Rebuild Feb 2007

The last race of 2006 was at Mallory, the car was on its last legs with the engine rattling from the oil serge problem at Croft and something getting looser in the suspension department.

The race went amazingly well, I managed not to crash despite the oil slick just before the hairpin! Finishing second from last gave me enough points to get third in class for the race and for the whole year!

Inspection after the race revealed that both radius arm front bushes had separated which was allowing the rear axle an unexpected degree of freedom. Whilst hitting things with my calibrated hammer to get the remains of the perished bush off, I discovered some fresh rust growing remarkably well in both sills at the rear. This prompted me to check the rest of the body shell and after further percussion related exploration I found the bottom of the front left sill was held together with only paint!

So, the sills are sliced open and I will perform welding surgery on them next weekend, which will be a just in time job as I have a track day booked at Mallory on the following Tuesday!
To add to the jeopardy, I have stripped the rear axle down in order to refurbish it and to fit a lower ratio diff, 3.54:1, which came out of the 'spare' 3.6 xjs. The axle is relatively easy to remove and this makes many operations much easier, such as changing brake pads. It is, however, a sod to rebuild because of all the shims, washers, oil seals, spacers and the total inaccessibility of half the bolts! How they ever built these on a production line with any semblance of quality is a mystery. As for the 'spare' 3.6 xjs, well it turned out to be the rustiest car in the known universe. It looked ok when I bought it, but when I jacked it up to change a wheel, the jack went through the jacking point! Turns out that the door and window seals were all leaking badly (maybe it had been built like that) and the floor was soaking, so although the outer panels were ok the floor and whole structure had rotted beyond repair. So it was a sad day that I called 'Pikey John' over to take it to be recycled. Another one bites the dust.

Working on the race car has got more pleasant. I have started renting a six-car workshop, which rapidly ends up with only enough space for two once you start tacking big cars apart!
I am now thinking of getting some sort of 'team' together, I always tend to work alone but the burden of working long hours to earn the money to race, working long hours building the car and occasionally getting to drive it has been a bit of a strain.

This year I intend to do twice as many races and finish the year with a one hour race at the Nurburgring in Germany (you know, the one where lots of people crash horribly/fatally). Last year Sam helped out superbly but she has had to follow a different path in life and is no longer around, so I am trying to con some chums into helping out, tempting them with tea and biscuits doesn’t seem to be working as yet so I might have to try beer.

My attempts at journalism have been paying off. The two issue article in Classics Monthly went down rather well. Also the car featured on the front cover in Practical Performance Car, a splendid magazine which I have now made a number of contributions too and managed not to get hate mail or sued, which is a good sign I think.


This year sees a new magazine come out, specifically targeted at club racing, called Full Throttle and I am lucky enough to have a regular column in there, hussar!

So there we have it, the car is in pieces and it’s only a week till the track day. I’ll let you know how it goes.