Caterham trackday terror. Winter Project

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What a pain, hope you get the silencing resolved without too much more hassle.
 
A black E63 was going around Donnington on Friday, it was going very well but his brakes were getting fried. The R8 GT was a lot of fun. I did a 1.18 which was quite good on 4 year old stock tyres.

Next time I will put on some Trofeo R sticky rubber, should cut a couple of seconds. I will also have an extra 400BHP so it will be interesting to see how much time will be cut. Donnington is not really a high speed circuit so the extra power will not be able to be used very often.
 
I've been black flagged at the last two 105db track days I've done, at Oulton and Mallory Park. I'm aware the car has an exhaust noise issue anyway, this is being remedied this week, but the car has passed the static tests and I've been keeping the revs down on track. Having reviewed some video I'm thinking that it could be the brake squeal that is causing the problem. The marshals advise I was tripping the sensor near Shaw's hairpin.

I'm running Pagid Black RS15 which might be too hard for this car, so for the next event I'm swapping them out for a less extreme pad.

Another theory are the pops and bangs caused by the down-shift kill. I'm not particularly aware of this from inside the car or on the video, but bystanders say it does. We can change the engine cut from sparks to fuel so this might help.

The car was ok at Silverstone and ran these pads, but they didn't squeal at that time.


Poor Steve is terrified of stuffing an uninsured £125k car so refuses to give it any grief in anything other than a straight line :D He still got 130mph on GPS on both straights after short shifting at 7k revs once dead straight out of Devil's Elbow and Gerard's.

My video shows the car dying out of the hairpin, we took the front air scoop off but this proves its still required as it got hot and turned itself off, so it's back on for when Steve goes out.

http://youtu.be/5amVjhl-Y7Q

http://youtu.be/1Yy5GWinR68
 
Is that gearbox slightly jerky or is it just the video?
 
Glad to report that the annoying supercharger oil tank leak has been solved, that's some good news to come from yesterday.

Go Pro footage of Steve's laps. http://youtu.be/lFaHOcDMa98
 
SPX said:
Is that gearbox slightly jerky or is it just the video?
Click to expand...

The whole drivetrain on these cars are agricultural to say the least. The responsivness of the motor makes it worse as if it kangaroos slightly then my foot rocking just makes it worse, it needs a stiffer throttle spring or damper to help.

But, the sequential boxes feel and sound like they're going to **** themselves at any moment.
 
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F1BHP said:
A black E63 was going around Donnington on Friday, it was going very well but his brakes were getting fried. The R8 GT was a lot of fun. I did a 1.18 which was quite good on 4 year old stock tyres.

Next time I will put on some Trofeo R sticky rubber, should cut a couple of seconds. I will also have an extra 400BHP so it will be interesting to see how much time will be cut. Donnington is not really a high speed circuit so the extra power will not be able to be used very often.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good day, any video? :cool:

Silverstone would be the place to stretch out its new HP.
 
My best lap was high 1.18, That was using 4 year old stock rubber, so I think with a little more front end camber and some Trofeo R tyres I could cut 4 seconds. Then add the extra 400BHP and about 100lb in weight saving should be good for an additional 3 seconds.

I will have to wait until next year to find out
 
Well I'll be there too :thumb:
 
Eventually he moved, I was surprised how fun and how fast the R8 is. I only picked the car up on Wednesday, didn't drive it on Thursday then track day on Friday.

Real world and I suspect on the track the R8 GT is quicker than the 458. You can really balance the car on the edge and have a little fun past the edge. I didn't take it too far past as it was my first time driving the R8.
 
Yup, it looks plenty fast and fairly forgiving for a mid-engine car. Wouldn't want to be replacing discs and pads/tyres/etc on it though lol.
 
Carbon ceramic brakes, so they will be costly. I don't know how long they are supposed to last. I was surprised that the tyres lasted the whole day of abuse and still looked good. I will be running softer rubber next time so the wear rating will be much lower.

What I have learned through many years of racing and track days is that if you control your tyre pressures and check them after each run the tyres last quite well.

I am unlikely to be doing more than 3k miles a year in this car however probably 5 track days. We shall see.
 
Looking at the data from the VBox, it shows the car accelerating from 82mph to 129mph in 3 seconds, short shifting and starting from a gear higher than necessary. :D

Should be interesting the next time I get in it, the car felt great around the bends now that it's been set up properly, when it can stay out all day without getting black flagged will be the day I've waited two years for lol, hopefully before the end of this year.
 
Silverstone have quite high but strict sound restrictions. Last time I was there a Porsche cup car was testing and he had just fitted some external mufflers hanging off the back and made the sound check.

Fit a valve system.
 
Silverstone is the only place I've used it where I haven't been black flagged.

Anyway, car is having its new Raceco silencers fitted as we type, then a dyno session with ECU cut tweak, I should be able to use it anywhere. Brands 48 second lap is my target.
 
New silencers are 850mm long, the longest they can be. It'll look like two cannons on either side but if they work that's all I care about.
 
I just booked the 22nd November at Silverstone, bring the Caterham out.
 
Ok, better not be raining.
 
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