Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[jackiewilson]

You see, everyone's got a story to tell, just a case of getting folk to talk.
This is what I mean about PARTICIPATION, you just need to stand up and tell something, Anybody.
Been up to my fetlocks this last couple of days----bought a bunch of stuff including a couple of sanding machines at the car boot sale, (got backache carrying them back to the car) then spent a day cleaning and sorting. Put a rake of gear onto Ebay and looks like I got a wedge towards the ticket to Orlando for the old farts do.
Sunday today so I'm going to give the workshop a miss and catch up on the "Tricks" column, have fallen way behind with the correspondence, tell you all about it later today, just been called for mushrooms on toast!!!

[jackiewilson]

Attachment 299022
Ok,i know I shouldn't be subjecting you all to family foggies but this was my two year old great grand daughter Polly doing her Tina Turner routine around midnight last night -------she brought the house down . It's her dad's band----far right behind the speaker-----he also teaches guitar in a high school. That's all.

Stevie Pinson was telling us about the Vee-Dub with 500. Hp, talked to my grandson Simon last night about what you said-----come with me he says, I want to show you something REALLY special. Was a bit intrigued so I went with him and he showed me his friends -----

[jackiewilson]

Just lost most of what I was telling you about----about 600 words, tried the Auto restore but it's shut down for the weekend-----so buggered if I know where it all turned to worms ----but it did.Will try again later.

[jackiewilson]

So, Simon shows me his friends Audi 2liter-----680bhp---but looking for 750bhp. 0---60=3.2 secs.
Project up to now cost $160,000-------$60,000 on wheels and tyres alone.
Guy limits himself to two burn outs a day as the g forces addle the brain after a while( I already thought that one Willa). And I thought "The Cossie had a heap of power.
Makes you wonder just how far they can go and keep the lump in one piece-----the Cosworth was in Le--Mans spec and would run for 24 hours (and then do it all again)
doing this in small doses in case the bugger gets lost again------sod re writing for a game of soldiers.

[jackiewilson]

Back to the 1970Ford Cortina 1600 Estate.
Was just an ordinary Ford that I bought new for £999.00. I said I would never ever pay more than a£1,000 for a new car-----not never no how.
First thing we did was put a pair of Dell Orto four barrel carbs on it------didn't do much except make the damn car exceedingly thirsty.
By now I had gotten matey with Bill Brown and he was yakkety yakking about a 2 liter BDA that chucked out around 250 bhp----certainly a step up from the 110 bhp on the Ford----Roger Clarke was setting the rallying world on fire with his BDA engined Lotus Cortina and Colin Chapman was producing a little bomb of a car with the pocket rocket Élan.
will post this now as iPad battery running low.

[jackiewilson]

To continue-----there was only minor mods to shoehorn the BDA in place-----it fired up the first time of asking and the wonderful sound of the hammer of a pair of twin choke Webbers sucking is something I remember to this day. Headed to the by-pass for it's first run, could not believe how quick I got valve bounce, was a bog standard low geared ford station wagon, no rev counter, only an optimistic 100mph speedometer, that had once reached the "magic" 90. Opened the thing up very gently (I thought) but still managed to get the valve train dancing, speedo went a full inch past the 100 mark when the bounce came back in top gear. Sh-t and corruption----what the hell have I got under the bonnet methinks.
In those days I had a garage selling cars, boats and engines, animals and small children if you REALLY wanted them-----I just happened to have a Ford Corsair on the forecourt, well, this had a long diff and gearbox, which we changed overnight. Difference was astounding, it was like driving a full blown race car-----but to the shops..??? Word spread of the cars prowess, and boy racers and hooligans all wanted a crack at the little ford. Cars of the day were Stags, Jags, Odd Mustangs, Gordon Keeble, Facel Vega etc, etc, etc, (aka Yul) none of them could hold a candle to the Ford.
After Berlin in 1970, flew home Monday and drove down to Como to pick up the three pointer Renato had lent me to do a record attempt at Windermere. Strapped the boat onto the roof and left Como Tuesday night----all was ok until I hit 95 mph when the car became airborne which was disastrous as had planned on averaging 100 mph on the 1000 mile trip back. Made home Wednesday and set off to Poole where Roy Ridgell was waiting to install one of Mercurys R+D special toys for special boys. Thursday the storms hit Britain and Friday was deemed a no go, so it was all a bit of an anti climax. But the BDG performed with honour. J. MYGGWY.

[jackiewilson]

Well, that went down like a turd in a punch bowl !!!

[powerabout]

i'm still thinking about 95mph in a 1970 Cortina, far safer in a boat.
There was a GT version of that wasnt there Jackie, what was different about that?

[jackiewilson]

i'm still thinking about 95mph in a 1970 Cortina, far safer in a boat.
There was a GT version of that wasnt there Jackie, what was different about that?

And it was a station wagon-----would run 110 all day long and return 26 mpg.
GT version was 5 bhp more -----+£100 and you got a go faster stripe and a GT badge either side.

[ron54]

I think that mountain of verbs left us all stunned!! we were all with you Jack-- smokin' down the the ring road divin inside Facels tuckin up G.K's on the undercut too I'll bet....GAWD-L-PUS..It was like reading a race report in Autosport.....
Now...... when that 'tina finally dissolved into red oxide I am sure that a shrewd operator such as yourself would have spooned out that motor and box(2000E was it?) and rolled it safely under your workbench to use for that special project "When I get round to it"...no need to be bashfull we've all had those moments....Weeeel of course time moved on---other more important things occurred thay alllwaaays do don't they??.Soooo here we are its 2014 and there it sits yet... under the bench neglected and forgotten covered in dust and dried out old discarded teabags remembered only when you chance to bang your shin agaaain on those "damn webers" BUT.........................................!!!!Help is at hand,
It so happens that the Bristol Massive will be visiting your Parish in a short while to spend some quality time at the Goodwood F.O.S. thing, and I have to tell you now..it will be noooo trouble at aaall to swing round to your "tent" and ask for your help in loading that old obsolete lump into the back of the T5R.........Jack I know what you're thinkin,WILL IT BE DISPOSED OF IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MANNER???? Put your mind at rest my friend, it will. and I will promise it will not be sailing off in any Chinese bound ship either.And I will tell you what ....if it's not too choked up with wood shavings and saw dust I'll even give you some coin to spend at the Car Boot....How's that?? ain't that real big hearted of me? Like Don used to say WHADDEYA SEE? WHADDEYA HEAR?....

[jackiewilson]

Yeah Phil, I took the Cosworth out of the cortina and replaced it with the original lump which had 1500 miles on it, before I sold it-----for £750, then sold the BDG back to Bill Brown for £3,000. BDG s were rare as rocking horse sh-t and were fetching large wads of gelt.
Will also be at the Goodwood Festival----probably the Friday , it's not as manic as the weekend, and I do like to watch Bonhams Auction of classic cars. Let me know what day you are going and I will treat you to a pint of Harvey's best.

Not feeling too chipper tonight-----must be something I ate, so excuse me if I sign off, MYGGWY.

[STEVERINO]

Attachment 299022
Ok,i know I shouldn't be subjecting you all to family foggies but this was my two year old great grand daughter Polly doing her Tina Turner routine around midnight last night -------she brought the house down . It's her dad's band----far right behind the speaker-----he also teaches guitar in a high school. That's all.

Stevie Pinson was telling us about the Vee-Dub with 500. Hp, talked to my grandson Simon last night about what you said-----come with me he says, I want to show you something REALLY special. Was a bit intrigued so I went with him and he showed me his friends -----

. I was thinking Jackie how fast would that hodges have been in 1976 with that Golf 2 litre engine fitted compared with the Merc 2.0 inj outboards of that time.In today's racing I still think 450 hp to 500hp in a small Cat would be pretty fast.It would cost £10,000 today to change a standard Golf R engine running a standard block from 270hp to 500hp at the wheels 560hp at the flywheel with 400lb ft torque I would think it would have had terrific acceleration would your gear case have handled that power' I think your 2 litre hodges would have been around 17ft in 76 and would have had a good power to weight ratio I wonder how it would have performed with today's outfits? Something else to discuss later my son is working on a Porsche Turbo engine 3.6 litres and it will be ready for Dino test in a few weeks expecting 1000hp I will keep you informed?

[powerabout]

how low an rpm does it make 400ftlbs

[jackiewilson]

how low an rpm does it make 400ftlbs

KNOCK IT OFF P/B. NOW YOUR JUST SHOWING OFF!!!!!!!Rotory John used to do the " blind you with science" bit in the early days.
Duckworth once said----you can get a million horsepower from a given motor for a nano second!!
SO WHAT?
The clever bit is getting the power output to suit the application, all revs and no grunt is no good to man nor beast. If the prop spins at a rapid rate of knots and the craft does not move forward, all your hundreds of horsepower is totally irrelevant .
what a total load of bollocks we are discussing at the moment----let's move out of La-La Land and move on a bit.

The 2 liter Cosworth would run with the very best of the outboards (in its time). '74----102/3 mph
The 3 liter Cosworth would run with the best of the OZ/s--------

[T2x]

We opened a 5 liter ............

'84 Chateau Mouton Rothschild for Doreen's 55th birthday in February.... I bought it for her many years ago.