I am presently sitting at home and looking out of the window I see that we have approx. 5'' of snow-bloody horrid stuff. Snow always makes me laugh as it does seem to affect the speed of drivers on the UK roads, some people get so worried. Anyrate enough moaning!
I have been thinking about next years motoring plans and what events to have a go at in 2011. At present the following come to mind:
March: Oxford MC Bocardo Autosolo @ Silverstone (Spitfire)
April: Club Triumph HCR (2.5) and CSMA Autosolo (Spitfire)
June: International Auto Ecosse (GT6)
July: CT Historic Autosolo (GT6) and Warwick MC Autosolo (Spitfire)
August: 7oaks & DMC Autosolo @ North Weald (Spitfire)
September: Club Triumph 10 Countries Run (2.5)
October: Oxford MC Autumn Autosolo @ Silverstone (Spitfire)
Plus I also hope to have a go at the two MGoT Track Days that CT will be invited to participate in.
Regular readers of this Blog will know that my company car is a Ford Focus ST, a car that I can honestly say is possibly the best everyday vehicle I have ever used. The car is a 5 door model and has no extras at all, no tracction control nothing is a blast to drive. The car has now done 100,000 miles and apart from a one new driveshaft replaced under warranty has been extremely reliable. I am not sure how much longer I will have her as she was due to be replaced last March, luckily for me my employers have stopped leasing new cars and told me to stick with the Focus for another year until March 2011. I have been reading in the motoring press about the new ST that is due at the end of next year and I do hope that I can manage to get one of those. The only issue being that the new one will dispense with the characterful Volvo 5 pot lump and be fitted with a 4 pot Ford engine. This will mean no more 'Quatrroesque' 5 pot induction roar at engine speeds over 3,000rpm-not sure if I will be able to take that! All my work colleagues take the mikey out of the ST, but where else can you get 230BHP for such little money, it makes cars like Audi A3s, Golf GTis and the like seem over priced. I'd love a Focus RS, but these are outside my budget and only have 3 doors which is not acceptable to my employers.
So next year will be hopefully an interesting time, with lots of change in my motoring life.
The next use of my cars will be when I attend the informal New Year luch that CT member Nick Jackson puts together down near Amesbury in Wiltshire. This is always a nice little meeting and I hope that Nick's efforts are rewarded by a good number of people pitching up.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Spitfire mk2: Plans
I took the new car out for a drive the other Sunday when I popped over to see fellow CT member, Richard Brake. An interesting drive in the car that brought about the following list of tasks, many that follow on from my thoughts that I stated within my last Blog posting:
1. Sort throttle cable, the action is not at all smooth.
2. Change the exhaust to a single pipe system. I will probably go for something like the Canleys Sports system, this type is fitted to my GT6 and whilst louder than the standard exhaust it does not 'boom' like the old SAH/TriumphTune twin box types.
3. Buy a hardtop. Had a long chat with Dave Pearson at Canleys about this and I have decided to order a Honeybourne Mouldings fibreglass example, the all in price of £395 is considerably cheaper than restoring a steel unit. Honeybourne do the hardtops in two colours, these being white or black, I think that black will look better. Mike Banks has a wedgewood blue steel hardtop on his car that certainly looks good, I have always thought that 'roundtails' look nice with 'bubble' hardtops.
4. Fit a rollcage: Luckily, Dave Pearson has one of these that needs repainting. Once I have it I will take this to my brother in laws place to get it powdered coated, probably light grey as not too intrusive. This cage is not the correct diameter for current racing regs., but as I will only be doing Club sport in the car, I am sure it will be fine.
5. Suspension:
Front: The front shock absorbers are Spax, that seem to have the very low bottom mount. I have some AVOs that will be put onto the car, I have found a company called Franklin Springs that sells coil springs of all types, so will fit a set 480lb items, hopefully by fitting these I will raise the front to give the car a better balanced look. I have also got a set of rose-jointed arb links and a set of tubular top wishbones, these will all be fitted to the car. I have fitted two of my 5.5J solid steels to the car at the back, once I have the front a bit higher I will fit the other pair to the front, I am worried about the wheel to wheelarch clearance and think I will have to have the wheelarch lips 'returned' to create sufficent space.
Rear: The rear units will also be changed for a set of AVOs, again I have these in my store. At the rear the car has a de-cambered rear spring, this will stay. I have been looking at Jigsaw Racing Services adjustable length radius arms, for Spits, these are based upon the GT6 mk2 items, so I will probably buy some. I have some solid nylon bushes which I will use with these, more control over toe -in/toe-out.
6. Change the steering wheel. I have a nice 13'' leather rimmed alloy wheel in the store, this will be fitted. I will also take the opportunity of changing the switch covers as those that are fitted are decidely rough looking. I am not that happy with the overdrive switch, this does not seem that positive, I will change this for the works replica toggle switch on a gear knob that I have in the stores-umm, I seem to have a lot of stuff in the shed! I have one of these fitted to the GT6 and have always found it to be a good mod.
7. Fit chrome over-riders to the front and back, this will involve re-siting the spot lamps.
8. Windscreen Wiper: Blimey, the existing is bloomin' lethargic, this will need to be looked at. Until done, I think I will have to break out the Rain-Ex!
9. Supplementary gauges: I think it would be advisable to fit a oil pressure gauge. The tacho has been converted to an electronic unit, this saves a job then! Whilst thinking about the oil system, I will fit a thermostatically controlled oil cooler, I will mount the rad. just inside the grille. The car has two lugs welded onto the chassis for a the rad to be mounted near the cross members, I have my GT6 oil rad mounted here, however it does seem vunerable to damage from road debris, so I will mount in front of the water radiator as the space exists.
10. Seats: The standard seats do not offer much in the way of lateral support, so I have two options: Mk4 Spit seats, I use these in the GT6 and they seem fine, however a set of Corbeau Classic seats may be the answer, however the price of these does seem quite dear. I do not want to fit modern race seats as these in my opinion will look garish and wrong. I think it is important to keep the car looking relatively in period.
11. Fit the Luke 4 point harness I bought for the GT6.
12. Fit alloy calipers, again these are in the shed! Also change the brake fluid to normal mineral type, at present silicon is fitted-ugh! Actually the brakes are bit soft at present, so I may look at rebuilding the brake master cylinder and fitting new wheel cylinders.
I have lots of other ideas about the car, however the above list will more or less spend my budget, but future plans are as follows:
1. LSD: Blimey this will cost, but I am sure will reduce Autosolo times considerably.
2. Fit the battery into the boot and fit an external isolator switch.
3. Look at modifying the front suspension so that more castor can be dialled in to aid 'turn in'. I have been talking to Mike Helm about this, this will be difficult to achieve as I do want to use the car on the road.
I'd love to post some snaps of the car, but the snow has made this difficult.
1. Sort throttle cable, the action is not at all smooth.
2. Change the exhaust to a single pipe system. I will probably go for something like the Canleys Sports system, this type is fitted to my GT6 and whilst louder than the standard exhaust it does not 'boom' like the old SAH/TriumphTune twin box types.
3. Buy a hardtop. Had a long chat with Dave Pearson at Canleys about this and I have decided to order a Honeybourne Mouldings fibreglass example, the all in price of £395 is considerably cheaper than restoring a steel unit. Honeybourne do the hardtops in two colours, these being white or black, I think that black will look better. Mike Banks has a wedgewood blue steel hardtop on his car that certainly looks good, I have always thought that 'roundtails' look nice with 'bubble' hardtops.
4. Fit a rollcage: Luckily, Dave Pearson has one of these that needs repainting. Once I have it I will take this to my brother in laws place to get it powdered coated, probably light grey as not too intrusive. This cage is not the correct diameter for current racing regs., but as I will only be doing Club sport in the car, I am sure it will be fine.
5. Suspension:
Front: The front shock absorbers are Spax, that seem to have the very low bottom mount. I have some AVOs that will be put onto the car, I have found a company called Franklin Springs that sells coil springs of all types, so will fit a set 480lb items, hopefully by fitting these I will raise the front to give the car a better balanced look. I have also got a set of rose-jointed arb links and a set of tubular top wishbones, these will all be fitted to the car. I have fitted two of my 5.5J solid steels to the car at the back, once I have the front a bit higher I will fit the other pair to the front, I am worried about the wheel to wheelarch clearance and think I will have to have the wheelarch lips 'returned' to create sufficent space.
Rear: The rear units will also be changed for a set of AVOs, again I have these in my store. At the rear the car has a de-cambered rear spring, this will stay. I have been looking at Jigsaw Racing Services adjustable length radius arms, for Spits, these are based upon the GT6 mk2 items, so I will probably buy some. I have some solid nylon bushes which I will use with these, more control over toe -in/toe-out.
6. Change the steering wheel. I have a nice 13'' leather rimmed alloy wheel in the store, this will be fitted. I will also take the opportunity of changing the switch covers as those that are fitted are decidely rough looking. I am not that happy with the overdrive switch, this does not seem that positive, I will change this for the works replica toggle switch on a gear knob that I have in the stores-umm, I seem to have a lot of stuff in the shed! I have one of these fitted to the GT6 and have always found it to be a good mod.
7. Fit chrome over-riders to the front and back, this will involve re-siting the spot lamps.
8. Windscreen Wiper: Blimey, the existing is bloomin' lethargic, this will need to be looked at. Until done, I think I will have to break out the Rain-Ex!
9. Supplementary gauges: I think it would be advisable to fit a oil pressure gauge. The tacho has been converted to an electronic unit, this saves a job then! Whilst thinking about the oil system, I will fit a thermostatically controlled oil cooler, I will mount the rad. just inside the grille. The car has two lugs welded onto the chassis for a the rad to be mounted near the cross members, I have my GT6 oil rad mounted here, however it does seem vunerable to damage from road debris, so I will mount in front of the water radiator as the space exists.
10. Seats: The standard seats do not offer much in the way of lateral support, so I have two options: Mk4 Spit seats, I use these in the GT6 and they seem fine, however a set of Corbeau Classic seats may be the answer, however the price of these does seem quite dear. I do not want to fit modern race seats as these in my opinion will look garish and wrong. I think it is important to keep the car looking relatively in period.
11. Fit the Luke 4 point harness I bought for the GT6.
12. Fit alloy calipers, again these are in the shed! Also change the brake fluid to normal mineral type, at present silicon is fitted-ugh! Actually the brakes are bit soft at present, so I may look at rebuilding the brake master cylinder and fitting new wheel cylinders.
I have lots of other ideas about the car, however the above list will more or less spend my budget, but future plans are as follows:
1. LSD: Blimey this will cost, but I am sure will reduce Autosolo times considerably.
2. Fit the battery into the boot and fit an external isolator switch.
3. Look at modifying the front suspension so that more castor can be dialled in to aid 'turn in'. I have been talking to Mike Helm about this, this will be difficult to achieve as I do want to use the car on the road.
I'd love to post some snaps of the car, but the snow has made this difficult.
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