Remembering past and thinking future

Ok - maybe a slightly confusing title there. This one's about cars.

I've always been interested in cars, the way they're put together and how they work. I did most of the maintenance on my first two cars :

Fiesta - brake master cylinder, adjustments on the valves (which probably made it worse!) and just generally keeping that piece of trash on the road for another year while I learned to drive.
Astra - oh how much got done on this in 4 years ...

Starter motor - this suffered due to an oil leak at the back of the engine, which was clogging up the starter. I replaced the original with one from a scrappy, although this failed because an essential bolt broke off the new one. Cue a trip back to mum & dad's place where I could work on it and after a take apart to see how it works, the refurbished old starter lasted for the remaining life of the car.

Other work involved - putting a radio and speakers in, alternator and just generally keeping that one going. It was a tough beastie that Astra, built on sound high performing engineering like what Vauxhall used to do. That was non-safety type stuff though. Repairs like welding, brakes and the suspension springs went to the garage.

All that time, I'd been entertaining dreams of putting together my own car. This was partly inspired by the occasional trip in the Triumph Spitfire while my brother had it. Soft top, vintage car, great lines - immense street cred value.

But ... my engineer head could see straight past those beautiful curves (curves are awesome, on everything) and while the front end of the Spitfire is amazing, the back end is dangerous and unsafe. Swing axle back suspension should not be allowed to get past initial idea stages (bit like pull-rod suspension on a Ferrari). It's just a really Bad Idea that will bite you when you don't expect and when you're going fast.

I'd still like to see that Triumph back on the road at some point though and we have Cunning Plans in the idea stage at the moment ...

So - kit car dreams.

We used to go to kit car shows fairly often :-). Thinking about how they're built helps you learn more about how all cars are supposed to work. How much compromise is in there, where things are put to allow the people inside to get in.

One kit car memory resurfaced this week. We were coming back from Stoneleigh (kit car mecca) and the Formula 1 commentary was coming from a track called Imola. There had already been bad news earlier that weekend as Roland Ratzenberger had lost his life. But no one in motor racing was prepared for what happened in the race with the legend that was Ayrton Senna. We heard it on commentary and immediately knew something terrible had happened. That was a very quiet car for a while.

That memory resurfaced after watching the movie Senna this week. If you've got an interest in motor racing, it's an essential film to see. It's very sympathetic to Senna as a man and introduces a lot from behind the scenes that we just didn't see on BBC. But ... there are scenes in there that will be distressing to everyone watching - and it should be distressing :

Irish driver Martin Donnelly rolling around on the track semi conscious with bits of disintegrated car around him. No assistance, despite marshals being near. I actually looked him up on Wiki to see if he survived.
Rubinho going SMACK into barriers in an airborne car.
The Ratzenberger crash where you see pictures of the driver and you know : he's dead.

And then the lead up to the Senna crash where you know the history, you know that Something Terrible is about to happen. But you can't stop watching. It's a different feeling to dramatizations where you know that (almost!) all the time, the actors and actresses walk away from being blown up on screen. This is real Bad Stuff happening to Real People.

And it's very tough to watch.

It's amazing how much change there's been in motor racing and cars over the years, they're unrecognisable to what was around 20 years ago. Even before thinking airbags, the structure is a lot more solid and the materials are much better. We can rely on our car being structurally sound, without thinking it'll fold up under impact due to something gone rusty.

It's the same in motor racing, where Audi drivers walked away from 2 horrific crashes at Le Mans which would have resulted in multiple fatalities (the McNish crash would have burst into the crowd) years ago.

I still have those kit car dreams, although they are dependent on :

Facilities
Cash
Time
Choice of kit

Cash and Time are 2 things I have much more of now compared to 20 years ago. Facilities have always been a problem. I'd need a garage, which makes my current abode totally unsuitable for a kit car.

Choice of kit is a thorny one as after driving one, I'd like to use hybrid mechanicals. In a kit half the weight of a Prius or CT, it should be pretty good. But there aren't many cars out there which combine Curvy Goodness with a mid-engine chassis which is where those hybrid bits would go. I think I'd probably need to look at something like the Motor Assist system in the Hondas rather than the technically superior eCVT full hybrid that Toyota have.

We shall see ! I'll be keeping an eye on the kit car scene to see if someone does the pathfinding on a hybrid.