Rob & Stu's 69 Sport Satellite

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 1:51 am

Just dragged myself into the 20th century and got me scanner up & running so thought it about time to post some old pics of our Satellite.
Plenty more to come over the coming evenings, I'll try not to bore ya too much

Saw the car in an ad in the Auto Trader, advertised at £1700. Went to see it on the Thursday (I think), agreed to buy it for £1500, collected it on the Friday, drove back from near Guildford in the Fri evening rush hour back oop north to North London.
Next day off to Garys Picnic at Santa Pod (pre North Weald days) for the weekend.

Following are some pics from that 1st weekend with the car...

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 2:08 am

At the time, our mate Paul Mander was having his 360 in his Aus CH Charger built up for racing in Sportsman class by Clive Bond of Ultimate Race Cars. His other customers were Dave Mingay (Hellraiser) and Graham Barrs (Neon Star), so were keen to 'let' him build up a big block for us.
After a couple of months scouring the Expand & Fart and keeping ears to the grapevine (pre internet, unfortunately), we had a good block & heads to take down to Cirencester for Clive to make a start on.
Cant remember exactly how long it took but a few months later the Satellite had the engine it was made for (ie big not small).

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 07, 05 4:01 am

Wow you still have the same car after 20 years ?

That big block looks awesome in there hopefully mine will look that good by March/April next year with a bit of luck and some help

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 07, 05 7:58 am

That looks fantastic mate - I really like that and the engine looks good enough to eat.

What was the impression you got of the 440 like after the 318cui starter motor was junked? Was it a big shock?

I like that car. Got any more recent pictures?

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 9:32 am

Yeah, 20th anniversary this summer! Tho not as long as some one here, eh Allkiller? 27 and counting...

As 318's go, it was a good un, had been worked on, but was always fighting a losing battle in a stock B bod.
Despite a problem with no 5 cyl's spark plug boot being constantly burned thru cos of the bad design of the cheapo Blackjack headers, the 440 (446 with 0.30" rebore!) was just what the doctor ordered.
Car should really have run 12's with a bit of traction but best we managed was 13.6 at 105 on the BFG's. Trap speed certainly suggested there were quicker times to be had. And that was still with the 3.23's, as far as i recall.
So we ordered up a pair of slicks from Summit and changed the rear for 3.91's. Then the slicks arrived the wrong size; too tall if memory serves. Yeah, I know, shouldve got them from a UK supplier then we wouldve changed them without any hesitation. Didnt fancy the hassle of sending them back to the US so stuck it out, and gave em a go.
Cant remember how may runs we got in, but before you could say 'one extreme to the other' the extra traction off the line caused the drivers side engine mount to tear off, and the pass side header clouted the inner wing, at least an inch away under normal circumstances.
And, because of the too-tall slicks, dont think we ever did beat the 13.6.

Got any the more recent pics? What do you think....

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 9:53 am

'Lucky' I'm in between jobs at the mo, otherwise this could take forever.

Around 1990 we were going to a gym in Hendon that was also being used by Mark Wilsmore, who, as some of you will know, has since then gone on to re-open and run the Ace Cafe.
Turned out that Mark was into his American cars (& various bikes), and had just bought a Chevelle from a guy in Suffolk. Mark had had some bodywork done to the car and was so pleased with the results, when we said we wanted to do a fairly major job on our car, he recommended the guy to us.

So off to Wickham St Paul, nr Halstead, Suffolk, we went, and left the car in the capable hands of Steve Daines, along with some new rear 1/4's, a spare door we got with the car, and a replacement front pass side wing that Olly 'Sure route to Destruction' Eckaslike (sorry cant remember his surname) sold us.

Before we took the car I took some pics to remind us of the worse (visible) bits. I say visible, as there was worse to come once the car was stripped!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 07, 05 10:19 am

Great stuff.

By the way, who owned the Chrysler by Chrysler in the background ?

Still about ?

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Wed Dec 07, 05 12:52 pm

tell you what that guy in the blue jacket and the glasses is a ringer for a fella that used to race with our crowd groucho, we called him unfortunately he lost the plot and got more on the bottle

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 2:45 pm

Thanks Sandy

The guy with his back to us in that pic, with the no-expense-spared team t-shirt, was the CH owner, Paul Mander.
T'was a lovely car, a/c, electric seats, etc when he got it. But gradually got dtripped of its creature comforts in favour of go faster goodies.

Paul eventually moved on to a Duster to replace the Chrysler (but never got finished - current project should see daylight early next year), and the poor thing got sent to the scrapheap.

Another pic of the CH, plenty more to follow when I start posting from old events...

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 07, 05 3:11 pm

Looks like an old Morris Marina that does

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Wed Dec 07, 05 4:50 pm

Heathen........

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 5:34 pm

Cannonball wrote:tell you what that guy in the blue jacket and the glasses is a ringer for a fella that used to race with our crowd groucho, we called him unfortunately he lost the plot and got more on the bottle

Youre right about 'lost the plot', Dunc, but nah, dont think it's 'groucho'. This guy's real name is Spencer .....

stop it! But he also got called Lewis cos of his resemblance to one of the characters in Revenge of the Nerds. I thought he more resembled Velma from Scooby Doo........

Velma/Lewis/Spencer emigrated to Australia to settle down with a Shiela he met a work, never to be seen again...

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 5:37 pm

BTW, that cuda behind Velma is the one Dave Eady recently finished restoring, and had at the 2004 Nats.

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 5:51 pm

Back to the history lesson...

See notes in the picture description

RobTwin · Post by **RobTwin** » Wed Dec 07, 05 6:12 pm

oops doubled up on one there.
As you can see from some of the pics, original colour was Spanish Gold Y4 i think. I'm sure Stu will correct me if I'm wrong. There were about 3 other colours still on the car including the Volkswagen green and a white.