Practical Classics - September 2014

[Chris Spencer]

Pages 108 & 109 - Reveals all - The magazine has great 2 page write up on their new project '1950 Jowett Javelin' - there is a lot of behind the scenes work gone into this with Keith, Jack and myself organising the transfer / logistics behind the project. This will now feature on a on-going basis within the magazine - in turn this raises the profile of the club which hopefully generates new members - it may just be few - but every member counts - I will let you read all about it in the magazine and will post a couple of images up when I get the chance.

[ian Howell]

I know it is College Holiday time, but is there any news of progress on the Leeds City College Javelin?

Maybe I have missed some posts?

It is always fun to commiserate (at a distance!) with other people's problems!

[Jack]

Hi Ian,

I know they are off for their summer break at the moment, but based on discussions over recent months they are making steady progress.

Last discussion I had they were getting the engine together to see if they could get it running, I am fairly confident with their team that they will be able to get that sorted fairly quickly, though the priority as always is to focus on the education and training element with the car getting restored almost as a byproduct of that effort.

A photos in their album here showing some of the engine work:
http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/leeds ... 6329283855

Jack.

[ian Howell]

Jack: -

Thanks for that. At one time I used to teach in a West London college and my Department was next door to the Motor Mechanics, so I know what you mean about the educational side.

Incidentally, there they had a Mercedes 'G' Wagen chassis - BRAND NEW - to play with and they also managed to blag a few NEW (old stock) cars from Fords at Dagenham, on the strict understanding that they were NOT to be used on the road.

On that expedition they found that Fords were cutting up brand new Aston Martins! Apparently they were last year's models and to sell them off cheap would lower the prestige of the marque! Well, I suppose, but . . .

Looking at the Leeds College photos I notice that their engine has/had the same type of black oil that I have found in every Javelin engine I have ever worked on, and even my Long Four. Was this special to Jowetts or could anyone use it? (Tongue in cheek!).

[Forumadmin]

The black oil is a product of the seeming lack of maintenance and oil changes in the 60's and 70s that was the norm. Plus of course the wear on rings and valve guides that soon turned new oil black. After all not many people changed the oil every 2500 miles and the oil filter every 5000 miles.