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Pete Crudgington
Posted on: August 9th, 2004, 07:58:22 Quote Report to Moderator
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All,

Just a quick note to say that "The Granny Smith" won the fastest mini in the world title this weekend at Silverstone.

We qualified second on the grid, won the first race by 5 secs and came second in the second race.

Ollie did an outstanding job behind the wheel.

And a massive thanks goes out to every one who has helped on the past couple of months.

I will post some photos and put more details up as the week goes on.

Pete
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admin
Posted on: August 9th, 2004, 09:03:52 Quote Report to Moderator
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Congratulations Pete and Ollie! Brilliant job. Please send some photos and I'll put a page in the Sport Scene section. You're almost guaranteed COTM for September!

Richard
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admin
Posted on: August 10th, 2004, 12:51:01 Quote Report to Moderator
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Thanks Pete. I've now put the photos and captions in the Sport Scene section. Please go to http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/sport/granny/index.html . I've now removed the photos from the forum to optimise space.
Who was on pole and who won the second race?

Last modified August 23rd, 2004, 22:20:13 by admin
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Pete Crudgington
Posted on: August 10th, 2004, 14:57:23 Quote Report to Moderator
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Richard,

Pete Edwards in a 296bhp, Vauhall 2litre powered Maguire spaceframe mini was on pole 0.897s ahead of us.  He caught fire in the first race but won the second race.  As they say "to finish first, first you have to finish!"

We did qualify ahead and finish both races ahead of the Maguire metro of Bill Richards (with BDA power), the KAD spaceframe with KAD 16V power of Rohith De Silva and the KAD 16V powered mini of Barry Murphy and the 3.2litre BMW M3 powered Cadburys Boost mini of Andy Howard.

Not too bad for a little Granny!

Pete
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Guy Humphries
Posted on: August 11th, 2004, 18:05:44 Quote Report to Moderator
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Pete,
Well done to you and Ollie - Great to see you keeping the flag flying for the sporting heritage of the Mini Marcos!!!
Only sorry I couldn't be there to see the victory!
Congratulations!
Guy
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admin
Posted on: August 11th, 2004, 19:00:11 Quote Report to Moderator
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I see you've modified te front end since I last saw the car. Not as pretty but certainly effective! What's that above the front offside bonnet pin?

Richard
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Pete Crudgington
Posted on: August 12th, 2004, 12:16:56 Quote Report to Moderator
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This is how it all went.

In late June I offered Ollie Howell the chance to drive my sprint and hillclimb mini marcos in the Fastest Mini in the World Races at Silverstone.  Ollie had built the engine for me, helped with the body work mods, and as his brother Julian and girlfriend Sarah were also driving in the race we thought we could have a great time.

Converting my car from spint/hillclimb spec to a full race spec proved slightly awkward, we had to replace my 1 gallon fuel tank with a 4 gallon one, add some ventilation, fit better brake pads, oil cooler, bigger CV jonts and drive shafts.  Ollie also had to purchase a set of suitable Dunlop slicks as my Avons were far too soft for circuit racing.

After 3 weeks of burning plenty of midnight oil we were ready for the big weekend.  23 cars turned up, these included the 296bhp Pete Edwards spaceframe car, Bill Richard’s spaceframe BDA powered metro, Rohith DeSilva’s KAD spaceframe with KAD 16v power and a whole host of Miglia’s and Historic racers.  The BMW mini of Andy Howard, that runs in the Britcar series with 375bhp from its 3.2 litre engine, looked favorite for the title but as Ollie pulled out on his first lap of qualifying he passed him.  Ollie did a truly outstanding job to qualify 2nd on the grid with a time of 1:07.1, this was only 0.9s behind Pete Edwards and 3.1s ahead of Andy Howard.  We were ecstatic.  A quick check on the data logging revealed we had an oil temperature issue but that everything else was fine. We opened up the inlet to the oil cooler and gave the car a good check over ready for the race.  

The nerves were really getting to me as the time went on so I walked over to the grand stand with my kids to watch the race, there was no point in staying on the pit wall in the race as I would be unable to do anything.  Within minutes Ollie lined up on the front row and then went on the warm up lap, my heart was in my mouth as the lights went out and they sped off for the first corner.  Ollie kept his 2nd place behind Pete Edwards and was clearly pushing as hard as he could, by the end of lap 3 Edwards had opened up a 3.8 s gap.  By lap 5 Ollie had reduced this to 2.3s as they started to lap some of the Historic cars, Edwards then expied on lap 7 and Ollie was leading the race, with a very hard charging Andy Howard 2.2 s behind in the Britcar BMW mini.  I was unable to stay seated I just couldn’t believe what was going on, Andy could get past Ollie down the straights and then Ollie would pass him under breaking for Copse.  This continued until lap 14 when Andy spun and dropped 9s behind Ollie.  It was a wonderful David and Goliath race with the crowd totally behind Ollie.  Ollie contined to lap cars, by the end of the race he had lapped all but 3 people and Andy was 5.3s behind, as he crossed the line in the lead I was totally overcome with emotion.  We had managed to win the race.  The car had lasted the 20mins and it had won its first ever race.

Once all the celebrations were over we could take a good look at the car and the data logging.  The oil temperature had reached 148oC, this had resulted in the loss of the crankshaft oil seal and 1.5lt of oil during the last 3 laps, we had been lucky to finish!  We worked on the car until 1:30am replacing every rubber seal and increasing the ducting for the oil cooler.

Sunday went very slowly but as the time for the race neared I moved over to the grand stand area with my family.  Ollie lined up in pole position and the lights went out, Andy Howard was faster away as you would expect with 375bhp but Ollie was chasing hard with some truly outstanding driving.  Pete Edwards was charging through the pack very fast and took the lead on lap 3, Ollie passed Andy on lap 4 and the battle commenced again until Andy spun on lap 9.  Pete Edward’s had opened up a 13s lead so Ollie backed off as all he had to do to win the title was to beat Andy.  As the race finished at the end of lap 14 Edwards had a 31s lead over Ollie but Ollie was still 3.5s ahead of Andy.  We had done it, we had won the title of Fastest Mini in the World 2004.  I was ecstatic and completely overcome with emotion.  We had won the title in a car with a 5 port mini engine giving 105bhp at the wheels.

It transpired that Ollie had a very bad brake vibration issue from lap 3 and an unhappy engine from lap 9, but we had won the title and everyone wanted to know more about the car.  Andy came over and congratulated Ollie, he was totally amazed by the cornering ability of the car.

What a weekend.  

An enormous thanks goes out to all who have helped on the car over the years, these include Dean Robertson, Julian Howell, Monty Sadler, John Weeks, Mike Taviner, Ron Howell, Little Dave, Darin Frow and Dave at Mech Repairs.  I must also thank all the respective wives and girlfriends who have made lots of cups of tea and put up with the long hours it takes to prepare a racing car.  The biggest thanks must however go to Ollie for a truly outstanding drive in both races, can’t wait for next years race.  


Richard the thing you are looking at is the electrical isolator pull cable.

Pete
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admin
Posted on: August 25th, 2004, 19:29:27 Quote Report to Moderator
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I've put Granny Smith's technical specification with more photos on the web site at
http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/memcars/8351/tech/

Thanks Pete!
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