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Nicks Vitesse


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2 hours ago, JohnD said:

Despite Nick's survival, unhurt from a Herald roll-over, I don't believe that the saloon roof has much strength, and the windscreen surround alone  almost none at all.    Forget my race obsession - when my son's first car was a Spitfire, he could not drive it, even on the road, until we fitted a roll-over bar.   He never 'used' the bar, but I was vastly reassured.

JOhn

Would agree John

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5 hours ago, JohnD said:

I don't believe that the saloon roof has much strength

Indeed. No argument. As I said, it was a “gentle” roll. My first, and so far last, attempt at speed hill climbing at Cricket St Thomas in about 1989. ("To the manor born" era, before that tosser Edmonds ruined it into "Blobby land")

Got out of shape under heavy and rather too late braking for the first, notorious corner (car was much faster than expected!) and clipped a bank on the inside still going too quick.... worked like a stuntman’s ramp. Rolled to the left and barely touched the left side - slight scuffs on door handle and fuel cap only. Slid about 50 yards on the roof...... virtually no impact and I was left hanging upside down in my harness wondering what the road was going by above me..... Wore a small hole in one of the roof fins and scuffed the headlamp cowls rather badly. Then the marshal’s buggered the right side turning it back over.  Paint was a week old....
 

Scrutineer gave permission to run again if I gaffer taped the screen in but the Rh driveshaft was badly bent in the righting process, giving a very strange lolloping gait..... My ego and enthusiasm took a pretty big hit too.

Bit of porta-power action and a replacement roof had it back in service within a couple of days (my only legal car at the time!) but panel fit, previously excellent by Herald standards, was never quite the same again.

There was photographer there who caught the whole thing - whole sequence of pics from really close (nearly got him!) and he sent me a contact strip. I now wish I had bought the pics, but was a lot of money that I didn’t have at the time and frankly I didn’t need the reminder!  Haven’t seen the contact strip for years....

One further historical note is that the helmet I wore saw action just twice. That day, which it survived and one day 4 or 5 years later at Wiscombe lent to a mate who rolled his Westfield at the sawbench hairpin, also by clipping a bank.... that incident wore a hole in the top of the helmet :blink: Better the stuffing hanging out of your helmet that the brains leaking from your head though. Clearly it was cursed!

 

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39 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

One further historical note is that the helmet I wore saw action just twice. That day, which it survived and one day 4 or 5 years later at Wiscombe lent to a mate who rolled his Westfield at the sawbench hairpin, also by clipping a bank.... that incident wore a hole in the top of the helmet :blink: Better the stuffing hanging out of your helmet that the brains leaking from your head though. Clearly it was cursed!

:devil: :biggrin:

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  • 10 months later...

With a track day booked for Castle Coombe, I’m considering ways to try and hold the oil temperatures down a bit.  It’ll get the wrong side of 130C in a 15 minute session.

I’m unenthusiastic about a full blown oil cooler. It mostly doesn’t really need one, there are few good locations for a cooler on a Vitesse and I don’t much like external oil pipes…..

So I thought I’d try deflecting a bit of airflow around the sump bowl as it hides behind the chassis cross member…..
157E5F12-2E13-4C06-A4E7-F3468D1FC464.jpeg
sump tucked up behind cross member and largely sheltered from slipstream. Note 6-3-1 down pipes and collector, sticking down and in the way. One of the pipes actually leans on the sump - which won’t be helping.

5022CBA5-0A56-496E-9712-0B8B296A7892.jpeg
Had to beat a big clearance bowl into the deflector plate. Came out ok in the end, though might have been quicker to create a wooden former rather than just beating it on the shot bag. This is looking from the back.

C15C0FFF-9499-466B-812A-3FE353B6114E.jpeg
From the front. Stiffened the front edge with a bit of 5mm bar as the sheet is only0.9mm and a bit floppy.

EA5D74D6-B48A-4AD6-BE41-344357452B7C.jpeg

The manifold side just hooks onto the lip inside the chassis rail

BBF4EB84-21A8-4612-99E5-9CEDD4B43A30.jpeg
Like so. Fixing method on the other side not yet completed, but no holes in the chassis needed. Should be easy to remove and position-adjustable.

Not sure I’ve got enough scoop but very aware that as well as air it has the potential to scoop puddles, rabbits, speed “pillows” and the like….

You can tell me why it won’t work now…..

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Looks very made at the makers. :thumbsup:

Interesting to see how that goes. The underside of the small Triumphs always get quite hot even when not being caned.

I suppose the potential issues are sufficient airflow under the car up tight againt the underside to get caught by the scoop and enough inducement after to get air away again.

Won't do the egarbox any harm either I wouldn't think to have a bit more cooling air

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51 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Looks very made at the makers. :thumbsup:

Thank you. Not quite so much in person. Bits of it looks like it’s suffered many, many, many hammer blows (because it has :laugh:).  I’m happy with the overall shape and it even misses the exhaust, though tbh I’m not entirely sure by how much…..

51 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Won't do the egarbox any harm either I wouldn't think to have a bit more cooling air

Difficult to extend it backwards as the exhaust is really tight in there and in the way. 

Also not wanting to increase under-bonnet pressure as water cooling at speed is already marginal, I think because the air can’t get out quick enough. Bonnet vents (top rear of the wings) are on the list for when I finally get around to sorting the (or a) bonnet.

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Very nice.
Then a crazy idea of mine that I have had for many years you  drill the sump at the front and rear then weld tubes so the air will blow through the sump cooling the oil. A bit like a steam boiler tubes but reversing the idea

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11 hours ago, ahebron said:

Very nice.
Then a crazy idea of mine that I have had for many years you  drill the sump at the front and rear then weld tubes so the air will blow through the sump cooling the oil. A bit like a steam boiler tubes but reversing the idea

I have mates did that 25 years ago BTW Chassis crossmember needs tubed too.

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Catches added.
0F5985F6-0C6F-4F16-A220-D5B5C39ECA27.jpeg

top one in the engaged position, bottom one in release position. The outer bolts run in slots to allow sliding the inner ones are simple holes so you know you’re in place.

7D61F7AF-5B33-4610-A28A-7B6F1224F7C7.jpeg

Paint added too, though I don’t reckon it’ll be there very long on the exhaust bulge. Minutes maybe…..

In place.
AF744A8C-0904-46C5-AFB3-7A3674EC5961.jpeg

I don’t think it’ll drop off. Scraped off…..:huh:

I wonder if it will have any detectable effect…..

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Well, it’s stayed on up to 70mph. No new noises or vibration so I guess it misses the exhaust.  Not sure it has much effect on the oil temperature though….. testing will continue.

In othe news I’ve been fiddling with software to try to get the dash AFR gauge and Tuner studio/MS to agree and even connected direct to the Innovate LC1 direct to see if either agree with that. They didn’t initially, but they do now. That explains some oddities.  Also been fiddling with the IAT correction curve as the AFR drift was irritatingly large. It’s improving.

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I had some exhaust wrap lying around, so I thought I’d remind myself how much I love wrapping exhaust manifolds…… in situ. :blink:

It was just as much fun as I remembered. :pinch: 
I only did the lower part by the sump as the goals are quite specific.

15D745EF-2FB7-41CA-9F73-4065A22EE5F6.jpeg
 

(Apologies for the image angle. It’s a iPhone thing. Thanks Apple.)

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Ah! Stainless!   Mine was mild steel.  There were large (2") flakes of corrosion on the primaries that I had wrapped, coloured blue/green.   I assume that the porous glass fibre wrap had allowed water to be in contact with the steel, but a limited amount of oxygen, so that an anaerobic "Shikorr" reaction occurred, producing magnetite.    Alarmingly, this reaction uses the oxygen in water and thereby releases Hydrogen!    Even more alarmingly, Nick, this raises the possibility of "hydrogen embrittlement" of stainless steels, in particular  high temperature hydrogen attack.      That involves the carbon in steel combining with diffused hydrogen  to form methane, too large to diffuse away, forming high pressure microbubbles that weaken the metal.     Exhausts are usually made from "ferritic" steel made stainless by including 10.5% to 30% chromium,  but also up to 20% carbon.   

Other methods of thermal insulation, such as ceramic coating won't keep water in the covering and are too thin to keep out oxygen, but cost a lot more!     Anyway, I've made my case before that such coatings are futile, except to obtain the last fraction of a percent of performance, a la F1.   My favourite evidence is that ceramic tiles were on the Space Shuttle to protect its  aluminium construction by producing a similar temperature drop from outside to in, as that in an exhaust but inside to out!      And the Shuttle needed SIX INCHES of ceramic, not the fraction  of an inch of exhaust coating!

John

PS Nick, people usually wrap the exhaust in the pious belief that this will maintina the heat in the exhaust and thereby speed it's exit.     If your concern is heat into the sump, I'd suggest a heat shield, like that you might use to protect the carbs on a non-crossflow engine.  This presents a larger area for heat loss than the exhaust so that the hot surface next to the sump will be much cooler.  J.

Edited by JohnD
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