krum

I'm off to Americaland pretty soon, so need to get rid of the family nails. I'd keep them both if I wasn't moving: Alfa Romeo 166 3.0 V6 24V Lusso Silver with Black Leather X Reg - Dec 2000 49,000 Miles Full Alfa History New Clutch Loads of toys - Sat Nav, Heated electric memory seats, Xenon Headlights, Automatic Wipers, CD Changer, Electric Windows, Climate Control £6500 BMW 540i Touring Auto Metallic Red w/ Tan Leather Interior R Reg - 1998 130,000 Miles (really not a problem, it doesn't drive any different than we bought it at 40,000 miles) Full BMW History Includes BMW warranty - This is the coolest part. We've maintained the warranty on the car which is tranferable to the new owner and is renewable annually for about £1K. It includes almost everything. Even MOT Insurance. The only things I know of that it doesn't cover are wear and tear parts (brakes, tyres etc) lighting and trim. There is no mileage limit Also loads of toys - Self levelling suspension, Electric Heated Memory Seats, Auto Wipers, M tech Steering wheel, Cruise Control, Rear sun blinds, CD Changer, Electric Glass Sunroof, Star Spoke 17in Wheels. £6500 Just email me if you want pictures.

Does anyone have an Assembly Guide for a 94 HPC knocking around I could have - quite prepared to pay a decent price. If it will help anyone else I can scan and pdf the doc (although thinking about it that might breach Caterham's Copyright even though you can't get one from them).

I've actually found a place you can order a kit from: http://www.missmayflower.com/ US based but they'll ship internationally $59.99 + shipping (doesn't include motor or radio gear)

Well of course someone else has got there before, as far as I can tell, most mechanical engineering concepts had been invented by the 1920's. How about just sending the inlet charge from the turbo into a lightweight tank? You'd then always have high pressure air under pressure you could use for the inlet charge. By my schoolboy calculations, it wouldn't need to be that big either. I'm sure there must be a reason for this not working otherwise someone would have tried it. Anyone fancy giving it a try on my Vx HPC 😳

I find this all really fascinating. I do have a question regarding turbocharging, and if it's a daft question I apologise, I know little about IC engine theory. If the primary disadvantage of turbocharging is the need to wait for enough exhaust gas flow to spin the turbo up to speed, why haven't manufacturers: a) Used some sort of semi mechanical drive system that only uses this relatively inefficient method until the exhaust gases take over, or b) Store some compressed gas (the wastegate blows out waste air at the end of a charge cycle, right? If not, must be other places you could find to get waste air from, like all the stuff flowing past the car whenever you move) to give the turbo a helping hand on startup. Is this how the anti-lag systems work on Rally Cars? Or c) Use the waste energy from the exhaust gases to drive a generator to charge a battery then use the stored energy to drive an electric impellor to compress the inlet charge? Love to know if any of this has been done before. If any of this works, just send me the royalty cheques when Ford start using it

If you can justify a tractor/ ride-on (my pea brain can't translate sq m to acres at this time of night), I couldn't recommend a 2nd hand Countax highly enough. Great fun to use, great stripes, great cutting. Strong as an ox. My 14hp model towed a twin axle trailer with a Mk2 escort through soft ground without even breaking sweat. If you really want to go for it, Countax have just released a Williams F1 ltd edition

Well, new Valeo received and fitted from the nice folks at CafCo. Healthy 7 again. I love this place, it's like a great big interactive Haynes manual without some of the ridiculously optimistic instructions ('pull the crank pulley from the crank using a tap of a soft faced hammer if necessary'). Thanks for the help guys.

How about cooling the source of the heat, ie the gearbox? Would it be feasable to put a gearbox oil cooler on or is that missing the point

Makes me laugh you know...there's quite a few bits off a landie on our favourite little car. You can just see the thought process, 'we're making this really lightweight sportscar, what shall we we raid for bits...... I know, a 2 ton Land Rover!' What's the benefit of the Brise BTW? is it just the weight? Edited by - krum on 6 Aug 2004 23:20:00

Thanks Trevor

re heat matting - is it of the 'stick to the outside of your footwell to prevent cooked feet' type? If so, how much do you have?

Mark, Mine is actually a Valeo, but I'm guessing they're all the same on HPC's, I'm in F'boro this afternoon, looks like a detour might be in order once I've checked all the connections work OK. Entirely off the subject, any idea what the oil filter is from on the HPC? it's certainly not anything Vauxhall related.

Thanks for the suggestions Steve, the fuel is new and the crank sender cable is run along the chassis diagonal so I reckon that counts those out. Haven't got easimap working yet, it's on the list - what cable do you need any ideas? Anyways, I'll check the voltage at 4000rpm this eve, I've checked at tickover and I'm getting around 14.3V which seems fine. ECR, thanks for the tip, reckon you might just have saved me a blatless fine weekend. This might be a numpty questions, but do you mean a wire straight from the battery to the ignition barrel? Assuming this is the alternator, does anyone know what car it's from? CC wheren't very helpful/ wanted £95 for one, but more to the point if it's just from an old escort or something I can get one locally and save myself the wait.

So just got the HPC back with it's newly re-built engine (bent crankshaft, stretched conrod, but that's another story) and having pretty much finished running it in I seem to be having some misfire issues. The misfire occurs on wide-ish throttle openings above 4000rpm (haven't used full throttle or more than 4500rpm due to the running in), the ignition light also comes on and the rev counter needle drops by 1000rpm or so. Back off again to below 3000 and everything seems fine again. I'm thinking it might be the alternator, can anyone confirm my guess? In case it matters it has a Swindon 235 engine with an MBE 912 ECU.

Rob, I'll take the dust cover if you still have it. Which part of Hants are you in?