So last time out Luka determined that the pistons, liners and valve guides were all in perfect condition. So why then was the gtv6 blowing plumes of smoke out the exhaust? Well, lets first list the parts that have been replaced so far. Its worth mentioning that so far 95% of parts have been sourced from EBSpares (UK) and 5% from Highwood Alfa (UK) The ordering process with both companies has been excellent. All prices are ex. VAT and shipping:

1. Clutch kit (AR 75 T/S): £175.00

2. Diff mount: £13.00

3. Propshaft rear (Guibo) or donut: £88.00

4. Clutch slave cylinder: £48.00

5. Clutch slave hose: £11:00

6. Handbrake cable: £24.00

7. Centre exhaust section S/S: £225.00

8. Rear exhaust twinpipe section S/S: £225.00

9. Main air intake hose: £58.00

10. 6no. Plenum intake hoses: £40.00

11. Head Set: £58:00

12. Head Gaskets: £80.00

13. Waterpump: £64.00

14. Cam belt & tensioner: £120 (This i am not sure about but i think its around this figure)

15. Oil filters (2): £12.00

Christmas hamper for anyone who has ever embarked on a project car looks like this regardless of the contents:

Luka embarked on a minor top end rebuild since everything was in pretty good shape. He did however identify that the main intake rubber hose was badly cracked which was resulting in over fuelling and could well have been a contributor towards the sooty exhaust. Plugs were oiled up and the engine was generally running rough.

So, new gaskets and seals were all installed. Valve guides were all fine so whilst the parts were purchased; they weren’t actually installed. Luka faced a number of challenges with the car. The engine was sitting off-centre by 30mm for some reason and the exhaust centre section didn’t mount up to the front downpipes for some reason. Luka proceeded to rebuild the top end and overhaul parts as he went along. We decided that a black & silver look would compliment the car so thats what he did.

For those with a keen eye you will notice that the Alfa Romeo script on both engine covers are different. This confused me also! So much so that i even asked the previous owner did he know why? He replied saying he was sure he sold the car with the original plain Alfa covers which in turn got me thinking even more… so eventually I remembered around 2008-09 i had two gtv6’s. The other was a project which I had transplanted a 3.0 engine into along with a 75 twinspark gearbox, pas and isostatic linkage. Now for some reason i had decided to swap the covers over as I thought the script looked better… i may have changed one at a time and not noticed they were different… until now!

To be honest i’m ok with it. Its part of the story why the car is where it is and every Alfa is unique so now its a little bit more unique!

I think a re-cap on work completed thus far might be good at this stage:

Exhaust removed
Engine work:
Heads removed
New inlet gaskets
New exhaust gaskets
New valve stem oil seals
Heads cleaned
New head gaskets
Waterpump fitted
Exhaust manifolds cleaned and refitted
Servo removed and repainted
Brackets for powersteering painted
Alternator stripped and cleaned and brackets painted
Thermostat housing cleaned and painted.
Lights working
Covers removed to be painted
Timing belt changed
Tappets set
Gear linkage sorted
Engine position sorted
Engine covers painted

So whats left?

Well not a lot as it happens….
Remove, clean and new gasket to sump
Fit up new exhaust
Bleed braking system

With all that at this juncture and in a typically Alfa’ism way… the gtv6 has now decided it doesn’t want to fire up at all!

Next up… new exhaust and a proper body wash and detailing after 12-years in a shed!

If we take a step back to 2008 shortly after I had bought the gtv6 i got in touch with someone online who was selling replica SZ alloys. He had a beautiful SZ at the time and used to carve artistic SZ models out of lumps of brass. Interestingly at the time he was considering to sell his SZ which had these 17” alloys and looked staggering for the price of around £24,000 but it was over market price due to the low mileage and I didn’t see the value! If we only knew then what we know now!… I bought 16” SZ replicas for the gtv6. As it transpired they are ‘Image Wheels’ and still available online today in 2019. https://www.imagewheels.co.uk
The problem however was whilst they looked great the rears were just too wide for the car and scuffed the rear arches hacking lumps of rubber out of the tyres (literally) so initially i thought maybe changing the springs would fix the problem but the guys at EBSpares instead of simply selling me parts advised that the Harvey Bailey springs were quite high to start with so perhaps that wasn’t the solution. Of course it could also be true that the rear springs were tired and had lost compressive strength and perhaps this is why the rear squats down under acceleration but the problem existed 10-years ago when I last drove the car so more likely attributable to the massive wide wheels!

Initially i decided to revert back to the OEM wheels which i still had. I thought at least if they are cleaned up and fitted we will be able to fully test the theory of springs versus wheel width and then make an informed decision pertaining to new wheels.

So my dad kindly dug these out of a shed.

At a glance (from the photo) they looked fine so they were sent off to a wheel refurbisher for a rub down and a lick of paint… but… the previously mentioned shed was not particularly  watertight and these wheels were magnesium and it had been 10-years! The result on close inspection was not good as the photos below detail:

So the upshot was these were scrap. Around about this time (2019) I connected with a guy on instagram @alfabuildblog (Luka) located in NI who was embarking on his own home build project: restoration and improvement of a rare white Alfa Romeo 75 2.0 twinspark. His approach being practical, affordable and DIY. Something all of us can appreciate. I happened to ask if he had any 75 alloys for sale and he replied that his Dad had an original set of speedlines. These wheels are mostly seen on US/AUS market cars but i’m told they were an optional extra on UK gtv6’s when sold new.

They were straight but needed a little work and repaint. So a deal was struck and Luka kindly organised everything including powder coating and polish by @cobracustomsni, new Toyo tyres and delivery to JRC Auto.

it can be argued at this point that a gtv6 restomod looks better with a modern classic wheel whether it be 5-spoke revolution, ronal, sz replica etc. and I don’t disagree with that however there was something about going back to the original look that appealed to me with this project at this time plus it wasn’t actually the original look or at least not for 99% of UK gtv6’s. Ive never seen another UK car with these specific OEM wheels. I guess the final judgement will have to come later…

ZRT motorsport diaries… UAETCC Round 3 (Dubai Autodrome)

Following on from our double wins in rounds 3&4 we were once again back at Dubai Autodrome with the primary aim to continue with our goal of attaining the Class 2 Championship. This time it was the International Circuit configuration which skips the National section of the Autodrome circuit and comprises 10 corners. (6-right and 4-left).

The main technical differences from the last round were that we implemented some geometry setting changes especially in relation to the rear of the car given that we are now running an uprated ASR anti-roll bar.

Ricky Coomber of RKC/TGM (Honda) UK was again back in the drivers seat as he took the opportunity to further advance his knowledge and experience of the Autodrome in the European winter off-season.

This weekend unfortunately there was no time for testing as Ricky’s flight arrived Friday at 7:20am with Drivers briefing 8:30am. A dash from the airport landed us in 5-mins late but the ever accommodating race team lead by Frazer Martin at Dubai Autodrome gave us a separate briefing and we were good to go to Qualifying at 9:00am.

From the outset Ricky clocked a 2:01.9s and with every one of the 8-laps becoming faster the time dropped: 1:58, 1:57, 1:56… eventually resulting in a quick 1:55.62 just 0.17s slower than the Class 1 leader Alex Annivas in his turbocharged Seat Supercopa. We had set a target time of 1:57 so the 1:55.62 surpassed all expectations. Smiles all round!

Subsequently the driver de-briefing was held by Team Principal Richard Timmins and checks on the car performed by the team.

Race 1: Ricky had a good start and lead into Turn 1, lap times were consistent and without any drama we came in P1 in class and P2 overall. Our friend Costas Papantonis whilst leading the race had a stroke of bad luck when his front brake disc in the TCR Seat Cup Racer shattered which sadly put an abrupt end to his race day.

Meanwhile Ollie managed to snap up the last two slices of pizza….

…. and the guys had a laugh as usual!

Race 2: Started at 5:20pm so started in daylight and finished in the dark. We were positioned on pole for race 2 but a bad start which resulted in a loss of 5-places on Lap 1. It was a close battle for sometime with the Clio Cup Championship Leader (Will Morrison) but eventually Ricky managed to find his way through and thankfully there were no further issues with the gearchange or clutch resulting in a P1 class finish and P2 overall.

We are looking forward to the next round at Yas Marina (19^thJanuary 2019) when we will also see fellow ZRTmotorsport team members Phil, Jason and James compete against our Honda in their Toyota GT86 and Honda DC5 respectively. We wish them all the best and of course we will be on hand to support in all respects. Friends first, competitors second.

The team retired to Noel & Nikki’s villa for a BBQ (Thanks guys) and now look forward to Rounds 7&8 on January 19^th 2019.

Again ZRT encourage everyone to come and enjoy the day’s racing. Dubai Autodrome have really a superb offering with a family focus so take your kids along and start to inspire the next generation of petrolheads or electricheads as it may transpire! The next round of course is at Yas Marina which also boasts a Belgian Café at the track along with Johnnie Rockets and other food outlets so something for everyone with access to the F1 pits and facilities. Yas is a special place and it really is worth coming along.

We welcome any kids who want a photo in our car and provide helmets and drivers pics. The UAETCC echoes a spirit of competition without complication. We are all in it to win it but look out for each other…. Thanks Dubai Autodrome and all our fellow competitors ☺

Photo credits: The awesome: Rohan Ganapathy www.carculture.ae

Name: Chris Yarwood

Age: 50

Left / Right Handed: Right

Favourite Colour: Blue (metallic)

Favourite new Road Car: Pigani Zonda

Daily driver: 911 Turbo, KTM 1190, 17 year old home made camper van, it depends on the weather

Favourite Race / Rally Car: Porsche 917 / Lancia Stratos

Favourite Race Series: Creventic 24hr

Event would like to race in the most: Le Mans 24hr

Best Race You Have Been In: Definitely the Dubai 24Hr

Driver You Most Like Racing Against: Colin Feyerabend, 100% trust inches apart and a great racer .

Favourite Film: The Blues Brothers

Favourite Band: Anything from Stiff Little Fingers to Florence and the Machine !

Favourite Album: Rush. Exit …Stage Left

Favourite Restaurant:  The Grand Marnier Crepe stall at Le Mans

What Do You Do To Relax:  Ride enduro dirt bikes, cycle, tinker with stuff

As the 2017-18 season has come to an end, we thought we would do a series of “Meet the Team”. So, it only seemed fitting to do team owner and driver first. So, let us introduce you to:

Jonathan Mullan:

Age: 42

Team Position: Owner / Driver / Sponsorship Co-ordinator

Left / Right Handed: Right

Favourite Colour: Blue

Favourite new Road Car: Alfa 4C

Daily driver: Audi RS4

Favourite Race / Rally Car: Alfa 155 DTM / Lancia Integrale

Favourite Race Series: 24Hrs but such a stressful race!

Event would like to race in the most: Creventic TCES 24Hrs

Best Race You Have Been In: Dubai 24Hrs 2017

Driver You Most Like Racing Against: Alex the Greek

Favourite Film: The Big Lebouski

Favourite Band: Kovacs

Favourite Album: Feather & Stone (Tom Baxter)

Favourite Restaurant: Belgian Cafe (Festival City) Amazing sundowner views!

What Do You Do To Relax: Put on my headphones and work on a broken Fiat Coupe 20VT (Therapeutic!)

Race Day 5

Race day 5 saw Jonathan return to racing duties with Rhonda having softer front springs, which the team hoped would solve the long running handling issues.

The softer front springs definitely helped as the car was handling much better (although still not perfect) and Jonathon put the car on pole position and in the voice of Jeremy Clarkson won the 20-minute race “by many, many seconds”, 28.959 seconds to be exact.

Due to rain during the day, the start of the endurance race was delayed by approximately 1 hour. Just as the race was about to start, it started to spot with rain. With the potential that the weather might deteriorate, Ian and Richard had various strategies in place to take into account the changeable weather.

Jonathan took the first few slaps steady as the track was slippery on the kerbs especially in the national section of the track. Luckily the weather held off and Jonathan pulled away from the Clio Cup cars at close to 1.5-secs a lap. Soon enough it was time for the mandatory pit stop and with the events from the previous round in mind, the team and especially Sander made sure Umair had the car restarted well before the end of the pit stop.

Over the remainder of the race, Umair kept up a pace quick enough to keep pulling away from the Clio’s whilst not stressing the car. At the chequered flag Umair took Rhonda over the finish line 16 seconds ahead of Willie. And so in the words of Dom (Umair’s wife) “yay, more trophies”.

As a special thanks from the team, Sander was presented with one of the trophies for going beyond the call of duty and working so hard to make sure the car was in perfect working order.

After the race the team opened the gearbox to understand the problems with understeer on right-handers. The results were that the diff plates were worn hence Kiwi www.specialprojectsms.com came to the rescue with a diff rebuild kit. The final drive main shaft also had signs of damage which was strange as the crowne wheel was in perfect condition. Our clutch was also showing sign of serious damage with chunks missing from the paddle pucks so a new Comp clutch was sourced from TGMsport UK.

So with 2 races to go (and double points at the last round), the team leads the Championship with a few technical challenges to be ready for the last round.

So until March 30^th…… Sayōnara.

As the Joker once said “Why so serious?”…

Sander thinking “what music shall I upload for Umair?”

Note to team: No more ginger ale on race days…

Invoice is in the post Chris:

Rear camber feels about right to me…

If you are popping to the shops, we need milk, eggs and don’t forget the paper.

Team “We should tell Sander that “planking” is so last year”.

Umair “Double Dutch I understand, double Estonian I don’t”

So as 2017 come to an end, we thought it worth reflecting on a year that has seen its fair share of highs, lows and sadness. So, grab a drink, settle down in a comfy chair, put your feet up and let’s review ZRT Motorsport 2017: A Year of Reflections.

January:

January saw the team complete its most ambitious undertaking to date, the completion of Rhonda 2.0 from a bare shell to a track breathing, VTEC monster. This project could not have been completed without the support of the team members (and their families), team sponsors, Saluki Motorsport, A-Tech, Special Projects Motor Sports, TGMsport and Motorsport Wheels.

The Dubai 24hr event saw mixed emotions as 2 cracked exhausts, 1 broken steering arm and a fuse in ECU restricted the teams overall finishing position. However, the car was fast and took the chequered flag after 437 laps, 2,359km and 24Hrs of racing, which was a first for the team (yes there was more than a few tears of happiness shed).

February:

After many years of courtship, Umair and Dom finally got married (the team were on the verge of taking bets on which would come first, a class victory in the Dubai 24hr or their wedding…..). Of course, the team celebrated in the traditional fashion at the next race day….

March:

March saw the team compete in the 3hr mini enduro at the Dubai Autodrome. The issues encountered at the Dubai 24hr had been resolved and despite the heat, the odd rain shower and Jonathan carrying a knee injury, the car was fast and more importantly reliable. The team finished the race in 2^nd place overall (1^st place went to a Lamborghini Super Trofeo) and 1^st place in class.

September:

After much discussion, it was decided that the team wouldn’t enter the 2018 Dubai 24hr race (Accident risks becoming higher year by year) but return to their roots and enter the UAE Touring Car Championship (UAETCC), which ironically changed their format to a 20-minute sprint race and a 1-hour endurance race for round 2 onwards.

Jonathan and Umair would be sharing the driving with the usual suspects (Ian, Richard T, Sander etc) helping out.

October:

Round 1 of the UAETCC was held at Yas Marina and despite a car that was handling worse than a shopping trolley, Jonathan & Umair won both races. The highlight of the event was the team finally realising that Ian does actual detest mushrooms (after they bought him a lovely juicy chicken burger with EXTRA mushrooms…..). Ian would like to point out at this juncture, that he had been saying that he detested mushrooms for the best part of 3 years. Who knew! J

November:

UAETCC Round 2 saw the championship move to the Dubai Autodrome for the new format 20-minute sprint and 1-hour enduro format. For the event it was agreed that Umair would race in the 20minute sprint race (which he won his class), Jonathan would drive the 1^st 40 minutes of the enduro, with Umair then driving the last 20 minutes. As a result of being pushed off the track by a couple of BMW cars, the team finished 2^nd in class but crucially ahead on the team main competitor (and great friend) Willie Morrison again collecting full points for the Championship.

December:

With no UAETCC round in December, the 2017 ends with the team leading the team championship by 8-points over Willie Morrison. 4-races down and 6-races to go in 2018.

Please come and join us in 2018:

26/01/18: Dubai Autodrome: Race 1: 11:30am, Race 2: 5:25pm. The same day hosts Porsche GT3 and TCR Middle East races.

16/02/18: Dubai Autodrome: Timings TBC

02/03/17: Dubai Autodrome: Timings TBC

30/03/17: Dubai Autodrome: Timings TBC

Tribute:

Sadly, the year ends on a very sad note. A long-standing supporter of the team and co-founder of www.GulfPetrolHeads.com (which most of the team are forum members of and they met), Neil “Biggles” Greer sadly passed away. Neil was a real motoring enthusiast, a past racer, built a Caterham and Mk1 Escort in his garage, rode motorbikes and most recently developed a real passion for cycling. Neil donated the team his wheel dollies.

Everybody in the team thanks Neil for everything he has done for the motorsport and automotive community in Dubai and we are sure he is looking down on us with a big smile.

Pictures thanks to team members, carculture.ae and Tim Ansell for the picture of Neil in his car.

After a 3 year sojourn tackling regional endurance races, ZRT Motorsport with A-Tech Racing decided in the off season to return to their roots and enter the 2017-18 UAE Touring Car Championship. Both Jonathan Mullan and UAE Touring Car stalwart, Umair Khan agreed to share the driving and thus the team would be focusing on the Team Championship rather than individual honours. This approach very much epitomises the ZRT philosophy of teamwork first.

The new season kicked off at Yas Marina circuit on Friday 27th October. The plan was for Umair and Jonathan to drive a race each, which made the qualifying session tricky as both Umair and Jonathan each had to set a time within the 20 minutes session and with lap times 2min 40secs. the total number of laps possible including driver change was restricted Umair was first out, one warm-up lap, 3 gradually quicker laps then in for Jonathan to take over. Unfortunately Jonathan could not set a fast lap time as yellow flags were being shown on the exit of turn one (The class 1 car of Costas had stopped in a dangerous location). Umair qualified the car P2 in class, on the same row as Willie Morrison in the Ironman Renault Sport Clio Cup car (Also run by A-Tech Racing). The consensus was that the car was a hand full to drive and so a set-up and geometry check up was carried out.

A safe and steady start saw Jonathan follow Willie round whilst the tyres came up to temperature. On lap 2, Jonathan closed up and out braked Willie into the corner at the bottom of the South Straight. The rest of the race was spent maintaining a 2 second gap to Willie and 20 minutes after the start of the race, Jonathan took the chequered flag as the class 2 winner.

As a result of Jonathan’s win in race 1, Umair started on the inside line to turn 1 (The pole position favoured side). The race can be summarised as Umair heading into turn 1 ahead of Willie and then controlling the gap back to Willie (1-2s).

First round: 2 races, 2 class wins, job done.

Ollie practicing for when he becomes Serbia’s first F1 driver.

UAETCC Round 2 is to be held on 17th November at Dubai Autodrome. The weekend also hosts the Middle East TCR series so another exciting weekend of regional motorsport ahead.

Photo credits: carculture.ae

Saturday 4^th March saw the running of the NGK 3hr Mini Endurance race at the Dubai Autodrome. The team decided to enter the race as it would enable them to test a few modifications that had been implemented on the car following the completion of the Dubai 24hr race in January.

Jonathan and Umair would share the driving duties, the strategy being handled by Ian and Richard and the car looked after by Sander, Jason, Phil, Adnan, Noel and Theo.

For warm-up new tyres were fitted with Jonathan driving in the session to assess the handling and to scrub in the new tyres.

For qualifying it was the turn of Umair to drive. 1 out lap followed by 2 progressively quicker resulted in pole position by nearly 1 second. With pole in the bag, Umair returned to the pits where the team carried out a practice pit-stop, car filled with fuel and then returned to the garage.

At 13:50 Umair headed out  onto the grid and took up his pole position space. With all of the cars on the grid, the grid was cleared with the safety car leading the cars round for 1 warm-up lap. With the safety car pulling into pit entry, Umair controlled the pace of the field and led the grid round the last turn. Lights off, lets go racing….

2 gentle laps to warm-up the tyres and then Umair was straight away down to the target 2:24-2:25 laps times, which resulted in Umair extending his lead by ~1 second per lap (all part of the plan of building a small lead to cover any pit stop eventualities).

After 65 minutes he asked how long he to go in his stint as he had consumed all of his drinks bottle?  Luckily, it was planned for Umair to drive for 70 minutes so he only had to complete 2 more laps.

So pit-stop 1 was Umair out, Jonathan in and 2 new front tyres. With that done, Jonathan headed out onto the track to be greeted by spots of rain…. The rain soon stopped and Jonathan was soon back into the groove of repeated 2:25-2:26 laps. However, just before the end of Jonathans stint the rain returned harder and entering turn 15 the car stuttered. No problem as the pit entry is at the exit of turn 15, so into the pits Jonathan came.

Jonathan out, Umair in and down to the refueling area for 45L of petrol. The pit-stop left Umair with a 8 second lead and 43 minutes of racing to go. A gentle request from Ian for Umair to increase his pace slightly soon saw the lead extend by 1 second per lap.

With no further dramas (weather or fuel wise), Umair brought the car over the finish line 1^st in class and 2^nd overall (overall winner was a Lamborghini Huracan). Podium time.

So mission accomplished with lots of new data gathered and a few areas where car set-up could be improved. With that, the team would like to thank the Dubai Autodrome for organizing the event, the sponsors who made it possible for the team to compete and everybody who came to help and support them.

So until next time.

Oh and the team took the opportunity to congratulate Umair and Dom on their wedding…

How many tyres did we use? How much fuel did we burn? etc… Well wonder no more:

Friday 13^th

The 30 minute warm-up session was used by Graham and Chris to verify the set-up changes and refuel the car ready for the start. Both drivers confirmed that the car now handled much better and that the team were ready to race.

Before the car headed out onto the grid, the team, supporters and sponsors gathered around the car for the usual team pictures (a quick count gives ~40 people excluding drivers!).

At 13:15 Umair (starting driver) headed out on to the grid where he was met by the team and guests.

13:50 saw the grid clear ready for the 2 warm-up laps.

2017 Dubai 24hr Pt1: The Report

January 2017 saw ZRT Motorsport enter the Dubai 24hr race for the 3^rd time. Since the 2016 race the team had bought a new car shell, had a brand new roll cage fitted with the running gear from the previous car transferred over and many more upgrades.

Three out of the four 2015 and 2016 drivers continued, with Chris Yarwood joining the team for his first 24hr race. Sponsorship wise, the team was pleased to see the majority of the previous sponsors staying onboard with a few new sponsors supporting.

So grab a drink of your choice, sit back and read the trials and tribulations of the team.

Wednesday 11^th

The car, spares and hospitality equipment were delivered to the circuit. The main tasks for the day were to get the car scrutineered, garage, pit wall and hospitality area set-up. With those tasks completed the team had a relatively early night.

Garage Banner:

Garage Set-up:

Hospitality Set-up:

Tyre Management Bay:

Scrutineering:

Pit Perch:

One advantage of having people dedicated to taking pictures is that a lot of candid moments are caught on camera. Of course this also means that there is ample opportunity to have a spot of fun (the team apologies for a few dodgy film references)….

And one just for Umair:

The future of motor racing is the children of today, so what better way to encourage children to race but to let them sit in a race car. Not one to hinder the potential career choice, the team are more than happy to let children to sit in the race car.

Here are few pictures of use promoting racing.

Not quite sure this one has fully grasped the “race car” part.

A friend Craig of “Element Nine Graphics” offered to do a paint job on my Bell HP7. Craig normally paints helmets for riders in the mountain bike scene. My only guidance was something a bit more edgy and less complex than the typical race car designs and leave some of the helmets original carbon showing. Craig came up with a design that uses two shades of pearlescent blue are deployed, along with white and pearlescent black in a solid design, finished with a white custom rubber trims.

I think it turned out pretty good and have had it for a couple of years now. For next season, I think I’ll go for a fresh scheme for the start of the UK GT cup season with black and orange to tie in with my McLaren (and the ZRT colours).

My helmet is also shown on the Element Nine Graphics website.

So I thought… do we do another update or do we just leave it and show a finished product in the New Year. On one hand I dont want to become like Project Binky dragging the thing out and on the other there are still a few interesting things going on before the lot gets covered up.

Firstly theres the matter of wiring. To be fair years ago I had a Honda civic racecar rewired and it was fantastic. The guy had a skill or a signature of basically hiding all the wires so that when you looked at the car it was like wifi. Wireless! This was fantastic right up until around the point the car wouldnt start because of a loose earth. Not a big issue apart from the fact we couldnt find the wire never mind the loose wire!

So, whats the point?

The point is wiring is a skill or maybe even an art! Especially when you have nothing to copy so below is an image of work in progress which I hope you can zoom into to fully appreciate how well thought out and amazingly neat the schematic is.

As the build continues it becomes more and more apparent that it is possible to dismantle the entire car with an allen key tool from IKEA which is slightly weird and somehow very cool.

Next is an image of our pedal box. To be honest we had one which was also AP Racing but it was a curse. In last years race it stuck half way on me and then after it was adjusted it stuck at say 5% throttle. Believe me there is nothing more frightening than driving a Dubai 24Hrs at night at 40kph and trying to get back to the pitts safely! Later in the race (19-Hrs later) It stuck in the wide open position and after a few seconds for whatever reason valves and pistons whilst uninvited joined together and spoiled the party!

So, having decided on a few choice words to describe the old pedal box we ordered a new one from our local friends MW (Motorsportwheels). So all was good. Nice new pedal box… the best part was that we also had nice new cyclinders from last year except! Our old pedal box was from a Nascar which was imperial whereas our new one was from UK and metric! Initially this looked like a problem (No idea why) but our Friends at MW came through and delivered 3 lovely new cyclinders for the box as you can see below.

Below are the rear brake internal lines. Again fitted with the infamous IKEA tool. Who needs Snap on eh!!

That pretty much concludes it for now. The car will be finished in a day or two (photos are a little bit behind the writing as such) so in the next update maybe we can show you the livery design and the team race suits. For now the last pic shows the other side of the car which also has the refuelling option. The doors are on the way but if you look closely you can see a pair of trainers on the floor. If you remember we talked about perfectionism! Well Julian doesnt let anyone in the car with shoes on…. might be a challenge for the drivers

Til next time, Seasons Greetings to all our petrolhead friends from all at ZRT

If racing with nearly another 100 cars over a 5.5km lap wasn’t hard enough, a good 2/3^rds of the track is not lit. So to help the drivers (Support team say “pamper…..”) see at night, we add extra lights.

We have (thanks to Phil’s fabrication) removed the existing headlight fittings and replaced them with 13 spot LED lights and still keep the original headlight covers. To add extra illumination at night we fitted a light bar to the bonnet. Thus, our set-up used to be this:

However, for the 2017 season, the events organisers (Creventic) have changed the rules to include the following rule:

A LED-unit (up to approx. 20cm, at discretion of scrutineering) is considered as one headlamp.

So for 2017, the team has decided to install the 2 extra LED lights in the bumper (this also improves the aerodynamics slightly). So how did we go about installing the extra lights.

Step 1:

Take one complete front end:

Step 2:

Mount extra lights to the chassis.

Step 3:

Take one front bumper:

Step 4:

Mark up, cut out and fit bumper.

Strong wire mesh panels have been fitted in the cutouts to protect the extra LED lights.

The reasons for adopting this approach are:

• Makes the mounting more rigid, keeps the wiring neater and makes adjusting the lights more precise;
• If the bumper gets damaged (and not the lights) it is quicker to just change the bumper as we don’t have to worry about disconnecting and reconnecting lights;
• Another advantage is that if we enter shorter endurance races we can simply unbolt the extra lights:

So, to another short interim update…

First up is the new front splitter which despite being made from nothing more than plywood really looks like a work of art. Its a shame to cover it with a bumper later but what to do…

Next is the infamous footrest known because Umair Khan has been moaning for at least 2-years about us fitting a footrest so finally its being done although i have no idea when he will get time to use it ?

Our nice newly painted bumper has been fitted up and rain light installed. Looks pretty good we think!

Next update we will be showing where we have mounted all the AST suspension adjusters and how the oil filter has been relocated to a central (easy access) location on the bulkhead and more importantly… why?

Another brief update mostly by virtue of images it must be said. Things have progressed and we expect the car to be race ready in little over 1-month from now for its first shake down.

Suspension is being shotblasted, repainted and built up at each corner.

Above is the rear assembly and below front albeit missing springs as they will be fitted later.

Most of the body panels such as bumpers are all fitted using 4mm allen key bolts c/w Japanese writing on them to give that authentic look! ?

Below you can see the typical mounting backets and the actual bolts.

We have started fitting up engine & box using the excellent ‘innovative mounts’ products. www.innovativemounts.com

The really special K-tuned billet alloy shifter has been mounted. This time however to preserve the aesthetics of the product we have used stainless steel fixation bolts.

We use a front splitter bracket system provided by specialprojectsmotorsport (KIWI). A-tech made a slight change this time by welding the brackets to the subframe. We will do the same with the spare bracket set and a spare subframe so that in the event of serious damage we can quickly swap both over.

Last up is just a shot of the car itself from front and rear. Bumpers are currently in the paintshop so within a week or so we will be able to post another update. All in all we are really happy with how the build is coming along. It might be the newest Honda Integra in the world at this point in time ?

Some racing series or classes (eg: GT3) specify a minimum ride height which is measured to the lowest point of the car. The lower the car runs to the ground, the more efficient the underbody aerodynamics and the better the car handles as the centre of gravity is lower. However, running the car to low means that the drivers have to avoid running over the kerbs or if the track is bumpy, the drivers run the risk damaging the bottom of the car or ripping the exhaust off.

Thus, the team has to balance the ride height with the ability to ride the kerbs and not damage the bottom of the car / exhaust.

Most race series state either a minimum or maximum weight limit. In the case of the Creventic endurance series, they allow (in some of the classes) 2 different weight limits, with each weight limit permitting a different maximum fuel volume permitted at a pit stop. In the case of the class ZRT Motorsport race in (A2), the minimum weight is 980 kg which permits 100L of fuel per stop.

The heavier the car the more stress is placed on the driver, steering, brakes, suspension, tyres and a higher fuel consumption rate. Components will also wear out quicker. Thus, it is essential that we try and get the car weight down to as close as the minimum as possible.

The team have removed all superfluous tabs and brackets, replaced the glass side and rear windows with polycarbonate, carbon fibre seat etc but short of taking a 6” section out of the car, we cannot get close to the minimum weight limit (the old car weighed approximately 1,200kg).

The next stage is look at the front / rear weight balance.

Ok so its October instead of September but the good news is that things have moved on and we now have a really smart looking shell (painted under, internally and externally). The bodyshop faced three main issues:

– Front wings needed some modifications at the top where they meet the windscreen posts (actually the windscreen posts were modified as opposed to the wings) with added metal since they both didnt marry up cleanly.
– Doors were modified to fit.
– The shot-blasting caused a lot of damage particulary to the roof and rear 3/4 panels. There was a lot of hammering required to straightening those three sections of the car as opposed to opting for filler.

A-tech insisted in their trademark metallic grey for internals/under/inside the wheel arches/bonnet etc. And a nice clean white for the exterior. Our final livery will be revealed in due course but this year you can expect to see more white as the main part of the scheme.

First up is under the bonnet:

Below is the roll cage which you can see is painted as nicely as the exterior:

Internally we need to start some fit-out

And the last few pics show the exterior of the shell: Doors/bonnet/hatch and bumpers will all be fitted at the end of the build. The other panels will now all be masked off to avoid any damage while the rebuild continues:

So, with some luck in the coming weeks we shall start to see the shell transforming into a #racecar!

More updates as the build progresses…

2016 Barcelona 24hr: The Team Diary

With Graham doing track days and at least one round of the GT Cup and Chris competing in his regular sports car, Jonathan and Umair arranged to race in the 2016 Barcelona 24hr race. They had both competed in the event in 2015, however this year they had arranged to race a Honda in the A2 class (same class as ZRT Motorsport competes in the Dubai 24hr races). In addition, Ian and Richard T also arranged to be at the event and help the team Jonathan and Umair were racing with. So put the kettle on, make a brew and read the teams exploits.

Wednesday 31^st August:

Ian (+wife), Umair and Omran Al Owais check into ZRT Motorsport Headquarters (aka Hotel HC Catalan). It was agreed that the team would leave the hotel at 08:45 to be at the circuit by 9am to meet the team.

Thursday 1^st September:

Ian, Umair and Omran head to the circuit early. Ian starts helping set-up the garage (Umair, Ian’s 1^st question was “does the team have a pit perch? If so we should claim our space on the pit wall”) with Umair and Omran confirming the days testing schedule.

Richard arrives in Barcelona at ~ midday, checks into team headquarters and heads up to the circuit. The drivers sign-on for the event and the afternoon private test session. Umair and Omran drove the car to get a feel for how the car handles and for Omran to learn the circuit.

Jonathan and his family arrive in the evening.

Friday 2^nd September:

1^st order of the day was to have the car technically inspected and cleared for the race. Other than having to change the drivers seat, the car passed 1^st time.

Ian and Richard were allocated / volunteered to be the teams refuelers for the event and arranged their safety equipment (race suit, balaclava, glove and goggles).

After signing on and having their safety equipment, the drivers attended the drivers briefing.

Practice, qualifying and night practice. The drivers complete their minimum laps and report no major issues. The hotter than expected weather caused increased track temperatures (50^oC+) which resulted in higher than desired tyre pressures and the resulting decrease in tyre longevity and the tyres not lasting as long as hoped, even with the hard compound tyre (same comments from practically every team at the event).

The teams other car was running to hot so Ian helped lead the fabrication of some additional radiator ducting using CAD (Cardboard Aided Design). Clearly some of Richard B’s and Phil’s fabrication skills had rubbed off onto Ian (Richard B, Ian is still banned from the garage…).

Saturday 3^rd & Sunday 4^th September:

11:15 and Jonathan rolls out of pit lane and onto the grid, where the rest of the team joined him.

Jonathan took the 1^st stint of the race and settled into running consistent lap times without stressing the car.

After 25 minutes he reported that the clutch pedal had gone to the floor. Bringing the car back to the pits, a failed sealing ring in the clutch master cylinder was identified. After a 20 minute repair, Jonathan was back in the race. 2 laps later however, and Jonathan reported the same problem.

The team again removed and stripped the clutch master cylinder and carried out a second repair. With the unit re-installed, Omran was installed and he headed out onto the track. No major dramas just a couple of short Code 60 (all cars drive at 60 kph) periods and a tap on left rear wheel towards the end of his stint.

No damage was caused and so Umair took over for stint number 3. After a Code 60, Umair reported that the car was struggling to accelerate. Umair was requested to head to the refueling area (the team were confident that there was fuel in the tank) where the team were not able to put a significant quantity of fuel in the fuel tank. Investigations led to the conclusion that the fuel tank was vapour locking. A quick couple of mods to the fuel filler line and the car was sent back out on track.

A strategic call was made that from this point forward in the race the team would pit for fuel and driver change as soon as a driver reported an acceleration problem, rather than try and run the drivers stint to the 2hr maximum.

During Umair’s night stint (~01:30) he reported high water temperatures, which upon investigation in the pits were being caused by a damaged radiator, which was thus changed.

Just as dawn was breaking and Willie setting some consistent fast lap times, he reported over the radio that he had no drive. With the car returned to the pits on a flat bed, a broken drive shaft was found and replaced.

Hot tyres + having to stop the car on the grass = tyres like this.

Jonathan was installed in the newly repaired car and was doing his usual job of setting ultra-consistent lap times when he reported drive problems (~08:30). He limped the car back to the pits where the diagnosis was a broken clutch. Based upon the time left in the race and the time it would take to change the clutch, the team took a collective decision to retire from the race.

Despite not finishing the race, Jonathan and Umair managed to get significant seat time and are able to compare the handling of another Honda class A2 car with the teams own car and identify the relative strengths and weaknesses and determine where the teams car needs to be improved.

Throughout the event, Ian kept the circuit and Radio LeMans listeners updated with the car and its issues…

Jonatham, Umair, Richard and Ian would like to thank all at RKC/TGM for their hard work, support, catering and for making them feel welcome.

Don’t think that we hadn’t forgotten……

I think this will be the last update on the fabrication works as everything seems to be finished. A big thank you to Robbie and Mark at Saluki for the speedy, quality and efficient service. Its worth mentioning that they kept us updated at all times and they took a genuine interest in our project which is reflected in the quality of the Engineering.

So first up the seat rails were fully welded.

The lugs were also strengthened using fillet gusset pieces.

So with the seat positioned and fixed the pedal box reinforced floor plate was installed. Note the multiple holes are for flexibility in terms of the fitment position of the pedal box. They have been fitted with bolts to the underside so it is easy to install/remove/refit the pedal box.

Saluki then firmed up the steering column position and finalised the welding.

This then enabled the finalisation of the front CDS bar and the triangulated bars to the strut turrets.

Below is the bar which comes through the bulkhead and provides the lateral strength to the turret. You can see how tidy the hole has been closed.

Now the car is in the paint shop for bodywork. Initially it will be protected to prevent rusting of the welding then some bodywork to fix the panels which were damaged by sandblasting then, interior and underside painted then we will definitely start the mechanical works.

AIR COOLING

Most of the enormous amounts of heat generated during deceleration must be dissipated into the free air stream. Most high performance (and/or heavy) cars today use some variation of the “ventilated” brake disc in which air entering the center or “eye” of the rotor is forced through the interior of the rotor by the pumping action of the rotating assembly.

The most efficient practical way yet devised to accomplish this is through the use of the “curved vane” ventilated brake rotor originally designed for the LeMans winning Ford GT 40s in 1966. In this design the interior vanes are curved to form an efficient pump impeller.

They also stabilize the rotor from distortion and serve as very effective barriers to stop the propagation of cracks due to thermal stress. In laboratory testing it has been shown that race discs with vane rotors have increased air flow through the rotor by over 50% over some OEM rotors. This results in a cost effective but very stable direct replacement rotor that runs typically 15% cooler than stock. Of course the brake discs have to installed in the correct orientation….

Additional cooling can be provided through the provision of brake cooling ducts. These are used to take air from a high pressure point at the front (or rear) of the car and direct it to the centre of the brake disc. This is only really needed on the high end GT3 cars that have significantly greater heat levels to dissipate.

A brake caliper has three main components, these being the caliper body, the caliper pistons and the brake pads, as shown in the diagram below:

CALIPER BODY

The main function of the caliper is to hold the brake pistons in place when the brakes are not being applied and to direct the brake fluid onto the back of the brake pistons when the brakes are being applied. As a result of the massive forces that applied through the braking system during a race, the caliper has to exceedingly stiff. Stiff calipers also give greater pedal “feel” as more the pressure exerted by the drive goes to pushing the brake pads onto the brake disk and not causing the brake caliper to flex.

Brake calipers are often made of high strength lightweight aluminium.

In order to ensure even pad brake wear, modern racing calipers are designed with differential piston sizing that minimize pad taper by equalising piston pressure to the pad backing plate.

As brake disc sizes increase the number of pistons that push the brake pads onto the brake disc increase. This gives a more uniform pressure application, more even brake pad wear and greater stopping efficiency. This is often referred to a “? Pot” calipers, where a 6 pot caliper has 6 pistons.  Of course, the more pots, the bigger the caliper

CALIPER PISTONS

Caliper pistons can be manufactured from a range of materials depending on the available budget. The thermal expansion of the piston material has to be known when designing the caliper body and the seal.

Titanium is the ideal piston material as it does a really good job of insulating the fluid in the caliper from conductive heat transfer from the pads. Virtually all-serious racing cars use Titanium caliper pistons with an anti-galling surface treatment, which changes the colour from a natural almost dull silver to gold.

Brakes pads will be covered in another update.

Following on from the updates relating to wheels, gearboxes, differentials and headlights, we thought it would prepare a series of articles on the brake system we are running on the car and how we selected the system. So sit back and keep following the website over the next few weeks for regular updates.

Braking Capability

Except for high end supercars, stock brakes are capable of a single stop from maximum speed at or near the limit of tyre grip, but not repeated stops from high speed. Most stock brake systems lack sufficient thermal capacity – the system’s ability to absorb and transfer heat into the air or surrounding structure during severe driving.

The stock calipers and their mountings are usually not structurally stiff enough at higher line pressures thus reducing the effectiveness of the brakes and most OEM brake pads are also not designed for severe use, since cold stopping performance and quiet operation typically are considered more important to new car buyers.

There are a few basic facts that must always be kept in mind when discussing brake systems:

1) The brakes don’t stop the vehicle – the tyres do. Thus the type of tyre being used has to be taken into account (we have to use tyres set by the relevant event).

2) The brakes function by converting the kinetic energy of the car into thermal energy during deceleration – producing heat, lots of heat – which must then be transferred into the surroundings and into the air stream.

3) Repeated hard stops require both effective heat transfer and adequate thermal storage capacity within the disc. The more disc surface area per unit mass and the greater and more efficient the mass air flow over and through the disc, the faster the heat will be dissipated and the more efficient the entire system will be. At the same time, the brake discs must have enough thermal storage capacity to prevent distortion and/or cracking from thermal stress until the heat can be dissipated. This is not particularly important in a single stop but it is crucial in the case of repeated stops from high speed.

4) Control and balance are at least as important as ultimate stopping power. The objective of the braking system is to utilise the grip capacity of all of the tyres to the maximum practical extent without locking a tyre. The required pedal pressure, pedal travel and pedal firmness must allow efficient modulation by the driver.

To summarise, braking performance is about more than just brakes. In order for even the best braking systems to function effectively, tyres, suspension and driving techniques must be optimised.

To go further it is necessary to understand some of the physics involved, and that requires some definitions.

• Mechanical pedal ratio: The mechanical pedal ratio is the distance from the pedal pivot point to the effective center of the footpad divided by the distance from the pivot point to the master cylinder push rod. The larger the ratio, the greater the force multiplication, but the longer the pedal travel.

• Brake line pressure: Brake line pressure is the hydraulic force that actuates the braking system when the pedal is pushed. It is the force applied to the brake pedal multiplied by the pedal ratio divided by the area of the master cylinder. For the same amount of force, the smaller the master cylinder, the greater the brake line pressure.

• Clamping force: The clamping force of a caliper is the force exerted on the disc by the caliper pistons. It is the product of brake line pressure, in psi, multiplied by the total piston area of the caliper. Increasing the pad area will not increase the clamping force.

A few things are now obvious:

1) Line pressure can only be increased by either increasing the mechanical pedal ratio or by decreasing the master cylinder diameter. In either case the pedal travel will be increased.

2) Clamping force can only be increased either by increasing the line pressure or by increasing the diameter of the caliper pistons. Any increase in caliper piston area alone will be accompanied by an increase in pedal travel. The effectiveness of a caliper is also affected by the stiffness of the caliper body and its mountings. It is therefore possible to reduce piston size while increasing caliper stiffness and realize a net increase in clamping force applied. This would typically improve pedal feel.

3) Only increasing the effective radius of the disc, the caliper piston area, the line pressure, or the coefficient of friction can increase brake torque. Increasing the pad area will decrease pad wear and improve the fade characteristics of the pads but it will not increase the brake torque.

DRIVING CONSIDERATIONS

1) In order to brake effectively, the tyres must comply with and grip on the road. Your braking system is no better than your tyres and suspension. The best money that you can spend is on really good tyres (we race on spec tyres so this is not a consideration) and really good shocks (the team has excellent AST shocks).

2) Proper corner weight is crucial for effective straight line braking (our car goes to the best set-up garage in the UAE, Motorsport Wheels). Optimum corner weight for braking is when the cross corner pairs are equal. That is to say the total of the left front and right rear equals the total of the right front and left rear. The team uses the excellent Motorsport Wheels for this.

4) Use at least a 550 degree non-silicone brake fluid and make sure that your brakes are bled properly and, when used hard, often. The team uses Motul Brake fluid. Brake fluid is hygroscopic in nature – given any chance at all it absorbs water. A fraction of one percent of entrapped water lowers the boiling point of any brake fluid dramatically – and causes corrosion within the system.

Summary:

Road car brakes are fine for daily driving but provide insufficient continuous stopping power on the race track. Endurance racing takes the braking requirement a step further as brake disc and pad life has to be much longer than required for 20 minute sprint racing.

So the next few articles will delve into the considerations that have to be taken into account when selecting race brake systems.

Our original race car has been efficiently stripped to a shell. Just the doors, hatch, bonnet, wings, fuel cell and subframe remain to be removed.

The dash will be reused however re-organisedto be a nice neat enduro spec. Incorporating all the requirements in a cartek power control panel. Plus we will incorporate all of the Creventic 24Hrs gadgets such as the driver ID switch.

So, this is probably the last photos of the old car before it goes off to the big scrap heaven for race cars.

This was our car where it first originated (Sepang) in 2008. The red & white no. 27 car.

Its had a hard life since to be fair ?

Ciao for another while

So, where were we?

Finalising the build I guess…. Well its finalised, sort of. As mentioned earlier we ordered the Corbeau Seats from Jon at Motorsport Wheels but he very kindly agreed to arrange ZRT Motorsport logo to be embroidered on the seats so the order delivery will take a little longer. Because its a different seat Saluki want to make sure the seat position and steering wheel level is perfect so the dash bar, seat bases and associated triangulated bars are not yet fully welded in case of any minor modifications required.

Below you can see what I mean:

Below is the seat rail bolted in place just for the purpose of fitting but again final positioning may change. We think its unlikely but better safe than sorry:

Below is the finished installation of the air jack brackets (2-front and 1-rear). You can see how the bracket is fixed to the cage and also reinforced with a strengthened plate on the floor.

On our previous car we had a straight aluminium bar on the front of the car. This didn’t provide much protection so this time Saluki fabricated a steel box section curved to provide more strength in the event of impact.

At the moment it is fixed in place with a nut and bolt but this will be replaced with a quick release pin system eventually (We have fabricated a spare in the event of damage).

Below is a close up:

So, with the exception of some final welding we bid farewell to the Saluki Team and wish to thank Mark, Robbie, Rodel, Ben and Jordan for the excellent work. Cheers guys ?

Under the regulations, a drivers stint can be upto 2 ours in length. The existing fuel tank in the car had insufficient volumetric capacity (30L) to achieve this stint length. So, a larger fuel tank was required. The team knew the fuel tank capacity requirement and based upon the space available in the car with the roll cage design, the fuel tank dimensions where determined.

The team then held a series of discussions with Mike Scott at Gulf Sport (http://www.gulf-sport.com) to determine exactly the components that would be needed based upon the Creventic / FIA regulations (eg: tank, aluminum case, pumps, fittings). Gulf Sport are the local agents of Aero Tec Laboratories Inc commonly known as ATL.

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) is generally accepted as being the world governing body for all motorsport (we exclude North America from that statement) and the FIA defines the specifications and lists the approved products relating to the safety aspects (helmets, race suits etc). The standard by which the complete fuel cell and the auxiliary components must comply is FT3-1999, FT3.5-1999, FT5-1999.

The overall fuel cell comprises of several components and these are detailed in the diagram below:

Internal collector pot:

The collector pot sits at the bottom of the fuel cell with the flaps designed to allow fuel to flow into the collector pot but not out of the collector pot. This ensures the internal fuel pumps have sufficient volume of fuel even under hard corning to supply the engine and prevent fuel starvation. This is especially true when running low fuel levels.

Foam Baffles:

The yellow foam baffles are a specific sponge material that helps reduces the fuel sloshing around the tank under hard acceleration / braking and cornering and suppress explosions.

Fuel Pumps:

The team runs two fuel pumps on a 1 duty + 1 stand-by configuration, with each pump having “sock” filters with independent switches on the switch control panel on the dashboard. The pumps are rated to ensure that the fuel is supplied to the engine at the required rate and pressure.

Fuel Level Sensor:

Although the pit wall team calculate the volume of fuel used per lap, the fuel level sensor has been set to illuminate on the dash at a prescribed level. This helps verify the fuel burn rates.

Fuel Cell:

All of the above components fit inside the fuel cell. The cell is designed to contain the fuel and not to split open in the event of a crash. The fuel cell inlet has a non return valve that prevents fuel spilling out of the tank in the event of the car being on its side or up side down.

Alloy Container:

As per the FIA and event regulations the fuel cell has to contained inside and aluminium container of minimum 2mm thickness with 4 aluminium straps and 40mm wide (2 in each direction across the of the aluminium container) that are bolted to the chassis.

The fuel cell certificate must be visible with a new the cell re-certified after five years by the manufacturer, which if passed is re-certified for a further two years.

Final Installation:

The final stage of the installation after fitting the fuel lines and filler, is to box in all the connections, which results in the final installation looking like this:

Click Here for Clothing

Below is a further update on the project. At this stage it looks like Saluki are only 4-days away from finishing which on reflection is a pretty fast build. 1-month from a dusty shell to a fully fabricated race car shell considering the quality and engineering thought process that was required for some components of the build is really impressive.

Although we posted this image of the rear air jack before, below is a much clearer picture showing precisely the welding and engineering quality.

Below is the final door bracing welding

Below is where Saluki have joined the front section of the roll cage to the front strut turret.

There is a second diagonal support which we posted previously.

Below is a reinforced plate which the K-tuned billet alloy gear shifter is bolted to. Captive nuts have already been welded to the underside of the plate so that the shifter is just bolted down.

Below is the reinforced plate which the air-jack sleeve will be welded to. The second pic is the sleeve before it is fixed in place. We’ll post a pic of the final installation once completed.

Below is the pedal box mounting plate. This again will have nuts welded to the underside and be recessed into the existing floor plate then welded all around resulting in a strong platform.

Comparison of the two soon to be one race cars.

And last up a huge thank you to Robbie of Saluki pictured below who is the head fabricator and has really taken a lot of care and attention for our little project. Later we will do a bio for the whole Saluki team involved but for now. Thanks Robbie, everyone loves the work and appreciates the efforts.

Part 7

As you become ‘used’ to something you tend not to realise or appreciate when things are wrong. Take the example of the ever widening waistline, few kgs here and there and all of a sudden without any warning you are 10kgs overweight. Well the same happened to our trusty Honda. 4-paint jobs and 3-vinyl wrap schemes later and lots of filler and all of a sudden we were almost 100kgs over our ‘sprint’ spec weight just 2-years earlier.

So the aim this time is to stay fit and light from the start.

For those that don’t know this is the old girl and whilst we moan about her putting on kgs, she did put us on the podium in 14 out of 16 races in 2013-14 so lets not be too hard.

Speaking of wrong (in the same context of the previous point) below are a few examples of our previous cage quality when compared to the new cage.

Previous centre section of the X brace:

New:

Previous door bars:

New:

As you can see the quality is vastly improved.

In the below image you can see where the floor was cut to drop the cage through to weld the top sections as mentioned previously:

Saluki reinforced the rear shock anchoring sections firstly to support the cage and secondly to give a robust foundation for the rear shocks to be fixed to.

We also went over the car with Saluki looking for areas were we could remove a little weight but not effect the structural integrity of the car. Below is one example of where we are able to remove a little bit of unnecessary metal.

Before:

After:

We have a carbon fibre infil panel to cover the new “hole”.

At this stage there are only three main jobs left:

1. Air jacks
2. Pedal box
3. Fuel cell

Click Here For Part 8

Click Here For Part 6

In our old shell we started facing a problem of windscreens cracking on the lower left of the screen. For anyone who has watched our documentary on Emirates Airline you will remember all too well what a problem this caused in 2015. Again since then a further 2-screens cracked. In the end we were unable to define exactly the cause but we suspect it is due to a weakness in the front chassis.

To combat this in the future and to eliminate the need for a strut brace this time we have replicated the roll cage design of the BTCC Touring cars similar to that of Peter England’s ex-BTCC astra here in Dubai. So in the below image you can see that the turret is strengthened in 4-ways.

1. Seam welding.
2. Triangulated bracing to the roll cage lateral bar at the dash.
3. Connection to the roll cage at the A-post. (Zoom in to see that one)
4. Double plate strengthening of the strut mounting.

We have also allowed for the provision of castor adjustment in the strut plate.

Those with a keen eye will also notice that the holes in the bulkhead (previous pic) have all been closed up as they are not needed on the race car. Most probably they were for water hoses to the heater/a-c but because we already have a car to work from we know they are not required in the build. They are therefore closed for safety and rigidity.

Click Here For Part 4

After many years of racing ZRTmotorsport have decided that after 7 hard years of racing, it is time to look at either re-shelling and rebuilding the Honda DC5 in advance of the 2017 Dubai 24Hrs or to buy another car.

We had considered opting for a new cars such as the Seat Cup racer, BMW 235i or Clio Cup but after running the DC5 for 4-years we came to have more spares than the Honda works teams! The work which went into acquiring the knowledge and stash of parts would be a huge undertaking to start again with a platform we were unfamiliar with. In addition considering the fact the Integra is a great platform to start with and the fact we are very stubborn the decision was taken to stick with what we know.

First step…. Find a shell

Our competitors and friends Lap 57 were able to assist and supply us with this clean (albeit dusty) 2007 shell.

The next step was to strip the shell and take it to Saluki Motorsport to agree the first stage of the project:

We agreed the following works with the guys at Saluki.

• Full FIA specification roll cage
• BTCC Spec enhancements for the front chassis
• Installation of seat rails
• Installation of air jacks brackets
• Removal of unnecessary brackets
• Provision for fuel cell installation
• Seem weld chassis

Click Here For Part 2

After the deaths of several high profile racers the world over had died neck injuries caused during a crash, the various world motorsport governing bodies gradually mandated the use of a Frontal Head Restraints (FHR) system. The most well known device are the HANS (Head and Neck Support).

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) is generally accepted as being the world governing body for all motorsport (we exclude North America from that statement) and the FIA defines the specifications and lists the approved products relating to the safety aspects (helmets, race suits etc). The standard by which the main FHR component and the auxiliary components must comply is 8858-2010.

The purpose of the device is to keep the head from whipping forwards and backwards in a crash, without otherwise restricting movement of the neck. The device maintains the relative position of the head to the body, in addition to transferring energy to the much stronger chest, torso, shoulder, seatbelts, and seat as the head is decelerated.

The devices work by attaching the drivers helmet to the neck support that is held in place by the racing harness. Today there are several different types of neck support system available with the 2 most common being the HANS and Hybrid.

There are two main differences between the two types and these are described below:

Helmet Attachment

The HANS system is connected to the drivers helmet using one tether on each side. This reduces the forward movement of the head but does not restrict the sideways or lateral movement of the head.

The hybrid system has two tethers on each side and thus restricts the head movement forwards and laterally.

Mounting

The HANS device is held in place by the racing harness should belts over the shoulder support.

The hydrid device is held in place by straps around the drivers body and by the racing harness should belts.

All of the teams drivers use the HANS device. The lack of lateral support that is provided by the Hybrid system has been off-set through installing a seat with side wings which limit the lateral movement of the head.

In tests HANS was shown to reduce typical head motion in an accident by 44 percent, the force applied to the neck by 86 percent and the acceleration applied to the head by 68 percent – bringing the figures for even large impacts under the ‘injury threshold’.

The effectiveness of the HANS device was proven by a good friend of the team when he crashed into the side of another car at 130mph after his brakes failed. The driver simply undid his belts and got out the car un-aided. Other than a slight stiffness in his neck the driver suffered no injuries.

Click Here for Fire Extinguisher

In his 11 years in the UAE Ian has been heavily involved in motorsport both on and off track. So here is a “quick” resume of Ian’s racing career (Warning: You will need a large cup of coffee or tea).

2008: Desert Lions Rally Team & Team Fast Forward

Desert Lions

Ian was the team manager and responsible for ensuring the driver & co-driver were at the briefings and the start on time for the teams entry in the UAE Desert Challenge.

Team Fast Forward

Co-founder of the team, team manager and navigator. Team entered the Umm Al Quwain desert rally and won the rookie class.

2009-10: Team Fast Forward, SVDP Racing, Dual Racing & Newtrix Racing

Team Fast Forward

UAE Desert Challenge. Team manager and navigator The car had been extensively modified since its last appearance with uprated suspension, new bigger engine and 300L fuel tank.

Sadly the event didn’t end well as the car caught fire on stage 2 and burnt out.

SVDP Racing

Chief Mechanic running a Honda Civic EP3 in the UAE Touring Car Championship. Responsible for event schedule compliance, setting and managing tyre pressures, fuel levels and fuel burn calculations and pit wall data communication.

The team decided to enter the Britcar 24hr race held at Silverstone. Ian helped assist in finding a suitable race car (BMW120d), completed the entry form, ordered the tyres and fuel, liaised with organisers, planned event and race strategy and ensured the team complied with the event rules and regulations. The team successfully completed the event.

Dual Racing

2010 saw Ian compete in in his 1^st 24hr car race at the Dubai 24hr event. Tasks included lap timing, preparing for pit stops, carrying out pit stops and fuel burn calculations. The team finished 2^nd in its class.

Newtrix Racing

Ian was asked by Newtrix Racing to be the teams navigator in their entry in the Hail Baja (3 days desert rally held in Saudi Arabia). The event is 1,600km from Dubai and it is a 2 day drive to get there (and 2 days back). The car blew a top radiator hose and the idler pulley disintegrated on day 2. Repairs were made with the team finishing the event the following day.

2010-11 SVDP Racing, Vendetta Racing and WRC Developments

SVDP Racing

Ian continued in running the Honda EP3 race car and carried out the same functions as the previous year.

Vendetta Racing

A race day wher there was no touring car racing but bike racing led to Ian commencing his working relationship with Vendetta Racing (Mahmoud Tannir & Alan Boyer) that is still going strong today (through both Vendetta Racing and Tannir Moto Racing. Ian’s influence was soon evident as he engineering Mahmouds first ever race victory at the last race day of the season. A sign of things to come.

WRC Developments

Ian joined the WRC Developments team from the UK to help run their Honda Integra DC5 (little did Ian know then that he would be running the same model of car again). Despite having to change the engine in the race (something Ian will get used to…), the team got the car to the chequered flag.

2011-12: SVDP Racing &, Vendetta Racing

Vendetta Racing

Crew Chief for Mahmoud Tannir who won 12 races out of 14 and finished 2^nd in the balance 2 races. This resulted in Mahmoud winning the UAE Sportsbike Championship.

SVDP Racing

Ian continued in running the Honda EP3 race car and carried out the same functions as the previous year. The main difference being that car was now white in colour.

After working with WRC Developments in the 2011 Dubai 24hr Race, Ian returned as Team Manager for SVDP Racing in their entry in the 2012 Dubai 24hr event. Responsible for team entry, ordering tyres, liaison with event organisers, planning and team organisation, lap timing and race strategy. Sadly, engine issues prevented the team from starting the race.

2012-13: Vendetta Racing, SVDP Racing, Erikas Savikas Racing & GNSS Racing

Vendetta Racing

Crew Chief for Mahmoud Tannir who won successfully defended his UAE Sportsbike Championship.

The team also competed in 1 round of the Qatar Supersport Championship where they won 1 race and finished 2^nd in another.

Erikas Savickas Racing

Ian acted as crew chief for Erikas Savickas at the last 2 rounds of the Qatar Superbike Championship. Despite suffering from front suspension issues, Erikas reduced his lap times over the 2 events and set a personal fastest lap in the last race.

SVDP Racing

Team Manager for SVDP Racing in their entry in the 2013 Dubai 24hr event. Responsible for team entry, ordering tyres, liaison with event organisers, planning and team organisation, lap timing and race strategy. The team won its category at the event with a certain Mr. Jonthan Mullan as one of the drivers.

 
SVDP Racing entered the Barcelona 24hr race later on in the year. Ian continued with his usual roll for the team and despite having to change the engine during the race, the team took the chequered flag.

GNSS Racing

At the inaugural 1hr endurance race at the Dubai Autodrome, Ian planned the strategy, monitored the lap times, called the pit stop all which led to Jonathan winning his class. The start of a long and fruitful relationship.

2013-14: Zettanet Racing, Tannir Moto Racing & Vendettta Racing

Sporting Director for Zettanet Racing. Responsible for tyre and fuel management and race strategy during the teams entry in the UAE Touring Car Championship. The team finished the season as the Class A2 champion.

Tannir Moto Racing

Crew Chief for Tannir Moto Racing. Responsible for suspension and tyre pressure settings, fuel management and pit wall data management in the teams entry in the UAE Superbike Championship where they finished 2nd. The team became the official Honda UAE racing team during the season.

Vendetta Racing

Team member for Vendetta Racings entry in the bike section of the UAE Desert Challenge. Ian was responsible for following the riders to the stage start and from the stage finish back to rally headquarters. Both riders completed all 5 days and finished the event.

2014-15: Zettanet Racing & Tannir Moto Racing

ZRT Motorsport

Sporting Director for ZRT Motosport. Responsible for team entry in the Dubai 24hr race, ordering tyres, liaison with event organisers, planning and team organisation, lap timing and race strategy.

Tannir Motor Racing

Crew Chief for Tannir Moto Racing. Responsible for suspension and tyre pressure settings, fuel management and pit wall data management. Mahmoud finished 2^nd in the UAE and Qatar Sportsbike championships.

2015-16: ZRT Motorsport & Tannir Moto Racing

ZRT Motorsport

Sporting Director for ZRT Motosport. Responsible for team entry in the Dubai 24hr race, ordering tyres, liaison with event organisers, planning and team organisation, lap timing and race strategy.

Tannir Moto Racing

Crew Chief for Tannir Moto Racing. Responsible for suspension and tyre pressure settings, fuel management and pit wall data management in the teams entry in the UAE Superbike & Qatar Supersport Championships.

2016-17 ZRT Motorsport, Tannir Moto Racing and ?

Ian will taking on the roll as Crew Chief for the Bahrain Superbike Championship where he will be responsible for 15 race spec Ducait Pannigali 899’s. He will continue his racing commitments with ZRT Motorsport and Tannir Moto Racing.

Oh and once in while Ian acts a riders stunt double….

All of the teams thank Ian’s ever supportive family for allowing him to contribute to the local racing community as much as he has.

Photo credits as per details on each picture.

Although ZRT Motorsports focusses on track racing, a number of it teams members assist other local teams in desert rallying (cars and bikes) and bike racing. So, as the team is currently in its off season, we thought we would look at what some of the team members do when ZRT Motorsport are not racing.

Richard Bailey & Jason Lyness

Richard and Jason have been helping Newtrix Racing  (http://newtrixracing.blogspot.ae/) compete in the local desert rallying championships and UAE Desert Challenge (our local version of the Dakar Rally) for a couple of years.

You may think that there is no relation between rallying and endurance circuit racing. In actual fact there is a lot of cross over. The desert challenge is based at the grounds of the Qasr Al Sarab resort (270km from Dubai / 160 km from Abu Dhabi) and so planning to ensure you have the necessary tools and spares is vital (no local Motor Factors they can pop into).

Each stage has a service point, so Richard and Jason have to be mobile, know where the tools and spares are on the truck and be able to repair / replace or fabricate a bush repair as required.

Richard prepares a check list of service actions before the event, with additional tasks added as they are noted along with any repairs / part replacement works are identified.

The team has to agree on who is best suited to carry out certain tasks, agree on who will carry out each task (no point in 2 people doing the same task) and then update the check list when tasks have been completed.

Richard and Jason get to see how other teams work and the engineering ideas / solutions they have evolved.

So as you can see, there is lot of similarity between endurance racing and desert rallying and they can bring new ideas / solutions to the team which will help in the preparation and running of the teams car.

The 2016 UAE Desert Challenge has recently finished, and so here are a few pictures of Richard and Jason in action:

The Rally Car: Nissan Patrol

The mobile workshop with Richards tools

Rally HQ / Service Centre

Day 1 service: Richard welding a crack on the rear axle

Day 2 Richard replacing a drive shaft

Evening service

Richard doing his Darth Vader impression

Richard fixing a fire truck at a rally service

One of Jason (and Richard) helping Sabertooth Motorsports

Newtrix Racing finished the event in 23^rd place. So well done Richard and Jason.

As a little side note, Ian competed as the navigator with the team in the 2011 Hail Baja (Saudi Arabia).

The world governing body for motorsport FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE L’AUTOMOBILE (FIA) have defined the regulations and standards for racing seat that must be used when competing. The standards are defined under: Standard 8855-1999, FIA STANDARD FOR COMPETITION SEATS

The harness must also have 1 label sown on the side of the seat at the torso level, stating the primarily standard the harness complies with and the expiry date (harness has a maximum 5 year life before it has to be replaced).

The standards define the loads and directions the seat is to be tested at:

• Rearward impact: 20g;
• Side impact: 15g;

There are 2 types of racing harness, these being:

• With head supports; and
• Without head supports.

The head supports work in conjunction with the FHR (Frontal Head Restraint) / HANS (Head And Neck Support) device to prevent head and neck injury in the event of an accident. The seat has reinforced slots for the shoulder, lap and crotch belts.

The seats are mounted to the car via specific seat mounts. As the teams drivers vary in height, the base of the mounts are fitted to a race specification sliding rail (exactly the same principle as in a normal road car). The holes in the side of the mounts allow the seat to mounted at required height and angle.. This is detailed in the following diagram.

The teams original seat would have expired prior to the 2015 Dubai 24hr event. So the team paid a visit Motorsport Wheels (http://www.msw-me.com/ authorised provider of Corbeau seats) owned and run by the vastly knowledgeable and ever helpful Jon Simmonds. He soon sorted out the team with a Corbeau Revenge. And here is a picture of the seat installed in the car.

The team thanks Jon and Motorsport Wheels for their service and hope they never have to test the quality of the seat.

Click Here for Roll Cage

During discussions with BAM International in 2014, they not only offered to become a team sponsor, they also requested Jonathan to race in the Dubai 24hr event in a helmet painted in their corporate colours. After the event, Jonathan would hand the helmet over to BAM International who would display the helmet in their regional head office in Dubai.

The first stage was for Jonathan to buy a plain white helmet Aria helmet (just like the one below):

Andy Blackmore (the same person who designed the livery of the car) was tasked with designing the helmet. Andy tabled a few options but in the end his proposed design looked like this:

And after painting looked like this:

The team have received many comments on how clean and instantly recognisable design is.

BAM International were so happy with the design and the coverage the helmet received not only locally but also in Barcelona (Photographed on the official 24Hrs series website, picture below) that they requested Jonathan to keep racing with the helmet for the balance of the 2015 season and the 2016 Dubai 24hr race.

It has been agreed that at the completion of the 2015-16 season, the helmet will be handed over to BAM International who will put it on display in the head office reception.

The team thanks BAM International for their support and hope the helmet continues to receive positive comments when on display.

Click Here for Safety 6 Point Harness

Following on the teams recent entry in the national race day, the team has entered the 2hr mini enduro that is being held at the Dubai Autodrome on April 1st, no seriously it is and we have! For the event the car has been given a complete service, nut and bolt check over with the fuel […]

As part of the ongoing development and testing of the car, the team entered the National Race being held on 18th & 19th February. The aim of entering the event was to test low fuel level running.
Generally at the 2016 Dubai 24hr event the car was not run with less than 20-30 litres of fuel on board. However, the more fuel you carry in the fuel cell, the more the car weighs…… On average 1L of fuel weighs 0.8kg, thus if the car is carrying 20L unnecessary fuel this equates to 16kg of excess weight.

As the car weighs a good 50kg more than other cars in the A2 class, the team needs to run with the lowest possible fuel volume to last 2 hours of running. Using the fuel burn calculations derived from the Dubai 24hr race, 20L of fuel would be sufficient for each 20 minute race.

Qualifying:
Given the car is probably ~100kg heavier than other cars in the same class and with the engine and gearing in endurance specification, Jonathan was always going to struggle for pace in qualifying. Pushing hard Jonathan qualified the car close to the Renault Clio’s.

 
Race 1:
Jonathan got a clean start, passed a BMW 130i in T2, narrowly avoided another BMW on T4 which had spun 180-degrees on track and passed a Clio at T5 on lap 1. The rest of the race was spent battling (at close quarters) with the quicker Clio cars and at the chequered flag Jonathan finished in 4th place.

Race 2:
It was agreed to try a slightly lower fuel volume for race 2 to further test the fuel pick-up capability. Jonathan soon encountered fuel starvation issues in right hand corners. Doing the best he could, Jonathan managed the car through the right handers and brought the car home safely.

A post race inspection of the fuel cell revealed that the left side internal fuel sump baffle trap door was sticking open and thus allowing fuel to drain out of the fuel cell sump in right handers. Although the issue was frustrating at the time, the team found and resolved the issue and regular checks will be carried out to prevent the situation occurring again.

It is not all doom and gloom though as the fuel cell is now working as per its design which means the team can run the car with lower fuel volumes and hence less weight. And that ladies and gentlemen is why testing is useful but racing is the real test. The race itself showed clearly that the Honda was faster through the corners than the nimble little Clios but the straight line speed was lacking due to the enduro spec set-up (Particularly weigh disadvantage).

The next event is the 2hr endurance event at the Dubai Autodrome which is being held on April 1st during which we will be running ITB’s (Independent throttle bodies) to try and increase our torque levels marginally. If it is the GP circuit then we will be able to compare directly to the D24 (2016) lap times. More valuable data before going into hibernation for the hot summer months.

A big day for the team and the event. The day comprised of 2 practice sessions (30mins and 2½ hrs), qualifying (30mins) and night practice (2 hrs). The rules stated that each driver had to complete a minimum of 2 timed laps in practice and / or qualifying and a further minimum 2-timed laps in the night practice.

The teams set-up for the event consisted of Richard “toolman” Bailey and his team of trusty mechanics (Heiki, Sander (Sander would be looking at the data recorded) and Jun Mago (Jun changed wheels). Jason Lyness was trusted in monitoring tyre pressures, temperatures and usage. He used the sessions to refine the cold tyre pressures as this was key to tyre longevity. Jason was ably assisted by Phil “the prince” Craven (Phil was interviewed by Nigerian tv during the event).

Fuel consumption monitoring duties was carried out by Luke Stratford and Huw Williams (Huw is our youngest team member). The idea being for the car to only have the volume of fuel it needed for each driver stint to minimise weight.

The drivers sector and lap times were recorded by Ian from the pit wall. Ian also was in communication with the drivers by the car-to-pits radio and with Richard for pit stop planning / co-ordination. Ian would be assisted by Richard Timmins during the race.

Hospitality was under the care of Theo “shroom” Souris (most meals ended up having mushrooms in them).

The final piece in the jigsaw was Jeff “uncle” Owen (Jeff is the senior member of the team), who offers his vast racing knowledge to the team.

With 100 cars entered clear track space was always going to be a premium. So a decision was made to give the drivers longer driving sessions. Graham drove the 1^st practice session and a quick post sessions debrief revealed the car handled and stopped well, but the brake pedal was going a little soft or “spongy” in racing driver speak.

Richard and the mechanics performed the planned maintenance tasks and investigated the cause of the “spongy” break pedal (weeping caliper and brake line union).

Practice 2 saw Tim (twice), Umair and Jonathan complete their mandatory laps, all without issue.

A new rule for 2016 was that the driver who set the fastest lap in qualifying would start the race. Graham volunteered to qualify the car and thus start the race. In order to try and give Graham some clear track, the team sent Graham out 5-minutes after the session started so that when he was ready to start his flying laps, other cars would be in the pits having their tyre pressures checked (ZRT didn’t need to do this as Jason had the tyre pressures well and truly sorted). With Ian monitoring the other cars on track via the GPS system, Ian was able to give Graham the good news that he would be getting 2 clear laps. On Grahams last flying lap he was over 0.5s up on his previous sector time when had to abort the lap as he couldn’t engage 5^th gear. (A cause for worry!)

Jeff’s immediate comment was to look at the solenoid valve and to nobodies surprise, he was right (this is the very reason why the team have Jeff as part of the team). The problem was soon fixed and the car prepared for night practice.

Night practice was completed without any major dramas except for the “spongy” brakes and 5^th gear engagement issues appearing again. The drivers were however able to complete their mandatory laps with Tim commentating “this is nuts, cars are passing me left, right and centre”. With the track sessions being completed the drivers were sent home to get as much rest as possible.

The mechanics on the other hand had no such luck carried out a complete spanner check on the car, changed the brake master cylinder (thank you Dragon Racing), fixed the 5^th gear problem (loose wire on the solenoid) and agreed on the fuel and tyre strategy for the race.

Richard, Luke and Ian agreed to meet at DAS at 8.00am to load the spares and equipment onto a truck, then head to Richards house and pick up the tools (the team again wishes to thank Richard for the loan of part of his extensive tool collection and finally head to the circuit to set-up the garage.

Whilst Richard and Luke were loading Richards tools, Ian proceeded to the circuit to sign the team into the event and collect the various team and vehicle passes. At the same time, Sander was bringing the car up to the circuit.

By now access to the back of the garage was blocked by other teams so Ian, Jason and Sander had to persuade the security guard to let them push the car through the refuelling station (which was closed) and up the pit lane into the garage.

Everybody then mucked in to help unload the truck with the spares and tools and to help Richard organise and set-up the garage.

The first task was to set-up Ian’s mobile home for the weekend, aka the pit perch (Richard says it keeps him out of the garage).

A final once over the car revealed the team were missing a couple of stickers which were collected from the event administration. With that done, the team (with Luke driving) pushed the car up the pit lane for scrutineering where the car was weighed, lights tested, driver ID checked and that the seat belts, seat and fuel tank were all in date. The car sailed through scrutineering without any issues (not surprising given the diligent work done by the team).

With all completed, the team left the circuit to get a good nights sleep as there would be a significant lack of that Thursday and Friday night.

It is a well proven fact that clear communication is vital at home and at work. The same holds true for motorsport. When the team were competing in the UAE Touring Car Championship, the team used the tried and trusted “pit board” form of communication.

This allowed Ian to “inform” Jonathan key information such as:

Practice & Qualifying:

• Timer left in the session
• Position and gap the car infront

Race:

• Laps / time left in the race
• Position
• Gap to the car infront and / or behind

When it comes to endurance racing (particularly in 12hr / 24hr races), more information needs to be relied between the pit wall and the driver, and vice-versa. This additional information includes:

Driver to pit wall:

• Reporting problems with the car
• Reporting the cause of the yellow flag / code 60
• Likely duration of the yellow flags / code 60

Pit wall to driver:

• Debris / oil on track at certain corners
• Lap time consistency
• Time left in stint
• When to pit
• Chat to the driver during code 60’s
• End of yellow flag / code 60
• Dinner / breakfast / lunch is ready

Being able to provide / relay this information the team has invested heavily in car-to-pits radio equipment manufactured by MRTC (UK). Although cheaper kits were available, MRTC have an unrivalled reputation of quality, reliability and clear communications. The system enables Ian and the drivers to communicate clearly almost over the full length on the 5.5km Dubai Autodrome grand prix circuit.

The system has the added advantage of having a second channel that enables Ian and Richard to talk (useful when a cup of tea and food is needed on the pit wall: Ian) without disturbing the driver.

The team is more than happy with the MRTC equipment and looking to increase the teams communication equipment.