PART TWO After more success than was expected in single cam form DTV and Vauxhall and of course our local sponsor Vincent Greenhous (no E by the way) were delighted, and at one point we were looking at the possibilty of going twin cam but after another meeting with DTV at Shepreth it was decided another season with the single cam would increase the number Chevettes even further. Moving towards 79 and another meeting at Shepreth to display other modifications to the cars suspension setup we sat in Bills office again with Gerry to discuss engine developement when one of the technicians walked into the office and started talking about a problem with a bolt on the rear suspension, the bolt being the hardest or strongest they could use, kept breaking, when Bill turned to dad and said have you had this problem?, to which dad said yes, once, oh Bill said how did you cure the problem? dads reply being very technical, said, put a bigger bloody bolt in it. At this point Bill looked at Gerry and they both shook their head realising the answer was very simple. (true story) The disscusion carried on to engine development which involved the increase in engine size to 2.6 and as some of you may know it won again first time out with strict instructions from Bill to keep the RPM to 6000 which I did for the first stage only to realise how close you know who was behind, yes had to be Geoff and Alan with George Hill in close attendance aswell. It was then I decided to inrease the RPM a tad, dont know what a tad is for anyone else but right then it ranged from 500 to 1500 RPM, I had to mention this to Bill in my report as it helped to understand what it was capable of, raised eyebrows again!!. We carried on through 79 with our fair share of success but I felt early on the engine lacked the torque expected considering it was 2.6 where upon I suggested a heavier flywheel might be the answer, once fitted the transformation was stunning. What was interesting at this time is the number of drivers who all had exactly the same engine and running gear as myself, would ask for advice to improve the performance of their setup, now considering all the help we recieved I felt more than happy to help but could not believe how little attention was given to seat position, steering wheel, pedals and overall drivers view, they had seats to low ( everyone else had they said ) seat alignment to pedals, seat and steering wheel proximity and handbrake lever position, all details that make a huge difference. If all these were perfectly positioned all you had to do was drive as everything was instinctively to hand. All engine settings and final setup were always carried out by myself, all other prep work was done by Dad, Terry and myself but Dad was the master at finding a solution for any problem or design improvements. As 1980 approached and another meeting at DTV arranged we sat in Bills office to discuss where the future lay with the single cam Chevette, Bill said, and I have no documented record of this, that he and Vauxhaull were seriously considering homologation of the single cam Chevette in order to compete in international events (in which class was not clear at this time) and if this came to fruition I would be the named driver. Now if this statement had gravitas at that time other events such as financing, economic depression of the early eighties and perhaps the advent of THE DEVILS WORK GM apparently decided the cost was not sustainable and the dream of being considered a works driver went on hold. We did one more season in 1981 and decided to take a sabbatical, at this time Dad was struck with a serious illness and with him being the heart of the team it turned into a long sabbatical. The Nissan 240rs is another interesting story (I thought it was ) and maybe worth a few lines.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:12:21 +0000
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