order to slow the cars down you do not slow the cars down at all, you slow the track down. Use a set of cones to put in a chicane on the fastest part of the track. The longer the straight the tighter you make the chicane.

You are not handing an advantage to any particular type of car if the chicane is tight enough to bring the cars down to 30 or 40mph. The better handling cars might gain a few mph, but the bigger engines will easily make this up with better acceleration out of the slow turn. The cones do not have to be halfway down the fastest straight; you could place them at the point where you want the fastest cars to be speed limited. It is really easy to set up, easy to police and very safe since anyone not making the chicane just knocks over a few cones.

I am not saying that you have to leave the cones out all day, just set them up for the Historic races – if the organisers really feel the need to limit the speed of these cars, I can’t think of a fairer way of doing it.

The future of throttle control?

Drive-by-wire throttle motors attached to some Jenvey throttle bodies. The system allows for very rapid throttle response and huge advantages for pedal mapping

I

s it just me, or was the Autosport show really quiet this year? I never had to queue for the car park or at the entrances to any of the halls. As an exhibitor I have to get in ahead of the crowds to set up the stand, but this year there didn’t seem to be any crowds. I have a friend (yes, really…) who gave Autosport a miss in order to go to the London Classic Car Show.

He reckons it was rubbish, just a lot of expensive cars for sale or auction.

I was at Autosport demonstrating the Jenvey and A.T. Power drive-bywire throttle motors. We had a Westfield there with the ECU and Jenvey motor on an XE engine. By having switchable pedal mapping you can make the action as aggressive or soft as you want. A few people told me how you always get a lag between pedal movement and throttle response.

Our demonstration car proved them wrong; you can’t move your finger faster than electricity moves along a wire! In fact, the action is amazingly smooth and easy to control, which is a major bonus with a rear-engined car (no super-long cables).

Once you have computer control of the throttle you can have fast idle on warm-up without any by-pass valves; you can have throttle blip, wet maps and dry pedal maps. You can even use it as a rev limiter by closing the throttle at any given rpm. It also means you can limit throttle opening at low rpm where the best torque is to be had. Engines nearly always make best torque at low rpm on less than full throttle. With a race pedal map you can have full throttle faster than you can press the pedal to the metal.

Everyone who saw our kit was impressed and given time I am sure we will find new uses for the system. As for cost, ECUs that control the DBW motor range from £700 to £1200 and the motors are around £500.

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Company Profile

BRAKING WITH TRADITION

Family-run Italian brake specialist Tarox has a long association with motorsport and uses its racing experience to the benefit of its road-car applications

Tarox founder Gianni Taroni (far right) was inspired to create better brakes through his work as a stunt driver.

Above: tough test regime

Words: Paul Cowland. Images: Tarox

W

ith roots that span back over four decades and experience right up to F1 level, Italian brake company Tarox has ‘been there’ and most definitely ‘done that’. But how does it design and manufacture its distinctive products? We went to Italy to find out more.

Discovering how a company founder began his or her career can tell you much about the DNA of the firm that they run. A banker or accountant? Usually means that their business runs on a sound financial footing. A manager of some sort? Expect slick and efficient operations. But a stunt driver? Yeah – that’s more like it… I think we’d all like to work for a company started by someone who thinks that driving a car on two wheels is a sensible way to pay their mortgage.

But that’s how the story began for the Italian brake manufacturer Tarox. Wind the clock back to the 1960s and a dashing young chap called Gianni Taroni was

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making quite a name for himself on the circuits and film sets of Italy. Clearly a talented wheelman, Gianni balanced a hectic schedule between racing and paid stunt work, filming many TV adverts for Italian car makers and ad agencies. Demanding much of every car that he drove, it didn’t take him long to realise that the brakes of many of the cars he was being asked to drive clearly weren’t up to the job. When a particular stunt kept frying the factory brakes again and again, he decided to do something about it: the germ of the idea that would eventually become Tarox was born.

Gianni had begun experimenting with rudimentary friction materials from a very early age. While still in short trousers, in his first workshop, he refined a compressor-based brake system very similar to today’s ABS. Later on, knowing what his stunt cars needed, he quickly mastered the art and started to create truly effective stoppers that out-performed even the very best OEM brakes. Pretty soon his racing mates and

Company Profile

fellow stunt performers were queuing up to persuade him to make a set or two for them – and when this trickle became a flood, the ‘Tar’ in Taroni became the ‘Tar’ in Tarox, and our story truly begins. Early incarnations of the new Tarox brand endured extreme testing with ex-Ferrari driver Giancarlo Baghetti, who entered a Rally Raid with Gianni from Cape North to Cape Town in an Alfetta, quickly followed by the Milano-Calcutta event with an Alfa Sud, and then Terra de Fuego-Alaska in a Fiat 131. With creditable results in all events, the young Taroni knew he was on the right track.

“ As early as 1979 Tarox gained its first F1 victory in partnership with the Ligier team: a mere three years later it was part of the package that helped Keke Rosberg in a Williams secure outright championship honours… The firm had clearly earned its stripes” Founded in 1976, the fledgling company quickly gained a reputation for superb craftsmanship, backed by good-old fashioned customer service. Creating effective solutions from day one soon put the Italian outfit on the radar of F1 teams, and its first contract wasn’t long in coming. As early as 1979 Tarox gained its first F1 victory in partnership with the Ligier team: a mere three years later Tarox was part of the package that helped Keke Rosberg in a Williams secure outright championship honours. To achieve such greatness so early on in the company’s history was to set the future engineering benchmark for what was to follow.

Although the firm had clearly earned its stripes in the most demanding arena of motorsport, the

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Company Profile

Above: testing with three generations of BMW M3.

Below: Tarox made the world’s first grooved disc in 1983

burgeoning team soon turned its attention to the blossoming road car market. After creating the first grooved motorsport discs in the early ’80s, this technology was soon ‘trickled down’ to the road range, creating some epic designs such as the ‘Sport Japan’ – a design still popular today.

In 1992 the firm introduced its first six-pot caliper kit and by 1995 Tarox had outgrown its original premises, moving to an impressive 2000 square metre facility in the picturesque Italian town of Osnago.

Situated perfectly between the Monza circuit for track testing and the very same Lake Como roads oftfavoured by James Bond movie location scouts for their tortuous turns, Tarox quickly began investing heavily in state-of-the-art design and manufacturing software and machinery to allow it to produce simply stunning calipers – as well as developing a unique two-stage finishing process for all of its discs.

The innovations kept on coming: the first 10-pot caliper, then the first 16-pot. Recognition of the company’s focus on quality came with full TüV approval, ISO 9001 accreditation. The Italians may have a reputation for being a laid back bunch, but the Taronis approached the engineering process with a steely determination and what can only be described as Germanic efficiency. More recently, Tarox has become one of very few brake companies to gain the rigourous ABE accreditation too, confirming its place as one of the world’s leading brake manufacturers.

“ After creating direct OEM replacement kits the team is left to go mad, developing the larger brake conversions or, where appropriate, motorsport kits for one-make series and key tuner models. All units are shaken down and tested at Monza or Balocco” Over the years Tarox has grown to encompass offices in Germany, Japan and the UK. Charmingly – and neatly conforming to the British perception of Italian business – the firm is still very much familyowned. Gianni is sadly no longer with us, but now his daughter Valeria runs the show on a day-to-day basis with her father’s eye for detail and quality very much to the fore. Despite the company’s present size and £2m stockholding, the ethos and atmosphere is still very much how it was when Gianni opened the doors back in the ’70s.

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Company Profile

The process of developing new brake fitments is still very ‘organic’, with the look and feel of the conversion being just as important as the quality of the engineering and the efficacy of the retardation. Whenever a new model is identified as being important, an example is always bought, hired or borrowed and brought to the factory for a full shakedown. After measuring the OEM setup its efficiency (or otherwise) is tested on a wide range of surfaces – Monza obviously, as well as Fiat’s lowfriction track at Balocco and the more ‘real-life’ setting of the Lake Como roads.

Once back at the factory, the design team then starts with direct OEM replacement sets, creating the tooling for the pad material as well as programming the CNC machinery to produce the discs. Every Tarox disc is hewn from a solid billet in a two-stage finishing process: it’s one of the many reasons that Tarox brakes work so well on track. After this follows an exhaustive set of gruelling ‘lab’ tests, including an industrial-sized dynamometer and various stress-testing machines to analyse the brakes’ capabilities to ensure everything performs precisely to specification.

After that the team is left to go mad, developing the larger brake conversions or, where appropriate, motorsport kits for one-make series and key tuner models. All units are shaken down and tested at Monza or Balocco, and overseen by Valeria before being signed off and added to the range. This personal approach to quality control has led Tarox to become the ‘go to’ outfit for many race teams and

supercar manufacturers requiring low volume, high performance solutions. Koenigsegg, Saker Sports Cars and Donkervoort are amongst just three big names that make up the past and present client book of this capable engineering firm.

So what does the future hold for Tarox? Well, it seems that recently the firm is taking inspiration from its enviable motorsport heritage and creating road car applications from race car technology. So, if you feel the need to get your track weapon stopping as well as a Koenigsegg, you know where to go.

Contact: www.tarox.co.uk. 01706 222872

Above: Tarox makes its own calipers as well as discs, and was the first to create both a 10-pot caliper and then a 16

e Original Groovers Stunt driver and Tarox founder Gianni Taroni set about revolutionising the braking game as far back as the mid 70s. A er developing F1 world championship winning brakes for Keke Rosberg, a­entions turned to the road car market. In 83 Tarox manufactured the world’s first ever grooved brake disc, which has since been developed into the range of styles that we offer today. Every one of our discs are manufactured from the highest quality casts and steel billets before being heat treated and balanced by hand for the smoothest possible surface.

For a brake manufacturer with innovation in its DNA, look no further than Tarox.

Since 76

Tel +44 1706 222 872 / www.tarox.com / sales@tarox.com / All Tarox products are manufactured in Italy under stringent ISO9000 and TUV regulations

Tarox_HP_Ad_1.indd 1

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30/09/2014 15:14

TEAM CARS

Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint

Photos: Jeff Bloxham and Tony Murray

In the foreground, Patrick Watts’ stricken Allard J2 is out of the reckoning, while Tony’s Alfa 2600 hunts down a Lotus Cortina in qualifying. Far right: damage sustained after tapping another Lotus Cortina. Right: Very relaxed and friendly paddock

R

eflecting upon my 2014 season, it turned out to be a very thin year of racing. As I reported in the last issue of TrackDriver, my end of season outing to the Goodwood 72nd Meeting was marred by continuing oil surge problems – the track’s long, quick corners are not a good match for the Alfa’s oil pump and baffling system, but at least I was able to switch off the engine immediately the oil pressure light started flickering, hopefully minimising any damage. All a bit disappointing, really, having rebuilt the engine to cure this very issue after the previous race at Snetterton.

It was a year filled with so many social and family commitments that I had resigned myself to not racing much; that meant I could check over the 2600 at my leisure and get it ready for the Circuit de Remparts at Angoulême in September. By now I was getting used to removing the Italian coupe’s engine – it’s a big, heavy lump but I now have a method. The stripdown did reveal some bearing damage and

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one oval-shaped con-rod. Rusper Alfa came to the rescue thanks to its comprehensive stock of used parts, and a replacement con-rod was mine. Unfortunately the crank required a regrind – its second – so new shells were also required.

Classic Alfa sourced a set for me from Italy, but even with a generous discount they were the best part of £1000…

By contrast, a set of new shells for a sixcylinder Jaguar E-type cost £93. Hmm. I’ve also obtained an Accusump oil pressuring system that I’m told is the only solution for the surge problem, as dry-sumping is outlawed under the Historic regulations I race under.

Typically, time ran out preparing for Angoulême, so the Accusump didn’t make it onto the car. Not that I was too concerned, figuring that the short and very tight Circuit de Remparts wouldn’t stress the 2600’s engine in the same way as long sweepers such as Lavant and Coram. This outing was intended to be a jolly for me and a couple of mates – Patrick Watts

with his Allard J2 and Malcolm Harrison in a Cooper-Bristol: unfortunately Malcolm ruled himself out of the equation by having a big ‘off’ on his road racing bike, suffering broken ribs, a broken arm and severe bruising.

Last time I was at Angoulême Patrick had been my spanner man, but for 2014 he was keen to give the race a try himself behind the wheel of the V8 Cadillac-powered Allard. We were joined by engineer Simon Hooper – the man who does most of the real work on my Alfa – plus wives and Patrick’s daughter. Angoulême is a fun family festival with racing at its core, and also a road rally and plenty of food and wine. Qualifying and racing take place on the Sunday so drivers have to be careful on Saturday regarding alcohol consumption – competitors are breathalysed before qualifying and racing.

After a bit of a mix-up regarding which race we should be in, Patrick and I ended up on the same grid. Originally we’d been placed in with a group that included a

TEAM CARS

couple of slick-shod BMWs and Porsche RSRs, and with our stock Historic Dunlops and distinct lack of power we would have been relegated to the role of a pair of mobile chicanes. Fortunately common sense prevailed and we ended up in the company of Lotus Cortinas, Minis, Alpine Renaults and the like.

As qualifying started Patrick typically shot off like a scalded cat. I took it more easily, bedding in my fresh, hardly run engine and gradually building up my rev limit. I was disappointed to see that

some obviously weren’t listening… As the flag flicked up, off I went with a few of the others, the Alfa as usual getting its power down well, catapulting me up through the field. It was like the parting of the Red Sea, a huge gap opened up in the middle and I went for it. So good was it that by the time I reached the first 90-degree corner I was in sixth position and even managed to out-brake a beautifully presented red Lotus Cortina for fifth.

Out onto the fastest section – very bumpy and slightly downhill – I managed to pull

“ I had to take a wide arc to make it round, falling in closely behind the Lotus Cortina that obviously had much better steering lock… Or as it turned out, better but not enough. The Ford piled straight into the wall, leaving me with nowhere to go and unfortunately tapping the rear of the Cortina” after only two laps Patrick was parked up against the wall: bizarrely the leather bonnet retaining strap had failed sending the bonnet up and back smashing down onto Patrick’s head. Thankfully the impact was lessened by the fortunate positioning of the central rear view mirror. However, with the bonnet blocking Patrick’s vision, he hit a kerb damaging the steering, rendering the former Touring Car driver out for the rest of the competition.

I was quite satisfied with the Alfa: no issues and the engine ran sweet, growling through the street circuit, the un-silenced six-into-one side-exit pipes bouncing the roar off the buildings. I qualified on the second to last row of the 20-plus car grid; interestingly, Patrick’s time from his ‘exploratory’ lap would have put him on the second row.

The French tradition at the start is that you go when the flag is raised. This was made clear to us at the driver’s briefing;

away from the pursuing group. The 2600 has good outright speed, but on the narrow, tight and twisting Angoulême track proved somewhat deficient in the handling and braking departments. After pulling out a decent gap over the chasing pack on the straights, at the corners they were all over me. Something had to give and that came 12 laps in. We had settled into a kind of pattern, dropping my rivals on the straights but then being slow out of the tighter corners.

My immediate pursuer – that red Lotus Cortina – would endeavour to come up alongside before my cams came in and I powered away. Except that on the 12th lap the Cortina got its power down early exiting the first of the three hairpins (The Remparts) and managed to pull up inside as we braked for the second left-handed corner. These corners are extremely tight and there really is only one line: I had to take a wide arc to make it round, falling in closely behind the Lotus Cortina that

obviously had much better steering lock…

Or as it turned out, better but not enough.

The Ford piled straight into the wall, leaving me with nowhere to go and unfortunately tapping the rear of the Cortina. After what seemed an age I managed to find reverse and get going again, having lost several places during the incident.

The final few laps passed without drama, the 2600 sounding as crisp as ever and pulling strongly until the chequered flag appeared. Returning to the paddock I found I had indeed damaged the front of the Alfa.

Nothing is easy with these older cars, so finding a replacement indicator pod and lens will be difficult. But at least my skilled body repairer, Gary Chappell, shouldn’t have too much difficulty straightening the creased wing and headlamp surround; it’s unlikely to be so easy on my wallet, though.

The 2600 is currently with Gary and due back soon, then it’s full steam ahead for the 2015 season. I intend to run in most of the HRDC Allstars races, so that means good circuits such as Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Oulton Park and Donington, plus the possibility of another outing at Goodwood.

Specification maKe mODeL Year eNGINe maX POWer FUELLING GearBOX BraKes tYres

WHeeLs

WeIGHt VaLUe

Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint Bertone coupe 1965 2582cc straight-six, dohc 168bhp @ 6200rpm Triple 45 DCOE Weber carbs Five-speed manual Brembo discs front & rear Dunlop CR500 – F: 500M X 5T R15 L Section R: 500M X 5T R15 Technomagnesio – F: 5J x 15in R: 5J x 15in 1450kg £28,000 approx

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TEAM CARS

Audi TT ‘RS’

S

ince the last issue we have been continuing our quest to squeeze more power from the Audi TT. Our initial aim was 300bhp+, which is quite achievable for the VAG 1.8-litre turbo. However, what we’re after is not just a peak power figure for bragging rights on the dyno or a quick burst to overtake on a B-road, we need this on tap for an entire 45-minute race.

And the issue here is heat, heat and heat!

There were a couple of obvious areas that needed urgent attention. Firstly, keeping the air going into the induction system cold and un-restricted. We had fitted a small front-mounted-intercooler (FMIC), which was an improvement over the OEM side-mounted items. But whilst this could cope with short bursts of power it wasn’t man enough for the sustained power requirements of racing. So we fitted a huge race intercooler from Forge Motorsport; this was not only twice the frontal area, but also much deeper.

The pipes feeding the intercooler are now much larger in diameter: at the end of a race if you feel the outgoing aluminium

Photos: Carl Owen & David Stallard

hose from the intercooler it’s stone cold.

We’ve fitted an oil cooler, too. Before we upgraded the intercooler the TT would be super-fast on cold days for about two laps and then start losing power; now the power delivery is far more consistent.

The next issue to tackle was excessive oil coming from the crankcase vent and being fed into the air intake, killing the MAF (Mass Air Flow) meter. This was something new we hadn’t seen before and turned out to be nothing more than over-filling the engine oil. If you fill this engine more than 50 per cent on the hatched area of the dipstick, the oil can overflow the baffles in the sump (if you have a baffled sump) and then get pushed out the crankcase vent. This vent feeds back into the air intake system and excessive oil can reduce performance and also get blown back into the MAF sensor, upsetting its readings. The simple fix was to a) not fill the oil past 50% on the dipstick and b) fit an oil catch can to capture any overspill.

With more consistent engine power came the need to uprate the stopping

power. Originally we had fitted some Brembo GT Senior four-pot floating brakes on the front of the TT, which had awesome stopping power. However, when used for racing they kept overheating, ultimately melting the rubber seals and warping the very expensive floating discs. Time for something a little different, plus my wife had her eye on the red Brembo callipers we were about to remove for her red Audi TT 3.2 V6 road car. Looking around at what was available for the TT we found a Tarox six-pot front kit with slightly bigger disc and much bigger callipers and pads; plus, no rubber dust seals. We already had a Tarox big brake kit on the rear, so it made sense to do the same to the front. Before the kit arrived I hadn’t realised how much bigger the Tarox callipers and pads were.

To be fair to the Brembos, we may still need to add some additional cooling to the brakes, even with the new Tarox setup.

The larger pads and callipers should help dissipate some of the heat and give a great feel, but there is no substitute for additional airflow. The Tarox kit was easy to fit and Left: spot the difference! The new Forge Motorsport front-mounted intercooler is about twice the surface area of the unit it replaces and is extremely efficient

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TEAM CARS

Far left: the TT using rear wing bought secondhand from eBay; gives greater confidence if not better lap times.

Left: new, larger coolant pipes. Below: braking power much enhanced with big Tarox kit

took less than an hour including new braded hoses etc. Time for some testing.

We were able to test the new setup at Snetterton for the final CSCC race of the season, where the TT took the class ‘C’ victory, clinching the overall class win in Modern Classics for 2014.

We also had the opportunity to compete

in the pilot race for a new CSCC series called New Millennium for cars from 2000 onwards. This is an interesting change in direction for the CSCC as aero is permitted.

This is good news for the TT as it has been struggling with rear-end grip in high-speed corners, despite being four-wheel drive.

I’d found a secondhand carbon wing on

eBay that I had tested at Forge Motorsport’s Action Day and used in a 750 Motor Club Roadsports race (where aero is also allowed) but not had the opportunity to do any comparisons.

So here was a golden opportunity to compete in two races on the same day and see if I could detect the difference between running with the wing and without it. The morning qualifying was wet and unbelievably slippery, so no conclusions were drawn, but the two races in the afternoon were dry. First up was the Modern Classics race – no wing. After the wet qualifying session the car felt really good and not surprisingly had significantly more grip. The big test was the Bomb Hole, which required a little lift on turn-in otherwise it would oversteer mid-corner.

This leads into Coram, a long, fast, righthander where I had to balance the car on the throttle.

Next up was the New Millennium race – with wing – and once the race had settled down, wow, what a difference! I was able to carry so much more mid-corner speed and the rear-end felt absolutely planted. The TT was so much easier to drive and more predictable. It really made me appreciate how I’d been balancing on the edge all of the time without the wing. Down the main straight I could feel the rear squatting as the downforce kicked in. But here’s the rub: my lap times in the two races were almost identical, just a tenth of a second in it. Evidently the time I made up in the corners because of the wing was then leeched away on the straights thanks to the extra drag. My conclusion is that I’m running too much wing, so there may be a crossover point where the drag is less and there is still sufficient downforce on the corners – time for some experimentation.

Specification maKe Audi mODeL TT 1.8T (225) Quattro Year 1999 eNGINe APX in-line 4cyl, 1781cc, 20v, DOHC, K04 hybrid turbocharger, Forge FMIC maX POWer 224bhp @ 5215rpm (Note: dyno showed a faulty fuel pump; should be 280bhp @ 5500rpm) FUeLLING Multipoint fuel injection GearBOX Five-speed manual BraKes Front: Brembo four-pot callipers 323mm floating discs.

Rear: stock callipers with Tarox conversion kit and floating discs Y tYres okohama Advan A048 WHeeLs 18in x 8in WeIGHt 1300kg

89

TEAM CARS

MG ZR 160 Racing Car

S

eems that the MG build actually is going backwards… That’s largely because it has been allowed to sit around too long. The amount of travel I do for my tyre testing work meant that last year’s planned race dates came and went, and with them went the pressure to finish the build. Recently, however, work took me near to the CMC Motorsport workshop where the MG has long resided, so I decided to pop in and check on progress.

I was very happy to see the car in one piece and with the new fancy Cobra seat inside, albeit not bolted down: CMC’s Dan Surridge needs me to supply some measurements before he fixes it in place.

The paintwork was looking good, the engine bay was like new, all the relevant lights were fitted and nicely adding the finishing touches were the final bits of white trim.

But one thing I could see was the very strange nose-high stance, which was all very un-racing car-like. Dan explained that if you leave anything laying about long enough it gets used for spares: turns out he needed some dampers as back-up while supporting the MG championship, and as my car wasn’t doing anything it got pillaged for bits… Still there’s no moss growing on it yet so I figure Dan’s sitting about time is less than mine!

There is some progress, though, with the MG’s livery due to be finished fairly soon.

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Photos: Ray Collier

Motorsport graphics specialist, Chris Nylan from CN Signs, has done a top-notch job of designing my livery using details from my website, a template of the MG he got from somewhere, and a few vague ideas I sent across to him. In the spirit of sharing my excitement, you can see the mock-ups on this page, which I’m extremely happy with.

Apart from the seat fitting and some shakedown testing, we’re nearly there. The exhaust, however, is still not fitted as it won’t line up after two attempts. I did last

see Dan apply some copperslip to it; not sure if it’s to aid fitting to it the car or to deal with the culprit of the mistakes…

A final piece of good news – Paul Goodman, the MG championship coordinator, has confirmed I can carry over my unused racing number from last year, sparing me the cost of buying new ones.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to the forthcoming season.

Contacts: Chris Nylan, CN Signs – cnsigns@hotmail.co.uk

Specification

MAKE MG – Sort of!

MODEL ZR160 YEAR Still pondering…

ENGINE 1795cc K-series, VVC MAX POWER Should be 160bhp-ish FUELLING Injection GEARBOX Five-speed manual, AP clutch, steel flywheel BRAKES Series control Mintex pads.

Vented discs front; solid discs rear. Bias valve. No ABS TYRES Yoko A048 dry; Dunlop race Wets WHEELS White MG: 16in dry; 17in wet WEIGHT TBA VALUE About 1/3 of cost!

TEAM CARS

WWW.BMTR.CO.UK

0121 331 1122

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FEDERAL 595RSR

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Team Dynamics wheel specialist Wheel alignment specialists we have the latest Hunter 4 wheel alignment equipment email us for a quote racedivision@bmtr.co.uk

CALL US NOW 0121 331 1122

BRITAIN’S BEST TRACK DAYS For more information and to see our track day calendar: @goldtrackdays

facebook – Gold Track

Call 01327 361361 Email info@goldtrack.co.uk Visit www.goldtrack.co.uk 91

gear guide

gear guide

Stuff for you, stuff for your car, on track and off it

Power Dryer For Race Suits/Overalls

Whether you’re a driver or a mechanic, wriggling your way into cold, damp overalls is no-one’s idea of fun. HangAir’s drying system uses a high-powered fan to dry out your suit completely within hours, slowing the development of nasty odours and potentially prolonging the life of your kit.

And the HangAir structure supports up to 100lb (45kg).

Price: from £63.54 www.demon-tweeks.co.uk

Wolverine Heaters Engine Oil Pre-Heater

Warm oil makes for a happier engine, especially if you can get the process going even before you’ve pressed the starter button.

Wolverine oil pre-heaters are low-profile pads that you stick to your sump pan or dry sump, and take anything from 45-90 minutes to reach full heat, depending on ambient temperature. By that stage your engine oil should be near to full operating temperature.

The benefits of this are manifold: by improving cold starting it puts less strain on your starter motor and battery, cold start wear is reduced because there’s immediate lubrication in your engine, and the chances of oil emulsification are reduced.

Price: from £63.43 Available from: Demon Tweeks www.demon-tweeks.co.uk

Hans Sport III HANS Device

Changes in MSA regulations mean that from 2016 HANS-type devices will become compulsory. This new FHR device from Hans is similar in design to the units used in F1, but is made in a more affordable polymer material. The Sport III is also claimed to be the lightest entry-level HANS device on the market (600-650g), thanks to its hollow collar construction, while its 20-degree recline makes it suitable for saloon and rally cars that have a more upright seating position. Good freedom of movement is provided by sliding tethers.

Price: £359.94 Available from: Demon Tweeks www.demon-tweeks.co.uk

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gear guide

Lotus Cortina Race Car FIA Spec LHD-Less Engine & Box Early Shell-Superb Condition £30,000 Mk1 Cortina 2 Door shell Race prepared-can be supplied with Alloy Boot Bonnet & Doors, Cage etc.

Price dependant on spec A35 Race Car Test mileage only, Goodwood spec Absolutely superb as featured in Track Driver Test

for all race rally and fast road requirements

Lotus Cortina Race Car FIA Spec RHD 7th O/A in U2TC 2012 4 Race Series Turn Key ready to Race OIRO £40,000 1965

Xr3i Race Car Fully prepped and eligible for XR Challenge series Would also be a superb track day car £3,750 A suitable trailer could also Be available Manufacturer of the Appendix K Lotus Cortina exhaust manifold

Tel: 01922 720767 Fax: 01922 721354

For Brochure: Email: karen@ashleycompetitionexhausts.com

93

gear guide

BMW E46 M3 3.2 Track Day Car Fully Certified TIG Welded T45 custom cage.

This car has been set up as a very usable track car priced to sell.

Van-Diemen Sportscar Almost new Alfa Romeo 147 Super 2000 sportscar.This car is only used for testing in the Netherlands!Ford Zetec 1800 engine and Hewland 147 Super 2000 very fast. Autotecnica engine.

Available in Italy. This Car comes with x4 spare gearbox. rims.

Listing ID: 33984.............£13,999 GBP Listing ID: 33976..€25,500 EUR + VAT Listing ID: 33743.............£33,600GBP

Toyota GT86 Endurance Race Car

BTCC Ex-Works 1996 MSD Honda Accord This Car is the 1997 BTCC total

MINI Coupe 1.6 John Cooper Works R58

Bought as a new road car in July 2012 to race in the Britcar Silverstone 24 Hours.

Privateers Cup Winning car of Robb Gravett, this comes complete with the Trophy itself and even some Pit boards!

Here is your chance to buy a brand new JCW Mini Coupe Race car ready for the track

Listing ID: 29871.............£37,500 GBP Listing ID: 33827........................POA

Listing ID: 33596........Online Auction

Honda Integra Type-R DC2 Race Car

Fiat Punto ex Works

Honda Civic NGTC/S2000 ex BTCC

Ex-works Fiat Punto kit car last Factory car made.

Original factory kit car with all factory upgrades.

Built by Team dynamics for BTCC 2011 The car won BTCC 2011 with Matt Neal

Ideal for Time Attack. The car currently has 250,1 HP (measured on a Dynapack hubdyno) and weighs about 950 KG.

with all documentation and homologation papers.

Listing ID: 29835...........€20,000 EUR Listing ID: 33968 …...........£35,000 GBP Listing ID: 28270............€37,000 EUR

gear guide

Ferrari 458 GTE cars for sale x 2

FIA Healey 3000

Vauxhall Vectra Super Tourer BTCC

#52 or chassis 058: 2013 European Le Mans Series Championship car #53 or chassis 060: 2013 European Le Mans Series 4th place

This is a totally sorted Healey, ready to race now.

A very good outing last year, including a class win in the Spa Summer Classic.

Built for the 1996 British Touring Championship

by RML and then rebuilt in the winter of 1996.

Listing ID: 33948..........................POA Listing ID: 30935............ £72,000GBP Listing ID: 33938.........................POA

Lotus Cortina MK1 FIA Appendix K Lotus Cortina, complete with rebuilt engine at zero miles .

Alpha Romeo 1750 GTAm This car took part in various Alfa Romeo events driven by Giacomo Tavoletti, On 27 November 1995, it was recorded in the Registro Italiano Alfa Romeo (RIAR), confirming its authenticity.

Listing ID: 33937............£65,000 GBP Listing ID: 33790........................POA

AC Schnitzner -Modified Mini

Porsche 962 Kremer CK6 Air/Water

Ford Escort Mk2 Grp 4 Zetec Very Clean and straight Grp 4 Clubman Rally car.

Listing ID: 33815..........................POA

MAN Motorhome/Car Transporter

EA unique opportunity to purchase one of the BMW Mini for both Road & Track, It must be one iconic Porsche 962 sportscar, In fantastic of the most exclusive examples currently available condition with Leyton House livery.

Current BHP 235 with room for more.

This is a motor caravan class4 MOT that will sleep 6.

Listing ID: 33805..............£8,499 GBP Listing ID: 28969…...........................POA

Listing ID: 33493.............£15,995 GBP

Alphabetical web directory listing

CAR MANUFACTURERS Caterham Cars www.caterhamcars.co.uk

CLOTHING & EQUIPMENT Croydon Race and Rally Centre www.croydonraceandrally.co.uk

ARRIVE & DRIVE

www.brookspeed.com Lohen www.lohen.co.uk BRAKES & PADS AP Racing www.apracing.com EBC Brakes www.ebcbrakes.com Cambridge Motorsport www.cambridgemotorsport.com Tarox www.tarox.com

www.chevronracing.com

www.roadtrackrace.com CAR PARTS & TUNING

CAR HIRE Atom Hire www.atomhire.co.uk Bookatrack www.bookatrack.com

www.brookspeed.com RPM www.rpmtechnik.co.uk RSR N端rburg www.rsrnurburg.com Track-Club www.track-club.com

www.burtonpower.com

Grand Prix Racewear www.gprdirect.com Rude Racing www.ruderacing.co.uk CAR PREPARATION

www.brookspeed.com In2racing www.in2racing.co.uk Lohen www.lohen.co.uk Matt Roach Racing www.mattroachracing.com Piranha Motorsport www.piranhamotorsport.com

Plays Kool www.plays-kool.co.uk

Mark Hales www.markhales.com 1-2-1Track Driving Tuition/Corporate George Ostrumoff www.carandtrackdrivingskills.co.uk Tel. George 07831 499790 ARDS

www.roadandracegear.com DATA LOGGING & VIDEO BJR Technology Ltd www.bjr-technology.co.uk

OIL & LUBRICANTS Anglo American Oil Company www.aaoil.com

www.videoVBOX.co.uk Race Technology www.race-technology.com DVD Duke Video www.dukevideo.com EXHAUSTS Ashley Competition Exhausts www.ashleycompetitionexhausts.com

PUBLISHERS Haynes www.haynes.co.uk Veloce Books www.velocebooks.com ROLLING ROADS

FORUM TrackDay Forums www.trackdayforums.com

www.amdtuning.com

www.dyno-solutions.co.uk

SVG Motorsport www.svgmotorsport.com

FUELLING Huddart Engines www.huddartengines.com

Team Parker Racing www.teamparkerracing.com

Webcon UK www.webcon.co.uk

Track-Club www.track-club.com

GEARBOX & DRIVETRAIN

ProTrax Racing www.protraxracing.com

Track Focused www.trackfocused.co.uk

Track Focused www.trackfocused.co.uk

Wheelsports www.classicgt.co.uk

Unit 18 www.unit18.co.uk

96

www.m2d.biz

INSTRUCTION & COACHING Anthony Dunn www.iwannagofaster.com

INSURANCE

CAR CARE www.autoglym.com

www.gprdirect.com

HARNESS & BELTS Corbeau www.corbeau-seats.com

www.lohen.co.uk

www.northamptonmotorsport.com

www.quaife.co.uk Tran-X www.tran-x.com

www.parr-uk.co.uk

TrackDriver

For inclusion in the Web Directory email or call our sales team for details about the fantastic deals available on both lineage web listings andbranded box ads T: 01629 581250

ROLLING ROADS

E: ads@trackdriver.com

TRACKDAY ORGANISERS Apex TrackDays www.apextrackdays.co.uk

www.rgs-motorsport.co.uk

Bob Watson Porsche Ltd

BHP TrackDays www.bhptrackdays.co.uk

www.bookatrack.com

www.rollingroadcentre.co.uk

www.slarkraceengineering.co.uk

SEATS Corbeau www.corbeau-seats.com SHOWS Autosport International www.autosport.com MotorsportUK Show www.motorsportshow.co.uk STORAGE Jar Motorsports Services www.jarcarstorage.co.uk SUSPENSION

www.wheelsports.co.uk Castle Combe www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk Club MSV www.clubmsv.com Gold Track www.goldtrack.co.uk Javelin www.javelintrackdays.co.uk Lotus on Track www.lotus-on-track.com RMA www.rmatrackdays.com Rockingham Trackdays www.rockingham.co.uk RSR N端rburg www.rsrnurburg.com

www.blackartdesigns.com

www.eibach.com

www.gazshocks.com Matt Roach Racing www.mattroachracing.com TOOLS Laser Tools www.lasertools.co.uk Power-Tec www.power-tec.co.uk

Track Culture www.trackculture.com TRAILERS & TOWING Enclosed-Trailers www.enclosed-trailers.co.uk TRANSPORTATION Pro-Driver www.pro-driver.org VIDEO HIRE OnBoardVision Limited www.onboardvision.co.uk WIRING LOOMS Bespoke Looms www.bespokelooms.co.uk

97

th

Donington Park

£199

th

14 Mar

Donington Park

£239

14th Mar

Anglesey GP + Coastal

£159

th

Blyton Park

£129

th

Spa-Francorchamps

£220

th

Spa-Francorchamps

£220

th

Croft (105dba)

£179

st

Croft (88dba)

£159

st

Woodbridge

£129

rd

Bedford Autodrome GT

£149

th

Castle Combe

£179

th

Cadwell Park

£199

th

Blyton Park

£119

st

Oulton Park

£169

rd

Croft (105dba)

£179

th

Croft (105dba)

£179

th

Blyton Park

£139

9 Apr

th

Blyton Park

£119

th

Woodbridge

£129

th

Snetterton 300

£139

th

Anglesey GP

£159

th

Anglesey Coastal

£159

th

Donington Park

£239

st

Oulton Park

£189

rd

Croft (105dba)

£179

13 Mar

15 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 20 Mar

VALUE FOR MONEY

CIRCUIT & AIRFIELD

TRACKDAYS

21 Mar 21 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 26 Mar 29 Mar 31 Mar 3 Apr 4 Apr

BOOK EARLY & SAVE Prices increase as places sell

Friendly Paddocks - Excellent Safety Record Online / Telephone Booking Find out for yourself why drivers keep coming back to Javelin Trackdays

Established 2000

Tel

98

01469 560574

or visit

5 Apr

11 Apr 14 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 20 Apr

www.javelintrackdays.co.uk

21 Apr 23 Apr

97

World leaders in the design and manufacture of high-performance driveline components and steering racks since 1965 – celebrating 50 years of success.

Complete Motorsport Gearboxes A range of state of the art gearboxes: 5 / 6 / 7 - speed sequential, H-pattern, heavy duty, dog engagement and synchromesh; close-ratio gears

High Performance Close-Ratio Gearkits 4 / 5 / 6 - speed helical or semi helical; straight cut; synchromesh and dog engagement options for a wide variety of cars

Motorcycle Engined Vehicles Gear drive systems, reversing differential systems, reversing boxes and axle units for chain driven cars

ATB Helical Gear Limited Slip Differentials Over 350 fitments from Alfa to Volvo all with an industry leading lifetime warranty Updated Axles Axle kits, half shafts & diff’ assemblies

Po w

Complete Steering Racks LHD and RHD quick racks & rack & pinion kits

er

Plus Uprights, transfer units, motorcycle gearkits and much more for all types of vehicles

ed

by

E: info@quaife.co.uk T: +44 (0) 01732 741144 www.quaife.co.uk RT Quaife Engineering Ltd Vestry Road, Otford Sevenoaks, Kent TN14 5EL United Kingdom

Discover more online at: W: www.quaife.co.uk E: info@quaife. co.uk T: +44 (0) 01732 741144

Quality accredited ISO 9001-2008