Speed season dates

In case anyone is interested in coming along for a look heres my season dates.....I will hopefully be at the lot (driver and vehicle allowing!!!!!)

March 28th Croft circuit (near Darlington, a national sprint round so there'll be some F1 engined single seaters as well as the usual)
April 10th Kames (Aryshire, Scotland at a village called Muirkirk)
May 28th Knockhill circuit (Fife, Scotland)
June 11th Elvington (near York)
June 18th Barbon Manor (Cumbria, Nr Kirkby Lonsdale)
July 2nd Forrestburn (beside the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh)
August 29th Teeside (used to be called Langbaurgh.....this is the first ever competetive event to be held at this venue which was previously a track day place)
September 17th Harewood (Yorkshire near Leeds)
2nd October 2nd Kames (again!)

PeterG

I will be in Scotland in May but can`t make Knockhill. I think there`s a Sprint at Kames on the 14th/15th, can you make either one of these days? If so, I will also get an entry and bring the Alpine North to join you.

Iain

It would be great to see another GTA, but sadly I will be pushed to make this lot without extras. Also it looks like Ive got serious opposition this year.....a Lotus Esprit and a Mitsubishi evo8 ......the first will be tough, the second virtually impossible, even if the driver is crap the car will compensate....damn computers and 4 wheel drive!!!!

Time to strip your car some more Pete!

Do you not find on some competitions, you could do with a shorter final drive?

More weight loss.......was thinking the engine and gearbox look a bit heavy
What I really need on the gearing front is a slightly taller 1st gear to allow me to do tight corners without either changing into 2nd and bogging down or bouncing off the limiter in 1st. That and better brakes, more power and less weight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You don't want much, do you Peter?

Always striving to improve the car....if I hang onto it for long enough without breaking it it will be awesome when Ive done everything I want to (current estimate of finish is for the 2007 season!!!).

Well another day another trophy!!!! 1st in class, but there wasnt much opposition....having said that I would also have won the Northern speed championship modified class and the Porsche owners club class (yes, I beat all 15 of them!!!! )
It was a case of more is less......the circuit was like an ice rink and there was standing water in several places. Couldnt really get the power down as I would have liked and made 2 off course grass tracking excursions on the first lap of the day (much to the entertainment of the crowd!!!). Need to make some alterations to the suspension as its too soft and rolled badly in the corners (and yet it feels solid on the road!).
Due to the fact that none of the Northern Speed championship kitcars could get their power down I do believe I am the first person to score an overall round victory of this championship in a production car.....it doesnt get much better than that (beat a Hyabusa Westfield, a formula ford and several bike engined 7 type kitcars )......did I mention the DFV engined Reynard from the National Sprint championship that was a second slower ????

Blimey! There's some scalps there! Well done!

D'oh! I hadnt fully reviewed the results....I actually came 2nd out of the Northern speed championship runners....pipped to the post by 1 second by a Vauxhall 2 litre 16v Westfield (running race wets/intermediates/slicks) so my place in history is thwarted again Still a fairly epic day....and incredible fun...you cant beat a bit of sideways!!!!

I'll keep those spare black panels nice and clean for you Pete!!

[simontaylor]

Well done peter, sounds like a sterling job in raising the profile of Alpine GTAs

Thanks! I met quite a few people who started reminiscing about GTAs when they saw mine. One guy said a friend of his owned an atmo. and the local Renault dealer rung him up and said did he fancy upgrading to the turbo because they could lend him one for the weekend. He agreed and the guy who was talking to me said he also took it out for a quick spin and blew the engine up!! Reckoned he hadnt even been booting it.
Everyone was very complimentary (especially about the exhaust noise) and at least one person reckons hes in the process of buying an MOT fail atmo (the lunatic ) to use.

I just wondered how competitive the car is? Are the other cars a close match and your driving gives you the edge do you think or is the car actually quicker than the oppo and your driving is similar to the other drivers. No need to be modest - seems you beat plenty of cars that most people would think had an edge.

I would say the car is fairly competetive.....its difficult to judge at a lot of events due to different conditions, drivers, knowledge of the track etc. I would rate my ability on the track as above average in that I have always been consistently quick, and have managed good results in uncompetetive cars, but I'm no Michael Schumacher.......I tend to make the basic mistake of going too fast too soon in events, hence why I came off in the morning session....red mist!!!
The conditions yesterday counted for a lot, I certainly wouldnt beat a 3.5 DFV engined Ralt single seater in anything other than really appaling conditions. He just couldnt get his 600bhp onto the track! Having said that I wouldnt expect to beat the entire Porsche OC or the modified production cars in any conditions, so I must have done something right