alanrichey

If your builder has any questions tell him to contact me. Do I take it you live in Wellingborough ? If so my son lives in Woolaston and I go there regularly so could always drop by and show you what a competed one looks like I think you will find your engine was built in 1995, so it is actually 27 years old. It puts you in an awkward situation when you go for the IVA/MOT. On the emission test, unless you prove the engine age you will be assessed against the current limits. Your problem is that is no official way of proving it as Rover are now long gone. We only know the ages by comparing the engine numbers from a database held by Rimmer Brothers when they took over Rovers spares when it was sold to China. One solution would be to ask for a 'Q' plate, although you can actually get a brand new age-related plate. The emissions test is then 'visible smoke'. Just something to consider. I agree they are a tight fit, and I hadn't realised how many adjustments they had until I took them out. The relevant measurements are 18" for the blue line (touches the tunnel on the inside and is about 1" clear of the chassis on the outside) and 20" for the orange line which touches the tunnel and the top rail so is the limit. Cheers Al

Hi Mark I'm a great supporter of the original seats. most comfortable ones ever Anyway, welcome to another Superspec owner, not sure how I missed you on my recent trawl. I am acting as first point of contact for all Superspec owners as I have had mine for almost 9 years and covered 25K miles so I think I know most of the details of the car now. I am keeping a record of all the current owners and you make Number 38 now. Not a bad strike rate as Richard Stewart guessed he sold 50 of them. If you have the Rover T16 engine we have a huge bundle of useful information which I have bundled up at http://www.rmrsoft.com/Rover.zip Well worth a download. I've also written a software program that accesses the ECU to see how the engine is running. Also, if you do have that engine, send me the engine number (Assuming you dont have a V5 yet, it's on the block under Number 4 exhaust). I can tell you it's age, mod state and what car it was destined for. Makes ordering spare much easier. Cheers Al

There will be people more experienced than me who will answer this, but just for completeness what make\model does it show if you put the number plate in the on-line vehicle check on the Government website ?

Hope everyone (and their cars) survived the storms. I lost about 1/3rd of my back garden fence but the parts blown down were rotten anyway and needed replacing. Overall the February weather been too bad to do much so far but next week is looking reasonable. The 'retiree' chapter of the Lincolnshire owners (and honorary Lincolnshire owners) will be meeting up for lunch at New Lodge Farm, near Corby (NN17 3DU https://www.newlodgefarm.co.uk) at 12:00 on Wednesday 23rd. Some of you will know it as the midpoint break on the Stilton Cheese Run. Any other retirees or self employed or unemployed.... are welcome to join us, and my offer to organise a weekend event for the 'real workers' among you still stands

I used a lock on mine. Apart from the security aspect it meant it was almost flush with the dashboard (I assume that is why you don't want a handle).

Are you sure it's a 'K' ? All the Superspecs I know of that have the original Rover engine have the 'T16' series.

Lovely day for a drive, winding country roads, wind in the hair.. (If I had any). Tea Rooms very pleasant and a 'luxury' hot chocolate hit the spot nicely. Quality if not quantity

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