Welcome to our Blog

The daily Post

Read our Blog
12 Dec 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Racing With No Comments Permalink

Provisional dates for the 2012 BMWRDC race season

Sticky Post By On December 12, 2011 With No Comments

Here are the provisional dates for 2012 BMWRDC season

Rounds 1 & 2 31st Mar 2012 @ Donington (TV) 2 x 15 mins races
Rounds 3 & 4 7th & 8th April 2012 @ Snetterton
Rounds 5 & 6 12th & 13th May 2012 @ Brands
Rounds 7 & 8 10th June 2012 @ Silverstone
Rounds 9 & 10 21st & 22nd July 2012 @ Croft
Rounds 11 & 12 4th & 5th August 2012 @ Pembrey
Rounds 13 & 14 1st & 2nd September 2012 @ Rockingham
Rounds 15 & 16 14th October 2012 @ Thruxton

It looks a lot better spread out than last year, but we have lost Oulton park, and Cadwell in comparison to last year (also Castle combe is not listed, but we do have the fast Thruxton circuit as the final rounds.)

The Donington rounds are to be televised on Motors TV and it should be a live broadcast, like Castle combe was in 2011

NOTE these dates have now been superseded by http://localhost/2012/02/confirmed-dates-now-for-the-2012-season//a>

08 Nov 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Brands Hatch, Racing, Video With No Comments Permalink

Brands hatch video 2011.

Sticky Post By On November 8, 2011 With No Comments

So we managed to get some video output from Brands hatch, alas not the race on the saturday when we recorded the sub 1 minute lap of the circuit, but we got most of the other time on the track, the qualifying on the saturday, the qualifying on the sunday, and the race on the sunday, after the trucks had a little play and left the surface a little slippy.

Thats it for the 2011 season, will we return in 2012, that question is at present unanswered.

04 Nov 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Racing With No Comments Permalink

2011 end of season report

Sticky Post By On November 4, 2011 With No Comments

Well this year has not gone to plan as it should do, it saw the car struggling at the start of the year due to a failed rear damper, then as we got to Rockingham the head gasket went on the car, the decision was made not to rebuild the engine, but to get a new one, and we elected to move up to class C, and use a 328 engine that was acquired, along with some other parts like larger brakes, larger wheels, larger diff (with LSD) stronger gearbox, and we were out for Oulton parks race with the car finished the night before, but the brakes were not fully clear of air so we had a spongy peddle and this was fixed after qualifying .

After the shake down at Oulton we then changed a couple of items for the rounds at Pembrey and then left the car as was for Brands, and managed a personal best at brands of a sub 1 minute lap (we really should be sub 57 seconds, but its a step in the right direction.)

As for the future, who knows, will we be out in 2012, that will be decided later on, will the car be the same? Will we actually purchase some new tyres, as 2011 we had been running on used tyres, and the grip of new tyres is noticeable.

13 Sep 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Pembury, Racing, Video With No Comments Permalink

Pembrey race 2

Sticky Post By On September 13, 2011 With No Comments

As we were testing some new power logging equipment my power supply to the camera was lacking, so we only managed to get one race, that and the memory card been full due to the camera being set to HD 1080 60fps after the visit to the Formula 1 Silverstone GP earlier in the year, it would only record about 5 minutes before the card was full, we solved this by reducing the quality of the recording, next time I must remember to take the larger card.

The next round at Donington on the 1st of October has been canceled, but they have put a replacement in place for the end of October at Brands hatch, so the question is do we do Brands hatch at the end of October, and will we get under the magical one minute lap.

08 Aug 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Preperation With No Comments Permalink

Recovering from Rockingham

Sticky Post By On August 8, 2011 With No Comments

Well after the disastrous Rockingham event where the head gasket blew on the car, and I was unable to start either of the races, the decision was made to change the engine (and not rebuild the existing one) for a 328 engine, this should give a good power increase, as std from the factory they output 190bhp, thats 50bhp more than the M44 engine that was in the car so it could compete in class D.

So what items need to be changed, the cheap way would be just to put in the new engine (6 cylinders) and leave all the other stuff the same, but with these engines you can convert the inlet manifolds to run the earlier type (releasing about 20hp) then with the lightened flywheel and some under drive pulleys the power should be up to about 215bhp.

front-brakes

Now I could keep the std braked that were on the 318is when it came from the factory, these are up to the job as they are the same that is fitted as standard to the 328, but I have gone for an upgrade and procured some E46 330 brakes for the front and some E46 325 brakes for the rear of the car, these should give a 68%/32% brake distribution, but the ABS still will not be working, mainly due to faulty sensors on the car.

Also with the car no longer having the 318 M44 engine in, and getting a 328 M52 engine, the rear drive differential can now be a limited slip, so with this in mind, I have procured a medium case diff, that has a LSD unit inside, with a view to seeing how that improves the cars ability to get the power down when coming out of tight corners.

All we have to do now is put the car back together in time for the next race in less than 2 weeks.

20 Jul 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Preperation, Racing, Rockingham, Video With No Comments Permalink

Rockingham did not go well…

Sticky Post By On July 20, 2011 With No Comments

Well Rockingham is a circuit that I like to drive, and was confident about racing there, but in the preparation to get to the circuit i felt something was wrong with the car, the idle was not good since croft 3 weeks before and I thought that was down to a valve on the inlet manifold, although this was not correct as it turned out to be a little more than the valve.

As we can see the water should not be coming out of the cylinders like that, and when I got the car home and removed the exhaust, I located most of the contents of the radiator.

So now we are going to change class, the class ‘C’ engine has been procured, and we will be installing that over the next couple of weekends.