County Car

We remember summer ...

At this time of year every drive could be the last one for the season ...

I tried to make this my cover picture but for some reason it didn't fit ... but I think it is a cool shot ... from Alfie's first summer on the road in 2016.

Some progress. Rerouted #2 exhaust tube to give more clearance over oil tank. When doing one-off work and thinking on the fly, you have to be prepared to be humbled by mistakes ... constantly. I want to get the bodywork done before we have to shut the shop doors for the cold weather coming for ventilation purposes. I haven't done fibreglass work for many years now and it was fun to remember the process and always fun to pop a part out of a mold. This panel was damaged in the last race the car did and had to be remade. Next we have to modify the tail section because the air intake is on the opposite side from that of the previous engine we were running. Good thing we still have lots of time before next spring. We are going to need it.

You may wonder how I stay current with race car design ... I have had this book for at least 40 years and read it in various chunks but never cover to cover ... now I'm reading it properly and thoroughly enjoying LJK Setright's immensely entertaining writing style along with his quite comprehensive engineering analysis of the design evolution of GP car from my favourite period of racing. And funny thing is, Formula 1 cars from the early 60's were basically the blueprint for Formula Fords (and everything else of course) for years and years ... the good years IMHO.

All work no play means I'm a very dull boy ... but man I'm having FUN!

A fun day laying out the headers. Had already made up the flanges and starter tubes and collector. Shit, now I have to get back to real work ... damn.

Need a new job? As long as you are over two years of age and can wield a hammer, you are qualified to work at AMW. You don't even have to be potty trained.

In my happy place making progress with the Adler FF.

There is a lot of work to do before we can run again ... but at least my body and the car's body still fit.

I can't tell you how weird it is to restore a car you built yourself. We brought the frame down from it's resting place and stripped off the remaining parts to start the cleanup. Looking at the quality of work I was doing over thirty years ago in both design and fabrication is "interesting". We dragged the bodywork and the moulds out of our shed and they look just fine after having sat for thirty years. Thank you to Joan for the push start. Nothing can be done without the positive support of your partner.

Believe it or not, the origins of our "Alfie" came from this 1989 Adler FF2000 car. Joan drove the race car around the track at Shannonville and when she climbed out she said, "we have build to something like this for the road". Naturally I obliged, as any good man would. The result of that suggestion is Alfie. Now we are going to restore the race car to run as a Formula Ford. THIS WAS JOAN"S IDEA. Alfie will have to return some components which were on loan, but don't worry about Alfie, cuz the new parts he will get will be special.

If we feel lonely we go to a car show ... this is the Trenton cruise night ... fun to meet new folks.

Ma sweetheart has left me taken ma car and gone down the road ma heart is heavy ... cuz I do miss that car

Alfie is hoping we have a DRY morning tomorrow for the Wellington Car Show. If I even say the word "rain", Alfie starts misfiring and leaking oil all over the place.

A couple of good pics of Alfie in Toronto last year. We met a lot of interesting folks who were really turned on by Alfie's shiny naked body ...

Alfie dreaming he had wings ... pitiful really.

Verona car show ... we blend right in ... cough.

Here is a cool picture of Alfie from the 2018 Verona Car Show. Photo by Bill Kendall. Thank you Bill.

Alfie can only dream ...

Good car show weekend ... Wellington Saturday and Toronto on Sunday. Weather was perfect and the drive into town for the Yorkville show was effortless ... Alfie is running beautifully.

Alfie is taking us to Toronto tomorrow: https://www.facebook.com/YorkvilleECS/ We hope the weather is good to us but we have our rain gear onboard in case. Varoooooooooooooooooom

Thanks to all involved in putting on this Classic car show in Wellington today. Midtown Brewery hosted it, with fundraising for CML Snider school. We had a lot... of fun sharing Alfie with our 'home crowd'. We met old friends and aquaintances, plus enjoyed meeting some new folks too. Thanks again and congrats on a great show! See more

Huffs Cars show today ... warm and sunny and nice to meet some fun folks.

We had this slideshow running during the Toronto Motorama 2018 show. It is long ... but building a car takes a lot of time and patience.

Spring maintenance ...

Alfie goes to Motorama 2018. A lot of work and a lot of fun. Met a lot of very interesting people. Good time. A big thanks to Gary Challice for the great welcome.

Alfie is feeling restless so we are taking him to the Toronto Motorama show this weekend. He is hoping to meet new wheels and rub fenders (he can only dream) with some sweet rides. Joan and I have been busy making bits for our display including this stand for Alfie. We are mostly ready ... he said optimistically.

Alfie hangs with anyone who will have him ... another fun track day.

Really fun to drive the circuit and also great people who run the track days. Next day is Sunday Oct 1 ... we hope for a dry day.

Had fun at Shannonville last Monday.

Running the Shannonville Fabi track last night ... first full laps on a track. Running super well and really fun handling. We have a lot of chassis roll and consequently lot's of positive camber on the outside wheels ... so if we want to go faster, we have to drop the ride height from raccoon clearing height which will add static negative camber ... but it is a road car isn't it? But for sure it is easy to control at the limit with no tendency to snap into a spin. Lovely. We will maybe go out on Monday (if the boss will let me) for a track day on the big track.

Alfie attending the Italian Car Day in Woodbridge. Many beautiful cars and a nice welcome for Alfie.

"Please release me , let me go For I am so cleanly polished. I have so many bros yet to meet, Release me and get me out on the road again". ...ahem...on the r...oad again Like a band of gypsies....oh ok...that's enough? Alfie is ready to rock on into Woodbridge tomorrow. Can't wait! See more

Alfie dodging cones ...

About to discover how Alfie handles a cone course. If we were to want to continue this sort of behaviour, then we will fit a front anti-roll bar and drop the ride height and run more negative camber ... but do we really care? Hmm ... not sure ... but it was fun. Thanks Joan for the great shot and also co-driving the course with me.

Alfie had a great coming out party in Little italy today. The sun shone down on all of the beatiful cars and their proud owners...giving great pleasure to the m...any folks who enjoyed some of the most amazing machines. Many thanks to the Alfa owners club for inviting Alfie to join his sibs for the weekend. See more

Alfie is excited to be heading to this event and meeting all sorts of new four wheel friends. Now we hope for good weather so we don't need the trailer to get there.

Our Nuvolari "Alfie" met a nice orange March F1 car today at Mosport. They got to swap stories, while we caught up with some friends from our past and rekindled friendships. They even got to share a tarp in the rain! Fun times!

Got the seats done and they look pretty good after some effort.

Getting ready for the road. Oil change and inspection ... and some more nit-picky stuff which is fun to do.

Probably the last drive of the season ...

Here is a model of the frame from which everything else followed. On a space frame, if you can't run a diagonal across the engine or passengers on the top bay, you will have a torsionally weak structure. This concept uses a large triangle in which both the engine and passengers sit to solve that problem. It does mean a very wide centre section which has some limitations, but it does offer a pretty significant crush protection zone on the sides. After fabrication I did a twist test on the frame and it exceeded 10,000 lbsft/deg, which is not bad, especially with aluminum tubes.

4213 kms with minimal issues to resolve. I do not want to tempt the gods by saying this out loud but ... my faith in the beast is growing as the miles accumulate. Driving the roads we used to ride on our motorbikes, witnessing the shear beauty of the Eastern Ontario shield from the drivers seat is truly sublime. I came upon a Tesla yesterday and felt a bit guilty about my noisy carbon footprint but a good run up the 507 and onward cured that for the moment. At times a pure mechanical harmony occurs where it feels like the wheels have left the ground and I'm flying low in an open cockpit aircraft. I look up to give thanks but I'm sure no higher power can hear me over the enthusiastic Alfa engine power pulses.

Nice 400+ km drive yesterday. Decided to take what looked like a shortcut. This road ended up turning into an ATV trail ... I was tempted but turned around instead.

Alien device spotted at Trenton car show yesterday. The folks driving it appeared human-like and thankfully no one was injured in the interaction between species although plenty of hydrocarbons were emitted in a joyous display of cubic abundance.

An Overview of the thinking behind the Nuvolari: The design for the Nuvolari started as a space frame concept back in the early 90’s. Torsional frame stiffness is a feature I consider essential. It not only improves handling but also road manners as it makes for a more solid feeling car. The frame I designed has a very wide triangle in the top bay... into which the driver and passenger as well as the engine are located. I built a model of the frame to prove the concept worked and then we started building. The shape of the frame with the wide centre section defines the body shape. The suspension design is similar to what we were using on our race cars at the time. Tubular wishbones not only give good wheel control but are light and easy to make. One can design in whatever characteristics you want from roll centre placement and behaviour to camber curves, caster, and elimination of bumpsteer etc. Going inboard with the damper/spring units allowed for better control over wheel rates and a cleaner layout. The look of the car is really a mechanical fantasy that reflects my love of vintage GP cars, open cockpit aircraft, land speed record cars, and some really cool minimalist hotrods. The mid-engine 1930's Auto Union GP cars were certainly a major inspiration. Raising a family and maintaining our fabrication business as well as getting side tracked by motorcycles and making music meant that our "County Car" had to sit for long periods of time with no attention. In fact at one point I considered scrapping the car as I wasn’t sure I had it in me to devote as much time as it needed to get it done. My wife Joan said "over my dead body, go out there and get that fucking car done!" With the help of Joan's never ending "enthusiasm" for the project, the inspiration came back in 2013 and we worked to complete the body. After that we had to make all the mechanical bits: cooling system (radiator and expansion tank and water pipes), dry sump oil system (oil tank, custom engine pan, oil pump mount), pedals, seats, seat belt mounts (6 point), clutch, exhaust system, ignition system, fuel system, lights and electrical, battery mount, plumbing, build the engine, gearbox, various finishing touches to suspension, and so on and on and on ... After getting a Vin# and getting it certified and insured, we hit the road July 20 2016. A very exciting moment for sure. Since then we have been putting miles on the car and also attending local car shows Still plenty of things to finish but it is running well and causing some excitement.

Drove to Kingston yesterday for a Princess Auto run and happened upon a cruise night. We have now attended cruise nights in Picton, Trenton, Belleville and Kingston. I will admit that I do feel like an alien landing in a strange world when we show up but everyone is extremely welcoming and it is great fun to hang with fellow gear heads who are refusing to grow old. Later we came home via the Glenora ferry and had a great meal at Portabello in Picton.

We decided to have a dedicated webpage for our County Car. The new link is: www.countycar.ca

Where is Waldo?

I am going to say out loud that driving this car is surpassing my expectations. It has quite a solid civilized feel on the road, nice and tight handling. And I think it likes posing for the camera.

Added this windscreen the other night. We tested it last night and it is working beautifully. I think it also improves the look of the car.

I feel that for high speed testing, a truly qualified highly experienced pilot is needed. I have enlisted the world famous Marietta Bandini to help out. Her driving record speaks for itself, with wins in virtually every class of racing, including wheelchair and Rollator. Should I be worried?

Are you lonely? Do you want to meet people? Why not consider building your own car? Everywhere you go you will get the thumbs up. Every time you stop is a conversation.... So folks, get going on building your own sports car now. Loneliness will be a distant memory. See more

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