My 131 abarth (never ending) story - 2017 season updates

[Guy Croft]

Has the snow started in Poland MM?

G

[Piotrek125p]

Ok, I will write to you when summer begin. My 125p is also tucked away in garage for winter.

EDIT

By the way, I have a question direct to GC. Why you choose a 105TC head for Miro engine ? Is a coincidence or your concrete choice ? If it"s your choice, please tell me why you choose that type of head.

[miro-1980]

Piotrek,

Look at the 105 CT head specs , and seize of valves ...

M

[Piotrek125p]

I know about it, I thought that reason was different.

[miro-1980]

Well,

this is the head I had at the time and GC said this will be fine ...

Let us see what GC will say...

Miro

[Guy Croft]

Piotr

as Miro will tell you - I can take any style of head and develo it to the spec I need. I never just fit heads 'as-is' ie: without modifications.

Some folk like to 'mix and match' - or 'shop and swap', I do not.

Of course some heads are easier to prep than others - in the case of Miro's the ports required substantial enlargement. But the rule is always (for me anyway and I tell clients this..) WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE GOT.

If it is in decent fit-for-overhaul condition, anyway...

G

[Piotrek125p]

Yes I know that GC can do everything with heads, but I thought before that you choose this type of head because you want to have a smaller combushion chamber, nothing more.

[Guy Croft]

It is not smaller!

The ONLY difference betw the 105 and 130TC is the port size.

G

[miro-1980]

(Current Status update in BLUE)

Gents

With the 2013 season just around the corner let me share the plans for technical / appearance/ safety upgrades planned before the season :

1. Engine : None- it is perfect
2. Suspension: The suspension works exceedingly well. We will rake it apart , for painting and reinstall.
3. Steering : the 2.8 steering rack with reinforced rods with uniball connections will be installed ( ready for installation )
4. Engine support: gr 4 strengthened cross member to be installed. ( ready for installation )
5. Body (external) :
- construction of the front halogen light support will be changed to avoid potential damage to oil cooler at minor front collision under construction
- side and rear windows will be replaced by polycarbonate window kit with vents ( ready for installation )
- windshield wipers will be changed to gr 4 ( wipers mechanism and motor will be changed to gr 4 quick ) ( ready for installation )
- aluminum covered doors will be installed (seem to have lost track of the spare doors , searching all garages of all friends, but there is a good chance for original gr aluminum doors !!!) Found the doors and shipped to a body expert to remove steel sheets and replace them with alu sheets.
- gr 4 rear view side mirrors will replace the current "racing " type ( ready for installation )
- all black door handles will replace chrome black ones ( ready for installation )
- installation of gr 4 round front repeaters ( and blanking the current ones) this item may be canceled do to specific livery ( read in a separate post, below
- installation of gr 4 tow hooks in front an rear
- development and installation of cable operated from the cockpit rear bonnet lock (under construction)
- painting the front and rear bonnets
- installation new front gill with large hi beam ( inner) headlights (from the Racing) this item may be canceled do to specific livery ( read in a separate post, below ) (Canceled due to selecting a livery from 1977 San Remo rally, where both headlights were original same size.)
6. Body (internal):
- removal of all sound proofing mats ( done )
- verification of proper mountings of the seat belts in the front
- installation of
- a rear cross bar to mount the seat belts in the rear (under construction)
- a hand-held 2.4 liter extinguisher (will be ordered soon)
- auxiliary forced ventilation system (under construction)
- new vent heater
- new Peltor intercom with phone connector and feed to the on board camera recorder ( ready for installation )
- net pocket(s) for the pilot
- replacement of the current foam shields for the roll care with FIA approved
- new holding foam buckets for the helmets
7. Brakes
- installation of gr 4 rear 252 disks and rear brakes, separate mechanical (emergency/ parking brake) /hydraulic (hand brake) system (under construction) ( Further reading into Polish driving code , which allows hyderaulic hand brake , as long as the hydraulic hand brake works on a system - not connected to the main , "foot brake". now ready for installation. )
- installation of gr 4 twin pump with a bias bar (no servo) brake system and pedal box (under construction)
- development and installation of mechanical parking brake pull lever (under construction)
- development and installation of diff cooling vent ducts ( from side vents on rear wings to diff) under construction Ready for installation.
8. Differential:
- installation of Torsen LSD into the rally 5.375 diff and 6.14 hill diff (under construction)
- replacement of used plates in the 3.9 (track) diff (under construction)
- making a new slide plate covers for all the diffs (from forged aluminum) (under construction)
9. Fuel system:
- installation of gr. 4 aluminum safety tank (60 litre) (and development of new mounting for the spare wheel in the trunk (under construction)

This season we plan do to more rallying than working on the car in the garage , so 99% of these modifications (upgrades) are planned to be completed before the season.

We have not come up with any other ideas or needs, but as this is a truly “never ending story”, some will emerge as we go along. Hope some of you will offer new ideas.

All this will be described, documented and illustrated here. Hopefully it will be of interest to fellow members who will comment and offer advice to make sure this is done properly and safe in operation.

Miro

PS: We plan to celebrate 40th anniversary of World Rally Championship by participating in the Eifer Rally Festival in Germany. Hope to meet some of you as participants or at least spectators during this great rally event.

[miro-1980]

Re gr 4 fuel tank.

Does anybody happen to know if anybody makes reliable and certified, aluminum L shaped, 131 Abarth gr 4 safety tanks ???

I know this can be made to order by ATL, but the cost is likely to be prohibitive. On the other hand using a home made poorly made tank is something I would contemplate using in my car. After all safety tank is supposed to be "safe".

Since my ATL fuel cell approaches the end of its certified life I need to replace it, and it would be nice to have a tank one which looks like the original , but is build to current FIA safety specs.

Any ideas ?

Miro

[miro-1980]

Some progress ,

We now have two pedal boxes -one in original; design and one allowing to adjust bias on the fly.

origina; design 1.jpg (35.44 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

origina; design 2 .jpg (37.71 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

adjusted 1 .jpg (82.38 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

adjusted 2 .jpg (69.95 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

The polycarbonate windows set has also arrived. They are 5mm thick, hardened for additional safety.

They are equipped with custom sliding windows on both sides:

lexan wrc slider .jpg (37.46 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

and snap out wvent in the rear windows to allow the air to get out

snap wents.jpg (26.18 KiB) Viewed 10671 times

We plan to start the work on the car in early Febrary.

Updates will be presented here on regular basis.

Miro

[miro-1980]

Re livery

So far , we have not paid any attention to livery , but friends from Slowly Sideways prompted us to do sop on the occasion of our planned start in the 2013 Eifel Rally Festival .

To make things simpler I have decided not to do t in a way which does not force us to paint the car There is such possibility ( Plain red car driven by Lorenzelli on the Elba Rally in 1977)

However , this would be too easy and not very rally like ... I have decided to use the Jean-Claude Andruet / Christian Delferrier (Fiat France ) livery from the 19th SanRemo Rally 1977 they won!

This is a feirly rare livery for replicas as all seem to build replicas in one of the three facotry team liveries ( Alitalia, Fiat Olio or Fiat Wreath).

To express a bit of originality I have decided to use Fiat France colors from 77 San Remo. It is not too easy but not too difficult to make , fairly simple ( not too many additional logos used and the ones used are well known to me and can be easily recreated). I also have quickly collected a lot of detailed pictures of this livery and really like it. It looks full breed rally and is not too common.

For the same reasons we will concentrate on making the car look as close to the original as possible , thus repeaters we plan ( which were not on the original will be skipped , so will the large racing inner hi beams.)

I will tak a risk and post a picture of this livery from internet. Hope Guy will treat it as a "quote" from http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/a ... anremo.jpg an allow it to remain here...

Andruet77Sanremo.jpg (77.77 KiB) Viewed 10670 times

Note what looks like black stripes are actually blue.

Miro

PS Incidentally note that the front bonnet vent seems to be blocked off. They were opened in later rallies on this car. Also the front hi beams were later replaced with large Racing type ... Also the wiper arm is of the gr 4 ( or Nysa ) style only on the driver's side. This appears to have been a wide practice among gr 4 drivers. After all the co driver is not supposed to look up - just to read notes and look and the Halda and Heuer ....

[Guy Croft]

1. Adjustable brake bias - sure only 2000 update pages later and thousands of views and MILLIONS of hits - but well done in the end .....
2. 'Slowly Sideways'?

Oh please, don't ever mention that geriatric name for a rally here again. Brings back er, memories. Friends they may be but a rally is about 'planting yer right foot'.

Please,for inspiration look elsewhere.

Try 'Balls Out' or 'Pedal to the Metal', or maybe 'All's Fair in Love 'n War 'n Rallying', but please, not SS.......

.....apart from that - nice update as ever.

Rgds

from yr bro in England, MM...

G

[miro-1980]

Guy,

I do not know how geriatric the UK Slo-Side crows is , but I assure you that the Continental geriatry doctors must be good , because what I saw on youtube was very much "sideways" , but if this was "slowly" I am a Russan Czar, Persian Shah and a female Chinese Emperor, all at the same time.

Please look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmDGIN_fZJE.

By the way do you think that if they called themselves "Pedal to the metal classic rallying" they would be ever allowed to run a 300 km international rally on closed roads that does not require a FIA WRC International competition license and full FIA homologated equipment as in attachment J, including HANS? ( I am referring to Eifel Rally Festival).

I have studied all FIA regulations recently preparing a set of Polish Historic Rally regulations and realized that without FIA homologated everything (including HANS) and a FIA rally license there is no way any rallying is possible ( unless you thing of ad hoc street racing that disperses as soon a cops show up in the area. The lowest lever popular rallies in Continental Europe require full FIA equipment except for HANS which is strongly recommended. Note that even Installing safety bets ( 6 pint required) or a roll cage are so strictly regulated that it takes often multiple consultations with the technical commission before they pass pre-really inspection.

Also, please note that the German Slo-Side crowd is used to drive on highways with no speed limits , so do not judge them by the UK Slo-Side 70 mil per hour max standard.

True, some of the events Slo-Sid organize or participate are purely social with no rallying at all, but on at least some annual occasions they engage themselves in are as much full competition rally as they come.

To pre-empt your argument that Eifel Rally Festival (see http://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/) it is not a real rally as no time is kept, I will direct your attention to Rallye Monte Carlo Classic Historic which officially is a Regularity Rally. One of our top rally drivers who took part in 2012 " just for fun" was quoted saying that he has never before participated in as demanding and difficult a rally in his life. Also (as it is rumored) unofficial time keeping is actually taking place. If this is your pleasure - you may take part in the "informal competition" during the rally. Reportedly the winner must be a really rich, as his reward for winning is paying for exquisite dinner of all the rest informal competition participants. As some say the tab for such dinner runs almost as much as a Ferrari. Not surprising as the dinner menu is a'la cart and its is the guests who select the Monte Carlo restaurant for the event. No reason top go cheap !

So, whatever is your experience with Slo-Side , please revise it. It is all but geriatric, though I personally (by my birth date) I technically qualify).

If I only were as young as you are, I would be among the nightly weekend street racing , but in my age I may not be quick enough to run when the cops arrive ...

Rgds

from yr bro on the Continent

Miro

[Guy Croft]

mmm,

eloquent as ever MM, but..

it's the stupid name I hate.......................

'slowly sideways..'

for goodness sake, sounds like some ghastly Viennese waltz..

there is only one way to go sideways with a GC engine and that is 'Xtreme Limit'.

One day, unacceptable willing, I shall show you...


G