In 1928, Northern Ireland hosted the first Ards TT, a road race around the towns of Comber, Newtownards and Dundonald. In 1929, Gordon England designed and built a handful of aerodynamic bodied Austin 7 2-seaters to compete in the race, which did well. In late 1930, Austin made a few of these for the road due to heavy demand. In 1930, they produced between 20 to 50 of them, and Gordon England made another handful for the public. In 1931, they made another few hundred, and rounded it off with another handful in 1932 before changing to a different body design for the sports cars which were made in far greater numbers.
The Ulster is one of the most desirable models, and with something between 350-500 of them made, an original one is a rare commodity. That said, there are about 2500 currently in existence. Most are fakes...
Mine is not. Mine is one of those 50 Austin factory built versions from late 1930. Possibly one of the last; it was registered 1/1/31.
I race it as hard as I dare.
I've mentioned it before on here:
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/59305/drive-year-old-retro-vat
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/84955/retro-abuse
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/126592/ulster-ni-vintage-championship-2012
This is the build thread, as I've decided to rebody it this winter coming. The original body was replaced in a restoration in 1984, and this one is tired out (30 years old when it gets pulled off).
Recently, as in the last two months, due to continuing running problems, caused by a whole host of worn out components and years and years of bodges, my dad and I really stuck into it and brought it back to basics.
I ripped out the entire wiring loom, which was really, really bad. It's now just running a starter wire, ignition switch wire, coil wire, and earth lead. That's it. No lights, no gauges. Replaced the engine nose-cone, dynamo gear pack, and fitted an electronic dizzy to do away with the problematic points system. Removed the regulator and charging system, and all the unnecessary bodywork pieces.
Hard as it is with an unknown profile racing cam in there, and no timing light to suit it, my dad got it roughly there and I tuned it in so that idle has gone up from 800 to about 1300rpm. A lot of the running probs we've had can be traced to the fact that we didn;t know there was a racing cam in there, previous owner neglected to share that at the time of sale (august 2000!). It hasn't ran right since early 2004. I even took it to a specialist last year who charged a significant sum of money, and it idled smoothly and ran nice but ended up with no top end - not good for racing.
The other major nuisance is the carb. I am going to replace it, or send it to Berlin (the company that owns SU) for a complete overhaul. But for now, despite the leaky carb, it runs, and runs fast. Finally after a long time of dodgy running, in June 2013 I entered and completed an autotest event. Plenty of people were surprised how fast it was going - some of the times on the twistier circuits were among the quickest. The larger cars had the legs on the longer courses though.
As you can see, well stripped down. In essence, preparing early for this winter.
There will be a lot of work done, and if I have my way, another one will join it if I can find a chassis for the old body when it comes off. Just thought the board might have some interest in seeing the only retro I actually do any work to any more...
The Ulster is one of the most desirable models, and with something between 350-500 of them made, an original one is a rare commodity. That said, there are about 2500 currently in existence. Most are fakes...
Mine is not. Mine is one of those 50 Austin factory built versions from late 1930. Possibly one of the last; it was registered 1/1/31.
I race it as hard as I dare.
I've mentioned it before on here:
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/59305/drive-year-old-retro-vat
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/84955/retro-abuse
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/126592/ulster-ni-vintage-championship-2012
This is the build thread, as I've decided to rebody it this winter coming. The original body was replaced in a restoration in 1984, and this one is tired out (30 years old when it gets pulled off).
Recently, as in the last two months, due to continuing running problems, caused by a whole host of worn out components and years and years of bodges, my dad and I really stuck into it and brought it back to basics.
I ripped out the entire wiring loom, which was really, really bad. It's now just running a starter wire, ignition switch wire, coil wire, and earth lead. That's it. No lights, no gauges. Replaced the engine nose-cone, dynamo gear pack, and fitted an electronic dizzy to do away with the problematic points system. Removed the regulator and charging system, and all the unnecessary bodywork pieces.
Hard as it is with an unknown profile racing cam in there, and no timing light to suit it, my dad got it roughly there and I tuned it in so that idle has gone up from 800 to about 1300rpm. A lot of the running probs we've had can be traced to the fact that we didn;t know there was a racing cam in there, previous owner neglected to share that at the time of sale (august 2000!). It hasn't ran right since early 2004. I even took it to a specialist last year who charged a significant sum of money, and it idled smoothly and ran nice but ended up with no top end - not good for racing.
The other major nuisance is the carb. I am going to replace it, or send it to Berlin (the company that owns SU) for a complete overhaul. But for now, despite the leaky carb, it runs, and runs fast. Finally after a long time of dodgy running, in June 2013 I entered and completed an autotest event. Plenty of people were surprised how fast it was going - some of the times on the twistier circuits were among the quickest. The larger cars had the legs on the longer courses though.
As you can see, well stripped down. In essence, preparing early for this winter.
There will be a lot of work done, and if I have my way, another one will join it if I can find a chassis for the old body when it comes off. Just thought the board might have some interest in seeing the only retro I actually do any work to any more...