168 replies to this topic

[David Vizard]

Viz-D-Wiz (My nickname in the Caribbean) is back from the Birmingham Auto Sports show.

Well it's Jan 19th and I am back in Charlotte from my trip to the UK National Exhibition Center in Birmingham for the Auto Sports show. I have not been to one of these shows since about 2002 or so. I was surprised to find that the show had quite a different air about it compared to PRI in Orlando Florida. Can't quite put my finger on it but it was most certainly different. In all it looked like a great show to me but there again, since I eat, sleep, dream and work race cars I could be construed as possibly being biased.

From a personal point of view I want to thank David Mountain - the boss at Mountune - for being nothing short of an outstanding host - thanks Dave - I had a blast! I suppose it could be said that Dave is really into doing things top knotch - that's why his competition engines do so well not just nationally but worldwide.


The Mountune team on the stand were worth their weight in entertainment gold. Thanks guys and gals for doing an outstanding job of keeping my ribs in near continuous pain from laughing. (I will hopefully get my revenge next year!!!)


Also thanks to Haymarket's (www.Pistonheads.com) Dan Trent for giving me a considerable chunk of his valuable time to bounce a few project idea's off him.


Also I want to thank all those of you that came to get a book autographed and patiently waited for me to have a free moment. I realize that you primarily came to see a show not to burn up time standing in line for some old guys autograph so thanks for your patience.

When you get to my age (actually quite a bit before that) one of the things that you have to deal with is the passing of some of those people special to you before you go. Unless you die young it's inevitable and often a difficult pill to swallow. I am always very cognizant of the fact that some of the special people that I have high regard for are at the wrong end of their lives. I say this because I got to spend time with three such people at the show. Paul Ivey, George Polly and Barrie 'Wizzo' Williams. Not only were they in good shape but also full of vim and vinegar. Was really good to see you guys again. And Paul - the news that Elizabeth was doing well was very gratifying - she's truly a lovely lady. As for Barry 'ever-the-showman' Lee you may look a tad older Barry but we both know that deep down you still have to have your 30th birthday. (so who was the best Hot Rod racer - Barry, George or maybe Duffy Collard --??)

Had some interesting conversations with the guys at UKs premier cams companies (Piper and Kent) - all very interesting - thanks fella's. Also must not forget PR lady Gill Leeds - thanks for volunteering your 10 cents of valuable insights in many directions - much appreciated and all the best with the Barry Lee book.


Also got to spend some time with Nick Swift of Swiftune fame. Nick had his new 2012 Mini racer at the show on the Kent stand. What a beaut! If it goes as good as it looks then the competition needs to prepare for hard times.


Oh yes - before I forget thanks Nick for volunteering to help out with my daughter Jacque and her road racing lessons. Right now she is a hot commodity in the drag race community but has yet (at 16 years old) to make her mind up exactly what type of racing she wants to do and where her driving skills are best directed.


Dave Mountain and I skipped the last day of the show to go and check out the venue for the seminar later this year at Swansea Metropolitan University. That was the Sunday. On the way Dave and I stopped off at the 'Kings Head' pub in Bishops Cleeve where I used to live in the UK (Bishops Cleeve that is - not the pub!) As I had hopped a bunch of my friends that I had not seen for a long time (was it really 35 years Phil?) showed up. I only had an hour and a half so it all went a bit quick. Norman, Tim, Phil, Mush, Pete's all, Suzie, Ida, Daphne, Chris, Mike, Alex - and the list goes on, great to see you all - really great.
Also a bonus surprise, my niece Kelly, and her family, made a 3 hour drive from Plymouth just to see me for 30 minutes. Kelly - guys I was really touched - and it was so nice to see you and the family. I really will make a super effort for us to get together during my Swansea Seminar trip later this year.


Later Sunday afternoon after our GPS system got Dave Mountain and I well lost (even a main frame computer gets confused with the Welsh language) Dave Mountain and I met up with my life long friend Mike Lane (my seminar event manager) and Roger Dowden, my king pin contact at the university. Mike and I had a VIP tour of the venue we will be using in September. It all looked good and between Mike and Roger a viable game plan emerged to handle the expected number of seminar attendees in an entertaining manner. In other words dyno and workshop time are now well sorted.

Here is what we envisage for some of the tech demo's for the seminar:-

Firstly we are rounding up a test engine. This is most likely to be an 'A' Series engine and you may well ask why use a technologically outdated test unit. If you thought this then good question. Here is why. Because of the 'A' series engines siamese intake ports there are a jumble of pressure waves which have never (to my knowledge been effectively unraveled. The work that Dave Mountain, David Anton and I did on scatter pattern cams was an attempt at countering the negative issues of a siamese intake port design. All this was done way back in the 1985 - 86 time scale. What we did then was to get a rough (and I mean rough) idea what was going on by virtue on by what can best be described as response testing. This is how it worked. Starting with a supposition you run a tests that if you supposition is any where near right the effect of one test is to improve the output and reversing it decreases it. We did this for every situation that was different. For instance the center pair of exhausts dump into a common port. So did that pair of cylinders need more or less exhaust duration on the cam. Did it need to have a different center line did the LCA need to be tighter or looser for that pair etc. I picked the exhaust here because it was the easiest to use as an example. The intake situation with the robbing of one cylinder by another 180 degrees later is far more complex. Indeed it is more complex than an F1 intake system by far. What we are planning here is to show the value of in-cylinder and port pressure measurement. If we can reveal what is really going on in an 'A' Series intake port feeding two cylinders we will be able to handle F1 stuff with ease.


So we need an engine. It looks like Mike Parry of Race Techniques in Cheltenham is going to supply a tricked out 'A' Series engine situation permitting. Mike's engine won the Mini Miglia championship this year by taking 198 points of a possible 200 for a near clean sweep.

With the gear they have at Swansea plus the motor sports staff in-house tech know how the stuff we are going to detail in the seminar will be of real interest to all and sundry whether it is a two valve iron headed siamesed port 'A' Series or a killer N/A 2 litre BTCC engine like Dave Mountain builds (That guys torque per liter figures are world standard, beating even the specific torque numbers of 17/1 CR ProStock drag trace engines on trick petrol) or for that matter a 1400 hp 1100 lbs-ft torque carburated, gas burning, relatively cheap 715 incher (11.72 litre) big block Chevy such as I build with my friend Terry Walters.

After leaving Swansea I rode back to Mike's place (not that far from Janspeeds shop) and hung out with him on the last day of my trip. Mike - after a very hectic 6 days I really did need that lay back and relax day. Thanks


Tuesday the 17th I flew back and though it was a smooth flight I was well and truly exhausted and jet lagged out - but none-the-less a happy camper.

So thanks to all for making my visit a really great experience.

DV

[mab01uk]

Hi David ,

Was good to meet up with you at the Autosports show and chat about the 'Mini Tech News' days in the early '80's, etc, glad you enjoyed your UK visit and the show and that you had a smooth flight back to the US. Thanks again for signing my 'How to Modify your Mini' book which I posted on here the following day along with some photos of some of the other Mini's at the show, including Nick Swift's new 2012 racer as seen on the Kent Cams stand:



More pictures from the show, follow link here:
http://www.theminifo...2-david-vizard/

Looking forward to the Swansea 'A' Series Seminar later this year.

Martin Bell

[t@z]

Bit late but welcome to the forum. Have had your book for ages and read parts of it.

by the way can i just say you look remarkably like Michael Caine; but random but first thing i thought of when i saw a picture of you

happy tuning!

[TA2DMAC]

Speaking of...guess what arrived at my door today. New and unopened....

 vizard.jpg   81.29K   14 downloads

[Gr4h4m]

I always loved watching George polly race.

[David Vizard]

I always loved watching George polly race.

Yes - I'm a big George Polly fan too.

Actually got to drive his David Anton/Yogi Bear developed chassis Toyata Starlet around Arena Essex. Managed a 13.2 to Georges 13.1!! On that day George did some exhibition driving for a magazine shot. What awesome car control that guy has.

DV

[Spud_133]

Hi David, I went to the Autosport show also, and I ashamed to say I was to nervous to come and introduce myself to you. I am also and extreme George Polley fan, and am very good friends with him and his family. He used to build my ministox engines when I raced ministox, and now supplies the tyres and suspension for my lightning rod. Dave, George's son is an incredible driver like his father. Daves nephew, Ryan is now racing ministox and is also a handy driver. He is an awesome man much like yourself David.

[David Vizard]

Hi David, I went to the Autosport show also, and I ashamed to say I was to nervous to come and introduce myself to you. I am also and extreme George Polley fan, and am very good friends with him and his family. He used to build my ministox engines when I raced ministox, and now supplies the tyres and suspension for my lightning rod. Dave, George's son is an incredible driver like his father. Daves nephew, Ryan is now racing ministox and is also a handy driver. He is an awesome man much like yourself David.

Sorry to have missed you. Please don't do that next year.
As for George I have to say that George has inspired me to do better on more than one occasion. No matter how big the gold fish bowl may have been George would always have been a big fish. They don't come much better.
DV

[mab01uk]

DV

Can you tell us any more memories about your Mini 1275GT ‘Around America Economy Drive’ back in 1976?
I remember reading about it at the time in Practical Motorist magazine but many members of TMF were probably not even born then, so I am sure they would be interested to hear more!
Do you have any photos from the trip and what happened to the 1275GT?
Some info I found posted in this link: http://www.theminifo...6-david-vizard/

[David Vizard]

DV

Can you tell us any more memories about your Mini 1275GT ‘Around America Economy Drive’ back in 1976?
I remember reading about it at the time in Practical Motorist magazine but many members of TMF were probably not even born then, so I am sure they would be interested to hear more!
Do you have any photos from the trip and what happened to the 1275GT?
Some info I found posted in this link: http://www.theminifo...6-david-vizard/

Just at the moment I am up to my eyes in dyno tests that are leaving me pretty wasted (Carbon Monoxide and noise fro 800 ground shaking hp). I would love to tell some stories about that trip that were never published. Could be that my friend Mike Lane may be doing something in this area for TMF.

If you don't see anything soon - bug me about it.
DV

[jagman.2003]

Hello David,

Good to see you on this forum. I'm a long term owner of your books. Good to hear you were back in Gloucestershire for a visit. Are you ever likely to pay a visit to Prescott Hill again sometime? There are still a couple of minis competing there. Cheers.

[David Vizard]

Yes I enjoyed my trip to Cheltenham and Bishops Cleeve to see some old and not so old friends. In all the week long trip to see Dave Mountain and to visit friends was a blast. One question that cropped up several time though was what were my daughters driving theses days. It seems my eldests escapades racing her 1275 GT (and winning some 80% plus of the races) is still a topic worthy of recall. My middle daughter Daniel, drives a turbo RX8 and tells me she wants a hot 1275 as a fun ride so we can see where she's going. My youngest, who is just 16 wants to drive a mini but they are far and few between in the likes of Charlotte NC. However she has driven what could best be described as America's version of the mini. To see for yourself just check out her Facebook site at Facebook.com/jacquevizard

[David Vizard]

OK - another question here - do any of the guys I used to race with read this page or do any who read this page/forum know anyone I raced with back in the late 60's to mid 70's. Yes i know it's a long time ago but that's life. I have been asked to do my techno-biography by not one but two publishers and suddenly I need to find people who knew what I was doing back when!

David vizard

[David Vizard]

Forgot to say but there is a piece on MotorTec magazine that will help many with camshaft queries and detail the history behind the production of many popular A Series cams. Here is the link - http://motortecmagaz....asp?AID=4&AP=1

David vizard

[mab01uk]

OK - another question here - do any of the guys I used to race with read this page or do any who read this page/forum know anyone I raced with back in the late 60's to mid 70's. Yes i know it's a long time ago but that's life. I have been asked to do my techno-biography by not one but two publishers and suddenly I need to find people who knew what I was doing back when!

David vizard

DV - I have asked for any info on your behalf on a couple of Historic Motorsport forums I am a member of for you.

Some 'period' 1960's/70's Mini Racing photos you might like to see posted here on TMF:
http://www.theminifo...-racing-photos/

You might also like this 'Mini tuning archive' website for bringing back some memories of those days:
http://mk1-performan...ing_archive.htm

Edited by mab01uk, 11 February 2012 - 11:31 AM.