Brakes, Wheels and A Sense of Humour Failure

W ell another week passes and still I don't have drive shafts. I'm beginning to think that I will certainly miss the first two races of the season and my first outing will be the double header at Lydden Hill in April. Still missing races does save me money but while I like making and fixing things in the garage I also like the camaraderie of the paddock and fun of racing. Hmmph.

Anyway, the major issue to resolve this week was getting the new wheels to fit. One of the consequences of moving from Class A to Class B is that Class B is limited to 6" Rims whereas class A is allowed 7" rims. It seems a bit daft as the 6" rim rule hails from a time when class B was limited to (I think) 140 BHP. Whereas as redrafting of the rules to make it a 1000cc class means that modern engines can be used that put out 165+ bhp, pretty much bringing it in line with class A. I didn't spot the anomaly in last year's draft rules regs (when I had a chance to suggest the change) so as rules are rules and I need to get some 6" rims to fit.

I bought a stack of old Ford Escort Xr3i Alloys off ebay for 14 quid, these are actually pretty light and weigh about 6 Kilos each. Unfortunately this makes them a bit heavier than my existing 15" OZ Superleggarers at about (5.5 KG each) but at least they were cheap, are the right offset and fit my Ford hubs. So all in all a bargain. These are also 14" rims rather than 15s because 14" rubber is substantially cheaper than 15" rubber (£200 per set of tyres) so If I'm changing wheels, buying myself some rubber savings down the line also seems a good idea

Like Tim, to make life easier I have also bought some of the new swanky Wilwood Powerlight callipers that include a handbrake mechanism. I had lost my previous handbrake mechanism when I removed the diff and these seem the easy option... Erm No "easy" is not the word

With the mind set of changing as little as possible I performed some trial fits of the 14" rims on the cars. This is much easier to say than do. As I now had a new set of wheels, two different types of brake callipers and two or three different types of brake disks thanks to Tim Pell who had loaned me a stack of ally belled brake rotors to use as alternatives. The permutations seemed endless, If you then throw in the fact that to get the offset right you might need spacers behind the disk or calliper mounts, to get the calliper - disk clearance right you may need packing washers between the calliper itself and the mount And anytime you change anything the calliper has to come off, the wheel has to come,off everything gets unbolted and you pretty much start from scratch you can see that it is a long and frustrating process. Particularly when you get to the end of it and see that without major modifications there is no way it is going to work with the 14" wheels bells and callipers. AAARGH. At the back the operating levers for the handbrake mechanism foul the wheel and at the front the steering arm and calliper both get in the way.

OK lets use my existing Rim's and forgo the potential rubber savings. Job done!. Erm no ...about an hour later it dawned on me that of course I can't use my existing Rims they are 7" not 6" and are illegal. ArgghggggggGGGGGHHH!

At this point with timescales already tight, no drive shafts, no exhaust and delays being injected into the timetable everywhere I had a real sense of humour failure at the frustration of it all! Even considering junking the entire season.

However common sense prevailed and I thought "OK lets get some new rims, sell the old ones to cover the cost and we are away." Racing usually comes down to choices to spend money in order to make things easier or quicker :-(. Erm No, this wont work either it as appears that 6x15 Rims are not a common size in race wheels. The only options available are Compomotive MO/MTs and these way a full 2.5 Kg heavier than my existing wheels and would cost the best part of £500 pounds.

AARGH! I know racing is a nutty thing to do but spending £500 quid to be heavier and go slower is very simply stupid and the 10KG gained would undo much of the good work that has gone into lightening the car this season.

So after a long think about the problem while on my 2.5 hour commute to work and a chat with my dear wife Katie who is totally reliable at being practically minded and pulling me down to earth we came up with a solution. If I'm likely to miss Donnington anyway, accept that that is going to happen, use the money saved and the additional time to sort out the brakes and smaller wheels by getting stuff machined to fit. That way at least you are ending up with a car that is lighter and will save you money in rubber in the future. Plus the Ford alloys are pretty cheap so getting a second set to use for track days\wets is an option then.

Simple eh Aren't ladies great at common sense, if I had any of that I suppose I wouldn't be racing any way :-)