Wednesday 21 February 2007

The short story of 't Kreng

After my short introduction I'll give some details on the work that has been done on ‘t Kreng so far. The car started life as a Solihull built (Pharaoh Gold) TR7 FHC, and was first registered in the NL in April 1982. In 1994 and after some 70.000 km the previous (and second owner) decided to attack a Ford Scorpio with it. The TR7 did win but the car was said to be a total write-off. So I bought it as a spares donor for my DHC, only to find out that it was to good to scrap. So around Christmas 1994 the restoration started, and by the summer of 1996 the body was ready for reassembly to start;




Halfway through the restoration I got the chance to buy a cheap and brand new Sprint head. So my plans were changed slightly. Instead off the original 8 valve engine I would put a Sprint engine in. So as the car became more powerful I thought it a good idea to upgrade the suspension and front brakes. The car was lowered using the 200 lbs "Sprint" springs from Triumph Tune. The original (and rather useless) front brakes were ditched for a set off Princess callipers with larger (non-vented) discs. All suspension bushes were replaced by polyurethane ones from SuperFlex.

Then came the choice for the fuelling, first thoughts were SU's on a stock Sprint engine. But then you always want more power. And after having discussed this with Hans ten Broeke from BCCP Fuelsystems it was decided to put a Group 2 rally cam in the head together with stainless steel valves and bronze alloy valve guides. As Hans had an inlet manifold available for a set off twin Weber DCOE 45's the choice wasn't that hard. In all other aspects the rest of the engine is completely stock, so no porting or blue printing.



Finally in the summer off 1997 the car was at last ready for it's MOT which she passed without a problem. And after bedding in the engine for around 1500 km it was time to get it fine tuned on a rolling road. For this I choose BCCP Fuelsystems. Main reason for this was that they already knew the setup off my car and as they race Dolly Sprints have quite a lot off expertise with the engine. Despite blowing the rear gearbox seal out (due to what turned out to be a bend main shaft ...) the engine in the end produced between 152,5 and 165 BHP @ 5800 rpm at the rear wheels. The torque was above 180 Nm between 4200 and 6000 rpm with a maximum of 198 Nm @ 5400 rpm. So the fun could begin!

After the fuel pump got jammed, Milton Keynes
(1998-09-22)


Going up the Stilfserjoch from the north
(2002-07-03)

Holiday by the sea, Les Sables d'Olonne
(2002-07-28)

During a local tour, Vijlen
(2006-03-19)

No comments: