356 Race Car

[Phil Parry]

Hey Steve
Saw you on the m25 nr south mimms this afternoon around 5pm. Looking cool. On a plane en route to dubai now for work and looking forward to volksworld next week. Who's going?
Phil

[Pandora]

For those at a loose end, I see there is live timing for all HSCC events. Here is the link:
http://www.mstworld.com/timing/livetimi ... eries=hscc

Al

[neilbardsley]

It wasn't a great day for racing. I had to drive to Leicester between 11 and 12 (I think that Steve was racing at that time) in storm like conditions!

[steve wright]

Well what a race weekend! Did you wave Phil? I lost count of the number of people who did, one of the nice consequences of driving an old bus and race car

After a bitterly cold night camping over at the circuit (a comical sight of people scraping ice off race cars in a paddock...) yet again Ian and I found ourselves in the drivers briefing for those who hadn't driven at the particular circuit before. One of the slightly odd comments made by the Clerk of the Course was he hoped the forecast snow didn't arrive as this would make the fast and flowing Donington slightly more tricky. Well Mother Nature ignored him because just about right on forecast the white fluffy stuff started falling from the sky. I've never raced in the snow before so you can imagine mixing this little cocktail can't you? Race cars going very fast, opening race of season, newly screwed together car, 1 degree Celsius and snow falling from the sky. I counted 8 spins in practice. And two "cutting the grass" - the euphemism used when someone returns to the pits with their car covered in grass and mud, having had a "moment". Grass is lethal in the wet - it's so greasy that there's less friction than the track, so you actually speed up if you spin onto it. And if you didn't hit the tyres or wall then you had a gamble on getting out - the 924 who merrily overtook me then spun onto the grass a lap latter sat haplessly spinning his unweighted rear wheels two feet from the edge of the track - race over.

It was a slightly odd race weekend in that the Guards series was oversubscribed by quite some margin for the first race of the season. To give everyone a chance to race they bumped the smaller capacity classes to Road Sports (70's and Historic to give the full 40 minutes racing and to accommodate two driver entries like ours, so Ian and I had our own separate races). This meant I was racing against '70's Alfa GTVs and a Bertone, a Ferrari 308GTB, Lotus Elan's, Porsche 924's, Lancia Monte Carlo's, Datsun 204Z's, a Maserati Bora, Ford Capri's and the like. Yet again we were the oldest car (by some 10 years) and the only one on drum brakes. Practice was in the pouring rain, in a newly screwed together car and new motor with only 39 miles on it, so I used the session to learn the circuit and put more test miles on the motor. Ian and I agreed a rev limit of 5,000rpm for the day in deference to the new motor. We classified 35th out of 36. At least not last. More importantly the car felt great: very tight, much more predictable and "chuckable" and with a lot more traction and free-revving ability from the engine. Early days though as it was hardly a weekend to explore the limits of the car.

So with snow falling the lights for the race extinguished and I dropped the clutch - rear wheel drive and rear engined, we shot past 6 cars before the first corner - what a start! Three abreast round the first corner and all I can see is the rain light of the cars in front. The spray from the cars in front means I'm driving virtually blind. An Alfa Romeo GTV in front of me is struggling to put the power down through the exit of the corners, so I give it a bit more juice in second out the chicane and get the jump on him. Now neck and neck down the straight, the first right hander is looming. Now it's time to play chicken. He's got the inside line but will have to brake harder - I leave my braking a moment longer and put the nose of the 356 ahead, then start drifting into the corner early. He backs off and the ploy yields another spot. We have a proper old ding-dong of a race before he gets past me when I let a faster car through, damn! There are a couple of spectacular spins during the race but they recover, and then towards the end of the race a couple of huge shunts, in particular is Andrew Bentley (one of the Guards front-runners) who stacks his MGB into the wall and does a lot of damage to it. And as soon as it's started it's over. I classify 25th out of 36 starters. I'll take that thank you very much, especially on a circuit I didn't know, in appalling conditions, and with a self-imposed 5,000 rev limit.

Ian's race was against the historic Road Sports, so competing against older Lotus, Triumph TR2 & 4, a lovely AC Aceca, an MG Lenham Le Mans coupe, Ginetta G4, Turner Mk2 and the gaggle of MGB's again. He had qualified near the back (I think about 30th out of 33. Fortunately the snow and sleet had ceased and the sun and wind had dried much of the track. Uncharacteristically the drag-racer fluffed his start, so the usual half a dozen early places wasn't forthcoming. Ian had a right old race against a gaggle of cars before having an off onto the grass on the second to last lap after being pushed wide by faster cars taking the racing line - he managed to hold it all together, not spin and rejoin the race without losing any places, but the car finished a rather muddier shade of red than it started! There was an unusually high attrition rate which wasn't surprising I guess, as a drying track tempted people to push harder: fatal if you got off the racing line onto the still wet edges of the track - Ian classified 21st out of 33. Again a great result and one consistent with a picture that seems to be emerging for us of qualifying in the bottom one or two, but making up 11 or 12 spaces through the race to finish mid-pack.

Next up is Silverstone International on the GP circuit in May - we miss the Easter Thruxton meet because of family commitments. Hopefully it will be dry and we'll be able to give the car a proper stretch of it's legs! A few pictures of the weekend - I would post the whole race (we record them in-car) but I've no ideas how to get them from my Mac onto You Tube to then show them here - any technical help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

In the pit garages:


Rainer Becker's lovely Porsche 910:


Ian in assembly area prior to practice:


356 in the pit garage waiting to go out:

[sladey]

Good stuff - thanks for taking the time to write up the report

[smallspeed]

awesome write up! weather was horrendous saturday and sunday, its not always like this in Leic, honest!

[Mitch]

Great race report Steve and this actually had me on the edge of my seat!

Congrats on a solid & safe start to the season. Thanks & look forward to more!

So with snow falling the lights for the race extinguished and I dropped the clutch - rear wheel drive and rear engined, we shot past 6 cars before the first corner - what a start! Three abreast round the first corner and all I can see is the rain light of the cars in front. The spray from the cars in front means I'm driving virtually blind. An Alfa Romeo GTV in front of me is struggling to put the power down through the exit of the corners, so I give it a bit more juice in second out the chicane and get the jump on him. Now neck and neck down the straight, the first right hander is looming. Now it's time to play chicken. He's got the inside line but will have to brake harder - I leave my braking a moment longer and put the nose of the 356 ahead, then start drifting into the corner early. He backs off and the ploy yields another spot. We have a proper old ding-dong of a race before he gets past me when I let a faster car through, damn!

[Orb]

Nice write up Steve - sounds like you had a blast - bet you can't wait till the engines properly run in - if I know Ian it will have been built to Start making power around 5000 rpm

See you Saturday at Sandown if you're going

Orb

[steve wright]

hello mate. yes, the thing is now designed to make power from 5-8k so we were effectively just coming on cam for the Donington race

[steve wright]

Well, we raced at Silverstone on the Grand Prix circuit yesterday, exactly a year on from our first race. With fine weather forecast and an engine fully run in we were hopefully that we would be able to see the fruits of our labour from the winter development. Donington had been fun but with snow on the ground it was hardly a good opportunity to get a sense of the car. The motor now develops a whole lot more power, that much is evident, and the handling has also been transformed. Our best time last year was 3.04 - yesterday it was 2.54, so to have taken a whole 10 seconds out was very satisfying. And we were quicker than a couple of cars that we had trailed all last year so that was great.

The practice and race were the usual ding-dong affairs with drama and mayhem! In practice I had a great old fight with a pale blue Lotus who finally managed to get past me. We're drifting through the bend before the Hanger straight with him about three car lengths ahead when all of a sudden his left rear wheel parts company with the chassis and bounces away. The Lotus promptly drops its rear onto the tarmac, the lower end of the upright digs in to the ground, a shower of sparks ensues, and the Lotus does a sharp left turn in front of me and then spins into the gravel! Lucky I wasn't any closer otherwise I'd have collected him

The race was packed, with 55 cars in qualifying. The Guards Trophy race series is now the largest race in Europe, modern or historic, and it's a sight to behold when you look down the grid at everything there. The variety and sheer quality of cars is breathtaking. We qualified 48th (not last!) and rather satisfyingly right behind a 1964 911. A rolling start meant no leapfrog using the traction of the 356, but I soon settled down to a rhythm, not least because I was being pushed every second of the way by an Austin Healey 100M and a Turner. The Healey soon expired in a gush of steam, but the Turner crawled all over me - I was quite chuffed that he didn't manage to pass me! A big crash took out a Lotus, MGB and E-Type, as well as the usual attrition that occurs when you race old cars hard. Ian put in a sterling effort, with both of us having no drama, no mechanical issues and a whole lot of fun! We finished the race in 40th position, ahead of an E-Type and four others in our class, including the 911 we started behind on the grid, so that was very satisfying!

I stupidly took no pictures of the weekend so have nothing to post, sorry about that. I do have 40 minutes of GoPro footage if anyone can tell me how to upload it!

Again we couldn't have done it without Mav doing pit crew - the man just brings such a calm competence to everything which is much appreciated. I don't know what it is but I call it "race brain", which basically means your mind turns to mush on race day so we spend all day with Mav going "right, 10 minutes to practice, get in the car". Also a huge thanks Philip B who came and crewed over the weekend, nice to have some DDK support as well!

So another great race and for me a real milestone as I've completed six races so am no longer a novice! And nothing broke, the car went 10 seconds faster than last year, and felt transformed in it's predictability and drivability. A bit of maintenance, a wash and a couple of tweaks and we're off to the big one of the season for us: the AutoSport Three Hour endurance race at Snetterton. It's exactly the same as it ran in the early 1960's and in fact some of the cars are those that actually ran in the race, with the likes of Jim Clark, Sterling Moss, etc driving, so it's a real privilege to be doing this race. And I promise to take loads of photos!

Cheers,
Steve

[neilbardsley]

Well done Steve. What was the rough cost of those 10 seconds off your lap time?

[Bootsy]

Sounds like progress! Congrats.

When's the Snetterton race Steve? I'll try and get along.

[steve wright]

Niel, don't ask what the cost was, it's not good maths to do that! Besides, I look at it slightly differently, which is that we're probably one of the cheapest cars on the track, by some margin, and no-one else is having more fun than us

Tom, the Snetterton race is Saturday 1st of June. It's usually the last race of the day, 3-6pm I recall from last year, but the final instructions aren't out yet. I'll post details when they arrive as it would be great to have a few DDK'ers there. With a three hour race a decent sized crew is a must!

I watched the in-car footage last night, great to relive the race. A lovely piece was the driver change at the mandatory 1 minute pit-stop: hauled out the car, Ian in, belts on, me looking knackered after just 20 minutes racing, Mav with his hand raised in front of the windscreen so Ian didn't go too soon, Philip with the pit board off to the side, and then Mav calmly counting down the last five seconds on his fingers then pulling his hand away and tapping the roof of the car, Ian dropping the clutch and boiling the tyres away from the line to quickly get up to the pit lane speed limit. That's what it's all about - racing with mates and having a great time as a team. Perfect.

[Bootsy]

Tom, the Snetterton race is Saturday 1st of June. It's usually the last race of the day, 3-6pm I recall from last year, but the final instructions aren't out yet. I'll post details when they arrive as it would be great to have a few DDK'ers there. With a three hour race a decent sized crew is a must!

Ah yes of course. I need to meet up with somebody at Snetterton that weekend to pick some parts up so will try and arrange to see the race.

[Mitch]

I look at it slightly differently, which is that we're probably one of the cheapest cars on the track, by some margin, and no-one else is having more fun than us

That's what it's all about - racing with mates and having a great time as a team. Perfect.

Fantastic. Isn't that the way it should be? Great result!

Re video, I'm no expert but I think you can just upload to Photobucket and link in the usual way... would be great to see