Well, what a stressful and eventful couple of weeks.... For those that don't know, we had a 4XV 1999 Yamaha R1 engine in the global. 5 weeks ago testing at snetterton, third lap we dropped a valve. After a lot of thought and discussion with Andy Bates. We decided to get a 2008 ZX10R engine to put in. Got the engine within 2 weeks from Andy, Managed to get the car loom in the car and the engine cradle made within the first weekend. We then Took it back to Andy to fabricate the exhaust.

Last Friday i picked it up from Andys, Exhaust done and a few other small little engine related bits such as accusump plumbed in.

The last week has been spent furiously doing all the engine wiring, tensioning the chain, Airbox mods, All new cooling system, New bulkhead welded in, Ally Panels on the bulkhead, Dash Mods, New Gauge, All new complete fuel system.

This has meant a couple of very late nights and about 3000 miles in 3 weeks and a budget thats out the window.

Last night we finally managed to get it all running, Clutch, throttle cables were all sorted, we were running and changing gear on axle stands. Then we just had to do a bit more ally panelling, mounting the regulator/retifier and fiddling about with the tacho. Since then we haven't managed to get it started. The plan was to be at the rollers in harrogate (4hours drive) at 2pm today.

So after a couple of hours last night i finally got in at 4:30, i left home at 7:30 and waited outside Andy's place as i figured if anyone would get it running it would be him. Andy was great again and spent the morning searching for a problem, it turns out that the 3 relay box circuit board had blown up. Because we have been so short on time, the engine wiring was as in the bike....

We hoped to be testing friday and wednesday to have the first race at brands next saturday.

Unfortunately that means thats very unlikely, we have a new relay box coming from a breakers to be fitted on sunday and take it from there... We then plan on rebuilding the loom from almost scratch for the 2nd race in 5weeks time.

So after a frantic 5 weeks since the r1 went pop. Lots of miles and expense. Its been a shitty day Oh well, glad we got so much done and it was lovely to see it all running nicely yesterday.

Would like to thank Andy Bates in particular who has been brilliant as well as Gavin174 and Stuart_B who have both spent a quite significant amount of time helping.

Forgetting about the car for the next few days leaving it in the trailer till Sunday. I will get some pictures in the next week.

Ed

edd, we will get there mate

busy boy ed itll all be woth it in the end

Well spent the day today at Andy Bates's, got the new relay board in. And found some earthing problems that hopefully caused it to break in the first place.. Also got a few little jobs done such as getting flatshifter properly working and tacho reading correctly. Suddenly it feels more worth it, now a call to Daytuner tomorrow morning to see when it can go on the rollers.

Relay like to see some photos and/vids when she's sorted.

Glad you are nearly there! When you eventually get there and get that race completed it will all feel worth it!

Hey Eddie, sorry to hear of your troubles. They fight you every step of the way these bloody Globals!
I've had the same sort of of story with mine. Started a few projects on it (newer style dash, rewire, new switches, gauges, clutch, etc, etc) 4 weeks ago.
I've worked relentlessly on it over the bank holidays finishing at 10pm on Sunday night for my trackday on Monday the 2nd.
Got to track, had briefing then went out on sighting laps. I couldn't go up the box for some reason! so tried to limp back round to the pits however, on trying a gearchange again it found a false neutral, then the gear, causing it to spin a wheel and smash the centre driveshaft!
So that's a new record for breakdowns, half a lap and head back home.
I don't know if you've managed to fabricate some sort of diff assembly but, I'm going to look into it. Globals eat driveshafts for breakfast. Fair enough I suppose since the car was designed to run a 100hp 600cc motor.
Anyway, excuse my rant. Just wanted to let you know there are fellow Global owners also thinking of attacking their cars with a hammer!
Anyway good luck! It should be ballistic with the kwacker motor in it!

Oooh, another Global. Be good to see a few more on track. (Including mine!)

I've certainly considered the can of petrol and match approach too, many times over the last couple of years!

Been thinking about a diff for a year or two now, but if all goes well with the engine at Snett in a few weeks it may be on my list to actually try. Finally got mine back together and on the rollign road last Friday, best use of the royal wedding day was driving to Harroagte at 4 in the morning.

You're deffinetly right about them eating driveshafts.
From what I can gather these cars were initally designed to have small 4 stroke engines and be used for fun. Still had the original kelgate brake brackets and sprocket carriers on mine when I bought it. Probably because they were so corroded into place!

you going to be out at snetterton then keith???

Just sent my entry in today.

All being well I should be there. An all being even better I may (hopefully) actually finish a race meeting with an engine in one piece.

Hi Keith,
I've browsed your website a few times when googling Global stuff.
What series are you lads racing in? 750MC bikesports? I'm trackdays only for a while yet but, if I ever get the thing reliable, I do aim to race. Being based just north of Newcastle upon Tyne adds a lot to costs and time though, Snetts 5 hours away and Brands is 6.
With regards to diffs I know Graham Hathaway now sells a cush drive set up with about 20mm play or so in it for about £300. Or there's the Quaife chain drive diff unit at £500+!
I was speaking to a guy at my trackday who hillclimbs and has built several OMS and Jedis. He uses diffs from a front wheel drive car, such as fiesta, fabricates a carrier and uses the pot joints and inner ends of the driveshafts welded to the outer ends from the car they're being fitted to. Quite a bit of work, but he swears by it.
I'm going to run mine standard until winter then go down this route, unless I try Grahams cush drive in the meantime and find it adequate.
Anyway, good luck for the rest of the year lads.
Mark.
PS Are you lads still on the Avons. I've just switched to Michelins. They're med/soft radials as opposed to hard Cross-ply Avons, that were on. I'm hoping to see an improvement with these, although it was hard to tell on my one-wheel drive, single warm-up lap.

Hi Mark,

We are racing in 750mc at the moment. One of the guys I used to race karts with is racing in OSS, but I think it's too expensive. £ per lap is similar but there is more track time so more cost.

My team mate has got the cush drive from GH, but he's not really noticed any difference. I don't plan on bothering with it and I'm not sure he would again. It seems well made, but I can't see the advantage, maybe it takes some shock load from the drivetrain, but i'm not sure.

I've seen a few places that do diffs for use with chain drive (Westgarage Engineering seems to be one of them)
My concern it the lack of space, we'd need a new fuel tank (if you have the larger one), which would probably struggle to get me through the 750mc race. Then a load of additional brackets/framework and new axle setup. Hopefully take a look if all goes weel engine wise.

I still use avons, but use the raidal versions, we've tried the really soft oones but they don't last long on track so have gone for a slighlty harder version. I much prefer the radial to the crossply tyres as does my team mate. We find them more similar to karting tyres which we are used to.

What's cost of the michelins like compared to avons?

Keith

[Edited on 5/5/11 by ko_racer]

As far as I know Keith, the Michelins are a similar price to the Avons when new, at about £150 a corner.
I don't buy new though as, like I say, I'm trackdays only at the minute.
I've found a lad that gets the Michelins from the Formula Renaults. I know buying used slicks can be a minefield, due to unknown number of heat cycles, etc, but these are great with loads of life left and only cost £15 a corner, so £60 a set, rather than £600.
I totally understand your comments regarding the cush drive. I said to my dad a cush drive will only help shaft life, whereas a diff will improve shaft life and more importantly, improve driveability. It's probably the route I'll go down next winter. However, the car has this summer to prove it can be reliable, or it could well be getting pedalled on.
I used to get to a lot of 750 meetings, as my mate used to race in the hothatch championship with an ex-BTCC peugeot 306. He races in the LMA and Classic thunder champs now though in a Ford Falcon Australian touring car.
One last thing, can you hold a slide in your Global? I find once the back of mine let's go, I'm just a passenger!

[Edited on 5/5/11 by Marky911]

Once I got a relativly good setup and had a decent set of tyres (not the ancient cross ply tyres I had on before) on I could hold a slide fairly well, but once you get to a point it does just let go. I think the axle setup doesn't help this.
The condition of the slicks seems to be the biggest thing once you have good setup on these.
There are also a couple of variation on the steering rack ratio, the newer ones being slightly slower making them less twitchy, though once you are used to them there's not much in it.

Ah right, thanks.
My setup is much better than when I bought the car, but still a bit to go. I'll just plod on and see how I get on with Michelins then.

Sorry its taken me so long to properly reply, been very busy. A diff is definitely on our list to get on the car but isn't important at the moment..

We got it to harrogate on the rollers 2 weeks ago but had some engine mounting/tensioning issues. We now hope to have resolved this and are booked on the rollers next thursday... Giving us 10 days to do as much testing as possible before snett.

Back onto diffs.... From what i have heard, i would say not to use Quaife diffs, highly recommended for Front wheel drive cars, but not liked by rear drive cars. Looking at TranX plate type diff instead.

With regards to fuel tank, we want to move ours closer to the centre of the car but putting in the zx10r has stopped us putting it in behind driver so it might have to go down one of the side pods... but see below

Yep we are racing in bikesports 750mc... Keith - will your friend be out as well??? and Mark - it would be great to get more globals out there so enter some races

Tyres - i haven't even looked into... we still have 2 sets of used slicks and 2 sets of pretty much brand new wets.... How long are you guys finding the tyres last??? And they are avons.... We have been recommended Avon A11 slicks.

And we haven't even got onto the setup of the car... Haven't driven it long enough to see how good the setup is so cant comment on that:

In terms of the developments:

We have, Made some barge boards to clean up flow from from front splitter

Made some deflectors to smooth flow over the cockpit opening

Rear diffuser

Bigger front splitter

Currently designing a new chassis that's narrower, lighter, stiffer and with 400mm extra length in the back to accomodate centrally mounted fuel tank, better weight distribution, bigger rear diffuser, and LSD diff.

Also on the cars is a multi-plane rear wing.

quote:

---

Originally posted by eddie99

Back onto diffs.... From what i have heard, i would say not to use Quaife diffs, highly recommended for Front wheel drive cars, but not liked by rear drive cars. Looking at TranX plate type diff instead.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by progers

quote:

---

Originally posted by eddie99

Back onto diffs.... From what i have heard, i would say not to use Quaife diffs, highly recommended for Front wheel drive cars, but not liked by rear drive cars. Looking at TranX plate type diff instead.

---

I can assure you a Quaife diff will be very effective and more than good enough for the global light. Radical use them and most of the mid engined cars in RGB (including me) use them also. They work very well in all but the most extreme conditions. Going the plated route is alot more dosh for very little gain.

- Paul

---

Spent some time this evening analysing the rear suspension. Interesting!

The roll centre is really low and moves about a lot with suspension travel. There is no camber gain either which must mean that it goes positive camber with roll and as there is a lot of roll couple that can't be good. For the new chassis we'll have much longer wishbones and i'll revise the position of the brackets on the chassis and try and keep the uprights etc the same yet improve things. Idea is to do a new and improved car modifying as few things as possible.

Changing the lower wishbone inboard pickups by an inch-ish makes a huge difference.

quote:

---

Originally posted by eddie99

Firstly thats the complete opposite to what i have heard... and secondly Tranx are £90 cheaper than Quaife.....

---

Up at the rollers today, 162 at the wheels so happy with that testing at snetterton tomorrow. Cant wait

Were those louvres any use Eddie?

quote:

---

Originally posted by scootz
Were those louvres any use Eddie?

---

Sounds good, think that's about 7hp more than I got from the r1

Hope all goes well testing.

I see the final instructions are out for the Snett race. Seems to only be 6 garages for about 12 cars, can easily get 2 cars per garage, especially the globals. Do you fancy sharing a garage if there's one free when we arrive, I can save a space if I get there first, though I'm not arriving 'til early Sunday am. Other than that we'll end up on the tarmac to the left of the garages.

Regards

Keith

Hi Keith,

Yup sounds fine, im there all weekend so will grab a garage

Had a few issues today, couldnt get tacho working so i was being extremly careful, getting it into 6th as soon as possible down the straights. But then as soon as i started picking up the pace, a CV joint went. Im sure ive got some spares so plan on swapping it over tomorrow then taking it from there. Hope to be testing again Tuesday but got a bit of bum in seat time and it was good fun

Hi Eddie,

just a quick note to say I hope the seasons going well.

I've been watching your vids on youtube (I'm always lurking online for Global info, haha). Very good. Hairy startline bump at Snett!!

Anyway, glad it's going well. Was there much work involved in getting the Kwacker motor into the Global? Big re-jig of engine mounting points etc?

Not looking to do it soon but may have to go down a different motor route, depending on the reliability of the 5VY this year.

Anyway, bye for now.
Mark.

Hi lads,
hope everyones getting some miles in, in their Globals and having a good year.

Mines been out doing its thing a few times this year and I hate to tempt fate but it's been great. I've done Teeside a few times, trackdays and testdays and just done Croft a couple of weeks ago.

The Michelins have transformed the car and I now realise how, quite frankly, lethal it was with the old Avons on!
Graham Hathaway has given me some new camber settings to try with the Michelins but, to be honest it's great as it is so I've left well alone.

It's nice just to be able to use and enjoy it, and not have to crawl around the garage floor between trackdays.

Anyway, despite all that I've put it up for sale! Not too bothered if it goes, as I know there's no way of getting round a circuit quicker for the cash but, I've got a winter of DIY and could do with freeing up my garage space and some cash in preperation.

I'll let you know if it sells. As usual I've bought a car that has been a bit neglected by former keepers, updated it and brought it back upto scratch, only to sell on for the same money to the next guy. Hey-ho.

Anyway, enjoy the summer everyone. I hope your cars are good to you.

I just saw it up for sale, looks neat! but definitely some exaggeration in the post hehe....

Good luck with the sale!

Eeh! Exaggeration!? Me, never.

In all honesty, apart from the snapped shaft (my fault due to clashing the gear selector back together) at the begining of the year, all I've had to do is check the levels.

I'll see how things pan out though. Don't mind keeping it but would rather it went at the moment.
How's your season going then Eddie? I've watched a few of your vids on youtube and you've been socking it to some of 'em Radical lads! Good going.

Hehe i was referring to the lap times snetterton in 1:09 :p

Engine went Bang so its a complete rework of the chassis before the new zx10 goes in, hope to be out before end of season. The car is very quick but need to work on the reliability.

Evening Eddie,
damn! that's a real bummer for you. Have the ZX10 motors not been proven in any sort of car setup yet then?
Nightmare that but, as you know, the only good thing about Globals when they break, is that they come back better and stronger, as you can usually find a better solution to the original problem.

Mine went yesterday, down to Derbyshire. Nice lad bought it. I explained the achilles heels (driveshafts,etc) and he seems chuffed with it. I hope it's good to him. I know it's ten times the car it was when I bought it.


Anyway, good luck with yours. I'll keep a look on here from time to time and keep an eye out for your vids on youtube.

Cheers, Mark.

PS. That Snetterton lap time of 1.09 is obviously the old circuit, as I bought the car Jan/Feb 2010, so the advert I quoted is old. I'm sure Keith could do that round Snett (old) in his? I know the Radical lads could do 1.06s round the old circuit.
I could believe if it was pie in the sky too though, as the joker I bought the car off (Chris Dawkins, Maxspeed Engineering) could talk the talk but not walk the walk.
Bye for now.

[Edited on 10/8/11 by Marky911]