KS's hillclimbing odyssey

[70sThrowback]

i'd always be worried about the longevity of a typeIV engine with high compressions.

[KS]

Well, it's been a while since an update, so here goes.... Er, here goes... Hello? Hello? Oh...

Sadly the car hasn't really progressed since the last report. Graham's been ill (in hospital in fact) and other customers' work has had to take precedence, meaning the engine remains as a short block right now. The first event is next weekend at Wiscombe and Graham and his wife Wendy are off on a much-needed (and deserved) holiday on Wednesday, so there's no chance of the 914 being ready.

However, I shall go to the ball, as Adrian Crawford has kindly offered to loan me his 911SC rally car for the 24th April at Wiscombe, after which we'll do a double drive at Werrington the following weekend. The car's fully rally-prepped and should be fun to drive. In between the two meetings, the current road-ratio gearbox is being swapped with a short-ratio box ready for a rally Adrian's competing in the weekend after Werrington.



I'm also entered for the '500 Club' event at Wiscombe on 7th May, but as Adrian's playing elsewhere, it's possible I'll be driving Richard Williams' ex-Boxster Cup race car. That would be interesting as a) it's road legal but fully race prepped, b) it's a Boxster (a car I've never really pushed hard) and c) it's right-hand drive – I've never driven a RHD car up Wiscombe so sighting might be 'interesting'.



Hopefully by the following weekend when I have two days at Wiscombe (I might as well move there at this rate) I might – just might – have my car back in one piece. If not I can see myself knocking on somebody's door and begging for some keys...

Now, I just have to practice doing up the clasps on my newly-acquired HANS device.

[Gary71]

Shame about your engine, but the plan B options are pretty good!

[rhd racer]

Shame about your car Keith, but think you will enjoy the stand in drives. The HANS does complicate things, and changes the order of prep do to reduced mobility and vision. My order of events is;

Wriggle into car
HANS in place on shoulders
Do belts up
Gloves onto lap
Helmet on
Steering wheel on
HANS straps
Gloves

Some people do the full get dressed outside the car thing, but that makes my entry to the car so clumsy I need the helmet to stop me knocking myself out! And then I can’t see the straps to do them up anyway!

Good luck in the events, I have a couple more weeks to wait yet, but have also been busy…..

[911hillclimber]

Sounds really good, 914 v 987, many similarities, many differences.

When I first started this crazy game in the LHD 911 all was well. The conversion to RHD made no difference to seeing the track.
Wiscombe is a nice part of the world....

As to Hanns clips and the sequence to get all fitted-up, practice the whole lot several times before hand.
Much harder in a closed car.
The orientation of the clip is very fine and can be frustratng.

My take in the open Lola is to fit the hans to the helmet (wife's job)
Get in the car, glasses off, helmet/hans on.
Glasses threaded in, seat belts on/over hans, pull down tight.
Settle in/wriggle/get comfortable. Towards the start line pull the shoulder straps tighter.

Do a PB.

[Hugo 356]

Hopefully Graham makes a speedy recovery

Will you rein in the borrowed cars a tenth or 2 or push them as you would your own? (Assuming you're not going to rag them like hire cars )

[KS]

Interesting point - there's always the 'what if' in the back of your mind. However, when I drag race my friend's VW in California, my aim is to better his times...

[rhd racer]

I meant to add, the HANS posts on the helmet can move orientation. The clips only go on one way, so you can set that to be whatever is easiest - horizontal plane, 45 degrees, whatever feels best. If you find what feels most normal, take the helmet off, clip it half way on so you can change the orientation of the flats to your favoured position. As long as you don’t inadvertently move them in the heat of a late call to the line, they will be in the same place every time.

I have enjoyed sharing cars over the years and am usually at a comfortable 90%. However, in my first season in David Hilton’s 911E I was at 110%, on a ‘you bend it, you mend it basis’. I won 3 that year inc a never beaten class record at Longleat, and he won 3. A fair result for all, and the car survived in one piece.

I have also crashed my late friends 911 in his memorial event, driving at 70% and getting caught out by a flat spotted tyre and then damp grass. I was devastated, but not doing anything silly - just bad luck. I still look back at it now full of regret but the family are so generous they laugh about it still. I think it might have been better to be trying harder and focusing more but we will never know. You just have to do what is comfortable in the circumstances, as some owners want you to give it the full beans and drive as intended.

[KS]

Adrian tells me nothing less than a class win - I’ll be happy with 7th in class.*

* There are 7 entries in the rally car class!

[BILLY BEAN]

Adrian tells me nothing less than a class win - I’ll be happy with 7th in class.*

* There are 7 entries in the rally car class!

Smart. Under promise then over deliver. Good luck.

[911hillclimber]

I think THAT Alfa 4C is in your class again?
I have a Pilbeam MP92 in my class/Championship with a 7.3 litre Big Block, driven by father/son who know what they are doing....

My Prescott event is looking very iffy due to injuries!

[KS]

It is… Alfa 4C and Yaris GR are the way to go, if you like that kind of thing.

[KS]

Some progress today at Graham's end before he heads off on hols... Inlet ports/manifolds taking shape:



And in the meantime, new goodies keep arriving...

[KS]

Well, been a while (and two events, plus engine/car work) since the last update. A lot has happened.

After Adrian Crawford kindly offered to loan me his rally-prepped 911SC for the first Wiscombe event, I collected the car, drove it home and parked it outside chez Seume where I familiarised myself with everything, checked I could get in and out with the Hans device fitted, added plenty of padding to the seat back (before jwhillracer steps in, yes, I'm shorter than Adrian...) and fitted the GoPro. It's a Hero 7 Black, which I'm very impressed with, and which is far better than my older Hero 3. One thing, I can control it from my iPhone, which makes life very easy.

There were seven cars in my class (Rally Cars), the quickest of which were full-on Escort screamers with sequential flat-shift boxes. A far cry from a slightly clunky 915 with a Wevo shifter. All went OK on the first practice run - slow but a familiarisation session in effect. An unimpressive 54.82 was not the slowest in class, so I was happy. The next run, I managed to cut that down to 51.12 – the quickest I'd ever been up Wiscombe, and fourth in class. But then it went wrong. I missed the shift from second to third going up Castle Straight and, well, let's just say it didn't end well. Not badly badly, but not well. End of play. Adrian was very good about it and sent up Josh, his ever so enthusiastic mechanic to recover me. I was embarrassed beyond belief, but Adrian was insistent that we double-drove the car at Werrington the following weekend. In between, the crew at Williams-Crawford dropped the motor, sorted the maladies and swapped the gearbox for a shorter-ratio one in readiness for a couple of events later in the month.

Incidentally, with ten minutes before the first run, I realised I hadn't fitted the timing strut – and there wasn't one to be found in the car. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, a borrowed strut and plenty of blue duct tape, I made it to the line OK...



This is the 51.12 run - very messy and a sloppy change going down into second (or rather not, as the case may be) at Martini must have cost me.

https://youtu.be/TFa6FeMbAXA

So, Werrington Park a week later. Was uneasy about it at first, but Adrian (and business partner Richard Williams) soon put me at ease. But boy I'd forgotten how narrow parts of Werrington are compared to Wiscombe. The 911 felt ten feet wide at times. I wasn't fast - far slower than the very experienced Adrian – but it restored my confidence and even though I was last in class (well, somebody has to be), I (and the car) survived to live another day. The main thing is I was back in the seat and anxious to get my own car going again. But more of that in a moment.



My final run. My drag racing experience came in handy as my 64ft times were the quickest in class...

https://youtu.be/pWqJwchDRt0

So, car (and drivers) all in one piece. Now back to the workshop for me, and a single-venue rally and a French hillclimb for Adrian in the 911...

[KS]

Meanwhile, back in the workshop... While Graham Rawlings was away on his much-deserved hols in the American deep south (where he looked up just about every blues-related museum and POI going), he gave me the keys to his workshop so I could get on with 'stuff'. For somebody with no garage of his own, it was heaven!



On his return, Graham got stuck into the engine while I cracked on with wiring. At first, the thought of wiring the DTA ECU was daunting, but once I got into it, it wasn't/isn't so bad... Having the engine lid and rear boot lid removed helps a lot as you can clamber in and out of the empty engine bay so easily.



After completing the porting, Graham had a local contact do a smart three-angle valve job on the heads. Graham then set up valve spring pressures and the long block is now well on its way to completion. With the valvetrain geometry sorted, pushrods are being cut to length as we speak and, hopefully, next week should see the engine ready to reinstall. Cannot wait!

The only PITA moment was fitting the Dubshop crank trigger set-up. The bracket was great except it placed the Hall sensor too far from the trigger wheel - like about 4mm. No amount of the built-in adjustment helped, so the only course of action was to 'persuade' the bracket to place the sensor within a millimetre of the trigger wheel. In Graham's experience, 90 per cent of poor starting or poor running problems on cars fitted with aftermarket trigger wheel systems can be traced to incorrectly set sensor gaps – usually far too wide. Anyway, the bearded one is happy now, which means I am, too!