AwwwOriginally Posted by Mike
Cant make anything at work for personal gain. Unless I supply my own matierials & timeI spend all day making M600 bodyshells, One-77 undertrays & Vantage rear diffusers. Pair of seat mounts will be a doddle!!
damn loopholes! 4 for a hug and a tea at nats?
I might be in Australia in the summer doing Indycar stuff :/ its all TBC :/Awww
Thumbs up for the carbon shifter!
how come?..... the new indy car is a dallara, and i didn't think they were doing the indy car abroad thing any more
I dont know its just what Ive been told at work, theres loads of hype going round work about it all :/ I really busy next week too, going to Bentley on Wednesday, Noble Thursday & then onto Aston Friday. All to do with race car/le man type stuff. I dont get to work on any of the prototypes yet
I feel it is time to throw my hat into the ring here!
Colin - long time no see!! Bloody hell, it must be over 20 years! I think the last time I came up (in Barroway Drove!), you were still working on/with Rob Shepherds Nova - with it's lary pink etc.. stripes!
Now then! Lightweight. Oh yes. I'm looking to resurrect my Nova GSi next year, and the aim of the game is to get to 500Kg with that too. I've looked at what you've done, and according to the regs I will be working to, I can change the roof skin, and remove all of the old rear wings. I have to watch the strength of the chassis, and there are a few things you've done there that I like.
I'm going the 18" wheel (9" or 9.5" wide) route to take advantage of the development in Michelin GT rubber - with the far fetched goal of coming to Paddock at Brands and just twitching the wheel, without even thinking about lifting!! Total "Dont-Lift.Com"
I want wide panels, but as I'm going to 18's, that means a fair bit of butchering to let them in. I've looked at National HotRod panels as a basis for the bodywork. Underpinning, the Nova has to remain a "steel shell" but can have composite panels covering it.
Bottom line, I reckon that my 8v 190ish HP should be most competitive in the 1600cc class of a few championships (which put 1600 16v cars up a class!) if I can get it down to 500Kg = around 380bhp/tonne - which is a fair lot more than a BTCC car.
So - other than our friend in Cleveland that does lightweight panels - who else is doing wide lightweight/composite panels?
Rob.
Oh yes, back to the engine - solid lifters - I've run with these since I started racing in 1990. I've used the old Kent "take-em-out" type, and the top-adjustables. I prefer the former type, even though they need threadlock to make sure!!! I have mastered setting them up, and have doctored tools to do the job to do it without having to remove the cam carrier.
The issue with using the later 1.2 block, with the old 1.2 crank leaving 1024cc. The easy solution is to get the crank offset ground to lose a few mm of stroke. Get steel rods made to take a smaller big end - which will have a smaller amount of rotational drag. OR get a steel crank made to give you the right stroke to retain the standard rods.
I used to think that the cost of going steel was prohibitive, but balancing that against rebuilding/replacing engines that have standard "rubber" internals that have blown to bits, it's a small price to pay. What tipped me over was have half a dozen engines in three seasons, all with rod failure. 1600 GTE/GSi rods don't take to in excess of 150hp / 8000 rpm for long before they cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war, and make a bid for escape via the sump, or what ever gets in their way.
God I love Chevy V8's, parts for them are soooo cheap! I can have a steel crank, 8 rods, and 8 pistons for less - a LOT less than a crank & rods for a Nova/Ford/other European 4 pot. I just bought a set of race spec rings for my Carrillo pistons for $108 - ONE HUNDRED and EIGHT DOLLARS for a set of 8 Total Seal rings!! The last time I bought rings for my Cosworth pistons, they were £210 a set of 4 - and that was in 1995!!! Time to bore a Nova out to 4.137"......
V8 parts are ridiculously cheap, when we did a 351 Cleveland in a mustang a while ago, the full cam kit including timing chain and appropriate gaskets, lifters, new rockers etc etc was about half what you'd pay for a pair of 4 pot 16v cams
There is a saying.... "You can build two Chevys for the cost of one Ford. You can build two Fords for the cost of one Hemi" (Dodge/Chrysler/Mopar). When you look around, there is a vast amount more stuff available for Chevy V8's than the other two put together. And because of that, it's where the development has gone, Chevy V8's lead the way in just about every field (we're talking pushrod V8's here). The LS series is light, grunty, and very economical in production trim. In race trim - amazing! The Big Block dominates top fuel drag racing to the point that all of the leading teams use them, regardless of whether they are a "Ford" or "Mopar" team - they just have rocker covers that say "Ford" or "Mopar" on them, but the rest of the motor is very much Chevy!! A serious case of "if you can't beat them, join them".
Hi Rob.
I think you may have me confused with someone else?.........Barroway Drove means nothing to me, and I don't think I've ever owned or worked on Rob Shepherds Nova.
500kg is one hell of a target, even if you are allowed to remove more metalwork than me, and even more so with 18" wheels.
But it will be good to see how you go about it!
I have a fair bit more weight in my rollcage than is ideal, it's all CDS tubing, and there's a lot of it. It's a very stiff and safe structure though.
I suspect the 500kg goal would be more realistic if you started with a simpler cage in better materials (T45).
To contact me please use E-MAIL to colinesmith@aol.com.
thousands of Nova (plus other Vauxhall and motorsport parts) available.
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