240z-Racing

CSCC Swinging Sixties Season Win for the second year

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 13:50:17 GMT

A great 2022 season leads to another overall Swinging Sixties G2 win.

My lovely god daughter holds the cup for Swinging Sixties G2 over all winner for the second year running.

I was also 60 on the 30th of December 2023 hopefully this does not slow me down.

First Race for me in 2020

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 12:33:04 GMT

Donington 2020.

Well a great weekend racing at long last but it was not without its issues as usual.

The data collection went great every sensor was being logged by the ECU and fed via CAN buss to the V-Box. We arrived Saturday afternoon and I had booked 2 motor homes to stay in to save the COVID-19 risk at hotels. They arrived on time and were a great idea, we moved into the garage late afternoon and got everything ready for our Sunday qualification. Come Sunday morning the qualification went well as this was my first race of the season, I qualified 12 ^th on the grid with a 1:23:68 , and I felt there was a second at least in my time for the afternoon race.

We lined up and followed the pace car round for a rolling start and after the first lap I was eighth. I started to look how I could pass some of the faster cars and it appeared my best chance was at the chicane. So I decided to break 50 yards later something I know is possible but this time the brakes faded and I ended up being too fast to turn in so I pointed the car through the gravel trap straight onto the start and finish straight. I only lost 2 places but this made me conscious of the brakes and when I tried it again I barley made it through the chicane broad siding left then right to slow down. I decided to come in when the pit lane opened so as I could report the brake issue and we had 2 minutes to check the car out. During this pit stop I dropped 19 places. I came out passing cars as quick as I could, but the Mustangs were wide and difficult to pass when I eventually did the safety car came out. The clever teams out there already decided to wait for a safety car, and it worked most of them lost only 6 places as the safety car was very slow. It was then difficult to pass with my suspect brakes, but I managed to claw back to 13 ^th place.

I stopped outside the garage and when I re started to enter the garage it needed a lot of revs to move the car, and when we put the car away the brakes were seized on and we had to winch it on.

When you look at the pictures below, I do not know how I managed to stay on the black stiff but I am glad I did, it was the automatic cadence breaking my brain must of decided upon as it would have done for most drivers “on and off braking” for those who don’t understand, that kept me out of the barriers and in one piece.

As you can see here the Brake Calliper Piston has welded to the brake pads steel backing.

The front brake system had been leaking, so when really high pressure was applied this put more pressure to the rears which were destroyed completely back to the metal backing and this was welded to the brake calliper piston as you can see above, the discs were also cracked.

Hard to believe these pads were in great condition before the race. However, I had a great time, and my fasted lap was a personal best by 2.5 seconds from a previous race weekend back in 2017. I suspect that if the brakes were as per normal there was another 1 or 2 seconds i could reduce it by. We are off to Castle Coombe in October and I will keep you all informed. The parts have been sourced and we will be ready to take on the second race of my 2020 season, I cant wait. I am wiring in the last 2 data logging channels "Front to Rear brake pressures" prior to this race and this will tell us how the brakes are performing as looking at the gauge in the cockpit is not easy for me when the barrier is looming down before the turn.

This is what happened from the the first picture you see at the start of the blog where I was winning the fight to the next couple of laps when I had very little brakes to hold off the 6000 cc beasts behind me forcing me to go through the gravel trap but as suck speed I was not trapped.

I just made an awful mess all over the start finish straight.

For those of you that don't understand what data logging is, here is a laptop screen picture to help explain. You can see here some of the temperatures and pressures logged for around 16 minutes at up to 1000 times per second if required I can see the whole 16 seconds here but I can look per 1000th of a seconds should we need to. It is mind blowing and takes so getting used to thanks to the help of Ian Baxter i am learning very quickly and putting the data to good use. this type of system was most likely developed in this form, form Formula One.

Bad Luck testing for the first race this season.

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 08:15:23 GMT

This is an abridged version of all the issues we had at Thruxton on the Friday testing that put us out of racing untill the September race.

We started the Truxton Friday testing with very promising lap times that would have put us on pole position for the race on Sunday. Scott my race coach took the car out for 3 laps to set a fast lap for me to use as a V-Box reference to improve my race driving. He was just due to finish a 1:29:00 second lap when we had what has now been diagnosed as oil serge, this meant that no 3 big end bearing shell spun and seized, consequently the conrod broke and came out of both sides of the block, so there was no Sunday race for us.

We now had to start rebuilding the spare engine we had worn out testing our new engine set up in May. This required a very minor re-bore, so we decided to step up our game and produce a torque block for this re-bore, to get a more assembled cylinder bore accuracy.

Finally the engine was rebuilt and on the 2nd of September we began to run it in, plagued with carburettor problems and learning that our camshaft would mean that we could not have the engine running good at low RPM and it took nearly 2 days to complete and run in.

But now we are ready to set up and complete the power runs for Monday the 6th of September. Based on a quick 5000 RMP test power run we have more power and more torque so 7800 RPM should bring even more. Many changes have been made to the cooling system and the air intake that will no doubt increase the performance considerably, especially on race days.

We intend to make the September race but may have to rely on the engine dyno setup as we will not have enough time to tweak it on track. We have set up the V-Box to record the inputs from the sensors such as water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, throttle position and braking to mention a few. We will be able to see all this data charted and time stamped to the video footage. We intend to use all this to make our engines last longer and tell us when we need to rebuild them. This is data acquisition only but at a pretty good level for club racing. This data will also help identify improvements I can make on my driving skills, as someone nearing the end of their life season for racing, has to improve quickly. Time to get back to the car now but I will be following up around the time of the next race that later in this month.

Why all this work you may ask.

Well as some of you that follow me know that I can win my class but a race podium, meaning in the first 3, well that is a different issue. With a few cars at 5000 CC to 7500 CC out there in a different class of course but racing against me, that is very difficult. However, the gap is not massive and with our lost BHP we have found and my driving improving all the time with my experience and the help of Scott Gillam, it just may be possible. So, if any of you are reading this watch out in your rear-view mirror, I will be coming for you, I hope.

At last we can start the 2020 season.

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 20:21:59 GMT

Hi Everyone, this is our first report for 2020.

Well, now we are slowly getting out of lockdown and things are settling down to a new normal, I thought I would bring you all up to speed on what has been happening during the winter to the race car or “240-Sporty” as she is affectionally known.

Firstly, due to all of the faults we were getting with the wiring due to the job only ever being temporary, I decided to have a new full Autosport wiring loom thanks to Ian Baxter, this is now complete all but the final touches. I also decided that I wanted to control the ignition with greater precision, so I have changed totally how the spark is controlled to very fine limits. I have also included active knock control to keep the pistons safe from melting as you may be aware from previous posts this happened twice last year.

Brands Hatch Indy Testing May 2019.

We carried out some circuit testing a couple of weeks ago as the dyno was only to get our starting and safeguard parameters. The results at Brands hatch Indy were awesome and plain to see and hear. I had a video and data analysis carried out by Scott Gillam “my race coach” from a lap of his in my car at the same circuit last year showing the proof, I will post it on You Tube and the shortcut from my website for you to look over. You must realise the track had not been used for 3 months, so the times would be slower but as it turns out only 0.14 of a second, but from the analysis you can see the increase in power.

If You are interested in an analysis of my driving verses a professional both in my car then click the link below but please be warned its only for the petrol heads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIdMRzGQXg&t

It was clear from the results that we needed a new air box as we were losing BHP when the car was hot under the bonnet, also the fuel system could not flow enough fuel for the new settings. This could be seen from the air fuel ration meters and the plug colours especially on plug no 6, the last in line for fuel. At 5.8 PSI we could only pump 58 litres per hour and we were, in 2019 using 60 litres per hour and we have since increased the main jets by 13%. So, I dropped the pressure to 4.5 PSI which is what it should be really be for the Webber carburettors, and the flow rate is now in excess of 80 Litres per hour with plenty of bypass going back to the tank. I also heard some pipework noises and on investigation I saw a nearly flattened fuel pipe, not sure yet if it is flow or return but it will be fixed next week, now to fix our 60 Litre tank that only holds 45 litres. When we built the car, we made the box for the tank the right size not allowing for the growth due to expansion from the fuel soak. This had led to the tank imploding somewhat and this needed to be addressed as we were often marginal on fuel and with the improvement we will definitely run out on some circuits. We have fitted an 80 litre tank so that now we can enter 60 minuet races as well as often in Europe when we race with other foreign clubs they have 1 hour races.

Now for the Air Box.

I have designed with some help from Ian Baxter & Carl Gannon a new air box that only lets ambient air from the front of the car to be used by the carburettors this is worth not loosing 30 BHP when things get hot under the bonnet.

Future projects.

We need to reduce the under-bonnet pressure so we are looking at ways that this can be achieved without changing the cars appearance “silhouette” as the CSCC describe it.
Recording the real time gauge data to the Vee Box so on circuit we can see the gauges in graph form, time synced with the video.

Why all this work you may ask.

One of the few times I was able to try and compete for a podium but still ended 20 seconds behind after 40 minuets.

This was mainly due to a fade in the power from the 2019 levels and from the piston failure I pushed on with.

The damage caused at Brands Hatch

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 13:07:36 GMT

Damage report after winning 1st in class at Brands Hatch.

As you can see above this is one of the pistons, it was damaged as a result of the Webber flexible mounting seal cracking. This resulted in Cylinder no 2 to running very lean, this means not enough fuel resulting in detonation and this is the damage it can cause. We were very lucky all that's required is 6 new pistons / rings and a very light re-bore. If all goes to plan this engine will be ready as a spare for Dijon

As you can see above and closer up below the clutches have been cracking and just as well we suffered an engine failure just at the finishing line as the clutches would not of lasted much longer.

As you can see above this is "AP Racings" answer to these failures. They have changed the round hole to this halfround hole, this is supposed to stop this type of failure. Below you can see a close up of the shape.

The other casulaty was the gearbox, that had gone way passed its rebuild but thankfully it has survived and requires only new bearings and some love and attention.

At Last our race truck is ready to use.

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 18:59:00 GMT

I purchased an ex Snap-on truck as a race support vehicle and all was good but on my first test drive a gearbox pipe split and this damaged the gearbox so I have had a new box fitted after only 3200k miles.

Being an ex Snap-On truck it is fitted out perfectly with heating, work bench and vice, digital TV for viewing race footage and 6 x leisure batteries giving us 240v for 24 hrs via a powerful inverter. There are too many useful attributes to mention safe to say I think it is perfect. No more hiring vans and loading and unloading every time, now we can keep everything in its place and be more organised.

Brands Hatch Indy CSCC 2019.

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 18:30:44 GMT

Great testing and coaching on the Friday followed by great qualifying and an even better race result on bank holiday Monday.

Carls idea was for me to get out first and lean on the new tyres from lap 1 and it worked a treat, 7 laps and I came in to the pits in pole position and waited for my tyres to cool for another go towards the end. We slipped down to 3rd so I went out to try again but the tyres were still hot and we ended up qualifying 6th which was a great result. see below how the first lap of the race unfolded, we finished 5th over all and first in class lapping the 2nd in class in the last few laps, a great result. I apologise for the language but I expect we are all the same in the hot seat on the day.

As we do every year so far at our home race, we invited family and friends of the team some 50 of them along for the day. Every one had a great time and supported us well and was rewarded with food and drink laid on by Ann my wife and our friend Steli on the barbeque. Every one enjoyed the day as much as me it seemed and some went home a little wobbly, thanks to everyone for the great support.

Brands Hatch preparation-1

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 13:51:20 GMT

This will fix the differential mount, maybe now I will be able to pull away without all the stress and banging.

The grey part has been manufactured in house to adapt the new cross member so it lines up with the differentials bottom red Polly mount as apposed to suspending it from above with the same Polly mount. See the picture below where this part is required to interface from the red Polly mount to the gold cross member.

See below we are now using the mount we was hanging the differential from as a bump stop to inhibit the differential from rising but with a little compliance as we have on the red Polly mount underneath. This should isolate vibration and make for good race starts with very little banging from underneath. It should also cut down on a lot of other issues that are made worse by vibration.

My re designed helmet.

A long awaited move from a boring white helmet to something more fitting to the car and the 60's & 70's
What do you think?

Stand by for the story of our very own race truck hopefully out for the first time at Brands Hatch 2019.
This will stop me having to fund rental vans every event and testing and all the work to load and unload every time a saving after one year. I keep trying to convince Ann, not sure yet that she appreciates it outside the house.

Thanks for the support
Dean Halsey
&
240 Sporty

Anglesey July 2019.

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 12:48:27 GMT

Unfortunately more problems.

Well Friday Testing was a wash out it was too wet to get to grips with the circuit or the car and the new changes. In the afternoon it dried out for 2 short sessions with me and the car showing potential. On Saturday I qualified 6th over all and 1st in class but I felt there was a slight handling issue. We raced on Saturday starting from 6th I got a good start and in the first lap was 3rd then I had a moment with the handling issue and fudged the gears and came off circuit but got back on only to be blocked for quite a few laps by a lotus Elan, I then pitted and got stuck behind the same car again. We ended ninth but fourth in class, shame a couple of more laps I could of got a trophy. The lap times were good so if I get a good start on Sunday then I should do much better. We found the oversteering issue was due to the bump stops we fitted and on hard long corners they were bottoming out and affecting the handling so looking forward to Sunday for a better result however we have a mixed grid with lots of faster cars joining us 70s GT and sport cars 911, lotus sunbeam, mustang to mention a few so let’s see what happens and hopefully the dodgy driver on Saturday will liven up a bit for Sunday, wish we would of spotted the bump stops before but it was wet and they were not bottoming out as I was much slower, to add to the issues the alternator was falling off and the prop shaft bolts came loose a continual issue we will fix.

Sunday went from good to very bad very quickly as during practice this failed.

Practice was showing us 1st in class but I reported a rear noise and well we found this failure see above.

This is the gearbox mounting, it ripped right off so this was the end of my day as the race was only 25 mins away and it took 15 to get it off.

Stay posted for the Brands hatch preparation post lots of new stuff like a race truck and a helmet to match the car.

Brands Hatch Bank Holiday Monday 26th August 2019.

The team is inviting family and friends as usual at our home race, so who wants to come and how many tickets. I will see what I can beg steal and borrow please be aware I will be calling in favours so if you want tickets please be sure to use them other than that there will be breakfast rolls, burgers and sausages and lots more to keep you all fed and watered. Look forward to seeing all that can make it along kids even more welcome they are free admission at 15 and under.

Thanks for your support

Dean Halsey

240 Sporty

Changes Ready for Anglesey 2019.

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 19:14:39 GMT

Rear Strut new design so we do not get the same failure as SPA 2019

All welded up and ready for powder coat

A gusset to the tube and boxed in the casting to avoid the twisting we got at Brands Indy 2018 when a Clio used our rear wheel as a brake, it will not put us out next time.

Nicely powder coated in 24 hrs thanks to Carl and fitted on Saturday.

New gearbox mounting and new damper gland nuts to centralise the cartridges and seal the oil in for cooling. New swinging arm bolts as the others have been in and out many times.

Spa Classic 2019.

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 18:34:17 GMT

Thursday testing went very well with my times coming down to 3:01 and I could see another 2 seconds that I could reduce it by so a 2:59 was my target.

Friday qualification.

During the qualification I could not match my times from Thursday 0.5 of a second or more and every one said it was the extreme heat but I reported a potential problem with the near side rear braking out on me, not violently but grip and un grip was going on, something I had not felt before. So carl wen to work to see If I had a problem and this is what he found. The rear suspension tube where the damper fits inside had come un welded this could of resulted in a big accident.

We managed to get this welded by another team but it turned out to have no penetration and failed as we tightened up the damper in the tube. So the plan now was to drop of the team early Saturday AM and I would go out and about looking for a good welder. I found one 30 mins from the circuit in Liege that did the best job I have seen in a long while

I delivered this repaired leg to carl and we was up and ready to race 2 hrs prior to the start and better still I trusted this job 100%. I lined up on the grid 13th and had a great race to finish 10th but first in class by 3:00.

This qualified me for 10th on Sunday so I set out to better this position and after 1 lap I was in 6th place and felt that I could hold it, only for my ATL fuel cell to fail on me with the negative wire fracturing as shown below. However this is inside the tank so a DNF for Sunday. A great weekend and very happy with the cars performance and the driver was not bad either even if I say so myself.

See the picture below for the DNF culprit.

we are now going to modify the suspension leg on the other side by welding the top and add a welded gusset on both struts as per the modification on the rally cars. We are also looking for a plumed in back up fuel pump idea from ATL.

Preparation's for the Spa summer Classic

Sun, 16 Jun 2019 08:10:52 GMT

What we are doing in preparation.

Before

After

We had the prop shafts upgraded with larger Joints by Baily Morris but when we cam to fit them my calculations were a bit out and they were fouling on the anti-roll bar. We went to my place of work on Sunday and turned down the OD and now we have 6mm clearance with 2 upgraded and one original prop shaft in stock now. We have also worked on the brake bias and now we have more front bias available something we have wanted for a year. We are also using 225 tyres as opposed to 205 to give up to 160 MPH for SPA. We have also stocked up on spares and re organised the trailer ready for the far away races where we can not pop out for spares. We leave on Wednesday 26th and will return on Monday the first of July. We will be posting updates from Friday on our progress.

Thanks for your support.

Dean Halsey.

Oulton Park May 2019

Sun, 16 Jun 2019 07:53:09 GMT

Started well but ended badly.

We started well on Friday testing as my tutor Scot Gillam set a 1:57:00 as a datum lap for me. It took me all day, but I managed a 2:00:00 and we were sure that would put us well up front. Qualifying did not go so well as it turned out my brake pads were on the last 3 mm so they were over heating and I could not brake late, but I managed 7th on the grid. We all lined up for the race and I was sure I could get away faster than the heavier cars but as I lifted the clutch the prop shaft universal joint housing shattered. I was very lucky the other 30 cars did not end up in my boot.

Thanks for your support.

Dean Halsey

Broken Half Shafts.

Wed, 22 May 2019 14:36:25 GMT

Debris from Silverstone BRDC day and CSCC Silverstone qualifying.

The flange sheared off during the BRDC practice day and the splines broke after a spin in the CSCC second race of the season during qualification both at Silverstone, which we was able to fix 2 mins before the race started. So time for change to put an end to the breakages as I get faster. We have removed both the six to four bolt adaptors on the drive shafts at both ends and gone for the following set up. This being new R200 differential 6 bolt 108 mm output flanges to fit Porche 911 CV joints coupled to Australian "MadDat" molibium drive shafts, coupled the other end to a 27 spline 260Z half shafts which are 2 mm larger than I had before using custom made 27 spline companion flanges, again with a 6 bolt interface for the Porche CV joints referred to above.

After 2.5 years we have decided to get the speedo working for pit entry speed as it has been known for me to be a bit too hot on the way in and get into trouble. We fitted a speed sensor and magnet on the wheel hub rear face and this works a treat.

Let us see how this works at Oulton Park this weekend, this is my worst circuit so therefore I have a race coach on Friday to bring me up to speed as I don't have time to learn it myself due to life running short at my age. It still looks like my toughest challenge so far racing on my own so back soon with my report.

Silverstone International May 2019.

Sat, 04 May 2019 17:36:03 GMT

Race Report.

So Silverstone International circuit 04/05/2019 I broke a stub axial in qualifying due to a spin avoiding someone that did not see me overtaking and I had to take evasive action spinning 180 degrees towards the pit wall and 180 degrees back selecting 1st gear to get after him for a friendly word and dumping the clutch too quickly thus breaking the splines off my stub axil, but we still qualified 10th 2nd in class.

We had the spares so Carl started the job immediately and it was all going very well but as usual the small things take time, the wheel studs needed to be fitted and we did not have a 14.3 mm drill so I tried making the holes bigger with a 13 mm drill, but it was no good, in the end with 20 mins to go I used a stepped cone drill and made the front of the hole oversize but the rear of the hole 14 mm. We had no time so they put it all together with the studs just biting on the front of the serrations and put the wheel on, then we used the wheel bolts to pull in the studs, one person was looking to see if they pull up to the face and one with a huge bar and socket. I got in the car and warmed up the engine up as they successfully pulled in all four studs by over tightening the wheel nuts. They dropped the car and said go go go! I got TO the collection area just before the 2 min call.

I got to 5th with a good start and some jousting and pitted early, we ended up 9th overall and first in class with some epic racing, some friendly and some not so friendly, a great day and a great result.

Oh and this is the broken bit.

Thanks for all of your support.

BRDC Track Day April 16 2019.

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 14:08:12 GMT

Anthony Reid invited the car and us to the BRDC track day.

Great day April 16 2019 thanks to Anthony Reid I had a ball driving the GP circuit with anything from the silk cut jaguars to minis on track it was great but not without its problems as Carl and Joe had to fit another rear stub axil as we broke one and we was lucky the wheel stayed on. A difficult circuit to learn with just a few sessions but wow what a selection of cars. One of those days I will never forget.

Thanks again Anthony

1st race of the 2019 season.

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 17:35:31 GMT

Snetterton April 7th 2019

Sorry for the late post the race was 17:40 and we did not get home until 22:00.

Well a very manic Sunday it started with qualifying in torrential rain, even rivers in places on the circuit which was very disconcerting for the rain novice. To make things worse after the first lap the power to my heated front screen was draining down to earth and the screen fogged up. It was like driving in the dark with no headlights, so I gave up and came in only to find the last 5 mins of the session was drier, a lesson learned there. So I qualified 14th and had a lot to do in the race. As usual I drive better when I have to pass and in 3 laps, I was already sixth. Then I was in a big gap just me, and my times went up but I still came in to my pit stop 1st in class, when I hit the kill switch and my finger went on the extinguisher as well and that went off in the engine bay and cockpit. I then quickly got back in as if nothing happened and tried to belt up, laugh It was like being in a foam party. I left the pits engine misfiring and Carl thinking I was mad. I knew if I kept going the engine would dry up and so it did after 3 laps with 3/4 power and a massive misfire it then cleared coupled with all that the soapy foam leaked out and went to my rear tyres and I became a drifter, good for spectating but scary in the driver seat, any way seventh place and third in class a very good outcome to an eventful days racing. I finished with very sore eyes and lips from the foam but me and Sporty survived to fight another day.

Hardened supporters such as Mat and Jonny stayed to the end others went home earlier cold and wet and some on to the night shift.

But thanks to you all for the great support.

The season starts.

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 20:04:12 GMT

Snetterton Testing March 22nd 2019

Well the season has finally got under way with some testing, I used a new race coach Mr Scot Gillen and we seemed to work well together. He took the car out first and comfortably achieved a 2:14 with just 4 laps only. We then had some issues with an oil leak from the oil cooler adaptor and the alternator tried to fall off but we soon fixed them, we managed all the other little issues like a broken battery to starter motor lead and the carbs tried to eat the air box rubber seal leaving me on full throttle but finally we was able to do a further 2 sessions together. I managed a 2:20 with Scot in the car so my aim is 2:18 for qualifying on the 7th of April on the same circuit the 300 at Snetterton.

For all those interested I will start the WhatsApp group this week and I will try and chose just those that are interested and can behave on line.

Thanks for all the continued support and remember if you want to watch I will ask for the tickets.

Thanks

Dean Halsey

Almost ready for the 2019 season.

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 14:39:31 GMT

2018 First in Class E.

Ok where do I start, we ended the season with gearbox issues so Carl stripped down the spare gearbox only to find Quafie has used too much silicone on assembly and this gummed up the springs and ball bearing that hold the selector shafts in place. consequently the gearbox was trying to change gear on acceleration and breaking causing the main gear and the reverse gears to wear by 6mm across their width. So lots of money and work later these boxes have been rebuilt with a new type quick shifter to make thing better also a shot rear bearing was replaced with one made by me as you can no longer purchase them . The whole car has been checked over adjusted and refurbished where necessary and it is nearly ready to go testing all but a few very minor jobs. You know the ones, they are the ones that never get done but this year they are going to be completed. We have to re shape our collapsed fuel tank to enable us to take on a one hour race and fit the V Box Tyre monitoring package in search of an edge to help win this year. of course we will only use it for practicing and set up.

Spare engine No1.

Engine no 1 had been rebuilt but we decided to furnish it complete so as we can just drop it in track side. So we fully dressed it and sent it to the dyno, however to cut a long story short we allowed them to run in the engine with low octane fuel as we thought it would only need 100 octane for the power runs. How wrong we were another head gasket detonated out the side of the block, not a real big problem but I should of known better. We got good power the same as new but better delivered so you can not get much better than that, the rest is secret, sorry.

Detonation caused this head Gasket failure. 

We are going to open the 240 sporty WhatsApp again this week and please try and keep it to racing only please?

Driving on my own now in the CSCC.

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 08:34:43 GMT

2nd in Class at Donnington and Mallory.

Well Will Arif used to say one day it will click and you will be driving at another level.
At Donnington I had a good race and it felt like I had stepped up and driven well, this secured me a 2nd in class.
But as you can see above the "click" happened at Mallory Park and I drove to the edge and I really would of been on the podium for the first time but the entry to Gerard's caught me out twice, too hot or too wide not sure but if it was not for that I would of surely been on the podium. That will now have to wait for next year.

Thanks
Dean.

Brands Hatch GP Circuit

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 19:35:34 GMT

August 2018

Wow what a race.

I did not book this race in time as it is first come first served, so I started some weeks ago as 18th reserve. Come the day I was fifth reserve. We qualified in fourth place but it was clear that if we started it would be from the back of the grid. So there I was sitting in the collections area whilst all the 46 cars actually started up. I was getting a running commentary from my pit boss as each car eventually left for the grid. The marshals then directed me to the pit lane to wait in case there was a break down on the warmup lap, it was torture but there was 3 other hopefuls behind me.

My friends were at the pit wall and saw that an Alfa could not start so Mat ran over and told me I would be starting from the pit lane. They called me forward to the pit lane exit line to which I pulled up out of square. The green light came on and I saw red as the cars disappeared out of sight and I started to pull away too aggressively. 240 Sporty leapt up the pit lane sideways an inch from the wall but I gained control and I went about trying to make my promise of getting to 23rd before the driver change, fact. In seconds I was on the back of the pack and I was cutting through the cars and overtook 24 cars before I came in. I handed over to Will and not to bore you with the details we came 11th and second in class, but an issue that made Will come into the pits again thinking he had a problem with the car only for me to inform him there was coolant on the track so he drove off again. This potentially stopped us from coming third but a great day and I will take that from the pit lane any day cutting through the pack was an awesome feeling and the roving reporter jumped on me after the driver change to get my elation of passing so many cars.

Thank you all For your support.

Dean & the team.

SPA Summer Classic 2018

Sat, 30 Jun 2018 07:04:14 GMT

Best Weekend Racing So Far

We arrived on Thursday evening and when we actually found our way to our allotted entrance Carl, Jonny and Mat had reserved our place much to the annoyance of the other competitors that wanted our space. The team set up our pitch whilst Will and I signed on and got all of our safety attire scrutinered . We all returned to our rented villa, wow it was great a nice treat for us all. The boys were all up early Friday morning for setting up and the practice, this went well although I was not happy with my lap times but happy with my lines and track understanding. I spent a lot of time Friday going through my V-Box data and prepared for the qualifying. I went out first for only 3 laps and I was happy with my time as there was lots of traffic due to 71 of us qualifying together. Will managed a 02:59:00 which put us fourth on the grid and first in class a great effort. Again I spent a lot of time analysing my data and Saturday came along very quickly and I was fourth on the grid with faster cars all round me. Wow they was all over me, I have never been more intimidated before and this was going to make or break me. I managed to hold on to tenth when I came in for the driver change which was ok but a bit slow. Will took over and had a very unsettled first lap with a light shunt and a spin on oil just after, putting us around 21st but he soon recognised it was not the car and kept at it and managed a solid 16th overall and second in class a great rescue.

it was now Sunday and I was lined up in 16th and for some reason was convinced I could do well from there with our power and the fact that the first corner was my favourite slow in and v fast out. Well my faith & confidence was rewarded when after the first corner I was tenth and by the end of the first lap I was eighth, I was finally driving like my fellow competetors. Holding on to eighth until I was passed in the pit lane by the E-Type not sure what happened there it was close. I handed the drive to Will with a swift twenty nine second driver change and he took off. It seemed to take ages for the driver changes to settle down but when it did we were ninth with one car in our class ahead but it appeared Wil could not catch him, it turned out that he was settling in and planning his pass and this he did with a 3 second faster sector 1 after which he settled down and made sure of eighth and a class win as the cars ahead were out of our class and we wanted to finish in one piece. A great weekend was had by all the team and our guests and a great success for us all. This was the very first time I felt that I had earned our win, something I hope the rest of the team appreciated. We all arrived home on Monday very tired but happy in the thought that it was a successful weekend.

Thanks to Ann and all of the girls that got together for the catering and villa organisation also to Carl for preparing faultlessly and the rest of the team and guests from both Ann and myself.

Brands Hatch 15th July 2018 come and see us again.

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 20 May 2018 08:39:54 GMT

Come and see us win again I hope.

So this year we are racing at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit again but this time it should be warmer. We will not know yet if we have a garage again but we have the gazebo and the trailer. We will lay on some food and drink but tickets may be scarce. I will do my best to get the regulars tickets but some of you will have to pay on the gate. I think tickets are around £12 if I get them for you in advance.

We hope to see you all again and newcomers are vey welcome, we will keep you informed of the details through these blogs or the WhatsApp. Don't hesitate in contacting me if you have any questions.

Engine rebuild No1

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 20 May 2018 07:50:56 GMT

Engine rebuild due to the failures during testing at Silverstone.

See below the rebuild pictures from Carl Gannon of "Xtreme Classic Restorations" we have changed the Main bearings & big end bearings. We have also re-balanced the crank and all moving parts along with a re-cross hatching of the bores and new piston rings. We are changing to a full race clutch as we had a failure on race 1 this year and we are changing to a Dave Jarman fluid damper one that works.

This engine will be ready for Oulton Park but the new engine should arrive in time so we will keep this re-build as the backup engine so future disappointments of not racing due to engine failure before the race, can be avoided.

Silverstone Engine Failure Autopsy

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 20 May 2018 07:21:49 GMT

As you can see below there were 3 minor failures.

The timing chain cover had a weakness from the donor part being worn during its life by the timing chain. We think that harmonics and heat opened up a crack and the water was able to go to the oil sump.

There was also a head gasket failier due to detonation which we have seen before due to exsessive timing.

Finally the crankshaft vibration / Harmonics damper failed as we was using the rubber bonded type. Rebello use these all the time but really we should of replaced it with a fluid damper from Dave Jarman.

Friday Testing Silverstone 4th May 2018

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sat, 05 May 2018 19:25:11 GMT

Engine Failure and lessons learned.

Friday Morning finally came my second visit to Silverstone International circuit. The last time out here the car was literally out of the box for the first time. My best time was a 0:1:29:50 something I was not best pleased about but it was my first race ever. This time I was the first out and the car was perfect, within 10 laps I was at 0:1:25:00. Wil Arif went out for the four laps I left him and he managed a 0:1:19:30 without really trying. We made some adjustments to the brake balance and the next time out I was loving every second of it. The problem was I started to race every one especially 2 off "911 SC" and anything else that was in front of me, on lap 7 I managed a 0:1:20:09 this was over 8.5 seconds from my 2017 best lap here. I saw that on my dash the automatic knock sensor was flashing little more than it should but the car was great. However the team had the "240 IN" displayed on the pit board and clearly I was not looking. on lap 10 the oil and water temp was in the orange so I came in only to find the engine oil was mixing with the water and steam was coming out of the catch tank.

The weekend was not to be as at this level the engine can not really be rebuilt track side as the risk of a total loss would be too great so we packed up and went back to the hotel. I was vey surprised how the rest of the team seemed more affected that me, at this time as I was on a high as I had smashed my previous lap time but clearly I forgot it is a team event something I will try hard not to repeat.

It possibly would of happened anyway but my last 3 laps may even stop us racing in 3 weeks time and on Saturday morning the lesson had really sunk in and I will make sure this does not happen again where I risk the future races when I do not have to as I should not of been racing.

I have the spare engine in the US, now 4 weeks late but it will be dynode and shipped next week, meanwhile our chief mechanic will strip down the current engine and refresh it, if I have not damaged it too much . So in short we have a plan A and B to go racing on the 2nd of June 2018 at Oulton park.

Thanks for following us and my apologies to the team.

Silverstone Details

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 19:49:11 GMT

The Racing details for the coming weekend.

Snetterton Clutch Failure Autopsy.

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 15:22:52 GMT

Here is what potentially denied us our first podium and another first in class.

The top picture shows a badly bent pressure plate link. The middle picture shows a broken pressure plate attachment lug and link. This is what caused the holes in the gearbox and the bad vibration coupled with not being able to change gear. The last picture shows a small amount of flywheel damage that can be made good.

We will be up and running next week by fitting a new gearbox and clutch assembly so the gearbox we remove can be serviced and made ready as the spare. Can not wait for Silverstone International on the 5th of April.

First race of the season.

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 17:48:03 GMT

Snetterton Sunday April 8th 2018

What can I say wet cold and very slippery, on reflection a great day for me. We started the day with 3 laps each behind the safety car as it was too slippery to qualify "Apparently" . The CSCC decided the grid as follows, all the lotus cars up front followed by all the V8 cars and then the straight sixes with the rest at the back. The published line up said we were starting 15th so I decided to start first as I was confident I would at least keep my place or make some places up. I turned up first in the collection area and parked in 15th only to be told they had re shuffeled me to 16th so I moved and waited with anticipation kept calm by Carl Gannon our pit boss, we left behind the pace car as it was to be a rolling start. It was not my best start as I was squashed in between a Boss Mustang and the Capri as you can see above so after nearly trading some paint both sides I filled in behind them and passed the Mustang and the Sabre after the chicane and passed some other cars including the Sunbeam Tiger that was sliding all over the place. On lap "2" I made my move on the Capri and started to look further ahead. As we started 15th I planned to come in slightly early to give Wil Arif a chance to secure a class win for the team and maybe a podium, so on lap 8 I came in placed 11th and Wil took over, as usual he was fast and clearly enjoying the ride. He was soon the second fastest car out there and our plan was looking spot on for a second or third podium finish. Sadly on lap 13 Wil came in sensibly as there was a serious noise and vibration. When Carl lifted the bonnet and revved the engine there was bits flying out of the bell housing as the clutch had exploded and pierced the aluminium housing in various places, sadly this was the end of our race. I was unusually happy as again the car was great and now the brakes were as they should be, I was also happy with my driving progress being only 6 seconds behind Wil Arif my ultimate target and in the wet and slippery conditions for only the second time in my seven race career so far.

We will report on the details of the retirement with some pictures when we have removed the gearbox. Thanks for all your support viewing the website and the "WhatsApp" postings. Check out the Snetterton videos on our websited YouTube link.

Dean Halsey.

Snetterton Testing

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 19:57:09 GMT

March 29th 2018

Another great test, we started the first session with me driving and Wil Arif giving me some tuition on how to drive this circuit as it was my very first time here. The conditions were very greasy but I managed to keep "240 Sporty" on the track and not scare Wil too much. We repeated this for the second session and at the end there was a partial dry line which yielded a 1min 37 sec lap. The next session was dry and Wil went out for 25 minutes and the car was the fastest on the circuit as far as we could see during this session with a 1 min 26 sec lap. I spent some time looking at wil's laps on my laptop via "Circuit Tools" and finally at 15:00 hrs I went out and had great fun on a cold but dry track. I managed a 1 min 32 sec lap but time went quickly and it was over too soon. The brakes are well and truly sorted now thanks to the "HI Spec" front setup taken off my road racing 240z so "240 Sporty" will receive a new set completely the same after the ace here on Sunday April 8th. Supporters are welcome and tea and biscuits for those hardened Z fans. Please check out my YouTube shortcut for videos showing the 2 laps mentioned above.

First test March 2018

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 12:40:16 GMT

Testing at Brands 15th March 2018

The day started very wet but the team kept in touch as we all live close to Brands Hatch, it was decided to make our way there for an after lunch test. By the time we got there it was still wet but after we had dealt with the usual plug change when the car would not start there was a dry line appearing. The aim of the day was to test our new front brake callipers and discs as the previous front set up was actually flexing far too much. I was instructed by Carl to do 3 to 5 laps very carefully and come in to report but the set up was perfect so I stayed out for 23 laps and had fun whilst I collected some data. We went out again for around 17 laps and I was very happy with the balance of the car. Unfortunately my Instructor and second driver was not able to test but did view the car on the track and gave me some positive feedback. The testing was gratefully supported by John & Mat both 240z owners, often there with help, support and banter.

My First Blog Post

183:729505734 (Dean Halsey) — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 11:45:45 GMT

It’s official, I have a blog and I know how to use it.

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add a blog to my site. I have always wanted an easy way to share information with visitors and I’m super excited to start this journey. Keep coming back to my site and check for updates right here on the blog.