Lovin' the sound of the in car footage....... Rolie is one sweet set of wheels

I still remember fondly my first introduction to Rolie when GT Orphanage had him on the trailer in the back carpark at Coona' the afternoon of the Coona' Cup

I loved him at first sight. Donkey is using the brake slave seals that came out of Rolies glovebox that day. I still have the box they came in

Keep at it Mark

Congralutions with this result Mark,
No head gasket problems anymore and better gear ratio's with this gear box.
Wonder if the suspension will stand the bashings it receives ever time in the chicane? Looking forward for the video of your next race.
gr Dick

Thanks guys...forgot to mention, in the end we came 16th overall...which put a serious smile on my face.

you talking about my baby, rip

Mark, what the heck has that A40 in 2nd place got in the engine bay ??

Glen, the A40 was built, developed and run by the front running British Touring Car outfit Pirtek Racing......massively trick, and cleverly bent....put in it a young blade current Touring Car racer Andrew Jordan, and his ex Touring Car racer Dad, Mike......and you've got a pretty potent set up.

The high value of successful historic racing cars and the high profile events that they're invited to, has encouraged a growing number of present day BTCC teams and drivers to get involved.....

......this 'big fish in a little pond' stuff is becoming a serious bone of contention here in the UK....it wasn't long ago that historics was a relatively cheap way to go racing, the bastion of mad, bearded men building and prepping their quirky machines in their sheds at the bottom of their gardens....

.....nowadays we find ourselves sharing a grid with wind tunnelled, computer built space craft, with ten hour engines and a current professional peddler behind the wheel.....

....I could go on, but I won't.......you started it Glen!

Hi Mark, the old addage "speed costs money, how fast do you want to go" certainly applies. I was staggered to see the A40 up there in 2nd and on same lap as Mustang.

I looked up the A30 'academy' also which does very well. Here is a list of compulsory parts for that car.... I didn't add it up, but a lot of money http://www.moto-build.com/academy_mbr.html

Plus all the other parts needed of course.

True enough Glen, money does indeed buy speed.......but what keeps many of us lesser funded teams going, is the fact that it doesn't necessarily buy ability....

....hence the great excitement back here when we beat Paphitis at last year's Revival.

Back to current matters, we have all eyes on Saturday now, where we take the car for its last race of the season.....having never raced there, even in my Alfa days, I'm not expecting great things. But I want to put in a decent showing, in the hope that it may improve our chances of getting invited to the March meeting at Goodwood next year.

Here's the line up...

Car #99 Hillman Imp....... I've always wanted one of them, They are a seriously cool little car. and pretty easy to modify for a little extra handling n speed

Well, once again, all of us at Bellett UK Central are very happy with a good weekend's work.
As I've said, I've not been to Thruxton, and now realise what they're all talking about......you need a serious pair of cobbler's awls to be quick there.
But the long and the short of it, after getting some idea of the place, we finished 15th with 2nd in class.
One pic so far....should have the in-car footage edited soon.

Nice work Mark and fantastic pic of Rolie too.
He looks very tight and stable through the corner.

Some more snaps of the race...Having a look round the A35..

And through...


And my favourite..

Great photos
I love that solo rear view shot

Finally got the in-car footage sorted, you'll see that, like at Castle Combe, I have a terrible getaway....due to my much longer 1st gear in the GT box, hopefully the short diff we shall build this winter will help things.
https://youtu.be/EmGVCC1EVGo

2017.....and we're finally building the 4:11 diff. It seems crazy that it's taken me so long to get round to doing this, as we've had the parts for some years now....
....but what with all our recent reliability problems, I've been loathed to deliberately put more revs on the car.
Now we've got some semblance of engine strength, it's time....and a good time at that, because our first race of the year will be at Brands Hatch. A twiddly little circuit, that very much favours shorter geared cars.

We had a little trouble sourcing bearings, but as usual the boys in Finland came up with goods. Ari take a bow.
So, we should have it all ready for the Brands race 9th April.

Well done Mark - I can't wait to hear it singing around Brands Hatch - thumbs up from me!!!!

Ari definetely knows his stuff. He lives about 1 km or 1km and a half away from my home and occasionally I see, more often hear him passing by. Not to mention the cool Isuzu collection he has. His brother is a complete car nut as well though he is consentrated to american iron. They do share interest of smaller makes though, Borther has or at least had AMC Matador and Hudson Hornet. Both beautifully restored with original or remade identical parts.

If you let me know the tracks you about to race, I can try to make Simulation previews of them running with virtual variation of Bellett GT / GT-R. Brands Hatch is easily done, there's at least 3-4 different period variations (and of course from the latest one there's Indy as well as GP layouts.)

those bearings are rare here also, after my recent diff rebuild.... there's apparently one set left in Oz and I think my diff re-builder bought them. Option is to use a more available bearing thats narrower, with spacers. Probably not ideal for a race car though.

glenn

Cheers Glen and Nap...we'll actually be on the current Indy circuit at Brands.....and I thoroughly enjoyed recreation of Goodwood you did a few years back.

Here's the video of 1969 Bellett GT R (with finnish importer rally tune, ~150 hp) in Brands Hatch Indy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku6_K-e99hA

It has been while since I drove these in game and after making physics, I had chance to drive Ari's 1969 GT, which has Gemini 2.0 liter and 5 speed... Now when I drove this one, I was suprised how close it really is to reality. The brakes are way too strong, but other than that it is very good.