Soda bead blasting Colin :thumb: damn sight cheaper then the monkeys at Surface Processing.
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Soda bead blasting Colin :thumb: damn sight cheaper then the monkeys at Surface Processing.
I seriously wouldn't get Surface Processing to dip it
I have a shell that was done by them and after owning it a while I wouldn't trust them to do a decent job from what I've found on mine
I'm very surprised there still in business tbh
A friend of mine who deals in Mk1 & Mk2 Escorts said the same thing to me years ago aswell.Quote:
Originally Posted by Edd
Thanks Colin, no rush, I need to get it in the paintshop before I start thinking about the next mods lolQuote:
Originally Posted by novarally
Acid dipping with a weld in cage is not a good idea.
I've not heard of this before, tell me more please..........Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Draper
The new 15" wheels on the car (not fitted with my slicks yet);
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/002-53.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/001-20.jpg
i like....the spokes looks rather thin :eek: i guess thats where the weight is lost
Due to welds possibly having pinhole gaps in them there is a chance the tubes could fill with acid. The only way of removing it and preventing it is to drill small holes in the bottom of the tubes. I found this out when i though about having my corsa shell acid dipped.Quote:
Originally Posted by novarally
Thanks, I'm glad you told me that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Draper
Blasting it is looking favourite at the moment, as a friend of mine has just bought all the gear, and trialled it on his Mk.1 Escort which came out well.
Update with measurements of the diffuser, mostly for James........Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonlem
Length 92cm
Width 104cm
Thanks Colin, I'll have a measure up tomorrow :)
Just getting the car ready to go off for another hillclimb at the weekend, and with the new wheels now fitted, I thought it high time it went back on the corner weight scales to see where we are with it...........
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/016-27.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/017-29.jpg
And the results........
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/018-26.jpg
562kg (or 561.5kg if you want to be pedantic).
That's with a full tank of fuel, and all fluids on board, so ready to race (without the driver, obviously!!).
I'm pleased enough with that, and it means I'm still on target for close to 550kg with the next phase of weight saving tweaks.
As a useful comparison, and whilst I still have it, I put my Westfield on the scales as well;
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/019-23.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...ort/020-19.jpg
Not bad at all at 486kg, although whoever built it has paid scant regard to weight saving, so there would be loads to come out of that figure if I was keeping it.
Cool that the Nova has much better matching weight distribution between the wheels than the Westfield. I'd never have thought looking at the car that theres 41 kilos difference between the two front wheels! Any ideas what the cage in the Nova weighs? And are you going to give any clues on whats going to make the next 10 kilos of savings? :)
Indeed, the Westfield needs some proper setting up, it's a worry that people race cars that are so far out. The Nova was actually slightly better than this (within 1kg) before I changed the springs, so I can get that a bit better as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul james
I don't know what the full cage weighs, but I'd bet it's 40kg or thereabouts.
The next 10kg of weight loss goes something like this;
Lose the windscreen rubber and bond the screen in directly -1kg
Fit the solid front brake discs in place of the vented ones -3kg
Cut out more metalwork behind the rear wheel centres (est)-4kg
Composite passenger door (if I can find a nice fitting one) -2kg
Composite drivers door (again, needs to fit properly) -2kg
Fit the 4mm windows in place of my illegal 2mm ones +2kg (boo!)
There are other things I can do to go still further, but they all involve lots of cash. The main ones there are;
Titanium tie bars
Titanium anti-roll bars
Titanium driveshafts
Alloy or titanium flywheel
Even lighter weight wheels (Force Racing split rims are on my wish list)
Alloy bodied front struts
plus when a driver gets in the westfield there is even more weight on that side,
are you still planning on putting rad in rear ? few more kg to add with extra pipe and water, or transferring a little weight to pas side to balance it out for when your in the car ?
when i checked what cages weight there about 40-50kg for most weld cages
Quote:
Originally Posted by calibra-keith
I'm still considering the rear radiator, but it will add a little weight as you say. What I need to decide is whether the weight penalty is made up for by better weight distribution (it's very light at the back end as you can see). There's also the potential to improve the airflow to the turbo and the intercooler design at the front end with the space taken up by the current radiator freed up.
I'm going to be chatting to one of my Mini driving rivals at the weekend to see what he reckons, as he moved his radiator to the back end last season.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...cort/030-8.jpg
Is that an oil catch tank/breather in the passenger arch? and is it still there? perhaps a weight saving to be made if it is, you can get little light weight motorbike ones.
Well surprised about the difference in weight distribution on the Westfield, and love the nova's new mk2 front end, quite like the white look to.. new color maybe?
Scott
Colin, do you choose spring rates based on the axle weight after corner weighting the car? If so, is there some sort of formula behind this?
I've stuck with the same spring rates that were on the car when I first got it, as they seem to suit me. I only changed them because I needed some shorter ones on the back end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mieran
Everyone has their own opinion/preference on spring rates.
I run a low rate spring on the back, but someone I know used to run a lightweight Nova and he insisted that 600lb rear springs were the answer. He lent them to me to try on my car, and it was truly awful in my view.
It is a catch tank for oil, and it is still there. I compared about 6 different catch tanks which came my way, and this was the lightest. I've been looking out for a carbon fibre one, but no luck so far.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul james
Any photos of the motorcycle ones you had in mind please?
White is on my shortlist, but I have to say I'm also very tempted to have it painted black, with metallic grey interior.Quote:
Originally Posted by scott.parker
I've got a bit of a thing for black race cars with gold detailing at the minute.
Do you recall what the weight of that tank is?
I have a similar square aluminium one in my engine bay, but I'm looking about for something smaller as theres not much room for it. These ones are tiny:
http://i.ebayimg.com/14/!Bu7DUWgCWk~...E2wJg~~_35.JPG
not cheap though, ebay number - 330607398995
might be able to find them cheaper elsewhere.
That does look quite neat (and pricey!), although the weight isn't given I notice. If I remember rightly the tank I have in mine is about 750g.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul james
According to this forum thread - http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f25/...15-lbs-101775/ its 0.60 lbs which is 0.27 kilos.
If yours is 750g, then theres some easy weight to be saved I guess.
My current aluminium one weighs in at 0.36 Kilos with the filter still attached as in the pic below:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.james21/SDC10377.jpg
And I picked up this custom made little stainless steel one the other day:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqUOKis...9D8(Q~~_12.JPGhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqMOKkM...6mHTQ~~_12.JPG
and that weighs 0.52 kilos as in its photo state, despite being very solidly made.
I presume you don't actually fill that tank with oily mess very quickly, so there could be weight saving by just using a smaller tank.
Bin it entirely and breathe it to atmosphere, should barely see anything out of it if it's been rebuilt. Also adds another visual diagnostic tool tbh.
dropping oil all over the road surface on a hill climb is a great way to make friends...... personally, i'd use a plastic bottle. or a tin can
Like I said, should see barely anything out of it if the engine is rebuilt. Mine on a 1.6 that wasn't rebuilt and covered 80k filled up maybe once in the while time I had it and was 80% water.
yes, but a 10 year old race engine with a re-ring & a large turbo running decent boost at high revs might just blow back a lot more than an old high mile road engine..... i'd keep a catch tank.
I originally just had an empty drinks can with a bit of wire through it to hold it in place, about as light and cheap as you can get. Since I like things to be a bit more tidy and professional, I got the aluminium tank shown above a few years back. Are there any regulations on the matter in the hill climbing you do?
Race regulations don't allow you to vent to atmosphere for obvious reasons...........Quote:
Originally Posted by MK999
There is a way round that but it's an expensive part of a dry sump system lol Washer bottle or similar with a hole tapped in it then?Quote:
Originally Posted by novarally
Did the final hillclimb event of the year at Gurston Down on Sunday, and came away with a 3rd place (behind the KAD and BMW 16v Mini's again). But I managed a new Personal Best time by nearly half a second, and the Top Three was covered by 4/10'ths of a second, so it was a close battle.
I had a big 2-wheeled moment at one of the corners, and I'm fairly certain that without that I might have got the elusive win. I'm hoping someone has captured that on video or camera.
The under 1400cc Class is ultra-competitive now, to the extent that my 3rd place time would have been good enough for me to win the 1400-2000cc Class by well over a second!!
The engine still sounds very rattly, and is due to go back to BTEC Racing for examination. We have discussed returning it to hydraulic lifters, as nothing has ever convinced me that it needed solid lifters in the first place......
We're going to look at having a custom camshaft made for it during the Winter off-season, as I could really do with finding some more power to take the fight harder to the Minis next year.
Lots of other jobs to be done, which may or may not include a complete strip down and re-paint.
be good to see some footage of your run if anyone did get some - i just realised i never even had another nosey round the nova when i came up - duh!
Sounds really good tbh colin.
Ill have to make the effort to come see this race one weekend:)
colin, ever thought of doing a slightly larger engine capacity?? that 1400-2000 class sounds fun
http://www.everleyphotography.co.uk/galleries/gurstongallery/Events/2011-sep11
There is a few pics of you on this site from sunday
Looks very purposefull now
http://www.everleyphotography.co.uk/...s/_MG_9597.htm
http://www.everleyphotography.co.uk/...s/_MG_9322.htm
http://www.everleyphotography.co.uk/...s/_MG_9323.htm
:)
It's crossed my mind a few times, especially now that the guy who always used to win that Class has retired (he was running an ultra-serious Warrior engined Mk.2 Escort).Quote:
Originally Posted by mowgli
But I do like the high level of competition in the under 1400 Class. Having said that there's the possibility of rule changes
coming in for the future which would increase the 'turbo equivalency' factor from the current 1.4 multiplier to a figure of 1.5, which would push me into the higher capacity class whether I want to or not!
Thanks, I'm pleased with the way development is going.Quote:
Originally Posted by SGA33