Scottish Elises

This year has flown by and before I knew it the SLS round 1 was upon me. This year the power band have been narrowed and I had hoped to be in the top of Class B, unfortunately the power increase on the new engine was a little too much and I found myself at the bottom of Class A. On the positive note, it does leave a bit of head room to develop things further.

This was the first event with the new engine so I was particularly nervous. Also the high workload to get the engine ready meant the rest of the car was under prepared. In particular the suspension and geo needed a check. The engine is still limited to 8000RPM as a precaution, which did compromise gear ratios.

Free Practice:

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At this point things were looking good with the car being the quickest non pro entry, and a new PB in the bag. But I was surprised that the pace wasn't quicker - maybe my expectation of an extra 50 BHP was too much, and in hindsight, my tyres were beginning to take a dive .

Qualifying

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This didn't go my way, my first two runs were blocked by traffic so last session saw me in an agitated state and not at my best. I got low 58 and 8th place. The surprise was Fee Kindness had found a whole chunk of time and got a 56 - territory beyond me at this stage.


I knew it would be down hill form now on as the Caterham just can't warm the ZZR A60 compound tyres I am using in the 'single lap' format but I was hoping for at least a 58.

The final

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I was out on track with Charlie Shaw and Graham Davidson, so feeling a bit nervous about getting in their way, so the tyre warming probably wasn't as thorough as it should have been. The rear was also looser than usual - I now suspect the rear tyres were past their best having been on the car for over a year of hard tracking. Anyway, the lap started well but I shifted up (old habbit) after MacIntyres, a mistake that cost me all the way through to Clarks, but I was releaved to get a 58.6 which put me in 7th overall and 2nd in Class

Good points for round 2. Fourth equal in the championship

Full results here: http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1005418

Congratulations (and thanks for posting - I enjoyed that).

Well done.

Good result Dave, but you were hitting 112mph into Duffus as opposed to 124 the other day.

Ferrari 458 Italia in the field.

tut

tut wrote:Good result Dave, but you were hitting 112mph into Duffus as opposed to 124 the other day.

Ferrari 458 Italia in the field.

tut

There was a stiff easterly wind yesterday which took the edge off Vmax, but times were better overall, so swings and roundabouts. - I think I did see 120 at one stage, but the tyres where also deteriorating throughout the day and traction was poor at he hairpin.

Good post david, enjoyed reading that,

As you say - plenty of room for improvement and there is the whole rest of the season to do so - keep at it

might be worth dialling back the power a bit to put you at the top of the class below though?

ClarkyBoy wrote:Good post david, enjoyed reading that,

As you say - plenty of room for improvement and there is the whole rest of the season to do so - keep at it

might be worth dialling back the power a bit to put you at the top of the class below though?

Would I be right to think the classes are done on a power to weight basis? In which case, can you add a little weight to the car?

I ran the SIDC evening with ballast to get some data - the times weren't down that much, but the car just felt less fun. To be honest, I'm looking at SLS as quality track time and would rather enjoy the car at its best rather than get too competitive. In the end, anyway, I think my times would have given the same result in class B.