A week's preparation, a successful final test the night before, off to the track - and then nothing. Shoot!
Ok, one might have already considered the sensibility to go with a formula to the first of may open practice at Alastaro. Last year, in a bit chilly weather, this was the best day of my F3 season. This year everything went wrong.
Arriving to the track one already knew this is not a good day. Paddock chok-full with motorcycles and civilan cars, and no formulas in sight. I suppose other teams had realized this day is not for serious testing, rather more of a family day out. Oh well. I figured I might get a slot or so, and anyways I was there for testing my car with ethanol.
The week prior had been a busy time of preparing and adjusting the car. The nite before went a bit late (no surprises there...) but in the end the initial test with ethanol worked beautifully. Replacing the pressure valve was fairly easy, and the valve came off without major ado. Plugging in the Motec unit went in a jiffy too, so we were set. And sure enough, the car started without much effort running nicely. Exhaust was white, but this is as it is supposed to be I am told. Engine seemed to be running nicely in any case. To top off a good evening, even my datalogger, now collecting data via the Motec unit, worked perfectly showing throttle position, rpm, temps, ignition advance, pressures and such. So I was pretty excited - running the car with full logging capability (I also have brake sensors now) for the first time suggested an interesting day ahead!
Next day (1.5.) we got up early and headed to the track. After some preps I got into the car... But the darn thing did not start! OK, we sprayed some gasoline into the manifold, still nothing. Then I noticed that somehow, as I had sat into the car, the wiring for the Bosch spark amplifier had come off. Could that have caused damage? We reconnected the cable, but still nothing. Amazingly, the team next to us (running a VERY souped up Lada - dare to say there was not much Lada left except the body...) had a spare unit. Tested that, still nothing. In the end started looking at the ignition, and sure enough there were no sparks flying.
So the first ethanol outing ended up in turning back home to figure out what the heck happened. My sources say that the Bosch unit and the Motec will not be damaged normally if the cable comes off. So then, why no sparks? I will test with the Pectel unit and gasoline next...
