2CV racing with car #48 - the 2025 season begins...

[chaseracer]

P4...

[brownnova]

Unfortunately been overruled on the telly by the two smallest members of the household so no longer watching… 

They said they wanted to watch a film about a racing snail… apparently that was called Turbo… not “24 hours at Snetterton”

[chaseracer]

Five hours and change remaining.  Couple of minor running issues sorted, but still a strong P5.  Driver strategy amended so the Team Principal takes the shorter final stint to the flag.

Trying to hide increasing twitchiness.

 

[MrsJuular]

Been awake for 32 hours so far but well worth it. Enjoying it as much as last year with the best team @juular, @chaseracer, @Inspector Morose, @Talbot, @Crackers and not forgetting @Gabriall who done amazing on her first driver changes.

Weather coming in for start. 

Beautiful sunrise

A pit stop of our neighbours 

And an action shot of George having a ball with the beautiful sunshine.

Autoshite was well represented

 

[chaseracer]

[High Jetter]

<-----

Has just worked out that PIC must = Place In Class on the timing page and that you're P5IC and13th overall

[juular]

  On 25/08/2024 at 11:20, High Jetter said:

<-----

Has just worked out that PIC must = Place In Class on the timing page and that you're P5IC and13th overall

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Yep, there's also C1s, Minis, and a BMW engined 2CV kit car all in their own respective classes as they aren't competing with each other.

[chaseracer]

P4 again!

[chaseracer]

Safety car, so pulled Neil in a bit early and plugged Laurence in for a slightly longer final stint to a 1530 finish.  Still P4.

[juular]

A very tense Autoshite Racing and Special Engineering garage.

[High Jetter]

You managed to hang on to 4th place then, hope you're all pleased with that.

[juular]

Hell yes!

[keith777]

Good result, well done !

[juular]

[Mrs6C]

Huzzah!!!

[Crackers]

Apparently, it's the best result this car has ever achieved. 

[brownnova]

Great news, and great work team! 

[Talbot]

This year's issues included:

• Jetting both the spare and main engine to get the part-throttle and full-throttle power somewhere near about 13:1 mixture.  Being a sequential weber carburettor, there are a LOT of changes that can be made, so this was a fair task, but aided by having a wide-band lambda sensor in the exhaust and a live readout.  We aim for 13:1 as it's very variable, and 14:1 is a bit lean for racing, whereas 12:1 is safely rich, but a bit too heavy on fuel, and of course we wanted to maximise fuel economy for minimal pitstops.
• V-box data and video recording device got wet and died.  Bums.
• Failed fan after a certain driver went bump-drafting during the race.. and fractured the fan mounting leading to no cooling and no charge (alternator driven from the front fan)
• a small stint of off-road smashed the damper off the nearside rear, which was then trailing on the track for about 2 hrs.  Amazingly, the driver managed over two hours like that (3 dampers) and still put in good times.
• Failed weld (no penetration) on one of the front suspension arms, meaning the "Belgian" modification was ineffective.  We left it like that as it would have taken forever to fix mid-race.
• A random misfire, fixed with new plugs and leads. (only two, so nice and easy!)
• A bent track rod, which, rather than being swapped out (which would have taken forever) was just bent straight and left for the remaining few hours.
• One tyre.

and a few other odds and sods that had to be seen to.  Critically, no engine change this year, which was superb news.

Other teams had some fairly spectacular fails, including the car that dropped most of it's gear oil, and had to be topped up as far as possible and just run with the leak.  The car that spat out a brake pad and friction-welded the caliper to the disc, and the car that had a massive engine failure, where most of the top of the crank case was blown away and you could see the crankshaft.  It came in running on 1 cylinder like that, smoking like a laboratory beagle.  And of course plenty of other issues that some people had.

Same time next year?

[chaseracer]

  On 28/08/2024 at 13:45, Talbot said:

Same time next year?

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HELL YES! 😎

[chaseracer]

  On 28/08/2024 at 13:45, Talbot said:

• A bent track rod, which, rather than being swapped out (which would have taken forever) was just bent straight and left for the remaining few hours.

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What my esteemed friend and colleague fails to mention here is that THE FIX involved some inspired 'field engineering', ie. himself climbing in with the engine and standing on the TR until it agreed to stop being awkward!

There is photographic evidence... 😄

[Inspector Morose]

Oh, it's down to me now? Okay, I'll have a go.

Saturday 12th October saw #48 at Oulton Park. For some unfathomable reason, I was invited to tag along again and so hot-footed to cadge a lift there with Mr Chaseracer and his Dyane GT(non)I.

On arrival a large percentage of team Dave was already there, the Julars (sings in Simsonesque tones) were present in the van of many miles and Mr Talbot had found a suitable spot for his (reduced in size) tent city.

Unlike the frantic activity that goes on during the 24-hour, this was a far more leisurely affair with minimal tweaking to be done on #48 and more chatting and catching up with other racers.

There was a French car show, held on the same day with some rather tasty machinery on show. 

I, on the other hand, fell in love with a beautiful Italian.

 

Now the racing. As a sprint race, this was held alongside other racing championships, ranging from fast hatchbacks to full on single-seaters, with a little bit of everything in between.

A well timed expiration on one of the single-seaters meant that amounts of oil were skillfully deposited at on corner, leading to...

 

Now to the 2CVs. Cat litter had been skillfully* spread over the oil on the corner to make it less slippy (less oily) but more slippy (racing on loose gravel, anyone?) but after qualifying, the first of two 2CV races got underway. #48 started well but got into a three-way argument for the same racetrack and unfortunately came out the looser in that particular scrap.

Despite the numerous assertions by the commentator that 2CVs can travel over a ploughed field etc etc (really? It really gets old rather quickly when its repeated ad-nauseum over the tannoy), racing CVs really don't like loose gravel on the racing line.

After a break for food

the second race got underway with a little more success for #48 than the first. Due to the time of the race being cut short because of the single-seaters oil spreading and off roading adventures (yes, tell me why they can start their race again, causing everyone else to lose racing time because of their misdemeanours. Is it because they are "serious racers"?)

By the time of this race, I had rattled through all of my memory cards, so you'll have to imagine what happened. Needless to say, Broadhurst, the younger managed a very creditable 5th place and much rejoicing was had back at the A.R.S.E camp.

Erm, that about wraps up this season. Would I do it next year? If I'm invited, the two races I attended were much fun and coupled with the good company, it does seem to do my withering mental health a solid boost. Many thanks to Mr Chaseracer, the Julars (still in a Simpsonesque warble), My Talbot, and the rest of team #48.  There is work to do on the car over the winter, new metal bits that aren't as bent and a thorough freshen up of the mechanical bits, hopefully I can lend a hand with that too. Now where can you get beige paint...

 

Oh, and we all fell in love with this wrecker, especially the V8 woofle as it sped around the track, picking bits of broken single seaters up.

Ceerio!

 

 

[High Jetter]

Would love to have been there and seen all that.

[Inspector Morose]

#48 second race.

 

[Marshall2810]

Love this.  I spoke to my local citroen guy Paul yesterday (Tower citroen)  who said one of his cars came 2nd in a race so very happy with a podium 🎉

[brownnova]

  On 14/10/2024 at 15:43, Inspector Morose said:

we all fell in love with this wrecker, especially the V8 woofle as it sped around the track, picking bits of broken single seaters up.

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It was an awesome thing! 

[chaseracer]

The racing club held its AGM and dinner-dance/bunfight/general debauchery at the weekend... this happy chap was voted Driver of the Year:

Well deserved, George!

[juular]

2025 season has begun.

This weekend car 48 was at Silverstone for the first sprint races of the year.

The main difference this year is that George will no longer be driving the sprints (but will do the 24h). Joining the team is Kris Tovey formerly of KT racing who finished 2nd in the championship last year.

A little bit strange being at Silverstone and using the same garages as the F1, which makes a bit of a change from a damp gazebo in a field.

Unlike Silverstone the gazebo normally does have bacon rolls, so you could say it's swings and roundabouts etc.

During the Friday practice session the engine was swapped from endurance stalwart Scruffy to one of Kris's own engines. Along with this came a nice set of bronze powder coated wheels.

Both drivers were happy with the new setup and not much needed done except the jetting.

Saturday qualifying and the rest of the teams start arriving.

First session saw Kris jostle for 3rd and 4th before finally putting in an absolutely scorching lap just before the flag and gaining pole by over half a second.

This is a bit unfamiliar!

Lawrence initially found Silverstone a challenge as it's very different from the club circuits, but started to find confidence, improving lap by lap and eventually putting it on 14th.

Starting grid for the first sprint. It's odd to see the 2CVs here.

As usual with the 2CVs the pack at the front swapped race leader more times than you can count, but Kris managed to keep it in and eventually finished 2nd.

Lawrence also enjoyed his race and had an entertaining battle with Sunderland in car 42 for 13th  which he managed to keep, while setting his personal best lap here, knocking a good few seconds off his qualifying lap.

Next stop, Pembrey.