MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
And give me a clue where the fek an oil leak is coming from on the midget!
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Left rear wheel arch/wing as far as I can tell, checked the brakes, but at the rate it must have pisse it over the driveway i'd have expected them to be much lower/not working, too far over to the left to be the diff (although that is covered in oil/gunk).
Its a very clean oil, which is why I legged it to the brake master cylinder first to check the level, and nothing (squirting out, but then it is a drum) when the pedal's pumped. Presumably the damper would squirt oil everywhere when bounced (nothing, and returns to normal height when bounced).
left a big pice of paper under it overnight to see if I can identify any drips.
Damper will return to normal height even if leaking, its a damper not a spring.
Brake leak would almost undoubtedly be brake-dust contaminated.
Midgets not my thing though.
yes, bt give the ammount of liquid i'd expect whatever was leaking to be either big or empty by now
It's because you have a plastic bumper 🙂
Is it a live axle? Diff dropped its oil through shaft seals rather than actually AT the diff?
You don't keep oil in the boot do you?
May sound stupid but i've spent time looking for leaks that have turned out to be from split containers.
Trickles down through the gaps and out through a grommet.
Crafty stuff that oil.
goes off to check.....................
Think I might win this one...its live axle with seals at each end, theyre apparently prone to leaking...
Here's mine
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Elmo may have it, there was an open bottle of 20w50 in the boot, not too much missing, but that depends on if it had dumped it anywhere other than the driveway.
Live axels with seals on each end sounds about right for a BL car, problem is by te time i've waited for the oil to drip out of the boot which could take days i could aloo be runnig on a dry diff!
🙄 funny!
Mop out the rest, check diff level.
Hope it is that........dam sight easier to sort!
A little oil goes along way. Soon gets itself spread about when it hits something spinning!
Fingers crossed 😕
My fast car, getting ready to be fast again. Old girl is 30 years old this year. Been laid up for 6 years.
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I've worked on a few of those Midgets - here's my gallery, it may be of some interest.
www.peterflynnclassiccars.com
Prob the bottle of oil, but Spridgets can leak from the end of the drive shaft, unlikely to be clean,
My Spridget below: Love that Alfa!!!
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ohhh an alfa 🙂
the oil wasnt spread out, it was in on big globular blob under the wheel-arch/wing, probably a 7x7cm square and several mm deep
The can of oil in the boot fits the bill there was oil on the bottles arroud it (coolant, water, etc) so it had obviously sloshed, but the ammout missin in the bottle didnt look substantial enough, but you never know (and I live in hope).
Cant 'check' the diff level, i think its a case of fill it till it overflows, then check again in a few days/miles.
Chopper, do you race or is it just for a bit of fun? I'm quite tempted to build a track/race car to remove the temptation to thrash the midget!
thats a cheeky engine, fiat twin-cam?
These are quite quick
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@TINAS: It's a proper race car that, it won a National Championship class back in the day. It's running again now, just wants some fresh rubber and it's away. My race licence has expired though, so that'll have to be sorted out. Probably more difficult/expensive than the resurrection of the car!
God i want to get a nice car, problem is i cant decide what to get, options include a lotus elise s1, bmw m coupe (z3 one), lancia delta intergrale evo ( wanted one since i was 11) or the practical side in me focus st / golf gti new ones, but new cars are so divoid of soul!
Lionheart, lovely midget is that a modified bumper / grill?
I love the seats of my (fastish)car
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But its a Skoda on the outside 😀
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For anyone checking up, it was the oil in the boot 😳 Left the car parked on a gigantic sheet of plotter paper overnight to see where it was coming out and its where the rear wing joins the floorpan underneath the wheelarch, no other pipes or anything else in that area so fairly confident 🙂
I haven't seen very many fast cars yet. 😉
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pahhhh, cynic!
the midget will do 50 with a good tail wind 🙂
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love that alfa lots....
I haven't seen very many fast cars yet
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0 to 60 in 16.3 seconds baby!
David.
dmiller my missus used to have one of those bad boys, it was known as the Terminator.
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I can't believe we are this far into the thread and no-one has told ThisIsNotASpoon to get his lawn cut!
Loving the Alfa Sud, my first car was a 1500 Sud green cloverleaf wish i'd still got it (although it would prob be a pile of rust on the garage floor by now)
My old man is well into his 70s, has a nice mild Cooper S (original), he turns up at the odd track days and smoothly works his way through the Scoopbies and Evos, yes I know they should be fast(er) but it just does not work out that way! One of the fastest local cars I know is a 106 Rallye, again shouldn't be that quick but it is.
The Spridget is one of the last shells seam welded, a few lightweight panels, A Series, Faringdon crank, KAD head, 180bhp in track form, close box, coil suspension. Looks good, goes well but a Seven (or Elan) would be better!!?!
jaWomble my mother had a GT350 back in the 60s in the States, great looking car,
Coolhandluke Skoda seats look good, like the colour of the Skoda, it prob goes well but.......
Stonemonkey, get a Skoda, and put a Seven or Elise in the garage
thisnotaspoon, your Migget is prob one of the most involving cars up here! shame its a rubber one asa world of difference
Mine, a bit under the weather
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rubber bumpers were nececitated by the local speed-bumps meaning a RWA model wouldn't have much exhaust left!
Moved now so tempted to do away with the bumpers and fit the RWA springs (maybe even lower ones) and aftermarket dampers. An LSD would be nice as well.
yes I know they should be fast(er) but it just does not work out that way!
ahh but driver skill counts for so much.
Should have seen the guards trophy at the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting - minis verses Galaxies, mustangs, lotus cortinas, anglias.... a mini came 2nd and 3rd, with the mustang first (in the wet, driving sidesways most of the way!)
Here is mine
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lionheart that is sex on wheels(minilights)&BRG as well 8) 8)
For those digging the Alfasud, here's the donk. Check out the engine and gearbox oil coolers in place of the original heaterbox. Lots of mods, but the real trick is the front diff, using the LSD from the rear of Subaru WRX.
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BTW, 760kg wet, 0-60 in 7sec. Is that fast enough for a 30yr old?
ChopperT, my mate used to own "Westune", alfa specialist tuners, had some great times in allsorts of Alfas 8)
Alfas man, "Made for a good time, not a long time"
I have a Westfield with a hayabusa turbo engine in it. 297BHP on a reliable rolling road and weighs in at around 500kg. Its pretty fast 🙂
Website with pictures on is down at the moment but must put it back up as I am going to sell it. I find I ride my bike so much these days I don't use it and its not that great for nipping to the shops 🙂
Bazzer
Spoony - it's a little more involved to convert the rubber bumper cars to chrome, there's a fair few body mods required to house the front lights and take bumpers and grille. The four wings are different to the earlier cars.
I've seen a few done on the cheep using 1/4 bumpers and a little imagination. The front wings have the mountings for the indicators in them, and you'd have to be a real stickler for the look to replace an entire good rear wing just to get RWA's!
Does anyone know the legalities for cars with no bumpers, I guess they'r not required to pass an MOT seeing the number of chavs with plastic body kits and midgets/Bs with none.
And stick on numberplates, yay or nay, or were they outlawed with b&w ones?
Bazza - Where are you based and how much(ish)
Unless your car was manufactured before a certain time, AFAIK, the plates must be standard, not stick on or B&W.
No idea on the legalities of bumpers, but I suspect there are none.
No it's not that simple. Have a good look at those front wings again, there is a huge cut-out when the bumpers are removed. You have the lower part only of the light mount, and a gaping hole above it. The rear wings are different too under the rear light plyinth, on the chrome it is rounded and finished off, your wings will have a huge step, which means a huge gaps when a chrome bumper is introduced. The biggeset problem is the chassis rails at the front, which come into the grille area, these would need to be cut away and reboxed in(welded) to accept a grille. Nothing to do with the arches. Then you have front bumper mounts to fit. It's far from straight forward. I've done a few MGB conversions, there is a kit for them, but nothing for the Midget.
Hi WCA
I am down south I live in a village called Clanfield. Its between Portsmouth and Guidford.
Its not going to be the cheapest westfield as it has a huge spec.
Do you have an email address on the bike bash web site ? I can email you a number and we can talk about it.
Bazzer
ahh, maybe not then.
Quite like the look of the racier midgets (no bumpers and a plain mesh grill). If I've nothing better to do over the winter and it doesnt swallow any more money before then it might make a cool project 🙂
"with the mustang first (in the wet, driving sidesways most of the way!)"
Mine have all done that in the dry as well tbf 🙂
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there were two of them ... the (first) reason they turned into a passat est is bouncing on the driving seat of the caterham
Old toy sold 5 years ago:
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And recently got rid of this and regret it every day.... utterly amazing car:
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Gee-Jay - what engines in those?
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VR6; Love it...
Where are all the fast cars then? 😆
sofa - a couple of these cars would happily keep up with anything the general public would consider fast. Some are just nippy.
The scooby was just a stock early model turbo one. The caterham was a VX 2.ltr .... pushing about 225 bhp which felt pretty quick in a 600kg car & when you could put your hand flat on the road while sitting in the drivers seta if you had wanted .... in theory just under 4.0 secs for 0-60 put I never abused it that much.
Oddly all the local saxo's never bothered to try to overtake from the traffic lights when I was in the suburu but they all thought they would be faster away than the caterham .... they never were 🙂
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Mine - Audi TTC 225 after the weekend at Glentress and Innerleithen.
Went from this:
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to this
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to this (my favourite by some margin)
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and now drive this (arguably the 'best' ownership proposition)
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Both of the M3s and my current steed have all ended up with uprated suspension and big brakes, although with 2 small kids now I don't have the time or money for any trackdays other than my annual Nurburgring pilgrimage but my bikes take up what spare time and cash I end up with!
all ended up with uprated suspension and big brakes
At last, someone who knows how to make a car faster without dumping a huge turbo on the side!
You've go to love the E36 with 321bhp of NA power. What are the chavtastic alloys all about though? 🙄
Unsure which ones are chavtastic?! ❓ 
The green M3 was a 3.0 and 295bhp - the wheels are the standard forged Gt wheels with black centres, and the violet M3 was a 3.2 but with a carbon airbox, remap and racing cats so up from 321bhp to about 350. The wheels on that again were the standard 3 piece Schnitzer racing wheels with 285/30/18 rear tyres (don't miss buying those!)
my toy. had it for years but sadly doesn't get enough use these days...
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Awesome car! Always loved the Integrale..
thanks. They are special, it gets attention wherever it is.
I was at the Goodwood Revival this weekend just gone, man, there was some amazing hardware there!
This -
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Me too on the Integrale, the amount of time I have spent dreaming of having one of those .. oh well, sometime maybe.
I missed the revival this year, last year was great though
Love Alfa'a and Lancia's
here's my GTV, had it for over 5 yrs and a definate keeper, quite a few 'upgrades'from standard and plenty fast enough.
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My BMW 330Ci M Sport. Standard trim it's 270bhp but is going get chipped soon. Limited to 155mph at the moment and 0-60 in 6.5 secs so reasonably quick in standard trim. Love the E46 shape - think it's the best they've done
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That Integrale is the mutts nuts. Anyone remember Mike Spence Motorsport, Integrale mecca?!
Now this is proper scary fast.....
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My old Elise Sport 190, great on track now replaced with a double pushchair
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"My old Elise Sport 190, great on track now replaced with a double pushchair"
*wipes tear from eye*
I know how you feel man...
Room in the garage now for more bikes though 😉
V8 shin print, lovely 'grale
tell me about intergrale ownership, do you think it could be used as an everyday car? I have always wanted on since I saw one aged 11 at rally GB. I recently missed out on a evo 1 that seemed a sound buy.You dont want to part with yours do you?
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the elise and exige just look so good. its cool that they come from just down the road.have the americans ever come out with anything that handles well and looks that good for that kind of money? i cant think of anything.
seeing as how my rusty disposable car isnt the slowest up to this point in the thread.. heres a pic of it.uprated suspension with eibach springs and big brake conversion before any turbo`s here too!
http://martin-james.fotopic.net/p38152992.html
A few years ago I owned this:
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1330cc with 105bhp, and adjustable shocks all round, then went to this:
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Broke down lots, so got this:
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Had the Westie for 7 years now!
+1 for the Integrale. Absoloute legend car. IME they always feel very heavy/cumbersome,like you're towing a trailer, UNTIL you start actually driving it, then it all comes alive in an unbeleivable way. A real 10/10ths car.
ChopperT and Swisstony, Alfa, proper cars!!!!
Mrs Surfer has a 147 2.0 Sillyspeed! Good fun!
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I know you're all going to say boy-racer shopping car, but a fully built from the sump up 1800cc DOHC VTEC engine, short ratio box with LSD, properly uprated suspension (billet arms, PU bushes, coilovers, whiteline rollbars, cusco braces all over the shop) Big ass brakes (for a little car), cast magnesium alloys, all sound proofing out, light weight carpet and a smattering of rare JDM bits later....
t'was fast to say the least, 234bhp @ just under 8000rpm, 13 second 1/4 miles and low 6's to 60 😀
Integrales look awesome especially that one, I hope I never loose my head and buy one as ownership is meant to be crippling?
I'm building a mk1 golf that will be fastist one day but at the moment I seem to spend my time working on it involves lots of artificial suntan.
Zeds easily wins the drag race here! How much cash has gone into that?
Just getting into the fast car thing myself, when the lease car arrives my ageing Civic VTi is going to be rebuilt, already got a turbo and some rather large brakes. I thought bikes were expensive, cars are a different league!