After the semi successful first round of the season at Manfield Autocourse we thought we might get ahead of the game and do some testing at the next venue, Taupo Motorsport Park, unfortunately the test day wasn’t as successful as we would have liked!
We had changed the spring set up in the car to make it much harder which we had hoped would assist with the handling issues we had at the first round. Initial feeling was much better; however the car kept pouring oil out of the breathers which made it impossible to do more than a lap at race pace before oil would overflow onto the front tyres. Once back at the Dtech Motorsport workshop the oil problem became apparent… there was a cracked ringland on one of the pistons which was allowing oil to get past (and effecting performance, and a time bomb for further catastrophic damage!).
This lead to a frantic piston change in the few days before the second round of the series, with thanks to chief engineer and tuner Dave Heerdegen @ Dtech Motorsport and our mechanic Tim Robinson for the few late nights in turning the car around ready to make the grid come Saturday.
We were then able to use the race meeting as a further test session to develop the car, as it became apparent that the handling issues still weren’t fully resolved. We were able to compete and consistently finished mid pack in all races, except the first race which we had to DNF due to the windscreen fogging up. This was unfortunate and disappointing after all of the hard work during the off season to build the new car, but comes with the territory when the car is untested, and in its maiden season.
A few suspension and wheel alignment settings were altered in the 3 weeks before the third round @ Hampton Downs Motorsport Park which we were confident would resolve our handling issues. Unfortunately when we got to the track for testing it was apparent that the handling still wasn’t where we wanted it to be, and that we weren’t using all of the brilliant and consistent Kumho tyres.
A quick trip to nearby Auckland and we returned with an uprated 27mm Whiteline rear swaybar to replace the 24mm rear bar on the car. Unfortunately we ran out of time to complete any further testing however we were confident that this solution would work.
Fortunately our suspicions were correct and the new rear bar completely transformed the balance of the car, and the handling was now exactly where we wanted it to be! Unfortunately the joy of the team was short-lived as we came across another issue which was sapping us of valuable power! Data logs were showing inlet air temperatures reaching a peak of 76 degrees Celsius, which is significantly over the 35 – 45 degrees expected! This was pulling timing out of the motor, and robbing us of around 40kw or 17% of our meagre power! A few phone calls later, and more trips to Auckland and we had our hands on a standard intercooler as a temporary solution to the issues. Luckily this solution worked and was implemented for the last race, which we promptly won!!! We also managed to go only 0.6 seconds slower than the old car around the circuit in the final race, which is extremely promising of future potential given this car is significantly down on power at present. We were also taken by the consistency of the Kumho tyres, with most laps within 0.4 seconds of each other, even with traffic across the course of the weekend.
We are now quite excited about the future of this car, once we put a decent engine and cooling package into the car, and some wider wheels and Kumho rubber we are confident that lap times will tumble even further! It might not all happen this season, but it will certainly happen!
Surprisingly however with the consistency that we have been running we are 7th overall in the championship out of 27 competitors. This does bode well with another 4 rounds of the series to run and our worst round being dropped from the point’s total. We have set ourselves a goal of a top 6 finish and we are confident that we can achieve this result.
The next round is the ever popular Thunder In The Park meeting at Pukekohe Raceway on the first weekend of December. This is a very high speed track which doesn’t suit our lower power car, but we will certainly give it our all!
Best Regards
The BT Motorsport Team
