There is an MSCA Supersprint on at Sandown Raceway this coming Sunday. http://www.msca.net.au/
This will be the first outing for my MGA with its own engine since a similar event at Sandown in June last year.
One of the reasons I've not been around much this year is I've been involved in a long and expensive repair of my MGA's engine.
I destroyed it at a Sandown Sprint event last June, when it detonated and one of the pistons disintegrated and sent bits of aluminium through the whole engine.
One cylinder was so badly scratched that just boring it out a bit wasn't an option, so all the cylinders had to be bored & sleeved.
While the engine was at Crankshaft Rebuilders, they found a crack in the crankshaft, and one in the head, and a manufacturing defect in one of the conrods.
So now, nearly a year later, I have:
Block bored and sleeved
New crankshaft
Four new pistons
Four new conrods
Crack repaired in head
Valve guides in head modified to reduce oil spraying out at high revs
In the meantime, a very generous friend loaned me a stock standard MGB engine to let me keep competing (although it was a lot down on power compared to mine).
I managed to break the differential at the end of last year with the borrowed engine (and that event was on grass!)
I had a spare diff, but with a not so good gear ratio, which kept me going for a while, but would limit my top speed on a racetrack.
It would have cost a fortune to buy a new crown wheel and pinion for my diff, so I ended up buying an old rear axle from a wrecked MGB to get another diff with the right ratio in it.
I just crossed my fingers that this used one was in reasonable condition.
So, the rebuilt engine went back into the car a couple of weeks ago, and the replacement diff last weekend. I still have to run the engine in before Sunday.
Spectator entry is free for MSCA events, so if anyone is near Sandown on Sunday, pop in for a look. There's 120 cars from various car clubs going to be running across the day.