James

If you've got valve seat recession you'll see the valves are deeper in to the head— easy enough to spot.

I don't think anyone disagrees that Webers are great— but the expense doesn't seem worth it for the returns. The only real gain is throttle response— realistically you are looking at £1000 at least to install them properly and get them on a rolling road. Most peoples cars are not in tune in the first place and would benefit from a simple SU overhaul and a rolling road session for half the price. Better still something like a Megajolt would give much better results for half the price. Webers are the last thing to look at after you've done everything else to the car in my opinion — shoving them on a standard car is a monumental waste of money for what you get. Like Tim says— EFI gives you fuelling and spark— superior to just a set of Webers by far. That really does give value for money on a standard car :)

Swiss, Have you got all the studs out? tried the rope trip? James

A 1300 head won't fit a 1500 unless you want super high compression. You can fit a 1300 head if you change the pistons to US spec 1500 items that are dished.

New tyres are never a good idea if you're doing anything energetic on them— they get ripped to shreds. Need bedding in a few hundred miles first.

Richard_B wrote: In a Triumph box 4th is 1 to 1. with O/D adding an extra gear. Presumably in a Type 9 4th is also 1 - 1 with 5th being comparable to O/D? One for James Carruthers to add to his spreadsheet? It's only for Triumphs :)

Nothing wrong with red calipers as long as they match the colour of the bodywork and wheels… :)

They really dont work— avoid Decent rebuilt normal seats make a world of difference

thescrapman wrote: I would thoroughly recommend use of a set of the oldest and absolutely rock hard barely legal tyres you can lay your hands on.  Induces much tail-end happiness and shouts from the gallery when the mahoosive tank slapper you find yourself in sends you backwards round the round-a-bout, only for you to get a repreive because Vinnie has mullered another cone further up the course... :-). I took those shouts of "cheat" personally. They were utterly trashed by the time Russell and I finished with them. And they weren't that good for a competative time either... :-) Lots, they are good fun in a Spitfire.. :-) But in a big saloon without PAS they suck I suspect. Ah, you're thinking of big open events like the "pushing the rules to the limits" ones at North Weald. That is almost Sprinting, but is called an Autotest as the permit is cheaper! Going over the finish line at 70+ mph was not part of the design brief given to Nigel I suspect... :-) There should be a way of producing 2 totally different layouts that suit the big and small cars, so there is variety, from the same cone layout. I personally had no problems what-so-ever with following the course, for the first time ever I did not WT once. The final gates with the 180 degree reverse turns were tricky I have to admit, and I probably lost a second or so getting them right. Cheers Colin Actually the slaloms were ok - it wasn't an issue after pumping the tyres up - just a bit boring I thought? As for tyres, I don't mind using good tyres as using old ones just makes you go sideways everywhere = slow. If I could find a set of cheap 15in rims for my saloon I'd transfer the old fronts on to them - they've gone all manky due to the heat but I suspect ok for autosolo - good for the rears at least. I didn't have issues with following the course - it was actually very simple - no wrong tests for me. I do think there is a happy medium between tight and loose courses though - I am not asking for sprints and not for super tight autotest style - but CSMA like ones. It's very simple, we've done them on the exact same stretch of tarmac :)

Jason wrote:It might be a good idea to submit a few ideas for course design to the committee - accepting that it'll always be biased towards that persons car and so is unlikely to get implemented un-modified :-) CSMA usually have two nice layouts — essentially a slow one and a quick one — I accept that a "slow" one is just as fun for its technical challenge.

Richard — it was easy once the front tyres were pumped up — the bad thing being that those decent tyres are now destroyed :( Rears are completely gone and need replacing but they were marginal anyway :) and I was having too much fun My comments on the courses— they were too repetitive and lacked imagination — how many slaloms do you want to do? They comprised of; non-stop slaloms, annoying 90 degree gates with not enough room to enter them and those annoying dizzying roundabout things at the bottom of the runway. Should be renamed the CT Autoslalom :) Overall we had a great day — the car survived a lot of abuse — and Matt is now hooked and looking to buy something he can do such events in!

Uploaded some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescarruthers/sets/72157627802493510/ Enjoyable day even if some of the tests weren't all that fluid.

Car passed it's MOT— this afternoon I have had a tinker and it's running ok. Launch control 8) Need fine tuning but it makes a nice noise :)

All good Tim. Car is going in for its MOT tomorrow— fingers crossed.

Steve- I'll probably be in Reading - or else my brother will be for sure (he's taking part) PM me.

I have been offered a drive — or do I come back to defend my saloon class title? Not sure I can deal with the burning arms again.

Don't you want to keep the grease nipple? It keeps the grease in? So it keeps the oil in? This is why I don't get the oil can thing— you have to remove the nipple every time?

The pump I have was £4.50 from Halfords. Do those cans attach to the nipple?

A >pump action< grease gun— not the normal type.

A normal pump action grease gun holds the oil fine and fits the nipple.

Thing is Nick- we both know what changing fuelling by a few % can do - it's all the difference between fluffy and growl. I'm now amazed that carbs work

You can make do with a cheap laptop, nothing special at all. In fact an old one is good because it'll have a serial port. I presume the Rover system has sensors etc already installed? In which case the install cost can't be more than £300-400?

My standard starter has no issues at all and I have almost 11:1 CR

I ate pasta and drank water/lucozade - probably not as much as I should have though.

I shouldn't worry too much - just do an oil change before you start. It's generally bloody freezing :) Nothing special about the RBRR driving - just a lot of it in a very short amount of time.