Sandow Cup Day Sprint

[oscar]

On Tuesday 3rd November, whilst everyone's attention turned to Melbourne Cup Day and the "race that stops a nation", horse racing fans flock to Flemington Racecourse leaving Sandown deserted. Perfect day to make a racket and race cars.

Two of us rocked up to participate in the full field of 98 cars, 13B in "Whitey" the 450SE and me in "POVO" the 280S, whilst SELfor50 couldn't make it unfortunately.

Preparation for POVO was to sort a few of the issues raised by scrutineers at the last meet I attended at Winton in August. Namely supplementary bonnet pins, an oel catch can and a metal plate to cover the exposed fuel tank where the first aid kit once lived. In an attempt to shed some more weight and slightly further increase the power to weight ratio, with some trepidation I also removed the front and rear bumpers as well. With them gone they take some of what makes a w116 a w116 away. But what the hell, we're after speed so off they came and to be honest, for a track car it didn't take all that long to get used to the new look. The car also got a cold air intake and along with the catch can I'll throw details up in another thread.

Only issue for the day for POVO was I noticed in the 2nd and 3rd session, there was a lack of power after attempting a hotlap and seemed to be getting worse at times. Thinking it was carb or fuel related I only found out after the last session that the cause was binding brakes. A few times I wasn't able to redline 3rd gear on the straights and changing to 4th gear sometimes bled speed off even though I was at WOT all the time. Apart from steel lines and the booster, everything else has been replaced and calipers resealed. I'm thinking the cause was the NOS OEM pads I was using may have expanded during more agressive laps but I wont know for sure until I inspect them. Once cooled down the brakes don't seem to be an issue, so they're good for normal driving but the curent setup is unsuitable for racing.

Anyway, to the photos and vids: The 280S has gotten faster and small improvements each time out are helping but there's still a lot to do before the times improve by a greater margin. Top time for me was 1.52.77 and I think 13B's 450 was around 10 seconds quicker. Faster cars were around the 1.30 mark. It was the first time for me on this track and I was happy to come under 2 min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjyUcan2pms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4CcxaWw7b4

View behind the pits, overlooking cars being unloaded


Overlooking home straight and pit exit from above the pits.


Fueled, serviced and ready to race



Lining up on the dummy grid


Some other cars

 

[B13]

Here's another pic of us - this time coming down the front straight:

I.

 

[oscar]

I love that photo. The lane closest to the photographer is the fastest yeah?

 

[SELfor50]

I love that photo. The lane closest to the photographer is the fastest yeah?

Haha.. for sure.

Good write up, good pics fellas. Wish I was there.

Solid times overall too. Especially with a 1.52 for first time at track.
Great to see whitey make a re-appearance after spending time on the dirt.

The yellow vk vl? looks really nice. Not overdone and I like the colour.
Do you know if it was an 8??

And what's the last pic of? The red beast?

Cam.

 

[WGB]

The cars look great but the brakes are a worry.

I have had binding brakes on a car which were fine when cold but got worse the hotter the brakes became.

Cause was insufficient clearance between the master cylinder and the brake booster which left the brakes partially on (ever so slightly) all the time with the effect that there was restriction of flow back to the master cylinder and as the fluid expanded with heat it slowly applied the brakes.

You should be able to see if it is only one brake or all four.

If only one it could be a binding calliper or internal valving in a failing flexible hose.

Bill

 

[oscar]

The yellow vk vl? looks really nice. Not overdone and I like the colour.
Do you know if it was an 8??

And what's the last pic of? The red beast?

I can't remember if the yellow VK was an 8 or not. I had a look under the bonnet of a few commodores but can't remember if the yellow oone was parked next to the mobil one in the pits. If so it was an 8 but not sure.

The red car I assumed to be a Camaro but it's not. It was fully prepped, perspex rear window etc etc. It's not a 'stang, I don't know what it is Anyone

WGB, I hadn't thought about it being MC and booster related, I hope it's not. My gut feeling is that new pads and discs are overheating, or rather heating and expanding. But I'm certain there's still air in the lines too which are only going to expand when heated. It was only by chance I discovered the lack of power was binding brakes. I came in to the pits and whilst rolling along at 20km/hr I put it into neutral and the thing pulled up in a few metres. Later when loading the car and after cooling down the car would continue rolling in neutral. It seems though the binding was even as there was no pulling to the left or right, either in the car park or on the track. But front to rear? The only thing I'm 100% positive about is that the binding occurs only at increased temps.

 

[John S]

The red car looks like a 66 Ford Mustang to me.

 

[oscar]

You're right John. I googled "fastback mustang" and a bunch of images from 65-69 come up looking like the red car.

 

[oscar]

A few more pics on the track