Delta FF2000 and F4

[brendan harpur]

well lads , thanks pete for putting me on to this . well peter ya thats the old colur off the car (delta t81) all changed now got a full rebuild and spray job after a bit off a this year

[delta]

Welcome Brendon.Looks like you guys have a lot of fun over there. Might just have to come over sometime with my Delta and join in.

[eamonn ledwidge]

Iain

You should come over - I have been asking Alan re F2000s possible raiding party.

EPL

Originally Posted by delta

Welcome Brendon.Looks like you guys have a lot of fun over there. Might just have to come over sometime with my Delta and join in.

[delta]

Right i just get my coat.And race suit.I could bring a load of Delta spares as well.

[driftwood]

im surprised with the cars out there that there is not a historic FFord 2000 & 1600 race meeting

[paulwarrior]

Hi guys, this is my first post!
I've a Delta t-79 or so i'm told but unfortunatley has no chassis number. It was owned by a lot of people over here in Ireland including John Naylor when he used it to compete in the ff2000 championship in mondello around 1000bc i think!
I bought it from Cyrill Lynchs widow as an almost standard ff2000 car in 2003-4. It had been lying up for 3 or 4 years in a shed, and i used it to compete in the Irish Hillclimb and sprint championship while i finished college.
Ian Will hate me for this but i loved the car and wanted to be more competitive at the hills. So i modified it...... Sorry ian!
First i put in a 2.3 connaught engine with a big valve pinto head in 2006. When funds permitted and the mortgage was approved i decided in my supreme wisdom (yeah right!)to fit a 2.3 litre 270bhp warrior engine! I changed the driveshafts to bob dayson (Rip) shafts and bought some williams mag wheels from a memorabilia shop to put 12 inch hillclimb slicks on the rear and 9 inch fronts. I also managed to put an ex williams carbonfire rear crash structure and wing on the car while retaining the original nose with 2 small carbonfibe winglets on to of it.
Who knew a 30 year old car could win 3 succesive championships like that against modern ralts, OMS's, f 3000 cars, v8 pilbeams, and even the odd Gould!

[ASDS]

Originally Posted by paulwarrior

Who knew a 30 year old car could win 3 succesive championships like that against modern ralts, OMS's, f 3000 cars, v8 pilbeams, and even the odd Gould!

You forgot to mention the talented driver behind the wheel!

[paulwarrior]

Thanks mate,
I have my good days and bad days same as everyone else! Its terribly funny when you see people walking through the paddock in the morning and stopping off and taking photo's of the big expensive cars and dont usually take too much notice of the little delta, till they come back down from spectating!! I love that! Great car! Has currently 292 bhp from the connaught warrior and the chassis is still as forgiving as ever!
Why is it when i talk to Phil price about putting a judd cv into it he seems to think i need to up my medication??

[delta]

No worries Paul. You must have the most powerful Delta in the world. What about posting some pics. What transmission you using.Don't worry about not having chassis number looks like a lot of cars left the factory without them.

[paulwarrior]

If i can figure out how to post pics i'll stick a few up!
The transmission is still a mk9 gearbox, with a quaife diff, and series 5 gears. I've a double width first gear so its running as a four speed. Still using the standard input shaft i got with the car 6 years ago!
My claim to fame is that in 5 seasons hillclimbing i've never broken a gear or a drive shaft! Managed to destry the old standard open diff though!
Everyone said i'd be sitting at the side of the road with my gearbox in bits when i put in the warrior but if you dont abuse it and have some mechanical sympathy it seems to stay going!

[delta]

We break MK5 gears often in the F3 cars. Its allways 2 nd gear so looks like you have that covered.

[brendan harpur]

thanks ian ya you should come over to do a hill good crack and make sure and bring all the spares ha ha

[driftwood]

If your breaking 2nd gears in the mk9 with the low powered toyota then you have 2 problems
1 badly set up gearbox or a driver that is a gorrilla
2 your using old stock gears from the 70`s early 80`s
I have NEVER broken 2nd gear in my 200 bhp dallara and not had any of my fellow racers in this position
sounds like you need to turf out your old gears and come see me and buy some better gears !!

[delta]

Originally Posted by driftwood

If your breaking 2nd gears in the mk9 with the low powered toyota then you have 2 problems
1 badly set up gearbox or a driver that is a gorrilla
2 your using old stock gears from the 70`s early 80`s
I have NEVER broken 2nd gear in my 200 bhp dallara and not had any of my fellow racers in this position
sounds like you need to turf out your old gears and come see me and buy some better gears !!

Nice try Kev

[Pete Ray]

Edwyn Rynhart has forwarded his info to me...

[B] Hi Pete,
Sorry about delay in getting back to you, Information requested as follows.

Car: Delta FF2000.

Model: T832.

Chassis No: 1 (1982)

Date of Manufacture: 1982.

Engine: Ford Pinto 1998cc.

RAC/MSA Log Book: 17770.

MI Log Book: 4406.

Owners:
John Booth = 1982 > 1990. Raced in FF2000 SERIES in UK.
Dr Colin Wheeler = 1990 > 2000. Harewood Hillclimbs only.
Jonathan Rhodes = 2000 > 2006. Harewood Hillclimbs only.
Edwin Rynhart = 2006 > Irish Hillclimb Series.


This is the extent of the information that I have on my car.
Kind regards,

Edwin.

[delta]

I know this car well. John Booth crashed the car every time he drove. Any chance of a picture Pete.

[Pete Ray]

Its the red car on p3, that Peter Dunne posted, with Edwin driving... Its in amazing condition, really stunning car. Will see if I can dig up some more pics.

[paulwarrior]

Edwins car was crashed by John Booth everytime he drove it? Must be in the dna of the car, edwin recently tried to join a familys' garden barbeque in carlow. Unfortunatley he entered the premises through a wall instead of through a gate! Landed in the garden much to the amazement of the family!
I know you like free meals edwin but really thats excessive!

Typical edwin though car is immaculate again!

[Dan Rear]

Originally Posted by delta

I know this car well. John Booth crashed the car every time he drove. Any chance of a picture Pete.

Butcher or Brolly, Iain, or another one completely?

[delta]

Another one Dan.His poor wife i felt so sorry for her every time the wreckage was in the scrutineering bay. I think she left him in the end.Sure does look in lovely condition now.

[Dan Rear]

Car or wife Iain?

[driftwood]

been away in iceland missed the fun dan has beaten me to ask the same 2 questions!!

still waiting for your gear replacement order Iain!!!

[nigel grant]

I,ve only just seen this thread but as you know I own the ex Ian Briggs Delta T784.
The information on the thread about my car is not scrictly correct so I,ll tell you what I know.
I too have the motoring news article which states that Ian Brigg,s Delta is chassis number 9.The chassis number when I bought it was chassis number 8, I met Ian Briggs and he couldn,t believe the car was still going and he showed me photographs of the chassis when he started to build it in early 1978.From these photos I could see there are brackets and rivet spacings that identify the car as the one I own today.He dosen,t remember there ever being a chassis number on the car but confirmed that it was the only T784 ever built.The t78 was the model and year and the 4 was for formula 4 which Ian won in 1978/79 and 80.Originaly the car was black with CP Hydraulics sponsership in gold lettering (the way I have it now) the car was owned by CP hydraulics who sold it at the end of 1979 to PENISTONE HARD METALS and Ian drove it for the 1980 season painted blue.
Ian reckons it was bought as a bare FF2000 chassis in 1978 and he fitted an Imp engine in it.Nick Crossley the owner of Delta cars confirmed this to be true and also added that the car was approx an inch and a half longer behind the bulkhead it is also made out of thinner guage steel to keep it as light as possible I presume.Nigel Rees reckonised it at Donnington some years ago by the rivet spaces on the side of the tub,he owned it in the 80,s.
Where the number 8 chassis number came from I don,t know but Allan Goodman owned the car prior to me buying it from Chris Stones and thats the number thats on the identity documents.So wether its number 8 or number 9 I couldn,t tell you but its definatly Ian Brigg,s old car and for what its worth I love driving it.
If any body can shed any more light in i,d be very interested to hear from them.

[Chris Townsend]

Hi Nigel, thanks for telling us more about your car.
The chassis number of 6 for that car actually came in a list sent me by Alan Morgan back in August 2009 when we discussed trying to trace some of the histories of competing cars in the historic FF2000 series.
Just goes to show that you can never trust people's typing!

Whilst the Motoring News article does, indeed, give chassis 9 for the Briggs car, that number could be wrong for all sorts of reasons.
1: The car probably hadn't been built at that time and the guys at Delta just said 'oh Briggsy will get the ninth car we've built' and when it was finished plate number 8 got glued on

2: The typesetters for Motoring News were fond of typos and if they put in a 9 instead of an 8 because that was what came to hand, what the hell, it was a number wasn't it? [Remember these guys are members of a print union in the late 1970s...]

3: The journo wrote 9 instead of 8 and the typesetters copied it... [Could he be bothered to correct his typing error?]

4: Even if it was 9 in the works records, in writing, that would not stop the mechanic putting a different plate on it or stamping the number wrong and thinking what the heck [this happens, a lot...]

The only really guaranteed chassis number for a race car is one where we have a physical observation at its first race, with a period invoice to match, and a matching copy of the works records with all the numbers agreeing. I know of no historic car blessed by all this information.

So, I'm really happy to accept chassis 8 for your car, not least because it's got a clear provenance back to Ian Briggs, with identifiable details that distinguish it from a standard Delta FF2000, and I've got a 1998 record of that chassis number against Alan Goodman's name, from a physical observation.

Back in the day there were very few people wandering the FF2000 and F4 paddocks making notes on chassis numbers - so far I've found two people prepared to admit to it, and they are both trustworthy souls who contribute to this forum.
To give an example of how valuable that data can be someone should have a word with Steve Williams, if he still owns Royale RP27-10 because his papers are wrong, even though they are based on the Royale works records. His car wasn't sold to Germany, it raced very successfully in the British series. TWO chassis number observations in 1980-81 trumps where the works thought they sold it [or the order was cancelled and they sold it to someone else and never changed the works record]

I'm staggered that we've got as far as we have with Deltas, both from period observations and tracking back. What would come in very handy now is some more information from people who were there in the 1980s when these cars came back in the pre 81 series and F4

Does anyone know who Peter Meyrick bought his T80 from that he used in 1982 in F4?
Does anyone know who Ronnie Grant bought his T80 from for 1981 FF2000?
Does anyone know who Alan Tulloch bought his T79 from that he used in 1984, a car then sold to Alan Parker? I know that this was a works car used mainly in Europe in 1979, but where does it go 1980-83? [I think Peter Richards had this car last year]
Similar story goes with Tony Sturgess' T78 from 1984, then sold to Colin Meluish
And the car used by Ian Fernihough in the late 90s

I have one or more chassis observations for all these cars but no way of tying them, yet, to original users.

Chris

[nigel grant]

Hi Chris, I have a list of names of people who owned the car,these were taken off the HSCC papers given to me by Allan Goodman,

Ian Briggs,Mike Hartley,Nigel Rees,John Brown,David Eccles,Allan Goodman then it was sold to someone in Holland and was bought over there by Peter Stones who unfortunatly died and I bought it off his son Chris in 2004

I do have some early photos of the car which I can e-mail to you if your,e interested.