more fiddling and holiday

After I fitted the Astrali Successor II I noticed my horn wasn't working. I never use a horn, so very possible it has been broke for a longer period. They normally test it on a MOT test (APK in NL) though I can remember from last year they forgot. Started checking on the horn itself first, which was ok. After that I checked all the wiring, checked again and again. I just could figure out why it wasn't working. I had power up to the relay, but it wasn't working. After some 3 hours of braincracking I found out two wires on the relay where connected the wrong way round!! After I changed it back my horn said beep! Also my hazard lights worked again and my interior light switched on... Fixed three bits at once, just amazing! Still haven't got a clue why it was wired up the wrong way round.

Tomorrow Theo and I leave for a short holiday in the UK. Theo's Sprint engined TR7 will be transport on this trip. First we're heading for the Old Stone Through in Kelbrook for the local Club Triumph meeting. As it's the night before the Carrera Caledonia lots of southern CT members will show up. This makes it almost to a national event. Last year was great fun, think this year will be even better. Won't be getting late I'm afraid. Next they we have breakfast at 6.30 as we have to leave early for the start of La Carrera Caledonia. A one day driving event through beautiful Scotland. Don't know what to expect from LCC, I recon it will be top! Saturday ends in Callander where we're having a LCC diner. From there we're going to drive further up north on sunday, not sure in what direction yet. We'll see!! Scotland can't be dissapointing. We're supposed to be back next saturday.

Astrali Successor II

All the way from Greece came this NOS Astrali wheel to me. It's deffo a very cool 70's go-faster item, and it really suits the GT6 interiour. It's a dished wheel and fits straight onto the splines. Unfortunately I'm not achieving a better driving position as I was hoping. It's just as far away from me as the Mountney wheel. Still, the Astrali Successor II will stay on for now, as it's absolute subzero!!

new tools

Tools, you can't have enough of them. Got myself some new must have items today. Both are tools you hardly use, but still very handy if you got them. Since I've been borrowing Theo's timinglight for so many times, I thought it was time to get my own. Better break my own than someone elses!
Also got a simple compressiontester. It was cheap and good enough for my use. Will investigate soon on my GT6 if it does the job. Then I also know how healthy the straight six is.

photo's

working on the Beemer

Sometimes the BMW askes for some attention too. It's actually a very reliable car. Although in last days I noticed the engine was running a bit lumpy on idle. As it happened before I was quite sure it would suffer from a knackered inlet manifold gasket. Compared to the GT6 the BMW doesn't look very accesable under the bonnet. Luckily it isn't as bad as it seems. I think the E30 is as simple as Lego. Working on it is a sheer pleasure! I recon BMW engineers must be the best in the world. The technical design is very clever. Removing the inletmanifold seems to be tricky. The bolts look very unaccesble, but if you take your time it's a easy job. I did the job in 2,5 hour, taking the manifold off, cleaning it up, putting it back on and having a coffee in between as well... Now the engine is running sweet again!!!

325i photos

webers back on

The GT6 is back on Webers again. The swap from strommies to Webers is very straightforward since I modified the car last year already. Click&Go!! Well not quite, fitting the SAH manifolds is still a struggle. Esp. the front one, it has very little space for bolting up. I had to make up some special tools to get it done. After final adjustments I went for a run. It's running much better comparing to last year. This must be the benefit of the new distributor. Only accelerating under full throttle isn't working as it should. Time to get things sorted on a rolling road methinks!

Nurburgring

Last thursday I visited the Nürburgring for the second time this year. First time we only did the spectating bit. This time I did some laps in the BMW. Although it's good fun driving the track I realised it's total nonsense driving a normal roadcar on that track. It's okay as long as you take it easy. Which isn't working for long as I noticed. It's a natural thing you want to go faster every lap you do. I think you need a well prepared car for driving the ring regularly. One with a rollcage and uprated brakes. BMW started fading after the second lap. Not a pleasant feeling going down at breidscheid having no brakes!!