Old guy on the block... :)

Hi All,

My interest is in older cars and for years I have had to pay people to do the work for me... with hitting a big birthday milestone recently I have decided to do more myself so here I am...

Current Project 1: Austin 1800 Ute - Engine has been rebuilt and is ready to go back in, just putting the heater/wipers and dash back in after a referb of all.

Current Project 2: Austin 1800 Rally car - In the "build phase", speaking to the machine shop and organising parts for the build.

For those interested, have a look at the following and you will see what i am trying to emulate..

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoVFUDqJHNg

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_kEPhEMSFY

3. https://www.facebook.com/594087520638164/videos/922750407771872/

Thanks,

Stuart. :)

Ah, I was going to mention BLMC had built a 1800 rally car for one of the Marathon events, back in the day, but you're already on it. Don't recall much about it except the shell was supposedly built so solidly that things falling off it - seems a bit strange, but it's what they said.

Which reminds me, the family owned one for a year, or so, back in the sixties - I'm fairly sure the doors wouldn't close properly, if it was jacked up, so not sure about that shell claim.

Yep, the 1800 bodyshell was exceptionally stiff which is one of the reasons it was chosen as a great rallycar base.. the stiffness was only beaten by volvos in the 80's I think... when setting up the shell for rallying, one thing they did was to seam weld the joins on the firwall/engine bay area and around the suspension/dispalcer unit housing...

I think that door issue would have been caused by the door hinges, the pins used to hold the two sides of the hinge together can get worn and actually fall out (as happened to me)... replacing with new pins solves the problem. The other big issue is that the door stops can rust out where they are attached to the body shell, which allows the door to open too far and you end up with a crease in the door when it hits the guard edge.

I am aiming for the 140hp mark with my engine, they can get them up to 160 or 170 in the MGBs but it take crazy money... back in the day the London to Sydney cars had just over 100HP. My plan is to race the car for fun at track days for a couple of years and then make some modifications to go full rally spec. Here is a link tot he cams site, I am aiming for Group N... I do not expect to win any races, as long as I finish I will be happy :)

Cams website

Main thing with my engine build is that I am not allowed to change the stroke and I am not allowed to "Add Metal" to the head... I will need to go through an "Engine sealing" procedure where they check everything before the head goes on to ensure I am not cheating.

Stuart , not a site i expected to see 60s rally cars . The Porsche in the first clip is the Polish owned Sizzarda ( not sure of the spelling) car . I re- built that car ( without the outer cage ) for the 1979 Repco Round Australian Rally , It started as car 1 , driven by Dean Rainsford ( owner , and Porsche dealer in Adelaide —- Edgar Herman of East Africa Rally fame was co driver ) we finished 7th ( the first 2 man crew home , all the rest had 3 people per car ) For those not around in 1979 , The Repco was 20,000k in 14 days , basically followed the coast of Australia, over the roughest roads that could be found , marathon length stages . End result was the new VB commadoore finished 1-2-3 , first car driven by some bloke called PETER BROCK. , huge budget GMH effort , many stories , not the site to tell them .

Stuart , there is an 1800 ute always parked near where i live ,they must be a rare car i am thinking , and am i right they were very much a BMC Australian designed and developed? are we fitting injection to the 1800

Hi Harky! That is amazing!

I am in contact with a great guy in the UK who sold all of his other cars when the opportunity arose to buy a real 1970 World Cup Rally car that was built by BMC Special Tuning at Abingdon and crewed by the Daily Mirror... it was the press car which followed the rally. If you happen to have any photos etc from back in the day that show any 1800 cars then we would greatly appreciate it if they could be made available for a looksee... :) His job just last weekend was refitting the suspension pump to the back parcel tray. They made a little model of his actual car! (see attached)

I dropped my engine off at the machine shop yesterday, I am going to post a few questions in here to get some advice regarding the work..

Thanks,

Stuart

Wow, what happened to the last two and a half years!

I have now moved from Australia to the UK, I have my rally car, I have built my engine and after working in IT for 30 years I am now a mechanic restoring £250k (or more) Aston Martins! and my boss wants me to become the EFI tuning guru in the business... lol!

Below is a pic of my rally car, next is me timing a quadcam EFI V8 (lol, they think I know what i'm doing!) and last is my new favourite place in the world!

So I am doing my EFI training course now, I originally signed up to HPA out of personal interest and for help building my own engine, now i am using it to help me succeed professionally... amazing how covid threw a spanner in my works and where i have ended up :) So glad I have HPA right now to call on and use to help me achieve my goals :)

My Car...

As the previous owner of a Morris Marina 1.8 (1950cc, 140BHP)...welcome to the 21st century!

Gotta say, whilst doing the valve clearances and cam timing on my quad cam V6 I do sometimes miss the simplicity of the B series...but NOT the siamese ports!

Welcome!