Bell's Banter 2021

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

With regard to moving braking points, I have a friend (a TVR racer) who used to judge his braking for the end of the Bentley straight at Snetterton in relation to the bridge......and when they moved the bridge nearer to the corner he missed the announcement in the regs about that - and consequently completely missed the left turn, having braked at his "usual" point

The first time that I raced at Snetterton, during practice/qualifying (back then we only had about a 15 minutes single session to form the grid, let alone practice enough)) the Anglia would burn the tips of the spark plugs before I had reached the hairpin of the nearly a mile long Norwich Straight. Consequently, I never established a real braking point, because by that point the car would be misfiring and farting along.

During the period between that session and the race at the end of the day, Bert Avard from Ford at Boreham who looked after Roger Taylor came over and suggested and offered some Autolite racing plugs that they had specially made for them at that time, which were a huge improvement over the Champions that I had used up to that point.

On the first lap of the race, along the Norwich Straight I managed to take the lead from the back of the grid, all because I hadn't established a breaking point, and everyone else was slowing down for the hairpin. Suddenly all I could see was all the spectators sitting in the stand at the corner, at which point I said "Oh, dear" or something fairly similar, stood on the brake pedal, yanked up the handbrake and shoved the car into 1st gear and I think shut my eyes.

Next thing I know, the car has done a 180, and I am staring at the whole grid of saloons swerving all around me, and luckily without one touching me. With sweat now pouring down my face, I then turned around, and tore after the rest. The rest of the race I used as a practice session, and am pleased to say that I actually didn't finish last.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

EB, do you know this museum? Looks nice. http://capripowermeetingpics.weebly....on-feb-21.html I know you're far away form North Tasmania…

I dont know the museum, but it looks interesting. I have to confess I have never been to Tasmania even though it is only 600klms away.... I once won one of our car club raffle prizes which was a weekend staying at the Casino there with flights and meals etc. When I went to book my trip a couple of months later I learnt that the agency that had offered the prize had gone belly up and my prize was worth nothing so never went.

Funnily enough one of my best friends has gone over to Tasmania today... he is involved in running the Team Medical race back up stuff and he and another guy had to take the medical cars and equipment over for the upcoming V8SC races there. I think he might have been hinting I helped him, but it is a 10 hour each way ferry crossing which can be quite rough at times and I have to be at home tomorrow for a new fridge to be delivered, so declined the offer.

[HRSTR5]

Originally Posted by delta

Good to get back racing and testing again.
Then back to work swop over and down to Goodwood with HRTR5 to run his Lovely Elva Mk5 in the sprint. The lad did well. P7 in class and car looked great coming through Woodcote and the Chicane.
Here is a picture next to a MK 4.
Attachment 67959

Great day at Goodwood on Monday! Thanks to work by Iain, over a much longer period than originally hoped (usually the way, huh?!) the car is probably ready for a race debut - maybe one more test day would be sensible. The Sprint was a cost effective way of seeing how much progress we've made, and what remains to be done ... definitely we are getting there, and I think the car might be rather good fun, certainly I was happy to 'push on' in my last two runs rather more so than I had expected to. Could have done with a small flock of Pheasants landing on the racing line at No Name on my final lap ... i missed them but was well offline to do so! Could have been warmer too ...

Really enjoyed meeting the owner and son of the Elva Mk4, nice to see the two rare cars side by side, we pushed them both around the paddock to take a number of photos with appropriate backgrounds!

If there's anyone out there with photos of the car in action on Monday, I'd love to see them!

Thanks Iain and Stewart for the support - look forward to the next chance to get this car out!

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Merci, je me sens moins seul et moins stupide!
The little experience I have from an Alfetta 2.0 saloon is that the original front suspension settings are a good start point bar the neg camber. Bob's pictures show that the front pitch you have tends to lift the rear end under heavy braking something you did not have on a 944. I guess you have reinforced chassis with bars between the firewall and the top struts, a known weakness.

This V6… what a diva singing at any rev. 2.5 or 3.0, its a pure mechanical gem which became disappointing under its 3.2 form due to anti pollution norms. Reliable too. Have fun! If you can, some pictures…

Don't think we have any reinforcement.....we bought the car as an ex-ARCA car so it had already been campaigned quite a lot. The tweaks my mate has been doing are to the camber so we are hoping to assess any benefits.....


Bauble has been kind enough to include our car in a few of his Picture Parade shots, but I'll try to add some more - one at Croft, courtesy of Malcolm Smith, one at a wet Donington, and one at the chicane entering Knicker Brook at Oulton. (Oops, the Oulton one has done a Delta.....I'll see if I can correct that!)

[Lancsbreaker]

Trying the Oulton pic again...Nope it wouldn't rotate, although in my laptop image it looked fine

Right click on it and you'll see it in proper orientation

[Gerard C]

Yes it does rotate. And you manage to have the race number accordingly. Well done, she looks fine with the '44 behind. I remember the original settings give no or very few toe in/out at front. Maestro… music!

[Tel 911S]

Got a new scam call today .
About loft insulation .
Seemed dodgy so did not listen , but checked it up afterwards and apparently they give a load of spiel and want to come into your house to check the loft .

Anyway , it was one that I had not heard of before .

[Peter Mallett]

I apparently bought another ipad yesterday.

[Gerard C]

I dream about a law to punish those companies taking advantage of the situation like codiv. I know it wont happen, sadly. Since two weeks or so, my internet stream has been reduced by a lot. Very worrying because we are two at home using "télé travail". In the meanwhile, my supplier is pushing hard to move my connection to a fiber one. Of course, there's no rapport between the two things… Let's bring back the good old corporal punishment and we'll see if a good spanking can open some ears!

[Gerard C]

Peter I think its the right time for you to open a Mac'Mallett store!

[delta]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Ok mate, I'll try and get some house points of off Sue Presumably it's in the morning ? I'll bring a spare coil

Your on the Delta Motor Sport list Gordon "Top Race Car engineer "

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

I dream about a law to punish those companies taking advantage of the situation like codiv. I know it wont happen, sadly. Since two weeks or so, my internet stream has been reduced by a lot. Very worrying because we are two at home using "télé travail". In the meanwhile, my supplier is pushing hard to move my connection to a fiber one. Of course, there's no rapport between the two things… Let's bring back the good old corporal punishment and we'll see if a good spanking can open some ears!

The vagaries between broadband providers is truly frustrating, Gerry. In my village, my provider can only supply a minimum, yes minimum, of 100 Mbps whilst in the village where my son lives the maximum that any provider can supply is 35 Mbps. As he has needed far more than that because his wife requires a constant feed as she has been teaching her class of infants from home on the internet, my son works from home now and his job requires at least two monitors running different processes, plus my granddaughter has been doing distant learning with her university and my grandson is studying at home for what should have been his age 16 exams.

So, although we only live 10.25 miles (16.5 kms) apart as the crow flies, he has had to have a second supply from another provider to keep everyone on line, whilst I have a supply that is far more than I need but the package with my provider is reasonable and he actually pays more than me! Try to make sense of that!

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Tel 911S

Got a new scam call today .
About loft insulation .
Seemed dodgy so did not listen , but checked it up afterwards and apparently they give a load of spiel and want to come into your house to check the loft .

Anyway , it was one that I had not heard of before .

They had better not come into my house as I've been watching "The Intruder" on the TV

[justracing]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

They had better not come into my house as I've been watching "The Intruder" on the TV

Gave up on that one, the acting was atrocious.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by justracing

Gave up on that one, the acting was atrocious.

Well I say "I've" been watching it, it's my other half that is glued to it and I sometimes look up from my laptop when there is any action, apart from that you'r right it isn't the best