DemonDriverDan's Rallye Race Car

[DemonDriverDan]

Racing is a lot of fun and I've put a lot in to the car to make it competitive. We do have to work pretty hard to beat the Clios and a Mini but I'd rather it be this way. Trackdays are pretty boring once you've been racing!

[af1]

I'll have to see if I can find the pic of my boys in your race car!

[DemonDriverDan]

Never updated this to include the final race of the year at Brands Indy in November. No real changes to the car since Snetterton apart from a new set of Brembo front pads as we finally managed to kill the XP8s. Unsurprisingly the Brembos were a bit crap but they were only designed to last 1 race!

As expected, Brands was wet and cold which meant a lot of sideways fun, particularly through Paddock Hill. Qualifying was fairly uneventful, my brother's stint was a little slower than normal as he had to bed the brakes in and mine was hampered by the fact a Golf had decided to dump fluid around the entire wet line. Useful. We still qualified 5th overall and 2nd in class which was pretty good considering out wet tyres were a bit crap and the diff not being setup for the wet.

The race was much more fun. Ben gained a few positions but ultimately the car didn't have the pace to keep up with the ones in front so he pitted 3rd on the road and 3rd in class, shows how competitive our class is when there are no cars in the class above in front of us. My stint was mainly about overtaking lapped cars although I had a great battle with the class B (class above us) leader who ultimately got past to take 3rd overall. In the end we finished 4th on the road and 3rd in class so another podium and trophy for the collection. Although we did get a nice dent in the side courtesy of another Golf deciding to defend far too hard when I was lapping him.

Some fun sideways moments from the race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoRd8s9m7n4

And a few photos:

[7057sam]

Congratulations mate

I know carl chambers quite well and heard about the tin tops and french car trophy,really inspiring to see other people do it

[Eeyore]

Yeh looks great! Hope to see the car at some point!

[Matt-Rallye]

Those sideways moments look fun!

[DemonDriverDan]

Cheers guys. Not a huge deal to do in the off season, just replace the consumables really. Hopefully going to get some machined trailing arms to sort the rear geo out and try to find more turn-in.

[DemonDriverDan]

Cracked on with a bit of work over the weekend. I needed to swap the head from one of the spare engines onto the other to get a complete spare engine setup and ready. Nice and simple job



I also trimmed a fair amount of material out of the dash from the spare car, although difficult to put into pictures!



I finally pulled the heat and sound insulation out from behind the steering rack, been meaning to do it for a while.



Progress, if nothing else. Started ordering in the parts for the new year and hopefully booked the car in to the local bodyshop to get the dents removed.

[7057sam]

Looks great

Any more engine plans ? How did it hold up last season?

[Dum-Dum]

Nice progress mate, every time I look in here i want to start racing.

[DemonDriverDan]

The engine will be standard for a little while longer. I've got a rough spec of what I want to do but no funds to throw at it just yet as there are a few other suspension and gearbox upgrades I want.

Possibly going to run a new livery next year, however not 100% sure yet.

[DemonDriverDan]

Big update from over the winter! Not a lot of updates mechanically to the car, new tyres and replacement front pads and discs and that's about it. We do have a new livery this year though:







We did the MSVR media day this year as well, good to get the car out and help the series out:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5CXOhyKi-s


Last weekend we had our first race at Snetterton. Qualifying was very damp but we took the decision to run the dry tyres which was inspired as it meant we could get some good laps in at the end of the session. We ended up qualifying on pole by 2.5 seconds clear of any other cars, great result!



The race was an epic battle. After a slow start we were 5th at the end of the first lap which meant a scrap to get back through the field to get back to the front. I had an awesome fight with a Fiesta, swapping positions every few corners! Our pitstop was a nightmare after a late call to pit and a red light at the end of the pitlane meaning we lost a few seconds. Luckily we came out ahead of the Fiesta and could start hunting down the Mini in front which was 8 seconds up the road. Fortunately we had some serious pace in the car so started catching at 2 seconds a lap and easily caught the Mini up, which ultimately ended up sliding off on some oil and allowing us through easily.

We ended up winning the class and second overall to a guesting Clio Cup car. A great result and a good way to start the season, especially with the car a little down on power!

[7057sam]

Well done mate

Saw it on Facebook the other day,you run dunlop now?? Have the rules changed much this year??

[Matt-Rallye]

Thats really good going against a clio cup car! nicely done

[Dum-Dum]

Brilliant mate, not sure about the colour scheme though.

[DemonDriverDan]

Little update here. Since the last post we've had 2 more races. The first was at Cadwell which didn't quite go to plan! We qualified 2nd and were in the lead of the race when we hit a kerb in the wrong way which triggered the inertia switch Managed to get the car running again but by that point we were well down the standings.

Second race was at Brands Indy which went much better. Qualified on pole, won the race and got fastest lap! We actually lapped everyone up to 4th and that was with a sticky brake calliper, fairly pleased with the result. Another trophy to add to the collection We've qualified on the front row of every race this year as well! I'll post up some pictures later. Watch out for us in PFC at some point soon as well.

Oh, and the new engine that's hopefully going to be in for Snetterton in a couple of weeks

[DemonDriverDan]

Had our latest race at Snetterton again last weekend. Qualified first class and 9th overall which we were pretty happy with considering we were 24th out of 27 in the speed trap! The race started wierdly as the first row of cars didn't move when the lights went out which nearly resulted in a pileup. Luckily all was ok and at the end of the first lap we were still 9th and making ground on the cars in front. We quickly passed a few more cars to end up 5th in class until a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. A bit annoying and the circumstances are not clear but whatever, we'll deal with it. After the penalty we were back to second in class and 7th overall which is pretty much where we stayed until the end. Unfortunately the front tyres started to go off and were well and truly dead by the end of the race. Can't complain at another podium but should've been a win really, we had a 15 second lead over the car in second in class!

Few photos:











And the video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbUREQJobT4

---

Meant to give an update on the new engine as well. It's in the spare car, should be mapped next weekend. Specs are:

Omex 45mm throttle bodies
Piper BP270H cams
Maniflow 4-2-1 with decat
Longman's ported and polished head
Omex 600 ECU

Full rebuild with that so new bearings etc. Bores were immaculate as I think they were honed recently so didn't bother to get that done. Hoping for around 200bhp out of it but not sure yet.

[Eeyore]

All of those photos are so good! Are they free with your entry? New colour scheme rocks!

[procta]

Christ dan you have really come a long way! have you had any races telly vised yet? nice to see a change the colour!

[Blandy]

Nice to see your progress. Cars looking great

[DemonDriverDan]

We've done 11 races and been on the podium 6 times. 3 wins, 2 seconds and a third. Not bad when you consider we've had 2 car failures (driver fault really) so only 3 non-podium finishes!

Photos are provided by one of our sponsors, JAM Motorsport Photography. Hoping to bring the car to FCS / Pugfest next year so will try and drag him along as well.

[procta]

I have heard of JAM Motorsport Photography, I think they may even sponsor someone in the mg metro cup too.

[Niall]

Looking properly awesome mate!

[DemonDriverDan]

Cheers guys, going well so far. New engine will put us in a new class but we beat most of those cars anyway!

[procta]

dan have you raced up at croft yet?

[DemonDriverDan]

Not done Croft an unlikely to. Only a few race days there during the entire year and they're generally taken by the bigger series.

[7057sam]

Colour scheme looks epic

And it's great your doing video's for each race,the bmw battle was a great watch

[Magenta Sunset]

[quote='DemonDriverDan' pid='478865' dateline='1412371912']

Brake t-piece for the new lines. Also fitted a bias valve by the handbrake but don't have a pic of that



am I right in thinking you've gone from dual-circuit to single-circuit brake system?

[DemonDriverDan]

Cheers Sam. I've got a couple more videos to put together from our win at Brands Indy and the Cadwell race earlier in the year.

am I right in thinking you've gone from dual-circuit to single-circuit brake system?

If I understand what you mean it's still a dual circuit system. One port from the master cylinder feeds the front brakes via a t-piece and the other port feeds the rear by a t-piece. I run a larger MC than the standard GTi6 one as well.

[Dum-Dum]

Ooh what master cylinder you running then and what size?