alanrichey

OK, decision made.  As it's so cold we won't do our usual 'al fresco' picnic, we will go indoors   Venue is the Buttercup Tea Rooms for coffee and a snack. (LE7 9FE, https://buttercupstearoom.co.uk/).    Meet up at 12:00 on Tuesday 25th Jan.

Anyone fancies a run out, see you there,

Al

Fair point.  PM your availability and I will try and arrange one that suits you.

Like a few of us I haven't SORNed my car for this winter and it looks like the next couple of weeks are the reason, as the weather looks nice and settled.   Thinking of doing our usual run out and picnic lunch next Tuesday/Wednesday (25th/26th).    No destination yet, depends on where people are coming from, but we tend to go somewhere with in 50 miles of Stamford at the moment.    Anyone wants to join us, even in a tintop , let me know.

Have you not downloaded the IVA Manual ?  I’m sure it must be in there.

I believe GBS were given a government grant a couple of years ago to design and build an electric kit car.   Haven't heard anything since, so maybe they filed it under 'too difficult' ?

Good, thanks for replying.    So far we have 32 owners which is good total.

Very happy to lend you my spare one.  Just need to figure out how to get it you.  Happy to meet you half way (from Tamworth) if that helps.  Don’t need a ‘deal’, just need an excuse for a run out

Can’t help on the return line as the my Superspec is fuel injected so uses it, but I have a very effective breather system.

There are two breather pipes, a small one (3mm) on top of the tank that deals with the day to day running, preventing a vacuum forming in the tank as you use the fuel.  In my case it simply vents into the boot area although I suppose it really ought to have some sort of valve to stop fuel coming out in the event the car is rolled.  The second is a much wider (10mm) one that goes up to the filler cap and joins the main filler tube about an inch from the cap.  This allows air to flow out of the tank during filling and allows me to use full pressure on the petrol pump rather than dribbling it in.

Cracking day out.  Weather was a bit chilly but we all wrapped up well and were fine.  Watched the Lancaster taxi, impressive sight but I don’t think I would spend £385 to join them  Museum also we’ll worth a visit.

Weather for the next 2 weeks looking a bit iffy so might be Nov before we get together again.  Watch this space.

Now the Corby Glen Sheep Fair is done & dusted, it’s time to look ahead.  We are now planning to go to the Lincolnshire Aviation Museum next Thursday 14th to see the Lancaster taxiing.  If anyone fancies joining us drop me a message for details.

Al

What a cracking day, blue skies all day, plenty to do and see, lots of people attending.  I guess it was a combination of the weather and the desperation to go somewhere

We only managed two cars as our other 2 regulars were stuck by lack of petrol.  But Derek/Mo and I enjoyed it anyway.   Some lovely cars, although the picture of the 4 cars was taken first thing in the day before the hordes descended on us.   By lunchtime you could not move.   The poor organiser was on his first time and was hopeful he might get up to 20 cars.  Little did he know    I reckon there were over 50 by early afternoon.

Lincolnshire won't be closing down over winter so watch this space for the next meet.

Unless you are talking about something else, the carbon fibre rear end on the Superspec is not the real thing, it is actually plastic, it just looks like carbon fibre

Those aren't the standard seats that came with the Superspec, we have ex-Vauxhall Vectra Recaro seats.   I guess the reason you are getting this problem is that the Superpec has a specially lowered floor to allow for tall people.    Are the seats on runners ?   Ours are, so that means we can bolt them directly to the floor.   Also we don't have the harness holes in the headrest that you have.

Sorry, that doesn't really help you much

Al

Great day.  Weather was just about perfect for driving (I covered 86 miles, although some of that was caused by road closures and unplanned diversions).   Then we managed to spend almost 3 hours just chatting.   Nice to get everyone back together after quite a gap.

Next meet is the Corby Glen sheep fair on 3 Oct, although weather looking a bit iffy at the moment.

Hi Peter

Sorry, mistyping, I meant camber not castor.  In fact my self centring borders on brutal.  If I am in a turn and relax my grip on the wheel she will snap back to straight ahead instantly.  One of the reasons I am loath to change anything

I'm trying to collate a list of Superspec owners, so we can share technical knowledge, documentation and experiences.   I used the forum database as a start point and found over 100 people who either had the car or still have it.  I'm also trawling through Facebook as well.

So far I have found 20 current owners, but I am sure there must be others.   So if you do have a Superspec and haven't heard from me recently or think you might not be on the list already then please contact me or add to this post.

And if anyone can think or anything else I can do to trace owners please let me know.

Al

Weather still looking good so it's a goer.  We have decided on Foxton Locks, which is a nice place to park up and have a wander round.   All the Lincolnshire (and honorary Lincolnshire members) regulars are going.  If anyone wants to join us we are meeting in the Top Lock Car Park at 12:00 (Tuesday 21st).   Bring a picnic lunch and 3 pound coins for the parking charge (their pay & Display machine is cash only)

Al

Right, spent a couple of hours taking multiple readings of both tracking and castor.  My garage was long enough so I could actually roll the wheels through 360º and then back again.  So I took readings every 90º forwards and then repeating backwards, giving me 8 readings.  The castor was consistent on all the readings varying only by 0.1º, with the nearside (the one with the tyre wear) showing 0º and the offside showing +2.5º.

As before, the tracking was a bit variable. although I did the recommended procedure of aligning it on the nearside wheel then checking the tracking on the offside wheel then back to the nearside to make sure it was still zeroed.   Using the valve as my guide, I got the following readings

6  o'clock    10' Toe-out  &  8' Toe-out
9  o'clock      8' Toe-in    &   5' Toe-in
12 o'clock     5'  Toe-out &  2' Tow-out
3 o'clock       3'  Toe-out &  1' Toe-out

I'll repeat the exercise in a few days, but I think we can safely say that one or both of my front wheels are slightly distorted but that overall I am probably looking at a small amount of toe-out.   I think for next time I will swap the front and back wheels and see what effect that has.   Meanwhile, those values are so small that it's not worth losing and sleep over it and I will just carry on driving   (Although I might look at getting the camber on the offside reduced).

Al

I think a complete rotation of the top ball joint is 1/4 degree, so you can make fairly fine adjustments.  Brakes are fine, just passed MOT.  And the pull is there all the time, not just under braking.

So checked the camber with a cheap and cheerful gadget off EBay.   It was surprisingly good.   I checked 3 or 4 times, moving the car each time and the readings were pretty consistent.

However, not sure they make sense, remembering that the symptoms were excessive wear on the nearside front tyre and a tendency to pull to the left.

The nearside front wheel showed 1º negative, which is apparently quite acceptable.  The offside front wheel showed 1.5º positive, which is not advisable, although there is minimal tyre wear on that side.

So not much further forward, although I might get the offside wheel adjusted.

No, I don't think so.  Interesting option.

Based on the BBC Weather forecast we are thinking of going somewhere for a picnic on Tuesday 21st.   Haven't decided where yet but it will probably be somewhere within an hours drive roughly southwest of Grantham to fit the location of my regulars.

Anyone who wants to join us let me know and I will add you to the discussion message thread.

Anyone who wants to join another time but would rather go North from Grantham, let me know as well.

Never thought of that   Mine is all covered in masking tape so it's not obvious.  Thanks

Al

52 minutes ago, Leslie Walters said:

You also have to consider that adjusting cambers will affect the ride height.

I wasn't aware of that, but researching on the net gives lots of different answers.  Some say 'yes' and some so 'no' but the majority view seemed to be 'yes but negligible'.  I think the best answer was this one: 

"Camber change will have no significant effect on ride height...but if you change ride height that will change camber, toe, and caster ..."

So winding up my springs to increase ride height will have affected everything   I'm happy the tracking alignment is still within limits (According to the manual the reason for the two different reasons is caused by slightly bent wheels).  But I am still stuck with tight locknuts and until I find out the thread directions I can't change the tracking.

I see that castor measuring devices are only a tenner on the Bay, so I think I will treat myself to one.  Although I will leave any adjustment to an expert as it will involve breaking the top ball joint and I don't fancy doing that.

On 8/9/2021 at 4:35 PM, richyb66 said:

http://www.trackace.co.uk/

I have one of these, takes a bit of setting up but works well.

Received mine now.   First attempt took a fair time, but now I have used it half a dozen times it has become very easy and I do the check in just a couple of minutes.  Love it

The first reading I got was 20' toe out, and then after moving the car so the wheel turned 180º I got a reading of 10' toe in.   So the average was 5' toe out.   I did wonder about tweaking it to give a small toe-in, but I couldn't shift the lock nuts on the track arm.   Are they opposite threads, or they both normal right hand threads?

It does give me a slight problem, I have suffered from excessive wear on the outside of both tyres and had assumed it was the tracking so could easily fix it.  Having got those readings it obviously isn't the source of the problem.   So googling it tells me the cause is more likely to be wrong camber.  So my latest theory is that winding up the front suspension springs to give me more ground clearance under the sump (Superspec owners will now this is a big problem on the car) has caused the wheels to tilt outwards at the top, putting pressure on the outside of the tread and causing the wear ?

Anyone any thoughts on that ?