It is 3 weeks and one incident-free event since the 6Hr relay race at
Eastern Creek so I can finally talk about it without breaking down and
crying... (tiny :-) Our team "Roofless Racing" comprised Peter Brice
(1962 AH Sprite Mk II, 1100), Owen Crombie and Christine Crombie (1972 MG
Midget 1380), Jeff Smith (MG Midget 1380), John Moore (1960 AH 3000 Mk
I), and myself (1966 MG Midget 1298). We were one of 42 teams in the
race! The list of teams follows at th eend of this article - it is a
truly fascinating list for SOLers and car enthusiasts.
Just to refresh your collective memories, I had clutch and half shaft
problems with my spridget at the 6Hr relay race at Winton back in
September ("Saga of a Spridget Racer"). After that event, I had the
gearbox rebuilt ($250), replacement axle housing ($150), new
RunbreakableS half shafts ($650), 3.9 diff ($250), complete engine
rebuild ($2500), new clutch assembly ($300), reco drive-shaft ($80),
new rear wheel bearings ($90) plus misc stuff like replacement nyloc
nuts, gaskets and stuff. I did not want to break down again in the
Eastern Creek race (29-31 October), so the car was pretty thouroghly
gone over from head to tail. I got lots of help from other club
members and finally got the car re-assembled just in time (i.e. 3am
Thurs morning) to be at the dyno on thursday morning at 7am (well,
actually I was speaking at a conference at 9am, so Kerry (my dearest
wife) actually trailered it down to the dyno place). Simon Gardiner,
the engine builder, actually ran the engine in on the dyno (1.5 hrs)
before fine tuning ignition and jets. The car produced 50kW at the
rear wheel (68 BHP at the rear wheels) at 7000 rpm. Peak torque was at
5000 RPM.
Mike Trathen (AH Sprite Mk II 1100) and I headed up to Sydney (550
miles) on Friday after lunch, expecting to arrive about 11pm or so.
Things went well enough until we blew a tyre on the trailer (I bought
4 new tyres for the trailer only a month before... aarrgh). Should
have been ok, but somehow we'd left the spare trailer tyre at home.
Damn. We were about 40 miles from Sydney when this happened, we
unhitched the trailer, and removed the wheel and I went searching for
a replacement (Mike stayed with the car). No luck, no-one could
sell/fit a tyre to me after midnight Friday!!! I went in to the hotel
in Paramatta, hoping to get a spare from one of the other trailers in
the team, but they had left them all out at the racetrack! Damn again.
Back to Mike who was getting some sleep in the racecar - we decided to
put the wheel back on and drive (very slowly) on 3.5 wheels to the
track. We moved the race car away from that wheel and headed off. It
was about 6am by the time we made it. The track opened at 8, so we
finally got the car to the pits and proceeded with unloading etc etc.
Only John Moore (big Healey) had been to Eastern Creek before, so we
first wanteed to get aquainted with the circuit. It is not too bad
good sweepers, a single blind cresting sweeper, ups and downs, 1
hairpin and a reasonable straight with a flat out sweeper at the end.
Our target lap times were in the range of 1:54 to 2:10 depending on
the car/driver combination. I was aiming for 2:02. These times are
target times that are sustainable during race conditions. Jeff and the
Crombies have mega fast spridgets (about 70kW at the rear wheels) so
they were aiming at 1:54, 1:55 and 1:57 respectively. Peter Brice was
aiming at 2:10 and John was shooting for 2:08. The nominated times is
tricky, because if you do better than your nominated time your lap
doesn't count! (in other words you can't outfox the handicappers too
much). The winners on handicap will be closest to the number of
nominated laps.
I only did 2 laps (behind the pace car unfortunately) before I came in
with a misfire. When I next went out I only lasted 4 laps before I had
to come in with severe overheating problems. Again I was stuck behind
the pace car. I had the minimum of 6 laps to qualify but I didn't have
a single lap at race speed. Now the overheating was serious - I had a
bent valve and bent pushrod (#2 cylinder). I couldn't believe it - I
was *really* very very unhappy and just felt like packing it up and
heading home. My teammates and the half dozen other club members who
made the trip up to Sydney to help out were terrific and managed to
cheer me up a little and we pulled the head off, inspected for damage
etc and organised a replacement valve and pushrod from Bob Roundtree
(spridget performance engine builder in Sydney) to be brought in the
next morning. Everyone was very confident that we'd have the car going
ok. Well we did get the stuff, reamed the guide, lapped the valve,
assembled the motor etc but unfortunately we couldn't get tappets set
right (the final valve always hit the piston) - we suspected that the
offset key in the cam timing gear had sheared (which would allow the
cam timing rotate w.r.t. the crank) - we decided not to risk it and
put the car back on the trailer. No replacement cars are allowed, so I
was a very downhearted, broke with nothing to show for it, spectator.
Owen was out first and did a great job - we were right on schedule
after the first hour. Jeff Smith had problems after 1/2 hour and came
in, Peter Brice headed out and circulated about 3 secs off his
nominated time until he lost a wheel out on the circuit (forgot to
tighten up the wheel nuts after swapping wheels). Chris Crombie had a
miserable time - the car worked faultlessly for husband Owen, but was
a pig from the beginning for Chris. She had 2 aborted attempts to go
out before we pulled the distributer and fuel pump/filter from my car
and put a spare fuel tank in the car. She finally got out but stopped
on the track after 15min with overheating problems. John Moore's big
healey ran faultlessly and on schedule for an hr and a half. Peter
Brice, after remounting his wheel and being the recipient of many
jokes, filled in a bit more but had overheating problems (due to a
leaking water pump gasket) that caused some permanent damage to the
engine (fixable with a rebuild). Jeff eventually got more time, but
the general problems meant we were well behind our schedule and ended
up well down in the field.
While the others had a leasuirely trip home the next day, Mike Trathen
and I headed back that night. During the Saturday Mike had gone out
and picked up a couple of spare wheels for my trailer (at a wreckers -
good wheels and tyres for $15 each!). I changed the wheels on the
trailer and we headed off. Unfortunately, I somehow - don't ask me how
I still cant believe it - managed to forget to tighten up the wheel
nuts. We lost the wheel about 30 minutes from the track, found it,
borrowed nuts (not wheel nuts - wrong size) off the race car, mounted
it and hit the road. Thankfully not much else happened and we got
home about 2am Monday morning.
Simon Gardiner came good, fixing the motor essentially free of charge.
He also helped put it back in the car and supervised the initial
running up. We improved a few minor things at the same time, including
a better manifold ($100), more cooling for the back of the head, and an
improved throttle linkage.
In the meantime I installed replacement Nolathane bushes in the front
suspension and discovered that both lever arm shocks were seized. I
borrowed replacements from Owen Crombie so that I could run at the
Morwell Hillclimb event last Sunday.
I ran out of time, so I didn't get a chance to change diffs from the
3.9 back to the 4.5. Not having run the spridget there before (I ran
the Prelude there 3 times - the last time managed the Fastest Time of
the Day in a field of 45 cars!), I wasn't sure how serious this would
be.
When I arrived, I found the other spridgets had 4.5s and 5.1 diffs. I
knew I was in trouble! Well to cut a long story short, I had a hard
time getting off the line quickly and only had the car "on the cam"
for about 10% of the time (being unwilling to change back from 2nd to
1st (no synchro on 1st) without practicing the change under non-race
conditions). I have never needed to change back to 1st before!!! I
ended up a few seconds off the pace, but the car ran very well all day
so I am happy at last. With some compliance in the front end, the car
was handling much better now! The only sad thing is that this was the
last meeting of the year! I have to wait till Feb for the next
meeting! Boy am I looking forward to this!
Mike Gigante
Ras yet unnamed T66 racing spridgetS
-------------------------------------------------
Teams/Cars - AROCA 6Hr Relay Race, Eastern Creek October 29-30 1994
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Porsche Club" - 911 x 2, 911 Carrera
"Collins Team Elite" - 4 x Lotus Elite (3 x 1216cc, 1 x 1460cc)
(One of these beautiful cars was totally destroyed after brake failure
at the end of the straight/sweeper)
"Toaster (by Sunbeam)" 5 x Sunbeam Alpine (3 x 1650cc, 2 * 1724cc)
"Essay" 5 x MG A, 1 x MG TF
"Plastique" Zephyr, MG, Holden, Elva Courier, Decca Major
"Clubman" Sprite, Elfin, Lotus 7, Nota, 2 x Minda Clubman
"Team MGB" 6 x MGB
"Mini Car Club" 3 x Cooper S
"Tag Team Tart" 2 x Spridget, 1 x Spridget with Nissan turbo motor, 1
MGB
(all ladies team from the NSW Sprite Club)
"Roofless Racing" (thats us we were listed as team 13 - a bad omen...)
"Morgan Marauders" 2 x Datsun 1600 (with 6 drivers!)
"Streetwise" Alfa 90, Porsche 911E, Corolla SX, Alfa GTV 2000
"Team Z" 4 x Datsun 240Z, 2 x Darsun 280Z
"Kitty Cats" (all jags) E-Type, XK140, Mk II, Mk I, XK150, E-Type
"Tom Cats" (all jags) Same cars and drivers as "Kitty Cats" doubled
entered!
"Pussy Cats" (all jags) XK 140, Mk II, XK150S, Mk I
"Wild Cats" Mitsubishi Galant VR4, Nissan Pintara, Ford Fairmont, MGA
"PRB Owners" 5 x PRB Clubman (Lotus 7 clones)
"Rotoraction" Datsun 120Y (with 13B rotary), RX3, RX7
"Whisper 2 - Team Grittle" Lotus Elan S3, Cortina GT500, Holden
Commodore VP SS
"The Rest" 2 x BMW 635CSi, 2 x RX7
"Zip Thud racing" 2 x Fiat 124, 2 x Fiat 124 Sports, Fiat 1500
"Autodelta Racing" Alfetta, Alfa GTV 2000, Giulia Sprint GT
"Milano Veloce" GTV 116 turbo, GTV6 116, Alfa 75 turbo
"Arese racers" Alfetta GT, GTV6, Giulia Super
"Team Quadrifoglio" Giulia, Giulia Sprint, GTaM replica, GTV6, Giulia
Ti
"Meccano Collection" Alfetta GT, Alfasud, Alfetta, Alfasud Ti
"BBB Auto Pitstop" Giulia Sprint, Alfetta 2L, Ford Falcon
"Last Minute Racing" Alfasud Ti, Alfetta GTaM, GTV, Alfetta GT
"Milano Connexion" Giulia Sprint GT, 2 x GTV, GTV2000
"Team 105" RX4, Alfetta, GT Junior
"Suzuki Sport" 3 x Swift GTi
"A.R.D.C. Clubsport" Ford Escort, Ford Sierra, Mazda MX5, RX7
"Thornleigh Car Club" Ford Escort, Ford EA Falcon, Mazda Capella
"Dynamic Clubsport" 3x RX7
"Dynamic Clubsport 2" 2x RX7, Honda CRX
"Dynamic Clubsport 3" RX7 (4 drivers!), Corolla
"Dynamic Clubsport 4" 4x RX7
|