OUR CARS
88 September 2019 http://www.completekitcar.co.ukStent’s been on a mission to get his Cyclone ready for a Pyrenees blast.
Several jobs still need attending to.
ALL THE RIGHT GEAR
I
use my car quite a bit, and often it’s on the motorway, en
route somewhere. One long-term frustration I’ve had has
been with how loud the exhaust is, and I nally found
a local company I felt con dent could create something
suitable for reasonable money. Titan Exhausts in Taunton,
Somerset, was tasked with the job and given perhaps the most
unusual request ever... to make the exhaust as quiet as possible.
Of course, one of the big challenges is tting any new system
within the limited available space without impacting on the
gearlinkage which pops out at the back of the car right in the
centre. e other issue is to ensure the silencer assembly is rigid
enough so that the outlet pipe doesn’t destroy the surrounding
breglass as it rocks back and forth (as the previous bodge had!).
Titan had the car for almost a week and was happy to see the back
of it – it had been a tricky job. But the end result is impressive,
down 14dB at tickover and down 16dB at 3000rpm... that’s quite
a lot. e location of the box is neat too, being well supported and
joined to the existing downpipe via a small exible section, to take
yet more movement out of the silencer. Great result.
Next challenge on my hit list was to address the gearlinkage,
which is generally ne, but nding fth gear has increasingly
become something of a lottery. Getting my son Charlie to sit
in the car and wiggle the gearlever while I watched what the
linkage was doing at the gearbox end, everything became clear.
e original universal joint which attaches to the gearbox outlet
shaft was clearly shot and allowing far too much movement.
But sourcing a new one for an old F20 Vauxhall gearbox proved
impossible... they just don’t exist. But what I could nd was a
gearlever assembly for a Vauxhall Corsa that appeared to have
exactly what I needed within a much larger mechanism. And
because the whole thing cost just £15 I thought it was worth a
punt. On arrival, it certainly looked promising and just needed
to be cut free from its shackles. is done with a grinder, I then
spent a while cleaning up the cut edges and getting it looking
about right.
en came the moment of truth when I had to remove the
existing universal joint, and therefore ruin any existing gearchange
and, potentially, nd that what I’d created was completely wrong! ankfully they both appeared similar, although the shaft on
the new joint was fractionally narrower than the old one and the
existing clamp on the Cyclone linkage now wouldn’t grip the new
shaft securely enough without modi cation. My trusty Dremel
opened up the adjustment slot in the tube and the new shaft is just
about held securely. Next up was restoring the shift action itself.
While easy to get it close enough, to achieve a really good change
required the tiniest of adjustments and, in the end, it was a case of
trial and error. But the end result is... spectacular. e car has never
had such a precise gearchange.
A bit of bodgery next I’m afraid. e side grills I tted to the car
after it was sprayed were originally sprayed with etch primer and
paint, but they get the full force of rainwater and road dust and
grit and have, in the last two years, become rather rusty. Removing
them is a massive undertaking, even though this is what I ought to
do in order to get to the back of the grill to remove all the existing
corrosion. So instead I’ve rubbed the fronts down as best I can
and painted them with a coat of Smoothrite. I know it won’t last.
I know there are better options... I know it’s an amateur bodge,
but it looks OK and I can always repaint it again next year... I can
almost hear John Dickens grinding his teeth in disapproval!
I have probably now covered around 800 miles in the last
month, trying to give the car a good run before heading over to
the Pyrenees with my wife Kate for our summer holiday in the car.
e nal job I want to achieve before we go is to try and reduce
heat in the centre tunnel from the radiator cooling pipes that pass
front to back through it. e resulting radiated heat is sucked into
the cockpit (from behind the dash) when driving at speed with the
roof removed and it gets extremely hot! Two ideas are planned for
the next week. First I’m going to lag the pipes with conventional
domestic foam pipe insulation after having sought advice online
( John D even chipped in with this bit of advice!). And secondly
I would like to work out a way of getting air into the front of
the tunnel, so that it can pass through the tunnel and reduce the
temperature that way. I’m hoping the combination may make a
big di erence.
In the next issue I’ll let you know whether it works, and whether
the Cyclone survived its Pyrenees run unscathed. Wish me luck.This month’s main task was getting a new exhaust for the Cyclone... ...with the aim of making it as quiet as possible.IAN
STENT
Project:
CC Cyclone
This month:
A new exhaust, and
preparation for a trip
to the PyreneesThis month’s main task was getting a new exhaust for the Cyclone...086 Our Cars.indd 88 01/08/2019 12:49 pm