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The return to racing

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Created: 14 June 2024

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Very rusty (the car and I), we returned to the fantastic Oulton Park

I was annoyed at the lack of prep I had time for, having covid the week before. I wasn't even matching times from my first full race weekend in 2016! Both the car and I weren't ready. But, it was a relief to get back after (checks notes) 4 years....

Well off any kind of pace, well beaten by the other car in class, but back to something very familiar. The E30 had been sat on the drive abandoned for almost 4 years. I wiped away the cobwebs, and mould, gave it a clean, serviced the brakes (somehow missing a loose tie rod nut.....) "wrapped" it, and went racing. It had some minor issues, but didn't skip a beat! How many other cars can do that...
Anyway, here's the plans for 2024. A new 2.5 litre engine is going in, with a custom ECU (eek!), some testing, and 1 or two races.

Had some soldering practice... some might say I still need some more!

Gives me a chance to use modern sensors including a Lambda sensor (rather than the old random guesswork by 80s chips), and do some laptop tuning to satisfy my inner nerd...

A short 2020-2024 racing season summary

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Created: 10 October 2023

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Testing testing, is this thing on? Yes? Good! So clearly it's been a while. Last racing was in 2019, where I was having regular battles with established drivers, not the rookies any more. Then in 2020 I did a test at Donny of the new setup - the car finally had a professional suspension tune and corner weight from Bridgwater & Taunton College Motorsport. Also, I finally got someone in the passenger seat to spot all the bad habits I've picked up over the years. Thanks Mark Palmer! Still owe you some beers... Turns out I've been turning in way too aggressively, and early, and compromising my exits. Probably based on a stiff setup which is now gone, because it doesn't give me grip. So I've got to get used to driving a softer but faster car. So I felt ready to tackle the 2020 season! Yeah about that... So a certain global pandemic hit the same time as an unexpected redundancy, and it took a while to rebuild going pretty much self employed. I started to push more of my software consultancy business (https://cookieonline.net - I need to finish the site like a lot of things!) and also in the last year I've taken up a lot of supercar instructor work. Something I fell into but it's actually been enjoyable at times. Good job satisfaction too with the right customer. And as they say, when one teaches, two learn... It's also given me a new challenge to develop the instructing skills professionally. I must have coached nearly 2000 people this year! But also I did the ARDS instructor course with the Motorsports School (http://themotorsportsschool.co.uk) so I'm an ARDS C instructor, and next year I'll upgrade to ARDS B. So the thing about instructing customers around a track is it quickly gets irritating if you haven't been racing for a while, almost to the point of anger. So I finally got into a slightly more stable financial situation, and went for it in September. Sadly, the Production BMW Championship didn't survive covid, and was probably on borrowed time in it's last few years anyway as the BMW E30s are climbing steeply in value. The Classic Sports Car Club have taken a few PBMW refugees, and I spoke to some of the organisers at Autosport International this year. So I made my second ever trip to the fabulous Oulton Park. However, it wasn't at all straightforward... it never is! to be continued...

BMW E30 Rust

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Created: 18 January 2020

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Wow! I never got around to updating the race car updates section... well a lot happened to the car since the last update! A new Ashley exhaust (much lighter and getting a few more bhp at the wheels - yes that's correct!), new Team Dynamics wheels but most of all, welding.... loads of welding!

I had a few holes showing and knew I couldn't put it off any longer. Should I take the car to a mechanic each time, or seeing as this a problem that's going to get more common on this 30 year old car, should I teach myself to weld...? The answer is below! 😁