IK Classics and Racing

Over the last three months we at IK Classics have been building yet another "quirky " race car in the very unlikley guise of a 1959 Rover 100 P4.

The project was started by one of my flippant remarks to a customer about one of the cars I would like to build, that would be different, unique, possibly not the fastest race car but a vehicle that would get noticed and posibly get some good entries to the top meetings. Within three days the same customer came back to me with details of a suitable donor vehicle and an agreement in principle for IK Racing to build the car providing we could do it on a very limited budget of about £10,000 for the first year. Not one to be frightened by a challenge the idea started to turn into reality.

The donor car was a very sad looking 1959 Rover 100 P4 saloon in royal blue with contrasting rust patches and various missing lights and trim. The vehicle sat in the yard of Rover specialist John Wearing of Accrington and had been described by John as too good to scrap, but too bad to restore and was slowly being stripped of parts for other Rovers that were passing through John's workshop, On inspection the car appeared to by quite sound with only a few visible areas of corrosion in easy-to-repair places, and in with the price came two front wing lower repair panels, a set of twin carbs, a modified twin carb cylinder head from a 105 and a number of lights, bumpers and front grille to bring the car back to life.

A deal was done and the car was loaded onto the trailer for the start of its journey to the place of its hoped rebirth, IK Classics. Oh what had I let myself in for?

Once in the workshop the car was checked over and a plan and timetable for its development and first outing were discussed and agreed. The first outing for the car was hoped to be a track day at Snetterton on the 9th of October with the car's first competitive event to be the Top Hat Meeting at Mallory Park on the 26th of October.

First job was to book the car in for a roll cage and the a custom exhaust system. We are lucky in the fact that we have two first class companies able to carry out these two functions in our area. For the roll cages we use Performance & Protection based in Skipton and for the exhausts we use Tony Law Exhausts of Leeds. Due to the fact that these firms are in great demand and have long lead times we started to prepair the other areas of the vehicle whilst waiting for the cage and exhaust to be made and fitted. Obviosly with limited time available untill the car was required on the track and with all the other comitments in the workshop, the bare minimum of prep was all that we could give to the car in order for it to pass scrutineering and enable the car to race. The basic requirments for racing a vehicle like this are to fit a suitable roll cage, a plumbed in fire system, electrical kill switch with external activation, suitable front and rear clearly marked tow eyes and sealed front and rear bulk heads, obviously this is a very basic listing of required modifications that in practice runs into many pages of the MSA blue book. So first thing we did was to remove all the unwanted interior trim and other non esencial weighty items ie: - all the carpets and sound deadening, spare wheel and carrier, some bumper iron and all the bumper overiders. The fuel tank was removed as this was going to be replaced with an alloy foam filled unit for safety. We then welded in mounting plates for the racing seats and repaired the corrosion to the front wings and front chassis out rigers. At this point the car was then shipped out for the cage and exhaust to be fitted. On its return the body repairs were completed, an alloy rear sealed bulkhead fitted, the alloy petrol tank was installed complete with an external alloy Aston type cap. The later twin carb head was fitted with larger 2in SU's, a rev counter plus oil and water gauges, the fire system and kill switch both with external pull cables and a pair of full harness seat belts. On the handeling side we fitted adjustable shockers all round and an uprated front anti roll bar with slightly lowered front suspension. This left the only remaining item left to do which was to replace the toughened front windsceen with a laminated unit, this we did but unfortunatly cracked the new screen in the proccess, oh bu++er. The day eventually arrived when the car was going to take to the track for the first time. The venue was Snetterton in Norfolk and I travelled down the night before with the car on the trailer and the tow truck full of tools and spares. Prior to setting of we had never tested the car on the road so this was to be its first run and in hindsight seemed a long way to go to carry out a road test but it did seem a good idea at the time. I arrived at the circuit in plenty of time and awaited the arrival of the cars owner Mr Richard Skelton of Summerwine Classic Car Hire, on his arrival we both signed on and went to the compusery drivers breifing before being let out on to the track. All drivers had to do three sighting laps behind a pace car prior to to being let loose so I duly joined the queue of cars waiting to go out in the pit lane only to be joined by an instructor and told that he would be passengering me and we would be the pace car, so if I would like to go to the front of the queue and we would begin, talk about baptisum of fire! all the things that could go wrong suddenly started to go through my mind, what if we broke down, what if a wheel fell off, or worst of all what if the car did'nt handle and I went streight on at the first corner with everybody following. Well the car did go round the first corner and the one after that and the next one and so on, right the way to a full lap, then a second lap and thats when the instructor who was sat quietly in the passenger seat, started to offer advise on which lines to take around the circuit which then started to improve the entry and exit speeds through the corners and therefore improve the lap times. Just a note for all you buding race drivers and track day specialist out there, The person who say that he dos'nt require any driving tuition and instuction at a track day is the person that really needs it, even Louis Hamilton has instrution. Anyway I diagress, with the siting laps over it was time to take to the circuit with no restrictions and see what the car could really do. I was joined in this sesson by one of the cars owners, Mr Richard Skelton who with a little apprehention carfully strapped himself into the passenger seat, and off we set onto the the very fast Snetterton race circuit. Without the restriction of having to be the lead car in the siteing lap sesson at a maximum 60mph the car was gunned out of the pit lane towards the first corner and thats when the big problem reared its ugly head. The car had been residding 10 weeks earlier in a very delappidated state in John Wearings yard waiting for an uncertain future and we had taken this wreck and transformed it into a race car, able to meet all the safety requirments but on a very limited budget, and one area that had received little attention was the engine. The problem was that the valve springs, which had not be altered, where at the worst 50 years old and a little weak so when the engine reached a lowly 4000rpm we got valve bounce and a substantial loss of power. With this limiter on our performance we ventured on with the day, looking for any weak spots, areas for improvement (and there were many) and getting used to the handeling. The car ran faultlessly for the remainder of the day (alas only with 4000rpm) and it was rather late and after maybe too many laps we packed up and went home to start on the improvments. Next stop- the first race in the Oldies But Goldies at Mallory.

Due to unforseen circumstances Mr Richard Skelton has decided not to continue with this project so we at IK Racing have taken over the development of the car. The idea for the car is to carry out the planed modifications over the next few months and offer the car for hire at either track days or race meetings, so if anybody fancies a drive of a well handling (if not fast) historic race car then please give us a ring.