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Re: Hello again

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Hello again
From: kmwheeler@ualr.edu
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:28:58 -0600
Well, here goes:

Dan said:

>Hi ho, Keith! How goes the rallying in the GT?

Last ran (and finished! and not DFL!) at 100 Acre Wood in the Ozarks of 
Missouri, 2002.
Got an invite back the next year (for the ClubRall Nat'l Championship) because 
I'm in a 
division with very few cars, but was unable to run due to cash flow.  

I've been driving the car on the street somewhat daily, but on a junkyard 
refugee engine.  The
powerplant I was running finally gave it up-- actually it's a pretty typical 
worn out MG engine,
it still runs, but no HP and all the compression and combustion goes to blowing 
oil out
every orifice.  I've not yet opened it up, but compression is way down.

The old beast needs some work before running seriously again.  Besides an 
engine, in 2001
I tweaked the car a bit at Rim of the World.  We yumped and landed really hard. 
 The chassis
rail under the passenger foot well got it hard, and the car needs to be 
straightened before
running hard.  It's ok on the street, but in the dirt at speed it just doesn't 
want to point the
way it should.

Over the last couple of years my motorsports world has been limited to help 
keeping my dad's
autox X1/9 going, and the annual running of the Arkansas SCCA Region's "London 
to Paris"
road rally...a few hours of tour rally through the Ozarks.  Great roads!

James and Paul both mentioned B V8s.  I had a 3.9 engine that I was planning on 
using, but
it ended up in my truck.  The tired 3.5 out of the truck seems to be in good 
shape, other than
a stuck valve and tired old rings, so my plans are to rebuild it for my old 
roadster.  With my
wife's TR8 on the slate we're *that* much closer to having all of our main 
street cars
with the same engine! woo-hoo! What a geeky gearhead goal.  

My wife and I are both in school.  She's a young one, and is just finishing up 
her undergrad.  Since
there's not that much in the way of work for an electronics engineer in Little 
Rock, AR, I decided
that getting my MBA may be the way to go.  We shall see, but I think I'm 
turning back to the
MGs for a bit of stress relief...seems like no matter how bleak things get I've 
still got the cars.
I'm considering going in to business, maybe project management consulting, 
something that would
take my engineering experience and skills and translate them to more work.

Hmm, let's see, how about a couple of tech questions?  1)  Alternative ratios 
for MGB tube type rears...
what's out there?  There's gotta be some kind of delivery van or something in 
the UK that used 4.11s
or some such in these.  Both my rally GT and an autox wannabe roadster I've got 
(both 68's!) have
tube type rears.  2)  Fuel line.  Solid tubing is what I'm talking about.  What 
kind of tubing?  What
about for fuel injection?  How do you flare the ends?

Sing blue silver,

-Keith Wheeler
Team Sanctuary





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