well, it’s been a few years.

You all know our Fossa Ford Anglia. In the past two weeks we acquired these two babies,

Say hello to Roachie, the blue one, Chris “The Roach’s” new car and Rhino, the green one, our toy.

I can not even recall when it became law in South Africa that you had to wear a seatbelt, I do remember it was an extreme change of habit.

Roadtrip for Roachie

Well, Roachie Ford Anglia is a pre65 model and was manufactured before the seatbelts were installed in to these wonderful machines. Apparently today was “Take your Anglia to work day” and we decided on her. Excluding her 1600 Kent engine, Roachie is dead standard, even still has her drums brakes all-round.

I climb into Roachie, out of habit I reach for the seatbelt to find clean air, realization strikes. Roachie behaves reasonably well. She is shod with 185’s and her 1600 under the hood has no problem putting her into a drift in any gear, around corners. Fun, yes sure, on standard Anglia seats with zero belts, a challenge, but fun. Standing start at the traffic lights Roachie runs out of gears in seconds leaving everything else behind her. To the off-side, cruising at 80 Km/h I find myself looking for another two, maybe three gears.

Both of them are scheduled for a spay job, still deciding which one first, but first, tomorrow I will be on Fossa’s engine ….

Cheers …..

……….. two weeks ago we start rebuilding again.

Missing our last race at the Zwartkops Raceway, watching would would have been our race and on the edge of our seats …… and Andre De Kock’s Dart putting a conrod through the block with the resulting oil slick on the track and following slipping and sliding ….

The engine is assembled like pro’s with yet more experiments employed. Installation goes smooth, side draughts fitted. With oil pressure present she starts quickly and the engine sounds wild. The Roach watching the oil pressure gauge and it is climbing, to an approximate sixteen bars …….. and the floor is flooded with four liters of oil as the seal on the oil filter pops out and a second later we run a big end bearing.

Armed with more knowledge and fresh spares we will be rebuilding again this coming weekend …..

Cheers

….. as mentioned in our previous post, yes, Fossa did start with the 40DCOE Webers ….. but apparently only on cylinders three and four. The carbs to cylinders one and two not supplying fuel … Quickly remove and strip the “faulty” carburettor, strip, clean and look for possible blockages, found none … Try again, no difference …

I must comment that our Anglia will sound magnificent with all four throats operating based on the sound of the two. That was not an immediate solution however as we rather prematurely entered for the 9 May race at Kyalami. With the clock ticking we resorted to the re-installation of the trusty 38DGAS and resulting immediate fire on all four cylinders. A few more small things to attend to, we run down the list and have it completed in a few hours. This is followed by two laps around the block. The engine feels nice and powerful. The brakes and clutch acceptable. Just as well, it is the 8th of May.

9 May, the place, Kyalami. Being so busy we did not charge our camera’s batteries or the GoPro’s for that matter. We complete documentation and scrutineering. Qualifying comes up and I head out onto the track. It will be our last event on the “old” Kyalami and at the time I did not realize, my final lap on the track as it is being changed.

Fossa feel brilliant with a lot of power, and the what feels like fuel starvation, then the power is back and then gone …. I complete the lap and return to the pits. Fuel filters and pumps inspected, I try to emulate what I experienced on the track. Suddenly Fossa starts throwing oil out of her filler cap. With permission we move Fossa to the scrutineering area where we can continue tests. Gerdus Smit borrows a compression tester from the Locost Seven racers and the compression test shows up brilliantly.

Several Kent engine specialists pass through and are just as confused as we are ……

A few days later we still have no answers and we are catching up on some well earned rest ….. only starting Fossa every evening for a few minutes …..

Our immediate plans. Shall I say that is on hold for now. This will also provide some needed financial recovery time. Cheers for now.