paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Redrilling the cross-member does give you a bit of bumpsteer though as it changes the relationship with the steering arms, it's better to get adjustable/modified TCAs but they are more money so maybe you can live with it.
I think the anglia 1200 super box is different to the 997 one (stronger and synchro on first IIRC) they do recommend going for that one - it's the same as the Mk1 Tina. Do you know which yours is?
I've got a 1500 tina box you can have for nowt if it'll help, it's in South London.
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
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Posts: 216
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Ami vans are SUPER cool! It wasn't green was it? My mate own a green one with a four pot in it. It's low, loud and uber cool. Nope, I think it was a mixture of white, red and beige as they were the colours of the good panels he'd collected for it I'd love to see pics of your mate's car, sounds great
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Dad also has a '53 Traction Avant which is now a usable 12v conversion and will shortly be returning to france as its been here since 1978, not sure how to get it ther though, I said take it slow and leisurely and get there in 2 weeks using only the old roads for that nostalgia effect, sensiblity says drive in on and off the ferry, then rail it on sncf to the nearest station and drive the shortest route Don't need to go too leisurely, should cruise happily at 60-65 if it's got a strong lump. Mine used to go a bit quicker than that with a very lightened flywheel and nearly quarter of an inch off the cylinder head :-) We built a rally car as well with a four-speed, twin SUs, skimmed, ported head, CV driveshafts etc and that would do 75 all day long. Not bad for a Thirties design
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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my old boss used to have an Ami VAN which was so cool, I don't know if he still has it, was sitting in the back of the workshop for ages (I was working at a Traction Avant restoration place). I can't even find a pic on Google, but apparently they are really pretty rare.
Those H vans are tops - the mad thing is that you could still buy them new until something ridiculous like 1985 (off the top of my head)
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Just spotted this is on in ten minutes: "Junkyard to Finishline In 2001, Mike Anderson stepped away from his daily life in Nevada to realise the dream of a lifetime. He and his dedicated team of classic car enthusiasts scoured junkyards and found a 1954 Mercury. After restoring it to racing glory with hours of loving care and elbow grease, he drives the gruelling LaCarrera Panamericana, the famous Mexican road race. A feat of endurance for man and machine alike, it runs from the wild highlands of the Guatemalan border north to Nuevo Laredo, Texas." Dunno if it'll be any good but the Carrera Panamericana normally has some awesome cars - 200mph Studebakers anyone?
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 31, 2008 22:13:54 GMT
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It was something that I tried to do for years and got nowhere, and then suddenly was doing it on my favourite mag, so I can't really offer much advice, but a couple of points:
1. don't think it's all fixing your car and going to shows and writing brilliant features - there's also a lot of desperately chasing pictures or looking for something interesting that's happened at the annual Fotherington-on-the-Wold Austin Ambassador jamboree or arguing with the ad team about why you won't put some snake oil 'fix your pistons with jam' product on the new products page
2. don't arrive and tell everyone why you think their magazine is curse word - that's what I used to do because I thought I knew better. Then when I had been there for a while and someone on work experience turned up and did the same thing I thought 'you arrogant git, don't you realise that your idea is rubbish because blah blah blah' ;D
3. Be aware that the whole forums/user-generated content/web 2.0 thing has made a lot of publishers think they can make magazines without paying anyone. No matter how much you like cars, if you are putting enough effort and time in to write great features or take really good pics, it is work and should be treated and paid for as work.
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 30, 2008 12:16:17 GMT
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My pa let me tool around in some swift cars when I was a youth and I'm a better driver for it. Laurel. Roundabout. That's all I'm saying...
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 30, 2008 17:51:18 GMT
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'Vroom vroom' is staggeringly bad. I have no idea what the hell they were thinking at any point of making that show. It's not just a waste of the odd old car, it's a waste of the oxygen the presenters and production team are breathing. So we can sum up UK car TV so far as: 1. Top Gear - generally entertaining, sometimes brilliant, but hates old cars and is working very hard to convince 300 million people that they're only good for smashing to bits. 2. Fifth Gear - too much like a cheapskate Top Gear a lot of the time, but getting a lot better now they've binned the football berk and featuring retro content whenever Jonny Smith's on it. 3. Pretty much everything else - totally worthless drivel Think how many programmes there are about fixing up your house or buying and selling antiques. Surely there's space for another decent car show?
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 19:15:06 GMT
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I'm just starting rookie bangers easyest and cheapest form of oval raceing (as long as you can find cars) my whole kit owes me £400 tops that includes a car £75 overalls and a new crash helmet lol Rookie bangers is the lighter contact one isn't it James? Sounds good - what sort of cars are they? is it mostly fwd?
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 19:08:47 GMT
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Damn, you got there first. Lets face it tho, you cant get much more grass roots than that, appart from maybe, lawnmower racing?? There is some kind of 24 hour lawnmower event I think... I think the problems with banger racing for a lot of people are: 1. the worry that you're going to get mangled in the first 30 secs of your racing career 2. The fact that you're going to smash up your car pretty often, so you're always going to be preparing them and fetching new ones, which is fine if you have the time and the space, but will make you pretty unpopular with your neighbours if you're doing it in the road 3. That we'd want to race something cool, and that would mean destroying something cool all the time. 4. You'd want some aspect of tuning and preparing the car beyond piecing together another one... I'd do it if I ran a breakers, but the the historic stock car racing that I'm shamelessly plugging is as cheap as most oval stuff but with a bit more raceriness about it without the horrifying cost of building modern hot rod engines or similar. But I've found I'm not even in a position to do that, so the answer seems to be something you can do with your normal road car for peanuts that isn't going wreck it
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 16:46:20 GMT
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Who organises those "thrash around a grassy field" type events like the one Top Gear did a few years back? The one with James May in an XJS? I'd like a bash at something like that. Preferably without the pillocky presenters however! I think it's usually known as autograssing, but as far as I can see it's mainly regional clubs like this and this I don't know if there's a national organisation. My plan was to sort the Imp I bought and do a bunch of these things with it but moving back to London kind of put the stoppers on it
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 16:38:27 GMT
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AhemAnd also classic trialling, any old car will do, drive up hills basically but a lot more fun than it sounds. There's hardcore trialling vehicles and vintage stuff for people who want to attempt to climb mountains in 30s Bentleys but for the rest of us classic trials can use most old cars without doing too much harm (RWD better but there were golfs and the like doing well on the Exeter when I went to watch). This lot are a friendly bunch and there's more info here and some pics here
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 16:50:02 GMT
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Have his arm off! It's good to have stuff like engines "in stock" even if you don't plan on fitting them soon. Don't get carried away though, I've ended up with four Mopar V8s for my Dart, none of which work. All well and good until you have to move out of your garage ;D
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 16:59:13 GMT
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 29, 2008 16:55:08 GMT
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Supercharged Brabus W126 SEC: A perfect choice, aside from the small matter of fuel economy. There's a reason that's a car permanently associated with the Middle East, they own oilfields. Or have you been keeping something quiet, Sheik Al Jones? Honda N600. I could still afford to run it when fuel's £5 a litre
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 28, 2008 22:17:25 GMT
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I'm such a sucker of this stuff, it's hidden in drawers all round the house. Who could throw a box like this away, just because I've used the points? It's too cool:
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 26, 2008 14:53:49 GMT
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Having been ill and watching lots of fall guy episodes I know what you mean, those boggo models and colours just look so good. I've lost count of how many times I've seen a feature in Hot Rod or Car Craft or similar where the car they start with (say, metallic maroon Galaxie on steels) looks much better than the bright-yellow with black-stripes-on-Weld-wheels end result And the way we're going everything will end up a fake Lotus, Shelby, RS etc I've been wondering what to do with the paint on my Dart, and thinking about just restoring it to it's original gold with black vinyl roof look... my Grande was originally gold with a vynil roof eeuugghh.... Hang on! ;D
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 27, 2008 17:28:32 GMT
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hope someone on here's buying this, it's only £113 at the moment Saved, stripped out, Lexus V8 powered and at RR08? (Meanwhile I'll offer the usual 'I've got nowhere to put it excuses' )
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 14, 2008 17:14:01 GMT
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Just about, problem is there's no room for anything else
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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paulw
Part of things
Posts: 216
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Jan 14, 2008 16:17:08 GMT
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Thanks a bunch for this thread Seth, now there's another car I need to build sitting in the large part of my brain filled with stupid projects. I'm already looking at Anglia bodies and bubble arches... ;D
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Lotus Seven '58 Ford Special 64 Barracuda
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