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Started by Dick Roberts (Web admin), December 03, 2004, 00:58:31

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Dick Roberts (Web admin)

Posted by Pat Collier on April 29, 2003 at 10:04:04:

Hello everyone

I am not speaking for Terry Collier or Collier Racing as a whole just myself personally

I am replying to all the inuendo and comments

I was not at Oulton and in fact go to very few races, I also do not get my hands dirty doing any of the actual mechanical work, as all in the team will tell you. My job is to be a sounding board on our car thats it!
Ok so I want to look at the original comment
"The cars at the front are running dodgy cams" I assume that means us

Ok good question in so far as the easiest way to explain anyone performing better than anyone else is to immeadiatly assume and say that they are cheating!

I can state catergorically that we are not cheating.

I can also ask a question if the mythical cam solution is so fantastic that that it can make a car go faster than everyone else in the wet then what a wonderful majical creature it is. The facts are that we qualified at approx 2.09 and our fastest lap in the race was 2.22 or so. I think that 90% of the field had a car and engine, not forgetting a cam capable of circulating at 2.22, but not in the wet. I think that a couple of salient facts concerning the conditions at Oulton need to pondered before the rattles start flying out of the prams. Of the top 6, 5 of them spent Friday slogging round in the rain learning the faster lines for wet conditions...Sure we qualified on pole and as such had a clear track to take advantage of two things firstly Gary can actually drive the car secondly he knew and had the confidence in how to use it.

Ok so the facts of the race are simple we changed the settings on our car to a wet set up, simple to do but worth doing, in the paddock as it started to really rain, we were in front and so could drive away relativly trouble free, anyone who has raced will apreciate that if it is slippy driving on your own is quicker than racing and tangling with other peoples mistakes.

Why is our car quick then if we are not cheating?

Simple Gary is a good quick driver, Terry along with Alan designed and build quick engines ( more on that in a mo), we have rebuilt our car and reworked the suspension a number of times back from first level geometrics and spring weights against dampers against chassis tensions, and finally and just as importantly Stuart and Shaun ( cant spell) work tirlessly giving up a load of spare time to keep that car in top order moving it forward on the mechanical side and constantly monitering and changing it's set up. There are obviously a few others but that is the main.

We started going our own way nearly 3 years ago and in that time had moved from the middle to the front...not instant sucess I assure you.

On the engine front you too can do what Terry has done if you are prepared to make any number of pretty dull technical engine building books your bedtime reading, and then are prepared to experiment alot, ( at not insignificant cost in time and money) with a number of sucesses and the ocasional failure. Terry I can assure you fully understands what every little thing does in the engines and it is that dedication that has made him a sucess, not a cheque book not looking enviously at what others may or may not be doing and certainly not cheating!

On a slightly funnier note if we put a high lift cam in our engines that would help us dramatically because it would enable us to sacrifice some of the buckets of torque for hp and enable our engines to rev faster and from where we are go alot faster.

Ok thats off my chest and boring

In my opinion the answer is a standard Club Cam, but in answer to Martins email has he measured any cams? I think not otherwise he would be aware that very few "standard" 2cv cams are the same and the enginearing tolerances are huge. Rather than go back to what went on at the agm,

I think that a simple proposal is required, there should be a standard club cam made to the spec of our current regs, this will cost but there you go. Racers have a choice either run the club cam or run a standard unmodified in any way standard 2cv cam. If you are running anything else you are illegal end of story. Policing would be by strip down unless you are running a club cam in which case we must be able to have sealed crank cases.

If we go any other way with vernier wheels or regs that a cart horse could go through sideways you are going to make it completly free then you can forget close racing, and to be honest you forget keeping the 2cvs what they are and you will end up in a similar way to the Belgiums. It will become a real money thing not a clever thing.

Ok My Name is Patrick Collier and I stand by what I have said if I have bored or offended anyone I am sorry but what I have written I beleive to be true and fair but feel free to disagree if you wish to