A Youtube clip. The first 10 minutes of the 2nd race.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APAUx9rWoLc
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, July 28, 2008
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.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Update, haven't posted anything for a while...
Mika made some modifications for the first race. He installed a radiator fan and changed the broken carbon fenders to glass fibre ones.
The rear fender guards did their job. The front wheels lift a lot of rocks thrown on the racetrack from other cars.
The rear fender guards did their job. The front wheels lift a lot of rocks thrown on the racetrack from other cars.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Car in winter storage
Some pictures of when Mika drove the car to winter storage, it was quite slippery.
We had to get some room in the garage when we started to build a bigger car, you can follow its progres at http://www.ratataksi.com or in its blogi http://racetaxi.blogspot.com.
We had to get some room in the garage when we started to build a bigger car, you can follow its progres at http://www.ratataksi.com or in its blogi http://racetaxi.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Historic Grand Race 2007
This was our second race with the car, and the first time for Henrik to drive the car.
Picture from the pits, all locosts in the same row.
Coming in from practice.
Second practice.
And a picture after the qualifying, got a truck ride from the track. I drove off in a corner called "Tarun mutka". The impact was quite hard, breaking both of the righthand front a-arms. The welds of the lower front suspension mounting point were also broken. Also, both righthand side carbon fenders were broken.
Mika went back to our garage to manufacture new a-arms and the rest of us stayed behind to fix the mounting point and trying to find 10mm rod-ends. Having an accident this close to the Saturdays race, meant that there was no way we could get our car repaired to participate.
Ready for Sundays race, all cars lined up in the pits for the race. I had to start from the last place because the grid order is determined by the fastest lap in the Saturdays race.
The race has started. You can see me passing the blue/red Fiat. It was a quite tight pass, and the car oversteered a bit driving over a patch of oil, so I touched the Fiat's side with my left rear fender (my apologies).
Park fermé after the race, I had to retire in middle of the race. Reasons for retirement were that the oil pressure light was set too high, so when it started to light up constantly, I thought it best to stop the race. I probably couldn't have driven for long either, the breather tank was too small so water was coming out of it. It wouldn't have been a problem if the breather tank wouldn't have been just the right size and mounted to the engine, at one point in the rev range the water would start to vibrate and it sprayed out of the breather hole. When testing it after wards in our garage, it had quite a force, and you could get the water spray raise to the ceiling.
After the race I had broken three of our nice looking carbon fenders...
Picture from the pits, all locosts in the same row.
Coming in from practice.
Second practice.
And a picture after the qualifying, got a truck ride from the track. I drove off in a corner called "Tarun mutka". The impact was quite hard, breaking both of the righthand front a-arms. The welds of the lower front suspension mounting point were also broken. Also, both righthand side carbon fenders were broken.Mika went back to our garage to manufacture new a-arms and the rest of us stayed behind to fix the mounting point and trying to find 10mm rod-ends. Having an accident this close to the Saturdays race, meant that there was no way we could get our car repaired to participate.
Ready for Sundays race, all cars lined up in the pits for the race. I had to start from the last place because the grid order is determined by the fastest lap in the Saturdays race.
The race has started. You can see me passing the blue/red Fiat. It was a quite tight pass, and the car oversteered a bit driving over a patch of oil, so I touched the Fiat's side with my left rear fender (my apologies).
Park fermé after the race, I had to retire in middle of the race. Reasons for retirement were that the oil pressure light was set too high, so when it started to light up constantly, I thought it best to stop the race. I probably couldn't have driven for long either, the breather tank was too small so water was coming out of it. It wouldn't have been a problem if the breather tank wouldn't have been just the right size and mounted to the engine, at one point in the rev range the water would start to vibrate and it sprayed out of the breather hole. When testing it after wards in our garage, it had quite a force, and you could get the water spray raise to the ceiling.After the race I had broken three of our nice looking carbon fenders...
Friday, April 6, 2007
American Car Show 2007
The show stand still needed some final adjustments on Friday morning.
The Camera automatically focuses on the girls... Hmmm.
Had to take multiple shots to get the flash in the right position.
The sides look nice!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The day of building the car show stand...
The day when we had to take the Locost to the car show. Luckily we had time until 22:00. There was still loads to do, like the sheet metal covering the propshaft tunnel was made 5 minutes before we left, and the parts were put inside the van to let them dry.
Carbon fibre tape. It looks just like the real deal, even when looked at close. Its made of metallic foil where the carbon look has been pressed in, so it has a 3d effect that makes it look really good.
Carbonbogey.
We painted the exhaust black. The part before the muffler is stainless, so we left a bogeyracing sticker to cover a bit of that part, and when the paint dried we took the sticker off.
Looking good, picture taken at 20:17 at the garage. Takes about 1 hour to drive to the car show.
Finally there. Speed was limited by the front fenders moving a bit, so we had to tape them to the wheels.
When we got the cars inside began the work of applying vinyls on the cars. The beetle also needed a windshield.
"Disassembling" of the vinyls in progress. On the background you can see the air balloons that will be on our stand.
Carbon fibre tape. It looks just like the real deal, even when looked at close. Its made of metallic foil where the carbon look has been pressed in, so it has a 3d effect that makes it look really good.
Carbonbogey.
We painted the exhaust black. The part before the muffler is stainless, so we left a bogeyracing sticker to cover a bit of that part, and when the paint dried we took the sticker off.
Looking good, picture taken at 20:17 at the garage. Takes about 1 hour to drive to the car show.
Finally there. Speed was limited by the front fenders moving a bit, so we had to tape them to the wheels.When we got the cars inside began the work of applying vinyls on the cars. The beetle also needed a windshield."Disassembling" of the vinyls in progress. On the background you can see the air balloons that will be on our stand.
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