sam lindop portfolio l018852a

7/30/2019 Sam Lindop Portfolio l018852a

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Sam Lindop L018852A Portfolio

28/08/2012


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Contents

Introduction .................................................... 3

Health and safety ............................................ 3

Work Undertaken at Placement ..................... 5

Setup work ...................................................... 7

Track work ....................................................... 9

Conclusion ..................................................... 11


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IntroductionMy name is Sam Lindop and I am currently studying Foundation Degree Motorsport Technology at

Staffordshire University. My previous knowledge before going to the University was limited, I had

worked on old Land rovers, this involved changing breaks, restoring the engine and working on the

chassis. I did these tasks with an old friend who taught me what to do on each task. I had also beenon track days and experienced what it takes to run a performance car. Whilst at University I have

had placement at Beacon Racing and this team gave me all the experience needed to work in a race

team.

Beacon Racing was set up in November 2008 to give the students at Staffordshire University a

chance to experience what it is like to be part of a race team. Their first season was racing in the

Mini Challenge. In 2009 they ran in the Mini challenge again however also expanded into the Fun

cup championship, where they were so successful they abandoned the mini challenge for 2010 and

just ran in the Fun cup. In 2011 the team expanded further and went into the Ginetta

Championship. They ran two cars in the Ginetta Junior Championship; this is a step up from kartingso the drivers are very young. The age range is 14-17. This means that the cars are limited on power.

The cars are Ginetta G40s with a 1.8 litre ford z-tech engines restricted to 100 BHP. The cars are

very straight forward in design and construction and are very light and inexpensive to fix. Beacon

experienced varying amounts of success in 2011. In 2012 they once again ran two Ginetta G40s up

until mid-August where both the drivers left the team due personal issues between them both.

The team set up consists of Alex Heaton as Team manager and Martin Mitchell as chief mechanic

and the mentor for the students on placement. There is also Graham Heart who looks after the

Finances and Health and safety at Beacon racing. On race weekends the team also take two second

year students from Staffordshire University to help the team run the cars. The two drivers that theteam had were Harry Woodhead and Keith Donegan who are pictured below.


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Health and safetyHealth and safety in the work shop is very important. It helps prevent minor accidents and prevents

injuries to the workers. In the workshop everyone had to wear personal protective equipment (PPE),

this includes steel toe capped boots in case an object is dropped. Different PPE is needed for

different tasks for example when using power tools goggles must be warn at all times. There aremany laws that firms have to follow such as the health and safety at work act 1974.

The first day that we had with the team focused on an introduction to the workshop. The idea of this

was to get us all familiar with the surroundings, i.e. where the fire exits, fire extinguishers, first aid

kits, PPE and health and safety regulations are all located. This was important because if there is an

accident or a fire we would all know where to go and what to do.

When first working in a team it is important to consider those around you, each person in the

workshop must think through the impact of their own actions whilst involved in a task, uponsomeone else, even if they are not directly involved with the job that is being completed. For

example when youre working with a hand drill you need to wear goggles and so do the people

around you in case shards or splinters fly out from where you are drilling. Or for example in the

placement of large object, it would be a tripping hazard if it was left out in the middle of the floor or

it may fall off the counter onto somebodies feet if it is left on the edge. Another consideration is for

your own safety when working i.e. making sure youre fully equipped to take on a task and also that

you know how to use the machinery being used correctly, and if you dont know how to use it

correctly make sure you ask someone to teach you how to do it appropriately.

Working at the workshop is much different to working in the pit lane. One of the disadvantages tothe pit garage is that it is much smaller than the workshop; therefore you have to think much more

carefully about the people around you, making sure you dont get in the way of them and that your

equipment doesnt interfere with other people. An additional consideration when working in a pit

garage is that you have to take the public into account. The public can just walk into the garage at

any given moment so when they do, you need to be fully aware of where they are and what they are

doing because it is very easy for them to injure themselves on the equipment left around because

there is a chance that they dont know what it is there looking at. Another difference to the

workshop is that the drivers of the cars are present in the garage. The drivers will sometimes be in

the garage, around the car or sometimes in the car so if something goes wrong e.g. if there is a fire

you have to make sure they are accounted for

The image to the left

are my safety shoes,

this is just an

example of some of

the PPE that we have

to use.


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Work Undertaken at PlacementAt the start of placement we were taught the basics on how to maintain the cars. This involved

taking parts off to clean them. The firsts parts we took off were the brake callipers and pads. This

was a simple task as the callipers are held on by two Alan key bolts and the disk held on by an Alan

key bolt connecting it to the hub. While the callipers and pads were off we had to deglaze the padswith sand paper and measure the depth of the pads to see how the pads wear. The next week at

Beacon racing we took out the differential from the rear of the car, the drive shafts and prop shafts

on the black and yellow Ginetta. This was to get to the gear box and clutch so that we could inspect

them to see what condition they were in. we also got taught how to do a fuel drain on the car so

that the team know exactly how much fuel is in the car. This was very important to get right quickly

because the team do fuel drains at the end of every test session so that they know what sort of fuel

consumption the cars are doing at the different tracks. These skills were very important to learn

quickly as we would be repeating them frequently for the team and the more frequently I did these

tasks the more confidant I felt with the tasks.

Before the race season had started both cars went out testing quite a lot so there was a lot of work

to be done in the workshop. This featured cleaning all the parts of the suspension, chassis, engine,

drive shafts, prop shaft and differential. Unfortunately the cars would sometimes come back from

testing having had crashes. Therefore we learnt how to take off the bonnet so that the cars would be

able to have work done on them away from the workshop.

As the weeks went on at placement I got into more of a rhythm as I gained more confidence working

with the cars. It got to the point where I was confident enough to volunteer for job which I had

never done before. For example putting fiberglass over chipped areas and using body filler to fill in

holes. This was a very good thing to learn early on because the cars would often be involved incollisions during a race so would need fibre glass and body filler applied to dents and scratches to

the cars regularly. I would also volunteer for job that was not on the cars but when the team needed

something doing, for example fixing and improving the rear door on the trailer. The metal plate at

the back had come loose over time. To fix it I had to use rivets and to do this I drilled holes the right

size around the edge of the plate and use a riveting gun. We also had to tighten up the mud guards

on the trailer as they had been put on loose and not in the correct position, therefore we had to

correct all of them. We also rebuilt the office in the trailer which involved putting the chip-board

wall panels back on with the insulation back in place. In addition to the trailer I have also helped

with some work on a Vauxhall Astra van, it had an engine re-build and we needed to do the finishing

touches to the car such as fitting the water pump tube and adding the alternator belt. Other jobs

have included spending the morning unloading a trailer that the team has had for a couple of years

and has been trying to sell. As it has now been sold we had to empty the contents of the trailer into

the workshop, this took a whole morning. In the afternoon we washed the teams trailer in

preparation for the race weekend and we also tried to set up the satellite for the TV. The TV will be

set up in the awning on a race weekend so the team who are not in the pits can watch the races on

ITV4. This was valuable to do because it gave us more experience on engines and it also felt good

helping the team with extra jobs.

As well as maintaining the cars I have had to make sure that all the parts are running correctly. To do

this tests are need on different parts. All the dampers on the car must be checked and to do this we

need to put them on a dyno. This involves taking the dampers off the car, setting them up in the


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dyno and getting readings from all the settings on them. This was because we need to know how

they are acting under certain pressures and to see how they all compared to each other. If there

were any anomalies we would repeat the test on the setting that was wrong to see if it changed. We

would also have to do a leak down test and a compression test on the cars. To do a leak down test

you need to take the spark plug out of the cylinder you are testing check that it is at top dead centre

and then putting 100psi through the leak down device and into the cylinder, and the device will give

a reading of mow much pressure is being lost, you the repeat this for all four cylinders. To do a

compression test you need take the spark plug out of the cylinder and put a pressure gauge in, then

disconnect the fuel injection fuse and the ignition fuse. Then you need to hold the throttle open and

start the engine and take the highest recording that shows up on the gauge.

I have also been taught how to change wish bones and steering racks. As the cars have been in

many accidents the wishbones can get bent very easily so it was vital to learn this skill. In one day I

changed 6 wishbones all together and as I grew in confidence about it I got quicker and quicker in

completing the procedure.


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Setup workAs I was only working on one type of car it was very easy to pick up how to setup the car and how

the team records the changes. One of the first suspension setup changes that I learned was how to

change dampers from hard to soft, there is a small knob at the bottom of the damper, turn it

clockwise for hard and anti-clockwise for soft, so find out what setting it is on turn it anti-clockwisecounting the clicks until it stops then turn it clockwise the same amount of clicks. The divers had

different preferences for different tracks so these were rarely the same throughout the weekend.

The next setup technique I was taught was the toe setup on the tyres. To do this the team have

made what they call setup poles which are essentially bars which are a little longer than the width of

the car and have a fishing line wrapped around one end. You put the bars at the front and rear of the

car on axle stands and the fishing line is taken to the other side and wrapped around the opposite

pole and should line up with the centre of the tyre. Then you need two people (one at each side) to

measure how far the centre of the wheel is to the line with a ruler. The idea being that they need to

be equal. You do this for the front and back changing position every time you move the poles untileach tyre is equal distance away from the line. Then you measure the front of the tyre to the rear on

the line and the difference between them is the toe angle you have. You repeat this for each tyre. If

the front of the tyres distance is greater than the rear of the tyre, the tyre has a negative toe angle

and if the front is less than the rear the tyre has a positive toe angle. To change the toe angle you

need to adjust the track rod at each corner of the car. The angles which the team had were 1mm in

on the rears and 1mm out on the front.

Ride height is also another setup procedure that I have learnt. To be able to do this the car needs to

be on a flat patch so you know the ground is perfectly level and can see how the weight gets shifted

around the car. The team made a small device to help measure the ride height which is a smallcylinder which is 70mm tall with some metal thread sicking out the top and two smaller cylinders,

one 10mm and another 20mm, with a hole in the middle for the thread to go through. You place the

three together and then place the object underneath the front and rear of the chassis spinning the

smaller cylinder until it reaches the chassis then you can get a ruler and accurately measure the ride

height of the car. To adjust the ride height of the car all you have to do is get a C spanner and adjust

the spring seat on the damper. The minimum ride heights were 85mm on the slicks and 75mm on

the wets. The team would change the ride height of the cars throughout the weekend to get the

optimum setup on the cars. Changing the ride height also affect the weight distribution and the

centre of gravity of the car so it was important to listen to the drivers so we know where to change it

to and when we change it to make sure the flat patch is fully level.

The image to the left is the

cylinder used to measure the ride

height of the cars.


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Anti-roll bars control the roll of the car as it goes through corners so it is very important to learn how

to change them quickly in case the car comes into the pit during testing and needs a quick change.

The anti-roll bars are located at the front and rear of the cars just below the track rod at each corner.

There are three choices for the anti-roll bars, hard, medium and soft. Hard is at the end of the bars

and then medium in the middle and soft on the inside. To adjust them you need to take the top of

the rose joint out of the hole on both sides, it is held in by a simple nut and bolt. Then move the bar

so the bolt can go into the hole needed.

All of these are recorded into a logbook for each car so everyone can see what setting the cars are

on and if there is a change it must be written down so if the change doesnt work they know which

setting to go back to. We had to know how to change all of them because each driver had a different

preference and during testing the setup is changed frequently. It was important to be aware of this

to be able to change the settings quickly and efficiently in a race situation.


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Track workDuring my time at placement I have done many track days and one race weekend. My first test day

was on the 28th

of December at Donington raceway. This was just with one of the cars, car number

88. As this was my first ever track experience my jobs were kept simple so that I could pick up the

tasks quickly and get to know the team. My rolls were to spanner check the car every time it came infrom a session. This means that I had to check all the joints of the suspension with spanners and Alan

keys. I also had to change the tyres and clean the brake discs.

My next track day was at Brands Hatch race track in Kent. Car 88 ran perfectly fine throughout the

day therefore all we had to do was check tyre pressures when the car went out and came back in,

we also changed tyres and we also had to refuel the car a couple of times because the fuel gauge

was faulty. The other car (car number 30) didn't work the entire day, therefore I had a small part in

repairing it for example I took the cylinder head off the engine, however spent most of the time

observing what was happening to the car in between running the other car.

I have been to Donington two more times, Silverstone for a media day and Oulton park for two test

sessions. At these test sessions the rolls that I had to do remained the same throughout every

testing session that I went to. However I have been given the job to count the laps the cars do so

that we can work out fuel consumption and how long the tyres last. I have also had the pit board so

that we can tell the drivers if the need to come in. As well as working on the cars another one of my

rolls was to load and unload the truck. This involves getting the fuel and tyres out and setting them

up in a safe place in the garage. Also getting the tool boxes out so that the team can work on the

cars and also unhooking and unloading the cars from the trailer. All the test sessions I went to ran

smoothly without any problems.

My race weekend was at Donington raceway. While the cars went out for the first test session we

set up the awning and flooring for the cars so that we could work in some form of comfort. Every

time the cars came back we did a fuel drain, spanner check and cleaned the cars. I was put on the

black and white Ginetta Working with Mattis a second year student and Sam another student on

placement. We didn't have any major problems on the testing day so it was a routine day, however

the other car had to have an engine change which meant the team had to work late to get the old

engine out. The next day there was no testing due to track noise restrictions so the day was filled

with changing the setup on the car, doing fuel drains and spanner checks making a note of whateverwas happening to the car. We had to change the front right track rod on the car as this had been

The image on the right is the

pressure gauge used to measure

the tyre pressures when the car

comes in from the track so that we

can see how they change and

what the optimal running pressure

is.


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damaged at a previous weekend. The next day there was a practice session in the morning where

the car wasn't performing as predicted so after that we had to change the set up to the previous test

sessions. Qualifying and the first race went without problems, our driver got fastest rookie in the

race finishing 5th

, the other car finished 7th

so was a good result for the team. The next race the next

day wasn't so good; on the fourth lap the driver had to leave the track to avoid an accident but

ended up hitting the barrier. We had to check all the suspension for damage, all the chassis for

cracks. Luckily there was no damage apart from the bonnet so the car doesn't need any other

repairs, therefore we then gave the entire car a clean and a fuel drain and loaded up the trailer. The

other car finished 7th

in the second race so it was good that he could show consistency for him to

build on.


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ConclusionI have gained a lot of valuable, first-hand experience from being at placement which I would not

have gained otherwise, and I have really enjoyed my time at Beacon racing. The experiences I have

enjoyed the most are the track days that I took part in. This is because this is where I learned the

quickest and got to know the team and how the team is set up, what roles people do and ultimatelywhat it takes to run a team. I also enjoyed being on the pit wall hearing how the cars sound and

looking at the other cars with the team mates. The work we did in the garage was also very

interesting. I enjoyed it because I could work at my own pace and have fun with the team mates at

the same time and if I wanted more information about anything all I had to do was ask.

I also learned that even the most basic, repetitive procedures for example chassis cleaning and

spanner checking of the cars is vitally important. It has to be done to make the cars look presentable

for firstly the firm to be seen as professional and efficient and secondly for the drivers and their

parents because if they did not like what the team was doing they could pull funding from the team.

A clean car is also easier to work on because you can see damage easier; the nuts and bolts are lesslikely to rust therefor wont round-off easily.

While being at placement I have learnt how to take gearboxes, clutches, prop shafts, drive shafts,

differentials and fuel tanks out with confidence. As well as taking these objects off the car I have also

learnt how to clean them all and the brake discs and callipers. However because they were all sealed

off to prevent them from being tempered with I never really got to see how they all work, which is

one of the Things I want to learn more about. I also learnt how to change the seats and mirrors on

the cars and even the rear bodywork and the bonnet.

My ambitions for the future are to keep working in motorsport for as long as possible. I would prefer

to be working in single seat cars so that I can achieve the ultimate goal of reaching formula 1;

however I have enjoyed my time working on sports cars so I would not mind a career staying in

sports and saloon racing and hopefully get into the BTCC.


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Recommendation for Sam Lindop

I have had the pleasure of working with Sam during the past eightmonths while he has served as an mechanic in the workshop and ontrack. Sam has good communication and team working skills and isreliable to work on tasks given to him. He is willing to work on any projectthat is assigned to him showing good interest and is able to work closelyand along side other students and colleagues.

Sam works with a positive attitude around the workshop and on track andhas shown responsibility at carrying out any tasks given to him. He is amotivated individual that shows plenty of enthusiasm when it comes togetting his hands dirty on any task.

I would recommend Sam without reservations for employment or anyother endeavors he chooses to pursue.

Regards,

Martyn MitchellRace Engineer,

Beacon Racing

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