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A fully trimmed Sprint with 4 doors is only 1050 kg, a standard 2 door Tolly is 890kg, My Vauxhall engine with its ally head and tiny, ally cased 5 speed box is nearly 50kg lighter than a Sprints unit with that massive, heavy o/d box, then remove bumpers, spare wheel, as much trim as possible and add GRP front wings and front panel and Bob's you're uncle! Plastic windows next! As Colin Chapman famously said, "to go faster, add lightness!" Steve Mmmm. My 2 door is 850kgs. GRP front wings, valance and bonnet. No spare wheel. No rear seat. Lightweight front seats. Self made doorcards from correx. No sound deadening. Lexan windows all round. etc. etc. I have kept my bumpers on though. So, if yours is 760kgs, and mine is 850kgs - your engine and box are 90kgs lighter than the Sprint. Maybe there are some inaccuracies between weighbridges. I must admit, I was hoping mine was lighter than it actually weighed in at. By the way, Plastics 4 performance can do you 2 door plastic windows as they kept measurements for mine. Mine had the big bumpers, perhaps 15-20kg there, and was weighed on the council weighbridge in Kidderminster, without me in it and the tank was nearly empty! I'm the best part of 80kg maybe I should shed a few pounds too! It never bothered my hero Gerry Marshall though! Nice tip for the windows, Thanks! But where did you get the plastic bonnet? Steve
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Sept 30, 2013 22:22:39 GMT
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due to it being on a strict diet, it tips the scales at only 760kg so its pretty quick already! Wow, how did you drop so much weight!? I know the sprint engine and o/d box are heavy which may account for much of the difference. What other lightening have you done? A fully trimmed Sprint with 4 doors is only 1050 kg, a standard 2 door Tolly is 890kg, My Vauxhall engine with its ally head and tiny, ally cased 5 speed box is nearly 50kg lighter than a Sprints unit with that massive, heavy o/d box, then remove bumpers, spare wheel, as much trim as possible and add GRP front wings and front panel and Bob's you're uncle! Plastic windows next! As Colin Chapman famously said, "to go faster, add lightness!" Steve
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Sept 30, 2013 21:57:35 GMT
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Dolomite front wings!!!!
Steve
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Sept 29, 2013 18:06:51 GMT
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I've got a T plate 306 TD 3 door high-ish miles but starts and runs superb complete except for headlights, converted to 1 wire pump operation clean dry engine, recent timing belt, rad and clutch cable, nice seats, alloy wheels (tyres u/s) reason for sale, MOT ran out and rear beam and tyres are fubar £175 ovno car is in Highley Shropshire (12 miles from Kidderminster) I've looked after this car for the last 2 owners (same family) for about the last 4 years and took it in PX a couple of weeks ago.Give me a bell on 07585 977030 if interested. Can post some pics if you'd like, but not till tomorrow night.
Steve
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Sept 29, 2013 16:10:41 GMT
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No pics I'm afraid since it was too long ago, but I had a 61 Galaxy 500 4Door with a pro comp 390 V8 back in the 70s! 450 bhp and drum brakes was not a happy combo but there was nothing to touch it locally so long as there were no corners involved! I absolutely adored this car, despite its little foibles (or because of them) but had to move it on when gas went through £1 a gallon since it was my daily driver and the fuel bills were soaking up my entire wage packet! 3-4mpg was not uncommon when using it hard and double figures required inhuman amounts of restraint!
Steve
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Sept 29, 2013 15:52:16 GMT
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This is my Pocket Rocket, a Toledo 2dr with a Carlton 8v 2ltr! its currently only about 125 bhp (though this is about to change) but due to it being on a strict diet, it tips the scales at only 760kg so its pretty quick already! Overlowering on these is not really a good idea, as has been said the front subframe, exhaust and sump all suffer. MGF wheels fit the standard PCD so anything that fits an F is good on a Dolly! The REALLY good things about these underrated cars are the prices, this one cost me £200 in 2009 and I drove it home! The other thing is the suspension design, double wishbone and coilovers at the front and 4link and coilovers at the rear, all the hard work has already been done for you! Steve
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Sept 19, 2013 21:06:04 GMT
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518 When you watch the co compare advert and think the Montego at the end would make a great project. Thats Confused.com not Go Compare! You're a petrolhead when you know the difference without even thinking about it! Steve
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Sept 12, 2013 19:50:59 GMT
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don't the convertibles have different chassis? I don't think you can just unbolt the roof or it gets all wobbly, could be mistaken its been a LONG time since heralds were daily drivers. I had a vitesse, I think they may be more of a cause of the scary handling stories than the heralds, stupid yoof in worn out car with heavy 6 pot at the front equals brown trousers quite often when it rained. The Chassis is exactly the same between the saloon and ragtop, the CV body is a bit better braced to make up for the missing roof and there are secondary catches on the doors to stop them flying open on bends (I'm not kidding, take the roof off a saloon and try some spirited cornering!) Genuine convertibles have CV on the back end of the commision number, It is quite possible to bolt the back tub from a convertible onto a saloon chassis and make an ersatz car, if done well, only the comm number will give it away. (its not quite that easy but almost) Unbolting the roof from a saloon is possible but not advisable. Plus the roof is too big to carry around with you in case it rains! Steve
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Sept 8, 2013 21:54:14 GMT
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Is this manual or auto?
Cheers, Steve
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Sept 5, 2013 20:46:08 GMT
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Also the 4 litre V8 is all ally so its probably lighter than a 6. Its quite small once you get all the unnecessary curse word off it too! And it sounds better - just!
Steve
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Sept 5, 2013 20:38:30 GMT
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Iso for me! I've been in love with them since I was 12 and built a slot racer of one!
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Aug 31, 2013 20:37:23 GMT
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513 Your family and friends buy you parts for your project for Christmas and birthday presents!
Steve
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Aug 29, 2013 20:26:47 GMT
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A guy at the top of my road has a 92 Cressida which I think was imported from South Africa and I've seen a couple of 70s ones here but not recently.
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Aug 26, 2013 21:45:00 GMT
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If you wanna make a start, I have a pretty good Carlton auto shell, still MOTd till january or thereabouts 1989 so no cat test to worry about, Interior in good nick and lousy (but VERY 80s)colour, exterior very little rot and light gold. I want to keep the engine, autobox, propshaft and engine/trans looms, all else is yours for £150 with MOT and V5. Interested? I'm also breaking a 2001 Omega 2.2 auto so bigger brakes available too.
Steve
Edit, Mot is till 31/05/2014, the car has done only about 200 miles since it was done!
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2013 18:15:27 GMT by carledo
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Aug 26, 2013 21:10:54 GMT
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A few feet of .8mm mig wire is amazingly useful, it ties up dangly exhausts and becomes a throttle or bonnet release cable and dozens of other uses!
Steve
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Aug 25, 2013 19:36:28 GMT
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205/50/15 is standard wear on the back of an MGF so should be cheap and plentiful. Just a thought!
Steve
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Aug 25, 2013 19:25:24 GMT
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There's also a half formed plan to pull out the 4 banger and drop in a 3.0 quad cam Vauxhall V6 but that depends on the twin curses of time and moolah! Steve Make this happen! I've seen this car a couple of times, and on the TDC forum - it's a great conversion you've done and I bet it's a damn sight livelier than most other Toledo's Welcome to RR as well! On the face of it, i've done the hard work already, and yes it is pretty quick now, the V6 will bolt up to the current gearbox and may well mate to the current engine mounts, the only problem I can foresee is a slight (read extreme) lack of space for the o/s downpipe. I guess, seeing as I have most of the bits to uprate the existing lump already, I'll do that over the winter and see if it satisfies "the need" next year. If not then........Omegas are dirt cheap at the moment! Steve
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Aug 24, 2013 19:51:21 GMT
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And this is the other stuff, the Sprint project, as bought The 16v GLS Cav and the 91 2.0GL auto 8v Steve
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Aug 24, 2013 19:40:09 GMT
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PS I know 170 bhp is not a lot around here but the little digger only weighs 760kg (without me in it lol) so power to weight ratio is "adequate" even now! There's also a half formed plan to pull out the 4 banger and drop in a 3.0 quad cam Vauxhall V6 but that depends on the twin curses of time and moolah!
Steve
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Aug 24, 2013 19:26:18 GMT
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So hopefully this is going to work! As promised, the oily bits The engine is, at the moment, bog standard Carlton 2.0 8v and 115bhp +or- a bit and came from a 60k 89 Carlton that I broke about 10 or 11 years ago, gearbox is Omega with custom shortshift, a bespoke prop and Dolly Sprint axle with 3.45 gears. Rad is Saab 9-3, header bottle, Volvo 240 and MGF 15" rims. She sits on Gaz ASP coilovers all round and has Sprint AR bars at both ends. The car was built for drag racing (best time so far, a slightly disappointing 16.78 at 79.4 MPH) so the brakes are only standard Dolly Sprint though it has Goodridge hoses and Greenstuff pads the brakes proved inadequate for a trackday at Prodrive a few weeks ago, 3 hot laps and she was getting very squirelly and the pedal was getting rather long. Since I spent most of last winter getting the body right with new sills, n/s doorskin, bootlid, inner and outer front panel and front wings (the OFP and wings in GRP from the Brilliant Dolomite O/C) plus a respray, this winters project is a quest for more horses, plans include a Courtenaysport head, fast road cam, adjustable fuel pressure reg, bigger injectors and a remap to combat a serious power drop at over 4.5k revs, not that it WON'T rev, it just loses interest at 4.5k ATM. I've fitted a much better exhaust, a linelock and a load of polybushes in the suspension since clocking that 16.78 and I'm hoping for 160-170 bhp and a 14 next year! Steve
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