We had up to this point done around 150km on the road and a scant 30 laps on the track with the new Type 6. Nothing had as yet fallen off or broken so with a little trepidation I entered the car into the International Historics Race day at Killarney race way in Cape Town.
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| (Thanks for the awesome photo Diedier!) |
The Owen Ashley APV 347is, a Mustang-ish, 5.5l, 360kw, loud
and leery beast. They form the basis of a one make race series here at
Killarney and are driven by, as the website says, “40 and older” drivers.
Personally I think they are all a little crazy!
Anyway, for the first race outing of the Harper Type 6, we
are pitched with some 10 of these snorting monsters. The International
Historics Race weekend held in Cape Town over the 4th and 5th
of February does not really cater for the more “modern” style car, but to
enhance the viewing pleasure of the spectators, all those folk that don’t fit
into the “historic” category are fielded together in the somewhat amorphous “GT
Invitational” class. This means I’ll be
taking the T6 out amongst traffic for the first time together with some of the
meanest and fastest racing machinery to be found in Cape Town. No pressure
then.
The goal of the weekend was to get to know the car, not to
break anything and to generally have a good time. Not coming stone last would
be a bonus of course.
The T6 sailed though scruteneering on Friday and as Saturday
dawned sunny and clear we lined up in pit row for qualifying. There was no sign
of the promised V8 Masters with only myself, Ant in his turbo Harper Type 5 and
a clutch of Porsches idling away. The whistle blew and we all rollicked out of
the pit exit. It only took around half the track for me to notice the garish
colours appearing in my mirrors. Oh yes, the V8’s run out of the new pits and
would have left after us. Great, this should be fun.
The rest of qualifying was spent keeping clear of V8’s, assorted
Porsches and a couple of other odd and rare vehicles, most notably a screaming
F1 powered Alfa 156.
Thankfully I managed to avoid harm and the T6 was feeling
great. By now I had my new tyres, generously provided by Haydn off his own Type
5 (thanks Haydn!), so at least I had more grip and less flat spots than the my
previous track outing. I had dropped the tyre pressures and the handling had
moved from slight understeer to almost perfectly neutral. Things were looking
good for the first race. I had also resigned myself to running at the back of
the field as my paltry 200-odd kilowatts put me firmly on the lower rungs of
the ladder. This actually suited me as I could focus on learning the car rather
than trying to race somebody.
By now it had started to warm up quite a bit, an ominous
sign of things to come.
Race 1 was called and once again we trundled off to line up
in pit lane. Since most of the cars entered were running from the new pit area
across on the other side of the track we Harpers were only joined by the
Porsche brigade for the wait. It was now seriously hot and sitting in full race
kit in the baking sun was fast losing its fun factor.
Finally we were sent out for our warm-up lap. The format was
to run one warm up lap then stop and place on the grid. This was then followed
by a formation lap and rolling start. We dutifully formed up on the grid and
rolled around for the start. At the start I let the couple of APV’s behind me go past on the
main straight and was also passed by a yellow E36 M3 in turn one. As the field dwindled into
the distance I set about getting to know the T6. The brake bias still needed a
bit of tweaking and I had yet to get the hang of the torque and handling. It
was a very different drive when compared to the scruff of the neck style I used
with my Lotus 7. Smoothness was everything and you were rewarded for precision
and smooth braking. By contrast you were similarly punished
for being ham handed. Thankfully punishment was not severe, a good thing
considering the event was being filmed by national television. Sudden steering movements
in corners or excessive application of the right foot produced predictable
oversteer. Grip and cornering was awesome, but by far the best was the
acceleration out of corners and the speed down the straight.
I was getting into a nice groove, still doing slow 1:30’s,
but chopping chunks of time off each lap. Thus it was both surprising and
slightly annoying to come around turn 3 and be met by the sight of the BMW
on fire next to the track. The race was promptly red flagged and we formed up
on the grid to wait for the track to clear. Some twenty minutes later we headed
off on a formation lap again somewhat par boiled from sitting on the hot track
in the baking sun.
The rest of the race proceeded without event and I was more
than happy to have finished my first race and to have not been lapped by the
insanely quick lead 911 apparently fitted with some new kind of warp drive.
All round the T6 had performed flawlessly. Temperature had
held constant in the, what we were later to discover, 36 degrees ambient. Oil
pressure had been stable and it seemed like it was only the rather sweaty
driver that had taken strain. With the days racing done and dusted we packed up
and I headed home. We were racing again on Sunday so had decided to leave the cars at the track rather then
drive them out and back the next day.
Sunday morning arrived even clearer and brighter that Saturday
had been, if that was possible. Epic temperatures were being predicted and I
really felt for the European visitors that, just weeks before, had been dusting
snow off their cars. I had already seen a number of lobster hued folk walking
the pits the day before. Africa ain’t for sissies! I bundled the family into
the car bright and early and headed out to the track.
The 10:30am race was called. It was already over 30 degrees
and windless. At least we would not have to content with the South Easter headwind
on the back straight. We would start according to the previous days placing. I
though this would mean the back of the grid for me, but I had been unaware of
some of the carnage during race 1, leaving me with around four APV’s and
the BMW, which had somehow been revived from it’s fiery doom,
behind me.
Turn 1 was going to be a hoot.
Turn 1 was a hoot, I let the APV’s and BMW go and then
dragged up to turn 2 with a Nardini that had also come out to play. I
surrendered the corner deciding discretion and cold tyres being the better part
of valour and having to fix a new car. Things settled down from there on with
the Nardini disappearing into the distance (as he should) and me maintaining the
somewhat considerable gap between myself and Ant who was having a ding dong
battle with some Porsches. The car was feeling really good and
I was finally getting the hang of the handling. I think I actually hit a couple
of apexes for a change. The only real excitement of the race was when I met
Ant’s Type 5 parked on the edge of turn 2 missing a rear wheel. He had broken a
wheel stud leading to the failure of the rest of the studs and the subsequent
parting of car and wheel. Luckily there was not serious damage to either car or
driver.
All too quickly the race was over and we where back in the
pits. Again the car had performed flawlessly and I had managed to squeeze in a
couple of 1:26 laps, the best of which was a 1:26.059 topping out at 213km/h on
the back straight. Oh so close to breaking into the 1:25’s. The car should be
capable of doing 1:23’s in the right hands so plenty of room to grow. I changed
out of my rather soggy race kit and headed off to Wesbank Corner to join the
family for the Springbok Series 45 min endurance race during which not one, but
two cars caught fire. It was really hot.
The temperature was now well into the high 30’s and we high
tailed it to the relative cool of the club house for some lunch and cool
drinks.
The last race of the day was called so I donned my sweat
suit and headed for pit row. Ant had managed to re-attach his rear wheel and
joined the line up, but a number of drivers had decided call it quits and watch
the race rather. The by now familiar warm up/form up/sprint for turn 1 ensued
and I tried valiantly to stay with Ant as he progressively became smaller ahead
of me. It was just too hot to concentrate so, while the car was up to the
conditions, sadly the driver was not. I was almost relived to see the chequered
flag call an end to my sauté session.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend of racing. We had
managed to start and finish all three of the races run over some of the hottest
conditions Killarney had seen in quite some time. Rumour has it that track
surface temperatures on Sunday hit a dizzy 60 degrees. Still, Ant and myself
ending up 8th and 9th respectively out of a starting
field of some 30 odd cars, not bad considering the field. Granted only 16 cars
finished the last race, but therein lies the story. Both Harpers had started the weekend and both had finished.
The T6 had performed incredibly when you consider that it
had competed a mere 30 laps in testing up to this point. The important measures
of oil pressure and water temperature had maintained throughout the weekend and
nothing had broken or fallen off. This was indeed a testimony to the design and
build quality of the cars. It was truly a pleasure to pack my race kit into the
same car I had been thrashing around the track the whole weekend and then drive it home.
It’s the Harper way – Drive it to the track, race it and drive it home
again.
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