IanT

My (carb) Blackbird was SVA'd with cat-emissions (i.e. ultra-low). Its last MOT was conducted as if it were a non-cat car otherwise it would have failed. I think I might forget to take the registration document to its next MOT and hope they treat it as a kit car. Interestingly, even without a cat it wasn't that far off complying with the cat-specific emissions Ian.

I've had one for about 1 year, 4000 miles and 8 trackdays. Failed a static noise test on Friday so I examined the exhaust packing. After such a long time it was all still there ... amazing. The problem turned out to be a gap at one of the joins with the 4-2-1 bits which was fixed easily. Very impressed. Ian.

Go HERE for the original thread. In summary, a 2.0VX has around 45% more torque at the flywheel than a Blackbird but the Blackbird has around 45% (sometimes higher) shorter gearing. Easy to then see how the torque is brought to roughly the same values at the driven wheels. Ian. Edited by - IanT on 21 Jun 2004 09:37:17

Little to no torque This has been debunked several times already on these forums. Bike-engined cars have bags of torque at the driven wheels, which is where it matters. It's at the flywheel where they have relatively little torque but that problem vanishes as soon as the gearbox works its magic 😬 (I think I proved a while ago that a Blackbird has the same amount of torque at the rear wheels as a standard 2.0VX ... and that's in a significantly lighter car). Also a myth that the clutch is a problem (have you driven one for more than a couple of hours?). Even when it does go, it's cheap and a piece of cake to change. I know, I've done it myself. Ian.

Doug, The link you posted doesn't work. I've gone to the homepage of your website but not sure what I'm looking for (the upgrades page seems to be empty) ... Ian.

I've seen many people's opinions on various AV/DVD forums that Ritek DVD-R (G04 purple dye) are one of the best quality and value-for-money blank discs. I managed to buy a spindle of 25 for about £19.00 a while back from www.dvd-and-media.com. Look for the Clonedisc brand (which is just re-badged Ritek). Ian.

Hello all, Trackday at Hullavington caused a couple of failures yesterday ... First one was the indicators stopping working (soon fixed by retrieving the relay from the floor of the passenger footwell 😳) Second one was the horn mounting bracket breaking off. So now I have the chance, are there any decent alternatives to the standard horn that a) are less weedy b) can be wired directly to the existing stuff (i.e. earth to chassis and live coming through existing relay/fuse)? Cheers, Ian.

I got a Farnel part in the end (£23+) but have not fitted it yet. Having takent he stack plug to bits there are three wires, Common, 12v and signal. Interesting ... my sensor has 3 pins at the plug but only 2 wires from the sensor ... Ian.

but as you have found out it helps with the fan working correctly. ... what I still don't understand is that I've had to reverse what appears to be completely standard wiring. The Haynes manual also seems to imply that the fan is also mounted at the rear of the radiator on the bike too. This all implies that the bike fan also pulls air forwards rather than backwards. Weird. So who's a good supplier for an electric water pump? Ian.

Anyone interested in a nicely turned-up alloy knob similar in style to the gear shift knob? Can't imagine they'll cost much. I'm going to knock up a drawing and get my local machine shop to give me a price. Oooo ... yes please. Mine started off with a round black plastic knob that would never fail to work its way loose during every single journey. One day it worked its way loose, caught the airstream and disappeared forever. I've missed it ever since ☹️ Ian.

Well, that appears to have fixed that 😬 After a quick 10 mins under the bonnet my cooling fan wires are now swapped. Have just been out for a quick drive. Whenever I've been out for a blat before, I've always switched the cooling fan on manually before getting back into town, and the temperature has always crept its way up to around 108 deg C before I trundle back into my garage. Tonight, for the first time ever, I trundled back into my garage with the water showing 84 deg C. How ironic ... the fact that my fan was blowing instead of sucking meant that fitting the manual fan switch was the worst thing I could have done, i.e. water perfectly happy at around 85 until I flick the switch and start to blow nice hot engine bay air onto the rad and have the effect of helping the water heat up even quicker. It also explains why, once the water temp was above 100 (when the fan would come on anyway courtesy of the standard switch), it was so hard to get the temp back below 100. It's a perfect explanation for why 40mph would have no cooling effect and 80mph would have a marginal cooling effect (i.e 80mph just about wins the battle against the fan working the opposite direction, 40mph doesn't stand a chance). Now let's see how long the fan lasts now it's been reversed Ian.

Interesting comments Re: size of oil cooler, thanks chaps. Another observation I've just made (and also posted on the Yahoo BEC Group) ... my fan appears to suck hot air from the engine bay forwards to the front of the car rather than sucking cold air from the front of the car backwards into the rad. I'm no expert on how cooling fans are supposed to be configured but this strike me as wrong. Confirmed when on the motorway at 80mph ... switching the fan on manually made the water temp go UP by about 5 degrees Switching it off again brought the temp back down ... Ian.

Matt, I'm fairly sure it's two wires only. Ian.

Matt, I did try the wheel speed sensor at one point but was a pain to train (i.e. needs to be done on the road unless the wheel sensor is moved to the rear wheels). Using the bike speed sensor is definitely the way forward (now we know how to make it actually work) and avoids any nasty tapping of Stack wires. Ian.

Hmmmm, airflow issues indeed. Pic taken from front of car HERE That's the oil cooler in front and the poor old water rad is partially obscured by the oil cooler and chassis bits. It should be noted that once the nosecone is on, the bottom third of the oil cooler is blocked too Looks like bringing the radiator forward and sticking the oil cooler to the front of it (as recommended by Barry on the Yahoo BEC Group) might be an option. Ian.