New engine for ‘t Kreng

Been very quiet with my Triumphs for a while. Although ‘t Kreng has seen a bit of action lately, the DHC has been in storage since early October. At the moment I am waiting for Robbie’s workshop to be available so I can at last fit the rear coil-overs to the car. Will probably be somewhere in March.

To kill a bit of the spare time left, I have been planning on a new engine for ‘t Kreng. Over the past few years I have been considering various engine options, ranging from Rover K and T series through Ford Duratec to all sorts of V8’s. But I have decided to stick to the 16V Triumph Slant Four. It is more than powerful enough to make for a rather quick road car. Only problem so far is that the engine lacks a fair bit of torque at the lower end of the rev range. It is also very thirsty when you use the loud pedal a bit to enthusiastically.

So the challenge I have set myself is a Sprint engine that produces 200 BHP with good pick up from lower revs and better fuel economy. So things to do or get sorted;

• Flowed and ported cylinder head;
• Fully balanced bottom end with lightened flywheel;
• A brace to keep the bottom end together;
• High compression pistons;
• Fully programmable injection and ignition;
• New inlet and exhaust manifolds.

To get some inside information I recently visited an old racing driver in Belgium, who used to drive a Dolly Sprint in the 70’s. The good thing is he still owns and drives the car.

Was an interesting afternoon in his workshop. The only downside was that he didn’t do any work for third parties anymore.

But luckily, and quite by chance, I already found someone, with quite a good reputation, who is willing to have a look at a Sprint head to see what he can do to it. Balancing and lightening the flywheel wasn’t a problem at all. He stressed that he was very busy though.

To be continued ...

Dreaming of a white Christmas ...

Looks like this year we will have a white Christmas at last over here on the “high” ground of The Low Countries! It has been quite a while since we had the last one over here. Actually can’t remember it myself, but the signs are good. Even ‘t Kreng is in a white mood already! 

Hopefully my next post on here will be about fitting the rear coil overs to ‘t Kreng. They have been lying around for far too long already ...

Moustache Classic

I haven’t done much with my TR7’s since the Nachtrit early in November. After having spent the best part of two years on the restoration of the DHC, it was time to spent some time on other things. But when I received an invitation for a classic car rally just across the border in Belgium the decision wasn’t difficult. So last Saturday morning we headed for the start of the Moustache Classic, in the church square in Bocholt, opposite the local brewery, and main sponsor for the event! Only this time I would be in the navigator’s seat, with René doing the driving in his Dolomite 1850.

There was a rather interesting variety of cars at the start, ranging from a lovely Renault 4CV ...

to this rather nice Mustang ...

And lots of other interesting cars ...

As it was the first time we did this event, we opted for the easiest option, a 150 kilometre tour in three stages, using a tulip diagram road book. Turned out to be very good fun indeed, both for me and René. Due to the still slightly wintery conditions, a fair bit of rain and lots of mud and leaves on the roads, conditions were rather entertaining to say the least. Very good fun indeed. Sadly the navigating took up most of the time, guiding Rene through the traffic and the twisty bits, so no action pictures. But the cars looked well used at the finish ...

After we finished I managed to get a road book from the competitive event. Doesn’t look too difficult.

Certainly one which will go onto the calendar for next year. As for the route, the three stages were fairly typical for this area, lots of short straights and sharp turns. Although from above it looks much easier then it is ...

Stage 1, 44,96 km;

Stage 2, 61,64 km;

Stage 3, 40,15 km;

22nd Nachtrit

Last Saturday it was again time for our traditional blast through the country. Being one of the organizers meant I wouldn’t drive during the event itself. Our (Jos & me) task was to do a final check, for last minute road works, festivities etc. So we left pretty early on the Saturday morning in lovely autumn weather, it was again pouring with rain. The good thing about that was that much of the soil the farmers had left on the road was washed away, but the leaves weren’t, as the driver from a little Ford Fiesta found out. Car was well and truly hidden in the undergrowth in one of the tighter bends. Luckily no one got hurt, only the car. But despite the rather wet conditions we reached the mid way halt in just 2:15 hours, not bad indeed.

While we were enjoying our lunch, the weather cleared a bit, and the second stage turned out to be very good fun indeed. Road conditions were pretty good, with most of the slippery stretches easy to spot. Only real problems were some festivities in Theux, turned out they cleared the road by the time the cars past through. But before we got there we first had to negotiate a stretch of road going up a steep hill, a stage from the Boucles de Spa. Very good fun indeed with the car fish tailing its way up through the very slippery leaves. So with not much to report for the briefing, we got back to the start in time to see all the cars of ...

Turned out that most of the teams had a good time. And the route itself, well that was 90% the same as last year, but driven in the opposite direction. For next year we will be going into another part of the Ardennes ...