[Madmac]

Another update: That's another 2 hillclimbs completed without much issue. Forrestburn Hillclimb again, double header Sat and Sun.

Saturday I missed the Modprod top slot by a few tenths but on Sunday I edged ahead to take another Modprod win. I spend Sunday lunchtime scraping 5mm of dead rubber off the slicks and they improved substantially!

Tiddles drove into the trailer again - another successful weekend. That's 9 outings in a row with good reliability

Next up Doune on the 18th and 19th September. This is usually a British Championship event but this year it's being run as 2 Scottish Championship events. I believe the club are having a top 12 run off for the top 3 places in each division

I'll get the Forrestburn video up soon

 

[Guernsey racer]

Top job Donald.

 

[Mita]

Nice one Donald, great to hear all is working well 👍

 

[Madmac]

Doune update:

Saturday started wet with a slippery, greasy track. It dried for the afternoon but the track wasn't the best. I ended the day with a class win and another ModProd win. That makes up my 8 scores from 12, 7 wins and a 2nd place so with the 3 events I missed i take the Modprod title this year

Sunday again started wet although the track had improved with wet times being 5-6 seconds faster for most cars than on the Saturday. We got 4 practice runs as the track dried. It was almost dry for the competition runs though. I was on a fairly committed rub but i backed off and pulled onto the grass at the top of east brae after seeing smoke coming out of the bonnet vents. I thought it may have been an oil hose letting go and didn't want to put oil onto the track. It turned out to be a cracked banjo bolt on the power steering pump. Not visible to look at, but the fluid was spraying out onto the exhaust manifold when the wheel was turned. Pretty random failure and I didnt have a spare, so I retired the car for the day

I'm still amazed we got this far through the season without any major issues!

I have a list of winter jobs, maintenance and a few upgrades. I plan on removing the on-board compressor and installing a 300bar air bottle for the gearshift. The compressor is creating moisture which isn't doing the actuator any good and the compressor is noisy and slow.

I'll update the thread through the winter with the tech stuff

 

[Mita]

Great update Donald, well spotted on the cracked banjo 👍👍

 

[Madmac]

I think I'll replace these banjo fittings with stainless steel versions! There's another on the rack but I need the engine out to change it. Disappointed that a supposedly quality fitting would fail so quickly

 

[Mita]

Wow that is squirting it out! Good job you didn’t lose steering at a crucial point!

 

[Christopher]

That’s ridiculous!
Could have caused a lot more problems than it did.

 

[Madmac]

Wow that is squirting it out! Good job you didn’t lose steering at a crucial point!

I felt the steering 'kick' a little coming round the first corner off the line. Lucky it didn't cause a fire!

My system runs a higher pressure because I've reduced the steering ratio so much. I can turn to full lock without taking my hands off the wheel!

 

[187836]

This car is what I imagined if group b was still a thing and a cp9a was built for it.
Awesome bit of kit

It looks scary but fun to drive!

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

[Madmac]

Yep it's pretty scary on our narrow tracks!

 

[Madmac]

I just thought I'd put a wee update here for thread followers. I decided to take this year out from competing to get on with other projects. Tiddles was in storage over the winter so I didn't do any work to prep her for this season. There's a list of things to sort on the car but I hope to make a start on them later in the summer and maybe get to a few hills later in the year. Much of this will be dictated by how my motorhome build goes though.

I'll update with any Tiddles news in due course. I hope everyone is fine and enjoying their Evos!

 

[Madmac]

The motorhome build is finished so I'm aiming to get Tiddles stripped and rebuilt over the winter and get out to play again next year. At least my race weekend accommodation will be luxury compared to a cold airbed in the back of a van! I'll update with any more news

 

[leeslancer8]

Can we see some motor home pics whilst we wait 👍🏻

 

[Madmac]

Can we see some motor home pics whilst we wait 👍🏻

Sure! Most of these were taken during the build. I'll get some updated photos posted once it's outside again in daylight. I'm still waiting for the bench seat/bed cushions to be made. This seat extends into another bed

I didn't need the huge garage at the rear so I designed it to have the main bed extendable which gives me more cupboard storage, worktop space and room to move during the day. A short person could sleep across the van. I need the bed longer...

The van is a new style Sprinter 319 V6 XLWB XHR 4x4, quite unusual. I bought it for the business but due to the pandemic never put it into service. Mercedes no longer make the 4x4 in the XLWB body and have stopped the V6 and manual gearbox option - all the good bits

All the carcasses and woodwork is done on my CNC router table so the entire interior is setup on computer and can be made again easily enough. The cabinets are all made from lightweight ply. It has a 6Kw 240v inverter, mains hookup, BBQ point, electric awning, freshwater and waste water tanks, LPG tank and a 300A 12v point at the back for jump starting, charging etc at hillclimbs. The garage is perfectly sized to take the cages for the wolves and also spares and tools for going racing. It's been built as an all round off-grid motorhome. 400w solar panels and 3 leisure batteries provide the power.

I started building it in April. I haven't counted the hours I've put into it...!

6

 

[Madmac]

Some more:

 

[Madmac]

The cab seats spin round and have now been covered with proper seat covers. The bulkhead curtain is so you can have some privacy if you need to shower or change through the day, it saves having to close the cab blinds each time. I used the CNC machine to rout the worktops thinner to 15mm leaving the edges at 28mm and room for the LED lighting around the inner edge. This also took some 22kg out of the weight of them

 

[leeslancer8]

Looks stunning would love something like this one day. Would make a great European tow rig

 

[Madmac]

Looks stunning would love something like this one day. Would make a great European tow rig

It's taken me 28 years to finally get round to building a motorhome. Heating at a race weekend will be a new novelty for me.

Problem is... This van only does 13mpg towing the Shuttle and only 18mpg without, hence why I never put it into active business service. To go touring Europe would be quite expensive in fuel

Our old 319 Sprinter was the same. One proper remap later and it's up to 22mpg and 260(ish)HP. Once Moho is out of warranty I'll get it remapped

 

[leeslancer8]

It's taken me 28 years to finally get round to building a motorhome. Heating at a race weekend will be a new novelty for me.

Problem is... This van only does 13mpg towing the Shuttle and only 18mpg without, hence why I never put it into active business service. To go touring Europe would be quite expensive in fuel

Our old 319 Sprinter was the same. One proper remap later and it's up to 22mpg and 260(ish)HP. Once Moho is out of warranty I'll get it remapped

My mate has a crafter and suffers the same fate mpg wise.

The transporters just aren’t big enough I don’t feel. Keep looking at x5’s for the towing duties but these motorhome conversions seem to make sense.