PART VI. THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

TESTING – JEC TRACKDAY BRANDS HATCH 18/2/11

This was always going to be interesting. We have a bit of a “too many cooks” scenario going on, in that both the Bear and I have been playing with this car, and we don’t exactly talk a lot, which can leave us with duplication of effort and in some cases working to cross purposes.

With a delay on the harnesses from Demon Tweeks, who have managed to royally screw the pooch on this one, we fit some spares on the day, even as Philip excitedly circles his car like Dougal from the Magic Roundabout, poking at things. Customers eh, who’d have ‘em?

It is with some redness of face that we discover that in our haste we have rather failed to set the dampers up, some are fully stiff, some fully soft, because I wound some all the way, and Bear wound the others all the way, and we managed opposite ends of the spectrum. Hum.

Tracking is way out, but we expected that, we broke our tracking gear so this was always going to be an on the spot job.

Immediate comment from one specialist is that the car is too tall and will understeer severely. Given even we don’t know how this is going to behave that seemed a little premature.

We have no clue what this is going to do at the limit, we have changed everything, literally every piece of suspension has been apart, all the settings are now different, and everything is now actually attached to everything else. It could be perfect immediately, or it might snap oversteer just by looking at it, no idea. We think it should be in the ballpark, it’s not as if we’ve never done one before.

Old tyres are the order of the day, and we don’t exactly do a lot to set the pressures up correctly, it’s a more informal test than that. First thing to do is send Philip out to beat it round for a few laps to check that it all still works properly. We have, after all, had this thing totally apart, it would be surprising if it all just worked.

It all just worked. Pat on the back for the Bear, perhaps he’s not as useless as he pretends.

It’s a trackday, so no timing, and no tyre squeal. Nobody said, however, no video and no datalogging, and Philip has all the toys, we can grab all the data and have a look when we get home. Having never played with such trinkets before I’m unaware how detailed this stuff can be, with hindsight if I’d known every twitch of the pedals was recorded I’d have ragged the car harder.

Philip beats the car round all morning, and the times we can’t record turn out to be most respectable. He reports a massive, tangible change in the machinery, which is what we expected. Greatly increased confidence in the car’s ability, and far greater accuracy on turn in. So much for the understeer theory.

I get my paws on it for 4 laps just before lunch. It is tricky in someone else’s car, not least because I don’t fit it at all, the seat’s too big, I can barely reach the pedals, the clutch is operated with a pointed toe, like a ballet dancer, and I’m looking through the steering wheel, old-lady style. I can’t get the belts as tight as I want, because they’re set for someone 4 inches taller and 30kg heavier.

That said, it’s an XJS at Brands Hatch, and it always feels like coming home to nose one of these out of the pitlane here. Brakes are good, engine is better than I’d expected, the basics are all here. One lap to shake it down and get a feel for the controls, three of increasing speed.

Hint of understeer at Graham Hill, and a lot more roll than I’m used to. It’s the rear end through Macleans and Clearways though, it’s hopping like a rabbit with a bad foot, clearly wrong at the back. A little surprised Philip hadn’t reported this, because it was pretty severe. I am a delicate flower with these things I know, over-sensitive perhaps, but this wasn’t a little thing.

Rear grip, however, is good, and if there’s one thing I like it’s a well-behaved rear end, no nasty snap oversteer lurking here.

A damper tweak takes a lot of the hop out of it, and with Philip alongside a further run after lunch has us cruising round in the 1.01s, taking it nice and easy. Hard to abuse a car with the owner alongside you, and braking points were therefore very early and gentle. I can sense that he’s distressed, it’s only a second or so faster than it was before all the work. A gentle reminder that we’re a) not racing, b) I’m driving cautiously, and c) I do have 110kg of ballast alongside me, which does allow a reality check.

By 2pm Philip is returning from runs with a wire brush showing on the front tyre. The only spares I have are bald 45s that came off Helen’s rear, all the wrong camber for this car, and no tread at all, but it’s better than he’s on now, so on they go.

This completely destroys the front end grip, there’s now nothing. Nonetheless, as we determine later, Philip’s in the mid 1.00s, and I’m curious how I compare, be a shame to download the data later and find I wasn’t faster, I have an ego to protect. Out for a more aggressive run, probably 90% of a full banzai.

I like to test a car over time, and break a lap down into specific corners, attack each corner harder and harder until we find the limit, but there isn’t time for this today, and it’s the wrong venue for it, it’s a trackday and I’m meant to be being professional given we’re running hot laps, so this is a more general test. No tyre squeal, no lockups, didn’t get the tail out once. I know, how unlike a Kutukan.

This is data gathering. I’ve spent the morning cruising round in a well sorted class D car, I have a baseline in my head, and I’m looking for the differences, that’s my role in all this. Philip is being bombarded with sensations from a totally different machine, so far as he’s concerned this thing is perfect and it’s a god-sent miracle, he’s used to such crap that he’ll ignore what I consider glaring problems because it’s still ten times better than it was.

Cautious at Paddock, the front end washing out does lead to a gravel nap here, and Philip was in there earlier for reasons he can’t explain. The understeer on these ruined tyres is spoiling Graham Hill, can’t pick up the throttle anywhere near as early as I need.

I am, however, giving it more attack at Macleans, and throwing it at the kerbs to see how it reacts. The hopping has gone, it’s much more settled now. A Bear in the mirrors adds incitement to push on, he confirms afterwards that he can tell the driver by the car’s attitude, the later apex and general lunacy tell him who he’s hunting.

Result? 59.6. That’s not bad. For a car with stock roll bars and screwed tyres running at 1580kg that’s not bad at all. Not only that, the lap was set with traffic in the way at Druids. A clean lap on fresh rubber is easily in the 58s. We’re about 3 seconds up on before, Philip has only ever broken the minute mark here before on 888 tyres in a 1510kg car. I’m calling this progress.

She did about 100 laps today, give or take. Nothing failed or fell off, we got all our data, we know what to do to make it faster, and it’s a lot better than it was. For the amount we’ve spent, this was a very good day.

We have changes to make, we hadn’t finished development by a long shot. Next time it comes here, expect miracles.

PART VII soon – development.