Sunday, 10 April 2011

RacingPug completes first event !

RacingPug at Kames 2011
Photo by Andy Low

The RacingPug survived its first competitive outing in Round 1 of the Brockbanks Solicitors Cross Border Speed Championship at Kames yesterday.

The weather was fantastic and the track proved to be really grippy so it was a good test of the wee car.

I was in the up to 1400cc modified production car class along with Mike Hunter's Metro and Gordon Dundee's Peugeot 106. I knew I would get nowhere near Mike's times but I was hopeful I would give Gordon a scare. However, my main goal was to beat the 103.58 second run I did in the Metro back in November.

I started on target with a low 105 seconds and slowly chipped away at my times throughout the day to reach 102.74 secs by my final run. I was pleased with that although I'm certainly not going to win any trophies this year - Mike did a new class record of 94.48 and Gordon managed 100.80 before his driveshaft popped.

I learned a fair bit about the car: the front end grip is fantastic, the engine revs way beyond the 6,000rpm redline and the close gearing is good for Kames.

There were still a few niggles: It's still leaking oil from the dipstick tube and the distributor seal and the exhaust back box now has a big extra hole in it. However, it noise tested at 88dB so it can't be too bad yet!

I wasn't able to run the Michelin slicks that Mike had given me due to the previously reported wheel problem but that should be sorted for the next Kames outing in May.

Next up for me is a trip to the King of the Hills, Doune, next Sunday. I'd better get my plastic pants looked out again because that place scares the crap out of me.......

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