Geoff in the Gully
Getting it together
- Messages
- 281
Lucy is stoked that she didn't come last when she 'competed' at the Rob Roy hill climb a couple of weekends ago. She thinks 51 out of 56 is pretty good for a dishevelled, fading beauty who's best days are behind her.
Lucy is my '64 R4L I got for parts for another project. But I then decided she was too good for that and fixed her up enough to put back on the road. I call her Lucy because she was oh so loose in the suspension - every piece of rubber was perished or detached from its surrounding sleeve. Having a virtually all-new suspension now she is a beautifully sweet handling ride; I can't believe how smooth and controlled she is. But I still call her Lucy.
Anyway, the Rob Roy hill climb here in Victoria is an historic hill climb track being one of the first full-sealed ones and dates from 1937. The MG car club now own and run events on it very regularly. One of these is an inter-club challenge where as well as competing for places oneself, you also earn points for your club - the Renault Car Club of Victoria in my case. RCCV won it last year and I thought Lucy and I would do our bit towards retaining the title. You get at least one point for attending, you see.
The competition was a mix of classes of modern sports sedans (in five size ranges, up to 1300cc being the lowest), post-1960 racing cars and pre-1960 racing cars. There was nothing else like a 1963 845cc Renault 4 there at all; Lucy was in a class of her own. Unfortunately it wasn't a competition class and she was doing battle with things like Clio sports.
It may surprise you to know I wasn't expecting to beat anyone up the hill! Though I did post a quicker time than one of the Clio Sports for one run - but he decided to do a 360 on one of the corners (something to do with inertia I think) which double his time compared to his other runs. Lucy's not shy; she'll claim glory even if it's undeserved!!
Apart from adding a point to the club score, i'm really doing the hill-climb to benchmark the restoration and improvements I'm doing to the power train. A properly timed run up a hill steep enough to force one back to first-gear is a good test of the power train. It's no test of the braking performance though!
I've done nothing to Lucy's engine, etc except for an oil change. It's been so long since I last drove an 845cc Ventoux engine powered Renault I can't remember what the performance was like but Lucy cruises surprisingly nicely at 100k or more down the freeways. Not so happy with hills though.
There's a bit of slipping in the clutch - sometimes up a hill the engine revs will noticeably rise, race even, without any change to road speed. A compression check returned about 8 - 8.25 bar and I think that these engines are around 11-12 when they're new / rebuilt. No vacuum advance on the dizzy and no accelerator pump on the carby. Three-speed gearbox too of course - that was killing me on the day - it's a long leg between 1st and 2nd.
So I plan to fix the clutch, rebuild the engine, replace the 3-speed box with the 4-speed one I have currently in pieces, electronic ignition and something better (Dauphine Gordini) for the carby. Do these one-by-one and have a hill-climb in between to calibrate the results.
My times up the hill over four runs were 57.05, 57.22, 55.15 and 54.39 seconds. I got better over the day. In the second run I tried staying in 2nd gear near the end to avoid delays from changing down a gear - not a successful strategy it seems. My brother Peter was also competing in Lucy for the fun of it, but he only got one run in. He couldn't get the old girl off the starting grid - not used to the power; the lack thereof and couldn't get the slipping clutch to engage. His usual hill climb vehicle is an R12 Gordini (one of the six that were brought to Australia in the 70s).
Typical times up the hill are around 30 seconds, best time on the day around 26.2 seconds in a Ford Laser. Worst apart from Lucy around 49 seconds by a Triumph Gloria. And oh, those five that Lucy beat - they were 'did not start', so not really there to be beaten.
The old girl certainly attracted a lot of attention on the day. A continuous line of people wanting to look at her and ask about her. I love that about these R4s - every time I go out they people are drawn to them. Also, many people commented on how quiet she was. Us R4 drivers know why that is - it's because all the noise is INSIDE the car!
Lucy is my '64 R4L I got for parts for another project. But I then decided she was too good for that and fixed her up enough to put back on the road. I call her Lucy because she was oh so loose in the suspension - every piece of rubber was perished or detached from its surrounding sleeve. Having a virtually all-new suspension now she is a beautifully sweet handling ride; I can't believe how smooth and controlled she is. But I still call her Lucy.
Anyway, the Rob Roy hill climb here in Victoria is an historic hill climb track being one of the first full-sealed ones and dates from 1937. The MG car club now own and run events on it very regularly. One of these is an inter-club challenge where as well as competing for places oneself, you also earn points for your club - the Renault Car Club of Victoria in my case. RCCV won it last year and I thought Lucy and I would do our bit towards retaining the title. You get at least one point for attending, you see.
The competition was a mix of classes of modern sports sedans (in five size ranges, up to 1300cc being the lowest), post-1960 racing cars and pre-1960 racing cars. There was nothing else like a 1963 845cc Renault 4 there at all; Lucy was in a class of her own. Unfortunately it wasn't a competition class and she was doing battle with things like Clio sports.
It may surprise you to know I wasn't expecting to beat anyone up the hill! Though I did post a quicker time than one of the Clio Sports for one run - but he decided to do a 360 on one of the corners (something to do with inertia I think) which double his time compared to his other runs. Lucy's not shy; she'll claim glory even if it's undeserved!!
Apart from adding a point to the club score, i'm really doing the hill-climb to benchmark the restoration and improvements I'm doing to the power train. A properly timed run up a hill steep enough to force one back to first-gear is a good test of the power train. It's no test of the braking performance though!
I've done nothing to Lucy's engine, etc except for an oil change. It's been so long since I last drove an 845cc Ventoux engine powered Renault I can't remember what the performance was like but Lucy cruises surprisingly nicely at 100k or more down the freeways. Not so happy with hills though.
There's a bit of slipping in the clutch - sometimes up a hill the engine revs will noticeably rise, race even, without any change to road speed. A compression check returned about 8 - 8.25 bar and I think that these engines are around 11-12 when they're new / rebuilt. No vacuum advance on the dizzy and no accelerator pump on the carby. Three-speed gearbox too of course - that was killing me on the day - it's a long leg between 1st and 2nd.
So I plan to fix the clutch, rebuild the engine, replace the 3-speed box with the 4-speed one I have currently in pieces, electronic ignition and something better (Dauphine Gordini) for the carby. Do these one-by-one and have a hill-climb in between to calibrate the results.
My times up the hill over four runs were 57.05, 57.22, 55.15 and 54.39 seconds. I got better over the day. In the second run I tried staying in 2nd gear near the end to avoid delays from changing down a gear - not a successful strategy it seems. My brother Peter was also competing in Lucy for the fun of it, but he only got one run in. He couldn't get the old girl off the starting grid - not used to the power; the lack thereof and couldn't get the slipping clutch to engage. His usual hill climb vehicle is an R12 Gordini (one of the six that were brought to Australia in the 70s).
Typical times up the hill are around 30 seconds, best time on the day around 26.2 seconds in a Ford Laser. Worst apart from Lucy around 49 seconds by a Triumph Gloria. And oh, those five that Lucy beat - they were 'did not start', so not really there to be beaten.
The old girl certainly attracted a lot of attention on the day. A continuous line of people wanting to look at her and ask about her. I love that about these R4s - every time I go out they people are drawn to them. Also, many people commented on how quiet she was. Us R4 drivers know why that is - it's because all the noise is INSIDE the car!
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As you say these brilliant little cars certainly do turn heads as we found at the Le Mans Classic, mixing it with some beautiful cars, and their crews.