1970 Alfa Romeo GT Junior Racer

[James B]

Yes, I'm hoping so! I'm not the most confident of brakers so tend to be slightly early on the brakes compared with some. I'm not sure if that was just a symptom of my Subaru being quite heavy, very quick and with a sub-optimal braking setup. Hopefully I'm starting out with all of the right kit in a properly setup car so I can gain the confidence I need.

[James B]

When down at Alfaholics we noticed that there may be an issue with the fitment of the front number plate.

My car has an additional hole cut in the front (see pic below) that hinders my plan to fit a vinyl adhesive plate to the front of the car.



So, the new plan is to fit a couple of riv nuts in the gap between the lower and pair of middle grilles.

Then I will fit the below which I had made up. I'll countersink the screw heads and fit using a gloss black screwhead so it should be quite a subtle attachment. Then the front plate can be removed for racing and popped back on when I fancy a wee run to the shops.

[James B]

So I was in Bristol today at Alfaholics for their open day and got to see, sit in and even drive the car!!

I am so pleased with the job they've done and with the car in general. The new cage, apart from being better, lighter and safer will also allow me to put my seat a few inches further back and on the bottom holes of the height adjustment too. Aside from that the car is just about there. I cannot wait for the morning so I can get it on track at Coombe.

I did also manage to drive it all of 80ft to put it on the trailer ahead of tomorrow. It's remarkably sensible clutch-wise and aside from being fairly loud seems ok for road use.

That's me in it. Not a lot of room....







Rain light fitted on rear parcel shelf. Pleased with the tidiness of the job.



And my final shot of the day. I love this car!!!



I got the front camera fitted too as well as microphones so I should have some footage from the day all going well.

[James B]

WHAT A DAY!

Just arrived back in Aberdeen. 7.15am start to drive from Hotel to Castle Coombe. Trackday from 9am till 5pm but we left at 3.30ish. Blast up to Aberdeen and now heading for bed.

The car was absolutely everything I hoped it would be. Totally changed my driving style and all for the better.

Will update tomorrow with video too.

[James B]

Videos uploaded. Quality isn't wonderful. Camera was too far back to be able to differentiate contrasts inside and out but sounds seems ok.

My first time in the car. Still bedding brakes.
https://youtu.be/LQpS3YgYtkc

First batch of 'hot' laps. Learning the circuit.
https://youtu.be/Az06WHXkDS8

Max banks driving. The boy can drive...
https://youtu.be/6z2QXkcWaYg

Me, having realised what the car is capable of, attempting to copy Max.
https://youtu.be/Ft2g969h9DE

[James B]

The car is getting stripped tomorrow and goes to Custom Cages for the new cage going in and then painting. It'll be 10days before its back together realistically.
There are also a couple of other jobs to do while its with them. Max reckons a little more camber on the front and we need to make a few small changes to the cooling as he got it pretty hot. Smaller fan is going on and we're changing the mesh on the front for a larger gapped GTA mesh to help airflow. They're also adding a few more guides for air coming in the front end.
Finally the gearbox needs a rebuild. You'll hear the box grinding a lot when I drive. Max was checking it when he was driving and noted that all the syncros were worn/gone so a slower shift is required. That will all be sorted in the rebuild.

[James B]

Thanks Jim,

It was certainly a great day!

Looking forward to getting the car back now and using it in anger!

Hopefully see you there next year!

[James B]

Matthew,

Thanks. You know what, it really is the most confidence inspiring drive. My father had a few 105's in period and always tells me what a rewarding chassis and gearbox they had. He's had many cars since but still maintains that the best, most fun, drive was his 2000 GTV.

I think the lower power encourages me to carry a bit more speed into the corners where my old Subaru was going so much faster that I'd end up scrubbing too much speed and would therefore be slower than I should be.

I actually feel like there's the same laptime that I set in my Subaru (475bhp & 1200kg) that there is in the Alfa (180bhp & 850kg) around Knockhill so will be keen to see if that is the case. I've certainly got more confidence in the car under me now than I did with the Subaru!

[James B]

Cage is in and painted! All looking good. You can already see that the upper front bar follows the roofline and that the main hoop is a couple of inches further back than the previous cage. This will allow me to get my idea seating position.





The car is now being rebuilt and will then wait for the gearbox which will hopefully complete around the 11/12th May. I have the car booked for collection at the end of that week as I'm registered and all paid up for a trackday and then sprint meet (Superlap Scotland) at Knockhill on the 23/24th.

[James B]

Well the car is now home in bonnie Aberdeen after a superb weekend of motorsport!

Unfortunately I never quite managed to get the car home prior to the weekend so it was all a bit lastminute.com with the car being delivered to Edinburgh for a power and weight (124bhp@wheels & 990kg inc 110kg of me) for the competition I was entering.

I took a vid of the rolling road test. It's always a scary experience watching your pride and joy being abused! haha

http://vid20.photobucket.com/albums/b220/JRBB20028...

Seems nicely balanced too:



The car was absolutely faultless over the whole weekend. I did 78 track miles almost all of them pushing quite hard. All the car needed was fuel and some air in tyres. I was beginning to feel a bit guilty that all of my competition were taking wheels off, rebuilding boost pipe systems and fixing all of the maladies their cars were suffering so I opened the bonnet and checked the oil once or twice. Even put a 1/4 litre in for good measure at the end of the day...

On the Saturday I had a trackday at Knockhill with the Subaru Impreza Drivers Club (SIDC). It has been heavily infiltrated by Lotuses (Lotii? :eh: ) and all manner of others. Still it was a great way to get some seat time in the car without worry about lunatics around me such is the quality of attendee of these particular trackdays.

No timing on the car at the moment as I forgot to take my racelogic antenna but i'll pull some times of my vids later.

Here they are:

Sessions 1-3 were on a set of 2011 used 888's and while they gripped to begin with they fell off quite a bit later in the runs. Session 4 was on a brand new set of A048's which I needed to get a heat cycle into. Already I felt they had better rear grip.

Session 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieIzS2N3taM

Session 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgOrAW9pvl0

Session 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIdoVeaLaRg

Session 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCQfBKoJMzM


Then on the Sunday I had the SuperLap Scotland (SLS) event. It's basically a timed sprint on the full Knockhill circuit and it was my first time in any motorsport competition. I had a great time! My times began in the 1.09's but came down to my best of a 1.063. There are definitely still seconds left on track so I'll need to work on my braking a little. I had a superb day and as the only classic car competing I got a huge amount of attention from other competitors and spectators. I guess they all had a lot longer to see my car on track anyway.....

Practice 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M21mgLwNis

Practice 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBLYuZd8hlI

Qualifying 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6z7cPZRWmQ

Qualifying 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6VdCNv_lwA

Final
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piHzoUGgFNA


And finally John from Flat Out Photography (http://www.flatoutphotography.com/index.html) took some fantastic shots of the car from the Sunday.








So overall a great weekend. Can't believe I've now got to wait until mid-July until I can do it again!

[James B]

I managed to get a few hours in the garage today as the jobs are mounting up.

I have a new lightweight bootlid from Alfaholics which I gave a wee test fit. It seems pretty good so will get painted soon.


Also got the car up on the ramp for the first time which was brilliant. It's so low that it was a bit of a faff getting it on the right position but now that's sorted it's perfect. Really chuffed.



Not much headroom!!!



And just enough for me to work underneath.



So jobs to do are;

Adjust handbrake to allow next ratchet click.
Replace old tow eyes for new MSA approved larger eye versions. Need to extend the thread further up the collar so the tap and die set will get some use!
Then I need to swap out the battery for a new one and fit a charging cable at the same time.

Finally, car is off for its MOT on Sat morning. Wish me luck!!

[James B]

XJR500bhp said:

Awesome car, awesome garage. You may have mentioned, but what race series are you going to get involved with? Will it be Alfas or will you enter a classic series, such as Classic Sports Car Club

Thank you, it has taken a little while to get that way.

I'm racing in the SMRC Classics series which runs at Knockhill in Scotland and has one away round each year. It's Donington this year at the Masters event on the 4/5 July but I'm away sadly.

[James B]

MPoxon said:

Good luck with the MOT. I am sure you will not need it as the car looks pretty much new.

I will watch those vids when I get back home. The car looks great in the photos. Good to see you out using the car as intended.

Thanks for that. Yes, hopefully the MOT man sees it the same way. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Well I have always wanted a classic for the track and the road. This one is very heavily track biased so I may struggle a little with it on the road but it's worth getting it road legal just for the sake of convenience if nothing else.

[James B]

Well that's the MOT passed!
Car was great and tester commented positively about the car which was nice.

I spotted a couple of areas I'm going to tidy up though. Where the new cage was fitted the painted under seal has been scorched so I'll wire wheel that back and get a nice new coating on there. Other than that it's just a case of getting the scrutineering points covered and we're good to go.

[James B]

It has been a busy week but I managed to get a few hours to work on the car.

First I fitted the new battery. At the same time I connected up the charging point;


Next up it was the new labels for the switches. I just used a Dymo labeler and cut the shapes out. I'm quite pleased with the outcome. I would have preferred it a little more uniform but with such large cumbersome hands like mine and such small stickers it was a fiddly job!!!



I then refitted the passenger seat as hopefully in the coming days the car will be road registered and I can get it our and used.


I have been a little infuriated by the way the drivers door sat as it was pulled too far inboard and left a 'generous' panel gap. A little adjustment of the strike plate has improved this significantly. I daren't adjust any further though without some replacement cap head bolts as they're quite soft and there's evidence of them having rounded. I'll get some new ones ordered so I can sort this for good;


I also gave the car and the wheels a polish so it's looking spic and span for its first road outing soon!
.....but forgot to take a pic.

I still have a couple of jobs to do to the car ahead of its first race;
1) The rain light will need relocated to the outside of the car. I am thinking of doing something that is removable so for road use it can be re-fitted but in race trim it's a 5 min job. I think I might use the black of the number plate to disguise where I drill mounting holes as, when not fitted, the holes can just be filled with rubber grommets which are black anyway. That said, I may just be simpler accepting that the car is a racer and the fitment of a flat type rain light to the rear isn't a bit issue. I'll ponder further.

2) The scrutineer at Knockhill mentioned that my Rally Design tank is single skinned. Whilst it isn't illegal for use I think best practice might be to protect it from hits from below as it's exposed through the boot floor. I may just make up a lightweight alloy guard for it.

Aside from those jobs the car is ready to go.....well once I refit race numbers and my novice cross!

[James B]

Matthew,

That's very kind of you to say.

I am quite particular about how I do things but, to be completely honest, much of the car was completed to this standard by its previous owner. I do accept that it would be easy just to bolt everything else on with scant regard for the overall look of the car as many racers do but I did buy this with the looks of the thing in mind rather than its outright performance.

My Subaru was rather similar to this. It was a converted road car with just enough trim to remain useable and comfortable but all the race/track prep was done tidily with looks in mind as well as performance.

[James B]

Thanks Andrew. It has been a labour of love so far but the performance on track was well worth the wait!

It's a 2007 Vanquish actually but you were close!

[James B]

Cheers Andrew,

Yes, it's completely different feel on track to the Subaru. With the Alfa it's all about keeping it on the boil and getting the power on nice and early out of the corners. It probably has the performance to get the car out of shape but it doesn't really feel like it wants to slide, save for a couple of times when the weight transfer to the back hasn't fully completed over a rise and I've felt the tail drift out ever so slightly. The Subaru was a point and squirt car. There wasn't much finesse to driving it, I just never fully got to grips with it and found I was too cautious on the corners because I could feel how easily it would snap into a slide if not treated carefully. It was too nervous a car for me and my driving style, the Alfa is so much better suited.

I've actually just booked myself a couple of hours of track tuition at Knockhill ahead of the race so will see how I get on with that.

[James B]

Well that's me back from my hols and I was delighted to arrive back to a V5! The car is now officially road legal.

My jobs list is growing on the car too ahead of next week;

Collect wood ramps from cutting. This will lift the car sufficiently to give me ideal access under the car on my hydraulic ramp

Move rain light from inside rear screen to outside on the rear of the car

Fuel cell protection

Fit new bootlid ahead of paint (realistically not happening before race)

Finish a couple of areas of undersealing that I couldn't reach before

[James B]

I have done the rain light so that's one job sorted. It's not wired yet but that will hopefully be quite straightforward as I'm using the wiring from the existing parcel shelf mounted light.

Having deliberated over the orientation of the light I chose landscape as it looked tidier. It does pain me to do it this way though as the branding on the light is written for portrait mounting.
I used a dry board marker to centre it and get the hole positions.



Then I drilled and slotted the light home!



I'll wire it tomorrow.