K2 SUPPORT CRASH APPEAL FOR CHRISTMAS

click on the picture to see the animation.

We have donated our Christmas card budget towards @CRASHcharity, who help the homeless rebuild their lives www.crashcares.com/k2-consultancy

Happy Christmas from everyone at K2 Consultancy to all our existing and future clients.

STRATFORD ONE GOES LIVE

Standing at 25 storeys high, Stratford One is now fully operational as a landmark 1001 bedroom student accommodation scheme which also incorporates a coach park in Stratford City, East London. The project provides stunning views over the Olympic Park, offering a high standard accommodation to UK and International students studying in London. Working with the Unite Group, the leading developer and manager of student accommodation in the UK, K2 Consultancy were appointed as Project Manager, Cost Consultant & Employer’s Agent to this construction project close HS1, Docklands Light Railway and the Westfield Shopping Centre.

IT'S A K2 MOVEMBER

Please show your support by tracking the progress of several K2 team members throughout Movember and kindly donating http://t.co/qLFT6gjPF2

Movember, the month formerly known as November, is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health.

MOLERACING 2014 - 1st 3 rounds

Winter Developments

4th overall in last years SBD British Sprint Championship was celebrated at the awards dinner - although
I did get a lot of abuse for my shirt!
After the major expense of the new engine, I'd blown my budget midway through 2013! Mike Musson kindly helped with a lot of suspension analysis and we found a few issues that have now been corrected.
A new clutch hydraulic slave cylinder and having the shock absorbers serviced all has made the car much better to drive so far this season.

Click here for complete PDF of Moleracing event report and stats.







Rockingham
Never been here before and it was a hot spring day for a club meeting shakedown. Terry and Graham in the V8 Lola also had the same idea, and I ended up 2nd overall behind Terry. But it was a useful opening event to test things out.

Castle Combe
A favourite circuit and also the fastest in the calendar. We had a great evening celebrating Mikes 60th - walking to the local restaurant and Mike treated Martin and I to a very nice meal, and maybe I did mix my drinks a little too much, and I do confess to feeling queasy until lunchtime. Anyhow, I'd done enough to qualify for the run off and scraped in in 124.48 in 10th place. Feeling better and with new tyres, a new PB for the venue and a 122.47 and 5th place.


Pulled some good points out the bag with a late flourish! An on-board video can be seen by clicking here. Note to self - don't start an event hungover again!












Croft
I was good to be back at this Northern circuit after a 4 year break, and also great to be supported by Chris and Jonny, who maintained and prepared the car, the datalogging and ECU software updates faultlessly all day.

The circuit is a medium speed venue - top speed of 130mph, but has many challenging flowing bends. A good entry 90 plus and a class of 10 2 litre cars. My previous PB was 74.20 set in '09, so I was confident of beating this, but also hoping to get good overall points in the run off. Timed run 1 was a good start at 72.20 and just 1/2 second behind class leader Mark Smith. I was told he was feeling under pressure as he put the best run off tyres for T2 and would have gone better had he done the wheel nut up properly! After a banker 1st run off, Jonny handed me the laptop whilst strapped in the car getting ready for a do or die final run. He had analysed the data logging traces and identified what areas needed working on and basically, it was braking - much less of it - just carry the speed – easier said than done!

I gave it everything and tried not to 'leave anything on the table' and was rewarded with a 70.57 just a snip behind Marks 70.33, to finish 5th overall. Up front Heather beat her dad in the big Gould with a new lap record of 67.49 to take the lead in the British championship!

Lydden
The forecast was bad - or good, if like me you like driving in the rain. I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a new set of wet tyres for the weekend, and £1010 later, I had a brand new set of slicks, hand cut into wets and hoped the forecast was correct.

Assisted by Martin again, we arrived and set up the night before - the car causing lots of interest from the Apex festival goers - perhaps 1000+ having a good time over the weekend. A low beer evening (not wanting to repeat Castle Combe hangover again), early to bed and then the rain started, yippee!

The SBD team had frantically worked on Bills car - changing clutch and machine the cylinder head - on the Friday, but at around midnight they gave up the assembly due to problems - it was all too tight, they had a few hours sleep then got up early to get to the circuit. I on the other hand was lying nice and snug in bed as they clattered and unloaded!

I was pleased to be lying 1st after the wet practice and then again 1st after timed run 1, however it was now rapidly drying and the slicks were put on. 3rd overall for timed run 2 wasn’t too shabby. Poor Terry Holmes had a spin on both runs, and the pre event favourite was reduced to trolley dolly role for Graham! The 1200 mile round trip for heather and Colin meant they hadn’t entered and so good points were on the cards.

Spurred on by the watching eyes of John of K2 Consultancy and family, Martin and Ian, we had a good plan, and this feedback led to a final run off time that was 2 secs inside my PB and I bagged 2nd place, just 1.2secs behind Mark Smith who took his first British win. Craig from SBD was less than 0.2 behind me then Steve Broughton in the new Dallara, so it was an SBD 1-2-3-4!

What then followed was a first, the UK Anti Doping agency then squirreled the top 3 away for drugs testing and breathalysing. Pleased to record 0.00 on the blower, but the sample took a lot longer to produce than I'd hoped for, but an hour later, my A and B samples were signed sealed and delivered! I await the results.

Steve

Click here for complete PDF of Moleracing event report and stats.

K2 at the ‘Cutting Edge’ of Technology

Due to our strong relationship with Peel Ports at Sheerness, K2 have successfully delivered the completion of the new PDI centre for Volkswagen at Cullet Drive, Sheerness. Aimed at the hire car fleet market, the new pre delivery inspection unit is able to process 330 cars per day to meet demand.

The existing factory was refurbished and brought up to modern standards to provide a larger processing area and a central welfare space including a fully fitted canteen, WC and storage space, whilst a large extension was completely reconstructed to programme an accelerated build plan in just 24 weeks, extending over the Christmas period. A workshop area of 4640m2 and welfare space of 766m2 now exists.

In conjunction and to service the new Cullet Drive PDI facility an access road at Whiteways has been constructed through the existing sea defences incorporating new flood defence system. This provides the link from the port pf Sheerness to transport cars to the new facility. Incorporating a pedestrian access bridge this has been completed in  tandem with the PDI for the opening of the centre.
The total project value lies at £7.6 million and is now said to be one of the largest PDI units in the country.

NIKE - just did it!

K2 were appointed to design and manage the refit of Nike’s current factory store within Ashford Designer Outlet, Ashford, Kent.  K2 provided architecture, building services design, project management and supervision for this fast-track refit. The store was closed for only two weeks whilst the works were carried out.

This included new back of house storage and staff facilities, new sales floor interior as well as lighting, ventilation, display fixtures and fittings and repositioning of the customer entrance doors. The new 9,000 sq. ft. store opened on time to catch pre-Christmas trading.

Putting BMW ahead of the game

Ahead of the launch of BMWs new iCar (BMWs new electric car) in the UK, K2 were appointed to refit Chandlers BMW Brighton showroom. A new iCar display area was installed complete with an electric charging point. The main sales floor was completely upgraded and refurbished to meet current BMW corporate standards.

Works included all internal flooring, new feature staircase, new reception area, customer toilets and hospitality suite. The works were carefully phased to allow the dealership to keep trading and maintain business as usual. Mark Allsop, Dealer Principal of Chandlers Brighton told us he is ‘delighted with the way the refit has gone and would be more than happy to use K2 again.’