All Blog Posts (475)

Evening chaps,

Just a quick report from the weekend. Well, I drove like a complete tube. Out of 9 competitors the only guys I beat were the two complete novices that I chucked into the Dutton, and one of them was bloody close to making me look bad. 

On the plus side, the modifications have cost me a feckin' fortune, but have obviously been worth it. The fact that someone could just jump into a car with no experience and run me close shows how much more compliant…

who uses what insurance companies?

how much do you pay?

First up guys, a big thanks for the guidance and well-natured abuse that I've received from you all over the last year. I hope 2017 brings you all good health and good fortune.

Right, back to business...

** Updates 07/01/17! **

As you've probably seen from the photos, the Phaeton's coming to the end of it's winter modifications. Still a bit to do though:

• Chassis brace incorporating…

Two drop link bars at an angle (tacked on for now) meet the Corsa C column mounting points.We'll see how this goes dealing with the torque reaction forces. If it's a bit wobbly, we'll think about adding some more. Wooden supports will shortly be…

Just a few photos of where we're at with the Phaeton upgrades....

Adjustable bottom arms, all modded with brackets and looking saucy. Unfortunately, however, the rose joint inner races are 1/2" and the existing bolts are 7/16", so I need to drill out the bolt holes and fit 1/2" bolts.…

Evening all,

First up, I just wanted to say a big thanks to all of you that commented on my previous blog entry and forum post on ARB relocation. Didn't even know what a caster angle was before all that. I'm still bloody clueless, but now at least I'm aware of more things that I'm ignorant of, and need to be aware of. Always a good first step!

So, popped round to see how my fabricator chum is getting on with the various bits on the Phaeton. The adjustable TCAs…

as the title say's, hard work this being retired. Today I finished Jame's Duttonator, cleaned the Saab, took template for Sierra exhaust (bit of 10mm copper), shuffled the cars around then back again. nearly came a cropper in the Marlin (brakes are fantastic), done a couple hours gardening, finished off with a shopping trip to ASDA. Oh, and swept up the leaves on the patio. I'm off to bed goodnight all :-)

More progress on the Legerra re-build, A mate came round and did my brake lines for me in about a tenth of the time it would have taken me! then we took the Body down from it's sling in the garage and got it on the chassis, Needed to cut a section out of the bulkhead due to the Zetec Thermostat housing on the back of the head getting in the way.

I also needed to cut  away where the gear stick will be as my gearbox seems to sit a little too high, so i have a few bits of bodywork to…

Hi all,

Actually managed to wangle a few spare hours to work on the Dutton yesterday. Which, given present commitments, is a minor miracle in itself. So, you may recall from previous blog posts that I've got a pile of fancy bits to fit, stuff to fix, things to modify/improve, etc.

So, I decided to have a decent loo at my front suspension which has always been a bit of a bugbear of mine. The car is phenomenally understeery, even taking the locking diff into…

Hi, Some of you guys over there may be interested in this: Celery Chan‎ to Top Amazon Reviewers Group…

anyone else find they cannot add posts to some topics?

i for example built myself a 16 X 8 foot shed to house one of my cars from a supply of reclaimed timber, it came with enough timber to build a building 24' by 12' to store two racing dinghy’s both 16' by 5'... The way i built the shed/garage was to suit the ply sheets i bought (8x4 sheets......) using a simple 4 x 4 frame and a stressed skin from the ply sheets ,......very stiff and quick to build. total cost of all the materials…

For those days when your parts just can't arrive quick enough, for sunny days when the transit just isn't 'fun'...

Project X...

Coming soon to a shed near me.

1997 DOHC, weber TC, MT75 box and Sierra fixed 3.72 diff in a Phaeton 3/4 hybrid.

I did some playing on gear calc and the theoretical stats look like this.…

I thought it was time I logged the work to returning my Phaeton to the road

2011 - Car bought.  Not having been laid up for many year the car was going to need some restoration to get it back on the road.

2012 - Spent time wondering about changing from Pinto power.  Bought various V6 engine, Then sold the same many V6 engines.

2012…

Today I bought another Dutton. This one has a 3.1 litre Essex V6. It's MOT has lapsed and it has a number of issues, the biggest one being that it has had a front end shunt which has upset the suspension geometry, and the bonnet fit, and the steering. The last 6 inches of the main rail is crumpled, moving the ARB. Finding a good reference to work from to restore the geometry looks to be an interesting puzzle. In this picture you can see that the nearside wheel has a different camber to the…

I will be dismantaling my Pheaton S3 shortly and wounderd if any of you would be intrested in the body and chassis screen and other dutton parts, Chassis is 5 linked andd they will be with the chassis I would like £150 correctly registerd. unfortuately the car is in the north of scotland…

I went to the KitNet track day at Castle Combe today in my Legerra. It was cracking weather and I had a good day. There were positives and some negatives. So starting with then the positives: My new tyres performed well and took 5 seconds off my lap times (down to 1m 35sec), I finally got the Legerra over the ton at 100.3mph on the straight, I met a load of nice chaps and did a lot of chatting plus, to round off the day, I drove it home at the end of the day. Two of the chaps were Duttons -…

Thanks to Mr Sheringham for the uncannily accurate artwork.