Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Practical Performance car

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

DSCF1653I have long been a reader of Practical Performance Car magazine http://ppcmag.co.uk/ and it was my pleasure to be invited to drive along side one of the editors Kev Leaper as he tested the often dangerous waters of motorsport.  Motorsport isn’t dangerous becuase of the accident’s but because it is seriously addictive and may harm your bank account. There’s so much more to going racing than driving a car and the preparation and comittment in cost and time often dampens peoples enthusiasm very quickly.

Kev’s Porsche had seen some track day action but needed a lot to get it up to race spec. Racing is the ultimate test of any machinery and the Porsche showed it’s frailties. Fortunately both it and it’s owner showed their potential too, and Kev has bags of enthusiasm for motorsport.

There’s a long road ahead but it’s a joy to be part of it. Buy your copy of PPC Magazine and follow the tales.

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When no-one else can help….

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

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Ever seen a honda Jazz before? Not many people have because there’s not many around. Even rarer than  Honda Jazz are parts for a Honda Jazz.

Most of these old jap cars have rotten away long before they reach the Retro Cool status that this little town car has achieved. It came to us for a little exhaust work and some of the inevitable welding that goes into owning an old car. To be fair it was in very good condition, just a patch or two here and there followed by a liberal dose of waxoyl.  The main problem was the bottom ball joints in the front suspension. They are as rare as the preverbial teeth from a hen and when we did find some they cost more than the car did. The solution was to break out the parts catalogue and get welding.

We found that some Peugeot ball joints had the same dimensions so the lower arms were measured and moddified to take some bolt on ball joints. It takes a whole lot longer to do than it does to say but we’ve done this several times on track cars to get more camber on them and the results speak for themselves.

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Moggy 2000

Monday, February 1st, 2010

If you have an old classic and love the character but get tired of the gasping little engine you have 2 options. Modify the engine which may cost a lot to return a little or modfiy the car the take a better engine. I favour plan B as did our customer when he brought in his Morris Minor. Various options were discussed but a Ford Zetec 2.0l from a Mondeo was the power plant of choice.  Rear wheel drive conversions with this engine are well documented and it’s a nice tractable and readily available engine so all we had to do was work out how to make it fit!

There were a few small problems such as the steering rack being in the way and the engine bay not being long enough but as each challenge develops so do the solutions. It’s lovely watching a project like this grow. There’s still a long way to go but here’s a few snaps of the story so far.

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Cheap classic

Monday, January 25th, 2010

It’s amazing that a car built in such relatively low numbers and with such striking styling should still be so cheap. The Scimitar was such a departure for Reliant and has carried it’s age well thanks to the fibreglass body. There may be nothing groundbreaking about the mechincals but thanks to some very strong parts being carfully borrowed from other manufacturers they are tough and pretty reliable as classics go. This car was bought for only a few hundred pounds but since then we’ve done some serious work done. Cosmetically it’s had a full respray, new carpets, the seats have been leathered and the headlining replaced to match. On the mechanical side of things it’s  had a rare South African motorcraft 3.4L engine fitted. We’ve added some custom stainless exhaust manifolds and a full stainless system. It took 6 exhaust boxes in total to quieten everything down! It’s had lot’s of other bit’s a bobs like a dose of waxoyl and a full brake strip and reseal. Parts aren’t available for ars this age so everything had a clean up and new seals. In the end the master cylinder was modified to take one from a transit. I’m sure there wll be more improving to be done soon.

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