Tracking down my old Beta Spyders

[75coupe]

Dear All,

had the old photo album out the other day and wondered if anyone knew the where abouts of any of the following Spyders that I owned in the '80s and early 90s.....With the exception of the top car the rest were decaying rapidly back then so not holding out much hope!!

JFL 999W - white 2L
MKV 722V - white 2L
ULG 292R - red 2L
VWW 445S - red 1600

Thanks

Ian

[MattNoVAT]

JFL 999W - white 2L      last on the road Feb 2004
MKV 722V - white 2L     Last on the road July 1995
ULG 292R - red 2L        Last on the road July 1997
VWW 445S - red 1600   Last on the road Nov 1987

JFL 999W may be stored somewhere but its not been roadworthy for 8 years, sadly I'd say the others went to the great scrapyard in the sky.  None have been placed on SORN.

[HFStuart]

Hmmm. Another Spider with a XXX reg - I've had both XRF999S and CLD777T.

Coincidence or a dealer doing it on purpose?

[MattNoVAT]

And I had a Coupe ALH 555 Y - a really fast 2.0, for some reason that one really shifted, went more like a 1600!

[75coupe]

Thanks for the info guys didn't be out much hope! Funnily enough it was MKV 722V that was the fast one, blew away many a boy racer in his RS2000 and Golf GTI. I remember it want that fast until we changed the dying gearbox- for a secondhand one of course! After that it went like it had another 50bhp! Just goes to show that a stuffed gearbox can really sap power.

1600 was fun though, it was funny watching the rev counter go off the clock!

[WestonE]

75 Coupe I completely agree with the funny seeing the rev counter go off the clock comment which is exactly what I see in my Guy Croft engined 2000 Montecarlo which is rev limited at 8500 and produces max power at 7700 RPM. It flys round there too not like a standard 2000.

Cheers

Eric 

[75coupe]

Eric,

I calculated that the 1600 was doing around 8000 rpm in 2nd gear..... Funny drag racing with my mate in his 2 litre proved the 1600 was just as fast off the line.

Hopefully my 2 litre will be breathing as well as yours soon as I have just had a VX head ported that now flows 105 cfm at 10.6mm lift which is predicted to put out between 180+BHP with the right cams..Currently my motor is around the 150+BHP mark and still goes past 7000rpm, so can't wait for the new head to go on!

Regards Ian

[WestonE]

Ian

Great work and I hope you get the power you are looking for. Just one gotcha I had to re-build the bottom end with forged pistons and rods to take these rev levels as the 300 degree cams wanted to kill the cast pistons which do not like revs beyond 7200 soft 7500 hard stop. If you upgrade the inlet cam only you can keep the revs down and trade in torque for ultimate power.

Eric

[75coupe]

Hi Eric,

I agree with your comment on the pistons, I will be limiting it to 7500 max. new HC pistons were fitted only last year, with balanced bottom end, lightened flywheel, (which I believe is another weak point if big revs are envisaged), so want to try and get a little use out of them before going forged. Isky uprated valve springs are being fitted. Considering a 3A inlet cam, but will stick with my US sourced 42/82 10.6mm lift cams for starters, they give a flatish torque curve from 3500rpm to 6000rpm at present, power peaking at 6700rpm. I'm sure the 3A's will have far more potential judging by the nose profile than the current cams.

I saw in Guy's original book that the 205BHP full race CCC/QXR Monte used cast pistons for the first few races!! (Obviously changed them to forged for a reason...)

Will keep you posted

regards Ian