As mentioned in our previous missive the lines for the start have been diabolically bad this year. There is no single reason for it, but we have not managed more than one run on either of the last two days, despite spending literally hours queuing in over 100 degree heat.
That being said, we have managed two runs both successfully and safely but with varying degrees of success.
After our first run on Saturday we were very concerned about the lack of traction in the lower gears that Ian was getting off the line. He literally was spinning in the first three gears every time he depressed the accelerator.
On Sunday, after a team meeting we decided to drop the pressure in the rear tyres to try and give us a bit more off the line. This worked to a point during Sunday’s run.
However the payoff for this low speed grip was some quite literally terrifying high speed wallowing, causing a very disappointing top speed.
On reflection however this disappointing low top speed was higher than anything we had reached last year.
The next plan for Monday, when we hoped the lines would be shorter (wrong!) was to get out very early 6.30am get the tyres pumped up and get an early run in.
This worked well up to the point that they had been allowing people too park in the line overnight. this is previously unheard of and meant another 4 hour wait!
Our run on Monday was a huge success. Ian said the new higher tyre pressures completely transformed the way the car felt on the salt with a much better increase in both traction and general road (salt) holding.
To qualify for the next license up Ian had to complete a run with an average over 175 mph. On this run he managed 173.935. Excruciatingly close!
After an examination of the data log we could see exactly what we need to do to improve now we had sorted the car’s wayward handling and it was simply a slightly different driving style.
As the run was so good, we immediately re-joined the queue for our next run, only to run out of time with one car in front of us.
Sorry for the lack of images, we were trying to keep under cover and in shade for most of the day.
On a slightly less successful note our sister project the Finishing Straight fuel injected Triumph has had a catastrophic failure when one of the valves in the engine broke at over 101 mph. This alas resulted in an end to that particular machines fun for this year.
