RENAULT DAUPHINE

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Michael – I had a Husky as my first car, passed down through the family – loved it, great in snow. Upgraded it with a Sport head and twin Strombergs from the local scrapyard. Just for fun, not sure if it actually made a lot of difference. Also cobbled together a home-made water-injection unit as I'd read somewhere that it improved performance Indeed, those were the days.

There used to be a Stiletto in the Preston area that someone had managed to fit a Rover V8 into the back of, it was regularly seen in the Poly car park in the early '80s, along with a silver Hammerite, brush-painted VW Beetle. Funny the things you remember…

Rob

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Love to have seen the Hammerite Beetle. Just after I was married, and had even less money than the government leaves me nowadays, I bought an old Ford Anglia. It badly needed paint, and I had no idea. Orange cars were the thing in those days, so I bought a tin of orange paint at the local hardware store, and went home to start work. When I opened the tin, the paint seemed very thick, but it seemed to spread OK with a brush, so I pressed on.

I had almost finished, when I looked at the tin and realised I had bought thixotropic paint. I had no choice but to leave it to dry, until eventually it looked like the skin on a tangerine! It had one good effect – I didn't dare do anything remotely illegal in the car, because it was so distinctive, I was going to get nicked for sure!

Hi, Andrew – good to see you are still around – been pretty rough myself.

 

Edited By An Other on 05/08/2019 17:53:31

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Rob Rimmer on 05/08/2019 17:02:52:

… There used to be a Stiletto in the Preston area that someone had managed to fit a Rover V8 into the back of, it was regularly seen in the Poly car park in the early '80s

.

You may join me in drooling over this antipodean beastie, Rob

**LINK**

https://www.imps4ever.info/specials/v8/feck.html

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by An Other on 05/08/2019 11:29:00:

… Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of it now, (it was a long time ago) so I can't show you it.

.

This broadly fits your description:

**LINK**

https://www.imps4ever.info/specials/whitehead-haste/index.html

… am I getting close ?

MichaelG.

[ enjoying some Imp-nostalgia ]

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

"You may join me in drooling over this antipodean beastie, Rob "

Thanks Michael, very nice. A friend of mine who was into rallying told me about one Imp which left the road next to a Scottish loch, and skated over the surface for about thirty yards before sinking slowly, rear end first into the water – the advantages of a fairly flat bottom and rearward weight distribution.

Rob

(also enjoying Imp nostalgia and apologising to the Renault Dauphine whose thread we appear to have hijacked)

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

Hi, Michael – its beginning to look as though you want to build one

Sorry, your link is not at all like it. Basically, apart from the suspension upgrades, which as I understand it came from some company uprating Imps for racing (Stiffer shorter springs, stiffer shocks, changes to the various suspension arms to give better camber angles, etc), the car body was modified by entirely removing the rear window panel and window, then extending it back following the line of the roof. I think this was done with a piece from another Imp roof, because the new rear window posts looked identical to the original rear window posts, but now came down to the back of the car. (I hope that makes sense). The roof addition was welded across and blended in to make a single smooth curved line from front to rear. The original rear cross member of the car was still used, and a panel added above it which was welded to the rear floor of the car, and the new window posts. This still allowed the engine to be removed as per the original. The panel which had been removed from the original upper rear of the car (supporting the opening window) was refitted into the new rear window posts/roof, and welded in place with a rollbar immediately under the inside edge of the roof (under the interior roof lining), presumably to add strength, and the original opening rear window fitted. The new rear side windows were fitted between the original rear window posts and the new ones (darkened perspex – very chic in those days!)

The interior was completely gutted, and recarpeted with new heavy carpet, and all the old original synthetic plastic 'leather' replaced with real hide. The instruments were replaced with electronic digital types (speedo, petrol and temperature gauges, and a digital rev-counter and oil-pressure gauge added) mounted on a polished wooden dash (a la Jag). The electronics for all these used TTL logic in a metal box fitted under the dash, (no processors then!) with a plug-in lead connecting to the digital displays on the dash – in those days, they were all 7-segment red LED types. I understand that basically the original sensors for various functions were used – for example, the petrol gauge sensor was effectively a variable resistor operated by a float, so a varying voltage from this was converted anolog-to-digital, then used for the display, so not particularly complex. It all seemed to work OK, I never had problems with them, and the garage had no problems accepting it for MOT. I gather the guy who built them used to work at the RRE, so it should have been a doddle for him!

As I noted earlier, the engine was the larger 998cc version, originally fitted with dual Stombergs as per the Stiletto version, but I later changed these for dual SU's, which seemed to be much better. I had some issues with the Strombergs very quickly becoming unbalanced, resulting in a (mostly) weak mixture to two cylinders, and a (mostly) rich mixture to the other two, and also an irritating 'hunting' effect when the engine was running at slow speed. I happened to have the SU's, (think they came from an old Jaguar 2.4 Mk2) so I stuck them on, and they seemed fine.

It didn't seem to involve a vast amount of rebuilding, and the resulting car looked quite neat – it certainly caused comment. I suspect that without the suspension upgrade, it may have been a bit of pig to drive, but as it was, it was fine.

As I said, I eventually sold it because I needed a larger car, and the guy who bought it crashed it, which was a pity.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by An Other on 06/08/2019 18:56:30:

Hi, Michael – its beginning to look as though you want to build one

Sorry, your link is not at all like it. [ … ]

.

Oh well … it was the nearest I could find

Thanks for the extra details about yours.

No, not even contemplating building one … but finding that website did bring back some fond memories … always fancied a Ginetta G15 and/or one of the Hydroplanes that we used to watch at Holme Pierrepont when it first opened.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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