Alpine Renault 8 GTT

[Turbell]

I'll start having a look-see after I'm back from me hollybobs.

 

[Steve Swan]

Can @Adey or @DaveL485 or any of the other management team confirm it would be ok for me to post up extracts from Renault's old solutions de replacement fiches regarding Renault bearings. Back in the 80's-90's when your part number came up as no longer available, with bearings it was possible to look up the solutions Fiches with sizes to cross reference numbers with bearing numbers to see if any other part nos existed for the same bits. In the end the parts manager got fed up of me living in the parts dept and printed off the 7 pages of bearings for me. I have them scanned and saved and can post them up they cover probably from 4CV to 1995???

 

[andybond]

Can @Adey or @DaveL485 or any of the other management team confirm it would be ok for me to post up extracts from Renault's old solutions de replacement fiches regarding Renault bearings. Back in the 80's-90's when your part number came up as no longer available, with bearings it was possible to look up the solutions Fiches with sizes to cross reference numbers with bearing numbers to see if any other part nos existed for the same bits. In the end the parts manager got fed up of me living in the parts dept and printed off the 7 pages of bearings for me. I have them scanned and saved and can post them up they cover probably from 4CV to 1995???

Please do.

If we get a cease and desist I will remove it.

Thanks!

 

[DaveL485]

Can @Adey or @DaveL485 or any of the other management team confirm it would be ok for me to post up extracts from Renault's old solutions de replacement fiches regarding Renault bearings. Back in the 80's-90's when your part number came up as no longer available, with bearings it was possible to look up the solutions Fiches with sizes to cross reference numbers with bearing numbers to see if any other part nos existed for the same bits. In the end the parts manager got fed up of me living in the parts dept and printed off the 7 pages of bearings for me. I have them scanned and saved and can post them up they cover probably from 4CV to 1995???

Go for it. If we get sued, we'll just grass you up and run away.

 

[Steve Swan]

Go for it. If we get sued, we'll just grass you up and run away.

Sounds like a plan then!

 

[Steve Swan]

Last thing I nearly forgot
I have reinstated the Dodgy looking stencil on the scuttle.



This covers.
Top line. Trim Black ?
Middle. build factory. Flins
Bottom paint code. 717 Dark Red

 

[Steve Swan]

End of Chapter 1 for me, but I suppose it's the end of Chapter 2 For @paule78 . It could be the end of chapter 21 Who knows.
Anyway I close off for now with the Reuniting of owner and Car some 9 months after dropping it off.





And the usual Cheesy owner shot




To paraphrase Winston Churchill
This is not the end, nor is it the beginning of the end, it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. All in all it's been quite fun, except the bits that weren't. Paul has been an exemplary owner, who understands the vagaries of unusual car ownership.
I hope he will Enjoy this fun little car, which can punch well above its weight and want to develop it a bit more, when his wallet and my temper have recovered !!
He has another project waiting in the wings, which may be better, but never funner.
That's all (for now) folks
Thanks for all your input over the months

Happy Motoring (while you still can)
Steve.....

 

[paule78]

First drive report.

After collecting the car from Steve I had a near 2 hour drive home after factoring some traffic but on the whole it was all glorious B road. Having sat in the car with Steve as he threw it about I was fairly confident of its grip and handling .. certainly didn't disappoint.

The car is just so much fun to drive .... back out in it yesterday I am getting used to where the power is and getting a little quicker on the shift .. as Steve will profess it needs all the clutch travel to shift and trying to quickly force it will see you lost in no mans land in the gearbox... but take a little extra time it is great, and I kind of like that it is more of an involved drive which is my major criticism of near all modern cars.

Already figuring where I find the money for stage 2

 

[Steve Swan]

It sure has changed a bit.

 

[Brigsy]

Looks awesome now compared to when i seen it before, Steve has done an excellent job putting it together. Enjoy, perfect weather for using it

 

[DaveL485]

What a spectacular transformation, and in a pretty impressive time span (when judged by the rest of this forum lol). Truly excellent.

 

[BobG]

The spring has arrived, even though it's meant to be summer.......
It's in and been up and down the road and if you were remotely interested you would have looked at this before when I posted it the first time.

View attachment 202877

It had too much rear bias and felt a bit odd on the road. flicking it from side to side gave you the sensation it would swap ends , then when you actually got your teeth into a bend it would understeer, this was not the car to give to @paule78 .

Changing the rear springs has produced this sheet with my long suffering Brother in Law sat in the seat for the duration and for the sake of slightly better science

View attachment 202878

Sorry about the quality of the pic , but you will note several changes, most if not all positive
The Road test revealed a more benign car which is much more neutral, but actually has a better front end. This while not perfect is close enough to return to it's owner for testing and appraisal an no doubt the production of a list of things to do.

This is the reason for measuring things once you have endured the pain of doing it a few times you can get where you want to be much quicker with subsequent attempts. when I first set up my 8 nearly 20 years ago. it took closer to 12 sheets to get something close to this for balance, and if you've read the Dauphine thread ..........Well you know don't you.
If I had not wrong footed myself with the wrong back springs thinking they were the right ones that are in now, then the 2nd sheet would have been the 1st sheet and I would have been a Legend (in my own mind anyway) but this is real life and I'm never that lucky


Definitely not much more soon......... bet you're glad.............

Steve, Looking over your setup sheets I assume RH is ride height. If so, where do you make this measurement? I'd like to compare my R8 values with Paul's car.

 

[Steve Swan]

Steve, Looking over your setup sheets I assume RH is ride height. If so, where do you make this measurement? I'd like to compare my R8 values with Paul's car.

Bob
There are no absolutes on this Corner weight and Ride height are linked (kind of) Raising the spring rate on a corner will tend to lower that cornerweight and raise the opposite diagonal cornerweight. It also tends to lower the weights on the same side as the change and across the same axle slightly.
I guess it is an old habit from single seater set up days and using ride heights to get the car into the ball park, then switching to corner weights to fine tune.
I measure form the front corner of the sill and the rear edge of the sill and I would like Paul's car to be about 12-15mm lower than it is, but it has a large rear tyre (to help the gearing) and going too far hurts the handling, due to the swing axle design, so I have left it to settle down and will look at it again in the future.
Never try to get an 8 at 50/50 weight distribution. I did it once for a race meeting and it pissed down, the car really felt like it was trying to kill me at every corner, the lift off oversteer had to be experienced to be believed.
Also, always disconnect any anti-roll bars and camber compensators before corner weighting as they will skew the balance of the chassis. Determining their effectiveness is never easy and not really a job for the public highway.....

 

[BobG]

@DaveL485 Sounds like a plan. The only ones I can see are the malpassi version, which I don't know anything about, quality etc. Other types aimed at fuel injection which will Feck the Carby in no time at all.

In other news the MK1 throttle linkage is finished

View attachment 201330

And I don't like it ! it works well enough. I will try it on the motor and see

The Mk2 is cooking away at the mo.

Steve,
Is there any reason I can't mount my carb in the orientation in the figure below (with angle corrected to vertical) instead of the way you did it on @paule78 car (above)?

 

[Steve Swan]

It's to do with the position of the mainjet in relation to the laws of Physics. The only time fuel can slip away from the mainjet is under braking. If you leave it standard it runs out of fuel on right-handers I remember.
All these little wrinkles have to be ironed out, before it all works properly.
Ultimately the throttle spindle should be in line with the crank, which it won't be, but it is the lesser of two evils.
Straightaway you realise that the people who design cars,are not as stupid as they seem, well sometimes anyway.....

 

[BobG]

It's to do with the position of the mainjet in relation to the laws of Physics. The only time fuel can slip away from the mainjet is under braking. If you leave it standard it runs out of fuel on right-handers I remember.
All these little wrinkles have to be ironed out, before it all works properly.
Ultimately the throttle spindle should be in line with the crank, which it won't be, but it is the lesser of two evils.
Straightaway you realise that the people who design cars,are not as stupid as they seem, well sometimes anyway.....

Thanks Steve, that makes sense.

 

[paule78]

First up apologies ... Steve handed me not only a beautiful car but the responsibility to maintain this thread .. I failed.

The 8 has been mostly tucked up since last year after an unfortunate overheating event when I threw a belt and then a series of trial and errors as a new sump, oil pump etc was found. Well the update will be brief .. as Steve said when we first spoke he would get the car to a point I could use it to see if I actually like it ... well I do .. a lot.

So with that in mind it is time for some upgrades .. lots of upgrades ... over next few months the car will be treated to EFI, new Helix clutch, TTv flywheel, Mark Lloyd manifolds, bigger turbo, new water pump .... the pile of parts is almost as big as the car.

But before the car gets pulled apart it would have been rude not to make use of the nice weather and have a little spin ... boost and dump valves will never get old

 

[Steve Swan]

It is actually quieter than a standard 8 would be. @Turbell this is the future...............

 

[Adey]

so much win going on

 

[Turbell]

@Steve Swan , car looks, and goes a treat.
Built by the right bloke, looks like it's owned by the right bloke too.
Hats off to both of you.
I'm going full OE for now, building with what's in front on us, short motor is now built from original low mileage, but seized 1108cc, shell will get chop chop this year.
Baby steps, haven't got the interest I used to have, just dabble when it suits me, gather stuff as it turns up.