T'was Christmas day in the workshop!

Seeing as I had no plans for Christmas this year a schedule was set up to get some serious work done on the cars. The main job that needs doing is to replace a floor pan in the drivers side of the yellow Mk1. Before I could cut the original one out though, I had to get the back door open to be able to gain easier access. (It also needs to be fully functioning for MOT purposes as well)
The rear door has never opened since I bought the car and after removing the door handles, winders and door card, I managed to get it free. It looks like the mechanism is seized, so a replacement from a spare door will be fitted.

The panel required to replace the damaged one in the car is no longer available new, so a good second hand one was cut out of an accident damaged write off. The whole car was cut up into sections, (see above) so the panel I wanted was still attached to the transmission tunnel, sill, chassis rails and floor!
As a result a good chunk of the day was spent drilling, grinding, cutting and more drilling out spot welds and seperating it from the bits I didn't want. (I even managed to burn my drill out doing it!)

Below is the panel that will be going into the Mk1. Roll on Boxing Day!

December 1st 2010. Nothing!

Nothing much happening really. The fluffy white stuff that grinds our country to a halt everytime it falls, has stopped me from going to Hertfordshire to cut a floor out of a scrap car, stopped new tyres being delivered for my BMW and stopped me from going to see my best mate in Grimsby this weekend! Bummer! :-(

November 14th 2010. Green's off the road again!

After fitting the new speedo cable to Green on Friday night, my eye caught the gearbox mount and where it bolts through floor. I thought to myself  'What the f***-  I mean, 'that doesn't look right'.
The car was booked for an appointment with a friend (and Triumph guru) on Saturday to sort out its ignition problems, so the gearbox mount would have to wait until Sunday for further inspection.
After melting off all the underseal which included smoking out the inside of the car and garage and setting light to my scraper, overalls and hair, I could finally see the extent of the damage.
To be fair, its not too bad, just awkward to get to. The surface was rubbed down and left to soak in Genolite rust remover. Welding will commence after I've had a bit more practice and feel confident enough to do it.

With this area treated and left, I started work on the rest of the car. The first real long test drive on Saturday had revealed a vibration at 55-60 mph (possibly propshaft) and 'clunking' noise from the rear, (one of the four UJ's worn) and a leaky differential.
Both driveshafts were removed, along with the propshaft, and the differential. As it stands at the moment, the replacement diff is has been fitted and the propshaft and driveshafts are on the workbench ready for fitment of new UJ's. All in all a very good days work.

Driving this car home from Colchester was great on Saturday after it's tune up and with its 2.5 engine and HS6 twin SU carburettors it just made me think that I need this kind of power (and a bit more) in the Rally car.  I have a lot of the parts to make a good 2.5 engine apart form the 2.5 engine block itself! Time to look on ebay methinks!

Green now resting on axle stands alongside Yellow.

November 7th 2010--A three car day!!!!

Yellow!

Work finally started today on 'Yellow'. After a severe battle with the wheel nuts on the nearside rear, I was finally able to get the wheels off and start the dismantling the brakes. This was after bending a wheel brace, breaking a pry bar, demolishing a socket and a sh*t load of swearing!

The wheel cylinders were, as I suspected, siezed solid with only one of the four pistons moving freely.

As a result of this the brake shoes ended up worn almost non existent just on this one side! The brakes had obviously been in this condition for a long time! (Pic-You can see where the lining is wafer thin at the bottom compared to being quite thick at the top!) New shoes and wheel cylinders required then! Oh yeah! and I found yet another hole in the floor to keep all the holes that I keep finding company! :-(  

Green

Before work started on yellow, I had been working on Green, my Mk2 estate. It's now actually capable of making it out of the garden and onto the road and a test drive proved quite successful. (Surprisingly!) I think it needs some proper tuning of the SU Carburettors and possible different needles, but this is beyond my know how, so it will be farmed out to someone else. It was nice driving her again though. Even the overdrive worked!!! Just a few little jobs now to make her complete and I have a 'parts collector' again!

Rally Car!

Dave managed to get a 'day release pass' today and so came round to mine to sort out the relays for the spotlights. (we had to disconnect them at the start of the Round Britain Run as they kept blowing the fuses for everything else!) 

Despite being on day release he still opted to wear his prison overalls for the task in hand (it comforts him I guess) and he was soon prepping the wiring and leaving bits of knackered wire connectors and black tape all over the garage floor. (some things never change!)

(No it's not an escaped convict-It's Dave fitting an additional fuse box to cope with the extras!)

While being supplied with hot tea and Kit kats most of the day, (Dave bought the Kit Kats actually) Dave did his thing and fitted not only additional relays, but an additional fuse box as well to cope with the extra demands all of the electrical equipment. There will be more Rally equipment being fitted too, so it made more sense to fit the fuse box and relays now. 

The end result is now additional lighting that can be powered up without blowing everything else, descending us into total darkness and sending us disappearing down a ditch!

Excellent!



17th October 2010. Post RBRR Repairs!

The 2100 miles we ended up doing for the RBRR were handled well by the car, although I had started to notice a 'droning' noise around Sunday morning heading across to Dartmoor from Bude in Cornwall.
The initial thoughts of it being my Co-Driver Dave were soon dismissed when I realised it was still evident when he was asleep. (Which was a lot!)
The first place I looked at was the propshaft, although it had had new UJ's and been balanced and should have been ok. The new UJ's were fine, so the slide mount was then re-packed with fresh grease and the differential was topped up with oil. Were we now good?  Were we b*llocks! A test drive over to Harlow on the Saturday night proved that we wasn't!

Sunday afternoon, while Dave was fitting relays to the Spotlights (We had to disconnect these at the start of the RBRR as they were drawing too much power and would have burnt out the full beam switch-We took action before 'Lucas' The prince of darkness did it for us!!!)  I decided to check the rear hubs and rear wheel bearings. I discovered that the drivers side was fine, but the passenger side had movement. Not a good sign! So the nearside drive shaft was removed and scrutinised.  

With the driveshaft removed and clamped in the vice, it was discovered that the cap that houses the rear bearing (the black circular bit under the two large nuts) could be moved by hand. This indicated that we had indeed had a bearing failure and would be where the 'droning' noise was coming from.

Unfortunately, changing the bearings on these is somewhat impossible without the proper tools and a bench press. Luckily though, I had another driveshaft in stock with new bearings in, so that was fitted instead.

A further test drive revealed that the problem had been solved. The car was still a bit noisy from the rear, but that may have been due to the fact that I have removed the back seats! Like the bumpers, (which have also been discarded) they are just heavy and serve no purpose, so why do they need to be in  a rally car? :-) 

6th October 2010-CAC is alive!!!!!

I've been off work this week on annual leave and I had already decided that I need to get CAC (763J) drivable again! This car was on the road until Christmas 2009 when it decided to overheat big time and sieze its engine on the way home from the Club Triumph Essex Christmas meal. It nearly made it home, but siezed about 200 yards from my house. So the girlfriend at that time and I pushed it the rest of the way and into my garden. (She wasn't impressed in her high heels and party dress!) The car started again the next day after it had cooled down, but serious damage had been done by then and all sorts of clatters and rattles were coming from the engine!
Due to other projects (Building a double garage) and lack of funds, the car was then parked up for a while until the garage and other stuff was out of the way.

The first weekend after Easter, the garage was up and the estate was reversed in and work started pulling the engine and geabox out. I had decided to convert the car to manual overdrive while it was having major surgery, (I dont like auto's) so the parts list was drawn up and all the required bits were gathered. I got to the stage where I had put another engine & gearbox in, but then for some reason, I lost all motivation on all of my cars for a few months and did nothing at all. Then though, the realisation set in that I had to prepare the rally car for the Round Britain Reliability Run, so once again, the estate was put on the back burner.
However, now that the RBRR is over, work has re-commenced. All the ignition issues were resolved yesterday, (although I'm still not happy with the electronic ignition and might go back to having points) and today the clutch was bled and made good. I still have lots of interior bits to put back in and I cant bloody find the new speedo cable I ordered for it, but its running and it actually moved under its own power for the first time since Easter! As a treat for it I thought I'd drive it out of the garage and give it a wash! It now looks like a car again rather than a workbench!        Work will continue tomorrow! :-)

Club Triumph Round Britain Reliablilty Run 2010--Car 58

Well, after months of preparation, Friday 1st October 2010 finally arrived and we made our way down to the start point at The Plough Public House in Crews Hill, Enfield.

Our spirits were high, if slightly damp by the constant downpour that had been with us all day. It also spooked us a bit that the first song that came on the radio when we got in the car was 'Road to Nowhere' by Talking Heads!
After a few hours in the pub catching up with some old faces and meeting plenty of new ones, the start time arrived and 109 Triumphs gradually left the car park to begin the 2000 miles to be covered in 48 hours.

We headed north up the A10, then eventually onto the A1 (and the rain was still falling!) for our first control point at Blyth services near Doncaster. The next stop after this was at 2am at Edinburgh Airport. We had it pointed out to us that our brake lights weren't working, so after discovering a wire that had come off the brake light switch, it was put back on and we continued.

Skiach services on the A9 north of Inverness was out next stop, where we stopped for a quick coffee and Petrol (Again!) then pressed onto The Seaview Hotel at John O'Groats for a well deserved breakfast at 8.30 am.

After Breakfast and a check of the Engine oil and wheel nuts, we then headed west to Thurso, before turning left onto the B871 and heading down toward Dingwall. The Conon Bridge Hotel was our next stop where lunch was on offer, and so after devouring that we then headed down past Loch Ness and down towards Fort William. After Fort William we then tracked back across the A82, past Ben Nevis and to the Saturday tea-time stop at Stirling. Apparently, this throws the 'first time' crews into panic as they realise that they are still in Scotland on Saturday evening and still have to get all the way down to Lands End and back up to London Yet!

So after a brief stop there we then took the M74 & M6 to Lancaster services for the next check point. (9pm) We came out of the services to find that the car wouldn't start! We had ignition lights but it wouldn't turn over. A quick look under the bonnet revealed that a wire had come off the starter solenoid. So after pushing it back on, it started and we were on our way again. We rejoined the M6 and carried onto the M56 where we headed for Wrexham in North Wales and the next halt at Gledrid. (11pm) After making sure the tank was full to the brim again (There were no 24 hour petrol stations where we were heading!) we set out again through the pitch black and into Mid Wales and eventually the Sugar Loaf picnic area in Carmarthenshire! We were doing well at this point. Although it isn't a race, we were the first car to arrive at this check point. (1am)

Only a minute stop at this one, then back out into the darkness to pick up the A40 and head back towards Monmouth. We then picked up the M4 and headed back over the Severn Bridge from the Welsh side and onto Gordano services on the M5 for the next halt.  This was a 45 minute stop and was much needed as by now it was 3.30 Sunday morning and we were on our second night without sleep!

The run down the M5 and then A30 towards Bodmin was probably the worst weather I've ever experienced! The rain was so hard, it was bouncing back up at you, and the gales were smothering us in wet leaves and trying to blow us off the road! We carried on undaunted and arrived at Lands End at around 8am.

A quick U-turn at Lands End saw us head back up the A30 to Scorrier for another well earned breakfast at 8.43am. After checking engine oil, all fluids and wheel nuts we set out for the next halt at Bude Museum (11am). There was a good display here from the organisers who had also planned a classic car show at the same time. It was quite a sight to see Triumph after Triumph pouring in and one old boy was heard to say to his mate 'I wonder where they've all come from?' If only he'd known!
After sorting out some sparking issues (with the help of Andy Pearce and 'Shedtune') we pressed on to our next halt at Badgers Holt at Dartmoor (12.25pm) A quick wash and change of clothes in the toilets and we were off again to head for Dorchester and across to the halt at Pimperne. (2.50pm) This was a village hall and the ladies from the local Women's Institute supplied us with tea & wonderful cakes. Very much appreciated by all as well!
We left here to head through Hampshire & Wiltshire & into West Berkshire, then crossing the M4 at Junction 14 and heading up to the penultimate checkpoint at the TR Register offices at Didcot in Oxfordshire. (5.25pm) This was only a minute stop and we were soon off again to head for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire before picking up the A41 to back towards the M25 and the finish point at Enfield. (7pm)
So, we arrived back at The Plough in Enfield some 48 hours and 2014 miles later! We spent £426 on petrol, and raised around £882.34 for charity. (This was just our crew)
All in all, a tiring, but fantastic weekend. We had some great times and met some great people! The car was absolutely brilliant as well. The poor old girl was hardly ever switched off, but just kept going and going.

She looked so dirty and tired at the finish, but she's had a good tidy up and clean since then. A big thank you to all that supported and sponsored us!

Sponsorship Transfers!

Busy day Saturday 4th September. As well as the new arrival, (See previous post) I had to take the Rally car into work to have some transfers put on. One of my sponsors is W&D (Warehouse & Distribution) who as well as donating a generous sum , also had graphics made up to go on the car.

All in all, I thought they looked pretty good!

One in- One out! The new arrival!!!!!

Saturday September 4th 2010 saw the beastie above delivered to my house from Lincolnshire. It needs a bit of work, but was built as a track day car and has a very impressive build spec!

The car used to belong to a Club Triumph member who did 2 Round Britain runs in it and after was owned by a guy named Graham who fitted all the fast bits and painted it yellow.

I've put it to one side for the time to concentrate on preparing the rally car for the Round Britain run, but after that, then this will get some attention!

The guy that delivered this for me also bought my brown estate off me. I was going to keep it as a back up car, but space being an issue (and money) drove me to part with it. So, as one car arrived at my abode, another left. I love it when a plan comes together!

A racing noise to go with the racing looks!

After competing in the Club Triumph autosolo, we watched a DVD of the event. (Dave and I took turns to film each other as we were blasting round!)
The car looked really good being put through its paces, but what did stand out was the lack of noise! So as soon as they were in stock, a full sport stainless exhaust system was ordered from Chris Witor and I waited impatiently for it to arrive!

The exhaust was fitted on a Saturday morning and sounded great! It stayed on the car for all of a week, before it had to come off again when I discovered that I had a knackered universal joint on the propshaft and I couldn't get the prop off without removing the bloody exhaust! Grrrrr!
So now I'm going to have the propshaft balanced as well. I'm not risking putting the prop back on, and find that it vibrates because of the new UJ's and have to take that and the exhaust off again!!! Once the propshaft goes back on, and the exhaust, I don't want to have to take it off again!

22nd August.2010. A bit of comfort!!!!

Since I've owned the Rally car, it's never had a carpet in it. It's never bothered me to be honest. (mainly because if it hasn't got a carpet, it never needs to be hoovered!)  However, due to the impending 2000 mile run coming up  and the fact that we'll be living in the car for more than 48 hours, I thought that a bit of comfort might be in order!

There was also another reason though. Currently on order is a 'full sport' exhaust system. this system only has one back box at the rear and is significantly louder than a standard one. With this in mind the thought of the new mega-decibel exhaust resonating through the car while one of us is trying to sleep was slightly off putting.

hence the reason for the fitting of the sound proofing and carpet that I now have to hoover! (Occasionally.......Ok rarely then!)

7th August 2010-The Differential's out! Again!!!!!!

Once again the Rally car finds itself with its back end in the air and its vital parts missing! As someone pointed out on the Club Triumph forum recently......'OMG! Its only 60 days to go for the RBRR!'

The RBRR is the 'Round Britain Reliability Run' for Club Triumph being held on the first weekend in October 2010. It's an endurance run where we have to cover 2000 miles in a weekend. We have to average at least 40mph non-stop for 48 hours to cover the mileage required. Sleep deprivation, snacks, high energy drinks and a reliable car is the order of the day!

The fact that there's only '60 days' to go (56 at time of writing) has thrown everyone into sheer panic as 60 days translated into the 1 day every weekend that most people have to work on their cars, is not a lot!

With this in mind, I decided to remove the diff on the rally car to try and cure the leak. Diff removal on any car is never a pleasant task on any car and normally results in lumps of dirt, grease and dust getting in my hair, on on my clothes, and on my nerves! The leak seemed to be coming from where the diff joins the nose cone. This is where the oil seal is situated, so this would be a prime suspect. A new oil seal was purchased from Triumph specialist Chris Witor and fitted with the job of fitting the diff back in the car shortly after. (Never an easy job on your own and it never fails to produce fair amount of grunting and cussing!)

I also need to replace the seal on the oil filter adapter as this has decided to leak as well. (Only my cars make the decision to leak from both ends at the same time!) So as soon as I have cured this issue, I can test drive the beast and make sure I am leak free! 

I've also been trying to cure my ongoing overdrive problems on my brown estate. (Should the Rally car not be ready  for the RBRR or suffer any additional problems, the estate will be the back up vehicle) We've cured the switch problems, but still seem to have the problem of the overdrive not engaging fully. I now suspect we have a pressure fault, which means removal of the overdrive unit. To be continued.......

A day at the Seaside!!

Sunday 25th July 2010 saw a rare day away from working on Triumphs when I was asked to navigate in a 'London to Southend' Classic car run. The car I was to navigate in was a 1972 Ford Consul GT owned by my good friend Andy. (The car was owned by me until a few years ago, so I know it well)

The day started off at Fairlop waters near Hainault at around 9am, where we proceeded to take all of the 'scenic' roads up to the half way point at Basildon. Once there there we were provided parking in the town square where everyone was free to do as they pleased for an hour or so. We decided to go for a McDonalds breakfast and steal some crayons from the children's play area as being the top class navigator that I am, I'd forgotten to bring any pens or pencils! (or maps!)

The second part of the run took us once again through the back routes of Billericay, Hanningfield, Gt Wakering, and finally Southend.

Arrival at Southend found us being led into a closed off section of the car park and main road at Westcliffe where the cars parked up and occupants enjoyed a stroll along the sea front. There was also a few stalls and a DJ as well to keep the crowds entertained.

The weather was beautiful and it was a good day out with a nice relaxed atmosphere, some lovely cars and good company. I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. Although hopefully in a Triumph!     

Wobbly Pedals!!!

Since buying the brown estate I've had to put to put up with 'wobbly pedal syndrome'. I had the same thing with the Mk1 estate I used to own too. It tends to happen when people convert automatic cars to  manual and rather than change the whole pedal box, just fit manual pedals to the existing auto one. The problem being there is a difference in size on the auto & manual brake pedals where they hang from the bar that connects them to the pedal box. The manual pedals therefore need to have metal bushes fitted to take up the slack. without these bushes fitted, the pedals have room to move about and feel decidedly 'wobbly'.

So, seeing as there was nothing on TV and I was bored sh*tless on this particular Saturday night, I decided to head out into the garage and crack on with the job. Its a reasonably easy job, but an awkward one seeing as it requires lying across the passenger and drivers seat to get at the bolts for the pedal box. I removed the steering wheel for better access and also found myself having to remove the speedo cable and a heater hose to make life easier. Two hours later the job was done and the car no longer feels like the pedals are going to fall off every time you brake or dip the clutch! Success!  

Pedal box removed and dismantled

The four metal bushes that were required.

Repairs to overdrive gearbox!

I've had an overdrive issue lately with the Brown estate. The overdrive works fine when cold, but wont kick in when the car's warmed up.

A few people suggested it could be the valves and filter in the overdrive sump clogged up, so I removed them and cleaned them all out. I also managed to destroy the gasket while I was taking off the sump so I need to order one of these on Monday. I also robbed a solenoid switch off of another gearbox I had laying around as I strongly suspect this could be the issue as well.

I'm now considering using this car for the Round Britain run in October instead of the rally car, (More room to sleep in the back of it!) so I need to get all of the outstanding issues sorted.

Other jobs consist of: Changing the pedal box, (It was converted from an auto set up to manual, but they didn't use spacer bushes, so the pedals are wobbly!) fixing the handbrake which is non-existent on the off side, finding out where the 'knock' is coming from on the offside front whenever we hit a pot hole or bump up a kerb, and maybe fit power steering. 2000 miles in a weekend with no power steering is just not funny!

Club Triumph Autosolo

Sunday 18th July 2010 started with a 5am alarm call ready to leave Essex for 6am. We arrived at Bovingdon Airfield at around 7.15am and started preparing the car for scruntineering.
With that out of the way we did our final checks and preparations and the autotest started at 9am.

My Rally co-driver & navigator Dave Saunders was using my car for this event too, so the car wasn't going to get a chance to cool down much!   

Bearing in mind that this car is still fitted with a bog standard 2 litre engine and has only had a strut brace, anti-roll bar and lowered springs fitted, it was coping quite well. At the half way stage I was in joint first place with a Triumph 2000 Mk1 with a fast engine and a well 'set up' suspension. Dave was struggling a bit at first it has to be said, but then Dave doesn't know the car as well as me, plus I think he was being a bit conservative with it not being his car.

As the day progressed we both got a bit sleeker and faster and Dave got his times down from 1 minute 25 seconds on the first run down to 1.04 on his last, while I managed to get from 1.08 down to 60 seconds point 58 on my last run.  

We both enjoyed the day a great deal and will be definitely be entering again next year. Our overall results were 4th in class for Dave and 2nd in class for me.

More progress made!

Saturday 11th July 2010. One of the hottest days of the year so far and this was my view of it for most of the day.

I was underneath my Green Mk2 estate refitting the exhaust, propshaft, clutch slave cylinder, and also discovering the differential had decided to relieve itself of its oil all over the back part of the garage floor! I have no idea why as it was fine when it was reversed into the garage the week after Easter and hasn't turned a wheel in anger since!

I also discovered that the ignition wiring has failed somewhere along the loom and the indicators have appeared to go on strike action! Whats wrong with this bloody car??? Does it not want to go back on the road??  Anyway, I had now run out of time with this car as I had to get on with a few other small jobs to get the rally car finished and ready for the club Triumph Autosolo at Bovingdon next Sunday.

The car will be driven round a layout of traffic cones in the fastest possible time, so another set of wheels & tyres have been prepared. Because of the amount of wheel spinning that'll be going on, the tyres will be shredded by the end of the day, so it's best to take another set just to use for the autosolo, then change back onto good tyres for the drive home! Of course this also means taking a trolley jack, wheel brace and in my case, another set of wheels nuts as the two sets of wheels I'm using are totally different.

Anything loose inside the car also needs to be secured or removed due to the speed the car will be flying round the course. After all, we don't want to be hit in the head by a flying fire extinguisher do we? Looking at the entry list on the website there seems to be 55 entrants!

Some work done at last!

After weeks of doing absolutely nothing due to losing motivation, I finally booted myself up the arse and made myself get out in the garden and work on the rally car.

My co-driver and I are entered in the Club Triumph Autosolo event at Bovindon airfield on July 18th. The event will consist of thrashing the car round a load of traffic cones in the quickest time, so a small suspension upgrade was called for.

Early Mk2 saloons such as mine weren't fitted with an anti-roll bar. So, with the parts raided from 'Ugly Pig' (Now scrapped) I set about fitting them. To fit the anti-roll bar, the front cross member has to be changed too and the link arms that bolt through the chassis. It was a pretty straight forward job with nothing going wrong, (Unusual) nothing breaking, (even more unusual) and completed in record time. (Bloody unheard of!)

I already have two other cars in the garage, so I had to do the rally car outside. The timing was pretty good really, because just after I had finished the job and put the front wheels back on...it started persistently raining!

All I need to do now is find some motivation to fix the two in the garage!!!!!!

Goodbye Ugly Pig! :-(

Saturday morning saw me saying goodbye to my Triumph Mk1 estate affectionately known as 'Ugly Pig'. (The front part of the number plate was UGP)
Due to severe corrosion, it was stripped for spares and the remainder sent for scrap.
It was a real shame because these cars are becoming quite rare now, but this was sadly beyond economical repair.
It did yield plenty of useful parts though including: Engine, gearbox, differential, power steering, anti-roll bar, PI Clocks, PI 2-speed wiper system, 2 rear doors, interior, petrol tank, two good bumpers, tow bar and five good wheels and tyres.

I was still sorry to see it go though. I was planning to do the Club Triumph round Britain run in this car until I started finding out just how rotten it was underneath! Still, there's now a space in the garage for another Mk1 to go in . Shall I start looking??????? :-)

16/5/10. Green Mk2 estate almost done!

The engine and manual gearbox are now in place in the Green estate. In fact, if I'm honest, they have been for a few weeks now, but due to a combination of extra work shifts, other cars, illness and just general idleness, I haven't got any further.

I have a quiet week planned this week, so a couple of hours work a night should see it running by the end of week.

Its only been in the garage since the weekend after Easter, but it's amazing how much dust has settled on it in that time!

I very nearly pushed it out of the garage and washed it yesterday, but never quite got there! Must get motivated!!!!!

The Rally Car's alive!!!!

After the fire behind the dashboard, the wiring loom has now been changed. My co-driver and I also spent another week or so of trying to figure out why the overdrive wouldn't work! Everything else works properly (well almost! The temperature gauge reads permanently in the red and according to the speedo, we are doing warp factor 9 down side streets!)

The overdrive problem turned out to be where it had been connected the wrong way round at the gearbox end by the previous owner! Once this has been resolved, we were back to our 'six gears' instead of four!

Three good doors have also been fitted to replace the ones that were seriously rotten, so I'm just on the look out now for a nearside front one to complete the set. The cars still needs some other TLC to tidy it up bit, but then seeing as there's also a high chance that this car will end up disappearing through a hedge backwards at high speed at some point on the rallies anyway, so why have it in concourse condition ??? :-)

Fire! Fire!

This is part of the melted wiring loom after the 'behind the dashboard' fire recently. I hate wiring at the best of times (Because I'm shite at it) so the prospect of changing the loom is one I'm not looking forward to!

This is my mate and co-driver for 'RadSpeed Racing' Dave Saunders. We've known each other since our school days and our sense of humour together hasn't developed much further than that. 

Dave covers the navigating on the short Rallies (Because he's better than me at it!-I'm about as good at navigating as I am at predicting the Spurs results!) and the co-driver on the long runs. He tends to do the straight bits of road and he's not as lunatic as me on the bendy bits!

About the Blog!

Hello, and welcome to my blog. RadSpeed Racing is about competing in Club Triumph and other club competitions with a very low budget (very low actually!)

I have currently have four Triumphs, although one is being stripped for spares and most of the others have work on going. (In fact, only one is drivable at the moment!)

The main competition car is a 1971 standard triumph 2000. It does have the advantage of uprated and lowered springs, gas shocks on the rear, Rover 600 Recaro seats, Minilite wheels and a strut brace! Other modifications will follow as soon as funds and time allow.

Other cars;

1970 Mk2 Triumph 2500 Estate: Was my everyday car until Christmas 2009 when the engine seized up on the way home from the Essex Area Club Triumph Xmas meal! Currently sitting in the garage minus its engine and gearbox and awaiting replacement. I'm taking the opportunity to convert it to Manual overdrive while I'm at it. (It was automatic)

1972 Mk2 Triumph 2500 Estate: Is now my every day car after the competition car caught fire behind the dashboard driving home from work one night!
I collected this estate recently from near Salisbury one night only for it to breakdown at 10.50pm on the way home! By the time I was recovered home by the AA it was 5am Friday morning! I changed the distributor on the Friday after work, then promptly took it on the Club Triumph historic counties run, where it covered close on a 1000 miles without fault. Faith restored!