Avon today
Turbo Mini Forums

Well after the waste of diesel that was transporting the DON to Castle Combe to drive it round the paddock a few times, today I went to Avon Park for the RWYB, Nic also met with me there with his car.

Today was to be the battle of the heavyweights, Nic had driven his Mini to the strip and so had filled his petrol tank right to the top, and the DON had gained the rollcage and a second seat for the intended Castle Combe laps that were never to be, so it was up on weight too, 491kg in actual fact when I weighed it on Friday with a full tank of fuel in it.

Managed to get 7 runs in over the day, the fastest time managed was 13.037, the slowest 13.4...something, all in all a frustrating day, apart from the first run I was somehow missing gears in nearly all the other runs, I found a bush drifting out of place in the gear linkage so this was pushed back into place which helped things, there are also another couple of bits I will change at some point. The final run of the day was the one that felt good, hooked all the gears up, used the gas in 3rd and 4th, felt dead set on for a dip into the 12's, then lo and behold the slowest time of the day at 13.4sec! The reason behind this I *think* was the clutch dragging slightly, so when I engaged 1st gear I think the car must have moved slightly before I took the clutch up to start, hence the clock started before I did. Terminal speed was 115mph, so to say I was pissed off with 13.4 was an understatement!
Grip also seemed crap to be honest, although the DON and other turbo minis never get the best or the most consistant 60ft times, with some practise I have been achieving reasonably consistant 2.2/2.3 60fts at York, at Avon early on I was lucky to get 2.4/2.5, the surface seemed very poor.

Nic didn't fare an awful lot better, the same as me he was also struggling for traction, one run was aborted due to the car dropping onto 3 cylinders, this (luckily!) turned out to be a tappet had wound itself out, so quickly cured. For his last run of the day I think a bit of gung-ho got hold of him in the efforts to repeat the 12's, on coming back in the car didn't quite sound on form, he shut it off and went to get his timing slip, whilst he was gone I fired it up briefly to circulate the water in the engine as he had been doing earlier in the day, and it didn't sound good at all.
A quick investigation found it running on 2/3 cyl, with the centre two not firing. Plugs out and a compression tester on hand we had a look, but as soon as we cranked the engine with the plugs out to comp test cyl 1 water was spat out of cyl 2, game over. Having driven the car there things were not looking great, luckily RAC cover was on hand, so I dropped Nic's car off in Stratford so the RAC could not get shitty with him about picking it up from Avon Park.

All in all a weekends motorsport to forget.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 1st Oct, 2007.

Doesnt sound like uve had a good weekend then tom ,wel non of the turbo lot tbh. O well like you say all in a days racing.

hmmm unlucky lads, and nic you should know better than driving it there mate if its gonna go then it will do when the trailers at home.

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

Unlucky then lads.
Trailer turbo minis, never drive em nic.

Tom, still getting 13.08 wit a roll cage and seat is an accomplishment on its self. Dont beat yaself up bout it. Sounded alright to me.

Back once again like a renegade master

tired, ill write more tomoorow

but massive thanks to tom and lisa

im never driving to a rwyb again

Im just back from Avon myself...had to leave around 3pm to catch an early boat home so I could get some sleep before work tomorrow !

I did spot your car there Tom, and did ask someone standing nearby if he was Tom with this mini, but he denied all knowledge lol

Obviously not you then !!!!

I only did 2 runs on Sunday then gave up, not much grip available, then the queues just got silly..
Managed 7 runs on Saturday, but until they glued the track, grip was non-existent. First hard pass seen me still lighting the tyres up in 3rd. After the glue though, finally managed 10.32 at 142, but the car feels crap. Wont rev at all :(
Need to get it sorted, and can start getting faster again.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

Bad luck guys.

Fucking mini's!

Team Racing

Very sorry things didn't go at all well for u chaps
But as U well know thats bl--dy racing and I'm sure at some point most of us have had the same sh-t days and unfortunately some more to come.
"Well U could say if things went right all the time what would you do with all U'r time betwen events"

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c248/spe...er1/mini007.jpg

If it a'nt broke don't fix it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right thatll teach me for trying to prove a point

I was trying to drive to a rwyb, run a 12 and drive home to prove any doubters that my car wasnt a road car

Any way so i got there fine, including a long bit of 3 figure speed

First run against the DON, and after staging my rear wheels (twat), i was pushed back, then hit the limiter in first for aggggeeeees and ran a 13.351@106 with a 2.3 60ft

Second run 13.391 @ 107, 2.4 60ft

3rd run and we re set the tappets as they were a bit noisy 13.511 @107.5

4th run and a bit of a cock up-after the burn out the car was on 3 cylinders. I slowly did the run (22.097 @48). Parked up and one of the rockers had come loose, luckily winding out. This is the second time this has happened, (probably my fault this time)

Next time out with tight rockers 13.295 @ 105.52. This time i lowered my tyre pressures from 28psi to very soft and ran a 2.4 60ft (no difference)

I then managed to join back up in the queue just before they pulled the chains across. This time i was going for a bit more effort, wound the bleed valve round to setting 11, it felt fast but no difference 13.35 @ 105.2. When i parked up it was puffing a bit and i was hoping it was the tappets again

Tom gave me a hand to sort it out, but water was being launched out of the no 2 cylinder and it was game over.
Tom and lisa kindly unloaded the DON and took my car into stratford. I waited with the beast. I owe these 2 big style.

I ran the rac and they said theyd get a flatbed to me after telling them what was wrong. 40 mins later they send out one of the orange vans. He said its just a formality that he has to come and immediatly asked for a flat bed 7.15. About 8.20 one of those horrid beaver tail things arrived-my wheels only just fitted in it, the bits poking out originally pressed on the floor, and the guy wanted to strap a light board on the car. Eventually he got it to sit ok on there, but i was not having the lighting board on it. I did ask him to unload it, but he ended up not running the lighting board. I got home about 22.15 and am still yet to see if the floor is damaged at all

Bugger i should have been happy with the 13.2, but once ive run one time, anything slower just feels crap

Ah gutted for you both! Still i'd be more than happy with even the 'slowest' or should I say less fast time!

Its all part of the "fun" knowing that you've still got to drive the thing home after ragging the tits off it...lol

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Nic - was your car running in 'heavier' trim than at Avon?

If so - is the results between Tom's and Nic's motors not showing that a little extra weight makes a lot of difference to the 1/4 mile times???

Good theory Dave, I don't agree in practise though, the difference in the times I managed was purely due to driving it like a muppet, and also little to sod all grip at Avon, and looking back, my fastest time at the showdown 07 was a 13.3 whilst learning to drive the car and setting it up, whereas my slowest last weekend was 13.4......

Well, you say 'sod all grip' - but if you have more weight to accelerate (weight that is also in a less than ideal place) then this is not working in your favour; and would of course make it appear that traction was less - wheras it *could* have been in part due to the vehicle not wanting to accelerate due to the increased mass.

Of course; I guess you were also set up for a track, not a strip... :)

Here are some times from the tickets for Carl to look at.

Run 1 2.409 60ft
8.689 @ 90.08mph 1/8
13.084 @ 110.85mph 1/4


Run 2 2.363 60 ft
8.569 @ 90.18mph 1/8
13.146 @ 104.49mph 1/4

Run 3 2.368 60ft
8.631 @ 89.65mph 1/8
13.037 @ 110.80mph 1/4

Run 4 2.264 60ft
8.656 @ 86.93mph 1/8
13.125 @ 109.69mph 1/4

Run 5 2.377 60ft
8.637 @ 89.14mph
13.214 @ 105.47mph 1/4

Run 6 2.381 60ft
9.006 @ 91.57mph
13.370 @ 112.37mph

Run 7 2.491 60ft
8.887 @ 79.97
13.323 @ 114.5mph

Run 8 2.561 60ft
9.159 @ 88.85mph
13.472 @ 115.32mph

Well, looks like you realised in the last two runs that the pedal on the right makes the car faster. At least compared to the earlier ET's LOL!

I stand by sod all grip; see comments from Stevie above and Nic, and also a lot of the guys I spoke to on the day were saying the same.

PS Dave, what is your new sig?!?!?!?

Edited by Tom Fenton on 1st Oct, 2007.

Magic gas!


Mmmmmmm!



So, looks like it was just a weekend to forget!


Oh, the sig was just something i remembered from a while back. We've now (of course) seen what you really were working on all this time. :)

im almost being convinced into some of this cheating gas

Whats next....a 16v head?

stay away from the dark side Nic... As long as you're beating folks with a 5-port you need to stay faithfull.


Or was this a similar 'tonge in cheek' comment like Carl/tom made several months before Avon, and you are already planning / have such an engine in the pipeline?

Im with dave on this one.

5 Port power 8 valve!

Back once again like a renegade master

NEVER!!!

Theres plenty in the 5 port yet

Ive been thinking about an alooy 5 port, but even that im not so sure if its ok

I still think theres more to be done with the 5 port,

despite having already beeing seduced lol.