World Sidecar Festival, Mallory Park

[fat jez]

 

[fat jez]

A great day out at Mallory Park. 18 Races for the bargain price of £14 entry on the day. I have to say, there are some serious nutters who do sidecar racing, as evidenced by flying round a corner at 90+mph with your arse hanging only millimetres above the track.

 

[Brogan]

That looks like great fun.

And for the price, it really can't be beaten.

There's a lot to be said for some of the less well-known motorsport disciplines.
I used to live very near to Castle Combe circuit and there were always some good meets on there.

 

[fat jez]

To be fair, it had something going for it not often seen in more elite motorsport - bags of overtaking. Mallory Park is also a small enough venue (just over 1.3 miles in length) that you can see pretty much the whole track from a single vantage point and also get very close to the action (those photos were taken by me about 1m away from the trackside barricade and there are no high fences to get in the way either.

Racing today featured:
* F1 Sidecars (1000cc)
* F2 Sidecars (600cc)
* F350 Sidecars (350cc two-stroke)
* Post Classic Sidecars
* Classic Sidecars (pre-1976)
* Vintage Sidecars (Pre-1961)

So a good variety of standards and specs.

 

[FB]

Nice pics Jez, the chair guys are generally mad but the ones on those little combo's must be completely crazy.

 

[fat jez]

I was surprised exactly how many women take part as well. A lot of the teams feature husband and wife, with the wife being the passenger (although that's a very unfair term, given one wrong move by the passenger would see the whole bike thrown of balance and both riders catapulted off).

 

[Brogan]

I think the correct term is ballast

 

[fat jez]

I think the correct term is ballast

If you get bored, Bro, there's about 250 pictures on my facebook page from today. I took over 400 photos in total, but many were quite blurry due to the speeds involved (and I need to work out how to set the shutter speeds and aperture sizes on my Nikon D40).

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone as a day out. Mallory Park is in the Midlands, but there are loads of similar meets around the country.

 

[Speshal]

Cracking pics there chap

A chap in my local does Motor X sidecar, now that's just sheer lunacy

 

[sportsman]

Late on this one.Sidecar racing has always been my favourite motor sport, indeed I started racing as a passenger.A few pics of the bits you can't see behind the fairings.

This is an F1 LCR.Note monocoque chassis and hub centre steering.This one has a 1000cc Suzuki K5 engine and can top 170mph.
The very long exhausts coming forward are to improve resonance and give a 10bhp power boost.

This an F2 outfit.These have the engine in front of the driver and this one holds the lap record at IOMTT of 118 mph.FI outfits are banned there as they deemed to be to fast to be safe.Note the leading link front forks.

 

[fat jez]

Good photos/info You don't really see much as they hurtle past you on the circuit

 

[sportsman]

If anyone is interested I have several more of these outfits from different angles.

 

[fat jez]

Dunno about anyone else, but I would be interested. I'm not a massive fan as such, but it's a form of motor racing that's exciting to watch and accessible to many people, so I do enjoy it. It's always good to get an insight

 

[sportsman]

F1 the other side.

F1 drive system

F2 passenger platform

F2 Leading link forks.

 

[Grizzly]

Thanks for the pics, I like the leading link front end, Tesi inspired I presume. Does everyone use this or? edit - looks like most people use a BMW inspired setup thats half way between the two...?

indeed I started racing as a passenger

I'm sorry, you say your 6'5", lanky and afraid of nothing? A scary job to be sure. I've never been that close to SC racing myself, but one of my old boss's (also 6"5' and lanky) was a passenger back in the day and used to hang from Vincent Black Shadows and the like. I also lost two friends to sidecar racing when i was 15/16 and was probably enough to put me off having a go, they were brothers and chasing the British Championship at the time, i can well believe it is one enormous adrenalin buzz, but sadly just a little too kamikaze for my blood. They are however, wonderful machines!

 

[sportsman]

Me.I am little short fat 5'8'' with a cornish accent.L/L forks were invented by guy named Earle in about 1930's or 40's. BMW did adopt them for road use in the 60's as BMW/Steib sports outfit was extremely popular in Germany.
These L/L forks work on the same basic priciple.The biggest difference is the length of of the actual front link from the pivots point to the front wheel spindle.If you closely you can see the brake torsion arm connection position and the caliper mounted below the wheel spindle results in the front end remaining at a constant height under any load.It also gives you adjustable trail which is the distance at ground leve between a 90 degree vertical line drawn from ground level through the wheel spindle a straightline drawn from the head stock angle to ground level Looks like an inverted letter Y with one straight side.Road solos run about 3 to 4 inches of trail which results in the Ackerman principle of self centralising steering.You don't need that much on an outfit so most racing outfits run about 1" of trail which gives you light steering with some feel to it.
The steering geometery is a ver interesting subject.
I thought that Red Bull were using a similair suspension geometery on their car to acheive a constant ride height irrespective of load.
One other point about L/L forks if you do get it wrong they can lift up under braking and the suspension locks solid.
I only did four races in the chair, I am mad but not certifiable.I very quickly bought my own outfit and held the bars and twistgrip myself. And the feeling from an outfit in full blooded drift on a left hander has only one equal

 

[Grizzly]

Yeah sorry, didn't mean to credit BMW with its entire D&D, but they were/are the only/largest user of the sytem in road machines aren't they.

The side cars are an interesting hybrid of car and bike technology/practice it seems. I see the theory, once dive is eliminated, steering extents reduced, large travel unnecessary etc large bike rake angles are undesirable and unnecessary. Meaning you can achieve a much more desirable suspension/steering setup.

I thought that Red Bull were using a similair suspension geometery on their car to acheive a constant ride height irrespective of load.

Your not the only one. Ive seen various sketches on line as well....

One other point about L/L forks if you do get it wrong they can lift up under braking and the suspension locks solid.

Yeah', hopefully you've never actually seen that

I only did four races in the chair, I am mad but not certifiable.I very quickly bought my own outfit and held the bars and twistgrip myself. And the feeling from an outfit in full blooded drift on a left hander has only one equal

 

[gethinceri]

Bunch of headcases, my brother used to race F1 sidecars and broke his back. Great fun to watch ( the racing, not the back breaking).

 

[fat jez]

I never know whether to admire their bravery or condemn their death wish! Either way it's cracking entertainment.