TR6 and Budget BRM

[00:00:01]So, 19, I think, 71 uh J-spec TR6 Not every car we get here is completely immaculate or finished, but um basically, it's just in for mapping.

[00:00:15]And it's still got all the bodywork and stuff to do. I mean, there's plenty of dents and stuff in it, but more more interesting is what's going on under the bonnet.

[00:00:35]There we go.

[00:00:38]So, this looks like the original uh Lucas injection system, uh but it's been modified and quite nicely done because the we've seen these in the past and getting the throttle pot drive is always the hardest bit. And they've made quite a quite a tidy job of that. The linkage all looks quite respectable.

[00:00:57]And I'm guessing won't be too hard if I can get in there, won't be too hard to actually adjust. I'll just go around the other side.

[00:01:12]There we go. That looks fairly straightforward.

[00:01:15]I don't think there's even a locknut on it. It looks like a spring.

[00:01:18]Um not sure about that stop. I don't know if there's there's a screw comes from underneath back to that, but well, we're about to find out because uh we're going to try and balance it.

[00:01:27]So, buried in there um is a bit of a weird uh system. Normally, on a six-cylinder, one, two, and three into one, and four, five, and six into one, and then they go together further down.

[00:01:41]But this one, um it's got got three pairs uh and in three down pipes, which at some stage probably go into one.

[00:01:51]Uh can't really see down there.

[00:01:56]No.

[00:01:58]But uh it's going to be interesting.

[00:02:01]Six-cylinder coil pack, uh distributor blanked off, and electronic tachometer because obviously the original mechanical drive is now gone.

[00:03:07]Having run up to over 100 mph, it takes a while for the rollers to slow down.

[00:03:12]But, once they get down to 40 mph, you can see there, 46, 45, um it will suddenly pop up with uh the data that we want to see.

[00:03:55]>> You always want to run the least ignition advance that makes the best power. We call it MBT, minimum best torque.

[00:04:24]What was that? 166.something?

[00:04:27]>> Yeah, 166.

[00:04:28]>> 166, that's pretty impressive. Um I know this allegedly were 150 brake originally, but uh there's no way.

[00:04:37]Normally 135 140+ would be a good engine. So, yeah, this is uh really nice.

[00:04:44]Um yeah, the wiring looks a bit um chunky in places, but it just needs a tidy up, and the engine bay's really nice.

[00:04:53]And if we go around the other side, block and ring all nicely done. Um no oil leaks, nothing bad.

[00:05:01]Uh under bonnet, it's pretty good. It's just uh the outside of the car um is due some TLC.

[00:05:07]But other than that, um it's a good little car.

[00:05:11]So, we got what? 140 uh at 2,000.

[00:05:16]>> Three.

[00:05:17]145.

[00:05:18]>> 145.

[00:05:20]>> 155.

[00:05:22]>> 155.

[00:05:23]>> Over 160.

[00:05:25]Right the way to the end.

[00:05:26]>> Yeah, 160 foot pound. That's That's a really good spread. That'd be a lovely road engine.

[00:05:33]Yeah, as Ollie just said, the the power output's actually still climbing, but we haven't been given a rev limit, so we're keeping it 6,000.

[00:05:41]Um yeah, I think this this uh exemplifies the old adage, um which I can't remember what it is.

[00:05:49]Um yeah, it might not look the part outside just yet. It's just still work in progress, but engine engine bay um yeah, a little bit of dodgy wiring, but it's coming on really nicely.

[00:06:00]These are both um TR6 six-cylinder engines. And is it just the cam in the main that's different?

[00:06:07]>> Um not exactly sure. I think that one's on different prop bodies, but yeah, more or less it's basically just the cam that's different.

[00:06:14]>> And what were they? Newman phase?

[00:06:16]>> Yeah, phase five I believe that was.

[00:06:18]>> So, the the maximum power one was phase five, and do we know what the other one was?

[00:06:23]>> Um I don't know what this one is, but it's nowhere near as aggressive >> No.

[00:06:27]>> that one.

[00:06:28]>> But you're swapping all that um low speed torque for a bit of the top, and you've got to rev it much harder um to see the benefit from it. You do wonder if on a road engine you wouldn't be better off with a softer cam.

[00:06:41]>> Well, at >> Yeah.

[00:06:43]Yeah, there's the horsepower.

[00:06:46]>> So, you do gain >> Yeah, but anywhere under four and a half um it's worse.

[00:06:53]If you were racing it, you'd obviously go for the bigger cam. 184 brake sounds much more impressive than 166.

[00:07:01]But, yeah, for my money um as a road car the softer cam would be much nicer.

[00:07:07]>> Yeah, 4,000 you've got about 15 lb ft of torque.

[00:07:13]>> Yeah.

[00:07:19]Okay, thank you very much, Ollie.

[00:07:22]So, that was the TR6. Mass Racing did a lovely job on the engine. Really good torque spread. Lovely road car. The wiring needs a little bit of tidying up, but I mean that's nothing.

[00:07:33]So, moving on. BRM.

[00:07:36]Uh this is a very rare uh Rover 200 which uh BMW tried to take the image a little bit more upmarket when they took over Rover.

[00:07:46]And apparently they only sold hundreds rather than thousands. So it's a rare car and I doubt there's many still on the road. This one is very much work in progress and very much a budget build.

[00:07:58]Most of the work's been done by the owner.

[00:08:01]It was only running on a couple of cylinders and barely running at that.

[00:08:05]When the as I say when the car arrived I mean it barely run. There was a problem with the fuel pressure regulator in as much as it wasn't regulating. So first couple of problems fuel leak coming from this fitting here and there was one from here but we nicked that up and it seems to have stopped.

[00:08:25]But more importantly the plumbing is completely incorrect.

[00:08:30]Um seem to have the flow flowing into the regulator which may or may not be right way around.

[00:08:38]Um but in between these two should be the fuel rail and we get free bar. Um but instead it's going out of the regulator which would essentially now be a return to the tank and that's what's feeding the fuel rail.

[00:08:53]And so we've got no fuel pressure.

[00:08:56]It was plumbed in so the fuel came straight in and straight out.

[00:09:00]So it's amazing it run at all really especially given the plug leads were on the wrong way round and the boots didn't fit right with that head. But and a few fuel leaks but we just cracked on with the owner's permission got it all sorted out and it's sweet as a nut now. Starts on the button. Still needs a lot of work obviously but really nice.

[00:09:25]>> This looks like a map of the world but in fact it's a BRM Rover, 1.8 K-series engine fitted with the VVC head with the solid cam conversion and motorcycle throttle bodies. I'm not a big fan of the motorcycle throttle bodies, but on this engine it seems to work quite nicely.

[00:09:58]Decent air filter, quite nice job on the installation.

[00:10:02]Uh what's not to like?

[00:10:04]Quite a nice sporty uh dash layout. Um interior's a little bit over the top uh with some of the quilting. Being an MG, you can see here.

[00:10:15]But apart from that, it's it's really nice.

[00:10:21]Yeah, sadly uh apparently it's the lacquer that goes on these older cars.

[00:10:26]Um and the roof is quite badly gone.

[00:10:31]The only answer is a complete respray, really. Obviously it's going to take the owner some time just for if nothing else, financial reasons. But well done you.