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Rolling road recommendation
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1935Hillman



Joined: 06 Apr 2010
Posts: 257
Location: Hampshire

PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:12 pm    Post subject: Rolling road recommendation Reply with quote

I thought members would be interested to know of my experience on a rolling road today. After refitting my 1.5" SU downdraft following a rebuild I found it extremely difficult to tune and quite alarming at the poor performance despite trying everything I know. So, a couple of days ago I trawled the web looking for a nearby rolling road facility and found a number of good references for Slark Race Engineering in Amesbury. To cut a long story short I was able to fill an empty slot for this morning and drove the car down. Drove would be a generous description of the cars performance and after a somewhat stressful drive (nearly broke down twice) arrived at the workshop at 9:30. I met the proprietor Neil Slark and after a brief preamble got down to it. I wont describe all that went on but after about two hours Neil had first altered the throttle linkage to maximise the opening of the throttle as it was not fully opening, then changed the SU needle for a much richer one and finally fitted a (temporary until I can fit something more permanent) foam filter in order to make the quite large carb work slightly harder for its breath. The HP rating rose from a paltry 20 at the beginning of the exercise to a very creditable 38 at the end. The original sales data for the 1935 car was 37hp
I was relieved that the timing I had set was almost perfect although even the small adjustment made resulted in 2 of the 17hp gained. The bill was £145 and I drove home at a good steady speed reaching about 60mph on the long straights of the A303 (shamefully somewhat in excess of the poor old jalopy's brakes. All in all a great day and I would not hesitate to recommend Neil and his excellent service.
http://www.slarkraceengineering.co.uk/
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goneps



Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 601
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

All very interesting, and an excellent result considering that the original output claimed by the manufacturer would have been measured at the crankshaft, so it appears you're now getting a few more bhp than a new model straight from the factory.

Richard
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ka



Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 600
Location: Orkney.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 6:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also used a rolling road, just outside Hull to set the carb up, and the best timing compromise. Well worth the time and money, I would also recommend it, if you are altering anything from standard.
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KA

Better three than four.
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1935Hillman



Joined: 06 Apr 2010
Posts: 257
Location: Hampshire

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Little postscript to this thread. I was chatting to my Brother-in-law about it my visit and he said that many years ago he had a Brian Slark stage three cylinder head for his mini cooper. Brian was the go-to man for such work at the famous Downton Engineering. I did wonder why there were quite so many minis parked at the workshop when I was there. Clearly a speciality.
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