New Toy

Something I’ve been considering buying for ages is a small lathe. It seems I’m about the only one left in RGB that doesn’t have one! Only joking … I remember when I was collecting the Fury back from Andy Bates after the Snetterton repairs last year he commented on how scarcely a day goes by that he doesn’t use his lathe for something or other. In this case he’d turned a couple of small aluminium bushes to replace packing washers for an engine mount on my car.

There are loads of places I’ve got stacks of washers used on the car – engine mounts, suspension rose joints, prop centre bearing. I also wanted to make some rather nicer drop links for my front ARB. And of course learning to use a lathe is something I’ve fancied doing in itself, like I did welding. What’s put me off so far is that the cheapest ones are nearly £400 in Machine Mart and although one of those would do the job they’re of relatively low quality. Given the amount of use I’m likely to make of one spending a lot on one was never an option.

So when my rallying friend Phil was round a couple of weeks ago we were talking about it and he said he though he might know of a second hand one for sale. The friend who had it was away on hols but at the weekend Phil said he’s back and it is for sale. So we went and got it last night. It’s a Hobbymat MD65 and although it’s pretty old it’s in lovely nick and has clearly been well looked after. The nearest current equivalent in the Machine Mart catalogue is just over £500. Mine comes with a load of bits and pieces, a 4 jaw chuck, a couple of dial gauges, faceplate etc. The asking price was a very reasonable £150 so I didn’t bother haggling, just paid the man his cash and got it home and tucked up in the garage.

I’m too lazy to take a decent pic of mine but here’s a pic from the web of the same model, mine just has simple rotary switches for the main motor switch and the direction rotation reverse. This page has quite a bit of information about the lathe.

Now I’ve got a bit of a learning curve to climb. Before doing his electronic engineering degree and started working on Eurofighters my brother Andy actually served an apprenticeship in turning so as well as my RGB buddies I can call on him for help too.

So this morning I made some room on the bench in the garage and heave-ho’d its 45 kg into place. The chap selling it had demonstrated it to me with an old 12mm bolt in the chuck so I spent a happy half hour this morning turning that into a piece of scrap steel It’s got a rather nice autofeed mechanism which apparently allows it to cut screw threads, there’s a rather complex plate on the front with a table containing lots of numbers which seem to indicate which drop gears you need to install for various thread pitches.

I’d better order some ally bar then …

RGB Winter League

Nope, no updates on the Fury I’m afraid. She’s still sitting exactly where I put her after unloading her off the trailer from Silverstone. I do plan to venture out to the garage again soon and start the winter rebuild though.

I came up with a plan a while back to help with the winter withdrawal symptoms – RGB winter karting events. After checking it was viable we had the first one yesterday at Daytona in Milton Keynes. We managed to just about scrape together 20 karters for an exclusive booking. Sadly I couldn’t get a daytime slot so we were on at 5pm.

Having met up with the gang we had out briefing at 5pm – a video presented by Martin Brundle, followed by the race director answering questions. There were quite a few questions and I suspect he must have thought we were numpties but the problem is that we’re all well accustomed to yellow flags, red flags etc. which all have very specific meanings and set protocols in motorsport. The problem was that at Daytona they use them differently so we needed some clarification.

After the briefing we all got geared up and trouped out to the pit lane and went out for our 5 minute qualifying session. The track was soaking with standing water in places, it was also dark and to be honest the lighting wasn’t too brilliant in places. I got to turn 2, braked, turned the steering wheel and nothing happened, at least not from a kart turning in point of view. It just understeered straight on into the kerb. As I splashed my way round I discovered this was quite a variable phenomenon, at some corners there was a modicum of grip at others there seemed to be nothing. At one particular corner with fairly high entry speed there was none at all until you got to a certain point when just as you thought you were going into the wall the thing hooked up and round you went. Of course we were all spinning left right and centre. I wasn’t sure what to make of it to be honest.

After qualy we all parked up in pit lane and they called us to the grid one by one. I think they called the back half of the grid first in case which I’ve no idea where I was! We had a rolling start and after half a lap I decided I could see better without the visor so I lifted it up which did help. After a few laps I got the hang of the circuit layout and after a couple more started to get to grips with the kart. I eventually discovered that the trick was to get the power on almost as soon as you’d turned in, this would step the rear round a bit and kill the understeer off. When you got it right you could then go round the whole corner sideways which was great fun. Within a couple of laps I was of course completely soaked but had decided it was well worth it!

After our 25 minute race we all went back in and took the soaking race overalls off to reveal soaking clothes underneath. I don’t think any of us had a change of clothes but no-one seemed particularly bothered and from the grins all round I deemed it a success. A bunch of us then found our way to Pizza Hut in the town centre for a debrief over some food and a couple of drinks. By the time David and I got home it was gone 11.30pm and I was knackered and still soaking wet. Good day out!

Le Mans 2009

OK, nothing to do with the Fury but a few days after getting back from Anglesey it was time for my annual pilgrimage to Le Mans for the 24 Hour race. After staying with my friend Richard, David and I headed off at 5am Thursday to Eurotunnel with Richard and his son Andrew to met the rest of the gang. Joe was in his Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and he arrived at the Tunnel immediately before us. We were in fact behind him in the queue and his car is truly deafening. It has a ‘sports exhaust’ which apart from looking like being big enough for a family of refugees to hide in it seems to provide absolutely no silencing whatsoever. That combined with the car being pearlescent orange mean it’s not exactly a stealth mobile. The other cars in the convoy were a Jensen Interceptor S, a rebuilt/re-engineered classic with an LS2 V8 engine driven by Steve who co-owns the company who build them, a 911 C4S Cabriolet, an Aston V8 Vantage, an a couple of quick Mercs. And my Cayman S and David’s Civic Type S.

We were being pretty sensible on the way down through France but after a few miles the Cayman developed a misfire. It did it once before when it was cold but it went away straight away. It did again after switching off and on again, but then it came back. And got worse. We were near Rouen so we looked up the nearest Porsche Centre and limped there. One of the nice things about owning a Porsche is the level of customer service you receive. But I wouldn’t buy one in France! To say the service manager was disinterested would be an understatement. After about 30 minutes we saw my car going out, presumably on a test drive, with 2 people in it. After another 25 minutes it returned with just the driver in convoy with an older 911. So it looked like they’d used it to go out to collect a car! After another half hour or so we were told it needed an ignition coil pack and that they didn’t have one in stock and it would probably arrive Monday. Despite the language difficulties we made it pretty clear we would really like it before then and that we had to return to the UK on Monday. He said to ring tomorrow at 11am to see if the part had arrived. So we all piled into the Civic and made our way the remaining 200km to Le Mans to catch up with the gang who were already ensconced in Le Scarron on the beer by the time we arrived. I wasn’t a happy bunny.

Friday we went to Les Hunaudieres on the Mulsanne straight where there was the usual gathering of Brit petrolheads in various machinery ranging from the sheds purchased and painted up specially for the trip to the exotica including some quite rare spottings such as a BMW Z8 and a Spyker, also lots of very nice classic old Astons etc. We rang Porsche Rouen, no part, ‘maybe Monday’ … grrrrrrrrr. Time to involve Porsche Assistance. Off to Arnage for lunch then back to Le Scarron …

Saturday we headed into the circuit and met up at the Champagne tent for some lubrication prior to taking our seats in the grandstand for the race start. This year we were in the stand immediately overlooking the finish line opposite the pit lane. As ever the start was an amazing spectacle – all the cars park up as they used to in the old days obliquely down the side of the track, peel off one by one as they’re green flagged and form up as they come round again for a rolling start. They make an incredible noise, from the eerily quiet diesel Peugeots and Audis to the F1-howl of the Lola Aston V12s and the very deep V8 Corvettes. Of course within a few laps the faster cars have lapped the slower ones, a few cars have pitted and you don’t have a clue what’s happening I forgot to bring my radio to the circuit – Le Mans Radio often helps keep track of what’s going on. So we err … went back to town and Le Scarron.

We had a meal booked at The Auberge de Mulsanne for Saturday night so the 12 of us pitched up there having never been before. It’s unsurprisingly on the Mulsanne just on the exit to one of the big chicanes and you could just go through a few trees in the garden and emerge right by the main circuit barriers a few yards from the track. Absolutely brilliant view of the cars coming out of the chicane in 3rd gear hard on the gas. Phenomenal speed differential between the GT1/GT2s and the LMP cars, later on the brakes, much higher corner speed and vastly faster acceleration. You could hear the cars going through the gears out of sight and holding 6th gear flat out for what seemed ages before you heard the crackling of the over-run into Arnage corner. It was even more awesome as it went dark. Couldn’t hear each other speak during the meal of course

After another late night (I’m sure I was approaching my 21 units of alcohol for the week by now) we went back to the circuit in the morning. We’re lucky boys in that Richard had a personal invite from David Richards to visit him at Aston Martin Racing, so the four of us made our way to their hospitality marquee which had a great balcony overlooking the braking area into the Ford Chicane just before the main start/finish straight. After a while we got a nudge to go off with David’s PA who took us on a buggy and sneaked us into pit lane to meet David Richards at the Aston garage. This year’s Astons are Lola chassis’d LMP1 cars in the iconic Gulf Racing livery and the piles of carbon fibre body parts lying around looked stunning, as did the bin of beautifully fabricated manifolds. All was quiet in the pit garages with the mechanics all sitting round either looking bored or asleep. It always amazes me how spotless these garages are, not quite like mine!

We got a lift back to Aston’s marquee for lunch then walked back over to the grandstand to watch the last hour of the race. Of course bar crashes and breakdowns it’s all pretty much done and dusted by then and in the last half hour most of the teams get their slower cars to back off so their leading car can catch up and they come in at the end in convoy. So the end of the race is a bit processional but a spectacle nonetheless.

We left Monday morning in the Civic and called into Porsche Rouen to be told the part hadn’t arrived. I spoke to Porsche Assistance who said they’d already spoken to the service manager who had told them it had arrived but hadn’t fixed the problem and they’d now decided it was an injector problem. The part might arrive Tuesday … yes, I was tamping. I explained to Porsche Assistance that I needed to get back home anyway so they asked when I planned to come back for the car! I said I wasn’t planning on it and they’d need to recover it back. They said that would take up to 15 days. I was even more pleased. I asked the service manager for my paperwork (the original car sales invoice) and after a quick rummage on his desk he didn’t find it and shrugged his shoulders. When I said I wasn’t leaving without it and he’d need to find it right now he got angry with me so we asked to speak to someone else. Eventually they found it and we left for the long drive home.

So, a great trip apart from the broken Cayman – I can live with a car breaking down but the awful customer service was a bummer. Amazing really, the first time I went to Le Mans Richard and I went down in the Ultima GTR I’d built and had no mechanical problems, we go down in a two and a half month old Porsche and have a nightmare! At the moment all I know is that the car is finally fixed but no idea when I’ll get it back. Porsche UK Customer Service have actually been very good after a phone call en route back from the Tunnel they had a nice Merc CLS delivered to the house later the same evening.

Brands next weekend