Fulvias in France

Flic Nicholson RIP

2011-09-23T14:42:00.006+01:00

Flic Nicholson in action on the Rallye Vins-Macôn

I am sorry to have to announce the death of Felicity ("Flic") Nicholson after a long illness.

Flic was the very proud owner of the Fanalone, prepared at Barry Waterhouse's Evolution Engineering, that I have often mentioned here.

Flic started rallying in the late 1960s with a Triumph TR4 and later a BMW 2002. After a long break she returned to rallying with, initially, a SII 1600 Fulvia before switching to the Fanalone. She adored the car and loved to describe how, when on the limit, it seemed to "dance"; on outings with Integrales she especially enjoyed being the quickest downhill. She was twice Female VHC (historic rally in France) championne.

She will be missed by many friends, enthusiasts and competitors.

Requiescat in Pace Lancia

2011-02-20T22:41:00.003+01:00

It's official: Lancia is dead.

Yes there will be cars with Lancia (or the new ugh!) badges, but they will be Chryslers.

I think I would have found it difficult to have imagined a more inappropriate marriage... Much better to have killed Lancia altogether I think than to have ended with this disgrace.

RIP

A bientôt.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T13:17:00.003+01:00

Hello.

Sorry it's been so quiet hereabouts; this has been due to a lack of Fulvia happenings here and also pressure of work (on such things as MGs and Jaguars).

The Fanalone didn't go to Corsica - there was a wheel-bearing noise - so we went in an Evo Perlato instead, which was pretty good! I have a bit to write about wheel-bearings again which will be soon.

Meanwhile I wish you all a very merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.

A bientôt

At long last!

2010-09-06T21:16:00.010+01:00

... I have a sort of Internet connection.

I was very slack in not providing regular updates about the Fanalone which is now running, quite nicely in fact, though it will need a cylinder head overhaul before too long. This will be in a while as the owner and I are going on a super trip to Corsica soon in the company of the Scuderia Lancia Integrale. These photos from last year should give you an idea of what's in store; I am very much looking forward to the trip as I am sure you can imagine.

Meanwhile just to show I'm not making it all up, here's a phone camera snap of the Fanalone's subframe assembled:

This time I have two little suggestions some of you might like.

First a close-up from the above shot:

In about 1985, I bought a special spanner from Harry Manning, which happily I still have, for undoing those blasted carburettor nuts. Someone who has worked on the Fanalone though had a brainwave: he found M8 nuts that have "built-in washers" and are just 10mm across the flats; one can undo them with a ¼" drive 10mm socket; hurrah. I think that the nuts are fitted to Peugeots and of course they are lighter than the 13mm originals. Incidentally, I used 12mm AF Mercedes-Benz exhaust nuts on my car but these are much better.

As for the second idea this time, this arises from the following revolting picture - could almost be the subject for a competition:

No, it's not some sort of repulsive fruit de mer, it's the remains of a lower ball-joint rubber from the Fanalone. As regular readers will know, the car competed in 26 rallies; the owner had experimented with various brake pads, one set of which resulted in smoke and blue discs... The rubber which as you may know is VERY close to the brake disc was simply cooked and had become brittle resulting in greasy brake discs... Not good. So I have renewed both bottom ball-joints and to provide some protection for the rubbers, fabricated a couple of simple heat shields which I hope should help. And one does not want the changing of bottom ball joints to be regular work does one?:

Yes I know it's not truly artisanale metalwork, but they don't touch the discs and they should do the job!

Finally, yesterday I went to a drag race meeting in Geneva - worth it to see a couple of 1500HP monster "saloons" doing sub- 9 second runs over 400 meters, but the reason I mention this is because the following car was there; sounded great and did a very respectable 13-second run. Perhaps one of my Italian readers can tell me what the words on the back window mean?

A bientôt

Email Exchanges

2010-07-11T21:37:00.006+01:00

One of my regular readers was unable to upload to the "comments" and as a result asked me to post the following email exchanges; the information should be of interest to all I think.

1.

Hi Paul,

I read your bottom end article with great interest and reading it I have three questions:

1 why have you used the cylinder base gasket if rigidity is such an issue? If you machine chambers for o-rings around the oil passages to the head and use a good silicon base sealant for the rest the stiff cast iron block directly bolted to the 'flimsey' crankcase will surely stiffen things up.

2 The 1600 engine you are working on has main bearing studs instead of bolts complicating the assembly but what is the reason to use them?

3 have you ever experienced with a mainbearing cap brace to stiffen up the running path of the crank?

Cheers,

william

PS I tried to upload these question via the blogger page but did not succeed.

2.

Hello William,

I suppose that I am speaking in rather "absolute" terms regarding the rigidity of the crankcase and this is not my car! We used to do what you described - 'O' rings etc. when I was in London - there we had the necessary facilities.

The crankcase was, as you know, originally designed for a 58HP 1100 saloon car so stretching the engine to 1600cc when the company was going broke was bound to lead to some compromises! The studs are lovely things, waisted for stress relief like the big-end bolts and the thread size is 12mm rather than 10 as on the 1300s; this is why my friend used a 1600 crankcase for his 1486 project. I have no iew really on the choice between bolts and studs, but the studs are not really more complex are they? I think I prefer studs to bolts though because I suspect that unless special dowel bolts are used, location is probably more accurate.

The idea of a main-bearing support was one we used to discuss a great deal and I believe that VERE Lancia offers one. An excellent idea I think. Even better would be in addition to cross bolt the caps as was frequently done in aero-engines and other high class motors. This would be difficult given the thinness and weird shape of the Fulvia's crankcase!

I have been busy on the Fanalone but have terrible Internet problems and so have been lazy on my blog. The subframe is now assembled and ready to go in; I'll write it up when I have a chance.

best wishes

Paul

3.

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your replies. You might want to upload them to your Blog article.

In my 1200HF engine I have fittted M10 APR studs. Albeit not waisted like on 'your' 1600 engine. The torque value as now 8Kgm compaired to the 5Kgm of the OEM 10.9 bolts.
I have also used the omicron supplied APR conrod bolts. Expensive but since nobody knows how many times their OEM bolts were (over) torqued in their 40 year lifespan a good insurance.
I have seen the brace Vere Lancia sells and I'm not very impressed by it. Too many curves and thin spots. Can't be very stiff and it is expensive at around 400 euros. I have made one from sheet metal angle iron. See picture. Stiffer and for 5 euros it is extremely cheap!
Cheers,
william

Hello.

Congratulations on what looks to be an interesting solution - the only thing about steel of course is its different coefficient of expansion from aluminium, though I suppose if there's not too much mass you shouldn't have much of a problem.

Have you run the engine since you installed the brace - and if so have you noticed any difference?

I like the idea of the studs and the special nuts look very aerospace which I am sure they are! As for con-rod bolts I used to buy 1300HF ones from Cavalitto - they weren't too expensive and at least for the 1600 Lancia said that the bolts must not be re-used, so I think you've been very wise - mind you I've got away with it for 28 years!

I'll try to post the exchanges on the blog if this rotten Internet connection ever works!

Regards

Paul

5.

I have run the engine for about 2000Kms with the brace but cannot say that there is a difference since many other parts were also modified and as I wrote in earlier mails the main bearings were found worn due dirt in the oil. That is all repaired now by grinding the crank to its first undersize and I'm now running the engine in again. But the gear box started to develop a massive oil leak last week coming from the prise shaft and this is another setback as the whole subframe assembly has to come down again in order to be able to remove the gearbox....
Keep you posted!
William

6.

Hello.

So it was dirt in the oil? I am surprised!

As for the gearbox, that of course is a common fault. The roller bearing and seal(s) are always a weak point - especially in the very early 'boxes which had only one seal.

The way I tackle the problem is to remove the engine, drain the 'box and remove the bell-housing; that way you don't have to drop the subframe - or worse, the gearbox!

Regards

Paul

I do not have an engine hoist but I have a ramp so i think that removing the subrame altogether is less work and causes less risk for damaging something in the process.
The seal (double in this 1600 zagato box) is changed together with the bearing in 2006 just before the Lancia centenario in Turin. It functioned faultless for 7000kms.
Cheers,
William

8.

Yes I see.

Well, when I was fifteen years younger, my father had a Fulvia sedan. I changed his clutch in 3.5 hours - removing the engine - which is harder than on a coupé. Ah! those were the days!

I had forgotten that you had the same 'box as I. Those seals/bearings are a real pain!

Paul

More Fanalone

2010-04-05T19:45:00.012+01:00

Hello again.

As I wrote last time, the engine dismantling revealed that certain new parts were necessary. These arrived and this weekend I built up the bottom half of the engine.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a fair amount of time cleaning the oily mess that appears in the earlier photos on this series, so with decent clean parts to work with I could get on with it. At the same time I fitted the new piston rings to the pistons having carefully checked all the gaps. Standard wisdom for water-cooled engines is "three thou per inch of bore" - roughly 0.75mm per 25mm. Every new ring in this case had about 10 - 12 thou (0.010 - 0.012" or 0.25 - 0.3mm) since there is wear in the block. Next time it will have to be a rebore.

A cleanish start!

I think I can say that I have always had trouble making Fulvia engines non-leaky: some of them are as bad as classic English motorcycles. I suppose that this is hardly surprising as the crankcase is all bolted together, and the block bolted on top. So I have taken extra-special care this time preparing all the mating surfaces: we shall see!

First, a quick word about tools. When I first started building these engines, I wondered how I could correctly tighten the block to crankcase bolts. A "crow's foot" attachment was suggested, but these are not much good if tightening torque is substantial as it is in this case - I usually tighten them (12 grade 8mm bolts on 1600s) to 25 lb/ft and use red Loctite as loosened block to crankcase bolts are a serious - and oily - pain. Here's a snap of some tools; they are all 3/8" square drive:

Bottom right is a standard 13mm "crow's foot" attachment; quite useless for this application, unless of course one wants rounded-off bolt heads. So I went back to the Snap-On man and ordered the one on the bottom left, very useful for undoing 13mm tube nuts on hydraulic lines, but no good again, because it is too bulky. Exasperated, I returned to Snap-On's catalogue and in the aircraft tools section, found the one at the top of the picture. This is spline drive and thin walled and does the job nicely so long as somebody hasn't already damaged the bolt heads. The reason is that this tool is (or was) only available in Imperial sizes, so it's ½" (12.7mm). This is good as it makes an excellent tight fit. Of course I make an allowance for the additional length when setting the torque wrench.

It was the late Harry Manning who told me to use a ½" socket rather than 13mm on the 1600 big-end bolts - again to avoid possible damage; sadly there is no equivalent option for the 12mm heads on 1300 con-rods.

Building a Fulvia bottom end is a little awkward in some ways. The crankcase of a Fulvia (as anyone who has read my Fulvia Developments series knows) is weak. It is best then to bolt as much of it together as possible, plus of course the block, before tightening finally the main bearing caps. And in any case one does not want to damage the block to crankcase gasket trying to fit the front cover with the block in place!

The recommended tightening torques for the front and rear covers are quite low, but there are many bolts (good practice this) so the total "clamp" is quite substantial.

So with the crankshaft in place and front and rear covers correctly tightened (not forgetting to install the timing chain which always gets in the way!), one "nips up" the main bearing cap nuts to stop the crank falling on one's foot whilst fixing the block to the crankcase:

Cap nuts "nipped up" ready to fit the end covers and the block

With the block fitted and the main bearing caps tightened to 60lbs/Ft or 8kg/m or 80nm, I then installed the pistons and rods. Not much to say about this except that these days I use a piston ring compressor. I know that the job can be done by feeding in the rings, but it's much less stressful using a compressor. I modified a spring steel one when installing some pistons a few years ago that were fitted with very thin and fragile rings. I simply cut the bottom of the compressor to match the angle of the vee; this works perfectly - one of course must use plenty of oil, but you knew that didn't you?

Here's a snap of the story so far - apologies for the quality:

Note the famous sand-cast large sump fitted only to Fanalones; this holds an extra litre of oil. The sump adds considerably to the rigidity of the crankcase structure. Incidentally, in this case, as is usual, the steel internal baffle was cracked: I could see where I welded it up nine years ago - and of course it cracked somewhere else, two places in fact. Soon fixed with the MIG though.

Next job is to look at cleaning the filthy subframe and to prepare the replacement gearbox for installation.

A bientôt

Formula 1

2010-03-10T23:00:00.004+01:00

Hello again.

This weekend marks the start of the 2010 Formula 1 season with the Bahrain Grand Prix. It is 60 years since the inauguration of the World Drivers' Championship; the first ever WDC race was held at Silverstone in 1950.

So let's for a minute or two, forget the multi-billion-dollar, over-regulated circus that prevails today (and which I still find fascinating despite its shortcomings) and turn back the clock sixty years and absorb a little of the atmosphere of Grand Prix racing as it was.

And a Tipo 159 Alfa-Romeo is my idea of what a real racing-car should look like - especially with Dr Farina at the wheel:

A bientôt

Rocker Shaft Issues

2010-03-06T22:46:00.006+01:00

Many times working on Fulvias, I have found problems with the bolts that secure the camshaft bearing caps/rocker shaft supports. Often this is because stupid individuals have mixed up the bolts and not noticed that one of the longer bolts is slightly shorter... Also I suspect that the very hard aluminium alloy used by Lancia for the Fulvia engine might be prone to crystallisation/ cracking after years of cyclical stress. either way the nasty Helicoils® tend to give way. They should be replaced with Timeserts®

Edit: After re-reading this, I should add that another cause of Helicoil(r) problems is over-tightening of the bolts. Every overhead-camshaft engine that I have worked on has not required extreme tightening torque on these bolts and of course the Fulvia is no exception. the correct figure is 15.9ft/lbf, or 2.2Mkgf, or for the younger ones, 21.6NM

Anyway the following can happen (though I've not heard of it happening in a Fulvia) My first Fulvia that I bought in 1982 had a persistent tappet noise that no amount of adjustment would cure. It was due to a Helicoil that had let go...

A bientôt

The F&M Specials

2010-03-06T19:23:00.008+01:00

I cannot recall ever having written about the F&M Specials here; I was prompted by accidentally finding a link to a video featuring one of them which you will see at the end of this post.

It is years since I read about the origins of these interesting cars. As far as I know they evolved from a car that was prepared for Pat Moss (late sister of Sir Stirling Moss) to drive in the Targa Florio. This I think was a 1300 and she finished a very creditable 9th - she was after all an excellent pilote. In fact her brother is a Fulvia enthusiast. A few years ago he was guest of honour at the Lancia meeting in England and a friend of mine asked him what he thought of the Fulvia. "Great little car!" he replied "You could point it at anything." This really sums up the Fulvia doesn't it? OK well I think so.

Could this be Pat moss?
Source

The Squadra Corse tried very hard to get more power from the Fulvia's engine and having only managed around a claimed (but challenged) 100BHP/litre the only other option was to get the weight down. It is recorded that one 1600 rally car weighed 780kg. How this was acheived bearing in mind homologation restrictions and the requirement for a roll cage, I cannot imagine.

Cesare Fiorio was the rally boss at the time at Lancia, and he and co-conspirator Claudio Maglioli, rally driver, engine tuner and brother of racing-driver Umberto Maglioli. Apparently Fiorio allotted a budget of one million lire (about £500 at the time) which doesn't sound very much to me. But then creative accounting is not new is it?

A short side step: In 1999 I made a trip, in my Fulvia Iniezione to Turin. Naturally I had to photograph the famous Lancia building, but at the time its appearance was rather spoiled by the fact that there had obviously been a fire on one of the floors (the fifth or sixth I think). On returning to England I showed the photographs to various Lancisti there, one of whom observed "I suppose that that was the Accounts Department!"

So for the F&Ms (there were three genuine ones) much hacking was done: the roof of course went and the tail of the car was shortened right back to to rear spring hangers.

The striking appearance that resulted from these modifications and of course the romance of competition history, has prompted the construction of a number of replicas. Here's one I was offered at Fulvia 40 in Turin in 2003 (€35000):

It was supposed to have all the "right bits"... I could well imagine myself blasting down to the "Abinger Hatch" for the Surrey Fulvia Meeting in this car and perhaps doing the Goodwood Track day too. Sadly sums of money in the order of €35000 have eluded me for my entire life.

Fiorio and Maglioli finished up with the F&M2, which was really rather ugly. It weighed 650kg and was supposed to have 160HP.

F&M2
Source

Finally, here is the promised video. It is an in-car effort with Claudio Maglioli himself, driving one of the F&Ms. The noise is amazing and reminds me of when I heard Munari's No 14 running at FIAT's test track in 2003.

A bientôt.

Followers (2)

2010-03-01T22:04:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the two followers who have signed up.

I hope you will find something interesting to read here!

A bientôt

Fanalone: Two Rotten Pictures and a Lubrication lesson

2010-03-01T21:15:00.009+01:00

Hello.

Finally as they say, Spring is round the corner.

The Fanalone on which I reported last year is located in an area which is about 800 metres ( about 2700 ft) above sea level and given the fact that this location is in South Eastern France, snow inevitably has to have its say. This year temperatures dropped to as low as -17° and there was 50cm of snow. The recent gradual thaw meant that I could get back to it.

I removed the rest of the engine from the subframe and stripped it down. After nearly ten years, 26 rallies and plenty of road miles too, I was not optimistic but was pleasantly surprised. There is no significant wear to the bores which are in excellent condition as is the crankshaft (supplied secondhand at the time of the Evolution Engineering rebuild that I did). But the big shock was the condition of the lower centre main bearing shell, as you know the Fulvia's Achilles Heel - or arguably, one of them! I apologise for the photo quality - light was difficult.

All the main bearings were perfect! And I should add that the rev-counter tell-tale reads 9000 rpm, the result of a "buzzing" during a "yump" on a rally. There is no need to replace them - to do so would simply be an unnecessary extravagance.

Some of the big ends have marks and will be replaced. the owner has a set of bearing shells, but these are reticular tin easily recognisable by their silvery finish whereas the correct bearings should be lead indium which are grey in appearance. These will be purchased.

I shall replace the piston rings, merely as a precaution and to ensure that performance remains optimum. 1600 Fulvias always seem to wear their timing chains rather quickly, probably because the chain is really a little on the long side: when Lancia developed the 1600 the increased stroke meant that the block was 12.3mm taller than the 1300's. This of course meant that the timing chain had to be longer. About one to one and a half links would have been ideal, but of course this is impossible so 118 links it had to be with a larger tensioner to take up the slack. So the chain will be replaced.

The oil pump is in excellent condition and will be refitted.

Now then the point of all the foregoing blurb! The owner is absolutely rigid on two points: first, she will never race a cold engine and on the road will cover five miles before she applies any heavy right foot. Second she insists on using only 100% synthetic oil. The oil we have used in this car since it was built in 2001 is AGIP Racing 10W/60 fully synthetic. I have argued in the past that any reasonable modern oil is much better than the products available when the Fulvia was made, but I have to say the results speak for themselves - and after all, I have always said that a can of oil is always cheaper than a new engine.

Having wrapped up and packed away the various parts pending the arrival of the bits and pieces I shall need to do the rebuild, I then removed the gearbox from the subframe as this will be replaced, the owner happily having a spare! She has never been happy with the original, I agree: it is not very nice. It is also bloody heavy. Fulvia gearboxes are heavier than they were 25 years ago or so when I first started lifting them...

The subframe pictured below is much filthier than my rotten photo shows! When conditions improve outside, it will of course be properly cleaned, the replacement gearbox installed and then the S1 1300 steering box, which is excellent as 1300 steering boxes usually are, installed. I mentioned this in an earlier piece.

The plan is that after the bottom half of the engine is built up, I shall then have a look at the head. We have some replacement Fanalone rockers to fit - regular readers will recall we had some rocker and camshaft trouble a while back, and there is a set of new valve springs too.

I'll do my best to make some better pictures next time.

Meanwhile if YOU are anywhere near here - i.e. close to Geneva, then get in touch - I want some Fulvias here to work on!

A bientôt

Followers

2010-02-08T22:52:00.005+01:00

Hello again.

You might have noticed that on the right-hand side of the page there is a section titled "followers"

I am delighted to see that there has been for some time a "follower" and would be most happy if one or two of the regulars would register as followers.

The reason I mention this is that today I have a new follower who is not welcome. I received a comment today from this person, apparently in response to my most recent post about the aircraft. The "comment" was a rant in Spanish I think, about the parents of the missing Madeleine McCann. Strange to say (!) I rejected the comment and deleted it from my email inbox.

So please, please, register as a "follower to help swamp out this conspiracy-theorist spammer. Unfortunately there seems to be no way to remove this turd from my blog!

Thanks in advance,

A bientôt.

Impossible to Resist

2010-01-18T23:00:00.006+01:00

Hello,

My regular readers will know that I have an interest in old military aircraft.

Today I came across a type of which I had previously been unaware, the fastest ever, production, piston-engined British fighter, capable of 472mph (even faster than the super Napier-engined Hawker Tempest and also the Hawker Sea Fury. Mind you the Third Reich's Dornier DO 335 "push-pull" fighter was better at 474mph!)

It was called the de Havilland Hornet; like many advanced piston-engined types it came too late as jets were already flying.

The photograph in the Wikipedia article though, was absolutely irresistable for obvious reasons:

The hi-fi club?

Tailpiece: regarding the wonderful Dorner DO335 I mentioned above, the story goes that at the end of the Second World War, when the Americans were gathering as much advanced German technology as they could under "Operation Paperclip" a captured DO335 was flown from Germany to Cherbourg for onward shipping to the US. It was escorted by a pair of P51 Mustangs (no slowcoaches these). They didn't stand a chance: the DO335 arrived 45 minutes before them!

Modern: The exciting Dornier DO335

Source

A bientôt

Evian les Bains

2010-01-15T20:51:00.003+01:00

Last April I mentioned that I would soon be working in a garage at Evian les Bains, and so I am!

Evian is a very attractive town situated on the shore of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva for the English) and a very popular holiday destination, given the lake, the proximity of Switzerland (16km up the road) the excellent surrounding countryside - Le Chablais - and I mustn't omit to mention the superb cheese from Abondance which is not far from Evian.

Anyway, to get to the point, I am here at the garage ready to welcome Fulvia owners and offer a wide range of mechanical services. I rather hope that if you are a new or newish visitor to this blog, that you will take a little time to read my numerous articles here which should show you that my 28 years spent in the company of Lancias, and mostly Fulvias, have not been entirely spent in vain.

I must add that here we are also knowledgeable and capable on Morgans (which we offer for sale) and Land Rovers too.

A bientôt (j'éspère!)

News from the Land of the Free

2010-01-15T20:26:00.002+01:00

Or in particular, the state of Arizona.

A report in the Daily Telegraph reveals that in Arizona, the citizens of the state are upholding fine American Republican Principles.

They are refusing to accept the installation and use of fixed speed cameras, which they have declared to be "unconstitutional".

I agree, they should be "unconstitutional in England too - and in France!

As far as I am aware, the speed camera was the second instance of a penalty being imposed without the right to plead mitigation (the parking ticket was, I suppose, the first).

A company called Redflex, which has installed the cameras, is apparently "under financial pressure" owing to widespread refusal to pay the fines. Good, I hope they go bankrupt in the biggest possible way - and soon!

A bientôt

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T09:36:00.004+01:00

Image sources, here and here

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, a new year full of happiness, prosperity, smooth-running engines, rust-free Fulvias, low fuel prices, freedom from government interference etc!

A bientôt

A Bit More Fanalone

2009-11-27T18:47:00.009+01:00

Well, well, unbelievably there has been a bit of progress on what will be a long project - owing to a variety of reasons (laziness is not one of them).

First of all, a couple of snaps of the rather crowded engine compartment. A lot of these modifications were carried out after the car left the workshop at Evolution Engineering in 2001. Amongst the mods are an hydraulic brake servo and a Peugeot master cylinder, the original Lancia item and its replacement being as usual, useless - as with my own car which uses a FIAT Regata item. There is also a lot of complex wiring - too complex in my view.

The point is that all the work carried out, which I must say was largely pretty good was performed by someone who didn't know anything about Fulvias. If you are planning to have something done on your Fulvia, then consult someone who knows his way around these fascinating cars!

Of course some dismantling had already been done when I made
this photo - it doesn't always look quite like this!

Dismantling a modified car is always more time-consuming, though mine isn't too bad, but there I have the advantage of knowing what was done.

The bloke who (later) modified the Fanalone decided that it would be a good idea to alter the run of the petrol feed pipe. He cut off the original at the bottom of the bulkhead and then threaded a copper extension through the sub-frame; this was a pain to remove, and I promise it will not be going back!

With the sub-frame finally out of the car, I have decided to do a spot of engine dismantling in situ as I am rather limited at home for workbench space.

Oily, as might be expected after 26 rallies plus other sorties!
The engine is to be rebuilt

A closer view of the head. Fanalone experts will spot the "error"
which of course will be rectified. Come on experts, what is it??

On removing the carburetters and inlet manifold I was amazed at how clean my modified ports (which I hadn't seen for years) were. Since the above snap was made, I have removed the steering box which sadly is scrap: it had been "adjusted" by somebody who did not have the benefit of instruction on the subject from Harry Manning as I did. Fortunately the owner always found the steering rather too heavy and as there is a good S1 1300 'box available, this will be fitted. In any case Fanalone steering boxes are pretty much rocking-horse droppings aren't they?

There is a spare gearbox from a car alleged to have covered only 80,000km (50,000 miles) which will probably be fitted in pace of the existing one which is not nice to use. My Renault 5 GTX which has covered over 290,000km has a gearbox that Fulvia owners could only dream about - and it has perfectly-chosen ratios and is still silent despite shocking neglect!

A bit of objectivity can be useful sometimes.

Another joy is that a bottom ball joint must be replaced so I shall be looking for a "Porta-Power" to borrow, as with the sub-frame out I shall not have the weight of the car to help me with the dreaded front spring. A friend of mine will remember the enormous TWANG when attempting to lift the spring with a bottle jack... The jack ended up about 20 yards away, with a nasty groove on its shaft, fortunately without killing anybody. You have been warned!

Incidentally, it was with the same friend that I removed a sub-frame assembly complete from a Fulvia in 38 minutes. Oh to be young again!

A bientôt

Hello again

2009-07-23T20:35:00.003+01:00

Well here we are again; I have had nothing of interest to say about our favourite car for some time, this being the raison d'être of this blog, but this is about to change for a spell.

The lady who owns the rally Fanalone for which you might recall I built the engine and other bits and pieces, has decided that after 26 rallies without an overhaul, the time has come for a proper look.

So I am taking out the subframe which will provide an opportunity for a good clean up and also easy access to the steering and suspension components. The engine will be dismantled too.

I shall make photographs of the process which will be a fairly long one and comment here and there about stuff that I find.

Off-Topic - "Dictionary Syndrome"

2009-05-29T21:02:00.006+01:00

Hello.

"Off-topic" - I mention "dictionary syndrome" in my title, because I came across a fascinating article whilst searching for something else.

The article, which concerns cars that are propelled by propellers, appears on a site with the curious name of Dark Roasted Blend

Here's a sample of what you will find there:

Picture source: Dark Roasted Blend

The picture shows one Count Bertrand de Lesseps, intrepid man, demonstrating his "Auto Aero" car in 1912; so intrepid is he that he is even smoking a cigarette...

Dark Roasted Blend's raison d'etre is "Weird and Wonderful Things" and I can promise, they are not lying! Definitely one to bookmark and well worth a visit.

À bientôt

Not the "Sound of Silence"

2009-05-01T21:15:00.004+01:00

A bill has been introduced into the US Senate which is an instruction to the Department of Transportation "to conduct a study to devise and require a "non-visual alert regarding the location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle"." This of course concerns the growing number of electric cars.

The idea is that blind people could be unaware of approaching vehicles and thus could be at risk of injury. This story is reported in The Register.

Fair enough, but there'd be no problem with my Fulvia, how about yours? If it must be electric then I would opt for a couple of 100W amplifiers, suitable loudspeakers and a decent recording of a V16 BRM

A bientôt

More Bull

2009-04-27T13:48:00.004+01:00

So, although I expected another victory, Sebastian Vettel finished second for Red Bull at Bahrain; unlike Button, he was unable to pass Hamilton's slower McLaren. He finished seven seconds behind the winner - whilst Trulli with the soft tyres on his Toyota was pushing him hard in the last stages of the race.

Ross Brawn says that his cars have had no updates since the start of the season, and Jenson Button says that the Red Bulls are already faster.

Adrian Newey at Red Bull will not have been idle since his absence from the trackside was ordered a couple of weeks ago.

I am still not inclined to bet against Red Bull this year, despite McLaren's improving form and the presence of Luca di Montezemolo at Bahrain which may well have stimulated the Ferrari team somewhat. It must be acknowledged that Kimi Raikkonen had a good race, whilst his teammate was, like Red Bull's Mark Webber, rather unlucky.

A bientôt

Shanghai

2009-04-19T19:18:00.001+01:00

With Red Bull first and second, what more can I say?

A bientôt

Diffusion

2009-04-16T15:12:00.010+01:00

My regular readers will know that I like to follow F1, despite the fact that the general public and the media seem to think that it is "Driver Racing" rather than Motor Racing. Despite my recent admiring post here concerning Juan Manuel Fangio, it is or perhaps was, the technical battle that fascinated me, which apart from my generally nostalgic nature, makes study of the 1950s and '60s Grand Prix battles so interesting. The days when, within broad limits, manufacturers would do their best by any means to beat their rivals.

In those days there would be excitement because Team A had an special new engine, Team B had a monocoque chassis, Team C had a new fancy fuel etc.

Nowadays there is little room for manoeuvre, although we have recently had an excellent, though very difficult-to-understand example in the matter of the diffusers, in particular those fitted to Brawn (née Honda), Toyota and Williams cars. As you may have read, these were said by other teams to be outside the regulations and a protest was raised which was thrown out yesterday by the FIA. Here from the BBC F1 website is a picture of the diffuser fitted to the Williams. As I understand it, the top is supposed to be a straight line; this obviously isn't but is apparently within the regulations. I say good luck to them; they are much cleverer than I!

In the BBC article, there are various links on this subject. which those absorbed in this rather esoteric topic may pursue at their leisure.

I cannot reproduce any illustrations from the Official F1 Website, hardly surprising I suppose, given that it's generous Bernie Ecclestone in charge, so you'll have to look up the following couple of items yourselves.

First the McLaren diffuser

And then the one fitted to the Brawn GP car

I have to admit that I would have to study this for months before I could understand the subject.

It is always important to remember that FI designers are at the top of their profession, highly paid and highly esteemed; McLaren for example would have devoted a great deal of time and attention to the design - it would not have been signed-off lightly. Some of the protesting teams have claimed that the so-called "double-decker diffuser" is worth up to half a second a lap - 24 hours in F1 terms!

But there's the rub: amongst the "non-double-decker teams" one has been consistently quick and in some cases quicker, than the "double-deckers". That team is Red Bull-Renault whose car was designed by the famous Adrian Newey. This fact makes some of the whinging from certain other teams seem a little silly - Ferrari in particular springs to mind - Ferrari, whose car and apparently organisation this year are shall we say, less than superb.

Following the overturning of the protest of course, all teams except Brawn, Toyota and Williams will be developing their own "double-deckers". Anyone care to bet against Red Bull this season?

UPDATE

Here, quoted from Autosport.com, is Adam Parr, CEO at Williams, talking about the diffuser issue:

"Part of the case presented against us related to what we call as the use of multiple vertical transitions. Essentially, you have to have a reference plane, which is like the plank, and 50mm above that you have the step planes. One of the key issues in the case was: when do you have to have a transition between those two?

"Essentially you have to have a vertical transition between the two when the step plane is visible directly above the periphery of the reference plane. Where you don't, it is explicit that you don't have to have one. So one of the key issues in the case was that if you don't have to have one at certain points then by definition you can have many transitions.

No doubt this has helped enormously to clarify the matter eh readers?

UPDATE II

Thanks to "Auntie Beeb" former Technical Director Mike Gascoyne helps to lift some of the fog...

UPDATE III

Saturday, Shanghai: Sebastian Vettel achieves Red Bull's first-ever pole position. Here are Jenson Button's (Brawn GP) comments from Autosport.com:

"It's not quite as good as what I expected," Button told the BBC. "The Red Bulls were quick yesterday, we were watching them in the high speed corners and they were very, very fast.

"So if you at Q2 it looked like they had two or three tenths on us, so yeah they are competitive. And it's not us driving around slowly or having a lot of fuel in the car because it's Q2 and you run with low fuel so they are going to be tough to beat.

"We knew they were competitive but we didn't think quite that competitive."

A bientôt

Land of the Free?

2009-04-11T21:56:00.005+01:00

How many of you have been caught by a speed-trap radar? Almost everybody hates these things, and my principle objection is that ignoring many centuries of legal precedent, these contrivances dispense arbitrary "justice" with no consideration given to conditions, circumstances or mitigation. I recall that my last English ticket was earned owing to an outrageous breach of the law. I was driving on a deserted road one evening, that real tearaway's car, a SII Fulvia Berline and travelling at the highly irresponsible speed of 38 mph. This cost me sixty quid. Ridiculous.

Here in France it is illegal to have any device that detects police radars/lasers. Worse, whilst there are as yet fewer fixed cameras than in the UK, one can often see the Gendarmes with their blasted jumelles (binoculars) trying to earn a few euros for the impoverished republic. They also have unmarked cars with radars or lasers installed.

As I understand it, the law about detectors is a bit vague in Britain (although this might have changed recently) whilst I suppose that jammers are strictly "off the menu.".

Things are different in the USA; here is an article from Jalopnik via Gizmodo all about a RENNtech-developed Mercedes-Benz. Apart from the 580HP and 465lb/ft of torque and appropriate suspension mods etc., the ultimate accessory is a radar/laser detector and jammer. This is built-in - to the rear-view mirror! Wonderful stuff. One of the comments on the article points out that such accessories are illegal in Virginia, but then that still leaves 49 other states to "explore!"

A bientôt

The Old Man

2009-04-07T20:27:00.007+01:00

The "Old Man" was Juan Manuel Fangio's nickname in the 1950s when he achieved his five world championships. He was 45 in 1957 when he won the last one, and anyone who has read about his stunning drive that year at the Nürburgring will recognise his greatness.

Anyway, he is my favourite post-war driver (though I have a big place in my heart for Mike Hawthorn) in respect of his staggering talent and ability.

Here I have a couple of videos for you. Pertinently the first one happily in colour, shows Fangio at Monaco driving the Lancia D50 - OK, "Lancia-Ferrari"... The noise! EDIT: I have just this minute discovered this thread on the Atlas Nostalgia Forum. It appears that this film was made in 1970 and Fangio (at 58 years old) is driving a D50 - doesn't explain though why there is a Ferrari badge on the front of it, instead of the "shield and flag"

And here at the Modena Autodrome in a 250F - great car control and more wonderful noise. As a (English) Lancia Club friend observed to me, once the engines went above about 10,000 it became difficult to relate to the noise. I agree.

For all you youngsters, I should point out that in 1957, a 250F Maserati, running on the special fuels permitted (for the last time that year) produced from its 2.5 litre engine, around 295-300 BHP. Doesn't sound much today does it? But these cars weighed about half a ton and were very quick. Maximum speed was probably around 170 mph, and with drum brakes and those skinny cross-ply tyres, required a great deal of skilled input from the drivers. And a Grand Prix in those days was 300 miles...

Until the next time.

Still Alive

2009-04-05T21:37:00.004+01:00

Just in case you were wondering!

I was browsing the excellent fora on Atlas today; these really are excellent for those interested in Motorsport. Apart from the "Racing Comments" forum which is concerned with current events in F1, there is the superb Nostalgia Forum and also the Technical Forum. The contributors to this are very well informed - at least most of them - and some of the contributors are obviously in the highest echelons of the Motor Industry - or perhaps Motorsport industry. The expertise and breadth of knowledge to be found there is quite simply breathtaking.

And it was a thread there that prompted this post.

Those of you who are "hands-on" Fulvia owners who cannot resist taking things apart may have been distressed to notice the sad state of your rocker shafts... Yes, Lancia in its wisdom (or perhaps they let the cost accountants out for a breath of air) chose to run the forged steel rockers directly on the hardened steel rocker shafts. If you have removed the valve gear you will probably have noticed the depressing wear in certain places. I should add, that had Lancia bitten the cost bullet and lined the rockers with bronze bushes which would be the normal engineering procedure (oil retention) amazingly the shafts would have worn probably just as much. In the 1930s, Lancia produced the wonderful Aprilia, a car years ahead of its time - like so many Lancias. The engine, a narrow-angle V4 of course, featured duralumin connecting-rods. These had no bearings, the dural ran directly onto the steel, and it was the crank that wore - not the rods!

Well here's a thread from the Atlas Technical Forum that is concerned with the subtleties of rocker shaft design and manufacture. Should appeal to the engineers and mathematicians amongst you!

Meanwhile there is a chance that I shall finally be in a position to offer you proper Fulvia (mechanical) attention if you live in the Geneva area or perhaps if you are on a pilgrimage to Turin! I may well be operaitng at a garage in Evian les Bains directly on the shore of Lake Geneva. If my expertise fails to attract you, then surely the view will!

Watch this space.

A bientôt

Something Unusual

2009-02-05T13:58:00.005+01:00

A short while ago, one of my Fulvia contacts asked me to comment on this ebay item. From the item comes the picture above; it's a turbo set-up for a Fulvia!

If you click on the link you will find some more pictures.

With my experience at Evolution Engineering which specialised in Lancia and FIAT, I have to say that this "kit" appears to have used various FIAT components - almost certainly from a Uno Turbo. At a glance it would seem to me that the problems would be formidable. Here are some of those that spring to mind:

- With 9.5/1 or 10.5/1 compression (1300/1600) one could run very little boost without meltdown ensuing rapidly, so special pistons would be required to lower the compression ratio.

- This problem would be exacerbated by the necessarily long inlet pipe (where would you run it?) which would mean lag and raised inlet temperatures

- Pressurised carburettor(s) would be very difficult to arrange, so electronic injection/management would be required. To install this would not be trivial; the cheapest approach would probably be to use a plenum chamber and single throttle body scrounged from another Uno Turbo; then of course there's mounting the sensors - oh yes and the small matter of calibration.

- Routing the exhaust, always a problem on a Fulvia would be rather tricky... and how long would that welded-up exhaust manifold last?

- The Fulvia's original radiator would have to go - under-bonnet temperatures would be a big problem and of course you'd have to find space for the intercooler.

- Finally, I would say that off-boost performance would probably not be very impressive.

Desite all this I have a weakness for modifications as my readers probably know, so best of luck to whoever won the auction!

A bientot

Ouch!

2009-01-17T14:40:00.005+01:00

From time to time I have written articles here about motorsport - F1 and rallying - since I assume that a fair proportion of Lancisti are interested in the sport.

So with this in mind I have no hestitaion in including the following dialogue between Autosport and Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari boss and big noise in the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).

Di Montezemolo has been prominent in demanding that the teams receive a bigger share of the TV revenues that at present appear to accrue to Bernie Ecclestone's organisation. Thus:

Q. Isn't it a guarantee...

LdM: So you never want to talk about Ferrari, only Ecclestone? I haven't come here to do PR for Ecclestone! I'm kidding.

Q. When talking before Christmas about the redistribution of revenues and more, you said these things need to be re-discussed with Ecclestone. Two days later Ecclestone launched a scathing attack against Ferrari and its top management, which you've never replied to. We've now seen a hug...

LdM: You're either born a gentleman, otherwise you'll never become one.

It would seem that politically at least, the 2009 season should be very interesting!

A bientôt

Lancia in South Africa

2009-01-13T14:27:00.005+01:00

Hello again>

Apologies to Phil Laing of South Africa; I wrote a piece last July on this subject and promised Phil that I would include a link to his website, for the Cape Lancia Club - which is well worth looking at as there is plenty of interesting Lancia stuff going on in SA as a glance at the site will demonstrate.

The link is going up now!

A bientôt

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:30:00.003+01:00

Best wishes to you all for Christmas.

I hope that 2009 proves to be a great motoring year - at least the price of oil is still falling!

A bientôt

Paul

It's Italian and it's called "Covini"

2008-12-10T22:56:00.004+01:00

Hello.

Here's another bright idea that will probably disappear - at least given the present economic climate, but I'll give them an "A" for effort:

Quite a nice noise...

A bientôt

Hello Again

2008-11-23T16:19:00.003+01:00

Lancia doesn't have much luck does it? Having just introduced the attractive new Delta, with an expensive TV ad campaign (at least here in France) with the film star, what's his name, we have global financial meltdown, with the automobile industry suffering very badly.

In France many factories are to close for a period, and I know that locally there have been many lay-offs - for example in many of the engineering and machining companies in the Arve valley near here. FIAT by all accounts has been doing quite well in comparison. This is amazing considering that the group was in desperate straits just a few years ago. If car sales get slow for FIAT though, I suggest that instead of making cars they might start making spare parts for some of their classic models. The Italian spares service is an international disgrace. A friend here has a 1971 BMW 2002 for which he needed a new brake master cylinder. He went to BMW and it was delivered in less than a week. Those with Fulvias of the same epoch or Integrales from twenty years later can only dream of such things. Why cannot the Italians provide this sort of service? It might in months to come, keep some skilled people in jobs...

And on the subject of the automobile industry, the following cartoon from the Boston Globe amused me: after all as the old saying went "What's good for GM is good for America"!

Source: Boston Globe

A bientôt, j'éspère.

Well, It is a V4...

2008-09-24T21:18:00.004+01:00

A while ago, I wrote about an extraordinary W9 engine.
Now a V4 - but not one you might have imagined. This V4 is based on the Ferrari Enzo engine and powers - a Ferrari motor-cycle!

When I think of the difficulty in building a simple modified Fulvia, I am staggered by the energy and resourcefulness of those who come up with such amazing concepts. This one was produced by Glinik from whose site the pictures here are taken. Not a lock-up garage project is it?

An interesting feature is that the project carries the Ferrari logo, which suggests that this project is very serious indeed.

A bientôt

A Round of Applause Please

2008-09-22T19:52:00.003+01:00

Thomas Crook is one of my readers; he is also a talented animator as the following (quite mad!) video should show you:

Thomas has now completed university and is seeking a position as an animator; if any of you have any ideas you can contact him via my "Chatbox"!

A bientôt

Not Much News...

2008-09-08T20:55:00.006+01:00

Hello.

I have no Fulvia news at present - except that a local chap - a rallyiste - has been in touch to borrow my rear hub tool (sadly he has his car worked on by some Alpine specialist - perish the thought!!!).

I thought though that I'd entertain you with a story from the 1968 race from Ron Dennis ,that appeared on Autosport.com today. Sorry if you've seen it already!

At the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, McLaren was celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the team's first victory - at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1968. Ron has plenty to say in the way of comparisons over the years and they are interesting - hit the link if you like F1 information.

For this blog, I just want to include the splendid anecdote which is very indicative of how much has changed in the past forty years. Here it is:

"This was a difficult race for us because we had two different types of engine in the cars and in Jack's car we had the latest Repco engine. In practice, one of the valve seats dropped out of the cylinder head and this was the only engine we had - the second one was locked in customs.

"We never worked at the circuit, we used to take the cars to a garage - there were all these local garages around and you would write to them saying 'Can we use your facilities?' during the weekend and they used to clear an area out.

"As you know, there's a small airfield down the road, so the only solution was to take the cylinder heads off and Jack took them in his plane back to the factory, the engine shop in Guildford. They machined new valve inserts and literally took the cylinder heads home and put them in the oven.

"We were so tired when we got back to finish that night; we'd prepared all the engine - the engine was in the car to take the cylinder heads, and the next morning we got back to the circuit after working all night. And the Brabham trailer had a door that used to open from the bottom to the top and we arrived at the circuit, opened the door and one of the cars was missing.

"It had come loose, opened the door and it was about two miles down the road parked in the corner of a road completely undamaged with a whole crowd of people around it! So Jack arrives with the cylinder heads and he never knew the car had dropped out the back of the truck. It was very embarrassing! Needless to say, it didn't finish, but not because of that reason."

Then: Ron Dennis with Jack Brabham
Image source: Here

Now: Ron Dennis with Lewis Hamilton
Picture source: The Sun

A bientôt

Dodgy Photoshopping and Dodgier Cars - from Russia

2008-08-28T14:46:00.003+01:00

From EnglishRussia.com comes a photo report of a rather dubious car show. I can without fear of contradiction, declare that the "photoshopping" is at least as bad as many of the exhibits (and that's saying something).

I did like this ZIL or perhaps ZIS, Packard copy though:

Picture source: Englishrussia.com

And I didn't see a single Italian car in the pictures - let alone a Lancia.

A bientôt

A Fascinating Thread - for the Technical

2008-08-16T20:21:00.004+01:00

I have been a member of Atlas FI.com's forums for about six years (the main site is Autosport.com). Whilst searching there today for something interesting about the Fulvia that perhaps I could add to this rather (currently) under-posted blog, I came across a fascinating thread in the Technical forum.

This concerns an engine-design project carried out by a university student who is doing a master's degree. His project? A W9 engine of 2977cc predicted to make 526HP!

So far it seems that the engine has not been run, but it certainly exists - here. Here's a picture taken from the site:

The article on the site contains a lot of interesting detail which I heartily recommend to any of you with an interest in technical matters.

The subject of the Fulvia came up early in the thread on Atlas (which runs to six pages).

One poster wrote:

There are some pics here: http://www.viva-lancia.com/huib/sor.htm

and some cutaway drawings on www.carsfromitaly.net if you follow the links through to Lancia models then Fulvia.

A beautiful engine IMH

I agree - although those of you who have read my "Developments" series on this blog will know I have my reservations, notwithstanding my enthusiasm for the Fulvia in all its forms.

Finally I commend the thread to those amongst you who are technically inclined; the depth of knowledge of some of the regulars there is breathtaking. Some of the contributors are obviously senior engineers in the industry who have plenty to say on some of the subjects I have touched on hereabouts (and on other things too).

A bientôt

Anecdote from the Hungaroring

2008-08-07T19:59:00.003+01:00

The following, lifted from Autosport.com - the Daily Grapevine amused me; I hope you enjoy it too:

PS: The other story that emerged from the dinner was of a poor newspaper journalist drafted in for his first F1 race as replacement for their regular correspondent. Sitting down in the Bridgestone motorhome, which was situated in this paddock right next to Ferrari, he thought the Japanese tyre manufacturer actually ran a team.

Turning to Hamashima he said: "I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but when do you think you're going to start competing on level terms with top teams like Ferrari and McLaren?"

Hamashima was a bit taken mystified by the question until another Fleet Street journalist leaned over and said, "Er, Bridgestone is a tyre company old boy." Cue much laughter...

A bientôt

Apple iPhone 3G - Could be for You!

2008-07-31T15:15:00.006+01:00

The picture above shows the new 3G iPhone, for which there have been reports of people queuing for days to be amongst the first to have the new toy. Apple reportedly sold 1,000,000 in the three days following the launch.

Since then developers have been busy coming up with new applications for the phone and one I found yesterday really was quite a surprise and should be of great interest to those of you who are developing your cars - or who even just take a close interest in your Fulvia's performance.

The new application has the rather unfortunate name of Dynolicious (how do they think of them?).

As you can see from the pictures, all the performance data you could need are provided.

I learned about this from Gizmodo, from which the pictures came. The article explains that the iPhone has a built-in accelerometer which is used to generate the data.

Now all you have to do is a) get an iPhone; b) load up Dynolicious; c) find a police-free zone or a race-track to get down to some serious testing!

Best of all is the price of the application: $12.99!

A bientôt.

New Look

2008-07-26T17:16:00.002+01:00

You will no doubt have noticed the new look: blue for Lancia and Yellow for Turin... Sadly this blog page is somewhat corrupted I suspect and I was unable to change the colour of the hyperlinks to something more contrasty; I have urgent need of someone who understands the nightmare that is HTML!

I have been sent some more restoration pictures and these will go up here this weekend. I shall do my best to try to post a bit more and once again, apologies for the dearth of activity.

One of my regular Fulvia correspondents is experimenting with programmable ignition, an excellent idea in my view although not entirely easy - unless one has a great deal of dyno time available. His car is highly developed with many exciting features; he knows who he is... I hope that before too long he will allow me to "lift the veil" a little and show off some mouth-watering developments. However, my readers will, I am sure, understand that it is perfectly natural to keep original ideas "under wraps."

À bientôt

Restorations

2008-07-13T13:36:00.007+01:00

I am flattered that from time to time some of my readers take the trouble to share information about their cars and in particular details of the work that they are doing. Recently I have been sent two sets of pictures showing restoration work - either done or "to do". I have always found such pictures instructive and often inspiring, so, presuming no objections from the senders, here is the first selection I have chosen.

No doubt those of you who have worked on your cars will be familiar with the areas shown!

I await your comments with interest.

À bientôt

News from South Africa

2008-07-03T19:56:00.004+01:00

Those who you who look at my "C Box" - RH side of page - might have noticed that I have received contact from Phil at the Cape Lancia Club located as their website says, in beautiful Capetown.

I recall meeting, many years ago in Harry Manning's place a splendid South African enthusiast who ran an early Flavia. I asked him how he managed for parts... His response in best pioneering style: "I make 'em - and I can fix your TV set too!"

Lancia at one time had an assembly plant in South Africa, which, I imagine, together of course with the perfect climate, accounts for the very considerable numbers of classic Lancias still in use there - see the beautiful Lambda in the picture above - sorry Phil, I couldn't resist...

I hope to hear from some of the Cape Lancisti - and I think if one of them would care to contact me with some information, I should be delighted to add a piece about Lancia's South African operations; and of course I hav added a link to the club's home page in my links list (RH side of page again!).

À bientôt

Fuel Consumption News

2008-07-03T15:44:00.003+01:00

Hello.

I do not for a minute imagine that I have to remind you that the price of crude oil has now reached $145 per barrel, and nor do I have to point out the impact that this is having on our lives!

Nevertheless, "necessity is the mother of invention" so the old saying goes and now a chap in America is claiming that his 1987 Ford Mustang can do 110 miles per gallon. Not bad you might think; in fact since he is an American, he will be talking in US gallons; the equivalent in Imperial gallons would be 132 mpg - or for my continental readers, 2.1 litres/100km.

There is nothing like a pain in the wallet to stimulate development is there?

À bientot

Rallying is Dangerous

2008-06-22T17:22:00.009+01:00

Yesterday, I spent most of the day watching our local rally: Le Rallye du Pays Rochois. It was my intention to write a piece illustrating the glories of the French countryside on a beautiful sunny day whilst various French men and women competed over the special stages.

This will have to wait for a little while, as sadly in the penultimate "special", there was a tragic crash: a Renault collided with a tree. The driver actually survived the accident but tragically died of heart failure after being freed from the car by the emergency services. His co-driver was taken to a hospital in Geneva - the usual procedure with very serious injuries.

However, for now I attach a little video clip that I think will entertain some of you

À bientôt

P.S. By the way I have had the same problems with this post as with the Nantua one: again I had to delete a load of HTML gibberish, before Blogger would accept the post - and again all I did was type out the post onto Blogger's page!

Bloggrrrrrrrrr

2008-06-22T17:15:00.004+01:00

Anyone know a better blog-host than Google's blogger? I apologise for the appalling appearance of the previous article which was in no way my fault. I spent an hour trying to edit it to no avail.

To start with, Blogger rejected my publication on the grounds that "Your HTML cannot be accepted."

What HTML? I hadn't made any or written/created/cooked up any. The stupid program does this allegedly by itself. So I deleted great tranches of rubbish until it accepted the article and if it finds this bordel acceptable then that speaks volumes for Blogger.

Now the various fonts that appear in the article do not appear on the draft page; anyone who doesn't believe me is welcome to a screenshot!

Finally it is about time that Blogger produced a preview page that at least vaguely resembles the item that will appear on the blog.

Grrrrrr!!!

A Grey Sunday at Nantua

2008-06-22T16:05:00.024+01:00

Despite its Italian-sounding name, Nantua is a picturesque small town located at the west end of the Jura mountains in the Departement de l'Ain about 50km or so from my home. The landscape is delightful in the area helped to a great extent by the lake pictured here.

So, I can hear you ask, what's this got to do with this blog? Well, sadly not much, although it does concern cars at least. I was in Nantua to meet a bloke concerning some possible work and the occasion was an English car show or more properly, gathering.

On arrival I saw plenty of Jaguars as the French have a great affection for these - yes even including early XJ6s! However there were one or two more recherché items, for example the bizarre Ghia Austin-Healey 3000 and the stunningly lovely Swiss-bodied Alvis:

I was introduced to an Englishman (who like me has a French name) resident in Switzerland, who had arrived in a splendidly restored 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, quite a rare car in England - the Bentley version, the Mk VI being much more common. Incidentally I have read that R-R marketed the Bentley in the UK as at the time there was a "strong wind" blowing from the left in England and it was thought that the Bentley radiator grille was a little less "obvious" than the Rolls one.

The chap was very friendly and invited me to sit down with him and share a pleasant lunch and an excellent bottle of wine, which I did. Later we drove together up to the prize-giving where my new acquaintance received first prize for his car - deservedly so in fact.

However, for the Italian car fan, all was not lost; any of you who go to these kinds of event will know that the car park is often as interesting as the event itself. On this occasion, I found a delightful Ferrari 250GT, that I would very much liked to have driven home!

À bientôt

It's Been a While Hasn't it?

2008-06-14T19:54:00.004+01:00

Sorry for the silence; apart from the fact that I have had no inspiration, I have been rather busy with various things, and in particular my computers...

Anyway an old friend sent me a link which I was delighted to receive. It concerns my boyhood hero, Mike Hawthorn, Britain's first Formula 1 World Champion.

Hawthorn won the championship, by just one point fifty years ago in 1958. After winning the championship he immediately announced his retirement; he was killed in a road crash in January 1959.

In those days Grand Prix drivers did a lot more than just F1 racing. Like most of his contemporaries Hawthorn raced sports cars and also saloons. On his day (and it must be admitted he was inconsistent) he was awesome in the D-type Jaguar - fastest lap in a D-type at the terrifying Dundrod circuit in Northern Ireland is just one example of his talent and bravery - and he was one of the very few who could go really quickly in the tricky Ferrari 750 Monza (Ascari died in one of these).

Anyway, here's a delightful video, made in 1956, where Hawthorn equipped with microphone takes us on a lap of Le Mans in a D-type.

Given that it is the fiftieth anniversary year of Hawthorn's success and that the Le Mans 24-hour race is in progress as I write this, I think that this post is really jolly appropriate - as Hawthorn himself might have remarked.

As a parting shot, I think I should add that Hawthorn - and his father Leslie who were based at Farnham in Surrey, were great Lancia fans; Chris Nixon tells an hilarious tale of young Mike's adventures in an Aprilia, and Leslie Hawthorn's Aprilia EYE 606 was at dear old Harry Manning's garage until the end.

À bientôt

Speed test

2008-05-17T21:45:00.004+01:00

Well as you can see above, I have now added a new speed test. It is not the one to which I referred the other day, but unfortunately that one cannot be made to work with Blogger.com. Still, it doesn't look too bad!

À bientôt

Internet Speed Test

2008-05-13T22:22:00.003+01:00

Sorry about the delay on the super new Broadband Speed test, I am trying to find a solution - I have the code uploaded but it doesn't work and the instructions are no help at all. I am, in the words of Lou Reed "Waiting for my man" - in other words it is NOT a "Perfect Day."

The test can be seen here - car enthusiasts will appreciate the design.

The company offers an Internet Speed test too. Well worth a look.

À bientôt

Didn't see the joke...

2008-05-12T21:04:00.003+01:00

Picture source here

Now this chap knew exactly what to do with his £50 banger when some obnoxious official clamped it... Read all about it here.

I once bought a Fulvia for £50 - and drove it away, but that was a long time ago!

À bientôt

Back

2008-05-09T21:45:00.005+01:00

Hello all; yes I am back home in France after my spell in England, much of which was spent in front of a computer and a bit underneath a Land-Rover about which, more anon.

I have been away about five weeks in which time the price of a barrel of oil has increased by about 32%, with Goldman Sachs now saying that the barrel price could reach $200 in six months...

So how topical is the idea pictured below?

Picture: Gizmodo

Yes, it's your own fuel-producing plant; it makes ethanol from sugar, water and yeast, or stale beer amongst other things. It can produce 35 gallons (US) - about 132 litres - of 100% pure ethanol in a week. Yes it costs $10,000 but with the way prices are going it will start to look like a bargain. The full story can be found here.

Ethanol does not have the same specific heat as gasoline, so your Fulvia would require some re-jetting to run the richer mixture required, but ethanol has a Research Octane Number of about 110, so pinking should be a thing of the past.

Of course this is another example of dynamic American enterprise, a commodity conspicuously lacking in certain other countries. I can imagine that anyone attempting to make his own "environmentally-friendly" fuel would quickly attract (in England) the attention of HM Revenue and Customs and most likely, the anti-terrorist squad as well (28 days in jug, possibly rising to 42). In America, according to the article, tax breaks will be available.

That's progress.

À bientôt

A bit quiet...

2008-04-05T18:07:00.003+01:00

You will have noticed that things are a bit quiet hereabouts. I do have an excuse: I am in London at present and rather busy helping a friend out.

As soon as I have a chance I will try to write something new, so in the meantime, thanks for your loyalty.

À bientôt

A Model Nation?

2008-03-30T16:41:00.008+01:00

The question posed in my headline refers to La France, but as you will see I was not using the word "model" in the sense of "perfect"...

Source: L'Internaute

Consider the photograph above: M. Gerard Brion spent 14 years building an exquisite model of the whole of Paris (inside the Peripherique - i.e. all 20 arrondissements) in the garden of his home near Montauban in South-West France. There is more information - and pictures on this site.

M. Brion regularly updates the model to include significant events and the model is open for public viewing.

This piece was prompted first by discovering the amazing model described above which in turn reminded me of another extraordinary French model maker, M. Pierre Scerri of Avignon and his wonderful model of a Ferrari 312. Many of you I am sure, will have heard of this staggering achievement, but if you haven't, prepare to be astounded. And if you have, I am sure that you will agree that the project is worth a second look:

So if you are agonising about say, rebuilding the brakes on your Fulvia, respect this man - he even made the tyres - and spark plugs and the 48 valves and the fuel-injection and the instruments AND the fully operative six-speed transmission! More information on this site.

Unbelievable!

À bientôt

Er... Modifications

2008-03-27T21:39:00.003+01:00

There were some dark mutterings in the Lancia fraternity in England when I first appeared with my rather modified Fulvia:

However I now realise that I was nowhere nearly radical enough: consider the special pictured below from this Gizmodo report:

Source: Gizmodo

Now this owner really did try hard didn't he?

À bientôt

Eiffel Tower New Update

2008-03-27T20:52:00.003+01:00

Source here

I have often referred my readers to CM's blog Jour Après Jour ("Day after Day").

Appalled by the proposed modifications to the upper part of the tower, she has followed news developments closely as may be read (in French) here.

After a lot of fuss and, I should think a certain amount of embarrassment for various newspapers - The Guardian included - it seems that the whole thing was a plaisanterie - a joke.

However it seems the Eiffel Tower Company has not ruled out action on this matter!

À bientôt

An Anecdote

2008-03-24T21:48:00.003+01:00

About twenty years ago I made the acquaintance of a delightful chap, a partner in a firm near London that specialised in restoring classic cars and at that time in particular, Lancias. This chap was a fine race driver at club level and campaigned in a variety of cars including a Stratos and a Ferrari 308; he had a very attractive, smooth style.

Well I was told, actually by a mutual friend, that some years before the chap was on holiday in France, driving his 1300HF. Being somewhere in the south he decided to have a go at one of the Monte Carlo Rally stages (driving was fun in those days!).

He was delighted to have got within five minutes of the time achieved by Sandro Munari in a works car on the rally.

I should say "was delighted" until he realised that, whilst he was enjoying his summer holiday in his Fulvia, Munari had set his time in the snow!

I have always found these types of story very sobering, in making me rather humble about my own modest abilities behind the wheel.

Sandro Munari in action - and obviously trying hard!
Picture source: here

À bientôt

Scrapbook - V

2008-03-23T11:02:00.006+01:00

Here's the next instalment of my scrapbook series, from early last year. Many of the photos are from the Fulvia Engline Developments series I wrote.

Click to enlarge

It seems incredible that as I write this, it is snowing heavily outside; here's a snap I took yesterday morning: so much for Spring in Haute Savoie!

À bientôt

On Second Thoughts...

2008-03-19T21:03:00.002+01:00

Don't bother driving over to see the Eiffel Tower as suggested in my previous article - better take the train.

This article from the BBC reports that the long arm of the busybody, interventionist EU is after you motorists. They even say that speeding is one of the "principal causes of death on the roads."

Specious rubbish but what can one do in the New Total Euro State?

À bientôt

Symbol of France

2008-03-19T20:49:00.002+01:00

I suppose that the Eiffel Tower has to be the ultimate French Symbol - an icon recognised all over the world. I have always loved "La Grande Dame" as the tower is known in France although it had numerous critics when it was built. Additionally there were many sceptics, who believed that the structure would be incapable of supporting its own weight. Eiffel answered these critics with an exact scale model: 30cm tall (the real tower is 300M tall) it weighed 7 grammes - a quarter of an ounce!

Anyway, next year is the 120th anniversary of La Grande Dame and as usual with such celebrations, the French have something spectacular planned. Judge for yourself from the picture below and from this article in which the picture appears.

Get that Fulvia restoration moving and drive over to have a look.

À bientôt

More Memories - Scrapbook IV

2008-03-15T13:10:00.003+01:00

I know that I have been a little less active over the last few days - in fact I am rather busy with one thing and another.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Meanwhile here's the fourth "aide-memoire" for you, from the early part of last year; included was my trip to the Jura for a Zagato, and the beginning of my long Fulvia Developments series.

À bientôt

More Memories - Scrapbook III

2008-03-11T21:18:00.003+01:00

This set is from the early part of last year. Once again, a few more reminders for you: all this stuff may be found in the blog if you need help to recall whatever I was writing about!

Click to enlarge

À bientôt

Cats are good for your health - Official

2008-03-10T21:40:00.003+01:00

Moustache

I have often featured cats here, and it is my intention to continue to do so - even if Alberto Ascari would cross the street to avoid a black cat...

Now there's news that we should all have one (or more) of these delightful creatures as pets and avoid heart attacks.

Quite right too.

À bientôt

Watch Closely...

2008-03-09T17:51:00.002+01:00

Look out for our favourite car...

If any of you can explain the cartoon I'd be most grateful!

À bientôt

Blog Retro Scrapbook II

2008-03-08T12:53:00.004+01:00

Bringing us up to the end of 2006, here's the second of these aides-memoire

Click to enlarge

À bientôt

Blog Retro Scrapbook -1

2008-03-06T15:51:00.007+01:00

Not counting this one, I have produced 216 articles on this blog since I started it in November 2006. The original idea was to encourage owners of Fulvias that I am in a position to provide expert care and assistance. Sadly (for me at least!) I have had only three "commissions" in all that time. Nevertheless, it is good to know that I have on average, 47 visitors per day, so that is a small reward.

Now a short series looking back, that perhaps will jog the memories of my readers and introduce new visitors to some of the older articles.

Click on the image to enlarge it

À bientôt

My Fulvia Scrapbook

2008-03-05T10:37:00.008+01:00

All except the infra-red image and "Amaranto"
were made at Goodwood trackdays
Click to enlarge the image

Another brilliant "scoop" from CM. This time she has discovered an excellent piece of software that enables one to create "scrapbook pages". The beauty of this software is that it is very user-friendly, the proof being that within 15 minutes of downloading the software I assembled the page above. If I can do it it must be easy.

The software is called Ript.

I suppose that in the past it was only possible to make such pages by using the likes of Adobe Photoshop® and/or Adobe Illustrator®; anyone who has looked at these undoubtedly competent programs (for those with graphics doctorates) will know just how "easy" that is...

Here's a short video that introduces Ript®:

Expect more "scrapbooks" in the future!

À bientôt

Geneva Motor Show News

2008-03-03T17:50:00.006+01:00

In this article from the International Herald Tribune, there is a lot of boring stuff about Lithium-Ion batteries and "hybrids" - after all has anyone seen a 3-litre V-12 Lithium-Ion battery? And if they have, they won't have heard it!

Anyway, this is not a rant - all my complaints, rants and miscellaneous observations can be found on my other blog Styx.

No, the reason for this post is the following:

"Fiat surging from sixth best-selling at the end of 2006 to the fourth in January, largely at the expense of the French automakers and thanks to the sales of its Panda, Grande Punto and 500 models.

The Turin-based automaker, which has been returned to profitability and cleared itself of debt in less than four years, will be at the car show with the Fiat 500 Abarth, a sporty version of its award-winning and hugely popular redesign of the classic 500 last summer. But the Fiat Group's big gambit will be with a new launch by its Lancia brand of the Delta sedan.

Lancia hopes that the new car will help propel the brand to sales of 300,000 a year in 2010 — from about 120,000 in 2007."

Next I hope a new rally programme: let's have the glory days back eh?

À bientôt

SI½ & SII Driveshafts - Be Wary!

2008-03-03T16:47:00.003+01:00

Trying to find something to write about, I had another rummage in the archives, and came up with quite a nice cautionary tale.

I cannot quite remember why this particular lady brought her Fulvia to us, but on inspection I noticed that both the front drive shaft gaiters were in a terrible state and should be replaced. As was normal practice, I contacted the customer and she said "But I have just had replacement outer CV joints fitted!"

Well the company that fitted the CV joints had its eye off the ball; despite being "specialists" they hadn't noticed that the car was fitted with "S1½ type shafts" These have a shorter splined section and do not use the spring clip compressing collar that the SII type does.

The best bit was that they did notice that there was no spring collar, and so some "craftsman" decided he would make them - with a hacksaw and a piece of steel tube. I think the photograph tells the rest of the story (I included a correct SII collar for comparison purposes) but of course with the collar in the way the CV joint was not locked onto the shaft. Nice.

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part VIII

2008-03-02T11:42:00.010+01:00

Hello again.

Here are a few more photographs from the archives. First a picture of two of the miscreants involved in the project - me on the left (inevitably with hacksaw in hand) and Justin ("Captain Bracket") on the right. Photo taken by my father, probably in 1994.

Next, a shot of the original instrument panel, all neat with a lid and everything!

Now two pictures of the early injection installation. Originally I cannibalised a pair of worn-out 42mm Solexes - until I persuaded Doug Ellis to make some proper throttle bodies! Note the oil filler. I had to move it to the front because I had used the studs at the back of the head for the original mounting to mount the drive bearing support for the injection. The new location for the filler made for quicker oil filling and better breathing. It was later replaced: I had a FIAT oil filler welded to the top of the cam cover and a separate breather pipe added.

And finally a snap of the Fulvia waiting in line at the Goodwood trackday - where the video below was shot.

Photo: Neil Sims

À bientôt

The Proof of the Pudding...

2008-03-01T23:38:00.003+01:00

A number of you have been very patient in following the "With added body" series here which covered the building of my low-budget Fulvia "hot-rod".

Just to prove it was not a fake, here is a video... It was made at Goodwood at a Lancia Motor Club Track Day in the Spring of 2002. After a couple of fast Deltas (the yellow one belongs to a friend (Demon Derrick - it has 340HP) you can see my Fulvia, with yours truly with the pedal really "to the metal". Sounds quite good really!

The credits for the video may been seen at the end - thanks to them for recording one of my "moments"!

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part VII

2008-02-28T15:10:00.005+01:00

Just a "quickie" this time: a couple more snaps from the archives.

First, my collaborator Justin tacking the steel rear quarter lights (he can use a stick welder I cannot) I think I finished them with gas - which I learned of necessity when I had my first Fulvia!

Now a snap showing the original 4-into-1 exhaust manifold. It was massive as I mentioned in the LMC article, but in fact I think it was actually a pretty good design. It was of necessity a bit longer than I wanted but I think that it was better than the present one which is too short. I believe that the primary length of a 4-into-1 on a Fulvia should be 30". Incidentally, the snap also shows how I made the solid rod clutch linkage to replace the horrid (especially on RH drive cars) cable. I installed a new bush in the opposite side of the bell housing and reversed the cross shaft. Then I cut the lever and welded in tube to suit.

À bientôt

Another Cat Quote

2008-02-27T21:13:00.005+01:00

Picture source: here

From the eminently quotable Michel de Montaigne:

"In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you."

À bientôt

An Appeal - Norton Motorcycles

2008-02-27T18:33:00.004+01:00

Picture source: here

This fine piece of British Engineering dates from 1961. It is a "Slimline" Model 50, 350cc Norton, made in Birmingham the year before the company was moved to Woolwich.

I have had a brush or two with motorcycles in the past: there was a friend who had a Norton 99 600 Dominator on which I saw the "ton" whilst riding on the back on the M2, on our way for a typical biker's afternoon at Margate...

Then there was the Panther 600 with sidecar that I was given. It was just before The Accident, that I had found an attractively modified early 1950s Norton that the owner was willing to sell me for £20. Sadly The Accident intervened, so no Norton for me, a pity as it was one of my favourites (I was never a Triumph supporter).

Anyway that was all a pre-amble. My girlfriend, who lives in Paris has an agency. Talking with a new client yesterday it arose that said client is looking for a Norton similar to that in the picture, either a Model 50 or an ES2 (the 500cc version). It must be a "Slimline" so would have been made between 1961 - 1963.

If any of you out there have any ideas please let me know by email VAR1016

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part VI

2008-02-26T21:20:00.005+01:00

And now - a bit more.

As with so many Fulvias, the back panel was rotten at the bottom; Martin my sculptor friend, having seen the original Fulvia sketches from 1963 thought that a panel more curved than standard would be just the thing. I wanted round rear lamps anyway, since I believe that in almost every case, round is best. So the old panel was cut out and a new more curved one made. Very tricky without a wheel to make a compound curve and the panel was made mostly on Martin's knee. As the picture shows, a lot of bashing and filling had to follow the fitting!

Also, the picture shows the construction of the lower rear wings (more bashing and filling). I did away with the rear valance since I considered it to be unnecessary weight and just an air dam and mud trap. Curiously, seven years later at Fulvia 40 in Turin, I met Flavio Manzone, the designer of the new Fulvia. I suggested he look at the back of my car and upon doing so he exclaimed "It's just like mine!" Alberto, my interpreter replied "No - yours is just like his!"

I have added a couple of snaps taken when the car was nearly ready; I was pretty pleased with the results; it was the first time I had painted a car and the finish is "straight from the gun".

More next time.

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part V

2008-02-25T02:37:00.008+01:00

Here, sooner than certainly I expected (!) is the next instalment in this rather snowballing series.

The picture on the left (click to enlarge) shows the new front panel that we made for the car. As I explained at the beginning of the series, the car really was very rotten. I had made attempts to fix the front, which in any case I had intended to modify and finally I threw in the towel and decided that there had to be something new.

I was never impressed with the small headlamps on the Fulvia and was determined to have the "standard" 7" units. Anticipating increased power and planning a cross-flow radiator I wanted a larger "hole" at the front which would also provide good flow to the oil cooler. The panel was made in two mirror-image halves and welded together, with the headlamp pods made separately and welded in place later.

Although not shown in the picture, the radiator is supported in the modern way with a couple of rubbers that fit into small fabricated mounts that are welded to the sub-frame. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the ends of the front cross-member (sub-frame) have been cut away and welded up - a bit more space and a little less weight!

Above is a shot showing a headlamp pod in place and also the very scruffy-looking spoiler. The spoiler was for me at least, a happy accident: in 1989 I was working for a Porsche specialist, working mostly on pre-1973 911s (interesting to build those engines). The owner of the business was a keen racer and quite often there were bits that were not quite "as new" lying about. At this time there was a S III Fulvia coupé in the workshop that I was welding away at. Seeing a damaged 911 spoiler lying about I thought that the "bumper" profile looked vaguely familiar... Of course I offered it up and realised it might be a potential replacement for the rotten front valance on my Fulvia. A fair amount of "cutting and shutting" was necessary as may be seen from the picture, but the results were acceptable to me in the end...

The main mounting of the spoiler required I remember a bit of thought. In the end, I used a second pair of bumper irons welded to the first pair which worked out perfectly, the fixing to the fibreglass spoiler being made with coach bolts.

As I have quite a stack of pictures, I shall be writing a bit more about the project. In the meantime I shall be happy to answer questions or provide more information if required.

À bientôt

Music/Computer Fans: don't miss this!

2008-02-23T23:19:00.002+01:00

From time to time, I have had occasion to plug a blog or two in this pages.

This time it is again the turn of the amazingly resourceful CM, who regularly manages to find extraordinary, bizarre and wonderful things to feature there (when she isn't complaining about the current French government that is!).

Continuing on a musical note (groan) you might have noticed that I have expanded my playlist considerably: press the "play" symbol and you will get random selections, or you can click on any individual track that catches your eye. For a change of mood CM has a rocky playlist with some great classics, whilst those of you who read and maybe even enjoy my rants and "political incorrectitudes" here, might care to visit my second blog, Styx (which is not about cars but about other stuff). There is a rather different playlist there...

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part IV

2008-02-23T22:38:00.011+01:00

Regular readers may recall that this series was prompted by Bart from Belgium asking about how the body of my special was constructed.

The previous articles in this series will have provided some information, so now to get to the dirty (and cheap) details. The picture on the left shows my friend Martin hard at it, working on the front wing mountings. Martin was a sculptor and quite fancied playing with some 18 gauge half-hard aluminium sheet! As may be seen, the original (rotten) lower front wing had been cut away, providing room for repairs and seam welding underneath; the triangulation I mentioned before may be seen below Martin's hands. First a steel angle was riveted to the original wing and to this, aluminium tags were fitted to which the outer panel was mounted.

The next picture shows a card template in position. This was not the final version - at the time I had envisioned copying the beautiful arrangements on the Le Mans Peugeots, but we all agreed that this was a bit de trop.

However the wings and other bits were intended to improve the aerodynamics of the Fulvia, and for all I know, they may well have done!

I decided that there would be an air exit at the rear of the wing; this would help keep the brakes and exhaust system cool and also keep under-bonnet temperatures a bit lower (worth a couple of octanes...) The problem was that with the wing extended back to the door shutline, the door wouldn't open... This explains the gap.

The panels are fixed with countersunk rivets - about 600 in total on the car generally spaced at one and a half inches.

And here's the wing after weeks of filling and rubbing down, showing the air duct. Incidentally, these ducts really work: on a wet day there is nice curved spray of mud on each door - looks jolly aerodynamic at least!

Next time, I'll be taking a look at the spoiler and the distinctly non-original front panel.

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part III

2008-02-23T10:29:00.012+01:00

Hello again.

Here is the rest of my 1996 article which summarises the specification as it then was and gives a few more details. I should add that quite a few changes were made between 1996 and 2003, in particular, the front brakes. Sorry about the layout: the text was copied over from Word and is impossible to format, despite my best efforts with the HTML - it just refuses to respond.

Next I shall, as requested try to write a little about the way we managed to fabricate the body work, with some pictures of work in progress.

À bientôt

SPECIFICATION

Body/Structure

1967 Fulvia Coupe. Sills reinforced with central membrane, all seam-welded. Sub-frame boxes removed, triangular sections rebuilt in 12/16g steel, seam welded. Rear of sub-frame removed. Sub-frame modified to use 2000 rear mounts. Gearbox tunnel removed and replaced with extended SII tunnel, triangulated to scuttle. Centre and rear sub-frame mounts triangulated with square tubing. Front flitch panels triangulated to "A" post. Wheel arches seam-welded to wing tops. New wings and rear panel fabricated from 18g aluminium sheet - riveted in place. Rear quarter lights removed and welded up. New front panel fabricated; front valance replaced with modified Porsche spoiler. Dash panel replaced with tubular structure; steering column lowered.

Engine

82 x 75mm, 1584cc. Block bored & sleeved; flywheel lightened; head gas-flowed; 40mm inlet valves, 35mm exhausts.

c.r. approx 11.5/1. Ex-works rally-profile camshafts(BWE) timing approx 50/70/70/50; lift at TDC: 4.3mm

Lucas mechanical injection Mk II. Bosch electric fuel pumps. Throttle bodies 42mm bore. Exhaust manifold 4-into-1, primaries 39" long, bore 35mm opening to 38mm; pipe after collector 60mm.

Oil and fuel coolers. Approx. 145 b.h.p. @ 6700 r.p.m.

Transmission

Fulvia 1600 sport gearbox 11/39 diff. Extended remote-control with revised lever ratio and shortened gear-lever. Solid rod clutch throw-out.

Suspension

1600 SII coupe suspension with Nylatron bushes. Rubber spring-to-wishbone mounts replaced with ball races in HD-30 supports and hardened steel plates on spring. SI rear axle, extra (inverted) leaf added to rear springs, solid bushes.

Brakes

AP racing magnesium 4-pot calipers mounted on special adapter plates at front. SI Dunlop rear calipers lined with stainless steel. Pressure limiting valve. master cylinder: SI 18mm bore. Shortened, fly-off handbrake lever.

Wheels

Cromodora 6x14, 185/60-14 tyres (to be replaced with Porsche 7x15 wheels with 195/205/50-15 tyres)

Performance

0-60: 7 secs, top speed: I haven't found out yet!

DONORS

Alfa-Romeo - Radiator and fuse-box (Sud) fuel-guage (Duetto)

Ford - Fuel pump (XR3i) injection (Cosworth FVA)

Jaguar - header tank (XJ6)

Lancia (other than Fulvia) - Alternator, sub-frame parts & mounts, catch tanks, anti-roll bar (2000);oil cooler (Delta HF) silencer (Thema)

FIAT - various brackets, linkages (various),brake limiter (Panda)

TAXI - headlamps

TVR - rear lamps (Tuscan race-car)

Porsche - Spoiler, fuel-pump, washer-pump(911)

Honda - passenger seat runners (Activan)

Rank Xerox - Throttle linkage bearings (10-90 copier)

WORKERS, ADVISORS AND SUPPORTERS

Many thanks to:-

Martin Hall - bodywork fabrication and swearing lessons

Justin Hildreth -"Captain Bracket" - all sorts, notably exhaust manifold, injection installation, fabrication and the handbrake.

Doug Ellis - machining; throttle bodies, suspension mounts, brake mounts.

Barry Waterhouse - solid bushes, cylinder sleeving, flywheel lightening, lining of rear brake cylinders and what Harry would call "Facilities" and advice.

Peter Ward - design of front caliper mounts, advice re injection, concepts and technical theory.

Bob Blurton (BBI)- THE Lucas man - for advice and an entertaining Sunday afternoon.

Gary Crawford - preparation of bodywork, loan of MIG and spraying equipment, lots of good ideas and encouragement.

Dave Tweddle - advice and encouragement in the early days

Paul Collins - for the door handle idea.

Harry Manning - apart from everything else he sold me the car!

SUPPLIERS

BWE - all sorts of things, far too many to list (but see above)

Goodwins - aluminium

George King Metals - aluminium, alloys and steel

Thos Tingley - steel tube

Think Automotive - Aeroquip tube and fittings, gauges

ADA racing - brake calipers

Ken Mills Injection - Lucas parts and overhaul of injectors

Wurth UK - Nuts, washers, rivets, connectors.

GSJ - stainless and standard bolts and nuts

Lucas - fuel system parts

Strand Glass - fibreglass cloth

Cannons MSA - Exhaust tubing paint etc.

Car Paint & Panel - paints

Fay's metals - copper sheet, aluminium and steel

Geekend Again - How life once was?

2008-02-22T12:51:00.003+01:00

I have mentioned Techrepublic's excellent weekly "Geekend" features before.

Today's includes a gem of a video that I felt sure might interest some of you; the link to the article is here

Health warning: there are scenes showing people smoking...

A bientôt

Lancia Automobili

2008-02-15T17:11:00.006+01:00

Image source: here

The title of this piece is also the name of a public group on the photo hosting and sharing site, Flickr.

Here's the link to Lancia Automobili.

I am sure that many of you enjoy making pictures of your cars: here is a chance to share them with other Lancisti. I have posted a couple of the pictures here to give you an idea of the site's contents.

Picture source: here

A bientôt

The best-laid plans of mice & men etc.

2008-02-13T09:47:00.005+01:00

Some of you might remember my recent piece about Fernando Alonso and what he said a year ago contrasted with the outcome; well this time it's the turn of Ralf Schumacher and Toyota.

I regularly glance at the "one year ago" section on Autosport.com, and there is usually value there.

À bientôt
Photo source: Here

"Full Noise"? Not quite, but still...

2008-02-12T22:08:00.000+01:00

I am one of the many fans of the amazing V16 BRM - a glorious failure in truth but with one exception: It had the best sound of any racing car - ever.

1.5 litres, 16 cylinders in a 135°V with a Rolls-Royce-built centrifugal supercharger eventually providing about 4.5 Bar boost, it developed near the end of its career (1955) nearly 600bhp at about 11,000 rpm.

First a video showing a VERY BRAVE man driving a V16 up the narrow bumpy hill used at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Second a collection of images accompaned by Nick Mason's well-known recording of his V16 at Donnington Park

I think you might enjoy these!
À bientôt

Rolls-Royce Merlin & Bentley: Eccentric Britons

2008-02-11T19:31:00.000+01:00

I stumbled across these madmen whilst looking for something else. Well worth watching (ignore the silly music at the beginning)

À bientôt

With Added Body - Part II

2008-02-11T18:20:00.005+01:00

Many thanks for the comments; thus stimulated, here I go.

A bit of a cheat actually this time. First a couple more early photos from mid-1990 I would guess:

Photo: Dave Tweddle

The upper picture gives an idea of the welding tasks undertaken - all the usual rotten Fulvia areas. Note at the front that I have "triangulated" by boxing-in the flitch thus vastly increasing its stiffness. The second snap shows "The Happy Welder" (probably forgotten about the can of Stella and thinking about a pint of proper beer).

In September 1996, three months after the car finally took to the road, I wrote a fairly brief history of the project fror the English Lancia Club magazine. I propose to repeat it here since it does give an overall idea of the project; a few things have changed since then, but in those days I probably had a better memory!

Here is the first part of the article:

At the recent Castle Combe track day, my car finally made its appearance after what seems to have been an interminable gestation period (seven years).

It is not and never will be, finished.

However, following an all too brief spell on the track due to a faulty condenser and a cracked cylinder block (which was due to my negligence!) many visitors expressed interest in the car. For me, an inveterate fiddler and modifier, this was very satisfying, as I am aware that specials are, to say the least, not nearly as much "the thing" as they were in Julian Jane's day.

Anyway, this piece is neither to be a cri-de-coeur nor a tedious account of every weld or piece of fabrication until the triumphant day when the car "passed its MoT with flying colours" - why do they always say that? (it did actually).

No, apart from a few disconnected jottings, I just wish to express my grateful thanks to the many kind friends who have helped and also to the numerous motor-manufacturers whose designers (unwittingly) contributed parts. These I list at the end.

And now a little about the project

Thanks to Gerald Batt and Harry's neighbours, the Deadmans, I was able to collect OMY 142E from Harry's premises after his death

· The car, for which Harry had paid £60, turned out to be composed roughly of 65% steel, 25% filler, the balance being mostly oily filth, holes, cobwebs etc.

· After about three months of weekends welding, I had a shell.

· Since the project was not done "aircraft-style" - i.e. drawings first (I can't draw) it developed organically. Examples of this include the purchase of various steel wheelarches, the three different mounting-places for the oil-cooler, two mountings for the injection, three radiators etc.

· Why injection? A number of people asked me this at 'Combe. Well first of all, I've always admired the Lucas mechanical system both for its success over twenty years of motor racing and for its ingenuity - just three moving parts in the metering unit and two of those running at clearances of .0001"! I was, of course, aware of the works efforts with the Kugelfischer system, but no-one's ever told me how much power was obtained. There are rumours that such a 1600 came to England but after fifteen years of Lancias I have yet to meet anyone who has seen a VAR 1016 Fulvia, let alone an Iniezione! Anyway, I was very fortunate to be offered a Lucas 6mm 4-cylinder unit with a Cosworth drive and 4 injectors at a price I could afford, so then I was committed.

· The idea was to reduce the overall length of the inlet tract, which is especially long and tortuous if the works manifold with 45s or 48s is used. I have plans to shorten the tract still further. The reason is that a shorter tract will improve top-end power and together with injection, provide much-improved throttle response - never the Fulvia's strong point. Additionally, injection provides superior atomisation of the intake charge - essential with long ports - and thereby additional mechanical "octanes" by virtue of a better burn.

At a recent rolling-road test, the engine delivered 110 b.h.p.(and climbing) at the wheels at 6700 r.p.m. Unburned hydrocarbons were very low - 95 p.p.m. proving the "burn" theory. Incidentally the power output is equivalent to about 145 b.h.p. at the flywheel. I am still using the original Cosworth F2 fuel cam which came with the injection which is hardly suitable, whilst the ignition timing is actually a guess - we didn't touch it during the test session - there wasn't time; neither has the cam timing been addressed.

· More work has to be done on the exhaust system. I have found that Fulvias respond very favourably to attention in this area. This may seem a platitude, but take a look at the dismal exhaust valve-throat area on a standard Fulvia head and I'm sure you'll agree. Another thing: why did Lancia use the 1300 manifold on the 1600? The fact that stainless steel was used is really an admission of failure - I've seen them red-hot! The fact that I have virtually to dismantle the entire front of my car to remove my fabricated 4-into-1 manifold is another admission altogether of course! There's really very little room; back to the (virtual) drawing-board, I suppose.

· As for the rest of the car, the approach has been to make it as solid as possible keeping weight to a feasible minimum; it is still too heavy. Following Peter Gerrish's suggestion in the Fulvia Journal, the sills have a central membrane. Seam welding serves to integrate the "A" post into the sill structure with further triangulation of the flitches forward and above, that. I have done away with the troublesome boxes by simply removing the rear portion of the sub-frame and mounting it where Nature (and Fessia) intended - in the original place; a lot of work, but weight is saved and rigidity gained. There are solid bushes (from Barry Waterhouse) and my ball-race front spring mounts beautifully executed by Doug Ellis.

· Next? Well, how about a mechanical fuel-pump (always the Lucas bugbear) dry sump, rose-jointed outer front anti-roll bar mounts, alloy brake-disc bells etc? It's nice to dream...

Actually, before Goodwood (next spring), I have to dismantle the car and rebuild the engine, hopefully with the magic head that Peter Ward has been threatening to do for me which he says will (with a proper fuel-cam etc) provide 175 b.h.p. with torque to match. I have to re-think the exhaust manifold, the heat from which causes great suffering to the steering idler box and I also have to polish out the runs in my paintwork. As I said, it will never be finished...

***************************

Next time, the rest of the article which gives some specifications and other details.

À bientôt

Pour mes Lecteurs Français

2008-02-10T20:47:00.000+01:00

Picture source: here

Chers lecteurs et lectrices, ici un lien utile pour vous : un dictionnaire technique mécanique français/anglais.

J'espère qu'il permettra d'améliorer le plaisir de vos visites ici !**

À bientôt

**Merci CM, pour la traduction

Waiting! (Was "With added body")

2008-02-10T13:49:00.000+01:00

Photo: Colin Marr

Hello. I have started looking through some pictures with a view to starting this mini-series; now I am waiting for your input (please see the original piece).

Meanwhile I came up with a nice snap made by a good photographer; it was taken on a pleasant one-off test day held a few years back at North Weald Aerodrome in Essex. I gave Colin the photographer what I think was quite an entertaining ride...

À bientôt

Get A (Second) Life

2008-02-09T23:11:00.000+01:00

Lancia is appearing to be going increasingly "virtual." First we have their involvement with the Chat tool Weblin, which features little people at the bottom of your screen and now Lancia has gone in big with "Lancia Island" on Second Life - the virtual world.

I haven't visited yet, but there is apparently a showroom...

Virtual motoring: should please the "greens"!

Lancia official site (where you can hear a clip of Mme Sarkozy singing "Bang Bang": quite appropriate really...)

À bientôt

Long Overdue

2008-02-09T21:53:00.001+01:00

From Picato (see RH side of page). Source: here

I said a long time ago that I love cats, and from time to time I would put a picture up with a quotation to suit.

Well the cat this time is a fine fellow sure enough, but I couldn't find a quotation to suit him, so I have added two quotes that I hope might amuse.

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat. ~Albert Einstein

A catless writer is almost inconceivable. It's a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys. ~Barbara Holland

Source of cat quotes: http://www.quotegarden.com/cats.html

À bientôt

More Miscellanea - TechRepublic

2008-02-09T18:31:00.000+01:00

TechRepublic is an excellent institution for those who wish to keep up with the world of computers etc.

An excellent feature is the forums. There are two: one for discussion and the other where one can ask a question, for example about software problems. The attitude of the many IT professionals there is superb and they are most helpful - even I can understand their advice (!) and they have solved a few problems for me.

It's not all serious there though. Each Friday there is a feature called, rather self-deprecatingly, "Geekend". This week's edition included the following, which amused me:

A major research institution recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science, tentatively named Administratium. Administratium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic weight of 312. The 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which is surrounded by vast quantities of peons.

À bientôt

And if there's a hose-pipe ban, what then?

2008-02-09T16:33:00.000+01:00

Land of the Free (if you look after your lawn)
Image source: here

To me, this story from the International Herald Tribune beggars belief.

Government encroachment has really got out of hand - this time in the "land of the free."

À bientôt

A Kindred Spirit

2008-02-09T11:45:00.000+01:00

As an "ex-pat" one of my pleasures is to receive my copy of Private Eye, a publication that I have enjoyed for many years.

I had never imagined that I would have had anything in common with "Quin" in Knife & Packer's "It's grim up North London", but the latest one certainly should ring a bell with those of you who are familiar with my "little computer difficulties"...

Click on the image to Enlarge
From Private Eye 1203

Another Interesting New French blog

2008-02-08T23:08:00.000+01:00

Right here

Presented to us by the enigmatic Constance Prunier.

Look, I know that there are millions of blogs, so please bear in mind that I am aware of this fact. I also know that many are just gratuitous rubbish...

Confession: I have wanted to be perceived as "arty" since I was about 20 years old, a fairly long time ago, so when I see something that looks "arty" I am inclined to be sympatique.

This one started just a week ago and as far as I can tell, given my lamentable French, is about love, sex and arts.

Come on boys I know I shouldn't say it but there's more to life than cars (which will probably be soon banned anyway - I mean what I call "cars").

À bientôt

Intimité

2008-02-08T17:23:00.001+01:00

Source

This rather nice image was sent to me by another of those who take the trouble to comment hereabouts!

It comes from an interesting place - a place for which I wonder what the future holds. It is "Le Musée du Fumeur" - "The Smoker's Museum" which is situated in the 11th arrondissment in Paris. Those who are interested may like to know that the site is available in both English and French.

I am amazed that the government has not closed it down yet... There appear to be plenty of pictures of smokers enjoying themselves. These days I think that enjoyment is off the menu.

Thanks Fleur!

À bientôt

"With added body"

2008-02-08T16:39:00.000+01:00

To my posting entitled "What would you do?" I received the following comment:

Hi Paul I also read your blog occasionally. You combined the 2 most beautiful things in this overheating/ozonlayer destroying earth: Fulvia & France. And then you're writing about them. That's what we call: Magnifique! I read them with a lot off interest. Like Paul asked: please give some info on your Fulvia coupé bodyworks (the baby blue one). And off course: we're going for the juicy details! ;-) Greetings from Belgium Bart Berlina S2 Zagato S2

The sort of posting that warms the cockles of my heart. Of course you all know that really the engine is the thing for me; having anything to do with bodywork I generally feel is a bit of a necessary pain, although it is undeniably rewarding: "No pain, no gain" as the saying goes.

I am happy to accede to Bart's request, although it will have to be another series, and looking at the collection of old photographs I have, I shall have to spend quite a lot of time scanning them.

Looking back, I was really very disorganised, and I was also very poor (as now) which meant that many compromises had to be made. I do not seem to have a picture of the car as it was originally, but I have added a couple of snaps here to show a couple of fairly early pictures that were taken after about three months' work (three months of weekends of course) and a third picture taken about four years later when the project was a little nearer completion.

The car was quite unusual, being an early 1300 coupé - not a "Rallye" - it was all steel and did not carry the "rallye" insignia (look at the rot in the bonnet). It was first registered in April 1967 and its serial number is 2002.

I have no intention of making this series a "blow-by-blow" account of the progress. I hope to find enough pictures to enable me to write about specific aspects.

If any of you have specific things that you would like me to write about in connexion with the car, then let's hear from you.

À bientôt

[P.S. Usual disclaimer about the terrible layout: not my fault and nothing to do with me]

Spot the Non-Smoker!

2008-02-07T18:45:00.001+01:00

Général de Gaulle. Source: here

President Roosevelt Source: Here

Adolf Hitler Source: Here

"Uncle Joe" Source: Here

W.S. Churchill source: Here

Funny how things turn out sometimes isn’t it?

Sorry about the layout, I know it’s rubbish but I am incapable of understanding how to place pictures and wrap text etc. And I cannot align the captions, so sorry again. "Blogger" offers a preview which bears no resemblance to the final page: neither does the composition page, so one is rather in the dark. Perhaps one day Blogger will offer a WYSIWYG service?

Perhaps I should offer a caption prize!

A bientôt

Sprung

2008-02-06T18:33:00.000+01:00

Front spring specs from the factory data book
Click on the image to enlarge it

In this part of my suspension “mini-series” a few words concerning springs.

First, naturally enough the front. The table here shows a range of six different specifications and a couple of observations are worth making. First notice that the Fanalone had the same front spring fitted as the SI 1200 and 1300, 1300S and 1300 Sports. Second, notice the special spring fitted only to 1200 and 1300HFs (818-140 and 340). This spring is flatter and softer than any of the others, so if you have one of these, my advice is don’t break it, as they are hardly likely to be found in your local breaker’s yard!

Not much to add about the front spring: after all they are a pain to change and as the list shows, practical choice is limited. If you do want to change one, take the greatest care as they are installed with considerable pre-load and are perfectly capable of taking your arm off. You have been warned!

Rear spring specs from the factory data book
Click on the image to enlarge it

Turning to the rear, there are just five types. This time the Fanalone shares only with the SI 1200 and 1300 Zagatos (Sports) – the 1200 Zagato 818-132 gets mentioned here – and once again the early HFs have the flattest and softest springs, reflecting no doubt the reduced weight of these types.

Rear springs do corrode badly: this tendency is not helped by the plastic interleaving fitted. I have frequently rebuilt rear springs and since the plastic is usually shredded – and even if it isn’t – I discard it. I remove all the rust and if I had an industrial polishing machine I would polish all the leaves too, just like old Bugattis and Grand Prix cars. I then apply grease and Waxoyl. The simple buckle clamps (two per spring) I fix very tightly and weld up afterwards, this keeps the spring aligned and in good order.

For those who wish to lower the rear there are two approaches. First one can invert one of the leaves, usually the third counting from the bottom. Alternatively an additional leaf – a third or longer fourth - may be added at the top again inverted, which has the effect of both lowering and stiffening the rear. To do this you will need a longer centre clamp bolt, but a 6mm cap screw works perfectly.

Finally, Fulvia springs do sag and sometimes break (as do front ones sometimes). Some of the modern spring makers’ ideas of replacements are frankly laughable. I once was given an SII sedan fitted with replacement rear springs. Instead of six thin leaves they had four thick ones. The car’s ride was very hard on my liver and of course on the chassis too!

À bientôt

Democracy in Action: Spot the Difference

2008-02-06T14:26:00.000+01:00

What? No seat belt, smoking, and a war to win? Perhaps he sometimes drank!
What chance has he got?
FDR
Picture source: Here

There are soon to be a presidential election in Russia and parliamentary elections in Iran.

The Russian Electoral Commission has barred former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky from running, on what may be perfectly legitimate grounds although personally, I have my doubts given the complexion of Putin's Russia and the enormous backing Putin has given his chosen candidate (not to mention the quid pro quo of Putin's guaranteed job as Prime Minister after the people have made their choice (!)). Full story here.

Meanwhile an Iranian of distinguished origins has been barred from his country's elections:

Among many hopefuls barred from running in the election is Ali Eshraghi, a 39-year-old civil engineer who is also a grandson of Khomeini, founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Eshraghi told the Kargozaran newspaper he had not been told why he was rejected. "My neighbours told me they were questioned about my private life, including ... whether I shaved, whether I pray or fast or smoke," Eshraghi said. Full story here

The article about Russia doesn't specify if Mr Bukovsky was asked about smoking or not; personally I think that after what he has been through he is entitled to a puff or two, and anyway it's his business after all.

In closing I have to say that none of the present "hopefuls" in the United States primaries appear to me to have the look of the smoker about them; as a result, I predict that none of them will achieve the deserved renown of that Great Smoker and President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

À bientôt

Where there's not smoke...

2008-02-05T12:59:00.000+01:00

In a recent posting here I introduced my case against "Big Government" and I complained about increasing encroachment on the private lives of the public (citizens in many countries, subjects in others).

With the rubbish pumped out by the nannies in Engand and in France it is easy to assume that such outrages are limited to one's own country. This is not the case:

CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT ENCROACHMENT

CITOYENS ANTI GOUVERNEMENT ENVAHISSANT

This headline appears at the top of a bi-lingual Canadian Website whose purpose, although motivated by the very severe regulations in Canada (prisoners are not allowed to smoke!) takes a stance not dissimilar to my own.

The trend continues: if you are overweight, you may well be denied medical treatment - in the UK. You have "lifestyle choices" so long as they happen to be in agreement with those that the Government has chosen for you. It is ironic that there are moves afoot to ban battery chicken farming (quite right too) whilst before too long there will be "battery people" chained to their TV sets - where by another irony they will be free to watch "Big Brother" or some such garbage.

A more hopeful outcome may be possible in the USA: it seems that sense may prevail in Mississippi if this article is to be believed, but what is terrifying is that somebody proposed the law in the first place. And remember that in some states there are even non-smoking parking meters!

Finally, and a lot closer to home, in Paris, Mayor M. Bernard Delanoe is proposing to ban all cars over eight years old from the city.

What price Fulvias in France then??

And there are proposed new laws limiting students to four drinks maximum in an evening.

Can you see where all this is leading?

Real leadership is needed and fairly soon: everybody must understand that this is not just about the smokers...

À bientôt (If I haven't been censored by the health KGB)

Suspension - That Rubber Again

2008-02-04T21:02:00.000+01:00

In my first article about the Fulvia's suspension, I apologised for the lack of pictures to illustrate the points I made.

The more recent articles have managed pictures, but now thanks to Neal, I have a good picture of the original front suspension arrangement. This shows S II 1300 front suspension (pressed steel wishbone), but the installation is identical to other models.

Note: the rubber is brand new. Picture: Neal Sims

In my original article, I wrote:

The one, to me, unpleasant compromise at the front in all series, is the means of coupling the upper wishbone to the transverse leaf spring: the famous rubber. Consider how the suspension operates: as the wheel rises, the upper wishbone moves towards the horizontal. At the same time (since they are joined) the spring is gradually straightened, so of course it effectively “lengthens” in positional terms. Of course as the wheel falls the process is reversed. This all means that the rubber is subjected to considerable shear loads and thus offers substantial resistance to suspension movement.

A little study of the picture should help you to appreciate my points!

À bientôt

Monte Carlo or Bust - Part II

2008-02-04T18:26:00.000+01:00

A very nice part of the world: view from end of the stage

Each year, after the Monte Carlo Rally, the Historique is run. Today I went down to have a look as there was a stage due to start at 1:00, a very civilised time indeed. The stage was due to start at Laffrey, about 25km south of Grenoble so not an enormous distance for us to cover to get there.

There was a slight problem: a stack of snow fell overnight: we were debating whether or not it was worth going, but after battling through heavy stuff hereabouts (at nearly 3000ft altitude) when we got to the motorway it was just pouring with rain...

This nice Fanalone (complete with Spanish crew)
needed a bit of attention

We found on arrival that the snow wasn't just around home: in fact the stage had been cancelled since one of the cols was closed and the cars had to be re-routed. This meant driving a further 20km to just south of La Mure on the N85 where we were able to see at least a few cars arrive at the end of another stage.

The "opposition" had fine service facilities.
This is former F1 driver Eric Comas's rental operation

À bientôt