I have this Austin Healey Sprite racecar you see. It is somewhat
anonymously called The Fluoro Car, based on its bright fluorescent
orange paint scheme. I bought it from a fellow member of the Austin
Healey Sprite Drivers Club. Phil has a reputation as an underacheiving
racecar builder. That is his car was potentially brilliant, but a few
things weren't done quite right. I bought the car at a very good
price, all the advice was that I should buy it. Phil is a good guy,
and I knew why he was selling it (getting out of racing for at least a
few years).
As soon as I first bought the car, I knew I had some work. Its
ignition failed the day I bought it (a combination cracked rotor, a
bad condenser, corroded leads). My first time in the car (club
sprints) was a combination of joy and frustration. It was a lovely
little car, quick, but a severe case of permanent oversteer. It was on
very old slicks (2-3 yr old) at that point. I did a motorkhana
(concrete surface) in this config and the oversteer made it a real joy
in the tight and tricky stuff!
I bought new wheels and tyres (Superlites, Dunlop D98J Formula R), did
some desperately needed routine maintanence, and ran it at club
sprints, an open race meeting (I wrote an article on this a month or
so ago), motorkhana on concrete, another club sprint. I had discovered
little problems along the way like a sinking float on the webers,
understood what was causing the oversteer (poor geometry of traction
bars and panhard rod), did more routine maintanence, etc etc. I was
getting used to the car, albiet slowly. The chronic oversteer made it
very hard work driving on the limit and I was slowly loosing driver
confidence with spins at nearly every event. But I am patient (are you
kidding! says my wife Kerry), I was slowly coming to grips with the
car, the cars mechanicals and handling characteristics; I knew what
had to be done and I was slowly addressing each issue in turn. I
believe in a bit-by-bit approach, change too much at once and you
can't figure out the contribution of each change...
All that changed this weekend.
I was one member of a five car team (Team BLAT) of Spridgets entered
in the annual 6Hr relay race organised by the Alfa Romeo Owners Club
of Australia (VIC). It was held at the Winton Raceway. I took Friday
off work to do routine maintanence, removed the traction bars
completely, used a steel mallet and an angle grinder to give me more
wheel clearance, did some cosmetic stuff, check the car over
carefully, put it on the trailer, pack up all my stuff etc. I was
organised this time! By 7pm Friday, I was ready to leave the next
morning at 6am. Yikes, this was *amazing*!
I had an effortless run up to Winton, arrived, got the sprite off the
trailer, put my race numbers on, sponsors stickers, and team (name)
sticker on the back of the car. The car went through scrutineering OK.
Drivers' briefing etc etc. The others team members were also fully
prepared with the exception of Owen Crombie. Owen was racing his blue
MG Midget. Until two or three days previous, it was a pretty much
stock 1275cc midget. Reliable, fun, but not very fast. Well Owen (with
partner Christine) also drives a *very* fast lime green racing sprite.
They just put a new race motor in beanie, so Owen takes this as a
challenge and puts beanies old race motor in the midget. He also takes
the opportunity to make a new fibreglass bonnet (with an *UGLY* front
grille replacement), weber carby, etc etc. Owen arrived at the track
still working on the car, borrowed bits off other cars to get through
scrutineering and by the end of the day had not only qualified, but
had changed front springs, rear axles (high stength customs), rear
sway bar, reconditioned the rear brakes, new rear wheel bearings etc
etc. What an effort!
Each car/driver had to qualify for the race - this was at least 10
timed laps. The team handicap would be worked out on this basis, sound
levels checked etc etc. We got some practice with the safety car also.
There were 4 qualifying sessions of 45 minutes each. Each team could
only have one car out at a time, so we wanted to get everyone
qualified as early as possible and get optional practice later.
At the end of the first session I was still waiting on the dummy grid
as we only had two cars through by then. The next session, I went out
but came in after only 2 laps because of a pretty severe misfire over
4000 rpm. As I had just cleaned the car on Friday, I was pretty sure
that water in the distributor would be the culprit. The car was also
bottoming out on the big left hand sweeper.This didn't happen with
the traction bars installed since their geometry was wrong and the
suspension was binding up. A quick check of the distributor showed it
was indeed a bit wet. I checked the leads and plugs as well. I
didn't make it out in the 2nd session (I was 3rd in line after I
came in), so when the lunch break arrived, I decided to take out the 1
inch lowering blocks from the rear suspension to definately solve the
clearance problem. I got help from a couple of experienced spridget
racers, Allan Potter and Simon Gardiner. Both Allan and Simon strongly
recommended I remove the panhard rod as it was not level, was mounted
too high and was causing stress cracks around the mounting plate (in
the trunk floor). I had to scrounge around to find enough washers for
the U bolts now that the lowering blocks were gone. All in all, this
was taking some time! I got out in the 3rd session at last. The car
felt much better now that it ever had before, but this only lasted
about 2 laps! At the fast top gear sweeper, the internal throtte
spring broke, jamming the throttle partly open (CAMS regulations
mandate 2 external throttle return springs), causing a moment of
anxiety coming up to the 2nd gear right-hander at tank! Back in the
pits, the Team Manager (Jack De Bruijne) was starting to panic about
getting me qualified. To get some laps in, they put a few extra return
springs on, ensuring it closed completely, and sent me out again. This
was the final qualifying session now. I could only get about 1/3
throttle, so my times were relatively slow, but this is not a
horsepower circuit, but very demanding on handling and driver
technique. I averaged about 1:20, instead of my more usual 1:14 or so.
The only reason I wass so close was that the handling had definately
improved with the removal of the traction bars and the panhard rod.
As soon as 10 laps were up, I returned to the pits were Steve Homans
and Bob Lomas pulled off the carby, removed the broken spring and set
things back to normal. They also managed to find some new external
return springs to replace the stretched ones that were on there
already. By the time I got out, I only had 2 laps, but they were great
- the car felt wonderful, the oversteer was gone, in fact it
understeered a little too much on the limit now, but I felt very
comfortable in the car and it was running like a dream. I was both
very happy and very frustrated. The car was clearly much better, but I
had hardly any desperately needed track time. I was flat out all day,
so much so that I hadn't even eaten lunch, or had any coffee! (If
you know me well, you'd know how much this means!) Still, I was
really looking forward to the race the next day...
Mike Trethan pulled out a big surprise, improving his time by six
seconds from his car's previous outing at Winton. In the
intervening period, he had put slicks on the car, lowered and
stiffened the suspension, but left his stock 1100cc engine alone! Owen
had handling problems in the midget and only got 3 seconds improvement
over the Midget's previous outing.
That night, after a couple of quite beers, we had the traditional
chinese banquet and retired at about 11pm.
Next morning: breakfast, coffee, drivers briefing, scrutineering. The
weather was decidedly gloomy, everyone was hoping that this
wouldn't be a repeat of last years wet race. I was originally going
out first, but since Mike Trathen and Leanne had slicks (the rest were
on radials), we decided to get them out first while it was still dry.
Since I wasn't up for quite a while, I wanted to check the car over
again. There was a bit of roughness at around 4000rpm, so we got the
timing light out to see if the mechanical advance was working
correctly. Rob Couper then noticed that there was some leakage in the
plug leads. I had a spare distributor cap with silicon leads, so we
dediced to change them over. Unfortunately, Rob removed all the leads
(from both distributors) before marking them, so it took us a while to
figure out the right setup again.
While this was happening, The race started, we had qualified 6th out
of 17 teams. We were hoping that Leanne would get a good start with
her very powerful slick-shod sprite. However, she lost 5 or six places
in the first lap and came into the pits only 2 laps later (bummer!)
with a loose trunk lid. Mike Trathen replaced her on the track after
the changeover was effected (a Velcro, numbered sash has to be
transferred from car to car). Alas a few laps later, Mike's car was
steaming badly and he was called in! It turned out that he lost most
of the water in the radiator after overheating the engine! The cause
was an incorrect radiator cap!!!! Now Owen was out in the midget and
Leanne was back on the dummy grid. We headed back to my car to finish
the leads. Owen broke down on the track with electrical problems and
had to run back to the pits with the sash. Now we had Leanne on the
Track on slicks and Mike Trathen in dummy grid. As soon as we were
finished, I moved my car close to the dummy grid in case it rained and
I had to quickly replace Mike and then Leanne.
Sure enough, it looked ominous with dark clouds approaching; Jack
ordered a change on the dummy grid, Mike came back into the pits and I
headed in. The gears crunched worryingly as I put it into gear. As I
was about to reverse into the designated spot, the clutch made rather
nasty noises. I called a team member over to listen to the noise. The
clutch was binding up and after 3 or 4 depressions, it wouldn't
move. Damn!
We had to push my car out of the dummy grid and back to the pits. The
experts were called over, the likely cause seemed to be thrust bearing
failure. We checked with all the spridget owners but no-one had a
spare thrust bearing. What to do? Pull the engine out? Why not - it
may be something other than the thrust bearing, perhaps a broken
circlip preventing proper operation... The engine had to come out
anyway so an intrepid few - Simon Hughes, Rob Couper, Dennis Flynn
(with me helping as much as I could) proceeded to undo all the
perpherals from the engine, remove the steering rod, radiator, starter
motor etc etc. We almost gave up at one point when we couldn't get
to one of the Allen bolts that the PO had used to bolt on the inlet
manifold -- we had to use an angle grinder to shorten the allen key in
order to do so!! Looking around, we found a star post (i.e. fence
steel picket) which, in conjuction with some rope and two study
bodies, we used to lift the engine out of the car.
It was indeed the thrust bearing, the non-standard ball bearing type
had melted its plastic casing and completely disintegrated. Ball
bearings were all over the place. Damn again, without a replacement,
my chances of driving weren't looking good at all! So Simon Hughes
and I headed into Benalla (about 10km from Winton) to see if we could
find a replacement bearing on a Sunday. No luck - none of the garages
had mechanics on duty on Sunday, but there was a Sprite club member
who lived in Benalla, Trevor Wilmott, who just *might* be able to
help. We found Trevor and all he had was a thrust bearing off an old
A40, which he didn't think would fit. Since my race car has a
Needham close ratio, straight-cut gearset in a smooth case box, it
just might work... It certainly looked promising!
Back to Winton and *YES*, it fitted! It was now after 2pm, less than
two and a half hours to the end of the race -- could we do it. Well,
in less than an hour we had the engine back in and hooked every thing
up - would the clutch work? Would I get on the track? Had we connected
everything up properly? The team manager Jack ran over to see how
things were going -- he had troubles keeping the other cars on the
track and he needed me to be available. Optimistically, I said we'd be
there in a few minutes after a quick test run (at slow speed of
course!) around the pits. We double checked all the mechanical and
electrical connections; I hopped into the car and turn on the master
switch and ignition. Smoke poured out from under the bonnet, I turned
off the switches, grabbed the extinguisher and we took a look under
the bonnet -- there had been a direct short from the battery to earth
via the alternator conector. That wire had fried itself totally. We
had probably just caught it before it melted the casing on the
adjacent wires (we hoped) so after a bodge wiring fix, we tried again.
No smoke this time. OK, fire her up... Damn again. She won't start.
Let's check the spark - nothing at all. "Ooops" says Dennis, "I forgot
to put the rotor button in". Now we try again and she starts
immediately - great! Lower the car off the stands, test the clutch and
it works!!
Drive around the pits and pronounce it ready! I head to the dummy
grid, the car on the track is called in (Mike Trathen I think) and I
head out. It is now raining on and off, the track is wet but not under
water. I take it very easy at first and try and get into the groove.
Ever the optimist, I had filled the long range tank (60 litres) -
easily enough for me to finish the hour and a quarter left before the
chequered flag. The extra weight aft of the rear axle made the
handling a bit tricky, at the flip flop (quick left to right direction
change in top gear) I did a nice 360 degree spin and kept going -- it
was like a big pendulum with the full tank in the wet!! I then managed
to swallow hard and settled down to a regular, reasonable pace -
managing to pretty much keep position with al but the very fastest of
the cars.
However, I was definately finding it hard to concentrate on going fast
-- firstly the conditions were changing every lap with the rain coming
and going - there was no consistency from lap to lap. I managed to
pass a few cars, a couple passed me, things were going well. After 20
or so laps, I was slowly settling down (it had been a very hectic and
stressful day!) when I lost all drive going into the sweeper. I kept
rolling, check the gearbox and clutch, they *seemed* to be working ok,
but I was not getting power to the ground. Damn again and again. I
pulled off the track at cleavage and into the infield -- I was about
800 metres from the pits and I had to run back to the pits to effect
the handover. Now I am not the thinnest or fittest of people, so this
was always going to be a bit of a trial, but I really outdid myself
when after 3 or 400 yards I realised that I had left the sash behind,
still attached to the car! Damn Damn Damn. I turned around, ran back
to the car, grabbed the sash and restarted the run back to the pits.
I was absolutely spent by the time I got back! Owen Crombie headed
out to the track while I described the symptoms to the team. Universal
consensus was a likely broken rear axle. I did have spare axles, but
somehow I had managed to leave them at home :-( Furthermore, since my
car originally had wire wheels, the axles were shorter than any of the
spares actually at the track! So I was finished for the day. My race
was run. I was very depressed, especially as the track was starting to
dry out and times were improving. Damn.
At the end of the day, most of our team had problems (with the
exception of Peter Brice) and we languished down around 14th or so.
Although I had a pretty miserable weekend, at least I did get *some*
laps in, I was circulating reasonably well, the car was handling well,
better than ever before, and I had fixed a few minor problems with the
car. On the negative side, I had to pull the engine out again to
replace the pressure plate, the clutch plate as they had been mildly
damaged by the thrust bearing failure. I also had to change the rear
axle. Oh well, I am certainly learning more and more about this
spridget of mine!!!
The good news was that the other spridget team came second outright, a
mere 2 laps behind the winning team (the ex Tony Longhurst BMW M3 and
2 very hot Alfa GTV- based sports sedans). A sensational effort! Well
done to Chris Chrombie, Dave Edwards, Brendan Beacon, Jeff Smith and
Simon Gardiner!
I didn't get to see much of the event, :-) but everyone told me it
was a great race with close racing all day and some really great
driving. there were only a few incidents. The only damage I saw was a
bent RX7 and a lightly damaged Alfa. Suprising little carnage really
given the conditions.
Anyhow, I have another 6Hr relay race at the end of October, this time
in Sydney at the Eastern Creek track (used by the Australian
Motorcycle Grand Prix). I can only hope that I have better luck next
time!
Mike Gigante
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