the life of rolie

[Pombellett]

Hi Glen, the green hose is a 'modern material' replacement for an unreliable looking metal pipe that fed oil to the hydraulic tensioner. It takes the oil from one of the four galleries on the side of the block.
The engine fired up and ran pretty much on first asking. We're delighted that it sounds very 'clean' and has a really sharp, quick pick up. I'll try and work out my new digital camera and record it Thursday evening.

[Glenn]

great news on the firing up, Mark. Look farward to seeing and hearing more

ok on the pipe.

[Pombellett]

At last............ http://youtu.be/4BX3xZPuHtc

Not timed yet, off to the rolling road in 10 days or so, but sounding OK at the moment. I reckon any prize money should be used to get John a haircut

[Pombellett]

We've finally got the entry list for the Mallory race on Sunday, a fairly decent mix of cars, and unlike Goodwood there's a proper class system. There'll be none of the glitz and glamour of Goodwood either, just some good honest club racing.

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Any there you reckon we might be able to challenge?

[Dick]

Sure you can be up front ! But if you do we won't see a thing on the inboard-video (but asphalt) later ......

Have fun

Dick

[Pombellett]

Very kind of you to say so Dick, although entirely expected....it is your old engine after all

[Leadfoot_Liz]

Go get them

show them what the bellett is made of.
And photos please

Lizzie

[BULLITT]

HI POM ONE THING THESE GUYS DONT YET KNOW YOUR CAR IS UNIQUE ITS TOTALLY UP TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ..THINK ABOUT IT ...........................BIRTH..JAPAN --LIVED MOSTITS LIFE IN- AUSTRALIA- NOW RESIDES IN ENGLAND - AND HAS AN IMPORTED MOTOR FROM - THE NETHERLANDS .. MATE YOU ARE LUCKY TO GET SOMEONE TO RACE AGAINST YOU ....HEY ALL THE BEST ..SHOW THEM ALL YOUR NICE PAINTED REAR END CHEERS DAVO

[1968GT]

Mark,
Best remind them how to spell "BELLETT" on the listing??LOL.

[Pombellett]

Well it started badly, but it got a lot better....on the way to the circuit I was shunted, which resulted in a lot of broken lights on the trailer, and more worringly a bent towbar, but most importantly the shunter didn't touch Rolie.
Praying that the towbar wouldn't pull off the car we made it to the circuit, in lovely bright English sunshine!

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Harry's Rapier

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To be continued

[rod]

mk 1 two door cortina in forground sweet

[Pombellett]

Yes, here it is with a very cool Zephyr.

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By the time I went out to qualify the sun had come out, and from the off Rolie felt like a different car.
The new bottom end has given us more torque and more power to 6500 and a lot more fun to drive.
I managed to get some pretty useful laps in before the clutch linkage went ping, ending up about two thirds of the way down the grid of about 20 cars.

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Clutch was fixed fairly easily, and I raced in the afternoon. After a reasonable start, I tried to settle into some sort of a rhythm all the while learning the car. Had a good race with a Triumph 2000 who exposed the still existing 'torque hole' we have between 3rd and 4th (eventually taking him in the driver change pitstop.....for those of us with just one driver, we still had to come in, cut the engine, get out and back in again to keep things fair with two driver cars)

To be continued

[Pombellett]

As the race carried on cars got tired and drivers got tired (45 mins seems like a long time when you're flat out round a short circuit....at my age!) and there were a few accidents and a few retirements....wheel fell off the Vauxhall, Amazon rolled, a Jag in the bank. By about lap 35 the box was making gear changes tricky and the brakes were completely cooked, but the little red machine carried on piling the laps on....and in the end I finished 5th overall, 3rd in class....I couldn't believe it, but see for yourselves...

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Needless to say us at Bellett UK HQ are thrilled with this result. We knew we had a car that handled, and now we know we have the basis of a fast strong engine. We reckon a hot cam will now turn the car into a real contender.

My on board camera did work, and my next project is learning how to edit the film into a more digestible 'highlights' package. As soon as this old dog has learnt this new trick I'll post a link to the finished product.

[redback]

Don't be surprised Mark - with all the effort you have put into preparing the car - you should get results like that.
Well done.

[Glenn]

great results there Mark. (good to hear trailer damage was all you got too)

Is that torque hole gear ratios or engine ?

[Pombellett]

Thanks guys.
Glen, the dreaded 'hole' is in the gear ratios. I imagine anyone who drives a Bellett of Rolie's period will be familiar with the relatively spritely acceleration in 3rd compared to 'cruising' revs of 4th. We've reduced it's effects by creating a greater rev range with the improved engine, and we hope to reduce it further with the 4:11 diff. But I reckon we'll only completely see it off when we actually get into the gearbox itself, maybe using parts of the Rapier box I found detailed a few pages back.

Back to the race meeting itself, I found this pic on my camera of a scene that made me a little sad. This pretty little A35 (my first car) was rolled down the track in the pre 60's race, shows how solid they are though, apart from losing the front and back screens there's barely a mark on her!

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[redback]

Yep - "no crumple zones" in that thing at all!!

[Leadfoot_Liz]

Great result guys and gals

keep sticking it to them

It keeps the smile on your face and the dream in your heart.

Lizzie

[Pombellett]

Inspiring words Lizzie.
I've sort of learnt to cut and shut my rather overlong film of the race, but it's still 30 minutes. There seems to be more action in the second half, as everybody's tyres were going off. I apologise in advance for the poor positioning of the mirror and my ugly mug gurning back at the camera.
If you've got nothing better to do for the next half an hour, see what you think....... http://youtu.be/zUNfm-_ntZU

[Pombellett]

November's Rolie Report.
Flushed with success from Mallory, the positive progress continues. We knew we wanted to re-profile a cam for Rolie's SOHC engine, but I didn't really want to use the only good one we had (ie the one currently in the engine)...so the hunt was on, rare as rocking horse s**t was a term I came across a lot.
It was Mark BELLETTPR10 who hit the jackpot first. And here it is.

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Cheers Mark. There are now two of these bad boys on their way over to Blighty.
The head now has to come off and every single measurement has to be taken in the most minute detail, fed into some brilliantly written computer program, and somehow the computer will tell what our new camshaft should look like....please don't ask me how this works!!
More details as we progress.