Brake talk

Tony, the only member of our team that actually owns a race car (1968 AMX 390) says: "the faster you go the faster you need to stop". With that in mind I have been researching a way to make this TR7 stop properly, the 7's stock brakes are pretty feeble. There are many different setups available for the car but almost all of them way too expensive!! TR8 rotors and calipers bolt on but the calipers alone cost over $250. There is a volvo 4 pot caliper set up with ford escort vented rotors that has been done, again too muchy money! I have settled on Capri II calipers with TR8 rotors and Triumph TR6 ceramic pads. It all bolts right on! Found some used (new to me) rotors for free on the TriumphTR7.com website, kragen has some rebuilt Capri calipers for $27 bucks each and I found some TR6 ceramic pads for $37 buy it now on Ebay. OK for the fronts, the rear brakes should be easy as we have a Ford 9" diff that came with the car, ck the pads and hardware and make sure the cylinders don't leak and we are done! Total spent $91. Brakes are considered safety equipment and are not counted toward the $500 total.

I put the old Buick engine parts on various Craigs lists and have so far sold the HEI distributor(odd fire model and RARE! Jeep guys like them) for $40 and have the old block and intake manifold with carb listed for $80, a guy for San Jose is coming to take a look Sunday. So that's $120 bucks for the old busted engine and I think there is probably another $100-$150 worth of parts on the race car that have been stripped off and will be sold on Ebay and Craigs list. The original sears 8 track stereo will stay, Tony had the idea to put some speakers in the tail light holes so all those we pass on the race track can get a load some creedence clear water or maybe a little deep purple.

Sunday we will swap the engines and maybe even get it running, we will also try to guess the differential ratio by making a mark on the drive shaft then rotating the rear wheel 360 degrees. The number of drive shaft rotations should give us an approximate ratio. If the ratio is 3.73 or above the 13" wheels currently on the back of the car won't do. With the three speed turbo 350 trans the top end will be the shits and the revs will be way too high, blow a rod high, float the valves high! So maybe some 15's on the back and keep the 13's up front, really exaggerate the wedge affect! We will see.