Formula Renault BARC

[SpawnyWhippet]

Originally Posted by boycie

Good to see you raise the issue of blue flags Bob. Definite lack of them and it seems to be a recurring problem throughout British motorsport at the minute.

This same issue has been raised several times in Mono Committee meetings, ie backmarkers impeding front runners while being lapped. The Mono committee referred to a strict blue book interpretation, ie the blue flags are only to instruct that another driver is close behind, it does not mean that the lapped driver needs to allow the faster car through. I personally think that this should be updated to say that the lapped driver should allow the faster car through when its safe to do so, unless this compromises the slower drivers race. When I am racing, I always wave a faster car by so he knows I have seen him and on which side to pass (unless we are racing for position obviously).

[Bob Pearson]

Re blue flags and lapping, we have a particular problem in BARC Renault in that the twin cam cars are vastly superior on the brakes when compared with an 8 valve car. When you add in the inevitable variation in braking points between a leading car and a lapped car the effect is that the twin cam cars literally pounce on the 8 valves, quite often in the last part of the braking area, so making collision even more likely then normal. Add to this the fact that a good 8 valve is at least equal and in some cases faster than a restricted 16 valve in a straight line, and so the leading car has less opportunities to pick a good place to lap.
There was conflicting stories regarding whether there were blue flags shown when Matt Russell spun, so can't comment on that, didn't see it. There was certainly an added complication in that the car Matt collided with had been racing with his team mate in an identical car to Matt's, so there was a risk of confusion there.
Everyone is welcome in BARC Renault, we already have one lady driver, so why not two? Tell her to PM me on here and I can answer ( hopefully) anything she needs to know.

[ianpearson]

Originally Posted by dikko

Saw this link and thought I might butt in - hope you don't mind. A friend has bought a F Renualt. SHE has never raced (or sprinted) before. When she has a few goes in it would she be OK to trail along behind you Guys - and would you moan if she got in the way??
Anyone in this series near Ware in Herts she can have a chat with??

The more the better, what car has she bought? best thing to do is to get on the phone to Pauline the championship secretary & try to sort out an entry to oulton or the winter series.
Has she got anyone running her? we/I could attend a test day to help with the setting up & driving of these cars

On the subject of blue flags, yes they were a bit scarse at times but generally I had no trouble coming through. When being lapped just carry on your normal line, the worst thing you can do is do something un predictable like moving off line & slowing down. Lapping is a skill that is being forgotten, it is up to the leaders to make a safe decisive pass, the level of risk taken in this pass is relative to how close you are being followed yourself

mistakes happen, we are just very fortunate in our formula that the driving standard is high & this is the exception rather than the norm

[dikko]

Thanks fellas. Will have a chat with you at a future meeting.

[kickstart]

Bob, what do you think makes the 16v cars so much better on the brakes that the old 8v ones ? Have they got better brakes or is the aero package.

[ianpearson]

Originally Posted by kickstart

Bob, what do you think makes the 16v cars so much better on the brakes that the old 8v ones ? Have they got better brakes or is the aero package.

they have huge twin pot brakes, they practically fill the inside of the wheels up, the aero package could help them to scrub the speed off better aswell.

[JHMotorsport]

Originally Posted by dikko

Thanks fellas. Will have a chat with you at a future meeting.

dikko,
There's a few newbies to racing who could vouch for the BARC championship being a great race series for these cars... myself being one! I spoke to the Pearsons before I jumped in one (as have many I think!) so your friend won't go far wrong. As has been mentioned, Carolyn seems rather bitten by the single seater bug now too.

My car sits in Watford, Hertfordshire if that's any help but you could call up anyone in the club class and and I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all... friendly bunch.

Definitely have a work to Bob and Ian though:-)

[dikko]

Thanks JHM spoke to Bob, made us most welcome, will get her along to chat to you and a few others soon I hope.

[dikko]

Bob, prospective F Ren girl racer says she would like to come to Oulton for chat to you & Carolyn JHM etc, lost your number can you contact me again please. Dick Dixon 01920 871153

[ianpearson]

anyone have a spare renault sport dash they would like to sell, it is not for me but a friend in belgium

[pantah]

A quick thanks to Ian Pearson. I have just bought him Championship-winning car off him. Car exactly as described, most helpful with any request for information, and he even fitted us some new brake pads and a different set of gear ratios.

We are very inexperienced in motorsport, (this was our first season), and it is a credit to the sport that there are people like Ian around.

Cheers

Andrew Thorpe

[pantah]

Need to make a drivers seat for my newly aquired Tatuus FR... Any advice regarding binliners / duct tape and expanding foam filler would be most welcome BEFORE I make a huge mess, and end up stuck permanently in the car !!!

Andy

[ianpearson]

glad you like the car andrew
Regarding the seat, i would probably try to find something stronger than a bin liner, twin pack expanding foam is pretty strong, it will even try to push you forward in the car. put some thin cardbpoard down the sides of the cockpit & form it losely around the gear change, this will make your completed seat easier to extract. Rather than taping the bag i've just had someone holding the rolled up end of the bag tightly & keeping an eye on it. You can get the foam from boat yards, they use it as a boyency aid in hulls, it is cheaper than buying from a motorsport retailer.

oh yeah don't wear your racing overalls, the foam does'nt come off in the wash, an old boiler suit is more preferable

[MikeBz]

Slightly OT, but a cautionary tale about expanding foam. This is almost certainly an apocryphal tale (or at least very artfully embellished), it did the rounds on the internet years ago before most people had heard of the internet.

A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.

Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.

He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.

Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.

He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly).

I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters "Caution - expansion ratio 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"

Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.

Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.

A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.

At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.

Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe.

Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.

Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again.

However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simply made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.

I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell) .

Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.

At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......

Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before.

[pantah]

Thanks for the advice, (and to Dermot who emailed me direct). Perhaps MikeBz could advise me how to fix my timing strut to the canoe. The pointy end is very difficult to get a good fixing on to, and the thing is very slow off the line, not to mention the fact that someone pointed out that it handles like a barge .....

Thanks to all. Should I emerge from the car unscathed, I shall report on the success (or otherwise) of the seat making !

Andy

[Bob Pearson]

Nasty drop in entry numbers for Oulton, about a 50% reduction from our highlight at the "flat out at 50 event". A shame really, Oulton is such a superb curcuit I am amazed that drivers didn't move heaven and earth to ensure they didn't miss it. It was a nice Autumn day too, still, got to look forward. What about the winter series
( if two races on one day constitutes a series), whos up for that? 1st prize is worth over £500 if you consider that it involves a free registration for next year plus the usual place payment.
Theres a free test thrown in for the entry fee plus Renaults free food, so the value isn't bad, just keep the three layers on all day and the hyperthermic effect shouldn't be too bad.
The most important thing to remember is that if you sit in doors for too long the wife will only find you jobs to do, so the winter series is too close at the moment to allow the decorating to be started, after the winter series Christmas will be too close and she wouldn't want rooms half finished at Christmas. After that testing will be started, so the incentive for that winter series is really high!!

[JHMotorsport]

Seems like pretty good value... I'm hopefully going to be there as I can't afford to turn down any free seat time:-)
How's the nose on Ian's new car going? Mainly wing damage I guess?

[e12]

Originally Posted by Bob Pearson

Nasty drop in entry numbers for Oulton, about a 50% reduction from our highlight at the "flat out at 50 event". A shame really, Oulton is such a superb curcuit I am amazed that drivers didn't move heaven and earth to ensure they didn't miss it. It was a nice Autumn day too, still, got to look forward. What about the winter series
( if two races on one day constitutes a series), whos up for that? 1st prize is worth over £500 if you consider that it involves a free registration for next year plus the usual place payment.
Theres a free test thrown in for the entry fee plus Renaults free food, so the value isn't bad, just keep the three layers on all day and the hyperthermic effect shouldn't be too bad.
The most important thing to remember is that if you sit in doors for too long the wife will only find you jobs to do, so the winter series is too close at the moment to allow the decorating to be started, after the winter series Christmas will be too close and she wouldn't want rooms half finished at Christmas. After that testing will be started, so the incentive for that winter series is really high!!

Is there a seperate BARC FRenault winter Series?

[Bob Pearson]

There are two seperate races for BARC FR, which are being held at Brands with the UK FR races, Clios and a few other things

[ianpearson]

The nose on the car can be easily repaired, i started salvaging parts from the wings last night, of which there was not many, running the wing over really was the final straw after knocking it off. congratulations again James, once you get the first one done the next will come even easier.
I'm still intending to do the uk renault winter series, but failing that i will be doing the BARC winter series in the white 98 or money permitting an fr2000

[pantah]

having just taken delivery of Ians' very nice FR97 Tatuus, we are curious about the positioning of the ignition cutout switch. It is mounted under the roll hoop, within the bodywork. it is very difficult to get to. Is this the norm for FR's of that vintage... and what do the scrutineers have to say on the matter.

If I were a marshal, attending the car in the event of a shunt, I would want to be able not only to locate the cutout easily (OK. I know there is a sticker) but be able to get to it with gloved-hands.

Any views or observations welcome.... before we relocate it to satisfy the sprint / hillclimb scrutineers.

Thanks

Andrew

[pantah]

Originally Posted by ianpearson

The nose on the car can be easily repaired, i started salvaging parts from the wings last night, of which there was not many, running the wing over really was the final straw after knocking it off. congratulations again James, once you get the first one done the next will come even easier.
I'm still intending to do the uk renault winter series, but failing that i will be doing the BARC winter series in the white 98 or money permitting an fr2000

Remember our emails regarding collecting the car etc...???? It sounds to me like it was a wise decision to collect it early, and you use another car !!!!

Andrew

[Bob Pearson]

The cut off switch on a 97 Tatuus is in an awkward position, and it is probably no coincidence that they moved it to the dashboard bulkhead on the 98 and 99 cars. It has never been questioned by a scrutineer. I would imagine you can move it as you wish. Ian could always operate it OK, it was me that got my hand stuck when trying to. I did come to a halt at Croft once when I hadn't turned it on properly and it sprung into the off position.

[pantah]

Originally Posted by Bob Pearson

The cut off switch on a 97 Tatuus is in an awkward position, and it is probably no coincidence that they moved it to the dashboard bulkhead on the 98 and 99 cars. It has never been questioned by a scrutineer. I would imagine you can move it as you wish. Ian could always operate it OK, it was me that got my hand stuck when trying to. I did come to a halt at Croft once when I hadn't turned it on properly and it sprung into the off position.

Yes... Our new sponsor is 'ELASTOPLAST'.... my knuckles haven't recovered yet !! We'll leave it where it is for the Curborough Sprint this saturday. Any problems, and I'll refer them to you !!!

Thanks Andy T & Andy Spanners

[skmanuk]

Bob

What are the dates and venues for the winter series?