1970 Alfa Romeo GT Junior Racer

[AWG]

Of course...A savvy reader would have checked your PH Garage! Well best of luck with your track action, I would imagine this will feel a greater raw experience over the Subaru.

[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.

[Alfa Pete]

What a stunning little car. This is one of my favourite readers cars.

[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.

[James B]

Let there be light!

[neelyp]

This may be a daft question but why can't you just use the car's rear lights when it's wet?

[James B]

I wish it were that simple. FIA/MSA rules state that a high intensity light needs to be fitted. The tail lights don't meet the grade and an additional requirement is that the rain light must be within 10cm of the centre line of the car.

MSA Yearbook Regulation - Q.5 Red Warning Light
A rearward facing red warning light of a minimum of 21 watts, with surface area
minimum 20cm2, maximum 40cm2, or of 21 watts with a surface area minimum of
50cm2 and with lens and reflector to EU standards, must be located within 10cm of
the centreline of the vehicle and be clearly visible from the rear. An alternative light
unit of equal or enhanced constant luminosity may be used.

LED Units

LED light units must produce an equivalent or superior light output per the above
regulation. Units must be water and vibration resistant. Lamps must be arranged in
parallel array circuit configuration so that a single LED failure ensures at least 75%
of the display remains serviceable. Light units may be used in paired configuration if
the minimum surface area requirements cannot be met by a single unit. If there is
any doubt as to the unit's performance the MSA will insist on the production of an
ECE Regulation 38 certificate for rear fog lamps.

[James B]

I have done the fuel cell protection plate. It took me a while to remember back to metalwork at school but the memories of Mr Taylor's class eventually came flooding back!

I started with a 600 x 500mm sheet of 2mm aluminium.

I marked up the points to cut and where to fold and proceeded to make the cuts. I started with my dremel but sadly it didn't seem to work that well and may actually have burned the motor out. I had to resort to good old elbow grease and a hacksaw.

I then used some spray adhesive to fit some oil absorbent pads to the inner face of the guard. This was to act as a vibration absorber and stop any fuel cell to metal contact.

I have ty-wrapped it up for the moment but may use proper alloy supports at some point.

I'm quite happy with the result.

Started with this;


Adding the vibration absorber;


Shiney side after taking off the protective layer;


And fitted;

[MPoxon]

Tough OCD decision with that rain light! I see what you mean about the writing, also the writing means that the group of LEDs do not sit centrally in the assembly, it pushes them to the left a bit. The silver screws draw attention to that detail so I think I would personally be tempted to change the silver screws to black so looks less obvious but then I have very strange OCD ways when it comes to alignment and symmetry.

Fuel cell protection plate looks very nice. Good effort and clearly not a wasted education... top metal working!

[James B]

First race weekend completed!

Car survived unscathed and was going beautifully. I'm really pleased with it.

It was my first race weekend so nerves were most certainly present but I felt I acquitted myself well and didn't do anything daft.

Race-wise the car ran perfectly. I bettered my best time thus far on Sat Testing when I got a 65.1 so that was over a second better than previous.

Race 1 was dry and I had a hoot. I took it very easy on the start not wanting to be part of a first corner incident. Then I settled in for the race. I was relatively consistently lapping in the 66's again which is a little slower than I would like but I suspect performance night nerves got the better of me and I just drove to finish rather than win.

Vid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mHNqFbkzHw

Race 2 was changeable. The track started dry but got wet quite quickly. It became really slippery!
I was having a brilliant tussle with the Capri. I really should have pushed harder on my overtakes into Duffus as I had the line but I wasn't quite ballsy enough and felt that a clean finish was better than a spill down Duffus. Only a lap later I had a big slide there which then led to me back off. The Midget came a cropper around the same time too.

Vid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2XhoxHbiCk


Next race is 16th of August so I have time to prepare the car and get myself sorted for that.

[James B]

I got a spare hour to have a look over the car after the race weekend. Nothing to report under the car anyway aside from a slightly offset rear anti-roll bar (I'll keep an eye on this and stick some markings on it) and there was a reasonable film of oil over most of the components in the centre and rear of the engine. I'll give it all a clean up and monitor that too.

While at Knockhill the Racetech distributor for the UK popped over to say hello. We had been in touch so he had come along to see me and the car. I wasn't expecting him to have brought a seat however so he surprised me with a more generously proportioned seat to suit my frame. I explained that they don't generally fit in the Alfa but he was insistent that I give it a try and see how it goes.

So I have;





Bugger



I've taken the panel off the inside of the door so think I should be able to remove some of the door structure and then make a hole in the door card which I can then patch over with a stretchy black fabric so it looks flush when the door is open but allows the seat shoulder to occupy the space in the door. Should be simple enough to do. I'll just take my time to do it properly. While I'm there i may also whip out some weight from the doors as I see they still have a lot of their window mechanism left in there. Can't do any harm to lose that now I run Perspex windows.

[dr_rallye]

Have you tried a Cobra Monaco. My father has one in his 105 series without needing to chop the door...

[dr_rallye]

Have you tried a Cobra Monaco. My father has one in his 105 series without needing to chop the door...

[James B]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm committed to the Racetech however so concentrated on fitting it.

A little chopping with the Dremel and all is good. Really chuffed.




And there are some now defunct brackets for the winding windows which are now gone.
They're next on the chopping board!



I'm now booked in for the SMRC race at Knockhill on the 16th August.

Jobs remaining to do to the car ahead of the 16th are;

Fit new transponder
Bleed brakes

[James B]

So that's the second race weekend of my ownership out of the way and I'm delighted to report that the car survived unscathed and I even managed to knock 2.5 secs off my best laptime.


Race 1 – In Car camera. Overtake by Ian Daltrey in the blue Alfasud near the start and then I get the place back towards the end after he gets oversteery into Clarks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40a-fH4_Yso

Race 1 – Front and Rear cams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHG1Ps5vDhA


Race 2 – In Car camera. Good race between Ian and I again. He gets past at Clarks mid-race and I try to chase him down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840RCEWKAVc

Race 2 – Front and Rear cams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odu_oQESIOg

It's clear I'm still losing time down Duffus (the right-hander down the hill) and into McIntyres (the sharp right hander after Duffus). If I can speed up there then I may be able to see 62's.

Work-wise the car needs nothing which is nice.

In the longer term I think some lightness will need added and maybe the pilot should lose a few (many!) kg.

[Tim M DB7V]

Hi James, I've just found you on PH. Great thread. Here's a photo of you at Knockhill.

Edited by Tim M DB7V on Tuesday 1st September 15:10

Edited by Tim M DB7V on Tuesday 1st September 15:13

[Tim M DB7V]

Here it is at The Treehouse.

[James B]

Tim,

Fancy seeing you here!!

Thanks for the pics and for making the trip to support me. I tried to make it easy for the many photographers around the circuit by taking the corners very slowly.

See you at Goodwood next week

[Tim M DB7V]

Sadly I missed round two where I think you were making it more difficult for the photographers (which the 'In car cam' confirms).
See you at Goodwood.