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Story so
far...
25th November 2007 -
Sold XR2
Well after a lot of head scratching and replacing most of the brake
system we've called time on the XR2. The brake pedal essentially
had no resistance from the master cylinder/servo and so kept going to
the floor with almost no braking force getting to the wheels. We
bought the last new master cylinder in the country and did a major
bleeding marathon but this had little effect. Due to a lack a
parts it's just not feasible to repair any longer and so we're now
looking for something more modern.
October 6th 2007 -
Lydden Hill race report
Our first event for 2 years didn't start well. The fact that this
was a car that had never been raced before, strapped onto a hired
trailer that we had never used before, towed by a car that had never
been used to tow before, and going to an event organised by a club that
we're not actually member of...was maybe a hint that things would not go
too well.Just collecting the trailer Dominic managed to swing the
larger than usual 500kg object around a tight corner and into some chaps
Toyota fortunately only resulting in a scratch. The morning of the
event our foot pump disintegrated followed by the air compressor,
leaving the XR2 with completely flat tyres. A trip via somewhere
that sold pumps was now required but this was not enough bad luck as we
got halfway out of town before we realised that we had forgotten all the
paperwork for the event.
Eventually we got our act together and survived the trip down to
Lydden with no further drama. Signing on and scruitineering went
well and qualifying then occurred after a very civilised break.
Qualifying was a bit of a shock to the system as Dominic struggled
with tyres that refused to grip after being unused for 2 years.
Being buzzed by some rather fast Mini's it was clear that something
special was needed to get a decent lap time. Eventually Dominic
recorded a best lap of 54.749 seconds to start in a 18th position in the
first race.
Race 1 was fairly uneventful apart from the crash between a couple of
cars at the hairpin which caused the red flags to be deployed within
just 2 laps. After the restart Dominic got on with the job of
improving the lap times and testing the car and although never managing
to catch up the rest of the he did improve the lap time to 53.327
seconds and finished in 12th spot.
For race 2 we lowered the tyre pressures to attempt to get a bit more
traction as the car was suffering from quite a bit of understeer, also
Dominic decided to raise the rev limit and see how the engine coped.
Again the race was uneventful for us but we gained some useful testing
time and further improved the times now down to 52.582 seconds - just a
second off the car in front and also 1 second off our best ever time at
the circuit which last time was done with a proper race engine!
September 29th 2007
- Entered race
We've now entered the BARC SEC Tin Tops round at Lydden Hill which is a
Double Header event on the 6th October. We've entered in class T3
which is for cars up to 1600cc and with slick "List 1B" tyres.We'll
let you know how it all goes for this first race in the XR2 this year!
July 15th 2007 - XR2
Ready
The XR2 is now race ready! we're hoping to enter some of the last
races of the season - finances permitting. We've still also got to
get a new trailer though as driving the XR2 to the circuit is not a very
sensible option even if it's still road legal!Over the coming months
we will be slowly upgrading the engine to extract some more power as
well as other minor tweeks that all race cars undergo. Our first
upgrade has been the installation of a Kent CVH33 camshaft with all new
hydraulic followers and topped off with uprated dual titanium valve
springs and seats. This has already lead to a noticeable increase
in performance and once we get some more upgrades in place we will be
getting a rolling road session arranged for the final tune up.
Some photos will be following soon as well as an update to the
technical spec page.
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