Britcar 24 Hour : Sep 21st - 23rd @ Silverstone

After many years of almost faultless service from our Integra, this year's car was to be a completely different experience.

Integra DC2 Type R                     Chevron GR8 GT
FWD                                        RWD
Stripped out road car                   GT Race Car
5 Speed H box                          6 Speed sequential with
                                                     flat shift system
1140kg (Dry)                                  750kg (wet with driver)
198bhp                                           255bhp
5 nut wheels                                  Centre lock wheels
No aero                                          front splitter, rear wing
                                                         and rear diffuser



I caught the 7am flight from Glasgow to Luton on Thursday morning and after a uneventful drive up to the circuit I quickly found our garage and a team hard at work.

The first thing you notice about the Chevron is that is incredibly low and about 30% smaller than expected - it looked brilliant!

For the first time ever, I was doing a test day before the 24 hour, mostly because I'd never seen let alone driven the car and we were on the new GP circuit, which I'd also never driven.

It was a bit of a shock when on my second ever lap, the rear right tyre exploded on the hanger straight at somewhere around 130mph! But apart from a new tyre, and my shattered nerves, no harm done.

As the engine was new, I was limited to 6k and 6.5k rpm for my first 2 session which meant short shifting and then lifting off on the pit, hanger, wellington and new pit straights - but it was a good way to learn the car and the new layout. On the 3rd session this was extended to 7.5k (still 700rpm from the peak power point of 8.2k) and the times started to look much more competitive.

On Friday we had 2 qualifying session - the day session of 1.5 hours where each driver had to complete 3 laps and an evening on of 2 hours with the same 3 laps/driver.

I drew the short straw and was out first. For the first qualifying session this meant a set of 'sticker' tyres (brand new) - which sounded great. As the green flag dropped, the rain started. I was convinced one of my 'team mates' had thrown a bucket of water over the car, just to wind me up, but by the time I reached the end of the pit lane, it was obvious that this would be a difficult session. But as we were limited to just 3 laps, I stuck with it and completed my laps without incident. The rain had pretty much stopped by the end of the second lap, but the tyres hadn't any heat, so a 2:24 was pretty decent. The rain stayed away and we clocked a 10th fastest of 2:18.089 (3rd in class).

For night time qualifying, we kept the same order, and surprise, surprise, it stared raining 15 seconds before the start of the session - this time it was worse, with sticker tyres, new disks and pads which was made worse by the auxiliary lights failing on the second lap. I convinced myself it was 'phsycological' rain (ie not heavy enough to make a difference) and I pushed on - the car was understeering everywhere but I managed 8th fastest of the first lot of drivers and despite changing to wets, the neither Darron or Chris could beat my time:-) But Bradley did, with a 3 seconds quicker 2:34.009.  It didn't really matter, because the forecast for the race was no rain 'till Sunday with around 3 hours to go.

As expected, the race day dawned bright and chilly and by the race start at 15:30, had only got a bit warmer. The order for the race was to be Darron, Bradley, Chris and me which meant that my first stint would be around 20:00, but I don't mind driving in the dark and it was either last or first which I didn't fancy - I haven't ever done a rolling start in a car!

So car owner Darron took the honour of the Chevron's first racing laps in the 24 hour. Thankfully, everyone was sensible and the first lap completed with no incidents and us running in 8th, 2nd in class.  Darron had a couple of close calls halfway through his stint, but no real issues and he handed over to Bradley in 8th place.

As the race wore on we gradually worked our way up the leader board and after 7 hours we were 5th overall, and a lap ahead of the second placed car in our class - things were looking good and then we got a black flag for excessive noise - for the race a blanket 100db limit had been enforced, which for the first 7 hours we met - then we registered 106dB - for those who understand the logarithmic nature of sound pressure dBs, it made no sense to us either!

Things started to go downhill from this point with a front wishbone failure, followed by a rear stub axle failure which stranded Bradley at Woodcote and then the rear bodywork detaching it'self on the pit straight with me at the wheel. (when the stub broke the wheel jammed up into the wheel arch, which probably caused, at that point, some unseen  damage to the rear bodywork) - so all in, nearly 3 hours in the pits :-( But when we were on track, we were always at the sharp end of the class 3 cars.

With 8 hours to go, we were in 20th place, but  we kept at it and when it started raining, Bradley was the quickest guy on the circuit, so we double stinted him and let Darron bring the car home in a great 8th place overall and 3rd in class.

The car is fantastic to drive, and given that most folk gave us little or no chance of lasting the 24 hours, we were very happy with the car and how it performed. We learned it's weak points and it's strengths, and we had a ball :-)


The Dubai 24 in January hour is currently a 'maybe' - here's hoping !