Mount Equinox Hillclimb

[gtrbg]

Finally got my eBay find U20 roadster out on a track. Still sorting things out. Shout out to DRP (Lynn and Jim) for their help on parts and advice (as well as answering my dumb question).

Cannot really complain about car or it being a eBay find at all as the car seems to forgive my mistakes despite coming out of a decades old slumber with only oil, fluid , hose change and removing the evil L in the motor . The Solex carbs seem to have kept adjustment well. My air fuel runs 12-13 on acceleration (I added a air fuel meter when I had the back half of the BRE headers recreated). They seem well balanced as well. Have a slight leak out of valve cover rubber gasket but so far no real British car leaks.

5 speed trans seems to shift well but does have a problem going into reverse about half the time. Does have some leakage on top of trans where levers go in. A bit noisy on deceleration but nothing compared to my sprite with straight cut gears.

At some point may need to send transmission for a rebuild.

Look forward to running it on a flat track but need to get race tires and wheels first. Ran it on the old steel wheels with weird backspacing on street radials. Has Hawaii SCCA plaque and came from California. Do wonder if last set up was more for auto cross since wheel offset way out in rear with a large gap to inner fender well. Still surprised by how smooth the car rides (in comparison to a Sprite). Have original competition rear springs and old red Konis.


My brother runs a Datsun 1600 that is well sorted and he is a much better driver so he beat a number of old Porsche’s up the hill.

I made it to the top but had overheating issues so had to take it easy near the top to prevent repeated boil overs. It’s a 5 mile run up a Vermont Mountain.

May run it at Lime Rock next.

[Gregs672000]

Sounds fun! I'd watch that over heating stuff though... and it should be able to handle the run, so??? The leak on the trans may be the same as mine... there's no seal to keep oil from coming up through the little spring mounts that gives the stick shift it's springy centering. Some owners here are working on a fix but I'm not sure where that stands. Some are worse than others, and we swapped tail housings for one that was better and that's reduced it.

[JT68]

Shout out to DRP (Lynn and Jim) for their help on parts and advice (as well as answering my dumb question).

Of course, glad to help! Sounds like a lot of fun and a good start..

We do have one of those lower radiator scoop/ducts if you need one. Since yours is a track car, it may help with high speed cooling.

some simple AL ducts in between the grill opening and the radiator will probably help too.