clubstylus

Had three guys wanting to look at it all at once this weekend , one of them in my village , after all this time.
It's sold today to a guy from Colchester area. Hopefully he'll sign on here and chat along with the rest of us plus he wants to join in any track meets we have

Rob

That's good news.

Matt

Not if it gets turned into a bathroom

just spend it again before she can make you rob! another set of tyres and some nice shiny bits'll do the trick!

Some will definitely go into the Stylus BUT I feel a '' browney points '' collection day coming on ----------

Nice to see my old car getting some tlc at last.

The whole build and sale was quite a saga and a love hate relationship (i loved it, my wife hated it). I never intended to sell it. Plan was to work in England for a couple of years, build a car, tour Europe, take the car back to Australia.

Lead times blew out and by the time the rolling chassis was finally ready, I had to get Pete to build the rest of it to have it done in time. I left it unpainted and untrimmed so it Australian customs would believe that it only cost a few thousand pounds (it's actual cost still gives me chest pains).

Then disaster, while I was away Australia changed the rules so that you had to have owned the car (registered and on the road) for 12 months before you were allowed to import it, not six months like it had been. After our incident filled trip, there was no way my wife was going to hang around in the UK for six months so I could bring "the bloody car" back with me.


I'm not a big fan of the colour it ended up with, someone's taken Pete's elegant side vents and replaced them with a Demon Tweaks part, and for some reason the Porsche style headlights have gone. Still I did sell it....but once it's 10 years old (only three years to go) I can import it without any drama, unless they change the rules again! So please keep an eye on it and if it comes up for sale again let me know.

Cheers, Col



PS: Pete definitely focussed on making the car fast, where we had been hoping to build a pretty fast & slightly civilised car ...in a nutshell here's our 3 months trip:

- Drove to the channel tunnel, handbrake failed as we parked (brazed end came off)
- Drove home and got it fixed, back to the tunnel couldn't get the boot open to show customs our gas cyclinder (for some reason Pete used a solid piece of wire rather than cable for the boot release - it was always touch and go whether you would get it open!)
- Started off through Europe. After four hours that rorty exhaust started to get a bit loud. After eight hours it just hurt. (When we got back we noticed the crew in the Liege Targa wore industrial ear defenders)
- The fuel pump starts to compete with the exhaust for noise level and we break down in the St Gottard tunnel (world's longest at the time) . So spend four days waiting for a replacement pump etc in a crappy hotel at the tunnel exit.
Turns out the supply pipe was on too tight a radius and had collapsed in on itself.

At this point I'm starting to question the wisdom of a three month tour as a shakedown test.

- Everything went well after that until I started to hear tyre rubbing on the Autstrada into Piza. The rear suspension arms are bent. (My fault, Pete had said he'd give us re-inforced ones as he knew they were a weak point for touring, but I forgot all about it. Pete sent us re-inforced replacements very quickly.
- By the time we get to Austria the fuel pump is back up to earth shatteringly load. Turns out the other pipe has the same fault. Five more days stranded, but at least were in a nice spot.
- With no trim the heat from the engine and exhaust is extrordinary so we decide we're not going south into Spain and head across Germany to Scandinavia, where the holes in the bulkhead quickly turn things freezing and we have some terrifying aquaplaning moments and a lot of time with the car wriggling about in heavy vehicle ruts in the motorways. Not nice, but probably my fault in retrospect. Pete said not to overtighten the supension arms, I think I must have left them too loose.
-Finally back in England with the realisation I need to sell it . Pete agreed to sell it on my behalf , and I set of to drive up there from Surrey. Taped the passenger side roof to the window, as both windows flap out at speed, collecting rain nicely and pouring it into the cabin. Not that it matters, so much water comes into the footwell from where the bonnet channel is cut to make way for the master cylinder that having a roof seems a cruel joke. Giving it a bit of stick on the M40 when there's a fairly scary noise and I vere across two lanes of traffic at speed. Call the recovery guys and as I drive onto their truck the handbrake fails again. You couldn't have scripted it better.

What did we learn:
- A Stylus will rev higher and go faster when your wife is not in the car
- While it can hold a lot of stuff, a Stylus is not a sensible choice for a three month camping holiday. A newly built Stlyus even less so.
- You can save alot of money at parking stations by just driving under the barrier.

Oh, and my wife is now scared of tunnels.

Seems like you had a one of a kind adventure there. And as it seems, it's not a good idea to take the missus out in it on public road for the first time, ask how Rob knows

Looking back on LLANDOW, I think that's the best possible place to have them out for the first time.

And regarding all problems, it is and stays a kitcar and stuff like that is to be expected, though that a factory finished car shouldn't be suffering this.

And regarding the suspensionbolts, they have to be tight as the crushtube needs to be gripped, but you have to make sure the crushtube is 1 to 2 mil longer then the polybushes (wich most of us have to grind down a little) otherwise you grip the bushes instead of the tubes.

Hi Colin,
Unfortunately , you suffered from the ignorance of your advisor mate The very first trip I took in my newly built Stylus , both rear arms bent plus one front rocker arm This was and never has been bugger all to do with arm strength I took P.P. to task about it 7 years ago and found him wanting technically. Arms bend due to incorrect shock length/spring lbs & length and the setting of ------------- period I.E. if the shock piston runs out of travel any strength arms will BEND . When I bought your car it had the same faults that caused your experience . The gutter was easy to fix ------- built up a wall of sikaflex around the master cylinder gutter area ----------- no more water leaks Your springs were 180 lb front 130lb rear with 12- 85 shocks all round. I put 14 inch shocks/9inch springs on the rear with dipped arms(concave) then 11 inch shocks and 7inch springs up front. 225LBS FR 200LBS R. Many other bits/bobs but it was the suspension that P.P. never got to grips with. I spent a few years sprinting to develope my own answer then once Tim bought SSC things got sorted . M.Berry on this forum now has your car .
Great to hear from you and some guys do use Stylus's to tour without drama. Bob Wilson goes to LE MANS every year and other European venues then Mike Messenger has done the LEIGE rally and won it once ---------- that thousands of miles

Hi, this is my first post on here so I thought I would write about the story so far with colins old car.
I have sent the Alpha+ chip back to webcon for an upgrade, hopfully that will sort the flat spot it has at about 900rpm (it's a pig at lights/traffic) everything else was fine engine wise so it looks like it's the mapping. I gave it a clear out on the way home from picking it up (other half following, not in car ) 120mph and my ba**s went and it was still pulling!
I will address the roof Colin I know what you mean.

The Caterham seats will be going up for sale soon to be replaced by something with more lower back support.

The suspension (horrendous over steer especially if coming of the loud pedal at high revs) was dangerous 2up so a bit of tinkering required there but was much better with neutral tracking (it was toeing out)

I will track day the car and it will also be my everyday driver when not using the works van.

My other car is a Mk2 Striker with an RS2.1 so I'm used to the Type.

Nice forum/Web site btw.

Mark

And now for sale again. http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/581463.htm
Has it got 170@ the wheels Rob

Cerberus wrote:And now for sale again. http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/581463.htm
Has it got 170@ the wheels Rob

That's flywheel bhp plus the shocks are 1.9'' AVO's not GAZ

Ahh, 170@ the wheels, i thought that was a bit optimistic.

Phil

I see he has changed it now.

Phil

A quick update to the saga of the little BRG stylus.

It passed it's MOT today! so I celebrated with a trip out to a country pub (no alchohol for me) to mark what is a bit of a milestone. The car has given me a few moments of grief over the past few months but the effort has been worth it. Bit of a scare on the MOT as one of the front brakes was refusing to come on and off as quickly as it should have. Turns out that the hoses if screwed fully in to seat in the calliper were partially blocking the fluid ways to two of the four pistons . Sorted with a couple of banjo unions into the calipers and hoses into the unions.

Still lots of jobs to do, but for now, here it is apologies to any afficionados of gold paint brightwork

Cheers all

Kev

Camoradi wrote:A quick update to the saga of the little BRG stylus.

It passed it's MOT today! so I celebrated with a trip out to a country pub (no alchohol for me) to mark what is a bit of a milestone. The car has given me a few moments of grief over the past few months but the effort has been worth it. Bit of a scare on the MOT as one of the front brakes was refusing to come on and off as quickly as it should have. Turns out that the hoses if screwed fully in to seat in the calliper were partially blocking the fluid ways to two of the four pistons . Sorted with a couple of banjo unions into the calipers and hoses into the unions.

Still lots of jobs to do, but for now, here it is

DSC00619.JPG

DSC00620.JPG

apologies to any afficionados of gold paint brightwork

Cheers all

Kev

I think it looks great Kev' . The gold was just a way to tidy up an otherwise messy silensor so did other bits to mirror it Interesting you should mention the calliper problem Unfortunately it is or was a fault of design in ' that ' particular manufacturer's calliper. Originally discovered by Neville Powell NHP engineering on this forum/Babybertha He was fitting new ones to a Fury so phoned them to say he had to resite the hole They weren't helpful , denying all knowledge

Hope you didn't ' chuck ' the gold ally ' cover Sell it , it cost £40 for the piece 1 mt x 300mm