It's Been A Long Winter But We're Good To Go

The first problem we had was that the race insurance did not cover the whole damage. OK, it would be fair to say that there was some misunderstanding in the policy, or shall we say misinterpretation between the two parties, insured and insurer. It took a couple of months with this debacle, back and forth with the odd expletive and gesticulation in places. The net result is that we were under-covered and in two simple words, “tough shit”. There’s a whole lot to consider when you insure a race car, but the fact of this particular problem was the cover for man-hour and labour was insufficient. With such a low-cost car such as the C1, finding a donor car within budget was not too much of a problem. The issue was one of taking the bits out of the old car and into the new. With the Bastard’s fingertips as soft and dainty as a princess’ buttocks, someone else will need to do the job and that fell under the professional umbrella of SPY Motorsport. That’s the problem. We were insured for bits but there was a caveat for labour, mandating such undercover. Alas and with some haggling with Peter at SPY, we agreed on a price and off to find a donor car.

Our New Whip

Our new 2013 model with new design front end.

After the catastrophe that was Spa in October last year, both Lowe and Lewis have been busy here and there over the winter months.

I can’t remember as I type and I can’t be arsed to re-read the regulations, but there is an age limit to how young the donor car can be. All I remember is that we were all arguing whether we should buy a previously raced car or rebuild. The former perhaps a little more within budget. Peter told us that around 2013/2013/2014 there was a shift in design and the rev counter disappears in newer models. So we must get a car with a rev counter or ensure the loom can have one fixed. A little trawling around eBay and there were loads from which to choose, the price, of course, mandating the mileage. Like our old red #MissFire red car, we wanted lesser miles as possible. We still had a good engine and gearbox from said #MissFire that we could port from one car to another, but not only would that mandate additional labour, but there is other wear and tear on high mileage or previously raced cars.

The decision was final after weeks of deliberation in that we would get a new donor car and start afresh. And here she is, a relatively low mileage 2013 model within regulation parameters and rev counter to boot! The next question is, what to name her and colour scheme?

Name and Styling

We’ll have to come back to you on a name, but with duck egg blue (as colour has been cited) as the base colour, other than the default and knee-jerk Gulf Racing colours of blue and orange, the other schema could be blue and white?

You’ll have to watch this space and see what transpires. That said, all necessary parts have been purchased and SPY is pretty much close to finishing the car. With such a delay in getting her ready for the 2019 season, we will miss next month’s 24-hour race at Silverstone.

There seems some agreement that a retro police car colour scheme maybe fun?

New Website And Branding

One thing we noted from last year was that we have indeed accumulated a few followers on social media, be they friends, acquaintances or voyeurs. With a few bugs on the old website and with this new colour scheme, Lewis has been playing and come up with this new site over the winter months.

2019 Plans

The big motivation for 2018 was to race at Spa. The C1 Club tended to mandate that to be considered for a Spa entry, the team needed to support the club in other races. Indeed, we were happy to do so as all of us wanted as much race/seat time as possible. But this year we are going to take it a little easier. Spa was a great experience but the consensus is that the race is too risky and as we have seen, the odds of damage or loss are huge.

The plan this year is to cherry-pick which races we wish to enter and if possible, enter some of the EU rounds with Zandvoort high on the agenda. Between now and then, we have Pembrey in June and a possible weekend at Mallory. The Anglesey Race of Remembrance is a  desired race, specially requested from Cox and depending on summer holiday commitments and dare we say Brexit, we’d like to take on a few European round too. More information is on our race calendar.

So, let’s go racing!