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242GT 1979 Group C Race Car

Thanks VQ.

Get some runs under our belt and some reliability back into it and then we will see if we can eek a few more HP out of it.

Racing is not always about maximum hp so very keen to see what the work we have done means in terms of drivability and lap times in a race setting. Will know in a weeks time.
 
Well Morgan Park 2016 run and done.

We had issues on the Friday in practice where the car lost spark after approximately 10 minutes on track. At first we thought it was the ignition module (which was a brand new part by the way) and or the coil. We changed both and nothing was different so we put the old items back in. We tried it again and it fired to life which was very weird. So we took it out again for next practice and same thing happened. Basically when car was hot the fire went out and once it cooled some all was good. We had changed the ignition module and coil whilst hot so we were left with the distributor. We grabbed the 2 spare distributors we had and changed it out on Saturday morning before qualifying and all was good. Issue fixed. We went on to run Qualifying and 4 races with no issues. We knocked 1.5 seconds off our PB lap time and much improvement still left in the car once the driver gets some more seat time. Car pulls strong and sounds awesome.

We had plenty of fellow Volvo tragics visit us for a chat which was fantastic. We were also pitted next to the only remaining group A Volvo race car in Australia which was out on its first outing since having a pretty major rebuild on everything apart from external paint.

Couple of pictures from track

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ISPoaFNl.jpg
 
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In that vid I saw ignition wires touching metal. They will eventually chafe and short to ground. Just an observation.

Whatcha do to check your distributor hall sensor is grab a labscope and check for square wave with no glitches.

Ignition module; you also check signal in and out with the proper tools.
 
Thanks Duly noted.

We have handed Dizzys over to specialist to check and properly sort 2 out. 1 to fit and one for a spare
 
What generally goes wrong with the dist is the pin gets sloppy. I have seen American 90's trucks where there is enough slop in the pin to cause issues with the hall effect pickup and cause running/starting issues. Connector issues too. Crimps go bad, especially when soaked in oil, and then corrosion on connectors, and broken wires will all cause issues.

I must say, that is a nice 240 I see in those pics. Awesome!!!
 
Thanks for kind words.

Yes we are also going to renew the wires from Distributor to ignition module and to coil etc as all fairly brittle. We are changing plug style of wires out of distributor to not have wire bent at 90 degree angle as bound to fail sooner or later.

Here is a link to some you tube footage of one of the races

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glfvorJrNJE
 
hahahha at 1:25 there seems to be a dead bloke trailing from the vehicle!!! I wanna get to the AUS continent badly. I hope to do so before death.
 
Nice to see more Volvos out there. Good to see Rob still running his Gp A car as well.

ZVOLV said:
In that vid I saw ignition wires touching metal. They will eventually chafe and short to ground. Just an observation.
Click to expand...
^ This.

I've seen that go bad first hand. Luckily a turn marshal got to the car fast enough with an extinguisher.

From this (Note despite the clean engine compartment, the loose wires just run everywhere.):

itbbeforefire01_zpsmkuuwwy5.jpg


To this in one weekend on a fresh car:

itbfire01_zpsovcyypkh.jpg


The loose dangling wires rubbed through and caused the fire.

itbfire03_zps5zizfchs.jpg
 
Thanks Guys - Will do a bit of an audit and tidy up in prep for next outing. We have a number of small improvements to make so will have a good look whilst doing it. Onto some NOS wires for a start from Distributor and ignition module amongst some other things.

Got a photo courtesy of Ben with his watermark on it. Amongst other things it was its first outing with DVS 350lb front springs (Standard 5 Inch) 250lb rear (5 Inch) and Kaplenhke rear adjustable perches and not looking to bad. Felt pretty good.

v6QLxGsl.png
 
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Some more photos

As a comparison here is 2015 with 250lb front and 150lb rear spring rates

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Rest of this post deleted due to Photobucket Scam
 
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Got these on their way from the USA too. New Old stock items for ignition to Distributor. Seriously considering one of Dave Bartons Engine wiring harnesses to and that way all wiring within the engine bay will be new including connectors.


Photos lost due to Photobucket - They were nice though
 
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Got some photos today courtesy of Ian Welsh from Shifting Focus so thought I would share a couple of my favorites.

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oyjGkF2l.jpg
 
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Car got an outing at Queensland Raceway on Sunday for some street sprints. Running with a full V8 field but managed to post a better time than a few of the V8's but that is always dependent on car set up and driver. Car ran well all day and is handling very nice and great to get some more seat time.

We have fitted the new old stock wiring from distributor to Ignition module and from ignition module to coil and ballast. Nice to see some supple wiring and decent connectors

Here are a couple of pics courtesy of Andrew R.

My Favorite Pic from the day

MJ4stD5l.jpg


Here is a link to live stream footage from the day. Go to Sunday footage and Volvo in events starting at the very beginning, 1 hour 50, 4 hour 50 and 7hour 12 minute and gets a decent mention at 2 minute 51 sec mark

http://livestream.com/qldraceways/2-days-of-thunder

Next Outing Winton Raceway in August and by then we will have modified the cold air intake and the exhaust slightly.

We will then be heading to the Muscle car masters late in October in Sydney where Mark Petch will be having John Bowe drive his turbo Group A car from 1986. Craig Nelson should also have his recently acquired Richard Prince Group A there too which will make 3 volvo entries in same event. Article attached below on Petch car

http://www.supercars.com/news/championship/saturday-sleuthing-the-aussie-built-volvo-240/
 
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Just finished our weekend at Winton Raceway. We ran 2 practice runs Friday and qualifying and two races Saturday. Sunday we got one race in and had to miss the start on the last race as welds joining exhaust to tail pipe cracked and besides sounding bad we were a chance of dropping on track even after we added some extra wire support so erred on side of caution and did not start.

Car ran well and feels good on track. My first time at winton and managed to improve my times from qualifying to last race by two seconds a lap so was not unhappy with that.

Heaps of conversations with people who love the car and fact it has managed to survive and return to the track.

Also took my Lovely wife for a run in the car in the lunchtime parade laps on Sunday and car got quite a mention on trackside commentary and the story from 1979 which is very cool in my books.

We will fix the exhaust and run our eyes over everything else and we will head to Sydney for Muscle Car Masters in October.

Couple of pics from Winton

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We had to get a new exhaust made as we were forced to miss the last race at Winton due to the pipe cracking away exiting the single muffler with the real chance it would fall off on track. It was also sounding very ordinary as it was chuffing and rattling.

The old system was constricted in the bends as it was not mandrel bent. Sorry for quality of photos and forgot to take one of the rear section. The black item is the new section from factory manifold to first join. We took the opportunity to lengthen the section of dual pipe as reportedly it provides a little more HP.

Couple of shots of old verse new - Apology for quality of pics. Black is new

Photos lost due to Photobuckets extortion attempt - Apologies

Off to Queensland Raceway today for some sprints to test it out.

If nothing else it sounds so crisp now
 
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QR track test reveled the need to mount the new exhaust a little closer to floor and will shorten the exit past the sill a little. Friction marks when stayed on tarmac suggest it would be wise. Plus will improve the visual too
 
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