918 replies to this topic

[Lowrider]

Gary's and Pablo's cars will be mailed out tomorrow. John Havlicek's car went out today.

New braids for Oscar - check!

George's estate was somewhere out near Reading beside the Thames, if I recall correctly, Ray. I don't think that's going to get done, my good buddy. Any second option?

Regards,

[Jairus]

Have not heard from Rob yet? I'll send a note to him.

[MantaRay]

Is Holdsworth Bicycle shop close by?

[Gator Bob]

Marvin was so happy to see the sites, Sun and night sky... he cannot stop talking about going to the inter-planetarium, how much fun he is having and that he is a bit homesick from seeing Mars again.

Steve, if he is not packed for the pond crossing could you please provide a photo and assessment of Mr. and Mrs. Pittman's comm and brushes respectively. They are of the open framed type, you see.

Thanks again for the major body repairs http://www.gargaro.c...WaVs/saucer.wav

[Lowrider]

In a less cropped version of the Abbey Road photo you can clearly see the roof line of the brownish building behind the more orange brick buildings on the street corner photos I took the other day. If the crossing has been moved, it hasn't gone too far.



Pablo's and Gary Vogeler's cars were posted out today. Mopar Rob's to follow tomorrow.

Holdsworth Cycles is in Putney, Ray. That's SW London as opposed to NW, but it's do-able. Saturday, most likely. I'd forgotten you requested that. Sorry.

Final service update:
Blacklight had a braid trim to even out wear.



I found some body damage on Miss K's Jupiter following it getting T-boned by John Havlicek's ridered car in his terminal crash. Kate isn't one to bear a grudge. Much.



And patched.





Ralph's Secchi-repaired endbell is holding up perfectly well. Nice to have a happy outcome to record.





Jen's Needle does have some slight damage. I'm not sure I simply missed it before but it's patched now in any event.



Oscar's new braids. Go Oscar!



Bat Car's replacement spur gear arrived in the mail from Phil Smith today. Thanks once more, Phil.



Bob I. was asking about Marvin's brushes. They look fine to me, Bob, in fact if there was an award for the most brush material still remaining, I think you'd be in line for it.





I sourced some boxes the right size for a trans-Atlantic flight today. First shipment will be on their way shortly.
Regards,

[Jencar17]

Thanks for repairing Needle!

, Jens

[Frank The Tank]

Pictures are awesome. I have to ask what kind of camera/lens. Bet it's old school 35mm.

[Gator Bob]

Hunka, hunka burnin brushes...not ! The motor looks great.

Great shot Steve and the Mrs.Pittman's are stacked. Thanks !

[Lowrider]

You'd lose that bet, Frank.
Camera is a Canon PowerShot A3000 Image Stabilizer. It was a raffle prize from my employer's staff association but I assume it's low to mid price range.
It does macro shots well but found coping with the hand held cars against landscape backgrounds a tough job. Either one or the other always seems to be in focus. Edo (who should know!) expressed surprise at this because the small lenses fitted to cheap cameras usually cope better.
It hooks up to the computer easily and has a big memory card. Okay by me.

The first shipment of 12 cars went out to Brian McPherson today.
The Jairus wedge, Roadkill, Futurekingiethingie, Wave Maker, Miss K's jupiter, Titanic, Blacklight, Needle, Aculeus, Don's Backside, Oscar's Chariot and Ralph's Budweiser are the cars on board. There's a 25% rebate of the considerable postage costs due if the box hasn't arrived on or before the 1st March.

Interested parties can track it's progress HERE.
The number is: EE564602435GB

Regards,

[HarV Wallbanger III]

Thanks for your help Steve..... PM me an address for you Sir Steve-a-roonie......

[The Bugman]

ahhhhhhh home again,, ,,,,
whatta whirlwind global adventure the Proxy Racers,have been on,
now for most involved,we finally get our cars back to the USA,,,,
best of luck to our next 2 or 3 hosts(Rt.93 & NJ.SpeedZone &???race 10)

[philsmith]

"If the crossing has been moved, it hasn't gone too far."

This is from the BBC News website 22nd Dec. 2010

"The original zebra crossing, where the photograph was taken, was moved several metres for traffic management reasons more than 30 years ago, and no original features remain. A spokesman for Westminster City Council said: "The detail of exactly when and why the crossing was moved from its original location have been lost in the annals of time. But by comparing photographs with the Ordnance Survey maps, we believe that the crossing might have been further north nearer 3 Abbey Road, which was the front house of the EMI Studios, because the steps of Neville Court appear to the right of the crossing in original photographs of the crossing, whereas the present crossing is near the junction of Abbey Road and Grove End Road.""

[Lowrider]

I wasn't doubting you, Phil. Just remarking that it hadn't been moved a massive amount.

Time for another update.
Mike Z was another racer concerned about his motor brushes. After discussion it was agreed that I'd move the lead wires and shunt wires as much as possible and then see what could be seen. I would guess that there are about 2/3 left, Z. Not cause for immediate concern.







Phil's kindly donated Cox gear has been assembled and fitted to the REM Bat Car. Large retaining washer on the inner face and the gear locked into place with the old gear's lock nut.





With Brian's permission, I then cut rear wheel arches for the car. I was sad to interrupt the flowing lines of the body but it seems the only way to finally cure the wheel contact problem that has continued to trouble this car.







Ray Fellows' #44 now has new rear tires in a further bid to cure it's handling instability. After consultation with Engineer Secchi, the proposition that the troubles were caused by the rear tires was put forward. As the tires were already low and Ray had no spares, I cut the old tires off the wheels and glued new rubber on to them. One of the old tires certainly came away far easier than the other one so perhaps we are on the right track here at last.

The soldering jobs are the only remaining tasks to be undertaken before the cars are tested again at North London on Wednesday and, with a little bit of luck, mailed to Ohio before next weekend.

With London having a warm and sunny weekend, I took a trip out to Putney at the request of Manta Ray Price. The destination was Holdsworth Cycles, of whom I was blissfully unaware until Ray brought them to my attention. It turns out that the shop, which was founded back in 1927, has a long and successful history in competition cycling.





We took Ray's car into the store and spoke with the guy in charge, giving him the story of how we came to be there. He was very nice and gave us a quick history of the achievements of team racers associated with the shop. He even brought out a bike raced 40 years ago in domestic competitions by Les West for us to photograph. Like I said, nice guy.





Lots of memorabilia inside the shop.





Modern racers too. Not cheap.



Having bought Dyna Rigg a no-expenses at all dinner in a diner a week or so ago, it was time for her to reciprocate.
Fancy house. Howmet has obviously found a way to make this 'Bodies for Beer' business a nice little money earner.





Thanks, Dyna.



With the University Boat Race coming up in early April, this stretch of the Thames is becoming busy, even at low tide, with the onset of Spring. Marvin was interested ...





As I said, a lovely sunny day in London Town.



Regards,

[One27ray]

Thank Bud for the tire change, I'm sure Noda will be sending you a box-o-noda's for your generious care of #44 car . The pic's look great of the London area

[philsmith]

Steve, you have put the Cox gear together wrongly, the washer and nuts should clamp the gear together, at the moment there is nothing actually holding the spur gear in place, it's easily rectified, just swap the thrust nut and washer around.
So you have them in this order from the chassis outwards, thrust nut, spur gear, washer and then the lock nut, clamp them tight and all will be well, if you leave it like it is the gear can wobble and the same thing will happen as before.

[Jairus]

Yeah, I agree with Phil. The washer should go between the gear and the wheel. Nice job cutting out those wheel openings Steve, Almost looks like you photoshopped it with a circle tool or something.

[Lowrider]

Nah, it's real enough. NOT a quick job!

Okay, I'll get the spanners out on the REM Bat Car yet again. I did realise that the gear could be clamped together with a lock nut after I put it all together. It's got to be better that way.
I did tell you I hadn't played with these gears before, right?

Manta Ray's car is now repaired. Photos to follow.
I'm still waiting on Edo's hinge which has been in the mail for a week today. The chassis has been disassembled (as far as needs be) in readiness for the missing link.

Regards,

[One_Track_Mind]

I Thank You! Very much for going over and beyond all the care you have given to our toys!

Especially Mine!

(null)

[One_Track_Mind]

Just got a phone call from my wife.
The first shipment of cars have landed in Ohio.

(null)

[MantaRay]

Thank you Miss K and Steve for the Photo's of the Holdsworth Cycle Shop...........It's looks exactly like it did when I visited in 1972. I bought a Frame very similar to the Team Frame pictured. I actually raced bikes back then. But I was 100 lbs's lighter...lol.
Thanks also for soldering my chassis............Great Job..........

[philsmith]

I had a Holdsworth in the late sixties, handed down from my brother, black gold crackle finish frame, never bothered with gears and such like back then and rode it fixed wheel and a single front brake! but as you say Ray, I was also lighter then but only by about 50 Ibs !
My Dad had bought the bike for my brother, he had raced at Brooklands (bicycles) in the thirties and had a bike shop in Garratt Lane, Wandsworth in the fifties where he built frames for World Sprint Champion Reg Harris, so knew a good bike when he saw one!

[Jairus]

Good to know Brian!

[garyvmachines]

The ROCKET Has LANDED !!!!!
The Royal Mail delivered a parcel to my house today !!
Rocket - 88 will get a new endbell & tape up the face ....... then off to O -Hi

GAV

[Pablo]

Got the Mabuchi Racha OK THANKS Steve !!!

[Lowrider]

Final update on the current status on the cars from me:

The remaining eleven cars in my possession were mailed out to Brian McPherson yesterday afternoon.
You can track them: here. The number is EE564602452GB

The cars in the box are those belonging to Manta Ray, Bob Israelite, John Austin, Mike Z's Scorpion, the REM Bat Car, Barney's Orange Crate, Edo, Steve King, Howmet's Dyna Rigg, Ray Fellows' #44 Mini-B and the Streamliner Cuc. The series' tire conditioner was also in the box.

I did final work on a few cars and tested all the recently serviced cars last Wednesday during the regular North London club racing night.
I turned around the spur gear on the Bat Car and locked it tight as per Phil Smith's instructions.





The soldering iron came out and Manta Ray's broken bite bar was put back into place.





And the chassis reassembled.



I did notice one potential problem for Ray's car. Where the front part of the chassis is screwed into the motor bracket, it has pinched outwards slightly and the edges are now the lowest part of the chassis. There's still plenty of ground clearance however at this point.



Edo's car was next in line for the soldering station.
When the pans were originally added to the chassis a brass rod was run through the Dynamic hinge tube and bent down to connect the pans on either side. To remove the broken hinge I cut through the tube and this rod and separated the two halves enough to extract the damaged piece. I was then left with this.





As can be seen, Edo supplied me with a new Dynamic front chassis section in place of a hinge. I joined the two cut lengths of brass rod with a section of tubing that they could both slide into before being locked solid with the iron. The next job was to find a way to secure this bridge to the main chassis. I made up a new mount from brass (notched to clear the large can bearing) and piano wire. The only steel wire to be found anywhere on the chassis as far as I can see.





The car reassembled.





Last job was to get the motor in the Streamliner Cuc running again. This car, in line with soon to be announced news, is due to find a new owner thanks to Mopar Rob's generosity, with the cash raised going to charity in Frank Elavsky's memory. Nice one, Rob.

The armature from the race was indeed cindered.



I had in my spares box a 26D arm wound by Engineer Secchi with 60 turns of 31swg and I put this into the car's apparently undamaged set-up.



While working on the car I noticed a potential problem area. The brass section in front of the motor bracket is unattached to the main rails and free to flex downwards from it's attachment point at the rear axle. It showed signs of having previously dragged on track surfaces so I cleaned it up and put a small piece of clear parcel tape over the leading edge.





This could be a good location for a central hinge - linking the motor bracket and the nose piece, which would add beam strength but still allow torsional flex.
The car was reassembled and made ready for testing.





Disclaimer: I'm not a motor guy and I strongly advise the new owner, whoever that might be, to have the motor rebuilt be a qualified person before it races again.
It ran okay at NL however for the couple of minutes I drove it without excessive heat build up in the motor.

All the cars I tested ran okay and were cleared for travel. In line with John Dilworth's wishes, Bob Hallum signed Dyna for him.



Wishing all the cars good luck at Raceway 93 on the 31st of this month racing on the newly re-furbished King track.
Regards,