0854 Back to Original Coupe

It does say a lot.

Thread below says more - take it there.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231610

Not here.

 

Thanks Jim. My family are not involved, other than emotionally like the rest of Australia and the world watching the news. Absolutely terrible situation. One keeps thinking why didn't they just go?, but it was just too fast and it is being discovered now that many did try to run in their cars and unfortunately they either ran off the road and got stuck or had accidents and thus could not get out . Others hid in baths or spa's but it was too hot this time ...

The only thing I can think of that is constructive is that when they rebuild, maybe building houses on top of concrete basements would be the way to go, thus they could, if trapped, hide in the basement while the house on top burns to the ground. A bit like how I believe some people in America hide from hurricanes.

I feel for them all, especially the kids ...
Pete

 

That goes for all of us, Pete.

Best,
Dave

 

We're rehabbing 0854's dry sump tank to cure leaks and make sure the internal swirl vanes and pickups are totally clean and working. To accomplish this we have to disassemble the tank. To make sure we can reassemble it we first built a Jig to locate it's hard points.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Jim, sorry if this is off topic but what is the car in the background of the first photo?

 

That's the real deal should you want to re stage the Indy 500. Gurney Eagle.

 

is that another project on your plate or someone elses?

 

Someone else's. Hard to make that one street legal or take your Honey for a ride.

 

adhere some light diffusion to the inside of the frame and the jig could be turned into a very nice looking table lamp when not being used for its intended purpose

(Lee Filter 262 IMO - thick rice paper-ish look)

 

Not a bad idea at all.

Hope U R well!

 

Jim,

It doesn't look like it can hold quite enough oil. Better raise the capacity to 60 quarts from 50 lol.

 

J6's oil tank holds 5 gallons of oil!

 

what a warm-up nightmare! out of curiousity, what is the warm-up procedure for these cars, and about how long does it take?

 

You start them and let them idle as low as you can for five minutes or until the oil temp. needle moves off the peg. You raise the revs to 3K for two minutes. You rap the throttle to clear the plugs and set off. If you don't warm them up properly you'll have so much oil PSI that you'll blow the oil filter clean off. We also have installed heaters in the oil tank and on cold days plug them in for a while before we even crank. We also have hot air blowers that we use to send hot air up the tail pipe to get rid of condensation which makes them easier to start.

 

All is well. Best to the family, see you at Pebble!

 

From the book FERRARI au Mans 1961/1967 by François Hurel (photo F. Chanteloup).
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Great Photo!! This really proves what real race cars looked like when they were raced.

Here's what Jacky Ickx and I looked like back then. Jacky is sitting on the car and I'm standing behind him in the Brown sweater.

Here's how we look today.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It also shows that one should never stop dreaming....

 

Jim - Tell me about the "dented" corner on the dry sump. Looks like it was built square, then whacked with a hammer to get it to fit. Was it originally built with that angle or was it modified at some later time?

 

It really does as they can come true.

 

An interesting question. Over the years the original tank has been whacked around quite a bit. When we do final re assembly with the original body we'll learn more. The original tank has also been modified to fit the Can Am type body that Piper fitted at one time. The inside is really grungy and and there's no good way to clean it without destroying it so for safety we're making a new tank. To enable the original tank to fit the original body we'd have to modify it again so rather than do that we'll keep the original tank with it's history for our museum and use our new tank for driving.

When we saw how much damage we'd do by taking the original apart to clean and replace internal swirl, screens and baffles we decided to go this route.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

So if it turns out that the body will require the dented corner, will you build the new one square and whack it for authenticities sake, or build it with a clean angled edge?

 

Not yet sure.

We think the original body required an angled side but not one that was whacked even more to fit the one time fitted non original body. If it fits the original body we'll leave it. If it requires "adjustment" to fit we'll "adjust" it as they would have on the day. (With a Hammer)

 

For someone who drives the cars as hard as you do, it must be a constant struggle between the ideas of historical accuracy and structural integrity.

 

It is but what I try to do is to always leave things so they can be put back. On the day these cars were constantly modified to meet the reality of racing. I really believe that if a car isn't used it doesn't exist.