Spa 6 hour September 19-21st

[Forumadmin]

Richard Gane has entered this event.
Look at http://www.hscc.org.uk/entries-event-info for latest info.

There may even be a Jupiter from Germany racing according to Jaak Jacobs. We are trying to confirm.

Update : Jaak did not quite understand Bernd Köster as he is racing a Riley at Nurburgring. I think he is trying to get the Jup (ex Caudo) homologated, but am awaiting confirmation.

[Keith Clements]

Jaak Jacobs and I will be attending, and perhaps other Jups from Belgium and Holland.

[JaakJacobs]

great weekend in Spa Francorchamps

[Keith Clements]

As Jaak says a great weekend.
I travelled by Eurostar on Thursday evening after a carefully timed exit from the Jupiter Scenic run in Essex/Suffolk.
I arrived in Brussels to stay in a hotel right outside the terminus, so early in the morning I caught the train to Genk where I was met by Jaak.
We arrived at the circuit before qualifying at 10:30. There were a couple of incidents and red flags but a reasonable lap time was posted.
Power was down which was traced to icing on carbs caused by the thermostat popping out of its holding. The thermostat was pressed into the rubber pipe and secured with tie wraps.
The race was at midday with the unpredictable Spa weather threatening. However, it held for the Woodcote Trophy race although broke in a big way for the 6 hour with floods across the track and at least an hour of safety car running.
The Jup managed consistent 3:39 lap times for the hour with Richard Gane taking over driving from John Arnold half way through.
Engineer, Dave Harris, was pleased and planning the next development to get more power. Suspension needed no attention, but brakes were heavily used and needed adjustment. The circuit is the best in the world with huge drops and climbs, complex sequences of corners and amazing views, especially from Endurance pits at Eau Rouge and the Brasserie on top of the F1 pits.

In the picture Jaak posted you see the Jup bottoming out at the dip in Eau Rouge (probably doing 90mph) before climbing a steep hill into a double apex corner. Seeing GT40s and Porsche chasing each other through here in the wet was frightening for me, let alone the drivers. There was a river flowing across the track at one time!

The trip to the circuit in Jaak's Jup and back again was eventful. We knew the car had no wipers before we set off (so prayed for no rain which of course we got in bucketfuls). I had not anticipated a lack of power which made us struggle up the Ardennes hills. Here I also discovered that Jaak had no handbrake which entailed finding a log to stop the car rolling down the hill. I found the vacuum advance not operational and a probable carb problem, but we left fixing it until after the Jup had raced. Dave Harris kindly went through checking timing (but we first had to establish TDC), then took apart the carbs to find a loose main jet. The way home was in the dark and rain which was a challenge as I also discovered Jaak had no main beam and no dip switch connected. I wondered why cars were flashing us and asked Jaak repeatedly, did he have rear lights. He assured me he did. Then I heard a tinkle and warned Jaak who later informed me he had no clutch. So in the thunder and lighting and rain I crawled under the car to reattach the clutch operating shaft which had lost its clevis pin. Luckily Jaak found a suitable bolt so I asked Jaak to try to miss all the potholes and sleeping policeman as I did not want to crawl under the car again! At home, Jaak gave the rear light a thump and it came on!

Next day we had the car over the pit, so I inspected it. Jaak now has a list of 25 things to fix before he next takes it on the road. We also attacked Jaak’s green Jup that had a fuel problem, possibly caused by the mechanical fuel pump. After a couple of hours trying to get fuel out of the tank, Jaak put a spare can of fuel in the tank and went off to buy some more. I suspect the petrol pick up was not switched to reserve, and although showing it had petrol in the tank with a dip stick it was obviously not enough. Even so, we spent time trying to suck and blow fuel down the pipes, removing various sections of pipe and renewing a petrol filter. Another mechanical pump was tried and this seemed to work better. The car fired up and sounded sweet. So off to have a really fantastic meal of fish soup and rack of lamb, washed down with some Grimbergen and Rochfort beers.

[Keith Clements]

TOPIC The Galleryhas some movies of a spin at the wet night race, the start of the classic F1 and checking the timing on the race car, plus lots of pics including the team and the class win trophy.

You will see pictures of Jaak's cars, Claude Bernard's Jup, the private Buggati collection and some Belgium food and beer.