Okrasa Special

[cubist]

Wow! Stunning, detailed work as always...

[Pandora]

Excellent. Good to see progress.

If anyone fancies a similar (but much easier) project, Mine is still available......



Al

[Pandora]

Steve, I've found your next project: http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C671133

always happy to help!

Al

[steve wright]

well lots to update on. second shorrock bought so we can one day run a twin supercharged motor…




lots of time spent drilling holes to lighten the car…






Lots of time and effort poured into making the brakes work: competition linings, lightened components, and as much ventilation as the drums and backing plates will take…


Notice holes drilled between cooling fins to exit hot gases from between shoe, drum and backing plate. It took 8 hours to drill two drums...


A helping hand from Paul at PRS with GT scoops, the pattern taken from a genuine car. We will probably make scoops in ally from these so they can be bolted on (and off), more on why later. Also Carrera GT ally brake shoe splitter bars which are amazingly light compared with the steel standard versions…


And another helping hand from Paul who kindly supplied a secondhand set of 356A seat covers that suit the car perfectly…


There is real momentum to the car now thank goodness. Specification of the motor confirmed with Ian Clark - tiny but mighty.

Gearbox goes to Cogbox next month for lots of work and some special bits.

And the new coach builders (Mouland & Yates) visit next Saturday - a long story but ultimately the best choice. They did the Auto Union and Mercedes Silver Arrows so know what they're doing, are enthusiastic about the car, 'get' what we're trying to build, and have a slot late in the year. All good progress….

More in a few weeks.

[KS]

Yay! At last!

[steve wright]

gearbox drilled to allow for cooling of clutch…



And PRS also helped out supplying a second set of genuine 356 wheels. The BRM's will be used for the road, the 356 rims for racing. what was a bit of a surprise was to find a significant difference in the weight of one standard wheel to another. There was no rhyme or reason to it, it didn't depend on date, KPZ or Lemmerz, but there was 300 grams difference between lightest and heaviest. Paul kindly allowed me to choose a set within 5 grams of each other which were then all lightened exactly the same….

[Mike Smith]

Blimey

Did not know we had that many wheels - Paul is hiding them from me

[356sc]

Paul is hiding them from me

You just can't get the staff!!!!

[Gary71]

And the new coach builders (Mouland & Yates) visit next Saturday - a long story but ultimately the best choice. They did the Auto Union and Mercedes Silver Arrows so know what they're doing, are enthusiastic about the car, 'get' what we're trying to build, and have a slot late in the year. All good progress….

More in a few weeks.

Sounds good. Hopefully they will send you lots of photos for us fans of metalwork!

I know you are far more experienced in drum braked cars than most but doesn't drilling the shoes reduce their heat sink properties more than the marginal weight saving?

[sisu]

As you are going on a diet and you will just use a cable to open the doors from the inside.

But for the exterior door handles you just need a button to push and a finger pull.
I was thinking you could use either the 1/4 window/Safari window latch

0.066 grams

The other option could be using a VW Beetle glovebox latch. This even comes with keys so you can lock it.

[Pandora]

Good show! always good to hear of progress

Al

[steve wright]

Sisu, have nos bus rear door locks with lovely patina for just that purpose, although debating whether to have any door handles at all and just reach in window slider!

[steve wright]

Hi Gary, it's a good point but one beyond my technical knowledge.... The key thing we've learned about racing with drum brakes is the key is ventilation. I don't know what incremental advantage was gained from reducing unsprung weight vs. loss from reduced heat sink. It was more a case of heavy metal component in one hand and drill press in another presenting to much of a temptation!!!

[Gary71]

I guess you have to keep moving in your workshop to avoid having holes drilled in!

Maybe some temp tabs (or even thermocouples and a data logger ) would be interesting for research? Although probably heavier than all the holes you drilled.

[steve wright]

Hi Gary, yes we run temperature tabs on the 356, and took the peak temp from 180 degrees to 85 with ventilation changes, which is how we knew venting the drums properly worked. We'll do the same thing on the Special. Yes a man with a drill press and a race car is very much like a man with a chainsaw in a forest, dangerous to the surroundings!