Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 03:20:34 -0500 (EST)
From: Kenneth Barlow
Subject: RACING!!!
Hi all.
Well what a day, I had a hard day today standing (and sitting) in the sun at Puekohe raceway (New Zealand) watching all sorts of classes. In the ss2000 class there was a Nissan powered Imp that would pull 120mph, it was a 1340cc engine with a standard Imp box.
In the pre 65 class, one of our friends was racing a mk2 block bored to 1040cc, well it was IMPressive, 110mph, I am getting some photos and a story of the car ready to post on my homepage. The pics will be there in a couple of days, the story and specs will take a little longer. I will let you know when they are there. in the mean time happy Imping!!
Kenneth
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 14:49:50 +0100 (MET)
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
That's a thought!
What top speeds have people got out of thier cars?
Legally or illegally.
Tom Harpur
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 04:52:02 -0500
From: Mike & Tich Marsh
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
At 04:39 PM 10/03/1998 +1100, Kenneth Barlow wrote:
>>That's a thought!
>>What top speeds have people got out of their cars?
ummm.. how fast is it when the needle disappears on a standard 90mph 'long' speedo??
>:->
Mike
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 05:28:03 -0500
From: Paul Waites
Subject: Re: RACING!!!
Hi all,
In my opinion it it all relative..... 100mph in a modern blandmobile is easy, and you can even hold a conversation, but 100mph in an imp is a serious white knuckle ride sweat poring from the brow and an engine screaming its little alloy head-off.
For the record my standard imp sport has done 95, but not for long as the temperature needle starts to accelerate faster than the car. (I think that there is more in there yet, but I'm too chicken to risk a blow-up). My stiletto has done over the ton (30thou overbore, + 28/36 webber and a janspeed), but again the last time I tried this silly trick in an attempt to irritate a posey toyota driver it shed its fan belt so it was a bit of a scary moment. (Why in the stiletto is the charge light hidden awy on the dashboard behind the boss of the steering wheel)?
Anyhow I reckon its more fun to loose folk on the windy bits,
Paul.
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 03:38:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Darcy Maddock
Subject: speed
Hi all, on the speed thing. Back in 1965 (yes I am old) I had my Imp modified by a local (Brisbane) mechanic. He was flying blind because not much info was around. A cam grind, a major valve job, a pair of sonic extractors, A whopping big inch and a half SU grafted on (I cannot remember how) A Triumph Spitfire competition clutch, a set of Pirellis, lowered about an inch and a half, oh yes a Peco exhaust booster (quietened the car down to a sound something like the Indy gas turbine (Lotus I think). The front wheels would lift off the deck by an inch when the clutch was popped and the car was timed down the straight at Lowood (ex wartime Qld airfield turned racetrack, very, very long straight) at 122mph (road registered) for you youngsters approx 195kph.
Yes I did get booked a few times. I recently drove an Imp in New Zealand that was kindly lent me by Brian Bradshaw. Brian said it would take anything I threw at it. Following Rosemary and vice a versa we saw speeds well over 90mph with more to come. The cornering of Brians car was the best part. It did not put a foot wrong even when we found a warning sign missing and entered a 70km corner at 90mph plus hit the brakes hard and the car did not twitch. An Imp here in Queensland in the seventies was fitted with a ex race 13b Mazda rotary. The car was road reg. and lightened to 10 and a half cwt. At the local dragstrip she was turning 10.5s for the quarter and being driven to and from the strip. I don't know the top whack but it must have been exciting at Lakeside.
Darcy Maddock
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 06:33:47 +0100 (MET)
From: Kenneth Barlow
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
Well hey guys. My bog standard Imp will happly cruise at 75 mph, but if pushed will do 85 mph, I slowed at that stage but I think (know ) it will do more. It is a recently semi recond engine, standard size pistons and all.
Kenneth
Hamilton, New Zealand
Email me at: elmoboy@hotmail.com
Homepage: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~kbarlow/
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 16:24:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Nickcleak
Subject: Re: RACING!!!
well , in 1976 i got 128 mph with 13 " wheels to raise the gearing slightly , it was down hill on the motorway mind you , and NO turbo then !
Nick ....
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 05:13:45 -0500
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
128!! Nice going Nick. I was having a bit of fun with a guy in a BMW 535i and got the needle past the 110MPH limit on the speedo. And as the speedo needle and the fuel gauge needle are irresistibly attracted, I met him in a garage down the road and he said I was doing 125mph. It was slightly downhill and I had a good run at it but I did have a few revs left.
He said he'd never seen something so small go so fast.
Heh heh heh.
And it's up for sale! Yes folks, you too could own a 125MPH Sunbeam Stiletto! Any offers?
Tom Harpur.
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 05:23:19 -0500
From: Mike & Tich Marsh
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
>And it's up for sale! Yes folks, you too could own a 125MPH
>Sunbeam Stiletto! Any offers?
hehehe pity its not a Sunbeam Imp Sport, it would be worth another 5mph with the sedan body
Idle curiosity, perhaps, but what country are you in? (.com address looks like LHD?)
Approximately how many noughts on the expected offers?
Mike
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:29:02 +0100 (MET)
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
> hehehe pity its not a Sunbeam Imp Sport, it would be worth another
> 5mph with the sedan body
Nobody likes a gloater! I thought the Stiletto was more aerodynamic?
> Idle curiosity, perhaps, but what country are you in?
I'm in sunny Dublin. Not to far away from the UK.
> Approximately how many noughts on the expected offers?
Not sure. It's had a lot of work done on it and was originally rebuilt by Tony Hatcher two and a half years ago.
Mail me privately and I'll give you the spec if you like.
Tom Harpur.
TOM.HARPUR@EMEA.GATEWAY.COM
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:33:04 +0100 (MET)
From: Mike & Tich Marsh
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
At 09:32 PM 10/03/1998 +1100, you wrote:
>Nobody likes a gloater! I thought the Stiletto was more aerodynamic?
Couldn't help myself :) Good topic for the list, actually: the Stiletto is a real looker but I understand the sedan is actually significantly more aerodynamic. Anybody got the real figures?
Mike
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:44:45 +0100 (MET)
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
> Couldn't help myself :)
No problem.
> Good topic for the list, actually: the Stiletto is
> a real looker but I understand the sedan is actually significantly
> more aerodynamic. Anybody got the real figures?
Good idea! Anybody got a wind tunnel we can borrow?
Tom H.
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 12:48:55 +0100 (MET)
From: PIETER.POSTHUMA@nlrtm.ponl.com
Subject: RE(2): RACING!!!
>Good idea! Anybody got a wind tunnel we can borrow?
No Need, on the Imp site you can find a lot about IMP aeodynamics. Even a scan of a picture where you can see where the 'pressure' areas on an Imp are and how they can be improved. I wonder whether somebody really wants the large aero foil on the back of his Imp.
Really go and have a look. Just follow the link 'The Technics' and you will see an amazing amount of technical info.
By the way Imp Saloon resistance is 0.40 and for the Stiletto 0.42.
Groeten
Pieter
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 15:48:16 +0100 (MET)
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RE(2): RACING!!!
> By the way Imp Saloon resistance is 0.40 and for the Stiletto 0.42.
Bugger!
Tom H.
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 17:50:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Gary Henderson
Subject: Re: RE(2): RACING!!!
Hi
'CD' is not quite the same as 'resistance'. You have to multiply it by the frontal area, so if the frontal area is 5% less (possible for the Stiletto? I don't know, but the roofline is quite a bit lower) then the drag would be equal. By the way, the shoebox-shaped Renault R8 was 0.38 (but bigger car); a Mitsubishi van is 0.47. The late Sunbeam Rapier was 0.32, so aerodynamics was not a total mystery at Ryton.
I forget whether CD=1 is for a sphere or an end of a cylinder.
Cheers
GaryH
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 05:49:58 +0100 (MET)
From: Paul Greville
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
Hi Tom,
Wish you were a little closer to Western Australia!
Does any club member know where I can obtain second hand, good condition SD1 Rover bellhousings (from manual vehicles)? I require a few of these for TR7/8 conversions. Can anyone in the UK or elsewhere provide the contact details for a decent Rover dismantler ?
Thanks.
Paul Greville.
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 05:59:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Bert Clewits
Subject: Re: RACING!!!
Hi Impers
A neat way to solve this is by adding one of those light reminders ! and connect it up to the dynamo.
In case of no charging it give you an audible warning and a led starts blinking.
Much better then not seeing the charge light and ending up with an empty battery !
Bert
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:18:33 +0100 (MET)
From: Paul Waites
Subject: Re: RACING!!!
Good idea Bert,
I was toying with putting a second warning light higher up on the dash under the oil pressure light, but didn't like the idea of fighting with the wiring and cutting into the dashboard, will look into your idea..... A blinking led means that it doesn't need to be directly in the eyeline.
At the time I was more concerned about the fact that no fan belt meant no waterpump, which in turn means cooking the head, but I was lucky.... I actually had a job finding a fan belt big enough to fit when I came to replace it. (I have an alternator and big pulley on it).
Paul.
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 22:16:20 +0100 (MET)
From: Nickcleak
Subject: Re: RACING!!!
Hello again Tom , nice to meet on here !
> I met him in a garage
> down the road and he said I was doing 125mph.
well , being realistic ... he may have exagerated slightly , say his speedo was showing just over 120 ....
allowing for the 10% error built in the true speed may have been say 110 MPh which is very believable ....
what rpm were you doing ??
> He said he'd never seen something so small go so fast.
I had some fun with a 735 and a 323i with the Imp turbo !! ...
nick...
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 22:16:17 +0100 (MET)
From: Nickcleak
Subject: Re: RE(2): RACING!!!
> By the way Imp Saloon resistance is 0.40 and for the Stiletto 0.42.
I read it was 0.36 for the saloon !
nick ...
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 06:25:21 +0100 (MET)
From: Gary Harding
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
>What top speeds have people got out of their cars?
Indicated 105 MPH on a bog standard Imp Californian down hill with a following wind. Always ran well that car.
Gary
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 12:25:18 +0100 (MET)
From: Harpur, Tom
Subject: RE: RACING!!!
Hi Nick!
> ... he may have exagerated slightly
It's possible but he seemed fairly sure. My needle was off the clock as well. Who knows? I'll get it on a rolling road someday.
> what rpm were you doing ??
Around 6500 - 7000rpm.
> I had some fun with a 735 and a 323i with the Imp turbo !! ...
I really would like to see your machine go.
Tom.