History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[911thillclimber]

The Fast Boys were really on the case on sunday morning, lots of sub-25 second runs and 140 mph over the finish, let alone the 115+ mph into the bottom Esse 90 deg left.
Not for the faint hearted, any part of the hill!

[911thillclimber]

Loton this weekend, almost the countries longest hill, close to Welshpool.

6 in the class, 2 drivers with their Metro 6R4, unknown to anyone, 2 drivers in David Seatons mighty British Championship winning Pilbean MP46 now with a 5 litre BMW V8, Allan in his deceptive Mini EVO, and me.

It will be interesting to see this unfold.
Weather is good according to the BBC, Sunday being the best day.

I have 20 points in the Midland Championship in my class so far, the other car in the class has 4 as he is not doing all the events this year.

David's MP 43; nothing to worry about as you can see....

[Andy Clegg]

Loton looks to be a good course.

[911thillclimber]

Certainly is!
My favorite hill and one I'm very involved with, long, up and down and tight with 2 fast 'straight' sections, few places to fall off safely....

Hot day, and 3 practice runs.
Car went well!

2.09/57.51 as a starter.
1.94 (!)/ 56.20 for a second
2.02/ 56.29 as a third.

Car worked, driver hot, all in one piece.

Just ahead of the Big Pilbeam (1.87/ 56.54) but he will go faster tomorrow.
MiniEVO 1.75 (!!!) /54.80, gulp.
Metro 6R4 had all manner of probs, 2.7/110.37, but will be much stronger tomorrow.

Just might not come last!

PB is 2.01/55.69, so need to slice a second off.

[Andy Clegg]

Hope that you've had a good and successful day.

[911thillclimber]

Certainly was a cracker Andy!

Sunday, hot hot hot all day, not my favorite.

Allan in the Mini EVO had to go home due to acute oil pressure probs (too high) so the class dropped to 5, the 2 drivers in the Pilbeam and the 2 drivers in the 6R4.
Then one of the Metro drivers stepped down, leaving us with 4 in the class, the Lola v the Pilbeam v 6R4, 3200cc v 5000cc v 3000 Turbo

First run went like this:
1.9/ 55.33 and a CLASS WIN! (Pilbeam 1.92/57.18) a new PB for me.

Second run:
1.88(!)/ 56.57 (Pilbeam 1.88/55.40!

So, 1st in class points for the 2 runs and 1st in Class overall!

[Andy Clegg]

So a good weekend then. Nice one!!!

[911thillclimber]

Yes, probably the most 'results' day ever with this car.

Admittedly, a LOT easier without Allan's MiniEVO in the running.
He had acute oil pressure probs. and if he had been running on Sunday would have swept us all away!

But, to win you have to finish first.

David's mighty Pilbeam had niggly problems and by his own admittance, does not get on with Loton as a hill where the opposite is true for me, so this was an advantage.

Similarly, the 6R4 had lots of big and small problems too, so my only 'issue' was what tyre pressures to use!

Good to see Brooksie from this Parish on Saturday. His similar car is coming on well, so next year it might get tricky!

[Andy Clegg]

Something else to look forward to.

[911thillclimber]

Things have not been too dormant in the garage, I've cleaned the car yet again...
I'm a bit worried about the wear in both drive shafts.
I have found out that they are off a March mid 70's formula car, and a 741 F1 at that I think.



I cannot find any details about these drive shafts except that they are incredibly rare so a worry if one breaks.
I hope to find a real specialist who knows what he is dealing with and can advise on rebuilding them.
The special part is the non-sliding hub that goes into the rear uprights. It all looks custom made possibly by March but certainly custom.

Anyone with a contact for such a rebuild, please pm details to me.

The car will be on the Club's stand at the Chateaux Impney hillclimb next weekend, so if you are there please come along and say hello.
Met several 10-10th'ers there last year.

Weekend after we are entered in a one day Clubbie at Loton Park.

Only me in the class, but I want to use the event to try some ideas out.

Sometimes demon tweeks can be demonic!

[Andy Clegg]

Just looked on the 'net. A long shot but simonhadfieldmotorsport.com might be able to help. From Shepshed near Loughborough.

[911thillclimber]

Thank you Andy, my searches never came up with this company.
For some reason he sounds familiar, but certainly look to have the experience.
I've just emailed him.
Graham.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

Thank you Andy, my searches never came up with this company.
For some reason he sounds familiar, but certainly look to have the experience.
I've just emailed him.
Graham.

Graham, he is a well respected historical racer, and more importantly, a TenTenths' member since 2006. Obviously a man of impeccable taste!

[911thillclimber]

10-10ths member? A gent naturally!

It will be interesting to see his response soon.
The only place I've seen these drive shafts is on a March 741 F1 race car.

This means Rare/ Expensive/ Unobtainium/ re-design to a normal design.

CV's might last for another decade, but I don't fancy chancing them too much longer.

[Andy Clegg]

I used to take photos at HSCC race meetings and Simon Hadfield was always racing then.

[Neil Duke]

Talk to Greg at G-Cat Racing,he might be able to help.

[911thillclimber]

Thank you Neil, will do.

In the meantime, Simon has replied to my email and very interesting it is.
He 'knows' of these shafts, their origin and why the upright end is non floating.
They are based on an Austin 1800 FWD front hub, hence the non floating side, and if to far gone can be modified to take the more common CV joint as used on the gearbox side, a design March themselves used.

This seems a good way forward and makes any future maintenance easy.

My wife knew the name instantly...but she would!

Simon even knew this little hill climb car as he reads this thread!

For a change, a bit better than pics of my car!

[911thillclimber]

Had a look at the G-Cat Racing site, and the March 75S they have restored has 'my' driveshafts!
That's 3 cars I've seen them on now, getting common.

Hope to see more at the Silverstone Classic and learn more.

[Neil Duke]

I have got aluminium ,fabricated uprights for the Tiga SC79, to take the standard CV joints,as good 1800 CV's were getting hard to find

[911thillclimber]

Do you have any pictures please Neil?

[Neil Duke]

They are at Steve Mole Motorsport,I will get some pictures.

[911thillclimber]

Quite a sizzzlerr of a weekend at the Chateaux Impney hillclimb where our club had a stand and the Lola was one of 4 cars on display.

What a weekend, massive interest in the little Blue Car, lots of beaming kids faces from 3 years to 23 yr ears old, lots of geeky Porsche and hill climb chat with some very nice people of all ages.

Met some very old friends and even 2 x 10/10th'rs!

Great to see the car getting some attention and compliments, but those smiles will sit in my head for years to come.

Fab.

7.00am and waiting for the siege....

[PeterMorley]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

10-10ths member? A gent naturally!

It will be interesting to see his response soon.
The only place I've seen these drive shafts is on a March 741 F1 race car.

This means Rare/ Expensive/ Unobtainium/ re-design to a normal design.

CV's might last for another decade, but I don't fancy chancing them too much longer.

March went racing to make money so won't have thrown money away, the 741/751/761 used as many bits (uprights, hubs, axles etc) as possible from the production F2 & F3 cars.

My 741 project had uprights marked 741, whereas the 761 had something like 752 rear uprights (the fronts were 75R - aluminium Formula Renault ones because Frank Williams wanted it as cheap as possible!).
But the only difference with the 741 upright was the lugs for the lower links, where they just tweaked the patterns to suit the wider wheels.

The CV joint will be from a road car, possibly with some material machined away to save weight.

As has been said Simon Hadfield will know what the bits are (as will other people who have ran F1 Marches), or there are several people in the UK who supply parts for the F2 cars - if your 741 parts are different/hard to find you could switch to F2 parts.

Andy Gilberg (Marchives) in the USA has all the drawings and they probably show what the joint's origin is.

[911thillclimber]

Thank you Peter, all very helpful in my understanding.

I have a lot to learn.

[911thillclimber]

The drive shaft search continues with a contact in the USA via Simon on the case.
I hope it yields fruit!

Meanwhile, I had entered a little clubbie event at my fav hill climb, Loton Park near Welshpool on sat just gone.
Can it get any hotter?
Really do not like the heat and certainly not with triple layer probans and a full face helmet, but did 4 runs.
The purpose was to keep in the car a bit while the summer holiday goes by and the Championship I'm doing resumes.
I was in a class of my own, literally, so really a set of runs for the hell of it.

Managed to get to 1.3 secs of my P&B there and a few sub 2 second starts, so not bad.
Did a few experiments on tyre pressures but not a good idea, did not work too well, never had the car so loose before.
All I did was to drop them by one psi and the car was skidding where it has never skidded before!
Not impressed with the A92 compound fitted, A15 far better...
On the last run nearly buzzed the engine when it went into first instead of third, but caught it so saving a fortune...
Really a day best left behind.
Shelsley next in four weeks time!