AndyW

I'm in exactly the same situation Graeme. My car lives outside. I normally just keep the Surrey top on, but add the main cover if it's going to rain and overwinter.

No, there was no tonneau cover for the Superspec. A few people have had them specially made for other Robin Hoods, but they are generally one-offs. The full wet weather gear has never been fitted to my Superspec. I've got a Surrey top instead. This fits with press studs onto top of windscreen rail (other people have used caravan awning rail), extends over the rollover bar, and has 2 simple tie down adjustable tension straps at the rear. It's enough to keep you reasonably dry if it rains, especially with side screens on or wind deflectors fitted. It's also quick to put on and take off and can be stored in the car. Again, you'll have to make your own Surrey, or have one made for you. Search for the various posts on the forum about types of material to buy, and boat cover or horse tack shops may be able to make you up a bespoke one to your design.

I generally undo the U hose from the water pump inlet to drain the whole system.

Can't help with a part number I'm afraid. There's nothing marked on mine. Make sure though that it has long bayonet tabs. I bought a replacement 15psi cap but it had short tabs and wouldn't rotate or lock on to the bottle.

I must be lucky in that the previous owner got the Escort gauge and Fiesta tank sender wired up correctly on my Superspec. It shows full when the tank is full (after 1 click of the pump nozzle), stays showing full for about 100 miles then linearly drops towards empty. If I fill it when on the 1/4 I get about 32 litres in. Spot on!

That's interesting. We definitely have 4 connections on the expansion bottle, as marked in this photo.

In mine and Al's cars, the cooling system was originally set up by RHE as follows: - large top hose and alloy pipes from thermostat to top right of radiator - large bottom hose and alloy pipes from bottom left radiator back into waterpump - medium hose from closed side of thermostat to the metal water rail above exhaust headers and into a tee piece. On the Rover originally this would have gone to the heater. - hose and metal pipe from the tee piece back across top of engine into top centre of radiator. This would be the 'heater' return. - medium hose out of underneath coolant bottle also joining to tee piece - small bleed hose and pipe from front of thermostat along side of engine, round back of coolant bottle and into top side entry - small bleed hose from top left side of radiator along chassis and into coolant bottle bottom side entry - small hose from coolant bottle cap overflow (mine drops to the road; yours goes to a secondary overflow bottle) So we actually have 4 hoses connected to the coolant bottle. You shouldn't really need the extra overflow bottle as the pressure cap should only release if the engine gets very hot, and over 15-20psi. See my attached diagram. As Al says, we've decided that the design of this is all wrong, in that it feeds the water from the thermostat during warmup via the non-existant heater, back into the top of the radiator. This leads to very long warm up times. I've just redesigned my system as a test. We don't know what car the expansion bottle is from, and I don't think anyone has the float level sensor wired up to anything. There are moulded plastic level markers inside the bottle (you can see when it is empty), but I generally 3/4 fill the bottle and leave a couple of inches air gap at the top to allow for expansion. Your diagram doesn't quite seem to match the setup of our Superspec cooling systems. You seem to have a T piece in the bottom hose from radiator to the water pump, where the medium hose from the thermostat feeds in. This is actually very similar to how I've replumbed mine, effectively taking the 'heater' return water and putting it back into the engine instead of the radiator. So yes, your system looks along the right lines. How quickly does it warm up? And yes you can undo that little bolt on the metal pipe going across engine to let air out when you fill it. I don't have one so always had undo the top hose to fill the system. Andy

Great. PM replied

The Superspec kit came with a Sierra wiper motor with a cut down and welded linkage to give it the correct sweep. It needed to be fitted with brackets mounted to the underside of the scuttle with bolts hopefully hidden by the base of the windscreen. Many people found it easier to fit an old Mini wiper motor (or a new Lucas 16W or 14W unit) which drives with a flexible cable and wheel boxes. It gives more fixing options and you can get different gear wheels to alter the wiper sweep. Parts are easily available from CBS and also SVC and Auto Electrical Spares. You can easily tell which motor you have by looking behind the dash. The Sierra motor and mechanism takes all the space behind the instruments whereas the Mini motor is small and usually mounted to one side or the other driving through the cable.

Yes they self park. If you're using the Lucas wiper motor you need to have an ignition live feed directly to the wiper motor on pin 4 to power the built in parking cam switch. There are wiring diagrams on the forum if you can find them! My arms and wipers came from Car Builder Solutions. Pic attached in the park position if you can judge the arcs from that.

Depends how often it rains I generally apply it at start of the season, and then maybe once or twice more during the year if it shows signs of not working so well. I think the more you use the wipers the more it wears off. I find the airflow clears most rain off the screen when at speed so I only really need to use the wipers in traffic or really heavy rain. And then I wonder what I'm doing out in the car!

I fitted wipers on my Superspec last year. Lucas wiper motor, with stainless steel adjustable arms and 9 inch wiper blades. I had to cut the arms down a bit and bend them to get the right angle so that the blades arc just under the top rail of the windscreen. I also coated the windscreen with Rain-X and now find I rarely need to use the wipers at all.

Further to Als comments about the Superspec speedo cable, there are some early posts indicating its from a Cortina or Sierra, about 7.5 feet long and with a Quinton Hazel number of QSC3042.

I got one of the outdoor car covers from Car Builder Solutions https://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/small-outdoor-car-cover-41m The small size is perfect for a Superspec, although I found the straps to go under the car too fiddly to use regularly so I now use 3 long bungee chords to hold the cover on. Its served well in all weathers for 2 years but Ive now found Ive torn the material in a couple of places by trying to straighten it or pull it off the car.

Ooh wrist bands! That's a step up from self-printed tickets. 1 for me please Dave (is it one per car entry or one per person?)

Yes I looked at the advert (when I worked out the misformed characters on the url). It looks very clean, and is the relatively rare titanium gold coloured version. Price is fair for the mileage, apparent condition and the 'titanium' body. The wooden centre console is owner-added to replace the vinyl covered steel panel that came with the kit. Easily changed if you don't like it, which is one of the joys of these type of cars - change them to make them your own. The seats, as Al says, are Vauxhall Vectra Recaros and very comfortable. It's worth pointing out that the Superspec has a dropped floor and wider body than most 7 type cars, so you can just about use the adjusters on the drivers seat for height, fore/aft, backrest and lumbar. I'm taller and larger than most people and can fit in the Superspec nicely - not possible in many other 7 cars :-)

Zeemeride shocks were usually blue or green and had large adjusting nuts with the threads inside the coil springs. See pic in this post http://www.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=28279 Replacements are usually Gaz or Spax.

The Superspec was basically a 2B that Robin Hood provided as a rolling chassis with Rover engine, Ford MT75 gearbox and Sierra hubs and axles, with a kit of bodywork and bits to build a complete car. Unlike the 2B which used a donor car, everything on the Superspec was brand new except the reconditioned differential. It also has the benefit of a stainless steel chassis. The T-series 2 litre engine is fine. It's quite torquey rather than high revving, and easy to work on. Parts are reasonably easy to get, given that the Rover engines all date from about 1995 (Robin Hood seem to have bought a batch of them 8 years before they were sold with the kits!) The engine uses an early Rover MEMS ECU so there is limited amount of tuning that can be done unless you splash out for a replacement. There was a turbo version of the Rover engine available but we're not sure how many were sold in kits. Superspecs are reliable but known for a couple of issues. The mating of the Rover engine to the Ford gearbox was a bit of a bodge and some people suffer rattles from the clutch release or spigot bearings on idle. Other cars like mine seem to be quite quiet. Also the Zeemeride shock absorbers and springs provided in the original kit have a poor reputation and most people have since replaced them with something better. No-one knows how many Superspec kits were sold originally, but Al Richey has identified about 35 cars still around. You'll find lots of information on this forum from the original Superspec builders between 2003-2009, and there are several Superspec owners active in the club who can answer any questions. I've had my Superspec for 2 years now. Great fun to drive, but I have to say it's not the most sporty of the 7 style cars if you're looking for ultimate performance. I keep mine outside on the driveway all year round (under a cover) and it survives very well. I don't SORN my car and keep using it throughout the year when the weather is fine. As the chassis and bodywork is pretty much all stainless steel or glass fibre, I've found the only parts to be showing any rust are the chrome headlamp shells. Cheers, Andy

Toolroll with selection of screwdrivers, spanners and pliers, small socket set, cable ties, length of electrical wire, electrical tape, fuses, spare throttle and clutch cable, scissor jack and wheelbrace, bottle of water. Blimey! I'm surprised my car moves with all that in it

Think it's this cable for Rover 200/400 https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-SBB102490 And cheaper at Rimmers at the moment.

Bit far for me so I'll wait until you come south :-)

Dean, according to my MEMS wiring diagrams, the lambda sensor, knock sensor and crank sensor should all have screened wires. Presumably they all generate very small voltages which can suffer interference. The screening foil is normally within the engine loom wiring, and the foil itself earths to ECU pin 29. If you've replaced the engine loom you'll have to make your own screening. Oh, and only one end of the screen must be earthed. The thin alternator wire goes to one side of the alternator warning light. Pin 7 blue connector if you are still using the Escort instruments. Cheers, Andy

Just to update this post from last year, I modified the cooling system on my Superspec over the winter and it seems hugely improved. I removed the pipe over the top of the engine that returns the heater feed back into the top of the radiator, and blanked off the top centre radiator spigot. We've never believed this was correctly plumbed by RH as it means the water pump only draws water from the bottom of the radiator so all the water in the radiator has to warm up, making the thermostat effectively redundant. I then removed the U hose that takes the radiator bottom hose into the water pump, and replaced it with two 90 deg elbows with an alloy tee joining them. Some 17mm heater hose was then used to join the end of the metal pipe from the heater feed (I don't actually have a heater fitted), back into the alloy tee. So there's now a warm-up loop and a main radiator loop. When the engine is cold the water comes out the top closed thermostat pipe around the 'heater' hose and back into the water pump. When it's hot and the thermostat opens, the water gets diverted into the top hose and through the radiator as it should do. The net result of all this is that the engine now warms up to 83deg C working temperature in about 5 mins before the thermostat starts to open, rather than the 12 to 20 mins it used to take. Good result!

On mine, the 5 fuses are all wired directly to the battery +ve terminal, so yes they effectively come from the solenoid terminal. Some Rover and MEMS ECU wiring diagrams show fewer fuses, with some of the relay feeds coming from the same fuses, so my 5 fuses is probably overkill. You could probably take all relay terminal 30s from the same fuse. Also, on my car separate to the 3 relays there's another fused wire going to the ECU. A wire with inline 10amp fuse goes between the +ve coil terminal and ECU pin 11, which is for ignition sensing. I think this is taking it's feed from the ignition switch, but I haven't traced that part of the wiring loom yet!