My family of vehicles

[Julian]

First up is old faithful - my Dallara replica. Purchased in 2000 for ‚£1400 including a trailer to heft it around.


The picture was taken at Brands Hatch back in 2003 and shows off some experimentation in how to cool a snug-fitting mid-mounted engine. Extra ducts on the rear arches feed an intercooler mounted where the number plate used to be while the radiator cowling was removed and new ducting built to flow the air through the bonnet, hopefully in a cleaner manner than the original Dallaras and Prototipos. The result was hideous front end lift at about 120mph...

The engine lasted one race (actually it didn't even last that long) due to a small faux-pas on my part and a big faux-pas on the part of the engine builder. I hadn't run the engine often enough while it was in storage and the original engine builder had fitted sleeves to the bores and neglected to pin them relying instead on a dubious interference fit to keep them in place.

In a rush to just get the car back on track I resorted to using an early 1.3 Uno Turbo engine instead and while it was quick it wasn't reliable. Another engine builder got the sack after I discovered the water pump (an electric substitute) had been fitted incorrectly and was bypassing the radiator.

Currently the car is undergoing a slow total rebuild with a completely new engine.

[Julian]

The second car isn't actually mine - it is just the car I've been racing while the Dallara is rebuilt. Kindly on loan from Wolfdirect Racing and Anythingpunto (specialist punto breakers) who jointly own it.


A fine day at Oulton Park in 2006 and a cracking race spoilt by a fairly serious red flag incident just a few laps in when one of the supertourers tried to demolish a marshalls hut.

The car was originally built as a prototype for the Fiat Racing Challenge and was at the time the most successful of the newly permitted Puntos. It was semi-retired and sat idle for a year or so until I got my hands on it. Rather than continue in the FRC I was racing in the LMA Eurosaloons series and while it was poorly suited in terms of specification it has been immense fun.

At just 1242cc it is the smallest engine in the series and not surprisingly the least powerful (in terms of peak output) but it still managed to let me challenge in my class and pull in some trophies. The party trick is slow to mid-speed agility coupled with sure-footed handling in all weather conditions. Upsetting super tourers around Snetterton is excellent fun.

Sadly the weakpoint is the suspension alignment, the FRC rules don't allow for an awful lot and the stock hubs make it very hard to make the changes needed. It only takes one trip across the grass or worse still across heavily rippled kerbs to destroy the setup.

Ironically in comparison the chassis is suprisingly strong for a modern monocoque and even crashing head first into a tank like Porsche 924 didn't upset it.

[Julian]

For the road I have a heavily modified Seicento (or at least I will have once we get the final mapping session out of the way).


The engine is not far short of an all-out race engine. The compromise is on the camshaft and that is about it. The obvious feature is the 4 independent throttle bodies instead of the standard single body used on these cars. What you can't see is the headwork and balancing work. Small details like the crank pulley took a lot of preparation. The standard Fiat pulley will disintegrate without much provocation with obvious catastrophic effects to the head.

The gearbox is similarly prepared, utilising much longer gear ratios from the Fiat family parts bin coupled to a Honda limited slip differential and custom driveshafts. The clutch is by design the weak point in the system. With these ratios the vmax should be about 150mph, this isn't redline though - that comes at 180mph but we have (wisely I hope) chosen to ignore this potential and stick to something a bit more realistic for something with such a short wheelbase.

Suspension is an experimental design from Gaz - this may or may not prove to be the best decision but they are very confident that it will transform the car from fun around the twisty roads to just plain formidable. I haven't experienced the setup yet so I can't comment but the package includes some free pitside support time to fine tune the spring and damper rates.

[Julian]

An update on the Seicento:

I'm just coming to the end of the running-in period for the engine and gearbox and so far everything has been a success with some minor notes

The experimental suspension is still not fitted and while the handling of the car is fine it isn't up to track usage as a result so the performance envelope is largely unexplored.

The fuel pump is the biggest headache, for proper fuelling it needs to run at 3.5bar and at this pressure the pumps we've used so far only last a couple of months before dropping down to about 2bar. Thankfully this has proven more inconvenience than danger to the engine and thanks to the ease with which it can be changed on a Seicento it is more of an expense than headache (if anyone has a suggestion for which fuel pump to use I am all ears - it needs to be submersed in the fuel tank and the current pump of choice is from the Mk1 Punto Sporting as it is a direct swap).

Straightline performance from standing is, simply put, breathtaking. Definitely on a par with my old Griffith 500 which is roughly what we were aiming for. The noise made by the car is delightful, varying from reminiscent of a spitfire to echoing the old Ford BDAs.

Looking forwards the engine needs further mapping with the run-in completed and the new suspension fitted to really bring out the potential in the car.