Which Book Has Had the Most Influence On You

[Malcolm P Price]

For you was it The Bible, the works of Shakespeare, James Joyce's 'Ulysses' or one of many novels?

I was impressed by Shackleton's 'South' for its courage and TE Lawrence's 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.

 

For its long lasting effect on me the winner is Ron Champion's well known book 'Build Your Own Sports-car for £250' an over ambitious financial claim, with dimensional errors and not a great work of literature but its ideas carried on with me for a good number of years.

 

I was tempted to build one of Ron's Locost cars but felt that the finished vehicle would not be worth very much. After attending some kit car shows I decided to accept the higher cost and in late 2004 I bought a Westfield SEIW starter kit for £3000.

 

The kit gave the chassis, all the wishbones, the aluminium rear uprights and drive flanges, the pedals, brake master cylinder, brake pipes, the aluminium panels, bolts and importantly all the ZK fibreglass body panels. I bought some parts from Westfield  and made some parts, such as the dash panel and made careful purchases of good used parts.

 

Even allowing for inflation Westfield's 2004 prices were a bargain compared with the current extortionate  prices on Westfield-Chesil's website. I finished the build in 2006 and got it through an SVA test at  Shrewsbury and still have the car today.

 

The urge to build a car from scratch was still there so in 2008 I set to work on Autocad to design one. I decided on a mid engine configuration of Seven size and wanted a full roll cage integrated into the chassis rather than bolted on. I also wanted a full windscreen with a curved profile.  I drew the chassis and made an eighth scale stress model of it in 3 mm square balsa wood to see how the stiffness varied when members were taken in and out.

 

On eBay I found a good 1.6 litre Ford Zetec SE complete engine and gearbox from a crashed Focus for £450. In simple terms the engine and box were picked up  from the normal front position and moved backwards and dropped behind the driver. Moving the gear selector mechanism from behind the engine to in front changed the positions of the gear lever so a flipper mechanism was made to correct this.

 

I went to several windscreen companies to see about cutting down a car screen from a template. I got 'can't be done' replies until I found someone willing to give it a go. A mark 3 Escort screen was only £28 so the deal was: if it cracked I would pay £28 and if successful the charge would be £56. Fortunately it succeeded.

 

The only bespoke fibreglass part was the upper part on the nose cone. I made a buck and took it to a fibreglass company who made a mould and two off for £150. 

 

Quotes for painting the loose external aluminium panels were very high, one was £2000. A local powder coating company charged  a very reasonable £550 to coat the chassis, suspension parts,and all the inner and exterior aluminium panels in French blue. They did a good job and the finish is still good today 14 years later.

 

Omex mapped the ECU for me and gained an extra 20 bhp over standard .In 2010 the finished car was trailered to Avonmouth for its IVA test. It failed first go on minor points but passed second time.

 

So this lengthy explanation is why Ron Champion's book wins for me.

 

Mal

[MR.C]

David Vizard, Tuning BLs A series engine.

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

18 minutes ago, MR.C said:

David Vizard, Tuning BLs A series engine.

I’ll second that 👏👏

[Captain Colonial]

Every Haynes manual I’ve ever owned which all convinced me I could fix my car of the day and in almost every case, I did.  They gave me a lot of confidence and on the odd occasion some frustration.  I doubt I’d have ever gone as far down the rabbit hole of car work without them.

 

My American Midwest childhood was well and very humorously encapsulated by the fictional Lake Wobegon Days.  I still occasionally pick it up for laughter and memories.

 

Finally, I have used The Prophet by Kahil Gibran as a source of wisdom, guidance and comfort in challenging times.

[Flying Carrot Steve]

2 hours ago, MR.C said:

David Vizard, Tuning BLs A series engine.

 

Crikey, haven't heard that name in a long time!

[Onliest Smeg David]

The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy!

 

Finally finding my level of sense of humour and the meaning of life!

[Flying Carrot Steve]

I can't think of a specific book but because of this thread I have just bought a copy of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. I never did really get it first time round, May as well try again 😁

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

Any of the “Secret Seven” books by Enid Blyton🫣

[Flying Carrot Steve]

We had some great Ladybird books, I found this one super helpful back in the day...

 

 

 

[Stuart Davis AO - Devon Cornwall & Somerset]

35 minutes ago, Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO said:

Any of the “Secret Seven” books by Enid Blyton🫣

We read the entire Famous Five series with our now ten year old when she was a bit younger. Thoroughly enjoyed them and didn’t know Enid Blyton had such a sense of humour, hilarious at times!

 

[Captain Colonial]

9 hours ago, Flying Carrot Steve said:

We had some great Ladybird books, I found this one super helpful back in the day...

 

 

 

I’d forgotten about my two Ladybird books… 

 

 

[joolz]

Vizard's A Series book was THE BOOK for college age Joolz. For those who are of a visual arts persuasion I also raise you anything by my favourite photographer Don McCullin  but this especially..

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Don-McCullin/dp/022406133X

[Captain Colonial]

 

 

[dvd8n]

13 hours ago, Flying Carrot Steve said:

 

Crikey, haven't heard that name in a long time!

 

I think he's still on the go, working into his 80s!

[dvd8n]

15 hours ago, MR.C said:

David Vizard, Tuning BLs A series engine.

 

I read that from cover to cover; all 500 pages!