I recently bought a 1966 TR4A with the money I had set aside for paying for the restoration work on the other TR4A. The restoration was taking so long that I decided to put the money to good use. I also Figured that I would need a template for the reassembly!
It has an interesting history, most of which is unknown to me. I have been able to track the last two owners, then the trail runs cold. The owner previous to this lived in New Jersey. The car was restored in about 1980. After the restoration it was raced. The body tub, however, is from Nevada.
See my diary of this car.
Interesting options on the car.
Here are some thumbnail pictures. Click on the them to enlarge.
Here is the front view. I took this soon after I got the car in November. You may be able to see the red painted sway bar on the front. An owner painted many suspension parts a contrasting color. However, this was black when originally restored. Someone else had some of these parts off the car too! I wonder who!
In this view you can see the alloy "Compomotive" brand modular wheels. These date from the cars racing days. They are nice, but they are a little narrow for the 195 tires that are now mounted on them. Click on a wheel to get a closer look.
Here are two other views
Here is the interior. It has a non-original tan color scheme, but it is extremely well done. Some of the vinyl is showing its age (18+ years). Look at the tachometer. It is not a Jaeger, it is a Smiths Chronometric. Click on the tachometer to see a close-up. It makes a nice ticking sound as you run the engine. It moves the pointer like a quartz clock: it indexes in jumps (sometimes as little as 50 rpm) rather than a smooth movement. You have to get used to it.
Here I am in a fun "Meadow-Cross"! The course took about 2 minutes to complete. You HAD to keep the tires spinning in the turns as they were tighter than full-lock steering. This is the one large loop in the course. It was taken in both directions at different times in the course. With proper throttle control you needed little steering input and could really accelerate through the loop. One car over-did it in the exit and looped into the fence and did some major damage to the car and the fence. I sucessfully missed the wheelbarrow on the four passes I made by it. The meadow is a little rough on the suspension, but extra fun. I now have the privilige to post here some old pictures from the original builder of this car. I have him to thank for these pix as well as a wonderful car!
This was taken at the SCCA Solo II Nationals in Chicago September, 1982 It looks like he is hitting the gas pretty hard here!
This is the Competition line at the Harrisburg SCCA Solo II regionals in August, 1982
Another picture at Harrisburg. The sway bar keeps the front pretty level, huh?
Here is the car in the tech line at Harrisburg.
Bringing the shell home to assemble November 16, 1982
The engine installed on the prepared frame and suspension.
The body tub being painted.
This is the car after the accident of 10/31/99. It will require major repairs, but ought to be feasible within insurance limits. The repair cost is going to be less that I had expected. Need a bunch of replacement parts: Outer fender, inner fender, wheel arch, hood, grille, bumper, radiator, and other stuff.
This is the car after the insurance company agreed it was the other driver's fault and they agreed about the cost of the work. Here the fender was removed, much of the wheelwell was removed, the grille, radiator and valence were removed. There was minimal structural damage apparent. The door post appears not to have been shifted.
This is a photo of the new dashboard. It is Amboyna Burl. It was a real pain in the neck to veneer. The material was hard and brittle. I needed to make 2 book matches to get the required length. It looks great.
This is a "mock-up" of the fender vents I am installing on the car. To make this, I sketched the shape on the fender, and photographed it. I them made a paper template from the sketch and laid it on top of the grille (Spitfire MkII) and photographed that. I then superimposed the two after scaling the grille to match the sketch on the fender. The vents are modeled after the TR4 Works Rally car's vents from the early 60's. Slight artistic license has been taken on the front edge, making it curved to follow the wheel well edge, rather than straight. Otherwise it is a near exact match. Unfortunately, I could not get the exact measurements of the vents from the current owners of the works cars. I had to refer to scans of photographs which appeared in books. I had to do some fancy manipulation of the photos to eliminate fore-shortening due to the photographer having taken the photos from an angle.
This is the finished (unpainted) vent. It is rather complicated to fabricate since the inner and outer holes are different sizes, and the vent needs to be aligned to mate up properly on the outer fender. It is a real work of art!
Here it is from the outside with the fender still with the spray-on surfacer. The "original" rally car vents had a straight edge near the wheel arch. We felt that the curve of the leading edge following the curve of the arch was more in keeping with Michelotti's generous use of compound curves and avoidance of hard straight lines.
This is a close-up view of the vent and the mating portion of the ductwork extending out from the inner fender.