So I'm back from Goodwood, the first round of the series this year and my first proper outing in my car since it was rebuilt last year after a pretty comprehensive crash at the end of 2007.

The weekend started for me on Friday night as I headed down to a B&B near to the circuit, the journey down was pretty good and the weather looked like it would be OK. However when I woke up on Saturday morning all I could hear was heavy rain outside, not what I was hoping for. My first sprint in the rebuilt car on a wet Goodwood circuit didn't seem like the best idea http://my.lotussevenclub.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/omg_smile.gif

However by the time I got to the circuit the rain had stopped and it looked like things were drying out. After saying hello to some familiar faces I unloaded the car and went of to get signing in, cue me noticing that  hadn't signed my race license! frantic scrabble for a pen whilst in the queue to sign in so they didn't notice.

I took the opportunity to go out on the convoy run as it's been almost 7 years since I've been to Goodwood and the last time was with a 150bhp Crossflow not a 250bhp Duratec. Initial impression was the track was still quite damp and certainly very slippy, it was also very quick! a lot quicker than I remember and this was just on a convoy run, oh well just hope it dries out in time for my runs.

The structure of the day meant that the 45 odd cars that were not part of the Lotus 7 series ran first then they ran all the L7 Series cars in reverse order, this meant that I'd be the second to last car to run each time around. Not a bad position to be in a it gives you a chance to see what everyone else is doing.

So onto the first practice runs, by now the track seems to have dried out pretty much completely. Following the rebuild I have all this fancy new suspension (Freestyle Pushrod with 3 way adjustable dampers on the front and 2 way adjustable dedion at the rear!) which means I have even more things to tweak to make the car handle badly http://my.lotussevenclub.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif

Not really knowing where to start I'd had a quick chat with Gary at Freestyle before the weekend for some pointers, he suggested starting quite soft and seeing what happened.

On the first run I'm lined up 2nd on the "grid" next to a very serious looking turbo charged single seater, it's slightly unnerving if it's your first time as it seems like the car next to you really doesn't have a lot of space. One small mistake of the line and it feels like they could easily take out your car! however the single seater seems to get of the line pretty well and disappears of down the main straight.

Then the light goes green and it's my turn, dial in about 1800rpm drop the clutch and woah huge amounts of wheel spin, grab 2nd and it's still spinning, back of the power and finally some traction then it's up through the gears into 4th before a very cautious entry into Madgwick. It doesn't really feel like the front of the car is sticking to the track combined with not really being able to see the exit means I'm very late getting back on the power on my first run through then it's flat to Fordwater, a small confidence lift on the way through as the car feels like it's moving all over the place then I notice I'm catching the single seater! oops clearly I'm either much quicker than I thought (not likely) or he has a problem. Now I remember from the briefing them saying if you got baulked on your second lap you wouldn't get a rerun but not what would happen if you got baulked on your 1st lap but there was definitely no overtaking! so I bimble along behind the single seater (quite a fast bimble at about 80mph) until he pulls in after just 1 lap leaving me to continue on a second practice lap.

So where were we, oh yes into Madgwick slightly more speed this time but still very cautious on the power through to the exit. Flat through Fordwater this time then a much bigger lift into noname followed by a stamp on the brake pedal and a locked front into St Marys, oops not so good on the first practice lap! then back on the power down to Lavant, drop down into the 3rd (wrong gear I realise later on) and power through, again to cautious on the exit and flat all the way down Lavant straight. Brake way to early for Woodcote and completely forgot it's a double corner so I completely miss the apex and almost understeer of the track, a bit of a wiggle through the chicane then on the power over to the left hand side of the circuit to avoid the noise meter and over the line.

Back in the pits a marshall comes over and tells me I get a rerun as I was baulked on my 1st lap, good news so I head out again. This time around my start is a bit better, still cautious through Madgwick but I'm much better through St Mary's and stay in 4th all round Lavant which seems to work well. I remember what Woodcote looks like but still manage to get it wrong, then on the second lap of my practice I catch up with another single seater! . End result a 90.87, top of the class after the practice laps.

However by now the car is won't idle properly and seems to be running a bit rich, not sure why but I decide to ignore it for the moment, always a good plan... cough ...

A quick check of the times and Adrian (my main competition today ) is in the 91's so it seems like a good start.

There's a fairly long gap to the 1st timed run so I have a wander around the paddock, there's some pretty interesting machinery around with everything from a Pug 106 through to a 550bhp Skyline GTR out for a bit of fun.

I head up to the grandstand to watch a few runs and happen to catch the Skyline on the start line (I didn't know it had 550bhp at this point). The owner goes for a proper 5000rpm drop the clutch launch and the car rockets away from the line at an incredible speed. However I know how heavy it is and figure that it suffer in the corners, 80 seconds later he's coming out of Woodcote and crosses th line with a 90.09 lap time and tbh I was pretty stunned, enough to wander down and have a chat with the guy. Hence I find out it's got 550bhp, R888 tyres and trick suspension, he's hitting 160mph on the back straight but even allowing for that it's a decent bit of driving.

Timed run 1, by this point my car is clearly running way to rich. Clouds of black smoke out of the exhaust and it just won't idle at all, fingers crossed it'll clear once I get going so we queue up for the run. It's hard work keeping the engine from stalling but eventually we line up on the grid. Clouds of black smoke but I dial up around 1800rpm and go to pull away, then there's a tremendous pop and bang and the car misfires really badly although the way through 1st, 2nd until eventually it clears it's throat in 3rd and takes of down he straight, there goes a few valuable tenths straight away. A lot more committed into Madgwick this time, much earlier on the power on the exit and a nice run through Fordwater hitting the 134mph rev limiter in top well before Noname, a reasonable but not huge lift and carry a lot of speed into noname, firm dab on the brakes then turn into St Mary's and back on the power, let the car run out wide and and modulate the power a little to keep it on the track. Another lift into Lavant then back on the power about halfway through the first right and stay on it all the way through the second part of the corner onto the back straight. Flat all down the straight then a firm press on the brake pedal for Woodcote, completely fail to get the apex again, drop down to 3rd for the chicane and hard on the power through 3rd and 4th over the line.

End result, 89.46, 1st in class after the 1st timed run.

After the first timed run most people decide it's time to stiffen the suspension, it's at this point that I discover I've had the rear dampers full hard rebound and full soft compression by mistake! oops that could have explained why it felt like the car as moving around all over the place, oh well it's sorted out now.

Final timed run and once again lots of black smoke and the car feels horrible, this is definitely my last run of the day what ever happens. Off the start the missfire is even worse, this time it doesn't really seem to clear properly at all. Madgwick seems ok, pretty committed and early on the power but the misfire is there and it seems to take longer to pick up speed. Carry decent speed into Noname and through St Mary's, Levant is Ok but coming out of Woodcote it misfires again and just isn't pulling properly, I keep my foot down but suspect this run is going to be slower.

End result 89.08, 1st in class (somehow!) although only by 0.05s from Adrian!

My days done as I'm concerned by the clouds of smoke and horrible misfire so it's time to pack up. There have a been a few delays so I'm kind of sneakily hoping there isn't  a 3rd run however there is. I get my car packed up and then go and watch Adrian's final fun, he does an 88.93 pipping my best me by just 15/100th's of a second!

Congratulations to Adrian, hopefully next time my car will hold together, it's great that we're so close and I suspect it means we're going to have a bit of a battle all year long.

Overall a great first event of the year, lots of people got out and thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we really got lucky with the weather. Roll on my next event at Curborough.

Footnote: Once I got home I plugged the laptop into the car and reset the TPS as we thought this maybe the problem, sure enough it seems fine. Note to self bring your ECU cable with you next time!

Rob Grigsby