Ahh, it's good to have the Midget back on the road. I spent the last
couple of weeks putting in a fairly new engine/gbox because my clutch
broke one night coming home from work. I finally have full synchormesh
on ALL 4 gears (what a delight), and the engine seems to be running
well, with no oil burning and no leaks !!!!
This is a stock engine, but I have fitted a side draft Weber and a
tubular exhaust manifold. I am suprised how strong the engine feels.
Although it won't rev as well as my other engine, it does have some nice
torque at the bottom of the rev range, as opposed to lots of horse power
at the top of the rev range !! I still have to re-jet the carb, because
the plugs are too black and I have slight flat spot.
I will be spending the winter stripping down the spare engine and seeing
if there is anything wrong with it, as it will have a hard life next
year in the several hill climbs that I intend to do with the car.
My racing tyres arrived on Friday (BFG R1 compounds), they are 205/60 size
which I think are just slightly too big for the rims that I have. I will
have one mounted this weekend and determine in in fact the are too
big, I may have to go down to 195/60. Fitting these tyres will mean
some "slight" body modifications !, at the moment I have two alternatives
1 - convert my car from square wheel arch to round wheel arch or
2 - get the fender flares that Winner's Circle sells and fit those on the
car.
I hope to make the VSCCA event this coming Saturday at Lime Rock, although
I still have to do some work on the car, if I want to put it on the
track. The fuel tank has started leaking slightly when ever I take a left
hand turn, so between now and Friday I have to locate a tank which I can
install.
Happy motoring
Gerry
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