Car 97 RBRR - Drivers Meeting Gaydon

Made the journey from Kent to Gaydon today for the Driver's meeting for the RBRR in the Spitfire. - see above picture taken outside the entrance where I parked with some other CT cars. This is the first time its been so far north of London in my hands although it's seen plenty of service on the continent! It ran pretty much faultlessly all the way there and back, the exception being the loss of tickover at idle which was a bit entertaining on the M40 Sunday evening jam. So a swift visit to Sainsbo's in Staines to refuel and adjust the idle screw made for an easy final 60 miles home on the M25. Luckily, having worked in The Causeway in Staines for a number of years, I was able to bypass the usual Sunday evening crawl past the M3 junction by using my old route home via Thorpe Park and Chertsey.

I was pleased with the way the car ran overall, according to my Satnav the total journey was 280 miles with an average moving speed of 54mph and the fuel consumption worked out at 42mpg, if I can achieve that on the RBRR I will be very happy! The oil pressure tailed off a bit on the way home, not drastically so, but enough to suggest changing the oil to the VR1 20/50 that I bought last week may be prudent.

The Driver's briefing was good, ably performed by Tim, Nigel, Jason and a couple of lovely girls from MIND whose name I forget. Even managed to meet up briefly with my brother who has lived locally to Gaydon for 20 odd years but never been there before. He was my co-driver on the last two 10CR's but declined to do the RBRR, probably because its his birthday on 1st October and has better things to do! He is willing to do the next 10CR though, but only if we do it in my Stag, I think he wants a bit more comfort!!!

RBRR Preparation Car 97

When should one stop fiddling (fettling?) the car for the RBRR - I seem to have reached that point where I am seeking things to do to the Spitfire whereas in reality its ready to go.

Yesterday on a whim I decided to take the lovely sounding GT twin pipe back box off, and put the bog standard rear silencer on, I reasoned that it was just too noisy with the sports box on at cruising speed (60-65mph). It is now a bit more civilised although it did have an effect on the idle, it is now much smoother. A good run today meant I could hear all the rattles and clonks now!

I have now decided to give her a run to Gaydon on Sunday, I honestly can't think of anything else to do, just do an oil change after Gaydon and top up the gearbox, Final drive and general check over the rest of the car - the front pads are fine, they are greenstuff ones that I fitted for the 10CR last year and have plenty of life left in them (I have a set of spares in the boot anyway)

Next week, my neighbour Andy and I and our respective co drivers are having our own driver's meeting as Andy can't make it to Gaydon - he is at Goodwood this weekend.

I must remeber to put some black sacks in the car - that pesky hood just will not stay watertight in rainy weather, got a very wet right knee yesterday in a downpour !

My thoughts now are to the route we are taking I have highlighted all the controls stops in my map book and will be putting them into my sat nav, probably one of the most essential items as the speedo is somewhat innaccurate - today I was allegedly doing 80 down the A21 when in reality it is 69mph according to Mr Garmin - honest officer!

I was planning on using the Stag to drive to Gaydon, however that has developed an auto gearbox fluid leak and its not going in until next Thursday to be sorted. It seems to be coming from the Torque Converter which means a gearbox out job which I shall be helping Trevor at Faversham Classics to do. Should be an interesting day working with the professionals.

Stag & Spitfire update

Thought I ought to do an update on both cars.

The Stag as everyone will recall has had a 'new' engine fitted courtesy of Faversham Classics. I have been using this more or less every day since its return in order to get it to the required 500 mile oil change and head torque. I achieved this last weekend following a couple of appointments to 'celebrate' weddings.

I have to say that the engine is running very sweetly and I found it increasingly difficult to restrict myself to the 2500 rpm maximum during this period. The car is now booked in for this service next week, following which I will be allowed to increase the engine rpm to the heady heights of 3000rpm for the next 500 miles.

I am tempted to use this to go to the driver's meeting for the RBRR at Gaydon next month to put the miles on.

Whist talking of the Round Britain Reliability Run, I have now managed to set up a Virgin Money Giving page for our attempt this year. It can be found here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/RBRRCar97

I am planning to use the Spitfire on the RBRR, it is now running well and just needs some final adjustments to the mixture and fluid levels topping up. I have been using this fairly frequently since I put the engine back together, there is still a small leak where the new sports exhaust manifold meets the old pipe that runs below the car, but this should be easily sorted unlike the problems experienced with the standard manifold on last year's 10CR. I also need to empty the car of some of the rubbish accumulated on the 10CR - better late than never, the crisps are not so crispy now!

The Stag returns!

At long last the Stag has returned from it's heart transplant! I collected her today from Faversham with a fully reconditioned Triumph V8 courtesy of Faversham Classics.

I have been given strict running in instructions from their engine builder, Trevor, thus: No more than 2500 rpm for first 500 miles, then return her for an oil change and head torque, and keep away from constant rev driving such as motorways and dual carriageways. Then 3000 revs for the next 500 miles followed by another oil change. So no chance of using this on the RBRR unless I can put on over 1000 miles between now and 1st October!

Car is much quieter at the front and has a real Stag burble at the back. To keep costs down I opted to return to the standard exhaust manifold setup as the mild steel tubulars I had on it previously were well worn.

The engine has been rebuilt from the ground up with recon heads and block + 20 thou with new conrods, valves, guides and valve seats. The Crank has been hardened, recon oil pump and water pump.
Here are a few pictures of the 'new' engine - note I have retained my alternator bracket that moves it to a more accessible position, the carbs and distributor are from my old engine - so far I am very pleased with it. The car also had one new driveshaft fitted and a rear hub bearing replaced under warranty by SOC Parts as it had failed by dumping grease all over the shoes. They were also kind enough to supply a set of shoes FOC.

Spitfire MOT

Yesterday, the Spitfire went for it's MOT, having been off the road since it's return from France last September following it's breakdown near Grenoble on the 10 Countries Run. I now have two Endeavor Awards for this event - must do better next year!

Since then, over the Winter, well Spring really it was too cold during the winter, I have taken the head off, de-coked it, put a new Payen head gasket on, fitted new tubular manifold and new jets to the carbs - got rid of those waxstats at long last. I took the car around to my local classic friendly mechanic, explaining the work I'd done and that she may be running a bit rich as sometimes the jets don't go back fully when the choke is pushed in, followed by those immortal words, 'if anything needs doing to pass the test, please do it!'.

As she was going to be done during the morning, I waited at home for the inevitable phone call, when none arrived by 11.45 I rang Clive the mechanic who gave me the good news, she passed with no formal advisories at all, so I must be doing something right after all!

He did however point out that the sill edges are getting a bit crumbly suggesting the inner sills may need some attention in the future but were not significant enough to warrant a formal advisory. Don't you just love 'old style' classic friendly MOT testers!

So today, I taxed her and gave her a good thrashing as a special treat up the M20 to Halfrauds for a bulb for my modern car - the second headlight bulb to fail in the space of 2 months. I have a theory that these full time driving lamps on modern cars wear out the bulbs quicker. I am tempted to buy a pair of Osram UltraLife H7's for £18.99 a pair as they come with a 3 year guarantee, but Halfrauds don't stock them, so settled for Bosch at £10.99 a bulb!

No real Stag news at the moment other than I had a phone call last week to say the rebuilt engine is ready and that they (Favershams) should be extracting the old one by Friday.

Currently mulling over whether to put the Aley Roll Bar back on the Spitfire for the Round Britain Reliability Run, I took it off for the 10CR to afford us a bit more recline on the seats, but I'm a bit wary of night driving around the Scottish Highlands and Wales in potentially wet weather and feel it may be prudent to have the extra safety, I must be getting old! I'll see what my co-driver thinks.

The Spitfire Lives!!

At last, the Spitfire lives again following it's last outing on the 10CR. I didn't do too much to it over the winter, largely due to the cold weather.

As spring came, I finally sprung into action (??), off came the head to show very coked up combustion chambers and pistons which I duly cleaned, the bores seemed fine, as did the valves, but the headgasket did show some signs of leakage, which may have been the problem for the breakdown near Grenoble and the resultant low compression on the cylinders.

A new Payen head gasket was sought courtesy of Wins, together with other assorted gaskets needed for the various ancilliaries. The sports manifold was fitted, the head and valves cleaned and reassembled.

I then had a brainwave, why not refill the block cooling system through the thermostat housing before I sealed it up, so all went well on that score until I stupidly decided to fill the rad as well, the result?----- water flowed out of the thermostat housing over the head, down the push rods and into the sump!! Oh well, the oil needed changing anyway!

Whilst reassembling the HS4's I noticed one of the waxstats had cracked, so decided to change the jets with a conversion , again courtesy of Wins, all assembled correctly (eventually- bloody springs!!!) and the carbs were refitted. One oddity that needs sorting is very stiff chokes on both carbs which seem to be caused by the fuel pipe to the float chambers, disconnect it and they run very free!

Tonight was the first time it really fired up in 9 months, a bit tappety and rich but she goes! And the new exhaust is rattling against the chassis - a small but annoying job to be done on the ramps methinks. Also just need to get the tune right and then it'll be off for the MOT and retaxing in time for the RBRR.

Also a bit of news on the Stag front - I have a date to take her to Favershams for the rebuilt engine early next month - things are looking up in my world of Triumphs at last!

Late Christmas Presents!

A couple of new late Christmas presents arrived this week. The first was a compression test kit, initially to be used on the Spitfire before I spend some time fitting the new sports manifold I won off Ebay just before Christmas. Thought it may be prudent to test each cylinder before I fit it just in case I have to take the head off. I could have borrowed one, but this kit seemed a good buy at £9.95 postage free! Hope its accurate!



The other pressy was a bit of an impulse buy last week and I picked it up yesterday - a 6 month old Skoda Superb Greenline - the one that has very low emissions and unbelievable fuel economy. We've (or rather I!) have been thinking of changing our 5 year old Mk1 Superb for a while, and had persuaded my wife to look at Octavia's as they were VAT free during January, so off we went to the showroom to look at them. As she often sits in the back of the car when ferrying her aged father around - he always sits in the front - the Octavia didn't pass muster as compared to the 'old' Superb it simply is too small !

After a week of searching I found this ex demo car in East London and having had a good test drive up the M11 negotiated a fair price (given the dents and scratches)for my old one settled on a good deal.

Picked it up yesterday - Candy White - not the best colour for this time of year - and drove it home - average economy for the 65 mile journey - 68mpg!!!! and its only £120 Tax for the year as well. It achieves this economy by lowering the suspension, different front and rear spoiler, remapped 1.9TDI and revised ratio's in the 5 (yes 5!!) speed box. I estimate that 4th is like the old 5th and 5th is a true overdrive, pulling only 1800 rev's at 70mph.

Have to say, the ride is incredibly smooth and quiet and I don't notice the slightly slower acceleration time against my old car

The only problem with this purchase is that his dented the money I had set aside to have the heads done on the Stag, so these will have to wait a while until funds have recovered!