Mally's Stock Cars, Bikes,Life, and Yaris happenings.

[Mally]

 

Made a start on the Van, having new* seats and better sleeping arrangement. Bit cold outside today.

First empty van.

Take out seats, very heavy.

 

New seats in.

[Mally]

Got stopped short then, lady next door rang, just come out of Hospital.

All the partition is out now, previously double bed went where the table goes like in a caravan.

Have moved seats forward a bit and bed will be on the floor behind the seat, with another bed above behind the headrests.

Could do with a spare similar headrest if anyone has one. 

Will be continued next week, going Blackpool this weekend for a rest.

 

Should also mention some bad news from the last Birmingham meeting, which we didn't attend.

Colin North, who worked for Teng Tools, in Marketing/Sponsorship was knocked down by a Recovery vehicle whilst attending a presentation, and unfortunately died. Meeting was of course abandoned and everyone is in total shock.

Met him once 20 years ago. We are still using the Teng Tools bought with a voucher supplied by him.  RIP.

[paulplom]

Dear me, that's horrific.

[Spottedlaurel]

23 hours ago, Mally said:

Should also mention some bad news from the last Birmingham meeting, which we didn't attend.

Colin North, who worked for Teng Tools, in Marketing/Sponsorship was knocked down by a Recovery vehicle whilst attending a presentation, and unfortunately died. Meeting was of course abandoned and everyone is in total shock.

Met him once 20 years ago. We are still using the Teng Tools bought with a voucher supplied by him.  RIP.

I got wind of this sad news when I was at Foxhall last Saturday. Some young lads in front of us had it coming through on their phones, I couldn't work out where it had happened at the time. Not good.

[Mally]

Update, new chromebook so may not run smoothly.

More welding on Minor, front leg and rear spring. I's like new* now.

Changed oil and filter 75 and Minor.

Scales expertly repaired by @cobblers .

F2, new nerfs.

 

and bumpers.

[Mally]

One of our sponsors has dropped out.

Name right down the side of the car!

Had to re panel and repaint the whole side. Have the photos in google but can't find them at the mo.

Fortunately another greater sponsor has arrived. Welcome to 'West Pennine Insurance, Services and Pennine Motorhome Hire.

Contribution will cover the work and sign writing  so all is well.

Thanks also to Dom Davis for turning up to signwrite at short notice.

At the moment it's all in bits, but by weekend I should have the panels back on and take photos. Looks pretty much new again.

Intending to do all* Shale meetings, plus 3 in Holland, and hopefully a couple of tar at Taunton subject to loan of a car.

This is already arranged, and I have no doubt will happen.

 

 

There are 2 massive meetings this year to celebrate 60 years of F2.  Organised by love f2's with prize money of £5,000 at each meeting!

Kings Lynn and Taunton. Can't be missing those, and thanks to all who organised and contributed.

 

[Mally]

My font has a mind of it's own at the mo. I blame windows 7 for forcing me to move with technology.

Bits and pieces.

[paulplom]

I look forward to the updates. Keep it up.

[primeradoner]

6 hours ago, Mally said:

One of our sponsors has dropped out.

Name right down the side of the car!

Had to re panel and repaint the whole side. Have the photos in google but can't find them at the mo.

Fortunately another greater sponsor has arrived. Welcome to 'West Pennine Insurance, Services and Pennine Motorhome Hire.

Contribution will cover the work and sign writing  so all is well.

Thanks also to Dom Davis for turning up to signwrite at short notice.

At the moment it's all in bits, but by weekend I should have the panels back on and take photos. Looks pretty much new again.

Intending to do all* Shale meetings, plus 3 in Holland, and hopefully a couple of tar at Taunton subject to loan of a car.

This is already arranged, and I have no doubt will happen.

 

 

There are 2 massive meetings this year to celebrate 60 years of F2.  Organised by love f2's with prize money of £5,000 at each meeting!

Kings Lynn and Taunton. Can't be missing those, and thanks to all who organised and contributed.

 

Look forward to the updates again Mally. Dom Davies is a complete legend. He regularly travels up to the North East on Megabus, sign-writes and airbrushes 2 cars and back home the same day. He is finally getting some recognition nationally for the quality of his work.

[Mally]

Van now ready. Top bunk, bottom bunk, rear workshop storage.

[Mally]

[Mally]

not as easy as it used to be, new phone and chromebook, it's cleverer than me. Car photos to follow.

[big_al_granvia]

car looking great

[Mally]

Wasn't going to post yet, but due to Corona all further meetings are off for the foreseeable.

First meeting Kings Lynn 29Feb, 

2nd in heat. Going well in final but sided into wall, suspension  damage.

Repaired damage, rack a bit stiff but no time to change it, Going well in Grand National, but rack seized up!

Northampton 14 March, very wet and bumpy track.

2nd in heat, 5th in final, 3rd in Grand National, Consistent, and 29 pts. No damage.

 

Richard Howarth, who lent us his F1 a few times, has sold it (still has an F1 tarmac car though) and now races F2  shale with us.

In his second meeting he came 6th in heat,4th in final and won the Grand National., also 29 pts so all good!

That's all for a while, I'm self isolated, because old. Garage is in back garden though.

'

 

[Matty]

Do you need any bog roll mally? I've got a ton of it in the shed ?

[Mally]

Roll it across please.

[Mally]

As this, definitely* our last season, has been put on hold, it has been mentioned that maybe we need to forward plan.

Drawings have been sketched on surplus  bog roll, which may, or may not, result in the construction of a new car during the lay off.

We have built chassis in the past, but it's time consuming, which sounds perfect at present.

Thus we could sell our car at end of year as planned, and using man maths, race on next year, due to missing most of this year. 

Costings are being looked at and if the idea develops, photos will eventually follow.

 

 

[Spottedlaurel]

Good luck Mally. This strange year might eventually present some new opportunities (if we make it through unscathed).

I was at Foxhall on Saturday evening for Bangers, 2.0 Hot Rods and Superstox. Good numbers for all of them, almost as if everyone knew or suspected that might be it for a while. Strange for the first meeting of the season to potentially be the last one too.

[spartacus]

Is there an idiots guide to the racing you do Mally, I'm confused!

Also I'm in absolute genuine awe of your seemingly endless capacity to fix cars, drive round the country and then fix cars again. I'm tired just reading it!

[Mally]

I'm much too old now, but thankfully still doing the work and the travelling.

Idiots guide,

There are many types of oval racing, we are Brisca F2.

Rule book is 124? pages, so first off, buy a car from someone who knows the rules. cost  from £3,000 to £20,000. 

Many rules are ancient, so still using escort mk1 and 2 axles and Cortina gearboxes. Other versions are available at vastly increased prices.

LIcence, crash hat, seat belts and off you go. White tops at the front followed by yellow, blue, red, red with flashing lights.

16 laps, around 30 cars, full contact, first 8 qualify for final. So if you are red top there,s around 22 cars in front of you.

Oval racing tends to run in families, some start very young, my lad was 11 and is 40 now.

Race all over England, Scotland,  IOM, Holland.

There's no sense in it, but it gets in your blood and you can't stop.

Cars are normally available to hire from around £350

[Mally]

Costings were looked at, steel was collected FOC before lock down. That's the best price ever.

Ste's still working, I'm doing 4 hours a day on this, looks good but a lot of its just tacked together.

Plenty of time, no rush.

Bit of a gap between the first photo and the last 2.   Chassis is upside down at the moment.

Have the steel for the cage, but not confident it will bend, be a couple of weeks before I get to find out.

[Mally]

Forgot to add these photos, Technical* drawings, templates etc.

Be a week before the next episode, moves very slowly.

[Mally]

Cats happy, I'm happy, swings are sad.

[Mally]

Struggling to master this; have drunk all the wine now.

Rads in, batt box, side plates in, roll bars bent. Pictures may appear, or not.

[outlaw118]

Are you boys still using Pintos or have you gone Zetec?

Last season of Lightning Rods we did there was a mix of the two, but limited "work" could be done to the Zetecs, whereas there was a lot that could be done on the Pinto.

[Mally]

Almost all Zetec now, took a while for some to realise.

There's a lot you have to  do to a Pinto to get the power, therefore  the engine builders insisted they were better, and lightened your wallet by £4,200. ish.

Pintos are slightly better in some circumstances, but the engine builders now only get around £1,200 per zetec, because not as much work.

Our engine guy charges around £600 and we win now and then.

Not worth me getting my hands oily now, it was when it cost 4K

[Mally]

Engine brks made and fitted, box on axle on prop on. Bellhousing will be Ally when we find £150.

Tank made and fitted, suspension on. So far so good. 

Everything is temp fitted, will be stripped down, chassis powder coated and have many new parts eventually.

Roll cage and seat next things to do.

 

[Jenson Velcro]

Looking good. What is the thinking behind the positioning of all the bracing etc when building a chassis. Is there a pattern to follow, is it done scientifically or if it looks right it is right?

[Mally]

Ideally the bars follow through, stops things from bending. Diagonal seems to help, but it's a pain to cut freehand.

Triangulation is good, You try to get the bumpers and nerf supports in line with a cross member. Those are not fitted yet though.

You can see the engine mount support hits the fuel tank bottom bar.

To be fair we are copying our other TLF car to a large extent, but we do change things. Paul at TLF knows what we are doing, everyone copies in most industries.

Our engine mounts are totally different to our other car, he has a 1 bolt fixing each side, our 3 bolts  adds strength we think, but also weight as a downside.

They will bend no matter what. We totally destroyed one side years ago, lucky he wasn't hurt, rebuilt it and raced the week after. Was sore for weeks though.

[Mally]

Roll cage made and fitted, just the roof plate to weld up.

Next job nerf bars and bumpers, then when most of the weights on will set ride height and fit seat and steering.

Looks more like a car now.