Lydden Hill 27/10/07 - SEMSEC

The last race of the year in the SEMSEC stockhatch championship was at Lydden Hill on 27 October. I achieved a qualifying session without an engine fire which made a welcome change from the last 2 races!

Started and ended 3rd in class (out of 3) but improved on my previous fastest lap at Lydden by around 1.2 seconds so ended the day happy and with a straight car. Managed to lap a competitor in the class above which makes for a nice end to the season.

It was usefull to have other people in my class for a change as a guage for my performance. My best lap time was approx .8 of a second off of that of the second place guy and 2.4 off of the class winners best lap time so a little improvement is still required.

Now just have to spend sometime sorting the car out over the next couple of months in Preparation for next year were i will hopefully be entering some local 750mc rounds as well as the SEMSEC races.

Brands Hatch 08/09/07 - SEMSEC

Race number two was at Brands hatch on 8th September another great day out with nice dry weather. As with the last round at tydden I managed to have an oil beather problem resulting in a breif pratise sesion. I therefore ended up qualifying at the back of the grid with slight worries about a possible head gasket probelms.

The race thankfully went much better than the pratice and although the only person in my class I managed to beat 1 other car in to padock hill before the race was red flagged due to a crash at druids.

In the restart i again just got past the same fiesta into padock and ended up lapping him before the end of the race which was a real confidence boost as he was in a class which allowed for more modifications.

Went away very happy having again qualified and finished, which allowed be to drive home rather than having to recruit a resue crew! Bring on the next round at Lydden can't wait.

Thanks to Colin and Garath for all the photos of the day, except the one you kindly put on facebook!

My first race

Entered by first race yesterday in the stockhatch class run by SEMSEC, and had a great time. The venue was Lydden hill which i'd never driven on before so the 20min pratise in the morning was going to be all i had to learn the track.

Well that was the plan anyway after the second lap of pratise the oil beather on the rocker cover poped of and through oil all over the exhaust manifold! Smoke everyware and a bit of fire.I was sure i'd killed the poor car after just 2 laps. So there I was on the back of the grid on a track i didn't know, I was the only person in my class so every other car on track was on slicks and generally a fair bit faster.

But i managed to achieve the goal i set which was simply to pass scrutinering and finish the race. Best lap time was 55.75 which i was happy enough with bearing in mind i'd not driven the curcuit before but i sure the cars got more in it.

First Round

The first round of the year was today, although my car wasn't quite ready to race i thought i'd better pop along and check out the competition. There was only one car in my class although hopefull by the second round there'll be a few more. Pics of the day car be found here http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a135/AndyE30M3/semsec%20lydden%204th%20april%2007/

Almost there, spent the last couple of evenings making up a dash to house the engine cut off switch, pull chord for the fire extigisher and the hazard and rain light switches. Just need to tidy up some wiring now.

The next job I undertook was to install the fire extinguisher. Found the the best place to get this from was from www.peterlloydrallying.co.uk/ at £95 including VAT and delivery it was alot cheaper than other places i looked. Came complete with pull cords, and two nozzles.

Passed (just) my ARDS course yesterday at Mithril racing which is based at Goodwood.

http://www.mithril.co.uk/

I think if i was doing it again i'd have the optional additional track time as with just 2 slighting laps and 5 laps driving yourself its a tall order to learn the track and drive a new car smoothly.

A diesel Alfa took some getting used to after driving an M3 for the last few months.

Next job was to think up a colour scheme, Thought orange on black was suttle!

I have decided not to do the 750MC series and will hopefully be doing the SEMSEC stock hatch series which takes place at Lydden and Brands Hatch, in order to reduce traveling costs.

Having got to around 135,000 miles the original engine finally gave up. As luck would have it I found a fully rebult bottom end with brand new head on ebay. Its in and running just needs the blow in the exhaust looking at and the AFM and airfilter refitting.

Next job was to respay th inside of the car to tidy it up

Next job was to remove the glass sunroof as the glass sunroof won't get through MSA regs. Simply replaced with sheet metal rivited on the existing roof. Ariel was also removed at this point.

The Car:

As pictured at brands hatch, first go a driving on the track and I'm pleased to say all went well. Slightly off the pace I was looking for but was driving on a 130,000 mile some what knackard engine. Bring on the next trackday and the fully rebuilt engine!

Q: So what this site all about?
A: The idea of this site is to plot the progress of the building of my 205 GTI race car and entering the 750 motor clubs stock hatch race series. (www.750mc.co.uk)

The cars current spec is as follows

1991 Peugeot 205 1.6 GTI
Leda adjustable suspension with 2 degrees -ve camber & faulkner spings
OMP 6 point roll cage
Luke 5 point harnesses
Cobra Evolution bucket seat
Full stripped out