Lagonda Rapiers

3 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

Going back through some old photos I came across these two taken 12 months apart. This car was bought during the 1970s as a "Kit" of bits and imported to Australia from the UK. These were taken in 1980 and 81. The car is now believed to be in Belgium but has not been seen or heard of since about 2005 or perhaps earlier. Last seen it was painted Red. It was raced both as a Racing Car without mudguards, lights etc or as a Sports Car complete with mudguards etc.

12-6-2016

KG has been relegated to the carport once again as the current project car the 1912 Humber has taken oven all the available space in the "garage". Being a nice lazy day I decided to flush the radiator as It seemed a bit inclined to push out some URKEY water after its (mis)adventure to central NSW. It did not take very long for the water to run out clean so Ihave buttoned it all up and will wait to see how it is after next weekends Pre-Christmas Run.

It need have no fear It (KG) is still by far my favourite car, it is such a joy to drive. It will however deserve a proper clean and polish before Sunday mornings run.

Bj.

12-8-2016

Despite it being officially summer today has been overcast and very chilly, we had some steady rain first thing this morning. Having done some study on spark plug gap recomendations, I have discovered that I have for years been doing the wrong thing!

Instead of opening up the gap I should have been closing it down. Now in search of easier cold starting I have closed the gap down to .20 thou of an inch. I can now report that the motor started readily with just using the choke and without flooding the carbs. There was no sign of missing or wetting the plugs that had plagued me for some time.

Looking up Rapier Guru, Paul Nickall's, Rapier Data Book, I note that he recommends a spark plug gap of .19 thou. Information I had tended to dismiss as KG differs from a standard Rapier in that the masking in the cylinder head that shields the spark plugs has been removed permitting the use of longer reach projected tip plugs and it has coil ignition rather than the standard magneto. Mistakenly I had opened up the gap to .30-35 thou. on the assumption that the wider gap would give a better spark.

Now I know!

Bj.