Perspective…

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted on here in nearly two months. A few days after my last instalment a close colleague and friend tragically died after a terrible accident at work. I just haven’t felt like reporting on the car’s progress since. My mate Gav mainly got his kicks on two wheels – he was an outstanding bike-trials rider in particular. He really liked his cars too and had helped me with one or two little bits relating to the new build. Hence every time I hold my Moto-Lita wheel (which he drilled much more confidently than I’d have managed) or pick-up my repaired C-spanner my thoughts will no doubt turn to Gav. You’re very much missed Mate!

Rather in the spirit in which Gav lived his life (Carpe diem) it seems right to get this blog and life in general moving forward again.

The chassis and other parts are now in South Wales. A plan was hatched for me to take a van up to Lancashire and for Steve, Joe and I to finish the fabrication that day before I brought it all home. These things always take longer than anticipated and I came home with a few jobs still outstanding. These include:

• Fabrication of the upper front wishbones
• Steering rack mounts
• The addition of anti-roll bar tabs on the front and rear wishbones
• Some tidying of the chassis

Not so long ago I’d have got quite upset about the chassis not being finished. While “right-first-time-on-time” is still a bit of a mantra, if one accepts that problems are part of ‘life’s rich tapestry’ then such problems should, almost by definition, be viewed as precious. This is very much a new perspective for me! I’m off to see my friendly local fabricators to chat about the outstanding jobs shortly.

I had intended to take a raft of photos yesterday. Unfortunately Sunday’s wedding (congrats Mr & Mrs Breakwell) had taken its toll on the camera batteries so I only managed a few shots.  The first shot was taken after I’d roughly positioned the steering rack to check that the steering column would pass unhindered through the chassis bars – I needn’t have worried.

The other photos show some of the thought that has gone into making the subsequent build up and use of the car as easy as possible. Where body parts will be removable, these special tabs have been added to facilitate the use of Dzus fasteners. These are to be used all over the car including on removable sections of the flat floor, the nosecone, bonnet, scuttle and rear ‘boot’ cover(s).

Next are these tabs, made from folded washers. These will carry the cables (electric and control), and fuel and brake lines and largely remove the need to drill the chassis tubes, except for when attaching fixed sections of bodywork.

This final picture shows the result of my decision to rose joint each of the linkages to the front upright. Douglas at Westgarage again did the machining work which should both remove any slop and allow fine tuning, by moving the stub axle in or out using the adjustment in the rose joints, or indeed up or down (by using different tapered inserts.)

More photos should follow over the next few days.

I really should update on the position relating to the RGB regulations. The committee has been busy drafting a revised set of regulations that basically centre around 1 litre engines. The regulations freely permit one-off cars and hence the ‘Paradign Locost’ fits into the new structure quite nicely. This has left me positively enthused about competing in the championship. I’ve just seen that a draft version of the new regulations can be found at http://www.hoverd.org/Tim/2011_draft_Regulations.pdf.

Series of musings / Musings on series

The plan has always been to compete in the 750 Motor Club’s RGB Championship. It’s a well established championship with lots of friendly folk involved. However, I have a couple of concerns. Central to these concerns is the fact that I’m now not leaving for my 9 months “gap-yah” until September/October which means that I’ll almost certainly miss all of the 2011 season. If the truth be told, I’m not entirely sure what the championship will look like in 18 months’ time. The regulations are being debated at the moment and I think there is a possibility that ‘one-off’ cars could one day be excluded from a front-engined class. This is far from certain but it has meant that I’ve started to consider what else is out there; and I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

I’d heard about the Classic Sports Car Club’s Magnificent 7s series over 12 months ago but hadn’t given it too much attention. A few weeks ago, prompted by Matt Gilmour at Procomp, I started to look into it in more detail and contacted the series organiser Peter French to find out more. After some correspondence regarding the eligibility of the Paradigm, I decided to drive up to Cheshire this weekend to watch the race at Oulton Park. I dragged Steve along for a second opinion. We arrived mid-morning and post-qualification so were able to wander around the pits, look at the car and have a chat with some of the drivers. Most of the cars were Caterhams with a smattering of Westfields and derivatives of the Stuart Taylor Locost thrown into the mix too. Most of the cars had Ford or Rover K-Series engines but there was a good selection of bike engines from Suzuki (Busa), Yamaha (5PW R1) and Kawasaki (ZZR1400) too.

Everyone seemed very friendly.

What was immediately apparent was that the regulations were far less strictly defined that in the 750MC series. As long as the car is 7-shaped and isn’t covered in aero-addenda, basically, anything goes. Talking to Peter, if you are an outlier in terms of your pace within a class you should expect to be moved – sounds simple enough. This flexibility is born out of the fact that ‘Mag7s’ does not have Championship status. This keeps costs down, but does mean that awards are strictly informal. The race format is also very different to RGB. Races are 40 minutes long and include a mandatory pit stop. This can either be a simple timed stop-and-go, can involve a driver change or a complete car/driver change. This therefore provides an opportunity to share entry costs and get involved as a team entry. This got me wondering about value for money. If I add up the cost of entries and divide this sum by the time racing in RGB this season, even allowing an extra 15 minutes across the season for the +1 lap format, each minute of racing costs £11.30. If I add in qualifying, each minute of driving on track costs £6.34. In Mag7s, each minute of racing costs less than £7 and each minute driving (either qualifying or racing) costs less than £4. That’s a hell of a difference!

So what of the racing? Well I’ve been lucky enough to witness some great battles in RGB. However as one competitor observed recently, there isn’t really that much overtaking evident at the moment. This I believe is a function of increasing speed differentials and a grid of often only about 25. While one cannot really make a judgement on Mag7s on the basis of one round, the grid was full and this led to a lot of action. The pit stops also seemed to add something too and I like the fact that you at least have the option to share the costs, for example if funds at the end of a season got a bit tight. However, the speed differential in Mag7s is much greater than in RGB with the top four cars lapping faster than a RGB car has ever gone around Oulton and the slowest three lapping at speeds similar to a quick 1300cc Locost! That said, I liked what I saw and will certainly be looking to get involved.

The only question that remains is whether or not to continue to build the car to RGB regulations or whether to plan for the greater freedom of Mag7s. Of course, if the car is built primarily to meet RGB regulations then it is possible to enter Mag7s as well. The same is not true the other way around. Hence, Plan A remains THE plan.

TC

44 months on…

06:30hrs Friday 4th June 2010.

A thirty-year old man yelps somewhere in a sleepy former mining town in South Wales. A black and white cat leaps for cover, unsure of what caused this most unusual of sounds. The cat peers from around a corner to see the yelping man holding aloft two reams of white A4 paper. He looks happy. Over 3 ½ years of endeavour has all but come to an end. His Masters in Business Administration degree is finally finished!

I’ve just got back from the binders having dropped-off two copies of my final and most extensive piece of work. Joy fills the room. There’s more good news; my chassis is nearly finished as well. Joe and Steve spent an obscene amount of time getting it welded-up last weekend. The hope was to have it finished. The reality is that there is probably another five hours of work to do, mainly focussed around the front suspension. In any case, here she is with Joe ar the wheel

I’ll get some better photos when I go up to Joe’s for final fitting for the headrest and steering column. I should hopefully bring it home the same day which should be good. Then its off for powdercoating. Splendid!

I haven’t forgotten about the exhaust end pipe that I mentioned in the last instalment but I’m now going to hang-on until I’ve got the slice of catalyser to fit it before I try to explain the issues and plan on here. I’ve sourced some very smart aluminium bearing carriers for the back to replace the heavy cast iron ones, which I hope is going to make my drum and hub assembly somewhat lighter than even posh Wilwood billet calipers and the associated bracketry.  That’s the plan anyway.

Enough for now; I feel knackered! That’ll be the lack of sleep resulting from the final push to get the dissertation done!  Plus, I’d better do some proper work…

TC

Dissertation Distraction.

Apologies for the lack of updates.  I'm rather busy trying to finish the dissertation for my MBA (sooooo bloooody close now!)  Anyway, today we got news... the chassis has gone off for final welding.

There she goes:

Steve has enlisted the help of (total star) Joe the Welderman.  Here's the two fine specimens concerned - engaged in some fetching hand-on-hip action:

My own efforts have been limited to devising 'an innovative tail-pipe solution.'  More on this next time.  Do not get excited; you will be disappointed.

TC

Paddling (Upstream.)

I’m quite proud that I’ve managed to use the verb ‘paddling’ as both a metaphor and in a literal sense in the same post. I never claimed to be terribly normal….

In the literal sense, we now have a ‘flappy-paddle’ (do I need to credit Clarkson for that term?) and rocker assembly - two of the major components to be used in the rod-arrangement paddle shift system that we’re employing on the car. These aren’t just ANY old components however. They’re not made from steel or even aluminium. There are made of kevlar composite. Steve created a sheet of suitable material by building up layers of matting, sheet and resin. I’d love to tell you more about the process put it might as well be juju for all my knowledge of it. Anyway, I’m told that it is very light and should be more than strong enough to do the job. The sheet was then cut to shape by AndyW7de using a water-jet cutter. Here are the results:

The sheet was big enough to get couple of sets out. My paddle is the larger one. I’ve experimented with wheel sizes and have found that I don’t get on terribly well with tiny wheels. My wrists are increasingly prone to aches and pains (no lewd remarks necessary!) and I just feel a bit more comfortable with a 12” wheel. The intention is to finish the edges either with gel coat or possibly by polishing with cutting compound. I did the same on the carbon back panel on my MNR with good results.

I use the paddling upstream metaphor in relation to Steve’s activity on the chassis of late. I really do not envy him trying to find time to work on the car and help look after a new baby and work full time. I’m in no rush so everything is fine my end – I just wish I could help a bit more. The two Ds, distance and dissertation, don’t lend themselves well to this unfortunately.

That said, I’m hoping to have a day off studying to go to Brands Hatch on Sunday to see the RGB race and to have a look at some of the new cars that are joining the Championship. Hopefully, Saturday’s race will be without incident and I won’t miss anyone.  My old comrades from the Locost Championship are there too so it should be a good day.

TC

Top ball joints. Or not.

‘Plan A’ to connect the upper front wishbone to the Cortina upright had been the usual Locost method of using a ball joint in the form of a drag link or track rod end from a Ford Transit. We’d also intended to use a ‘quick camber adjuster,’ essentially a threaded sleeve that sits inside a 1” inside diameter (ID) tube and allows you to move the ball joint in and out without removing any parts. However, there has recently been some discussion about the fragility of these items following a total failure on a road car. In addition, 1” ID tube was proving frustratingly difficult to obtain. These considerations, along with the fact that the rest of the suspension uses rose joints, were enough for me to look at replacing the upper ball joint with a suitably tapered pin and rose joint set up.

My MNR had used this system. However, I had a feeling that they no longer offered the parts to use the Cortina upright – in the back of my mind I was pretty sure that I’d had the last set for my old car. I contacted Chris Nordon to see if this was the case and indeed it was. My next port-of-call was the ever helpful Matt Gilmour at Procomp. I had a chat with him about design and joint heights and he made it clear that he could make the parts. However, I was also pretty conscious that he and Ivan are up-to-their-eyes in work. No surprise – they really do sterling work. So, I started to investigate alternatives. I had a look at some of the Westfield specialists like CAT Motorsport but had little joy. I then found a post on the Locostbuilders forum by someone calling themselves ‘mintici.’ The post showed a very similar set up that had been machined for a Westfield. On further investigation, it turns out that ‘minitici’ is Douglas Anderson, proprietor of Westgarage Engineering Services.  Douglas usually specialises in chain drive differentials, carriers and associated parts for mid engined cars. However, it’s clear that he can turn his hand (pardon the pun) to most things.

After some efficient communication via e-mail, I sent one of my Cortina uprights to Douglas so that he could be sure that the taper was right. I also sent him the relevant measurement from Steve’s suspension drawings. The great thing about this setup is that the height of the top joint can now be changed relatively easily to aid fine tuning of handling characteristics. Good news all round. Douglas’ pro-forma invoice suggested that delivery would take up to 4 weeks. No great problem for me. However, just two days after posting the upright I received some pictures of the first pin, top-hat and rose joint assembly. It’s clearly a relatively simple job for Douglas and I’m likely to get the parts much sooner than expected.

As Douglas says in his e-mail, “The pin and top hat have been shaped to allow maximum articulation of the rod end.” This can clearly be seen in the pictures.

One other thing that the pictures show quite clearly is the casting marks on the upright. If I was in any doubt before, these are definitely getting powdercoated now. I know that it’s a race car, but cosmetically that just will not do!

TC

Safe and Sound...

Few words this time around; just a couple of snaps.

Cage from 'Caged' - rear supports yet to be installed:

And an apparently foggy shed:

If anybody reading this has access to 7/16" high tensile bolts with a 2" shank/shoulder and overall length of 2.75"-3" could they please let me know?  The only ones I've manged to source would cost over £15.00 each - and I need 22 of the things so that just isn't going to happen!

Thanking you!

TC