Post Build Shakedown at Rockingham
After a long winter layoff, ScuderiaTT’s Car 54 finally returned to the track last week for its post-rebuild shakedown at Rockingham.
Professionally rebuilt, upgraded and set up by Broadsport Racing, the car is now complete save for its engine rebuild. Built to comply with the regulations for the Drivers Republic Caterham Roadsport Championship, stiffer race springs and dampers have been fitted together with wider track front wishbones and a quicker ratio steering rack. The electronics and data logging equipment on the car were also refitted together with a general tidy up to remove systems made redundant by the regulation changes.
Despite all the bolts have been pre-torqued, it was important to ensure that nothing worked itself loose or leaked on the first few runs and so the morning was taken fairly easy. Post run inspections showed what a good job BSR did on the car and mechanically it was running perfectly. The afternoon sessions was taken a bit more aggressively, therefore, as I got used to the very different feel of the car.
The new springs and steering have made the car very pointy, with a tendency to oversteer when in its stiffer settings, although it was still very controllable and nicely progressive. The slight turn in roll evident in the car in the B-spec car has been completely eliminated and the car now handles much better at speed.
It would have been nice to have some wet weather in the afternoon to see how the car handled wet tarmac, but all in all the day went very well.
There may be time for one more exploratory session before testing begins for the first two rounds at Silverstone next month. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, ScuderiaTT’s drivers were once again confirmed with the BRSCC as Phil Haworth (54), Paul Lund (3) and Martin Harris (99).