Projects Berkeley tune up In AK

Howdy all, I have been trying to get some pics to load so I could post this, but they are still resisting, so I am going to start with what I have.

As some of you know I got to go to Speedweek '08 (for a day, beat's noting ). I had to leave for a training semianar, but convinced Pops to stay and see the races with some friends.

So I get this phone call on my cell about Tuesday, 'how would you like to drive a Bonneville car?'

Uh- huh, 'which one is it dad?'

Some humor ensues, but isn't particularly entertaining to repeat, use your immagination, it'll be pretty close.

Suffice it to say I jokingly tell people here that "I left him unatended at Bonneville and he bought a car."

We are doing maintenance and minor mods now that the car's home. We stopped by a friends' house on the way back home to clean the car and get a better look at what we had.

Before we pulled the body off I got this picture.



You can almost hear him making motor sounds, can't ya? (me too )

The body isn't screwed down in that pic, the rear belly pan mount is broken (hence the larger body gap back there) and the stick looking thing behind the cage is the guide rod for the tank vent (so the hose makes it through the body when you are puting it on).

We are making the pedals adjust so we can both drive it (they were a touch too far away for him and too close for me). We think we have most of that sorted out, of course we won't know for sure till we have it all hooked up and working.

I have various pictuers of that, but Photobucket and my derrr-puter are not cooperating at the moment (I suspect it's more the connection than anything). So I'll post them here when I get them to go there.

 

VERY cool! So you & your pops will have it ready for Aug and be there right?? If you need some pit crew help just holler, I'm pretty good with a broom.

 

Very cool...Can't wait to see more pics!......I need to make it out to speedweek...

 

That's the plan.

August, whee, only 136 days, 56 minutes (not that I'm counting or anthing ).

 

Hey! Nice Berkeley! I live in a town that has a high population of Berkeley motor cars (and it's not Biggleswade Birshire England either! - at least 4 in my town)

If you would like more information, parts, pieces, or more cars... go to www.geocities.com/team2motorsports Bill has photos of other salt flat Berkeleys if you email him.

The car had either a 2 or 3 cylinder 2-stroke engine (back when they were made from late 1955 through 1960 when they were made) with 18.5 or 30 horse power excelsior - talisman engine.

What do you have for an engine in that thing?


Best of luck!

~Joe

 

We don't know for sure, the PO claims it is a Citroen prototype, consisting of a Pugeot bottom end and a Maseratti top end. I don't see a Trident cast into the head anywhere or a Gryphon in the block sooo .

It is just under 2 liters, according to the log book SCTA measured it at one point.

Oddly it did come with a set of instructions for changing the timing belt (DOHC, belt drive) for a 1.9 & 2.(I don't remember at the moment ) Pugeot.

And it has 8 exhaust ports, and what appears to be a 'customized' Chevy II distributor grafted to the back of the cylinder head.

It's adapted to a SBC belhousing pattern and has a Powerglide, backed up by a stubby driveshaft (picture a halfshaft from a late '60s Corvette, it's roughly the same length and tube size by eyeball) and a Chrysler 7 1/4 (circa 1969 per the PO).

I got confirmation of it being a 7 1/4 late yesterday as one of the drivetrain shops here was able to identify the pinnion yoke (I ordered 2).

 

VERY cool congrats!

 

Wow that is a vary cool race car.

 

That's a cool car Erik!

 

Thank you all.

We are working diligently to make sure we get to play this year.

Some welding, plumbing, wiring and vairous minor body repairs and we should be good (the car anyway).

Then we just have to wip the tow rig into shape, and build a push truck....

 

I found a picture of my "semi-stock" 1959 Berkeley packed for travel. I hope this puts a perspective on the vehicle size for those that are not familiar with Berkeleys!

All the best!

~Joe

 

Peugeot 205 GT Mi16 has the same engine as the Citroen BX 16V GTi and they have 8 exhaust ports. Maserati does design work on cylinder heads, so that may be the connection.
You can probably get parts out of Canada.

 

Olds 1915 Thank you for the pic and well wishes.

Harry B, I'll look into that, thank you.

I actually have the pictures of the engine (and more of the car) trying to upload at the moment, so I'll post pics of that when I get those postable.

 

As promised I have a few pics of the engine.





And this is the best picture of the distributor I have curently.

 

Cool.

 

Harry B, I have someone on another forum that claims visual confirmation (from the pics) on the engine being a Mi16, thank you.


I got two new pinion yokes in today and cut out some blanks to mount the new brake disc to.

Why two? I guess I'm a wuss, I don't want to make a custom piece and drag the car that far without a spare.

Yes, we are going to replace the disc brake that's in it now (Mortorcycle disc, kinda thin).

 

Nice pictures, hope to see some more as you go along.

So this's one of those hyper rare custom prepared, only a few made, "Elessar" model Berks?

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

Curious to see how much offset is in your driveline, hard to tell from the first pictures (or even from others available) but it looks possibly a lot.

 

Erik - Good to see progress on the car! Keep posting pix - I love that thing (even though it is obese, by my standards)... And tell your dad HI for me.
Scotty

 

Scotty will do.

Yeah, it probably weighs as much on one axle as Lil Zilla weighs on the front axle (then theres that whole longer than wide thing for wheelbase VS track width ).

Did you ever get the back brakes to cooperate??


O6R Yeah, it's got a ton, like Legends Cars offset (if you are farmiliar with those). I'll have to see if I have a pic of the rear of the car overall to post.

Hmm, aparently not.

'S okay, I'm going out to the shop to take a few more shots anyway.

We have the pedal adjustment more or less sorted out (just got to hook the throttle and brakes back up, but that might take some doin'). That and the intrusion / firewall panels on the left side of the driver's compartment fit a bit better (no more gaps).

Then there's the wiring, but there's only 6(ea) 12 volt 'wires' in the car (not counting the battery 'cables').

 

As promised, here's some curent stuff.

First one, 'look ma, no gaps' the old panel had gaps big enough for the cat in the photshop thread to crawl though (no, not really, there were some gaps, but nowhere near that big, I just thought I'd use the tie in a little humor folks).



Next, 'What offset?'




And now for something completely different.

Here is a series of pictures that shows the current level of completion on the adjustable pedal assembly

First one, a view from abbove with the left slider rail laid over the top of the cage. In real life it would be turned 90* so the 'bend' would be down.



This is the upper slider rail bracket, note the 2 5/16 bolt holes 90* apart (yes we plan on Grade 8 bolts)




This is the forward slider rail reciever socket (left side) at the firewall (16 gauge steel).

Note: The rectangular hole you see in the firewall is to pass the clutch cable and it's support bracket through (bracket just pokes through in the forward pedal position). We are sussing out a boot to seal this.



Here's a side view, a 'benchtop mockup' of what it would be in the car. It would actually be level in the car, but I was off a bit as this is 'for intelectual purposes only'.
Note the high tech, race weight support brace to the right of the pic.



And finally we have a top view of the left slider and rail assembly set roughly to the forward position. We hope to use 5/16" lynch pins, if tech says no, we have bolts for them.

The rail is 1/8" wall 1" square tube and the slider is 1/4" wall 1 1/4" square tube. It fits together much better than it sounds.



I would ask those perusing this to remember it's not done yet, and it's going to B-Ville where the monster bitchin super race road anchors are worthless (not enough traction to use them), so it will never see the amount of force on this that say a road race car would see on the brake pedal.

At the moment we are planning to reverse mount the master cylinder.

 

Hey its Jade my buddy steve bought your dads toter home. Looks like we should run that thing down the glenn and shake it down. Kinda funny i left my dad at a friends house one time and he came home with a t-bucket. Good luck and have fun. Looks like sid is having a blast right in the driveway.

 

Good to 'see' ya.

I can see that.

Hmm, the hay flats stretch is how long again (8 - 12 mi?).

That'd be a scream, especially if we didn't keep the moose off durring the run.

But then, the ruts from the studs are deeper than the tires stick below the belly pan.

That and it's the most heavily patrolled coridor in the state.

 

Way cool man, great way to get into salt racing........... Someone elses car!
I know Im green with envy! You want a brother?
Doc.

 

Good to see you too Doc.

We'll have to see how easy it turns out, when we get it back to the salt.

 

Hell that things low enough go right under the moose. So plans to run it down there this year?

 

Yeah, if nothing else we'll run it 'for fun', but we would at least like to get some data so we know what it needs.

Pop's has only driven it once, and that was his license pass, so it's kinda hard to tell if that's representative of what the car will do.

 

Update time. We have been working on alot of small things that don't show well in pictures but we just got some pieces for the injection and they're shiney. (the one's you'll see anyway).





One of the old ones is on the right.

I might have to trim the new ones a bit.




If you look real close you can see the injector throttle bodies are upside down (per Hilborn).

We are going to try turning it over, and see if everyhting will clear still (bodywork included).

 

That thing make my Bugeye look huge.......

If you can't get the pics to load just paster the link for the Photobucket page/s.

 

Shiny bits .......

 

Once they're on Photobucket, it's a breeze to get them here. It's getting them to Photobuckt that's being a pain (sometimes).

Yes.

Uploading a few more pics of the shiney stuff. Should be a few more minutes.