Lancia Motor Club

Folowing on from a few bits on the timing chain thread:

Rear suspension - who's got a good scan of the parts book? 

Then we can try and work out if it was a "errrrmmm, we got no space for a dynamo boss, what djarspect meado?" or if it was "the very best way to suspend a car is..."

David

Sorry - no scans, no parts books, only the images in my brain.

What a pity we don’t have access to an on-line archive (any committee members bothering to read this stuff?) – if we did I could guide you to an article by Paul Frere, Belgian Grand Prix driver of note from the late 1950s and highly revered motoring writer. Frere’s article, which was published in an LMC Journal many years ago, was a technical appraisal of the Aprilia rear end that explained just how brilliant and advanced it was. I don’t think he used these words, but I think he made the point about how the ‘soft and slow’ transverse spring worked to allow the ‘hard and quick’ torsion bars do their stuff – and with in-board rear brakes integral with the diff, the un-sprung weight was kept to the minimum. Maybe someone can find the article?

Of course, one of the design objectives here, as with sliding pillar front suspension, was to ensure that the plane of the wheels stayed at 90 degrees to the road at all times. A fine idea, but drivers being drivers these things get tested to the limit – judge for yourselves in this photograph from 1978. It’s Dave Scheldt driving Barry Waterhouse’s just acquired and un-modified car.

Colin

this is what is so good about the forum. I've seen more interesting photos about Aprilias in the last 10 days on here than I will se in VL in the next 10 years. (I don't mean to criticize VL, its just the reality of timing and the internet of course)

Colin, your collection of heart warming and thought provoking/memory envoking photo's seems inexhaustable...If everybody was to contributed their similar items we would have a book well worth publishing and great fun to browse (TB legacy....?)

David, I will email you a scan from the parts book of the rear suspension, just remember NEVER EVER try to remove the rear spring without the proper tool as you are very likely to do yourself a serious injury......if not worse!!!
I look after the Club rear suspension tool, which you can borrow, subject to collecting & returning etc.
Ade

Ade's right about the almost legendary challenge of releasing the spring and the associated danger if done incorrectly.Having benefited from the kind loan of this tool I would simply add the note of caution that you may also do yourself a serious injury lifting the thing..... ;)

Only kidding, it works well and the robust  design is comforting considering the forces at play.If you don't have a bridge to raise the car on its quite exciting as the tool is about 1/2 a yard long in the vertical sense which meant for me elevating the back end of the car on a wobbling collection of wooden blocks and jacks to achieve the height necessary to release the spring.  Working under the car was a little concerning with ever creak leading to a rapid exit...

One of the side effects of using torsion bars on IRS is that the roll siffness is very high. Usually you would counter this by adding a front anti-roll bar, but you can't do this on sliding pillar suspension. Therefore the only option is to reduce the rear anti-roll stiffness, but doing this by reducing the stiffness of the torsion bars would reduce the bounce stiffness. One effect of the traverse spring is to conteract the natural stiffness of the torsion bar in roll and lower the roll stiffness, as it actually pushes the unloaded wheel down onto the road against the torsion bar. A sort of anti - "anti-roll bar" if you will !

I had to wrap a cold towel round my head to contemplate anti-anti-roll bars   :-\   That is starting to sound like a "three spring" setup like some single seaters have - the contemplation of which is a sure substitute for counting sheep. 

I've attached a favorite Aprilia picture - and some "internet size" versions of the rear suspension scans from Mr Rudler mentioned above.   These are a good start but anyone got a good picture of the entire rear end?   

By the look of TAV29a the leaf is free to pivot in the middle which makes it the "two wheel bounce" spring (eg over a hump back bridge) and also an interconnector such that a single wheel bump (hit a brick) will result in the other side of the car being lifted - much like a 2CV or Morris 1300 interconnection front and rear to kill pitch this will kill roll when one wheel hits a bump - the back will bounce up and down more (pitch more) but roll about less over a difficult surface - as such it will disturb the front wheels less which is great for control.

Cornering:  as the car rolls onto the outside wheel the pivot in the middle means some of the load is going to push the inside wheel down - which is good for traction.  A modern car might have an antiroll bar which is going to lift the inside rear which then has even less traction which is ok if the axle has a limited slip diff - and ok if the outside tyre is fine on its own - and ok if you don't worry about having "all your eggs in one basket" with regards the grip from the road being there.   On prewar tyres on prewar roads without an LSD I expect you'd rather the two tyres shared the load as evenly as possible...

Still haven't quite sussed how the torsion bars interelate but I'm sold - its genious not "we need a bit more spring for when fat gran needs a lift".

David

Crikey! that looks a bit complicated, but what a wonderful example of Lancia over engineering.

Brian
8227 8)

To me a defining feature of all Lancias is that they are great in a straight line.  By that I mean that on a difficult surface you can go faster than lesser marques.  They also tend to have excellent traction, they get the power down well. 

It may require a bit more weight and so blunt acceleration.  It may require a compromise with outright steady state cornering power on a smooth surface.  However it will reward day in day out and show itself road racing or rallying.

David 

I think Neil’s explanation is correct. And it fits with the fact that an Aprilia can both lean out when cornering and yet go round as if it is on rails!

But I think David has missed something. The flexible cables that connect the spring ends to the trailing arms can only pull, and not push. So that one wheel hitting a bump will not be reacted to as a push up on the other side – it will be a pull down and hence add to the stability.

Colin

I didn't miss anything in my head for all the written words lack clarity. 

Think of a tug of war competition with two teams of big guys evenly matched.  They are heaving and sweating but nobody is going anywhere.   There's a rope in the middle with a pre-load.   Sneak round the back of one team and push the guy on the end.  You will be pushing both teams as effectively as if they were all holding onto a steel pole.  You will be able to move "the system" of people and rope by pushing one side or pulling from the other.

The pivoting leaf, with its preload, CAN transfer a load that is pushing the outside wheel upwards into a "push" on the inside wheel downwards.   It may not physically "push" but it will be pulling a whole lot less and that comes to the same thing.   

They'll be a limit defined by the preload and they'll be dynamic forces due to friction in the pivot and momentum of the spring will be a factor but using a cable in tension there's going to be no slop or wear or additional "vibration" as with rubber bushes.  A cable in tension is a very pure way, light and direct and self compensating for wear, to apply and vary a force.

David

I suspect we are exchanging the mechanical equivelent of mixed metaphors with some of these discussions.
I have yet to digest the proposal that the rear torsion bars will push the inner wheel down due to the cornering forces on the outer wheel.I'm not convinced at the moment this is true but I need to think it through in practical terms.I believed the two shafts worked independently of one another when I dismantled them.As for the steel rope discussion...hmmm.
I shall retire to a darkened room to contemplate and emerge one this has all fallen into place.

Grear Discussion, keep up the good work, I'm learning more with every posting. ;D

Brian
8227 8)

Imagine the cables are rigid link.  Imagine the leaf is a rigid "see saw" bar.  Just for now...

1 - Roll onto the outside wheel and it goes up inside the wheel arch. 

2 - The "cable link" (pretend it is rigid) gets pushed up.

3 - The "see-saw bar" goes up at one end and down at the other end.

4 - The oposing "cable link" goes down

5 - The inside wheel goes down.

Struggling with the cables being able to push?   Imagine a tower crane with a big load hanging on the end of the hook.   Push up on the counterweight end behind the driver and the top beam (the bit than the latest Bond has a punch up along) "see saws" and the load goes down.   The cable hasn't pushed the load down, but it is the same result as if the cable had been a rigid bar.

Think of old fashioned ballance pans - the sort you put the goods in one side and the weights on the other side.  It works the same with rigid links from beam to pans or with strings.  Scraps of gold in one pan, brass weights in the other pan, push up under the side with the weights and the pan with the gold goes down.  Those threads don't "push" the pan down, but they "hold it up less".

More pull, less pull is the same result as push a little, pull a little.  The cable is pulling that inside wheel up, as the outside wheel goes up into the arch and the leaf see-saws the inside cable is pulling the inside wheel up rather less.

For sure there is a load transfer to the outside wheel in cornering - but this system makes the transfer less, it keeps the inside wheel on the ground longer, it shares the cornering load between the rear tyres better. I can imagine situations where it will provide greater accelerative traction than with a limited slip diff.  I can imagine it providing better stability braking (or engine braking) in a corner than with an anti-roll system.

Its clever - just thinking about the leaf its clever and I'm sure the torsion bars and thinking about the range of loads (passengers and luggage) I'll come to think of it as even more clever (and worthwhile) again.

David

Of course if the leaf DOESN'T pivot I'm wrong - and I've yet to see a picture of the whole system - so maybe the whole of the above is invalid   ::)

David

I think we are in danger of arguing that what we have here is an ant-anti-anti-rollbar effect!

Some points: the two torsion bars are independent of each other – they are each clamped separately near the centre line of the car and they don’t interact other than through the rolling action of the car. The transverse leaf spring pivots through silent—bloc bushes at the centre line below the diff.

I fully understand that the cables don’t go slack and the loading on them can be reduced – that is not in dispute.

Forget tower cranes and tugs of war, just go back to the simple example David first quoted “a single wheel bump (hit a brick) will result in the other side of the car being lifted”. I am sure this is wrong! Think about it – wheel A hits a brick, it is deflected upwards, the trailing arm that side pulls upwards on the cable-end, which causes an upward force and deflection of the transverse spring at that end. Because of the pivot, this upward force causes an almost equal downward force on the other end (see-saw), hence the cable tension increases with an increase in the downward force on wheel B, not a lifting one!

Must get back to work……

Colin

Drivers side wheel hits a brick - it goes up into the arch. 

The leaf goes up on the drivers side, down on the passenger side.

As the leaf goes down on the passenger side it changes the load on the wheel such as to lift the passenger side of the car.

The brick sends the drivers side up.  The see-saw action of the leaf sends the passenger side up also.  The result is "pitch" fore-aft instead of "roll".  Pitch will upset the front tyres less than roll.  It might upset passengers but it will please the driver. 

In the case of a bump its an anti-roll device.

In the case of cornering load it works in the oposite way to a conventional anti-roll bar.

It's just occured to me the Dedra used to bounce about at the back more than seemed sensible, but it did track and ride very well on a B-road...


David

David,

I am with you part of the way – but we are not all the way there yet!

Following your example: You say: “As the leaf goes down on the passenger side it changes the load on the wheel such as to LIFT the passenger side of the car.” Sorry, but I don’t think it does.

As the transverse leaf-spring is constrained to go down on the passener’s side, there will be two consequences – there will be additional downward tension on the cables fitted to the trailing arm near the hub and there will be an upward force on the centre of the spring acting on the diff trying to raise the whole car. The result will surely be an increase in downforce on the passenger side wheel.

The attached photo shows the cables as they fit up to the trailing arm. At the lower end the cables go into threaded ends that screw into the bush-end of the spring, unfortunately not shown in this photo. The car is a delectable Aprilia that came from Italy to the Sliding Pillar Rally in 2006. Note those beautiful Italian drive shafts! Sadly most UK Aprilias had Hardy Spicer shafts that weren’t nearly as nice.

Colin

Re-read what I said and stand by it - the leaf goes down, the contact force between that tyre and the road will be higher, and they'll be a reaction to that which lifts that side of the car.

Photo from Ade attached.  I found another in LaLancia but no time to scan it right now.

David

No, don’t think we yet have a meeting of minds. For sure the rear of the car will rise a bit, as I have said, this is because of the upward force transmitted by the spring centre – but that’s not because of “a reaction to that which lifts that side of the car”.

I am going to be off-line for a couple of days. I have to cycle down to the Isle of Wight to sort something out – well actually most of the miles will be by train, but it will feel like 200 miles and will be good for me. Just in case this exchange rumbles on in my absence, let me suggest a way to resolve it.

David, if you are going to venture north of the river to the woodwork show at Alexandra Palace this weekend, please call by and we can sort it out. All we need is a few levers, fulcrums, diagrams and some wine and/or beer (all of which is here) and I am sure all will be harmony. And you might end up wanting to put an Aprilia rear suspension on your Augusta Special!

Colin

No Aprilia rear suspension....this time... 

An Augusta holds the road very well, and is of the era where it is almost as "at home" off road as on and part of the plan is to try some VSCC trials in it.   
 
David

If there was a conventional anti-roll bar pushing up on one end (driving over a brick) would result in the other side being pulled up into the wheelarch.  Lift one wheel you lift the other.   With an Aprilia it is the opposite, because of the pivot you lift one you push the other down.

Another way to think about the load transfer: because the leaf pivots in the middle the load on each end has to be the same, if it isn't the same it moves until it is.   

The drivers side wheel hits a brick.  There is an extra load (thrust) on the drivers side that results in the drivers side of the car being pushed upwards.   That side of the car is "thrown upwards" by the brick.

The leaf will pivot until the load on each end is the same. 

At that point there will be a thrust upwards on both sides of the car.   The passenger side of the car is also thrown upwards.

The car is pushing the drivers side wheel back down on to the road behind the brick. 

The car is pushing the passenger side wheel down on to the road to counter the rolling motion from the single wheel bump.

David

I'd stop the car and move the brick if I were you....its buggering up the suspension.

Far from it...

Then again - I've never had to unwind one of those springs or sort out stripped or siezed splines on the torsion bars so maybe I'd best defer.

David

Listen to Scarpia he knows these things..................... ::)

Anyone got pictures of the adjustable rear dampers?  Were they on all Aprilias?   LaLancia has a picture with the control (or at least the indicator) just under the dash with "Town and Touring" or something written on it.

I've heard that competiton Aurelias had secondary adjustable rear dampers - were these Aprilia units?

David

The dash controlled adjustables were on first series only I thought but my second series handbook describes their adjustment so perhaps there was some overlap?

In any case my 2nd series has Houdaille dampers which are actually very good.I had them bench tested off the car a couple of years ago and they still perform well within the MOT requirements here.In fact they don't really wear out as far as I can tell .Unlike a sealed unit these have a filler cap for the oil and work by forcing oil to pass through varying sized holes in the same principle as other types of unit.There is also an adjustment on them to vary the action.Very few places will service them though if the seals fail.(one in Paris I believe and one in the US.)

In small letters at 2-o-clock it says BREVETE which a quick google tells me is a type of French Patent. 

I've just come in from painting Bibendum wheels which also have BREVETE stamped in and up to now I'd assumed to be a place name.  As an aside the rims are stamped MADE IN ITALY and one of the centres has a tiny LANCIA in an oval.  If asked to guess I'd have said they'd bought English centres and French rims but I'd have been wrong...

Anyone know if those dampers are Lancia made under licence or a bought in component?

Anyone got some pictures of the adjustables?

David

David, You really need to get yourself an Aprilia parts book!!!!  I will email you the exploded diagram of the rear dampers (won't be until tomorrow) all the parts are available from Vintage suppliers, I have seen similar units on British cars like Lagondas.

Houdaille is/was a french company that existed from the beginning of the century (last one ;)) and only made this sort of damper with a circular drum and lever arm.They still exist under the name of Spiral. You see them on many other vintage cars , even american cars.I have seen them on early fiats and they were fitted to certain ferraris also.No specific lancia connection that I am aware of.

Swings and roundabouts – up forces and down forces – apples and pears – yawns and groans!

In my absence over the last two days I am pleased to think we might have reached a meeting of minds.

My original doubts were about the claim that:  “.. a single wheel bump (hit a brick) will result in the other side of the car being lifted”. The use of the word ‘LIFTED’ implied a lessening of the load on the wheel at that side and I thought that was wrong.

So, I replied that:  “… one wheel hitting a bump will not be reacted to as a push up on the other side – it will be a pull DOWN and hence add to the stability.” Meaning that the cables would exert more downward pull, i.e. increasing the down-force on that wheel and hence its adhesion to the road.

And now I see that David has posted:  “…the car is pushing the passenger side wheel DOWN on to the road to counter the rolling motion from the single wheel bump.” I like the sound of DOWN much better) and I now think we are saying the same thing.

I am sure we could go on for ever debating about whether the car pushes up or down of its own free will, or whether it is influenced to do so by the pulling action of the leaf spring, but let’s not go there! And neither need we get into a debate about the sequence of action and reaction…...

Meanwhile, David, if you are visiting the woodworking show this weekend, the invitation to call in still stands. Geoff, you are welcome too, but I had better check on the state of my cellar if you are likely to make it – RSVP!

(Ah, and now we are on to Andre Telecontol dampers – another bag of delights. Must recover from the Isle of Wight first…. )

Colin

Colin,
 it would be ill advised to allow a chap such as the colonel into one's cellar.I know the 66 Trotanoy has been drinking well but don't tell him that....As i understand it a lifetime's collection could be destroyed in one "session."



 

The rear damper picture.

Hartford Telecontrol spares also from http://www.completeautomobilist.com/ as well as http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk

Google gave me this which is chapter one from "The shock absorber handbook".

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/feats/download_sample.asp?report_id=564373&file_name=Chapter%201%20Introduction%20Sample&file_ext=pdf

Page 9 for Houdaille with a cross section on the next page.
Page 11 for the "bladder" type Hartfords.
Page 12 for a Lambda sliding pillar.

David

Sorry, not wishing to divert his thread, but I have to add - th '76 Chateaux lafitte Rothschild is still pretty drinkable, even affect
the spelling ability, should have read the label before posting/drinking

'the colonel'

ps I like the way I'm invited to a woodworking show, but NOT given the location ????

That's on a "need to know basis" - and my guess is that you needed to know about the wine and not the show.  Its a shorter walk to Colin's house than the far side of the car park.

http://www.getwoodworking.com/editorial/editorial.asp?edsec=IWE%202008

Alas tied to my lockup...

David

I believe the "Antique Vacuum Cleaner Collectors club" are holding a special symposium that very same weekend.Fortune smiles on you all indeed to be able to combine the two in one trip. Like bell ringing clubs, alcohol plays an integral part in the proceedings so the colonel should be right at home... (try getting the thread back on line after this)...

The ‘Andre Telecontrol’ system (connect with antique) which allowed the driver to alter the stiffness of the rear suspension sounds really attractive. When I bought my Aprilia in 1962 I was a bit disappointed that the original Andre dampers had been replaced by ‘modern’ Girling arm-actuated (connect with bell ringing) hydraulic units. These worked OK, but tantalisingly the original Andre adjuster unit with its big knurled grip and pressure gauge were still there easy to hand under the dash, but connected to nothing!

I can’t recall any other Aprilia at that time that had working units. I think they were intended to be filled with an anti-freeze mixture (connect with alcohol) and I guess the critical bits just rusted away.  Although curiously nowadays I do know of one that is in use and that is in an Aprilia owned by a non-LMC member - shame!

A common mod in the 60s was to replace the rear dampers with Koni type telescopic units. The bodge was to cut into the floor pan just ahead of the fuel tank and fit bent sheet-steel ‘towers’ - simply bolted to the floor - to take the top of the damper, with the lower eye on the trailing arm fitting. Purists would object! I wasn’t tempted – I needed the boot space.

(On line?)

Colin

I say , well done!

Even more tantalising for me is having the wonderful fuel guage but not the sender unit to make it light up.I've moaned previously about that so I won't go on but isn't it funny how we are all attracted to particular cars because of the extra detail aspects when the fundamentals are so right anyway and so much more important.If for example I was in the market for a flaminia sedan i would note doubt be looking for the extra rear windscreenwiper version (as if that was really of any importance....)

Its most often precisely these nice extra touches that don't actually work or are missing on our cars yet they often draw all the attention in written articles. 

I'll take a photo of my "milk churn" Nilfisk for you - the pride of my vacuum cleaner collection. 

What I'd really like the space for is a lawn mower collection.  THE museum is in Southport - yet to visit.

David

I was born and bred in Southport and can happily say I never encountered such a place....I would have imagined it should be in "Suffolk". (how's that for a "punch"line)

And now back a bit for the sake of the colonel:

Geoff,

I did say in the original invitation to David that the event is at Alexandra Palace, which is a stone’s throw from where I live and I assumed that you had seen this. Perhaps you were very ……dru…dr….di…distracted at the time! Anyway, if you are tempted by the woodworking show, or any other show at Ally Pally, please call and see me. I can’t always vouch for the state of the cellar, but you can try me out.

Colin 

The Series 1 Aprilia that I owned in the early 60s was still equipped with the Andre Telecontrol damper system which worked well except in the depths of winter when the water/glycerine mix tended to freeze.

Peter

A drop of meths usually stope most systems from freezing (we used to put it in the Truck air braking system)

Geoff.

Thanks for  offer Colin, but wont be free this week-end.  Rain Check ?

http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/

I found it in a book called "testicles to Alton Towers: Uncommonly British Days Out"

"We've all driven past brown signs inviting us to visit unlikely sounding local attractions like Barometer World or a Secret Nuclear Bunker - they're dotted the length and breadth of Britain. But how many of us have taken the time to visit? Well, our intrepid authors set out to discover what we'd been missing. They dropped by and sampled the small, peculiar and unique delights of places that defy rationality, convention and corporate sponsorship - and in a small way define what it is to be British."

Having looked that up on Amazon I've found the follow up "Far from the Sodding Crowd: More Uncommonly British Days Out"

"Britons work longer hours than almost any other nation in Europe, taking fewer public holidays, laboring from Monday to Friday on the promise of a blissful weekend of fun. But how do we spend our precious days off? Slouching in vast herds beneath the neon canopy of some indistinguishable out-of-town shopping center, peering up horizonless aisles of self assembly wardrobes, and queuing for the vomitcoaster at a soulless theme park in a line that smells of teenagers and sugar. What the hell are we doing with our leisure time? When asked what you did at the weekend, will you mutter something about shelves and how hard it was to park? Or will you regale them with a mighty tale of your trip to the Somerset Shoe Museum?"

David

Just a test of censorship. Is it the forum filter that does it, or is it self-censorship?

My copy of what sounds like the same excellent book is: “ to Alton Towers”, or will you see it better as “B******ks to Alton Towers”?

Colin

Footnote a minute later. Now I understand it is after all the F****ing thought police that are trying to protect us!

Its a forum filter - I spelt it out in full with no stars.

David

Confirmed - it is the filtering process in the software. It's user-configurable and I had thought of setting up some amusing alternatives... Does anyone remember the spoof "Goodfellas" sketch by Harry Enfield? ("Flip you, you muddy funster!")

Actually the filter can be bypassed if you prefix your words with ^^
 
so go ^^f456778mmklkdn ^^y6n b+lloghhbnkrgvb

Oh ^^B*jj** it seems to have stooped wooking

'the colonel'

Lets try again:

^^testicles to Alton Towers is a great read and actually a half decent guide book - it even mentions the Southport Lawnmower museum.

David

Oh Bo11ocks to that - I'll just use 1s instead of ls.

Just to keep the thread off track - the promised pictures...

David

I had no idea that R2D2 was so well endowed.....

I have only just caught up with this thread and haven't dug too deep because it began to make my head hurt, but if the leaf spring is attached to the body only by a pivot at the centre I can't see how it can cause either side of the car to go up or down?  Turning quickly to the wheels; my Lambda wheels are stamped 'Rudge Whitworth Milano' and I assume bought in from there. The 'Brevete' on the Augusta wheel presumably refers to the daft Michelin Bibendum rim which seems to have been introduced as an attempt to get round Mr Dunlop's well base patents. And on to dampers: I hadn't realised that Telecontrols were fitted as original equipment to, at least some, Aprilias.  I have never driven a car (Aprilia or otherwise) on which they worked, which may have been their age and the lack of the proper fluid.  But I am not sure that I see the need to be constantly twiddling with what are pretty simple friction dampers and always imagined that they were fitted to provide the driver with something to do once synchromesh had taken the carnival spirit out of gearchanging. Like Colin, I resorted to telescopics and fitted a set of Spax to the back of the Augusta, which can be accomodated by building a bracket to reach down below the axle rather than up into the body; but the VSCC won't like them.

One of the first Aprilias I drove, Maltby's "GV" was fitted with Telecontrols which worked. Regrettably, the VSCC will not allow telescopic dampers at the rear of Augustas or Aprilias, but I imagine that hydraulic "lever arm" dampers would be OK - and they work well on at least one Augusta I know of - Karl Sanger's.

Here's the Augusta dampers - complete, nothing bent or broken, and very little pitting.

Anyone know what the disks should be made of?   Any recipes for treating wooden disks?

I must admit I really like the idea of telecontrols - but prefer the "cable and lever" type for just being "so obvious".   

David

William

The British Lawn Mower Museum is above Stanleys in Shakespeare Street.

http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/

Don

Isn't that next door to where Latimers is or used to be?.

It's at least 25 years since i've been in Stanleys but my recollection means this must be one of the smallest mueums in the land.....?

Extraordinary! The article I was trying to find on 2nd Feb about the Aprilia rear suspension was by Paul Frere. I now read in today’s The Independent an obituary to Paul, who I had assumed had died years ago. But no, he died in Brussels on 23 Feb, aged 91.

The obit includes: “He did the things he did best unobtrusively yet supremely well, be it driving racing cars, or the latest road models, or writing about them with his unique insight and perspective.”

Yes, I agree. I must find his article about Aprilias.

Colin

Your Augusta dampers look very similar to mine, except your's are keeping company with varuious Austin Seven engine parts. (I must get round to rebuilding mine sometime, but they seem to work OK even though they are as rusty as can be!) They have wooden discs which used to be impregnated with tallow, but since ERA owners use oil on theirs, so do I - it's easier to find and it works fine. They don't need to be done up very tight, but it's advisable to have both sides tightened the same amount. Andrew Maclagan wrote a piece for Viva Lancia a while ago about using his ancient typewriter as a weight to balance the settings on his Augusta's dampers. I'm not wading through years of the magazine to find it, though. Oh, for an index.
 

“Oh, for an index”! Yes, I agree. Please have a look at what I posted yesterday under ‘Pulling the treads together’ to see what an online index might require.

Anyone out there who knows an archivist or information science guru who might be able to advise?

Colin

"Hermes to the rescue" august 99. Just send me the cheque for using my the cerebral archiving capacity.