It was a long wait and one that was in some ways a somewhat of a let down. A lot of work had be done and prepared for in order to make the annual Cape South Easter a success. What we did not truly anticipate was the exceptional and persistent hot weather conditions that prevailed and remained with us for the entire weekend.
Everything started going pear shaped from early on the the Friday morning already. It started off with the Datti which had a brand new motor and had never been run before. I managed to leave the pit lane and got around T1still weaving to warm up an old used set of tyres, got through T2 and headed for T3 still warming the brakes but but T4 there was a rumble in the 'Jungle' whereupon I pulled off on the back straight with a rod hanging out the block. Inexplicable and perplexing but disheartening non the less. Luckily I had the spare ready and waiting and we merely proceeded to swop the motor in the baking heat. It took us a little over 90 minutes to be up and running again but I chose not to do any further testing in the heat and rather awaited the last session afforded to pre-77 cars just so as to get a heat cycle into a new set of slicks. The 140Z was race ready but the jetting was not right and required a leaner mixture to what is normally used. A small change was made but proved not any better. We left it a such a would again test in the early morning session which offered cooler testing conditions. As per usual we ended the evening off with a pit 'braai' and called it a day just before pumpking time.
Saturday was as per usual bright and early and a stinker was always on the cards. Both our Datsuns were cleaned down, washed and polished. The 140Z on the other hand never made qualifying as on the out lap and again on T4 the dry sump pump seized and snapped the belt leaving the 140Z stranded on the back straight. It was soon evident this was going to be a very testing weekend indeed. We stripped the dry sump pump cleaned up the internals and put it all together again and started up. It all seemed OK and we duly refitted the radiator, front scoop and under tray. A retest again saw the pump seized up and again broke the belt. Again we stripped the lot and removed the pump this time finding a piece of metal which proved puzzling . In desperation we called upon a fellow racer who also uses the same type pump on the oval and the internals were all replaced.which proved to solve the problem. We refitted everything. This time we removed the tappet cover. We soon found that the timing chain although still in one piece was slack and that something was wrong with the timing chain tensioner. This required that we had to take the car to the workshop and strip the engine, which we did. The ugly situation soon revealed itself when it was diagnosed that the tensioner rubber had broken off and the metal part upon which the rubber is mounted had been extended beyond its norm and had rubbed up against the timing chain which then broke a half link at the circlip and resulted in the tiny piece LUCKILY falling down into the scavenge side of the dry sump pump and got somehow logged in the pump. A further test of patience was then put to us as nowhere could we find another half link to repair the damaged timing chain and no spare chain was available. Plan 2 was to now tow the SSS from the track to the workshop and remove the half link from there and repair the chain in the 140Z. Finally we were ready and only got back to the track at 18h15 that evening.
In between all of this earlier on in the day I was ready with the Datti but the heat was rapidly climbing and our first and only race of the day was at 12h15 in the scorching heat. Heat 1 was as per usual a rolling start with some 39 cars on the grid and having put the Datti on 19th on the grid it was going to be a hard task to perform under these testing circumstances. At lights out the Datti was as nimble as ever and squeezed past the Zakspeed Escort of Jeptha albeit briefly until the back straight. With not much to write home about other than a rather unusually higher engine temperature of 90 degrees I somehow gained 7 positions and finished in 12th place overall. We called it a day and once again tanned a bit of meat with some welcomed liquid refreshments that evening.
Sunday, normally a day of rest but this time it was a day of test we dragged our already sore bodies back to he track and used the early warm up session to test the 140Z. Everything seemed OK although the A/F ratio was still way too rich. A quick consult with one or two fuel boffs and a further decision was made to go leaner and make further changes to the timing. At last we were now both ready for round 2 of the races which was first off at 09h45. Unfortunately the 140Z had to start from the back of the grid. Again a rolling start was done and the Datti was off the mark like a robbers dog. In the interim I picked up a huge dice between myself and the 2 litre class A Sirocco of Sandro Biccari and managed to hold him off until the flag this time with the temperature now at 95 degrees. The 140Z still had more plans for us as on lap 3 after charging through the field like a hot knife through butter the head gasket cried ENOUGH. So we again removed the cylinder head, prepared the block and the head surface and replaced the head gasket. We went back to our last known working jetting, re-adjusted the timing and now awaited the last and final race of the weekend.
It all finally came to a head with the last race being red flagged on the first lap which meant we had to reform back on the starting grid in our original positions and HEAT SOAK was about to come into play. Sitting in an outside temperature of 37 degrees is no fun and the internal heat must have been close to 50 if not more. After what seemed like an eternity sitting on the grid with the Datti now in 9th grid position and the 140Z again last on the grid we were finally underway. The 140Z cut a scathing path through the field like a demon possessed and within no time found himself up in 2nd place hunting down the top dog. The Datti was by now taking serious strain as the temp gauge started heading towards the 105 degree mark. On lap 4 down the back straight I could feel her tightening up and I simply pulled off into parc ferme inevitably overheating the engine and running bearings. The 140Z still soldiered on eventually posting the fastest time of the race at 1:23.8 but alas could not close down the leader within time who too suffered overheating as plumes of smoke were now also evident towards the final laps. A great comeback but an even taller price was to have been paid when in parce ferme the 140Z simply stood there and cooked itself to destruction. The final tally was 2 A15 engines and 1 L20 engine toasted. We finally packed up, headed for home and before the sun had gone down we were both in dreamland.
Thanks 'Boet'
