GET YOUR CLASSIC SUMMER READY
Make your classic perfect for a summer of driving with these easy and painless modifications
If summer is the best time to get out and enjoy driving your classic, it also provides you with an opportunity to improve it.
It’s often the only time of year when it’s is actually pleasant to work on a car (if you don’t have the luxury of a heated garage) and anyway, how better to test your handiwork than taking it out for a summer drive? It’s probably not the best time to be embarking on lengthy engine swaps or chassis modifications, because you’ll miss all the good weather, but simple modifications that will improve enjoyment are eminently do-able before the evenings start to draw in again.
Keeping a car cool in the summer heat is often at the forefront of classic owners’ minds. While no wellmaintained car should have a problem with the temperatures of British summers on the open road, many weren’t designed to sit in the hot traffic jams that are all too common today.
Replacing a belt-driven fan with an electric version is a good solution to this issue; they can usually run at higher speeds than viscous fans and, crucially, can reach that speed while the engine is idling – unlike a traditional fan, which is spinning at its slowest when the engine needs it most.
It’s also worth considering replacing tired old rubber bushes with polyurethane items. This often has an instantly transforming effect on ridequality and will prove much more durable than OEM bushes.
They might not be quite as refined, but unless you own a Shelby Cobra, you’d be hard-pressed hard to notice the difference.
A sports exhaust can also change an owner’s opinion of their car overnight. It may only make it slightly more powerful, but replacing a tame factory back-box with a more sonorous muffler can amplify enjoyment of the car many times over and makes the vehicle feel far faster than it is – particularly in a convertible.