Technically not a competition, as it was a track day.
I taxed it and we had a drive around on the highway to just warm things up and make sure it ran OK, which it did and nothing fell off. We decided that giving it a decent run would be good before we entered the first event, so booked a day at Castle Combe. I had been worried about the noise as it seemed loud, although the noise meter was showing about 101dB in an area with hedges, and since dB measurements are supposed to be free field, ie No obstructions around we were confident it would be below the 100dB that the MSA specify. However, it all felt a bit too close, so I made up some dB inserts and it was remarkably quiet. When we arrived at Combe the first thing to do is pass noise test. We failed at 102 with the inserts in. This was a little annoying. A track day is not covered by the MSA regs, so they can test noise any way they want, but they do it in front of the large brick built scrutineering building, and with a large hedge alongside. We bashed the inserts a little smaller, and when I went back pulled up further away from the shed, and we passed at 100. Got unneccesarily lectured by the Scrutineer, and we were in.
The sunbeam would use about 2 sets of tyres per event, 80 miles, so I assumed that the M3 would be even worse. I bought used tyres for Castle Combe, as they are much cheaper than new and still have lots of life in them. When I had them fitted I was told that they last very well, but with 300+bhp I wasn’t sure what very well meant. In the event we ran 80 miles at Castle Combe, and I will start Keevil on the same tyres, so incredibly my tyre consumption appears to have gone down, although I fear a rough rally stage may affect wear detrimentally.
We had only 3 issues on the day.
1. We had a small water leak, where a jubille clip undid itself.
2. A fuel problem on and off. The fuel system is two outlets from the tank, through two filters, and then one pump. One of the filters was causing fuel starvation after a few laps, but the other was OK. We took the filter out, and although it had a few bits in didn’t look at all blocked, but is persisted all day. After the event I stripped that whole leg down and found nothing, so just gave it all a good blast with compressed air and see what happens at the next event
3. The rear brakes were alarmingly hot, the discs actually turned blue, which is about 300C. Inspecting later the drum brakes for the handbrake appeared to be dragging slightly so were backed off, and it turned out that the brake bias adjuster worked opposite to what I thought so we had the bias mostly back, so they were working much harder than they should have been.
Back at base inspecting the car we found one of the front bushes had failed. It came from Powerflex who offer a lifetime warranty. I contacted them, sent photos and they without argument sent out a replacement. That is exceptional service.
The car went very very well, especially considering that it was it’s first thrashing. I had not driven Castle Combe before, and not the car so everything was new. The cornering, braking and acceleration were everything I wanted it to be, and more. I took everyone who had helped in the build for a spin, and everyone enjoyed it. On a good lap I think we were touching 140 going into the first corner, Quarry, and that is plenty fast enough.
Photos to follow later.