Manfeild Testing

Last minute prep

Manfeild track was a first for me. First day at Manfeild and first run of the RS60. This was going to be an important shakedown in the run up to certification.

There were a few desperate last minute actions to prepare the car. I’d removed the rear toe arm mounts because a recent laser show conducted in my garage had made it clear I had rear bump steer toe out. This would have made my normal bad driving atrocious because the back wheels would have tried to pass the front around every corner. This was finished with a dodgy wheel alignment using string.

Then a brake bleed in an attempt to cure a mysterious soft pedal. No air bubbles but still no real firmness to the pedal. Very effective brakes though, huh ….. Then a light went on in my head to match the red brake light; there's an underlying design problem with marginally wrong size parts. Content that at this point it was a case of brake feel and that I still had the brakes to stop well, this problem went into the fix later category.

Admin was also last minute. Hire a trailer, buy 100% cotton overalls, clean helmet, get video app for the android (surely the most important bit) and examine weather forecast. Rain showers in Feilding grrrrr but since my club night show and tell I’m used to getting wet. Nothing prepared me for the 2.5 hour trailer haul with cross winds and sheeting rain. Arghhh.

Frustration mounted at Feilding as I went to the wrong Manfeild gate twice – slow learner. At least the deluges were now down to a half hour basis. I'd forgotten my log book too... well to be honest I hadn't recognised my log book for what it was. The course steward stalked off in mock disgust.

On the track - almost

Excitement was mounting. My son Nick and I ensconced ourselves in the last available (and flooded) garage and signed in. Video footage shows me babbling like a coked-up chimp so the adrenaline must have been flowing.

First session, reverse out of the garage, engage first gear and snap… I must have turned into Popeye as I’d snapped a gear change rod where it joins the change cable.

In swoops club member Robin who declared himself a master butcher of bodges. In 20 minutes we had concocted a repair using a 6mm bolt, a vice clamp, a chip of wood and a piece of string.

Then on to the track. First sensation: back wheels spun on the wet pavement. Robin was following and said I left two dry lines into the first corner. I was so wound up I’d almost forgotten how to drive. Goodness knows what gear I was in. Second sensation: the blow off valve gasped and my heart skipped a beat. This always gives me a start.

On to the inner straight with puddles everywhere. At the left after the Castrol Esses, the front wheel noisily scrapes the inner wheel arch, and I feel the clerk of the course swinging his binoculars our way. Then foot down. I hear Nick alongside saying, “Oh shit” as the tyres bit, the car accelerated and he realised his father had gone mad.

On the greasy right hander on to the back straight, the rear stepped out slightly in the slippery conditions but it was an easy catch. Back straight was a blur of wind, roaring and gasping – and that was just me.

Coming past the pits my mind finally caught up with the car. This is a beginner’s session with a strict max speed and I’m a beginner in an unproven car with my son as passenger. The next few laps were sedate.

Boost seemed to be on again off again and the scraping in the front wheel arches was disconcerting. However, the car ran straight with no vibrations. The vice-grip-bodged gear change was easy. Power plentiful. Smiles aplenty.

Back to the pits and all was well with no leaks and only some spilled oil burning off the manifolds. Robin spotted a nut working its way off. And we need a bilge pump for wet tracks!

Rear vision was almost nil. One side mirror had been damaged on the trailer trip up and the centre mirror doesn't clear the rollbar harness mount.

Nick had a go and proved to be a cooler driver than me. As passenger I watched the gauges like a mother hen over her chicks and looked out for traffic. All went well - even avoiding a duck standing nonchalantly on the racing line. Nick flicked the boost controller and 5psi become 10. The monster in the engine roared and we were rammed from behind by a runaway locomotive. Yikes back to 5psi please.

And so the day went on. Massive fun and no disasters. It was great to see the more experienced club members driving in the faster sessions spouting rooster tails of water.

On the last run I selected 10psi again. The driving gods surmised that they needed to stop me doing something silly. As I lined up the inner straight they struck. Kapoof! An intercooler hose blew clean off. Testament to Subaru’s limp home mode I returned to the pits at an embarrassing 20mph blowing black smoke like Puffin’ Billy.

The clear message was stop while you’re ahead. The shakedown was invaluable. The fix list is remarkably short and includes: master cylinder size increase, deepen inner front wheel arches, get better rear mirrors, bead roll the intercooler pipes. I’m also a bit worried about the low speed centring but maybe I’ve been spoiled by rack and pinion. High speed is very stable as the caster takes over.

Homeward

My thanks to the organisers and officials, the master butcher Robin and my son Nick who proved to be a calmer customer than me.

Photo credits Brian and Eion.

Manfeild Redux

I was one of a handful of CCC members who enjoyed the MG Car Club Driver Training Day. Many thanks to Club and Ron Robertson for the invite to this well run event.

The weather was hot, 24^o, cloudy, with intermittent earthquakes. Quite a contrast from the deluge of September 2013.

I was concentrating on giving the RS60 a good work out and was either circulating or fixing things that broke. My son, Nick, and I drove the RS60 for dozens of laps at good speed, with vigorous cornering.

It passed its biggest test - there was no overheating despite the hot ambient conditions. I was worried, as the RS60 only has a letterbox for a radiator opening and a full under-tray, so hot air has to flow out through the wheel arches. I believe I’m getting a beneficial payoff for my efforts to fully duct the radiator with guide vanes to help airflow.

A heavier anti-roll bar and removal of 8mm wheel spacers has pretty well cured the problem of the body rolling on to the front tyres discovered at its last outing.

However, we broke the gear change cable again (out with the vice grips) and blew the intercooler hose three times at full boost. All easy fixes on the day and the majority of the time we used half boost with no problems.

Track testing produced a list of fixes for certification - not terribly serious though:

• Fix the damn intercooler hose and add better cooling for the intercooler radiator which got too hot to touch. A fan?
• Proper fix for the gear change. Remove the rod/cable interface and buy and install full length cables.
• Raise the front ride height (currently 93mm) slightly to cure any hints of body rub - there was a tell tale on the right front tyre. This will also make the car more roadable. It’s currently a chore to load on to trailers and ramps, and speed humps will surely gut the sump. The VW front end is easy to adjust by fitting a PUMA ratchet adjuster and cranking the torsion bars by a couple of degrees.
• Free play in the steering box to be fine-tuned – it’s not centred properly.
• The speedo still doesn’t work.
• And I can now lock in the suspension mounting.

The car tracked well and stuck to corners like a limpet. I see there are three possible reason for its good behaviour: (a) I’d designed it right ( very unlikely, reading about Colin Chapman hasn’t made me Colin Chapman!); OR (b) I’m very lucky (why not Lotto then?) ; OR (c) the truth, as Brian W said a while ago, is that as a rank amateur I just won’t have the feel in my bum to know what’s good or bad.

The car sits low, on good wide tyres, has a mid-engine dynamic, and most Manfeild corners are banked. As a result, it handles, grips and corners better than any car I've ever driven. So I haven’t got a frame of reference to say whether any changes I make are good, bad or better. I can only say it’s better than the doughy family Mitsi.

My sense is the car doesn’t have much understeer - it pulls into corners well and the steering weight loads up as the front wheels bite. There is a mild sense of the rear pulling the car around the corner which suggests it’s a bit over steery - logical with all that weight at the back.

There were no issues on trailing throttle and it shrugged off the odd clumsy gear change rear wheel lockup. Floor the throttle on exit and the car makes like a gorilla, it just squats and goes.

Acceleration is significant.

I bravely took it out in a ‘third’ session. I was followed through pit lane by the wildest Skyline I’ve ever seen. It was in full time attack dress, with straked diffuser venturis, multi-element wing and fins over the roof. The maw of a grille looked like it wanted to eat my poor little RS60, which promptly blew an intercooler hose as a form of self protection. I returned to the pits dignity shredded

There proved to be an interesting contrast in driving styles between me and my son. I'm slow in, power out. Nick goes in fast and relies on grip to get it round. I think this is the difference between those of us who grew up on rear wheel drive and the new front wheel drive generation. Poor Nick suffered with me asking him to slow down. He’s a very good driver with an eye for finding the right line. However, little did Nick know I’d lost my glasses pulling my goggles down and spend a hectic two laps trying to find them.

I don't think I'll try flick over steer in this car like my old Escort - there's just too much grip . What made me feel like Ari Vatanen in the Escort safely at 30mph will happen in the RS60 quickly at 70+mph – goodbye Ari, hello Charlie Chump.