August Newsletter

Time for another update, it’s the end of the race season now and due to the current economic times most drivers have parked their cars for the winter and are playing the wait and see game for both the economic situation and the decision on fuel requirements for next season.

All of the cars I service and engineer bar one, Nick Ross’s Tier-1 Commodore, are Musclecars, GT – GT1 cars , or Pre-65 cars and most all of them up till now have been allowed to run on Avgas, which is the most suitable for their engines with its lead content, 105 octane rating and being readily available at a good price in good condition.

Motorsport NZ are under pressure by the government to enforce the running of unleaded fuels in all their “sanctioned” class’s and at their “sanctioned “ meetings, this has not proven popular with the Muscle, Pre-65 & GT racers.

Even as of today this matter is still being discussed at many levels and is yet to be “set in stone”, but with Labour weekend, typically the start of the race season, not that far away now decisions will have to be made.

The Central Muscle Car club has unanimously decided that if they arrive at any given racetrack and are not permitted to race due to the leaded Avgas they run on, they, as a group, will all pack up and leave.

  
 
Gary and Tina’s “Quad-Stang” – (69 Fastback Mustang with a Falcon Boss XR8 Quadcam engine) has progressed well lately, we have modified the sump and pickup to clear the modified Mustang-2 cross member, given it some more capacity and added baffles and gates to control oil surge. The steering system is finished other than the upper steering column, its come out well with only .015in of steering bump-steer over 50mm of wheel travel, this is better than most racecars running around out there.

6-pot Wilwood calipers and huge vented rotors are fitted up front, all the hard and soft-lines are made and in place, essentially you could just add fluid, bleed the brakes and they would be done. Driveshaft Specialists have built the custom driveshaft to suit the 6 speed transmission. The custom radiator and AC condenser are mounted and the whole cooling system other than the heater is complete. Next we will plumb the fuel system with fuel pumps, filter, surge tank & lines - and start the exhaust system. Due to the size of the Quadcam engine this will take some thought, not only getting the headers out of the engine bay but as low as this car will be we need to keep the exhaust tucked up nice and high.
We had Glenn Carters Chevy pick-up in for some suspension and steering work, the steering box needed overhauling which Phil and Greg at P G Hydraulics took care of and the rear shocks – as the pics show – needed remounting. The truck had previously been lowered, as so many have, this puts the rear shocks at an acute angle resulting in mount failure and poor ride quality. We fabricated new mounts and put them in the correct location & changed the shocks to ones of the correct length and valving.
Dave Best’s 1965 Corvette has also seen a burst of activity, a 2-speed wiper motor has been adapted and fitted. The electric power steer pump has been mounted and we have designed and fabbed a new power steer reservoir with the required filler, sight glass, baffle, breather etc.

We have designed and fabbed the exhaust system from the mufflers forward to the custom merge collectors. This was a major job as the Dave didn’t want the typical low-hung Corvette exhaust , so the tail pipes must weave their way through all the rear suspension links including the new rear toe-link and driveshafts and clear them all during bump and droop. They then go forward through the chassis holes and into a X –type cross-over pipe and forward to the merge collectors,

This is all done in 3 inch round and “ovalized “ tubing. The intermediate pipe between the x-pipe and the tail pipes can be quickly & easily removed for drag racing which Dave does a bit of, we may just need to fab a couple of small “turn-down” tips.

Next on the list will be a battery mount/box and a windscreen demist system. Dave has planned to have the Corvette at the fibre-glassers for the floors and firewall to be finished, the car will then be soda blasted and prepped for paint.
And lastly Concept Motorsports Total sponsored Commodore is getting a major off-season birthday, mainly by Nick R oss and the team in Cambridge, the car will come across to our shop in Sept for the last “little rub” before we go testing.
Click here to view March 2010 newsletter
Click here to view December 2009 newsletter
Click here to view March 2009 newsletter
Click here to view October 2008 newsletter
 
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