Nürburgring, Nordschleife

For the first time i went to a race on the world famous Nordschleife in Nürburg, Germany. For all the impresive fact about the track check this wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring.

map

When we arrived on Thursday the weather was really bad but luckily there was a nice hospitality tent to stay warm and dry. Friday we had a free practice at four o`clock. The weather was nice and Michiel Campagne the driver of the Yellow corvette stingray was ready to go on the circuit. When we arrived in the pit lane the Marshall made a signal to start the engine. In a split second he told to stall the engine again. He said that we had to put in some dampers. So Roald our Truck driver/mechanic rushed to the trailer to get them. In the mean time i started disassembling the exhaust on the car. In 5 or 10 min all the dampers where in. Michiel started on his lap and after 12 min there was still no Michiel at the track. After 13 min he returned in the pit lane without oil pressure. After some quick checks of the electronic pressure measurement system we found out that it only had 0.5 BAR of pressure. We decided to take the car back to the engine builder the same night.

After a 2.5 hour drive we arrived there to do a series of tests on the engine. All without any success and the engine builder wanted to keep the car to check it the next day. Up till now he checked the complete engine and his conclusion is that it has to be something with the cooling system. We went back to Nürburg to have a Power nap for the next day.

Saturday Peter van Hoepen was the only one that could drive and Michiel was there to support him. Peter had never driven on the Nordschleife so the qualifying was one big mystery of corners. He managed to get to the 4th place on the grid with his Corvette Stingray Roadster. In the 100Km race he managed to get to the 2nd place overall. It was a nice experience for him to visit this circuit.

Now everybody at tachyon is going to prepare a few cars for the next race at Silverstone, england.

Constructing Mclaren M8F nose section

Last Saturday the people that work at Tachyon started building the new nose section. Monday i took a look at the construction process and everything is going well so far. This Thursday the Mclaren is going to do a shake down at Zolder, Belgium. After that it is going to be shipped to America for a race on the Laguna Seca race way this august.

NKHTGT @ Zandvoort

Two weeks after the last race at Spa all the cars gathered for the 60 year anniversary of the Zandvoort race track.

On Friday only three cars entered the track for the free practice and everything went well for them.

On Saturday all the cars drove the time-practice to determine the place on the start grid for the first race that afternoon. Like the good old times i had to keep the Matra Djet running. This year the Djet is driven by Dirk Jansen. Dirk Managed to drive a lap of 2.19 a new record for the Djet. Last Year maarten andDirk both got stuck aroundthe 2.22-2.24 but Dirk found out how to go faster now. In Spa the rear wheel got damaged so Dirk had to drive with a welded wheel at Zandvoort. The wheel didn’t cosed any problem. This time it was the gearbox again. After a few laps Dirk lost his third gear. So i took out the gearbox and after that i dissembled it together with Ronald Glenn. Ronald Glenn has become a expert on Matragearboxes after some earlier overhauling. After a quick look we found out that the fork that moves the gears was broken and needed to be welded. At 23.30 Ronald managed to get the gearbox in one piece again and we mounted it with a few bolds. Then i went straight to bed to rest because on Sunday the Blue Corvette was also coming to the circuit.

At 6.00 i started on finishing the mounting of the gearbox and al the other stuff that is connected to it. Andi went for a test ride. After a few meters i found out that it didn’t had 2nd gear but all the other gears where working. After my small tour the gearbox got stuck again.  It was a big struggle to get to the paddock again. Then maarten used (after trying everything else) a hammer to get it out and then it worked again only still without 2nd gear. Dirk started the race andmanaged to drive the hole race without second gear.

On Sunday the Corvette also arrived and it needed still some work and a lot of stickers. This time David Hart was going to drive the car. He managed to go pretty fast through the field but then he had to stop with drive line problems. Also the car was making to much noise even with the dampers installed in the exhaust.

Mclaren M8F nose section V2.0

After the race in Spa the nose is damaged again. This was the right to time to sit together with Laurens who builded the nose to discus the changes for version 2.0. The biggest changes is that we added more pre-cut holes to make the riveting faster. We added the metal parts because they where to damaged to re-use in the new nose. Now Laurens can make a new frame and nose so everything is going to be straight again. I hope that i can make some pictures during the building process now. Last time i was in Mexico so i only saw the final result.

NKHTGT @ Spa Francorchamp

After a 3.5 week holiday to Mexico i went straight to Belgium. With a jet-lag from here to Tokyo it was a though weekend. But knowing i had to do the blue corvette again made me feel a lot better.

The first day went pretty well and the Corvette with Peter van Hoepen behind the wheel did some good laps on a set of old tires.

For the time practice we used some shaved tires for the first time it went good but after a lap of 2 Peter said that the tires where getting less good to drive. We still need to test this tires in a 30 min race to see if they will last. The fastest lap was good enough to get the pole position for the firts race.

Race 1 was a semi-wet race it stopped raining but the track was still wet. Peter managed to stay on P1 the hole race and he had no problems with the other drivers. After 3 laps Michiel Campagne in the other corvette was comming up from the last possition of the grid but he had a black flag for making a jump start.

Race 2 was full-wet the rain was pouring like a shower just before the race and everybody had to adjust to these conditions. Peter was starting from the front again but he had to be careful because there where 2 hound dogs chasing him from the back. In a ford Shelby David Hart and in the Corvette Allard Kalff. They where very determent to get to the front of the field. In de last lap Allard was able to take David but they where still around 25 sec away from Peter Who dominated the whole race.

Race 3 was finally dry and it was going to be a really good race. With Michiel Campagne starting from 3th place and the Iso Rivolta from 2nd. Till 2 laps from the end they where changing places every lap. In the end the Iso Rivolta had to leave the 2 corvette’s and Michiel and Peter had to battle out who was going to win the race. In the last lap Peter Managed to overtake Michiel to win the race.

Conclusion a good weekend with 3 out of 3 race wins.

for pictures of this event see the tachyon website
for results http://www.nkhtgt.nl/races/races23/Race8.pdf

Mclaren M8F nose section

When the nose of the Mclaren M8F got damaged for the first time in South-Afrika it had a total rebuild by hand. Now the nose is damaged again and needs to be fixed again. The nose section consists out of a number of different folded plates of aluminium connected by rivets. On top of the aluminium there is a steel frame to connect it to the rest of the monocoque and there are mounting points for the front part of the body. The nose houses the radiator and some other air ducts for the brakes and cooling of the cockpit. The process of making al the plating by hand took a lot of time and is not really useful in future crashes. That’s why Maarten from Tachyon requested me to make a CAD drawing of the complete nose. The advantage of these drawings is that the nose is easily to reproduce. Also the holes for the rivets can be cutted in the plating. This makes the assembly much easier because the locations of the parts are already marked out. Just before i went to Mexico i finished all the drawings and now the parts are going to be cut by the laser cutter. After this first version of the nose we can make final adjustments to the drawings so that future assembly’s can be made with as less handcraft as possible.

Here is a picture of an early modelling stage of the CAD design more pictures will be uploaded when I’m back from México

Test day @ Zandvoort

After a 2-3 hour power nap i arrived at Tachyon again at 6 o’clock in the morning. Together with Ronald i Started to Load the truck to go to Zandvoort.

We went there with the following cars

Ford Mustang

Volvo Amazone

Morgan +4

Maarten stayed in the workshop the whole night while i went home for my power nap. At 7 o’clock the Morgan was ready and we departed to Zandvoort.

After some road blocks and diesel problems with the truck we managed to get to the circuit. All the cars went straight through the safety check and where ready to go on the track.

After some small cooling problems with the Volvo the car got 2 times a black flag for to much noise. But we expected that because we didn’t had a second muffler. The night before i only welded a small pipe on the exhaust to deflect the hot gasses from the fuel tank. Ronald Glenn our Volvo expert solved the cooling problems and the Volvo was ready to go.

The Mustang had no problems at all and the drivers had a nice time at the circuit.

For the Morgan it was the first time doing a real test. It was also the first time that the owner Nico Zonneveld drove his Morgan. After one out lap we checked the wheels and the engine bay and send Nico out on the track again. Nico was smiling the hole day and together with Maarten he discussed the car. The car is ready but there are still a lot of things to improve. Nico already updated his website with new pictures and new messages about his racing experiences. www.nizoracing.nl

After bringing the truck back to Soest i went straight home to have dinner and enjoy some sleep to be prepared for the next event this Saturday

Morgan build-up

When i arrived back from Italy i worked at Tachyon to finish the Morgan race car.

After the last post the car has been painted and is ready for final assemble.

I made a drawing of a custom made engine mount that looks like the old one but with slightly different dimensions. This mount is a billet aluminium structure which had to be milled with a 5 axle machine.

After some adjustment it fitted perfectly on the car. I have some more pictures of this project that will be here soon. This pictures will also included some other product that are custom made for the Morgan.

The DEADline for this project was friday morning and like we always do at Tachyon we managed it again. Thursday night we worked the whole night to finish it.

Laurens fixed the custom radiator that i draw a week earlier with some help of welder Ed from Gravity racing.

For more pictures of the Morgan project visit www.tachyon.nu or www.nizoracing.nl

Mugello 2nd historic festival

Go straight to picture gallery

After one day going to school i went to Italy for the second historic festival in Mugello.

First we went to Antwerpen, Belgium to pick up three exclusive race cars.

Lola T70 (see rest of post)
Ferarri (short wheel base)

Maserati

we only had to bring this cars safely to the circuit of Mugello.

On the road to Mugello everything went ok but when we saw some snow on the mountains we got a little bit scared. We had to cross the Brenner pass and if there is to much snow it is impossible to go there.

When we arrived in Mugello we unloaded the cars and we went out looking for a restaurant. Because we where with a big truck we decided to go to the city center by moped. The only problem is that the moped is not suited for 2 big guys and mountain roads. With a little bit of flinstone power we managed to go to the center everyday.

On Saturday the corvette stingray roadster was ready for the free practice. only one small problem, the driver was not there in time. With a lot of smooth talking to Olga my best Italian friend in Mugello i managed to let peter drive in an other practise session. They race controller sad that he should drive in the GT90’s group. It was a funny view because he was driving together with a Ferrari F40 and a stealth B6.

Peter didn’t knew the circuit so i was on the track to find out how he has to go round as fast as possible.

Saturday the time practise was on the schedule. After a view laps peter drove around 2:24 and didn’t go any faster. I decided together with David Hart to get him of the track. This turned out to be the 8th position on the grid.

Sunday morning the race started at 9 o’clock. It was cold in the pit lane but walking to the timing monitor keeps u warm in a two hour race. During the race i showed peter the pit board every lap to show him what time he was doing and in which position he was. He went quickly to the 7th place and it was easy for him to stay there. After 40 min we did our first regulated pit stop of 1 min. Peter was relax and managed to do laps of 2:24 constantly. After the second stop at 80 min his lap times went up a little but after 5 laps he was back in his old pace. When the clock was all ready on 2 hours peter came in because there was now gasoline any more. I told him to try to finish the lap but i think we didn’t understand each other. At the end of the pit lane he turned to the paddock. Because he crossed the finish line in the pit lane he became 8th in stead of 7th. After all it was a nice result for the first time peter drove the corvette. And maybe next race we can climb a little bit in rank.

After the race i drained the tank and there was only 1 liter left so the corvette used about 130 liters in 2 hours. next time we have to do a Little bit of refueling to make it.

When i finished packing our stuff i helped Phillipe our Belgium friend to change the brakes on the Lola T70 and to get the play out of the rear wishbones. We searched the entire paddock for some parts without any result. After that the driver Mark Devis went to one person and arranged the part we needed. With some adjustments the rear wishbone was safe enough to drive the car. The last thing we needed to do was getting the air out of the brake system the car was ready to go for the last race of the day.

During the afternoon there was some time to make some pictures at the paddock. There where some really exclusive cars in Mugello.

Ferrari 250 GTO

Ford GT40

Old F1 Cars

After a tour around the paddock we loaded the three Belgium cars so we could go back to Holland again.
when we where at the Brenner Pass again we where driving behind the snow patrol. And we made some nice pictures in the snow.

When I’m back in Holland it is going to be a race against to clock to build-up the Morgan for the second test at Zandvoort.

Test day @ Spa Francorchamp

Right after the open dutch championships i went to Belgium. After a nice road through the mountains near the circuit we arrived at the wonderful Francorchamp circuit.

After some diner we prepared the lap-timers for all the cars.

We where there with a rare combination of cars.

Corvette stingray
Corvette stingray roadster
Ford Falcon
Matra Djet
Marcos 1800GT

After a good night of sleep on a really nice bed that maarten specially bought for the new race truck. We started with a slow morning session.

After the first session we checked all the cars and then all the cars drove the rest of the afternoon without major problems. All the guest drivers had time enough to try some things out on the track. They stepped out of the corvette’s with a big smile. The weather also improved it because in the morning the track was wet and in the afternoon the track was dry and warmed up by the sun.

Today it is time for school and tonight or tomorrow morning i’m going to mugello for an other race weekend.