TR21!

TR21- that's not what Triumph would have reached by now!

It's what 3 x TR7s equal.

Here are 3 on my drive on the day before the International AutoEcosse.

Paul (AKA Diesel Dave, Burnerboy, Ginger or all of the above) and I were fitting a Kenlowe fan to his TR7 seen here at the front.

Of course, all the bonnets were up!

In the far distance at the back is BRP so there's proof it still exists. In this instance it was donating it's short fan belt so that we could ditch the viscous fan housing from Paul's car.

I can't remember why UNJ's bonnet was up but it's always good to have a car to refer to.

And finally, here's a picture of Ginger.

Ready for the off yet Squiffy?

The spannering and electrickery must have gone OK as we made it all the way round the IAE and came in 8th overall - not a bad result at all.

On the Toledo front

With only 3 weekends left before the AutoEcosse Bryce has been working on his Toledo to get it better prepared for it's first long distance event.

At the same time, other than buying bits of ebay there's nothing I can do to the 2000 until I get the crankshaft etc back fully balanced from Drakes (must contact them by the end of next week if I haven't heard anything). So, with that in mind I have been over to help out Bryce on the Toledo.

He has successfully (but not irreversibly) fitted the twin headlight Dolomite front and is currently awaiting a full set of halogen conversion lamps complete with relays etc.

He has really gone for it on the suspension by fitting Sprint suspension including anti roll bars etc.Along with this also he has a full set of polybushes and AVO shocks/springs. Most of the work I was involved in today was the two man job of fittng the front suspension which as usual was a bit tricky but we got there.

Below are pictures of all of this.

Those Sprint wheels have to go though, Bryce isn't happy with them so we needed something more "period". As I have a set of miniltes spare at the moment these are now on permanent loan to the Toledo project.

I reckon the car is going to look pretty damned cool, in addition to handling well. There's more on the braking side of things to come as well as other developments.

Testing times in September

Away from actually working on cars and competing myself I am trying to put something back in to the club.

I am organising a new entry level competitive event for September 2nd. The full regs and entry form will be in this month's Club Torque and I will then put them on line.

It's quite a bit of work calculating all sorts of things out and the logistics of this simple event are not easy so I take my hat off to those who organise much bigger ones.

I have emailed MSA officials today for their approval so hopefully all will be well there.

Something that has been very interesting and good fun though is designing the tests to be driven along with the fact that I have given each test a name as well. They start off easy enough and then get progressively more challenging as people's confidence grows on the day, or at least that's the plan. I also think the names of the tests are relevant and there's some humour there - we'll see if everyone agrees when it comes to it!

Something is happening - honest!

Not much reported but I have been "helping" Bryce on non Triumph car stuff recently.

Fitting a 190BHP K Series engine to his special for example (mainly holding stuff on my part really) and bleeding the brakes on his Mini (mainly pumping the brake pedal this time).

There is something happening on my cars though.

A cleaned up steering wheel from our collection of spares for example fitted to the 2000. I am keeping an eye out for a centre pad marked up as "Triumph" for this.

The big and expensive news though is regarding PMW's original engine. The crank, lightened flywheel, pistons, clutch cover and front pulley are all away for balancing. At the moment the crank is being reground.

This engine will have had about £1000 spent on it by the time I am finished and it will still be only a refreshed 2000 engine, no firebreather or anything but it is the car's original engine so I will be pleased to have it reunited with the car.

I have never had a bottom end balanced or a crank reground before so it's all new to me. I just hope I assemble it all correctly with all the new bits and it runs sweet and smooth!

Somewhat unexpected

So, to the nearside today on the brake dancing front.

Actually this went very very well. Both calipers came over quite happily as did both discs and hubs. I then bled the uprated brakes on UNJ and all was looking rosy.

So, on the wheels and give it a little test.

But then came the unexpected bit. Both cars have 13" alloy wheels on with UNJ having it's OE standard wheels but they fouled the Volvo calipers. That was quite a surprise so I had to swap over the black "minilites" and put the standard wheels on BRP.

I think UNJ looks pretty good though with the minilites so I am happy enough at the end of it all. Oh, and the brakes work (but not on BRP so that has a notice in it to remind me it only has a hanbrake).

Here's UNJ with the minilites

Brake dancing

I have a number of brake set ups on/for my TR7s and always seem to be in tranisition to where I want to end up - two steps forward and one step back, or is it the other way round?

Well, with no driving to be done for 50 weeks now seemed a good time to make some more moves.

Here's the standard disc set up on UNJ which doesn't look too bad until you see the comparison with --

the uprated BMW/Volvo combo I have on BRP

 

Apart from the surface rust of course, the major differences are the much bigger dimensions of both the vented disc and the 4 pot calipers giving much improved fade resistance.

I had hoped originally that this set up would be fine for historic rallying but it was not to be. "Proper Group 4" brakes were necessary and so these were purchased and the necessary machining done etc. I have never actually fitted them though due to the interruption to my rallying plans but they are going on to BRP at some point as I still aim to compete in stage rallying co-driving in the car.

My plan now though, was to fit the BMW/Volvo combo to UNJ and so uprate that car's brakes from standard and ideally fit the Group 4 brakes to BRP. If I actually did the last bit though they would then be on a car that is unlikely to turn a wheel in anger for maybe 2 or 3 years which wouldn't do them any good.

So, still going down this route I removed the offside brakes from UNJ and BRP and whilst I was at it put all three set ups next to each other as a comparison - see below

I then trial fitted the Group 4 brakes on BRP and they do look the business

It was good to make sure all the bolt holes lined up - that was quite a relief! As I said though, it wasn't my intention to leave the Group 4 brakes on so I packed the disc and caliper away into their packaging and back into storage for the day when they finally do get fitted.

What was actually accomplished was the offside BMW/Volvo combo removed from BRP and fitted to UNJ and the standard set up fitted temporarialy to BRP so that it can still roll (but not brake!).

Alot of work but as always, getting closer to the end result.

The nearside will be the next job.

One week on

Unfortunately I had another epileptic seizure a week ago. It's a bit of a blow as it's been more than two years since the last one and it now means I have to have a year off driving again.

Still, it's now down to 51 weeks!

I have already surrendered the road fund licence on UNJ so we might as well have some money back in the bank.

Next I'll fit the upgraded brakes from BRP onto UNJ, save some money from events etc and get back to working on the engine for the 2000.

I must say I am now starting to miss the 2000 so it will be good to get back onto it and have it ready for when I start driving again on March 20th 2013.

Looks like the rallying will be put back even further though so the next big adventure will be the 2013 10CR in UNJ.