Our Car
The story so far (in reverse order)...
(see below for pictures)
- Autumn 2008 - Original rear disc brake conversion kit installed. This kit took 3 years to find through Tiziano Tani the Italian spares specialist and friend.
- Spring 2005 - Big Bore side exhaust installed. This exits just behind the passenger side door and should give us a few more horsepower. The sound of the car has certainly altered tremendously. It now sounds like a real racing car! Another job done is to hand-make an aluminium bonnet scoup to help air flow into the carb.
- May 2004 - Mark has precisely checked the wheel alignments of our car and found a few problems. One being a long standing misalignment of one of the back wheels - it was further back then the other one. These problems have now been corrected and Mark says that the handling is greatly improved around the track.
- April 2004 - We have now got wide wheels and arches! Mark has used his enormous skill to hand make some alluminium wheel arches to cover 7 inch wheels. This involved making carboard patterns, fabricating arches by hand, cutting out the old arches and fitting the new ones.
- March 2003 - After a long layup after the broken gearbox of the one and only sprint in 2002, the car was exhumed from its rather damp resting place and prepared for the coming Sprint season. The main job was to install the new (for us) 5 speed gearbox complete with its limited slip diff and crown wheel and pinion. The lightened sump was also installed. While the engine was out Mark took the opportunity to weld up some cracks that had developed due to our racing exploits. Electronic ignition and a new air filter were installed as well as numerous treekings here and there. A total of about 3 days work!
- April 2002 - General preparation for the first sprint of the year. See the 2002 Season page
- October 2001 - The last sprint of the year at Lydden - read all about it on the 2001 Season page
- August 2001 - The broken gear linkage was repaired - a better weld that should get us through the next sprint, but definite development needed for long term use.
- July 2001 - Another sprint at Lydden - read all about it on the 2001 Season page
- May 2001 - The gear stick and linkage has been changed to make the change more precise - we were experiencing problems going from 2 to 3rd at high revs (7000-8000 rpm). We are currently saving up for a limited slip diff and straight cut gears!
- April 2001 - After the race Mark discovered a nasty crack in the sub-frame at the front-drivers side. He has replaced some tired metal and welded it strong again.
- April 2001 - We made it! Despite scares that the Foot & Mouth would scuppa our attempts at a come-back, the Sprint went ahead as planned and I managed to get a Class Win!! See 2001Season for all the info.
- March 2001 - Unbeknown to me (Lincoln), for the last 2 months Mark has been hard at work in the garage giving the Abarth a new paint job! It's now White and looks excellent! Many black plastic trimmings have been replaced by chrome (which we have been collecting over the past years). He has also added to the roll cage and added a rear tie-bar, so the car is really strong now, hardly any body-flex. Many other tweekings have been made making the car look and perform better than I would have thought.
- February 2001 - We are looking to use the car for a Sprint at Lydden on the 7th April... a report will follow the outing.
- August 2000 - The rolling road session has been done and (after a reasonable amount of tweeking) the car is achieving 88.3bhp - a few more tweeks and we expect to be well over the 90bhp mark.
- May 2000 - Small things need attention and the 500 odd miles running in at low revs then a rolling road and (hopefully) some racing.
- April 2000 - Well, that was a long week. The engine went back in and after a lot of problems we discovered that the Carburettor was not working too well, so a new one was purchased from Gozzoli (Weber 40 DCNF) and it now runs fine. A rev limiter has been installed to stop over revving and damage to that expensive engine.
- September 1999 the engine is back in the car and should be running in the next week or so...
- September 1999 the engine is back in the car and should be running in the next week or so...
- September 1999 the engine is back in the car and should be running in the next week or so...
- Loads of engine work - parts from various sources in Italy / France / UK.
- Off road beginning 1999.
- Sprinted for the 1998 season.
- Car off road for roll-cage / seat / suspension / harness / etc, etc.
- Decided to go sprinting.
- Run for 2 years with no work.
- 1995 - Bought Car - MOT failure.
