Canadian Racing Team using TR3s

[Uggy]

Hallo,

 

I seem to remember many moons ago (10 to 20 years) I read or heard about a Canadian racing team who were active in the late 1950s or early 1960s using TR3s or TR3As. They had put louvers in the bonnets to help keep them cool.

 

Was this a dream or was it fact?

 

I have added a picture of what they might have looked like.

 

I hope someone out there will be able to confirm as fact or dispel as fiction.

 

Thanks

Andy

[Motorsport Mickey]

I can confirm ...as fact, that those are definitely louvers.

 

I can also confirm that after the first vane the airflow is disturbed by the vane in front and so they don't work as well as you may think, but better than nothing. A NACA duct works far better.

 

Mick Richards

[RogerH]

Hi Mick,

you have just brought back sill memories.

 

When us BEA apprentices first came across the NACA duct in 1966 we did giggle (it sounds like something else).

 

Roger

[Hamish]

I thought NACA ducts were forced air intakes ? And the louvres were passive air outlets ?

[classic225]

Hi,

Don't know about the Canadian racing team but this youtube video shows some nice, and not so nice, TR 3's in 1960 in Claresholm, AB. This is a good 100 km from here and my biggest surprise was to see all these European cars, and that in a country were everybody drives a pick-up truck.

Yves

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTTh93iXWxk

[Motorsport Mickey]

I thought NACA ducts were forced air intakes ? And the louvres were passive air outlets ?

You are correct Hamish, I hadn't enlarged the thumbnail and thought the vents were pointing forwards !

 

We experimented when developing my race TR7 V8 trying to reduce under bonnet air temps and cut away the rear of bonnet rain guttering from the rear engine firewall leaving a 50mm gap into the engine compartment thinking the up bonnet outside air as it traversed the swept windscreen would extract air from it...wrong.

We'd forgotten about the positive air pressure from the windscreen, we subsequently carried out testing at hhhmm miles an hour with wool tufting stuck every 5" over the bonnet, wing and windscreen and had a car and assistant in the boot of a car in front with a Land polaroid camera (remember those ?). The photos showed the wool tufts on the bonnet up to about 18" in front of the windscreen stretching toward the back of the bonnet and the tufts on the lower front windscreen actually tucking down and disappearing down the firewall. We altered the heat dispersal method with the addition of NACA ducts forcing the cool air into the engine compartment and had downward rear facing ducts in the underfloor tray (race fitment). These were just to the rear of the rear engine firewall extracting the air being forced down the firewall and pulling the air from the engine compartment interior. This system worked well and remained as described until the end of it's racing life with me.

 

Mick Richards

Edited January 5, 2017 by Motorsport Mickey

[Hamish]

Aero tech is an invisible art. !!

Always fascinates me when the F1 teams use the marker fluid on their cars.

[Dave Larnder]

Hi,

Don't know about the Canadian racing team but this youtube video shows some nice, and not so nice, TR 3's in 1960 in Claresholm, AB. This is a good 100 km from here and my biggest surprise was to see all these European cars, and that in a country were everybody drives a pick-up truck.

Yves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTTh93iXWxk

Yves

You have a P.M..

 

Dave