Daniel French's third season of Caterham Racing. Competing in the 2019 Motul 270R Championship. This blog shows my full Caterham Journey from the build of the awesome R500 Duratec, the Academy Car in 2017, track day information, videos and race results.
So this is a bit of an irritating blog to write - purely because of the reasons why my wing is broken in the first place! For those of you that don't know, my car was crashed into by a 'less than athletic' Romanian courier driver whilst on a recent trip to Folembray, France.
Anyway, rant over - here's my Carbon Cycle Wing Replacement (with) Guide:-
Firstly asses the damage! Yes, my cycle wing is DEFINITELY busted...
Some IVA trim (I had some left over from the build)
Some heat shrink, superglue and some general tools
Firstly remove the indicator wires - mine was screwed to the wing stay (by CC midlands) and the other wire threaded through the wing stay, but rather than unthread the wire through the wing stay, I cut it and will splice it back together on refit.
Indicator wiring removed / cut
With the indictor wiring freed, the next step is to get the wing off the wing stay. During the build I figured the best way to secure the wing was using big-head fasteners, but at PBC stage CC Midlands used some Teroson 9220 to properly secure it. The Teroson forms a very tough rubber bond, and according to CC parts department is the best stuff for the job... Removing it is reassuringly difficult, quite a few cuts with a very sharp Stanley knife and it'll be sufficiently readied for removal.
Teroson 9220 used to secure the wing is reassuringly difficult to remove
With the wing removed, it was time to asses the damage of the wing stay. The upper tube required a slight re-bend, but the rear tube that took the main impact was quite bent.
Rear of wing stay quite bent
I carefully cleaned up each wing stay tube with a Stanley knife, removing all of the Teroson (very strong stuff) and not scratching the powder coat.
Having tried using some force to bend the wing stay back into place, it just wouldn't work - I needed a bit more torque... So I managed to build this extended lever which slotted into the wing stay, but used most of my 175 piece 'professional' Halfords toolkit!
Quite a few tools used to make up this extension - but worked a treat!
Well the extended lever worked a treat... It was dead easy to bend the wing stay back into shape... I put the wheel back on to ensure everything was aligned correctly before I moved onto the wing prep and fitting.
Wheel fitted to check wing stay tubes aligned properly
Now onto the wing prep and fitting
The first thing to do is to fit the IVA trim (if you decide to use it), ok it adds weight, but I think the look of the cycle wing without the IVA trim looks bare and unfinished.
I had some IVA trim lying around (left over from the build) which luckily was long enough to trim the new wing edge with. The IVA trim has a longer edge which goes underneath the wing, and is held in place with good old superglue.
Superglue is the 'substance of choice' to ensure the IVA trim adheres (according to Derek Howlett)
Once the superglue has dried it should look something like this:-
New carbon cycle wing with IVA trim fitted
During the build I figured (after some research) that bighead fasteners were the way to go to fasten the wings, and to allow for easy removal... Having had the car for two years, I've often wondered why I ever thought this was a good idea! Anyway to match the off-side I refitted some bighead fasteners and tie-wrapped them to the wing stay tube.
Bighead fasteners tie-wrapped to wing stay tube
Now I'll give them their due, as you do get plenty of time to move the wing around for adjustment... So I roughed up the areas where the bigheads would be bonded to, measured up (the bottom of the wing is 235mm from the ground), applied some silicone to bond the fasteners to the wing and left it overnight.
Bighead fasteners on cycle wing with silicone adhesive drying
Now time to get out the Teroson. I bought it direct from Caterham, but it's cheaper if you purchase from here. You don't need to use laods of adhesive, just enough to form a good bond around the wing stay.
Teroson 9220 used to bond wing to wing stay - when dry it forms a very tough rubber
The Teroson dries as solid rubber and has great adhesion too - apparently (and although expensive per tube) Caterham have tried all manner of products and this is by far the best. With the Teroson dry, all that was left to do was to cut the tie wraps.
Teroson applied and dried - just need to cut cable ties
When cutting out the indicator holes I found that the rubber gasket made the perfect mask... Simply place on the wing, mark out your holes and job done... Don't know why I didn't figure this out in the original build though!
Indicator gasket makes the perfect mask - just make sure you put it on the correct way around!
When fitting the front wing mounted indicators here are some tips:-
The correct way to fit the indicator is with the bulge forwards
Extend the indicator wire (from the wing-stay side not the indicator) and before refitting the wing (soldering with the wing in place is awkward)
Make sure you thread the wires through the rubber gasket before soldering back together... Trust me it's annoying having to undo it all again (twice! ha ha!)
Trim the top of the screw (circled below) to stop it piercing the live wire - as this was the cause of a breakdown when I first got the car.
Indicator refitted along with wiring - cut the top off the screw highlighted to stop it piercing and shorting
Now just give the electrics a final test to ensure the indicator is working, and so long as it is - that's job done.
New carbon cycle wing fitted and indicator working - job done.
A final thought... Using big-head fasteners not only adds height to the wing, but I don't actually see the point in using them at all - now that I've been 'introduced' to Teroson 9220! I certainly would've used this method when I made the car as the way it adheres and dries is very reassuring indeed (and it's what they do in the factory too!)
I think this is my fourth or fifth entry into the Lowflying Magazine to date... Lowflying Magazine is the award winning monthly magazine from the Lotus Seven Club. This time for the wiper removal guide I recently wrote, which was pretty much lifted from the blog and published.
Here are the pages from the article for those that don't get a copy of the magazine.
Wiper Removal Guide in May 2016 Lowflying Magazine - Page 34
Wiper Removal Guide in May 2016 Lowflying Magazine - Page 35
Wiper Removal Guide in May 2016 Lowflying Magazine - Page 36
Whilst researching 'carbon' stuff, I found that Ultimate Carbon (along with a number of other carbon Caterham bits), also manufactured an S3 louvered bonnet (Ultimate Carbon are the guys who made the bespoke parts for me/you!)... It was advertised as pretty much ready to fit, but just needs the catch plates fitting... I asked Bryn about the weight saving, but he wasn't entirely sure, so thinking that 'its carbon - it MUST be lighter!' I took the punt and gave him the go-ahead.
At first he was reluctant as they had to get the mould out of storage or something (I can't quite remember) but after a bit of pestering he sorted out what they needed to and said he'd make it for me :-)
Here's my first sight of the bonnet - a picture of the item that Bryn sent to me prior to collection.
My first sight of the carbon fibre bonnet
It then dawned on me that I've a massive great hole in the side of my bonnet for the air filter / trackday airbox.... Bryn said it'd be fine to make a paper template up and he'd cut the hole out...
Bonnet cut-out template
Trusting that my template was fine - he cut the hole out and cleaned up the rough edges.
Hole cut in my Carbon Bonnet for air filter / carbon track day airbox
A few days later, we met at an M1 service station car park, I handed over some money - he handed over a lot of carbon; which didn't look dodgy at all :-) but joking aside, it was pretty much central for both of us, and meant I could get my hands on the parts sooner rather than later.
I got home, checked out all of the bespoke bits (which are awesome by the way) and put the bonnet on the car to ensure it fit - and yes it fitted perfectly, thank god.
Unpainted Carbon Bonnet on car - looks odd so needs some paint!
The car looked odd with a carbon bonnet - and the intention was never to leave it in the carbon finish, so I didn't get them to lacquer it... Prepping and Painting
The next bit was for Dave at Daytona Coachworx to do! Dave wanted me to be exact with the paint that I wanted (obviously) which can be a little tricky with Caterhams (so I'm led to believe). Luckily I moaned about the quality of the factory paint job, and when the car was waiting for the fuel pump to arrive it was repainted by XK Engineering.
I rang and spoke to Gary at XK Engineering who had to look into the records, but rang me back a little later on and said the car had:-
Porsche Riviera Blue 39e colour
Glasurit Basecoat (which is water based)
and a DuPont solvent based clear coat (VR-1120)
With the paint details in hand, Dave ordered up the paint and got cracking with the bonnet prep.
The bonnet was given an initial flatting.
Carbon Fibre Bonnet after initial sanding
The inside of the bonnet was then masked - love their attention to detail!
Inside of bonnet masked
With the nature of carbon fibre, there is a tendency for there to be many pin-holes and small grooves (which would show up when painted), so the bonnet was primed, flatted, and primed some more. In the picture below you can see one of the grooves on the left edge of the louvre.
Small grooves in the bonnet to the left of the louvre
In the end, Dave put three medium coats of high build on the bonnet, and flatted with P320. He then flatted it almost back to the carbon so as to take up as many imperfections with the primer, and not leave loads of excess on there (weight!) He then put another three medium coats over that. Again he flatted as much as he could, so as to leave the minimum amount of material on the panel before painting. Dave said this took a long time to do due to the complexity of all the louvres.
Carbon bonnet primed, flatted, primed and flatted again to achieve a perfect base.
The primer was left to dry, and then it was time to apply the colour...
Porsche Riviera Blue 39e Glasurit Water Base Coat Drying
With the base coat sufficiently dried, the clear coat was then mixed with a bit of flexible additive (to reduce the chance of cracking) and was sprayed on and also left to dry. The flexible additive slows the drying process, so it took a little longer to dry than expected.
Once fully dry the bonnet was polished and ready for collection...
Carbon Bonnet Flatted and Polished - Job Done
The finish on the bonnet is ace, it feels very light indeed and the colour match is spot on too!
Drilling the Rivet Holes and Fitting Catch Plates
The old rule of measure twice and cut once certainly applies when you're drilling into an expensive bonnet! No going back now! I started off by drilling a small pilot hole with a 2mm metal drill, then opening it up for the rivets with a 4mm drill.
The catch plates were fitted with two rivets (which was a little awkward to get access to, due to the shape of the end of the rivet gun), and a small metal plate on the inside of the bonnet to support the rivet and give strength to the catch hook.
Drilling holes into my new bonnet for catch plate hooks to be fitted - measure twice and drill once!
Applying The Decals
I know the stripes on my car are pretty bright, but I like that... I've had a number of people comment on them and also contact me to find out what they are... So to avoid further questions :-), they are MACal 9807-07 Pro Super Luminous Orange and I bought them from http://signsuk.co.uk/ as they were the guys who supplied decals and stone chip protection film for Caterham Midlands.
MACal 9807-07 Pro Super Luminous Orange Caterham Triple Stripe laid out ready for application
A couple of weeks ago I got SignsUK to send me some more decals in prep for the new bonnet... Applying the centre stripe was more fiddly than I thought it would be. The process is to wipe down the area with methylated spirits and a clean microfiber cloth to remove any residue, dust particles and to get a good clean base for decent adhesion. Then spray the area with a little water to allow for movement if you lay the decal down incorrectly. Peel back the underneath to reveal the adhesive, and carefully lay the adhesive in place, pushing out any bubbles that may appear and then remove the paper top layer (carefully!)
The only problem with the Super Luminous Orange is that it has a tendency to fade in direct sunlight (over the course of a couple of years), but I couldn't really notice too much difference once the decal was fitted.
I also had a few variants of the blog's domain put together a couple of years ago, and cut (again in the MACal material) to match. I decided to go for a change this time round, and went with the more 'square' version, which I think looks good too.
New carbon bonnet domain decal applied
A lesson to be learnt - do not apply decals outside in the wind... Quite frankly I thought this would be easy but the centre stripe was a right pain in the a$$... Not only that I had a fair hangover which didn't help with such a fiddly job!
Onto the Weigh In
My favourite bit - seeing how much lightness has been added! You can immediately tell the difference by picking the two up, so I thought that a decent saving was to be had.
I popped the aluminium bonnet onto the scales and they weighed in at 2.956kg.
Then (and in a like for like state), the carbon bonnet was on the scales, I held my breath hoping for a significant weight saving... The carbon bonnet weighed in at 2.13kg which is 826g lighter - nearly two pounds saved and is around 28% lighter than the aluminium original, so I'm happy with that.
Carbon Fibre Bonnet (painted with cut-out) weighs 2.130kg
The final reveal
And for the final 'reveal' the carbon fibre bonnet! Which aside from the weight saving, you really wouldn't be able to tell was carbon fibre!
Painted Carbon Bonnet with decals applied, all fitted to my Caterham and looking very good!
A big thanks to Bryn at Ultimate Carbon for giving into my continual pestering and agreeing to make the bonnet, and also 'my mate Dave' at Daytona Coachworx for doing another fab job at prepping, painting and finishing off the bonnet.
The total cost of the bonnet including painting, catches, and decals came it at just shy of £800 - which works out to £1 per gramme saved! I'm sure there's cheaper ways of removing weight!
Way back in 2014 (during the build), I was aiming to get away on a weekend tour of France with a track day at Folembray included. Due to various reasons, the car wasn't ready, so I missed out.
I made up for it last year, and really enjoyed myself... The trip was organised again for this year, but as I'm not on Facebook I didn't really get the heads up until Arnie contacted me to see why I wasn't going.
I naturally booked up as soon as I could... The only thing was my usual blatting buddies (Andy, Tom, Steve, and Alex) couldn't make it, so I was going on my own... that was until I contacted James Malley, (who lives just around the corner) who jumped at the chance to come along for the ride.
We made our arrangements, (I bought a boot bag from Soft Bits for Sevens for obvious reasons) and we agreed on a 6am pickup time... With rain forecast, there were the usual frantic hourly online weather checks performed, but however many times I checked - it was looking ominously wet, torrential rain in fact, but I decided to throw caution to the wind, so off we went.
-1c, 6am, no windscreen and a long way to go - at times like this I'm happy to have a heater in my R500
After a slow-ish drive to our first meeting point (Maidstone services on the M20), we were the first to arrive, so took the opportunity to go inside, warm up, grab a coffee and waited for the rest of the guys to turn up. About half of the attendees of the trip met up at the services - quite a few faces from last year, and a few new faces too...
A few Sevens meeting up at the Maidstone services on the M20, ready for a few days of blatting and track action!
A fun thirty minutes on the motorway later, and we met up with the rest of the guys at the Eurotunnel car park - Sevens as far as the eye car see (well nearly!)
Sevens as far as the eye car see (well nearly!) at the Eurotunnel car park
Our timing was good, so we didn't have to hang around for too long and swiftly boarded the Eurotunnel for the short trip to France.
On the Eurotunnel
Having 'landed' in Calais, we had a little blat to get to our Lunch destination - La Fregate and with all the Sevens parked up nicely it was a great opportunity to get the drone out!
After lunch we went for the main blat, about three and a half hours over some great French roads, and at a decent pace too. Not too fast this time, as I didn't want to get another speeding ticket!
We arrived in St Quentin around 16:30, found the hotel (Hotel Memorial), parked up, checked in, had a quick shower and it was off for a beer and a bite to eat. Dinner was at Le Grand Cafe de la Universe in the Central Square of St Quentin.
A few quiet pre-dinner beers on Thursday night with the James, Ed, Mike and John
TRACK ACTION - FOLEMBRAY CIRCUIT
Woke up early, and full of excitement on Friday morning... The drive to the circuit was a touch longer than I remembered (over half an hour) and the weather was looking great, but the Forecast said torrential rain in a few hours... The organisers were well aware of the looming weather, so opened the circuit slightly earlier than the 10am time, and we got underway...
The morning session was (for me) about getting in as many laps as possible before it rained, so there were plenty of passenger rides, and a few quicker laps on my own too. We stopped for lunch and it was still dry, but the skies were getting darker...
CAR SETTINGS
With the two-foot-long ham and cheese baguette fleeced, it was time to try and get a quick lap... At every track day it's usually a case of starting from a base road setup, and slowly dialling in the settings until the end of the day where the fastest times usually come... My final settings (before the rain set in) were:-
Front ZZR tyres at 17psi (warm)
Front Nitron (one-way) shocks on eight clicks from softest
Rear ZZR tyres at 20psi (warm)
Rear Nitron (one-way) shocks on fourteen clicks from softest
Rear ARB one from front
With big rain storms forecast and the skies looking greyer every minute, I noticed there were a few rain spots appearing on my visor during this three lap stint, so it was time to put the pedal to the metal and try and get a quick lap in:-
54:667 LAP
The third lap in the video above was a 54:667 and you can see from my glance at the lap timer that I was dissapointed (figuratively speaking) as according to the fastest laps website the unofficial circuit record is 54:390 set in a Ferrari 458. Here is the 54:667 lap:-
LAST YEAR VS THIS YEAR Having lapped around 2 seconds faster than I did last year, I will put it down to a few things in order:-
Not content with the above, I've decided to put together a 'last year vs this year' fastest lap video to see where the differences are made up:-
And that was the track day over...
Crossing the finish line at Folembray - cheers for the pic JV!
FRIDAY NIGHT
Dinner was at L'Edito also in the Central Square of St Quentin and next door to last nights restaurant... We met around 6pm, discussed plenty of potential car upgrades, blats and had a few beers. Dinner consisted of Beef Fajitas (I seem to remember them being better last year) and a couple more pints.
After a few beers it was always going to seem like a good idea to move onto 'something stronger' JV suggested the best cocktail in world was a margarita so we ordered 'a few' which were actually pretty strong... About half an hour later someone came to grab a shot of us drinking margaritas, and I thought it was a brilliant idea to do the good old 'finger willy tongue out' pose!
Obviously someone had one too many of those 'things' on the right of the picture!
SATURDAY MORNING
With a bit of a thick head from the night before, and thinking 'I hope I didn't do the finger willy thing (but vaguely remember doing it)... However... I'm not on Facebook, so no-one would post it, even if I did...' Anyway, they did - see above! It was time to leave the hotel and head back home. Another drone moment, but this time - for a still of the group.
The 'No Trailer Trash Weekend' Folembray 2016 attendees
With the goodbyes out of the way it was time to head home... We (James and I) decided to head directly back as I had a karting race the next day, and James had a family event to attend on the Saturday night - so the quickest way back to the UK was a fairly dull slog up the French toll roads for about two hours...
AND ONTO THE 'CRACKING' PART
About one and a half hours into the drive back, the fuel light came on (which is a 10 litre warning) and with only around 50k to go, I quickly done the maths and worked out that I'd have just enough fuel to be able to push on and fill up in Calais.
The fuel was very close to running out, having practically arrived at a petrol station near Calais on fumes (my readout was alternating from 1L to 0L left)... I filled up, went to pay and then heard a LOUD BANG - I turned around to see James talking to a short, 'less than athletic' Romanian courier driver who managed to crash into my stationary car!
A short 'less than athletic' Romanian courier driver managed to crash into my stationary car!
Considering how terrible our communication was (I didn't speak Romanian and he claimed not to speak any English) I gathered he was trying to suggest he didn't see the car, so we exchanged contact details, I checked over the car and the only real damage I could see was the front cycle wing was utterly destroyed.
Cracked and destroyed front carbon cycle wing on my Caterham R500 :-(
Upon closer inspection the cycle wing stay was pushed into the tyre meaning the tyre wouldn't rotate. Luckily there was a workshop attached to the garage and in my greatest impression of an English person who can't speak French, trying to speak French; I shouted, pointed and made hand gestures until he understood I was after a crow bar.
With quite a lot of force I managed to prise the cycle wing stay away from the tyre enough so we could get going again-phew... On the short drive to the Eurotunnel I worked out my options, and thought:-
I don't stand a chance of getting the money off that Romanian bloke
It'll cost me heaps more in insurance premiums if I do start a claim
I may as well take it in the a$$ like a good ol' stiff-upper-lipped british chap and pay for it myself.
So I checked on Caterham Parts site, and freaked! £286 for a carbon cycle wing, plus £14 delivery! OUCH! for me, and the courier driver got away scott free. Very irritating - I should've just asked him for the money there and then, but I couldn't be sure there wasn't any chassis damage until I got home.
I've now checked the chassis, and thankfully there are no signs of damage - whilst driving it didn't feel like there was damage, and luckily I usually park my Seven (in petrol stations when filling up) out of gear with the handbrake off - no idea why I do that (until now), as I don't do it any of my other cars... I'm guessing it was just the impact that shattered the wing, and any real damage was negated by the car being able to roll forward.
So now, that's two accidents in my car - BOTH by other drivers crashing into my wings, leaving me to sort it out. Nice.
TOTAL COST OF THE TRIP
With all the excitement slightly jading my memory - I tried to keep an note of the costs on this trip, just so I know for future, and this is (roughly) what I spent:-
New Carbon front cycle wing (one-off cost) - £300 inc shipping!!!
Total Cost approx this year (excluding one-off costs) - £700
AND FINALLY - DID IT LEAK?
Yes and no... It's not leaked at the tail of the gearbox, but it is quite thick and gunky there, and there is some clear fluid underneath the gearbox towards the front... I'm hoping this is just perhaps overfilling, expansion due to temperature or something else, but I'll keep a very close eye on it.
WOULD I GO AGAIN?
Yes, tomorrow - it was a 'cracking' trip! Joking aside, it was an awesome weekend.