Rolling restorations

[dennisdoyle]

How about a thread re. what changes members/championship contenders are making to their cars between events? Might inject a bit more life into the forum, allow speculation of why x blew up, y went quicker than before etc?& could even be used by poor old Steve as background for his reports?

Anyway, here’s my starter for 10:

1600 Engine rebuild going as expected, i.e. slow & expensive, e.g. needed a ‘new’ crank as old one was bent, oval & already reground 30/30 & just spent over £200 on sundries like gasket, bearings & a couple of ARP bolts from Burtons. Not looking likely for Anglesey, but should still make it for Aintree.

Got a couple of little diffusers for nosecone for free from Phil major (thanks Phil). & hoping to make something similar for the back.

Must remember to bleed the brakes before Scammonden on 14th!

Regards, Dennis

[sprintman]

Thanks Dennis!

First priority for my Lotus Elan is a new set of rubber. At knockhill last week-end the grip was awful - mind you the tyres are six years old and A001Rs were not renowned for grip when new!

[dennisdoyle]

Excellent, not seen at Elan out for ages, though Dennis Liversedge will be out in his as one of the mere 25 runners at Scammonden on Sunday.

Would yours be 26R spec?

Will you limit yourself to 1A or 1B tyres?

I’d ask messieurs Thomas, Coveney, Kerr & Marshall what they use & see if you can get some in a 13” size.

Guess you already know this, but QED do an EN19 crank for the Elan. Unfortunately they want a grand (including VAT) for one, which is a bit rich for my taste.

BTW1. What revs do you reckon an iron Elan crank is good for? I’m hoping for 8,000. Either way, if I’m lucky it will run out of puff before it runs out of metal.

BTW2 forgot to mention, when the awesome all-iron 1600 Doyle Crossflow appears I’ll be changing diff ratios too, assuming I’m still in a position to afford the 3 paper gaskets required. The thinking here is that when it all goes tits up I will have sufficient airspeed to choose a more comfortable landing spot than last time – the thoughtfully positioned ramp & gully on the exit from Valentines are enough to get you airborne, but not for long enough!

Dirty Den Motors of Bury (PLC) – Bringing our beloved sport into disrepute yet again.

[sprintman]

dennisdoyle said:

Excellent, not seen at Elan out for ages, though Dennis Liversedge will be out in his as one of the mere 25 runners at Scammonden on Sunday.

Would yours be 26R spec?

Will you limit yourself to 1A or 1B tyres?

My Elan was rebuilt in 1999/2000 and was reconstructed on a 26R chassis. It also has 26R wheelarches. The engine is a Vegantune Twin Cam which, according to the rolling road print out, gives 140 BHP at the rear wheels.

As for the tyres I am considering getting a set of 'semi-slick' track day rubber for in the dry and a set of 'intermediate' List 1A or 1B for the wet. I will be running in Sports Libre because as I would have to otherwise run in Mod Prod and the prospect of being up against hordes of Westfields is not one I fancy!

I kept the revs down at Knockhill as the rears where breaking traction too much. Once the tyres are sorted I would look to max out at about 7500 rpm.

[dennisdoyle]

The "new" engine didn't blow up on the rolling road yesterday -perhaps because the tester was too scared to run it beyond 7,000. I therefore propose to try again at Anglesey this weekend.

For what it's worth, they reckoned it gave 160 (flywheel) bhp, but however you look at it it's a 25% increase on the previous little 'un.

See you all tonight/tomorrow.

Dirty Den Motors of Bury (PLC): Specialists in hydrocarbon solvent abuse.

[sprintman]

Well the new tyres well well scrubbed after the Aintree Trackday, unfortunately I had major cooling problems as this was the first time I have run the car so intensively. It all came to an early end when the cylinder head core plug was spat out as I rounded Beechers!

Eventually this was replaced and a new thermostat was also installed. After the engine running mainly OVER 70 degrees on the track day it is now hardly getting over 70 degrees!

So with Chester Motor Club's Anglesey double header this week-end I have my fingers crossed that the cooling problems are behind me!

[dennisdoyle]

Continuing the theme of what really goes on at events, here’s how I saw Ty Croes last weekend:

Got new engine in at last & it seemed good. However, on the first run I heard a mysterious banging from the front. nuts, it's going to blow up I thought, but sod it, might as well finish the lap. When I came in I was collared by a marshall who pointed out the nosecone was bouncing up & down against the track & getting a tad frayed at the bottom & wouldn’t it be a good idea to fix it before trying again. I thought it was a bit odd as that was one bit of the car I hadn’t mucked about with & it had worked fine at Aintree. Anyway, it wasn't too badly ripped up, so I figured I would raise it a bit & some tank tape would do the trick (it held one the GT40's bodies together on the Mulsanne straight & I didn’t figure I was going quite that fast). To cut a long story short, it didn’t do the trick & I spent the next 6 hours progressively adding £5 of tank tape, 6 bits of dexion from the trailer & 2 bits of 1/8” aluminium scrounged fro the groundsman to try to hold it together in order to complete my allotted 6 minutes of driving.

Next issue was on the run up to the hairpin the fire extinguisher got scared & decided to leap to the front of the footbox to assist with the braking. Could have been worse, if it had been one of these new intelligent ones it might have tried blipping the throttle too.

In the pub that night I did ponder sprinting the trailer on Sunday & towing it back on the Mallock – the former was clearly lighter than the latter by now & it had 5 wheels instead of 4 whereas the latter was probably stronger of the two. However, I decided against this on safety grounds as I couldn’t guarantee the stability of the Mallock at motorway speeds.

The scrutineers were clearly so impressed with the quality of design, materials & workmanship that they felt the need to re-scrutineer the entire car again on Sunday morning lest anything else should fall off. They let it out – strange but true.

Trouble with all this nonsense is it doesn’t leave much time to find out how things are going with anyone else. Did everyone else’s car behave or, if not, why not tell us what went wrong?

LOL, Dirty Den Motors of Bury (PLC): The contents of this message are strictly confidential. Anyone caught disclosing all or part of the information contained therein to Mrs. Doyle will die.

[sprintman]

Well the Elan was pretty well perfect on Saturday, mind you the driver was a bit erratic indulging in a huge spin at School!

On Sunday whilst chugging into the Pit Lane for my first practice run the engine suddenly spluttered and died. I couldn't restart her so was pushed back into the Paddock. Thankfully Brian Woffenden & Pete Howgate, who had their own troubles with an oil pump and were sidelined, came to the rescue. Before I could say 'what do you think it is?' the bonnet was off and they quickly diagnosed a faulty fuel pump. Suddenly the car was jacked up and Brian was underneath whipping off the starter motor (the fuel pump lives behind the starter motor) and the fuel pump. When it was opened up the none-return valve and the brass washer that holds it in place were loose and jamming the mechanism. Pete Howgate replaced them and then a swift blow with a hammer 'sorted it'. The pump & starter motor where then replaced, the Elan fired up and I managed to slot into the right batch for second practice. I was somewhat tentative but everything was OK so on my first timed run I gave it everything and recorded my fastest time of the week-end. The second run would have been quicker (honest!) but for the nut behind the wheel outbraking himself into Radar then running wide at the hairpin!

I too was sorry that Rob Stevens was out on Sunday as I was convinced he could have made the Top 12 Run-off. Mind you I wasn't that sorry as it means I still lead the Sports Libre Category in the British Sprint Championship!