VotW – John Twist Demonstrating Cut-Away Transmission

Vintage racing isn’t just a hobby, it is a passion. And an art. We are quite pleased to have a guest article by Don Racine of Mini Mania about using the ribcase transmission from the ubiquitous “Spridget” in the vintage racing application. The most conventional gears in the everyday manual transmission are helical cut. The single biggest advantage of this design is the reduction of noise that is inherent in the more efficient, easy to manufacture straight cut gears. The helical patterns allow for a much less violent meshing of the gears. But, the decreased noise comes with a few penalties. The first of which is sideload – because the gears are helical, some of the thrust is lost in the rotational direction and thus must be controlled with a thrust surface. The thrust surface most often used is called thrust […]

Note: This week we are very pleased to have a piece from John Twist of University Motors on the dangers of ethanol, or alcohol, in modern gasoline. Those of us who drive classic British cars, especially ones with original fuel system components, need to be aware of what modern fluids can do to our rides. We appreciate John letting us reprint this article from his most recent newsletter. “Nearly all of the gasoline sold in the United States contains 10 percent ethanol, which can safely be used in all of today’s gasoline-burning cars and trucks.” (From http://www.ucsusa.org) The operative word is “today’s.” Ethanol is a cleaner burning fuel than gasoline. It is created from biomass, especially corn. Arguments rage about the true environmental impact of growing corn to create ethanol versus drawing crude oil from wells and then refining it. But […]

The annual University Motors Summer party will be held this year on August 8 in Byron Center, Michigan. This year’s event will be celebrating the MGA 1500’s birthday. The MGA was introduced in 1955. By replacing the TF, it was a quantum leap into the future with it’s aerodynamic body styling – a world away from the “square rigger” MG models from before WWII. Over the next seven years about 110,000 MGAs were manufactured. They came as roadsters and coupes. They were powered first by a 1500 engine, then a 1600, and finally a 1622. A short run (2111) of Twin Cams were produced in 1959-1960. They came with drum/drum brakes, then disc/drums, while the Twin Cam had all round disc brakes. The last MGAs left the factory in 1962 before the introduction of the MGB. Come with us the […]