Parts Update

Re done rear arms complements of HBI eng in Christchurch....very impressive turn around time

And some new bobbin bushes for the rear arms

Still waiting on my rear shocks to come home and then have some maching to do..

Winter Rebuild 2012

A few things have happened since my last update - the car has been run again at Paratutu with the Taranaki Car club I have made an abortive attempt to sell the thing and now it appears to be in a lot of bits in the garage - must be winter!

So how did that happen?

After our outing to Hampton Downs in September 2011 where the car delivered a creditable (but also frustrating) 1:24x lap (not the 1:25 previously noted...

Trying to find the issue - me on the ground at the wrong end - typical!

Hitting 11500 RPM in 5th and waiting for the great leap leftwards....

All the day I was  battling a overlength drive shaft on the left and some very unstable straight line behaviour - it was pulled down and the immediately visable issues sorted out - (drive shaft and worn rodends on the front arms) which  I thought was all that was required.

Summer came along and being New Zealand and Taranaki in Particular there were no events that were suitable to test the cars handling - the last place I want to find the car jumping to the left is on a hillclimb! So I visted my home town of Oamaru - got introduced to Steam Punk and came home with some new ideas.... 

SteamPunk Oamaru

   I also got distracted on to another project so I could have something to improve my commute to work - its the 128's little brother - bomba - a beige Fiat 127 now with an over active cam - big exhaust and lowered stance...  not to mention a nice oldschool corduroy race seat... such class...



Bomba 127 and the Bomb Factory 128



Old School Italian Cool



Bomba - and its legal.... ish

Since the 127 had been sitting for 7 years it took a little time to get back on the road (five months of part time fiddling!) - Its legal and on the road so job jobbed... 

now it was s back to the main game - Except I needed headlights for the 127 and this came up for the price of two sealed beam units ($200 NZD) - cheap and interesting I thought...

turns out its the straightest and most rust free Fiat I have ever owned... now things are complicated



New project - for the price of a pair of headlights! Fiat 126

 Thats now three 1970's Fiats - which is about two too many for most sane people... so of course I came up with a plan - and then went over the top!

I have fallen in love with the P2 Class Hillclimb Prototipos (Proto P2) and so thats what we are going to have. Which also accounts for the Holeshot racing Turbocharged Yamaha R1 engine sitting in my garage....






And yes I am deadly serious - new build log coming up....So thats the distractions that have lead to the following sequence of events - Back to teh 128






First up I changed the front pick-up points to clear a few things and change the anti squat/dive characteristics - and so I could pull in some more caster.... more on that later
 

New on left





New Pickups installed - note sloppy seam weld - cringe...

  As it was coming up to the start of April and the Car Club was running the Paratutu street sprint again I thought it was agood idea to get the car out for that...



First job make a list and stick it somewhere obviois



 Tidy up a few loose ends - polish the the beast and off we go....


Finished reverse setup - I avoid actually using it - but it does work









Looks fast as a trailer queen



 Now as with all good plans there can be some issues - the Weather was great - I was photogenic and made the paper as a steely eyed race car driver - and the car survived the day again... but I have managed to out think the development curve...



 Those who have egale eyes will notice that in the two photos above the car looks slightly taller - in the second it has just crested a slight hill in the first it is a whole 30mm higher than it was when it left home... that was a desperate attempt to reduce the impact of the new caster settings - which moved the short right hand drive shaft to the limit of its articulation and and pushed the output shaft into the diff i.e. it was too long - duhhhhhh

There is a rather long video on youtube that demonstrates all this and the fact that the brake bias was off as well if you listen to the audio on the first run you can hear the tripode hitting about 20 seconds into the first lap... we didnt notice the tripode carrier was trying to mill the bearing carrier until later otherwise I would have gone home...



So - I left it sitting for a while when I got home and took it apart this weekend - result is diff is leaking (its been doing that for ages) and the right hand side output oil seal has survived the pounding that did the work below...

Gouged out diff carrier and tripod carrier that shows autograph marks from the tripods...

Diff comes out without removingthe engine...

Short shaft  not short enough

 And to add insult to injury I have blown a seal on the Right Rear Koni - three events since it was serviced...... bugger!



 So now its back to fettling the car and getting some serious miles on it - I have been slack and that must stop!

We are Back - and racing - Hampton Downs 04 September 2011

Massive Thanks to the Fiat Club Waikato - for a VERY well organised and relaxed days racing - and to Mike Lowe for helping out - Malcom Simmonds for letting me sleep on his spare floor and to Mr G Sutton for building a very sweet drive line for the fiat....

A few changes for this outing - new wheels (Compomotive CXR's - 8 x 13 in satin Black) new tyres (Kumho V70a 215 -50-13)

Reverse!!!

and a few other tweeks here and there.

The bad news is the incar video failed and I didnt take any photos! so the following photos and links are as credited

http://www.shutterspeed.co.nz/Public-Events/FIAT-CLUB-Hampton-1/i-QVJwQfb/1/M/FIAT-Waikato-HD0116-M.jpg

All in all a good day - chain life was perfect - 54 links and now on its second event (12 standing starts and counting)  and looking fine - finished the day with a 1:25 flat. The handling is interesting - snap wander on partial throttle being the highlight - closely followed by wheel vibration so bad that the diff bolts all backed out - eventually got the car settled down by taking the rear toe back to factory specs (ish) so I was able to get the gas down - gearing for 126mph and I saw 11400 in 6th at the end of the straight.... so if I can get to go straight it will be flying :-) it hooks up the power nicely and goes where you point it flat and hard - brakes were good once hot... oh and the torque steer is gone - just weaves all over the straight bits of teh track!

will be getting all the caster I can in the front and treating the whole thing to a full wheel computerised wheel alignement... Next event Fiat Nationals - Taupo Novemebr.....

sweet.

Rear Hangers

The one item that came close to failing on the 13th of March were the rear arm hangers.... I made them in a hurry out of some 5/8" free machining hex stock ages ago - predictably they were a little on the frail side... they were never meant to be a long term item and the replacements were designed already - it took about three hours to have a new stronger (over designed) solution ready to be welded and bolted on...

the new and old are seen below clearly showing the "almost disaster" bend in the weedy looking bars and the "we wont be bending this - we hope" replacement units

First Outing - Paritutu 13 March 2011

Well we decided to go racing.

bit of a mad rush but I got the car ready to run and gave it a wheel alignment and it passed its Cage Audit.

There is a rough edit video on you tube



In short we drove it on to the trailer at the end of the day - and drove it into the shed after that.... It ran and stopped okay - nothing really broke and the water temps were 85 degrees centegtrade all day only getting over 100 when coming in after a run.

The handling was teriffic (terriable and horific!) the tyres were only there to hold the rims off teh ground which they did  okay.... they just did nothing else! - that plus bliblical levels of torque steer -
In the 7 days since then I have bought new tyres (215/50/13 kuhmo V70a) and am fixing a few of the obvious faults...

Track arms are now 10mm shorter - wheel spacers are now 5mm on the front... and the rear arm securing "hangers" are now 25.4 mm 3mm wall seamless tube rather than 5/8" hex stock (dumb - dumb - dumb idea that looked okay at the time)

When checking the rims I have found I have the widest 13x7JJ -7 ET superlights on the planet - they measure at 210mm - 8" which explains why the tyres have always been a hassle to fit...

My plan is to do two events in May and then park it for the winter and probably buy a set of 13x8's either Compomotive CXR's in satin black with some decent ET numbers - I think I have pleanty of room inboard of the current wheel package for an ET of anything up to 40mm but looks can be deceiving and wil depend on how the new tyres go on I may end up with some more performance Superlights with 6mm ET in Black to complement the rears better



Will really need to concentrate on the handling now - Chain life after the weekend looks like it might be okay... have also changed the shocks to full hard on rebound to see what that does...

Other stuff to fiddle with will be the CV boots (grease leaking under pressure) ducting some clod air to the chain... getting a heap more rear camber (which is how I found that the 5/8" hex rear hangers were not  far away from making the debut a disaster of large and ugly proportions - will take a pic of those this week...

January 2011

As you will be able to see from the Video uploaded in late December - the thing runs - you wont be able to hear that on the video but trust me it does! I have since managed to get a new camera so next run will be with screaming sound!

This post updates on the work done to date.

Headers were finished and given the space and packaging issues they are about as good as they are going to get. Obviously the wiring went okay and the fuel system worked. The radiator plumbing involved a bit of nutting out but thanks to some scrap stainless tube and great deal on silicone hose its worked out. you will see the bottom radiator hose goes through the header pile.... I have since lagged the whole lot and added some ACL heat barrier.

And due to the carbs hanging open at 5000rpm on the first test run I ended up striping them and giving them a birthday and a new factory return spring - plus an additional return spring mounted in true shed fashion of a handy bit of bracket....

 

So on to the photos.





This pipe will fit - eventually



And yes I know one is longer than the other.... its not optimum but then sticking this whole thing together has been a bit of a compromise

I call it "functional"

Snug fit with snakes and heat...

Strip and clean and reassemble the FCR's

Note the difference in return spring - new one on right....





Temperature Control V1 - Lagg yah pipes



Add thermal barrier



Pray...

Now the Stills from the test run 27 December 2010 - merry Christmas! I will be removing the front wheel spacers as the scrub radius is truly scary - that and an bit more work on the brakes and a long list of "little" prep jobs and it will be close to testing time. that and the small matter of reverse.....

next project is waiting....