Rob_Fenn
01-10-2007, 11:03 AM
We had our first race in the NSX on Sunday at Donnington. Our race was quite late but we got there pretty early. The event was organised by the Aston Martin OC so as you can imagine there were a lot of Hooray Henrys about, with some expensive machinery.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc1.jpg
We had a little nose around the paddock to see what we were up against. Our race had 29 entries and we were in a difficult class (the cut off point was 3.0 litres and we have 3.2).
Sod's law reared it's head, Raf from Plans found that one of the splines in the hub was buggered as he started to prepare the car. It meant we couldn't get the wheel off and change the tyre! The decision was made to qualify because of time constraints with the tyre (Toyo) left on with Avons on the other corners... a bit worrying!
Despite the set back, the car felt really good in qualifying with a smidgeon of understeer. We qualified 18th and with 1 second between us and the 4 above we knew we had a chance of doing better in the race. The pole sitter, one of the supercharged K20'd Exiges in our class, was over 3 seconds quicker so an outright or class win was never on the cards sadly!
Our race was the last of the day so Raf had time to fix the problem with stud/hub. He actually did it pretty quickly in the end. Needless to say we were apprehensive about driving without a stud, but now you know why the Japs insist on 5 stud wheels...
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc3.jpg
Our race was a half hour endurance, where we had to swap drivers. We were sad enough to practice our change over quite a few times! Our best was 29.6 seconds, woohoo!
With my dad being on the bigger side he went first, as it meant less belt adjustment when changing over. It also meant he was the one who had to start - i personally didn't want to barrel into the first corner!!
Seeing dad on the start line was a nervous experience, but i had to admire him as he angled the car towards the inside with lights ablaze! He showed muchos balls as he pulled from a 355 Challenge car (100bhp on us) from the start and made two places, also avoided a Mustang closing the door on him.
He battled through his stint and made up 5 places before bringing it into me for the change and i got in the car without a hitch. I was a bit exuberant with the revs as i pulled away ;)
As i pulled out of the pitlane i had the winning Exige behind me, after being blue flagged i tried to hang onto him which allowed me make a couple of places. I managed to set the best lap of our day i these early laps but frustratingly a Mardi Gras prepared DC5 Integra touring car was catching at a second a lap. Confusingly i was blue flagged, but with him being quicker in the first half of the lap and me quicker in the second i wasn't prepared to simply let him go and wreck my lap. I was on the ragged edge trying to keep distance between me and him but eventually i let him slip by as another fast Exige passed. I laterly found it was for race position and i let him past on the last lap, d'oh! But the driver was a nice bloke, had a good chat with them. Turns out a guy at Mardi Gras helped with the NSX Le Mans cars so he was all over the car.
Despite that annoyance, we finished 10th. We were over the moon and i punched the air like i had won the thing...! Our driver change practice had obviously worked, as well as our consistent driving, as despite the car behind us beating our best lap by 2 seconds, we finished 40 seconds ahead of it!
It was great to be racing, can't put it into words the rush you get... the adrenalin is immense! I really have to urge you guys to give it a go! Hopefully Plans are going to be putting a cost effective race pack together so more NSXs can get on the track (and you 3.0 guys could do well in class).
We have to pick our battles with the NSX (power-to-weight classification is much kinder on us) but over the closed season we're going to try and get some serious weight out of it with perspex and other bits.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc4.jpg
Once again a big thanks to Plans Motorsport, to Barry for getting the manifold over (improves the sound nicely..car is currently 102db without Taitec backbox fitted yet), and Honda for building such a great, reliable car!
If you want to see a lap of Donington, here is a richer Plans Motorsport customer doing it in a Mclaren F1 car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SBhrkrLEcA
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc1.jpg
We had a little nose around the paddock to see what we were up against. Our race had 29 entries and we were in a difficult class (the cut off point was 3.0 litres and we have 3.2).
Sod's law reared it's head, Raf from Plans found that one of the splines in the hub was buggered as he started to prepare the car. It meant we couldn't get the wheel off and change the tyre! The decision was made to qualify because of time constraints with the tyre (Toyo) left on with Avons on the other corners... a bit worrying!
Despite the set back, the car felt really good in qualifying with a smidgeon of understeer. We qualified 18th and with 1 second between us and the 4 above we knew we had a chance of doing better in the race. The pole sitter, one of the supercharged K20'd Exiges in our class, was over 3 seconds quicker so an outright or class win was never on the cards sadly!
Our race was the last of the day so Raf had time to fix the problem with stud/hub. He actually did it pretty quickly in the end. Needless to say we were apprehensive about driving without a stud, but now you know why the Japs insist on 5 stud wheels...
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc3.jpg
Our race was a half hour endurance, where we had to swap drivers. We were sad enough to practice our change over quite a few times! Our best was 29.6 seconds, woohoo!
With my dad being on the bigger side he went first, as it meant less belt adjustment when changing over. It also meant he was the one who had to start - i personally didn't want to barrel into the first corner!!
Seeing dad on the start line was a nervous experience, but i had to admire him as he angled the car towards the inside with lights ablaze! He showed muchos balls as he pulled from a 355 Challenge car (100bhp on us) from the start and made two places, also avoided a Mustang closing the door on him.
He battled through his stint and made up 5 places before bringing it into me for the change and i got in the car without a hitch. I was a bit exuberant with the revs as i pulled away ;)
As i pulled out of the pitlane i had the winning Exige behind me, after being blue flagged i tried to hang onto him which allowed me make a couple of places. I managed to set the best lap of our day i these early laps but frustratingly a Mardi Gras prepared DC5 Integra touring car was catching at a second a lap. Confusingly i was blue flagged, but with him being quicker in the first half of the lap and me quicker in the second i wasn't prepared to simply let him go and wreck my lap. I was on the ragged edge trying to keep distance between me and him but eventually i let him slip by as another fast Exige passed. I laterly found it was for race position and i let him past on the last lap, d'oh! But the driver was a nice bloke, had a good chat with them. Turns out a guy at Mardi Gras helped with the NSX Le Mans cars so he was all over the car.
Despite that annoyance, we finished 10th. We were over the moon and i punched the air like i had won the thing...! Our driver change practice had obviously worked, as well as our consistent driving, as despite the car behind us beating our best lap by 2 seconds, we finished 40 seconds ahead of it!
It was great to be racing, can't put it into words the rush you get... the adrenalin is immense! I really have to urge you guys to give it a go! Hopefully Plans are going to be putting a cost effective race pack together so more NSXs can get on the track (and you 3.0 guys could do well in class).
We have to pick our battles with the NSX (power-to-weight classification is much kinder on us) but over the closed season we're going to try and get some serious weight out of it with perspex and other bits.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/robfenn/amoc4.jpg
Once again a big thanks to Plans Motorsport, to Barry for getting the manifold over (improves the sound nicely..car is currently 102db without Taitec backbox fitted yet), and Honda for building such a great, reliable car!
If you want to see a lap of Donington, here is a richer Plans Motorsport customer doing it in a Mclaren F1 car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SBhrkrLEcA