The 2012 Datsun badge.

Bolwell wedding cars

Vic's daughter got married a while back and his Mark 7 was the obvious choice to get her to the church on time. Here's a few photos.

It reminds me of a drive yourself wedding car many years ago.

B8/88 Ready to hit the road.

SA rego has now found its way onto Ross' blue coupe. Log book is on the way Ross. A couple of changes have occurred. New front shockers have been installed and the gold wheel centres ("too much bling" for Ross' liking) have been repainted dark grey/charcoal. Here is the car as it now looks with its front ride height adjusted.

Bling? How would he go with this?

The Stig revealed.

B8/85 - Mark Cleaves fills in the gaps.

B8/85

This Bolwell Nagari was delivered new to a Mr Thomas Stovern of Sydney in early 1973 with a NSW registration number of GHT-468.  The car was a Gold coloured Nagari fitted with a 302 Cleveland, with a 500 Holley carburettor, it was also fitted with factory air conditioning and a tanned leather trim.  As most of NSW delivered Nagari's, it had rear guard spats fitted as per registration requirements for the NSW RTA.  The car was put into a high performance car yard on consignment in Williams Street, Sydney with a mileage of 13700 in early 1978 for a sale price of $10,250.00. 

Mrs Helen Marshall purchased the Nagari in 1978 as per the attached photo.  Mr Ray Moore and I were in Sydney on 26.08.1978 with my camera on my shoulder, as always,  I pictured Mrs Helen Marshall as she waved to me on the side of the road driving her Nagari in Castlereagh Street, Sydney.  This picture was taken just before the tragic end of her Son and car.

This is the beginning of the already published article on the Bolly Blog on Sunday 13th May at 10:00 pm. This completes the full history of B8/85 from new to today.

Mark has owned Nagaris B8/28, B8/66, B8/88 and B8/106. He has recently purchased the ex Marr, ex Lewis B8/113. Bolwells have been in his DNA since 1973 when his friend Ray Moore brought B8/88 home. Mark has pictures of 52 different Nagaris from the early 70s. He "was always looking at and photographing Bolwells for sale or on display at car shows and recording chassis numbers, engine numbers, registrations etc."

Brake Performance - obp Motorsport Tech Session

What makes a good braking system in a race car?

If you have a road car you will want your brakes to be able to slow the car from whatever speed the car is capable of to a dead stop in the shortest distance possible. Further to this, the car must be totally controllable and stable while slowing or stopping. The car must stop in a straight line without any brake fade.

A race car has different criteria when braking, a racing car rarely needs to be slowed to a dead stop in race conditions (However the car must be capable of stopping to a dead stop if needed). A race car used on the circuit must be able to slow from the maximum speed to the slowest speed required in the shortest distance possible, this braking performance needs to be repeatable as many times as required without loss of brake effectiveness, whilst remaining totally controllable at all times in the brake zone. That means being able to change the race line or position on the track while under maximum brakes, with no hint of brake fade. That is a massive ask in race conditions and why a good driver is always aware not to over brake.

The braking capability of a car is measured by the distance it takes to slow from maximum speed and the reason for this is that when you do so, the cars overall braking efficiency is being taken into consideration.

In all instances the race car must be controllable under heavy braking and the brakes must be repeatedly able to take such harsh treatment without brake fade. Fortunately with the advancement in brake pad compounds this is now achievable as long as you use the correct brake fluid, calipers, rotors, brake pads and pedal solution. 

A good brake pad compound to use are the Carbon Metallic type, these are very aggressive pads and require heat in them and the rotors to operate correctly. Due to the very high temperature created under race conditions (Can be above 500 - 600 Degrees C) the disc / rotor material anneals or softens resulting in the contact surface wearing very quickly, also tiny cracks can be created. This is why precise air-cooling of the rotors is vital.

It is essential that you check and inspect rotors and pads after every race meeting or practice just to be sure there are no extra cracks from the last inspection. Spending time and money on the braking system is well worth it. The brakes must match the cars overall performance capability.

What class does this race in?

Brake master cylinders (part 2) - obp Tech session

Ok lets do Part 2 about brake master cylinder sizes and basic info on Master Cylinders and getting great race car brakes. Fantastic brakes will always deliver faster lap times.

Using a small bore sized master cylinder will provide a hard pedal and ultimately deliver a 25mm to 40mm movement to full lock up. The smaller the pedal movement the better, again this will be determined by condition of the hoses, pivot points, calipers etc.
The most common master cylinder sizes are .625 / .7 / .75. From our experience we have found that a good starting point to good brakes is .625 Front, .7 Rear and .75 or .7 on the Clutch.
Check the brake line pressure in each instance, you are looking for between 1100 psi - 1200 psi. If you are achieving this required pressure and the brakes are still not up to standard then you will need to check all the hard wear and hoses are in good working condition. If all the equipment is in good working order then you will need to increase the size of the caliper and rotors, this will improve the brake efficiency.

The object is to achieve the brakes full operation with 25mm pedal travel and delivering the target of 1100 psi - 1200 psi of brake line pressure being generated by the driver.
This is all achieved my a correct combination of brake cylinder piston bore size, brake pedal ratio, correct fluid, no air in the lines, non-ballooning brake lines, minimum component wear anywhere in the braking system and the drivers ability to deliver the required force on the pedal consistently in race conditions. All this is not easy to achieve, but it is the aim.

The maximum brake line pressure ever likely to be realised is approximately 1400 psi - 1500 psi, and the driver will be a bit of a Hulk to reach these psi pressures.
If the brakes are still not up to the required stopping efficiency when all of the above specifications have been attained then you will be looking into upgrading the rotors, calipers and pads. Increasing the brake friction area will increase the brakes effectiveness.

Brake cylinders (part 1) - obp Tech session.

Today I want to give you some information about Master Cylinder sizes and the best way to understand what to use.

To start with you need to decide what is the best bore size to use, it is not as simple as just using any cylinder that will fit. There is the requirement of mechanical advantage to be considered.

The smaller the bore diameter with the correct pedal ratio will give greater line pressure for a given effort on the brake pedal. Its this generated line pressure that pushes the disc pads against the discs/rotors.

The problem is that a certain volume of brake fluid must be moved before the brakes are on, and the more worn the parts the more movement is required. This is why regular checks and new parts are recommended.

If the master cylinder capacity is not large enough, such as when the bore diameter is too small, the pedal has to be moved too much before braking action starts. If this happens then you may not get enough travel left before the master cylinder runs out of travel. If this happens then you will require to use a slightly larger internal bore sized master cylinder.

The higher the pedal ratio the greater the pedal movement required before braking action starts. If the components are worn then more movement is required to make the brakes work efficiently. If all the parts are as new or new then less movement is needed to enable the brakes to be applied. Old and worn parts is the main reason for poor brakes.

Be sure the reservoir capacity is sufficient for the master cylinder needs and allow for pad wear. Caliper piston bores can collectively account for quite a lot of fluid and as the pads were this volume of fluid required will increase. 

Kapunda - week 49

This 1955 Dodge one tonner has been floating around the area lately.
In the 50s Chrysler Australia (formerly Richards) put these little blokes out as Dodges, DeSotos and Fargos.

There were subtle differences I'm sure, but it really amounts to a bit of badge engineering.

Anyone seen this bus?

Hello

I am writing to you in an endeavour to find an old 1946 Ford Semi Trailer bus. I understand that this a car club and I am hoping that you may be able to refer me to someone more appropriate.

This bus was owned by the Abbott family of Victor Harbor, SA, and daily carried school children from Goolwa to Victor Harbor back in the 50s and early 60s. It was converted into a holiday vehicle and finally ended up in a paddock in the Riverland of SA.  Someone from Victoria rescued the badly neglected bus from the paddock and fully restored this bus.

So many years down the track, so many people would like to see this old bus in its fully restored state, perhaps a re inactment and/or a vist to the area again.

Is there anyone who is a part of your organisation that might know the whereabouts of this bus, perhaps someone may be able to refer me to someone/organisation in an endeavour to locate the current owners.

Kind regards

Helen Hurford (former school passenger)


helenhurford@mail.com

Something like this? Read the caption, I reckon this is the actual one.

A perfect set.

Robert Wragg should be happy with his little Nagari collection. He's joined that elite group that has a pigeon pair. Here's his two.

SuperBolwell.

Jason Lacey sent over some photos of the Gourlay racer in its final form. These are for the benefit of the car's current owner who has decided not to turn it into an "authentic" road car as it never has been in its entire history. Its historical integrity is really in this form. Anyway, I'm sure there are others who would also like to see the pictures.

Birdwood.

A few shots from the run up to Birdwood to set up the display.

2012 MSCA 6-hour.

The only photos to hand so far from the 6-hour are of Norm getting his energy food to give him stamina for long periods of time at the wheel. Thanks Phil.

You can see in the first photo that he is supervised by his personal trainer. He always wanted to be a nice big boy like Bernie when he grew up. You're almost there Norm, just a bit more and you'll pull out and pass him.

A change to conditional registration - SA

This ad will appear in tomorrow morning's Advertiser.

Push car?

Show 'n' Tell 1979. The gunmetal Nagari coupe. What's that on the front? Is it a push bar for speedway? Or a carrier for the waterbag maybe.

B8/85

When I look at this photograph on the front page of the March Slipstream I keep thinking what a credit it is to present owner Greg Merritt and Alan Harmer before him and Brett Lewis before that as well as prior owners Tony Opie, Allan Hanns, Bob Wilson (yes, Gary, the same Rob Wilson who raced your car) and Colin McAskill. The original owner, Mrs. Marshall, was very proud of her gold coupe. Unfortunately her youngest son, 16 and unlicenced, took the car for a high speed spin one night, sliding sideways at 240 kph into a pole, hitting it in a standard Nagari's most vulnerable spot.

Colin bought the wreck and after a brief interlude in Melbourne, it arrived in Adelaide accompanied by sufficient bits of the rolled Canon car to piece the body back together. The car was progressively rebuilt during that Colin, Bob, Allan and Tony part of its life. This was also the car that broke the chains and jumped off the rollers at Darlington Auto Tune and left the building through the back wall.

Dino replicas.

When Sam Johnson stopped making JWF bodies and cars he built himself a Ferrari Dino F1 car that appeared so authentic that experts had to go and give it a tap to discover that it wasn't the real thing and the body was in fibreglass. We showed it here quite some time ago in a group of photos Peter G had taken at Speed on Tweed.

Some people may not know that Sam also made a copy of the early Dino sports racing car which was equally authentic in appearance. This is Sam's car.

....and this is a real one.

While we are on the subject of Milanos which I guess we weren't, here's another shot of Peter Smeets' Milano taken at Lobethal.

It's still for sale (see Bollyshop). Pete may even consider a swap if you have something interesting.

Headlights

Does the Diablo have 300ZX headlights?

Thanks Alan for showing me this.

Maldonado on pole!

And Hamilton on the back row. This is going to be one interesting Spanish GP.

National Motor Museum, Birdwood SA

As from yesterday the Bolwell Club has a display at the Mill.

In about a month's time the display will be expanded. As it is it looks pretty impressive. Congratulations to everyone who helped set it up.

Kapunda - week 48.

Go Karts were good today.

See the bloke under the tree? He got tipped out on the warm-up lap. Kicked a few things and shouted the "F" word a few times. I'm not sure if that helps but it does seem mandatory for everyone who comes to grief.

The legend has died.

Well, the legend hasn't but the man has. Carroll Shelby passed away yesterday, our time, in a Dallas hospital. He was 89.

What a legacy he leaves.