Postby Hasbeen » 04 Mar 2018 01:52
I wonder just what the powers that control us are on about.
Are the worried that there will be cars spearing off the road everywhere on a few drops of oil, or is it some extension of the global warming scam, that a little wasted oil will have us boiling on our skins? Or they pretending to do something useful?
It will be the end of the old 4 cylinder TRs of course, & the Vanguard, Morgan +4, & anything else fitted with the Ferguson tractor engine. I wonder if they will issue a crushing order for all the Fergies in the world.
I raced a Morgan +4 in the early 60s, just when the Ozzie racing authorities became paranoid about oil on the track. They had scrutineers checking under the cars as they came in from racing or practice. A smear or a single drop of oil had you disqualified from racing.
Now anyone with any experience with Ferguson tractor engines knows that without spending a kings ransom reengineering the back end of the things, it is impossible to make them completely oil tight. They leaked. Not much, but they leaked. I could do a hundred miles around Bathurst with no detectable difference to the level on the dip stick, but there would be a drip on the bell housing for sure.
Some bright spark came up with a sausage of some oil absorbent material, [we called them 'the rags"] which were inserted & tied into the front bottom of the bell housing to absorb this oil. You could get 4 or 5 meetings before replacement was necessary. They had to be fitted to many of the engines of the day, if you wanted to go racing.
Isn't it ridiculous how people with some minor authority have to find ways to exercise that authority to satisfy their ego. You have my sympathy.
Hasbeen
