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Fire damage on Team Dandism - Hethel 17th May 2003
I think this was caused by an oil cooler line cracking and
dripping onto the hot manifold. This would've then caused a small local fire
which burned through the clutch line, and maybe the fuel lines.
The first I knew about it was when I tried to down change
from 4th to 3rd and the clutch pedal hit the bulkhead, presumably spraying
highly flammable clutch fluid all over the engine and manifold.
7 or 8 extinguishers later, and it still wasn't going out so
I had to watch it burn to the ground. Some of the front end looks salvageable,
but as it's a Category A writer off, it has to go in the crusher.
Hi Richard,
'85 AE86 4AGTTE Project
Just thought I'd let you know that I am now the owner of F800 EAM (the reshelled
Granville Williams car).
David Hawkes sold it to me somewhat reluctantly to replace my destroyed late 89
SC car pics at www.matt.jenkins.dsl.pipex.com/Fire.htm
I've since done 2 sprints and 1 test day in it. First sprint went moderately
well, with me running the car on its road tyres, the back end was a bit light
and I had a spin and an unbelievable power slide, which David got a great
picture of. Then the following week I ran it on some soft wets at Goodwood, but
they were getting too hot and the car was very drifty and grabby under brakes.
I did Brands GP circuit on Friday and I finally had the car on slicks (it took
me a while to get them and have them fitted onto my spare wheels) After several
sessions, we optimised the tyre pressures and temps (it would appears I should
lose some of the rear camber to make it less oversteery, its currently at -1.75
deg so I think I'll drop it back to the -1 that my sc car ran). Had to replace
the front pads at lunch and discovered the reason they grab, the LHS caliper is
slightly out and had been rubbing on the disc, this had melted some of the
alloy on the caliper and formed a ridge which the pad
was having to push past on application of the brakes (it was
also causing them to drag, as the pad wasn't able to fully return). With this
fixed I did half a session to bed the pads in and set my best time of the day,
much more comfortable with the car. I then let Eugene O'Brien (ex Peugeot BTCC
driver) have a go and he went out and set consistent 1 min 51 second laps, which
was a few seconds faster than me, but a real target to aim for and a
pretty good time for such a car. He complained about the lack
of LSD which is something I too miss from my SC and the gearing is very odd
(very long). It is much more peaky than my SC car, and even after being remapped
last week is only giving 165bhp and 123 ft/lbs of torque. I think a different
gearbox ratio set with an LSD will help to sort the car out and the rear camber
change should make it more neutral, which will let me push a bit harder in the
bends without the fear of falling off.
Unfortunately the heat got to the starter motor and it failed after the last
session so I never got to sprint it at Coombe on Saturday, which was a real
shame. I still went in my MK2 turbo, but the lack of slicks meant I couldn't be
that competitive. Next week at Lydden Hill will be the first proper outing for
the car, assuming I have it all fixed. It'll never have the same punch that the
sc had though so I may turbo it over the winter months either using a MK2 engine
or by using the old sc engine I have in bits, then I think it'll fly.
I also bought all of the fibreglass moulds from David but when I'm less busy and
have had chance to get the local fibreglass places to quote on them, I may start
selling panels.
Now the other reason I'm writing is to find out if you have any contact info for
Granville, or any other info on the old car, it used to be very competitive and
I'd like to make it that way again, maybe racing it in the southern sports and
saloons series through BARC.
Maybe bump into you at the JAE show or next time I'm up at Donington again.
Regards, Matt Jenkins
'88 AW11 NA Racer
'89 AW11 SC Racer - RIP
'92 SW20 Blitz/TTE Turbo