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Thanks for posting your adventure I will say some nasty muddy roads, you are traveling over, and here people don't even take there car out if it looks like rain, they think it will melt.
Love reading about the trip, enjoy the ride!
Agree with you about the fear of rain melting our Corvettes here in the U.S. I believe we take for granted our beautiful country, and its highways and byways. We have the option of seeing our country go by with high sped travel down and across the interstate system or enjoy a more leisurely trip on well-maintained state roads. Most of the rural roads are in pretty fair shape with the exception of Northern highways where winter weather takes its toll, and potholes become the norm. My wife and I have truly enjoyed our Corvette road trips for more than 30 years, and as I write this we are in the process of planning another. With me at 84, she shares in the driving more than years past, but the call to adventure is still there for both of us. And, not one of our many Corvettes melted as a result of rain!
So, after weeks of work to repair Clive after the Morocco trip, he was ready to go at Silverstone on Saturday, competing in the Pomeroy Trophy. Not a race, although it always feels like it, being on the grid with other race licence holders, whatever they're driving. https://www.vscc.co.uk/page/events?eventID=1818
I messed up the braking test, partly I just braked too late, partly due to them not feeling quite right (into the ABS immediately), despite an attempt at bedding them in on the way to work last week. It's quite difficult (ok, impossible) to repeatedly brake from 120 to 90 mph on the Chippenham bypass at commuting time. The new, cheap big brake kit stood up well to the task, plenty of bite, no fade and no cracked discs so far.
Still, the afternoon, 40 minute test is what everyone looks forward to. It was cold, but dry, giving my two year old Nankang's half a chance. My overtaking was more cautious than it would be in a race, but I equally had a lot of courtesy shown to me too.
It's a long watch, but hopefully entertaining in places. My usual style of over-driving and sliding about, whilst trying to post a half decent lap. A shame I was passed by the BMW on slicks, but he's a good driver and what an awesome car; I'll take 2nd place on the road. Pleased I overtook the GT40 this time, he beat me last year in the damp on the same tyres.
Clive had plenty of interest through the day, with a friend in the grandstand overhearing plenty of cheers and mentions of Clive as he went by.
I didn't get a photo of the infamous suitcase test, part of the competition to prove which is the best 'touring car'. This year they opened the trunk, she laughed and didn't even try to put the pair of cases in, I think we could have got at least 4 in! This photo shows them performing the 'L' measurement, from rear axle to pedals, all part of the handicapping system.
What a car to be overtaken by!
Former Daytona 24 winner Martin Short, drove superbly in the Yaris, finishing 4th on the road, without sticky tyres it should be added.
Ok, it was cold, just a few degrees above freezing for much of the day, but all temperatures were well under control, coolant barely reached 200F, oil peaked at 252F and caliper temps were low too.
Unless I find a kind sponsor, that's me about done for the year competition wise. The tyres have had it now and they're about £1000 a set, still, mustn't grumble, I've had a great last few months in Clive. #clivethecorvette
Not much to report over the last six months. Clive The Corvette has mostly just taken me to work and back without drama. The drivers side exhaust primary had to come off again, as it was blowing. It turns out that Morocco's rough roads had twisted and bent the primaries. An old school engineering shop managed to linish the mating surface, so it's flat, together with a new gasket it's all good again.
Today it was on display at a Pistonheads show (a large UK car forum). It was one of only two C6 there.
My 'Cadillac' Brembo calipers had discoloured with track use, so I repainted them.
That's quite the story. Not sure how this flew under my radar, but it was nice to finally have the opportunity to read it. And here I am with a mere 38K miles in my comparatively boring ownership of my Grand Sport.
Hi again from England, an update to my C6 diary to bring things up to date. In September I attended the 'US Autoshow', at a race track called Oulton Park, in Cheshire. A nice place to park up, take the family and watch some racing. A change from race organising or competing. From there we left Clive The Corvette and took the VW camper to the Welsh Island of Anglesey and it's scenic race track, we enjoyed a few days there.
Austin stood in front of a Clive imposter.
My son with a Clive jigsaw.
Last November, when I was in Florida (working at Daytona), I bought a set of Borg Delrin eccentric bushes, for the upper, rear wishbones. This was to achieve a little extra negative camber, as the stock adjusters were at maximum (-1.3ish degrees). I finally got around to fitting them, the week before a Corvette Club UK handling day that I help organise.
To remove the older, centre-holed Delrin bushes just required whipping them off and popping them in the freezer for 20 minutes. After that, a hole was drilled and tapped in the alloy wishbones, new bushes rotated to suit, countersunk, then a grub screw locktited in place.
Standard vs. eccentric bush comparison.
This naturally introduced a lot of rear toe in!
Time to break out the alignment kit, first done on my slightly uneven drive, then final tweaks at the flatter floor at work.
This isn't a finished photo, but gives an idea of roughly -2.7 front and -1.7 rear. If Clive goes back to competing I will dial in more at both ends, but given most of the miles at the moment are on the road this is a compromise. The extra rear camber has tucked the top of the tyre just slightly into the bodywork (with 20mm spacer), just about perfect to my eyes.
Given that the handling day is about having fun and practicing skills and find limits, it was time to put back on the slightly shabby 'polished' set of wheels, shod with AD08R tyres. The front are now more than 5 years old, with borderline legal tread and a LOT of heat cycles. The rears were newer, at about 3 years old (I get through almost two sets of rears for one set of fronts).
So, onto the late September handling day. Ten Corvette's was a great showing, given that very few Corvette owners in the UK use their cars on track. There are probably not many more than about 1500 Corvettes in total, of all versions in the UK.
After my very first 'high-speed bend' I knew it wasn't going to be my day. Once everyone had heard my racing excuse of disappointing levels of understeer (old front tyres mostly), I got on with it anyway.
I consider myself pretty good at getting in a new car and getting to grips with it quickly, well, being given the controls to a kind strangers new C8 was daunting and at first I hesitated. An 80/85mph runway followed by a hard left with all safety systems off would give me no warning what the mid-engined marvel would do. Well, I can vouch for astonishing levels of responsiveness and turn in from the C8, when both my turns resulted in fast spins, shrouded in tyre smoke. My normal levels of confidence were somewhat diminished. The owner was still happy for me to have another go, to which I politely said no, but maybe in the afternoon....
I returned to my every increasing circles in Clive, front tyres skating across the tarmac, no matter how much trail braking I tried. By late morning we moved on to the MSUK sprint course (similar to your AutoX but without the cones or rules), that's more like it. More waiting time than usual gave time to chat and observe how others were fairing. Plenty of smiles, a few spins too, great fun.
The C8 owner did indeed give me the key for another run on he timed course. We agreed on two runs, the first at a brisk but sensible pace, the second to go for it. In the end the two runs would be almost the same time (1:09.5), just enough to beat the owners best time and that of a new 911 Turbo S, though not enough to beat a local, in his astonishing VW Passat R in the end (1:09.3). The C8 still had more on the table. Now I know how the car would handle I know I could have pushed more in some areas. I may not love the C8's styling (but don't mind it) and I'd still prefer a manual option, but it is just so much more advanced than the C6, so capable and this is a standard car on road tyres too. Brilliant.
After that, I spent what time was left giving passenger rides, not worrying about times set.
Here is one of my runs, tiptoeing around the sharper bends, having to be patient. New tyres would completely transform the balance. My best and almost only crack at setting a time was a 1:10 dead.
Time for a long overdue update: I spent an enjoyable ten days in Florida, working for a week at Sebring circuit (looking after some British drivers), then a few days to explore, down to the Everglades, Keys and Miami. Oh and picking up plenty of Corvette spares too.
As soon as I landed in Miami I drove to a Corvette breakers to pick up a stock 3.42 diff, as mine is still grumbling. I'm not sure what to do with it yet and it's heading back to me by ship to the UK.
This gave the rental Camry a lovely smell for the week.
The Callaway C6 was just perfection.
Not a Corvette, but just, well, wibble! That noise!
I drove more than a thousand miles and saw more Alligators than Corvette C6's (just 5 of them, including this one at Key West).
Stocks of parts were bought from Vorshlag, Rock Auto, O'Reillys and Advance Autos (they've got some really useful little tools). Of these, most are being shipped back, but the tensioners, idler pulley and belts slipped into my suitcase. The oil was for another car, but is cheaper here than in the UK.
That's stopped the squeaking, hoorah. Back on the lighter, Liqui Moly 5W30 for the colder months.
I had a mention in this months UK Corvette club magazine introduction.
I've finally cured an issue that's been bugging me for years. I bought a set of NPP back boxes from the US some years ago, but they arrived with the over axle pipes sawn off. Two stubs of pipe were welded on, so I could actually fit them, but the extra join and clamps meant that the tips were constantly going out of alignment, with the cans clanging off the diff or sway bar. For the 2nd time ever, it was time to break out the gasless Mig welder and weld the pipes to the back boxes.
The angles are critical, so, I removed the complete Speed Engineering exhaust, plugs and leads, putting back on the stock headers, cats and mid pipe. I gave everything a thorough de-grease and wire brush. With care I tack welded the back boxes to the mid pipes in situ, one at a time, then welded the circumference of the pipes. Access was very tight, once dressed in thick gloves and my old triple layer race suit. I only blew two small holes in the thin-walled pipe, but filled them ok.
The welds aren't pretty, but I'm confident they'll hold.
At the same time I fitted the slightly thicker Z06 rear anti-roll bar (was Z51). I'm hoping this will bring the balance back to a slight amount of oversteer again.
Nothing to see here really, just the underneath. The cooling fins I'd added to the diff cover have been squashed flat, not surprising given how tight this area is for space.
I was rushing to get the car back together, in time for a post-Christmas drive to meet up with a C6 owning mate from Wales. I suggested meeting at a suspension bridge between England and Wales. We got lucky and had a small window of mostly dry, calm weather, good to catch up and have a C6 convoy for a bit.
Felix was understandably worried about the puddles, as his C6 is equipped with a Vararam intake, that draws in air low down.
I'm pleased to report that there is no knocking from the exhaust and the tips are pretty good now for alignment too.
One of our photos was used for the front cover of this months Corvette Club magazine, plus more within the North Weald article too.
My father visited, with his newly purchased Porsche Panamera diesel. It's a nice thing to drive, but look at how big it is compared to the Corvette!
The 747 was a little larger again.
Clive now has support from two sponsors, whose products I've used for years. This is a big help, ahead of this years secret road trip. It also means I can cover the costs occasionally of a videographer, to properly capture the next big adventure.
The first event of the year was the Pomeroy Trophy, at Silverstone GP in February. Clive was almost ready to go, I did an oil change (Liqui Moly 5W30 Molygen), fitted new tires (Yokohama AD09), pads (Mintex F2R front, F6R rear) and had the geometry checked and further altered.
I used the superb, but now defunct Yokohama AD08R in the first year I competed at Knockhill circuit, in Scotland. I liked the deeper tread compared to most track tires, ideal for driving to and from the event if conditions worsened and with no room for spares. The replacement AD08RS were a backwards step when it came to track grip. I was therefore very pleased that the 200TW AD09 is a return to form, with a stickier rubber and 7mm of tread depth. I will be leaving them on most of the year, for road and track and will report back on wear rates. Oh and I chose 265/35/18 front and 305/30/19 rear, the widest that can sensibly be used on the stock rims.
I asked the tire shop, Adams & Page, to check the geometry, to see how close their expensive laser set up was to my string kit set up on gravel driveway. I'm pleased to report they confirmed almost identical readings. I asked them to add a little more negative camber, so now have -2 degrees rear and just over -3 degrees on the front.
Finally, Mintex suggested I try new compounds, for no particular reason other than 'why not'? So I'm trying F2R front pads and F6R rear.
I had a week to bed them in on the road and pack the car ready for Silverstone. The Pomeroy Trophy is a handicap event and the entry list showed that I would have the equal highest number of target laps (16) to achieve in the 40 minute 'race'. This year I decided to prioritise fun ahead of a result on track, given that the handicap made it impossible to achieve a decent overall target. I chatted to Martin Short, who was entered once again in his Yaris GR, we agreed that wherever we lined up on the grid I would wait for him and chase him for a couple of laps.
This is a bit about him, he had good success in the States when racing professionally: https://www.rollcentre.com/biography
The night before the event, I was eating dinner with family when we heard a hell of a bang outside. We couldn't tell what had caused it, so went back to eating. More bangs and as I looked outside I could see fire from my neighbours garden, two doors along. Long story short, a gas explosion and subsequent fire destroyed his house and damaged my next door neighbours old, 1600's house and the house the other side. Only luck that the wind was blowing the right way kept things away from us. More than 20 emergency vehicles were called, including 9 fire engines, even the red cross came from the neighbouring county! The fire started at 18:20, we were ordered to evacuate at 19:00 and it was still raging at gone 21:00. We were allowed back just before midnight, somewhat traumatised. Only two people hurt, but repairs/rebuilding is going to take at least 6 months. Anyway, the car was grubby, so out came the washmitt, final packing and after 3 hours broken sleep (the fire brigade were still working, generators, flood lights etc.) it was up and out to Silverstone! The fire crews kindly added some ramps so I could drive over the hoses at the end of the drive!
The scrutineering (tech) queue was really long, at least an hour pushing and idling, followed by another 20 minutes waiting for the suitcase test.
It started to rain and this left the track wet, then greasy through the day, it would never fully dry. I didn't mind knowing that the tyres I would should be good whatever the weather. Besides, the rain is an excuse to slide about the place.
Morning tests (slalom, 1/4 and flying 1/4, followed by braking) all went ok, I finished in the top 4 overall for all tests. I hit the limiter in both the slalom and braking tests, costing me a few tenths.
During the wait for the main event in the afternoon, I was blessed by a good stream of visitors to the garage.
Being a handicapped event, you are at the Handicappers mercy to see if they change the number of target laps you need to achieve, mid-event. Perhaps based on my showing in the morning and despite the now wet conditions, they decided to up my target laps to 17, which is impossible to achieve. To make matters harder I would also start the rolling start from 3rd from last. Amusingly Martin Short would be almost as far back, in the opposite column. Two green flag laps showed us that the track was indeed still moist. The two classic cars in front of Martin couldn't maintain the pace set by the safety car, with the trio dropping back considerably at the start. Given our agreement, I waited for at least 20 seconds, before Martin flew past me at Maggots. As you might expect from such an experienced champion in a 4wd pocket rocket, he was mighty through traffic, making overtakes I couldn't or wouldn't risk. It took me a further 7 laps to catch him! On the way I had an enjoyable pair of laps beyond that glorious green, unsilenced GT40. That's now 2-1 to me against this car in previous Pom's.
Conditions were still damp, but dry enough that the AD09's were really coming in their own, whilst Martin's Yaris' worn Michelins were fading. We played for a couple of laps, then I was off to see if I could get to the front. I'd guessed I was probably up to 2nd place by then.
I had no way of knowing how far ahead the lead car was, but some some quick laps and could finally see a dot at the end of Hanger straight. With the amount of time left of the 40 minutes it would be close. The lead car was an ex ETCC BMW CSL, beautifully prepared and driven, but shod with full racing wets. These were probably a good choice at the start, but with the track drying they were overheating. I made a few mistakes, but could reel him in on the corners, but wow it was quick in a straight line. Finally, as the video showed, he was slowed by a lapped car and I almost got him on the line, just 0.2 seconds back. We both set our fastest times on the last lap. This isn't a race, but it felt like it. I love driving the Corvette, it's so rewarding. I was shattered on the drive home, but happy. Clive drove perfectly and had passed 228,000 miles.
I have three videos to share, the first is a slick 1 minute Instagram type video, the first that my videographer has put together.
Get him safety glasses 
train'm young.
02-14-2023, 01:25 PM
It's quite difficult (ok, impossible) to repeatedly brake from 120 to 90 mph on the Chippenham bypass at commuting time. The new, cheap big brake kit stood up well to the task, plenty of bite, no fade and no cracked discs so far.
#clivethecorvette
