the life of rolie

[Glenn]

yes, sorry about thread,, last word,
the "just slips over the hub" was supposed to apply also to the TP front disks. Not so, you have to bore out the rotor. This is where it pays to have all correct info on any conversion, not just brakes.

glenn

[PR91]

didn't know that they need a skim myself, but i haven't done this conversion either.

personally, if u can find the late sigma stuff, i'd use that.
sure, some hub machining is need, but it's not much and is far far better than the old days of machining stub axles.
i really punish my set in the race car, both in loads and heat, without failure, so they can't be too bad.

mind u, i remember years ago a few guys talking about at making a sleeve that went over the Bellett stub to take up the difference between the bigger sigma inner bearing size and the inner face of the stub.
the outer bearing is exactly the same, and surely a pressed on sleeve would be better again than machining a stub.

think we better now chat on your brake threads!

[Pombellett]

Yes, sorry about the lack of Rolie reports, trouble is there's not really been much to report on. Although the 'clever' engine bits are beginning to arrive now.
Sadly the rods have taken much longer than we expected and it's highly unlikely we'll be able to build and test the new engine in time to go to Spa. This is a bit disappointment for myself and the whole Bellett UK team, as it looked like a great race with a massive grid......but as they say in motorsport.... 'if it wasn't for the disappointments, the successes would not be so sweet' (and all that old claptrap)
I'll get some snaps as the new engine goes together.

Incredibly, that other UK Bellett that you spotted Glen is only a mile from where I work, and I'm pretty sure that this one, Jeff's in Scotland and Rolie are the only three in the UK, but I could be wrong.

[PR91]

i think you're right with the 3 UK units mate.
Dave was in Scotland recently and even caught up with Jeff while he was in town, so bellett.net users are even having international meet ups these days!

[Pombellett]

UK calling.....just to let everyone know we're still here. The engine build is proceeding at a positively glacial pace. I suppose after the massive effort to get the car ready for Goodwood we've taken our eye off the ball since then.
But we've got all the clever goodies in the block and it's off to the machine shop again this week, before (hopefully) a final reassemble.

IMGP3514.jpg (2.89 MiB) Viewed 167651 times

Our revised aim is for the final race of the season, at a little circuit called Mallory Park (where I began my racing career).
In the meantime I've been able to follow my other passion......cricket

[oz_toffa]

nice lookin dome top poking out of the block there, Pom!

bet she will really run hard and sweet once all back together.

love the photos, just keep them coming on in.


OZ

[Glenn]

love the photos, just keep them coming on in.


OZ

Me too.

[Farmer]

That bench has 'Fun' written all over it!
Thanks for staying in touch, and congrats on the longest Bellett.net thread, 22 pages!

I admit that when I first saw your 'Wanted' post I thought, Someone wants to buy a restorer, freight it around the world to a country they were'nt sold in, then do the resto? But the 'noble purpose' was intrigueing. I looked at the rolling shell behind the shed and thought "I'd have to get a lot of bits together".
But Greg was onto it pretty quickly, so I didn't have to. The results are inspiring - it shows anything can be done if the want is strong enough. Now people are bringing cars from Japan, and I get to see model I never thought I woiuld in the metal.
Excellent

Cheers, Matt.

[Pombellett]

Thanks guys, I've really enjoyed posting Rolie's progress here on the forum. It's just a shame the momentum's gone at the moment, but I suppose if you take into account the original pace of the project, it always had to slow at some point.
One of the main reasons for our success is in the fact that the car car never really fought back, and I imagine that's testament to Isuzu.
Having missed pretty much the entire season, Team Bellett UK will be pretty much forgotten in the racing world here (such is motorsport's short termism) So hopefully we can re-emerge on the scene in Oct fully prepped and tested, with a bang, and really shake up some of the establishment.
In the meantime I'll keep you posted as the engine and diff go in. And I plan to buy a better in-car camera, to keep those that are interested up to date when we test next.

[Glenn]

Can you give us a brief rundown on the engine mods ? Or planned anyway.

Any ideas on projected power out ?

glenn

[Pombellett]

Our general aim is to increase the compression and revs, hence the clever pistons and rods detailed earlier (lighter and stronger). A little work on the head to accomodate the new pistons and let the gases flow a little more freely and a clever distributer should help us achieve this.
There is a certain amount of debate here over the distributer, the Finns tend to compete with electronic ignition (which we're not allowed to use) so we may try a twin point Mallory type distributer, but most likely we'll initially stick with the original Jap technology and see what revs it gives.
Flywheel odviously lightened, and the dinky little clutch shown earlier will all help. And everything is being balanced and re balanced as we go.
Once we have tested and finished this season, we should have all the necessary data (and gut feeling), and if there's anything left in the pot, we shall possibly have a hot cam made.....it appears (but I could be wrong) that there's not a hot or even fast road cam available for the G161SS engine.

Basically we're making it up as we go along

[Glenn]

Bellett at Goodwood in 1965

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Isuzu-Bellett-1 ... 1e70e20bbc

[Pombellett]

Yes Glen, this photo is one of two that Polara Jim unearthed when we were trying to decide on Rolie's colour. The other is shown on page 8 of this story. Fortunately it showed the car in red and not the original biege.
We had a further debate as to whether we should run in those rather crude original race number panels. I think I'm glad we chose the more conventional roundels though.

With regards to our progress...well we're still making some. The engine should be re inserted next week, and then it's off to the rolling road to be jetted and re timed. Luckily it appears the cam can be swung in situ, so we should be able to get max power in one sitting.

One final fly in the ointment is that because of the Revival we can't test at Goodwood until the end of Sept, and the race we're aiming at is in early Oct. But at least we know the car handles...it's all about the engine now.

I shall be at this years Revival, just spectating as it's the 1950's cars turn in the St Mary's trophy this year, so I'll shall get some photos whilst cheering on Gavin in Rolie's stablemate, the Borgward Isabella.

[Glenn]

Hi Mark, good to hear there is still progress on Rollie. I know we all look forward to each installment on progress.

and yes, red is much better !

glenn

[Pombellett]

Well, at last we have the engine in.

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We haven't lit the fire yet, I might give my clever new 'in car' camera a test and see if we can post some sounds this week when we do.

Above Rolie is Harry Sherrard's Rapier being fettled for this years Revival, he's sharing the drive with ex F1, Indicar, Le Mans star Derek Daly.

IMGP3521.JPG (2.96 MiB) Viewed 167243 times

[Glenn]

Nice to see that engine back in the car again, Mark.

I hope you get 2000hp from it....... well at least the hp you were hoping for !

glenn

[1968GT]

MARK,
If you ever write a book on Rollies life, I want a copy, from where he came from until now, WHAT A STORY!!!
Dave M.

[Pombellett]

Can't start writing it yet Dave, I've still got to fulfil my (and probably Mr Mclaren's and definitely John Sprinzel's) dream of putting a Lotus Cortina to bed.....fair and squarely on the track.
The bigger the Cortina budget the better....and some of these budgets are quite monumental, they could probably bail out Greece in a seasons racing.

[BULLITT]

excellent stuff pom ...you enthuse us all here in aussie and no doubt other parts of the world ...keep that little gem out there showing the world what a ''bellett '' was and still is.... cheers davo

[Glenn]

Mark, what have you done with the chain tensioner. You have a pipe going into it in the picture.

glenn