1970 Alfa Romeo GT Junior Racer
Discussion
Wow, what a great sound from that engine. You certainly got used to the car pretty quickly comparing the first and last videos. Good work sir and I shall look forward to reading more about the car on this thread.
I always find the 105 series Alfa fascinating as they handle so well for what is essentially a really old car. I was taken out in a 1750 GTV a long time ago now, it had been prepped by Alfaholics and I was gobsmacked how well it cornered.
I always find the 105 series Alfa fascinating as they handle so well for what is essentially a really old car. I was taken out in a 1750 GTV a long time ago now, it had been prepped by Alfaholics and I was gobsmacked how well it cornered.
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!
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!
MPoxon said:
I always find the 105 series Alfa fascinating as they handle so well for what is essentially a really old car. I was taken out in a 1750 GTV a long time ago now, it had been prepped by Alfaholics and I was gobsmacked how well it cornered.
When I look at the design of the suspension it amazes me that they go round corners at all!
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!!
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!!
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.
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.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.
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 said:
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.
Just watched those videos, sounds awesome on those twin 45s, that is what a car should sound like with a proper induction roar. It certainly goes well around the track, what an awesome piece of kit. 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.
Yeah definitely worth getting it road legal so you can enjoy it on the road as well as on the track. They are always popular at meets as well, one of our local PH'ers brought one along to our monthly PH meet and there were hoards of people gathered around it. A very pretty, rare car and a welcome break from all the modern stuff.
I am enjoying following your thread, the pictures and videos also great. I shall look forward to the next update.
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.
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.
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!
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!
Car is looking absolutely awesome. I am not quite sure how you have managed it but you have a proper racing car with all the kit to meet the regs but it looks still has all the character of the original car. Race prepped cars IMO normally look pretty awful with all the trim missing and equipment bolted wherever there is a space. I like the fact you still have a bit a trim in it and thought has clearly been given to all the kit so it matches the car. I have never seen a black Racelogic lap timer, the standard blue one would look a bit odd, black is perfect. You are certainly a stickler for attention to detail and the finished product is epic.
If you ever have a mad moment and decide to sell, drop me a line. I think your example actually looks better than the showcase Alfaholics cars and they are very fine examples.
If you ever have a mad moment and decide to sell, drop me a line. I think your example actually looks better than the showcase Alfaholics cars and they are very fine examples.
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.
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.
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