Track Day Castle Combe, pleasure then pain!

Guess a brief outline of the day is needed, it developed into a rather long one as I will explain.

Arrived about 8.25am at the track, listened the normal safety waffle. I then went for noise testing..Car was 105db with my current setup! Doh! I had been chatting to the great man Andy Vowell when I arrived. Top bloke.

Lucky Andy V brought his race trailor with enough tools and stuff to make about 3 cars :) Andy very kindly offered a funny addon silencer he had, which I butchered for him, cheers mate!

Fitted that loosely and was tested again at 103DB...Doh! I then went to Merlin Motorsport left my card and borrowed an addon silencer to test...Fitted that retest No3, 102db...Useless! this silencer didn't enable any fitment of extra pieces etc, so back to Merlin to get my card back and return it. At this point about 1hr after the first test I was getting pissed off.

I refitted Andy V's silencer addon then rammed the little pipe I made in the end of that. By this time I had a 3 foot long triple silencing system growing out the back of my car!

Pics to follow from Mr Dawson I am told! It was WELL funny! Went for a retest again and it was 100.7DB with this construction attached, the tester gave me 11/10 for effort and said he'd wave the .7DB, and told me to enjoy myself.

He wouldnt give me a sticker till I added some screws and covered the heads with clips. So back to the main man Andy to blag a drill and bit. Now nearing 11am and 2hrs after my first test it was time to go out! I really like the track, its alot of fun with some good quickish corners.

The car is pretty quick round the track but needs some mods to handling, I was only overtaken 3 times I think all day by a Caterham and two V8 MGB's.

Midgets and MGF's, MX5 and well, just about everything on track was cannonfodder for the Beast.

I had a very entertaining few laps with Jason Chinn as ballast, certainly ground down my exhaust and made my tyres rub on the TOP of the arch!

Funny he was told to get out my car at the gate as he didnt have his arms covered, I quickly grabbed a very small jacket I had and told him to put it on.

Jason is quite a bit bigger than me and it covered him down to half way between his wrists and elbow :)...Very fetching like something from little britain or hand me downs from your grandma:) ok they said so off we went.

We spent this entire session chasing a midget with toyota twin cam engine fitted, wasn't really any quicker than me despite my 14stone ballast and the fact the Midget had race tyres fitted! The bloke driving it wasnt the best but was going ok.

We just hustled him for 4laps or so :) Quite quick laps but nothing special. The Midget guy came over and complemented my car and driving, as he couldnt believe a Spitfire with a 1300 and 14stone passenger was on his tail constantly. Most enteraining, I guess we were holding up the Triumph honour!

The whole of the triumph guys gave a good show I think today. Andy and I (albeit slower) certainly made mince meat of everything on track bar the 2 V8's and showed that Triumph Spitfire's are great!

I took Dawson for a set of 6laps? which I think he enjoyed alot.

Car was in good fettle all day at the track anyway! Too much understeer in turn in and exit, the rear is making awesome grip levels. Front end setup needs some work.

Fred must have won the 2nd place award for the most entertaining noise reduction addon after some inspired shopping at Merlins, some bendy pipes and skyward bound silencer!

But then the guy in the TR6 added a full sized silencer onto the end of his exhaust pointing skyward! Most entertaining, Triumphs must be noisey by nature!

I did a set of 10laps or so on my final session and rang the cars neck and upped my speed a bit, but still leaving a good margin under braking.

Maybe this caining seeded my homeward bound piston destruction. I saw the guy in the Toyota powered Midget again in this session and without my Chinn Ballast he was also cannonfodder, he had to let me by and he couldn't hold on after I dropped him. I was complemented by Tim B after the session on how nice my car looked on track, I really enjoyed these last laps!

I think my car is sticking out some pretty good power, too much for stock pistons I think?

As we left the track I noticed a very small ticking noise that was not normal but it quickly cleared, maybe this last session just finished off this piston and this tick was related to it...I intended to potter home but....thats not me!

Went for some food and a drink with the guys in Chippenham and headed home.

I was racing an Audi RS something off the lights from the Cross Hands Pub at Old Sodbury and in 3rd gear at 7200rpm something let go...I pulled to the roadside off with the rocker cover, broken rocker and a valve was not fully home, bent...

There was LOADS of white smoke pouring out the block, obviously full of fuel mixture...Quick removal of the spark plug showed there was no end on it only a mashed stub, with a torch looking through the spark plug hole I can see the little end of the conrod, which is marked, there is no middle left on the Piston! just the skirt attached to the rod...

I cannot tell at this stage if thats all the damage unlikely block is scrap I guess and valves and head will need a clean up.. the rod is not bust I don;t think. I guess the piece of pistons blew down up and got mashed between the head and valves into more pieces which got mashed too and will be in the sump now!

I guess my engine is in need of Forged items, I cannot see it being detonation or such like as the engine was performing perfectly all day with regular plug checks and strong constant power on track, the other pistons look fine it was driving perfectly on the way home, it was sudden and catastropic failure of a part caused by overloading I guess or long term weakening.

When stripped and decoked after my valve issue the piston crowns all looks perfect after equal caining at the Ring, no marking or det damage...So I guess a crack/weakness has formed and its caved in under todays abuse. Time will tell.

I think this is a good opportunity to prepare it for next years fun. I am not 100% sure of whether to build another 4 banger or do something drastic in the engine department in the name of "dura"bility (clue) and attaining the 150mph Spitfire.

Was certainly an impressive noise when it let go...That noise that signals its 100% quaranteed recovery are taking you home! :-)

Bitter/Sweet day. Alot of fun none the less. I do like the car alot it works well and its quick, just these engines are getting fragile when you want to use 7K+ and wide open power for long periods.

Got home at 11pm after a 6.35 start today. I am wacked! Could say more!

Thanks for organising it guys!

A note from Jason Chinn "You're too kind Dave - I'm built for comfort not for speed at over 15 stone The synthetic fabric of the top you lent me would have shrunk wrapped my arms in the event of a fire but it was fortunate it was there and satisfied the marshals. I could have looked like the only gay in the village if I'd have zipped it up over my gut! Thanks for an entertaining and exhilarating trip out - the car was very quick and tight. Serious shame about being "piston broke" on the way home. All part of the developement process! "