History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[driftwood]

I was today repacking my Autosport library into box files and i flicked through some
I opened Dec 8? 1990 page 90 and found foto and article of Humberstone debut in the Ghia

[911thillclimber]

1990 !?

That is a real surprise to me. The car was rechassis'd in 1987 and I thought completed in that year to race the following season, 1988.

Interesting.

I will ask Pooks if they have a copy.
Does it reveal anthing we do not already know?

I am now re-building parts of the car for 2010, yet more fun with tubes!

Graham.

[driftwood]

to comound matters its actually 1991

off top of head said car was remains of crashed skoda in 85? was rebuilt but not used till now mentions BDT 492 tub and Ralt F2 uprights ( actually March 762)

[911thillclimber]

Crash in '85 of the Dickinson Skoda at Lydden is confirmed by A Humberstone

Tony Harman started the 492 conversion in late '86 and finished in late '87.

Now the finished car with that engine (I think the TD Skoda had a Hart) makes it's first race at Brands (according to AH) in 1990.
Quite a gap from finish of the project to race.

I'll try to talk to Pooks to get a copy!

Graham.

[911thillclimber]

With many thanks to Tim on here, the article Drifter found:

[911thillclimber]

[911thillclimber]

A festive Thank You to everyone on here who has helped me trace the car's history to the very last hurdle.

I expect to resume the hunt for the 'Orange Lola' and then the chassis plate number in the spring once i've finished taking it apart and rebuilding the niggles out of it!

So:
Happy Christmas, and a very healthy and prosperous New Year for 2010.

Graham.

[MGDavid]

Reciprocated, and thankyou for providing the best thread of the year.

[haggispeed]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

I expect to resume the hunt for the 'Orange Lola' and then the chassis plate number in the spring once i've finished taking it apart and rebuilding the niggles out of it!

and a Merry Christmas to you Graham and all who have enjoyed this thread as well . It as been quite special to find a car I had a hand in building all those years ago has resurfaced like this.
So if you're going to take it apart turn it upside down and shake it, maybe the chassis plate will fall out...
and I didn't know you could rebuild all the niggles out of a car, I thought the purpose of a rebuild was to put in some new ones to keep it interesting...

[911thillclimber]

I suspect you are very right Tony!

Engine came out last night for the new custom super-fantastic free-flowing power inducing headers (by me, so delete all those words...) so I shouldn't get bored this Xmas.

More leg room done
Body repaired but not painted
Headers to do
Brakes to do
Suspension set-up by someone who actually knows what to do
Tune those bloody webers
Fresh slicks
Trailer
TLC/Bull sh!t polishing

Ask 10/10th for Clive Brown to come back in from the cold, we all miss him!

Have I ever searched for that chassis plate, but it is not hidden in that tub!

Everyone has been so helpful, but not wishing to embarrass anyone in particular, Clive, Driftwood and you Tony have been far more influential than you think!

[driftwood]

OOh im so flushed and tickled pink !
Its been an interesting thread for sure!
weber carbs- why not look into fitting fuel injection maybe easier to tune
suspension set up is not rocket science
do you have tracking bars reel of fishing line a flat patch and corner weight scales?
did you have the dampers dyne tested and suitably re valved? what spring rates have you worked with

new slicks buy them 1 week before you need them
Ive had my snow no doubt the rest of UK is covered
merry xmas and we can resume next year

[911thillclimber]

Yep:

Have all the suspension aids and high tensile fishing line too.



Have not done the Koni's (on the list) and will change the rear springs to something softer first.

I learn't the hard way about the rear and got that quite close in the end, but Sean will get it much closer. Sean is an ex hillclimber so knows the hills I use well from his own racers.

If I didn't have this to do I would have to start the restoration of my Lambretta...

I looked into PMO injection from the USA, Porsche specific system and uses all the weber manifolds etc, but carried a £3K ticket by the time it is done. Those webers owe me about £400, so need to get another shot yet before injection (which I like the idea of)

Engine is now out last night in the cold garage, but it came out really well and i cannot see any broken welds either in the chassis!



Just harking back to the invisible Orange Lola from the south as the replacement car for the dead Skoda: It does seem strange to me that absolutly nobody knows about such a car, esp the S2000 lot who have been totally silent about the whole chase. I would have expected some peep out of the members there.

[driftwood]

1 whats wrong with jenvey throttle body type injection
2 S2000 guys will not have been around back then to know ins n outs of cars
3 dampers worth getting done asap what springs are you running now v what you want to drop down to

[911thillclimber]

Have looked briefly at the Jenvey's. They are made 5 miles away from me!
I 'know' the boss of DTA (hillclimber) and he uses Jen bodies and can fully engineer a system.(they have done one already)

The Porsche 3.2 engine comes with a simple Bosche ECU and all sensored etc so getting the basics onto the engine is very easy. My road/hillclimb 911 has this engine. Tricky bit would be the MAF sensor, but not too tricky I think.
Bad news is such a system off the 3.2 is in much demand, so ££££.

I cannot recall here what the rear rates are, but I am thinking to use the stock Lola T492 rears. I think they are 50lb higher than T 492. The rear coil-overs on the car are about 10 deg more upright than original T 492, so adds a bit more stiffness.
Hillclimbers use much softer springs than track.
Fronts are same rate as T 492.

I ran the car this year on almost max soft settings, roll bars on near max soft too.
Steering is quite twitchy, but I'm not used to such a fast rack, 3/4 turn lock to lock, but there is very little turn circle!

Graham.

[driftwood]

yes i know hilllcimbers run softer springs hence why i ask what rate syou have fitted
yr now fighting against yourself with race springs no arb fitted dampers that you dont know what valving is in them
suggest you fit softer springs say 25% less than race springs get dampers dyno checked re valved to suit
1 spring rate
2 car weight
3 sticky tyres

then you can set car ride height ARB dampers at the mid settings and do some test runs

steering could be twitchy due to the set up you had fitted bump steer or too much castor?

[911thillclimber]

Alan Humberstone told me the bump steer was acute when the car raced as the Ghia (Autosport above?) but Richerdson had dialed that away. The steering arms are very short, about 150mm, but typical of the T 492.

I'm told a set-up 492 is a dream to circuit race, not my description from where I have sat! Hence the pro set-up. It was a whole lot better when I'd dialled the rear toe change/bump on the rear though.

I do need far more private time in the seat, so will hire Curborough more in 2010.

[911thillclimber]

Assuming the continued build of this little pesk of a car is of interest (as opposed to finding the very last fact of the chassis number) I am back where I belong.
In the garage.

The car had a cut-n-shut exhaust system about a year ago when i was very pushed for time on the first build. Now again pushed for time (is it ever different?) I am making a pair of custom headers of the right pipe doameter and equal length.

Having bough a big expensive box of tubes/U bends and custom CNC cut flanges, fabrication/battle has commenced.
It has taken me 5 hours to get this far, but my skills are rapidly improving from weak to barely adequate.

I was estimated about £1400 for a set of pipes pro made, so i hope to save £1000 when I'm done.

Current layout:



Old and new side by side:

[911thillclimber]

This is very hard going, and I now officially hate stainless steel. About 50% through the job, and hoping to have it all tack-welded by sunday evening ready for the poor sod who comes to TIG it all up tight...

On the chassis number front, I had an unexpected 'Happy New Year' from Mike, the guy I bought the roller off. I asked him if he had any idea who the seller of the orange T 492 was, but no chance!

However, he did say the car came to him with a WHITE Ghia body and definitly not a pink one (or a pink resprayed in white body)

He is insistant on this. I guess the pink only faded to white over the 10 years the car was standing.

[911thillclimber]

What a tedious job! Got well fed-up in the end, but all is ready for a zillion tig welds.

11 weeks to go before the first 'meeting'

[haggispeed]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

However, he did say the car came to him with a WHITE Ghia body and definitly not a pink one (or a pink resprayed in white body)

He is insistant on this. I guess the pink only faded to white over the 10 years the car was standing.

As far as I know David never let the moulds go anywhere else for another body to be taken off, pretty sure about that. I suspect he still has them stored away somewhere. John sprayed the car in the workshop, I think it was straight cellulose at that time not two pack so very likely the colour had faded.

[911thillclimber]

David told me that the body for the Humberstones was the only one from his moulds, and he was nervous letting that happen at the time too.

He has the moulds still and the car (black Tiga/Ghia) in his garage.

Mike at the time said the body was white (I agree faded pink) and had a huge spoiler and a black stripe. That follows the pictures from you!

The tub's steel tubes at the rear are the larger ones used by Lola from chassis 73 onwards (older cars had 1'' box section that are known to crack), so the illusive Orange donar car was a late car.

I do find driving the Lola open is another learning curve (and if Drifter is reading this, it's not because i will get wet!) but after racing cars with roofs (rooves?) and windscreens, the sensation is very different. You think you are doing a zillion mph but actually going slowly!

Headers will be tig'd over the next 10 days, and i hope to fix the next 4 things on the list before they are done and then build the car back-up.

I have 6 weeks till the suspension job...

[driftwood]

When driving Lola are you running open face helmet?
that will give you speed sensation but not with closed helmet
suggest you take car to proper race track do 10-20 laps that will soon cure you of speed sensation
I never give it a second thought until your spinning at 100 mph backwards through the gravel trap and teh shingle is shot peening my paint work

[haggispeed]

Anyone would have been nervous about letting Humberstone near anything at that time (no slander intended Alan if you ever happen to read this...)
Yes, David does still have the car, how I wish I could bring that out in NW Sports & Saloons ( I feel phone call coming on...)
I get that sensation in an open car as well, think I'm gong really fast then the qualifying times get published and I realise I wasn't !!
I would never wear an open face in an open car, would want more lower neck and chin protection.

[driftwood]

jesus your all becoming so "gay"
get in the car and drive like you stole it"

[911thillclimber]

As i have hillclimbed for 18 years in a tin-top I have always had open face. I wear glasses too so that design is great.
For the Lola it is a new closed face and I have to thread my glasses into the helmet...

It is the buffeting! I seem to get hammered when the speed rises and i feel like an actor in a movie in a race car! (NO comments please from Mr Driftwood!)

The helmet moving moves the glasses and you do get blurred vision!

On my second ever hill run I went as fast as my trusty 911 has covered the same hill, but that was with only 2 gears and an rear end with a bumpsteer mind of it's own!

It will be far better this year.

Headers now at the welders, back in 10 days time. Lots to do, but focus on dashboard, brakes, rear springs and a tidy up (tart-up) then off to the suspension mas and to the weber man at local Hytech rolling road.

Graham