Just passing thru

I had to travel up to Leicester yesterday and as that's almost driving past Canley Classic's front door I thought I'd drop in and see Dave. I used to do this very regularly but work hadn't been taking me that way recently - too many Norwich trips! I'm hoping for a change of scenery - less Norwich and more Exeter, Liverpool and a threat of India too!
So anyway, knowing that I would be passing I threw in some more Lucas Injection equipement I'd found in the garage - I'd been tidying up a few days ago and it had dropped out of the bottom of a box I was moving - right onto my foot! It was a metering unit, pipes and injectors - useful stuff :-) I think I've found it all now but as I couldn't remember where this set came from there could well be more in there somewhere!
As it turned out, I was late leaving Leicester and Dave was under orders to get away promptly - it was his youngest daughter's birthday afterall, so we didn't get much chance to chat.
It was good to see two rally prepared Vitesses in the workshop - bearing works number 6002 VC and 6003 VC. 6003VC was John Woolley's 1980 reincarnation of the works car. 6002 was being finished by the new owner. It's been a pile of bits for a fair few years. I'm no expert on originality, to be honest I don't much care because it's so good to see these cars being put back on the road. The guy who's bought 6002 has done some serious research on what it should look like and I have to say he's doing a great job, the attention to detail is amazing. I hope it'll be out for a thrash this year, the new owner is a user not a polisher.
What I forgot to take up was the two fuel tanks I got from Bill at Rarebits but I can do that another day.
In principle I've agreed with Dave that we'll get the parts cleaned up and fettled with a view to fitting a good system and getting it running. The tarting up and titivation to make it look nice will be my project - I'd like to to go right before it looks right.
Anyway, enough of such things - other news today, I've just posted my Round Britain Reliability Run entry - yes I intend to take the Vitesse out, she did it in 2004 driven by previous owner Dave Walker. I haven't yet got a trusted co-driver sorted out but I'm working on it. It seems everyone I think of is entering in their own cars! I hope I don't have to leave the Vitesse behind and crew in another car, come what may I'll be on the RBRR :-)

Find Music You'll Love - Pandora

Find Music You'll Love - Pandora

One of the guys off the Club Triumph forum suggested this music website. As I was a bit bored I gave it a click and what a great resource! You just tell it a track you like and it goes off and finds some stuff you might like - and it's pretty spot on! Run it in the background like a radio station, very good.

More parts collecting

I'll need bigger fuel capacity for the Vitesse although fuel injection should give me improved economy, and of course that's why I'm fitting it :-) The answer is either a twin tank arrangement al la works rally cars or a bespoke tank - I favour the bespoke idea. Making a tank to sit across the car behind the rear seats. However, such a tank would cost a fair amount and would have to be made up for me from scratch, I don't think I'm really up to the job. So back to twin tanks - put two Vitesse tanks in and you lose all your booot space,yes you do get huge fuel capacity, it's kinda overkill.
I was chewing the fat over this with Dave Pearson - he's got experience of twin Vitesse tanks and he thinks they were a contributory factor in his 10 Countries Run drive shaft failure. wo Vitesse tanks full of fuel are heavy! So, the solution is twin Herald tanks - smaller, lighter get bigger than one Vitesse tank. We have the added bonus that the piping already in place can be used for the PI Fuel return - you see you need to get fuel back into the tank with a PI set-up, kinda recirculating. For those that don't know, the PI system runs on high pressure fuel, regulated through a pressure relief valve. The PRV allows a constant measured pressure through, over pressure is handled by squirting the fuel back into the tank. The down side is that you don't want frothy petrol in your tank if you can help it, air bubbles in the pump would be a bad thing. So with the outlet in one tank and the return into the other you could have a good air separator set-up :-)
Anyway, I asked around for a couple of tanks and immediately Bill Davies from Rarebits for Classics pipe up - I've got loads, take some away please! He said. So today I took a drive down to his place in Calne and collected a couple of Herald 1200 tanks. I need to clean them out a bit and then they're ready for the project. One will have the filler turned around or maybe I'll just shorten it so it fills from inside the boot, that way I'll avoid cutting a hole in the rear wing - I;m undecided yet.