slapathy

Err.... .buy a car. Having wanted to do it for 20 years or so, 2016 was my first RBRR, as a driver in team 15, Saffron PI. So enjoyable was the experience (mainly, although Wales was "challenging") that I have been inspired to do it in a car of my own in 2018, but what car? I've considered an early Dolomite - I learned to drive in a K reg 1850 (RJX 100K where are you now) in the mid 70s - or a Sprint, but I've had an addiction to Heralds especially Estates for 37 years which I find hard to break, and I do actually still have a 13/60 Estate, in bits. However, in the space of a week, two people, both former Vitesse owners, have said to me "I wouldn't fancy doing the RBRR in a Herald-chassis vehicle". Noise, slowness and lack of room were the reasons.  Anyone care to comment about the suitability (or lack thereof) of a Herald/Vitesse for the RBRR? Maybe a Vitesse Estate would be the way forward.........

Anyone ever driven a Herald fitted with a 3.89:1 diff (Vitesse/GT6/ MkIV Spit) yet with the standard (60 HP) engine? If so how sluggish was it? I am thinking of doing this to my 13/60 Estate. It currently has a 1300 Dolomite engine, which is wrecked. Alternatively, if anyone has a 1300 Dolomite engine in reasonable order it would make my life much easier. To put a 13/60 engine back in I will need to swap gearbox, exhaust and prop flange. Not a huge deal, but simply swapping the engine would be slightly less work.

Hopefully this may be of use to someone. I have just finished replacing the diff on my 13/60 Estate, having decided to swap the standard 4.11 13/60 diff for a 3.89 one from a Mk IV Spitfire which I bought from Ebay, as I would like eventually to fit a Mk1 2l engine + od gearbox. I imagined this would be quite straightforward but I encountered a couple of niggling problems. The first related to the number of studs. The diff was listed on Ebay as being from a Mk IV swing spring Spitfire, which meant only the four outer stud holes were tapped the required 3/8" UNF it would appear that the central stud holes are tapped but were (factory) blanked off with aluminium plugs. It is necessary to drill these out 5/16"/8mm diameter and tap them 3/8" UNF. Make sure you split the back casing from the front before doing this so you can clean the swarf out. A new gasket is £1.99 from Ebay. Having done this, I attempted to refit the diff to the chassis. I have read somewhere (TSSC mag I think) that it is sometimes necessary to bend the front plate to fit the chassis studs, but these were out of position by about 6mm on the LH side, and the RH side by about 3mm. No amount of persuasion with a hammer would have got the bracket holes  in line with the studs. Easy I thought, I'll just swap the Spttfire mounting plate for the 13/60 one, which would have gone well apart from the 13/60 diff mounting spigot being about 1/16" smaller in diameter than the Spitfire one. So I clamped the two together and filed out the Herald one to match the Spit one. Once I had done this, it all went together quite well.