Graham86

Yesterdays sprint at Croft was a tough one, a bit of a nemesis for me as I’ve never won there before. It has been resurfaced but many of the bumps remain, which is definitely a good thing. What made yesterday’s sprint interesting (depending upon how you look at it) was the weather.
 
The first timed run saw a slightly damp track particularly out on the back section from Tower to Barcroft which is the fastest and scariest part of the circuit. On my first time timed run, I could see it was damp under the trees on the exit of Tower, but getting power down there isn’t a real issue. It was a bit of a leap of faith through the Jim Clark Esses that the car would hold on the exit. This is a very fast part of the circuit, slightly over 100mph in my car and by the time I’m turning into Barcroft I’m in fifth gear going past 110mph or so. The problem is once you commit to it, you’re in for the ride, so trying to read the track ahead, is it dry is it wet, will it grip requires a good bloody guess as otherwise it’s crash or die!
 
My first timed run, I managed to hold my nerve and set a good first time of 1.42.17, giving me a two second advantage over my nearest rival, Graeme. Now, I know people will say I always set a fast first time, get a banker I say and whilst this is true, I had to have the confidence to do it.
 
On the second timed run, it started raining before I got on the start line. But when I got to Clervaux and Hawthorn it was still dry, so I went for it. Coming down the back straight at high speed towards Tower, there was a sudden deluge of rain and it went from being clear to being blinded by the rain. I could see the rain bouncing off the track by the time I got there, which was obviously going to ruin the run. I lost three seconds on that part but it was almost dry again by the time I got to Sunny In. Weather eh? it was so hard to read with some of the track remaining dry but the ballsy, fast far end of the circuit getting a load of rain dumped on it.
 
After lunch we went out, it looked dry but again, some rain during lunch had made Tower through the Esses wet again, making a fast run impossible, seeing me lose around three seconds again, though it was fine through the ironically named Sunny!
 
The only thing I could be thankful for is that it was consistently the same when my class ran. I felt sorry for the Yaris drivers where it was dry for half their class and wet for the other half, ruining the runs of the later drivers.
 
Come the time of the last run and Graeme is, I know dying to beat me. I’m doing a rain dance which kind of worked with a load of rain on the far side of the circuit again, all the way from Tower to Barcroft. The top classes went out and their times were suffering. Both Adrian and Tim told me it was wet out there and there was no grip. Not very confidence inspiring!
 
So there was I wondering whether to bother going out, but I could see Graeme was so I duly got in the queue wondering if it would be the death of me when I happened upon Barcroft and saw the big oak tree! I had set a faster time on run four of 141.11 which still had me ahead and I thought it might be enough.
 
As I got to the gate. Mike kindly told me that Rob had done a 141.5 taking a big chunk out of his earlier time. That gave me some confidence that there was time out there and maybe it wouldn’t be wet out on the far end of the circuit. He also told Graeme too which was only fair and well I went for it. I had to really hold my nerve as I passed through the Esses, foot to the floor and changing up to fifth gear on the exit. I knew I couldn’t lift for Barcroft, but let me tell you my heart was in my mouth. Thankfully though it was wet off line through the Esses it didn’t seem to be the case through Barcroft and the car kept it’s balance on the way in. I nailed a great bit of trail braking on the way through Sunny In which gave me the perfect amount of oversteer in the middle of Sunny setting me up beautifully for Sunny Out, I hardly hat to steer it was all on the throttle. I gave the steering a slight kick to straighten up on the exit and launched the car down the straight to the Complex.
 
I admit at this point I was patting the steering wheel thanking my car as I knew I had absolutely nailed it through Barcroft and Sunny. Just the Complex to go then. I kept it nice and tidy, not too much oversteer on the way in and keeping tidy on the brakes. I told myself approaching the hairpin, ‘do not slide it on the way out’. i didn’t and didn’t compromise my time. 1.39.44, wow! I knew that was a stonking time and a new class record.
 
I got into the paddock, jumped out of my car and legged it to the pit wall to see what Graeme would do. When I saw him come round to the hairpin, I could see it was going to be very close. One eye on him and one on the timing board as I wait full of anxiety to see where the timing board would stop, it was going to be so close. 1.40.35, yes another win! Poor Graeme, obviously I couldn’t help myself but jump up and down punching the air as he came in, which he may have noticed!
 
What a day, this is what sprinting is about. A mega thanks to all the lovely people at Javelin and my fabulous friends I get to race with. Also a huge thanks to Team RRG Macclesfield for their support. Is there really anything better than a race weekend. I just love it!
 
That’s five wins out of six rounds. Two round to go and the worst two get dropped. There’s still a way to go, but I’ve just wanted to win so badly this year after feeling a bit in the doldrums last year.

My route would be cat-less manifold and either stock or 200cell cat in the front pipe regardless of manufacturer. 
I will probably end up going the Berk route, it's not much of an investment should it be too loud.

Hi,
I'm a car enthousiast from the Netherlands. Over the years I drove many interesting cars, like 3 Lexus GS430's, a Mercedes E280, an Alfa Romeo 164 V6 and a 5 cylinder Audi 90. Since there's no need for a family car anymore, I finally bought a fun car, the GT86 in the picture. It's two and a half years old and has low mileage. A great car.

Today I have booked a supercharger install and have selected the Harrop with an expected power increase to around 280bhp and a large dollop of torque across the rev range.  Abbey Motorsport will be doing the work in early October.
My reasons for choosing the Harrop are:
Torque and driveability of superchargers (I have previous experience) Simpler installation and near-OEM look and feel Reliability?  Moot, maybe Road use only (I don't track the car) The Aussies have a lot of experience tuning Japanese cars Harrop are a known company with a good reputation Feel free to chip in and tell me I'm wrong, but very approximately I tend to think turbos for outright power (track) and 'chargers for midrange grunt (road).

I wouldn't part from my Cosworth charger, after having to make a similar choice. I fitted it myself about 6 months ago and and from an engineering point of view, it's very good indeed. Very good support too.

I agree with some/most of the bits Will is saying but I will add a few (try to be non biased) to that.
Design c. I am not aware of anyone needing to cut a section, but yes you may need to put a small dent using a ball peen hammer.
Design e. Due to it compactness the intake runner lengths are not tuned properly. They are too short. This is one of the reasons why the Cosworth running 0.5bar makes the same power as the harrop running 0.7bar boost. The other reason is the bigger more draggy TVS and the tuning to balance cylinder pressure which can only be done with incylinder pressure sensors (standard tunnig with OEMs and serious motorsport).
Performance e. Its a fair point the most powerful Cosworth is their dev car running ~330hp. However, I am not aware of high power 400hp harrops that use pump gas? All E85 which help massively with high IATs. General advice I see is 12psi max on pump and you need E85 if you go for more boost due to heat and pulling timing. 
Cooling: Yes at 280hp both are fine, but running high power is where is were the nearly twice as good cooling (Coswroth is +15iat, harrop +25iat, Edlebrock +30iat) would come into it. Where the Cosworth could be +35iat @400hp, the Harrop will be +60C and the Edblebrock +70C. 
Tuning: Here is my main disagreement. The Cosworth was tuned on an engine dyno and it specific to that kit. You cant take things Matt has done differently with their SC kit and apply them to the other kits. Its not just the engine dyno tuning either, they use widebands in every exhaust runner, and cylinder pressure sensors to properly dial in each cylinder and evaluate things like how well the stock knock sensor work ect.. Its a different kettle of fish. 
Tuner dont typically use widebands  and thermocouples in each cylinder runner, they just poke a wideband sensor up the exhaust. They certainly cant measure cylinder pressure and balance them out or evaluate if the knock sensor is doing a good job or not. 
For me the defining decision to go Cosworth was the tuning. Yes most people are happy with dyno or road tuning but for me I wanted the real deal OEM engineered solution. 
 
If I were choosing now, I would be on the fence a bit for some of the reasons Will has given and the fact that Cosworth are getting out of the game. Matt@cosworth still gives excellent support and he isnt likely to leave Cosworth any time soon as he is very well respected there, but you never know....
 
 

I have confirmed the reservation. See you there guys

I'd be interested for a 12-16 model. I can fit myself and can help others.

They only check the pipework normally. Ifthe leak is integral to the compressor, they won't find it very easy.
 
If you run your air con at least once a month for 30mins, you should be fine. Otherwise the oring seals dry up in the compressor and leak. The gas works as a lubricant.

Needs to repeat the exercise, then the price would be about right!

Ooo interesting, sounds like the re-tune is on the rich side and could be effecting them, or they don't have enough scrubbing power for that richness.
I'm FI.

Count me in.