Dr Strangedavey or How I Learned To Stop Spending Money And Go Motor Racing Anyway (Part2)

Previosuly, in Startline, Simon Davey explained that to avoid insolvency whilst motor racing - even in Mono - the following tips should be followed:

1) Avoid Accidents

2) Collect All The Bits

3) Be Nice And Always Pay On Time

4) Learn To Weld

5) Learn To Use Composite Materials

Let Dr Strangedavey continue......

6) Save Odd-Shaped Bits Of Stuff

I’ve kept bits of metal and plastic for 25 years before finding a use for them. Very sad maybe, but definitely saves a lot of money, and I’ve had many a happy evening cataloguing them (alright that last bit isn’t true). I do however have three bins that I use to save bits and pieces of materials or broken components: one for steel, one for aluminium & plastic and one for any long rods or tubes. It’s amazing how much time and money you can save by starting to make a vital bracket from something which happens to be roughly the right shape to start with; rather than starting from scratch by going out and buying a largish piece of new material, which is both expensive and needs more work to get it into the final configuration.

For example Van Diemen Formula Fords have flat alloy plate engine mountings that often break, but are then a superb source of material for any number of mounting brackets or lightweight spacers. I’ve converted broken wishbones into engine mountings (and I think once the other way), made exhaust system fixings from six inch nails, and regularly recycled the unworn sections from front aluminium skid plates to make skid plates for the rear etc etc. Saving odd bits of exhaust system is particularly profitable – again with the current Swift I completely rebuilt its badly bent exhaust system with pieces from the metal bin.
My wife thinks this habit of carefully saving bits of old bent metal illustrates that I am completely barking, if mostly harmless – but she does the same thing with embroidery threads!

7) Don’t Buy Flashy Race-Wear

I think this section must be aimed mainly at new-to-racing drivers. I have often seen people in this position going out and spending £1000+ on ace-looking race wear, and then finding they don’t have enough money to actually do much racing.

In my world there are two essential attributes for race wear. It must comply with the regulations and it should be so comfortable that you don’t notice you are wearing it when you are driving the car. Given these two conditions are satisfied, there is an argument that more expensive race wear is safer, because it is better made, or made from superior materials. I personally don’t subscribe to this view. I think the vast majority of expensive race wear will perform its function in exactly the same way as the more modest versions – it just looks flashier. Mark you, this is being written by someone who raced wearing plimsolls as footwear for the first 12 years of my racing career, before my mechanic couldn’t stand it any longer and cadged a pair of worn – out racing boots for me.
So read the regs carefully, buy sensibly, and remember: “when the flag drops the bullshit stops”. (of course this saying comes from the time when races were started with a flag – great days, great days)

8) Scavenge

This is my favourite cost-saving section by far. When I’m in the paddock at a race I keep one eye on the ground; it’s amazing what you will find. Most valuable treasure trove items are are Dzus fasters, K Nuts, and R clips, with an additional bounty of nuts and washers of all shapes and sizes. At most meetings I collect £5-£10 worth. Over the season this amounts to about 1% of my racing budget. If you think that isn’t worth bothering about, what I would like you to do is to write me a cheque for 1% of your racing budget, and I’ll bother about it for you!

More pro-active scavenging can be even more cost-effective. At Donington last year Avon were throwing away sets of Duratec slicks with only one practice and race on them. I know several Mono members who collected complete sets of free tyres. When I raced in F3 I regularly used to collect part-worn brake pads that Cellnet had thrown into the skip (probably you shouldn’t try this one at home), and I have certainly acquired several charming nose cones which less impecunious teams have ditched after taking relatively minor damage.

Best-ever (semi) scavenge was once stopping on the slowing down lap at the Bomb Hole at Snetterton to put in an offer on a written-off Van Diemen which was distributed along the banking. Clinched the deal when the wrecker bought the bits and driver back to the paddock, to the frustration of Ken Thorogood who was in the scrutineering bay, hoping to buy the wreckage. Won the Champion of Snetterton title the following year with the rebuilt car.

9) Know Why Things Are The Way They Are

There are three common reasons for why a typical racing car is put together the way it is:

• The regulations say it has to be done that way
• Doing it that way makes the car faster, more reliable or safer
• It’s been prepared by an idiot who had no idea how to do this properly

If you put it together wrong it may break or you may be disqualified, both of which cost or waste money. It will certainly be slow, but that’s a side issue. Vitally, it may kill you and it will probably cost a lot of money to repair or simply put right. The absolute classic example is the number of people who do not understand how the brake balance system on a single seater works, and consequently they assemble and/or adjust it incorrectly, often making the car dangerously unstable under braking. Ask the guy who transposed the front and rear brake master cylinders on my Swift.

Lesson 1 here is to make sure you know what the rules are, and how they are applied in practice. Read the Blue Book and the Championship Technical regs thoroughly. Then go and stand in the scrutineering bay and carefully look at the cars as they come through to see how well or badly people have implemented the rules. Go and ask people about their cars in the paddock (hint: ask nicely).

Lesson 2 is to read as much as possible about the physics and engineering principles which underlie the performance, reliability and safety of a racing car. Do not mindlessly copy what everyone else appears to be doing, and do not simply invent arbitrary solutions, unless you believe you have understood why you choosing this particular way of doing it. A very good place to start is Carroll Smith’s Prepare/Tune to Win books (find out why the Traction Circle is important). Allan Staniforth’s books about the Terrapin single seater are also very good (ever used a String Computer?).

10) Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness

Preparing or repairing a racing car, especially using new bits, is very expensive. Cleaning a racing car is not, and here I’m talking about the mechanical bits: chassis, suspension, engine, gearbox; more than about the bodywork. Apart from the obvious fact that a clean racing car looks better to most people that a dirty one, cleaning the working bits has a number of cost-saving benefits:

• Clean and (if appropriate) lubricated moving parts won’t wear out as fast as ones which are gritty.
• The process of cleaning is the best way of spotting components and structures which are worn, cracked or about to break in some more obscure way, before the worst happens and possibly even more expense is incurred. Just looking at the car is nothing like as effective at spotting damage as picking up a cloth or a paint brush and cleaning it.
• Clean bits are much easier to adjust and replace, saving time and eventually money. I’ve seen more than a few suspension arms with the rod end bearings so comprehensively manked into them that getting them apart undamaged was just about impossible. I once had to flame cut the front rockers off a Van Diemen because of this.
• Especially early on in the season, and if you use an open trailer (like me), then the car suffers terribly from salt pick-up from the road when it’s being taken to and from the race track. Clean it rigorously, and I use copious quantities of WD40 to both restore and protect the exposed metal bits. Otherwise it will corrode and cost you a lot of money to fix.
• I think many people don’t know about the restorative powers of a good wirebrushing (preferably rotary) followed by a vigorous polishing with Solvol Autosol. This process has an amazing effect on metal components and quite often renders them looking like new. If I’m wrong, and everyone knows about this method, then I assume there is some arcane and mysterious reason why it’s never been applied to any of the second hand cars that I have bought over the years!

11) Take Expert Advice Before You Buy A Car

I guess this section is aimed mainly at newbies, but when I see the decisions more experienced people make sometimes (including myself!) I do wonder about that. There are two main ways of falling over when you buy racing car from a technical standpoint.

The first is to buy a car that is never going to be competitive, whatever you do to it. There’s a few horror shows like this in the FF1600 arena, like the ’76 Van Diemen and the ’85 Reynard. They were never any good, the works team couldn’t make them go quick and you won’t be able to either. So when you are thinking of buying a car in a given category, examine the results to see what goes well, then seek out the quick men and ask them what they think about your choice before you even go and look one. Ask more than one person as well!

The second is to buy a car which has the potential to go well, but is such a rubbish example that the cost of fixing it will be very high. This includes the common mistake of buying a rolling chassis, and then discovering that many of the installation bits are missing: engine spiders, exhaust headers, swirl pots, fuel pumps, etc etc all cost a fortune. If you do buy a roller, then if at all possible take the engine out yourself or stand over the seller while he does it!
More generally it’s important to know what costs money and what doesn’t. For example every single suspension arm on the car may have the tattiest finish in the world: the car will look awful - and the cost to fix the lot by shot blasting and oven painting or replating, will be less than £100. Conversely the spherical bearings may look absolutely great, all bright and shiny. Unfortunately if you have run into the one other person in the universe who knows the wire brush/solvol trick (see above) and these bearings are actually worn out then you are looking at around £300 per corner, with no option but to go out and buy new ones.

12) Listen, Watch And Learn

The most general advice I can give to help save anyone a lot of money is to suggest that they constantly listen and watch what other people are doing, for good or ill, and make sure you learn the lessons without spending your own money on them!

So that’s my 12 penneth-worth. As I said, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot, and I’d be very interested to hear other people’s cost-saving advice (see 12 above…) I’m also pretty sure I’ve enraged a few people who will think I an writing a lot of b******s.

That’s fine too – see you on the track guys!

Simon Davey

"Dr Strangedavey"

Simon's garden, yesterday

This man bought very expensive racewear. So expensive he had to sell the marrow he was carrying under his arm to the local produce show. £55 Proban stuff may be the other extreme....google it, it exists.

Jack Brabham is (one of several drivers) reputed to have said "When the flag drops the bullshit stops". He is also one of the few drivers harder to pass than Simon.

Allan Staniforth's Race and Rally Car Source Book is indispensible to the real racer.

Solvol

A wire brush

"Any repetition will intensify the level of complaint."

Pix: Amazon, Sparco, TC, Internet, Edvard Munch