Brands Hatch

I’d been looking forward to Brands Hatch for some time as this was where the Beetle first turned its wheels in anger. It was also the scene of my first ever circuit race back in July which ended with the car and me coming away with a trophy and our first class win.

Based on the cars performance at previous tracks, Brands looked like being my best shot at a good result as i’d driven the circuit before and being the short ‘Indy’ circuit this time, it was nearly all 3rd gear which suited the engine better.

With this in mind, it was the most relaxing start to a race weekend that i’d had. The car sailed through scrutineering as usual, but I was caught out when we were called up to the collection area for qualifying far earlier than normal and forgot to double check the tyre pressures, something I always do just before going on track. The reason for the early call turned out to be the sound test for everyone. The cars mustn’t exceed 105dB at 3/4 of the maximum revs (for us that’s 6000rpm) Once we’d all been tested, we went out on track for the 15 minute qualifying session.

After a couple of warm up laps (to warm the engine, gearbox, brakes and tyres) I pushed a little harder but found the car to be quite slidy. I had understeer through Graham Hill Bend and massive oversteer through Surtees, which I put down to the track being greasy from an earlier light shower. What I didn’t realise at the time was that my tyre pressures were too low (Racing tyres lose air quicker than road tyres and need constant topping up) This was having a detrimental effect on the handling.

After lap 4 the tyres had warmed fully which helped raise the tyre pressures somewhat and the car felt a bit more grippy, but I still couldn’t push it as hard as i’d like and I was having trouble settling into a good lap, which was made harder by the fact that the ‘Indy’ circuit is only 1.2 miles long and with 22 cars on it, you always seemed to have someone in your way or a faster car right up your backside. The result after 11 laps was a 1:05.1 (2 seconds slower than I was expecting) which put me 18th out of 22 cars and 3rd in my class. Behind me was a Hillman Imp, Triumph 2000 mk1, Alfa Romeo Guilia Sprint GT and a Mini Cooper S. If I was going to get some decent points at Brands, I was going to have to do a stella drive in the race.

I’d been having problems with the new starter motor all weekend which meant bump starting the car occasionally. The starter motor is fine, but the cars been suffering from electrical gremlins since the last round at Oulton Park and this was possibly linked to it. I nearly missed qualifying altogether because the starter wouldn’t turn! I didn’t want this to happen just before the race, so when the race came I left the engine running in the collection area, this unfortunately fouled the plugs (this is what happens when you put a pair of 44 Webers on a 1300!) When I went out on the warm up lap, the car ran like a dog! (I had the same problem when I tried Drag Racing it at BugJam earlier in the year) It sometimes takes a few miles to clear.

When the race started the car misfired horribly off the line and wouldn’t pull at all, so I got swamped by everybody and went round the first bend ‘Paddock’ dead last. I caught up with the pack as they bunched up at the ‘Druids’ hairpin and managed to re-pass the Alfa Sprint GT down the hill and through ‘Graham Hill Bend’. Along the ‘Cooper Straight’ the Alfa took the lead again as the Beetle refused to rev any higher than 6000rpm. Then while turning through ‘Surtees’ and ‘Clark Curve’ the sparkplugs cleared themselves and the engine roared into life...horay! “Now I can set about making back those lost places” I thought. The engines doing 8100rpm in 3rd (82mph) out of ‘Clark Curve’ and I’m just about to shift into 4th. At this point there is a big vibration and a huge bang and the engine cuts out!

I pull onto the grass and the first thing that springs to mind is ‘The engines just thrown a rod’. As I get out of the car the red flags come out and the race is stopped. The marshalls said that there is oil all over the circuit and asked if it was me. I had a look under the car and all was well. It turned out to be one of the other Alfas that had an engine let go on the same lap. I opened the engine lid to find a huge hole in the top of the fan shroud and I knew straight away what it was. The new balanced and welded ‘race fan’ had exploded, shredding the fan shroud, snapping the alternator stand in half and more importantly destroyed the fins on the offside barrels and the ‘very expensive’ cylinder head. Annoying as the fan was only 4 races old and we were only a couple of races from replacing it with an electric version and doubly annoying in that the Mini ahead of us failed to finish which would have given us enough points to end the Championship season 2nd in the 1151 to 1300cc class. Still 3rd in a class which is all Mini Coopers isn’t too bad for our first season, especially as we’d missed the first 5 rounds.

The final round is at Silverstone on October 17th, but we won’t be there as the engine needs stripping down and I’m at a wedding that weekend. So that’s our first years racing over. Now we can start to put everything that we have learned into improving the car for next season. Plans over the winter are less weight, more power, suspension adjustments, a lower 4th gear and possibly a torque-bias differential, and of course an electric cooling fan conversion.

Even changing one of these items will make a huge difference to the cars lap times, so next years looking very exiting. The aim is to be somewhere in the mid-pack by the end of 2010, then after that, who knows!

Now...the racing may be over, but the blog goes on....Over the Winter break, I will cover all the improvements that we have made to the car and then we’ll take the Beetle testing to see if progress has been made.

In the next blog I will complete the feature (promised months ago!) on our suspension set-up, which worked so well...proof that a swing axle Beetle with mild lowering can go round corners!

See you then

Ian