hello again, i havnt writen anything for a while, but made my way over to halifax track today for a practice day! the first time i ran the car i wasnt really ready, i had a butchered 235mm shell thrown on the car but since then i have the body im intending on running at the nationals, i also have a floating rear body mount fitted, but unfortunately im still waiting on the front oneway needed to run the class legal, these are still in the production stage, but i have managed to get a pre production version from shepherd but unfortunately only arrived at horizon late last week, i was hoping to run it today but not to be am afraid.
anyway i arrived at the track nice and early, the first run of the day it was evident that the car has absolutely loads of steering with the new shell fitted, and having to turn the steering rate down to 50% to get round the track, and the back end being really loose to the extent of the car swapping ends, so for my next run i need to dial in some rear end grip.
first of all, the rear shocks were layed as low as they could so stood them up one hole and gave that a try, it was better but still a handful, then mid run i last 2nd gear, so back to the bench for inspection, and on taking apart the pin that holds the 2 speed had fell out, this may end up being an annoying problem because the only way to keep it in place is to take all of the slack out of the shaft by pushing the pulley on the opposite end up tight, to me this cant be good for the bearings and needs to be addressed!
anyway all back together, and this time i added another 1/2 deg toe in, so now running 3 deg, on the rear and removed 1mm of droop on the rear, then back on track, now the car was starting to feel good, we now have rear end grip.
then for my final run i decided to alter the front caster, i set this as per kit, 2mm at the front and 1mm at the rear, on ic cars i tend to run very little castor, so i moved all clips to the rear to run the minimum castor, now i was able to start pushing the car without it snapping away from me.
I think there is a lot more to come from the car, but it was pointless going any further till i have the oneway installed, but overall the car went really well, i will be back at the track on bank holiday monday for the club day, unfortunately i wont make the 1st national at stonehaven next weekend for a mixture of reasons but everyone have fun!

1st run with the car

i took a trip upto the halifax track yesterday for there last round of the winter series, i had been keeping an eye on the weather all week and seemed to take a turn for the worse on saturday, but arrived at the track nice and early to fine a blue sky overhead and a dry track, was bloody cold tho!

Anyway i fired the engine up and made my way for a practice run, i have to say i was really impressed, i put near enough the set-up on the car that comes in the instructions and it worked really well, only thing that needed a bit of adjustment was the clutch, my digi calipers dont work at the mo, so might be my setting thats out, so just nipped it in 1/4 turn to sort.

then out for my 1st round, again car felt really good, but was loosing out to a couple of cars on the tighter infield section of the track, but at the moment i will put this down to not having the right shell on the car, i had to butcher an old 235mm gt1 shell which to be honest are nothing like what i will be running in the nationals, and also i havnt yet got a oneway for the front, but hopefully that will be here soon. the other thing we noticed, the car seemed to be in 2nd gear all the time, so nipped this in 1/2 a turn and bobs ya uncle were sorted.

on my third run i borrowed a freshly run in IDM evo4 motor and pipe off Pete Hastings to give one a go, really nice motor, seemed to have plenty of bottom end, top end one car had the legs on me but i think a play with the gearing and my 2 speed the engine wouldnt be far off the pace of the .15 motors in the gt class. the IDM picco evo 4 based motor has ironed out all the problems the earlier motors had too, the crank pin has been made smaller and the rod has been beefed up, spoke to a guy in the state and he reckons his has 2 gallon on the 1st rod and still going strong. thats good enough for me, so this will be the motor of choice for me this year, very well priced too!

so overall for a first run out of the box the car performed alot better than i was expecting, im really impressed, hopefully for my next run the car will have all the right gear on and give it a proper run. cant wait!

tune in for the next exciting episode of a year in the life of a shepherd, lol

also a quick congrats to the guys at the pre worlds thats just finished, 3 shepherds in the top ten and Danielle IaIasi took a very good 3rd place, well done guys.