UKGPL Season 22 (2011-2012) Historic (66) - Moulinsart - Nov 1

[BadBlood]

Hmm - I'll have to watch the replay. Think I was the backlapper King mentioned and I might be at fault for Bernie but I think he was ahead of me... most were...

Pretty happy to have managed a 2:53. No practice and no setup, but just drove for a finish. Crashed on lap 12 at the Chicane when Mini decided that he would come and talk to me about his latest AWESOME race... (the capitals are his - he is 13!). 13 points for survival but 8 secs shy of Nigel who I am determined to beat in a fair fight... might have done so if I could have avoided spinning every lap.

Sven is quick - aint 'e!!!

[EvilClive]

I was half asleep at the start and consequently got jumped by about 3 cars before T1.

Still, I was not too bothered as I had qualified on race fuel and that meant I had to be at least as fast as the guys in front.

I found myself behind J Jonny and I have to say that Jonny's car was warping slightly and bouncing about as I followed him. I was planning to outbrake his eagle at the end of the straight and wanted a good run over the jump so I was running in his slipstream. As we started on the up slope to the jump his car appeared to jump to the right and hit something ( although there appeared to be nothing there!!) and rebound onto the track sideways over the top of the jump.
I had just committed to the jump and had the gas floored in 6th..almost squeezed through by keeping as tight to the right as I could as Jonny's car went left...but I got the smallest of clips which pulled me to the left. From then on it was a case of watching an accident happen in slow motion as the bridge got larger and larger and I just could not get the slide under control until a couple of wheels were liberated against that same bridge?? 

No worries Jonny, it was a racing incident probably caused by some warping on your connection initially.
Grats to Sven, who claims that he is NOT very fast !!!  lol , hmmmmm. I think there might be a few who will watch that closely. lololol

[Phil Thornton]

Unexplainable what happened, my car went straight in the middle and hit the wall.
 came back and hit the pilot Clive , regrettable.
 Out in the first round and take a favorite to win contestant is embarrassing.

I think your car bottomed out on the bump before the rise.  Ivan did the same in front of me, thankfully I missed him and he could continue.  This sort of crash happens at Dingle Dell at Brands Hatch  and the big dip at the Nurburgring where there is also a bump before a rise.

I suggest you increase the bump rubber and ride height slightly.  I always do half my qually on full tanks just to make sure I don't have any problems like this.

Bad luck Evil, nothing you could do.

[ivandjj]

Unexplainable what happened, my car went straight in the middle and hit the wall.
 came back and hit the pilot Clive , regrettable.
 Out in the first round and take a favorite to win contestant is embarrassing.

I think your car bottomed out on the bump before the rise.  Ivan did the same in front of me, thankfully I missed him and he could continue.  This sort of crash happens at Dingle Dell at Brands Hatch  and the big dip at the Nurburgring where there is also a bump before a rise.

I suggest you increase the bump rubber and ride height slightly.  I always do half my qually on full tanks just to make sure I don't have any problems like this.

Bad luck Evil, nothing you could do.

Moulinsart warmup race was Long, not 50 mins IIRC. It's possible that extra fuel made me bottom out now. Entirely my stupidity and miscalculation.

Later had another incident where i bounced off the walls. Was very lucky that car didn't have fatal damage in both cases. But my engine lost a lot of power after that and it finally blew on the last lap. Since i was last on the lead lap, didn't lose a place which was again very lucky.

So, technically i didn't finish a race again, but i'm at least getting luckier, if not better.

[bernie]

Yep ,  Suspension bottoming out and hitting the bump rubbers the cause of many a freak spin  

Same can happen when braking hard on any track if the suspension is not set properly  

[svenvangent]

Hallo Kinghiro ,
Yes it was a good race , start was clean saw you comming from the right side and say to myself ollalala this man is little bit faster than me so ....i thought to myself cautious sven , it was a clean start for al the racers in front (don't know what happend in the back hopefully they made it also trou the first couple of 100 meters )
So , i was behind you at one moment and dident know what would happen so i stick behind you  .
The race was going on and after some laps i saw that i could keep up with you and after a while you let me gentely pas you like a genteleman thanks Kinghiro ( this was between parc and epingle de haddock ) .
from this moment i had te lead maaaaaaaan i was nervous , one thing i can tell you .... racing between to drivers in the heat of a race is something but racing in  front for the first time knowing that one mistake could cost you 3 or 4 places or care could be broken did not do any good for me and also hearing the cars behind me was crazy  
But But i made it trou the race and with a good feeling i ended the race .
In the heat of the race a had also some tricky moment   .
It was a good experience thanks guy's .
greet t.sven svenvangent  

[Ross Neilson]

Well done Sven on winning your first race in UKGPL? Has anyone else ever managed this?

I hope you will slow down a little in future races

[Al Heller]

Well done Sven - debuts don't get much better than that. Clive's unusually slow start allowed me up to 3rd off the line & gave me a ringside seat for the battle for the lead with good clean racing by the front two - Sven patiently sizing up where he might pass & Tom carefully covering off any opportunities. Once Sven took the lead, I didn't want to start fighting with my teammate Tom as it would only slow us both down & with Goran looming close behind, the hefty tow that the BRM provided down the long straight helped us both to carve out some breathing space. After we'd established a bit of a gap to Goran I was keen to try & put Sven under some pressure but we both slipped up while lapping Paul - not seen the replay yet but I wasn't sure whether Paul had seen me & I was so busy watching him that I misjudged my corner entry & spun I guess Tom spun in avoidance so once we got going again Sven had a hefty 20 second cushion & Goran was right on our tails again. A slight error by Tom allowed me through into 2nd - I was expecting him to come & reclaim it soon but then he got embroiled in a battle with Goran which luckily allowed me to pull away. Sorry for Tom that his race ended in tears as he was right on the pace. Anyway really nice to be back after my season break - especially racing Tom & Goran as we were so closely matched & our fastest laps were virtually identical. Oh & great track choice too - really liked the circuit even though I never did get the hang of that damn jump.            

[Hristo Itchov]

I suggest you increase the bump rubber and ride height slightly.  I always do half my qually on full tanks just to make sure I don't have any problems like this.

I would suggest lowering the bump rubbers because it's hitting the (stiff) bump rubbers which suddenly affects the car balance. Ride height and higher bump/rebound is usually sufficient.

[HendyNichols]

Well done, sven, I got to see you lap me

Can anyone confirm the flat-out chicane?  I was definitely slowing down for it and the jump, what with pro settings & no resets.

Is the bump rubber setting 'stiffness' or 'size'?  I thought having higher number would mean bump rubbers are hitting more easily cause they are larger, so I mostly have them at 0.5 unless it's a heavy GT.  Maybe I'm all wrong though and it's actually stiffness.

Fuel load makes a huge diff too.  Always test with race tank to see.  I noticed bottoming with fuel so notched up the springs by 1 setting all around and ride height up 0.5 in.

[blito]

I reduce the bumps to their minimum level and either raise the ride height or stiffen the spring rate (or both)... That said I span the car on lap onejust before the jump when the car bottomed out! Did a full 360 and carried on unharmed... ahh the benefits of running a distant last

[Hristo Itchov]

You set the bump rubber size while stiffness remains the same. Keep in mind that with more fuel in the car, it's mostly the rear that becomes heavier, so it helps having slightly stiffer rear spring or more ride height. The problem with that is it changes balance, so one has to either test or just accept the compromise. One thing I've always noticed is that it's much better to have the rear bottom out than the front, so I sometimes set the front ride height higher than the rear. And of course it helps a lot to be on the throttle when you go over the bump instead of decelerating and having the nose of the car go down into the bump.

[Ronniepeterson]

Well done Sven on winning your first race in UKGPL? Has anyone else ever managed this?

I hope you will slow down a little in future races

I did try to explain Sven was "quite good"  and not just in a Porsche!

For anyone else reading this, Sven is the real deal when it comes to a PRO driver. If I was not graded Pro myself this season, I would be begging to join his team. Get in line fast before the rush. There you go Sven you will be in a team before you know it, I hope.

Ronnie

Great win by the way Sven, good luck mate.

[il_lupo_mannaro]

Sry Bernie, but it wasn't mine the red weapon that pointed a target on you
Ciao

Sorry I'm out of town tonight so I won't race this one. One free spot for reserve drivers.
Ciao

Ops, changed plans. I'm racing tonight.

Big appologies Fulvio , just watched the replay andd it was Fabio in another red thing (they all look the same to me ) maybe he got a bit too much draft and it caught him out or something 

Silly me 


Later

Better for me if you had stuck to plan A 

Yes Bernie, the red rocket was mine...
Unfortunately I really didn't expect you would brake so earlier than me, I'm so sorry!!
There's nothing more to say: a great track but my race was really shorter than I expected.
I also had another race contact with Nigel's brabby than I push Bernie out of the track at the chicane: race end!
Grats to Sven for his impressive first UKGPL race.
See you all in Monsanto

[Phil Thornton]

I'd just like to check my understanding of the bump rubbers. 

The worst case of bottoming out is when the chassis hits the ground (in which case sparks will be seen on a replay).  So I usually try to set the bump rubbers high enough to avoid that happening. 

Once the bump rubbers are set the next thing I try to avoid is bottoming out on the bump rubbers.  The car will still handle badly if it bottoms out on the bump rubbers but there won't be any sparks on the replay (because the chassis is not touching the ground).

So then I stiffen the springs or raise the ride height to avoid bottoming on the bump rubbers.  Being human rather than an alien, I find a stiff set up hard to drive so I tend to raise the ride height to give me more "feel".   

Maybe it is the wrong approach and I should always use small bump rubbers and just use spring rates and ride height to avoid the chassis bottoming out?  I used a 2.00 inch bump rubber for this race, I'll try my set up with 0.5 and see if it is any better.

Riccardo Nunnini has a good explanation of bump rubbers and he advocates using 0.5 inches.  Unless hitting the bump rubbers is unavoidable.

Regardless of what size bump rubbers to use, I think bottoming out was the cause of Johnny's and Ivan's crashes.  I suggest it wasn't an internet glitch.