Holy moley! (not us)
Not us, thank goodness, and doesn't appear anyone was hurt.
Ruptured Duck M...
is using Posterous to post everything online. Shouldn't you?
Not us, thank goodness, and doesn't appear anyone was hurt.
Out to the hills again! The tour continues.
Mamhead House was the venue for the latest outing. Nestled in the hills above Exmouth, the estate is owned by motorsport enthusiast Alan Turner, who competes in Historic races in lotus Elans. Organising club was Torbay Motor Club.
Practice 2 2.92 28.74
Timed 1 2.84 27.8
Timed 2 2.82 27.59
Timed 3 3.00 29.55
Timed 4 2.79 27.46
Class record 26.31 secs
Practice 1 2.55 24.40
Practice 2 2.35 23.93
Timed 1 2.36 23.80
Timed 2 2.60 23.84
Timed 3 2.35 23.38
Timed 4 2.35 23.68
New Class record set at 23.38 seconds
Here's a link to TelT Photograhy's pages showing Wee Beatie in action:-
http://www.teltphotography.com/H-MAM-290510-C5.aspx
http://www.teltphotography.com/H-MAM-300510-C5.aspx
On the Saturday, the Wee Beastie South of England Tour was proud to include the Mark Alley Roadshow! Yes the Puslar was out, and Mark did well, having not turned a wheel in anger since September 2008. Ended the day with a very respectable 27.76 secs.
It has been a very long 20 months since the last outing in the Pulsar 931, but the drought is over and we are returning to competition at the picturesque Mamhead Hillclimb, near Exeter, Devon on this Saturday.
The Torbay Motor Club organised event will also be attended by Ian in the Beastie who is continuing his assault on the hills of the south of England by taking part on Saturday and Sunday's events. Both drivers are hoping for clear weather and good times (on the clock and smiles on faces!). Mobile signal permitting we will tweet updates and times live from the event. Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/rupturedduck to catch the updates.
A good afternoon was had testing the Pulsar 931 at The Haynes International Motor Museum, Sparkford. Given that the car had not turned a wheel in anger since September 2008, we need to make sure all was good and bring to the surface any issues that will need resolving before an outing at Mamhead in two weeks time on the 29th May.
A few sedate laps started our session and nothing fell off, which was a good start. Some more laps were needed to bring the brakes back into condition, Some 'spirited' laps were later put on the car without any major issues. In total we ran around 30 laps. The only issues that we found were: a minor mounting issue with the new diffuser, a small weeping of fluid from the differential housing, a failed wheel stud and issues with the seat mounting.
All the issues have now been resolved and we have one more development in the pipeline that we can't wait to see on the car: new rear-wing end plates that Ben from Bazzworx is developing as part of a CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) design project. These sexy new bits will have half the drag of the old end-plates with no loss of downforce. Pictured are the wind-tunnel models ready for testing.
Werrington Hillclimb, near Lauceston Cornwall, was the venue for the latest event. A great place, the track at Werrington Park runs up to, and across the front of the country house. The track then goes goes around the side, past some cottages and other outbuildings. Finally a quick blast down the finish straight, between two very solid stones walls!
Saturday:
A good day was spent fitting the last few panels, undertaking a nut and bolt check, checking all systems, firing up the engine and running up through the gears with the car still on stands. Most impressive was that Lynsey was able to still fit in the seat! A much used phrase during our preparation was "That'll Do" which has now been adopted as Lynsey & Mark's motto.
The eagle-eyed among you will notice a missing wing end-plate. This is because Ben has been playing with CFD and has designed replacements that have half the drag. We've seen the pictures and they are even pretty. Hopefully they'll be in place for our test at the Haynes International Motor Museum, Sparkford (www.haynesmotormuseum.co.uk) on Wednesday afternoon.
Photo courtesy of Rat Photography
Good weekend overall, and great to be back out.
Saturday's weather was pretty decent, and I got my times down to mid 44 seconds. Mark & Linzi came over and gave their support, cheers guys.
Sunday was a bit different. Grey and overcast, the overnight rain made the track damp to start with, but it soon dried out. Times were slower than Saturday, and I got down to a low 46 secs. The second timed runs were abandoned, as heavy rain came in and times were getting slower.
Car behaved well, with no issues. Just need to get back into the swing of things. Werrington this weekend, so here's hoping for some decent weather.
Linzi and I went along to Wiscombe today to check out Ian's progress with the Beastie and bumped into some old friends too. Sporting a huge grin, we are sure Ian had a great day, and Wiscombe Park was resplendant in the glorious spring sunshine. Ian will blog the detail of the whole weekends proceedings once he has finished having fun tomorrow.
Tim from http://www.timpestridge.co.uk/ was in attendance, but we didnt get that chance to say Hi. Looking forward to seeing Timn's pictures of the event. If you are at a loose end on Sunday, we highly recommend a day out in the Devon sunshine! See http://www.wiscombepark.co.uk/
Car is now ready. All polished & shiny, and nuts checked & tightened! Hope the weather holds.
A loose collection of people who enjoy their cars.
Main core of the team is Lynsey Alley, Mark Alley, Ben Close, Yvette Letourneau and Ian Gaskell. Lynsey, Ian and Mark compete in speed events in the South West, and Ben and Yvette started Autograss in 2007.
Ian has been competing for many years now and won the 2007 Wiscombe Park Hillclimb Championship in his Westfield BDH. In recent years, Ian has taken many class wins and set new class records at a huge variety of venues across the South and South West of England.
Lynsey and Mark campaigned an Alfasud for 3 seasons. In late 2007 they took delivery of a Pulsar 931 and are returning to the hills again after a year off in 2009 and looking forward to a returning to Gurston Down and making their first trip to Mamhead.
Ben has been technical and logistical support for Lynsey & Mark since they began, and is in his final year studying Motorsport Engineering at Bridgwater College. In 2007 Ben and Yvette Letourneau began their racing careers in Autograss with a good measure of success!
Outside of this central group of people, there are many others who we welcome part of the team and more importantly, friends. Vince Stone, Darren and John Roberts were instrumental in getting Lynsey and Mark started and have been massive help not only with the cars, but morally too. Gareth and Michael Penn are always full of good advice and ready to offer it, as well as an appropriate kick up the arse when needed! Most recently Paul Webster has been there will excellent ‘after-sales’ service.
Then there are those that sport a Ruptured Duck sticker, or just come along and support the cause and cheer us on. These are many and we thank you all.
