Avenger Tiger - Hillclimb and Sprint Car

OPK struggled a bit in the heat but otherwise went really well.

From the day i have figured some changes that need to be made in no particular order:

Brakes - these faded very quickly and left me braking 50m earlier than Phil for example. Currently these are M16 calipers and Lotus discs with M1144 pads for Sprint/Hillclimb use. I have 260mm vented discs with Princess calipers and M1144 pads for S/HC and Red Stuff pads for track use that i shall now fit.

Diff - I use a Quaiff ATB in the Tiger and its always been a bit loose but on the track it acted like an open diff! I used to use a version of this diff in the Tomcat but that was an American one and was much tighter. I have a Salisbury type plate diff to fit, i am not sure of the ramp angles but it was in a track car so a quick refurb and in it will go. To be honest i was really disapointed by the Quaiff, it meant i was unable to keep up with others as i pulled out of the corners and i had to take some interesting lines to stop the inside wheel spinning up! I will actually fit the axle its in because that has ARB mounts welded on and i might fit the rear ARB i have.

Diff Ratio - i run a 4.4 at present and i got the feeling that it could of done with being lower still. It really does not like getting off the line and for S/HC that is important (well all motor sport really!!). A may investigate a 4.7 or 5.3 as they are now being re-manufactured.

Engine - Far far exceeded my expectations, i just could not get a feel for it on the road. But it went very well on the track, if i had been able to stop the inner wheel spinning another certain Yellow Avenger may not have passed me - except he would of re-passed under braking!!!!! Unfortunately i had a hose go and the head gasket went. Upon stripping the engine down i found a core plug at the back of the engine had gone to and had been leaking. The bottom end was purchased complete as an interim manner and although it had been rebuilt and painted the core plugs had not been changed. So the block is now at SRE for a small skim to raise up the CR from its low 10.5:1 to 11.8:1 and new core plugs as well. I can then get on and build my new engine...........

Suspension - worked very well maybe could do with being slightly lower by 15mm but the rear geometry is already pointing up so a need to research that a bit.

Seat - Lower it as i felt a bit high. A may even fit a better passenger seat.

I should get the block back after the Le Man - SRE are all off to watch it - and then a fast rebuild ready for the 4th of july.......

I still have not had my ECU back either which is begining to be very frustrating.

Started putting the block back together yesterday evening.

First thing i noticed was the crank timing gear was on backwards! It took a bit of pulling off but its on the right way now. The person who built this block up before i bought it must have been in a hurry......................

And one of the rings fell apart whilst cleaning the pistons - i have a spare - but it just shattered an edge off. That maybe a consequence of the boil up in France.

Should have the bottom all back together this evening.

6 Hour round trip in the car to National Day.

That should be the engine run in!

It seems a bit more cammy now with the higher CR but i should sort some of that out when the car goes back on the rolling road. Although twice on the journey i managed to bog the engine and it would not rev up it just got its self into a real pickle, which was a bit embarrassing on the M40/A34 junction in the normal traffic!

Can't wait to re-fit the ECU and get the engine running even sweeter. I still have not had it back from the UK supplier - he is waiting for a part. I should have sent it to the US supplier as it would be back in and running now!

Welcome to August 2009!!!!


Holiday and work have conspired to put a stop on my working on the cars until this evening!

I fitted the new disc set up to the Tiger to check all was going to fit.

The new disc which is based on the common PSA group disc and fitted to the 405TD/BX GTI/206 GTI is the same disc used in Retro Cars big brake set up. I am not sure what Ian did to fit these discs with the Outlaw caliper but i seem to remember that only the spigot hole was turned out and of course the mounting bolt holes.



Shown below is the new disc next to the old AP disc and a standard Lotus disc. The new disc i have turned down to 260mm but will still fit just at 266mm in the Princess caliper.







Here is the disc again compared to the standard Lotus set up. Note the new lightweight hubs! These have been machined so the new disc fits straight on and the caliper does not need spacing out off of the strut. As can be seen here:






Finally a shot of the set up on the car. This set up clears all my wheels with out using spacers. I have been asked why i used the Princess caliper as its heavy old piece of kit. Well i already had them and they were refurbed by me last year so much cheaper than buying some new ones! Also i know they fit and i have also have some Range Rover 3.9 EFI front calipers which are exaxtly the same size but just have bigger pistons, these are fitted with stainless pistons as well. Maybe i will fit these one day just to see what happens, but i will definitely need to change to the LR110 MC if i do!!!!!





The hubs were made by a guy over near Wells who runs a Sunbeam rally car and makes them as a side line from his normal work. Not sure where the studs come from but i need to modify my Minilite wheel nuts to fit these extra long studs.

Will have the ECU in my hands for September so i am looking forward to getting the car running on mapped ignition again.

Fitted the new discs and calipers onto the car properly today and made up some extra brake pipes so that the calipers have twin feeds.

Fitted a 2.2 quick rack and rack brace along with a poly steering donut. i did have a HD rubber one but that has lasted less than a year bfore breaking up . Thats the front done now i just need to fit the wheels and track it up. The new wheel studs are considerable longer than the old ones and none of my closed ended wheel nuts now fit. However, an afternoon and my dads lathe should see them all become open ended nuts and fitting again....

Axle is out having a salisbury plate diff fitted rather than the ATB Non LSD Quaiffe door stop it did have fitted. The axle came out really quickly as all the bolts holding it in were loose. I drove the car to the National but it did not seem to like the motorway driving!!!!!

I now have fitted the ARB to rear of the Tiger. This is the one i took off of my Lotus - which is much nicer on the road now due to the installation on the Lotus!




The ARB is quite small diameter but is a direct copy of the PTS supplied kit. It is laid out approxiately how will be under the car.

Getting the bar in so it runs parallel with the suspension arms was a little difficult.

This is where it was mounted first




But unfortunately this resulted in the bar angle being too great in suspension droop. So i moved it to this position






The mounting position is 40mm lower than my original position. The rear floor on the Avenger is different to the Sunbeam and thus the mounting is very different. on the Sunbeam the mountings are further outboard but of a similar height but at a more vertical angle due to the floor angles.

A plate is welded on the inside to spread the loads and again due to the angle of the Avenger floor this proved a little troublesomewhich included thin Avenger floor and blown holes. I needed to plate the floor to be able to plate the floor if you see what i mean!!!!

Once in i moved the axle over its entire range and found that the bar interfered with the damper at the top of the axle movement and the drop link mount on the bar interfered with the chassis next to the damper mount. If left every time the axle hit a bump it would cause the movement to stop. I then checked the Lotus to see why this had not been happening on it. But on careful inspection tell tale marks - some big - were found on the Lotus. The ARB had been hitting the damper/chassis area. No wonder the Lotus was a rubbish ride (along with siezed rose joints on the drop links). It shows that even proffessional installers do not always check what will happen with clearances. Maybe i am more aware of axle/chassis interfaces after racing with 12"-14" suspension travel!!!!

I had to remove 20mm off the end of the bar and remove part of the damper mount/chassis strengthening plate to provide clearance. I may add a cross brace for the damper mounts when i can find some one who can bend up some tube for me.






Here the axle is at normal working height and shows the ARB angle





That means the back axle is finished and sorted, although i am just waiting for the new rose joints to turn up as the existing ones are seized.

The new front hubs had been suplied with a much longer stud than the standard stud. These turned out to be Subaru Impreza competition versions.





I have bought another 8 to fit to the rear axle so that i am the same all round. As you can see they are much longer at 63mm. New open wheel nuts are required and the only problem i have is making a new conversion piece for my Minilite Sports so that i can use the same nuts on all my wheels - Amil, Minilite Sport, Compemotive MO.

Once the car is on its wheels i shall trun back to the ECU - when it arrives that is! I need to wire in the water temp and air temp sensors and i am good to go. Strictly speaking i do not need these two for just ignition but i will when injected.

Fitted the new wheels studs to one half shaft yesterday but had a problem with the other. The first one i drill to 14.3mm (9/16") which was the size of hole detailed by the supplier.

Although, the studs needed pushing in it soon became apparent that the hole was too big as the studs wobbled around and i could push them back out by hand...........

So i then tried a 14mm hole and that works perfectly hence only having one half shaft finished. So with one half shaft now unusable I had to use one of my two spare half shafts but i did not have time to fit a new bearing hence not being able to fit it!

A lesson for me in checking what a supplier says before carrying on i think!!

If any one else sprints and hillclimbs the new regs for 2010 allow for 1B (Yoko 048R's etc) tyres in Road Going Saloons in all championships not just the South West which is good news. Before apart from the South West tyres from 1A had to be used which in 13" provided limited chance for a grippy tyre.

Nov 3 2009:


The ECU has arrived back at home. So as soon as i get back i shall be having a play.

Day off again so spent it in the garage!

I checked the timing on the cam and changed it a little. Tracked the front steering.

Time to play with the ECU.....

Having checked it was talking on Friday i went through the tuning software to check all was as it should be. The old software in the ECU was MS2 which i had big problems trying to get to work in Alpha-N mode. It turned out that Alpha-N mode on MS2 was experimental and needed an ini file change and some other paly arounds. Soi when the ECU was repaired i loaded MSExtra, this software (Firmare) i had used before on the Bowler but it has been updated since then so i was alittle worried about it.

I need not have been worried, i spent 30 mins checking the settings in Tuner Studio and fired up the car with the ECU working in shadow mode again and it all seemed fine. Next i hooked up the coil pack with leads and plugs, fitted the coil pack fuse and again fired up the engine. Some very big sparks from the coil pack driven plugs flying around the wing meant it seemed to be working. i checked the timing of the coil pack againts the engine and what the ECU thought it should be. There is a handy wizard in TS that allows the trigger wheel offset angle to be adjusted in software to make up for any mechanical misalignment on the trigger wheel i.e. the teeth not lining up with the VR sensor at TDC. With 10degrees offset put in - thats one tooth on a 36-1 wheel - it all lined up so i thought i might as well try it!

With the coil pack hung off the strut brace and the normal Ford plug leads used the car started up and ran under MS control!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

I need to mount the coil properly and sort out why the o2 sensor is not working as i am not getting any error messages from the controller and then its off to the rolling road to set it up.........


Although that wont be till Xmas time as i am away again now till the week before.