This is the modern world!

Went to the Pistonheads Sunday Service this morning at BMW's UK HQ at Bracknell. I went with some old friends of mine who own more modern cars.

These are their cars, a Pug 205GT1 1.9, Subaru Impreza Turbo amd BMW M3, and of course my old saloon at the back! Darren is bringing his 205 to Oulton Park.

The car park was full of modern cars, mainly M3s and Subarus, however did spot some nice older machinery, a nice Cooper S and a Fiat Abart 500-60s not the modern big thing! Unfortunately it was raining very hard whilst we were there, so we did not stop long. My fave car was a Caterham R500, very nice, BRG with orange rim to the nose cone. Also spotted a couple of nice Focus RS, these newish Fords do look big. I'd love to have a drive, I love my ST but must admit would like to try something that had a bit more power.

The saloon went well on the drive over to Bracknell, the moisture (!) coupled with the 123 dizzy certainly transformed the car, she seems so much snappier. in fact so much so that I may take her to Oulton Park next weekend for the MGoT.

Onto that, I have had real problems today attempting to get decent brake pedal feel on the GT6 following the installation of these Wilwood calipers. It took nearly two hours to bleed her, but I still ended up with a soft pedal. I used my usual brake pipe bleeders which have a one-way valve fitted, and are then passed through an old plastic water bottle.

These bleeders cost £4.95, so I have one for each bleed nipple-makes the job very quick and easy-normally that is! The pic. shows one, the one-way valve is inside the bottle.

These Wilwood calipers have two bleed nipples one each side of the unit. The actual bleeding screw is very small, being 1/4AF, therefore I had to use a small piece of vacumm tube to ensure I had a reasonable seal to be able to bleed properly, but try as I might I could not get all the air out-time to just check on all the joints and leave overnight whilst I chill out!

I will have another go at these on Tuesday night, if no joy then its 2.5 for Oulton!!!

The Devil was in my car!

Jeez, where does the time go?

About time I worte about my latest Triumph news, so here goes.

GT6 mk2:
I have not used the car much as I was concentrating on getting the 2.5 ready for the 10CR. In fact the only use has been to take the car to a CT North London meeting at The Plough and entering another Oxford MC Autosolo event .
The Autosolo was last Sunday (04/10/09), before the event I decided to change the anti roll bar to the correct GT6 item, I have been using a Spitfire 1500 arb for years with obvious under-steer issues. The change in conjunction with polyurethane bushes has as expected resulted in a far more neutral handling car, if still prone to understeer! Still one cannot change basic laws of motion!
So to the A’solo, after a nice drive to Silverstone through deserted roads from Chertsey to Silverstone through Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Buckingham to the venue at an early time I arrived to be met by Mike and Matthew Helm in Mike’s Spitfire and Katie and Doug Foreman in Katie’s newly acquired mk2 GT6-royal blue-very nice!!!! Doug was supposed to be using his Herald, unfortunately he could’nt finish the engine re-build he is undertaking so had entered the GT6. As they had only picked the car up on day before this was surprising, what a baptism of fire! As agreed previously Katie was driving my car, and I was seriously conscious of the fact that she could beat me! The first runs were on a very wet surface, and by lunch after 2 ‘Tests’ I was 2.3 secs. in front of Katie, after the 3rd ‘Test’ I was still 2.1 secs. in front and looked to be on my way to my first Class win at this sport. All I had to do was get two competitive times in and I would win, however my first run at the 4th and final ‘Test’ I wrong slotted, but the next two were fine for a ‘Wet’ run. Sadly for me during Katie’s and Matthew’s runs an entrant in another class in a Golf GTi lost a wheel meaning a 45 min delay, as the sun had come out the course started to dry out. This resulted in damp and dry runs for them both, meaning that they decimated my times! Katie therefore won the ‘Historic’ class by 0.1 sec from Matthew and 1.2secs from me!

I watched Katie driving my car, boy has she got a talent for driving these cars, during the whole day she hardly put a foot wrong, some of the lines she took being very precise, in fact she flattered my car, very impressive. Of course she now has her own GT6, so she can use her own car next time! Doug did very well in the totally standard car, and was constantly managing to reduce his times throughout the day. It was weird looking at this car as it reminded me so much of what my car looked like when I bought it in 1983! Doug, has so impressed me, 7 months ago he was hanging onto life by way of a life support machine following his awful M25 crash and is now entering autosolos and navigation rallies, what a trooper, good man!

I see they did 'The Regis Rally' in the car, it seems to have found some 5.5J solid steels, looks good-its gonna be fascinating to see this car over the years and the way it gets transformed. I must admit I have been mystified recently by comments on the CT Forum that suggest the mk2 GT6 is not the best looking example, I feel that with its higher mounted bumper it looks more purposeful, one only has to look at the Group 44 racers to realise this!

Next plans, well the last 2009 motoring event for me will be the MGoT Track Day at Oulton Park in early November. For that event I have just fitted some unused Wilwood 4 pot calipers that I bought years ago from a a chap that Ellis Stokes knows that was going to use them on his Kit Car. These went on relatively easy, the only pain being the need for some longer fasteners to fit the caliper adapters onto the mk2 GT6 caliper mounts, I ended up using suitably strong cap head 7/16unf set screws. The edges of the GT6 caliper mounts needed to be slightly ground down to facilitate the alloy caliper conversion brackets. At the moment I have a new set of green stuff pads in the calipers, however will probably change these to a set of Mintex 1144s.

I still have not fitted the tubular top wishbones to the car, reckoning on doing this after the TD. The other priority is to sort out the rear end damage, might well take the car up to MW restorations in Saffron Walden, Mike Wilkinson is a good guy who did some bodywork on the car years ago.

2.5Pi Mk1
I made the decision during the event to buy a 123 Electronic Distributor, which I duly did, buying it from Southern Carburettors from Mitcham. These are superb units and very easy to fit and as expected have cured some of my running issues. By the way Southern Carbs. are a nice company, the chap I spoke to was very attentive. Please do not confuse with SC Parts! All that’s left to do is to fit the spare cylinder head that I have in the shed.
One great bit of news that will help to ensure the longevity of the car is that I have started to use a neighbours garage to store the car.

A nice pic taken of the car near Aix le-Bains on the September 10CR, with James Carruthers superb 2000 mk1-which by the way certainly goes well!!!! Thanks to Craig Gingell for the snap.

Herald

Blimey, I have just moved the old thing off the front drive into the space previously occuppied by the 2.5. This of course means that I can crack on and get some work done on the car.

Last weekend I went up to see Roy Burrell who is modding the cylinder head for me, must say I am impressed by the work he has done. Roy was recommended to me by Karl Dandridge, Dave Pearson and Craig Gingell, so far I must say I am impressed. I collected the carbs and inlet manifold I had previously bought from Andrew Turner, Roy has cleaned up the tracts in the manifold and done a bit of flow work to the SU HS4s. Must admit I am starting to get a bit revved up over the thought of using the car.

She will need some bodywork repairs, as follows:

A)Front wheel arches to be repaired

B) Lower off side door repair

C)Lower part of offside panel between door and wheelarch

D) Repairs to rear deck on the offside.

E) Rear valance perforated, will replace with fibreglass units.

As I have previously mentioned that car is a 1962 Herald 1200 Coupe, that was stuck onto a 13/60 chassis at some point. This is great news as I can fit the overdrive gearbox that I have. In theory the cars spec should be as follows:

Engine: 1300 + 60thou, TH5 cam, modded head with bigger valves, carbs as above and tubular exhaust manifold with Vitesse exhaust system

Gearbox: Spitfire mk3 with J type overdrive. Works type overdrive toggel switch on gear lever.

Front Suspension: Red polybushed, with AVO shockers and 330lb springs (These will in all likelihood be changed for 480lb items). Spitfire 1500 arb with Jon Wolfe links.

Rear Suspension: Swing spring with red polybushes and AVO shockers.

Brakes: Front: 4 pot Hi Spec units with Mintex 1144 pads, Rear: Standard-though may be changed to GT6 units.

Wheels etc: 13'' 5.5J Dunlop solid steels with Yokohama 185/60 13'' tyres.

Interior: Standard except 6 point cage and added instrumentation (Rev Counter, oil pressure gauge and mechanical temp gauge). Will probably purchase (when rich!) some Corbeau period looking buckets.

Its riduculous as I have had most of the above equipment for years, just been so busy with the other cars ! Anyrate, I hope the car will be a nice little example, however it will not be in the same league as Craig Gingell's gorgeous supercharged Coupe. I hope to use her on next year's CT HCR?

Right that will do for now. Of course the biggest project that will occupy most of my time for the next 11 months is the CT RBRR. We have already started on this event and cannot wait for the weekend of the event in early October next year!!!!

10CR and all that

Well, the old car did the 10CR, had ignition problems but when she was running well the car was went well! However we did spend alot of time under the bonnet-missed really looking at the Milleu Bridge, which was a shame. Dave Kent was my co-driver, reckon he did 60% of the driving, and exhibited a never say die attitude towards my car-cheers Dave.

We spent most of the time in the company of Andy and Jason in Andy's Vitesse, James and Craig in James' 2000 mk1, Mike and Andy in Andy's newly acquired TR7 V8 and Russell and Carmel in Russell's TR6. Thanks for sticking with us! James' car only passed its MOT on the morning of the event and then did not miss a beat, top car!!

Andy M's Vitesse had a few issues that ended with him using a cut down Citroen valve spring to replace the one that broke, later on the overdrive on the car stopped working therby reducing their motorway speed. This is a terrific car, but I must say that Andy does not get to enjoy the best of luck with the car.

Highlights of the event being small things:

Such as bumping into an old friend of mine,Lloyd just south of Alencon, only people I are know in France are Lloyd and Abbi-blooming weird or what!

Enjoyed a pizza with Mike and Andy Bestard in Italy in a lovely town, Aosta I think.

Waking up in the car park to a cemetry in Condom, Lloyd told me that Terry Wogan has a place in that town.

Friday morning brekkie in a nice village somewhere in France!!!

Nice meal in Dunkirk before getting the ferry home.

The control stop in the car park opposite the entrance to Le Mans as the sun set was special-nice vibe at that stop.

Dale Barker's Herald and James Shackford's 2.5Pi mk1 receiving some attention at Le Mans. Below: Russell Banyard's TR6 and the similar car owned by Gerhard Bose. Poor pic. but as usual I hardly took any snaps!

So all in all a good trip, spoilt by the poor performance of my car, still that is what one will get if one does not look after these old cars! Worst part of the event was hearing that Joe and Frank Welling had their mishap in the Alps, still at least that car is repairable and will be back in use soon.

Yesterday I went to the Goodwood revival, last went in 2007 and I must say that the event was very good, however the cost is abit much. Highlights being the quality of cars in the Tax Exempt car park and the flypasts of various old planes, best and most awe inspring being the Vulcan-boy oh boy what a immense machine! On the way I followed a Ferrari Daytona along the A27 and A3, nice car, but srangely odd looking-think I'd rather a Dino 246! I will not be able to go next year as I will be flat out on the RBRR, but reckon every two years is about right.

Before I went to Goodwood, I fitted the Magnecor leads from the GT6 onto the 2.5, mis-fire issues gone!! I will order some Lumenition blue leads for the GT6 and keep the Magnecor's on the saloon. Also when funds permit, I will be fitting a 123 dizzy onto the saloon and will be changing the cylinder head.

Mumblings!

Been blown away by some of the tasty modern products that are now available for sale. At work yesterday I spent some time talking a colleague of mine who is a fellow music fan about the Ipod Classic that he has. He is a naturally cynical guy, and if he rates them well they must be good! I want to buy one in time for the forthcoming Club Triumph 10 Countries Run. None of my Triumph cars have radios or CD players in them as I would rather listen to the car and concerntrate on the driving, however for the 10CR I think it would be a good idea to have some way of listening to music whilst in the passenger seat and having a kip etc. Hope, Dave my co-driver does not read this and think I am gonna be anti-social!



Apart from cars both old and new,my biggest pleasure has always been listening to music, this all started in the late 70s with the punk rock explosion and ever since I have been a avid music fan. Luckily I grew up at the time of John Peel on the radio and he inspired me to get into all types of music, basically open my ears and enjoy all types. My one barometer has always been to attempt to judge if the artist/group etc is really interested in music for its own sake or just making music with a view to make money or maybe become a c list celebrity! This might sound naive, but I genuinely believe that some people exist who are not slaves to the dollar/pound/euro! Take The Beatles, I remain convinced that the money was not the driving force behind their career, it was down to the fact that they just wanted to make and play music, alright they certainly made alot of money, but then they produced quality songs!



My Ford Focus is always full of CDs and CD cases, that go careering of the front seat at the first sniff of a corner. Therefore I hope that the purchase of a Ipod will cease this problem, seems that the downloading of my music will be easy, I hope it is as I have loads of the stuff.



I have always been one of those sad b*stards that likes lists and I thought it would be good to list my fave LP/CDs and singles:

Long Players (Jeez, how long is it since this label was used).

Mezzanine: Massive Attack

Pet Sounds: The Beach Boys

Heaven Up Here: Echo and the Bunnymen

All Mod Cons: The Jam

Love: The Cult

Screamadelic: Primal Scream

Lost Souls: Doves

Ferment: The Catherine Wheel

Hunky Dory: David Bowie

Fear of Music: Talking Heads



Singles

The Killing Moon: Echo and the Bunnymen

Whats Goin' On: Marvin Gaye

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight: The Jam

Ashes to Ashes: David Bowie

The Bottle: Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson

She Sells Sanctuary: The Cult

The Changing Man: Paul Weller

Eight Miles High: The Byrds

A Forest: The Cure

Party Fears Two: The Associates



Just looked at the above list, not alot of vareity there then, looks like I forgot Mr Peel's example!Apols. if I seem a bit up my own one, but I am genuinely excited about purchasing an Ipod and downloading the music. Yep, I have always been one of those types who makes compilation tapes/CDs for friends!



Onto cars, well its been a busy couple of days.



GT6: Took the car to Moordale Motors to let Dale Barker jave a look at the car, his feeling being that the car needs a new rear valence as it will not be easy to get the panel looking good following the bump on the M3 the other day. No way can I charge the full value of the job to the chap who hit the car so I will ask him to pay a portion of the cost. Otherwise nothing is planned for the GT6 at present as I have to get stuck into the 2.5 to get that ready for the 10CR.



I took the 2.5 over to Richard Brake's place yesterday and he has very kindly agreed to carry out some much needed welding to the sills so that I can obtain the dreaded MOT certificate. I have previously mentioned that I have another better head for the engine. I am in two minds about changing the head, the engine pinks quiet badly under load. The dizzy is quite worn, I have attempted to retard the ignition to no avail so I think changes are needed. However the head I have is supposed to be a good un with large valves and a bit of porting work having been done. Giving this some thought, I think I will fit the new dizzy and see how she goes, then if still pinking I will change the head. On the subject of a new dizzy, bit shocked at how expensive the 123 electronic items are now owing to the weak pound, was thinking about one for the car, looks like I will get a re-con'd Lucas jobbie.



I mentioned the Ford Focus I have as my company car. Must say that the car is an absolute hoot to drive being a 4 door ST, must be the best modern car I have had use of. The engine is quiet heavy and therefore it oversteers, but years of Triumph ownership have prepared me for that characteristic. I have now done 63,000 miles in 2.333 years and the car has proved to be totally reliable, bit like the two Mondeos I had before. I know people go on about the ST being a bit flash, but I really like mine and will be sad to see it go next May. What next, gawd knows, possibly the new Alfa Romeo Focus equivalent. From the leaked photos I have seen this car looks like it could be very nice, however will it just be a modded Fiat? I'll probably stay with another Ford, well built, reliable, good chassis and relatively cheap when compared to say German cars

Umm!

Just got back from my trip to Cornwall in the little car.

The trip was made for two reasons:
a) Go and have a look at the Pub/Hotel we hope to use for the 2010 RBRR. Owing to the terrible service we received on the last RBRR by the staff and management of 'The Lands End Hotel', it was decided that we should seeks a new venue for Breakfast on the Sunday morning. Tony Quick, husband of CT's Cornwall Local Group Organiser, Sally Ann Quick has found a very suitable place, so I popped in and had a look. Looks fine apart from the fact that when we leave we will all have to drive into the local town and turn around at a mini roundabout. So I have just got to agree a price and have a chat with Nigel Abdullah to ensure he is happy and this new venue should be spot on?
b) Spend some time with old friends of mine who own a nice farm near Helston. Spent most of Saturday making and starting a massive bonfire, drinking beer and then popped along to Parr Sands for dinner. Nice time. Only shame was seeing a bloated Englishman with his belly out-jeez, put it away!

The journey to Cornwall took 9 hours on Saturday, awful weather but must say the little car did me fine. Coming home today I left Helston at 8.15, dropped my mate at the train station at Redruth (He works in London in the week-I beat him to the M25 in a GT6 v Train race!) and got home at 13.45, including for a little stop. However this included a shunt on the M3 near Basingstoke, basically I was at standstill for a few minutes, the traffic in front moved off and the chap in the Nissan FWD thing behind me thought I had moved away and drove into the rear of the little car. Caused damage to the number plate panel and paint damage to the whole of the rear of the car. Thankfully the cost should not be so bad so I hope we will not involve insurance companies. Shame of it was that the guy who was driving seemed a nice bloke and was genuinely upset to have damaged my car!

Oh well, 25.5years and never had anyone drive into the car before!

Good thing was that apart from the usual amount of Beetles and Camper Vans in Cornwall I did see a fair amount of old cars, the best being a French plated Peugeot 504 estate on the A30 near Exeter-marvelous looking car! Also had a drive along with a Daimler Dart/SP250 near Hayle Bay on the A30, rare old beast eh! Saw a fair few Triumphs this morn including a mk3 Spittie, a 2000 mk1 saloon and a TR5 near Wylie on the A303. Oh, and I got flashed by a MGB on the old A30 at Leckford on Saturday-blimey, oh riley!


So a mixed weekend, but all in all I must say the little car drove very nicely.

Catch up!

Just a quick one!

Did another 'Autosolo' last weekend, took part in the Sevenoaks District Motor Club event at North Weald Aerodrome near Epping in Essex. I was entered in the 'Historic' class alomng with fellow CT'ists: Katie Foreman (Herald 13/60), Clive Senior (Toledo), Mike Helm (Spitfire 1500) and Mike Bishop (Herald 1200). I came first out of the Triumph cars and 2nd in class, beaten by a Ford Escort RS2000. Luckily a Austin Healey Sprite fitted with a powerful 1900 Ford Zetec engine acheived FTD and was therefore moved out of class! Must admit that I was pleased, however I think I would have come third if Mike Helm had not had to go and get some welding sorted and therefore did not do all the tests. He's a real bandit, and bloody fast!

This event was different in that the Cones were not numbered, I was apprehensive about this, but in fact found it to be ok. We all taped the route diagram to our dashboards in case of problems. I only made one mistake, that being the first attempt of the 4th Test, as one's best two times count I was ok as my two other attempts went well. This event was definitely the fastest one I have done and very enjoyable. Must say though that I thought the previous w'ends Club Triumph event was better organised. The best thing about the 7oaks event was that we did not have to Marshal, time was therefore spent drinking tea, swatting wasps (Or not eh, Clive) chatting and bull*hitting! Doug Foreman was his new chatty self, and Katie seemed to be thinking its time for more power-easy answer and its spelt 'GT6'! Mike Bishop is getting bloomin' quick as well. Umm, thank the Lord for 6 cyls and 2000cc!

The little car did very well, once again the exhaust started to blow at the collector joint after the manifold. Really fed up with this as these exhausts cost so much money and one cannot get a decent seal. Last night was spent sorting this problem as I hope to take the car to Cornwall for a couple of days tomorrow. Otherwise the car is going very well, no other issues to talk about. Not sure what to do with her next, keep as she is or maybe lower the gearing to make her into a more competitive Autosolo car. This will involve changing the diff for either a LSD unit with either 3.89:1 or 4.11:1 ratio. I still have not fitted the Wilwood brake calipers to the car, this will happen soon.

However I must think about the 10CR and getting the 2.5 ready-next w'end? Saturday will spent at Curborough where my mate Mike is sprinting his Mini, have'nt been there since 1984! Jeez, time is flying!

Right Cornwall, here I come!

Club Triumph Competition Committee

I do hope people reading this do not mind me writing about the above Committee.

I think it is important to remember that Club Triumph is not a 'Classic' Car Club, but the original Triumph Motor Club owing to its 50s origin. By stating this I have nothing against 'Classics' but I think the terms 'Motor Club' or Car Club' portray the Club's history. The Club used to organise a wide range of events such as tours, autotests for new owners of Triumph cars, however by the late 70s membership was dropping off. The 'Classic car culture that sprung up at that time boosted interest in Triumph cars, membership starting to pick resulting in the membership of 1475 we presently enjoy. CT always had a problem in that it used to organise the biennial RBRR but for driving events more or less become dormant in between, thankfully the Club had the Show scene available to show its prescence.(Please note that the above comments are mine, not the Club's and certainly not the Club's policy).

This situation was relieved in 2003 by the first running of the 10 Countries Run, as conceived by Martin Randle. The other great tool in bringing together the membership is this website and its superb forum, making it easy to tap into the enthusiasm of the membership of make things happen-nice one, Mr Bennett!

Therefore in 2005 we formed the Comp. Ctte. and since then have produced some decent events, managed to get together a calendar of events that CT members can take part in and recently inaugurated four Championships. All of this hoping to make it exciting to be in the Club and of course further the use of Triumph cars either competitively or just getting them onto the road. The help of organisations such as Bedford Car Club, MG on Track, Caledonian Historic Motorsport Club and NESCRO must be acknowledged as they have been very willing to let our Members take part in their events, often making it unecessary to join their organisations. I do hope that this does not get read as self congratulatory, we are fully aware that we have lots of work to do to keep up the interest in Triumph cars and of course most importantly create or maintain events that the membership of CT can take part in and enjoy.

The aim of this Ctte is to provide cheap motorsport for the members of the Club to take part in. The Ctte will never be able to organise races or stage rallies, but we see no reason why we cannot organise fun events at the small budget end of motorsport culture. Talking with Dale Barker and Martin Randle, I think the CT Competition Committee have a few more exciting events planned over the next few years, information will be forthcoming as soon as finalised. This Committee is an imaginative bunch and whilst some of our ideas are a bit whacky the ones we run with are sure to offer a good time for CT members.

We have just held the first of what is hoped to become an annual event, the Club Triumph Autosolo and we managed to get 33 entrants together, this being far more than we expected. All CT members taking part seemed to be having a good time, whatever car they were using and however they were doing all were smiling throughout the day, not bad considering the awful weather we enjoyed. Top 3 results were:

1st. Mike Helm: TR6

2nd. Nigel Abdullah: Herald 1200 (Using Dale Barker's Herald)

3rd. Andy Martin: Vitesse 1600 (Ex Monte Carlo Rally car)

Their cars are shown below. Amazing pic of Andy's Vitesse eh!!

After the Autosolo, we have the first 12 Car Rally that the Club has organised taking part in Essex in August. New Ctte. Member Mike Banks has sorted this out, the attention to detail and planning he has done is top notch and again we are sure the event will be both challenging but fun.

Right, end of my sermon.

However, please get involved as driving cars is fun!!