The Winter rebuild finally begins!

When I came back from Silverstone towards the end of October I just wheeled the Fury into the garage. And dumped all the tools and spares from the motorhome in there. Then in the subsequent weeks lots of other things got dumped in there. So to get to my bench I had to step over multiple obstacles. Then when I got there I couldn’t see the bench for clutter anyway

So over the last few days I’ve spent some time in there on a big tidy-up. It was freezing so I made use of the propane heater I got some time ago to make it vaguely tolerable in there. Sadly it does create some condensation but I decided to live with that.

Today I actually made a start on the car. Having removable bodywork and tunnel panels is at the very least a godsend if not essential. It was only the work of half an hour or so to get the rear tub off, bonnet off, hub nuts loosened and the whole car up on 4 axle stands. I then drained the fuel tank, removed the rear wheels, brake calipers and disks. Once drained the fuel tank could then be removed.

If you’ve read my previous entries you’ll remember I was worried about what appeared to be a transmission related vibration. So my plan is to remove the drive shafts, diff and prop shaft. I’ll then take the drive shafts and prop shaft to BAR and ask Andrew to check them over to make sure none of the UJs or the tripods are sick and to check the prop centre bearing is OK. I’ll also swap the diff – Andy Bates did great work at Snett getting the LSD into the 3.38 diff but he deliberately rebuilt it with a bit of backlash to allow for it heating up in use. Sadly I think there’s a bit more backlash than I’d like so I’ll get my now shiny 3.14 diff back in there. When I took it out one of the bolts pulled its helicoil out with it so I re-tapped the hole, slapped some stud lock in there and fitted a new helicoil.

By this stage I was trying to make up my mind which was the worse smell – the petrol that was inevitably dribbling out of the tank outlet as I disconnected it all or the distinct smell of cat pee. Sadly my neighbours cats love it in my garage and every time I leave the door open they take the opportunity to get in there and mark it as their territory. It was difficult to tell what they’d actually peed on, the foam mat I use for kneeling on, the seat that I’d removed from the cockpit to dry it out or the car itself. I ended up suspecting all three

At the end of play I was ready to remove the drive shafts. This is tricky with the wheels/hubs removed as it’s difficult to stop the shafts rotating but experience tells me the wheel gun with a 6mm hex key on the end of a long extension bar makes short work of it. Sadly I sheared off the 6mm bit when tightening them up so I’ll need to get a replacement tomorrow. But I’m still pleased to have broken the inertia and made a start

I need to order some bits and pieces but have held off until I gave had a look over everything in case I discover I need things I wasn’t aware of. I’ve got a half day tomorrow so hopefully can get back in the garage in the afternoon.

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!