D Pollard

Another trip across to Barrow in Furness for the NHS and another chance to find some decent driving roads. It was also an opportunity to try out the new GoPro HD Hero camera. The results out of the box were pretty good and already hosted on YouTube.

There are time’s that it is actually good to work a weekend – such as when overtime is available and it means you are staying close to some of Britains nicest roads.

With University Hospital Morecambe Bay trust about to go live with a new NHS national deployment, I had the task to be up in Barrow-in-Furness all last weekend. With a few daylight hours free on Saturday afternoon I managed to get a quick dash around the lakes.

I’ve finally got around to editing the video footage from Llandow, as well as writing up the days activities.   It’s stuck under the motoring section of the site,   but if you can click on the image above to go straight there.

I’ll admit that I’m not 100% with the YouTube compression on the video. Although it’s recorded in SD, it is still very crisp sharp and well defined in it’s compressed h.264 form.   YouTube however seem to take exception to all my hard efforts and are applying very low quality compression to the sound, producing what I can only describe as ‘warbling’ in certain places.  I’m using the same Apple Compressor settings that I’ve used previously,  so I can only presume that the distortion is something that YouTube is generating when they re-code the content.

The annual trip to South Wales for the 1.1 mile Llandow circuit. The campsite warden explained it had been raining a lot recently and when shown to the plot, it was already a muddy mess. As night fell, so did the rain – and it didn’t stop until we left the track the next day.

Plenty of videos to go on line over the next few days, but for now, lets just say there was a lot of standing water and my driving had to reflect that.

Harnesses are great things. When fitted properly to a proper seat they far exceed the safety of standard inertia seatbelts. You can use standard belts on the track, but nothing holds you as well as a harness.

The problem is, to have harnesses in a standard Lotus Elise you need fit a proper harness bar. Now the bar itself has to be of set dimensions and material to adhere to FIA regulations – but at the end of the day it’s a steel pole with some welding and threaded points. That’s why they’re not expensive. What is expensive is the fitting. With time on my hands, the tools and the know-how, I spend the whole of Wednesday fitting a new bar to my car. I photographed each stage and have supplied the lessons learnt to various technical wikis on the internet. I’ve even written the process up this site.

All in all, it took me about 6 hours, a packet of Elastoplasts and an apology to a neighbour for shouting out obscenities at the damn thing every time I cut my hand.

A rare daytime treat – to have a clear run on the Snake Pass. Video uploaded to the motoring section.

[Show as slideshow]

Martin House (hospice for children and young people with life limiting illnesses)

The twice yearly NYLOC run to Martin House to give some very worthy kids a ride out in our various machinery.

The crux of it all is we are making dreams come true and giving a once in a lifetime treat to the kids and their families come to that, and the pleasure we give just makes us feel very privileged to have our health and by doing something so simple giving these kids a day to remember.

My doctors note ran out over the bank holiday weekend – soI’m cleared to go back to work.  Something I haven’t tried as yet was driving any distance ( for example,  the commute to work or collecting Alex from Northampton ) -  so I jumped in the car today to see how long I could last.

The short answer -  it wasn’t very far at all.   I made it someway to Cadwell Park,  which is about the same distance as my commute – but I do admit to having to stop for a rest on the way. The journey back was worse -  as soon as I hit traffic the constant changing gear soon got to me.  Either way,  I’ll dose myself up with pills tomorrow and hopefully once I’m at my desk,  I won’t have to go anywhere else until hometime.

Snake Pass

Another morning on Public transport travelling to Accrington and Phoenix Motorsports.  A huge thanks to Olli for sorting out the 101 things needing attention on the car,  including the MoT and the fitting of the all important Nitron suspension.

The plan was to give the car a real good shake down via Snake Pass on the way home,  but with it being one of the first sunny Saturdays in spring, it meant everybody was out for the day.    Snake Pass itself was poor – just too many trucks, old folk in Rover 400′s with hats and lycra clad tw*ts.  Cyclists 3 a breast held up trucks,  which held up the rovers, which in turn held up snails…

South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire was a bit more forgiving and the difference the Nitrons make soon became apparent.  Roll on next week.

Hard to think that it was a month since I last made a posting – not a word about either baby or car.  Anyway,  it’s only a few days before the car is due to go to Phoenix Motorsports,  so I spent the day in the garage and finished off the jobs.  The clam slipped back on wonderfully and has been refixed with stainless fixings – hopefully it won’t need dismantling again for a while – and if it does, then it should be a hell of a lot easier.

Next job – taking Tuesday off and driving all the  way to Phoenix Motorsports – all without Tax and a MoT.  Anyone care to guess how many times I’ll get stopped ?