Some of the necessary racing equipment
was made on site with regular metal working tools and lots of elbow grease.
These parts can be bought but with grassroots racing
there is no fun in that...save money for the really
neat bits to make it go faster!
Racing requires grab hooks at all four corners of the car...1/4" plate and
a hole saw found these plates ready for colour in about three hours.
The front of the plates are chamfered to make the car slide over and protrusions. Also
the plate bolt heads are counter sunk for the same reason of not catching on anything.
They are put on both sides! Attached to the Sub Frame. Note
vintage brake drums have deep fins for cooling.
Passing a fuel line through the bulkhead/firewall will cause
a fire if the lines are worn through. Neil made this neat fitting
with some aluminum and a brass spigot on the engine side for the
stainless rubber lines. On the reverse side an Olive flare to accept the rigid fuel line.
Mini owners will know this is normally were the heater ducting would be.
On the other side of the firewall/front bulkhead we find a very neat job of
the fuel and brake line install by Neil Tregear. When the race tech folk see this kind of attention paid
to an install...they make fast work of their check list.
I really like this kind of a build...having the complete interior gives the
right classic look of driving the family to the track emptying
out the kiddies, tape the lights and go race.
Subtle bits shown above really help the budget. The quick release hardware for the net was made by
Neil out of steel rod, a spring, a cotter pin and a steel washer and some welding...it works great! The net
was another scrounged item from Andy ... As well Andy fabricated the special mounting bracket
to hold the Corbeau racing seat. Another item that saves money...Thanks Andy!
Another compulsory item are catchment tanks for both the oils breather and the
radiator over flow. Here we see a windshield washer fluid container
that a bracket has been made for and tucked up into the wheel wells on both sides.
Clear tubing runs from both so that any wayward fluids can be
seen as well. Also Gycol/antifreeze can not ne used on a race track. You
can run water wetter.
Here is a really cool item! (pun intended) Blanking sleeves are a way of life with an engine that
is running at maximum revs for a long time. Lots of water flow is required to
keep the engine with in working temps. One cannot just take out the restrictive thermostat
to give more flow...read on. Basically a blanking sleeve is a metal
tube with cut outs . The sleeve goes into the place where the thermostat usually goes.
The reason for this is to slow down the water that is being pumped to allow
the water to circulate properly and not cavitate. Cavitation can cause air pockets
to form in the motor and air does not carry away any heat and you can
get a heat warped head...at the very least poor performance!
Here is a modification to the blanking sleeve idea using a thermostat with drilled holes.
Now what happens is the holes allow a greater amount of water than just the valve in
the thermostat...but the side bonus is that the thermostat will open and control
a certain amount of the heat.
A blanking sleeve does not have any regulation...all you can to with a blanking sleeve
is run the motor then drill to open up the sleeve...some blanking sleeves have a cut out in one
side that can be turned to regulate the heat. But with the sleeve you might have to have a
different sleeve for each track or weather conditions. This drilled thermostat gives you the best of
both...extra cooling, regulated flow and a certain amount of heat range.
So save your money and dig out that old thermostat that is under the bench.
Its free! ...well allmost!
Not the only one having problems with too much heat
One of Kenneth Jorgensens friends in Denmark had the same problem with too much
heat...turning on the heater helps to solve the problem but it can get mighty hot in the
cabin! The solution here is to move the oil cooler over and mount another
oil cooler beside it and you can see by the hoses the oil cooler now is a
second radiator...neat...and it worked! Thanks to Kenneth Jorgensen for
this great tip!
Photo by Kenneth Jorgensen