.Build Diary Aug - Oct
| August | September | Sept 9th | Sept 18th | FINALLY |
| October | Oct 17th | Oct 18th |
During my absence (I am sorry for this, it was MUCH longer than I would have liked) from updating the site, I have changed jobs. As you know, this is never a flip of the switch kind of affair at the best of times, especially not on the IT side of things anyway. Here is the first install on what has happened since my last writing. I have lots more, but can only start to tell you this from TODAY, so KEEP TUNED IN!!!!!!!!!
I don't know what happened to this month, but the time was surely not spent on the car. Work has been manic and friends seemed to all need help with al sorts of things! I spent the little time that I had faffing about with details, which goes to explain the lack of visible progress.
What I did manage to do was to fit the backboard and the centre tunnel and an aluminium gearshift surround. These were extremely time robbing jobs and although in totality make the car look more like a car, don't actually represent that much progress.
Another thing I did, was take the old 'dummy' engine out and put the real engine back in (which looked 'bute' if I say so myself). However, as one comes to terms with during the process of building a kit car, one progression leads to another regression. Having fitted the gearbox and engine for real (by sawing so much of the gearbox that I thought I was going to go through it, in order to allow it to fit between the chassis rails) it became apparent that my oversized 'web' feet were not going to comfortably fit in the foot well. I mean heel and toeing have a completely new meaning when I sit in this car! The problem lies in the lack of room left for the throttle pedal between the brake pedal and the clutch release arm in the bell housing of the gearbox. In one swift action, I am able to depress not only the throttle pedal, but also the brake pedal and the clutch release arm all at once! Not an ideal situation if one wants to fight it out on the track. This will need some careful thought to be solved.
Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, but they were taken using a disposable camera!!
Despite the hectiek in my 'normal' life, I have managed to find some time to 'play' with the car over the past couple of weeks and update the site as well. There is actually some visible forward motion towards a finished car (well okay only a very small amount then).
Most of my time was spent at the front of the car, thinking and trying out different cooling duct configurations. I think that I have become near obsessed with the need to keep the engine cool. I have been reading some 'race car' preparation manuals and have come to the conclusion that many people build really neat cars, but tend to forget about the cooling of their beasts. I get the impression that most people feel that if they provide a good feed of air to the engine, that the departure of the hot air will take car of its self. Unfortunately as in many instances, there is no such thing as a free lunch. For this reason, I am trying to take a pro-active approach to the cooling and airflow of air in, around and out of the engine bay (as far as this is possible in the restricted confines of a turbo charged Rush engine bay!).
What I have come up with looks a little odd, may not even work, but my logic says it should work! I will add pictures of these air guides (barge boards as I call them - has a better F1 feel to it) as and when I have them developed. All I have essentially done, is added a sculpted heat shield under the exhaust manifold to guide cooler air from the front of the car past the turbo and out through the side pod of the car. In addition to this, I have added 2 significant deflectors on the turbo side of the engine bay to guide air not going to the turbo out through the side pod.
In the next couple of weeks I am looking to build a similar deflector system on the drivers side (left) as well. This will have to be simpler due to the fact that there is more 'stuff' cluttering up this space.
Finally, I am looking to add an air 'splitter' for the sake of a better word, that will stand vertically in the engine bay behind the radiator. This to divert the warm radiator air around the engine and out through the side pods. I hope that this will cool the engine better, rather than causing it to heat up. We will see, the future holds the answers.......
I have been having a really good run with the car lately, the first half of the electrics went in real easy (I hope not to easy) - pictures to follow - The reason I said first half of the electrics, is because my car will essentially have two separate electric systems. One being the electrics for the engine (engine management system) and the second, which I have deemed the 'auxiliary electrics system', are the electrics that run everything else.
I managed to connect up all of the lights (including indicators) which all worked. The dashboard gives off this really cool green glow when the lights are switched on. In connecting up the electrics only the rev counter hasn't worked as yet, as the engine is not ready to run yet. The only real glitch I have had up top now was that the temperature gauge indicated 65 degrees Celsius even though the engine had no water in it or was even close to running!!! I think that the sensor is actually broken as when I picked the engine up (ages ago) it had a host of resistors connected to it before being connected to the standard dash.
Last weekend two guys (Mat & Ron) came round in their VM's (a German version of the Lotus 7 kitcar) to look at my project. They came down with the sole purpose to entice me to hurry up with the build so I could come out and play with them. Below are the some pictures of their cars:
|
|
|
The goofy looking long haired mongrol is Mat! - sorry Mat, it just had to be said!!
Their visit did little but re-illustrate the huge mountain that I still have to climb before the project is finished. But on the other hand, it did also demonstrate how cool my car will look once it is finished!! Their actual names are jut & jul (joke guys).
I went to John's last night to pick up some of my gear and well, this man can weld, is all I can say. He re-welded my alu-radiator and it looks absolutely fab. I picked up my narrowed rear arches which he brought back from the factory for me, picked up my fuel rail and most importantly, he had my new flared front side panels. I am the first person in the Benelux with these again (like being the first with the De Dion rear axle). They look really cool and should give the car the much needed extra cooling.
Having a quick look at the steering column yesterday night I came to the conclusion that I will not be able to bodge this as it really is too long and I will have to cut and re-weld it. I am still a little concerned about my welding skills (or lack of them) even though I am getting better, I would not want an Ayrton Senna to happen to me!! I think I will weld it myself, but will take major precautions to make sure that the steering column stays in one piece even if I am pulling on it with all of my might as I am drifting through a corner.
I am quite excited about the next instalment of this build diary as I am showing the world my ideas on thermal dynamics (sounds more complex than it actually is folks) under the bonnet of a Lotus 7. Whether these ideas will actually work I will not know for some time yet. But as always, I will let you know when the time is there!
