danb
Well-Known Member
So for those of you that don't already know I have recent purchased the Black Quadra that was being sold by Alpine.
Only having my license for a year I would not be able to tow the car myself (stupid laws that are now in place!) so my father was assigned the task! Before we could even think about towing it a bracket/frame needed to be made up - as I'm sure you are all aware the front towing eye on the 21 is ridiculous.
So firsts things first, get the tow bar back on the car - after ripping it off of my red phase 1 we set about buying some sheet metal to repair it with - unfortunately no pics of this as its not very interesting haha
Next was the design of the towing frame.. I've seen what is possible from Rabson/Sibley and their bracket is very strong - after all it towed the scally pretty much all the way back from France. The only problem with this is you loose about 70cm of your tow rope/bar.
A few ideas flew around and then we decided that as we had a hefty bit of angle iron hanging around we would get some 30x30x3mm box section to make a triangle.
Bit of flat bar which happens to bolt up into two eyes from on the front cross member to stop side to side movement.
An addition to this after the current pic was another bit of the box section welded just infront of the flat bar which rests against the underside of the front cross and stops and violent upwards movement.
A bit of 10mm thick plate ontop of the angle iron which fits up inside the recess that is left after removing the lead dampener but this is only loosely coupled by the 2 M8 bolts up into the subframe. A simple loop welded on the end.
This frame is HARDCORE you can jump up and down on it...It should be available for use within the club if need be!
So with the tow bar fixed to the 2wd and the frame made to fit - purchased a towing rope and dampened bar, borrowed tail light assembly, made up a temporary rear numberplate of the towing car. Loaded the boot with tools and goodies incase they were needed! And set about getting up to Alex in good time.
Its about a 2-2.5 hour trip up to Hereford from High Wycombe so didn't rush took our time averaged 38MPG which isn't to be sniffed at! Got there earlier than I predicted as we managed to set out a bit earlier which is a bonus.
Met Alex, checked over the car, sorted out the relevant paperwork and set about getting the frame bolted up. Pumped up the tyres as they were a little flat and then got it hooked up to the other car.
And the towing fun began..I have never been towed before so it was going to be a steep learning curve! But we made it home safely without seeing any police!
Now she is a little worse for wear and needs a bit of TLC on the body work front - some rusty bits here and there. But hope to get her back to a reasonable standard ready for use as my daily driver!
Ofcourse being resprayed do you think its going to have been resprayed in Renault Black...helllllll noo
Had to take the nosecone to a local paint shop who confirmed my fathers suspicions of it being .............. Vauxhall Black LOL
We came away with a litre of Black Cellulose paint and some thinners..ready for the fun to begin..
More pictures to come!!
Only having my license for a year I would not be able to tow the car myself (stupid laws that are now in place!) so my father was assigned the task! Before we could even think about towing it a bracket/frame needed to be made up - as I'm sure you are all aware the front towing eye on the 21 is ridiculous.
So firsts things first, get the tow bar back on the car - after ripping it off of my red phase 1 we set about buying some sheet metal to repair it with - unfortunately no pics of this as its not very interesting haha
Next was the design of the towing frame.. I've seen what is possible from Rabson/Sibley and their bracket is very strong - after all it towed the scally pretty much all the way back from France. The only problem with this is you loose about 70cm of your tow rope/bar.
A few ideas flew around and then we decided that as we had a hefty bit of angle iron hanging around we would get some 30x30x3mm box section to make a triangle.
Bit of flat bar which happens to bolt up into two eyes from on the front cross member to stop side to side movement.
An addition to this after the current pic was another bit of the box section welded just infront of the flat bar which rests against the underside of the front cross and stops and violent upwards movement.
A bit of 10mm thick plate ontop of the angle iron which fits up inside the recess that is left after removing the lead dampener but this is only loosely coupled by the 2 M8 bolts up into the subframe. A simple loop welded on the end.
This frame is HARDCORE you can jump up and down on it...It should be available for use within the club if need be!
So with the tow bar fixed to the 2wd and the frame made to fit - purchased a towing rope and dampened bar, borrowed tail light assembly, made up a temporary rear numberplate of the towing car. Loaded the boot with tools and goodies incase they were needed! And set about getting up to Alex in good time.
Its about a 2-2.5 hour trip up to Hereford from High Wycombe so didn't rush took our time averaged 38MPG which isn't to be sniffed at! Got there earlier than I predicted as we managed to set out a bit earlier which is a bonus.
Met Alex, checked over the car, sorted out the relevant paperwork and set about getting the frame bolted up. Pumped up the tyres as they were a little flat and then got it hooked up to the other car.
And the towing fun began..I have never been towed before so it was going to be a steep learning curve! But we made it home safely without seeing any police!
Now she is a little worse for wear and needs a bit of TLC on the body work front - some rusty bits here and there. But hope to get her back to a reasonable standard ready for use as my daily driver!
Ofcourse being resprayed do you think its going to have been resprayed in Renault Black...helllllll noo
Had to take the nosecone to a local paint shop who confirmed my fathers suspicions of it being .............. Vauxhall Black LOL
We came away with a litre of Black Cellulose paint and some thinners..ready for the fun to begin..
More pictures to come!!
