Condor 2+2

Remember Ray's Sigma powered Condor? He's sold it now and we don't see it much any more. Meanwhile, Larry K has dragged out some photos of Condor bodies that you might not know much about. These were Condor 2+2 bodies that were whipped up in a very short time span by former Holden Dealer Team panel and paint man, John Dixon.

Meanwhile, Larry had a ball in his Torana, "Saggy", at the Collingrove Hillclimb yesterday. In his words, he "blew the tyres off it from the startline but did manage a 39.36 despite smoking the tyres for the first 100 plus feet."

Original Nagari wishbones

Fred Podner started this. He's keen to get his Nagari back on the road relatively quickly without a major overhaul over the next 10 years. I can relate to that. Fred has circulated a plea for advice about a number of things including what to do with those original wishbones. As an aside, our Spanish member after a quick look at the front end on his Nagari, exclaimed WTF or whatever is the Spanish equivalent. Fred has said "front wishbones I understand are not a Bolwell strong point so some mods to increase strength and reliability would be nice" and "considering minor relocation of the front suspension pick up points" and "I am interested in any alternate parts you may have found that have advantages over the original parts" and "are there any wishbone jigs?" and "I would appreciate any help/advice to make this as quick and painless as possible." A couple of other quotes from Fred are:-

 The existing wishbones look a little puny ( some early cars had failures) and all the front wishbones are inclined.  I would like to do the minimum changes and not chase “perfection” but I don’t want to make things worse than they already are.

&
The ford uprights or more particularly the ball joints are meant to be loaded from the top wishbone through the top ball joint being pushed down.  I think there is a version of the ford range ( galaxy I think) that had a lower ball joint designed for tension loads.  The upright is fine in the application.  Again I don't wan to change too much I think it mainly the weak wishbones ( maybe having the bottom arm horizontal and if I really get excited lift the top arm so that it doesn't ive as much camber change).


Beven responded with "I read somewhere that Ford uprights weren't designed to be used as they are used in a Nagari".   and then asked Andrew Maschmedt about it.


Part of Andrew's reply included:-

Some of the most enjoyable days spent on Bolly runs and sprints.

It's funny where we end up. I now work for Ford and at present, in India tuning shockers on Ford's local product. I live in Geelong and work at the You Yangs Proving Ground doing each day what I used to do at MSCA sprints. Sounds amazing but as you could imagine it is not always just fun.

I don't mind giving some advise to Bolwell members regarding unique suspension issues.

This is what appears at the bottom of mail from Andrew.
Andrew Maschmedt 
Technical Expert - Tyres & Handling 
Vehicle Dynamics 
Product Development
Ford Asia Pacific & Asia 


From Peter G:-

(Footnote: I have sent Fred drawings of early wishbones, as well as drawings done by Andrew Giannopoulus when he updated his wishbones, I included info on Mustang II and Holden HQ-WB lower ball-joint swap. All this info should be readily available, through the Club, any thoughts? Ed.)

Peter, could these drawings and information be published in subsequent Slipstreams?

At the bottom of this post is a provision to contribute to a discussion on this subject - just click on comments.

 

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It's hard to imagine Facebook being a sponsor of Trans-Am in the 60s and 70s.

National Historic Races, Easter, Mallala 2011

David Gibb got some good shots yesterday and here's a few.
Speaking of memories, Michael Shearer had the late Kevin's Ford A special out.

Good old Black Bess.

The Roscrow Bentley special gets around.

As does Larry's Torana these days.

When are these appearing in the Masters?

And when are they going to have some Dattos?

Speaking of Dattos, there's no show without the odd Z.

Or Elfin.

And it's not really an Historic meeting without Austin 7s.

This weekend's Official Le Mans Test Day.

Here's a few shots from Ultimate Car Page.

Finally, memories of Michele Alboreto.

I have memories of Michele too.. Here he is at the very first Grand Prix in the streets of Adelaide in 1985.

Easter 2011

Peter G was at the Concours at Birragurra yesterday. Not a bad turn out of cars.

Who was Australia's first full time professional racing driver?

Well, the answer is Melbourne's Joan Richmond.

There's a book coming out very soon. I wonder if Beven will stock it.

Hope so.

The Darracq @ PI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgjG1U-DGgU

Another woody.

A Peugeot this time.

Maybe it was a French phenomena.

Nagari nose badges

For those who have been hanging out for new nose badges (the last one went to Spain) please be assured that a new batch has been ordered. We should have them next week I'd say.

2011 RR

The new Ghost LWB. The back seat.

Looks pretty comfortable.

Smart looking Porsches

I just love the look of this.

It's a station wagon conversion they do in Belgium.