Brundle in Austin A35
Discussion
Anyone see the Goodwood racing on ITV4 last night(I think)
First off what did that little thing (the Austin A35)have in it?
I just can't believe it was just an A series on but am more than happy to be corrected, secondly I think it was probably one of the best drives of his life in terms of pure flair and ability in making an A35 look like an ultimate track weapon even with the retirement it was great to watch and thirdly the cars did not look slow and as a viewer they looked so quick,fun and entertaining with weaving darting sliding making it more exciting compared to F1, I love watching cars of different sizes and performance.
So my question is what is the ultimate motorsport fantasy formula ? of modern day, Caterhams against porsches and American V8's is always a good start or have these formulas all been legislated against.
First off what did that little thing (the Austin A35)have in it?
I just can't believe it was just an A series on but am more than happy to be corrected, secondly I think it was probably one of the best drives of his life in terms of pure flair and ability in making an A35 look like an ultimate track weapon even with the retirement it was great to watch and thirdly the cars did not look slow and as a viewer they looked so quick,fun and entertaining with weaving darting sliding making it more exciting compared to F1, I love watching cars of different sizes and performance.
So my question is what is the ultimate motorsport fantasy formula ? of modern day, Caterhams against porsches and American V8's is always a good start or have these formulas all been legislated against.
Dear All,
clinky
I skipped through the vid. and there's not much of the A35, shame.
The key to the A35's success however is down to weight and brakes isn't it?
Even so a sufficiently worked on A is going to approach 100hp, depends on the rules under which the cars were built.
IIRC Derek Bell a year or two ago challenged for the lead against a Mk2 Jag with I assume at least twice the hp. Seeing the cars in the braking zones was telling - the A35 braked so much later,
regards,
Jet
EFS
clinky
I skipped through the vid. and there's not much of the A35, shame.
The key to the A35's success however is down to weight and brakes isn't it?
Even so a sufficiently worked on A is going to approach 100hp, depends on the rules under which the cars were built.
IIRC Derek Bell a year or two ago challenged for the lead against a Mk2 Jag with I assume at least twice the hp. Seeing the cars in the braking zones was telling - the A35 braked so much later,
regards,
Jet
EFS
Edited by jet_noise on Tuesday 28th September 10:56
Fittster said:
Didn't James Hunt own a Austin A35?
His was a van though. The A35 was incredibly popular and successful as a club racer back in the 50s and 60s, so the handling side of things was very well tied down. the engine being an A-series means all of the tuning goodies are still readily available, imagine what it must be like to build a racing Austin Westiminster though?davepoth said:
Fittster said:
Didn't James Hunt own a Austin A35?
His was a van though.
Also, talking of old BMC machinery I think it's only fair to bring up the clip of Tiff Nedell drifting a standard Morris 1000: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooBJ2Z2sZvo
(scroll to 1:50
)Edited by Chris71 on Tuesday 28th September 11:32
At the festival of speed this year i got chatting to an older gentlman whilst waiting in a huge queue at the burger stand who used to race A35's about 40 years ago. He said the secret to their success was that you could overtake about 3 cars on the outside round a corner. In regards to the Rae Davis car at goodwood, I believe it uses Speedwell upgrades which was the class it used to run in at the revival (not sure if it still has the same name).
http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/speedwell_engines.h...
This is the guy who builds The ones at Goodwood though
http://www.raedavisracing.com/index.html
http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/speedwell_engines.h...
This is the guy who builds The ones at Goodwood though
http://www.raedavisracing.com/index.html
morgrp said:
I'd guess it was a well specced up a-series - 1275 lumps can reliably push out 150bhp in a serious state of tune - just google the mini miglia/Mini Se7en series - The Miglia's all ran the same spec and approx 150bhp and were awesome to watch
anohter "Rae Davis Special"!this refers to the 2004 car http://www.spridget.org/austin_a35_at_goodwood.htm
"Continuing with the engine, Rae said `this is a full-race engine but it's on a standard 1275 crankshaft and rods; we do use steel crankshafts usually but not on this one. I've seen this one to 135 bhp - it's that good. It has race pistons, Piper 320 camshaft, an alloy flywheel, a big valve cylinder head, a sintered clutch and a 45DCOE Weber"
I was watching all the racing from chicane grandstand, and it was telling how absolutely precise Brundle was in his positioning through the chicane -literally missing the barriers by a few inches each side, lap after lap. Big respect. He also made Nick Mason's very standard GTO much more competitive with the "hot rods" than it had any right to be.
Forbes82 said:
Shame he retired, that drive deserved a win!
Those A35s prepared by Rae Davis are amazing, mind you there is just about everything pushed to the limit, rose jointed suspension, disc brakes, anti-roll bars etc. etc. but it makes for exiting racing every other year, the St. Mary's Trophy alternates between 50s and 60s cars so next year it will be Minis vs' Lotus Cortinas and Ford Galaxies. As for Brundle retiring it wasn't actually like that, he was so fired up that he slammed the A35 into the side of the Westminster which was a shame because the Westminster was having a fantastic dice with the Volvo but following Bundle's shunt the Westminster had to drop back. It was all self-inflicted but damn good fun I've known Rae and his dad Tom since the early 70s when they used to fleece me for MG parts when they ran Toulmins breakers near Syon Park. I would of thought that they might have had an overbore to 1293 as was period for the minis in the 60's although that was mid to late iirc? I know when I had my cooper I had a similar conversion by avonbar and I had that measured at @ 90bhp at the flywheel so with race spec cams different carb set up 130 seems possible nowadays
It was shame his ambition to overtake got the better of him, it could have been a good race. Gassing Station | Goodwood Events | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff