Roll Bars

This 45mm diameter bar is currently not allowed for a L7C trackday.  See blatchat for the ins and outs / rights and wrongs. 

3D Printing Centre Caps

I ordered a new set of 14" Minilites but didn't like the push through centre caps that came with them.  They push through by just over 40mm and didn't look right.  So having wanted to try some 3D printing for a while I have built a crude (24 segment) centre cap in sketch up and sent it for printing as a trial.  If it seems like it may be the answers I'll smooth it up in Blender and get it printed to a higher resolution.

So the 3D printed prototype arrived, see the pictures below.  My first thoughts :

1. The printing is very accurate as the facets of the 3D model has shown up clearly.  This will mean a new model using 100 or maybe more segments for the circles and curves.  

2. The surface finish is quite smooth and so maybe a switch to the 100 micron material will give a smoother finish.  This prototype was a 200 micron material.

3. The legs have been hollowed out.  That is something the software does which is clever with regards saving material, but not so clever with regards removing the strength where it is needed.  One leg broke just putting the unit in the wheel once.  

4. The dimensions are spot on with the exception of 0.5mm needs to come off where the leg clip sits against the wheel.  How repeatable this technology is I am about to find out.

5. The inside of the seven is very rough.  I guess the software needs to add another face to where the seven has been removed.  On the other hand my plans are to fill this void with an enamel which will hide the lines of the print.

Caterham Motorsport at Oulton Park

By luck more than planning we found ourselves with a day free of any other activities and commitments and that happened to coincide with the Caterham race series attending Oulton Park.

The day started at 8.30am with the first qualifying sessions although we only got there at 9.10am.  The day finished at 6.30pm ish and had passed in a flash.  As always with Caterhams there were clusters of very close racing in every group.  Sir Chris Hoy was there and did very well in his second race getting from 13th or 14th up to 6th.

Donington BaT Day

I didn't make it to the 60th celebration of the 7 at Donington but decided to go to the Book a Track day at Donington the following Tuesday instead.  I hadn't done a track day before in my own car and so I used blatchat for a list of things to take and relied on good luck for the rest.

Prior to the day I had ordered new R888R's and some new minilites, alas the minilites didn't turn up in time and so I swapped my Uniroyal Rainsport tyres for the R888R's.  That would turn out to be a bad move with the track being so wet on the day.

I loaded the car up with oils, spanners, tyre pressure guage and other bits and set off the night before with the Donington Park Farmhouse hotel booked.  I can't recommend that place enough.

On the day the weather was as promised very wet.  I watched the die hards go out first and after 40 minutes a dry line appeared and so I tip toed out onto track.  I found myself letting a lot of people passed for a few laps until I found out about the car and track and then started to push for 12 laps.  On the 12th lap I had 3 near spins and so I decided to head in as I was clearly getting too confident.

I had a 30 minute break and then managed to get another 10 laps in and then just before lunch I managed to get 8 more in.  Sadly that was that for the day.  Although some ventured out in the afternoon I decided with the R888R's on the car and the need to drive it home, I opted to leave the track at 3pm and head home.

Book a Track organised the day on behalf of the Lotus 7 club and I hope they do that more often.  BaT don't require the FIA roll bar which the L7C do.  As I have no desire to have an FIA roll bar I cannot attend L7C days which does make me wonder if there is any point in being a member of L7C.  BaT were excellent and the set up is fantastic.  I will definitely do another day and hope for better weather.

Duratec Cooling System J Pipe Chaffing

I was looking over the car after the drive today and noticed some chaffing on the J pipe from the engine water outlet to the heater.  I had tie wrapped the pipes together but the J Pipe had rubbed against the black water outlet box which is mounted to the engine.  I have therefore removed the tie wrap and added another 25mm P Clip and fixed that to the black water outlet box.  There were no fixings for this in my multitude of extra nuts and bolts from completing the build so I had to scavenge what I could for now.

The tie wrapped J pipe is rubbing on the black water outlet box.

Chaffing / burning to the J Pipe

Resolved with a new 25mm P Clip to the right hand side.

Malham, Bentham, Slaidburn and Cloud

I had seen what looked like a nice lake / pond / tarn up north of Malham and thought I would venture there this morning.  Not the best of roads for a Caterham as you got near to the Tarn but lovely scenery.  The cloud kept the sun out for almost the whole journey which was a little bit out of order to be honest but otherwise a fabulous drive.

Just coming up the hill out of Malham

Just dropping down from Malham Tarn towards Langcliffe

Halfway from Bentham to Slaidburn on Lythe Fell Road.

A change of direction

Having picked up a bad back from a combination of a long haul flight and the building of a greenhouse, I had not made it out in the Caterham for a few weeks.  However today I took it out for a few.

With so many journeys in and around Bowland I decided to head south!  My 66.6 mile route took me to Denshaw, Crag Vale, Hebdon Bridge, Mereclough, Rossendale and home.  Some of the more open roads were also quite bumpy, not potholes but bumpy enough to make you slow down to protect the sump.

I took a few pictures along Turvin Road where it meets Rochdale Road.

Ribblehead Viaduct

Another weekend, another drive.  Have to say that March and April have been very kind with regards the weather and free mornings to go for a drive.  Today I decided to drive up to Ribblehead Viaduct, ~43 miles.  The idea was to get onto the road under the viaduct to get some pictures but access prevented that.  Instead I took some pictures from the west side of the viaduct with the light passing through the arches.

Getting home was touch and go and the last 15 miles were driven with great care as I was approaching 200 miles which is roughly where I run out of fuel depending on how I have been driving.

Dropped a bit of a clanger when driving out of Slaidburn and instead of trusting the sat nav I went with instinct and found myself clocking up an 10 miles I could have done without giving I was running out of fuel.  #Lesson Learnt.

Ribblehead Viaduct

Ribblehaed Viaduct

Lythe Fell Road

Lythe Fell Road

Oil Level and the 'O' Ring

I have never been completely happy when reading the dip stick on the Duratec.  I always felt I had enough oil in there but the dip stick barely had any oil on and it always seemed to be a bit of a thin film of oil.

I read a while ago about removing the 'o' ring at the top of the dip stick and so decided to give it a go.  The idea is that the 'o' ring creates a good seal and so pushes the oil out of the dip stick tube thus giving a false reading.  So today I took a reading and the oil seemed to just be touching the minimum.  I took the 'o' ring off and suddenly the oil was just over maximum !!!

So I have drained some oil, taken 3 more reading to check I am in the middle of the min and max.  Interestingly, putting the 'o' ring back on gave me barely a drop of oil on the dip stick.

Duratec Dipstick picture from Caterham website.  

The 'o' ring is on the yellow plastic section at the top.

Three weeks in a row

I didn't have long this weekend as the kids needed their usual taxi rides to football and rugby but still found enough time to get out and about around Ribchester.  I was hoping the mist would lift, alas not but still managed a few shots.

Forty Acre Lane

Stonybridge College

Second 2017 Blat, ok I'll stop there

I have been meaning to get to Wayoh Reservoir for a long time now and so I headed there on Sunday morning.  The weather forecast seemed to suggest I would get some morning sunlight, alas no luck.  The sun only came out when I got home to my garage.

First 2017 Blat

It seems an age since I managed to get out in the car.  Between builders work last year and the snow, ice and rain this year it feels like I should have SORN the car this winter.  None the less, the weather report looked good and so I headed out on one of my 70 miles routes around the forest of Bowland.  Found a few nice spots to take some pictures aswel.  The car ran perfectly as always albeit a bit dirty.

Near Whitewell, Forest of Bowland

Near Tosside