Race Engine Forum UK

Hi all,
Lazy Saturday afternoon here in Sydney (should be studying but what the heck!), so I thought I'd post some happy snaps of the X I've owned since '91 or '92 - can't remember now exactly. I first saw pix of Dallara's in the mid-80's so I bought this car with the express intention of doing a road / race look-alike to replace a Sprite I had. Other stuff got in the way and I'm only now planning the race prep to coincide with the car going onto club / collector plates next year ('79 model, 30yrs old).

It's an Aussie '79 Series2 (1300/4sp/big bumpers) with an '88 fuel inj 1500/5sp installed. Haltech management, mild cam, 4>1 exh, 3-angle valve seats and deshrouded combustion chambers, sandwich baffle plate between the sump pan and block skirt, o/s throttle body on the standard plenum etc etc. Being relatively light, the modest changes so far have endowed the car with surprising performance - it's certainly surprised a number of other people on the road over the years(!).

I've already acquired a lightweight steel f/wheel and a toothed belt drive kit for water pump/alt with underspeed pulleys, and will go to full spec for the engine / trans / brakes / suspension, plus a serious weight reduction programme (for the car and me - I've been in a "good paddock" for the last few years!).

Sorry for the quality, they're scanned from prints, I don't think digital cams were around in the early '90's.
Best regards,
Chris Wright

Chris,

Lovely looking car. Thanks for sharing those pics. I like the alloys too. Were they specially made, or a standard design from a manufacturer in Aus.?

thank you James

Hi James,

A standard design from a Co called Rebel Wheels in Unanderra which is a suburb of Wollongong, about an hour south of Sydney. They're the same wheels, albeit different PCD, as the ones on the Sprite. They've been quite popular for years, almost everything from Escorts to Fiats to Datsuns and plenty of open-wheelers have used them. They're about as ubiquitous in race meeting paddocks as Minilites and all the associated clones.

Best regards.