Hello there dear website readers! You'll be pleased
to know we've enjoyed a couple very good weeks here since the last update.
Following a visit to the amazing Autosport show at the NEC last weekend
Ross has been picked as the lucky winner of a raffle. As a result we now
have over £1000 worth of very impressive Video VBOX Camera and Video
Datalogging equipment for the car next season thanks to the very nice
people at Racelogic!
The Video VBox Lite with accessories
is shown above.
It's the kind of system Ross has been longingly
staring at on the internet for a while now but hasn't been able to afford
so to win the exact system is brilliant...an omen for a good season perhaps!
In short the system has 2 cameras which record DVD quality video and sound
as well as logging the cars position using GPS data. This will then allow
Ross to use the enclosed 'Circuit Tools' software to analyse the laps
later on and see where he was gaining or losing time on different laps.
For a much better example of this have a look at the videos here
There is also a further option of a display which the team are
looking to fit to the car next season. The display will replace our existing
laptimer and use the GPS data to feedback a 'live laptime' straight onto
the dashboard. For example, if Ross is lapping at Brands and has set a
best lap of 51.538 seconds, then as he completes any subsequent laps they
will all be compared to this previous best lap time throughout the current
lap. So instead of a laptime flashing up as you cross the line you are
getting constant feedback throughout the lap of where you might be gaining
or losing time against your previous best so you will know straight away
whether that last corner was quicker with a tight entry or a wide entry,
or if you were better off in 3rd or 4th gear etc Surely improving laptimes
with the added benefit of not having to setup timing beacons at the side
of the track which we forget to do half the time anyway!
Looking better than it did last
season!
In other news the car has really been coming together well during
the last few weeks. The new floors have been fitted, the engine, dry sump
tank, oil cooler, radiator and hoses are all in and the wiring is coming
along nicely. The wiring is actually one of the nicest things about the
rebuilt car, when you took the dash off last season you were met with
what can only be described as a baffling tangle of various coloured wires
(with seemingly no particular system) connections and dead ends. We now
have a very organised colour coded system which as well as being easier
to work on has shed a great deal of weight too, especially as the battery
has now moved to the front left corner of the interior, meaning we're
not dragging heavy starter cable back through the car to it.
Apologies that the flash has made
our 'in your face orange' look a bit weak in these pics!
Moving back through the car the seat has been remounted (2kg
saved on seat mounts alone!) , the fire extinguisher system is partly
plumbed in and the rear axle / diff / shocks etc are all back on. Also
fitted and ready to go is our rather nice new fuel tank which sits in
a much safer position to the old one.
You can just make out the fuel
tank in the above pic
We've just heard from Exeter Gearbox Centre that our gearbox
has been returned to full health following it's hiccup at Brands last
meeting so that will be fitted next, followed by the exhaust and our very
fancy Racelogic video data logging system along with the rest of the wiring
before we can begin repanelling the car.
With the build going so well the plan is to hopefully take the
car to Llandow before the start of the season proper for a bit of a shakedown
whilst also bedding some new pads in and getting our heads round our new
gadgets! See you next time!
