rutthenut
May 16th, 2002, 11:42 AM
Well, for those of you that haven't met me or read about me so far, I guess an introduction may be useful.
I am John Rutter, with the moniker 'Rut the Nut' commonly used.
I built my Hawk HF3000 some years ago, with the intention of using it for track days and general fast road stuff. At the time, this was powered with a standard Alfa V6, with Thema Turbo brakes (vented front, solid rear).
Whilst building it, I joined the Stratos Replica Club and also did a stint as newsletter editor - so I know what it involves to do those sort of jobs. I'm still a member of the S.R.C. (renewal in the post, Guy) but don't seem to get so involved these days. Thanks go to those who still put in the extra effort through the club, as well as Dave Watson for this site.
My only concern on this front is that as the web-based forums can respond so much quicker than a newsletter-based club, the newsletter tends to suffer from contributions. Hopefully that isn't going to make the club seem a poor choice, the information exchange, articles and occasional get-togethers are a big plus point of having a club. The web stuff just adds to that.
Anyway, besides various kit car outings and the like with the car, I went into sprint and hillclimb events with it. This was at the time when the competition was mostly Westfields with 2-litre Vaxuhall 16-valve engines. There was only one of these that I never beat! I managed to pick up a regional championship award for the 'Kit Cars and Replicas, over 1700cc' class in my full year of sprint events.
Then I decided to move on to circuit racing, so had door-bars and a plumbed-in extinguisher added for the safety regs, bigger brakes (four-pots all round), a rebuilt engine with a fast road cam plus chip giving an extra 1000rpm, plus some new wheels with a set of slick tyres. And that was it, ready to race and still road legal. I competed in the AutoItalia series, against Alfa's, Lancia's, Fiat's, Maseratis', de Tomaso's and Ferrari's. Amazingly, I won my class in the championship for two years running, with fastest times set at some of the circuits.
This was great fun, but at the more open circuits it was really frustrating to watch the more powerful cars blast by on the straights, even though I could do the same against the less powerful cars. Wet weather tended to even things up a bit and - at least in my second season, when I had some proper 'wets' to race on - I could beat the bigger cars as they could not use the power in those conditions.
The answer to this problem was to build a race car, as opposed to the 'road car' I was using at the time! Not that there is much in my current Strat for road comfort. It has never been trimmed out but is still comfortable on the road as the spring rates are at a lower rate than is ideal for circuit racing.
Hence I now have a lightweight car in my garage, awaiting completion. This has had a lot of extra work to utilise a lighter weight chassis (from Hawk Cars again) and a very thin set of panels made from a carbon/kevlar weave. The engine planned for this car is a 24-valve Alfa unit, this time with some serious work going into it. This will utilise throttle-body injection, hot cams with solid lifters and improved valve gear, increased compression, larger valves and a mappable engine management system. The power expected from this engine should be anywhere over 300bhp, with 350bhp sounding quite feasible. The tranmission would remain near stock, but with a limited slip diff and a paddle clutch unit.
Unfortunately, finance issues and new business development have meant that my racing and new car build process have been put on the back burner for some time now. Hopefully I can resume this stuff again next year, I'm certainly missing it.
In the mean time, I get along to various car shows and use the car on odd occasions. I did one sprint last year (dreadful result, won't go into that here). Trips to Zolder with Hawk Cars have been fun though, even though the rain last year threatened to ruin it all.
There you are, a potted history of my involvement with the Stratos Replica crowd. Some other information is on my (out of date, naturally) web site at www.rutthenut.com if you car to have a look.
Other than that, I should point out that I have entered the sprint at Abingdon and plan to be around for the weekend's activities. Hope to meet some of you there.
I am John Rutter, with the moniker 'Rut the Nut' commonly used.
I built my Hawk HF3000 some years ago, with the intention of using it for track days and general fast road stuff. At the time, this was powered with a standard Alfa V6, with Thema Turbo brakes (vented front, solid rear).
Whilst building it, I joined the Stratos Replica Club and also did a stint as newsletter editor - so I know what it involves to do those sort of jobs. I'm still a member of the S.R.C. (renewal in the post, Guy) but don't seem to get so involved these days. Thanks go to those who still put in the extra effort through the club, as well as Dave Watson for this site.
My only concern on this front is that as the web-based forums can respond so much quicker than a newsletter-based club, the newsletter tends to suffer from contributions. Hopefully that isn't going to make the club seem a poor choice, the information exchange, articles and occasional get-togethers are a big plus point of having a club. The web stuff just adds to that.
Anyway, besides various kit car outings and the like with the car, I went into sprint and hillclimb events with it. This was at the time when the competition was mostly Westfields with 2-litre Vaxuhall 16-valve engines. There was only one of these that I never beat! I managed to pick up a regional championship award for the 'Kit Cars and Replicas, over 1700cc' class in my full year of sprint events.
Then I decided to move on to circuit racing, so had door-bars and a plumbed-in extinguisher added for the safety regs, bigger brakes (four-pots all round), a rebuilt engine with a fast road cam plus chip giving an extra 1000rpm, plus some new wheels with a set of slick tyres. And that was it, ready to race and still road legal. I competed in the AutoItalia series, against Alfa's, Lancia's, Fiat's, Maseratis', de Tomaso's and Ferrari's. Amazingly, I won my class in the championship for two years running, with fastest times set at some of the circuits.
This was great fun, but at the more open circuits it was really frustrating to watch the more powerful cars blast by on the straights, even though I could do the same against the less powerful cars. Wet weather tended to even things up a bit and - at least in my second season, when I had some proper 'wets' to race on - I could beat the bigger cars as they could not use the power in those conditions.
The answer to this problem was to build a race car, as opposed to the 'road car' I was using at the time! Not that there is much in my current Strat for road comfort. It has never been trimmed out but is still comfortable on the road as the spring rates are at a lower rate than is ideal for circuit racing.
Hence I now have a lightweight car in my garage, awaiting completion. This has had a lot of extra work to utilise a lighter weight chassis (from Hawk Cars again) and a very thin set of panels made from a carbon/kevlar weave. The engine planned for this car is a 24-valve Alfa unit, this time with some serious work going into it. This will utilise throttle-body injection, hot cams with solid lifters and improved valve gear, increased compression, larger valves and a mappable engine management system. The power expected from this engine should be anywhere over 300bhp, with 350bhp sounding quite feasible. The tranmission would remain near stock, but with a limited slip diff and a paddle clutch unit.
Unfortunately, finance issues and new business development have meant that my racing and new car build process have been put on the back burner for some time now. Hopefully I can resume this stuff again next year, I'm certainly missing it.
In the mean time, I get along to various car shows and use the car on odd occasions. I did one sprint last year (dreadful result, won't go into that here). Trips to Zolder with Hawk Cars have been fun though, even though the rain last year threatened to ruin it all.
There you are, a potted history of my involvement with the Stratos Replica crowd. Some other information is on my (out of date, naturally) web site at www.rutthenut.com if you car to have a look.
Other than that, I should point out that I have entered the sprint at Abingdon and plan to be around for the weekend's activities. Hope to meet some of you there.