Blyton Park - Genesis RR Shakedown

All photos : Tristan Kipling

Wow!....need I say more.....well probably.

First time in the car after the winter rebuild.  Really didn't know quite what to expect but all in all a good test day.  However it wasn't without its issues.  But hey.... that's what a shakedown is for right?  To find any issues that would prevent you  from finishing a race.

The day was almost over before it even began.  Only a few miles out of Daventry at about 05:45, trundling along the A roads towards the motorway in the van with the trailer in tow and what you know....the headlights on the van packed up.  What!  Other than the initial panic "oh crap i cant see anything" doing 50mph, once I brought the rig to a halt, my thoughts turned to "i hope its fixable". By some bizzare stroke of luck it was the fuse that had blown and I had a whole box full of spare fuses in the glove box.  I must of had a premonition.  So with the assistance of my trusty wingman (Tris) from last year, the drama was over.

Rocked up to Blyton about 08:30.  Quickly signed on, unloaded the car, a few pre flight checks and safety briefing later it was time to head out for the sighting laps.

Sighting Laps: - Pretty uneventful to be honest.  I was right at the back of a long queue of cars in a procession round the track.  Just listening out for any knocking or other such sounds I should be concerned with.  All was fine.

Session Starts: - I went out a couple of times to get to know the track.  All was going fine until I was heading towards "Bunga Bunga" corner when the back end of the car swapped ends on me with no warning signs at all.  Well when I say no warning signs....maybe I glazed over the truth slightly.  I remember glancing momentarily in the wing mirror thinking....."I don't remember it being foggy".  Before I had time even to compute what "foggy" meant that's when the spin happened.  The top coolant hose of the engine made a break for freedom and coated the rear wheels in coolant.  Lost all cornering grip and the rest was history.

For the eagle eyed...you may notice Derek Jones old Fury in hot pursuit being showed no mechanical sympathy what so ever.

Not wanting to be perturbed by the whole thing, got the car back to the pits, refitted the pipe, topped up the water levels and I was back in business.

Couple of shorts stints later I was starting to pick the pace up a little, then that "Oh crap" feeling was back.  The car went from a sweet revving 13,000 rpm engine to something that sounded like a tractor on steroids.
In our infinite wisdom, whilst rebuilding the car, I decided it was worthwhile to wrap the exhaust.  In doing so all the springs holding the exhaust were wrapped too.  The springs failed in a monumental way and the exhaust was loosely held together what was left of the exhaust wrap.  After to talking to several people my suspicions of the springs getting toooooo hot were confirmed i.e. they had gone beyond their normal operating temperature and meant they became really pliable.  Not ideal.  So some impromptu botch job was spear headed by Tris and managed to get the exhaust back together and I was back in the game!!

After that last issue the rest of the day was fine.  The video below shows some tentative out laps of my final session.  Sorry about the music.....but I just love this tune!  Only have a few laps to show as the battery died on the camera.  Doh!

Some more photos of the day courtesy of Tris.

I think the pink will have to go!

All in all a good day.  I think another trackday is in order to start to get to grips with set up.  Although the car was incredibly pointy through steering input. I have decided I quite like it, but I will need to address the rear end grip.  Few options on the cards.

One thing i was particularly pleased about it does corner nice and level.  Which was pleasing.



That is it for now. Cheerio!