Saturday 25 May 2019

Fairthorpe surprises at Cadwell Park track day.


Cadwell Park trackday 24/5/19
I took part in the TVR Car Club track day at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire yesterday, what a fantastic day at this picturesque and challenging circuit. The event ended up being a sell out with 55 cars booked in, obviously mostly TVR`s but also a Honda S2000, Caterham plus a couple of others and my Fairthorpe Electron Minor. Before the day started i had anticipated watching my mirrors most of the day but at days end i reckon i passed as many as passed me. Many a TVR pulled away on the straights only to have their mirrors full of a Fairthorpe through the corners, half a lap of that and they would lift on the straight and let me past and 789 scuttled up the road and out of their view. I even had the Caterham close on me as i was caught up in TVR traffic, i moved to the right on the straight and indicated but he didn`t have quite enough to get past (i wasn`t lifting as i assumed he would just blast past). End of straight he was still behind so i went about my normal lines and within half a lap he was dropping away. Very, very happy with the way the tuned 1300 engine i built and the car went, it handled superbly and was very controllable on the throttle using all the track although the brakes took a lot and i would recommend at better set that can handle the heat generated better. 
The engine has a lightened and balanced bottom end with stronger big end bolts and a fast road camshaft, the head is heavily skimmed and ported/polished with bigger valves and double valve springs. Topped off with 1 1/2" twin SU carbs and a stainless freeflow manifold and system, it goes surprisingly well now. 
The EM was the oldest car there and had the smallest engine, 789 is a 1958 build, next oldest and smallest engine was an MGB 1800 powered 1962 Grantura, who was also dispatched......
I lost count of the number of people who came up to look at the car during the day and commented how surprised they were at how quickly it was getting round the lap and one 5 litre Griffith owner even came up and apologised for holding me up. The car was last driven in anger round a race track in 1962 at Silverstone by my father Frank so i feel very happy to have `given it the beans` round the track yesterday. 
I have plans for a proper track day Fairthorpe next year with a larger capacity engine and wider wheels / roll bar etc, i have been bitten by the circuit bug again..............
Many thanks to my brother Graham for taking these excellent pictures, thanks bro...

















Video below of me closing on a couple of TVR`s, click on the full screen box for a bigger view, if the sound is up you can hear the tyres protesting!
I:-)      

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