Thruxton 2024 Historic Meeting - 3 Alpines in the same race!

[GlennB]

Fir the first time in a long time there will be 3 Alpines in the same historic race event this Saturday 22nd June. FISCAR is a series for 50's cars and for cars launched in the 50's as long as they retain their original spec. This mandates a limit of 1592cc for the Alpines (we just make it). Strictly standard brakes and with historic Dunlop tyres on 13" rims, it means the cars all struggle by the end of a 30 minute race. Thruxton is supposedly the fastest circuit in the UK and I can vouch for the fact that I was overtaken at very high speeds last year by various Astons, Jags and Lotuses. The grid is like a specialist spectacular car show and we are privileged to be part of it. I'll try to catch some decent dashcam footage. The Alpine "team" will be Tristan Bradfield in 3001RW the restored 1961 Le Mans race car, myself in my Harrington Le Mans and journalist Gareth Evans in a newly prepared SII Alpine. Tristan generally leads the way with regards to Alpine pace and I suspect he revs higher than I do, plus he has a reliable overdrive - useful on the back straight. I'm still refining my setup but I'm just glad to be in the race as a result of some mechanical issues recently. Gareth suffered fuel starvation last time out. So we are all praying for reliability. The weather should be warm but not too hot. Wish us luck.

 

[alpine_64]

I suspect he revs higher than I do, plus he has a reliable overdrive - useful on the back straight. I'm still refining my setup but I'm just glad to be in the race as a result of some mechanical issues recently.

Gel n.. you are a true racing driver...

 

[alpineracer]

Thank you for posting!

 

[jdoclogan]

Outstanding Glenn! I wish I was there.

 

[GlennB]

This Saturday we are at Silverstone in the Bentley Drivers Club meeting. 30 minute race with enforced 45 sec pitstop. I'm licking my wounds from my tyre blowout in qualifying at Thruxton due to wide Dunlops on new Rootes steel wheels fouling on a couple of bolt threads protruding into the inner wing. I now have new thinner tyres on black powder coated Rootes steel wheels and the offending bolt threads that were sticking out of the inner wing have been sorted with an angle grinder. The new Continental tyres are lower profile than the Dunlops so I have swapped the Diff from 3.89 to 3.7 to restore my MPH. A soft brake pedal has also been addressed with a pedal return spring. I think the master cylinder spring is weak. The header tank is starting to weep again but hopefully it will survive 30 mins. I'll report back next week.

 

[alpine_64]

@GlennB like the number and font ..... 3K RW

 

[GlennB]

Looks like my run of reliability has ended. The new lugs and wheel nuts I fitted in June were not up to the grade and I only just managed to pull off before the rear nearside wheel "left the building". On inspection the lugnut chamfer on my brand new nuts does not truly match the wheel chamfer. One lug snapped and the remaining 3 nuts rattled around in the holes ripping the wheel. Shame as I was hanging on to a 2.6 liter AC Aceca and even gaining on it. Repair will be a Winter project. That will teach me to give away my old set of nuts because they were a bit rusty.

 

[bernd_st]

Think you can call yourself lucky that the wheel didn't brake loose during hard cornering. Simple cause can create catastrophic failures. Anyway when renewing the whole mess you may contact Paul M. aka Arrow5. He is selling top notch new nuts & wheel bolts. Bought a complete set from him just recently

 

[RootesRooter]

I'm curious why you didn't use stock lug nuts. Seems like the 60-year-old stock wheels would be the weak link.

 

[GlennB]

History: I sold my Ford Rostyle wheels and the old nuts to a mate. I bought new Chromed nuts with my Minilites back in lockdown and then had a wheel come off this May because they stripped. Chinese quality? I then bought 16 new studs and nuts from a reputable supplier in the UK to use with my steel racing wheels. These are supposedly new stock nuts but they do not fit the wheels - the chamfer is too shallow. I only realised when inspecting the damage after the event. One "new" stud sheared and the remaining 3 ripped the steel. I will be switching back to original studs and nuts, after all they have worked fine for 60 years. B*ll*cks to the new stuff.

 

[bernd_st]

Glenn, made a comparison between the steel wheel nuts I have. Pls. see the pictures here:







Left one is from a set I bought from SS many years before. Center one from Paul, right one original. My findings are: Outer chamfer is almost no difference. Left and Center are overall 1.5mm shorter than originals ( 15 vs. 16.5mm). Original has an inner chamfer which both new ones don't have. Checked the outer chamfers on an actual steel wheel and found they are all matching the wheel nut recesses. Perhaps the original one centers bit better, but only marginally. Hmm, are you sure that your steel wheel recesses were OK and had no pre- damages ?

 

[GlennB]

Co-incidentally I ran a second set of steel wheels at Thruxton. You can see the wear pattern from the new nuts. Good enough to hold the wheel on indefinitely at 40 MPH - but only good enough. I'm lucky they lasted 30 mins at 90 MPH. The nuts are, from left to right: 1. ) Freebies I was given by a mate (very worn though) 2.) The "chinese" nuts, 3,) one of my originals from my parts bin (only this one left) and 4.) the new nuts. The new nuts are shorter enough to fail to mate properly - that's my gripe. All the wheels look good.

 

[bernd_st]

The chamfer on the first 3 doesn't look right to me for original steel wheels. 3rd one doesn't look original Rootes to me. I use the 2nd ones for alu aftermarket wheels. They do fit well, but not for STD steelies. The wear pattern tells differently though. Hmm, needs further investigation...

 

[alpine_64]

Co-incidentally I ran a second set of steel wheels at Thruxton. You can see the wear pattern from the new nuts. Good enough to hold the wheel on indefinitely at 40 MPH - but only good enough. I'm lucky they lasted 30 mins at 90 MPH. The nuts are, from left to right: 1. ) Freebies I was given by a mate (very worn though) 2.) The "chinese" nuts, 3,) one of my originals from my parts bin (only this one left) and 4.) the new nuts. The new nuts are shorter enough to fail to mate properly - that's my gripe. All the wheels look good.

Glenn.. you should NOT have paint on the mounting face of the nut... That causes movement and the failure you had..... The factory didn't paint the face of the stud recess for this reason.
It ovals the holes as the nuts have some movement with the paint not allowing proper contact

 

[GlennB]

Hi, I'm OK with the no paint in the mounting area, it will come off after a couple of wheel changes, but point noted, and thanks. Movement was caused by the wheel nut not sitting inside the recess. You can see from the wear marks (because they were painted) that there is only a thin ring of contact at the outer edge of the recess. This means that the pressure was being applied to the wheel surface pressing it against the brake drum but not to preventing any lateral movement around the stud. I suppose the holes in the wheel are 1 or 2mm wider than the width of the stud. So I think this allowed the wheel to jiggle. The rear wheel also carries the maximum stress when starting and accelerating. I'm meeting folks at the SAOC National tomorrow and I am sure they will offer more suggestions.