Disaster strikes again

[t11]

Well the editor of classic and sports car arrived with the photographer we had a chat and then took the to see the car, we decided to go and take a few photo's near Dover castle and puled into the car park and thought I can smell anti=freeze got out and went round to the rear and there was water everywhere my rather nice custom made alloy rad had blown the core I could not believe my luck a £400 rad that lasted 170 miles needles to say serek do not trade any longer so having had a bit a think we will not go for another side mounted rad but one mounted across the back so air going through the engine compartment will go through the rad and out the 2 holes I've cut in the rear panel with a fan behind it more on this as the week goes on but I will be making the mounting brackets tomorrow

[Waylison]

Such is life, especially with a unique car like your T11, it'll take lots of road miles to 'shake down' all those sort of things. I did a complete nuts and bolts rebuild on a 100m Healey and after 2000 miles or so it was sent in to a garage for a check over prior to it's mot and he found lots of bolts working loose, even lock nut ones ! So the more you start to use it, the more you need to double check the bolts etc.

Anyway Gordon, how did it go with the magazine guys?

[ErnstBlofeld]

Shame the car didn't get to feature in "C&SC" - it's the only magazine I subscribe to. I do remember the piece about it in the "Lost & Found" feature in the magazine many years ago.

Still, hope the car's now on the road again. It's a striking looking thing and a real credit to you.

Dug up an old quote about the T11 which has always interested me:

The road going chassis had a 1500cc Maxi engine fitted, but it was intended to use a 6 cylinder British Leyland all alloy unit, this was on order with Layland for a year but never arrived, this unit was built for the Australian market.

The bit about the all-alloy six. I took it to mean an all alloy variant of the E6 transverse unit as used in the Wolseley Six and the later Princess. Asked some BL petrolheads about this at the time and the opinion was that an alloy E6 would have been a very bad idea owing to the iron unit being already at its practical capacity limit. Found out that the E6 was used in the Australian Tasman/Kimberley and the P76 but it was never an all-alloy unit. So was this a mis-print or was Gilbern promised an experimental unit that ultimately never reached production?

[GGenie69]

The road going chassis had a 1500cc Maxi engine fitted, but it was intended to use a 6 cylinder British Leyland all alloy unit, this was on order with Layland for a year but never arrived, this unit was built for the Australian market.

The bit about the all-alloy six. I took it to mean an all alloy variant of the E6 transverse unit as used in the Wolseley Six and the later Princess. Asked some BL petrolheads about this at the time and the opinion was that an alloy E6 would have been a very bad idea owing to the iron unit being already at its practical capacity limit. Found out that the E6 was used in the Australian Tasman/Kimberley and the P76 but it was never an all-alloy unit. So was this a mis-print or was Gilbern promised an experimental unit that ultimately never reached production?

Hmm, interesting. The engine in the P76 was an all alloy 4.4ltr V8 and through my research there was talk of lopping 2 cylinders off it so it would fit in the Tasman/Kimberly (aka Austin 1800 land crab). So maybe it could have been supplied for the T11 if both projects hadn't gone, as we say down these parts, "tits up".

Richard