Matt's 1970 'Trans-Am' Cuda

[guy whitwam]

Hey Matt , looks right at home in its natural habitat , congratulations on a very authentic reproduction of the real thing ………. and it goes as well as it looks ….……. fantastic
Yours
GUY

[andyrob]

go Matt go

https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=MSVR ... 651v8c.pdf

[Matt]

Ooh Andy how did you know I was racing on Saturday ?!? I was keeping that fairly quiet !


First ever race. Second time ever driving the car at speed, fifth time ever on track myself.
Yes I effectively came last , but I was sort of expecting that .



However:

1) My lap time improved by about 20 seconds between qualifying and race end.
2) I kept the car on the tarmac !



Write-up to come as I'm a couple of weeks behind. Also in-car video soon.

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[Mark B]

3) And it's still in one piece.

[andyrob]

Matt you cant hide from TSL, well done, glad you finished and car didnt break down, as long as you go faster evry race and make progress, new car with a new driver is a massive uphill battle, no doubt you will have learnt lots from doing it

[MattH]

Simply brilliant, rusty shell to show quality race car in 9 months.

I might need one of your front spoilers Matt, mine suffered a bumpy field !

[Matt]

Hi Matt H ,

No problem ! You'll have to trim the top edge to match your valance though ?

[Matt]

Rewind a few weeks to the Nats.

On Sunday afternoon I walked past the table where Pete Wiseman was sitting with Cheng of Thunder Road cars, who is also Technical Director for the 'Bernie's Sports Racing and V8s' race series. Pete introduced me to Cheng, who promptly asked me if I'd like to race the car with them. My protestations of inexperience were waved aside, so a day or two later I found myself entering the next round of the series, which would be at Brands Hatch GP circuit on 8th September.

I would be outclassed by both the cars and the drivers, but reckoned that if nothing else, it would be
a) A good deadline to get the car ready for
b) a rare chance to drive on the fabulous full GP circuit, which is not open often.


So a couple of things to do to get the car ready , mainly

a) finish installing the fire extinguising system
b) fit a lap timing transponder
c) seal the rear of the bonnet opening


Regulations require a permanently plumbed-in fire extinguisher system, operable from both inside and outside the car, with nozzles by the driver and also in the engine compartment.

First step - find somewhere to mount the external button. Must be next to the electrical cutout, and the recommended position for both is on the windscreen scuttle by the driver's door

Well there's no exterior scuttle on the E-Body, and I didn't fancy drilling the top rear of the front wing much, as it's double skinned. So I folded a little aluminium box up to sit between the wing and the screen, and had the edges welded up

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The Thursday before the Saturday race, I started fitting the rest of the system - which I'd bough new a few months previously. I checked the gauge on the bottle and it read empty !

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Much head scratching. I weighed the bottle and it weighed full. So i called the dealer I bought it from (who fortunately is a small independent that I know well) and he called the manufacturer immediately. Fortunately again, the units are manufactured in the UK. I'd missed the courier deadline for a replacement to be sent out that day, so I drove about an hour to the factory on Friday morning where the bottle was replaced immediately and with apologies. Looks like the O-ring under the pressure gauge had unseated, which let the propellant out.

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Friday Midday - time to finish the system ! The replacement bottle is a newer model and is a slightly smaller diameter , which necessitated packing the mounting cradle with extra rubber strips.


Nozzles next to driver- one under floor and one under dash. Control box at front of transmission tunnel.

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Nozzles in engine compartment - pointing at the fuel system.

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Internal trigger button to right of main switch panel

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b) Lap timing transponder. Has to be fitted so that the car can be timed on the track. There's only one main supplier for these, and they changed their business model a few years ago so that new purchasers now also have to pay an annual subscription. Following a helpful chat with Andy Robinson at the Nats I knew that it would be preferable to buy a secondhand non-subscription version. Yes these now fetch high prices, but at least there's nothing else to pay in the future !

Rechargeable and hardwired versions are available. Hardwired simplest - just fit and forget. Mounts at the front of the car fairly low. Sorry picture won't rotate !

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[Matt]

c) Seal the rear of the bonnet where it meets the bulkhead.

Regs require that the bulkhead provides a barrier against flame and liquid. The regs are open to some interpretation, but in general compliance terms it would be a very good idea to seal the rear of the bonnet in front of the fresh air intakes on the scuttle. There is a factory rubber here but it's old and doesn't really provide a good seal.

I bought some self-adhesive hollow-section seal and made an upstand out of 10mm polycarbonate so that the seal would just contact the closed bonnet. Turned out to be a good excuse to buy a right-angled drill too.

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Every race car needs to be scrutineered before each race to check it complies with construction and safety regs. Bit of a gamble to turn up on the morning of your first race with a car that's never been previously examined, so I arranged to take it to Brands the weekend before for a bit of a pre-exam (before finishing the fire system) . After a good look round (and testing of the roll cage with a magnet and verniers !) it was all pronounced good.

[Matt]

The schedule at Brands started at around 7am, so we left home around 5 after not much sleep.

After arriving at the circuit it was straight into driver signing-on at 7am , car scrutineering at 7.30, and then drivers briefing at 8am - where I was pointed out/introduced as a novice, so that the others could consider giving me a wide berth on the track !

I must say that everyone at Bernie's V8s went out of their way throughout the day to make me feel very welcome as a newcomer.

Qualifying at 9am . 20 minutes to set your fastest time, which decides your starting position for the race.
Queuing for pit lane access. The Qualifying and race were shared with the CALM Classic 4-Pot Porsche Trophy

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I had a couple of issues with my HANS head restraint device (being as it was brand new) so was delayed getting out onto the track by about ten minutes. This also scuppered my plans to go out at the back of the queue and so not risk holding any of the faster cars up !

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But I got the minimum three full laps in - which was just enough for my time to count and place me squarely at the back of the grid. Which, in my opinion, is a nice comfortable place to be at this point.

Back in the pits this is the bit where I get to drink coffee like a slacker whilst Gary washes the car .

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Bit of a gap now till the actual race, which starts at 1.15 and lasts for 40 minutes.

Time to check over the car. No issues we can see . Fuel economy is still a bit of an unknown. We seemed to get through a lot during testing at Castle Combe, but didn't get to measure the actual rate of consumption.

I'm not convinced the 20 US gallon (17 UK gallons) tank will last for forty minutes, but the only thing to do is brim it off and hope for the best.

[MrNorm]

Just been catching up on your post Matt, absolutely amazing, what a great project and continue to be stunned by your progress and resolve!! Hurry up and post the next bit of the Brands race

[andyrob]

I bet your hooked now Matt !
might come and join you next year in bernies V8's as have just bought a 64 falcon sprint race car

Also fancy doing a couple of rounds of the youngtimers with it
https://www.ytcc.nl/

[andyrob]

17 uk gal = 77 ltrs, thats about what my falcon's would use in 40 mins, think your car will not use quite a much as that, so you should be ok, just !
Maybe top it up once youve driven to collection area

[Matt]

During Qualifying the exhaust collectors had been grounding out in the dip between Paddock Hill and Druids . A quick look under the car also showed that the front suspension had been on the bump stops at some point (not that I'd felt it..) . So we raised the ride height 1/2"

So on to the main event.

The race had a rolling start (presumably safer with such a big difference in everyone's lap times ? )

We lined up on the grid, then did a lap behind the safety car

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Yes I know I need to adjust the tie rods a bit to straighten the wheel....

the safety car came in after a lap, and we were off

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after about 16 minutes I found myself actually overtaking somebody ! (they retired soon after....)

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Then again shortly afterwards. This car must have been having some sort of trouble too as it was cornering even slower than I was !

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I was so busy driving (and staying out of the way of faster cars) that the time just flew past . After a while I snapped out of it and thought "I'm tired now" - looked at the clock and 35 minutes had gone by.

Pretty soon the chequered flag was out and it was all over


I think that's probably the most fun I've had in a long time. Yes Andy I'm hooked !



Lap times slowly decreasing. I was held up a little during my pitstop (everyone has to come in for at least a minute) with marshals searching for a suspected oil leak. If I'd got out again after a minute I'd actually have finished third from last !

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[Matt]

Here's a couple of links to in-car videos - about 3 mins each . Apologies for poor sound etc - next time will be better .