le Mans Classic 2023

[Keith Clements]

You may have been following the various preparations taking place at the Kings Langley Garage.
Peter Leopold has been also working on the race car in his garage. On Monday and Tuesday Harry and I went over there to do many things including setting up the steering geometry, discussing the fitting of the overdrive, replacing brake cylinder, and a host of inspection items listed by Scott who, since he will be one of the drivers, has sent us a checklist prior to his arrival in June.

Drummond made brilliant job of refurbishing the steering box and column, fitting a Hardy Spicer joint.

The fuel cell is inside the boot. We rejected the idea of moving it to the standard position to lower the centre of gravity. More protection from a rear end shunt!

There are camber shims on one side but not the other, but camber is set up vertical on both sides.

Looking at fitting 42mm Zenith so looking at stack.

Drummond made a thick lock washer which we put some high strength threadlock onto as well as pin punching.

Individual tracking gauge for ball height.

We did find a possible problem to adjusting the camber to be negative and one on torsion bar stiffness. So probably more work to do to fix them. Scales have been ordered to check corner weights.

I had taken a small steering wheel originally on Amy's SC so we fitted that. I came away with two bonnet hinge boxes and hinges all of which are broken. Also the spare master cylinder to check out

The chassis tube will be modified to allow easy removal of gearbox for clutch change.

The overdrive mounting was discussed at length. Addition torque reaction buffers will be added.

The seat belt anchorage.

[Keith Clements]

Amy's SC being used as the test bed for the spare engine for LeMans Classic.

https://youtu.be/oRQD4oqa_w8
https://youtu.be/wSDTDTN4K1M

Fresh out of the garage after fixing the many issues. This is a Javelin engine so timing cover water outlet and oil filler tube needed shortening. Choke and throttle cables needed attention and carbs adjusted. Engine mounts had to be changed. Clutch adjustment had to rethreaded and shortened. Longer bolts on top of crankcase to hold fan support.

[Keith Clements]

A 10 mile journey to give the engine some exercise with Lauren, Amy's dog, showed a couple of oil leaks. Also the car would not start when warm. The carbs need changing again!

[Keith Clements]

The carbs are not behaving themselves so am making up some adapters to take the DelLortos.

[Keith Clements]

The previous post was about getting the spare engine working. This took Amy to the Centenary rally but broke down in a cloud of steam on the M62 on the way back. On return we investigated what had happened after Amy reported lack of oil pressure. Oil pressure was ok when first started after return but there was a ticking noise. This was cleverly diagnosed by Scott when touching a push rod as the rocker was moving from side to side. Investigation showed poorly reground tappet faces, so another rocker assembly was put on on both sides. Noise gone, The oil was black so we thought we would take the sump off. This showed poorly prepared con tods with grinding marks across them. A decision was made to take out engine. So you drain the water right? Undo tap ... no water, poke rod up hole .... dust. Put water in radiator ....water came out of core plug.....no core plug. Now I have a lot of core plugs but none fitted .. It looks like the factory had fixed an issue with a bigger plug. So on line to find one.

There was then a 2 week rebuild of this engine which had numerous issues mainly caused by the new block castings which had been machined with the crankshaft centre line a 1cm lower than it should be!

Once these issues had been solved we started on the race engine. This has forged pistons from Italy, bearings from NZ, push rods and block from USA, valve gear off a racing mini, Piper high lift cam as per Julian's last motor. Valves were inlets from a Ford Pinto, forged by Race Component Engineering. The exhaust valves were cut to diameter on the lathe, the inlets were straight fit. I will fill in more commentary later as we have to get it started today to take to Le Mans tomorrow.

[Chris Spencer]

Meanwhile I've been busy with the cosmetics on the car

Which has been treated to a polish & touch in of the paintwork

Team shirts have also been on my list to sort

The team depart tomorrow - more pics when we return to the UK shores

[Keith Clements]

The night before. Chris , Neil and Scott fixing the roll cage.

[PJGD]

Super exciting stuff!!

Was the crank bearing bore really 1 centimeter low? That is huge. How did you overcome that? The timing chain would not fit for a start. Did you mean 1 mm low?.

I like the relieved skirt pistons with graphite coated thrust faces; that alone should be worth a couple of horsepower. It would be interesting to find out how their weight compares to the original Hepolite piston?

Where did the aluminium front pulley come from? Of no consequence to a racing engine, but if I were to make a new front pulley, I would mill some windows in the disk between hub and belt rim. I am convinced that the solid pulley acts as a "loudspeaker" which is excited by the crankshaft flexing, and this provides one of the many unique sounds that the Jowett engine makes. By putting windows in the disk, it attenuates the loudspeaker effect. The Noise Group at Southampton University have proven this on other engines.

Also, what specific valve gear items came from a racing Mini?

Good luck, and hope that the engine hangs together!

[Keith Clements]

Just before the off.

[Keith Clements]

Go oùt to qualify.

Driver change but the engine needed lots of water. So investigation in the paddock before the night practice.

[Keith Clements]

Peter Leopold made the agonising decision to remove the overdrive, mainly because it was leaking fluid perhaps causing a malfunction which started to òccur, but also because it did not improve top speed. 3 months of his life was thus wasted!

All the hoses were refitted and a lower pressure cap from Amy's rad 4 psi fitted to the race car rather than the 15 psi.

Exhaust gaskets replaced as one had blown through causing much consternation when it came in for the driver change, such that Harry decided not to go out to save the engine from a potential problem.

Now out for night practice.

[Brucegirvan]

Wishing you all at Equipe Jowett the very best hunting those points. Allez!

[Keith Clements]

The DB7 VV awaiting its turn on the track. Neil Moore took some video which I will upload when I get some bandwidth. A wet track and a slow pace car meant there was not much chance to exercise the V12.

The night practice had some drama with a top hose popping on the Mulsanne but Chris Bates brought the car back to the pits. Scott then went out when it was raining and spun after being blinded by lights in his mirror. Ended up pointing the right way and carried on to finish under a red flag.

A few improvements to the car this morning ready for the three races to come.

[Trevor Spero]

Brilliant effort by all involved. At least Jowetts are reliable!!

Some great photos. Look forward to seeing the videos

[Keith Clements]

Driver de-briefing before night session àt 01.15 hrs

After first race lying 45 out of 75. All drivers reporting car going well and stickiñg to road.