POST-SILVERSTONE

It’s back on the scales for both cars to see what effect the messing about with ride height and dampers had on Helen, and what the red car is like out of the box.

                           All these bits need to go on, right the hell now please.

Helen is also getting some plastic surgery, a nip tuck of the flywheel, an implant by way of a new electric water pump, and finally that big throttle I’ve wanted for so long. Just a few nibbles here and there to try and give her that little bit more squirt. They’re all pieces that have been tried and proven on the red car, so we know how to fit them and how to make them work. Very handy having a crash test Bear.

New brake discs, pads, and callipers. I did rather struggle to get hold of shims to align the callipers with mind, the usual parts suppliers don’t seem to stock such things. It’s not exactly tricky stuff I know, but I’ve never bothered with these shims and I am butchering brake discs so it’s time to put it right in a quest to rid myself of this issue.

Then, of course, tyres. Cadwell to me means white Speedlines. It’s crazy I know, but I’ve got very superstitious about it. It’s not a huge circuit for the brakes, there’s one big stop really, the rest just little dabs by comparison with say Snett, so the fear I’ll cook them isn’t there, I know we put on mad pressures with Speedlines, but to me they are the wheel of choice at Cadwell, and no amount of sense will talk me out of it. They’re strong, not too weighty, and there are kerbs at Cadwell that can bend an XJ40 dimple type just by looking at it funny. I don’t want to test the lighter BMW wheels on them.

I have been running the same set of tyres all year so far, and that’s clearly stupid, they’re worn out. I now have, by my count, 26 16x8 rims for Helen. That might be getting a bit silly.

Not one good tyre amongst them though. I have some to fit, if I can get them scrubbed. Pick 4 of the rest and fit them to be worn out at a track day maybe, or at least wear them until they actually fit the car, that error at Silverstone in qualifying still haunts me, I won’t be doing that again.

Finally there’s the issue of the brakes. I’m killing discs at a stupid rate. We always say it isn’t the pad, because Stewert uses the same brake system, but Bear and I go through a set every other meeting, and there is a difference in the cars. First, mine’s heavy, we’re talking nearly ¼ tonne more than the red car. And Stew runs electro-hydraulic, not the servo kind. I continue to believe that Ferodo front pads are better than Mintex, but that this has so upset the brake balance front to rear that I’m murdering front discs because the rears do not work properly.

A check on the weighing scales and the car is still legal. Happily. Still bang on minimum weight with no fuel in, so we’re never going to get caught out. And that’s with lightweight lattice wheels on, if I switch to the Speedlines we put on 4kg, so I guess that’s me on a diet then!

Oil cooler makes a reappearance. Happily I still have the pipes and fittings, so it’s just a new Setrab cooler to obtain.

Well, that’s the plan then, to work with the fitting.

But first some weighing and playing. We’re finally checking camber, castor, hell even centre of gravity gets a look in. It’s to some degree data gathering for settings to transfer to the red car. We know Helen works, we know her balance compared to the other car, we can make the necessary adjustments to make the other car handle more like her, more predictably. It is this information that is so vital, it’s what we lost when Angelina met her death before she ever made it onto the scales. Mr David’s trip north to hoover up this information I hope is no indication of what he thinks is going to happen to her at Cadwell!