As we enter the summer recess I'm sure many of us are scratching our heads thinking what mods we can do to get "that little bit more" from our machines.
With our sport having such history there must be some interesting tales of people with mad ideas that have lead to amusing or disasterous consequences !!
I know of a particular Class 1 driver (who'll remain nameless for now!) who thought he'd try filling his tubes with water. Caused great amusement to his fellow competitors when deflating them at Section 1 caused a 6ft high fountain ! That was the least of his worries, just imagine the wheel wobble when he pumped them back up (with air) and started driving down the road !
I guess using a DAF is about as madcap as it gets!I do remember a Fiat 500 I think driven by Geoff Grose that had an electric cabin blower rigged up to blow through the carbureter. He would switch it on when starting a section and all was well unless he backed off or the revs fell when the extra pressure found its way out of various parts of the carb accompagnied by a great deal of petrol. As far as I know he never found himself in charge of a flaming Fiat but the picture of a cinquecento scampering up a section with its bottom on fire is one to conjure with.Tony
ReplyDeleteNot a tale directly involving me but a story that came up at an after trial discussion in a pub in rural Gloucestershire a year or so ago.A certain class 8 trialer decided the way to reduce punctures was to fit 2 tubes in each tyre with wheels modified to accept 2 valves. The theory was that if one tube punctured the second would keep the tyre up. Apparently it did not work as in all cases when one tube punctured so did the second one, must have been sods law.But if it had worked what would have happened on hills with tyre pressure limmits? Would it have been the total pressure of two tubes or both tubes running at the same minimum pressure? Just a thought.Stuart Harrold
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