Having received the MSA Go Racing pack just before Xmas, I read through the "Blue Book" to cross reference the general safety & noise regulations that I will have to adhere to in order to be eligible for the 750MC Sport Specials series.
My fireproof overalls and Arai GP5 helmet are still in date, but I will definitely need a new safety harness, as the Luke belts expired in 2008, and I will also need a 2.25 litre plumbed in fire extinguisher, as the hand held unit currently fitted is not sufficient for the Sport Specials regs. My Demon Tweeks catalogue has some Sparco Clubman belts for about 140 quid and a Clubman Fire Extinguisher kit for about 130 so I will order them in the new year. The other piece of hardware I need is a timing transponder.
On the noise front, the MSA definition of a Sports Car which applies to the Sylva means that I will have to silence it down to 105 decibels at 0.5 metres and 93 decibels at 2 metres. The last time I took the Sylva to a track it recorded 114db even with an extra Supertrapp fitted (9 times louder than the MSA limits!), so I have to do something to quieten it down.
The silencer can be fully rebuilt, and last year I took it apart and found that the filling material (steel wool) had broken down and disappeared (no wonder it was noisy); I repacked it with new filling and put the silencer back together. Having been quoted between 500 - 1800 notes for a new manifold, I decided to rebuilt my existing 4 into 1 item, which was blowing at several joints and the pipes themselves were a bit rusty on the surface, but otherwise the metalwork was solid.
So today I attacked the pipes with a wire brush to get the worst of surface rust off, then cleaned the metal up with a circular wire brush attachment on the end of my electric drill (which had recently proved a winner at restoring my iron fire grate). After giving it a final going over with emery cloth, I gave the pipes a wipe down with a wet wipe so that I had a clean smooth surface to paint.
Before painting them I used some Gun Gum to carefully seal up the joints, and then let the sealant dry. I gave the pipes a couple of coats of silver ultra high temperature paint, and while the paint dried I took the opportunity with the pipes off the car to give the engine & chassis a good wipe down. Having refitted the manifold, the engine bay "money shot" is now looking rather tidier!
Next job is to get the engine running so that I can test how loud it is with the noise meter app on my phone, and see whether the work has done the trick. No reason why not, as the car has raced before with these parts.
Once I have got the car running again (just a new battery & some fuel) I will need to get it dyno tested and weighed, as I have to get the power to weight ratio independently certified to prove that the car meets the 340 bhp / ton maximum allowed in Class C of the Sport Specials.
So for now that is all until the New Year, when we can look forward to hearing the bark of those Webers again, and this time a bark that is under 105 decibels!
My fireproof overalls and Arai GP5 helmet are still in date, but I will definitely need a new safety harness, as the Luke belts expired in 2008, and I will also need a 2.25 litre plumbed in fire extinguisher, as the hand held unit currently fitted is not sufficient for the Sport Specials regs. My Demon Tweeks catalogue has some Sparco Clubman belts for about 140 quid and a Clubman Fire Extinguisher kit for about 130 so I will order them in the new year. The other piece of hardware I need is a timing transponder.
On the noise front, the MSA definition of a Sports Car which applies to the Sylva means that I will have to silence it down to 105 decibels at 0.5 metres and 93 decibels at 2 metres. The last time I took the Sylva to a track it recorded 114db even with an extra Supertrapp fitted (9 times louder than the MSA limits!), so I have to do something to quieten it down.
The silencer can be fully rebuilt, and last year I took it apart and found that the filling material (steel wool) had broken down and disappeared (no wonder it was noisy); I repacked it with new filling and put the silencer back together. Having been quoted between 500 - 1800 notes for a new manifold, I decided to rebuilt my existing 4 into 1 item, which was blowing at several joints and the pipes themselves were a bit rusty on the surface, but otherwise the metalwork was solid.
So today I attacked the pipes with a wire brush to get the worst of surface rust off, then cleaned the metal up with a circular wire brush attachment on the end of my electric drill (which had recently proved a winner at restoring my iron fire grate). After giving it a final going over with emery cloth, I gave the pipes a wipe down with a wet wipe so that I had a clean smooth surface to paint.
Before painting them I used some Gun Gum to carefully seal up the joints, and then let the sealant dry. I gave the pipes a couple of coats of silver ultra high temperature paint, and while the paint dried I took the opportunity with the pipes off the car to give the engine & chassis a good wipe down. Having refitted the manifold, the engine bay "money shot" is now looking rather tidier!
Next job is to get the engine running so that I can test how loud it is with the noise meter app on my phone, and see whether the work has done the trick. No reason why not, as the car has raced before with these parts.
Once I have got the car running again (just a new battery & some fuel) I will need to get it dyno tested and weighed, as I have to get the power to weight ratio independently certified to prove that the car meets the 340 bhp / ton maximum allowed in Class C of the Sport Specials.
So for now that is all until the New Year, when we can look forward to hearing the bark of those Webers again, and this time a bark that is under 105 decibels!
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