Goodwood preparation (2)

The overdrive has been fixed, well, it still doesn't work with the lights switched on but at least it now works reliably when lights are switched off. It turned out to be a broken wire and according to the mecanic at JagPoint it was a nasty little bug at an awkward place (the wire running in between the gearbox and the gearboxcover). This is good enough; I can work around the light problem...

Since the car was in the shop, they also tuned the enige for better performance at higher revs. They again stressed that the carburetors need an overhaul soon because they're harder and harder to adjust. The fuel pump was also considered end-of-life - it didn't give the 2 bar it is supposed to give - so that was replaced too. It looked as if it payed off; the Healey took off at amazing speeds. However, on lower throttle the engine ran very irregular. It turned out that the ignition was set way to early - after some advice and a little retuning on the military testing grounds fixed that problem too.

To prove the roadworthyness of old faithful, I took the Healey for drive to Altena Classic Service. I originally bought the Big Healey in Gramsbergen and they now have a Healey 3000 Mk III rally on offer. It seemed to me that the car would be a good source of inspiration for the upgrades I have in mind, and I hoped that I would be able to testdrive it to see whether it was worth the money. Sadly I didn't have an opportunity to testdrive it, but we had a good talk on what to do when preparing a car for rallying. The car itself has a nice spec (lot's of expensive parts), but looks awful on the outside (the current owner has the opinion that it is not worth keeping the paint nice and shiny when rallying, and he's probably right too). I think my car should be somewhat more civilized and not only be a hardcore rally car (like URX 727, the ultimate rally car). For instance, I'm considering a removable rollcage, I want to be able to have nice upholstery when not rallying, and I don't want to trade the MkIIa for a MkIII with better ground clearance. Well, more to come on the subject of Big Healey's extreme makeover...

Big Healey servived the trip to Gramsbergen and the return to Amersfoort via Hengelo (the last leg even in a record time of just under an hour - with fueling...). Tomorrow I'll build in connections for the navigation equipment and seal-off some of the airleaks which bring in a lot of heat (although it is true Pat Moss spririt, I think I prefer somewhat more comfort). And then, it is off to Goodwood!