New front cycle wings

A couple photos of our new front cycle wings.

Comparison, old and new wing side by side.

The black color doesn't do the new wing justice, but it looks promising. When we got them I was a bit terrified because their diameter is quite much larger than the wheel of the car, but luckily the gap between the wing and tire doesn't look that bad. We'll also probably make a pair of these on our old trailer.

Locost Trailer FEA, the beginning

I got the trailer frame into a FEA program. As always, I had to try to make it the cheapest/easiest way, and of course it wasn't strong enough...


This is a good start, and now I have something to improve on.

Locost trailer

Were running two locosts next season, so we need something to transport two cars with and a place to sleep and relax during the race events.



Above you can see the first sketch for space inside the trailer. The interior is 7 meters (23 feet) long.

When stationary, the beds will be located above the forward positioned locost and in front of that there will be a living room. At the rear there will be a small workspace and some room for storage.

Se7en days track day at Ahvenisto

I finally got home from the rainy Ahvenisto Race Track

I was working at Ahvenisto yesterday, and I started to wonder what it's about when there suddenly was over 10 lotus seven type cars driving around. I went closer to have a chat with the guys and I found out that they are a bunch of friends from northern Sweden who have come to Finland every year to drive on our race tracks. The day before they had been at Motopark. They also mentioned that they would have the track reserved for the morning next day and that I would be welcome to drive with them.

Some pictures of the event:

Caterham

Locost

Caterham

Westfield Ford Duratec 2.3

Caterham

Westfield Yamaha R1

Caterham

Westfield? Wankel

A couple Finns...

Waiting to get on track while the owner is just taking pictures of other cars...

Westfield

Westfield, Ford Duratec 2.3, from behind. IRS rear suspension.

Motorcycle engined westfield.

A nice lineup at the pits in Ahvenisto.

Westfield Saab turbo, 330hv.

A picture of Westfields front anti roll bar.

And from a newer westfield. Pushrod actuated anti roll bar, looks pretty same as I have been designing to our cars. The rocker is conveniently installed on the same bolt as the upper a-arm.

Same anti roll bar from another angle. It was very difficult to get a good picture of it.


It was pretty wet on track, and it didn't help that it was my first time driving the car in the wet. Not to mention that it was my third time driving the car. It was surprisingly fun to drive, and I drove more laps that I had driven in total before. The only negative side is that your right armpit gets really wet.

Incar video of all the spins:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipr1kh6oqXo



A Swedes pictures from when I spun in front of the pits. Thanks to Klas Björkmanille for the pictures.

Historic Grand Race 2008, Incar video

A Youtube clip. The first 10 minutes of the 2nd race.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAUx9rWoLc

Ahvenisto Historic Grand Race 2008

The Grand Race at Ahvenisto Race Track is our race calendars biggest event. And because I had other race events at the same time as previous locost races, I didn't have the time to attend to any of them. I have driven the locost once before, and it was at this same event one year earlier. I drove approximately 10 laps, drove once in the wall and in the race it seemed like the engine was overheating.

The weather was a bit chilly, but luckily it didn't rain at any time during the weekend.

There were no bigger mishaps. The gear shifter broke once (thanks to Kippo for welding it back together). The leftside rear caliper was loose in the first practise session and the exhaust got loose because I drove off the track. We also discovered why the data logger hasn't worked a couple times, the gps antenna connector is bad.
I drove all sessions on the track to the end, and didn't have to be towed off the track even once. I also got markings in the licence, so I don't have to drive the race licence again next year.

I've got on board video footage of every time I was on track except the first race when I had contact with Kyntäjä. They will be on youtube soon.

Thanks to my dad and my brother who came as pit crew to the race. It wouldn't have been possible without them. My brother took all the pictures except the last one where he is in it.

Practise, I'm just about to pass cars on the warm up lap.

Driving in the pits, coming from qualifying. It was a bit slippy on track because one car leaked coolant on track and they set up yellow flags in "Taru's" corner because a car had driven into the barrier. I came in about 5 minutes too early because I felt like my lap times didn't improve. I was a little disappointed when looking at the laptimes in the pits, I noticed that my best lap was one of the last ones.

First start, Saturday. Everyone else leaves the grid normally except me. The car went into some weird mode and didn't raise revs above idling speeds. This is the first time it happened to me, but Mika told me afterwards that he has had the problem many times before.

The first track marshall already started running towards my car when I got going.

A picture from the second lap. The first corner was fun to drive through.

Looking for an opportunity to pass Kyntäjä. I got past on the uphill after the pits. Kyntäjä slowed down and gave me way just when I expected him to go on the throttle and attack into the corner. It got a bit exciting for me because I was going nose first into his behind. I barely got my car to the right and drove into his right rear wheel with my left front wheel. Luckily nothing major broke and I both of us could continue.
A bit after this the gear shifter broke. I could sense it was going soft so I just got it to sixth gear so I could drive until the end.

Second start. I got my car from the line normally. As soon as I got to the grid I shut the car down and put it into neutral. When the red lights went out I put first gear in and let the clutch out. Major wheelspin and a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 sec according to the data, but atleast I wasn't 15 seconds behind like the last time.

Some pictures of the cars behind so you can also see my car.

Searching for a place to pass Tervola. I got past in "Taru's" corner he made a mistake and braked too late.

Kyntäjä tries past me in the second race. At this point I wasn't trying very hard, I was just keeping up the pace to keep Kyntäjä behind.

My dad explaining to my brother how the corner surrounding the pits should be driven. "He should drive earlier to the outside". One of the bad points of recording your driving on video.

A datalogger overview of the second race. Best calculated laptime of 1:31,97 gives hope for improvement. Top speed 172,934 at the end of the main straight. Maximum lateral acceleration1,45G, when in braking only 1G. So the driver should brake harder...

Problem points. The map color tells me where I loose time on my fastest lap compared to fastest sectors driven. Red is bad and blue color means that I'm fast. Turqoise means that I'm equal to the fastest time.
Room for improvement:
0,2 sec if you have the nerves to drive the main straight with full throttle.
0,3 sec if you have the nerves to brake later at the top of the uphill after the pits,
0,2 sec if you have the nerves to brake later into "Taru's" corner... etc.

Preparing for the Ahvenisto Race. Painting and installing data aqcuisition and camera system

We had to do a little fine tuning to the car after the previous race. We fixed the gear shifter and straightened the rear end of the car. Luckily I had a rear wing that I broke at Ahvenisto one year earlier, which was good for a repair part to glue on the broken one. Then the car had to be ofcourse painted.



I also finally got the data logger and camera system installed to the car.

As a data logger we have the Race Tehcnology DL1. At this point we only have power connected to it, so it only uses it's internal sensors. The data that it logs is speed and lap time beacon from GPS information and G-forces at different places of the track. I didn't dare to plug the RPM info to it before reading the manual (I was affraid I would break it). It's installed with velcro on the propshaft tunnel to prevent vibrations from the engine to interfer with the G-Force sensors.

As video recording equipment we have a miniDV camera recording picture from a Sony bullet camera. The bullet camera is mounted with tape to the roll bar and the recorder is mounted inside the car. This should be a waterproof solution, so we can also get video when it rains.

After the Kemora Race

The front wings moved around a bit, enough so they touched the wheels. Even though the glass fibre wings were made much thicker and heavier than the carbon ones, they weren't stiff enough to prevent them from wobbling around. Mika said that they looked a bit nervous when driving, I can imagine...

A picture from behind the car. Here you can see the damage after the accident.

From another angle.

Luckily nothing major happened, and the car won't require much work to get it ready to the next competition. The van diemen that hit our car had it a bit worse. Both front suspension arms broke and the nosecone broke. Judging on the other car, ours could have been so much worse.

Kemora competition 2008

We arrived just in time for qualifying. I got drove plenty of laps and the lap times started to go to the right direction. I was 12th in grid for Saturdays competition.

It all changed for the race, which was a Comedy with a capital C. I haven't driven more than 3 race weekend's drives with a locost. It feels ridiculous, but I haven't been at a single test day. Being a dad for 3 children simply hasn't left me enough time to. I just wanted to tell because last Saturday went just like my previous races with this car. Usually the car has just stalled in the start grid, but this time it went into a strange mode, the engine just sputtered and I started moving at walking pace. This took a really long time, I shut down the engine and started it again, but it didn't help. The engine just didn't rev higher than idling speed. I started looking behind to see if the guys are starting to lap me when the engine started to work. I started to catch the last cars quite quickly and because of this I was maybe trying a bit too hard, so I spun at the S curve. I recoverd quite quickly and barely lost time, but on the next lap I almost drove off the track because of the dirt that had come on the track because of the spin. Despite all of this I had a great time, and I finished 5th of the locosts and would be 10th in grid for Sunday's race.

On Sunday I was on track the whole warm-up. I had a really good time, the locost is so fun to drive. At the end of the run I was startled, I was the only car on track so I thought I had missed the checkered flag. I even forgot to come to the pits for a car checkup that we had agreed on before I went to the track.
For the race on Sunday I practiced putting the car into neutral in the pits and before the race. The clutch doesn't fully release, so it's a bit difficult to get the car into neutral. When I got into grid it wouldn't change to neutral and when I got close into my spot I was in 2nd gear. I shut down the car and moved the car forward with the starter engine and succeeded! Neutral at last! There I was, in my own grid and my pulse was probably over 200 at this stage, I was very nervous about how I would do in the start. The start went well, and the car accelerated into the first corner with everyone else. In the corner I put the 3rd gear in and that was it, the gearshifter broke. There I was, on the main straight running against the limiter and cars passing on both sides. Coming to the twisty part of the track and going uphill I gained on the other guys, and coming to the main straight I felt I went a little wide. Or so I thought. Usually you can balance small slides like that with the throttle, but now I was in third gear and with more throttle I just hit the rev limiter. The car started squirming on the track and when I was aiming at the flag marshals stand I decided to straighten it up with the brakes. It helped, and just when I gained control a Subaru hit me in the rear. He thought that I was heading to the other direction. My car jumped and I felt like my car was shortened by one meter. Upon closer inspection the damage was just cosmetic, the rear wing, the rear aluminium sheet, a fourlink bracket and a small dent in the right rear wheel was all that happened.

Things that have to be redesigned are a new gearshifter, it's very irritating trying to figure out which gear you are in. A tachometer and shiftlite would be nice, along with a gear indicator display.

I had a very good time. Even though I remembered locost racing being fun, I was again surprised how fun it really is.

Sadly my races for this season are over. Work and other racing events are at the same time as the next locost races, so I cant attend. In a way or another I'll try to get the car to the races in the upcoming races.

Congratulations to everyone who got a prize, and ofcourse to everyone else who got to enjoy racing a Locost.

Best luck also to the new guys building cars, I can promise that it will absolutely be worth the time and money spent.

Thanks for this season to everyone at the races, pits and other supporters. It has been a pleasure racing/working with you. I'll see you at the races next year, with my own car (No. 720).

-Mika



Clicking on the photo above, you can our car's tire print above the other brake duct intake. Seems like you can get 4 year old tires too hot.


Johan Svahn (www.johansvahn.com) got the accident on film. Thanks for the pictures!