Update on 2014 adventures!

It's been too long since I have written an updated blog.   We mostly post on Facebook during the season and I'm pretty sure there are more viewers over there than this blog.... BUT I have just been reminded that not everyone has access to facebook, or wants to!

Our Impish Adventures in 2014 took us further afield from our usual South West hill climbs, as having more horsepower with a 998cc engine and 'fast road' set up and gaining our National A licences, we decided to try some different venues.  At the beginning of the year our provisional calendar was rather over-optimistic with Curborough, Doune, Shelsley Walsh and Prescott all potentially included.  Some venues fell by the wayside because of the cost of doing the event with extra membership fees we'd have to pay and other considerations, however two we did manage to include were Doune in Scotland, and Shelshley Walsh in Worcestershire, both of which we loved and are planning to return to in 2015, especially as we consider them unfinished business…  2014 also included the most breakages we have had so far, a sign that we are pushing the car harder and finding the weak points!  

Jenny on the startline at Shelsley Walsh

We put in an entry for a May event at Shelsley Walsh and crossed our fingers that our little car would be considered interesting enough to be accepted…  It was, and we even got a mention in the programme!  We were competing against Lotuses and the like in the National A class, but we weren't there to win anything - we had entered to experience the historic atmosphere and drive the hill, and I had chosen an event over my birthday weekend to make it even more memorable.  On arrival in the camping field we felt rather like the poor relations in our normal van and tent amongst all the massive motorhomes and covered trailers, and I wondered how our little car would be viewed particularly as it was a British Hillclimb Championship weekend. However we needn't have worried, once in the paddock and having worked out the system of booking the practice runs we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere, and our paddock neighbours were friendly.  We had been warned that Shelsley is a power hill and probably not that suitable for the Imp, but it is far more than that and we loved it.  There are plenty of decisions to be made on gear changes and lines, and the challenge of the esses near the top.  While the fast boys and girls were doing eye-watering speeds up the hill, down at the slow end of the competition I started having some problems with the car not being in gear properly, particularly on the startline - needless to say this lost me a lot of time which is very frustrating when double driving!  Since Alex didn't have the same issue there was some discussion as to whether it was me or the car…  However, at the next event two weeks later we both experienced it and came to the conclusion that the flexible gear linkage was getting worn and flexing too much. The application of a cut-up beer can and some jubilee clips seemed to help, but with just a week before Doune hillclimb Alex spent a few late nights sorting out a new clutch and a rigid linkage.

The 470 mile trip up to Doune, north of Stirling, was nostalgic because Alex lived up there for a year, although we didn't know about the hill climb then.   We walked the hill on the Friday when we arrived, and it was just as people said – long and challenging!  Our weekend's competing was sadly cut short when Alex's 3^rd practice run ended with a very worrying noise which sounded as though it came from the bottom end of the engine.  Not being in a position or inclined to do emergency fixes we called it a day, but stayed to watch the rest of the two day event including the exciting British Hillclimb Championship runoffs.  Having travelled so far and Scotland feeling like a second home, we then went off for a week's camping holiday in the Highlands and forgot about nasty engine noises.  When we got home we discovered it was a bolt on the gearbox mounting that had worked loose, after the rush getting it all back together before we'd left for Scotland. It was a great relief that it wasn't serious, and it meant that Doune had to be on the 2015 calendar to complete unfinished business!  It is well worth the trip as it is a superb hill – long, twisty, narrow, blind-brow corners, and a fantastic view from the top holding paddock. Not to mention the great company: the committee and competitors are supremely welcoming and friendly, and a week's safe accommodation for our Imp while we went off camping was offered without hesitation.

Imps at Doune Hill Climb

 

The gear linkage problem reared its head again on my final run at Wiscombe Park in July, when something went bang as I was changing down to 2^nd for the final hairpin and I lost all gears.  It was clear that the linkage had broken and I had to be towed off, much to the annoyance of a friend who was behind me and having a particularly good run before he got red flagged!   It turned out that the link hadn't so much broken as become detached at one end, and this resulted in more discussions about whether it was now too rigid, it was a duff linkage, or what the problem/solution is.  Because so many people have previously competed in Hillman Imps, we invariably receive a lot of advice and ideas, all of which is listened to and then either followed, adapted or eventually discarded!

During the August break we replaced the twin Stromberg carbs with twin 40 Webers. Our interesting year had started with the needle falling out of one of the Stromberg jets over the finish line at Wiscombe Park, as luck would have it, the needle fell onto the belly pan and stayed there!  That led to an evening under an umbrella in pouring rain, fixing it and wiring it up so it couldn’t happen again, but made us rather wary of the Strombergs.

We managed a couple of uneventful weekends at Wiscombe in September, apart from losing the dust cap off one of the Webers and being lent one by a kindly marshal, who was repaid with a couple of pots of honey from our bees!   The final incident came at our local and final event of the year at Manor Farm, Charmouth which is a nice friendly finale to the season with a shortish hill through a campsite (sadly without caravans present which would make it an extra challenge!).   I drew the short straw again as on my final run of the weekend I dropped the clutch on the startline and something went 'bang' and proceeded to clonk-clonk around the first corner.. quickly realising that I'd been a little over-enthusiastic and broken something, I gingerly drove up the hill at a leisurely pace, disappointing those who expected the little Imp to come flying through the bridge 'a bit faster than that'!  It transpires that some teeth had broken in the diff, but thankfully my cautious response to the noises prevented further damage. Stronger diff sorted for 2015! And the gearbox is also being generally strengthened

So, 2014 was a year of pushing the car hard and again getting achingly close times between myself and Alex (double driving) with us alternately finishing victorious.  At Werrington I was overjoyed to win 'Best Lady' on both days, as they calculate it compared with best time in the class rather than just the fastest time.  For 2015 our calendar will be Wiscombe Park, Werrington and Charmouth in the South West, but we also plan to return to Doune and Shelsley.   We now also have a young Pointer dog that we will be showing, so that will make life varied. He's not just pretty face though, Lazlo is also a motorsport-loving dog having experienced his first hill climb at Wiscombe aged 11 weeks!

Playing with carbs

by Alex

After two hillclimb events in the car with the new engine set-up, we have some work to do to fine tune things.

At a very wet Wiscombe at the end of April, the front engine carb jet dropped out after running really well. It happened quite quickly with little or no poor running beforehand, suggesting that the jet had been adjusted out too far when on the rolling road, and that the needle may be too lean thus requiring artificial enrichment by screwing out the jet.

We rebalanced the carbs and lock-wired everything in place as a temporary measure.

The following weekend at a sunny Werrington the car ran reasonably well but without the sizzle it had before. We then experienced misfire at the start line usually coinciding at the first gear change then clearing. The car revs out to 9k and the misfiring only happened on Jenny’s run after mine as the ‘A’ driver. This suggested that the plugs were fouling up with all the tickover waiting time, so perhaps the needle could be too rich low down. The plugs certainly looked fouled up but it was difficult to tell after a run up and then back down the hill. Changing them certainly helped, as did getting Jenny to rev it like a boy-racer before the start! On further inspection of the old set some of the porcelain had broken down.

Our conclusions are that the needles are too lean at the top and too rich at the bottom, as the plugs seem to be getting too hot and fouling up at the same time. Also, starting requires the choke but the engine will not run at all with it left on and a very light foot is required on the throttle.

We also wondered about dirty fuel, the facet silvertop pump has a poor filter which is easily blocked.

We are using SU needles in Strombergs, so using www.mintylamb.co.uk found a couple of alternatives using their comparison graph. BG which is much leaner low down and richer top looked perfect, but the curve proved too steep at the crucial 3 to 5k rev range, so we have tried CS2 which has the same curve as the CS1’s previously fitted, but richer at the top with a smoother curve.

After road testing and installing a glass filter before the fuel pump we await Wiscombe on the 17th/18th May with baited breath!

The Howells Championship 2014

Our first event this year was on March 30th at Clay Pigeon Kart track for a sprint, our first one. The track is very twisty as would be expected, and we are still not sure whether or not we like it!  Still it was good weather and a warm up for us and the new engine/gearbox and we had some fun sliding round the corners.. it would be interesting in the wet!

April 26/27 saw a very wet weekend at Wiscombe Park hill climb and the first proper test of the engine. All was going really well and the track wasn't too bad, Alex got very close to last year's personal best on Saturday afternoon.  On his last run the jet fell out of one of the Stromberg carbs, luckily falling on to the custom belly pan and not onto the track until he got to the top finish paddock.  Having found the jet he refitted it and Jenny got her final run.

Having made steps to prevent it coming out again, we started on Sunday but soon realised that the carbs were out of balance and we couldn't better 63 seconds.    The final run was cancelled because of the muddy/slippery state of the paddock, it was only a matter of time before a car slid into another, or worse into a pedestrian. Getting out and loaded up and away from the site was organised in batches so we were pretty much first away being in the first batch.  The quickest we've ever loaded the Imp on to the trailer and packed away the stuff in the van!

The carbs are being checked out, and hopefully the car will be running better for Werrington hill climb this weekend.

You can find a couple of videos from Wiscombe on YouTube:
Jenny final run Sunday:  http://youtu.be/GomQBB05lxc
Alex fastest run Saturday: http://youtu.be/B1dNTTFTHTM

The score in the Howells Championship to date is Alex 2 - Jenny 1.

If you haven't already found it, we now have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/imphillclimb - come and find us!

Upgrades all round

Crikey, I didn't realise it was October when I last wrote on here, a lot has happened since then!

We now have the 998cc engine fitted in the Imp, with twin Strombergs, an R17 cam, Maniflow exhaust and a closer ratio box. These changes necessitated an upgrade to more hefty half shafts as well! We have taken it on a few test runs and are sorting out the inevitable tweaks needed to the mixture and a mystery minor oil leak, other than that it goes like a dream. We are going to check the decibel level though, as it seems quite loud....
 

Alex enjoying a wet Wiscombe. Photo by www.teltphotography.com

 

Our first planned event is the sprint at Clay Pigeon in Dorset on 30th March, and then a gap until the first Wiscombe hill climb at the end of April which marks the start of the season proper.

Both Alex and I have upgraded to Nat A licences this year, partly because we took all the trouble to get the upgrade card signed! Partly because it makes us feel as though we've arrived, and partly because it gives us more choice of which events to do. Often when an event has both A and B events on, the Nat B classes are very generalised into eg. all road going cars, so we'd be better off in the Nat A classes. We'll see how it goes this year.

Last year people who saw us may remember we usually had our elderly Pointer dog with us, who was happy to sleep in the back of the van, but sometimes came out for social visits around the paddock where allowed! Sadly we lost him in mid-December so will not have his company this year, it won't be the same...  We have decided not to get a new puppy until the end of this season; it had been a concern of mine that we are planning to do some further afield events this year and some sprints, and I'm sure it would have been an issue at some stage, and definitely would be with a pup!

Last hill climbs and Goodwood Revival

I wanted to write a lovely illustrated blog post but I am using Alex's computer, so will have to add some photos later!

September was a mad round of hillclimbs, 3 weekends in a row which was pretty tiring!  Two at Wiscombe which were both wet, and one at Charmouth which was dank in the mornings, but dry for the afternoons. We like the final Charmouth hill climb as it is run by our Club, Woolbridge MC, and is a friendly event with the advantage of the camping being right next to the paddock which is a definite bonus with the dog!

After all the wet events we've had this year, our confidence in the car and how it handles has improved massively, and both Alex and I managed to post good new personal bests at each event.

Having competed in the MG Car Club hill climb on 14th September, we headed off the next day at 6am to the Goodwood Revival, in the Imp of course.  We had a cracking drive over through the Meon Valley with the sun burning off the early morning fog, and the Imp flying along enjoying the run.   The show was as good as ever, and although it started raining we had another good drive home without the Imp missing a beat.

Now we have finished the season and are looking forward to 2014, not only with the Imp's new 998cc engine and closer ratio gearbox, but we're also thinking of fitting some units into the Transporter since we will be spending every other weekend, for 6 months of the year, camping!

Wet stuff at Wiscombe!

The 5 Clubs (well 4 now) ran another great hill climb at Wiscombe Park at the weekend, and what an intense weekend it was!  The forecast was sunny mornings and showers in the afternoon, and that's pretty much what it did, with the addition of rain on Friday night to start off with a nice greasy track.

This event is very popular and was over-subscribed, we were fore-warned to enter early. One of my fellow lady drivers managed to get an entry for Saturday but not Sunday - the moral being "Get your entry in as soon as they open!".  Most of the friends we have made at various venues over this season were there which made it very sociable; and we made a few new friends as well.

So, Saturday morning dawned to the afore-mentioned greasy track and everyone took it fairly easy. By the second practice run it was stickier and most of us put up a good time, while casting suspicious looks at the black clouds looming from the south west.  It took its chance over the lunch break and started bucketing down; we ate our lunch in the Imp which has to be a first!  All we needed was a newspaper and we'd have made a good impression of tourists at a beauty spot viewpoint.

The afternoon runs were done in alternate heavy downpours and sunny spells, which arguably were worse as the track was half-dry half-wet. Alex managed some decent times but I lost interest and had two shocking timed runs so was in my usual spot at the bottom of the fleet. Never mind, tomorrow is another day and driving in so many different conditions is very good experience and does wonders for confidence.

On Sunday morning, having had a night in the tent listening to more downpours, I was thinking "urgh, do I really want to do this?".  Of course I did, and also couldn't possibly let down all the marshals who were doing a sterling job standing around getting soaked on our behalf.  Once I was up and ready I was feeling much more positive and practices went fine, with pretty much a carbon copy of weather and conditions from the day before. A first practice of 63.07 and second at 62.42 meant I was heading in the right direction to break my previous personal best of 61.25 (also achieved in damp conditions). Alex had a slowish first practice but did 60.95 in the second one, so I was chasing him.

We managed to get the tent down reasonably dry at lunchtime, the breeze having got up and the sun out during our second practices. By the time we'd walked back down to the paddock the queues for the food were too long so my customary Sunday sausage and chips was put off until after the first timed runs.


Yet again during lunchtime the heavens opened right on schedule, to many sighs of frustration from those with more powerful cars.  We weren't too worried in the Imp and our first timed runs were pretty good: 60.57 for Alex and 61.30 for me (0.06 off a new PB!).  That definitely got my competitive spirit flowing, and the secret weapon of sausage and chips completed it: I was determined to really go for it in the last run of the weekend.

Alex, to my surprise, came in a bit slower at 61.02 in his second timed run because he left a gear change too late in the Esses.  It was all to play for!  On the way down to my start I could feel the adrenalin building up, this was my last chance.  Alex and I had been talking about the "brake LATE and HARD" advice we'd had; and that when you want to brake you should say "A thousand" and then brake.  Clearly even experienced drivers suffer from the automatic caution that our brains use to protect us! I'd been getting braver with late braking into the Gate and two hairpins, and on this run I totally forgot about any dodgy track conditions and went for it; the whole run felt fast, but that can be deceiving.  When I got to the top my heart was going hammer and tongs, and I was desperate for the loo!  Once I got to look at the time I was amazed to see 60.37 and had to check it several times before I believed I'd knocked almost a second off my PB, and beaten Alex... I had the biggest grin on my face then for the rest of the day, and all the way home in fact!

The Only Imp in the Village

Alex got the interior back in the Imp, and the newly cleaned/treated fuel tank back in yesterday.

We wanted to take it for a quick run so headed over to Beaulieu Motor Museum to their Simply Classics day. If you turn up in a classic car you pay the usual entry fee but park within the museum grounds for visitors to see, like an unofficial show. Being Life Members we got in free, even better!

We got there about 2.15 just in time for a look round the cars before they started leaving; everything from a GT40 replica to numerous MGs, Triumphs and Healeys. There were some interesting cars there including Lotuses, Skodas and a hillclimbing Volvo Amazon. Not a single other Imp or derivative though!

We were just there for an hour and a half, and Alex had a long discussion with a family of Imp owners from Somerset who were visiting for the day.

It was so good to get the car back out on the road after a fortnight, we've missed it!

Impish August

Here are a few photos from the last month:

Castle Hillclimb 3/4 August was interesting! Our first visit to the event and the Sunday was very wet; we did ok though since there are advantages to lacking power!  The long drag hill on the second half was a bit painful as were stuck in 2nd, the gap to 3rd being just too large.

This is what happens when a single seater racing car cleans the mud off its wheels right in front of you....

Stripped out to remove sound deadening and bitumen from between the ridges in the floor... 13kg plus! 

Our sexy new Sparco Rev seat is around 7kg lighter than the previous Cobra one, but is rather more snug (extra trips to the gym required for me!)

Roll cage in position.  We don't need one for our road-going class, but we were offered it at a good price and any extra safety has to be a good thing.  Even adding this (15kg) the car will still be lighter than before.

Stripping out!

The Imp has been stripped out of carpets and seats, temporarily. Alex has been removing anything heavy and not required, mainly bitumen from the floor! 

Scrupulous weighing of items and the discovery that our current race seat weighs twice as much as a Sparco Rev led us to reassessment of what we wanted/needed in the car.

With two weeks to go until our next hillclimb at Wiscombe Park, the clock is ticking on getting the floor painted and the car put back together. I will post some photos shortly!

A couple of events and plans for 2014

Since I last wrote, we have taken the Imp to Wiscombe Park again, and to Manor Farm at Charmouth which some people consider a 'mickey mouse' course but we quite like.  It is very different to Wiscombe, being open apart from going through a bridge under the A35, which provides the threat of concrete contact!   This year it was a damp weekend so we spent it experimenting with how the car behaved in the wet, while still keeping it on the black stuff. At least spinning off at Charmouth you're not likely to hit anything too hard.

The car is going well with the 930cc engine in, but we have our sights set on going faster and have just ordered a 998cc engine to be built for us, by the chap who built the 930cc and is ex-Hartwell.  It's a bit of an investment but once we have that we won't need to tinker with engines any more, at least that is the idea!    There are loads of ways we could make the car lighter to be more competitive, but firstly we want to stay in the production road car class, and more importantly we like the car as it is.   We don't want to strip out stuff to the limit of the class because we get a kick out of competing in a car in genuine road-going standard condition; and we think other people appreciate that too.

Photo www.simonrawling.com

We are making more and more friends as we go along on the hill climb circuit, whether it be ladies who have been competing for 26 years, or other newcomers to the sport, and everyone in between.  I was discussing the welcoming spirit of hill climbing with the aforementioned lady and we were comparing it with other sports and hobbies that we had done, most of which seem to have a hierarchy, snobbery and bitchiness which hill climbing just doesn't have.  We could chat away to a chap by the burger wagon and find out that he had won fastest time of the day, while we were slowest, and it doesn't matter! It's really good to feel part of it, I can't imagine anyone feeling like an outsider in this sport.

 

Photo www.simonrawling.com

Our next event will be at Wiscombe on 27/28 July, a National A Championship event as well as National B, so all the fast boys will be there (and girls, but usually there are only 2 or 3 of us at events).   The week after that we are venturing down to Cornwall to a circuit we haven't been to before, at Castle Hill which is near Lostwithiel.  We then have the rest of August off before a full programme in September, and that is the end of the season!  

The 998cc will go in for 2014, we'll run the rest of this year with the 930cc, firstly for consistency and secondly to save stress mid-season trying to get a new engine set up and running properly.

South West adventures at Werrington

Last weekend was the wonderful Werrington Park hillclimb organised by the Plymouth Motor Club, and held near Launceston which according to Googlemaps is about a 3 hour drive from us.  We were planning to have our new trailer ready, in fact this was the first event that we really wanted it for, but irritatingly it still hadn't materialised.  We couldn't borrow the one from Alex's work because they were using it (most inconsiderate) and we refused to pay to hire one for a weekend.  So there was nothing for it, we were going to drive the Imp and the van down to Devon/Cornwall on Friday afternoon.

We both got home from work early and after some final preparations (which included buying some get-you-out-of-the-mud grippy things for the van) we set off at 1.45pm with Alex in the Imp and me driving the Transporter with camping gear and dog.  All went well and we swapped over roughly halfway in the middle of Dorset somewhere.  I had the dull half which was mostly dual carriageway and a bit of motorway, so amused myself by singing loudly while bowling along at what I thought was 65 mph ish and we arrived without mishap at the venue.   At which point Alex said 'Why were you driving so slowly?' - it turns out that the speedo is reading about 7mph fast and hence it took us about 4 hours to get there.

We found ourselves a good camping spot at the top of the paddock in lush green grass, pitched the tent and fell into bed pretty early. Unfortunately our neighbours decided to party... but we managed to fall asleep about 11.30.

Saturday dawned wet, oh great.  The paddock announcement was 'there is a lot of mud on the road, please take care!' Werrington Park is an estate with a big house and cottages, and it turned out that somebody had driven a tractor through the estate on Friday morning, after it had been meticulously cleaned!

We both therefore took it easy on the first practices especially as it was our first time there, so put in un-amazing times but that was fine. It had stopped actually raining and rapidly dried out so all our runs from then on were on dry tarmac and got steadily faster with Alex ending the day on around 59 seconds and me on 60.   After a social barbeque on Saturday evening, we went to bed and slept very soundly, awaking raring to go on Sunday which was warm and dry. 

Somehow, after lunch on Sunday, we both managed to knock 1.5 seconds off each of our times. In my case it was because I had trouble selecting 2nd gear going into the 90 degree left so changed down later. A-ha! Now to try that intentionally.  In the final timed runs we ended up even faster with final best times of 57.83 for Alex and 57.66 for me, we were enjoying having our own private Hillman Imp championship!  With 1380 Minis etc in our class there was no way we were troubling the prize-winners, but we had a blast.

Alex drove the Imp all the way home since I said we'd get home quicker than if I drove it!  There had been a bit of rattling and knocking over the weekend and when Alex investigated on Monday, he found that the bolt holding the alternator on had sheared off and the alternator was working loose. Thank goodness it didn't come off completely or things could have got nasty.  We still need to take a look at the track rod ends and the suspension in general to check things over before the next event.

All in all it was a great weekend and we'll be back for more next year (it's a shame there is only one hillclimb a year at Werrington, it's a good, challenging course).  In the meantime we're off to Wiscombe again in a couple of weeks so looking forward to that.



Wiscombe Park 27/28 April 2013

After all the stresses of the previous blog post, we were glad to be on the road to Wiscombe Park, with the Imp ensconced in a rather posh trailer borrowed from Alex's work.  The trip is a couple of hours and we arrived early, only to almost get the van stuck in the camping field, with the trailer on the back.   Luckily we managed to recruit some help from a fellow hillclimber and were soon parked in a better place and pointing downhill (always good). 

After walking the hill, we settled down for the night and woke bright and early the next day to find that the car wouldn't start.  Oh brilliant. A slight panic set in as we jump started it from the van - we thought we'd solved this non-starting problem? it had been fine for the previous 4 days.  Thankfully it was fine for the rest of the day but we made sure that we kept her pointing downhill!

 

This was Alex's very first hillclimb, and he was the first of the day to run. With double driving, the 'A' driver goes up in the first batch and then there is a quick changeover for the second driver who goes in the next batch.  Unsurprisingly, Alex loved it and got a time already down near 60 seconds for the run, something I had distantly dreamed of when I ran the car with the 875cc engine last September.  His best time of the weekend was 59.4 which he was very pleased with.

 

I was loads faster than last year and managed 64.5 secs on the Saturday, improving it to 61.64 on Sunday. There weren't many classic cars at the event, which made the paddock a bit less interesting to look around, although there was a Gilbern Invader which was interesting as we have a Gilbern GT which is next on the list for restoration (and hillclimbing!).

 

The weekend stayed dry, and as at the two events last year we got chatting to lots of new people, and some we had met at previous events.  Hillclimbing is such a friendly sport, everyone has time for a chat. The Imp got loads of attention and we discovered that lots of people started out their hilllclimb careers in them, so it sounds as though we are starting in the right place! 

  

We came home on a high, although exhausted! We're looking forward to Werrington in Devon, which is our next event, although we are going to have to drive the car down there, 3.5 hours, as we don't have a trailer available.  We think the engine will like it though, it could do with a decent run.

 

We are both definitely hooked!

 

 

Pre event stresses!

We had a bit of a stressful couple of weeks with the Imp.   With the date for Wiscombe Park hillclimb looming, we had some work done including overhauling the twin Stromberg carburettors and fitting correct K&N paper air filters. We are rapidly discovering that some of the parts of our 930cc engine were apparently done 'on a budget'.

Next we changed the oil from fancy stuff to bog standard engine oil, and after discovering an oil leak apparently from the head gasket, decided to change that.  We'd never done a head gasket before, but how hard could it be?  It took an entire Sunday, with Alex meticulously dismantling the engine.  We sweated over getting the valve caps and shims off without dropping them everywhere, and I made a specially designed cardboard tray that wedged in under the cam cover ready to catch everything.  While I popped out to mow my parents grass, Alex cleaned up everything and applied the new head gasket, and measured the thickness of all the shims and made a note of them.

We eventually got it all back together only to discover - no compression. None. Zero. Zilch. In any of the cylinders.  I think we both wanted to just sit down and cry - what had we done??  

Much internet research ensued, after which we had come to the conclusion that the shims must not be seating properly on the valves, and basically we had to take the cam off and the shims/caps, and put them all on again. This time, we cleaned all the oil off, and glued the shims on with grease, and the caps into the cam so nothing was slithering about all over the place.

Cylinders 1, 2, 3 all ok.  Cylinder 4 - no compression.  ****

We decided to double check the list of shim thicknesses, and came to the conclusion (after converting everything to 64ths) that the two shims in cylinder 4 had accidently been swapped over.

So, it all came off again, cleaned up, greased, back together.   Everything else back on and the key turned. And she started!! better than she had in the last 3 weeks. 

By now it was 9.30pm on Tuesday night, so with 4 days until our first hillclimb, the relief was palpable!  

The irony was, that there was still an oil leak.... and it wasn't from the head gasket after all. It was seeping out around a tapered screw in the head, which wasn't tapered.  Some PTFE tape seems to have fixed that, for now anyway.

Countdown to Wiscombe

Well, our little Imp has had a transplant and is now a 930cc.  Isn't it funny how your brain can so easily switch from thinking a 1 litre engine is small, to thinking 'wow! 930cc, feisty!' - it's all relative.

Having started the winter engine change project back in October, our collection of engines has grown from one (the original) to four.  We bought a second hand 875cc Sport engine + spare, but couldn't get it running very well, and spent some time choking on exhaust fumes even with all the garage doors open.   

We then bought a 930cc engine which was supposedly built for hill climbing and had only been bench run.  "Perfect," we thought, "it's tricked up and can go straight in."    We toyed with the idea of trying to get the Sport engine going properly before changing them over, but then decided to just put the 930 in so we had more time to drive it around before our first event at the end of April.

Well... it turned out to not be quite so ready as we thought.  We knew it needed an alternator, since we'd be using for every day driving and not just competition, so we got a second hand one sold as 'working ok'.  The plug leads looked a bit iffy and didn't fit very well, and we discovered that the distributor cap had a massive crack in it so had to be replaced. 

Having got the engine fitted we spectacularly failed to get it started, and with about 5 weeks to go until Wiscombe Hill Climb we decided to give it to our local mechanic to have a look at, as we were running out of time.  Just to frustrate this plan, having put on a new brake master cylinder we then had trouble with the brake bleeding, and it took us at least 2 evenings of pedal pumping to get the brakes in a fit state to be able to tow the car down to his workshops.

The alternator turned out not to work ok so we got a new one, along with new plug leads.  Our mechanic managed to get the engine started but it was running extremely rich, so the next thing was to get the correct jets etc. for the carbs.  Our bank balance was rapidly shrinking and our stress levels rising, but the good news was that it passed the MOT! 

The car now ran and had been fiddled with, and after two and a half weeks without it we went and picked the car up. We then discovered that both carbs were leaking fuel when the engine wasn't running.  Adjustment of the fuel pressure seemed to fix that (fingers crossed), but the car was a complete b*** to start, although once it did start, it ran like a dream!

Head-scratching ensued. Plugs were cleaned, and a new battery has just arrived that should cope better with the higher compression. The next job is to adjust the timing to stop it pinking. Oh and the head gasket is weeping a bit of oil so we've ordered a gasket set.  What did I say about the bank balance?  It's currently on the downhill stretch of the roller coaster.

So, it's now two and a half weeks until Wiscombe and every day involves either working on the Imp or spending money on it, or both.

It's worth it for the huge grin on our faces when we drive it!

The next step

Well, the Imp is currently engine-less!

The 875cc standard has been taken out, and the 875cc Sport is about to go in.  A parcel of Weber jets and springs and things arrived today, so that will keep Alex busy!

 

The next deadline is the MOT which is due in March, plenty of time, right.....?

Plans for 2013!

Happy New Year! 

Over the Christmas break we sat down with diaries and event calendars and worked out the events we want to do in 2013, it's looking pretty full on. There are a couple of championships we can do - the Assoc of Central Southern Motor Clubs and the Assoc of South Western Motor Clubs.  They overlap a lot although the ASWMC championship has more events and includes some way down in Cornwall of course, which is 4+ hours for us.  

We plan to do most of the events at Wiscombe Park but also want to try some different venues so will be doing as many as we can; though we will probably use a trailer for the ones a long way away, for peace of mind apart from anything else! 

I have renewed my MSA licence and the next thing is to get Alex sorted out with his licence, and suit, helmet etc. - for those we are going to Race Retro in February which is anyway a fantastic show and we haven't been for a few years.  As an added bonus the Imp Club and the British Women Racing Drivers' Club both have stands at the show so we will be able to go and see them.

At the moment the Imp is in our garage having some work done on the engine, and things like an electric fuel pump fitted.  It seems a long time until April and the first event, but I'm sure that it will come around quicker than we think!

12 Car Nav

by Jenny

This wasn't strictly an Impish adventure, but it was because of joining Woolbridge MC that we decided to try their 12 Car navigational rallies, but in our VW Golf.  That car rather than the Imp partly because we have at least a 1 1/2 hour drive to get to/from the start, and because it's winter!

These take place in the depths of Dorset/Devon/Somerset and involve tortuous routes down tiny lanes, about 50 miles which takes a couple of hours.  We had our first go at it last night, with me driving and Alex navigating, and succeeded in completing the whole thing without a single argument, which most people would think was an achievement in itself!  Not because we generally argue (we don't), but because it is the type of situation that could easily raise the blood pressure.

We were of course using the Beginner's instructions, and we also got 15 minutes before the start to look at them and start plotting them on the map.   They were good in that they involved lots of different types of instructions - spot heights, tulip diagrams, herringbones and directional. 

After all the rain we've had recently, and the fact that there is a lot of farmland around there, some of the roads were thick with mud and there were a couple of floods.  In one village we met some contractors with large tractors who seemed to be there solely to spread mud on the road, including one lump the size of a very large badger....  by the end of the route I was glad we'd done it in the Golf and not the Imp, it looked as though it had been offroading, and I'm not sure how well it would have fared in the couple of floods.

The route was designed for an average speed of 24 mph and part of the scoring takes into account how far away from this your speed is (faster or slower); there are time checks along the way as well as at the end.  Also there are code boards along the way with letters on which you have to record to show that you were there, these are normally placed in areas where you might easily cut off a corner or go the wrong way. 

Apparently we ended up 4th overall, but we're not sure yet whether that means out of everyone or just the beginners/novices; we will see when we get the full results.

So, all in all a good first go at navigational rallying!

Winter break

Now that we are in between hill climb seasons we've been looking towards next year. Alex thinks the 875 Sport engine should be able to go straight in without him having to take it apart which is good. He's been investigating the new carbs and reading up on them since we've never had Webers before. The Imp is certainly proving educational as well as fun! 

Alex has taken it up to Newbury for the weekend and reported that it's going well though still the odd tick-over issue. We're not going to worry too much about that though since we'll be changing the engine soon; we're just waiting for some info on the clutch and flywheel requirements.

On the 7th Nov we are doing our first navigation rally with Woolbridge Motor Club over in Dorset/Devon which is quite nerve wracking... We're not planning to use the Imp though, as we have a 2 hour drive just to get to the start!

Shopping!

By Jenny

Just back from a weekend's camping and shopping, not IN the Imp, but FOR the Imp. The final collection consisted of:

One Imp Sport engine 875cc
One standard spare engine 875cc
Twin Weber carburettors and manifold
Montecarlo springs front and rear
New handbrake cable
Brake kits
Replacement dash from which we can take a temp gauge. At the moment we just have The Light of Doom.

So that's a few things for us (well mostly Alex let's face it, while I'm studying) to work on while waiting for hillclimbs to resume in April!

XLB's biggest fan

Whenever we are working on XLB, Django's preferred spot is on the back seat and he will pester and get in the way until we relent!