A Christmas Toast...

May your walls be dry,
Your plasters free of gypsum,
Your fireplaces unmolested,
Your chimneys clean and true,
Your deathwatch beetle nonexistent,
Your repointing swift and minor,
And your insurance costs ever lower

Merry Christmas PPUKers, let's hope 2021 brings happiness, cheer and reduced VAT on restoring listed buildings

:wink:

Happy Christmas everyone! We weren’t finished with our project in time for the festive season, maybe next year....

I've been very festive today. Been filling walls all day but I do have the christmas lights up

Re-assembled the lounge and put the tree & other Christmas decorations up late last night. They look great against the backdrop of bare white lining paper and sanded skirting boards :lol:

(Started decorating the lounge 2 weeks ago and found surprise surprise that the Anaglypta wallpaper was hiding a multitude of sins beneath it's 1980's blown vinyl naffness. Mrs F had been promised the lounge would be decorated before Christmas - a promise which was extracted after agreeing for me to buy an essential toy (V8 powered kit car). She's been very, very tolerant, I have to say!)

Merry Christmas one & all! Here's to a less dramatic 2021.........

Feltwell said:

Mrs F had been promised the lounge would be decorated before Christmas - a promise which was extracted after agreeing for me to buy an essential toy (V8 powered kit car).

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Christmas of which year ?
It took me much more than two weeks to decorate my lounge. More like two years, and there are still a couple of spots that need finishing off..
And what is the kit ?

paulc said:

Christmas of which year ?

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My point exactly! My case is somewhat weakened however by the critical schoolboy error of agreeing when we first moved in that the lounge really did need redecorating. Which was 14 years ago .

The kit is a Luego Viento - basically a bigger 7, big enough for those of us too tall & wide to comfortably fit in a Westfield or Caterham. Also makes it big enough for a nice Rover V8 to squeeze in, after all with no stereo you need some nice sounds to drive to :wink:

Feltwell said:

The kit is a Luego Viento - basically a bigger 7, big enough for those of us too tall & wide to comfortably fit in a Westfield or Caterham. Also makes it big enough for a nice Rover V8 to squeeze in, after all with no stereo you need some nice sounds to drive to :wink:

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How much bigger are they? The Westfield S8 is a wider body than the standard 7 shape, as you say partly so they can squeeze the RV8 lump in. I'm a big fan of that engine, and a good mate of mine built an S8 25 years ago. Even with a relatively mildly tuned 3.5 (I think it's around 250bhp) it's a seriously quick car!


Our Christmas tree is sat against a nice backdrop of base coat plaster all scratched up ready for the next coat... yet another deadline that was missed (but you can't rush these things!)

Calum said:

How much bigger are they? The Westfield S8 is a wider body than the standard 7 shape, as you say partly so they can squeeze the RV8 lump in. I'm a big fan of that engine, and a good mate of mine built an S8 25 years ago. Even with a relatively mildly tuned 3.5 (I think it's around 250bhp) it's a seriously quick car!

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Quite a bit bigger. Both the Caterham and the Westfield have been made in wide and narrow body versions - now I think it's pretty much only wide body versions they sell, narrow body tend to be older ones. You need to be short and skinny to fit comfortably in a narrow body! I've never tried to fit in one, I'm told if you're above about 5'8" or have any kind of podge then forget it. I can fit in a wide body Westfield but it is a squeeze and not very comfortable, but then again at 6'2" and 18 stone I'm not the smallest! What seats and pedal arrangement is fitted makes a big difference.

The Luego Viento is bigger again, and to be honest if you can fit comfortably in a standard large family car like a Mondeo then you'll fit in a Viento - you'd have to be a very large chap indeed to not fit. I know someone who is 6'5" and he's fine in his. The Cobra bucket seats are a bit of a squeeze on mine, I've got some Honda S2000 seats I'm toying with putting in.

The Westfield SEight is the closest thing, but they've been out of production for a long time and they demand a premium. The Viento is also out of production and is rare, but doesn't command such high prices. Like all kit cars so much depends on the skill and attention to detail of the original builder. Not all Viento's were RV8 powered, though it seems most were. Some folks go mad and put the later fuel injected engines in, even the 4.6 out of the Range Rover - mine is more "old school", a carb'd 3.5V8 out of a Rover SD1, with the SD1 5 speed box.

The purists to the original vision of the 7 say it should be a small light engine in a small light car, and truth is a well tuned 2 litre 4 pot from a Vauxhall or Ford will be just as quick as most RV8's - the RV8 is an old engine now, it's roots go back to the 1950's. But the RV8 is light and the sound is gorgeous! It depends what you want from the car. A totally standard 3.5V8 on a carb only makes about 150bhp, though they are easily tuned and you are putting them in something that weighs about the same as a packet of fags!

The Viento doesn't look that big in the flesh, but park it next a narrow body 7 and it looks huge. Here's a picture next to a Luego Velocity that I nabbed from a forum, neither is my car :-

Feltwell said:

The purists to the original vision of the 7 say it should be a small light engine in a small light car,

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Have a Renault powered vehicle weighing a little under 500Kg. It is certainly quick off the mark and gives most production sports cars a darned good run for the money.

Oh yes I completely agree with the RV8 argument... I'd much rather listen to that over a zetec! My mate's is on a 4 barrel carb, polished ports, piper cam and stage 2 heads from memory. Again, old school tuning really and his is very spartan without the leather seats etc just buckets and 4 point harnesses.

Didn't realise they didn't make the S8 anymore, I suppose the 'death' of the power unit won't have helped.

Happy motoring!

paulc said:

Have a Renault powered vehicle weighing a little under 500Kg. It is certainly quick off the mark and gives most production sports cars a darned good run for the money.

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I can see that being a lot of fun - not really my thing, but whatever floats your boat! Stick a V-Twin JAP engine on the front though and I could be tempted....

I've a bit of a weakness for V engines, I've had V-twins and still have a V4 motorbike, I've had V6 and V8 cars, my daily driver is a V8. Even the compressor in the garage is a V-Twin! :lol:

Calum said:

Didn't realise they didn't make the S8 anymore, I suppose the 'death' of the power unit won't have helped.

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No, I guess not. The good thing with RV8's though is they are so well supported, there will be small specialists out there catering for them for years and years to come, they were used in so many different cars for such a long time, and are so popular for specials. They have their weaknesses but at least it's all well known.

Mine has different cams, lifters, manifolds and carb to standard, plus electronic ignition. I think I might need to look at the cooling though - it runs a bit hot - an electric water pump might be a future mod, no room for a bigger radiator. We'll see - might look at the waterless coolant, I've heard that works well in Triumph Stags, which were always notorious for overheating - ironically some had the Triumph lump ripped out and an RV8 put in to permanently fix their various gremlins!

Ahh well - back to ripping out bathrooms, my Christmas project.....

The issue with the stag was basically the cooling system wasn't it?

Only had just about enough cooling capacity for the congested engine bay, ran at high pressure for the time so leaked unless unions etc fitted "properly", and needed appropriate and regular coolant changes otherwise the rad channels clogged (they were horizontal rather than usual vertical).

Stag didn't use the RV8 as Triumph was still independent while Stag was designed. BL bought Triumph and didn't need another V8, but Triumph engineers claimed RV8 wouldn't fit (only would have needed a small adjustment to engine mounts, less than 10mm) and so the Stag kept its original "V8" and that was that.

Sorry, father was a Triumph geek and still has his "one owner from new" Dolomite Sprint

Ahh, the Dolly Sprint - bit of a boy racer in his day then eh? A work colleague of mine has one, it was his Dad's, in fact it's the car he came home from hospital in as a baby!

When I was talking about the RV8 going into a Stag, I meant done by fed up owners, not by the factory - I've heard of a few successful transplants. Yes, what you mention about Stag cooling is what I've heard as well - just under developed, typical 1970's British car! Shame because I quite like the Stag.

Feltwell said:

Yes, what you mention about Stag cooling is what I've heard as well - just under developed, typical 1970's British car! Shame because I quite like the Stag.

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If you want one, don't be put off by anything you have heard about the cooling problems. It can all be fixed by good servicing and a couple of upgraded modern parts.
I have a Stag and it was my daily car for years, used for regular commuting to work as well as longer trips on touring holidays. The only upgrade it needed to the cooing system is a Saab specification water pump. The slant four version of the Triumph engine (basically half of the V8) was used by Saab in the 99 and 900 models, even the Turbo versions, and nobody ever complains about those overheating. Fortunately some of the upgraded parts that Saab developed, such as the water pump, can be retrofitted to a Stag.

I did also fit a manually switched additional electric Kenlowe fan placed in front of the radiator to supplement the original viscous coupled engine fan, but I don't recall ever actually using it.

I'm ashamed to say though that the Stag has now languished in the garage, unused for many years now. It just got put away one winter when the children would no longer fit in the rear seats, and since then the endless work on the house, as well as general everyday life, have prevented me getting the car going again

I think quite a few of us can regrettably emphasise with that one. My kit car is sat in bits part way through a suspension rebuild that *will definitely* be finished by the time they stop chucking salt on the roads. Unless the house gets in the way!

I've a VFR750 motorbike, 1989 model, bought by me in 1994 - was my only transport as a student. Fast forward 22 years, poor thing was sat in the garage for about 5 years and I *finally* got around to recommissioning it - took it out for a ride and it ran like a bag of spanners, fuel had evaporated in the carbs and gummed up the jets. So I bought all the kit to overhaul the carbs, including an ultrasonic cleaning tank, but I *still* haven't got around to doing it.....

Good to know about the Stag though. I need to curtail vehicle purchases for now - I've pretty much ran out of room, and at some point (hopefully a good few years away yet) I'll be inheriting a rather nice Herald Convertible that my Dad has.