ARBtastic

Top mounted ARBAs discussed, I’ve been putting some time into the front anti roll bar.  I did think that I’d finally come up with an ideal way to engineer the front bar with the bar above the steering rack but I eventually had to abandon this as it was clear that it was never going to articulate properly. What’s more, the very short actuation levers that it required meant that the bar itself had to be alarmingly flimsy. Continue reading “ARBtastic”

Jig-a-jig

No wheels on my wagonI’ve actually been doing things! What’s more, I’ve been doing some of the things that I said I’d do which is miraculous. The first thing, though, was just to finish off taking the thing to  bits. Along the way I’ve removed the bodywork,  entire suspension, all of the transmission, the engine and much of the various additional stuff like the cooling ducting. Hopefully, I can now starting putting things back together again. Continue reading “Jig-a-jig”

Wintry festivities

Donington ParkOK, it’s probably a bit early for festivities but I’m hoping that when I finish writing this page and, even, uploading it then it’ll still be too early for the festive season to have properly started. In which case you’ll be able to give this post your full and undivided attention.

I’m also planning on it being rather shorter than last time.

Continue reading “Wintry festivities”

Croftbound

Melted wetI seem to have driven up the A1 several times recently, including the visit to daytuner I mentioned a while ago. However, we’re soon going to be going up there to the Croft race circuit which is just south of Darlington. I’ve been to Croft once before. For some inexplicable reason I did a track day there in 2004. God knows why because my write up of it (which you can still find here) says that we set off at 0400 which is bonkers.

I can, as a consequence, just about remember the circuit although not in any really useful way. Continue reading “Croftbound”

There’s a new season arriving

Velocity stacks-003So, here I am again with a few things to write about. The new season is approaching fast and, what’s more, it’s not quite so bloody cold in the garage and as such it’s rather easier to spend time in there.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it but I stopped working full time at Christmas and that’s supposed to make it a lot easier to do car things. Doesn’t seem to have quite worked out that way yet though… Continue reading “There’s a new season arriving”

Dijon et pierre d’argent

Dijon=PrenoisDon’t worry, there’s only a little French… In any case, my abilities to express myself in French seem to have rather atrophied since I worked in Geneva. Not that they were much good then really.

In any case, you might wonder why I’m wittering on in French. You may remember from other discussion here (in particular about escapades at Spa) that Colin and I occasionally make a European foray. This time we had booked ourselves onto a track day at the Dijon circuit in France. Like Spa, which isn’t actually at Spa but at a little place called Francorchamps the circuit at Dijon isn’t actually at Dijon but at a little village called Prenois. The circuit, though, is forever associated with the last laps of the French GP of 1979 which had Gilles Villeneuve and Réné Arnoux in a tremendous tussle for second place. (Without looking at the link, and if you’re a racing fan, can you actually remember who won the race?)

Continue reading “Dijon et pierre d’argent”

Slowing down

CablesThe car that is. This is the second update in as many weeks, I’ll have you know. This one is really about controlling the car and I’ve now finished running control cables. in this photo, if you look carefully, you can see the gearchange cable (along the top rail) and the clutch and throttle cables (snaking up from the floor). I’m adopting the sort of strategy that you see in proper race cars and trying to avoid drilling any holes in the chassis by the copious use of tie-wraps. The chassis is such a nice thing that it’d be a shame to start drilling holes in it. Continue reading “Slowing down”