Father, son and a V8
Discussion
Instead of working for the last 2 and a half hours, I have read your thread from start to finish, all 29 pages.
Wonderful thread, I was with you all the way through.
My Dad died in 2012, and whilst the only cars of his that I have any emotional attachment to are long gone (I left home in 1971), I did buy a 1999 TVR in his memory, four months after he died, as I know he would have loved it for its Britishness and its performance.
Since then it has cost me at least double the £10,000 I paid for the car itself in maintenance, upgrades and replacing things. Apart from two replacement engines and a rebuild, I have also added a turbo, better seats, a better ECU and loom and an improved roof, and it has had a full body-off chassis refurb and new chassis tubing (outriggers to those who know TVRs). And as always there is still a list of things to do, from full respray all the way down to sorting out the mirror wiring. But unlike you I have had 45,000 miles of fun from my car, many of those miles on track days. I cannot quite imagine the Town Car tackling Snetterton or Brands Hatch in anger.
Every time I drive the car I think of my Dad, a keen rallying fan who won championships in the 1960s in a Broadspeed Cooper S, and it makes me smile.
And now the sun has come out, I think I might just postpone the work a bit longer and go for a drive - my wife is making hot chocolate fondants for tomorrow dinner and needs some more 70% chocolate fetching. I believe they sell the right stuff where Spitfire4V8 works ( a previous contributor to your thread, a personal friend, and now owner of his dad's old Stag), and it's only 40 miles away.
I know it's hard, and I cannot imagine the car will stop throwing curve balls at you, but try to keep the faith and try to drive it more - they really benefit from regular use all year round.
Wonderful thread, I was with you all the way through.
My Dad died in 2012, and whilst the only cars of his that I have any emotional attachment to are long gone (I left home in 1971), I did buy a 1999 TVR in his memory, four months after he died, as I know he would have loved it for its Britishness and its performance.
Since then it has cost me at least double the £10,000 I paid for the car itself in maintenance, upgrades and replacing things. Apart from two replacement engines and a rebuild, I have also added a turbo, better seats, a better ECU and loom and an improved roof, and it has had a full body-off chassis refurb and new chassis tubing (outriggers to those who know TVRs). And as always there is still a list of things to do, from full respray all the way down to sorting out the mirror wiring. But unlike you I have had 45,000 miles of fun from my car, many of those miles on track days. I cannot quite imagine the Town Car tackling Snetterton or Brands Hatch in anger.
Every time I drive the car I think of my Dad, a keen rallying fan who won championships in the 1960s in a Broadspeed Cooper S, and it makes me smile.
And now the sun has come out, I think I might just postpone the work a bit longer and go for a drive - my wife is making hot chocolate fondants for tomorrow dinner and needs some more 70% chocolate fetching. I believe they sell the right stuff where Spitfire4V8 works ( a previous contributor to your thread, a personal friend, and now owner of his dad's old Stag), and it's only 40 miles away.
I know it's hard, and I cannot imagine the car will stop throwing curve balls at you, but try to keep the faith and try to drive it more - they really benefit from regular use all year round.
I ordered the final part for the engine upgrade about a month or so back, so at some point it will cross the seas and arrive here. It’s an intake spacer, which will enable the upgraded explorer upper intake to clear the fuel rail. Once that and the upper/lower intake, 70mm throttle body are installed the mechanical upgrades to this car are complete.
After that I want to sort the audio as I think it’s not wired correctly, I don’t know if paintwork is going to be worthwhile. It could really do with a full respray but it’s a lot of car to prep and paint.
After that I want to sort the audio as I think it’s not wired correctly, I don’t know if paintwork is going to be worthwhile. It could really do with a full respray but it’s a lot of car to prep and paint.
I've got the TC out of storage, it's driving well so far. I've now turned my attentions to the seat belts, which have often been less functional than I would like. I've got it booked into Quick Fit seat belts in London, which are a specialist in classic car seat belts. The downside is that I need to drive the car to London eep!
LincolnLovin said:
I've got the TC out of storage, it's driving well so far. I've now turned my attentions to the seat belts, which have often been less functional than I would like. I've got it booked into Quick Fit seat belts in London, which are a specialist in classic car seat belts. The downside is that I need to drive the car to London eep!
At least you have physics on your side.
LincolnLovin said:
Perhaps, but I am wary of driving a classic in London.
Does anyone know of a decent paint shop in Essex? I’m looking at a full respray so that the car has a uniform paint scheme
the is (was?) a well respected one in Harlow - Custom Exotics. Never used them so can't guarantee.Does anyone know of a decent paint shop in Essex? I’m looking at a full respray so that the car has a uniform paint scheme
Town car never fails to surprise me, was going to take it out for a drive this morning. Doesn’t start. Then it does, but there’s a lot of electrical noise coming through one speaker that is exactly in time with the spark ignition timing.
I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
LincolnLovin said:
Town car never fails to surprise me, was going to take it out for a drive this morning. Doesn’t start. Then it does, but there’s a lot of electrical noise coming through one speaker that is exactly in time with the spark ignition timing.
I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
Make sure you have fitted good quality spark plugs with resistors, usually denoted with an "R" in the part number.I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
It also sounds like you might have a bad ground wire.
skyrover said:
LincolnLovin said:
Town car never fails to surprise me, was going to take it out for a drive this morning. Doesn’t start. Then it does, but there’s a lot of electrical noise coming through one speaker that is exactly in time with the spark ignition timing.
I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
Make sure you have fitted good quality spark plugs with resistors, usually denoted with an "R" in the part number.I sack of the planned drive and give it a try later, noise has gone but starting is odd, there’s a noticeable delay between the barrel turning and the start motor cranking.
Perhaps the starter solenoid is on the way out? I’ve ordered one and some Silicone Suppression Core ignition leads to see if they help the issue.
It also sounds like you might have a bad ground wire.
QBee said:
I saw something like this happen with a TVR Sagaris race car at Rockingham a few years ago. All through qualifying the PA system dissolved into mega-interference each time the car went past, until eventually it ground to a halt on the start finish line. I nipped to the pits and relayed this connection to my TVR expert, who was also racing that day. He did the maths (2+2 =.....), went to the car that had been recovered to the pits by now, and sent the guy off to Halfords for bits. They had the car running again with no PA interference in time for the first race. I think I remember that whatever he was running was causing such electrical interference it destroyed the ignition electronics.
Interesting, I am going to check out the ground and see if it looks like a bad connection.The solenoid had seemingly sorted the problem, whether it was the new part or just cleaning the connectors I’m not sure.
I took my daughter out in the Town Car for the first time tonight, in her own words “I’m surprised it hasn’t broken down or set on fire yet” barely five minutes in the journey. She has as much faith in the car as I do
I still can’t find a way to relax in the car when driving it, as if the moment I’m happy with it, it will s
t the bed once more.
I took my daughter out in the Town Car for the first time tonight, in her own words “I’m surprised it hasn’t broken down or set on fire yet” barely five minutes in the journey. She has as much faith in the car as I do
I still can’t find a way to relax in the car when driving it, as if the moment I’m happy with it, it will s
t the bed once more. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff