Back on the J15 front things have moved on a bit and I’m planning on lots of progress over the next few days. 🙂 A lot of the recent progress has been about the cooling system which is now actually completely finished. Well, apart from filling it up and discovering all the bits that leak, that is.
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Frustration
The start of the race season is fast approaching, so I’ve had to spend a lot of the weekend fettling the Fury for the (J15-less) start of the season. The photo is of the end result.
Snowed in
OK, I’ll admit that I’ve been a bit remiss lately, but there’s a good reason for that in that we spent last week skiing in Switzerland. Of course, that means that next to nothing got done to the car.
However, here’s a picture of a few alps as taken last week. The only problem is, I want to go skiing again; although I smashed myself up skiing a few years ago it’s still fantastic when it works right.
Now I come to think about it
In the cold, hard, light of day there’s another possibility for the brakes. I could tap the caliper mounts in the uprights, as shown here, for say, M12x1.5 and I could then fasten the caliper mounting blocks directly into the upright without needing a bolt head on outside in the way of the disc. That way I could use the sort of discs that I’ve got on the back of the Fury and I’d be sure they’d fit under the wheels.
This is essentially how the front brakes on the Fury mount to the uprights (ex mk II Escort in that case) so it must be possible to make it work, especially with the addition of copious amounts of thread lock. Certainly seems a decent idea…
Turntastic
Oh, I do like having a lathe.
I took time out this evening from the suspension bushes because I’m waiting for a particular tool to arrive in the post from those nice people at Chronos. Instead I made these things, which are bushes for mounting the engine. They’re just bits of CDS tube, cut to length and faced in the lathe (which means that ends are actually square), welded to some bits of 3mm steel, turned so that they’re mostly round and then a hole drilled in the end and the end faced off properly. Even if I never used it for anything else, the lathe is fantastically useful for drilling holes in the centre of round components, something that’s really difficult otherwise.
Differential suspension
I’ve been pressing on with the Spectre, albeit not making real progress although perhaps laying the basis for real progress. As I said last time I’ve been measuring up where to put the engine. Oddly, the big issue here seems to be access to the spark plugs and coils; everything else doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.
I think I’ve come to the conclusion that getting the engine as far forward as possible is actually more important than being able to easily access the spark plugs. I used to drive a Subaru Impreza. These have a fantastic flat four engine, I never was able to work out how they got access to the plugs in that, it must have been through the wheel arches because you certainly couldn’t reach from inside the engine compartment! I think for the Spectre I might have to make some access panels so as to get access from inside the passenger compartment. Even then it’s going to be difficult though and it might be necessary to slacken the engine mounts to shift the engine slightly.
A Spectre of progress
I’ve kept you all in the dark a bit about how the Spectre is going. Sorry about that, I just don’t seem to have found the time to update this site.
However, lots of things have been happening. And, starting at the end first, the most significant is probably that I went up to Jeremy’s place yesterday to pick up the chassis and the bodywork. As you can see from the photo we managed to pile it all up on the trailer but, to be honest, we should really have rented a van. Still, it worked OK.
(Possibly) working again
Well, I think I fixed the clutch, and also changed the oil and so on so if I’m lucky I’m ready for the next race at Silverstone.
It turned out that the problem with the clutch at Mallory was due to something really rather dim. When we’d put the replacement plates in we couldn’t make things fit properly in that the plates seemed to thick. When I took it all apart, in the calm and lack of heat of my garage I realised that we’d left one of the plates behind; it was just that it had worn so smooth and shiny that it looked like the clutch backplate! Once I realised that I took it out and everything fitted properly.
Midsummer mid-engined madness
Back home now with the Fury, I’ve been taking the time to check carefully the engine installation that we did in rather a rush in the Brands pit garages. Alarmingly, the propshaft bolts were, not loose, but not exactly tight which is a bit worrying. All the same, the car should be easily back together in time for Mallory which isn’t for a month yet. Continue reading “Midsummer mid-engined madness”
This post intentionally nameless
It’s back to fettling the car for the next track outing, in this case to Brands Hatch. Somehow, this all seems very amateurish after listening/watching the Le Mans 24 hour race at the weekend; the level of preparation and care that must go into one of those cars is truly awesome. A chap I’m working with at the moment is a complete sportscar endurance racing anorak and he’s managing to convey his enthusiasm to me. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to the Birkett with renewed intensity. I’ve only done this race the once; my two other attempts foundered on the rocks of setting the car on fire and Anthea’s heart surgery.