tony pashley

Going purely from memory, mine had a narrow cork gasket; I don't recall any issue with sealant or goop to fall into the box - do cork gaskets normally use sealants?. (That's with the regular pressed steel cover.) I subsequently replaced it with an alloy one (the cover that is, from James Whiting, I think) with a threading for a breather - which is also of a big enough diameter to fill it through and (just about) suck most of the oil out if necessary. Getting all of the screws out is the fiddly bit. ps of all the things that could distract me from watching a bike race - it's a gearbox gasket…! Edited by - tony pashley on 10 Aug 2014 16:39:42 Edited by - tony pashley on 10 Aug 2014 16:40:35

Mine was the type with (slightly crude-looking, tbh) aluminium strip (I’d forgotten about the later one-piece version), which is why I made a rubber strip to cover the fixings. I still have it, though it’s not on the car atm. Thinking about it more, I'm pretty sure I did end up with one rivnut visible (with full screen on), but ‘inside’ the cockpit (i.e. behind the full screen) towards the tonneau popper bases. As I’d used a ‘stiffening’ strip under the scuttle, I used a countersunk rivet, so it wasn’t very obvious (not that I was too bothered, tbh). Don’t know if I have any close-up pics, but there’s a vague view of it on the front of LF Mar ’07. Ideally, you need SBFS’s secure poppers for the front of the half tonneau (if you use one) ‘cos the front edge is a bit exposed to the wind and prone to lift. I also put a large metal eyelet in the front edge (of the tonneau) and had a short loop of elastic cord through that and around the centre mirror post, which worked well. When I re-furbished the car (sadly little used since, which I must try to remedy) I had an extra scuttle made without screen or wiper cut-outs - just for the sake of appearances really - but since, when in ‘aero’ mode, I had the mirrors mounted via the screen stanchion holes, and wasn’t too bothered about the wiper spindles showing, it was perhaps a little unnecessary.

I fitted the clear 'half-aeroscreen' as Dave and Matthew described above (and used to be known popularly as a 'Vauxhall race screen' - as that's where it originated) as a detachable item using rivnuts with a strip of aluminium under the scuttle as a stiffener strip (which may not be necessary, but it seemed a good idea at the time). I think I managed to position all of the rivnuts under the windscreen rubber or behind the triangle of the screen stanchion. Some think it looks a bit agricultural but I bonded a rubber strip to the bottom of the perspex to sit as a flap covering the mounting strip and all the screwheads. I think I've driven cars with all of the regular screen/door/half door/no door/aero combinations, and (concurring with Dave) this was - by a considerable margin - the best at creating a calm area for the driver. I didn't experience the high-speed turbulence that Dave describes, but I probably only achieved those speeds when wearing a crash hat. (For ref. I'm 6' 2" with standard floors, but sat quite low on a foam-to-fit seat.) I have ridden in a car with one of those rather taller, carbon aeroscreens - that seemed to work quite well, but I wasn't impressed by a) the obscuring of the opposite front wheel, and b) the iffy appearance (subjective).

The 917 - the Group 5 coupe version - had a ZF lsd which, according to one of Paul Frere's books, was "preloaded and with a 75% locking factor". The later CanAm versions ended up with a solid rear end, but they were essentially developed by Donohue and Penske rather than Porsche. I don't know about the 908s but they were much less brutal machines altogether, so I also don't understand what that would achieve. (It's hard to imagine 908/3, at least, having a locked diff as that was built for events like the Targa Florio, which doesn't sound like a suitable arrangement.)

Ok - thanks Jonathan; I'd skipped over that ref 'cause I thought an automatic locker was something else. 'A little knowledge' and all that...!

That does sound familiar, Andy. I'd forgotten about the 'modern' stuff! Mark Donohue favoured a locked diff (a 'spool'?) (well. I suppose that's 'no diff' really) - they even had one on that georgeous Penske Ferrari 512. He talks of diffs quite a bit in his book 'The unfair advantage'. He must have found value in them to fit them to cars which didn't have then as designed. I think he wrote of it allowing him to make much better use of the brakes in some way - I forget the details. Difficult to argue with Donohue though... I believe some "Aussie V8" touring cars use them too. While we're on the subject, I've never been wholly clear on what a 'Detroit Locker' is; my understanding was that it's neither fully solid or open, nor fully lsd, but switches between open and locked, with no progression. Anyone know if that's correct? Edited by - tony pashley on 3 Apr 2014 13:42:06

Some of the 935s were using a 'solid' diff into the late 70s at least - esp in the German Group 5 series; I think some of their tracks were quicker than the UK (or US) ones, which maybe made a difference. When that series came to the UK in the late 70s (ah, happy memories), Guy Edwards, whose 935 (or maybe a Kremer K3?) was thus equipped, said his car felt 'muscle-bound' around Donington - and the Porsches were utterly trounced by Zakspeed's much smaller-engined Capri - which I believe used a more 'usual' lsd. A locked diff always sounds like hard work on a road course to me, but I've never driven one.

I haven't been to Wiscombe for years (maybe ten) but it's great to see that it looks pretty much the same as it did even years before that. Have they overcome the problem of heavy rain causing the paddock to mud-slide en masse down the hill and wrecking the meeting? That used to seem like a regular occurance... Chris - have emailed you re your pictures. Sorry didn't manage to include any from Harewood, but if there any great 'stand-alone' images from there that I missed, let me know and maybe we can use them later. Regards.

Apologies for any confusion over the date - it was given to me as being on the Monday at the beginning of the year, but nobody told me it was wrong! Adrian's updated the calendar and it's revised in next LF (for the few weeks it will still be of any use!). Thanks for flagging this up though.

You were bound to succumb in the end Angus - there is a certain inevitability about these things! Have you fixed all the niggles with the Seven - or or you pinching Mark's car too?! When are you travelling out?

I'm hoping to see them in the next couple of days, so I'm sure one of us will let you know either way, asap.

Ah, so it's actually a Tazer stun-weapon then?

I built my car on trolley that I made from Kee-clamps and tubing (rather like scaffolding, and the stuff they make storage towers and heavy-duty railings out of) - about 3 foot 6 inches high from memory. Once the car had all all the wheels on I got a few mates around to lift it off. I warned them that if anyone hurt themselves and sued me, I'd have to sell the car to pay them off! I had no real idea of how awkward a lift it would be - it was the idea of bending one's back to lower it that concerned me, but it was no problem at all (that was chassis, suspension, diff, wheels and tyres). The height was ideal for working on and could be rolled around for convenience or out in the sunshine! If you want to use axlestands (or chassis stands) that are taller than your jack, just hire an engine crane for the lift down although you'd need to be careful of the angles if very high or you may hit the ground at one end. Machine Mart make some stands on wheels, but they are quite expensive and a little wider than necessary, so you may keep tripping over the frames unless you fancy cutting the cross-members down. (They are about 400mm high on the largest wheel size - but they'd take the complete car with drivetrain and driver too).

Are these still available, James? (Have mailed you separately - I could collect if agreeable).

FH - as clever as I know you to be, I simply can't believe that you fill your pretty head with all that stuff about seaweed. You googled, surely? Oh, btw "Because it saw the tide changing" perhaps?