Kennet valley Group Dyno Day
NOT AS MANY BOLTED HORSES!
Not for the feint hearted, this was definitely a Petrolhead event.
After a slow start, 12 cars and 10 owners, gathered in the middle of nowhere at Gidley Farm, Chievely, Berkshire. A range of anonymous farm buildings hid some pretty techy kit, designed to allay any doubts about the horses lurking under your bonnet.
How many horsepowers had escaped? How many were meant to be there? Did we really know our cars?!
There was a nervous tension in the air!
Peter’s TR6 was first lamb to the slaughter! As the car was driven into the dynamometer bay, backed on to the rolling road and tied down, the early frivolity evaporated. And oops, the first casualty, indeed a few horses had escaped and Peter walked away with a dyno run print out and a whole host of ideas from the assembled knowledge base of how he might find those horses and rope them back under the bonnet.
Each owner was asked to state the flywheel BHP the factory specification claimed for the car when new and then, based on their knowledge of their own car, age, condition, modifications etc, what they felt it was now producing. These two figures would then be compared with the actual power achieved on the Dyno on the day.
Phil had brought prizes for;
“Mr Perfect” - for the owner who’s car most closely matched the original specification BHP.
“Mr Overly Optimistic “- ( some cruelly might say, slightly deluded) - for the owner who’s predicted BHP estimate furthest exceeded the performance on the day, in a negative direction
Sneakily, Phil kept the parameters quiet until after the estimates had been given! There was a great buzz throughout the morning
There were no disasters. A few had fewer horses than expected and a few had more. The Horsham Developments team were very professional, ensuring that all cars were fit before carrying out the published run. Each car was given a graphical result covering the 3 or 4 runs. A very useful tool, suggesting adjustments that could be made to improve the engine health.
I was seriously impressed how well the cars performed. Many produced well in excess of OEM and sounded incredibly smooth at RPM that I would never of dreamt of aiming at with my previous TR6.
A great, informal morning with some very interesting and informative data created about our cars. I think everyone that attended, whether they walked away elated or with a list of jobs to do, felt that the morning had been an excellent idea and a lot of fun, made all the more engaging thanks to the schoolboy competition Phil had overlaid on the morning's proceedings.
I personally, would like to thank Jez and his team at Horsham Developments and not least, Phil Dryden for bringing it all together.
Something a little different, made a success by YOU, KVG members.
I think someone mentioned a “skid pan” morning to come in the future?!!
