Since the last meeting at Brands I’ve had a collection of things to do. You will remember that I said I’d broken my finger in the first race at the weekend. So I did but it’s really rather minor. I did manage to work out a way of continuing to work on the car which involved modifying a pair of work gloves by cutting two of the fingers apart and gaffer taping them together. I was quite pleased with that, although the hospital have now unstrapped my finger and it’s floating free so these fetching gloves are now looking for a new home.
Tag: transmission
Back on track at last
Well, I finally got he J15 on a race track! I took it to a test day on the Snetterton 300 circuit a couple of days ago.
This is a new layout for Snetterton so it was a new circuit to learn as well as a new car.
Wishing well
OK, it’s been a bit long since the last post. Sorry about that but things were rather thrown off-kilter by rushing into hospital with Anthea in an ambulance; blue flashing lights and everything. Don’t worry, things are fine but it does make you think that when a surgeon says some procedure is minor, no problem at all, improve the quality of life no end, then you ought to think that he’s the bloke with the sharp dangerous looking knife and he would say that, wouldn’t he?
Consequently, not much has happened here really; apart from the fact that the season is rushing up on us with alacrity, Colonel Raeburn*. So much alacrity that Colin and I attended the first of this season’s Race Technical Committee meetings yesterday. Continue reading “Wishing well”
Sunday afternoon drive
One thing I wanted to do was to improve the ducting on the inlet side of the radiator. I know from past experience that paying attention to this reaps huge benefit with respect to the cooling efficiency. First step was to bond some bits of Correx into the bonnet to constrain things slightly. If you’re not familiar with it, Correx is corrugated plastic sheet, most commonly seen as estate agent’s sign boards.
Back on track
Famous last words, or so they say. All the same, disregarding all the tribulations, sometimes I catch a glimpse of some part of the car (well, the bodywork really) and I think how pretty it is. I just hope I don’t bend it too soon…
Shafted
Still on the topic of the infernal driveshafts, I decided that it really, really, was the case that they were too long. I have absolutely no idea why this should be the case but it is. As such there really isn’t a choice other than to get some new ones. It may be possible to shorten the other ones, seen here languishing on the garage floor, if only for use as race spares. However, that would have to be done by either cutting and sleeving them or, if Icould find someone to do it, friction welding them.
Doom and despondancy
I went to Mackay’s, Cambridge’s best shop, and bought the requisite 32mm socket and with that I managed to tighten up the hub nuts. Odd that the nuts seem to have gone on so far that I can’t stake them. Perhaps they ought to have a great thick washer under them like the Sierra ones on the back of the Fury had?
Keep on tracking
As discussed in the previous post in this apparently never-ending lurch through a tale of cock-ups and curiosities I had to modify the front suspension. So, I cut off the little “ears” that I’d welded onto the front spring mountings an eon or two ago.
This was actually spectacularly difficult to do and I only managed it with the aid of a cutting disc in a Dremel and going very slowly. You can just about see in the photo where they were.
OK Ginger; Contact!
I’ve got empty garage syndrome. Although, I must admit to seeing the Fury go to a chap that’s clearly intending to race it. As you can see, there’s now only one red car in my garage. So, I could get on with sticking myself into the car; making a seat involves quite a lot of mess as the cut-up bits of foam get everywhere.
In the bleak midwinter
Actually, it’s just after midwinter which is a great relief. If I were to win the lottery, which isn’t likely as I’ve never bought a ticket, then I’d avoid the September to December bit as I’ve got to really hating the general darkness. However, we’re now on the way back out of the hole again.
As to the car, I’ve managed to do a few things. The problem is, though, that I keep remembering things that I never wrote on the to-do list so it doesn’t seem to get much shorter.