Dirtrod diary - on the March

[hairymel]

The question has been asked of me many times 'whats happening with your sunbeam?'

the stock answer has been 'not a lot'

as penance i offer up a thread about what i have been up to.

last year i did this:

Feb 9, 2015 17:54:40 GMT hairymel said:

last year i started racing at stansted raceway in the dirtrod class, a 'limited' contact formula on a dirt oval.

i probably spent about £600 for a season of racing including building the car. great fun



not quite as pretty at the end of the year though

this year (hopefully) as well as racing a dirtrod @ stansted i hope to race at arena essex in the 2.0 fwd hotrod class.

it all started when a unit buddy left his manbag on the train....

[hairymel]

chapter one - hotrod (not that sort) ford puma build


late one evening i received a text message from charlie 'i have lost my keys and my puma is stuck in the railway station carpark. do you want to buy it for £250?'

cut a long story short - i was very drunk, charlie was very desperate and a more agreeable price was agreed

skip forward via a friendly recovery truck owner and a £20 ebay ecu and keychip bring us to here



and unfortunately leaves the sunbeam here

[hairymel]

first job was to make a big pile of interior







bored of that i thought i would start throwing away bits in the engine bay






the pile started to get out of control, so i decided to start putting some bits back in







time taken 2 months, total spend £220 (car,collection,ecu and a shed load of tube)

[hairymel]

thankfully I have a bit of a backlog of updates, as progress has been a lot slower than i hoped (nothing new there )

pleased with the fit of the main hoop i carried on with the front legs





i also tacked in the dash bar (this moved position 3 times during the cage build and is still wonky )





roof bracing bars in




the front bodywork also came off




and after at least 2 weeks of mostly looking at the job i removed the glass





time taken 3 months (seems to mostly have been moving the other cars around in the unit!), total spend £300 (christmas presents to myself of mainly safety hardware - door net, fia switch and a shiny start button panel )

[eternaloptimist]

Good work there.

[hairymel]

thanks eternaloptimist its the first cage i have made on my own and have only helped with 3 others.

the next one will be better

[hairymel]

fast forward a bit as i had a burst of enthusiasm (but i seem to have not been taking photo's ) and a few more tubes are in


first i had cut 50mm off the main hoop and front legs to allow me to fully weld around the tops of the tubes, and then welded a length of 50x50x3mm box section along the inner sills to support the cage. after this the other  tbes were fudged in.



nascar style door bars and cross rails with seat mounts







for some reason this is my favourite picture so far






it was about this time that i looked closely at a picture of a 'hotrod' shell for sale on face book.

after a quick internet chat it seems i have gone a bit overboard with my cage, as everyone else seems to find a much flimsier affair acceptable.

i am fat/old/fragile so would rather be heavier/slower/unbroken

time taken 11 weeks , total spend £300 (cant think of anything will adjust figures later on! )

[gavs1]

Can't ever put a limit on personal safety, gunna bookmark to keep an eye on you, we're building a stansted car it's all caged etc just can't maake our mind up what engine to use

[hairymel]

engine choice is easy - decide your budget then get the fastest one

power does not give a great advantage at henham - getting round the corners is relativly more important.
my fiesta was in the top ten for power but, until near the end of the season (when i made some major adjustments), handling issues gave me no chance of scoring any points.

[chairchild]

that's a damned impressive cage! How did you make all the bends, as they don't appear to be crush-bends in the pictures?

[gavs1]

Raced at henham for a few years on and off, we had a 1300 Peugeot 205 that gave the bigger cars a run for there money,
Engine choice we have is the 1.7 puma engine, 1.8 Ztech, fast Cvh, Vauxhall red top, 1.6 sigma engine, have a yard full a engines just more having time to make 1 fit in or do I rwd it,

[hairymel]

chairchild - the cage is 42x3mm tube so fairly hefty compared to minimum regulations (32x2.5 or 38x2mm)and is bent with ebays cheapest (£80 delivered from germany!) 12ton crush style bender.

there is some rippling of the inner radius and a lot of flattening of the outer radius but most of the bends have come out acceptable for the job in hand. (some are a bit rubbish but all the mandatory bars are good)

the expensive 'pipe' bender at work only does a slightly better job but still isn't as good as a decent tube bender.

on the other hand £80 minimum spend isn't £1800 minimum spend.

i made my choice and I am happy with the cost/performance ratio

gavs1 all sound ok what car is it? go with whats quickest/easiest to fit - race season is only 27 days away

[Paul]

Is this the one that'll be getting its first run at the start of May?

[bstardchild]

Appreciate the thread and I'm impressed with the cage very sturdy

However I would prefer if you got stuck into the the sunbeam

[hairymel]

Mar 1, 2015 20:07:23 GMT Paul said:

Is this the one that'll be getting its first run at the start of May?

not sure if you are taking the proverbial, or just never listen to me...



first missed deadline for this car was end of january, then next one is this saturday for test day.

march 28th is first race meeting of the season so has to be finished for then!


the (secret ) may event is for a less prepared spec of car.....


car will probably be one of these with the headlights and tail-lights removed

and the bonnet strapped shut

that is all for safety prep..

don't bring your best underpants

[hairymel]

Mar 1, 2015 21:54:13 GMT bstardchild said:

I would prefer if you got stuck into the the sunbeam

hangs head in shame


the final product should be better for this diversion - hopefully

[Paul]

It's just that you have so many cars on the go at once...

I'm on holiday for the Puma's debut...sad times...

[bstardchild]

Mar 1, 2015 22:05:12 GMT hairymel said:

Mar 1, 2015 21:54:13 GMT bstardchild said:

I would prefer if you got stuck into the the sunbeam

hangs head in shame


the final product should be better for this diversion - hopefully

Excellent new - as long as it doesn't end up Fiesta shaped we will remain life long friends

[hairymel]

aaah thanks ian






edit to add macho pirate smiley

[eternaloptimist]

Just idly wondering if you stash the Puma away at the end of the season.......wind forwards 20 years........some Puma enthusiast finds it and starts a thread showing how they're putting it back on the road.....