Time for a new toy-suggestions

[Tigger]

If you car buffs have not yet seen the movie Rush, I suggest you do so!

[Olaf Hart]

I thought you dry sumped the Morgan to stop the oil leaks.

Wifes uncle had a new 928, parked it in the barn for a few weeks, the bush rats ate all the insulation off the wiring under the car and in the engine bay.

BMW 2002 tii, my second most dangerous car to a Porsche 356 super 90.

[cap10ed]

More fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow the saying goes. One of my sisters had a first generation Fiesta which was a hoot to drive as fast as you could. Just wind up that little 1300cc(?) rubber band and have at it.

Yup! An Italian friend used to race the little Abarth 850cc toy cars. He let me drive it a number of times, it was a complete hoot. If I remember correctly, you didn't shift until the valves floated. Good times. BV

Found this quote discussing an engine up grade from 40 HP to a whopping 86 HP. “if you stay on the throttle……the back end will stay behind you…..or at worst, next to you!”

[LarryHoward]

More fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow the saying goes. One of my sisters had a first generation Fiesta which was a hoot to drive as fast as you could. Just wind up that little 1300cc(?) rubber band and have at it.

Yup! An Italian friend used to race the little Abarth 850cc toy cars. He let me drive it a number of times, it was a complete hoot. If I remember correctly, you didn't shift until the valves floated. Good times. BV

Found this quote discussing an engine up grade from 40 HP to a whopping 86 HP. “if you stay on the throttle……the back end will stay behind you…..or at worst, next to you!”

B(L)MC engines didn't need rev limiters. Valve float was the English solution since a Lucas limiter would never have worked anyway.

[SloopJonB]

You've just articulated why I spend all my hot-rod dollars and time on a '65 Morgan. Engine: bored and stroked, oversize webbers, dry sump, etc.... Suspension: (I know the suspension on a Morgan is actually a joke) new valve in the rear shocks, damper flaps on the front end etc... Body: toss the windshield, side curtains, heater, windshield wipers (don't need 'em if you don't have a windshield), etc....

At the end of the day, the Morgan is still slower than the chipped JCW Mini but it FEELS a hell of a lot faster with my old ass only 5" from the ground and the long hood. Of course no muffler and those big webbers slurping up air make it feel faster too.

Trying to hot rod a modern car is sort of like trying to "improve" the design of an AC-72, not for amateurs.

A dry sumped Morgan. There must be a term for that - eccentric just seems inadequate. Idiosyncratic maybe? I'm surprised one can generate enough sustained lateral G's to need it. (or is it simply because it takes so long to get all the way through the corners? ) Your car sounds like a true hot rod, even if it did come from Malvern Link and not Detroit.

By the way, have you ever seen a +4+? We used to have a Morgan dealer in Vancouver and they had one of the ultra rare beasts in their window - for several years. You sure would have had to have been skinny and limber to get in one - it had the shortest doors of any car I've ever seen - made a TVR's look long.

The +4+ was one of the first of various "weird" Morgans that the family tried, attempting to be more modern. But, like the 911, the customers revolted and demanded the older looking car. I've actually driven a +4+ that was set up for top speed runs! because I only weighed 135 lbs in those days. It was terrifying going 128 mph in that thing!!

The dry sump is because the oil pressure hit zero on about 1/2 the turns at Laguna Seca when running on race tires. It also let me lower the engine 4", although I've never been convinced that mattered. It didn't change my lap times. There is also a rear axel oil cooler and scavenging system that sucks diff oil for the outboard ends of the axel tubes and dumps it into the top of the diff after running it through a cooler. This was installed after I burned out the third set of port side rear axel bearings on the old Laguna Seca course where the oil spend the entire time from turn 1 up the hill to the corkscrew pushed to starboard.

Puttering around Laguna Seca in the Morgan is about three times as much fun as the 996 Turbo cab. Although the AC was comfy in the Porch.

That thing is full race, that's for sure. I agree about the speed of smaller disp cars - I learned to drift a car in a swing axle Beetle - you could get sideways at 25 MPH - completely sub-lethal if you screwed up. The limits of my newer cars - Corvettes & the Jag are so high that if you ever have one break loose you are in VERY deep doodoo. Apparently the old FIAT 500 was very popular with F1 drivers as a runabout.

[SloopJonB]

More fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow the saying goes. One of my sisters had a first generation Fiesta which was a hoot to drive as fast as you could. Just wind up that little 1300cc(?) rubber band and have at it.

Yup! An Italian friend used to race the little Abarth 850cc toy cars. He let me drive it a number of times, it was a complete hoot. If I remember correctly, you didn't shift until the valves floated. Good times. BV

Found this quote discussing an engine up grade from 40 HP to a whopping 86 HP. “if you stay on the throttle……the back end will stay behind you…..or at worst, next to you!”

B(L)MC engines didn't need rev limiters. Valve float was the English solution since a Lucas limiter would never have worked anyway.

Here are a couple of my favourite "Lucas" bits for you all.

[Cherie320]

Go back to the Honda SI - snip --- snip --.

-- Snip -- Simple house rules. No mods allowed that move the car out of SCCA Solo stock classification. -- snip --
For graduation, we -- snip -- figure they can keep the good used cars we already provided for a few more years.

Very sane approach Larry.

[LarryHoward]

More fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow the saying goes. One of my sisters had a first generation Fiesta which was a hoot to drive as fast as you could. Just wind up that little 1300cc(?) rubber band and have at it.

Yup! An Italian friend used to race the little Abarth 850cc toy cars. He let me drive it a number of times, it was a complete hoot. If I remember correctly, you didn't shift until the valves floated. Good times. BV

Found this quote discussing an engine up grade from 40 HP to a whopping 86 HP. “if you stay on the throttle……the back end will stay behind you…..or at worst, next to you!”

B(L)MC engines didn't need rev limiters. Valve float was the English solution since a Lucas limiter would never have worked anyway.

Here are a couple of my favourite "Lucas" bits for you all.

Love it. I've seen the replacement smoke before but not the fuses.

[BeauV]

Everyone who has one of those "LUCAS - PRINCE OF DARKNESS" lapel pins raise you hand!

[LarryHoward]

Everyone who has one of those "LUCAS - PRINCE OF DARKNESS" lapel pins raise you hand!

[JoeP]

[Rob McAlpine]

Lucas electrics in my stepdad's Rolls burned down the Rolls, the 3 car garage, a Porsche 928, and the most beautiful antique Spanish dining table that came out of a mansion in Newport and was destined for my home in Texas, where it would have gone perfectly. I've searched for years now, and never found a table that comes close.

[SloopJonB]

It's fun to make fun of Lucas and lots of their gear was crap but in all fairness, they carried the can for the incompetence and/or stupidity of a lot of others in the British auto industry. Anyone ever seen an old Jag with more than 40-50K on the odometer? That's as long as a Smiths speedo usually lasted and you got a new odo with the new speedo. That would get lumped in with "Lucas" problems. The Jag XK engine had the distributor mounted under the thermostat housing so condensation dripped on the middle of the cap causing hard starting - Lucas got the blame. How many electrical problems were due to chafed wires that had been run through bulkheads with no grommet?

There were lots of those sorts of "Lucas" problems in my British cars.

[BeauV]

Hey just how the heck are you supposed to run wires through a firewall Geeesh! Grommets, we don't need no stinking grommets!

I love the lotus distributor cap on the S2. If memory serves it was under the headers so it would only last about 6 months to a year, then the heat would cause it to crack. That of course was a "Lucas" problem.

But.... the tail lights that fill with rainwater.... that really is a Lucas problem.

[Olaf Hart]

The original Minis had the distributor in front of the engine and the radiator off to the side of the engine.
The engine was East West.
Drive in rain and the distributor was soaked.
Standard repair was a kitchen glove taped to the base, with the wires going through the fingers, which were also taped.

Worst Lucas problem I had was an intermittent broken distributor condenser on a bugeye Austin Healey Sprite.
Happened on a holiday up the coast, the sixth BL dealer finally found it.
Spent most of the holiday in tow trucks.

Then there was the time the steering wheel shaft came off the steering box at 60mph....

[SloopJonB]

I had the wheel come off in my hands in a Porsche I once owned - in a corner in rush hour traffic! (Inbound in the S-bend at Lost Lagoon for you locals). That got my heart pounding better than a triple espresso. Jammed it down on the splines and held it down until I could pull over and I didn't hit anything.

[JoeP]

My wife had a '76 Triumph Spitball when we met. I was constantly chasing gremlins. Lights, alternator, electric overdrive cutting in & out. The instruments worked, sometimes.

[Ish]

I owned one English car, that was enough. A Ford Cortina, quick little thing but I had to have it professionally tuned every month in the winter or it wouldn't start. I can't blame it, this was in Saskatchewan and it was -30 for weeks.
I owned one North American car, it was my first. A '57 Chevy. I wish I had put it in storage, it would be worth far more now than the $200 I paid for it. It sucked fuel like there was no energy crisis.
Oh, there wasn't.

[SloopJonB]

My wife had a '76 Triumph Spitball when we met. I was constantly chasing gremlins. Lights, alternator, electric overdrive cutting in & out. The instruments worked, sometimes.

My wife's cousin and her husband are the most courageous and adventurous people I have ever known (or even heard of) - they had a Triumph GT6 and took a cross country trip from Cali to the east coast in it.

Talk about guts.

[LarryHoward]

My first car was a 1958 MGA. One night, I was coming around a corner when the lights went dim. A few seconds later, I smelled smoke. The left taillight shorted out and the burning wire crossed the ignition wire at the switch, connecting an infused wire integral to the harness to ground. I stopped the fire by yanking the battery primary feed off the battery post with my hands. At least it was a simple electrical system. I got the opportunity to build and run a complete new harness (high school kid couldn't afford a NOS harness from the dealer).

Mr Lucas was a willing accomplice when I got a girl home past curfew. "Headlights quit and I had to fix them before I could get her home" was an excuse the hardest father would buy.

[Cherie320]

My wife had a '76 Triumph Spitball when we met. I was constantly chasing gremlins. Lights, alternator, electric overdrive cutting in & out. The instruments worked, sometimes.

My wife's cousin and her husband are the most courageous and adventurous people I have ever known (or even heard of) - they had a Triumph GT6 and took a cross country trip from Cali to the east coast in it.

Talk about guts.

Our GT6 had an alternator. That made a world of difference in the electrical reliability of the car.

My aunt and uncle drove an XK120 from California to Kansas in the 50s. That car spent a month in our Wichita driveway waiting for a generator. I think that may have been a Lucas problem.

[Tigger]

Company still going strong, or so it seems:

http://www.lucaselectrical.co.uk/

[Slick470]

Our GT6 had an alternator. That made a world of difference in the electrical reliability of the car.

My aunt and uncle drove an XK120 from California to Kansas in the 50s. That car spent a month in our Wichita driveway waiting for a generator. I think that may have been a Lucas problem.

Slight Hijack... Wichita eh? I grew up there. Parents still live in Bel Aire. Sailed on Cheney at Ninnescah Sailing Assn. Good times.

[JoeP]

Not a Lucas issue but one day I finished tuning my Datsun 1600 roadster and drove to a friend's house to visit. A few minutes after I arrived his little brother came in and said "Hey Joe your car is smoking". I went outside and sure enough it was, from the engine compartment. I opened the hood and looked in and saw that the copper drain tube from the carbs had rotated enough that it shorted against the battery cable to the starter and was glowing red. Yikes! I quickly grabbed a piece of wood and knocked it away. I am sure if it had gone on any longer my car would have burst into flames. Luckily no fuel was draining from the carbs and there weren't any fumes. Needless to say I learned to double check the tightness of bolts and fasteners and look closely for possible interferences between wires and other parts from the experience. I had another lucky break when I was driving my brother's '63 Impala. I filled the tank with fuel and drove about 10 miles. I looked down at the gas gauge and it was reading 1/2 full and dropping as I watched. I just made it home with the tank almost empty. I opened the hood and didn't see anything amiss with the fuel lines but when I started it there was a little geyser shooting gasoline out of a pinhole in the top of the gas pump, with the hot exhaust manifold getting sprinkled. I felt very lucky that day.

[Cherie320]

--- snip ---:

Slight Hijack... Wichita eh? I grew up there. Parents still live in Bel Aire. Sailed on Cheney at Ninnescah Sailing Assn. Good times.

Very interesting - Sister lives in Bel Aire - Sailed on Cheney once when we took everyone for a ride. Small world.

[Tucky]

My wife had a '76 Triumph Spitball when we met. I was constantly chasing gremlins. Lights, alternator, electric overdrive cutting in & out. The instruments worked, sometimes.

So at some point I presume you stopped chasing gremlins and started chasing the woman who became your wife . . . . . . . . . . .

They really are smarter than us and always have a master plan. Heck I'd chase this woman . . . . .

Gremlin.jpg

[SloopJonB]

Not a Lucas issue but one day I finished tuning my Datsun 1600 roadster and drove to a friend's house to visit. A few minutes after I arrived his little brother came in and said "Hey Joe your car is smoking". I went outside and sure enough it was, from the engine compartment. I opened the hood and looked in and saw that the copper drain tube from the carbs had rotated enough that it shorted against the battery cable to the starter and was glowing red. Yikes! I quickly grabbed a piece of wood and knocked it away. I am sure if it had gone on any longer my car would have burst into flames.

That probably still qualifies since the 1600 was such a blatant copy of the MGB.

[LarryHoward]

Insurance company has settled on a very fair value and number 1 son has realized a quality WRX is out of his budget and is actively looking for another Civic Si. He also knows he doesn't get to take a car back to campus until some undetermined date next semester so there is time to shop sensibly.

[BeauV]

The Si is a good outcome. Neat little cars.

[Jamie]

Good choice. You can also tune the bejesus out of those things too...