Well Well

Been a break in Blogging.

I buy and sell Dellorto carburetors, brought many last week, spent all day everyday sorting them all out, stashing them for future? Still not done as I need some parts!

I said to myself I was gonna have a few days on the car this week. Today I did a few things. Although it took me rather longer than expected to extract a tiny stuck screw on a set of carbs. 2hrs...it was delicate work as one slip and the carb would be, at least in my eyes, toast!

Anyway cut out my polycarbonate or was it acrylic? windows...weighed the old window and runner at 4.1kilos...my new windows bare are 1050grams, plus 250grams in fittings for the pop out windows, 1300grams, the window fixing brace system weights - I can't remember! said before...about 900grams so the entire window system weights 2100grams per side...the old fixed system was 500-600grams for each vertical channel + 4.1kilos for the window....5.3kilos....new system is a much lighter....

So another 6.4kilos saved! Also about 600grams? for the door panel I will cut out...so 7.6kilos....another 2.4kilos needed for an effective HP. Good thing is thats 6.4kilos of virtually pure - top mass.

Just need to order some special flexy adhesive to bond in these braces and get it all jigged up.

All thats left to do is clean up the bottom braces and prime and paint the upper part. Trial fit and build, bond in the bottom braces, set the angle and fit of the window on the upper swivelling brace...then drill the angle fixing holes on the braces, bolt it up, check the door closed ok etc.... Then a couple of holes to drill for the tiny brackets that will fix the window to the upper braces at the top....thats the thing assembled...

Then it needs to be taken apart, grind out the remains of the door panel on the inside, paint the inside of the door white to match the car, paint the bonded in braces etc...

Then once the top braces and window are together I can make the pop out windows using the braces as bolt points etc...

Hopefuly fingers crossed this will be the dogs nads. If they bow out at speed to any degree I may not be held responsible for my actions.

I think the cockpit is pressuring at speed also, which isn't helping, the ammout of air that comes through the empty heater box hole is like a turbo fan at 80mph! Was gonna make a funnel affair that bolts to this empty hole and has two pipes and two old round mini bubble air vents in the end, you can then have a spitty with cold air vents, theres loads of air coming through there at speed!

Hmm

Actually considering a superlight flywheel and building my selection of gear box parts back into O/D form...power sap was annoying large last time, but the overall ease of high speed was great.

You see my main problem with the car is when its gonna blow up when you give it 6700rpm in top gear, its pretty cool, but its very intense...I want to take the car to Nurburgring, which has tight sections, but also many section where I would be at 7000rpm in top if setup for it, and over 6000 in alot of places...Having to drive the car there and back etc I don't want it to bust a gut there.

So, I think a trade off has to be made....I could use O/D then I could hit 120mph @ 6000 if possible, this is far better, the car may see this figure in one section downhill where most cars reach their terminal velocity. Remember it will be light, it will have air dam, fared headlights, no wing mirrors it should cut the air far better than standard...

I found another 3-4mph top end when I added a solid grille plate, with only a 9" by 3" slot to let air to the radiator, much less drag as the engine bay pressurises. I used to have catches that came open when you cornered really hard, the bonnet side that was open would then rise up on a wave of air, you'd be doing 80 go over a rise and the bonnet would lift 6inches off the bulkhead...thats some air pressure!

With this plate you can have both catches open and it doesn't move not even at motorway speed.

Wing Mirrors of the size on a modern car are meant to sap 1 mph per each...The headlight angles on a standard spit will probably reduce the top end by a noticable degree, the flared bonnet is much better idea.

Trade off's, Trade off's....hopefully lightening the flywheel more would counter some of the O/D load. Last time the car was good, but just lost about 10hp and went off the boil...hopefully after doing all this having a full rolling road jobbie will find the performance back, I know I have something saved there.

Perspex *Rigid* Windows!

Ok so who is pissed off with side windows that bow out?? I bolted mine solid, fixed with bolts and no up and down mech - yet they still do it! Get to 80mph the windows bend and you get bad drafts...

I intend to go 130mph with new 1800 or 2000cc engine and don't want any drafts - maybe more? 140...175HP-200HP 600kilos? So I want a solution that rids the car of this annoying happening.

Using lightweight doors inspired me to use lightweight windows etc. Anyway a piece of perspex is gonna bow like anything without support unless its set at a lower angle than needed so it bends out when you close the doors so to create a pre-bending and loading that may stop the window bending out, as its already bent somewhat. Downside to that is you get doors that don't like to close without slamming and it strains everything and probably wont work anyway!

I made the things shown that go inside the doors to house vertical braces that go inside the window (as shown) the window screws to these braces, so to hold it 100% solid....you can set the angle at each end of the window by swivelling the top of the window in and out as its made to be able to pivot 10degrees either side of what should be fine. So you set the angle of thw window so it seals all round front and back as good as possible by adjusting the angle of the window on the braces, these offer some twist in the window, to get one or other corner in more than the other etc.

You can see I have only drilled the 1 hole which will be the hole that the brace rotates around when setting the angle of the window, I will wait and drill the hole once I have it all together before final assembly. I am working with a drill, jigsaw and file. Each piece is made by hand and needs final giggling I am sure to get it 100%...

I intend to set the windows up statically with someone on the outside just pushing hard enough to compress the seal at all points, I will then mark the last hole that fixes the angle of the brace, take it all apart drill it...then use Adheseal - I think its called that, its a stickaflex type glue, that sticks and grabs really hard, yet remains flexible, used in boat building.

I will bond the main braces to the inside of the doorshell and skin using this...the advantage of the twinskin door skins is that they can take over 60kilos before they flex to anygreat degree, so I can simply bond these on, do that to a normal plastic one I bet it will go out of shape over time, as the suction on the windows I recon equates to about a 4kilo tug at the top @ 90mph so will load the doorshell via the bracing.

I hope the windows will have the stiffness of the a normal road car window, as the braces will be rock solid and the door will not bend to any great degree...is the final solution? Its the best I can do at home with limited tools..

All the braces together weight 1200grams I can drill the final big holes now and get another 125grams back. Each of the window runners from original doors are 480grams, I saved weight there, I saved the weight of the glass window, the weight of the window mech, door catch mech, bump stop, glass holder....

Only things to add in weight wise to braces and door shell are a window catch, the perspex window, about 16 M4 nuts and bolts, two tiny hinges, few tuny angled brackets...

Note the alloy pole in the pictures? Thats a door handle, something to pull on to close the doors, my only comfort item...Also you can hang you sweaty socks on there between laps?

I will make an all alloy flick catch to operate the door mech without having to reach into the empty doorshell and find it...but thats not important atm!

I will be cutting the inner doorskin out of the doors completely, the roll cage has door bars these require me to cut the shell skin anyway as they go all the way out to the skin, once the skin is cut it goes all floppy and needs cutting out completely anyway, so thats a bit of weight saves...I am not concerned about the door going out of shape it just aint gonna happen, these are super doors! It'll look interesting I think and be the lightest and best solution I can make, hopefully it'll work I am already at a good 25Hrs of work into this....

Its a pain as the car is used daily, trying to get everything together, also having to do it at my folks place which is 40miles away is also a bind as theres no kit here yet.

I am also making pop out windows, within the main perspex side windows, these will use MGB GT Quarterlight catches, pop out 15cm, it will be reasonably sized, I think, the hinges will be bolted through the perspex at the front, on a plate that raises the hinge to the level of the pop-out window and seal when closed...,as required to get a seal and for it to work!

Hopefully 200mmx200mm will do and give decent venting without weakening the structure much, may play start small and see if the window goes floppy at all, shouldn't do as it'll bolted to the braces! I can always cut the hole bigger can't I? I have coolio ideas for how to make a huge pop out but retain strength, think a big line of vertical holes on inner window the hinge end...

You should be able to physically remove the whole window in a few minutes if needed.

Today - Webers, gears, hmmm

Tried the car with the 32 chokes, yes it revs more freely as expected, like before. Cruises sweety on a small throttle at 5000rpm, sounds a touch less strained, rev's nicely to 6700 before becoming a bit noisey and strained, think I need some small air correctors as its not quite as quick as I think it should be, and it has than touch lean feel, overly smooth think they are 160 atm...155 as Josh uses maybe better or maybe even 150 using a 125main, don't think it needs a bigger main it feels bang on from 2750-4500. On the DCOM it would spin to 6900 ok - jetted right. It has lost some of the ride on power in 4th it had, as the torque and power peak a bit later now, need to work it, jetting isn't 100%, saying that I did pull out to overtake 1 car on two occasions today, used 3rd and took it a good 6750 and ended up taking 4 cars...so I guess its ok 8-)

Car really needs overdrive or a longer diff, its a bind on open road, its awesome on a twisty backroad, but I am at 5000rpm in 4th doing 80mph...and 96mph @ 6000. I think after saving more weight I maybe able to pull a 3.63 if I reuse 30 chokes in the carbs and gear the thing up for torque. I can then do 109mph @ 6000rpm in top. At the moment the car is good but you can rip to 6000 in top and then you have rev the bollucks off it to go 100, its at its peak but inorder for the engine to make the car go faster you really have to beat it up...I think as the car has great power at 5250-6250, that you will be able to use the car better using a longer diff and see 110 more often.

I once got the car with a D-Type overdrive to 5750 in O/D top, using 155/80 /13 tyres this calculates to 118mph, it was fast, downhill, hood down chasing some guy in a porsche late at night on some motorway! I even had increased the tyre pressure 5psi for the motorway journe so speed records were in ideal conditions! I doubt I have got the car past 110 more than a few times since I ditched the O/D, when I have got it round to 6700 in straight top with no O/D. I am not after the best 0-60 I want the most useable flexible solution A-B. the car rips off 2nd and 3rd gear like there is no tommorow as it is...so loose a bit of that to gain more outright speed. 2nd gear will be epic on a 3.63, if 3rd went another 1000rpm atm it would be all good also.

Today - Carbs

I removed my 42.5mm trumpets and swapped em with Josh Bowler for some wider radius 35mm ones...Changed the DCOE chokes to 32mm as its lacking some go over 6100. The shorter trumpets should have a tiny effect on top end pickup, lacking it more punchy...tiny amount though 8-)

Just need to fit some 120 or 125mains to suit...

Heres a piccie of my Triple 3 hole DHLA 40's, rare item, they are very old, little used and just waiting for a linkage and rebuild kits. They are basic with no airbleeders. They have 33 chokes in. They are full cream Dellortos!

I intend to take the car to Peter Baldwin at Wimpole for tuning as he is the man and I want to be able to thrash it senseless for long periods at WOT knowing its not gonna bust a gut...

I have been just driving the thing recently, it hasn't had new plugs in 7months looked at them the other day and the tips are well rounded from mileage, the dissy cap is ages old, so is the rotor arm, but it runs sweetly still, it gets regular oil and fluids....Car does about 200 miles per week I guess, its well used and *touch wood* never lets me down really, or never leaves me at the road side.