.Build Diary - March
I am a little disheartened already as I am not able to find as much time to work on the car as I would like. My girlfriend made a time plan for the completion of the project. I now realise that this planning of mine may be a little ambitious, as the the plan assumes that I am able to spend AT LEAST 2 hours a day (everyday) working on the car. I think that currently I am only able to manage something in the region of � an hour a day, at best!
Don't know if I did a smart thing today, but I took the angle grinder to the seat mounting cross members in order to allow me to fit the seats to the deeper floor pans (all of 5 cm's deeper) that I want to get for the car. I have not yet made up my mind as to whether I should make my own floor panels out of aluminium or buy the DAX GRP units. Having now removed the cross members, I have come to realise that this might be a little more difficult to make myself than initially anticipated.
I am still waiting for my engine - which has taken more than 4 months to complete. It had better be bloody fast by the time I get it back or I will be REALLY disappointed.
Didn't have a lot of time these last couple of weeks with work and the like getting in the way. I did however decide that the panels that I had made weren't neat enough and remade the footwell end panels. I also decided to act upon a comment made by Jan Luyendijk, namely that the passenger footwell gets extremely hot as a result of the cherry red glowing turbo being on that side of the car, by 'double skinning' the end panel and y put heat insulating glass wool (commonly found in houses) in the space to try to reduce the direct heat coming into the passenger compartment. I know that if I don't make this effort that I will never be able to convince my girlfriend to join me on longer trips than a short blast to the pub! Some creature comforts have to be put into the design and build of the machine. I am still puzzled as to how I should attach the floor panels under the engine and the driveshaft. I think I will use Dzus fasteners but will read an article in CCC or Which Kit about this. the article featured different panel fastening devices. Central to any of my concoctions to the car has to be airflow, both over, under and through the car.
I have also come to realise after reading an excellent book (competition car preparation - Simon Mc Beath, Haynes, 1999, Somerset) that the car actually has some 'flaws' in its design. These mainly centre around the fact that the car is not triangulated (read stiff) as it possibly could be. Namely the floor (seating area) is not and the battery top are both not triangulated. I will do this none the less. I have also decided to create ducting with cooling slots behind the front wheels to duct the hot air away from the radiator away from the engine - ala BTCC super touringcars. This will be a challenge to make, how I don't know yet, perhaps from carbon, but I will have to get the basic shape right first to use as a mould. I think that it will have to be wood first. I will keep you posted.