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The 1st August 2004 saw my third competitive visit to Harewood hill climb. I now feel that I am starting to know the hill even though it has been nearly two months since my last visit.

The course is 1448.25 metres long. The map is from www.harewoodhill.co.uk

Unfortunately I have no pictures from this event.

Set Up: I have always had problems with power on understeer which I think is caused by the limited slip diff. I can soften the front to cure the power on understeer but then this causes oversteer in higher speed corners. Plus as the front is so soft I feel it is falling over using suspension travel and causing the outer wheel to go into positive camber. So for this meeting I decided I would try an open differential.

Springs: As before (Front 170 lb/inch, Rear 200 LB/inch)
ARB: Drop link on the rocker in the middle hole and in the neutral position on the bar.
Dampers: Front Bump 6, Rebound 6. Rear Bump 4, Rebound 6.
Differential : 3.91 Open (7 1/2")

1st Practice Run
64ft...........2.76 secs
Split 2........24.44 secs
Split 3........14.97 secs
Split 4 .......16.41 secs
Split 5 .......11.31 secs
Speed ........73 mph
Time ..........69.89 secs

Notes: Turn in very good but the car over steered badly. On the last part of Quarry bend the back end came out so far I nearly stopped. Front end grip through the bends very good.

2nd Practice Run

I did not run. I had parked the car in gear on the sloping paddock and when I tried to pull the lever out of gear it jumped the selector leaving me stuck in gear. I had to remove the seat and transmission tunnel so I could remove the gearstick and put the selector back into the correct slot.

The front anti roll bar drop link moved to the outer hole in the rocker, effectively stiffening the front bar and hopefully reducing the over steer.


1st Timed Run
64ft............2.57 secs
Split 2........24.33 secs
Split 3........14.94 secs
Split 4 .......16.94 secs
Split 5 .......11.13 secs
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........69.61 secs

Notes: The car was still oversteery but better. Note that the front ARB was made stiffer for this run.

2nd Timed Run
64ft............2.47 secs
Split 2........24.05 secs
Split 3........14.92 secs
Split 4 .......16.39 secs
Split 5 .......11.03 secs
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........68.86 secs

Notes: The rear damper rebound setting was reduced from 6 to 3 (softer) as I felt this may be also causing some of the oversteer. I did a few small burnouts before the start and this resulted in one of my best 64 ft times.. The car felt very balanced on this run and this resulted in my personal best time. At the end of the run the front tyres had rubber rolling off the edges showing they were working hard.

3rd Timed Run
Unfortunately no split times.
Speed ........75 mph
Time ..........68.87 secs

Notes: Front ARB drop link moved along the bar to full soft position ( I had actually meant to stiffen it!) Another very good time just slightly slower. It is a shame I had no splits for this run as it would have been very interesting to compare this run with the last. The car felt very balanced, in fact the best it has ever felt. I think the reason I went faster today is due to me entering the corners faster and being able to power and drive out of the bends without understeer, especially the long bend of Chippy`s. I feel I can carry more speed into Orchard, Willow and Farmhouse.

Summary: One of the best days I have had in the car so far. This was the first time that I can say the car felt balanced and a real joy to drive. However it does raise questions on my diff. The car with this setup feels better with the open diff, but is it causing me to loose time on the exit of the bends, not being able to get the power down so well? Will another type of slippy diff (torque biasing) cause the car to handle differently? Will the car be faster with the viscous diff and an optimised setup? What will this optimised set up be? I would guess I would require the front / rear spring bias to go more softer at the front, but the overall spring rates to be raised to stop the front falling over. However this would mean the rear was overall stiffer and stiffer in relation to the front so traction would suffer.

These are the split times from June 6th and this meeting arranged in a table for easy comparison.

Split1: 64 ft, Split 2: Entrance to Country Corner, Split 3: Exit of Orchard Corner, Split 4: Exit of Farmhouse Bend, Split 5: Finish line.

By taking the best sectors a theoretical best time will be: 68.69 seconds.