Kirkhams new bit of kit
Discussion
fatboy18 said:
Driving one of those down to Le mans with No roof in the rain is NOT fun.
This is a bit spooky. I feel like I'm talking to myself. I've got a Kirkham 427 and my forum name on the Cobra site is "FatBoy". I've also driven to Le Mans in the rain with no roof and although the inside of the car was thoroughly soaked, it was pretty good fun and it soon dried out, although the seat leather never fully recovered.Paul
PDB said:
fatboy18 said:
Driving one of those down to Le mans with No roof in the rain is NOT fun.
This is a bit spooky. I feel like I'm talking to myself. I've got a Kirkham 427 and my forum name on the Cobra site is "FatBoy". I've also driven to Le Mans in the rain with no roof and although the inside of the car was thoroughly soaked, it was pretty good fun and it soon dried out, although the seat leather never fully recovered.Paul
Going Backwards and sideways across 5 lanes of a busy motorway facing a sea of white headlights in the rain was not fun either!!!!!
My missus called the car CHRISTINE from the Stephen King film of a possessed car trying to kill its occupants!
My car was a Dax tojeiro fitted with a V8 Tuscan challenge series dry sump. quad carb race engine. The Blue wilton carpets and Cream leather interior did not like the rain. The engine also did not like the heat in Le mans and decided to catch fire with me inside the car. Did rather a lot of damage!
Bought the Viper and Never looked back.
Edited by fatboy18 on Tuesday 28th October 18:29
Wow, it sounds like it was really out to get you.
I had the Goodyear Eagle Billboards on mine at the time and they were brilliant in the wet and never gave any cause for concern on that front. They're actually full wet racing tyres, so it's hardly surprising really.
An engine shouldn't catch fire due to overheating, so there was probably something amiss that would have caused a fire in any case. I once opened my bonnet to check where the smell of petrol was coming from after a pretty long run to find the hollows in the intake manifold literally overflowing with petrol. That could have been pretty nasty.
Paul
I had the Goodyear Eagle Billboards on mine at the time and they were brilliant in the wet and never gave any cause for concern on that front. They're actually full wet racing tyres, so it's hardly surprising really.
An engine shouldn't catch fire due to overheating, so there was probably something amiss that would have caused a fire in any case. I once opened my bonnet to check where the smell of petrol was coming from after a pretty long run to find the hollows in the intake manifold literally overflowing with petrol. That could have been pretty nasty.
Paul
Forgot to mention the 5th Gear shredding in the T5 Gearbox at 90 leptons causing the car to spin twice on yet another trip to Le mans! Again I was lucky (if you can call it that) as I did not hit the Arnco barriers and managed to stop the car safely (with brown trousers)
As for the fire the following year, the engine was fitted with Dellorto 48 quad down draft carbs and brand new Pipercross foam air filters, sitting in heavy traffic in the middle of a big roundabout the engine revs suddenly increased all by themselves then resumed back to normal tick over all be it running slightly rough due to the late afternoon heat in Le mans town centre, then WOOF (I had the hood slightly open on the catches to let heat out, next thing I knew there were 3ft flames lapping up the windscreen which then set fire to the wiring loom which spread to under the dash board with melted wires fusing together. Not a nice experience, we used all the 2ltr AFF fire extinguisher trying to put the fire out and in the end a local restaurant helped out with a very large Co2 extinguisher, Needless to say the cold temps from the Co2 rendered the carbs useless and the rebuild cost was nearly 10K Including a full respray all done by Cheng Lim at Thunder Road Cars.
So two years in a row It was a hire car home from Le mans.
As for the fire the following year, the engine was fitted with Dellorto 48 quad down draft carbs and brand new Pipercross foam air filters, sitting in heavy traffic in the middle of a big roundabout the engine revs suddenly increased all by themselves then resumed back to normal tick over all be it running slightly rough due to the late afternoon heat in Le mans town centre, then WOOF (I had the hood slightly open on the catches to let heat out, next thing I knew there were 3ft flames lapping up the windscreen which then set fire to the wiring loom which spread to under the dash board with melted wires fusing together. Not a nice experience, we used all the 2ltr AFF fire extinguisher trying to put the fire out and in the end a local restaurant helped out with a very large Co2 extinguisher, Needless to say the cold temps from the Co2 rendered the carbs useless and the rebuild cost was nearly 10K Including a full respray all done by Cheng Lim at Thunder Road Cars.
So two years in a row It was a hire car home from Le mans.
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