akciddento

anyone know php & my SQL ?

gaaaah !

the testing on the new version of the website is all going well

*BIG thanks to all the betatesters*

tracking down a few bugs and dealing with the path creation problem in the checkout system of the shop.
fixed the path creation problem (hooray) the shop is now carting and checking out fine ! (just waiting for the visa merchant account details but paypal is working fine)

BUT

GAAAAAAH! the registered user login is going wobbly and the forum isn't displaying properly....

and it's 11.30 on a saturday night and i'm still hacking at it.......

mind you, the weather has got a bit warmer and i can see springtime is on its way (kind of !) rollon warm evening of crawling about under the bus !

dreaming of bus journeys!

ollie slammedbay called over the other night for some food and naturally we got talking about the upcoming racing. ollie is racing with akciddento this year and he seems pretty excited about it. boxes of goodies that he's ordered for his bus keep turnign up - so he's happy !.the first race at easter thunderball is on it's way (this seasons dates are now in the calendar section) and there's lots to do. marquees to organise (so they can blow away at the first opportunity - last year the wind at skankapod destroyed two ezee up gazebos and sent a 3m x 10m party tent whirling off into the stratosphere!@$%$^£@!-with emma sat inside it!) and DJ sessions out of buses to set up and my old video projector to fix so we can do midnight cinema too !

last season was a season of worry and stress intermixed with giggles and jubilation (you shoulda seen my face on the winners balcony at the summer nationals. the commentators had been calling the bus a 'caravannete' all day and there i was getting the runnerup trophy from them alongside racers from all over europe ! )

this season is party time with hopefully some fun racing and catching up with many good friends i made last year. see you all at the track!

DragBus Race Technischewerké!

NEW DragBus shirt designs!



black and white high quality inks on HEAVY weight double stitch premium tees, available in khaki, gold, burnt orange, red and shelley green.



on sale in the webshop from next week and available from our stall at DubFreeze
(i don't know who makes these names up. that's what they are called on the colour chart!)



btw when i say 'burnt orange' i mean a kind of darker warm orange rather than blackened and crispy...

ooh! that sounds expensive...

after a great start to the day I got a message on my phone from Martin at Taylor Machine Services saying that the crank from the race engine that Martin is rebuilding for me is fractured. I talked with Martin last week about it and although he felt that the crank was ok I insisted that it needed to be crack tested, the risk of it disintegrating on the track and destroying everything inside the crank case was too great to risk.

so...

i need a new 84 mm VW journal ProComp Scat crank.

>has anyone got one in stock ?
can anyone get one inside a month ?

after a few phone calls i get a call back from Tim Moores at HSL Racing not only has he got exactly what I need sat there on the shelf and he can ship it express to arrive tomorrow at Taylor Machine if i need it that fast but he does me a great deal on the price! the man is a bit of a star if truth be told.

So, it looks like we might be back on track. The shortblock with new crank and rods can be built up and the new Porsche fan shroud will go straight on (where have i heard that before ?) as soon as it arrives from Custom Speed Parts in Germany.

on another track i had a great meeting with Elmer at Beat Inc in Bristol who runs a rather funky clothes boutique on Park Steet. He even stocks some very cool lowrider style push bikes and loads of US hotrod clothing. Beat Inc already sponsor a Drag car and Elmer was very interested to see what was happening with akciddento, and all being well (as i'm sure at this rate that it won't be ;) ) akciddento has it's first stockist!

watch this space (as they say)

beta testers are go!

after what seems like the longest time v3.0 of the akciddento website went online last night,

a generous bunch of about twenty betatesters are crawling over the site testing and checking, suggesting and criticising before the site goes public in (hopefully) a week or so.

the new site is a big step on from this one, all driven by code and databases. all the web pages are dynamically generated as people request them and all teh content is stored in databases and pulled out as its needed.
there are still a few bugs and there's lots of polishing and loading of content to be done but we're nearly there.

last night was nerve wracking, i sent out the details to the people on the test program and watched as they logged in ands started wandering round.
then i looged off and shut the laptop down...

like inviting people over for a party and then going out, or opening a shop and going down to the pub...

ah well..

just for your interest here's some of the new site

and features..

picture gallery
movie gallery
e-Postcards of gallery pictures
tech essay content
chat forum/bulletin board
weblog
the new ak shop
bookshopping
downloads (with user submission/uploads)
weblink directory (with user submissions)
news (with user submissions)
feedback forms

to get the most from the site and to access additional features register as a new user.

registered users have access to...

user gallery picture uploads and viewing other users private galleries
sitewide instant messaging
private messages
webmail
user journal/weblog creation & viewing other users private journals
theme customisation
viewing restricted news and content

the site is currently in early beta test but is 99% fully funktional.

the fugly is up for sale !

the fugly is up for sale...
need to concentrate all the energy on getting the bus ready for racing this year.

so...

1974 412le estate, 1700cc injection automatic. FULL LENGTH factory sunroof, eberspacher.

road tax and eleven months MOT. Solid car. just had alll welding done by mr. venners of der botcheinvolks and made a splendid job of it all too! generally tidy with good interior. very comfortable daily driver with fold down rear seat and HUGE bonnet and boot space. now has rather nice solid aluminium US spec bumpers fitted and all neccessary trim. loads of spares also available. rust free californian wings, lights, FI stuff, trim etc etc. paint generally good but has white patches where the ULTRA COOL fake wood trim was removed. just needs roll of fablon to reinstate!

drives beautifully, excellent ride. was going to slam it and bung on some big toca style alloys for super-ghetto bling ride but upcoming race season absorbs all energy...

Must go. £850 or best offer mateys! currently residing in bristol

sorry for the old tatty pictures, if the sun comes out tomorrow i'll post some better ones!

Ram Air systems ?????

wow!

started looking into Ram Air systems as a cheap way of getting more power...
... the truth of the matter seems to be a difficult to get to...
lots of flashy carbon fibre aftermarket anodised tube thingys to bolt into hondas and the like but very little information or explanation to justify the effect and an equally large number of people saying

nah, it's rubbish - nonsense!

well... i started a question on the volkzone forum here and the replies have been coming in thick and fast...

generally the opinion is Nah! but i happened upon a page here at vararam.com with a fairly in depth technical explanation.

i summarised it on the vz forumlike this......

you raise some very good points, as i said earlier I don't know about this stuff but am trying to find the 'truth' of it all.

from some recent reading ive been going through that delves into it fairly well (find it here)

it looks like this (sorry if i summarise this wrong..)

atmostpheric pressure (1bar) = 14.65psi. when your N/A engine starts running it creates MAP with a theoretical max of 14.65 psi (at some point in the rev range) but due to practical inefficiencies usually operates up to 2.0psi below 14.65 psi (atmos pressure) but as the revs climb this NEGATIVE pressure at the manifold increases. a ram air system has two qualities, cfm & psi. given that air is feeding from the highest pressure point of the front of the car (say +0.4psi @50mph) and supplies sufficient cfm (not a problem) then the manifold pressure returns to 14.65psi (1bar)

there is no theoretical boost beyond atmos pressure here but the actual increase at the manifold could be as high as 2psi...

(some figures i've seen state up to +0.176 psi possible from standard RAM system (ignoring (as paul rightly points out, very clever fluid dynamic designing to create pressure multiplyers in the system))

so, if my engine develops 200bhp with manifold pressure of say 13.65psi (only a 1psi loss)
then i'm developing 14.65HP per psi

so if i can flow enough air through the ram system to get back to normal atmospheric pressure (+1psi) then i've gained 14.65HP. if i can get +ve pressure at the manifold of 0.175psi then i've added another 2,5hp to the figure.

if i add in the cooled charge effect (apparently between 1.5-2bhp for every 6-10 degree drop in charge temp)
-in the bus the air is drawn straight in from the engine bay (and it gets WARM in there) from the ECU temp monitor in the engine bay i could be looking at 20degrees or more then i can add another 3-4bhp to the equation.

so
14.65 HP for return to 1bar at manifold by increased cfm
+ 2.5 HP for 0.176psi increase in MAP
+3HP increase for cooled charge =

20.15hp increase !
for the cost of a length of duct and some gaffer tape...

as a BIG caveat, i agree totally with paul about the problems of actually designing this to work efficiently at all, and the figures above are fairly loose and based on the outline of very few other sources BUT! i think i understand where the power MIGHT come from. based on this i think i might be doing some more investigation

at the end ofthe day i've had a great evening, i want to pursue this for two main reasons.
1 i get to read some techy stuff, learn a little more about fluid dynamics and do some mathematics, then play with holesaws and gaffer tape and then make my bus go faster
what could be better than that ?

well, the other reason is even better, i apply some new technology, i get to cut K3WL Lo0k1nG NACA ducts into the rear windows on the bus, go faster on the strip and KNOW why and how it works !

and it feels like a big fat one in the eye for the VW re-enactment society :)

until next time race fans !

all your bus are belong to us !

just been doing a load of editing on the new version of the akciddento site and was checking all the movie content was still linked ok.

watched the in bus footage from the beginning of the season (running 19s) and suddenly was right back there...

...by the time i got to watch the runs from flame and thunder (15.11s ) i'd got palpitations...

i think it made me realise that i did actually enjoy racing last year !.

after nearly two months without the race engine in the samba i'd almost forgotten about the noise!

I LOVE THE NOISE MOST OF ALL!

i think it came as a bit of a shock....

i remember it all being very stressful at the time, interspersed with periods of wondering just why on earth i was doing it.

i had planned just to race last year as a portrait project.

just one year.

then it seemed like i might carry on. it seemed like everyone had assumed that i would be racing this year after all.

however i haven't sent of to renew my MSA license nor my VWDRC membership and that's been on my mind.

seeing the footage again though. remembering the noise. remembering the sunshine and the great friends i've made in the course of racing...

...somehow it all makes sense. i can kinda see it in the context of my life. as if i can finally say 'yes, i go dragracing'. something i've been more than a little confused about until now. - seeing drag racing as part of my life, as something that i do.. it never seemed contiguous with who i saw myself as - if that makes any sense. maybe it's just a snobby attitude on my part.

to paraphrase grouch marx;

'i'd never join a drag race club that would have me as a member'

i guess the question now is, if i send off the application form, will they have me back? :)

see you at the track!

--------------------------------------------------------------
In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's You !!
Cats: How are you gentlemen !!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Cats: HA HA HA HA ....
Captain: Take off every 'zig' !!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'zig'.
Captain: For great justice.

here's the snow!

more images from avoriaz last week

look where the ak racecar was seven days ago today !

parked at about 6,000ft in the ski resort of Avoriaz in the the French Alps.

all i need to do now is change the snowtyres for slicks and it's off to the track :)

ready salted samba ?

so, today's the day!

advance toward salt encrusted samba armed with garden hose, bucket of hot soapy water and spong and proceed to flood then underside, top side and every nook and cranny, (what's a cranny ?) with water,

there's a strange feelikng od satisfaction watching all the crud mud and road dirt being flushed out of the wheelarches and off the outriggers...

when the drive is completely flooded and you're soaked to the skin proceed with the still dripping bus to the nearest jet wash and buy two tokens. One cheap wash and shampoo and one full monty hot wash brish wax and rinse.

use the cheap one for the underside, (see that dirt and gunk fly off!, and you thought you'd got it all with the poxy garden hose didn't you !) then do the rest with the £49.99 'gold' wash...

pop open the engine lid and attempt to steam off all the gunky yellow mayonnaise issuing from the beercan breather box looking like the post christmas vomit of someone who's drunk rather too much advocaat.

(well it's true ! that's what it does look like...)

cross fingers when starting incase you've screwed the electrics with all the water in the engine bay and drive round in a sauna for ten minutes as the heat exchangers turn all the drips into steam...

all in all a job well done.

just for good measure when i got back i did all the seams and little crust bits on the bus with waxoyl from a spray can then rubber it into the guttering all round. you know a substance is evil when it dissolves the inspection gloves you're wearing with ten seconds of coming into contact with them!
I even got under the bus with a can of underbody sealer/waxoyler and went over everything again.

i feel like i've at least repayed the bus in part for getting me to the alps and back safely!

NEXT WEEK.

cleaning the interior: how to remove week old motorway service station baguette and orangina

and we're back !

after over THREE THOUSAND kilometers and fourteen litres of engine oil sambasaurus is safely snuggled up next to the orange fugly on the drive...

the return journey was a monster session, having left Morzine in the french alps at about 4pm i drove straight though to calais, onto the tunnel train (after a none-too-brief chat with customs) then through to london to return a broken paul-zwitter to his bride-to-be carol then onto the last leg of the journey to bristol, pausing only to pass out for an hour or so in the back of the bus somewhere near swindon (oh the joys of having a bed in my race car !)

more soon,
pictures, video, stupid anecdotes, more video, some animations and finally some poignant observations on the absurdities of modern life !