Well the adventure will be starting soon. I will try and get to a PC everyday to post up that days activities.
Unfortunately, we have had two drop outs from the GTO team, Ben and Mark (the Eurospec car) for personal reasons and today Mark & Russ (Sumiyaka car) for health reasons.
I took my car down last week to Mark & Russ for the once over before taking it across Europe. I thought I had problems until I saw how much they had left to do on that car. For it to have been completed and pass its MOT today makes it an even greater shame that all that work has taken its toil on Marks back, either that or picking up my cheque after I settled my bill :lol:.
I would also like to thank Mick and Tracey who drove down from Peterborough lasst night to drop off to helmets for our use round the ring next week.
Have fun guys and don’t forget some notes for the next newsletter. It’s a real shame that Eurospec and Sumiyaka have had to drop out and I hope all are OK.
Kind of sick irony in that two of the best “shops” have both pulled their cars. You’ll be missing out on a whole load of fun, but these trips also come with a lot of heartache as well. I would say the pleasure only just exceeds the stress levels - but the driving is fun and that’s what its all about.
Just be careful out there guys so you can go racing another day!
We are absolutely gutted to have to pull out. I really feel for Mark he has been pushing on working with his back causing him immense pain for the last two weeks, for it to give up at the last hurdle must be very frustrating for him.
As some of you who have been to the workshop in the last couple of weeks will be aware we had been building a car almost from scratch for Speedball; most nights not finishing until 1230 am the following day, then starting again at 9 am for another long day. In the last two weeks we have rebuilt the engine, gearbox, rear axle, brakes, suspension and electrics, and fabricated what seems like an oil refineries worth of pipe work. Yesterday we worked right through the night and at 6 o’clock in the morning we primed the engine turned the key and it sprang into life. We didn’t bother going home we just put the nose cone on, checked and double checked everything ready for the MOT at 1130. While putting the wheels on at about 11 am Marks back finally decided it had had enough and gave out. I left mark sitting on the floor in a lot of pain to get the car to the MOT station. The car sailed through the MOT but as I returned to the workshop to give Mark the good news I could see he was still in a lot of pain. We were both exhausted, and at this point I think we were running on adrenalin we both decided it would be foolish to go on to speedball as 3000 + miles with Marks back the way it was, and in our state of exhausting would be a recipe for disaster.
Good luck to everyone who made it to Speedball; I hope you all have a great time. We have been asked to go to the final night party by the organisers but we think it would be wrong as we didn’t actually take part.
I spoke to Mark yesterday and to say he was gutted is an understatement. But I fully understand why you guys had to pull out as it would have been alot worse to get half way round and do such damage to Marks back that it becomes permenant.
I spent the day at Sumiyaka on Monday helping out (even though they did make fun of how long it took me to do the fog lights :lol: ) and to see the amount of work they were putting in on the car was inspirational. Even if poor Nick got the bront of it when things couldnt be found or something didnt quite work :lol:
It will be interesting for details of the car to come out once its fully setup etc as I think I’m right in saying its the first of its kind in the UK. Along with pics of the front of your car Russ as thats a work of art.
We missed the start but left on Saturday afternoon and made the Nurburgring for mid-day Sunday just in time for a motorcyclist to be killed on the circuit :shock:
Had a great time; Marks back managed to survive the journey, and he didn’t seem in too much pain.
All the GTO’s that went did us proud and completed the event without incident.
A big thank you to all that helped us get our car ready for the event and supplied parts, ran around at the last minute to get stuff to us etc, these people are in no particular order.
James - Amber Performance (parts)
Paul Inch - Paul Inch Engineers (machining)
Andrew - Mill Autos (parts)
Matt - Inovit (wheels)
Anne - K Sport (suspension)
Guy - Opie Oils (lubricants)
Frankie - Blueboy (encouragement)
Dave - Dave_r (Taking Flak and Wiring things up)
Bianca & Malcolm - Midlife Crissis (Hotel Bookings)
Brendan - Limahl (Organisation)
Rob - Evil Empire (Fuel Pump)
Nick - Sumiyaka Slave :lol: (For all his hard work)
Thanks again everyone for your help, I hope I haven’t missed anyone I’m still pretty shattered from the event.
I’m sure the rest of the guys will post up some pics when they get back to their respective homes and have had time to recover.
It was a great event made all the better by the hard work and commitment of George the organiser.
It was knackering,keeping up with the drinking and late nights was pretty hard. Amsterdam and nurburg hotels were WOW, out of this world,hasselt was ok.
Horror, we ended up with the comrads in prague.
what a dive,Sorry guys for my moaning but you all did agree It was 1944 stalingrad, with a tv set…
and no i did not have a shower that morning !
had a bit of an argument with a( according to you lot)young beautyful cech specimen.( I swear she was gestapo!)had another argie bargie at the petrol station, So I was glad when we crossed the border.
and yes I did do the nurburg ring and managed to achieve 12.30 seconds, timed by our bikers friends . it was awesome, def back next year.
i had some bad news on saturday as my friend in belgium passed away on saturday., so I hope i did not spoil it for anyone.
Bring on the next rally, this time if you still want me to book the rooms i will only book hilton and dorint hotels.
I was talking to James this afternoon and saying i hadnt heard from anyone!
Well done to all you guys! I really wish we could have come along, i’d still love to do it!
Glad Mark and Russ made it- i know exactly how you feel- the work to achieve these things as absolutely incredible! Its a tribute to you guys that you got it built in that time. Last time i spoke to Mark S he was saying stuff like, yeah Russ just has to make the manifold! ‘Just’ make a manifold!! :lol:
Anyway, congratulations to all of you guys on getting out and back! I’m sure not even one motoring law was even bent on the whole trip 8)
Oh man, i bet it smoked the brakes well and truely! We were really woried about ours doing that! Still i bet it was a great feeling just pulling out of that slip and accelerating away!
[quote]Oh man, i bet it smoked the brakes well and truely! We were really woried about ours doing that! Still i bet it was a great feeling just pulling out of that slip and accelerating away!
Cheers,
Ben.[/quote]
Ben
I was just about to go out by myself and Russ hitched a ride
After about a minute of serious braking the steerihg wheel was shaking so much my filling wanted to fall out
With good brakes 10 minutes would be no problem acheive
Oh, and by the way people might post some pictures on the forum
but this viper was returning 7 minute laps and they were taking booking to drive round with him :nervous:
Nicki Lauda holds the record at 6.58 minutes :shock:
I have looked at them, but the cost is big too! One of our FTO suppliers has a cracking deal on for front 4 pot AP’s with moster floating disks. I might see if he can get anything else…
Back , safe and sound, 2500 miles, four laps round the ring, best time was 11 and half mins. New respect to Clarkson to get round in under ten, not as easy as you think. The ironic thing was met Dave McCarthy on the boat at Dover heading out for a weekend at the ring and whilst there anoth familuar face came over to say Hello, those of us that have been around a while might remember Jamie B who used to own the brown GTO that is now owned by Rzech, well he came over said hallo and as he was more experienced on the track than me I used him as a pace car. He was driving an MX5 and even following him took 12 mins. I went passenger with him next lap and he got a 10min 20 sec lap. its all about having the balls to throw the car into the corner, our cars are just so heavy for this type of racing.
I will post up a day by day account of the trip. Would I go again? Cant wait till next year, those of you who just ignore these types of events really dont know what your missing. Awesome
I have looked at them, but the cost is big too! One of our FTO suppliers has a cracking deal on for front 4 pot AP’s with moster floating disks. I might see if he can get anything else…
I’m sorry to hi jack your thread about brakes on the Speedball thread, I have written a day by day account of what we did over the last six days. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed do it. I will start a seperate thread so you can carry on talking brakes.
