Service Training Notes Lucas Petrol Injection Manual on eBay (end time 16-Nov-10 17:26:15 GMT)

Interesting bundle on eBay

Service Training Notes Lucas Petrol Injection Manual on eBay (end time 16-Nov-10 17:26:15 GMT)

no financial interest on my part. I have most of this already in one form or another.

The Triumph 2000 Story – The Big Triumphs in ‘Works’ Competition: 1964-1976 | The Triumph 2000 2500 2.5 Register

I received an email the other day asking if I could supply a few pictures for an article to appear on the Triumph 2000 register web site. I'm always happy to help and share what I've collected over the years. I don't actually covert the physical items like photos, I value the image, what it tells us about the history, so I don't actually that many physical photos. I do have lots of images that I collect from either scanning those photos or from other web sites. I also get sent a lot of images and spend far too long surfing and searching (although that's reduced lately due to work and travel commitments)

Anyway, here's the article which is a good read.

The Triumph 2000 Story – The Big Triumphs in ‘Works’ Competition: 1964-1976 | The Triumph 2000 2500 2.5 Register

I can make a little known addition to the details of the Lloyd-Hirst, Englefield, Baker privately entered 2.5PI - although out of time the car and crew carried on until Brian Englefield was laid low with respiratory issues (dust inhalation) but that still didn't stop the car completely and it actually reached the end in Mexico City. Sadly not a classified finisher but nevertheless an achievement. The car changed registration number, to a Jersey number and continued rallying in Brian's hands. Brian also bought a spare works shell, spares and two of the works cars which he campaigned.

Anyway, I digress and I have to get on with a bit of Round Britain work, off to the "post mortem" meeting with Tim and Nigel to see what we can do better next time, in 2012!

International Auto Ecosse pictures

Thanks to Andy Martin's camera in the hands of I think Dave Pearson here are a few action shots of me making a mess of the test circuit. All I can say in my defence is that I was laughing too much to notice where the cones were and was completely unable to control the old girl around them anyway. Turns out I missed only one which I count as a superb victory!

First is the calm before the storm, you get a 5,4,3,2,1 count down and then you're off!

This was me trying to give it some welly to drift round a cone

The result of the welly giving was to produce an impressive cloud of dust and missing the cone by a mile.

OK so I was on the wrong side of the cone!

So I finished with an impressive fishtail - OK perhaps I was the only one impressed

All told it was over in the blink of an eye, but it was fun!

Now I know why it's called an alternator....

...because you alternate between thinking you've fixed and not!

This is getting very silly indeed, I though maybe I had a dodgy alternator so I started checking that out today, Oh hang on, let's get back to the beginning

The symptoms are that there is a persistent misfire, it's not on a specific cylinder but it's more like she's not fully firing all the time. It's through out the rev range and doesn't seem to respond to any fuel or ignition settings (choke in/out, advanced/retarded) you can't "drive through" it.

Engine is fresh and has excellent (190psi) and equal compression. Cam timing and valve gaps are all spot on. Metering unit is timed correctly, all injectors are spraying a good cone pattern with no dribbles or bleed back.

I have replace or rebuilt all of the ignition system at least twice. New coil, leads, cap, rotor arm, plugs, points, (tried electronic ignition too).

The fuel system is OK, pressure seems pretty constant over 100 psi on the electronic gauge. The gauge seems to only want to read up to a max of 102 psi despite it being a 160psi one. The injection seems to work OK as she will run right down to 80psi or less before she stops or chugs.

So, back to the alternator - why do I suspect it? Well it's a recent recon ACR type of unknown origin or output (although I think it's an 18ACR). It replaced the one that came with the car (also and ACR) that I suspected was faulty, it wasn't charging properly - but now I'm not so sure!

Anyway, the misfire is still there but if the car is running and I switch the lights on, I get a pronounced misfire. I get the same type of misfire if I wound the horn (air horns) for a 2 or 3 second burst.

So, I test the alternator to see if it's failed or not. Now it gets interesting - vehicle electrics are not one of my best areas of skill - I admit to being a bit of a thicko here. Electrickery is one of the great unknowns for me and operating a multimeter is a challenge. Getting the test results is OK but what do they mean and are they normal?

Well here's what I got.

• Ignition off - voltage at the battery 13.06v - seems healthy
• @ idle - voltage at the battery is only 12.9 volts but....
• @ fast idle - voltage at the battery is 14.17 and it doesn't get any more at higher engine speeds

So that would seem to indicate that the alternator is charging OK.

So then my mind turned to what was the voltage at the coil whilst all this was going on - now I'm not too sure what these readings mean but I took them so I'll thrown them out to the Triumph intelligenci and see what comes back.

• Coil resistance is 3.7 Ohms, correct for a non-ballast resistor set-up
• Voltage at coil with engine at idle is 5.7 volts and it drops to 3.2 volts at fast idle
• Voltage between battery negative and coil positive at idle is 6.29 volts and it drops to 4 volts at fast idle
• Voltage between coil positive and battery negative is 12.55 volts at idle and rises to 13.6 volts at fast idle

It's fair to say I haven't a clue as to what all that means but it doesn't look right to me.

The next fun is the wiring - here's where a factory diagram isn't much help. As a Mk1 PI it should have a Lucas alternator with a separate control box. It doesn't have anything of the sort, it's got wires bundled together and a few brown ones not plugged into anything at all, just taped up out of the way.

There are three wires connected to the alternator, the chunkiest brown one goes straight to the battery positive, a thinner yellow and brown wire goes from the centre terminal on the alternator into the loom. There's a thinner still wire which is brown and green and also goes into the loom.

So a few questions for anyone interested in helping me make sense of this.

• As I see it, the Brown/Green wire is the warning light wire and should not have any effect on the efficiency of the alternator. If it's only used for energising the alternator then when defective the alternator will not charge. As mine does charge then my logic says leave it alone! Am I right - the wiring diagram shows this should be a Brown/Yellow wire!
• The Brown/Yellow wire, being chunky, must carry some of the charging current (rather than being the energising wire) but where does it go? I can trace it into a cheap and nasty after market crimped joiner near the fuse box on the other side of the engine bay but where it goes after that I'm not sure. Does it supply fuse number 2 - headlamp flasher relay, horn and interior light/Cigarette lighter?? Am I right - the wiring diagram shows this should be a Brown/Green wire!
• The heavy duty Brown wire goes straight to the battery, that's easy.

I can test some of these theories by disconnecting things but I don't want to do that with the engine running or I'll screw up the alternator properly. Can I do it with the ignition on but the car not running?

Anyway, enough of such things, I'm off to fiddle again but this is baffling me! All suggestions gratefully received!

International Auto Ecosse

What a weekend! I was well prepared (as I always feel I am, I'm usually wrong) and drove up to Canley Classics on Thursday afternoon to meet up with Dave. The intention being to have a final fettle and see if we could cure an annoying brake judder on Thursday then have a leisurely start to the journey midday Friday. Joe and Frank Welling were also starting from Canleys and Tims Bancroft and Hunt were going to meet us there to travel up to the Old Stone Trough on Friday. We were due to set off at about 1pm. That all left plenty of time for the inevitable "issues" that crop up.

This event would the car's longest journey in my ownership, in fact it was 1500 miles door to door. I'd had an annoying misfire for weeks before and felt I;d cured it, the car went well on the 100 mile trip up to Dave's place, I didn't push it.

Of course things started to go a little pear shaped when the misfire returned and the brake judder got annoyingly worse! We resolved to sort the misfire first and then move on to the brakes later.

By the time Friday came we'd basically done a full service on the car again and were hooking it up to Dave's Crypton machine, a formidable piece of kit with valves and all sorted of radar like traces on a screen.

It was frustrating, we found stuff that was wrong and with satisfying "Aha" moments we fixed one after another only to be left with the same misfire.

Metering unit timing was changed, ignition timing was fiddled with, plugs were changed, compression test done (bang on - all cylinders the same at 190psi) vacuum tested - everything was spot bollock on. It should be, the engine's pretty much new having been build around a Witor cam and barely run in. I even found a dribbling injector which I replaced with a new one.

On the last test run I took the car out and gave it a spanking down the lane, where it promptly birdsnested it's fan belt! It had looked a bit weird and I'd checked the tension earlier but better it went then than on the run up or worse, in the Highlands!

Because the PI has power steering it was a little bit of fiddle to replace as I needed to take the PAS belt off first and it's quite tight, not to mention red hot down there - I did utter a few expletives as I singed my arms repeatedly.

Joe Welling was having fun too, he's rocked up with his Vitesse dragging it's arse severely - the lowering block was just too much. There was no way he was doing the event with the car sitting like that so he removed it. The new alternator wasn't charging which turned out to be a wiring error, all fixed without drama.

Tim Bancroft pitched up early and Tim Hunt was on time so off we went into the scorching midday sunshine. As ever, the M6 was a bloody nightmare and we started to get some fuelling issues with cavitation. The pump screams as it starts to pump vaporised fuel. This leads to a drop in pressure as shown on my gauge. The PI will run right down at 80 PSI but it's not very pleasant. As soon as you get any lower the injectors start to suffer, they crack open at about 60 PSI and if they don't get enough pressure, they just don't open!

Once or twice we thought we'd be on the hard shoulder but we never actually died. We made it to Barnoldswick in good time and apart from a little underbonnet issue we were OK - I had spare pumps I could change it when we got to Gretna. The underbonnet issue was that the plenum had pulled one of the steel rings out of the alli throttle bodies - I hadn't fitted the support for the plenum and the weight had just been a bit much. So I cleaned it up and applied some Araldite, Tim B gave me some lock wire and I wired it all up so it couldn't go anywhere, job's a good 'un.

At Gretna we took a look at the pump. It was then that another one of those "Aha" moments happened.

Now those of you who know Lucas PI will know that there are a lot of pipes and flows of fuel around the car - high pressure supply to the pressure relief valve which provides two outputs, one is the regulated 106PSI supply to the metering unit the other is a low pressure "spill" which goes back to the tank, sometimes via a cooling coil wrapped around the pump. This cools the pump body. There's also a spill from the metering unit of low pressure fuel that goes back to the tank.

So you can imagine that it's easy to get confused or to see "solutions" that ignore some simple rules of physics. Yup, you've guessed it, I got it wrong again :-) What I'd done was to route the spill from the PRV round a cooling coil and back into the filter head. Neat but with one tiny little flaw - you see what I was doing wasn't cooling the pump it was making sure it got the warmest fuel in the system! Warmed fuel would go back into the filter under mild pressure, that would overcome the gravity pressure of the cold fuel in the tank and yes, recirculate through the pump! What a plonker. So a quick re-plumbing was in order. I needed a T piece to splice the return into the low pressure spill return into the tank -

I'm not sure how it's supposed to go as I think I have a Mk2 saloon tank rather than a PI tank but I'll have a better look and figure it out.

I pulled a T piece off my vac gauge and spliced it all in (I always carry a PI parts kit in a boax that includes Araldite, pies, clips, vac gauge, spare injectors, metering unit, pump, seals, o rings etc).

Although the pump had behaved from Barnoldswick to Gretna I swapped it out for a spare I'd built up. I didn't bother with the cooling coil at this point and we never had another pump issue all weekend. That said, the M6 episode was doubtless because the air temp was so very hot!

Anyway, Gretna is a weird place, unlikely looking wedding parties and coach parties of pyjama clad teenagers. We got our heads down for some sleep and an leisurely start.

Here we are at the start next to Frank and Joe Welling in the Vitesse.

The event was a cracking good laugh, weather was excellent, loads of sunshine not much rain. Memorable parts include my first ever attempt at an autotest (I was crap) plus the Corkscrew which is an insane road click on the link, go to Google Street View mode and you can virtually walk up it. As you can see, it's a bloody tight set of hairpins that are impossibly narrow and steep. It's at times like this you realise just how crazy we are to do these things!

The Autotest at Inverary Castle was interesting, a dusty gravel section proved more visually entertaining than competitive, not that I was trying to put in a good time. I was just trying to do the course properly, failed on that one - "You missed a cone!" said the timekeeper. The truth is, I saw it, I just couldn't get the car round it!

We lost a few people during the weekend, Tim B to a wheel bearing failure, seems they were fitted too tightly and we didn't catch the issue in time before the nearside was wrecked. We tried a rebuild at the roadside just overlooking the submarine base. As if that wasn't enough we also lost Joe and Frank Welling on the route home, just south of Shap when a wheel bearing on his Vitesse exploded in the fast lane, Franks's laundry bill went up but the car made it to safety on the hard shoulder.

Epic performance of the weekend ,ust go to Dave Langrick who finished a chassis change on his 6 pot Spitfire then drove solo from Nottingham to Stirling to meet us. Dave stuck with it for the rest of the event and drove home with Dave and I - top down in the torrential rain and sunshine. What a mentalist!

Issues on my car - fast indicators, crap brake lights, persistent misfire and the ever present brake judder - I loved the weekend.

We did about 22.5 MPG which for the type of driving and the state of the car wasn't so bad - the Vitesse did 19 on the same event 2 years ago and the same on the Ten Countries so 22.5 is an improvement!

I haven't yet had a proper look at the issues, I arrived home at 21:30 on Monday, went to bed and was on a plane to Dublin the next morning for work. Yesterday was my Birthday and today I've been catching up on RBRR stuff. I might get a looksee later.

Check out the last 15 minutes of BBC Scotland's TV programme "Landward" episode 10

BBC - BBC Two Programmes - Landward, 2010/2011, Episode 10

There's also a write up from the organising club, the Caledonian Classic & Historic Motorsport Club here

Happy days

Went out to the local group meeting - it's a TSSC meet (I was the area Organiser when I was a TSSC member) but we welcome everyone from any club, no questions asked. It's a half an hour drive for me as it's in Hook, the other side of Reading and down towards Basingstoke. Nice blat along some country roads and the PI ran very well indeed, no sign of the misfire and actually feels pleasant again.

Two issues cropped up, the brake judder is not improved, if anything it's worse, despite correct hold down hardware now (thanks Ted) and despite everything working seemingly as it should. I can't figure it out, the brakes judder and it doesn't come through on the steering wheel so I'm guessing rear wheels. Yet when I apply the handbrake (whilst moving) there isn't a trace of judder. More head scratching I think.

The second thing? I flashed my headlights and the fuse blew - it didn't mean the loss of headlights, just the loss of horn, interior light, cigarette lighter and headlight flash. It was a 15 amp fuse. I don't know if that's right or not (Mk1 owners please tell me) I had some spare 35amp ones so I've thrown one of those in but I do need to investigate.

All in all a pleasant trip, I feel a little more confident now - of course two 30 minute drives means she'll make it 1500 miles to and around Scotland and back :-)

Diving under the bonnet for fun with my horn

I know, I know, I must stop it with the Carry-on gutter mentality but I watched Carry on at your convenience recently (I'm not really sure why) and it's affected me!

I like air horns, the louder the better. There's something fundamental about a car horn that's been lost over the years. I mean nowadays it's a polite little "peep" in a sort of camp "Yoo hoo!" way. Horns should be loud in a sort of "Oy! Get the *$%# out the way!" style, more of a warning device than anything else.

So I had been looking out for a nice set of Fiamms or maybe some Maserati air horns but these things don't come up too often, when they do they are expensive. I've had a few bids in recently and been frustrated so I just bought some cheapo air horns off eBay and thought I'd fit them up whilst I keep looking for some nice period ones.

So when Tim came over for an afternoon's car fettling he asked what jobs there were to do and, seeing as he could totally see where I was coming from on the whole air horn thing, he decided that would be his task - in no time at they were fitted. Whilst the metal mounting bracket is the best I could find it's not ideal although it does serve a purpose in that it removes the need to drill a hold in the inner wheel arch which I'd rather avoid. We joked about the stingy length of tubing the kit provided but it was enough for a compact installation.

I was always a little paranoid as to whether an air horn would pass an MOT or not so I was going to wire it into a selector switch and retain the standard horns, as it happens we have one standard and the air horns together at the moment. I'll live with it and see how it goes. I'll keep a look out for a better bracket but it's quite solid as it is.

There were a few other jobs to do but one that I'd been meaning to do for a while and kept fannying about over was the fitting of the correct Mk 1 2.5pi under-bonnet sound pad. I'd acquired some stainless steel pipe to make up some better fixing bars and together Tim and I sorted it into two bars, drilled and fitted up with the hard to find but a little tatty fibreglass pad (thanks again Tim).

I had intended to restore the pad in some way but to be honest it's a bit of a nightmare - it's made from what looks like compressed fibreglass loft insulation (aka Rockwool) with some sort of light surface treatment to keep it together. I'd done some experiments with thinned down resin that could be sprayed before curing but how to re-compress the bits that were damaged? In the end we fitted it as it was and it looked OK. However, I then decided that at the least I could give it a light coat of black UHT paint to make sure it was all one colour and I'm glad I did, here's the result which looks really good in the photos.

I'm indebted to Tim for coming round and getting stuck in, I've been spending more time in the garage and enjoying working on the car again after far too long of not getting anything done.

I also managed to change out the fuel pump, sort out some wiring in the boot and build another fuel pump yesterday.

Although only small jobs it was good to have someone to blame for when things didn't go to plan.

What a stud - bigger is better

Now then, this posting can be read in a serious voice or you can put a Frankie Howerd voice on and insert as much innuendo as you can handle - oooo missus!

It's always been a concern of mine that with the Stag brakes (and some spacers to clear the brake drums) my rear wheel studs were not showing through the nuts. I was not hugely concerned because they are long tube nuts and as such there was a lot of thread to them but I always feel more comfortable seeing the stud in the nut.

It's always been said that Ford studs would fit and after some consultation with the oracles on the Club Triumph Forum (thanks Andy Thompson et al) it turns out it's Ford RS2000 competition studs that are needed. A trawl around eBay and other sires revealed a huge difference in price for what is a fairly cheap component. In the end I got them from these guysMtec Racing Services for a very modest £1.40 each. What you need are Ford Wheel Stud 7/16" UNF 55mm long (there are other lengths available) this means you keep the imperial thread and so can use the same wheel nuts - my nuts are open tube nuts so I don't have to worry about the stud hitting the dome of a domed nut.

I fitted the rears without too much trouble, they are a straight swap - there's a bit of fiddling around to get them in but I managed in the end with thoughts of those Christmas cracker bent metal puzzles that seem impossible until they come apart in your hands with no effort whatsoever!

The fronts were not so easy. OK so there was no dismantling to do and they studs are just long enough to fiddle in but there is a problem that I'd never thought of - the front and rear studs were not the same! The fronts are a bit shorter but more importantly and fatal to my application, is that the shoulder is lower. That means that although the long studs will go in and although I could get the wheels on nuts on, I could not tighten up the nuts. They were bottoming out on the protruding shoulder before the wheel was tight. If I put spacers on the front or turned down the shoulder on a lathe then I might get them on OK.

The photo above shows, from left to right, Front, Rear, Ford.

The answer? Well one answer anyway,stick the Stag rears in thee front and that's what I did. It's not ideal as they aren't as long as I'd like but they are better than the originals.

I forgot to take a picture of the rears but below is a front wheel as was. No sign of a stud in the nut. The nuts, being tube nuts, go right inside the wheel. This means it 's a real pain to refit the wheels as you have to get the stud central whilst supporting the weight of the wheel then fit the nut which is a tight fit in the wheel!

Now here's the view with one ling stud, as you can see it was long but look at the shoulder.

Below is a picture of the wheel over the new studs - originally there would have been no stud showing at all. This is a rear and has wide track Stag suspension and brakes plus spacers to clear the Stag drums. I had to grind off the cast in lettering on the drums to get the KN Gemini wheels to sit right.

and finally below is the finished article, new studs and original tube nuts (with washer) that I have never seen anywhere else and am a bit frightened of losing/wrecking because finding new ones could be a pain!

I also managed to reseal the exhaust silencer and the bendy bit that goes over the driveshaft, this was just a jointing issue and wasn't really a problem just a minor annoyance.

I've got a few other bits and bobs to do in preparation for the International Autoecosse next weekend and Tim Bancroft is coming over for mechanical and moral support. Nothing major just some electrics, cosmetics and audio (no, I'm not fitting a stereo).

Big knob bad, small knob good

It's been a while since I did anything frivolous on the PI, mainly because it's been rather annoying in resisting all my attempts to get it running right. You see I made a little mental pact with myself - get it running right, move it towards it's potential. Then, and only then, can you start doing all the other jobs that you have stacked up for it!

So it is with some relief that I think I have cracked it this weekend. I have spent two days on the car and been through it step by step.

First a bit of history - it was running OK, then it developed a persistent misfire that you would not drive through. At this point everyone will be blaming the PI. I have installed an electronic fuel pressure gauge in the car so I can see when fuel pressure drops. Yes sometime it has occasionally dropped (I have had several pumps on it testing and developing) but the low fuel pressure misfire is very different to an ignition misfire.

So I had swapped out plugs, leads, cap, rotor arm and coil for a known good one. I'd gone from points to electronic ignition and back again. All to no avail, so pissed off was I that although I drove down to the Isle of Wight, I refused to use the car on the Saturday drive out.

As can be imagined, it was grim determination that I set about the car on Saturday. I'm pleased I did and I'm also pleased I don't make my living doing this sort of stuff because by Sunday morning I'd made no progress whatsoever! I'd put it back on points and then when trying to time it up found my strobe light had died - annoying or what. I got it running and it was, as my erstwhile friend Dave often says, running like a bag-o-shite!

One of the annoyances about the car is that the dizzy is misaligned and the vac unit points into the head making it impossible to pull all the plugs. I decided, pull it all off, dizzy, metering unit , dizzy drive and rotate the oil pump so that I can reassemble the correct way. This means starting a fresh with all timing (ignition and injection)

This morning I swallowed hard and off I went. It took me ages, assembling and reassembling, making and wrecking then remaking the pedestal gasket because I had none. Realising that now was the ideal time to change the choke cable for a NOS one I had acquired - it's a nightmare to attach it to the metering unit in situ but a breeze if it's in your hand. In doing so I realised that the original choke cable was a little kinked and wasn't allowing the over fuel lever to return to closed - it now does.

So I got the Metering Unit timed in OK, got the dizzy mounted then spent the next few hours trying to get the theory of what goes where into practical application - I don't know what happened in my head but I just kept screwing it up. Over and over until I was just about ready to hit it with a hammer and walk away. Then one last time and with a fading battery from all the turning over to no avail, I was ready for the triumphant return of the PI - yes! It only bloody fired and sounded good.

I had bought a brand new coil (Lucas sports) and it had seemed a good time to throw that on. Whilst I was at it I thought I would check and adjust the valve clearances, the car had sounded a little tappety. It needed some adjustment, not much but most were sloppy.

So the only component that I changed today was the coil - could the old coil and the known good one I was using both be crap? They were both the correct 12v coils (no satanic ballast resistors here). I tried the old coils - all fine!

I even managed to appease the Gods somehow and they fixed my timing light which worked at the first attempt. Timed up and running nicely I then went for a blast down the road, it felt good. I drove home and popped the bonnet to admire my work, the engine sounded a bit chattery, something wasn't right. I got my American "Mechanics Stethoscope" out (Thanks Bill) and narrowed it down to the dizzy, it sounded like a bad bearing. Not much I could do about it now I thought. Let's check the vac readings, make sure the engine is as healthy as I think - pulled off the vac tube on the dizzy and stuck it in my gauge.

Hang on!

The noise has stopped! Re-attach the vac advance and the noise is back. It's definitely something to do with the vac advance unit, what I don't know. I pulled the cap off and checked for any fouling of wires or anything obviously loose. The only I can think of now is that whilst I was assembling the points I thought the cheese head machine screw that hold the points on was a bit long (but it's the one that came with the car). I think I'll try the electronic ignition back on again next time I fiddle.

Anyway, vac off let's got for a blast - ooh now that is nice. Pulls well and feels strong. I'm a happy bunny.

As for the title of this post, I bet you're wondering what all this has to do with knob size. Well let me tell you, as a Mk1 owner I have been trying to get all my dash knobs to match but the choke cable knob has never been right, always twice the size of the other knobs - Mk1 PI choke cables are not common on the open market. Now, with the new choke cable I got a choice of two small knobs in the Stanpart bag. So I used the correct one and all is well with the world, I am small knobbed again and proud of it.

So other jobs to do are now looking possible, that is now that the car is running well. On the list are:-

• Replace the leaky seal in the fuel pump - I must have put an old pump on in my haste
• Fit these longer Ford RS studs I've just bought so there's some thread showing through
• Repair the passenger seat, the seam stitching has let go completely now
• Fit the air horns I've had on the shelf for 3 years+
• Fit the HID headlight upgrade I've had on the shelf for 2 years+
• Fit the underbonnet sound pad with these nice stainless retainers I've had for a year
• Stop making lists

Epilogue to the event WCR40

Ted Taylor's written a very nice epilogue to the WCR40 show where he name checks those who did so much to help out and make the event a success, read it here
Epilogue to the event WCR40

There were so many that make the whole event work and I'm sure we've missed a few out but you know who you are and your time and effort was vital.

I would like to say thanks to Ted himself who, through enthusiasm, hard work and perseverance got the job done - we did have a few doom and gloom merchants who told us we would fail and that we should have started 12 months ago etc, etc. It was Ted who didn't listen and just ploughed on. I have to admit, I for one was very worried about letting anyone down, with work and homelife to balance as well as a personal obsession it was always going to be tricky. In the end the cracks didn't show, no one saw the things that went wrong and we all had a good day.

So thanks Ted and Team!

Now, photos. Please, please, please do make them available to me, I'm going to create a new Picassa album for the day and share it for all to see via my own blog and the WCR40 site Gallery. I'll credit any photographer in the album but please be aware these are for public viewing - I'm interested in making the event come alove for the overseas fans who could not make it - and I know there are lots of you because you write to me (which by the way is really good, more please!)

I'm also going to put together a list of the films we showed and try and see if I can find out how you can get legitimate copies. I know that the Cal Withers film is now on DVD (we showed a little at the very start but because of audio visual issues we couldn't interrupt the schedulled show). This hasn't seen the light of day for 30+ years and I haven't seen it all. My own copy is on it's way to me now so I'll report on the full item soon. Ian Harwood is collating orders so drop him a line if you're interested, they are £22 each inc UK postage.

WORLD CUP RALLY 40th anniversay souvenir programmes

WORLD CUP RALLY 40th anniversay souvenir programme on eBay (end time 30-May-10 11:54:37 BST)

For those who couldn't make it to Gaydon last month, the souvenir programme is available for purchase from eBay (and also the 2000 Register club shop).

Price is £5.00 including UK postage

For overseas buyers please ask for a shipping quote, it will be at cost price.

Paypal can be used to complete the purchase.

The progamme is a decent read and keep item with a lot of colour and detail. Huge credit to Kevin who put it all together and produced it on time and within budget.

This is our main money maker and whilst we don't seek to make big profits we do need to cover our costs. It would be great to get a few quid in the kitty to enable us to consider putting on another Classic Rally cars event sometime in the future.

Once again, thanks to all who attended or helped in some way.

WCR40 - what a day!

Just a short post to say a big "Thank you" to everyone who attended and supported yesterdays event. I was mainly chained to the auditorium running the slightly dodgy audio visuals (no one saw the join but basically I could not stop the films only pause them as we have no scene search, fast forward or rewind facility). Big thanks to Paul the Gaydon technician guy for getting us that far, in fact big thanks to all the Gaydon staff including John Bishop, fantastic venue and they could not have been more helpful to us.

I didn't leave the site until 6pm on Saturday and was back again for 7am Sunday - I think I was one of the first cars to arrive so the car park was empty. When I was able to venture outside later I was overwhelmed by the numbers, so much so I admit to having a little emotional moment. You've no idea how much sleep I'd lost over this - would the cars come, would the people come, were there enough anoraks to go round?

The inside event went so well we had standing room only for some of the events. I'm so grateful to people like Alan Chatterton and Joe Welling for doing the running around. Alan was especially good at making sure all the speakers were lined up and ready to go. "I don't know what they look like!" he said - "Well I can only tell what they looked like 40 years ago!" I think you did fantastic mate!
Tim Bancroft and Bob King were great, there when they said they'd be, did what they said they'd do and no fuss - thank boys, you did Club Triumph proud.

Thanks for the beer, curry and moral support, not to mention a sofa to sleep on from Dave Pearson - as ever mate, very much appreciated.
Thanks also to Graham Robson for doing such a professional job of keeping the program moving, to time and at the right pace.
I will have forgotten people I should be thanking so a general "Thank you" to everyone again!

Now a plea - I was more or less chained to the inside event and whilst that was great I did not get outside much at all. I did take a camera but I didn't get chance to take many photos - I asked a few of you to take lots of pictures so can you share them with me please? I have an ulterior motive for this. You see there are many World Cup Rally fans around the world who read this blog, some who bought tickets with no intention of attending just to show support (thanks guys) and I said I would try and share as much as possible on-line.

You can get photos to me by emailing me of using my Picas "Drop Box" to upload http://picasaweb.google.com/JRChinn/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCLrh8OOfhaCsnAE&feat=directlink

For those who've asked where they can get the films from, the answer isn't simple. Five for Fiesta is commercially available from Duke for a tenner. The rest are personally owned home movies or were promotional films for which there appears to be no active owner (i.e. the Castrol film was made freely available for distribution by Castrol) so I think we should be OK. The Rob McCauley film is currently not commercially available, he gave permission for it to be shown but as for distribution, I don't know.

When I'm clear that I can make them available I will, somehow. I don't want to tread on any toes and I don't want to get into trouble - I don't want to make any money out if this but similarly I don't want to deny the rightful owner of the opportunity to do so! Remember a lot of these guys aren't wealthy and personally I encourage giving them the opportunity to supplement their income .

OK on that last point, a couple of "plugs" for people trying to make a few quid out of their exploits and who I think we should support. The more worthwhile people like us make these books, the more encouragement we give and the more likely it is that these sources of information are maximised. Show support please to -

• Graham Robson's new book is out, get it through Veloce Publishing
• Brian Moylan is trying to get a second edition of his "Works Rally Mechanic" book off the ground, again through Veloce so drop them an email to show support.
• Brian Culcheth, Triumph driver has a DVD out, "An evening with Brian Culcheth" well worth getting and available direct from Brian by sending a cheque for £16.50 (to include p&p) made out to ‘Brian Culcheth’ at his home address :- Porch House, High Street, Porlock, Somerset TA24 8PU.

I think that just about covers it, I'm now going to start working through the list of jobs I have around the house and at work that I ignored to do WCR40 - it was worth it though :-)

MOT sorted and modern fun

Well the PI passed the MOT and promptly let me down. Not strictly true, it didn't leave me stranded but it has decided that indicators are for other cars but not the PI. I have side repeaters and no indicators - all 4 have stopped.
Investigations all seem to point to the flasher unit. Here's my set-up and history. About 1 year or more ago the original flasher unit was playing up, erratic operation. It would operate OK for 2 or 3 flashes and then become fast/slow erratic. I bought a modern flasher relay and I put that in, problem solved.
I decided to have a play with LEDs and got an LED flasher unit and some festoons for the repeaters as they were quite dull with conventional lamps. I never did get round to putting LEDs in the indicators.
So the car sits with LED repeaters, incandescent indicators and a modern flasher unit good for LEDs and incandescent lamps.

So, back to the problem -
The repeaters work, the dash warning light works and the flasher relay makes the required clicking noises.
All earths seem OK, fuses are OK, same issues with engine running or just ignition on.
If I swap the modern flasher relay for the old (erratic) conventional flasher relay, I get the erratic operation again, this time much more random with the side repeaters not often working and the indicators flashing madly.
If I wire in only two of the flasher relay pins I can get sensible indicators but no repeaters and dash warning (the repeaters and dash are on the same circuit)

So, that's how I left it - bodged up old flasher, 4 indicators working and no dash warning or side repeaters. I've ordered a new modern flasher and will have a rummage for another conventional flasher unit and try a bit of swapping around.

Unless anyone has any bright ideas?

The modern fun was with the wife's Saab convertible and a disappearing clutch. It was so bad that selecting gears was touch and go. I couldn't figure it out and frankly under the bonnet of this 10 year old car scares the crap out of me! It's got a single fluid reservoir for brakes and clutch, annual slave and is generally a very tight for space. I couldn't see anything amiss, no fluid loss and plenty of fluid in the reservoir. I didn't have the time, patience, talent to do much else than go see my local independent Saab specialist - Simon at DCA in Upper Bucklebury.

After discussing possibilities ranging from about 900 quid for fitting a new clutch down to about 400 quid for fitting a new master cylinder I left the car with him and drove off in the loaner (always a free loaner from these guys, no question).

Then came the call -
"You know those phone calls you get when your heart sinks and your feel sick?" says Simon
"Err yes" says I in faltering, wallet tightening voice
"Well this isn't one! It's done, come and get it" he quips, smuggly!
It turns out that after a thorough inspection he could find nothing mechanically wrong with the clutch, the master wasn't leaking, in fact it was all in very good order. So he bled the clutch, tested it and pronounced it fixed. Apparently he'd seen it before and although he couldn't explain it fully I was happy with a fifty quid bill and a caution to "Watch it and let me know if it get's bad again".

I'm not expecting that to be the end of the matter but if it is then great! I was most impressed with DCA again, it's not much of a place to look at but there we have a classic example of a job where they could have riped me off and I'd have been none the wiser. That's why I go back there, even though I should have been able to do the job myself I wouldn't have been confident that it was fixed.

Cars. don't you just love 'em!?

Spring and the end of hibernation

Following my broken brakes episode I went up to Gaydon in the modern but was amazed at how many Triumphs I saw. 2 Heralds, a Spitfire, a 2000, a Stag and TR7 - all at different points in the journey and all doing mundane things, like daily driving duties. It kind of inspired me. Not that I need much inspiration, I booked an MOT for Monday, just before the calliper let go!
Anyway, that's all fixed, new calliper from Canleys fitted, I still can't understand why the last one failed twice but it's not worth the time and hassle to try and figure it out. It's now in the core bin for a recon.
I was reminded of all the times I'd tried to use an Easibleed in my youth, connecting it up to the spare tyre and spraying brake fluid all over the place. Now older and wiser and having read the instructions I am always impressed with this gadget (and slightly ashamed that I was so bloody awful at using it in the early days!)
I've now been called in for lunch and then I'm off out for a drive, let's see if I can work my way through the poor running (no power and pulls like an IT technician at a convent). I suspect that a winter's tinkering, swapping pumps, PRVs and generally using the car as a test rig has taken it's toll. I have an electronic ignition set just sat there waiting to go on so I might do that but I don't want to screw it up before tomorrow. I can limp the thing to the MOT station as it is now :-)
Ahh, old cars, don't you just love them!

Mystery part identification

Calling all anoraks and officianados of Works Triumphs. Can you identify a part for me?

In the boot of a world Cup car there are a number of modifications to the diff mounts, mainly to strengthen the area and enable quicker diff changes.

Here's a view of WRX's boot, ignore the floor, it isn't the correct floor, the right one is awaiting installation . What you're looking at is the two holes above the diff mounts. Ordinary production cars have this all boxed in.
Here's a close up below - what I'm trying to identify are the domes that are welded over the diff pins - they are substantial. But what are they from? Where did the parts come from?

Any ideas?? Get in touch by email, chinn at ntlworld.com

Thanks

Oh you little b.........!

Booked the PI in for an MOT for Monday, built a nice pump from all my new bits, put that one and fired her up. Lashed up an electronic fuel pressure gauge so I can see what's going on - only shows 102 psi but it's constant. OK, let's have a little road test.

Drives like a milk float, brakes are crap too. Get home, front calliper seals have gone again! That's the second time in 18 months.

So, I won't be going to the WCR40 meeting tomorrow in the PI but at least Canley's have a Stag calliper I can buy. I have a seal kit but frankly if it's gone again in 18 months then the calliper itself is suspect - looks lovely and clean but won't hold fluid. I'd rebuild it tonight but I have a wedding reception to go to and Mrs C would kill me if we were late.

So, off to Gaydon for the final meeting tomorrow and perhaps fix the breaks on the PI on Sunday, MOT on Monday then at least have a chance of getting it running right for the WCR40 event next weekend!

It's all fun fun fun here at Chinn towers :-)

Get your tickets here!

NOW

Click above to buy your tickets, just over a week to go.

WCR40, momentum gathers

Yes, it's Rolls Royce - and it wasn't the only one on the Rally!

http://events.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/events_2010_wcr40.html

I was at Gaydon for the second organisers meeting yesterday, things are gathering momentum and it's looking like a pretty special day.

The role call of cars is growing and it's really impressive that so many have been identified and tracked down but to see so many owners committing to bring them is great. Some will not be roadworthy, some won't be pretty, some will not even be on 4 wheels BUT they'll be there and in one place. Frankly I'm amazed and feeling privileged to be part of it all. Even the long lost and reclusive XJB302H is promised, yes Paddy Hopkirk's 2.5 PI that finished fourth will be there. Apparently the owner made contact at Race Retro and confirmed - so a big well done and thank you to him.

We've got over 20 original competitors confirmed, with another 20+ mechanics and support crews also coming. Top that up with other marathon rally competitors and many of the World Cup organising team also coming and you've got a lot of very knowledgeable people there. We'll be giving them all name badges and the idea is that you make them welcome, talk to them and generally confirm or debunk some of those WCR myths you're heard.

I've put together an inside program of films and chats with several of these personalities - 5 chats in all. I've also got 6 films to show, some of which haven't been seen in the UK before including competitors home movies.

All in all I have a program inside covering some 6 hours with breaks so you can come and go as you like.

Now I also have a plea for you Blog readers - this event is being done on a shoestring by clubs coming together to put on something memorable. We don't have a great deal of money and necks are on the block to make this a great day - favours are being called in and the generosity of some enthusiasts is commendable (you know who you are - thank you). So, what can you do? Well you can do a lot really, you can buy a ticket up front from the 2000 Register shop and ensure we get a few quid commission from Gaydon - the event itself is free, the ticket gets you into the museum but if you buy it at Gaydon on the day, we get nothing. It's a good deal too because the door price of a Gaydon ticket is £9 and an advance purchase from us is £7.50.

Also, the other money generator is a souvenir program that has now grown to 42 pages of colour pictures, interviews, comment and information from competitors, organisers and such. It's not your usual advert packed throw away although there are adverts in there from sponsors who have helped get the event funded. This is something for you to keep, use to get autographs, give you some information and help us pay for the day.

Slipped inside a few of these will be a Willy Wonka style golden ticket or two - prizes include a couple of "Rally Rides" in World Cup cars, replica rally decals and whatever else we can beg borrow or steal. There's talk of a free sticker too. Cost will be a fiver and with shows like Race Retro costing £20 these days, I think it hits the mark of providing value for modest money.

More information as and when I get it, I have to fit in scanning a monster box of Ford pace notes and a 4 day trip to Poland. Life sure ain't dull here at Chinn Towers.

WCR40 updates

Latest update on the fast approaching Gaydon event

http://wcr40.org.uk/2010/03/15/latest-additions-to-wcr40-event/

Need a GT6?

One of the things I like about this old car malarkey is that on your travels you meet lots of interesting people along the way.

One such chap is Gary Whitcombe who was a competitor on both the 1974 UDT Marathon and the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon. I met him at one of the WCR40 event meetings and it turns out he lives a stones throw from my parents house in Pershore, Worcestershire.

Whilst chatting to him about films, Triumphs, deserts and life changing experiences he asked if I knew anyone who wanted a nice GT6. He then proceeded to describe an honest car that has been waxoiled and garaged but hardly driven recently.

Thsee pics were taken in a hurry after a rainy day. Gary says the waxoil is every where and it's staying on if its what kept it pretty much rust free for 37 years! The sill trims are still on (these often get lost when sills are replaced) but 2 of the little clips need fitting back on the sill edge. Gary says that when he cleaned the drain holes in the sills liquid wax came out in last years hot weather. Under all the wax it really does look like an original car, as it came out of the factory,. There's a bit on the top of the windscreen that has had a liitle repair work.

Gary says he's willing to haggle but he knows what iut's worth and is looking for £4750.00. I don't think that's too much as the car does come with all bills and history from the first invoice when new.

Now I've not seen the car in the flesh and I don't know much about it other than above and what I can see in the photos but as Gary wants it to go to a decent home I thought I'd let you the readers know about it - I've no financial interest in this and you will need to deal direct with Gary in Pershore.

Gary can be contacted on 01386 861507 or email using Gary Whitcombe at aol dot com with a ".", a "@" and no spaces ;-)

Ex-works cars for sale......

.... well Escorts anyway

Whilst I was trawling around the interweb I stumbled across this little nugget one of the few (2) surviving ex-Works Escorts/ There was also a privately entered Escort 1300 that survives - I was actually looking for that to see what that sold for! Anyway, back to FTW 48H, car 14 - it's special for a few reasons, firstly it actually finished the event, out of 96 starters only 23 actually made it to Mexico to be classified as finishers.

What surprises me is the price, £71,900 now I'm not saying I've got that sort of money spare but it does seem to represent good value for what seems to be a decent rally car. Of course I don't know my Escorts at all.

The photo I liked the best is the one of FTW 48H leading one of the weirder World Cup entries, an Escort based Elba Motor Caravan - entry 16, a non-finisher.

Update - I found it, Doug Harris privately entered World Cup Escort CMF730H is for sale. It's apparently going to be under the hammer at Race Retro this year

1969 Ford Escort MKI

Supplied new to privateer driver Douglas Harris and later owned by the Ford Motor Co, contested both the 1970 and 1974 World Cup Rallies. Finishing 1st-in-class on the former, it retired from the latter somewhere in the Libyan Desert! Since entering the current ownership circa ten years ago, the Escort has been revitalised by Yorkshire Classic Cars and used for historic stage rallying.
Estimate: £25,000 - £30,000.

Shame it's gained bubble arches but then it's a competition car and to be fair, it's been through a hell of a lot! I think it looked better on the World Cup but then I'm biased!

The car had the distinction of being the smallest engined car to finish the rally and it was the last placed finisher. It's also partly responsible for my renewed interest in the whole World Cup Rally - when the rally plate came up for sale many years ago, I bought it for Dave Pearson. At the time he was chasing the sale of the Buchanan-Michaleson car.

Here's the Doug Harris Escort at Wembley

My first glimpse of the promised land

Well today's WCR40 meeting at Gaydon was a good insight onto how the day will go.

There was a great deal of enthusiasm as well as realism around the table and it was good to see that so much work has already been done to make the day go well.

I've never been that close to how these sort of shows work and have always wondered how on earth all the disparate threads get pulled together.

Tracing all the survivors is work enough and I was really pleased to hear how many of the known surviving cars will be there - pretty much all of them! Cars that haven't turned a wheel for years, are bent, awaiting restoration or just plain dormant are all coming and we're still looking!

Mechanics, driver, co-drivers, marshalls, team managers are all represented too. Some well known names have confirmed. I'm actually quite excited to meet these guys.

The details will unfold as the weeks progress but I thought it important to let people know that this is turning into one of those "not to be missed" events.

There are lots of details to work through and arrangements to be made but we are well on the way to a great show.

Want to get involved? Well we do need some man power on the day so if you're a member of one of the organising clubs then get in touch with your club. If you're not a member and still want to get involved you can email Ted or one of the organising contacts on the WCR40 Website www.wcr40.org.uk. You can email me through this blog but please do send your contact details so I can respond.

What do we need? Anything and everything World Cup Rally and Marathon rally related - if you have a car, parts, memorabilia etc then get in touch.

We've got some but we want more, we want World Cup cars, London to Sydney cars, East African Safari, UDT 1974 event cars, classic rally cars etc. So if you have one, know of one or know someone who owns one then please, tell then to get in touch.

I've been asked to look after a display of memorabilia and so if you have anything unique and interesting that you'd like to show, I'm your man. I have a large, secure, indoor facility to use. I plan to show some films and so again, if you have anything you have anything you'd like to share please speak up. We have some stuff but you know the drill, don't assume it will be there and that what you have in your collection is in everyone else's! Get in touch and we'll chat.

We are also encouraging a few of the guys who were there on these amazing events to share some reminiscences with us. The current idea is for 30 minute interviews/presentations - more on this as and when it's confirmed.

OK so you are interested but all you want to do is come and have a looksee, well great! That's what we need, so buy a ticket! The 2000 Register are handling the sales through their shop at £7.50 each.

Right, enough rambling on, I need to consider display boards, content, films, how to put enough content on display to keep the audience interested and how to organise these talks :-)

WCR40, Celebrating 40 Years of the Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally

WCR40, Celebrating 40 Years of the Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally

The WCR40 web site is launched - click the link above to find updates and news on the event.

I have my first WCR40 meeting tomorrow at Gaydon and will continue to blog my news here.

WCR40 more details

London to Mexico • World Cup Rally

WCR40

40th Anniversary



Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon

18th April 2010



Organised by

The Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register

Landcrab Owners’ Club International

Austin Maxi Owners’ Club



The London-Mexico World Cup Rally



WCR40 commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally. The longest and most ambitious event of its kind to date, the World Cup Rally left Wembley Stadium for the 16,000 mile, 6-week trip to Mexico City on 19th April 1970.



Almost 100 cars, spanning a variety of works teams and private entries, would follow a challenging route of road sections and special stages from London to Lisbon then, after a sea passage to South America, rejoin battle in Rio de Janeiro for the journey to Mexico City.



Reflecting the relentless pace of the Rally and the punishing terrain over which it was run, just 23 of the original starters would make it to the finishing line at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium.



The World Cup Rally remains one of the most significant events in the history of international motorsport. On the fortieth anniversary of the Wembley start, WCR40 celebrates this monumental rally and the achievements of its participants, both cars and competitors.



About WCR40



WCR40 plans to stage a reunion of all the surviving cars, and as many of the drivers, mechanics and rally officials as possible.



In addition, surviving cars from the other marathon events staged in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the East African Safari, London-Sydney Marathon and 1974 World Cup Rally are being invited to attend in order to make a unique event for anyone interested in long-distance rallying. We would also like to hear from owners of other historic rally cars and classic cars used in rallying, though the primary display will be the Marathon cars.



While the cars are displayed on the outside arena, inside there will be film shows, club displays of World Cup Memorabilia and a chance to see Rally personalities in conversation with noted historian Graham Robson, who served as a travelling controller on the event itself. Graham has just authored a new book on the World Cup Rally, and copies of this will be on sale at at WCR40.



Any classic motorsport-themed clubs interested in securing display facilities at WCR40 are requested to contact the organisers as early as possible.



Cars



An event of the calibre of the World Cup Rally was bound to attract a top-class entry, and WCR40 aims to reflect this in its display of surviving cars:



Triumph 2.5PI - British Leyland’s team effort was spearheaded by four of these fast and rugged saloons. Two further 2.5PIs appeared as private entries.



Ford Escort - Following on from its record of international rallying successes with the Cortina, Ford turned to its new Escort for the World Cup Rally, with a seven-car entry.



Austin/Morris 1800 - already an established contender on events like the London-Sydney Marathon, the durable ‘Landcrab’ proved a popular choice for private entrants, many with works support.



Austin Maxi - relatively new to the international rallying scene, the Austin Maxi was represented by two works cars and two factory-supported private entries.



Other entries featured cars from BMW, Citröen, Datsun, Ford, Hillman, Mercedes-Benz, Moskvitch, Peugeot and more.



Personalities



As with the cars, the World Cup Rally attracted some of the best-known international rallyists.



Names such as Rauno Aaltonen, Roger Clark, Andrew Cowan, Brian Culcheth, Paddy Hopkirk, Timo Makinen, Hannu Mikkola, Bob Neyrat, Rosemary Smith, Claudine and Rene Trautmann, and Patrick Vanson were joined by a wealth of enthusiastic private entries and celebrities such as footballer Jimmy Greaves.



WCR40 aims to reunite as many of the original rally crews as possible, along with Team Managers, mechanics and rally officials.



The Venue



WCR40 will be held at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon. Entry to the outside arena will be free on the day, with dedicated parking for classic cars. Tickets for entry to the museum at a special discount price of £7.50 are available in advance from Triumph 2000 Register website shop.





For further information, please contact



General Enquiries:

• Alan Crussell - 4 The Briars, Holmer Green, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP15 6XE. Telephone 01494 711159 01494 711159 , e-mail alancrussell@hotmail.com

• Ted Taylor - Telephone 01594 832992 01594 832992 , e-mail ted.taylor@bigfoot.com

Cars and Competitors:

• Ken Green - 23 Beacon Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham, B44 9RL. Telephone 0121 352 0281 0121 352 0281

Team Personnel:

• Bill Price - e-mail billjen35@tiscali.co.uk

Clubs and Trade:

• Mark Pacey - e-mail m.n.pacey@lineone.net



The WCR40 organisers gratefully acknowledge the kind co-operation of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust in permitting the use of images first published in the

British Leyland High Road Souvenir Supplement of July 1970

1970 World Cup Rally - 40th anniversary events

YouTube - Graham Robson interview - The Daily Mirror 1970 World Cup Rally 40 (Veloce)

I'm grateful to the Club Triumph forum for pointing out this little snippet on the above.

There are a couple of events I know of to mark the 40th anniversary of this geat event. The above is a commercial book launch of Graham Robsons WCR40 Retrospective work. Graham was a travelling controller on the event and has a wealth of knowledge about how it really was back then. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished book. I made all my photos available to Graham to help illustarte the book so I'm hoping they were good enough. All I know at the moment about the book launch is that it's taking place at Alperton car showroom, near Wembley on Tuesday 20th April. I don't know whether it's an "open" event where anyone can turn up or whether it's ticketed - probably best you ask Veloce Publishing.

The second event I know of is being organised by a goup of interested clubs to be held at Gaydon on Sunday 18th April. This is an event where I have been asked to help organise some exhibits and where I need some help myself.

I've had a chat with one of the organising committee and agreed to get involved, I know very little more about this event other than a date and a venue so I'll pitch up at teh next meeting with a few questions and take it from there. The meeting's on the 13th Feb so I will have more info after that. In the meantime I need help from you the Triumph public - what I'm looking for are thinsg to create a display to tell the story of the World Cup - pictures, articles, banners, memorabilia, artefacts, long forgotten rallly cars, that sort of thing.

Apparently there's covered space inside the main building to put on a display. I intend to have a couple of helpers manning the stand and keeping an eye on things to ensure everything's safe and looked after.

I have a small personal collection but most of my stuff is electronic images and they aren't the best thing to display in a venue like this. I may put together some sort of slide show to run in a loop on a screen.

Anyway, please do get in touch if you would like to be involved, have somthing you would like to display or just want to pass on the contact detauls of where that long forgotten rally car is laid up in a barn :-)