the life of rolie

[Pombellett]

Also found this little gem on Youtube....it's the in car footage of the big 2.6 Alfa that I manage to pip on the first corner, and considering he has over double Rolie's power, he seems to take an age getting back through. This was the car incidentally, that once I got the heat into the brakes, we were reeling in by over a second a lap. Sadly just not enough laps left

http://youtu.be/Hso14F0iAYA

Look out for Bill Shepherd's big old Galaxie coming through early on (he was at the back with the white BMW because they qualified out of session)

[PR91]

all aussie based Bellett-heads....

tune into 'oneHD' @ 12:00pm on tues 27/12.
they have a 1 hour special on the 2011 goodwood revival, featuring the st marys touring cars, goodwood TT for sports cars, the lot.

i only caught the last 1/2 hour of the show this morning, and unfortunately the touring cars (with Mark's Bellett) was on early in the program.... so i don't know if the Bellett is seen, but it's well worth a look.
but watching ex-F1 racer Martin Brundell powersliding Nick Mason's (drummer with 'Pink Floyd') original Ferrari 250GTO in the wet was AWESOME!
remember tho, this is just 1 car in the TT that does this, and the GTO is worth AUD$30 million on it's own.... yep, $30 mill!!

[Pombellett]

You're right Brett, Brundle's drive in the TT was truely epic......it really did rain, the water was literally running across the track......see for yourself.

goodwood-revival-brundle-hales-ferrari250gto.jpg (28.19 KiB) Viewed 168358 times

An equally stunning drive in the same race was by Kenny Brack in the brutal Shelby American Cobra Daytona Coupe....I think there's some very good in car footage in this program

goodwood-revival-2011-shelby-cobra-daytona-brack-kristensen.jpg (37.54 KiB) Viewed 168358 times

I think you can very briefly spot the little red racer on the first lap of St Mary's, but that's about it.
But my other recommendation is to look out for a Canadian racer called Jay Esterer in the exotically named Chinook, racing with the other CanAm cars and GT40s in the Whitsun Trophy....keep in mind he'd never been to Goodwood before....takes my breath away.

[Stickman]

I caught this show by accident yesterday morning and it was awesome.
Pretty sure I saw Rolie in the background coming out of a corner for a split second (maybe but not certain) and rang GTOrph to let him know it was on but he can't get that tv channel at his place. By the time I started recording the show Rolie's race was over.

That Cobra Daytona coupe driven by Kenny Brack was insane.

[PR91]

well sticky... Tues 27th @ 12.00pm start recording!

[Stickman]

Cheers and noted in the diary Brett

[Pombellett]

Good news.....we've been invited to race Rolie in the TC63 series ran by this lot http://www.hrdc.eu/ (The Historic Racing Drivers Club). And the really good news is we've been accepted as the car was at the Revival.

Which means we can concentrate on really getting some power out of the OHC engine. Because the car handles and stops so beautifully, I've decided that we have to go the whole way with engine, which involves making most of the engine internals out of various exotic materials....and me going broke. (S*&T, I thought I'd grown out of this racing nonsense...but I suppose, as Mr P Senior and Brett etc will tell you, it's a difficult bug to shake)
One of the reasons I really like the look of this series, is that one of the rounds is at Spa in Belgium.....I've never been to this iconic track, and ever since I was a spotty oik watching Senna go through Eau Rouge quite literally on the edge of physics, I've always wanted to race there.....and now I have my chance, all down to a funny little, obscure Japanese car.

[Stickman]

That's great news!
Rolie obviously stood out in the crowd and drew the attention of people with a finger on the pulse of historic racing in your neck of the woods.

Good work mate and go get those extra ponies for Rolie, stuff the money, you earn it to burn it. (easy for me to say... I have none )

[BULLITT]

bloody fantastic the little red teardrop is yet again getting into the limeliight and you are doing it with flying colours and support from your aussie mates cheers davo

[dave]

19 pages! This car needs it's own forum!

Well done PomBellett! Keep us in the loop!

I will have to load up the GTR on Gran Turismo 5 and do a lap in your honour, but I don't think Spa is on that game.

[Pombellett]

Cheers Dave....we're now hard at work on the engine. The picture below shows the process of designing the pistons.

IMGP3493.jpg (2.77 MiB) Viewed 168121 times

Here John's making a cast of the swept volume.

IMGP3494.jpg (3 MiB) Viewed 168121 times

And on the right is the head being remodelled. We've had a little set back with the crank, and we're going to take a look at the one from the front cut that Greg sent with Rolie. The guys from mainland Europe reckon it might fit.....fingers crossed.

[RobSA]

I'm guessing you can't get JE pistons in the US to make you a custom one from a blank that is close (ie Honda and Toyota, from my trawling the various catalogues).

By the way where are you getting gaskets from?
As I have the same engine to rebuild.

The G150 crank should fit the G161 as they have the same bottom end, Dave or Brett may correct here but the bore was the thing that changed (oh and 3 bearing to 5 bearing no fit).

Cheers
Rob

[gt orphanage]

From memory the front cut was a 5 bearing.

[BULLITT]

hi greg from my limited knowledge the first few entries show the cut it looks like a 66/68 model hornd either side perhaps it is a 5 bearing ...my 2 bob ..geez thats a great little car cheers davo

[Pombellett]

Yeah, Greg, I'm pretty confident (back in Nov 2010) that we reckoned the front cut was a 5 bearing job.....you wouldn't believe how useful the whole cut's been, what an inspired idea it was for you to shove it into the container with Rolie.
Rob, the gaskits (and a whole shed load of other stuff) have come from Ari at http://www.funmotors.fi ....without whom Rolie would never have been ready for Goodwood on time....and by the way there's still a few Pom outfits that can make bespoke pistons

[yellowperil]

Hi Pom B

It looks like you're having a lot of fun with the motor. I've spent quite a lot of time locating go-fast (hopefully) valves and valve gear . If you're intending to do some work in this area while you've got it apart PM me and I might be able to save you a lot of time.

Good luck with the rebuild.
Andrew

[Pombellett]

Excellent info YP, that's a lot of research you've put in. Thanks, although, still a little undecided on how we're going to attack the valve train.
The good news is that the crank from the front cut is a good one and will fit...see below

IMGP3496.jpg (2.94 MiB) Viewed 168003 times

The tale of two cranks.
By the way what do you guys do when you want to renew the rear crank oil seal? Even Ari is stumped by this one.

Rob, it turns out we are going overseas to have the piston made afterall (I think just to keep that truely international feel to the build!) This lot in Italy are going to make them http://www.pistalracing.it They make a lot of pistons for Moto GP and World Superbikes, so hopefully they know what they're doing.

One other interesting discovery was made last week, when we went to a race clutch specialist and found that with only minor jiggery pokery a Triumph Dolomite Sprint clutch will do the job......so with the shaved flywheel and this little lightweight thing we're shedding the pounds where it counts (no jokes about my wallet please )

IMGP3495.jpg (2.82 MiB) Viewed 168003 times

[yellowperil]

Keep the photos coming Pom B. They tell a great story.
Alas, I couldn't spot a pint of cider, You can't build a motor without generous quantities of the apprporiate lubricant
Your find with the Dolomite Sprint clutch is very good to file away.

Good luck with the pistons
YP

[Pombellett]

Nah YP, I only drink my cider when I'm working on this one

IMGP3497.jpg (3.32 MiB) Viewed 167917 times

Sadly my old Riley's developed a drinking problem. She's just ingested all her water into the oil system....I'm hoping it's just head gasket, but it looked pretty good when it came off.
With the 'Rolie Report', shells and valves have arrived from Finland, and we're now just awaiting the Italian pistons....watch this space.

[Stickman]

I'm always whatching this space....
I have even linked it to my Ebay watchlist