Time to go testing ...

Off bright and early tomorrow morning up to Mallory Park to be reunited with my rebuilt Elva.

I called Iain this morning and asked if it is was back in one piece, to which he said "It'll be at Mallory in the morning", not quite answering the question ... it transpired that it had 'some work' yet to be finished. But he texted me this evening to tell me to look at a photo he'd stuck up on  the 10/10ths Motorsport Forum, my car back in one piece (apparently - cameras CAN lie, but i trust him!) and resplendent in new paintwork.

Engine has been refreshed at Swiftune, gearbox rebuilt and the car stripped all the way back to bare chassis. Some broken/cracked tubes were found so they've been repaired, the whole chassis was then blasted clean of paint and powder-coated, before Martin and Josh started to screw it all back together again. I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow, forecast is for drizzle, will be a shame to get it dirty!

Testing tomorrow is all about installation stuff really, just proving that it's all working properly before it goes out to Nurburgring next week. After Mallory the car will come home via the tyre shop for a new set of race tyres, then we'll be really ready to go racing again...

The new colour scheme was chosen to match my TR5 racecar, and also my brother's racing Ford Anglia. I was never very keen on the previous colours of the car, bit too 'Renault Megane' for my liking, and not very 'period'. I did some research in order to try to establish what the original colours of my car were, but was unable to find anything out. I do have a photograph of another Elva 200 from a magazine article in 1960, which although a black and white photo rather looks as though it might have been dark blue with silver.

So, I wonder if it'll go any quicker ... the engine should be back on full song, and I am pleased to tell you that the driver's own midseason overhaul will see me getting into the car tomorrow about 4kgs lighter than when I last climbed out of it ... I wonder if David Coulthard could work out how much that should be worth in improved lap times!

Midseason Overhaul ... Not just the car!

In my last post you will recall I mentioned that with a seven week break in the excitement we would now give the car a midseason overhaul ... well the boys have been getting on with it. The engine was removed and sent to Swiftune for a refresh, I spoke to Nick this morning and it's practically back together, it was running fine anyway, but was getting close to rebuild time; the good news is that there were no issues found, just routine 'consumable' parts such as bearing shells and piston rings to be replaced. It should go onto Nick's dyno on Monday and be back with Iain by the end of next week.

Iain convinced me to go 'the whole hog' and strip the car right back ... there should be a photo here to show you how serious he was ....
 


Almost ready to race ...Not! At least one crack was found in the chassis, so it's been stripped back, repaired, blasted and then painted. The bodywork is getting repainted too, the gearbox overhauled, and it'll all get put back together with a few shiny new nuts and bolts ... We need to test it before Nurburgring, and the only date I can do is July 31st, so fingers crossed it's back together in time for that ... it will be keeping the boys busy anyway!

But it's not only the car that's getting an overhaul ... oh no! Driver too ... My darling wife signed herself up to a pretty serious fitness, nutrition and detox programme that lasts 19 days. She challenged me to do it with her, not absolutely my thing if I'm honest, but we are now on Day 5 and I've started to feel the effects. 2 workouts a day, including quite a lot of weights-work, lots of stretching, no carbs (no beer, wine or chocolate ... grrr!), lots of green veg and high protein foods. Even a drink made from broccoli, spinach, kale, and watercress ... looks, smells and tastes exactly as disgusting as you'd think it would. I mentioned somewhere earlier that I sometimes had to cope with things that Lewis Hamilton probably didn't, well he probably does have to do this! Mind you, he doesn't have to cope with commuting to London everyday and sitting in an office for 8 hours as well! Coupled with my usual games of squash and a few 5 and 10km races, there's a pretty reasonable chance that the next time I pull on that new racesuit I might find it a bit baggy. If it shaves a second a lap I guess it's worth the pain and misery ...

I might have shown you a picture of the car undergoing its overhaul, but I'll spare you a photo of the driver improvements!