Michael’s Blog

The windshield frame on the pre-1963 Healeys is secured to the windshield posts with four 10/24 chromed Phillips head steel screws.

The Red Part is the Post

If the windshield has been fitted to a car that has been winter driven in areas where road salt is used it is very unlikely that you will be able to remove the screws without at least some of them breaking off. I have never had much luck removing steel threaded fasteners from aluminium when corrosion of this type has occurred. It seems that the aluminum forms aluminium oxide which swells into the space between the steel and the aluminum and jams the fastener completely. Heating usually works when you have a steel in steel situation but it is seldom successful when aluminium is involved. Try as you may the end result is usually something like this:

A Typical Broken Off Screw

This presents a serious problem. These screws are right in front of your eyes when seated in the car and any type of repair which alters their installed appearance becomes very obvious.

One option is to drill and tap a new hole either just above or just below the broken off screw and then drill a new mounting hole in the windshield frame to suit, easy, practical but UGLY!!

For many years we seemed to have enough spare windshield posts from which we had managed to remove all the screws to just fit a replacement, unfortunately, those days are long gone and now we have to resort to a repair.

I have tried to very carefully drill out the steel screw with progressively larger drills until, hopefully, the root diameter of the screw is reached, with the drill right on center, and the thread can be pulled out like a spring. This just doesn’t work. Even if you manage to get to the correct diameter on center when you try to pull out the remaining thread it is very brittle and will not come out. Usually you don’t even get to that point before breaking off a drill bit inside the screw as the drill breaks through the bottom of it.

After many attempts I finally came up with what has proved to be a satisfactory if somewhat labour intensive method of saving the day!! this takes patience and a steady hand but, with windshield posts becoming harder and harder to find, it is worth the trouble.

You start by drilling small (1/16″ dia) holes around the entire perimeter of the broken off screw to a depth of about 5/8 “. Try to avoid drilling right through and definitely avoid breaking off drill bits as you do this.

You Can Get Aboult 8 Small Holes Around the Broken Off Screw

Once they are all drilled use a slightly larger bit to increase the size of the holes until they start to run into each other. Again proceed carefully and be careful not to break off any drill bits.

Enlarged Holes Will Start to Run Into Each Other

Once this stage has been reached use a small pin punch to tap the broken off screw sideways back and forth until it becomes loose in the hole and can be lifted out with needle nose pliers.

A Little Patience and The Broken Screw Can Be Removed

Once this is done you need to find a flanged 10/18 Rivnut. These are usually used to install a threaded nut into sheet metal and are available at most good hardware stores.

A Flanged 10/18 Rivnut. (This one as a 10/18 screw in it.)

The outside diameter of the flange on these is usually about 7/16″. This is too big for our purposes so I usually mount one in my drill press on a piece of threaded bolt and with the drill press running run a file on the edge of the flange to decrease its diameter to almost nothing resulting in a flange of just under 5/16″ outside diameter. At this stage I often roughen up the outside of the Rivnut barrel to assist with adhesion of J B Weld used in the next stage.

Rivnut Drill Ready for Filing Down

Once I’m happy with this I drill out the ragged hole in the windshield post to  5/16″  diameter.

Done correctly this will leave just a thin wall of post on either side of the hole.  Next slide the Rivnut, flange first, into the hole.

The Flange Has to be Small Enough To Fit Into The 5/16" Hole

The hole has to be deep enough to entirely accommodate the modified Rivenut.

When The Hole is Deep Enough The Top of The Rivnut Will be Flush With The Post Surface

The next part is easy.  Remove the Rivnut and mix up a small batch of J B Weld and put a little into the hole taking care to ensure that it coats the sides and the bottom.

Smear a little grease on a  long 10/18 screw and thread it into the modified Rivnut, be careful to ensure that no grease remains on the outside surfaces of the Rivnut  (The ones your roughened up).

Smear J B Weld on the outside and bottom of the Rivnut and push it into the hole then, using a small screwdriver as a spachelor, squeeze as much J B Weld into the hole around the Rivnut as you can get in.

As a precaution, to ensure correct positioning, you can install the side section of the windshield frame at this stage but make sure you put a smear of grease on the surface where it will contact the J B Weld.

A few hours later, after the J B Weld has hardened, you can use a file to remove any excess adhesive. The J B Weld is an excellent surface for painting and, if you have been careful not to break through the wall of the post, you can even get away with polishing the post and nothing of your repair will show.

My hydronic heating system has been up and running at least partially for over a year and the completed system has been operating for several months.

The Delivery Side Under Construction

I ended my previous post at the point where I had decided to use an automotive radiator for the delivery heat exchanger and my buddy Dick Paterson was good enough to give me one that he had had custom built for one of the iterations of his rally mini “Betty”. This was duly installed and I’m glad to report that the system operates exactly as designed and, after a few minor teething issues is proving to be very reliable.

After operating the system for most of last winter, during the finishing of the house interior, I finally got to install the tubing under the main floor, which is “engineered” hardwood over plywood, during the later part of this summer.

The "Engineered" Hickory Flooring

I had originally intended to attach the pex tubing to the underside of the subflooring with plastic staples which are sold for this purpose but after thinking about it for quite some time decided that I would be better off with heat transfer plates. These thin aluminium plates are about 24″ long and 6″ wide and have a groove pressed into them wherein the pex tubing is located. The  plate is nailed or stapled to the underside of the subfloor between the floor joists which serves to hold the pex tubing as well as fulfilling its task as a transfer plate. After installation the entire cavity between the joists is filled with insulation which prevents the heat from traveling down and heating the ceiling of the room below.

TRANSFER PLATES – “My logic”
When I was originally researching these systems I came across a number of discussions on the benefits of transfer plates. I originally sided with the “nays” who maintained that putting an aluminium plate in the cavity under the floor, but above the insulation, would make no difference to the amount of heat to which the floor was exposed and therefore would make no difference to the amount of heat that the system could deliver for a given water temperature.
After long deliberation however I decided that the plates could indeed make a difference because a large portion of the outer surface area of the pex tubing would actually be in contact with the aluminium plates. Where this contact occurred I figure that the aluminium will quickly conduct heat away from the outer surface of the pex tubing thus creating a larger temperature differential across the plastic of the pex tubing. As the flow of heat is proportional to the temperature differential there should be a faster transfer of heat.

Installed Main Floor Tubes With Transfer Plates

Whether right or wrong I opted to use the transfer plates and the system delivers a very even and comfortable heat to the hardwood floor surface.
For the entire house including the garage there is about 3000 sq. ft of heated floor which used about 2800 feet of pex tubing.
I run both the input (boiler) and delivery closed systems at 10 p.s.i. This is mainly to ensure that any leakage can be detected and to aid in eliminating any air bubbles from the systems.

The Delivery Side Completed

Elimination of air from systems of this type is very important because the impeller type pumps used to circulate the water will not operate if air gets into them. To ensure that all the air is out of the closed circuits in my system I have installed two Maid-O-Mist bleeders one on each system; in fact the boiler came equipped with one when I bought it.

These quaint little devices have been around for decades and are simple, inexpensive and very reliable.

The major teething problem was caused by my failure to realize that the surfaces of a new concrete tank, when first filled with water will leach lime into the water causing it to become seriously alkaline!! Copper radiators, and oddly the solder used in their construction, does not like this alkalinity and rapidly dissolves !!!!

The Doomed Nissan Radiator

This initially became apparent when the input side of the system started to loose water resulting in an ongoing loss of pressure in that circuit. After checking everywhere for leakage I decided that the leak must be inside the storage tank so I cooled the system down and drained the tank to check. Sure enough my Nissan radiator was leaking like a sieve. I had a new heavier core custom radiator built by York Spring and Radiator and installed in late in September. I refilled the system and just to be sure purchased a pH meter to check the tank water. It would seem that the initial fill and drain removed all the lime as the tank water has remained absolutely neutral (pH 7) since this repair and there have been no additional leakage problems, in fact I have not had to add water to either of the closed systems for several months.

Of course the original intent of this system was to save heating costs by using low (off peak) electricity to heat the house. Unfortunately this has not, as yet, come to pass. Hydro One, our local supply utility has been very slow to implement the TOU (Time Of Use) metering system that they were required to install and are probably not going to actually activate the Smart Meters until the final deadline date of summer 2011. In addition to this the provincial government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to increase the price of “off peak” power by 20% thus eliminating a large portion of the incentive to switch to TOU pricing. Read about that here.

A further complication is that I was unaware of the large difference between Rural and Urban “delivery” charges.  My original calculations, used to compare the relative costs of fuel oil, propane and electric heat, priced our “all in” rate at $0.112 per kWh.  With the changes now the actual rate, for the volume we use will be nearer $00.1918 / kWh before HST!!!

When the TOU actually comes on line this will decrease to to around $0.17/ kWh but that is is still a 50% increase over the rates that my original inquiries revealed. The nett result of all this is that using electricity to heat the cottage, even with the TOU pricing will be more expensive than oil or propane.

Fortunately, although the advantages of the storage system would be lost, the system can quite easily be converted to use a different fuel as the boiler is the only “electricity specific” component of the system.

In my next post I will explain the control systems I have installed for the heating system.

Several years ago Judy and I bought a cottage on the Lake of Bays in the Muskoka lakes area of Ontario. The main reason that we purchased this particular property was that it is next to the cottages owned by Judy’s brother and her step sister. Judy spent all her childhood summers in the area as her brother’s cottage was originally build by their father, a school teacher, and for as long as Judy can remember they used to “head for the cottage” as soon as the school summer holidays started at the end of June and head back to Coppercliff just before the beginning of the school year at the start of August.

From the time I was inducted into the family Judy and I watched the adjacent Northcott property and dreamed of one day buying it. Eventually, after some 30 years, it finally happened and we ended up with half an acre of waterfront property next to sister Jan and brother Charles.

Unfortunately within those 30 years the cost of lakefront property in Muskoka had risen some 15 fold and we have ended up with a huge investment in an asset which is only of use for about 6 months of the year at best. This is because the cottage started out as a typical un-insulated summer residence in the 1940s and, despite the huge amount of money spent on “improvements” and additions by the previous owner can still only be used during the warmer months.

We have considered all sorts of ideas as to what would be the best thing to do with the place. The property is very small and a new “Development Permit By-Law” has meant that one can only build a house of about 700 square feet on the lot without applying for a by-law amendment.
However, after much to-ing and fro-ing, and although we can hardly afford it, we have decided to demolish the existing structure and build a new four seasons dwelling.

For me a major consideration for the new home is how to heat it. There are lots of pine trees on the lot which provide plenty of shade in the summer but completely eliminate any possibility of solar heating. As there is no natural gas supply in the area unless I intend to stay there all winter and stoke a wood stove our options seem to be propane, oil or electric heat.
I spent quite a bit of time studying geothermal systems but the capital cost and marginal return on investment just did not add up.
Pretty early on, after hearing and studying Ontario’s new Smart Meter plan I decided that off peak electric heat was the way to go.

The Smart Meter plan for Ontario will deliver electricity at the rate of $0.042/kWh + + during the off peak hours of 11.00p.m. until 7 a.m. The actual cost, when other variable charges are included works out to $0.0612/kWh which works out to be almost exactly the same cost as natural gas. A very good energy cost comparator which can be used to calculate this here.

Of course the obvious problem becomes how are you going to heat your house when you can only use electricity for the purpose between 11p.m. and  7a.m.

I decided this could easily be done, and has been done, by storing the heat some way. There are several options for this, everything from bees wax to rocks but, considering that we were into new construction here, I decided that water was the best storage medium for our circumstances.

I figured that something around 900 gallons of water heated to 80°C would store sufficient heat to keep the house up to 22 °C for 48 hours and keep the house above freezing for almost 6 days in the worst conditions that we get in the area (your results may vary).

Once this decision was made the next question was what to use as a tank. I studied this in detail for a considerable period and after looking at plastics and stainless steel decided on concrete. Brooklin Concrete who operate a manufacturing plant near the cottage were able to supply a custom modified oil separator tank for just over $1000 which was ideal. This type of tank, unlike their septic tanks which are clam shells with a seam in the middle, is a tank with lid construction thus eliminating any concerns about sealing the joint. I got some special concrete to concrete silicone sealant which they inserted between the lid and the tank and they delivered the tank when the foundation was poured.

The Heat Storage Tank Being Lowered Into Place

We set the tank on 6 inches of special high load bearing polystyrene foam and will add 6” of similar foam around the walls and over the lid once the installation is complete.

The next issue was how to get all that heat into the tank during the off peak hours. Although the house has excellent insulation (R55 ceilings R48 walls) it has a lot of windows so the heat loss is fairly significant. The worst case heat loss would be around 60,000 BTU/hr but we figured the normal winter heat loss for the building will be around 25,000 BTU/hr so if the energy had to be loaded into the tank is 8 hours we would need to heat the water at the rate of 75,000 BTU/hr or about 22 kW.

Note: If we happen to be there for a prolonged period during atrociously cold weather we will have a Vermont Castings high efficiency wood stove and a propane fireplace to supplement the electric heating.

We only have a 220 volt service so 22kW works out to 100 amps. Various options were available to do this including pool heater or perhaps a bank of hot water heaters but the ideal one was an electric boiler. Luckily a search of Kijiji and $500 turned up a slightly used Monitron EH25 boiler which was ideal for the job. It turns out that one issue with electric boilers is that of corrosion of the cast iron boiler when oxygenated water is heated for a prolonged period. This is termed an “open” system and is not recommended by the manufacturer Slant Fin. Additionally the manufacturers of the required circulating pump would not guarantee their product if it was used in an open system.

With all my experience in the automotive field I felt that this problem could easily be solved by replicating an automotive cooling system for this circuit. One of the things we had discovered when testing engines on a rolling road was that a car’s cooling system efficiency could be improved enormously by spraying water onto the radiator during dyno sessions. I had a Nissan Stanza copper radiator especially modified and that was installed near the water tank to act as a heat exchanger.

22kW is only about 30 BHP and the radiator of a Nissan Stanza could easily handle that in a liquid to air installation so liquid to liquid should be no problem. An expansion tank was also included in the circuit to maintain the required 4 – 5 p.s.i. required at the circulator pump inlet to prevent cavitation at the temperatures we would be using.

I purchased all the parts and spent a happy day cutting and soldering pieces of 1 ¼” copper pipe to produce this.

The Electric Boiler Installed and Piped To The Storage Tank

After testing all the joints for leaks and having the electrician wire up the electric boiler we bled out all the air pressurized the system to 7 p.s.i. and fired the system up. After about 3 minutes the boiler, which starts up in a sequence to prevent sudden electrical loads on the supply, had the water in the supply side circuit up to 90°C. So far so good.

The output side of the system will consist of 3 zones. The first zone will be the basement with 5 loops the second will be the main floor, also with 5 loops and 2 loops on the third zone which is my garage. The basement was easy. First a two inch layer of Styrofoam was laid on top of the compacted sand floor. On to this was laid reinforcing steel mesh after which the positions of the partition walls were marked out and then the oxygen barrier pex tubing of the 5 zones was attached to the mesh with plastic ties.

90° one inch conduit bends were used to protect the pex tubing where it emerged from the concrete directly below the first zone manifold. The manifolds I purchased from PexSupply in Farmington, NY together with the pumps and various other parts. Although I agree with supporting local merchants as much as possible when I was quoted prices of 250 -400% higher than those in the U.S. the limits of my patriotism are strained.

The Mr Pex manifolds are a thing of beauty and very simple to use. They have integral throttling valves and flow meters for each loop which should greatly simplify the final tuning of the heating system.
Once the concrete basement floor was laid over the heating loops I gathered all the parts together to build the delivery side of the system. This was considerably more involved but a couple of days of cutting and soldering pipes had a second radiator installed in the top of the tank and connected to one Honeywell mixing valves, one Grundfos circulating pump and one Mr Pex manifold for each zone.

The size of the second radiator is something that I’m really having difficulty calculating. I have talked to a number of people in the heat exchanger business and the general consensus seems to be that a radiator immersed in a tank is not likely to be able to absorb enough energy to heat the house. Most seem to think that a plate heat exchanger is the only way that I‘m going to get this to work. I have given the subject an enormous amount of thought but I have decided that I just don’t have enough information to make an informed decision. Perhaps someone out there in cyber space has a computer program that will model heat exchanger performance that they would just love to run my numbers through.

For the present I have installed the distribution side manifold and intend to run the system to see what happens. After all several people told me that the input side would never work with the Stanza radiator but it seems to perform admirably.

In my next posting I’ll let you know how it works out.

Back in the early ‘80s the word on the street was that all little British Cars were doomed. Unleaded gas was coming, the sky was going to fall, and the exhaust valve seats in the Austin, MG and Triumph engines we all love to tinker with, which were made from cast iron, would be destroyed as a result of the lack of lead in fuel.
The theory was that the tetra ethyl lead in leaded fuel provided a lubricant which prevented the hot exhaust valve momentarily welding to the valve seat and then ripping some material from the seat when it next opened.
Like many others in the industry we at Precision Sportscar geared up for a huge influx of head work anticipating that instead of one or 2 MGB valve jobs a month we would be doing one a day; retirement loomed large.
Well…it didn’t happen, in fact the reverse happened; we stopped getting the MGB valve jobs and the sky stayed firmly fixed over our heads.
Some companies who had spent large sums developing replacement cylinder heads for those engines wherein it was impossible to install hardened valve seats were seriously underwhelmed by the sales numbers and budgets were revised.
Precision Sportscar didn’t do one MGB head job from the time that leaded gas was withdrawn from the market and the stock of cylinder heads that I had accumulated sits on the shelf to this day.
So what happened?
Well it turns out that unleaded fuel is actually easier on valve seats that leaded fuel in most engines. In fact leaded fuel causes pitting on cast iron seats and, unless the engine has small valves and is run very hard, the exhaust valve seats will probably last longer on unleaded fuel than on leaded!!! I guess somebody made some money out of the rumor but it wasn’t me.
I had pretty well forgotten all abut the dreaded exhaust seat recession issue until last fall when I was given a snow blower because its owner couldn’t get it to work.

Upon reflection this was the ideal engine to suffer from the dreaded recession. The exhaust valve was about the size of my thumb nail and when in operation it would run flat-out until the snow was cleared.
I popped the valve out, ground a few thou off the tip of the stem reinstalled it, fitted a new head gasket and the snow on my driveway was soon heaped at the side.
So exhaust valve seat recession does happen, but not to Austin Healeys, MGs and Triumphs.
Anyone need a new MGB head? I have several.

PARTS LISTS FOR

Austin Healey 100 – Austin Healey 100/6 & 3000

Austin Healey Sprite & MG Midget – MGA - MGB 

Triumph TR2 – TR6 – Triumph Spitfire -  Triumph TR7

Please read the fine print below.

The parts in these lists are all available at the time of posting, however as you will see the quantities are typically very small and they are sold on a first come first served basis.

If it isn’t on the list, I probably don’t have it although it may be worth looking through the list of unprocessed used parts in the link at the bottom of this post.
The inventory is arranged by section and I will be working my way through these sections over the next few months and will post the lists as the work is completed.

Working alone each item takes about 4 minutes on average to dust off, check, price and restock; with over 6000 part numbers I’m looking at about 400 hours of work. I start going cross eyed if I do more than 4 or so hours a day and I’m only able to do this in my spare time so it is going to take a while, be patient.
I will post a message on the Healey newsgroup as each list is posted

THE FINE PRINT

Not everything is new, although most is, but all the used parts are in a condition such that they are ready to be installed and used.
The prices are listed in the last column and should be very competitive.
ALL PRICES ARE IN $US.
The minimum order is $US100 before discounts.

I am offering the following discounts.
$200 – $500 of product 20% discount.
$500 – $1000 of product 30% discount on the complete order.
Over $1000 of product 40% discount on the complete order.
These totals are cumulative so if you have already ordered $500 worth of stuff from the earlier lists, remind me, and everything thereafter is 30% off unless you send a $1000 order after which everything is 40% off, however the $100 minimum still applies.
I’m also open to offers on the lot…
Shipping and handling is extra. (Handling is typically +20% of the shipping charge and covers the cost of picking the parts, packing them and delivering them to the post office).

I can only offer postal service for the present and I do not take charge cards.

I will accept Paypal payments but, I charge a 4% premium because of the outrageously poor exchange rates they offer.
US funds cheques will secure your order until they clear and money orders MUST be INTERNATIONAL MONEY ORDERS, domestic US money orders cannot be cashed in Canada.

HERE ARE THE PARTS LISTS(They are in Excel Format)

Austin Healey 100

Engine Parts

Ignition Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

Austin Healey 100/6 & 3000

Engine Parts

Ignition Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

AUSTIN HEALEY SPRITE & MG MIDGET

Engine Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

MGA PARTS

Engine Parts

Ignition Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

MGB PARTS

Engine Parts

Ignition Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

TRIUMPH TR2 – TR6

Engine Parts

Ignition Parts

Cooling Parts

Fuel Parts

Clutch Parts

Gearbox Parts

PLEASE NOTE THAT COMMENTS WILL BE ANSWERED DIRECTLY BY EMAIL

NOT ON THIS PAGE..

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Targa is over for another year. It takes a while to come back to earth after the event and this year was no exception.  2008 was my 5th year of Targa competition and certainly one of the better ones. With AHX12 now in its 4th year in the event I believe we have sorted out most of the bugs and turned it into a very competitive Targa car and Michael Oritt, my neophyte co-driver in 2007, really came into his own and started feeding me accurate and timely instructions throughout the grueling 5 day event.
There is no question that Blair Harber’s vision for AHX12 seems to be coming to fruition. When he and I competed in 2003 and 2004 the car performed very well and proved to be quite reliable but after a 2 year hiatus Michael and I found last year that the intensity of the competition had risen to a new level and the 6th overall position that Blair and I achieved in 2003 was not going to be easy to repeat.

As can be read in my earlier posts I made some substantial improvements to the rear axle casing on “12” this year to overcome the weaknesses revealed in our minor off road excursion in 2007. There is no question that designing and installing the 4 link system with the Watt’s linkage was a good decision, but minor bugs in the new design proved to be the weak link in our campaign last year and, unfortunately, again this year.

In 2008 Targa reconfirmed its reputation as “The Ironman of Motorsport” with Eastern Newfoundland’s rough and twisting roads taking the usual toll of competitors. The results show that of the 48 starters in the Targa Class, 3 cars rolled,  4 scratched with mechanical problems and one went “off road”, which is never a good thing in Newfoundland because the locals store their rocks in the roadside ditches.

With Michael’s vastly improved navigating skills we managed to keep AHX12 on the black stuff throughout the entire event and only went off course once while trying to negotiate an extremely complex intersection which was very poorly illustrated in the route book.

Unfortunately after securing a solid 1st place over the first twelve stages “12” met her match in the form of a huge pothole on the extremely rough Glenwood Stage on day two.

As soon as we started this penultimate stage of the day things started to go “pear shaped”. The road was so rough that in my efforts to drive around rather than over the holes and bumps I found that we were starting to run behind our required average speed. As we rounded the last sweeping right curve of the stage we were about 0.1 KPH over the required average so I deliberately took a wide line with a late apex in order to keep up our average and hopefully “clean” the stage. Great idea, poor execution. So intent was I on looking ahead to get the best speed through the turn that I  missed seeing the huge crater on the left side of my line until the very last second and, with the car on the limit of the adhesion of the Avon tires, we just didn’t have the grip to jog right and avoid it. You can view Keith Tanner’s video of the stage taken from his Miata here to see just how rough the stage was.

“12″ hit the hole with a tremendous crash and immediately the car slewed right, almost spinning. The impact on the already fully compressed left rear suspension was just too much for the lower left suspension link and the head of its rod end parted from the thread. This resulted in all the forces being transferred to the upper right link and it too collapsed. With nothing to stop the differential from rotating under braking or acceleration we weaved down the last 200 meter straight, virtually out of control, to cross the finish 11 seconds late.

As it turned out only one car cleaned the stage and if we had made it we would have retained first position with a one second lead over the eventual winner.

When we jacked the car up on the side of the road a few yards from the finish I realized that we were very lucky to have finished the stage at all as the only thing stopping the entire differential assembly from rotating was the coilovers!
A quick radio call summoned our support crew with the Carcamel.  Being able to load the Healey onto the Camel and, against all the rules, quickly transport it to the start of the next stage saved the day. As we whistled down the Trans Canada Highway the support crew and I formulated a plan.
Upon our arrival at the start of the next stage in Gander we unloaded the car and used the tie down straps from the transporter to lash the rear axle to the frame so that we could at least try to complete the 7 kilometer stage within the trophy time.
Perhaps an explanation of “trophy time” required. The first goal of all the Targa crews competing is to complete every stage of the event in “trophy time” which is 35% longer than the target or “base time” for the stage. One makes target time for an overall win but you only have to make trophy time to get the coveted Targa Plate.
With the precarious condition of the car we were granted permission to start the stage as last car. This removed the necessity for me to watch for cars catching us as we weaved and wobbled a wounded “12” through the stage and meant that we wouldn’t hold anyone up..
As luck would have it the start of the stage was delayed which resulted in the last cars starting in the dark which in turn resulted in the stage being downgraded to condition 2 and our just making our trophy time.

We limped back to the service point at the Gander Arena to see what could be done to repair the rear suspension. This was achieved with the help of the good people from the Gander Arena and in particular Andy Gillingham who took our 2 broken rod ends, and a third which was cracked, and welded them back together to get us through the event.

Thanks again Andy and the team at the arena; that’s 2 years in succession that you have saved our bacon.
Although we were still in the running for our Targa Plate the 11 seconds in Glenwood and then the 2 minutes 45 seconds in Gander had dropped us back to 32nd place overall. This was starting to look like a repeat of 2007!!

The rest of the event was relatively uneventful for us, but some entrants had their moments!!

With dogged determination and the usual attrition we managed to work our way back up to 23rd by the end of day three,  15th by the end of day 4 and then finished in 9th place overall just ahead of Frank Sprongl 3 time North American and five time Canadian Rally Champion in an awesome 1983 factory prepared Audi Quatro Coupe.

When we got back home I pulled the rear suspension apart to see if I could determine what went wrong. It didn’t take too long to figure it out. The problem was my choice of parts because, in my efforts to economize, I opted for less expensive rod ends and careful examination of them and their specifications revealed that their ultimate tensile strength was only around 7000 lbs, plenty for normal driving but when subjected to the loads that the Glenwood pothole provided they just couldn’t take it.

I have changed them all and “12” now sports 8 new QA1 XMR rod ends good for over 16,000 lbs. definitely a case of “racing improves the breed”.

ROLL ON 2009….

There are many definitions of “handicapping” but Wikipedia states:
Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning.

I’m sure with the best of intentions the organizers of The Targa Newfoundland have, for the last 7 years, used a system of “Targa Factors” or handicaps in an effort to give every entrant a chance of winning the coveted Christos Targa Award, which is presented to the overall winner

Obviously in the early days of the event assigning appropriate handicaps, or for that matter even establishing classes, was by necessity a very “hit and miss” exercise. I understand that the organizers based their system on that in use in Targa Tasmania and applied “local content” as required but exactly how these factors are calculated is something of a mystery.

It seems to me, that with seven events now completed sufficient data has been accumulated to assign handicaps based upon actual performances and by so doing the real aim of a handicapping system could be achieved.

There are several sports which use handicapping but the best known is golf wherein handicaps are assigned by calculating an individual competitors playing ability from his recent history of rounds with the intention of giving every competitor an equal chance of winning. I thought I would try to apply this method of handicapping to Targa.
The results are very interesting and go a long way toward explaining why there have only ever been three Modern Division cars in the top three placings at Targa Newfoundland in seven years of competition.

The method that I used to establish the “results based” handicap is explained below***.

In the five days of competition the fastest cars take around 180 minutes to traverse all the stages and the following list shows the difference between the two handicapping systems expressed in minutes in 180 minutes.

Just to be clear this list shows the disadvantage that the current system applies to each class of car.

Class 3 Standard Large Capacity 0.0 minutes

Class 4 Modified Large Capacity 3.3 minutes

Class 6 Modified Large Capacity 5.8 minutes

Class 4 Modified Small Capacity 6.7 minutes

Class 9 Standard large Capacity 7.2 minutes

Calss 3 Modified Small Capacity 8.6 minutes

Class 8 Modified Large Capacity 11.0 minutes

Class 5 Modified Large Capacity 11.0 minutes

Class 7 Standard Large Capacity 11.3 minutes

Class 9 Standard Small Capacity 11.6 minutes

Class 5 Modified small Capacity 12.1 minutes

Class 5 Standard large Capacity 12.1 minutes

Class 2 Standard large Capacity 12.1 minutes

Class 9 Modified Large Capacity 13.9 minutes

Class 4 Standard Large Capacity 14.1 minutes

Class 8 Standard large Capacity 14.8 minutes

Class 2 Modified Small Capacity 16.1 minutes

Class 1 Unlimited 16.5 minutes

Class 5 Standard Small Capacity 16.7 minutes

Class 7 Modified Small Capacity 17.3 minutes

Class 2 Modified Large Capacity 22.2 minutes

Class 7 Modified Large Capacity 28.7 minutes

Class 8 modified Small Capacity 37.4 minutes

Class 9 Modified Small Capacity 44.6 minutes

Class 6 Standard Small Capacity 47.0 minutes

As I mentioned above, the results are very interesting.

For example, under the current Targa Factor system, the minimum Modern Class disadvantage is 7 minutes and 12 seconds  when compared to a Class 3 Standard Large Capacity car. It is hardly surprising that in seven years of competition Modern Class cars have only ever placed 2nd once and 3rd twice.

*** Methodology

In my study I have used stages for 2005, 06, 07, and 08 where 10 or less competing cars “cleaned” the stage to minimize situations where a competing team “backs off” to save their car when they have plenty of time in hand.

From those stages I have taken the fastest car in each of the competing classes and compared its time to that of the fastest car through the stage. By dividing the competitor’s time by that of the fastest car I was able to establish a factor for each car for each of these stages.

Once all these factors were calculated I eliminated the fastest (smallest factor numerically) and the 3 slowest (largest factors numerically) for each car (to eradicate miracles and “screw-up’s’) and then averaged the remaining factors.

Using this method establishes a factor for each class within which there has been a competitor since 2005 and from this a true “Results Based” handicap system can be developed.

Targa Newfoundland Forum discussion on this subject can be found here:

I hesitate to say this, but I think the time has come where I have to admit that I have more projects than I’m ever going to finish and more cars than I’m ever going to drive. I always dreamed of having a decent sized shop at home where I would be able to work away on these projects and get them restored to the condition I wanted but circumstances have changed as, to an extent, have my interests. So, after some sleepless nights thinking about it I have decided to find new homes for some of my cars.
Over the last few years I have whittled things down to more manageable proportions; there was a time when I had about 12 projects either awaiting work or on the go but now some have been finished and some have been sold so that number has dwindled to five.
Now that I have made that decision I have to wrestle with which cars have to go.
First there are the two minis which have been in indoor heated storage for years. These two are the last of the 22 minis that I imported from New Zealand in the early days of this millennium.

This picture is proof positive that 8 minis will fit into one 40′ shipping container. You have to remove the wheels and build a fairly substantial trestle to support the top layer, but it can be done.

The whole exercise was prompted by the numerous inquiries that I received from customers of Precision Sportscar who were looking for minis to restore. Because minis in their day were the cheapest cars available in Canada they were all driven in the winter and as a result rotted away to the point where they were well beyond economical or safe repair. On the other hand however, cars in New Zealand never see salt and therefore rust is virtually unknown.
The two I have left are ones for which I had plans. One is an 1971 Mini Estate. I bought this one in Christchurch and it had been a competitor in a local fun event named the “Undie 500″.

These are somewhat rare in North America and my intention was to restore it as a Mini Traveller, the model which is affectionately known as a “Woody” like the one in this picture.

I don’t own this one sorry to say. 

The problem with the original Mini Woodies is the wood. This timber, which is purely decorative, has a tendency to absorb water and rust the metal beneath it. The Estate is a Woody without the wood and the wood, which apparently is ash, is available as a kit.  A great project that I’m just not going to get to.
The other mini is a regular 1978 sedan completely solid with a few minor battle scars but again a great starting point for an easy, inexpensive and fun restoration project.

Next on my list is my 1970 MGBGT. I always loved the BGT as a model; it was a brilliant design for its day and I have owned this one since 1975. That’s 33 years!! I’m the second owner and I haven’t used the car since about 1982 which is long before digital cameras so I don’t even have a picture of it but here is a site that describes the model. The car started life as a right hand drive with wire wheels and overdrive and was imported into Canada by a chap who immigrated from the UK. He traded it in on a Jaguar XJ6 at our local British Leyland dealer and I remember him calling me not long after I had bought it, when he was suffering from a bout of sellers remorse, and asked if he could buy it back. I converted it to left hand drive using all the correct components and drove it for several summers before I bought my first Healey.. just never seemed to get back to it.
Reluctantly I think my Bugeye Sprite race car has to go as well.

The Bugeye Racer at Mosport in the mid 80s

This is a photo of Tom Haubert racing it at Mosport with a special fiberglass nose in the  ’70s.

I’m also considering selling my 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4. This model was never imported into Canada but this one has been legally imported and licensed.

I have really enjoyed this VR4 but Winter Storage Space has become a problem.

This has been my occasional summer driver for the last few years and, unlike most VR4s, is in remarkable original condition. From the time I read the first Road and Track road test of the VR4 I decided that one day I was going to get one for myself. This 320 BHP, twin turbo, intercooled, all wheel steering, all wheel drive grand touring coupe was, at the time, the fastest road car that they had ever run through their slalom test course and even today its performance is impressive. It now has over 100K miles on it and is fast, comfortable and reliable

How much you ask. Well I’m open to reasonable offers but they would have to be close to these. The $us prices were the the equivalent at the time of writing but should be taken a a guide only.

Mini Estate : $CDN8,500 ($US8000)

Mini Sedan : $CDN 4,800   SOLD

MGBGT : $CDN7,500 ($US7100)

Bugeye Racer : $CDN11,500   SOLD

Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4 $CDN16,500 ($US15,600)

If you are interested in any of these please contact me.mailto:magicareprotect-usedparts@yahoo.ca

When we were in Victoria in March 2008 we stayed with long time friends Steve and Helen Pike in Bacchus Marsh. Steve has a Healey shop which specializes in Healeys with a particular emphasis on 100Ss!!!

He has restored many Healeys and the quality of the work he produces is second to none.

While we were there Steve showed me a prototype of the reproduction factory hardtop which he is now producing. I felt that it looked very good and Steve says that the production versions will look even better as they have done some more finishing on the mould since this prototype was produced.

Steve can be contacted at mclassic@bacchusmarsh.net.au

 Here are some detail pictures. I will look for some more and add them when I find them.

Does anyone recognize this heater valve. I have several of these, acquired with a pile of Smith’s stuff  bought when they closed down their Toronto operation. They are brand new and I am loath to throw them out.

They look vaguely familar to me but I just cannot remember what car I’ve seen them on. Unfortunately there is no part number on them anywhere and the lettering on the body reads:”USE SPANNER AS NEAR THREAD AS POSSIBLE”.