On Monday 31 July the Project Ashgate car completed Round 1 of the Clubman 3 series with surprisingly good results. In this update I'm going to go through how the car performed, what changes I made throughout the meeting and what the plans are for round 2.
In the Clubman series the meeting consists of 3 rounds of FTQ (Fastest Time Qualifying) qualifying and one final. With only 5 cars in each final it's extremely important to set a good qualifying time to guarantee good points from the higher final. As it’s FTQ qualifying it's most likely that the best times will be set in the third round of qualifying when the track grip is at its highest. So my plan was to experiment in the early rounds then play it safe in Q3 and the final. I did a few quick laps in practise to check if thickening the differential had helped, the car looked and sounded better.
QUALIFYING
For Q1 I tested some different tyres, I fitted a softer 30sh tyre on front and kept with the 24hr rear tyre I had run before. The idea with this was to give the car more steering. At the start of the run the rear was a little unsettled but as soon as the tyres warmed up it stayed in line. The front was a lot more lively and aggressive, this was clearly the right direction to find pace. The run was generally good with one mistake and a coming together with another racer, it placed me 5th overall but I was only 0.2 secs off the leaders best lap pace. In Q2 I kept the car the same, I had a much cleaner run but the one lap pace didn't really increase.
For the final round of qualifying I decided to play it safe and fit harder tyres to the front of the car. The track grip was increasing and cars in the mini class were on the verge of grip rolling. The plan seemed to work, I had no issues with grip roll, however the car was understeering a lot in the first few laps while the tyres warmed up. I managed to improve my time though and keep my position in the A final.
THE FINAL
For the final I decided to play it safe again and keep the hard tyres on the front. This wasn't such a safe idea though, the slow early laps lead to a collision with another car. This body tucked my shell and cost me over 6 seconds waiting to be marshalled. From there I was fighting not to be lapped. At the mid point of the race I really started to push on the car and felt like I was closing to the cars ahead while they were struggling with grip roll. I managed to get within a second of 2nd and 3rd places but run out of time to challenge them.
SUMMARY
Overall I'm really impressed with how the M08 is handling. I feel like I'm about 0.4 seconds off the pace of the leaders when the grip is at maximum, I seem to be making less mistakes than them so the car is possibly more drivable. I have plans to try and minimise the grip roll by making changes to the camber and roll centres. Hopefully this will allow me to go all out with the softer front tyres. Fingers crossed we can make it into the A again and maybe have a chance for that podium.
If you find this article helpful please consider donating to our fundraiser. Entries of £10+ will be entered into the competition to win the M08 chassis. If you have any questions about Project Ashgate or the Clubman 3 series please contact Steve Baggley.
