Fuel Safe

This was completed last year, but I'd not posted any pictures of it. You can see the 15 gallon Fuel Safe, fuel filter and pump. At some stage in the future I'd like to use braided lines, but the rubber hoses look workmanlike for now.

What you don't see is the impact switch which cuts power to the pump in an emergency. It works as a great ant-theft device as a slap with a hand in the appropriate place trips the switch disabling the pump until I reset it.

The drilled brace supporting the pump (on rubber blocks to cut down on noise from vibration) and filter saves a couple of ounces in weight; big deal. But it's intimidation factor to the competition is palpable. :)

Wilwood Calipers

Recent updates include Wilwood Forged Billet Superlite calipers and 11.75" vented rotors.To fit the Southwick alloy hub and uprated axle, a custom hat had to be made. This combo weighs exactly the same as the stock hub/caliper/hat set-up, so I am not adding to unsprung weight.

You can also see the 1" hollow sway bar. It is currently set to it's stiffest setting, and is easily adjusted by screwing out the bolt through the lower rod-end. Clearly it awaits track time for tuning, so I figured I will start at the stiffest setting and softening as required. Spring are pretty soft at 420 lbs/in. They are also suprisingly tall. These springs were on the car before it went on it's diet, and the car sat very low. I've dumped so much weight that the ride height is now an inch higher, almost stock.

Now I know why parts are often labelled "For Racing Use Only"; it's just another way of saying "Guaranteed Not To Fit"!

So I've been a lazy bugger and not posted anything for a while.

My favorite job - wiring! Not bloody likely. Kit by Dan Masters went in really easily. Wiring behind the dashboard will be a nightmare, but I'm wiring to minimise cable length to make it neat.

Rags lives!

Got the motor running last night. All the problems that I have been having; slow cranking, fire in the distributor, intermittent spark; were all due to...... engine was not earthed! Yup, stoopid me forgot to ground the engine.

I was hooking up some safety wire to run the 3 chokes when the wire started to glow red when it touched the body. So I hooked up a grounding strap, and the motor fired and ran within a 1/2 a revolution. 100 lbs of oil pressure, perhaps a little high and I should check the oil pressure release valve.

Motor sounds awesome. Ran it at around 2000 rpm. Plugged a few leaks while it ran. The GP3 is a nice sounding cam. Played with timing. I set the roller rockers per the instructions (17 thous on inlet, 19 thous on exhaust), but they sound a little noisy to me. The head is getting a lot of oil.

I'm going to have to strip the carbs. I pulled the plugs and 2 of the plugs (Champion RNY7C) were wet (not from the same carb, so not a float bowl problem?), and the other 4 were very sooty. Curiously, the header from one of the wet plugs was hotter than the others. Thats bizarre because I thought that the hot header would have been due to a lean condition. So I think a carb teardown is in order.

I'm going to run stock plugs (Champion NY9) as well, just in case the cold plugs that I was using were not correct.

I have a sound file of the unmuffled beast running. I'll post that soon.

Oil, coolant and gas lines are done. The gas line was a challenge as I did not want to route the 3/8" line up the spine of the car, alongside the exhaust system as was done by the factory. Wanting to keep the fuel cool, I routed the line under the car away from the spine. This was a little more trouble than expected.

Next up is the mufflers and electrical system.

Roll cage and corner weights

Roll cage is done. A real work of art having to fit in the small cockpit, under the Surrey top, and clear the old Porsche 914 race seats. Need to clean up around the welds, a little plastic work to smooth the finish (and hide the dents in the tubing from the pipe bender, and paint. I can now put the car on a lift, jack up 1 corner, etc, andf have the doors open and close. That should make the chassis stuffer.

At this stage I also measured corner weights (with no interior, no battery, no bonnet, no driver, no fluids. While it may seem premature at this stge, I wanted to have a baseline so that as stuff goes into the car, I am forewarned.

LF: 479 lbs RF: 494

LR: 430 lbs RR: 435

Total weight at this stage is 1837 lbs, a little heavier than I wanted. I'll be lucky if the car weighs in under 2100 lbs when complete. The weight over the RF I ascribe to the Webers.

Still a long way to go.