History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[911thillclimber]

Thanks!
This car is flippin' hard work at times.
I'll get the thing right yet, it's me verses the Gremlins!

[MGDavid]

it's like a love affair, that car is meant for you; it's just making sure you have so much time and effort invested in her that it will never make sense to sell her

[911thillclimber]

A new mistress has crossed my mind in the last 24 hours...

Took the whole rear end apart today, nice and slow to check things out carefully. 3 snapped 1/2" unf rosejoints and 2 bent 3/8" so I'm replacing all of them, to hell with the cost!

Bodywork struts and braces all pulled out straight with 2 welds gone, but easy fix.

Wheels OK (phew) and CV joints too (2 x phew) infact, it was the drive shaft that kept the suspension on the car nearly.
Chassis looks OK and untwisted (mega phew) as i was ready to make a tube frame for the car if the tub was gone (and i wouldn't have to chase the Chassis number then...).

This leaves the culprit, the upright. Now off the car and it is clear what some 'blighter' (translate to you own selection of swear words) did.

The aluminium upright has lost a corner and was machined flat, a block machined to suit and drilled. However, looks like they were not to accuate and to align all the bolt holes (why?) they sandwiched a thin ship of alum (about 0.5mm!) and weled around the block WITHOUT any 'V' preparation at all for the weld to go into and build on.

With great precision, they then linished the welds flat. This left bugga all weld left to keep the block on! No surface evidence of welds mind, so damn cleaver people.

Not sure what to do about this now. Buy new or get it repaired by a real welder. Mrs Hillclimber really not impressed with welding it, so will prob try new from Fox or Mambamotorsport.
Then; should I replace the other side as well?

[Andy Turnock]

Hi Graham,sorry to read of your demise glad your OK.I have had one of my Royale rp27 rear uprights that had sustained similar damage rebuilt, by magnesium welding to replace the damaged part and then remachined to origonal spec.
http://randjsimpson.com/page5.htm
Carried out the work to a very high standard.

[911thillclimber]

Thank you for the tip Andy. I will send an email.

The other side of the car has a magnesium upright that I had re-built by welding through a friend. He came very highly reccommended, so i gave hima try. Absolutly everything is OK!
However, this event has the wife worried about unknown old parts.

I'm coming round to having some fabricated in steel professionally, but I'll give the cast route a final try this week.

Need to get the thin tube rear anti rollbar remade too as the flailing wheel took the one side out big time.

I've tracked down a company called Motorsport Components who do such things.

Just in case there is a fabricator/caster/machineist watching:

[kelvin lee]

Sorry to hear about your problem at Prescott Graham, that is really cruel luck after all your effort over the winter. When I read "a new mistress had crossed your mind" I wondered how Mrs Hillclimber would take it, but then I realised you were talking about a car!

Cheers,
Kelvin

[911thillclimber]

Like any Grumpy Old Man I look back at life:

1
Old mistress
Porsche 911 still in the house and just waiting to be stirred into life!
She is still 22 years old for me but really 38 years old, still nice though!


2
Fresh new Mistress.
Crossle 9S Sports Racer continuation with Hewland and Duratec and curves to die for!


3
Reality
Soldier-on with this old battle axe (the Lola..) and sort the thing out!!


Mrs Hillclimber is fully aware of the risks to all options.

[911thillclimber]

By word of mouth might have found a pro to fix the upright that Trish will be confident with. She's taking the parts to them tomorrow!

Might still be fabricating some though, almost as spares and interesting to do;



If the repair works will save a fortune (c £1000) to off-set the body cost as the front is ugly.

[911thillclimber]

Seems the upright can be repaired. I'm still going to do the steel ones as a pair as a 'project'.

Anyone want to buy a pair of perfect non caliper March 712 rear uprights?

To the front of the body;
It really is crazed to say the least. I thought i had kissed the bank not attacked it.

New front is £1500 but a snazzy two piece is £1700. The rear seems ok now and sits on the car well. Shame it will look battle scared!

Just the new roll bar and the radius rods to do now. Guy doing the upright is doing the bar. The CDS tube is on it's way for the rods. Plan is to be ready for Loton Park hill in 3 weeks time.

I'm in with a chance if Sean at McClurg Motorsport can fit me in for an alignment!!

[911thillclimber]

Just been sent this shot:

[morninggents]

Nice bit of rear wheel steering there! Can just imagine the look of surprise on your face.

[SAMD]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

Need to get focused on driving this thing now.

Does the pic on post No 810 have anything to do with the above comment?

Obviously this can happen to the Bishop, so dont worry about it. The 9S route would interest me as well. I dunno if they are allowed in Irish Historics though, although at the minute they probably allow just about anything! lol

[911thillclimber]

When it had all stopped to rest I was flabbergasted it had happened as i was looking straight at the Esses section, change down to 2nd (a big mistake I'm told today) then bang.

I was focused all right, but not for this!

These things happen in motorsport, and in hillclimbs, there is no room for this not to have an impact.

That is the sport. Fast and accurate straight off.

Hope to have it all sorted in 2 weeks. McClurg Motorsport will have the car when ready for a day to re-align everything, Sean is waiting for it so i have all the irons in the fires now.

I sure am impatient to sort it!

[911thillclimber]

The race to be ready in 2 weeks time is on!

Body all repaired. Looks 'ok' from more than 20 feet away...

The rear upright is back this afternoon and arrived still cooling down. What a great job done too. Looks too good to paint over!

While Mrs Hillclimber was over there he TIG welded the new radius arms.

All are hanging in the fly ridden garage satin black paint drying off with a few captivated flies firmly embedded.

Tomorrow night should be manic with everything going back on. Only negative is that the rear rollbar will not be ready for Loton, so will chat to Sean and see if he can guide me without a bar on. The rear bar is very small compared to the front, so maybe just soften the front off.

Have a committed weekend ahead of me so little will get done this weekend, but should get it down to McClurg Motorsport on Monday evening and pick up hopefully day before the event in true Club Motorsport tradition.

Loton Park is definitly ON

[911thillclimber]

We are back in Business!

The rear end all popped back together well, albeit without a rear anti roll bar. That is still awaited as bending the chrome moly tube is a bit tricky..

Sean at McClurg Motorsort squeeeeezed the car into his workshop last week and aligned the whole car inc the corners again in a day, and we picked it up friday afternoon in finest last moment motorsport action.

Arrived to run 4 practice runs at Loton Park today...and all is fab.

The car runs as straight as a die, the engine runs hard, and the gearbox actually worked. Never noticed the absent rear bar..

Car was just great and does i think about 2 mpg!

I need to drive the thing much harder and to use the grip/brakes.
On my last run i hit the brakes quite hard only to hear/feel the front of the tub hit the deck hard...need to increase the compression damping tomorrow morning asap.

Lovely day, it all works, and now I simply need bigger b..a..lls to get this car going strong.

No more excuses, it works, I need to now.

BIG GRINS!

[911thillclimber]

I need to think of a new excuse for why i was slow today...

Irritatingly, i just could not pedal the lola out of the miserable 60 seconds bracket try as I might.

Last year the car was quicker with a duff engine and a duff gearbox.

Must of course be me.

However, i went quicker by the 1/10 of a second over the 3 runs today, the car ran well, the gearbox was perfect and i started to get to use the big brakes, but was slower..

Pause for deep thought. (yes, i am nearly ready for my bus pass, so no remarks..)

Good news of course is 7 hard runs and the suspension is all intact.

[911thillclimber]

[911thillclimber]

If Tony (Harman)(Haggispeed) is looking in, I saw this creation of yours from WAY back at Barbon Manor the other weekend!

[911thillclimber]

I've been bouncing ideas around on another site for hillclimbers (hint) about how i can tweek the car to be easier for me to get quicker.

The outcome has reached a bit of a common denominator of everyone's assessment of me and the Lola, and thus a plan is forming.

1
Time in the seat! Get lots of it away from the races.
2
Hire Curborough sprint track for the day to experiment. July I hope, mid week with two mates and their cars.
3
Hire someone who knows about cars....
McClurg Motorsport seem a good direction to take.
4
Have a selection of springs.

The car has 300 rear and 250 Lb fronts, so get some 225's so:

225 Fr + 300 rear
225 Fr + 250 rear

See what happens.
5
spend ages lapping to try roll bar settings and dampers too.

Any other suggestions?

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

I've been bouncing ideas around on another site for hillclimbers (hint) about how i can tweek the car to be easier for me to get quicker.


Any other suggestions?

Tyre pressures and front rear balance.

Also important to remember to change only one thing at a time or you will never know which individual change works.

[911thillclimber]

Yes indeed!
You can get very confused if you try several demon tweeks at a time...
I have to say the car does seem even, no under or oversteer that stands out but if anything McClurg's have set the car to understeer while I have my 'L' plates on.

I cannot be sure about tyre pressures as opinions vary somewhat!

Running 12 Fr and 15 psi Rr.
Tried 14F x 16 R and felt to difference.

Can the car be so benign because I'm not fast enough?

[911thillclimber]

Got the new rear ARB back and onto the car which should even the front and rear ends back to where they were and that should make me feel better.
Just delivered the car to the paddock at Shelsley Walsh.

Fantastic hill but scarey. I've crunched the 911 there in the distant past driving like a plonka so must take care!

My old impreza is in the pack and sounds great. Why did i drop it?

The class is full of very hard cars, but i just might finish 4th or last!
Must beat my personal time.

Private test day booked! That should make quite a difference.

[911thillclimber]

Loton was nice and dry for my 3 runs in the car, and all loked well for pressing on to see if the lack of speed is ME or IT.

First run was a miserable 61.09 (done this hill in 59 secs in my 911), but a good start at 2.06secs for the 64 feet marker.
Second run was 60.93, start 2.1 and all the other sector times and speeds within 0.1 secs!
Third run was 60.86, 2.12 and sector time to 0.2 secs os previous runs.

Mr Consistancy in this car!

I have checked the throttle pedal total movement (to the stop) = exactly the PMO max throttle position.

This car just will not go quicker, and is slower than last year by 2 seconds!

I just am not sure this engine is delivering the goods despite the rollers result.
Weighs 610Kg with me in it, 270 bhp = 440 bhp/ton
My 911T/3,2 is 1050 Kg 220 bhp = 209 bhp/ton

Hill times are the same.

Lola has 14" wide AVON slicks, 911 has 205 list 1B Kumho road tyres....

There is some thing very wrong here with this Lola as it stands.

Just wish I knew what.



Seriously thinking of removing the 911 engine and fitting something that works.
A standard Impreza flat 4 with stock turbo gives 270 bhp, and with it's gearbox converted to 2 wheel drive (easy DIY), rifle bolt gear change etc it is very temping indeed.

Well dissapointed.

[911thillclimber]

About sums-up the day.

Wet wet wet and wet.

[morninggents]

With 14 inch rear Avons it's probably overtyred. Does it understeer? Narrower rear wheels and tyres may induce a bit of 'nervousness' which sounds odd but is usually the quickest way to go round corners.