IanJ

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Email sent with Blyton and Anglesey photos.

Well done to Charlie, all the winners and everybody that turned out. Many thanks to Andy, Rob and Andy for sorting us out all year. Ian & Debbie

Hi Andrew, Many thanks for clearing that up. My confusion was down to 2 misconceptions: 1) The sender would have a higher earth reference than the gauge due to higher resistance via the leakage path to the gauge. 2) The resistance of the sender would increase with temperature. Kind regards, Ian.

Hi Jonathan, No, I haven't posted about this before. I just wanted to share my findings in the hope it would save somebody else a lot of time and frustration! Yes, I concluded it was only a problem with the temperature readings and not the actual temperature. I compared IR readings from the water rail next to the temperature sender between my car and a friend's. On my car the fan switched on at 103C and switched off at 93C. On his car the fan switched on at 107C and switched off at 97C. Then I ran a test with the sender in a mug of boiling water alongside a thermometer. The sender was surprisingly accurate with the engine stopped, but reading way to high with the engine running. Reconnecting the missing earth strap immediately dropped the reading when the engine was running to match the reading when it was stopped. Given the battery -ve is connected to the gearbox bellhousing, the poor ground connection must have been to the gauge, rather than the sender. Still not sure why that would cause the gauge to read high.

Following a gearbox change on my 1.6 K-Series, I was seeing much higher readings than usual on the coolant temperature gauge. From starting the engine the temperature gauge would climb to around 90C, stay there for a while and then head on up to around 115-120C at which point the fan would cut in and bring the temperature down to about 100C. Even with a constant flow of air at motorway speeds the temperature wouldn't drop much below 95C. I reviewed lots of useful threads which boiled down to it likely being an airlock, thermostat, sender or gauge issue. This in particular was a very useful thread: /forum/techtalk/coolant-temperature-question and I can confirm that gauge 71229 is indeed a suitable replacement for 71164. However, the one very interesting "feature" I noted (which nobody else seems to have reported) is that the gauge would read around 10-20C higher with the engine running than with the engine stopped. I still don't have a good explanation as to how that might happen so answers on a postcard please! Anyway, to cut a long story short (and after some very astute advice from Rob Clay) the issue was traced to a missing earth connection between the engine mount and chassis on the right hand side of the engine. I'm kind of surprised that was the only symptom, but once the earth strap was reconnected readings returned to normal throughout the temperature cycle, so big sigh of relief! Other useful things I found out: It's quite normal for my IR thermometer to read 103-107C on the water rail of a K-Series next to the temperature sender when the fan comes on, and 93-97C when the fan switches off. IR thermometers tend to read low on shiny surfaces, so stick some masking tape on them before take a reading.

Airflow Airchamber. This has a frame so is dead easy to unzip and drive straight in or out without having to drag the top over the car and then inflate. https://airflow-uk.com/product/car-airchamber "Small" size so an S3 or SV should fit comfortably. Up until recently it was storing an MX-5 plus hardtop on a stand. Good used condition. A few scuffs, but no rips or tears. Complete with instructions and storage bag. It's very heavy so collection only from Marlow, Bucks. Bought for £564 including delivery in August 2021, but now surplus to requirements. Asking £295.

Debbie & I submitted entries OK today., We'd like to register a garage place (class 3) if there's a list. Thanks, Ian & Deb

I used our Championship Numbers (same as last year) rather than our Competition Numbers. For Double Drives the process is a little confusing because it allows you to select a £320 Double Drive payment option with the first Entry and then forces you to select either a £160 or £320 payment option for the second entry. On the second entry I selected the £320 payment option, clicked next to get to the payment screen and then canceled out of the payment. The Entries Secretary has confirmed that both our entries were received using this approach. Just in case anybody else finds themselves with a similar dilemma...

Having spent several seasons in Class 2 (and even notching up a win or two) with a standard 1997 Superlight, I would echo all of the comments above. You'll be absolutely fine with 138 BHP in Class 2. Of course, our Superlight is a little less standard now and we'll be moving up to Class 3 this year...

Many thanks to Graham, Paul and Alan for organising such an fantastic year's motorsport for us. Congratulations to Jeremy and all the other winners! Ian & Deb

For anybody like us that missed/forgot the document upload requirements for Pembrey, the deadline is today (Monday 16th May) and these documents are required: Personal Documents Scanned copy or photograph of Competition Licence, Club Membership Card & Championship Card (if applicable), FRONT ONLY. 3 separate files or all documents in one file. Information to be uploaded by 16th May please. Vehicle Documents Scanned copy or photograph of your Vehicle Passport (Log Book) for any vehicle which is NOT road registered, for checking by the Scrutineers. Information to be uploaded by 16th May please. The upload location is via the "Access Your Entry Home Page" link in the "Entry Received From" email.

Here's my significantly slower and significantly wilder second fastest run which (surprisingly) came in below 63s. I failed to record my fastest run of the day, but I do recall it involving a slightly more orthodox route round Fradley!

Fantastic day! Many thanks to everybody involved for making it such a success... Ian & Deb

One of my friends (Keith Fuller) was at Goodwood last weekend and managed to get some great shots of most competitors. You can download them from here and use as you wish: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqUrtdZypPqJhdQBwhinBLZoqZYelQ?e=rSROSV

Jon & Charlotte, We were sad to hear this, but wish you all the very best of luck in your new adventures! Debbie & Ian

Yes please for Debbie and I. Thanks!

Yep, engine size in CCs.

Debbie and I would like a garage space please (Class 2).

Some good suggestions and ideas here! Debbie and I have the following comments: Dual Drives We would prefer the faster driver to go first. I have always been uneasy about sending Debbie out to test my setup changes. If a change is detrimental then I would prefer to make that discovery and give her a heads up before she goes out. RobJ's suggestion to mitigate any weather advantage seems like an excellent one if organisers can facilitate it. Ladies Scoring against the class record, rather than the winning time on the day effectively means that rather than doing 5 events, ladies need to do 5 dry events to be competitive in the championship. It's not representative of performance on the day if the weather happens to be unkind. Not sure why this was changed in the first place, but Debbie would prefer points to always be calculated in relation to the winning time on the day. Curborough We'd prefer just one practice run. Ian & Debbie

Really great photos, Geoff. Thanks for sharing them!

2 places please (Debbie and I).

I've got a Vbox sport which I use in conjunction with RaceChrono which seems to do everything I need (apart from beating Clive). For instance, I know that the car was travelling at 26.3 mph when it impacted the tyre wall at Loton Park!

We're going to be optimistic and say we'd like a garage spot too! Last year I thnk there were 8 Caterhams per garage and several people managed to book additional garages over and above our initial (meagre) allocation. We were so successful that one garage was released back to the organisers to reallocate.

A very big thank you to everybody that offered advice, support and kind words after our incident at the weekend. Debbie is fine and just has a slightly stiff thumb/wrist. The car is booked in for a visit to Arch at the end of this month, so we still hope to make Curborough. Before I start shopping at www.easycomposites.co.uk, does anybody have a recommendation for a professional carbon fibre repairer that would make a neater job of things than I'm likely to? The nosecone and wing look salvageable.