DROC Rolling Road Day
12th May 2002
Chris Brice tells us about the enjoyable Rolling Road
day held at PTS in Luton, Bedfordshire. Attendees were Mark F, Ash T, Bill R, Chris B, Paul B, Steve
M, Chris H, Mike P, Chris S and Richard P.
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   It was a crisp sunny morning when we all met in the B&Q car park near
Luton. I had taken a friend John along for a bit of fun and everybody sauntered over as we got out of the car.
The perfect audience for my poor friend John as, to his maximum embarrassment, his door came off in his hands!
Those wonderful fragile brass hinges had struck again and as we all made toast under John’s chin, I think it was
Mark who said slyly "somebody's going to get cold ears on the way home" which only served to add to the
glow!
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Thanks to Mark, the car park 'greasy spoon' had been forewarned and we all enjoyed a bacon butty. That is until
Mike insisted on pointing out Paul’s yellow V8 strewn with the remnants of an unfortunate pheasant. Thanks Mike,
a memorable butty!
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  So over to the PTS rolling
road where we all signed our cars and lives away, as expected of course, and Mark promptly showed us how it was
all done.
  From
PTS the main challenge appeared come from Steve to see if he could wear out Ash's clutch by repeated reversing
on to the rollers! I counted about 6 attempts, but it must have all been worthwhile as, commendably, the rest of
the morning went without hazard.
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Max power DIN 70020
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Maximum Torque
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Owner
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RPM
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BHP
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Speed
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RPM
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Torque
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Speed
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Boost (psi)
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Rush Type
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Mark Fitzsimmons
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5591
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110.6
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110.9
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4583
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109.7
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116.9
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n/a
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DOHC 2.0
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Ash Trowe
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4254
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119.6
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92.5
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4859
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154.5
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53.5
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not enough!
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Rover V8
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Bill Rayner
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5465
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175.9
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105.5
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5465
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183.1
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83
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n/a
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Rover V8
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Chris Brice
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4491
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250.8
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90
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3942
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307.9
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79
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15 (-> 25)
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4x4 2.1 Cosworth (with wheelspin!)
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Paul Buckley
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5521
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211
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108.1
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4327
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225
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89.6
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n/a
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4.0 TVR V8
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Steve Mellor
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6230
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220.7
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122
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5750
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187.2
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111
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14
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Cosworth unmodified
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Chris Haywood
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4509
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167.5
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89
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4078
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206.3
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80.5
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n/a
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3.9 V8
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Mike Prince
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5878
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373.2
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111.9
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5195
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367.3
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98.9
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24
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2.0 Cosworth 4x4
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Chris Shilton
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5744
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133.6
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110.3
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5301
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127.6
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101.8
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n/a
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Pinto 2.1
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Richard Pope
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4985
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103.8
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96.4
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4235
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115.9
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81.9
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n/a
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Pinto 2.1
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    The
numbers speak for themselves, but sitting on the roll bar of Mike’s 4x4 as it went through 4000rpm barely compares
to the harshest and noisiest roller coaster you could imagine! Yes it took 2 of us on the roll bar as well as the
2 occupants to hold it down.
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  Prize for the most windows
rattled has to go to Chris Hayward with that almost silenced V8 exhaust system and all in all a highly entertaining
morning. All our thanks to Mark for its organisation.
    The
obligatory trip to a local watering hole rounded off the day perfectly as we all sat in the garden comparing power
curves… Petrol heads' Paradise! Definitely the makings of an annual event.
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Ash Trowe adds:
"Yep, a good day was had by all, even if my BHP figures were a bit low - over fuelling at 5000 caused a
misfire, so they couldn't get a proper reading, still I've got a benchmark figure to work from.
Readings were at the wheels with a guesstimated value at the flywheel, not sure why only Paul B made it over
200bhp. The Rushes were not really suited to the rolling road as they were too light and kept wheel spinning etc.
Maybe the results were not very accurate, mine should be around 190-ish at the flywheel, 160-ish at the wheels.
Mine came out at 119 at the flywheel and 89(?) at the wheels. There be much more than 89 at the wheels me thinks......
I need to do a proper rolling road set up & tune session after I've bought a new RPI ignition module.....have
to wait till after the holiday to the Med next week!"
Words and pictures by Chris Brice and Ash Trowe.
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These pages copyright © Dax Rush Owners Club, 2000-2002
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