Tiger Update

The Tiger is now prepped and ready for its first track day. The oil and filter have been changed – it now has Valvoline Racing Oil - and there are new socks on the carburetta trumpets. I’ve also finished making the aeroscreen, which is just as well as I broke the windscreen trying to remove it. Doh! Tomorrow morning the new (quieter) and re-packable exhaust is being made and fitted, which will hopefully make me legal for the evening track day at Brands Hatch later this week which I shall be using as a test session to work out further needs to be done.

London Bikeathon

On Sunday I cycled the 52 mile ‘challenge route’ of the London Bikeathon. Overall, there were many thousands of people taking part in the event in aid of Leukaemia research riding different routes and distances from 13 miles upwards, with what looked like a thousand or so brave souls taking on the long 52 mile ‘challenge’ route. We started out in bright weather from the Royal Chelsea Hospital and made out way West along the Thames, taking in Richmond Park – including a herd of red deer – before looping back to the hospital and heading eastwards out as far as the Thames Barrier park. From there it was an easy ride back to finish once again at the Royal Hospital.

This event was as much fun as the London to Brighton bike ride – the participants were definitely less hard core on this ride – and the ride was well marshalled and sign posted. The cycling was also considerably easier than London to Brighton and much easier than the Surry Hills ride it day – which had a hill at the end (from the South Downs to the North Downs) that nearly killed me!

The next event will be the Great Capital Run in Hyde Park next Sunday in aid of Help a London Child. That’s a 10k run, and this time I’m taking the whole family.

The VW Generation (Virtual Worlds)

My sixteen year old son is an avid player of World of Warcraft. His character has reached the highest levels and he spends much of his time helping and advising others. That’s interesting. Even more interesting is the cross over between this virtual world and the real world. Tom is arguably a member of the generation after the Facebook generation, and as such he uses World of Warcraft not just as a game, but as a meeting place with his friends. It’s in the virtual world that this new generation (the Virtual World generation) make their real world social arrangements. The cross over is seamless and entirely natural. My guess is that as Second Life and other virtual worlds become more accessible, both through an improvement in the way they are coded and as a result of increased computer power and faster broadband speeds, we’ll see more of this. Now, if only I could remember where I left my avatar……..

Track Days

I’ve booked myself and the Tiger on an evening track day at Brands Hatch on 17^th July. Quite a few things to do before then, although I’ve found out the new lighter wheels are having to be made and may not be ready in time. I also need to get the new Green Stuff brake pads fitted soon as they’ll need at least 100 bedding down miles before going out onto the track. I’ll be using 17^th July as a testing day prior to a full day session in August, by which time hopefully the car will be fully set up. I've also decided not to bother messing with the exhaust to get it within noise limits for tracks day, but to have one custom made to my specification. I've specified a 97db limit, polished stainless and re-packable so that I can make it louder, or quieter, as I need to. Powerspeed will be doing the work and it's being fitted a couple of days before the first track day.

IBF24

I took part in IBF24 over the past couple of days. A 24 hour global (follow the sun) online intranet conference. What a great idea. People joined from all over the world - over 700 people attended the conference, from 16 countries, saving tonnes of CO2. It was highly interactive fun and didn’t involve me sitting in airports for hours. Let’s hope it catches on.

Blending Again

How many social networks should I belong to? Just one with everything mixed in, or should I belong to several depending on which role (or where my head is) at any one time? I think it will depend upon the individual and the way corporate organisations react to the blended lifestyle. Some people are comfortable already with work and personal being mixed, others are less so. I suspect it's all moving in a blended direction though. Interestingly, my emails are not blended, but that's because of my company’s email policy - in particular an Intranet/Internet use policy which implies I can get the sack for time wasting if I over do it. This will need to be challenged at some point, because in a new blended world it may not be reasonable for people to have to maintain two 'connections' (work and private) when work and private has become so blended. For example, do I fall foul of the internet misuse policy if I spend two hours in the evening surfing in my personal capacity, before doing another two hours work prior to going to bed? Or do I only fall foul of the policy if those two hours are between 9 and 5? I certainly think company policies will need to be reviewed in the light of all these changes.

New Toy 3

I’ve been busy assembling parts for a rainy weekend’s work on the car. I’ve also had it rolling road tuned. And noise tested. Jobs to do include installing a pair of shiny chrome wing mirrors, some new exhaust wrap in the engine bay, an exhaust heat shield to prevent me burning my leg when I get out, fabricate a stainless steel heat shield for the alternator in place of the crude aluminium one there at the moment, and fabricate an aeroscreen which can go on in place of the windscreen for track days. I also need to make up supports for the trumpet socks on the carbs. When the car is revved, the carbs are sucking in so much air the socks are also getting sucked in and there is a danger they could work loose and get sucked right into the engine.

Then car is running really sweet since it was tuned. The technician recorded it at 170 bhp at 6,000 rpm, and still rising. That’s pretty powerful in a 650kg car! He has advised me to run it on Super Unleaded fuel though, which I’ll do as soon the tank is empty - and that won’t take long at 18mpg from a 6 gallon tank! The same day it was tuned I took it down to Brands Hatch to be noise tested. It came out at 104.4db at 4,500 rpm. That makes it within limits for day time track days, but not evening ones. However, I have now got an additional baffle that goes in the tail pipe that reduces the noise by up to 10db (at the expense of power) which should make it legal for evening events if I ever decide to do one.

I’m still waiting on a date for the new roll bar fitting though. Come on Tiger!