Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

This is an area for discussion about modifications to Vivas.

Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby boehmi » Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:34 am

Hello comrades,

as mentioned in my welcome-thread (viewtopic.php?f=34&t=25990) some of my friends and myself are building a racecar for a 24 hour rallyecross race in June here in Austria.

It's a fun race without much rules, everything is allowed if it's safe and hilarious.
Cars that are known as reliable (like old volvos, benz, ...) are not allowed and there are about 3 times as much applicants as there are starters at the race. You have to write an application and the organiser decides who is allowed to start. So only the most stupid and hilarious cars are getting a starting place.
The last two years we attended in Citroen BXs but this year we wanted something older. Since I am a veteran in english vintage cars (MG Midget, Mini, ...) we found a 1966 Viva HBD with a fairly bad shell for cheap money (about 430 GBP). No working brakes, rusted fuel tank, defective clutch and not driven for about 20 years but a running 1159 engine (only running out of a plastic bottle, in the tank is too much rust).
Image

The car has been painted about 25 years ago with tons of filler (about 8-10 mm on some parts) oder much rust and holes but that won't be a problem for this race. :D
Most important are working brakes and a reliable drivetrain. Two weeks ago we found another Viva HB (SL90) which was completely disassembled by morons and stored partly outdoors (open engine, gearbox, shell) for 275 GBP near our hometown and the axles are dirty but in good mechanical shape. Because of being a SL90 it even has (working) diskbrakes in the front which is great for a 24 hour race. :)
Image

We started dismantling the blue one in autumn last year and found loads of rust on the shell
Image
but the white one is fairly good and will be used as base for a nice rebuild after the race. The plan is to build a car for some trackdays with all the remaining good parts (maybe with a engine swap and new gearbox/rear axle).

Work had to bee stopped over the winter, because i had to move my little workshop from my nice heated garage in town (because the building was sold) to a shed without heating and plenty of snow in front of the doors.
This weekend we finished most of the work in the shed, including electric lighting :D and unpacking of the tools. We even mounted the hoist but it's not working until next weekend, because there are only 230V by now, the 400V cabling will be finished this week.
Image
Image
Image

So we started with the work that could be done without the hoist.
The first part was the SL90-engine which was stored outdoors without a valve cover. So the pistons got stucked and there was plenty of rainwater inside the sump. We got it turning after dismantling to the shortblock and soaking it in WD40 for about 4 hours. The cylinder surfaces are quite good and it's turning pretty smooth, so we are not disassembleing it farer. All engine party get dry-ice blasted next week together with the front and rear axle.
Image

Next part was the differential gear. It was filled with a lot of dirty honey and got a nice wash. The diff-cover got a quick paint in some left over Kawasaki-green, a new gasket and the rest of the axle gets dry-ice blasted this week.
Image
Image

The blue shell got rid of the interior including carpet and roof lining. We also removed the windshield because the seal was in in really bad shape. We got a good seal from the SL90, so it will get back in after the roll cage is fitted.
Image

Next steps are the dry-ice blasting of the engine and axles and removing of the wiper-leverage because it's stucked after getting painted over. Also removing of the front and read axles from the blue shell after the hoist is working to fit the other ones from the SL90.
The front brake calipers are in perfect shape, but we need new calipers for the rear brakes and some new brake hoses.

Are there any tips for known weakpoints on the chassis that we should strenghen for rallye-use?

I hope you enjoy our build, i will keep you updated!

Greetings from the Alps,
Martin
he who dies with the most toys, wins
User avatar
boehmi
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:44 am
Location: Austria

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby jpsmit » Mon Feb 29, 2016 1:26 pm

no suggestions except to say this sounds like a lot of fun! Keep us posted.
User avatar
jpsmit
Baby Bertha
Baby Bertha
 
Posts: 1130
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:00 am
Location: Toronto

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby Johnboy HB » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:43 pm

Sounds like a fun race, regarding strengthening the car, boxing in the rear lower suspension arms & seam welding the shell would be my suggestion, will look forward to seeing updates on this & plenty of pictures please
User avatar
Johnboy HB
GT Viva
GT Viva
 
Posts: 398
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:48 am
Location: Dudley, West Midlands

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby droopsnoot » Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:35 am

The Sportpart manual and the "Tuning Vivas and Firenzas" book shows some chassis modifications for strengthening, it all depends on how far you want to go. For the competition cars there were thick plates that run from the lower front subframe mount, forward along the chassis rail and up to near the front panel. Also some fillets added in the top and bottom rear arm mounts. As Johnboy suggested, boxing the rear arms was also listed, don't box them completely if you want to take the spring off at some point.
droopsnoot
Old Nail
Old Nail
 
Posts: 2121
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:08 pm
Location: Cheshire

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby yoeddynz » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:27 am

This is really cool and very interesting. I cant imagine there are many vivas about in Austria? So you will have a very interesting car plus you have chosen a car that handles very well even as standard!!! :D

Keep the updates coming! Do you have a link to the race so I can read about it?

Alex
yoeddynz
Brabham Viva
Brabham Viva
 
Posts: 707
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:47 pm
Location: South Island, New Zealand

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby boehmi » Fri Mar 18, 2016 10:37 am

We are working on the car again this weekend, so i will keep you updated next week.

Website for the race is http://www.24-stunden-nordring.at/ but it's german only.
We are racing at the second race this year.
he who dies with the most toys, wins
User avatar
boehmi
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:44 am
Location: Austria

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby yoeddynz » Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:39 pm

Cool.. i'll have a look. :)
yoeddynz
Brabham Viva
Brabham Viva
 
Posts: 707
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:47 pm
Location: South Island, New Zealand

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby yoeddynz » Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:46 pm

So you are team smurf. What car did you race in last year? You are grid position 7 so i am guessing you did quite well last year.

Wow at all that rust one team is dealing with on their Opel Kaddet!!!! :shock:
yoeddynz
Brabham Viva
Brabham Viva
 
Posts: 707
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:47 pm
Location: South Island, New Zealand

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby yoeddynz » Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:54 pm

I like this bit in the registration area on that website which reads roughly..

"The entry fee for the le mans historique is 5450, - EUR

The actual pure driving time amounts to only a few hours

The participating racing vehicles cost up to

3 mill Euro

But our entry fee is only 80 €

And our driving time = 24 hours

Our race cars are priced from 100 Euro each "

Sounds like a really fun event. Id like to see something like that in NZ. We used to have a university student car race called the Undy500. Cars must cost less than $500. But it has sort of been stopped by many people because it just always turns into a big beer drinking race of mayhem.

EDIT; there is a race in NZ which is part of this series..

https://www.24hoursoflemons.com/
yoeddynz
Brabham Viva
Brabham Viva
 
Posts: 707
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:47 pm
Location: South Island, New Zealand

Re: Viva HB for 24 hour rallyecross

Postby boehmi » Thu Mar 24, 2016 12:23 pm

yoeddynz wrote:So you are team smurf. What car did you race in last year? You are grid position 7 so i am guessing you did quite well last year.

Wow at all that rust one team is dealing with on their Opel Kaddet!!!! :shock:


We raced two Citroen BXs in the last two years.

The amount of work they are putting into the Kadett scares me. I hope they have seen the race before, because there might be some contact between the cars ;)

We got the 45HP engine up and running last weekend, the gearbox and the clutch are also working.
The SL90 Engine got dryice-blasted and we are waiting for the gaskets.
The fueltank got derusted and sealed and we were measuring the fitment of the 175/70-13 tires on the 5.5x13 VW Golf 2 rims. We need 40 mm adapters for clearance at the front upper wishbones.
The second rear axle got new brake-calipers and a oil-change at the differential and some smurf-blue paint on the diff-cover :D

We got a little issue with the engine, it wont accept "fast" rev-ups.
With choke pulled, it works, so it should be not enough fuel.
We cleaned the carburettor-nozzles, the accelerating pump works fine too.

This weekend we're pausing for holidays, next workday is the 2nd of April.
he who dies with the most toys, wins
User avatar
boehmi
SL Viva
SL Viva
 
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:44 am
Location: Austria

Next

Return to Modifications

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests