12-12-2018, 10:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2018, 10:12 PM by Greig Smith.)
Well it's time for an update on the blown Seven, after the post Simola Hillclimb engine rebuild, things went into a holding pattern for a while as we prepped three of our Giulietta Alfa's for a Tour out here. In the final stages of getting ready for the Tour I got a call from Mark Woolley from the Speedstream Group ( www.speedstreamgroup.com) , they were planning a re-enactment of the 1934 Grand prix in East London, South Africa and one of the cars that participated in those early South African Grand Prix was a Works Rubber Duck driven by Major Doug van Riet - some details here --> https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archi...correction
Sadly this car has left our shores and Mark asked if we would be willing to bring our single seater to 'represent' the Austin entry - OK, Mark, but which single seater do you want ? Bring both was the reply... so we did.
Both Sevens were prepped, both cars needed manifold work, the Green Job had a crack in the banana's and the Blue job a warped flange - in theory this needed skimming, but the flange is already thin and I didn't want to remove any metal, so I bolted it to the heavy steel plate I use for making manifolds and heated it up with a large propane torch, when it was properly hot I walloped the back of the heavy steel plate with a large hammer to 'shock' the manifold pipes into taking a new 'set' before allowing it to air cool. Success & the flange is now perfectly straight. We've learned to think outside the box while building this little car.
Some final little details were sorted out, Mum stitched up some modifications to the seat cushions and a pad for my right knee, then we set off the 200 miles up the coast to East London. The event was spectacular, the 1934 winning Maserati was there, along with two ERA's, a K3MG, Alfa P3 Monoposto, two pre-war Aston Martins, a variety of blown MG's, two Bugatti's, two Riley's all representing cars that raced on the old Prince George circuit between 1934 and 1939 - more details here--> https://sahistoricgp.com/pages/about. We're on the very back row of the grid in this picture --> https://sahistoricgp.com/blogs/cars/emot...ast-london, I tried to get the Sevens to the front but there was something about that winning '34 Maserati.....
. Another nice touch is that Whitney Straight's daughter, Camilla Bowater and her husband Michael, came out for the event.
Well to be mixing it up on the track with all those other cars was amazing, but to be there having fun with Dad was the best thing. For those who are really itching to ask, yes the blown car goes really well, at one point during the Saturday practice Dad was doing 55 mph when I passed him powering over 75mph on the short back straight... before the head gasket cried enough... So we parked it for Saturday night & went to dinner with the rest of the drivers. Arrived at the pits early on Sunday, whipped the head off, stuck the new gasket in with lashings of STAG jointing paste (for steam pipes) and torqued it down to 40lbs (The old one had been at 30lbs). I kept the revs down a bit for the 2 races and the parade on Sundays and she behaved like an angel. A pair of solid copper gaskets is being manufactured at the moment and as soon as they are ready, I'll change the current glued-in-there-with STAG-paste-one for a solid copper job. Oh yes, the blower does scream rather nicely when you wind the rubber band up a bit
A big "Thank You" to Mark Wooley & the Speedstream Team for making the event happen
Aye
Greig
We were allowed to run an 11.5 mile section of the original Prince George Racing Circuit (now public roads) without our racing gear on - we were behind a police escort, hence the pictures of us on the grid in T shirts and shorts..... summer in Africa can get warm
Here's another pic of the 2 cars on the trailer. It always get a response on the road and when we roll up at an event. In practice the 2 cars are so evenly balanced on the trailer that I can hitch and unhitch it with them both loaded. I had to cut the top bar out the tailgate and stick the Blue Job's back wheels up onto thick timber planks to clear the tailgate - when we went to Simola in May I left the tailgate behind and taped the number plate onto the trailer, but I wanted to display the chevron board for safety, hence the dragster look of the Blue Job with the back end up a bit.
Aye
Greig
Sadly this car has left our shores and Mark asked if we would be willing to bring our single seater to 'represent' the Austin entry - OK, Mark, but which single seater do you want ? Bring both was the reply... so we did.
Both Sevens were prepped, both cars needed manifold work, the Green Job had a crack in the banana's and the Blue job a warped flange - in theory this needed skimming, but the flange is already thin and I didn't want to remove any metal, so I bolted it to the heavy steel plate I use for making manifolds and heated it up with a large propane torch, when it was properly hot I walloped the back of the heavy steel plate with a large hammer to 'shock' the manifold pipes into taking a new 'set' before allowing it to air cool. Success & the flange is now perfectly straight. We've learned to think outside the box while building this little car.
Some final little details were sorted out, Mum stitched up some modifications to the seat cushions and a pad for my right knee, then we set off the 200 miles up the coast to East London. The event was spectacular, the 1934 winning Maserati was there, along with two ERA's, a K3MG, Alfa P3 Monoposto, two pre-war Aston Martins, a variety of blown MG's, two Bugatti's, two Riley's all representing cars that raced on the old Prince George circuit between 1934 and 1939 - more details here--> https://sahistoricgp.com/pages/about. We're on the very back row of the grid in this picture --> https://sahistoricgp.com/blogs/cars/emot...ast-london, I tried to get the Sevens to the front but there was something about that winning '34 Maserati.....
. Another nice touch is that Whitney Straight's daughter, Camilla Bowater and her husband Michael, came out for the event.Well to be mixing it up on the track with all those other cars was amazing, but to be there having fun with Dad was the best thing. For those who are really itching to ask, yes the blown car goes really well, at one point during the Saturday practice Dad was doing 55 mph when I passed him powering over 75mph on the short back straight... before the head gasket cried enough... So we parked it for Saturday night & went to dinner with the rest of the drivers. Arrived at the pits early on Sunday, whipped the head off, stuck the new gasket in with lashings of STAG jointing paste (for steam pipes) and torqued it down to 40lbs (The old one had been at 30lbs). I kept the revs down a bit for the 2 races and the parade on Sundays and she behaved like an angel. A pair of solid copper gaskets is being manufactured at the moment and as soon as they are ready, I'll change the current glued-in-there-with STAG-paste-one for a solid copper job. Oh yes, the blower does scream rather nicely when you wind the rubber band up a bit
A big "Thank You" to Mark Wooley & the Speedstream Team for making the event happen
Aye
Greig
We were allowed to run an 11.5 mile section of the original Prince George Racing Circuit (now public roads) without our racing gear on - we were behind a police escort, hence the pictures of us on the grid in T shirts and shorts..... summer in Africa can get warm
Here's another pic of the 2 cars on the trailer. It always get a response on the road and when we roll up at an event. In practice the 2 cars are so evenly balanced on the trailer that I can hitch and unhitch it with them both loaded. I had to cut the top bar out the tailgate and stick the Blue Job's back wheels up onto thick timber planks to clear the tailgate - when we went to Simola in May I left the tailgate behind and taped the number plate onto the trailer, but I wanted to display the chevron board for safety, hence the dragster look of the Blue Job with the back end up a bit.
Aye
Greig