Three Years Later!

Wow. Three years have passed since I last shared any news or updates. And in honesty very little has happened in those three years. Unsurprisingly the Lockdown restrictions impacted the amount of use the car has had, all club activities and meets canceled. The car has mostly hibernated under a cover in the garage, with the odd appearance for an MOT or a wash.

With the start of 2022 and the end of lockdown restrictions, I was finally able to plan some activity with the Club and car. First up was continuing with helping to organise the annual Stoneleigh show for WSCC – this year being the first proper one since before lockdown. This year funnily, I was driving the van so didn’t take the Westfield. We hag a great show in some lovely weather. The only challenge was getting the air out of the arch at the end!

Next up, just this month, was the annual MOT. Passed no problem although the tester confirmed what I was already aware of – the exhaust, now 20 years old, was in need of replacement. I knew this was the case prior to the test, and spent some time at the show looking at options and chatting to members about their experiences. As you would expect the choice is limited for a kit car, but within that small limit there’s a range of suppliers and costs. The current one is factory stock and although a like-for-like replacement is possible, its quite expensive for a basic product.

The conclusion was to go for a custom manufactured item from Wunoff. Once its arrived I’ll take some pictures of the fitting on my car, this is a stock photo.

Jan – July 2019

There’s been a definite lack of updates here so far this year, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening.

First up, early in the year, I completed the winter jobs I had planned. The new metal grille in the nose was fitted using small blobs of adhesive and metal rings. This was much neater than how the original plastic one was fitted which seemed to be with a whole tube of adhesive all over the place. I’m sure this has saved me a couple of lbs of the weight!

I then went on to mask and repaint the front suspension and steering arms while the nose was off & out of the way. This was pretty easy with some light sanding, pain prep wipes and then some satin black spay paint. The sawdust on the floor is soaking up some oil that was spilled when the filter was changed.

Next up was some new harnesses. Previous MOT’s had advised the current ones were a little worn and ‘not up-to modern standards’ and since safety comes first some new ones were ordered and installed. This was pretty straight forward once the seats were out. Hardest part being the removal of the original harness bolts which were a little stubborn. We then sailed through another year’s MOT with no issues. Add added bonus is that the new ones are ‘aircraft style’ buckle which releases all 4 straps. This makes them easier to put on an remove, particularly in a hurry.

The Original Willians Harnesses

The replacement Sabelt harness

With all that done and some great weather we were out and about quite a bit. The highlight being the annual trip to the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh Park (Warwickshire). Due to the house move I had missed last years show so was keen to get back and stuck into the running of the club stand and surrounding area.

This year I was fortunate enough to be asked to display my car in the club marquee as an example of an ‘older car’ still running the Ford Zetec and Webber Carbs combination. I don’t think its ever been so clean!

It was another great weekend although the show itself is starting to show signs of a setback in the kit car economy, with some marques having a reduced display and others not there at all. In a fit of enthusiasm I have volunteered to be part of the organising committee for next year and a key focus will be building on the years before by making our part of the show really stand out and highlight what a great club we are. Closer working with the factory will also be a factor.

Finally this month has seen 4 new tyres. Again an MOT discussion this year highlighted that the 2 front tyres were starting to degrade due to age rather than wear. The popular road and occasional track tyre on within the community has always been the Toyo R1R however these are now end of sale and getting harder to find in the right sizes. I was also concerned that if in the future one tyre was damaged and needed replacement I would struggle to find another to match. After some discussion and internet research I went for the new Yokohama Advan Neova AD08RS which is a similar style and compound to the R1R. Hopefully these will be of a similar or better standard – the drive home form the fitting certainly seemed good.

Yokohama

Toyo R1R

Winter Maintenance

It feels like the latter quarter of 2018 was nothing but rain in Shropshire and with moving house and DIY the car has had little use. Aim is to make sure it gets out more this year to make the most of the club weekends.

With that in mind its time to begin on some of the maintenance thats needed. First up was a lap of town to warm the oil, before returning to the garage to drain it. This year to make things easier I lifted the whole car onto stands. This made it much easier to get underneath to the sump. Didn’t stop me getting old dirty oil all over the place though!

While the oil was draining I took off the wheels & nose as theres 2 jobs I want to do up front. Ive had a new metal grille for the nose sitting on the shelf for a while so fitting that is one of them. The second is to to repaint some of the front suspension which is showing signs of rust where the paint has been chipped. It would be much easer to strip the suspension down and paint but that would mean having to get the geometry redone which is a pain.

The plan is to do what I can with all the parts in situ and masked off. Should be fun.

Shelsley Walsh Speed Hillclimb

Having missed this year’s pilgrimage to the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh due to a house move, I was determined to get myself to another overnight club meeting this summer. Silverstone was out due to holidays so when the Speed Series 21st anniversary event at Shelsley Walsh was posted on the form I jumped at the chance. An added benefit of attending the day and evening meal was the chance to drive the classic hill climb route!

I headed to Shelsley on the Friday evening with the car packed with camping gear and helmet. Shelsley is an easy 40 mile drive from Shropshire and I arrived in plenty of time to unpack, prep the car (i.e. throw everything not riveted down into the tent) and walk the track. The club had the use of the historic paddock area for the weekend too

Driver sign on and briefing was first thing Saturday so we were all up early. I don’t think I was the only one feeling excited but also slightly anxious – the unforgiving sleeper wall at ‘Bottom S’ was mentioned several times. Sensibly the day was being run as an untimed, non-competitive friendly event and there was no pressure to perform. So with the briefing over, route walked and organiser Graham’s words of wisdom absorbed, we all started to line up for the first runs of the day.

Any pre run nerves I had queueing up for my first run evaporated some 45 seconds later when I reached the top – fantastic. I took it fairly easy and just enjoyed the run. Sitting at the top waiting to roll back down, everyone was itching for another go. Luckily, apart from an hour for lunch, we had the use of the hill all day and could complete as many runs as time would allow. The result was what understand to be a record number of runs in a single day (407) and all without incident. I managed a comfortable 9 runs with several breaks to allow the car any myself to cool down.

My best run to f the day – around 42 seconds.

The day was nicely rounded off with a great meal and some presentations to Speed Series competitors past & present. Thanks to all involved in organising and running the event. Where are we going next year?

Winter Weight Loss

Conscious its been a little quiet on here for a good few months now, the reality being that with the endless rain the car hast been out much at all. There was also the small issue of an Appendectomy that kept me out of the driving seat for a couple of months!

However with Christmas and hopefully the worst of the winter behind us I finally managed to get to the garage to start the winter tinkering today. First up is the battery. When I bought the car it was fitted with a standard size (and weight) car battery. Every winder it starts to loose its charge and struggles to start the car. I’m not sure of its age but it looked pretty scruffy and old and so has been on the list of things to address for a while.

A January sale had £45 off a lighter weight race battery from Odyssey so I ordered that and a new battery and mounting bracket.

What should have been an easy job turned into a 4 hour faff with several problems resulting from screws and bolts that clearly hadn’t been touched since the car was built. Undeterred I did get the old battery and carrier out of the car, and onto the scales to see what the weight saving might be – the old battery (and the carrier) came in at 11.9Kg.

The next problem was that the new battery is designed to lay flat, but the water pipes for the heater and expansion tank were in the way by about 10mm. I had to slacken off the pipework and wriggle it about to get the space I needed. Lastly the earth and starter cables were looking a bit tatty so I replaced those too (with more stubborn bolts).

Last job was to confirm the weight of the new battery & bracket before bolting them in – replacement weight was 6.8kg, so a saving of 5.1kg. Once everything was connected up and fastened in, a quick test drive was done to make sure it was all ok. Sadly the rain returned and cut short the fun so I headed home to watch the 6 Nations on TV.

Summer Update

Conscious that its been a while since I posted any updates here so here is a catch up of the summer so far. After the club show at Stoneleigh I went over to Barcelona for the Spanish F1 race. It was a great weekend and a fantastic race. Normally I would upload some photos but my phone was stolen on the last day so I lost most of what I’d taken over the weekend. Not a great end to the trip!

Work commitments and a couple of trips away have meant I’ve not had the car out as much as I would have liked. There’s been a couple of runs into work and local roads but little else.

Last weekend the weather was good so we went with a couple of friends to the hill climb at Loton Park. The weather mostly stayed fine and it was a good day’s racing. The Pirelli Ferrari round was at Loton that weekend and it was nice to see some Ferrari’s been driven hard. I’ve loaded up some pictures to the Gallery. It a great track and has recently been resurfaced. Unfortunately a short spell of drizzle made for a wet track briefly, which caught one unlucky owner out.

Ive moved my camera mount to the side of the car now, rather than on the top Below you can watch the 20 min run back from Loton to Shrewsbury.

Time to lose some weight

As mentioned previously, I’d hatched a plan to remove the spare wheel and carrier to save some weight and improve the look of the car. This old photo shows the rear as was.

Once the wheel was unbolted and lifted off, the carrier was easy to remove with just two bolts securing the rails to the chassis. I had to disconnect the number plate light as its cable ran inside the carrier tube. The wire was then re-routed up behind the fuel tank and out of the wheel bolt hole further up (harder than it sounds!). 

The two holes from the carrier were plugged with cup head bolts covered in some leftover carbon fibre wrap. 

I then removed the plate holder and light from the wheel carrier and once the wiring was reconnected, fastened it to the car with some double sided number plate tape. A new number plate, and stripes to match the front finished the job. Weight saved will be the wheel & tyre, carrier and the scissor jack which is replaced by a tin of tyreseal in the boot box. And it’s all reversible should I change my mind or if the spare is needed for a long trip. 

National Kit Car Show Pt2

What a great weekend. The weather really made the show and for the most part all weekend was sunny with only a few showers. The turnout for the club on Sunday was incredible, with over 160 cars parking to display on our plot. 

The whole show was very busy with both the club display and the rest of the show being very busy – I think we had around 20 new members joining over the weekend and either buying used cars or new ones from the factory. I was chuffed to sell some parts at the auto-jumble stall and also came away with a pair of newly powder coated windscreen pillars to replace my rather tired looking ones.  After several chats with other members I have also resolved to remove the spare wheel and carrier. It’s essentially dead weight and most members now simply carry a pump and some sealant. I’ll be onto that when I get home. 

The Sunday evening AGM and subsequent hog roast was also well attended and a great social event. There were a few tired faces and think heads on Monday morning!

National Kit Car Show Pt1

It doesn’t seem a year ago that I was last packing the car for the annual National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, but it’s that time again and I am once again helping with the club stand at the show.  Thankfully this year the weather is better and it was almost warm driving along the M6 to the show. 

Saturday is setup day and the public aren’t allowed in until tomorrow but the site was still busy with manufacturers and clubs getting things ready. I’m camping again for two nights so hoping things stay dry. 

With our marquee all set up and the parking marked up we were able to relax and enjoy a sunny evening with a BBQ and a beer. 

Scott’s car is being changed from carburettor to fuel injection over the weekend and the team wasted no time stripping his car down and making a start. 

Finally, thanks to AB Performance for the live band and free bar in the evening.

2300 miles

In 3 years. I really must try harder. Cost per mile must be horrific. So I won’t work it out! 
Still, all passed for another year. Today was the first proper run out since fitting the new suspension a couple of weeks again, and what a difference. The car feels so much better on the road and a lot less bouncy. Very pleased.