Messages

106

General Forum / Proposed "directory of services" for AC owners

« on: October 05, 2006, 21:40:48 »

There are a number of long standing companies based in the U.K who repair/service and manufacture parts for all the AC Models.
   Would the owners of these companies be prepared to give details and descriptions of the work they carry-out and parts they supply so any AC owner could have what is a "directory of services" should they need it. Would the owners find a service like this useful? Could a member who has a repair for instance post his experience on the forum so other members get a feel for what is available and how good it is.
    Would any owners and company owners like to comment on this idea. It is only an idea but the aim is to improve a members ability to keep his or her car on the road.
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

107

General Forum / AC Cars Manufacturing Ltd

« on: September 21, 2006, 07:40:13 »

Yesterday, I received a e-mail message from Mr. John Owen who is the Chief Engineer at AC Cars Manufacturing Ltd, who are based in Malta. He informs me that Brookland Motor Company based at Weybridge in Surrey are their official repairs of AC vehicles. Upon speaking to Mr. Steve Gray who runs Brooklands I was informed they hold most of the original AC body bucks and tooling information. I'm told most spare parts can be obtained through Brooklands and they can be reached on the U.K phone number of 01932 828545
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

108

General Forum / 1966 Shelby GT350 Mustang available

« on: August 25, 2006, 20:19:15 »

As many Club members know I restore Shelby Mustangs for a living. However, very occasionally I am asked to sell a car for a client in which I have had no input. I am therefore going to place an advert in the Club magazine for this car on behalf of the owner. If any Club member knows of somebody who may be looking for such a car perhaps they could contact me and I can give them details of the vehicle and if it all gets serious put them in touch with the owner.
   Thanks for any help in this matter...Alan Faulkner-Stevens
   [faulknerstevens@btinternet.com]

109

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / Update on 15inch tyres for Cobras

« on: August 15, 2006, 19:25:32 »

I have today spoken with a member of the Technical Department at Avon Racing about the new CR6ZZ Tyres. The gentleman I spoke to was actually responsible for bringing the big 15inch tyres into production and was aware of a serious need for these units.
   So if you have a Cobra originally fitted with 16inch wheels and you would like to convert to 15inch, the tyres are as follows. For the front use the 215/60x15 [they are full in size] and on the back use the 275/55x15. These sizes will give you a rolling radius close to the original 16inch units so the speedo should read resonably accurately.
   Please be aware these are race quality tyres made road legal and I am advised they are of the highest quality and easily out perform in all areas any of the tyres the Cobras were originally Factory fitted with. I am told the improvement using the CR6ZZ's over our originals will be amazing!! Although only fitting them will prove this of course.
   I have raised the point about tyre ageing and expected life once a tyre is fitted to a car. In working with Avon's whilst I was at Aston's I was informed the road tyre life from the point of manufacture was about 5 years, this was reconfirmed today. If you have a CRS Cobra, like myself which was manufactured in 2000 and it still has its original tyres fitted, they really need replacing now, due to age. This fact is very important to all Cobra owners who do little miles in the car and the tyres although having plenty of tread on them are quite old. As the tyres age they harden and loose grip. Cobras can be twitchey enough in the best of conditions without old hard tyres.
   Now if you have 16inch wheels and dont wish to convert to 15inch units, today I had a good chance to inspect the suitable rear  application 255/50x16 Mitchelin Pilot sport units. These are superb and appear to be of a very soft compound and I suspect will prove excellent.
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

110

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / AC MkIV Cobra for sale

« on: August 12, 2006, 09:13:05 »

I have just spotted a 1988 MkIV Cobra for sale on Ebay motors in the States. It is item number #330016582993. The description of the car is very comprehensive and there is an exceptionally good range of pictures of the car. For anybody looking for a car it may well be worth checking out.
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

111

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / 15inch rear tyres for Cobras

« on: July 29, 2006, 20:21:50 »

For the many people who run 15inch wheels on their Cobras getting large rear tyres has been a serious problem due to a complete lack of suitable speed rated tyres. However I was at the Silverstone Historic Festival and passed the Avon tyre stand only to spot some large width section rubber. On discussion with the member of staff it transpires Avon have specifically manufactured some large width sized tyres for Cobra's and GT40's. These new tyres are road legal race spec. and are available now. I looked at some 295/50xVR15 which are an exact conversion for the 16inch tyres currently on the back of my CRS.
   The Avon guy did not have any spec. sheets on the tyres as they were so new they had only been delivered to him the day before, but he promised to put a spec. sheet in the post to me. As soon as it arrives I'll post more information for interested parties.
   regards Alan Faulkner-Stevens

112

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / CRS Clutch cables

« on: July 14, 2006, 21:35:25 »

I recently wrote a piece about my trip to the MOT station and how trying to get the emissions clean on the bay ramp had fried my clutch cable. Despite having lubricated the cables inner core the pedal feel was still poor in operation. When I purchased my car I also brought a new spare clutch cable so I thought it might be a good time to use the spare and properly check the original cables condition. I spent time removing said dopey cable and offer it up against my new one. Fantastic, all the fitting look the same but a slight problem, its 6inches too short, bugger!! I now have two cables neither of which are any good. It transpires the shorter one is for a left hand drive car. Right, time to sort this out. The cables appear to be from a Mustang but the CRS cable lengths are very long, much longer than a standard Mustang. A careful check with friends in the USA confirm this fact. I suspect originally AC's brought in standard cables and modified them to suit each vehicular application. I manage to speak to the ever helpful John Owen at AC's in Malta who confirmed this. Now its easy, send the two cables down to Speedy cables. They repair my original and extend my spare. One reason for the cables failure is its proximity to the exhaust manifold and mine did not carry any heat insulation around it to protect against the heat soak damage. Once the repaired cables are back I cover the lower eighteen inches of each cable with a heat foil to try and combat the temperatures.
   Its soon back on the car and I'm running again.
   Now I have mentioned what I have done to John Lewis, also a CRS owner, who suggested it might be good if the Club had some spare cables to offer to members. To that end I am currenly importing a new Ford cable to check it is correct against my spare, they vary over year periods. If all is okay I plan to import a further nine and get them modified to the correct length, insulate them and let the Club have them to sell to members. Perhaps any Club mebers who are interested could let me know. I would be very interested to hear from MkIV owners with cable problems as I might be able to help or point them in the right direction.
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

113

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / Testing times at the MOT station.

« on: June 26, 2006, 21:30:03 »

Despite being involved with motorcars I have always found a trip to the MOT station for my CRS's yearly check up a slighlty nervous occasion. Because despite all the best planning and checks a fresh pair of eyes over ones car can turn up a small problem. On this years test the mechanical scrutiny and road brake test all proved very satisfactory and all was well until the final emissions test on the engine. The CO and HC levels were passed very easily but the Lamda sensor readings were much to high. A reading of 1.03 is the required maximum but initial checks show the CRS at about 3.00. However you are allowed to raise the engine rpm up to 3000 and hold it at this level to allow the hot gases to pass over the Lamda sensor and clean it and hopefully see the levels drop. As the seconds/minutes passed with the motor running at 3000 the Lamda started to drop, with it easily reaching 1.10/1.12 at which point it refused to go any lower. The engine had now been at this level longer than I would have liked and to the cars favour all the instruments showed all was well however I was concerned that there had been no cooling air passing over the engine and exhaust components. My MOT man suggested a slight drop in rpm back to 2400 and this saw the final reading drop to the required 1.03. Then 30 seconds held at this rpm and the pass was complete. With that it was off the ramps and out into the yard to cool off and it wasn't a moment to soon. The car was not happy about the exhaust temperatures it had seen and refused to idle properly. So a quick shut off and allow her to cool. I get my MOT's at a local Morgan garage and it appears many of the low milage V8 powered cars, which are similar in circumstances to my own, suffer from the same problem. The mechanics now run them up and down the village at 3000rpm in first gear to get the Lamda sensors hot and clean prior to teating. This will normally rectify the situation. A good blast at higher rpm in a lower gear my do the same job I think. Finally once cool the engine started and ran sweetly, however then came the next problem which was a very hard clutch pedal. Upon inspection the bottom of the clutch cable is also quite close the exhaust maifold union and it has dried out the cable assembly. Despite working okay the pedal effort was increased and the feel was poor. I drove the car home and allowed her to cool off properly all was well but the clutch feel was still poor. To that end it was very easy to take out the drivers seat and release the end of the clutch cable from its mechanism.Once the cable boss had been unscrewed from the bulkhead and the cable released copious amounts of 3in1 oil could be poured down the cable. This has improved matters greatly. It appears then that if you are stopped on the way to the MOT station running your Cobra at a slightly more enthusiastic pace than you should be you can genuinely tell the Bobby you had to do it for the cars MOT!!!!

114

Mk IV, Superblower, CRS and other Continuation Cars Forum / CRS Cobra engine upgrades

« on: May 31, 2006, 22:52:17 »

This note is about the feasability of engine upgrade work on the first 25 odd CRS cars produced plus the implications of any modifications. These are cars fitted with the American specification 302ci engine. The later produced cars had an Australian specification engine fitted. From checks on numerous CRS cars, ones built around 1999/2000 period it appears they were fitted with engines produced in 1994 and most appear to be originally intended for the Mustang model. This may also be the case in some Superblower vehicles. These engines have a very different ECU than vehicles with computer engine management systems built up to 1993. A check on the printed label on the ECU and subsequent decifering can verify the actual application. But 1994 and 1995 produced ECUs have been programmed in such a way as to make any mechanical upgrade undertaken on the engine impossible to recalibrate via reprogramming of the ECU. This is not the case on earlier units.
   When Ford engineers were calibrating the 1994/95 units new very strict emission standards had been introduced into the States and they knew any engine upgrade work could throw off the emission calibration thus rendering the car illegal. Therefore the ECU has been produced in such a way as to not allow any modifications.
   There is only one way to upgrade and engine and ensure it both runs correctly and is fully legal and that is to replace the original ECU with a fully programmable unit with can be calibrated via a lap-top computer whilst the car is on a rolling road.
   I shall now raise a slightly contentious issue now which is the replacement of engines which are fitted with catalitic convertors and are computer controlled with an engine which has a carburettor induction system.
   If you have a vehicle say produced in the year 2000,when that car was registered it had to meet all current constuction/certification and emission rules applicable for that year. Each CRS was individually certified by gaining a S.V.A. [Single Vehilce Approval] thus vefiying the car was legal according the rules set down for a year 2000 motor car.
   AC Cars did this for each CRS manufactured. Once your computer system has gone and a carburettor fitted in its place there is very little chance of that engine ever meeting the tight emission laws applicable to that year and thus passing an MOT Test.
   Unless you can convince the D.V.L.A. otherwise when you take the modified car for an MOT things can get difficult. The tester logs on and the details of your car, chassis and registration number, are fed into the computer. Up comes details of your car saying manufactured in 2000 and therfore the tester knows how far he or she has to check.
   Remember after the emission test the recorded details are sent directly back to the DVLA who then know whether your car passed or failed.
      Tuning a CRS engine is not an impossible task it just requires a little more dedication and determination and worst of all slightly more money than first anticipated. But hey, AC members are made of sterner stuff, aren't they?
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens