CharlesElliott

Glad you sorted it. Yes, it is a PITA and very annoying at the time, but it is all part of building a car and makes you feel even more positive when it is finished!

From what I can see, the plates you are bolting up into are upside down U shapes, is that right? On previous chassis they were flat and a cap head would have fouled the top of the rear damper. It looks like they have changed the chassis design to avoid that problem. You can check by offering up a rear damper and putting the top bolt in through the hole in the rear cockpit panel.

I don't think they are safety critical (and turning down the head would somewhat diminish that! On the latest chassis, I think the brackets are cupped so a turned down head is no longer required?

Just seen your latest post. I’ve never analysed it as I have just bodged it to make it work. But I agree, neither the holes in the chassis nor the holes in the turrets ever seem to be central <sigh>.

I understand, it’s frustrating. I’ve built, crashed and re-built a few now so it sort of washes over me.... As per Tazio, in what plane are the holes out? (Aft / rear, left / right?) Is there any wiggle room with the turrets in the chassis holes? One other suggestion - how long a bolt can go into the bar? From experience on roll cages, the thread is open so you have as long a bolt as you want. What I have also done in the past is used longer bolts to give me even more flexibility, e.g. engage the bolt when the turrets have not even gone into the chassis and then do up the bolts to draw it down. It works but it’s not very pretty from an engineering perspective either :-) Charles

When you tried to engage the bolt the other side, can you not get it to engage at all or something else? Why are your fingers involved, is it because you don’t want to use a socket in case of cross threading? In that case, I tend to use a socket on the end of an extension, but turn the extension by hand. If you won’t enlarge the holes and the turrets are tight in the chassis then the only solution would be a bar with turrets drilled in a different place. If there is some wiggle room with the turrets, then there might be some other options.

I would enlarge the holes in the chassis plates (and use a washer if necessary) but I do understand why you don't want to. I would argue that this bolt is not safety critical as in an accident the fastener will not be in tension but again, I understand why you don't want to mess with it. The only thing I can suggest without enlarging, is to try to put the two turrets on the bar only as far down the chassis as you need to engage the thread on the bolt. Do this on both sides to give you some movement in the bolt, before then tightening both. If you have tried that and it doesn't work they there is no other option. Whilst a ratchet strap can give you a tiny bit of movement, that is generally only going to help get the turrets into the holes. I have only ever fitted roll cages but with those, there is no wiggle room for the turret once they are in the chassis holes.

Just enlarge the holes in the chassis turrets if you need to.

I don't think RT can sync on GPS time (file time yes, but doesn't help much if you have to join chunks together to make one video). I tend to sync on the start, pretty easy to do as you can see the G trace move and watch the car rise. Only takes a minute.... Looking forward to the video!

Interested in hearing how you get on (issues with predictive timing is my main moan!). No issue with a GoPro but you don't have to use a GoPro, any video source will work - they just label it GoPro as it is the most popular camera! Here's a sample video from me using the overlay - I paid someone to create the dial graphics :-)

I haven't seen a definitive way of doing it - the most likely involves booting a small Linux kernel and formatting using a utility there. Even when forced to FAT16, the partition is marked as FAT16(LBA) by Windows 10 which the logger doesn't recognise.

Following on from recent discussions about mechanical oil pressure gauges to replace electronic, I'm reposting data collected from a race car with a quality electronic sender / gauge relating to oil pressure. The original was rendered meaningless in the forum migration. The car is a 1.6, 120bhp K series with an Apollo, wet sump on Yoko A048R tyres. The aim is to be much more scientific than trying to watch a damped gauge (electronic or mechanical) as you go round a roundabout. Here is a picture of Brands Hatch Indy, the start/finish of the lap being indicated by the red marker. Now, this is a trace of lateral g, speed and oil pressure over one lap (pressure is in psi). You can see that it varies between about 24 and 85 psi over a single lap. This is a trace of the circuit coloured by oil pressure - blue being low and red being high. The lowest value in each sector is indicated. This is a pictorial version of exactly the same data in the trace above. This is an X-Y graph of a single lap - lateral G against pressure. You can see that left hand turns have little impact on pressure when compared with right hand turns. Finally, you can see a slightly rough and ready cut of the lap that produced the above data. Whilst not all the sensors are plugged into the virtual dash, it gives you an idea of exactly what is going on and you can see oil psi in the lower right.

The AIM MXM is worth a look. You may have been using GoPro generically, but you can use any video source with RT as long as you have a video licence. I build real time dashboards with mine and export to video.

A few racers have, and Roger Ford has one. And yes, I think he has a problem with seeing everything. I've used Race Technology for 14 years but am getting a bit fed up with them - I might defect to AIM or VBox.

That may be true in general, but my Spa digital gauge would update instantaneously, and I also logged data from it for later viewing. I posted a thread with details and pictures in the past....unfortunately the pictures were lost in the migration (see https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/updated-k-series-oil-pressure-data-racecar-added-video)

I think I'm about the only one that really doesn't see the point in mechanical gauges. They add a tube that can contain pressurised oil into the cabin, and I've seem multiple examples of tubes coming loose or being cut resulting in oil leaks. A decent electronic gauge is far better in my view - just because the sender Caterham used on the K series is not of good quality and in a very exposed place, it shouldn't mean that electronic gauges are rejected as a poor option.

I have some of the MEMS source code and I seem to remember there was a bit that dealt with the 5AS message. Let me check....

Great, no additive required then.

That Motul doesn't need an LSD additive (but please double check on the label).

It's probably a sachet - maybe you have to buy it yourself..... What gearbox oil are you using and where did you get it from?

Standard 20 degree is fine, but I would seriously consider the Simpson harness - I have a HANS but with hindsight, would have got the Simpson as it just looks easier to manage and once it is on you don’t have to think about it.

You are right re harness fixings although if the seat mount gives way the harness can go slack.

It’s normal to have to enlarge the holes a bit to give the required wiggle room to get the bolts aligned. Does your car have strengthening strips / channels where the rails bolt through? At various times the rails have been bolted directly to the floor and I’ve seen situations where 1.5mm aluminium isn’t a sufficient mounting structure so always add some plates.

Daniel French - this was his 'moment'

They aren't a mirror image as the bleed screw is in the same place but the inlet / outlet are in different positions. But then again, they are different prices too! It feels like Caterham didn't have any of the individual rads in stock so they sent the combined rad instead without having fully 'engineered it'. Maybe they assumed it would fit but are finding out on the line that it doesn't actually fit very well.