Bell's Banter 2022

[justracing]

I hope it's alright to post this on here, many of you will know Andrew Park and his dad Pete from historic FF2000 races.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/z6e2y-hum...ource=customer
Andrew and a mate are driving one of their trucks with a loaded trailer of aid supplies to the Ukraine, a truly humbling gesture.

[morninggents]

Well done to them. I hope they make it there and back safely.

[GORDON STREETER]

I don't actually know them but well done to Andrew and Pete and anyone else that is helping out in this terrible thing that is happening.

[morninggents]

I have two tales - one funny and one of woe.


Back in the 60s my brother and I raced an Anglia which we towed behind a slightly hotted up road Anglia. After a race at Croft we loaded the racer on to the trailer, had a last look round to make sure we had not forgotten anything, and I asked my brother for the road car keys. I've not got them, said he. Me either said I. We spent a period of time searching through pockets, looking around and under the car and trailer to see if they were there. Nothing. Eventually we hot wired the car and set off home. Almost there I became conscious of a rattling from outside the car. Yep, there they were, hanging out of the door lock. Duh! Don't ask why we hadn't noticed them during the numerous times we had opened the door during the search.


The woe came many years later at Spa, one of the last times I raced so probably 2012. I was going to share the car with my nephew who had never raced there before so he did the majority of the practice session and I was going to jump in and try to get a decent time in the last few minutes of the 30 minute qually session. We hung out the board to tell nephew to come in but as he came up the F1 pit lane to turn down on the inside of the hairpin into the other pit lane he got on the wrong side of the traffic cones and was directed back on to the circuit. A lap later he came back in and handed over, full of apologies, and I went out but with Chevron B8s, Lotus 23s and other sports races on the circuit (it was an HSCC mixed closed wheel race) I spent every second of three excrutiatingly slow laps watching the mirror and keeping out of the way of these much quicker cars. The outcome was novice nephew set our qually time, but well down the grid. Took a long time to live that down.
Nephew did the first race and enjoyed the experience but near the tail of the field. I did the second race next day and we had put new pads in after the first race as the originals were down to the rivets. I tried to bed the pads in during the out lap with some heavy braking (quite safe as we were on the last row of the grid) and, determined to make up for what had been a dismal show so far, I went up the inside of another Cortina in to the hairpin on the first lap, realised I wasn't going to make it, and went for the brakes to cede the corner. Unfortunately, there had not been enough time for the brakes to cool after bedding in and there was no braking effect at all. I could see the other Cortina well over to the left as we approached the corner but he started to turn right into the hairpin and just kept coming as I prayed he'd seen me and would make room, He hadn't and my left front corner hit his drivers door. Neither car went off but my wheel arch was hard on the tyre and I had to call it a day. What a wally.

I went to see the other driver, Michael Steele, after the race (he did at least finish) and apologised profusely. He was a real gentleman and accepted my explanation.
A long way to go for 3 slow practice laps and a 200 metre race.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The problem I had was that it was impossible, we tried in many, many different ways, to remove the head with the exhaust manifold in place. And to remove the exhaust, we also had to remove the Webers on the inlet manifolds. Both manifolds were attached to the head with Allen screws (bolts) which could only be turned 1/4 of a turn of the Allen key at a time by hand, mine because I had the smallest hands to get in the miniscule space, and could only be done once the manifolds had cooled off.

Yes it was a bit of a fiddle to undo those Allen bolts but having a long ball headed Allen key for the 3/8 socket set saved a lot of swearing /burnt knuckles and time
As I built the complete car from scratch I made sure that we could do any job at the track with ease and made (or had made) bespoke parts to simplify things, including an inlet/exhuast manifold and a bellhousing so that you could remove/fit a starter motor without taking the dry sump pump off.
Several times I have seen people having to go home after qualifiying because a job would take too long to do before the race, so wasting the day and entrance fee. I don't think that there was a job that wasn't easy to do.

[GORDON STREETER]

A friend that lives near me in Spain sent me a video tonight from his dashcam. This happens every now and then with sand blowing in from the Sahara dessert but I have never seen it like this. This is a screenshot without any filters or photoshop !

[midgetman]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

A contributor on here (Hi Paul! ) has been known to do a qualy session with a trolley jack still in the boot..........

Yeah we left one under the tonneau cover behind my dad's seat at Cadwell.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

[bauble]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Yeah we left one under the tonneau cover behind my dad's seat at Cadwell.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

Well you never know when you might need a trolley jack.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by bauble

Well you never know when you might need a trolley jack.

Agreed baub, It has been known for people to change a wheel in the 3rd lane of a motorway so I suppose it could be tried on the racetrack

[John Elwin]

This one's a bit different!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIMBq9o8rwM

[Peter Mallett]

Indeed, good spot. Notice the famous Opel GTe?

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Indeed, good spot. Notice the famous Opel GTe?

Yes... quite a variety of cars there, not to mention the quick switch from summer to winter & back again!

[zefarelly]

I've had similar at Spa . . . Dodgy rolling road set up, I had a hunch something wasnt right, 3 laps and holed a piston.

Precrossflow manifolds are a pig . . . I've got some custom allen keys and ball ended.

Have done a head gasket in 30 minutes too, on a GInetta at the 6hr, blew after 30 minutes then happily soldiered on for the rest of the race.

[Paul D]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

A contributor on here (Hi Paul! ) has been known to do a qualy session with a trolley jack still in the boot..........

Cheers Richard... mate!

Apologies for being a bit late to this party!

The particular event to which Richard alludes is actually worse than suggested I'm embarrassed to admit...

Cadwell, 2008 I seem to remember. I hadn't been racing long, having spent an earlier period doing tarmac rallies. We couldn't carry everything in the tow car at the time, so some stuff was loaded into the boot of the race car to make use of that space. Having only arrived on the morning of the meeting, time was a bit tight to get to scrutineering, so I headed straight there after unloading the car from the trailer.

During scrutineering, I was asked to open the boot so the scrutineer could have a look around in there. Upon doing so, with said scrutineer stood next to me, we were greeted with a boot full of stuff - not just the aforementioned trolley jack, but also a cross-shaped wheel brace and even a sack truck! Don't ask...

Scrutineer remarked, jokingly: "You will remember to remove that lot before qualy, won't you?" I laughed, replying, "Oh, of course - I wouldn't want to be carrying that lot round at speed!" Oh, how we laughed...

I'm sure you're all way ahead of me now, but there's more! What follows is by way of mitigation, and it's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Other opinions may be available...

On making my way back up into the paddock following scrutineering, we thought it looked like it was going to rain (it had already rained earlier), so we thought about putting on the 'wets' (tyres with a bit more tread than the 'drys'!). These had never been used yet, and when we removed the first wheel to fit one, we realised that the different style of wheel carrying said wets required a longer wheel bolt than what we had. Oops!

So, back on with the drys and, by now, it wasn't long until we were due out, and in all the confusion, we all completely forgot about the stuff in the boot. So, off I went with the boot full of the aforementioned. During the session, I could hear some noises from the back, but it still didn't click, and I convinced myself that it was something like a loose damper bolt or broken exhaust hangar that I could hear, but through the helmet and with the racket of a race car all around me, I couldn't pinpoint it. Anyway, as it didn't seem to be affecting the handling, I just decided to press on and finished the session.

The threatened rain never arrived fortunately, and I ended up P5 or 6 as I remember (just checked the old results - it was P8: P5 or 6 was my next visit the following year), which I was more than happy with, having never laid eyes on Cadwell before that morning. It was only later on, when refuelling for the race that we discovered all the stuff still in the boot. Amazingly (and remember, this is Cadwell), having heavy equipment loose in there at qualy speeds had caused no significant damage, and it was all removed, quietly and discretely, before the race...

[GORDON STREETER]

Thinking of some of the worst things that happen, this was in my workshop several years back.
I had a delivery of oil in a 50 gallon drum that I always put on it's side on an old sawing horse with a tap for decanting. I was filling a 5 gallon container that was taking a while to fill and the phone went that was outside on the roof of my car.
I got chatting and as it was almost 1pm I shut the workshop door and drove home for dinner. I came back an hour later and wondered what this "stuff" was that was running from under the door, yes it was 45 gallons of the best 10w40 synthetic !!!!

[bauble]

I an sorry chaps, but I have nothing to contribute to this subject, I have wracked my brain, and scoured my memory banks for some mistake, blunder, idiotic escapade, senior moment, slip of the tongue, lapse of concentration, or simple silliness, but sadly none have occurred at anytime in my life. Therefore I am unable to regale you with any incident such as those described by others here.

[Peter Mallett]

There's an argument to suggest that being yourself may be adequate.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

There's an argument to suggest that being yourself may be adequate.

Are you suggesting that I am someone's mistake?

[S griffin]

Oh no Baub, your excellent photography has been very worthwhile

[Peter Mallett]

Happy birthday Delta.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Happy birthday Delta.

Yeah Happy Birthday Iain. Enjoy.

[morninggents]

Happy birthday young man.

[Gerard C]

The auction held during the last Rétromobile fair was a success. Crazy prices for some cars: https://www.artcurial.com/fr/vente-4...rial-motorcars
Dont know what to think about the Reyonnah at € 83 440 tho…

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

The auction held during the last Rétromobile fair was a success. Crazy prices for some cars: https://www.artcurial.com/fr/vente-4...rial-motorcars
Dont know what to think about the Reyonnah at € 83 440 tho…

Thought of you at the weekend - I was at the Arras Bourse, returning after a two-year absence, where I spotted a Porsche GT3 & Panamera emblazoned with 'Le Garage Cayeux, Porsche tuning specialists'.

The show was a huge success with people queuing most of the day to get & the 500-car classic parking was greatly oversubscribed, not helped by the arrival of more than few American behemoths.

A great show with a great atmosphere - one of my favourites of the year.

Should have been in Essen today judging concours but bit of a surfeit of funerals this week - two for WW1 soldiers & one family one.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

The auction held during the last Rétromobile fair was a success. Crazy prices for some cars: https://www.artcurial.com/fr/vente-4...rial-motorcars
Dont know what to think about the Reyonnah at € 83 440 tho…

I have to agree with you about the prices. Presumably the ones that did not sell had reserves applied that people were not willing to match.

Given the way investment seemed to be deployed by the punters one wonders how high the reserves must have been to put people off buying.

Or might there be some other strategy in play?