Fancy a race, Virgin Boy?

[Westfield 129]

My R5T2 was always very nice to drive. I had it shipped back to Renault Sport for the alloy roll cage, LSD, CR gears, lowered chassis, bigger charge air cooler, Devil and some braces, along with 15" wheels, and another set of 13" T5s that I have never used.

It has worked great for, well, nearly 30 years so far. It is pristine, with original paint, and even original hoses. It doesn't really want to wear out, but next month it comes apart for hoses, front ball joints and bushings, and an axle boot. I will also do a new chassis setup, raising the front end about half an inch. It has sagged a little over the years.

I put new Bilsteins on it a couple of years ago, after trying several custom built damper setups.

I have a second one, an 86 alloy roof 1.5 liter, with a little over 325 HP, but it was built by Germans, so it bursts in to flame after running for about half an hour. I have completely re engineered the power unit, and I am now sorting out the big down draught K jet setup with the T3/4 hybrid turbo with a separate waste gate. This one has a standard gearbox with a TranX LSD. It should be pretty good if I can get it past emissions. I have installed lambda control, so it just might work. It has one of the compound charge air coolers, with air/air and air/water sections. I also built up an inconel bundle of snakes for the exhaust. The project has gone on too long, but the Westy is finished and will be going to a new garage shortly, so I will have room to finish the thing.

Then, I can get started on the new Lotus 23 with a 220 HP Cosworth and the Hewland. With license plates...

But whenever I think about selling my T2, I just drive it. I can't sell it. Nothing quite works like that, and it will run away from just about anything in the canyons, including the local Caterhams.

Those second generation Clios are really a great car to have. Much better than the first. Unfortunately, I can't own everything at once, so I am going to stick with the 23 (Unless a real Stratos turns up) as the next one. I have room in the garage for 4 cars if three are smallish. The T2, the XI and the 23, with room for the daily beater C280 Mercedes (or Quattroporte or CLS63 or whatever it happens to be).

But you have a car I can't have here (and drive anywhere but the track or on a one way permit). Very cool.

[Splat]

Westfield 129 wrote:

> But you have a car I can't have here (and drive anywhere but the track or
> on a one way permit). Very cool.


And it spends 95% of it's life (of 12,000 miles pa) going in a straight line, on the motorway to work and back.

[biggles]

interesting....

It's often the the foibles and less than perfect aspects of a car that give it its character, no? Classic and Sportscar, if I recall correctly, ended up with the Clio V6 against the Chimaera as 'best sub 10k driver's car' a couple of years back, the Clio pipping the Chim just for those reasons, as it meant you had to really get involved to hustle the car along.

But as you say, this aspect of ownership is rather spoiled by the fact that one has to take to too many big roads to get from A to B in the south east these days, the minor roads being clogged with traffic and speed cameras.

When I was going from Epping - Stansted for work, I had a rule that if the weather was nice I would be in the TVR, and that I was not allowed to drive anything other than B roads (within reason - I had to get out of the car park!). That was great while it lasted, but the move down to Gatwick has scuppered that for me. I'm thinking maybe I need to scout out a route so I can quickly (read boringly) get into the Gatters area, then dive off the motorway and country lane it for the last 10 - 15 miles...

Any nice rat runs you could exploit on the way home, perhaps?

[Westfield 129]

I work at home, and I can drive on great roads anytime I want. It's 26 miles to the beach, and I can do it all on tight mountain roads, or faster ones, or a mix. I can do it in a quick 26 miles, or stretch it to 40, which I often do on the weekends.

And, there are three relatively local tracks available as well within 150 miles. I drive the car to the event, race, drive home.

28 years with the R5Turbo have been fun, and the car is still an amazing, involving thing to drive. It's holding up quite well.

I really miss my SF260C. I could fly 20 minutes of aerobatics every day, and used it about 400 hrs/yr for business. I really need to get another one.