Chainsaw on display

The Chainsaw (rally car my wife navigates in) on its way to being on display in town today for a couple of hours as part of the lead up to the Trussme National Capital Rally.

Update



In Garema Court

Post racing slump

In post race slump mode at the moment. Ran in the local hillclimb on Sunday, had a blast but seemed to be a bit off the pace. Managed a best of 49.94 (pb is 49.75).

Got beaten in my class by an AE86 and a KE25 both running turbo 4AGEs - and both good drivers.

Good vid of Joe's best run in the AE86 on YouTube.

Next meet (last of the year) is 20th November - hopefully the new front adj struts and adj lower control arms are in by then - might get rid of the pesky understeer through the top hairpin.

6mm JDM Valve stem - shouldn't be hard to find...

Recently bought a pair of Rays Fins - need a bit of a refurb but price was OK and I do like Fins. Only prob was that one was missing it's valve stem. No problem, I'll just buy one of the intawebz I thought. Hmm, OK, this is harder than I thought. The threaded section that bolts into the rim is 6mm in diameter. Standard is 11.3 and 8mm is relatively common for motorbikes - but 6mm is pretty much JDM rims, and 6mm with a long tube (approx 40mm long from rim face) and a slight kink (45 degrees?) is even harder. Just putting this up here so I can point some WTB ads on forums to this and the pic below.

Photos from June Hillclimb

Ran the June SDMA Hillclimb a couple of weeks back - didn't manage a PB but wasn't far off with a time of 49.85 (PB is 49.75). Had a load of fun though and was happy with the results - even though I lost to Joe's turbo AE86.

Some good photos others took of the RX7.



Mat S took the above - a great photo. Just goes to show with skill you can make anything look good.



An action shot taken by Lora I think.

Looking forward to the 2 lap event in August.

No real progress on the Spitfire - some parts purchased, and I've tracked down a spray gun to fish oil the inside of the chassis - so just need to do that and then start on reassembly.

Finally, progress!

Today my son (that's him spraying the chassis with Metal Ready) & I painted the Spitfire chassis. It's only been sitting there awaiting restoration or reassembly for 10 years... Chassis was probably sandblasted 4-5 years ago...

Used POR 15 - worked out very well and gave my boy a chance to help paint it. He's decided the Spitfire needs to be matte black and his hillclimb car. That's my boy!



Well, it's a start. Long way to go before the Spitfire is back on the road but now I can start putting the chassis back together.

A bit of history on the car is here.

Bug Eye Sprite Hillclimber

Needed to put this photo somewhere to send to somebody, so figured I might as well put it up here as it is such an awesome little beast. Owned by a mate it is fitted with a Holden 6 running triple SUs and needs to run on AVGAS. Hasn't been out to the track for ages. Might have to convince Steve to dust it off so we can give it a run.

Event report - New engine and new PB at hillclimb

A little late on the update, but at the last SDMA Hillclimb on the 20th of Feb my S1 RX7 debuted its new 13B Bridgeport built by Reliance. It was a last minute thrash but the car was ready (and quietened down with a revised exhaust) to race on the day (actually it was ready days before the race). My previous pb was a 50.76 set earlier last year. On my second run of the day I lowered my PB to a 50.52 so I was pretty happy. On the third run of the day it felt pretty good. I knew when long time rival Teppo walked over and shook my hand something special had happened - and when I found out I had finally cracked a 49 I was stoked, especially when I found out I had dropped my pb to a 49.75. All down to the engine.

Thanks to Mark Neal for the photo.

So a great result for Team Aardvark - never a bad thing when you beat a Porsche and a Lotus. Jon definitely builds a great engine - and the sound of a bridgeport never gets old.