TIMSGT6 X 5 Posted April 23, 2009 Posted April 23, 2009 Thanks all for the high quality of info and ideas expressed throughout these forums. I've been fascinated by cars since watching the early Sixties stock car races and drag races taking place and broadcast on the American TV networks. My fandom of British cars began with the purchase of a Cortina GT in the early Seventies. Not so enamoured with memories of our family car in the late 50's being a Hillman Minx, with 2 adults and 4 kids. The Cortina saw only limited driving and was trashed. Later I purchased a low mileage Midget that had been damaged in a rare tornado in southern Ontario near where I live. It lead to another 1977 model that had been overheated and abandoned with only 17K miles on her. A brief hiatus included wife and kids and many,many, North American cars including 2 Corvettes. A few years back I got the bug again and purchased an MGB through E-Bay, towed it 700 miles through snow storms back to Ontario from the Mid West United States. Sold It for profit, bought a "rustfree" TR6 and spent a month patching the rusty frame and rockers. Sold it and picked up my first of 6 GT6's ,plus a MK1V Spitfire. Currently driving a British Racing Green MK11, building 2 MK11's for racing, and finishing 2 more for eventual profiteering to finance my obssesion. Lots of projects, but I have rented space with an overhead hoist, compresser ,sandblasting cabinet and all tools known to man with a few others thrown in. Last year the wife and I both went through racing school at the Mosport Intl Speedway, I in my GT6, she in her V6 5 speed Mustang. Things will never be the same ,now trying to get faster. Of the 36 participants cars attending school, including Porsches, Z06 Corvettes and a Shelby Mustang the GT6 was the only old school car there, and about 20years older than most of the students. It also garnered the most attention, with instructers jostling in line to get a chance to ride out in her. One instructer took it hard around the track and was absolutley astounded at its capability considering its reputation as being slow and ill-handling. With warmer weather upon us here it's time to tune up and hit the streets. Once again thanks everyone(especially "Mr Sideways" himself )for such a resource as this forum. Regards Tim [/img]
bearmtnmartin Posted April 23, 2009 Posted April 23, 2009 nice car! love the wheels. I'm out here in BC. (where the Canucks swept the first round in 4!) I'm putting a GT6 together for vintage racing as well. Its a slow process.
Royboy66 Posted April 23, 2009 Posted April 23, 2009 Welcome! good looking Roundtail there! some pics of the racers?? Roy 8)
Jony Posted April 23, 2009 Posted April 23, 2009 another canadian! good to have you here! car looks great!
GT6Steve Posted April 23, 2009 Posted April 23, 2009 We're developing quite a crowd of Canadians around here! Welcome Tim, always room for one more Tell us more about the racers, please...Steve
TIMSGT6 X 5 Posted April 23, 2009 Author Posted April 23, 2009 Thanks for the welcome! The car pictured was a bargain, had been restored bodywise over a few years at a cost of several thousand dollars. The owner drove by the body shop and saw it was closed and bankrupt, his car was outside under a pile of rubbish, skids, body parts etc so some scratches to the body. He retrieved the car and stored it briefly then sold his property. He had over 65 cars there, had a week to remove them before the new owners took possesion. I made an offer to him of $3500.00 ( about 2000 British Pounds) and he threw in another complete not running GT6 for parts. A few months later I had the car running and road certified, only major expense was carpeting and rims + tires. Racing this street version car taught me many things, I have retired this one to road use only. Thusly the 2 other projects, one for me one for my wife for track use. I am starting from frame up as I purchased a fully restored MK11 that was hit in the front, little to do there. I have another formerly restored car that the owners son had disassembled to do over. Working on the latter is easier as the frame has been repainted and all parts are there and accessable. A few improvements I am making are: Toyota 4-pot calipers on the front ( bolt on) Adjustable shocks ( Koni) and lower springs on the front. Height- Adjust and tighten the accelerator linkage for better heel-toe shifting Discard the Metalastik donuts and replace with Datsun halfshafts Adjustable ( Koni) shocks moved to the original frame mount At this stage I am only concerned with brakes and suspension, I have plenty of power for my current skill level The entry level racing I do is Solo Sprint. Essentially street cars, many drive to the track and just change tires. The challenge is to log best lap times. No other distractions as you are spaced on the track to avoid traffic. This allows concentration on the smoothness and consistency of car control, a great way to hone driving skills. The classing allows you to compete against similar ability cars thusly my want to keep the car as stock as possible. Any wild modification could put the car against fully modified race cars and obviously better skilled drivers. Mind you there are very skilled drivers pushing Chevettes ,Volvo P1800's and Toyota sedans in my class. I think Andre has some youtube video of his GT6 at Mosport to give you an idea of the type of track. This year hopefully I can run 4-5 sessions and supply some in-car video. I will put up some photos in the project area of the ongoing assembly of my vehicles. Tim
AndyGT6 Posted April 24, 2009 Posted April 24, 2009 Welcome, Much credit due for having 5 GT6's to maintain/rebuild, I find that 1 GT6 keeps me more than occupied :). Andy
spitNL Posted April 24, 2009 Posted April 24, 2009 Hi Tim, Welcome. I would be interested in some information on the Toyota 4-pot calipers you used. 5 GT6! Very cool 8) Frederick
TIMSGT6 X 5 Posted April 24, 2009 Author Posted April 24, 2009 Hi Tim, Welcome. I would be interested in some information on the Toyota 4-pot calipers you used. 5 GT6! Very cool 8) Frederick The calibers come from early Toyota non-diesel engine pickup trucks 1978 - 1983. The bolts need to be changed to a 12MM shoulder from the 7/16? they are now. The inlet is metric as well and needs a 90 degree banjo fitting. I purchased an adaptive Stianless clad flex hose kit from TSI Automotive in Ohio US. I will post more in the tech section when I figure out how to setup my own website for pics to save bandwidth here. Tim
lordleonusa Posted April 25, 2009 Posted April 25, 2009 The calipers come from early Toyota non-diesel engine pickup trucks 1978 - 1983. The bolts need to be changed to a 12MM shoulder from the 7/16? they are now. Tim Those are the same 'shouldered', or 'wide shank' mounting bolts as used on the late GT6-3 and possibly also the early 1970's TR6 that used the Metric 16PB Calipers, rather than the earlier Imperial 16P Calipers which used bolts with a narrow shank. L
lordleonusa Posted April 25, 2009 Posted April 25, 2009 TR6 used three different calipers: 1. imperial 16P up to CC29928 not available. 2. imperial 16PB CC29929 to CC81078 3. metric 16PB from CC81079 not available these used two different mounting bolts: early (narrow shank) TR5/TR250, TR6 up to CC81078 late (wide shank) TR6 from CC81079 - this is the metric mounting bolt, and is still available from Moss USA and others I expect, but the Moss part # is 320-215 quoted as $9.95 each. L
AndreGT6 Posted April 26, 2009 Posted April 26, 2009 Never mind, re-read your opening comments. I've been working towards a GT6 in the VARAC series, but will have to wait till we buy a larger home. Nice thing about Solo Sprint is yes you can upgrade the car and still have a blast regardless of the PIP's. I had a similar experience with the MCO Solo II driving school. All the instructors were very impressed with the little car, but like you this one is only for the road. It can handle the hard action of Solo II, but I just found the following weekend I had to spend hours checking it over. Will you be at the VARAC weekend in June? A.
TIMSGT6 X 5 Posted April 28, 2009 Author Posted April 28, 2009 Never mind, re-read your opening comments. I've been working towards a GT6 in the VARAC series, but will have to wait till we buy a larger home. Nice thing about Solo Sprint is yes you can upgrade the car and still have a blast regardless of the PIP's. I had a similar experience with the MCO Solo II driving school. All the instructors were very impressed with the little car, but like you this one is only for the road. It can handle the hard action of Solo II, but I just found the following weekend I had to spend hours checking it over. Will you be at the VARAC weekend in June? A. Varac really does force a lot of changes to the car. For now I will run unrestricted in Solo Sprint and gain experience. I will take a stab at running vintage as I have enough cars to be able to fit one specifically for the restrictions. I hear you on the height , you may consider dropping the floor 2 inches. If you want a soft top come and take my Spitfire 1500, I'll never use it. May try to get to the Varac in June, busy time of year for me though. Have you run Calaboogie as yet?
AndreGT6 Posted April 28, 2009 Posted April 28, 2009 Have not been to CMP. Waiting for the warranty to expire on the Mazda Wont run the GT6 there. A.
GT6Steve Posted May 16, 2009 Posted May 16, 2009 Ya know Tim, Now I've met Andre I suspect he might be Canada's biggest GT6 fanatic. I'm not even clear on how he fits IN the car? What's your height and weight so we can start to clear up these boasts? ;D Steve
AndreGT6 Posted May 18, 2009 Posted May 18, 2009 Is that a shot? Yeah yeah I need to drop a few stones
GT6 Nick Posted May 18, 2009 Posted May 18, 2009 Good shot. I know that inside every big bloke is a little bloke waiting to get out, but it's not often you can see him!
lordleonusa Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 How can anyone be Canada's Biggest GT6 Fanatic? I thought all GT6's were the same size? Although a Mk.3 might be slightly longer than a 'Mk.1' ? ;D ;D ;D Léon
AlexC Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Welcome from another Canadian. I'm still working to get my Spit road legal. Hope to see you on the road!
TIMSGT6 X 5 Posted May 19, 2009 Author Posted May 19, 2009 How can anyone be Canada's Biggest GT6 Fanatic? I thought all GT6's were the same size? Although a Mk.3 might be slightly longer than a 'Mk.1' ? ;D ;D ;D Léon Since we converted to Metric, everything became larger and colder.
lordleonusa Posted May 19, 2009 Posted May 19, 2009 Since we converted to Metric, everything became larger and colder. If you made the mistake of going metric, then how come Andre says he needs to drop a few stones? A remark that very few Americans will comprehend. L
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