Gordini Gathering

alpinesau

Active member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Messages
314
Location
Adelaide
After attending the highly successful & enjoyable 2001 Alpine Oddysey in NE Victoria last year, I thought that a similar event (weekend packed with driving & commeraderie) should be organised for Gordini owners.

Since Melbourne has the weight of numbers on its side, perhaps a Melbournite could take up the challenge and organise something.

Surely Simon will have his car ready!

From my R1135 register @ <a href="http://www.geocities.com/alpinesau/register.html" target="_blank">www.geocities.com/alpinesau/register.html</a> I have identified 12 R1135's plus 2 0r 3 R1134's that would be running ( or close enough to offer a challenge to the respective owners).
Add in Dave Cavanagh's R1173 (and any others that are running)(Peter Nesbit, do you still have the ex Tom Barr-Smith car?), and a few R1317's (yes, 17TS's do count) and we could have about 20 cars at our own Jour G.

Who's in?

Robert Lee
R1135<a href="http://www.geocities.com/alpinesau/register.html" target="_blank"> </a>
 
Hi Rob,
Yeah count me in, I've also got the R1317 that my wife could bring, its a bit rough as it's my street car buts it's all original. Peter Nesbit still has the Tom Barr-smith car and an R1135, the R8 is being restored and his R12 is next in line. There's another 3 R1173's nearly finished and some very hot R1317's, problem is most cars are still under restoration so at the moment numbers are limited, I suppose the question is when do we hold it? Are you counting Dauphine Gordini's as well? I have heard a rumour of a Gordini formula 1 (or 2) car somewhere here aswell.

David.
 
Dave,
I would include Dauphine Gordinis but we may have to make an allowance for them to keep up!

As to when to hold it, we would need to give adequate notice as well as plan for good weather. Spring time may be the best option.

Having been a Gordini owner for over 20 years I have placed great importance on keeping my car in a drivable state at all times. I can't count the number of cars that have been pulled apart by enthusiastic owners only to have them languish & deteriorate in garages for years (even decades).

If the Alpine odyssey is anything to go by it is amazing what an event like this can do to get peoples arses into gear and get their beloved treasures running. It takes effort & commitment, but the joy of owning a Gordini is in the driving, not in the endless bullshit sessions that most "gunnas" seem to inflict on others.

With the advent of this wonderful forum, there has never been a better time to seek advice & get expert opinions & sources of parts for your cars.

To ensure that Gordini owners who aren't able to get their cars going by the time the event happens, I geuss we could include them in the non-driving activities such that they may get sufficiently enthused.

Robert
 
I like the idea too. As for my car being sorted out who knows :). It is a slow debug process, but it is fun to take it out to get a few more miles on the clock. Time to pull the carbies apart though, I must have picked up some bad fuel or disturbed something in the fuel lines. After a good run on Saturday, it now runs on just one carby. The only thing I can isolate the problem it to is the carb.

Anyway I like the idea for a AUS equivalent of Jour G. Perhaps called the G'dAy Retro, G being the Gordini G and A being the Alpine A. Or would this be just a pure Gordini event? How about amalgamating it with the Vic FCD, like the G day being on the Saturday the FCD on the Sunday?

Simon
 
The FCD isn't a bad idea Simon, but not this year, by the way, did I tell you its off again, there now talking about the end of November. I hear what your saying about unfinished projects Rob, I have an 1173 at work thats becoming one.
Does anyone have a list of owners that we can contact, I know all the 12G owners and some of them own other G's but I only know a few Vic 8G's, we need someone to start a Gordini register.
David.
 
Dave,
Having kept a register of R8 Gordinis since 1985, I have a fair idea on the whereabouts of about 26 R1135's and 9 R1134's, but over the years I'm sure some addresses have changed. As I stated on my opening post, the register is on the net. All you have to do is know 1 of the following bits of information: oval plate #, diamond plate #, owner's name or former owner's name, go to the relevant pull down menu, click the button and it will go to the page with all information about that car.

Simon,
I have just been having carby trouble with my R1135 too. It was running on 3 cylinders at anything other than between 1500 and 3500 rpm.
I got John Hurley at Kent Town AutoTune to have a look at it. He diagnosed grunge in the fuel system and sent the carbies off to be rebuilt then cleaned out the fuel pump & replaced the steel lines & fitted a fuel filter.
After that it ran terribly at off idle speeds and was almost impossible to get away from a standing start. A wide throttle openings it was OK. I put up with it for a while then took it back. He recognised that there was a problem but could not find it. He said that he thought that the valve timing was out, but since it was at least 8 years since I had the head off, I didn't see how that could be it. After getting the car home again, still with a horrible hesitation, I took the radiator out & the timing cover off to find that the camshaft was 1 tooth out. I fixed that and whilst there replaced the engine mounts, cleaned & tidied up the whole area and feeling very good about myself, put it all back together.
A short test drive revealed -- bit hesitation still there! All along I had suspected the carbies so I took the tops off to find the float levels were set way too low. (Probably 8.5~15mm as per some common fitments, not the 5~11.5mm for the 29/30 mark 40DCOE's) Another test drive & geuss what-- all fixed!
The car now runs better than it has for a very long time and I've also managed to eliminate at least one of the pesky oil leaks.
Simon, if you want, feel free to come over on a weekend and you can test your car using my carbies if you want to confirm your suspicions.

Robert
 
David,

Any idea of the wherabouts of the East Africa Safari 12G that Bob Watson ripped the suspension out of? I heard that it did come back to AUS and was rebuilt, so is it one of the six works cars or an extra one?


Robert,

I'm sure it is just a blocked carb with mine, just that I didn't have the time to pull it off and have a proper look apart from popping the top off and pulling the jets. When I rebuilt the carbs, the float levels seem to have been incorrectly set at some stage to the earlier specs, and not those of the 29/30. In the short time that I had the car running when I first got it, it didn't seem to make too much difference but there were also lots of other problems as I found out.

Now it is rebuilt, it was running very cleanly through the whole rev range, the only problem was a seeming hesitation when just cruising, not under acceleration or deceleration. I just put it down to my rather amateurish setting up of the carbs using the workshop manual settings and a piece of hose. Being keen just to hear it running I don't think I ever properly synchronised them. As soon as the bugs get sorted I'll bring it round though!

Simon
 
Simon,
The safari car came back and was repaired as a cut and shut and kept rallying, its present owner, John Sanders bought it nearly 20 years ago and imported a brand new body shell from France, cost megabucks and restored it. It was the first 12G to be fully restored back in the mid 80's, unfortunatly it was only on the road 6 months when someone came though a stop sign, T bone it and sent it up the earth strap on a phone pole and it landed heavily on its side breaking Johns leg (not to mention his heart). After a serious argument with RACV insurance John finally got a large cheque from them but spent it on a house. The 12G still sits in a crumpled mess in his gararge waiting on another restoration. So thats all 6 cars, present and accounted for, now rumor has it that 2 cars went to Africa, the Watson car was the only one to return because the other one was so badly destroyed they left it out in the desert, so somewhere out in the South African desert is the ghostly remains of a 12 Gordini (if you believe the rumors)

Robert,
I checked out your website, very good work, I realise it's nearly impossible to keep it up to date but I noticed a few names missing, there's a couple of cars over here I might be able to pass on if you like. What would be good is a list like that of all Gordini's, would you consider expanding your site to cover all Gordini's or do you want to stick to R8's?

David.
 
Gee, there seem to be so many rumour 12's in AUS, like a full alloy bodied one that was used in rallying. Don't know which rallies, just another one of those rumours......
 
Dave,
I haven't yet got the R1134's up on the e-site yet, just the R1135's. I do have the info as hard copy and will eventually get around to it. If you can pass on any R8 Gordini information it will help me keep it up to date.

I'll leave the FWD stuff to you as it is quite a job to track down cars from little snippets of information here and there.

As for the Gordini Gathering, I have got expressions of interest from Trevor Naismith & Dave Hicks here in Adelaide. Trevor's car is off to the panel shop soon for a bare metal respray, and Dave's car just needs a weekend's work to have it up & running again.

Robert
 
Robert,
I here what your saying, what you've set up on the R8's is fantastic and I understand the work gone into it but I do believe a national register of Gordini's would be benificial to us all. It may not be as hard as you think considering you've done the hardest ones, the 12's I could just about give you off the top of my head, the 17's will take a bit of chasing but the 17 register might be able to help and as for Dauphine's, there a lot listed on the 4CV register. I'll see what interest I can drum up over here.

David.
 
I think that is a great idea guy's, but I have heard on the grape vine that the FCD will now be in November? in Victoria, I would say that would give us plenty of time to get those Gordini's to the drive day.........
Peter Stoner
 
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