So, Rockingham happened!
I got the car finished at about 2130 on Thursday night, leaving me very little time to do any work on the map.
I was DETERMINED not to go to another trackday with the fuelling all over the place and things not as they should be, so I headed out at 2130 with the tablet and got to work on the fuelling.
Initial runs were pretty promising. Back on the 120a alternator, and with additional earth strapping. AFR seemed better, and temps seemed to be pretty stable too which seemed to help maintain a stable AFR.
After a bit of tweaking, I ended up with a mid map making 21psi at the top end, ramping up in a nice linear fashion, and map 3 on the button doing 27psi, the highest I've run yet. Both held AFR reasonably stable between 11.8-12:1, and the car felt like it was FLYING!
Friday morning arrived, and as promised Ed dropped the worlds largest trailer off at my house soon after 7am:
Before loading up I measured the rear arch height of the BMW:
610mm.
I then loaded up the car, filled the BMW with tools and Stes wheels to return to him, and measured the back end again:
610mm.
I LOVE self levelling suspension!
I set it up with around 70-80kg of nose weight, and thanks to the rear SLS of the BMW the trailer chassis sat perfectly level:
I tried to get a pic with Oliver, but he didn't seem that interested
From here we towed it down to the Wheel Alignment Centre in Southampton so Nick could give it a quick once over:
The tracking was ever so slightly out which had been causing the pull to the left I'd been getting. This was reset, and the car setup with a fraction of toe out. I'm undecided at the moment if I'll keep it this way.
From here, the car was towed up to work, where it would stay overnight ready for the trip tomorrow.
One thing to note: this is a SERIOUSLY long load with the 5 series Touring and the huge Brian James trailer. I thought it looked pretty cool though! You don't see many modified tow cars:
Having dropped the car off at the unit, I went home to enjoy a family afternoon, followed by a meal out with work.
Small and I went to the woods:
Then later I had a curry and a becks blue
wouldn't want to be over the limit the next day!
Saturday morning arrived all too soon after not much sleep, and we set off at about 0450:
A quick stop at work to hitch up and off we went!
Shell stop mid day for essential 6am coffee:
and we arrived at Rockingham before 8am!
The BMW Towed absolutely brilliantly! As a tow car I really couldn't be happier with it. It comfortably carried all our stuff, in complete comfort. It would happily still accelerate up any hill despite the heavy load, and it returned about 26mpg over the whole trip. What a car!
Dad came up in his A4 as he and Mum were coming back to stay with us afterwards, so it was a Prawn family event!
I unloaded the car and had it sound tested. 100db cold! Wow. what a difference.
The exact same exhaust setup had been 92db 6 weeks ago when we arrived after a 2 1/2 hour drive, so it really goes to show how important it is to warm the whole system up before heading to a noise test!
With the noise test done, we got the car into the garage and got everything unloaded:
We were sharing a garage with
@Golfyste and his awesome mk4 Golf.
Cars unpacked, it was time for the briefing.
Dad and I were front and centre for a change!
Then we jumped in the que for the sighting laps, which Dad was driving to get used to the car:
The sighting laps were GREASY! Dad kept locking the brakes. I thought he was being a muppet.
Turns out, he wasn't!
I've experienced more traction from a greased weasel than Rockingham in the wet
you'd have more confidence trying to run across an ice rink in flip flops than that surface offers! the levels of grip were so unbelievable low you really did need to be there to experience it. madness!
When we returned from the sighting laps I noticed that our garage 18 was right under the podium.
I couldn't resist a quick pic!
Cameras in and Dad headed out for another session:
Conditions were tricky at best, as I think is best demonstrated by this pic of Niges golf after his son Matt took it out for a few laps:
Dad and I seen here checking out the debris whilst the Pinder girls all had a very good laugh at Matts expense!
Gurds was also out lapping in the Flying Tomato, but oddly we seemed to be 'out of sync' so didn't come across him on track all morning!
After a few sessions to set tyre temps and things, we found ourselves in the pitlane with Ste, so decided to head out together and have a few laps, swapping places so we could both play chase
For a bit of a highlights reel on the above, skip to 04:50 to watch Ste almost slide into an RX8, then 08:10 to watch me nearly take off the back of a brand new F80 M3
Ste and the M3 slowed WAY more than I was expecting, and given the risk of rear ending an M3 or taking to the grass I thought it best to dive right. We smacked the kerb pretty hard, so I decided to come straight in to check the car over.
No damage done. All good to continue