16th June 2008

There was a great deal of behind the scenes preparation for Silverstone. Both cars had complete suspension rebuilds. The Black MG was fitted with much stiffer springs, allowing for a lower ride height and softer damper settings. Once finished, it was difficult to see how Peter had managed before. We’d spent a number of hours talking through the LR1’s various handling issues with Kevin Williams and the result was a total rethink of the geometry.

The weekend got off to a varied start. The modifications made to the Black MG worked a treat with Peter achieving some fantastic lap times in Friday’s testing. The confidence inspiring handling lead Peter to believe that he could take ‘Bridge’ flat out in fourth. However the car did not share his confidence, slamming backwards into a wall at 80mph! Luckily, the body repair department of Bedford College was only 40 minutes away and so after a little miracle work and some big hammers, the car was returned to race readiness. We’d not quite got the tyres working properly on the LR1 so we had some further thinking and a further tweak of the geometry on Friday evening.

The bad luck of Friday 13th did not last the weekend and the races could not have gone better! We had a single endurance race on Saturday where both cars did extremely well. This meant for a very relaxed Saturday evening with nothing to be done to the cars (a first for the team). Sunday was a day packed with three races for the Black MG and one for the LR1. The Black MG performed solidly all day and managed a best lap time of 1:46.683 (only 5 seconds off the pace). The LR1 did equally as well with a phenomenal 1:44 fastest lap, 3rd in Class and our second trophy of the season.

18th May 2008

The build-up to Oulton Park had been quite hectic, with both cars being non-runners on the Wednesday before. We were making further suspension modifications to the Mk1 ZS to allow us to lower the car, and the LR1 was still in the process of being converted back to the standard engine management system (wiring loom and management system kindly donated by RSM). It was getting a little last minute, but both cars were completed and in the pit garages for 10pm on the Friday.

Saturday started at 7am and the students were ready to go before me! We readied the cars for scrutineering and waited our turn for the inspection. We had an excellent scrutineer who took the time to explain the inspection process to the students (who were then stolen by the MG Car Club for a tour of race control and some passenger rides around the circuit).

We had mixed fortunes for qualifying with the lowered Mk1 ZS allowing Peter to qualify 14th (18th at Mallory). However, the LR1 didn’t want to rev above 4000rpm or below 2000rpm! Kevin still managed to qualify 12th for both race 1and 2 though. Following qualifying, we traced the fault to a part of the emission control system we’d forgotten to disconnect and a fuel pump problem which meant that we were running with low fuel pressure. We didn’t have a spare fuel pump so the best we could do still left us with very low fuel pressure in the corners (as the fuel moved in the tank).

The work carried out before the race allowed the LR1 to be much stronger in the race and Kevin managed to pass a number of cars and finished 1st in class and 4th overall. Race two didn’t quite work out to plan with a slight drizzle for the warm-up lap turning into rain for the race and we had slicks on the car! Kevin spun twice, ran backwards on the straight approaching cascades, managed to get within one second of the fastest lap, brought the car home unscratched, but in last place.

Peter Burchill and the Mk1 ZS had a better time with the treaded Toyo tyres and finished a fantastic 3rd in class (7th overall) and wining our first trophy. From looking at the lap analysis, Peter could have finished` 2nd in class had he not had to slow down to avoid a very familiar blue spinning Mk2 MG ZS!

We’ve further modifications to make to both cars for Silverstone so our results should continue to improve. The students are also going from strength to strength, working wonderfully as a team and gaining confidence with every task. We need to get the LR1 a little more predictable with respect to handling and the Mk1 ZS needs stiffer springs. We are all looking forward to the next race with the MG Car Club promising a tour of the world famous Silverstone track for the students.

28th April 2008

Mallory was a tale of lows and highs, or in fact, highs, lows then highs. The weekend started with a test day on Friday where Kevin Williams managed a 57 second lap time in the LR1. This is a very respectable time and an amazing one when you factor in that it was Kevin’s third time in the car and first time around Mallory. Unfortunately Friday ended on a low, when the car cut out and would not re-start. However, we had all of Saturday to fix the problem so we still had very high hopes for Sunday’s race.

It seems that the Emerald ECU problems which killed our Silverstone 24 hour hopes were not fully behind us. After many hours tracing the problem, it appeared that the injector and/or coil drivers within the ECU had failed. The car would only misfire for a couple of seconds, and so late on Saturday night the race weekend had ended for the LR1. What made things even more frustrating was that Friday’s lap time would have qualified us in 4th and Kevin was confident that he could improve by about a second, which would have put us on pole.

This meant the entire hopes for the team rested on the shoulders and door mirrors of Peter Burchill and the black car. We spent Sunday morning preparing the car for the race and made a few adjustments to the rear suspension as the car had felt a little unstable at Donnington. The adjustments paid off, allowing Peter to qualify 18th (35th at Donnington). However, car and driver really shone in the race with a 12th place finish and a fastest lap time of 59.208 seconds.

The students, as usual, were fantastic and a joy to work with. They are also getting more confident looking after the cars and didn’t put a spanner out of place. They are working like a professional race team. It was incredibly depressing that the LR1 didn’t get to race, but at least it was not the fault of the students who built it or maintained it. The problems lie with a faulty ECU manufactured by experienced professionals.

We are now focused on the next round (Oulton Park, 17th May). We’ve got some more suspension modifications to make to the black car to bring it closer to the LR1 with respect to handling. The LR1 is going to be converted back to the standard ECU with the help of sponsor RSM. We are still not getting the most out of the front suspension on the LR1 so we are hoping to have our new front wishbones manufactured and fitted by Oulton. If not, they should be finished in time for Silverstone. There is some more good news with respect to Silverstone in that a third car is being assembled and should be ready for this race. Oh, a fourth car is also planned; and also, we are talking with two more schools who should be “in on the act” by the end of the season.

25th March 2008

The first race weekend of the season started with a number of setbacks. Firstly, it was very cold, so having 6 students in tents was a worry. Secondly, we’d planned to be in the pit garages for about 6pm so that we could change the rear springs on the LR1 and finish fitting the fire extinguisher system on the black car. On arrival at Donington we were told that we would not be allowed in till 8pm!

The students (as they should be) were the stars of the show and did a fantastic job, working solidly till 11pm. They were working again at 7:30am following a night in tents with the temperature at -3. Fantastic job doesn’t really do them justice; they were superb.

As for the cars………. The LR1 had to work for its living with 3 races (two with Kevin Williams and one with Ewart Kitson). Qualifying was hard work as we made a poor choice of tyres. Racing was a lot more positive. The black car is using Toyo road tyres (as it is running in a lower class than the LR1) and didn’t have any grip problems. We decided that for the race, we’d switch from the Yokohama slicks to the Toyo’s. This meant that we would be using road tyres whilst racing against cars running on slicks. However, the Toyo’s knocked about 4 seconds off our lap times and so we finished 22nd (first in class) in race 3, 16th in race 9 (first in class) and 4th in race 7 (third in class and even ran in second place for much of the race). The LR1 also managed a very respectable lap time of 1:29.934 (fastest in class). The students were thrilled to see their hard work racing so well.

Peter Burchill in the black car had a solid start to the season with respect to qualifying, but was disqualified during the race for jumping the start (he had a very good excuse…………)

So finally….. A wonderful start to the season and we are all looking forward to Mallory Park on the 27th April.

2nd March 2008

The build-up to the 2008 season officially started at a cold and blustery Bruntingthorpe, but it could be argued that the build up to 2008 started immediately after the last race of 2007. The students carried out the pre-testing safety checks and I used this as an opportunity to go over some of the basics with the team’s new members, namely Karen Smith and Maria Schiavone of year 10. Each season we aim to have students from both years 10 and 11 in order to have some continuity between seasons.

The test went very successfully with the blue car running faultlessly. The recent developments appear to have worked their magic and allowed the car to raise its average speed to over 100mph around the 2 mile test track. The black car ran very well for its first run. The only fault arising from its shakedown was a hydraulic leak which will be fixed on Wednesday.

There are still a few tasks to be completed before Donington (24th March), but confidence is growing. Driving the minibus back from Bruntingthorpe gave me an opportunity to think about what an amazing job the students have done. If we give them the right opportunities school students are capable of anything.

31st December 2007

The Black Mk1 MG ZS is nearing completion and on the 27th and 28th December, Lucy and Ryan rebuilt the suspension in readiness for the 2008 season. The car now has rose jointed rear suspension, adjustable GAZ springs and dampers and the air conditioning has been removed. The new 4 piston front callipers will be fitted in the new-year. The car now only needs a fire extinguisher, battery cut-off switch and a seat.

The MG ZS LR1 has been at the body shop over Christmas and should be returning to us in the new-year. There is still a little bit more weight to be removed, but the biggest development will be the modified inlet manifold which should push the power up to about 210bhp. We decided not to alter the engine internally for the moment as there isn’t much time before the pre-season testing.

Things are quietly slotting into place for 2008.

28th November 2007

As soon as the 2007 season was over, preparation for 2008 began. The MG ZS LR1 needs to shed some weight and gain some power. There have also been some minor modifications such as the removal of power steering.

We’ve set ourselves the aim of getting the car down to below 1000kg. The minimum weight for racing is 1100kg, but its nice to be able to put weight were you want it (as low down as possible). Unfortunately, the only components fitted to the car were essential, so it has been a matter of removing unnecessary metal. The main victims of the angle grinder have been the doors, with about 15kg being removed from each one. The side window glass has also been removed and will be replaced with Perspex. We are also looking into the possibility of replacing the bonnet and front wings with fibreglass.

You always want more power, but when the car needs to be reliable, increasing the power is often very expensive. After many hours on the phone to experts like QED, Piper and Roger Parker of the MG Owners Club, we think that we can manage a respectable and reliable 230bhp. This should be easily handled by the clutch and gearbox so we will aim to make the increase soon.

The Mk1 MG ZS 180 is also on its way to completion. Once it leaves the body shop, it will be fitted with 300mm front discs, 4 piston alloy callipers, GAZ adjustable dampers and an improved exhaust system. The doors will also receive Perspex windows.

Both cars should be out on track in February and as soon as we have some track time booked, the date will appear on the calendar.