Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit (Race Day)

Race day started early with qualifying. The original goal for the weekend was to not qualify last, but as the gearbox was broken and we only had 3rd gear, this was looking optimistic to say the least. The Mini Coopers that we share the 1300cc class with, normally lap the full Grand Prix circuit between (1:55) and (2:04) and the best that we had managed two days earlier in testing (with only one gear remember) was a (2:17).

The engine was 10bhp down on what it will finally make, but was running really sweet. The only problem with extracting large horsepower from a small engine is that it only delivers large horsepower over a very narrow rev range, plus our flywheel weighs virtually nothing which means it revs like mad but has no way of maintaining any kind of momentum. With our engine, the power band is between 5500rpm and 8000rpm. Below 5500rpm the engine goes ‘off-cam’ and suffers a huge drop in power, and I found this to my cost when trying to leave the paddock. At Brands the paddock where the majority of the race cars are kept is at the bottom of a hill and you have to climb this hill to get to the race track. On the first attempt the Beetle didn’t have enough power to get up it, which was a bit embarrassing! I got near the top of the hill (in first gear) but the car just couldn’t do it. And as the car no longer has a handbrake, I had to roll back down to the bottom and have another go (It will do it, but you have to rev the nuts off it!) People have said to me that I should make the car road legal, because it would be really cool to drive a 130bhp 1300cc Beetle on the street, but in reality it would be impossible to use on a daily basis for this very reason.

So no good on the road then....On the track though, it’s a different story. This Beetle may only be a 1300, but it has the power to weight ratio of a Lotus Elise and as long as you stay above 5500rpm it’s a seriously quick car.

Unfortunately for me at Brands, all I had was 3rd gear, so every time I exited a corner the revs would drop as low as 4500rpm which meant that I had to wait for an age, for the engine to gain that extra 1000rpm before the cam and the power came in. This was destroying my lap times (7 seconds per lap to be exact) and during the race I was going to be a sitting duck out of the bends.

Never one to give up, I decided that the only way to stop the engine from going off-cam was to take a brave pill and enter the corners at the highest speed that the car could manage. This tactic clearly worked as the laptimes tumbled during qualifying: (2:16.5) (2:13.6) (2:11.0) (2:10.9) (2:10.7) then finally a best of (2:10.2) at an average speed of 63.5mph. This put me predictably 26th place on the grid, but amazingly I was only a tenth of a second behind the slowest Mini Cooper and ahead of three other cars. firstly a 5 litre Ford Falcon Sprint which had issues in qualifying and a pair of 1500cc Ford Lotus Cortinas....We didn’t qualify last...yay!!

The big question now was, what could I do in the race? At 5pm I found myself on the grid for my first ever race. The race had been shortened to 8 laps to allow the Historic Formula One Cars that followed enough time to finish their race before the 6pm curfew, so I had to race hard from the getgo if I was going to make an impression on the other cars.

Unfortunately, not being used to the lights I was caught napping at the start, but still managed to pass the 84 Mini before the first corner at Paddock Hill Bend. I myself was passed by the pair of more powerful Lotus Cortinas and the Ford Falcon. Down Paddock Hill Bend and up Hailwood Hill I managed to carry more speed and re-passed the 34 Cortina and take the inside line into the tight Druids hairpin, this was where I got baulked by the other Cortina which allowed everyone to pass me (Told you i’d be a sitting duck out of the bends...”If only I had second gear!”)

As I turned into Surtees and joined the long Pilgrims Drop straight, I passed the 85 Mini Cooper which had developed electrical problems. I was pulling 8000rpm as I braked for Hawthorn Bend and by the time I had reached Stirlings Bend I was back up behind the 34 Lotus Cortina. What followed after that was 6 laps of dicing with the Cortina. The Beetle was much faster through the corners and better under braking, but the Fords 1500cc Lotus Twin Cam engine gave it better speed on the straights. On a typical lap I would be ahead of the Cortina through Graham Hill Bend then get overtaken along the Cooper Straight. I’d regain the position through Westfield or Stirlings Bend and then get passed before clearways, then get ahead of the Cortina again through Paddock Hill Bend and up Hailwood Hill.

Unfortunately all this fighting meant that we were slowing each other up and the rest of the field were able to pull away from us. On the final lap I got baulked again at druids, dropping the car off-cam again and couldn’t catch the Cortina before the checkered flag, so I finished up stone dead last.

Now this may seem like a poor showing, coming 24th out of 24 finishers, but actually the race proved to be a great success for us. Firstly we finished which is important, and finished only 6 seconds behind a Lotus powered Ford in our first race and this was despite the hindrance of having only one gear. I even managed to get my lap times down to a (2:08.9) during the race which would equate to a (2:01) lap if I’d had all the gears, which could have put us eight cars higher at the finish, quicker than two 1500cc Ford Anglia 105Es, three 1000-1150cc Hillman Imps and three 1500cc Lotus Cortinas. Plus there were a lot of more exotic cars that raced over the weekend who couldn’t run as quick as a (2:09). These included a 1600cc Porsche 356A, 1600cc Alfa Romeo GT, Lancia Fulvia, 4.5 litre Porsche 928, Triumph TR4, Triumph GT6, 3.8 litre Jaguar E-Type and 4.7 litre Corvette Stingray and we were quicker than all of them!

Then, just to round the weekend off, we were told that the 80 Mini had also broken down and the 84 Mini had gone off, handing us the class win, trophy and maximum points in our first race....It’s not how I want to win, but as the saying goes “to finish first, first you have to finish.” Any future wins (I’m hoping) will come from speed rather than reliability.

The best thing to come out of the weekend for me, is the knowledge that the Beetle is competitive straight out of the box. We are currently 6 seconds off the pace of the fastest lap time recorded by a Mini Cooper S on this circuit, but bare in mind that we haven’t had the engine on the dyno or rolling road yet. This and a power pulley will give us at least another 10bhp. The new Cogbox gearbox will be much better suited to the engine and will keep it above 5800rpm for the whole race. Then we can go another 15kg lighter and we haven’t even touched the suspension set-up yet. All these factors and the fact that I will get quicker as a driver mean that we will be running (1:55 or 1:56) laps on this circuit this time next year which will match the best of the Minis (and to put it into perspective) match the 4.7 litre Ford Mustangs and late 60’s and early 70’s 2.0-2.2 litre Porsche 911s too!

Since Brands Hatch I have taken the car to BugJam for some RWYB action. Unfortunately it ran like a dog. It was misfiring for the whole 1/4 mile (possibly moisture getting to the exposed carbs on the trailer getting up there) I didn’t have time to sort it, so the car ran a best of 17.2@77mph using only first and second gear...yep! 77mph in 2nd!!

The car will be on display at the Just Kampers Open Day this Saturday (1st August 09) and it’s receiving it’s new gearbox on Monday, then it’s our second race which is at Mallory Park in Leicestershire on Sunday 9th August, where we hope to be somewhere in the middle of the pack now that the car is fighting fit, rather than the back of the field and we will be fitting an onboard camera for the first time, so that you can watch the whole of qualifying and the race via the Just Kampers website.

Looking forward to that...so, sit tight and I will tell you next time how we got on at Mallory.

Cheers!

Ian