Kit Car Diary

Donington Kitcar show 2006

2006-10-07T18:43:00.001Z

The Donington park kitcar show was held on the 17th/18th September 2006 at Castle Donington it is the famous home for the super bike racing circuit but this weekend it was home to the kitcar show.
The weekend comprised of numourous trade stands and track events, if you wanted to enter the racing on the Sunday you had to be there on the Saturday to qualify for Sundays events.
You could see that the competitors had come well prepared for the weekend with their tents and belongings, some secured to the back of the cars for a great weekend of fun.
The heats started at 9.30am with the Locost cars being first then moved up to the various categories, and many other kitcar owners turning out with their beloved cars to show them off in the glorious sunshine, even if you were not competing it was still a great weekend.

We unfortunately couldn't take our F27 as she still was in the garage having work done but we went along for the day on the Sunday and watched some of the races and looked around the trade stands.
We also managed to source the new Smiths dials and senders which we so needed to complete our kitcar project(at last).
(more pictures on my website www.kitcarf27.canaryventura.com)

What was that noise

2006-09-30T21:44:00.000Z

The diff

We found the problem of the noise from the back Axel was in fact a worn out diff
We had been told by Gavin who works in Eastfield autos to go and see Gary at the MOT station in Fengate in Peterborough. Both are members of the Local Locost Kitcar club which we had been invited to join although we had not been to any of the meetings we went to see him and he checked the car over and told us the diff was worn out and that's why we had been leaking oil, in fact the diff was dry and we could have ended up with more problems had we kept on driving the car, also we needed new bearings in the right rear wheel so we left it with him and he kindly sorted it out for us.
As we couldn't get under the car ourselves and had no idea how to replace a
diff we where happy to get it sorted.
The diff housing
He managed to source a replacement diff for us and told us they are getting very hard to come by and in fact in a few years time may be impossible to find as there are very few old Ford parts available but hopefully as the car is not going to be raced and only on the road for the summer months it should last a while.

The gear box bracket had snapped and needed replacing so we went to Fiat to see if we could get a new one as the gearbox is Fiat but they told us they no longer made them.So we went back to Gary to tell him the bad news he said not to worry he would custom make us a new one which he did and that was another job done.

As we had not seen under the car before he pointed out a few things like some loose and missing bolts, as most of the build had been done before we bought the car we realised that the previous owner had cut a lot of courners to sell it and we had incured all the replacement costs in fact it didn't run at all when we got it the engine started but you couldn't really drive it.
Gary did a great job for us on the car and we promised we would be at the next meeting on the 2nd october with the car if possible, we had hoped to take her to Donington Kitcar show but wasn't done in time but she was in good hand with Gary.

Kit cars on the road

2006-08-28T11:27:00.000Z

Our Formula 27 Kit Car is now up and running and ready for some days out in the sun, although we have had some nice weather we had a few problems to get sorted out before we could take her on a really good run, so short rides are all she has done so far.

We took her to a local car show on the 2nd of July to see what it was like to compete in competition and the weather was very hot but a good day was had by all.

Sunday August 27th 2006
We decided today to test her on a longer trip so we packed some water and the documents, tax disc, insurance ect, a light jacket each, mobile phone for emergency and whatever would fit into a rucksack, as it has no real boot space we had to pack whatever could fit in the foot well, oh and a cover for the car in case it rained as we do not have any all weather gear for it.
So off we went, firstly we stopped to get some petrol and as we where filling up got a surprise when another kit car pulled up behind us a yellow West field. When I went to pay the cashier said they some times get an odd kit car but two together was something they hadn't seen before and both the same colour.
I had my camera packed in the rucksack but by the time I had payed for the petrol Marv had moved the car so the west field could fill up. I had missed the chance to get a very rare picture.
So off we went on our travels, we thought we would try to get to the coast, it was a nice day and all seemed to be going well.
We had got almost half way when we developed a grinding sound "not good" we thought, but as you often get funny sounds we carried on(as you have to run the car to find out these problems when you build it your self)we went a bit further, and in the distance behind a lorry we could see yet another kit car, a red one this time but couldn't tell the make as we where to far behind, but you couldn't mistake the kit car rear end lol, we almost caught up at the round about, but we decided to head back home as the noise was getting worse and we wanted to make sure we didn't get stuck.
We called into Thorney and stopped to look at the classic cars and also to stretch our legs a bit as there is not much room to move about in a kit car, and in my case no room at all, but then a few months a go I could not get in it at all, they are not built for the very large framed amongst us, I had to lose weight and four inches to get my rear end in lol.
The average height is about 5'8" to 6'2" for a kit car Marv just makes it at 6'2" I would need a pillow for my back and blocks on the pedals at 5'5" to drive it.
A man stopped to look at the car, we got talking and found he knew what the problem was, he worked at the garage, it was an Axel problem we where loosing axel oil so hope it's easy to sort out, also we managed to find out he could do our electrics and dials, so in away im glad we had to cut our journey short as these where other problems we need to get sorted. so off we set again to go home and put her away till next time.
I decided to go out in our normal car when we got back and low and behold I see yet another kit car, this time a yellow Tiger I have seen this one around several times before, but was amazed by the fact I had seen three other kit cars out on the road today other than ours,one red and two yellow and not even at a kit car rally lol