Castle Combe - Trackday - 21st March 2014

With the 2014 season rapidly approaching I thought it was about time to chuck some used R888's on the car and head off to Castle Combe for some pre season testing.

Only other major change to the car was that the rear shocks were rebuilt and re-valved and at the same time we changed the rear spring rates and added some tender springs to try and stop wheel spin whilst cornering.

I was lucky enough to be joined by last years champion, Matt Parkes who was on hand to give me a few tips and pointers. I wasn't sure how I'd get on with someone sat next to me but after a couple of runs out I could see the instructions was well worth doing.

Both sitting in the passenger seat advising and showing me how it should be done was invaluable and immediately after I found myself much more confident with the car.

After lunch there were a number of heavy showers meaning there was to be no more dry running, whilst in a way this was annoying as I just started to gain in confidence and wasn't going to be able to continue improving the chance to get some wet laps in is always worth while.

left the circuit a lot happier than when I'd arrived and now really locking forward to the start of the season.

Busy Year planned for 2014

Having shared the car with Ben Woodcock for the last two seasons it looks like I'll be on my own in 2014, This should baring incident give me the opportunity to race the car in all rounds of the Production BMW championship and the Project 8 Racing saloons series.

The organiser have managed another great calendar, Looking forward to Brands hatch GP without the suspension issues of 2013 and a first visit to Rockingham.

26/27 April - Donington Park National
24/25 May - Rockingham
28 June - Cadwell park
19 July - Oulton park international
16/17 August - Brands Hatch GP
6 September (P8RS only) Silverstone national
4 October (PBMW only) Lydden Hill
25/26 October - Snetterton 300

There will also be a new sponsor on the car AAG Design

A bit of bodywork before the 2014 season starts

As the winter blue set in it was time to call upon the services of the guys at SPR coachworks once again to fix the damage to the rear wing sustained at Brands hatch last year. Brand new BMW wing and battery tray being installed and painted along with the roof being painted as the sunroof infill panel has always looked a bit ruff.

Also finally getting round to replacing the rather well used windscreen and repainting the inside of the floors.

E36 M3 - interior painted

A bit more progress has been made on the M3, after a long week or so of prepping the inside we were ready for some paint.

Bit of a toss up between going for a subtle mid grey or brighter colour but in the end opted for the inka orange which I'm very pleased with, certainly shouldn't miss it

E36 M3 Build - Update

I pleased to say at long last the E36 M3 has a roll cage installed.

I went for the full FIA approved custom cages option which is looking fairly substantial, having had the seat trial fitted the car's now at SPR coachworks having the inside painted before returning home.

Donington Park - 29th September 2013 - PBMW rounds 11 & 12

After all the stress, hard work and cost of rebuilding the engine I was really looking forward to rounds 11 and 12 of the PBMW championship, Unfortunately due to work commitments  I could do the test day before the weekend, which in hindsight isn't ideal.

Sunday started off with an early qualifying, as always only 7 laps to remember where the track goes and set a time. Ended up with a time of 2:05.014 which whilst being towards the back of the grid in 25nd place was still over 5 seconds quicker than my qualifying time in 2012.

First race was fairly quiet trying to continue to find a bit of time eventually finishing 22nd with a best time of 2:04.683 equalling my best time of the previous year.

Got a good start in race 2 and for the next 7 laps had one of the best races to date with Arron Morgan and Rob Cooper. Unfortunately on Lap 8 whilst trying to pass Rob I put the car into the gravel, real shame as they finished 14th and 16th so a reasonable result could have been achievable.

On a positive note my best time of 2:03.233 was over 1.3 seconds faster than I previously been at Donington so I left quite content despite the trip into the gravel.

Now only a few days until the last rounds of the championship at Castle Combe, Another track I've never visited and another test day I'll miss due to work.

Snetterton - 19th September - Trackday

After several weeks of hard work the engine was now ready for running in.

As well as giving everything a clean and checking tolerances to make it as new, we also replaced piston rings, main and bottom end bearings, valve guides, skimmed the head and added an oil pressure gauge.  

Found a few other minor issues along the way, including noticing we'd only been getting 80-85% throttle for a while and quite embarrassingly I also found the current clutch looked like this when it was removed, may go some way to explain the lack to drive out of corners! 

With everything looking good I set off to Snetterton to run in the engine, Started off on a dry track with limited revs for the morning, It was a relieve to see everything running correctly after all the hard work which went into building it.

By the afternoon the rain had set in and a good number of people had left the track (there was only 26 signed on in the first place) In many ways this came just at the right time as I was now able to use higher revs and the wet weather and quite track meant for an ideal opportunity to gain some experience of driving on a wet track, something which up until now I hadn't done much of.

Ended the day positive that the car was ready for Donnington in a weeks time, check engine and gear box oils and both were fine. Now all it needs is a quick oil change and the hand brake shoes replacing as for some reason all of the material had come off of one and was locking the rear wheel.