The 1957 Dope Dauphine

[Adey]

27bhp when new 30 is a dream

 

[Turbell]

Nearly 900 quids worth of machining, balancing, guides seats etc, 500 Euro of new frenchy stuff and same in stock....I'm gunning on 21bhp, perhaps a touch more ...

 

[Brigsy]

Did not expect the copper head gasket. Any hot cams available to perk it up a bit?

 

[andybond]

Those pistons look tiny!

 

[Adey]

Did not expect the copper head gasket. Any hot cams available to perk it up a bit?

yeah i think there are a few old school options available, possibly the gordini cam. Turbell will probably know the answer to that one.

 

[Turbell]

Those pistons look tiny!

54.5 mm bore, cos this is 750 4cv build, not a 845cc Daupine
Cam wise, think metro Turbo grind is the go to option, Gordini cam isn't anything special.

904cc kit, metro t cam grind, autobleu or other suitable manifold and a 28/36dcd I think, gives 60-65bhp, more cc's means altering block and crank as far as I know.

 

[Brigsy]

65hp out of a 904cc is not bad to be fair, nice period upgrades. Is the oil system capable of some decent rpm?

On the other hand, dressing up a cleon to make it look old on twin carbs gets my vote too.

 

[Adey]

In my head the way to go on the 845cc would be to do a draw through setup on an AMR300 or 500 supercharger for a little boost in performance for little outlay, add mappable ignition and you would be laughing. The superchargers are fully self contained, can be ran in either direction. Ive seen Judson used to do a dauphine supercharger kit back in the day. The 904cc kit all the machining work and everything else needed would probably see you 2k+ built up

I did have a convo with a mate who is the tech help for an ecu brand who thought you could actually get away with mappable ignition and still retain the 6v

 

[Adey]

could probably get a single webber dcoe or a dellorto hooked up to the 845 without too much issue.

 

[Turbell]

65hp out of a 904cc is not bad to be fair, nice period upgrades. Is the oil system capable of some decent rpm?

On the other hand, dressing up a cleon to make it look old on twin carbs gets my vote too.

Three bearing crank, so there's a limit, properly built, not pushing past the 70bhp Mark think they're pretty sound, can't really comment out of experience, older Renault fellas know about those probs.
First ever Alpine A106 used the 904cc , loads used in competion, Monte etc
4cv and Dauphine only weigh in about 600kilo? So it's all relative

 

[Turbell]

But, the knee bone connects to the thigh bone......the thigh bone...
Clutch?....halfshafts??

 

[Adey]

But, the knee bone connects to the thigh bone......the thigh bone...
Clutch?....halfshafts??

alot of parts to go wrong or break, not like you can just place an order with eurocarparts and grab them in 20 min.

a usable car would be good to start with

 

[Brigsy]

All interesting info, to be fair i can imagine 60hp and lightweight being quite good fun with some work on the handling and brakes to suit

 

[Turbell]

Little black rubber things are cock rings for mice.....
Nah! Stem seals.
Head gaskets used be copper, well two thin coppers and layer of summat....probably asbestos....so don't give to kids to play with...
I've got stacks of them, cos I always used modern R4 ones, but engineer who specialises in older stuff said they're the bees bollocks torque 'em, never touch them again...?...so that's what is going in this one.

 

[Brigsy]

Copper gasket should be right Im shocked they actually have valve stem seals. First thing i bin on the c1j’s lol.

 

[Adey]

its literally a rubber ring, never seen one like it before

 

[Turbell]

Like the look of those little blowers !
A quick ebay search seemed to bring a few up, some look generic copies though, not so sure how long an untouched bottom end would last though.....KNOCK KNOCK!....Who's there? .......
Big ends.....
Sierra/Cleon swap is also gonna nead some cooling/rad changes, it's all on timing side on those, R8/10, takes air in on the engine cover instead of ahead of arches, you'd be best front rad.
Try and hook up with Dave Wheeler if you're serious on modifying the car to this point, he's done it all long before we were around, I got loads of advice on bolt ons for my car, not sure how .....RCCC facebook might get hold of him. Steve Swann might be easy to get hold of, @rustedandrotten possibly still in contact with him.
I know what I know but I'm no expert with all that larky, just trying to point out what I've been told/learnt, as once you go in a certain direction you need to be aware of how it might pan out, stuff that was around 15-20 years ago is now long gone.

 

[DaveL485]

It seems an awful lot of messing around for 27hp when you could drop a 60 or 70hp C-series in there pretty easily. I'd probably get a remote servo for the brakes too, if you double the power.

 

[Adey]

what's alot of messing around for 27bhp?

the chap who offers to sort me a gearbox for my engine and box has gone a little quiet. people have alot on at the moment so not pestering. box bolts in but will need to fabricate a fair bit to get the engine in there correctly, fairly simple though yes. Finding all the parts you need not so much. they have gone past scrap yard fodder so getting parts isnt all that easy anymore. chuck 60+Bhp in and it wont stop well, so then you are into uprated brakes, r16 disks or dauphine disk brakes go on so I'm told find some..... I really want to upgrade it all, but I also want to use it first. If I start ripping it all out without everything I need ready to go I'll end up with a car sat there potentially waiting parts for months or years and that ain't fun at all.

 

[Adey]

also fabricate a rad up front, and pipe it all in too.