Feels good to be back, my spine tingled this morning when I
switched my terminal on and saw all the postings titled
"british-cars" !!!!!!
Thanks to everyone who sent me mail about hopw to get back on
the mailing list.
Well th Reliant Scimitar is finally back on the road after a
20 month mechanical rebuild. I finally rolled it onto the tarmac
at the end of April, got it insured and after a few teething troubles
have been driving it regularly. The only thing left to do now is the
paintwork. I shall be taking the car off the road for the winter -
so that is always a good time to remove the paint work and fix the
bodywork. (I've been saying that for tha past 3 year winters !!)
The Midget is still going strong after 220,000 miles !!! I started
racing this year and it has surprised me how the engine and the
gearbox have still stayed together. I managed to do a few aurocrosses
run by the SNJ SCCA, and in all honesty it's the most fun that I have had
for $10 !!!! It was th first time that I had done any form of autocross
and I was amazed how fast those cones come at you !!! The autocross
season has finished for the year but I shall look forward to the next
season.
I have also made quite a lot of modifications to the Midget over
the past 12 months, each of them to try and improve the car steadily.
The two biggest improvement were the installation of a Weber 28/36 (?)
downdraft carb in place of that silly Zenith and the installation
of tube shocks all the way round.
The first mod has made the throttle very responsive, added substantial
power over the whole rev range and also increases my fuel economy.
I would highly recommend this conversion to anybody with the 1500cc engine.
In retrospect however I should have fitted the Weber side-draught carb
because I shall be modifying the engine soon to get about 80-90hp and the
side draught is better than the downdraught for this particular setup.
Which leads me nicely into a question -
Has anybody modified their 1500 engine to get ~ 90hp and if so
what were the modifications ? I have spoken to Faspec and Paeco Inc and
they seem to give me different specs -
My idea is :
Modified cylinder head ( larger inlet/exhaust valves & stronger springs )
Freeflow exhaust (4 branch manifold & Paeco silencer )
Kent Stage 2 Camshaft
Maybe skim the head to increase the compression
Happy motoring !!!
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