History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[911thillclimber]

TD told me his had AP racing brakes, mine came with F 3000 Brembos.
The car is said to have Ralt suspension but i think it has Ralt uprights/calipers off a F 3000, wishbones are lola, certainly the lower ones are.
The rack is not Lola.
T 492's had a LHD Escort r&p where the inner ball joints are set at a narrower centre than the rack on the car, about 2" narrower.
I think this gave rise to the bump steer on my car.

The TD Skoda impact was just behind the driver.
My tub HAS damage evidence to the side pod and the bulk head brhind the driver, but nothing intensive, certainly not evident of a huge impact.

There is a non Lola panel cover at this point of impact and this cover is also on the pics from Tony. I think it was a battery box on the drivers side (acid corrosion inside evident) but there is also a battery cover on the expected passenger side which i have used.

[Clive Brown]

If you care to re-examine the Czecho pictures elsewhere on this Forum, you can see just what rear suspension it had when it was the TD Skoda! The big Brembo brakes are a typical Humberstone 'improvement'; they tended to take a view that the bigger, and more expensive, the better they must be....

The TD Skoda impact was just behind the driver, but this has no connection with the damage on your monocoque; that is a herring of deepest rouge designed to confuse the simple minded!

[911thillclimber]

Agree. The damage on my tub is a 'ding' and certainly not the impact of the Skoda.
I can only imagine the extent of the damage to the TD Skoda, he told me that is was severe but was not at Lydden first hand.
I would then image the drivers side rear suspension would be worst for it.
The radius rods on my car were all the same very delicatly TIG welded thin tube. Now all replaced when one slightly buckled after my hillclimbing climb up the banking at Prescot.
I also iomage that parts were very easy to find then for these suspension systems, certainly odd that a March F2 suspension would exactly fit the Lola!
I'll find the pic you reminded me of.

Hope the pics Tony has will arrive soon; he said he couldn't find them!

[wolfhound]

I have just found these on You Tube they may be of interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5a7f...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtYz...eature=related

[Clive Brown]

The second clip features a race with David Enderby's KG running towards the front. On this occasion, it is in one litre Imp-powered form.

[wolfhound]

Is the first one of TD with the T290 or the T490 based car?

[Clive Brown]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

Is the first one of TD with the T290 or the T490 based car?

This is the T490 based car, well into its career in TD's hands; note aerofoil rear wing, as opposed to a spoiler. A change of rules allowed this, although the HU6-based car did start out with an ordinary spoiler.

[wolfhound]

Found this video of Thundersports at Oulton in 83,
there appear to be a number of S2000 based cars although not many Lola's.
I cannot find any from Brands Hatch where HUxx would have been nearer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plddAUcLYDQ

[haggispeed]

Graham - Just want to clarify the date the KG body was put on, it was 1987, from Feb to Sept when it rolled out of the garage at John's. Also the Ford engine fitted later was out of an RS200, I do remember John telling me that but no idea who did the work.
Lastly, photo's retreived, will be in the post to you soon.

[911thillclimber]

Thanks tony, I've just emailed asking you if you had forgotten me, sorry!

Alan H told me it was an RS 200 engine hence the power, about 2 x the 911 engine....

Graham.

[Clive Brown]

A decent Hart had just over 300 BHP. A good BDT had a steady 500, but if you took a screwdriver to the wastegate....

Problem is, a good BDT would also make spaghetti of an FT200, even if under the right foot of a driver with great mechanical sympathy, but Little Al was not one of the latter.

[911thillclimber]

What a big bowl of spagetti this little car is!
indeed an FT would be too weak even for the 911 engine. It must have had something far greater to hold it all together.

Seems strange that the article in the autosport showed AlanH and the ghia, but it apears nowhere else, even the Thundersport cars of wolfhound show the more exotic sports racers and a fre hybrids, but no S2000's.

The donar car seems as invisible as Dennis himself!

Maybe the pics from Tony will help me chase down the number.

So Alan/Harry bought the Dennis H car, someone swopped the suspenders, added the Hart, took it to John and Tony, took it then elsewhere for the RS200, Alan gave it one blast at Brands, and then it's sold to Brian Davis!

Wierd.

[Clive Brown]

Actually, there were a number of S2000s in there if you looked closely, even including the odd Lola or so unless I'm much mistaken....

[wolfhound]

There is a car that appears to be an orange or red Lola S2000 at about 1:30 in that you tube link. I seem to remember someone mentioning Graham's Lola originally had an orange body.
The person who uploaded the footage was probably more interested in the bigger cars which could explain the lack of S2000's

[Nordic]

There was a couple of 492's that raced in thundersports, the mosr frequent was entered by Michael Schryver Antiques Ltd, driven by Simon Hadfield on occasion. This car was red.

The Humphries advert listed the car as being a class B car, which means it had an enlarged engine and was not of sports2000 spec. The Schryver car was run in the sports 2000 class not class B.

A car that could be of interest that raced during 85 is something called the Lola Gremlin, entered by 'Doug Wood Racing' driven by Doug Wood who comes from Beckenham (Kent) and Brian Dunning.

RSC web page lists this car as a Lola 492 and it raced in class A. Maybe a red herring?

[911thillclimber]

The Dennis H car was definitly bodied a 492 in orange. lola supplied the 490/492 in oragne too, so maybe the original colour/shell.
Alan H was sure on this point.

911 out of the garage now, so soon the engine will be out and apart. Have a small respite from decorating untill the wardrobes come...

Tony has sent the pictures and I'm trying to find a cheap 1200X microscope. Hope the pics are Leica quality!

Be just my luck to read the number and find it already registered on a car.

Thanks to the 'newcomers' for their inputs.

[Tim Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Nordic

A car that could be of interest that raced during 85 is something called the Lola Gremlin, entered by 'Doug Wood Racing' driven by Doug Wood who comes from Beckenham (Kent) and Brian Dunning.

RSC web page lists this car as a Lola 492 and it raced in class A. Maybe a red herring?

2.2litre engine, according to Racewise. Del Bennett shared with Brian Dunning later in the year.

Class B was for up to 2-litre cars, class C was for S2000 spec. Maybe the car was moved up a class because it had F3 wheels and maybe some other mods? It wouldn't have been that competitive in class C anyway, compared to the newer S2000 cars.

[911thillclimber]

As a slight aside, someone on another site has asked if i had come across a Mr Julian Morris, a S2000 driver who ended up in south Africa.
Anyone know this gent please?

[911thillclimber]

Got the pics today thanks Tony.
Just need to find a 1200X microscope!

Engine out now and coming apart after a dizzy 7 miles of running since the last 're-build'...

[911thillclimber]

All apart now, I thought you would like to see the combustion chambers as they came off the engine. Obviously not a happy burner.
All chambers were back to aluminium 7 miles ago...

[Clive Brown]

That's very helpful in diagnosing problems with disappointing performance.... almost no two chambers the same .

[rallycrosscraig]

That's horrible, was it put together by 6 different people?
Send it back to who ever built it and ask them why it looks like that after 7 miles running.

[911thillclimber]

The engine was built by a specialist about 8 years ago, maybe longer.
The engine in a different car ran endurance Historic Races and the chassis was then sold and the engine sold to me (as good along with the box.)

The engine has been awful for 3 years and finally the top end was stripped in Jan by me when 3 cylinders were down on leak-down.

The hurried re-ring and clean was done by me ands it all slapped back together.

It did 8 hillclimbs , all less than a mile and two pots dropped down when tested.

One or two look like the cylinders have not been firing well, and the others look like there is rich/oil in the combustion as the chambers were clean aluminium when I put it back together.

I have some good pistons/barrels now to go back and I hope the pots will be equal, and the engine finally will run right.

The gearbox was scrapped and my spare has been rebuilt twice.

Not had much luck....

I've done 911 engines before, so no stranger to them. They are infact very simple effective engines, but this one is 'irritating'.

Spanners and fingers crossed.

[haggispeed]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

Tony has sent the pictures and I'm trying to find a cheap 1200X microscope. Hope the pics are Leica quality!

Be just my luck to read the number and find it already registered on a car.

IIRC Kodak Instamatic lenses weren't made by Leica.... although liklehood was I took them with a Nikon 35mm compact

[Clive Brown]

Me no Leica....