KS's hillclimbing odyssey

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DustyM
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KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by DustyM »

Well done Keith. Glad you got it sorted, setting up EFI on these old cars can certainly be frustrating at times.


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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by Ollie »

Good report Keith!
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KS
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by KS »

The last hurrah....for 2022, that is.

Well, all good things have to come to an end and so it is with the 2022 season. It's been a year of mixed emotions, from missing events due to engine work not finished as hoped, niggling ecu problems, borrowed cars (thanks Adrian and Jonathan!) and occasionally indifferent weather. However, I had set new PBs at Wiscombe, Castle and Werrington, so it was all down to the final event at Tregrehan, near St Austell, to see if I could make it a perfect sweep.

The course is short – the shortest down west and, at just 600yds, possibly the shortest in the UK. It still demands concentration, however, and is deceptively 'technical'. What look like easy sweeping bends when on foot seem to go on forever behind the wheel, while the final hairpin across the finish line catches many people out as they find themselves picking a fight with the straw bales. But there is a positive: it's 15 minutes drive from home!

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The weather forecast hadn't been great but while the day dawned grey and damp the clouds soon cleared to make way for blue skies and sunshine, with a brisk breeze helping to dry the course. Well, most of it - the first 150 yards is under the cover of trees and never really dried out. The first practice run felt like we were trying to launch the cars on ice. As my rev counter still refuses to function (I'd swapped the original for a new Racetech tacho, but the ecu clearly has a fault) and the shift light suddenly decided to stop working(!) every gear change was done by ear and seat of the pants. DTA have agreed to replace the ecu, so fingers crossed those problems will go away.

Not a very tidy installation, but its was a bit last minute...

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First practice run was very tentative, but still a second and a half quicker than my first run there back in June. By the third run, I'd set a new PB two-tenths under my previous best. At this point I realised a most bizarre thing had happened. A fellow competitor driving an MX-5 recorded an identical to mine in the first timed runs (25.36) and then in the second timed run the same thing happened again (24.30)! We were separated by two other cars, so it wasn't like the timing team had forgotten to reset the clocks (twice) and was just one of those strange coincidences that happens every now and then.

https://youtu.be/duvAQC-rSQA
Incidentally, this video was recorded on my old Hero 3 GoPro – the quality isn't great but my Hero 7 Black kept dropping the Bluetooth link to my phone, so I abandoned it for the day...

The third run was a 24.31, so slower by 1/100th, but due to the relatively small field, it looked like we would get four – maybe even five – timed runs. Determined to improve, I managed to get things pretty well right and recored a time of 23.42, an improvement of almost 9/10ths of a second! I was ecstatic – even Rod Eyles, who's been hillclimbing for ever (he first ran at Tregrehan back in 1968) commented that it 'was a very good time'. Just a shame I forgot to switch on the GoPro for that run! Doh!

The final run of the day was slightly down (24.06) as, by this time, the track temperatures were falling – but it was still my second quickest run at Tregrehan. Aside from the rev counter malfunction, the car ran perfectly, but I can't help feeling that I need to stiffen it a little. Stiffer anti-roll bars would help but then more stress will be applied to the 914's somewhat flexible 'shell. I've tried to avoid going the roll cage route but may have to give it some serious thought over winter.

So, big thanks to Adrian and the crew at Williams Crawford for use of workshop space – and especially to Adrian for the loan of his 911 rally car earlier in the year. Thanks, too, to Graham Rawlings at Rawspeed for the engine work and rolling road tuning, Jonathan Sage at Group 4 Wheels for the, er, wheels, and to Jonathan jwhillracer for his continued encouragement (and share of his legendary 911 at Wiscombe). Here's to 2023 and those elusive sub-50s at Wiscombe!
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by Nine One One »

Excellent effort!! Well done
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by jeremyg »

Well done Keith, and all who supported you. Well persevered.
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by Gary71 »

Nicely done :) Those improvements are huge over such a short course
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by BILLY BEAN »

Well done Keith. A pleasing end to the season.
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by 911hillclimber »

And the car is in one piece too!
A very good year, time to join a Championship if there is one and contest the Class.
April will soon come round, so get your To Do list written and in action.
Have enjoyed your reports.
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by Mike Smith »

Blimey Keith - that is short ride

Stiffening - Try bracing the roof (if you have not already done it) might be cheaper than a roll cage ?
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KS
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by KS »

Mike Smith wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:13 pm Blimey Keith - that is short ride

Stiffening - Try bracing the roof (if you have not already done it) might be cheaper than a roll cage ?
Must admit I did think about some form of cross-bracing. As I'm a short-ass, headroom isn't a problem, even with a helmet.
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by jwhillracer »

Well done Keith! After all the problems and setbacks earlier in the year, it’s brilliant to finish on such a high.
Now just sort out the minor niggles, and don’t change anything much more over the winter so that you can concentrate on just driving it next season :-)
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by rhd racer »

Well done Keith - great to finish the year with a PB !


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KS
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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by KS »

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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by neilbardsley »

Congratulations. Surely a shorter climbsl means less room for errors!

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Re: KS's hillclimbing odyssey

Post by KS »

A few more from Tregrehan, courtesy of local photographer Sharon Randall.

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Despite jwhillracer's advice to leave things alone, I've bought a set of Elephant racing's poly-bronze front suspension bushes and some monoball top strut mounts, all in an effort to tighten up the front end.
I already have their rear trailing arm poly-bronze bushings and they made a real difference to the feel of the car.
ImageImage

I've also been talking to Steve Kerti, of Classic Fabrications, and he's kindly offered to make me a factory-style roll bar with door bars, which should help stiffen things (at my age you need all the help you can get...).
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(Pic from pbase of the Lufthansa 914/6GT's roll bar: https://pbase.com/9146gt/the9146gt_roll ... _lufthansa)
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