the life of rolie

[Pombellett]

"Got a problem? Odds against you?....actually I quite fancy myself as an aging New York vigilante, although my other half thinks Edward Woodward looks way too old, and since Dave has now exposed me, here's a 'car mag style' shot of me and Rolie. I don't think I look quite as serious.......just a bit baffled by what I've done.

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Love to come over in Oct, 1968GT, but I reckon I might still be hung over from the Revival.

I need to combine a trip with my other love.................can I mention it?...Cr**cket

[PR95]

Thats alright, we'll teach you how to play??

[Farmer]

If you do come down, let us know. I reckon a good bloke like you would find Bellett billets around the place & save on motels! One here for sure.
Cheers & thanks for showing. Great to see the in motion video.
Matt.

[GerryBellettGT]

What can one say,this is a great read from start to now and photo's to boot,if you ever feel the need to visit where it started,sure we could put you up, Gerry

[pearcesnr]

A great effort, please do not let the Top Gear Guy,s near Rollie !

[oz_toffa]

Pom, i reckon that is the best shot of all...

Great to see the Owner's of their cars in a pic showing the pride they hold for the cars they love.

Just like the winner's circle we have at the Bellett Nationals. And they dont even need to be restored!

Thanks for sharing the journey

OZ

[2ldohc]

That's a great pic mate! It's been great reading about 'The Adventures of Rollie'

Cheers!

[Pombellett]

Thanks for all your continued support guys, except for yours ITG

Thats alright, we'll teach you how to play??

We''ll see at the end of the World Cup!!

Anyway, back to cars. As a few of you have undoubtably noticed from the vid, Rolie's suspension development is very much in its infancy.....but it's now beginning to grow up.

We've got a decent negative camber on the front by modifying the top wishbone pick up (we lost 12mm) we also moved it back to give a little more caster.

We plan to drop the diff carrier to help gain negative at the rear and this, we reckon will have the added bonus of straightening the driveshafts.
I don't think there's enough dive at the front, so springs are being softened. And the rear, well, it all depends if we can go LSD, as if we can we can keep the rear pretty stiff.

By the way guys, I love the idea of a Bellett/cricket road trip, but not until I've given this Revival itch a real good scratch.

[PR91]

with absolutely no disrespect intended at all, can i give some advise from my over 20 years of modifying and racing belletts...?

We've got a decent negative camber on the front by modifying the top wishbone pick up (we lost 12mm) we also moved it back to give a little more caster.

i gather u mean u moved the pivot pin that holds the top arms into the "bucket" inwards 12mm?
if so, i hope u like ur cars to drive with enormous amounts of bump steer, coz that's what u now have....
trust me on this, i've seen bellett's bump steer with these pivots moved only 6mm.... and once another owner moved his 12mm and then asked me to drive his car to try to work out why it threw itself all over the road afterwards.... which i did and it was horrible.... it all became obvious what was wrong when he told me of this mod.
the reason is simple. moving the top pivot dramaticly changes the inner pin angles, and doing so creates bump steer. belletts seem to suffer from this alot more than some other types of cars too.
a far, far better way of getting the same camber is by shortening the top arms by 12mm. this still moves the top ball joint inwards, but keeps the pin angles correct.
lowering a bellett also helps with neg camber, as standard, the bottom arms run down hill from the inner to the outside, so making them sit "flat" pushes the bottom ball joint outwards, effectively making it longer. also, this gives more front track, which helps too.
also, another MUST DO mod on a modified bellett front end is to re-do the inner sway bar mounts, especially if it has a bigger than standard bar, as the standard mounts really are terrible. this is also probably the easiest mod to do on a bellett front end, but is one of the most effective.
ur mod for more castor is spot on tho, and works well.
PM me for details on both of these mods, as they both involve engineering skills, and it's not appropriate to adverstise them in a wider world, coz if something does go wrong, i don't want a legal case based on "but brett said just do this....." thanks very much.

We plan to drop the diff carrier to help gain negative at the rear and this, we reckon will have the added bonus of straightening the driveshafts.

i'll save u the hassle.... it doesn't work on a bellett.... the prob at the rear is a combination of coils and the transverse leaf when arranged in the standard manner. to gain rear camber is simply a case of lowering it, as it's a swing axle arrangement, and lowering them is very, very simple, using bellett components. the biggest trick here to to make sure u limit the amount of travel the rear has, as excessive travel creates rear steer, due to the bellett design of having angled mounting points on the rear arms. basically, they toe in on bump, and toe out on droop, so limiting the travel dials that element out. this has always been the biggest bug bear of a bellett's handling traits....
again, lowering the rear also flattens out the rear arms, again, giving more track too.

I don't think there's enough dive at the front, so springs are being softened. And the rear, well, it all depends if we can go LSD, as if we can we can keep the rear pretty stiff.

my advice is here is to keep the front a bit stiff, as less dive helps maintain camber angles thru the travel. also, having the rear too stiff severely hampers drive out of corners, as the car can't "squat" under power, and even with an LSD, it will still spin inside rear wheels. trust me, been there, done that, that's why my race car now uses a locked diff too.

as i wrote at the beginning, please take no offence to my comments, as they are intended to save u alot of hassle (and also, heartache if all went wrong, as bellett are known to "tip over"....) by being constructive from using the knowledge i've gained from my years of racing them.
i'm sure we all know that every kind of car has it's own little quirks, and the bellett is the same, so doing what may work as an improvement on another car might not work on a bellett, and i'd hate to see all the fantastic work you guys have put into the car be wasted when i could advise of what i've learnt instead of trying to "re-invent the wheel" so to speak.

cheers, and please PM me for detailed info on what my race car has done to it, as i'm only too happy to help out.
brett.

[Pombellett]

Just in case you all thought I'd died and gone to Bellett heaven/hell, I'm still here, but since the frenzied pace of the pre Goodwood test, things have slowed.
This is because we're now at the serious head scratching stage and input from the great Bellett minds of Australia, Finland and Holland are pouring data into the Bellett UK computer.
Pretty much everything we do to Rolie is dependent on whether we can go to an LSD. The car set up will be completely different with or without the LSD, so we are looking at all possibilities of diff before we start dialling it in. As they say.
Honours even in the cricket?
And lastly, some of you might enjoy this photo taken at the Goodwood test, it gives an idea of the interest Rolie is generating over here.....when you consider the other stuff they could have been looking at.

[GerryBellettGT]

Great wealth of info here Brett,Iam currently running wheels off Pinky to see how tyres wear on the front as they are new.Tyre that was on front left,nearly slick on outside,have a box of shims workshop manual,can talk to someone old school for wheel alignment ANY OTHER TIPS Gerry

[PR95]

Geeze Gerry when I saw that pic of the Pom Bellett and I thought that was you lying on the ground under it

[GerryBellettGT]

Yeh got told by a few I was seen lookin under the backend of the odd Bellett at Coona,even got caught on film,can asure you that problem is under control,and it was'nt the drugs

[Pombellett]

UK calling.....still fiddling with the diff. We have gathered knowledge from great Bellett minds from Oz, Finland and Holland and we are expecting to be rolling again by next weekend, with a fully functioning GT Orph style 'Renegade' diff..... Watch this space.

In the meantime thank you to the Forum, in particular, Dave for my gift from down under. Below is a pic of it being used as it's intended I assume...keeping a nice cup of tea warm.

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THANK YOU THE FORUM

[gt orphanage]

should i have put a legal waiver in there somewhere .

[1968GT]

LUV THE ROSES POM BELLETT!!!!

[Farmer]

Geez you're a good bloke, Dave - sending the Pom a super-awesome stubby holder! As they were only available to 2009 Bellett National attendees, I suppose that makes him an honourary attender! Well, I suppose Rolie ALMOST made the 2010 Nats!
And yeah, the cup is very sweet - very english - Luvlee tha-is guv, innit?
Glad yer havvin fun, Pom.
Cheers.

[pearcesnr]

PomBellett, PR91 sheds a huge amount of expertise, if you use a LSD, welded, or open diff setup, through the many ways that have been used in past, a Bellett is very special to set up for racing. Not too hard at the front, and a little softer at the rear, is the best we have found, in the past, and all the new and current tyres should work well, depending, on the correct settings.
pearcesnr

[Pombellett]

Like Queen Latifa, we're back. And with the news that the whole of Bellett UK Central have been waiting for....check this out.....

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Signed by the man himself.
And now, with new found vigour the rear suspension is scattered all over the workshop floor again, on hopefully what is the last re-think.
First test next week, with luck.

[gt orphanage]

Good on you Mark you deserved it as it was a huge punt. I am glad it paid off.