Interesting debate chaps.
Before I join in can I just say, top one Jimi as per.
I have just bought some mesh from rockshore and am about to do a mesh panel myself.
I also have a 12" fan in the garage but I did buy that to put on the intercooler.
I actually bought a couple of fans from TCB Parts and Trevor told me that they have 2 fans, so I assumed they all had 2 fans.
Anyway, I can see both sides here and it really does depend on the conditions you use your 1 in.
I use mine as a daily driver and I've had my current one for 9-10 months.
There is a slight oddity with mine in that it has lumiglow dials and the water temp needle doesn't sit on the C when off/cold, it sits lower down, so normal operating temp is actually about 1/3 between C and H rather than 1/2.
Now, I didn't realise my car had no fans when I bought it so I just drove it every day no worries, but I commute to work on dual carriageway and don't get stuck in traffic, so plenty of air flow over the rad.
Plus as I bought my car in summer, I always had the heater on cold so never got excessive heat in the car so didn't make me think anything of it.
However, recently I changed offices and started getting stuck in traffic more often and the needle defo got up there past 1/2 which bearing in mind the start position of the needle/calibration, I'm thinking is basically
"Kettle!".
And it was winter so I had the heater up and I was cooking which obviously made me look at the needle cos even on those nippy autumn morning's I'd never got much heat in the car.
And another thing, unbeknown to me my rad picked up a stone chip the other week and was leaking very slowly, one morning on the way to work I thought I saw exhaust smoke in the rear view mirror but then realised it was coming from the engine lid, looked at the needle and it was nearly up to H, so with my pooglow clocks, that is way past 100% and I pulled over and turned off the engine for 20 min on the slip road
(this was all due to an accident and me sitting almost stationary for nearly 20 min).
When the traffic freed and I got moving the needle was still up there even when moving, so I pulled over and the header tank was empty.
I limped home slowly and chucked a couple of litres of water in.
I've not drained or flushed the system but the water is brown ish, bit pink from old anti freeze.
I stuck some rad weld in and it is holding temporarily but I need a
new rad and will flush the whole system out.
I will fit the TCB fans when I fit the new rad as my current rad has bent fan brackets so they won't fit and would break off if I move them.
The previous owner of this car took the fans off because they never came on
(apparently) but he only used to go 1 mile to work so never got the car warm and on the couple of long journeys he did, he was moving.
So from my personal experience I would never not run fans again.
If it is a pure track car then maybe I'd consider taking them off, as the track air flow should be sufficient, but not in my experience on a daily driver than can be stuck in traffic.
Hope that helps someone.
Oh and Jimi, if you're still reading, where did you get your rad and how much, when I looked the other week I think fast rads were cheapest on the net at about
£98.
Can't remember if that was inc or exc VAT.
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