Mods & Drives

2005 Diary

Jan  -  Feb  -  Mar  -  Apr  -  May  -  Jun  -  Jul  -  Aug  -  Sep  -  Oct  -  Nov  -  Dec  -  2005

Maintenance and modifications are in grey and drive outs are in dark blue.

Arrived at a satisfactory financial agreement with Holeshot Racing and I have now drawn a line under that situation.

Club meeting this W/E and the weather was on our side! Took the motorway route to give the new cooling system another workout, found that at speed the car will get to 90°C with one pump running at, but with two the temps still drop to under 70°C. The new clutch springs are doing a grand job and the W/I seems to be set just at the sweet spot in the 'rev/weight on the engine/boost/ambient air pressure' range, in that the flashy 'water injection is now on' LED comes on and it all get rather fraught.

Paul, a Westy owner who owns Steel the Scene, "Fabrication company to the Stars", has done the ali mould* for the side pods (I know, I know... shock, horror - I finally have done something about them, yeah yeah yeah). A fantastic job and should make producing the stupid things an easy prospect - now I really have no excuses :-))) All that remains is to polish it to mirror brightness......... Ah, I just knew there would be a catch.

* Thanks to Barry B. for the idea - that I shamelessly nicked :-))

Dad™ and I mounted the ali mould onto a wood base and bonded some formers to it to stop any flexing while we're working on it... rock solid. I'll order some CF and GRP next week from ABL Stevens so the following W/E we should be the proud owners of a pair of GRP side pods to use to get the mounting bracket sorted out, W/E after that and it's CF time.

Back to wet and drying a mould again...... Aaaaaaaaagh!

Still, this one is 'easy', just got to ease out the tear marks on the bends and any surface scratches. Started out with 400W&D for the tears then 800 and will finish the whole surface with 1200/1500 and several litres of Brasso. Worked out the quantities of CF/GRP/Resin to make two glass pods and two carbon ones. (for anyone who's interested, the GRP pods will be for sale in around four to six weeks, once I'm happy with the fit and quality of the mould/final product, call it £60 the pair + P&P in black and  to fit my car's exhaust, I.E. passenger side pod cut.

Had a bash a designing a full undertray for the car. Looking at the sums - from some shareware aero-software I hasten to add, so anything is possible :-))) this will give a fair amount of downforce, I.E. lots and lots. The front splitter/intake, side channels and really deep rear diffuser would actually work, with just a few minor problems...

• It would give me 30mm ground clearance as an average
• Would ground out with anything larger than squished vole that had been run over repeatedly with a steam roller (you know, like, a really heavy steam roller?)
• Would mean that 110mph+ I would be sitting at a minus number with regard to the tarmac and the shocks would have pinged off their mounts
• At 120mph+ I would loose the rear wings and nose cone
• Shareware aero software is probably not used by most top racing teams
• I should always have an adult supervising me

Looking at it I think I could get the final (nearly sensible) versions weight down to around 14Kg using wet lay epoxy & carbon/foam/ply wood and around 10 - 12Kg with pre preg carbon/ply wood. I'd have to do a front skid/splitter in wood and make the chin intake out of GRP as the leading edge would drag along the tarmac under heavy braking and the rear diffuser winglets would do the same under acceleration, the sparks would be pretty though.

The maths does seem to make sense so the undertray probably would add a significant amount of downforce to what is after all a breeze block of a car, so it can't be all bad, it would also benefit from wide track suspension, which would help to clean up the air flow along the sides of the car. Not a realistic project for a road car, but fun as a CAD/Aero exercise, ....ah well.

Went for an early morning blatt.... for about 20 minutes then went straight home to the warm..... Holy buckets it was cold! And the roads were really greasy, wheel spin city or what - no RBFYB™ for us this time out.

Ordered all the composites from ABL Stevens, so should be laying up the GRP side pods next W/E. The great thing about GRP is it offers almost instant gratification... by the time you've finished laying it up, it's ready to be popped off the mould, where as carbon is all 'stress and worry' for half a day or so.

Sent the cheque/order off on Monday and got the goods on Thursday... Great service or what - if you need carbon/resin/GRP, get it from these chaps.

You know what I said about "instant gratification"? Well, this only works if you put the correct amount of hardener in the mix, otherwise you hang around for 30 minutes or so :-) Had a go at the first side pod - used three layers of 125gsm glass woven cloth and about 200g of PE. This cloth is even easier to work with than the carbon 2x2 twill, easy to position with no tearing, drapes well, keeps its weave and takes up the layup resin with no fuss.

The ali mould is a hit! gave it three layers of the Wax from Hell "Read the warning label mere Mortals" a brush over with the PE, wait wait wait (it was 2% wasn't it?), once this was tacky we did another brush over and carefully draped the first layer, then hit it with the rollers. Two more layers and a bake in the highly technical, temperature controlled (OK, so it was a fan heater - but it got the mould ambient up to 40°C though :-D) Conservatory and an hour later we popped the item off the mould. The pod came off really easily, leaving no residue on the mould (see, it was 2%). The surface finish is fan-flippin-tastic.... very very sparkly :-) Got two very small air bubbles and an area that I need to smooth out on one of the bends in the mould (but this time I can just trim it off the finished item) and that was it! Bit of extra rollering for the bubbles and I think the next GRP jobby will be 100%, all good practice for the carbon versions. Very pleased with the result and pleasantly surprised with how easy it all went... May well redo the diffuser mould in ali :-)))

Think I'll add a layer of CSM to the pod to add a bit of bulk... Currently the layup thickness is less than 1mm! Once this is done, we have to cut the top edge to shape/size and then 'fit' the bottom edge, looking at the pictures the pod looks huge, but in reality we'll loose most of the top and bottom flanges when it's fitted to the car, so the finished weight will be way under the current "blank" weight - no bad thing.

Once I'm happy with the strength of the item, we have to shape the leading edges and sort out how we'll manage the exhaust side. At the moment I'm thinking of cutting the necessary hole and making up a 1mm thick dished polished ali plate as a removable panel/heat shield. Designed the bottom bracket on my CAD S/W, will make an ali one up then use it as the mould for a carbon item -just got to do the same with the top bracket.

Added a layer of 110gsm CSM which has stiffened up the structure nicely, re-redid all the measurements so we're ready to cut the item to shape. Should have the exhaust side pod off the mould by the end of the coming week and with a bit of luck both pods should be on the car next W/E. Total weight for the untrimmed GRP drivers side pod is 1Kg.

Quite a good month.... On the down side  not many blatts, but on the up: A problem with a 'major' supplier resolved to my satisfaction, I finally got off my bum and started the side pods, the car seems to like the winter 'upgrades', I'm getting the hang of my CAD software and had the highest visit rate this month since I started the site..... Not bad, not bad at all :-)

245Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (557)802 Hours total work time  -  72 Hours design time  -  (95)167 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Layed up the exhaust side pod this afternoon and did this one all in one go taking extra care with the bends/corners... a bit more fiddley but it went well. Same again with three layers of 125gsm weave and one of 110gsm CSM, used about 300g of PE and about the same in cloth, so this one should be lighter than the first. If this is the case I my well swap them over as more material will be cut from the exhaust side pod.

The item popped off the mould again with no trouble and the finish is just about 100% with no visible air bubbles. Tried it on the car in its untrimmed form... looks a bit odd to tell the truth, but by the time it's trimmed to shape and sprayed it will look pretty good indeed. Going to cut and fit the drivers side pod this W/E at least and will try to get the exhaust one on, although this one is going to be a tad complicated.

Cut the drivers side pod to size... tried it with a 70mm top flange exit and thought that this was way too big so cut this back to 40mm. This gives a 55mm exit hole at the rear with a 20mm top flange at the front giving a 40mm entry at the front. Once the GRP was cut to size it was quite surprising how stiff the structure now is, the carbon jobbies should be rock solid. The final weight for a GRP pod came out at 690g for a full one and 645g for the exhaust side... Call it 1.5Kg a set (inc. fixing kit) with the carbon ones being around 30% lighter for the same stiffness.

The entry appature is,as I've said 40mm and it clears the wheel (on full lock) by some margin... probably can make the carbon ones around 70mm longer with a slightly smaller entry dim and still clear the wheel. Also think that I can indeed get away with only using two layers of carbon cloth given the results with the GRP items and my previous experience with the diffuser (1kg carbon Vs. 4.5Kg GRP).

Fitted the pod bracketry to the tub, used five rivets into the tub for the top and three lots of two for the lower brackets and rivnutted the lot - the resulting structure is remarkably sturdy. I've made the top bracket slightly low so we can adjust for the carbon versions. Just got to rub down the pod with some 1500 grade W&D and spray it silk black. With the current rear gap, when we come to do the exhaust side pod we can fit it inside the link pipe. Given this, I may well just cut a hole in the pod rather than slot it as it would be a lot simpler (and lighter) to do, if it's a pain to remove I can always slot it at a later date, with the added bonus that the infill plate can be flat rather than dished.

Cut the exhaust pod to size/shape - went much quicker this time with far less dread :-) Weighed it and it is remarkably the same as the drivers side pod... we're getting good at this layup lark! Just did the drawing for the 'extended carbon pod' and think that I need to fit the wide track wishbones to make them fit without having a very small entry appature...Ah ha! Another reason to buy them :-D

Fitted the exhaust side pod... went much easier than the drivers side one with the only angst inducing moment being cutting a big hole in it for the link pipe! Tried a slightly different fixing method this side which I feel works better. Sprayed both pods silk black, painted the top fixing bolts Hammerite silk black and fitted them to the car - very nice. Just got to save up for the wide track wishbone and then I can fit 'long' the carbon version.

Had a go at drawing a chassis on my CAD software... Big V8 in the front, rear wheel drive (even found a US supplier who would do you a 450bhp Chevy 350i for not too much money)... You can tell that I'm fed up with the winter can't you :-D

Sunday and the weather is OK so we had a very pleasant blatt to Steve & Jane's... Very nice, more Motorway speed testing of the coolant/W.I. system. The twin coolant pump system really works a treat with the car over cooling if anything and the W.I. is unobtrusive in its operation and pops on just when it's needed (and I used half a tank of screen wash - bad boy that I am).

Went for an impromptu blatt this afternoon... Gosh what an exciting car this is :-D You know something's a 'bit odd' when you hit the rev limiter because the rears let go at quite an amazing speed (and all you did was touch the go fast pedal at bit too hard - shift lights are pretty though and the noise makes you grin). Car feels very planted and untwitchy though, with the side pods ducting large volumes of hot air from the bay.

Found that the radient heat from the turbo was 'cooking' the nearside pod, so added some heat shield material which seems to have fixed this issue - the pod is now cold to the touch after a spirited blatt. May do a cutout section with the carbon version... think I'll do some temp measurements and see. The pods do work though, as putting your hand 'over the side' at speed warms it up a treat :-)

Just got the road tax demand thingy... Hey, that means the car is 1. Happy birthday!

265Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (557)822 Hours total work time  -  81 Hours design time  -  (95)176 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Well, so far this month (the 12th) the most I've done is start and run the engine up to temps and put it away again - not the best thing to do but better than letting it sit - flippin weather.

Hells bells I actually drove the car! O.K. it was just an extended trip to the petrol station, but even so, (jolly good it was to).

Confused the chap behind me at a mini round-about... left hand lane/indicating right/hand out and pointing (frantically), ah, for a usable turning circle. See how the weather does tomorrow and you never know we might make it to the WSCC meeting.

After the easy job with the side pods and having a rethink on the diffuser front (again), think I will make another mould this year. Intriguing idea of a wing/guide just aft of the rear wheel. Using ali for the flat shapes and shaped wood for the end plates should make producing a new version a lot easier to do than the first one. I can even do a multi chord jobbie with deflectors aft of the rear wheels so giving a full width item. Also got Prof. Katz's book: Race Car Aerodynamics, a jolly interesting read and well written it is to (except where he refers to things that are over the page, sloppy design), so all I need now is a closed return wind tunnel, a grown-up to do the maths for me and the World's the mollusc of my choice :-)

Went to the club meeting... We started in lovely sun, so  just went with BBcaps and glasses (plus the other usual items of clothing I hasten to add). Big mistake - it was very very cold just the other side of the Downs. Still, the beasty went well and there were a fair few other cars this month. We had hot soup with toasty soldiers when we got back, made it all worth while :-)

I've just noticed, this month makes it +1000hrs build/design time on the car!

Changed the W/I jet back to 0.5mm after some thoughts about the 'slightly' more efficient Green air filter - Seems to like it.

Decided after much prevarication to just go ahead and get a full set of Yoko 48Ms rather than muck about with swapping the fronts for the rears and getting a set of 32SS as a stop gap. Had a phone around and Demon Tweeks came out cheapest again - this makes three sets of tyres so far that they've beaten George Polleys (one for the last car and two for this). They also arrived the next day, which can't be bad.

Made arrangements with DTS in Worthing to have them fitted and check the front toe (never been that sure they were even given the excessive tyre wear pattern - and they weren't). Got the usual fantastic service, lots of care taken and time to talk about the suspension changes I wanted to do - great company to deal with, I also want one their laser alignment thingys... all the flashing laser LEDS and cameras - wow.

Car seemed more settled on the drive home - probably just me though.

Had to pull the steering wheel off and recentre it (it was now at '25 past rather than half past) and boy it didn't want to move... introduced it to Mr WD40 and a hammer - then it gave in. Popped the diffuser back on after giving it a wash, repainted the steering arms, adjusted the tyre pressures and it was done.

Very quiet month on the car front (blame it on our new toy) still, the little beasty is going well and makes me grin - a lot.

268Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (557)825 Hours total work time  -  88 Hours design time  -  (95)183 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Run out to the Detling Kit-car show. Good turnout from the Surrey WSCC chaps with eight or nine cars - the ninth being an interloper :-D Slow and easy follow-my-leader drive there with no major disasters (even when someone 'stole' the A25 and I had an attack of round abouts somewhere near or around the M20).

The weather was fine and, oddly there was little or no wind at the show! They had expanded the halls this year and it made for a reasonable show with some rather nice kits on show (even Westfield were there - fifth year anniversary from buying my first kit). Saw the Striker Turboblade of the chaps that came to look at mine when they were having issues. A very very nice machine... it is a straight racecar but is better finished than many road cars - by a long way - most impressive. Had a chat with the chap on the Aeon stand and admired the canam thingy they had although the Audi turbo engine could have done with a bit of a clean up given it was a show car. The Striker Turboblade chaps are experimenting with a slipper clutch system which sounds rather good.

Had a chat with a chap with a Luego Locost blade that wanted to turbo it... very nice car it was too. Lots of Westys and some outrageous Cobras with huge lumps of metal in the engine bays delivering vast amounts of BHP. Had a look at an R1 powered Mini - Just got to be my next project, looked absolutely smashing! Met up with the chap with the fantastic V8 Westy (car left at home)... Had a look at the GTS Tuning widetrack - not bad, but as they weren't doing a show deal I left getting a set until I need to...

Had a chat - well, actually caught him speculatively eyeing my sidepods and diffuser - with the chap that does MKs carbon work, so if MK start offering venturi sidepods and diffusers... I want royalties!

As the blatt home was just us and, as we didn't have to worry about a tail of other cars behind us it was rather spirited :-) All in all a fun day.

Had a go at designing some front downforce plates with turning vanes to help guide the air flow out and past the rear wings (the turning vanes will need to be bigger though - more like barn doors I think). The after effects of reading the aero book still haven't worn off :-)

Think the clutch is slipping - Oh no no no! Just noticed the rev counter blipping when under load and when blatting I get what feels like the clutch lets go and re-grips (and all four shift lights up) - damn and blast.

Lockup clutch time... even if I have to design and make my own. I really don't believe this, after all the effort sorting out the springs and they still are not doing the job! Modern communication systems are fantastic... phoned a company in the USA on Monday and ordered a part which turned up on Wednesday! The company was MRE and the part was (you guessed it - finally found one!) a lockup clutch... Under £200 inc. the shipping, fan-flippin-tastic. A very nice bit of kit that is nicely engineered and fiendishly clever in its operation. Just got to fit it.

Even though the clutch seems to be slipping (and the lockup clutch is at Standsted Airport), as it's WSCC club night of we go for a foggy drive to Steve R. After arriving and a chat we jump in the car and....bloody thing wouldn't start! After an ignominious bump start it was obvious the electrics where not happy, not happy at all. Nursed the car home - odd seeing the speedo and rev counter blipping up and down in time to the indicators and all the shift lights coming on when I put the headlights on - and after a quick check I found that the regulator had failed. One on order which should mean the car is back on the road by the W/E with a bigger fan/heatsink regulator.

Fitted the new regulator and went for a blatt... and lo and behold, no clutch slip or flashing shift lights :-))) Great blatt as well, no traffic, dry roads, sun, blue sky, a tranquil countryside, animals in the fields..., howling engine and the smell of burnt rubber - ah, these little moments :-)

Must have been the regulator on its way out and mucking up the supply to the rev counter and Omex black boxes causing the anomaly - relief or what, mind you I am the proud owner of a rather tasty but redundant lockup clutch. But then I am a firm believer in belt and braces (and a length of rope, roll of duct tape and selection of cable ties - just in case) so I'll fit it anyway. Downside is the 'self doubt' has cost me £200!

Bit of a problem with the ecu - it went wonky... revcounter up to 12,000rpm, no power and no shift lights (which run off the coils rather than the ecu/revcounter o/p so the engine was no where near this rpm). Strange thing was, it would start OK and rev fine with no load. 'New' one from AB Performance (a very good chap to do business with) on they way... what a month!

Replacement ECU fitted and problem fixed - what a relief - again! I'll get the original one repaired and hold it as a spare for a while, as you never know (well not with the way my luck's going at the moment).

Fitted the lockup clutch (after a visit to B&G Machining - Fantastic company to do business with) - pretty straight forward, just a couple of adjustments.

• I had to ease the holes in the spacer as they were ever so slightly out
• After breaking one of the throw-out pawls and a sheepish call to MRE, they sent a new one - the headgap needs machining and I should have taken the plugs out before turning the engine over by hand - looks like the engine flipped over and did the damage
• Needed to do some maths to work out the 'head gap' between the pressure plate and the paw face
• If dismantling/rebuilding a Fireblade clutch was an Olympic team sport Dad™ and myself would get the gold.... with ease :-)

Can't recommend M*R*E enough BTW, broke the pawl Friday and got the new one (from Florida) Monday! Great people to do business with.

Took the car for a test drive and can't tell the difference (when changing gear etc) between it not fitted and fitted... The car is still very scary though :-D  A benefit of all this fiddling around is I have a longer pedal throw (pivot point adjustments galore) and a very nice feel to the bite point.

Found some FEA software... had a shed load of fun seeing when things will break :-D  Had a go at the actuator end clutch bracket. After watching it 'flex' under load entered the numbers into the software and...., the FEA mirrored the real life action on the bracket - anorak or what!

So, the car is all ready for a run up to the Stoneleigh Kit-car show this W/E... Should be fun.

295Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)853 Hours total work time  -  100 Hours design time  -  (95)195 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Blatt to the National Kit-car show at Stoneleigh. 5:30am start!

Meeting point at Horsham and five cars off, picked up three more in Guildford and another two in Oxford, only got lost twice on the way there and once on the way back... pretty dang good for me. Blinkin looooong way it was too, but a pretty good show once we were there and a good amount of interest in my car. The weather was very kind to us and made the show a good'un. Next time (and I know this will come as a shock to those that know me) I think we'll camp over one of the nights.

The show was 'OK' but the best bit was all the other cars in the fields. We even saw the Dax Cobra that we briefly owned (brrrrrah, dodged that bullet or what). Had a look at the new Catherham thingy... very nice welding on the chassis, but given the bhp the engine chucks out I think I'd be happier with more of it, although I suppose the company have done extensive FEA/stress tests on it. The finished item was pretty good with some very nice design touches however the front 'inboard' shockers let it down slightly. Serious dribbling at the Ultima stand and a bit of a smirk at the car that was trying to be a road going F1, boy it was..... yuk. Had a huge chassis as well. The Viper stand was oddly bland but this was probably because I was still quivering from the after effects of the Ultima jobbie. The Westfield stand was also understated but they did have a very pretty 11 on it. The Duratec car was there and I had a good look at the wide track front suspension... hum. The best though by far was the BEC spaceframe Mini... now this was fan-flippin-tastic and, after the Detling example, really has to be my next project. Dad™ is fine with chucking his car out into the harsh cruel weather so we can use his garage, so all I need to do is save my pennies - for about three years :-D

The longest drive in the car in one go and the lockup clutch behaved faultlessly, in fact the car performed perfectly through out the weekend except I did find that the W/I could do with having the 'on' point moved up a tad, as it was coming on (on the way home in the cold) at Motorway speeds. As the engine wasn't under much load it was choking it slightly (ah for fuel/water injection and several black boxes), under load it was fine though.

The really sad thing was that I had a wallet stuffed full of pocket money but the only thing I bought was a £6 exhaust clamp, (Oh and a RBFY™ Burger).

Decided to mod the clutch cable as I've not been happy with the rubber bobbin thingy at the bulkhead end flexing under load for some time. I used two metal spacers and some steel tube to fabricate a new end piece, which turned out rather well and has stopped the spongy feel the clutch had. Also, after looking at the way the cable bracket on the clutch end flexed under just the springs (and thinking... "wait a moment! The lockup generates much more pressure than even these massive items!") We decided to beef it up somewhat... out with the welder twice in one week - bliss!

Moved the W/I on point using my 'Heath Kit' lash up... works though. The switch on point should now pretty much be there, coming on only under load at about 5psi which is now above Motorway cruising speeds.

Club meeting... Great turn out of cars with several new members attending. Drive there was frustrating due to the volume of Sunday drivers, which you come to expect.... just not on a Tuesday! Where do these people get their licenses? The drive back was free, clear and in sub zero temperatures... in May... gawd it was cold! The car went very well with no glitches or problems. Still need to fiddle with the W/I a bit though as I'm still after a 'best average' that will cope with all temps/pressures ambient, which is not that easy - damn it.

Designed, cut and welded the clutch cable/actuator end bracket strengthening plates to the spare bracket (I had for some reason). After a bit of a clean-up with Mr Sparkey (and a dab of black paint) I replaced the original one. Took some video and indeed the bracket is now rock steady with no flexing at all - the wonders of FEA and CAD.

RBFYB™ to Littlehampton this morning... Five other Westys made the 0730 meeting point... and the weather was pretty good too. The brekkie was indeed really bad for us but very tasty and the roads weren't that bad... Some nice long curves to blatt along at a not too frenetic rate (not least because one of the cars had three on-board) - all rather civilised. Got back and went sailing... boy we were knackered at the end of the day :-D

Re re reset the W/I to 0.4Bar (6 psi) and took the car for a test drive to a petrol station far far away... Rather a hoot as the roads where pretty clear due to a certain sporting event involving 22 over paid twits kicking a leather bladder around in Wales. Third 'favourite round-about ever' was completely empty, so a quick test of the W/I was in order. Wiggle wiggle wiggle and a sublime dry swoooooshing roar as the induction, turbo & W/I did their thing, (this together with the howl of the engine, exhaust and the whine of the transmission really does make you grin a bit). So that's that set up then :-)

Made up an extension lead for the temp sensor... I'm going to measure the inlet air temp with/without the W/I running when the turbo is boosting. No particular reason, just interested really. I'll then do the water temp just to check the VDO gauge.

Went for a blatt this afternoon... some good bits but overall spoilt by shed loads of traffic, even on the more secluded country lanes... Ho hum. Further to this I've decided that diesels should be banned, even newer cars chuck out great belches of particulates and smoke when they ponderously 'accelerate' (and I do use this word advisedly). Rather annoying considering the hoops you have to jump through with the SVA and then you see another 04 plate production chugger smogging away.

Ahh, that feels better :-) Anyway, the car went well and on the rare occasions where there was an empty road it was jolly fun in the sun.

Another blatt to test the VDO temp gauge... The higher temps (80°C+ on the VDO) were in traffic or stopped rather than on the move.

Single pump	Both pumps and the fan

Looking at the above it seems pretty obvious that there are voltage/supply issues effecting the VDO..., bit of a pointer when the temps jump 5°C when you put the lights on (the first car was the same)... TADTS™ in action!

RBFYB™ run with just the two of us. 'Nice and early' start with dry sunny roads and no other traffic, the only glitch was coming round a bend on a rather twisty road and finding that it had been resurfaced with what looked like golf balls (well the stones used were the same kind of size)... a moments panic while dodging and weaving to avoid a concussion and then half a mile or so at 10mph. Boy we were glad when we hit the nasty pot holed original surface :-D Brekkies and a walk on the beach then home (a different way) and again the roads were suspiciously clear.

We got in a couple of hours sailing when we got back, which was rather nice... also had taped the Euro F1 so we could fast forward the always lame pre-race rubbish and the in-race ads, the unavoidable Mr. Allen was in sparkling form though... I wonder how much self control Mr. Brundle must exercise not to thump him ('none' would be I feel a shameful admission)?

Did the temps thing with the inlet today..., went for a blatt with the thermocouple affixed to the underside of the inlet pipe of the airbox. To be honest I found it rather difficult to get the W/I on and remain even remotely legal... in all the gears, but I did manage to get a bit of data:

This represents slightly more than a 15% drop in inlet temperature and this with the system running for only two to three seconds! I really need to test this on a trackday with the passenger noting the readings, as I suspect the temps would drop much further than so far indicated with the system running for an extended period. I wonder if you can work out the air density from these figures... I know what the air pressure was (1024mb), the boost levels, the amount of water/methanol mix that was injected, the temps and the time, so it's out with my 'O' level maths and physics text books!

The blatt was pretty good too... relatively empty roads that were twisty, the sun was out and I came home with a silly grin.

In other news... Val™ is off to Brighton tomorrow (that'll teach her to have a half term when I don't get one) to buy me some 3mm red wool so I can tuft-up the offside half of the car and video the airflows... Should be more than fun.... if rather 'odd' looking :-)

After reading the aero book I've been looking at Mulsannes Corner website in a new light - A very good read by the way...

310Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)868 Hours total work time  -  105 Hours design time  -  (95)200 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Great month for driving, bad month for fiddling with the car... what can I say, it's working well and the remaining 'jobs' that need doing will probably now wait until the winter modifications. Also, the weather has been good, so we've been sailing every W/E, which tends to cut down on 'car time'. Well that and the end of term reports, exams and all the paper work which needs to be done.

WSCC meeting was well attended and we had rather a spirited blatt back, RBFYB™ run to LH was very good with Steve R. taking over 'follow my leader' duties and do you know, we never got lost once - damn it!

Several fraught early morning blatts (which made me grin a bit) and a hoot of a drive on some very nice twistys which entailed embarrassing a Jaguar XKR (400bhp/408ftlbs, supercharged and £65,000+ for the pleasure)... Oh dear, oh dear. It did get really funny when he came to a corner... kind of like "HELP HELP I CAN'T STOP", then (through the squealing of tires) "Oh bugger, that little yellow car is still there!" :-D ... The little yellow car was very 'unstressed' and didn't get more than three shift lights up (and only in forth!)... Very naughty and not at all clever I know, but hey - it was worth it.

No time to tuft the car up this month, so that'll slip to July now... Ho hum.

I did however get time to redesign the logo and get it produced and fitted (great service and care taken by GX Signs) - very nice it looks too. Also got quite a way along with the new vented boot lid cover male plug - And Val™ got me "Competition car downforce" and "Competition car composites" for my B/Day, which I can't help but feel was a mistake on her part :-)

315Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)873 Hours total work time  -  108 Hours design time  -  (95)203 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Some great blatts but little done on the car... Had some bobbins made for spacers on the lockup  instead of the steel jobbies that are in there at the momment (a winter job as it's doing sterling work in there). Also had some 50mm extensions made for the wing mirrors - does the job.

Didn't even take any pictures this month!

Tufting the car has now slipped into September.

317Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)875 Hours total work time  -  109 Hours design time  -  (95)204 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Caved in and swopped out the custom clutch springs and replaced them with some standard Honda jobs... what with the lock-up and the VHD springs, I found I needed to do my seat belts up extra tight just to keep me in the seat when I dipped the clutch pedal :-) Took the time to bung in the rather nice ali spacers. Also lifted the rear ride height by 10mm. Quick test drive and all seems fine.

Most of the month we've been on holiday, sailing our boat - got to France (image 1) and all around the Solent (image 2), a great time that alternated between abject terror and glorious relaxation, can't wait for next summer now.

Image 1: Around two hours out of Brighton and the sun came up - how does that rhyme go?... By the time we hit mid channel the waves were rather large and the boat was surfing (and I do mean surfing) along happily. Got to Fecamp at dead low water with an on shore stiff 'breeze' and after a jolly exiting time in the entrance it was beers all round, a shower and a fantastic meal of fresh cooked prawns and shrimps.... yummy.

Flat now... Just you wait!

Image 2: The lock at Chichester. Fantastic weather (apart from a spectacular lighting storm when we were in Portsmoth - flat water and a pokey up metal thingy - great nights sleep). Great sailing and good fun.

Looks very different at low water.

So, plans for the car next month: Still got to tuft it up, make the carbon full length side pods, save up for the wide track and do the vented boot lid centre. Think I've also decided that I'm not taking the engine out this winter - was going to give it a top strip and drop the sump off to check the G/B, crank etc etc, but the thing is purring well at the moment, so I'll think I'll leave it until I decide whether I'm going to do a boost uprate - sometime next year - maybe.

320Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)878 Hours total work time  -  109 Hours design time  -  (95)204 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Drove the car twice this month, once to the WSCC meeting and a rather nice blatt to LH for a mug of tea and a big plate of chips... Car is going incandescently well with no issues at all.

Made another CF diffuser - better than mine, damn it :-) and I did finally get around to designing the full length side pods, so I do them next month (world wide shortage of CF not withstanding) and as I've been sneaky I can use them without going widetrack! Been reading all about louvres (and I'm not talking bath time here) and the drag induced by rotating cylinders... Gosh.

So, list of things to do in the winter time:

• CF full length side pods
• Boot box CF vent panel
• CF rear wing vents
• Big 'leccy water pump, (I'm fed up forgetting to turn P2 on when I'm blatting and then strangling myself with the harness when I reach for the switch)
• Seat back side/stop light repeaters
• Tuft up the car

I've also been looking at doing a bike engined Mini... Z-Cars do a rather nice spaceframe jobby but at a ridiculous cost, so after a little exploration/CAD time I've found a company with a full GRP body shell and got a friend to cost up a tube chassis. I'm going to do the other costs and see what's what - but I also have to save up for a bigger boat, really, I'm getting old and I need cabin heating, hot and cold water and a cabin that makes it harder to get concussion in :-)  So we'll see how the money goes.

Offside pod with Gurney flap	Nearside pod with Gurney flap & exhaust cutout panel

320Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)878 Hours total work time  -  113 Hours design time  -  (95)208 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Hey.... Found a problem! Something to do at last :-)

Went for a blatt and thought: The car was pulling to the left under braking... Then convinced myself this was not the case, as you do. Did a check of all the bits and bobs when I got back and all looked fine. Went for another, rather more fraught blatt and the brakes were really pulling to the left, as in: corner..., Corner..., CORNERRRR!

Got home (after trying not to touch the brakes) and found: Rotor - nearside = warm, offside = cold, Ah ha, the nearside pads are binding!...

Decided to strip them and have a look in the calipers.... turned out that the brake pad backing plates (made of steel) had rusted onto the pad retaining pins (made of stainless), which would explain things. Unfortunately due to the design of the CAT calipers the pins that retain the pads seat into blind holes, the upshot being you can't tap them out! An hour and a half later I've taken the cycle wing off, the caliper off and torn most of my hair out - BUT, I'd managed to get the flippin pins out!

I cleaned the pins with some W&D and coated them with some plastigrease and cleaned the holes in the pads by running a drill through them. Reassembled the lot and went for a quick test blatt.... and the flippin car still pulls to the left! I just knew I should have done the offside caliper at the same time.

Next day I repeated the process, (some what quicker this time), with the other damn caliper then went for a spirited blatt and..... The car brakes in a perfectly straight line, hoo-flippin-ray for that! Got home and burnt my fingers on the hot disk rotors (twice) when I thought "what would be a good idea is to check whether both pads were working and if one was still dragging" forgetting the "spirited blatt" part - me stupid, they both HOT! ... So, all fixed and the car is fine again, goes round right hand corners now too :-)

Conclusions: The nearside caliper pins/pads had corroded in the 'on' position and the offside ones had corroded in the 'off' position. So when you touched the brakes, the car was pulling left. I'd even noticed a different wear sweep between the near/offside rotors and not thought much of it... Ah well, we live and learn. I think this most was due to the lack of use the car had over the summer - hmmmmm, sailing.

Ordered a set of Green Stuff pads for the new (read: I've had them over a year and I've never bothered to fit 'em) drilled and lightened disks - I even masked the rotors up and painted the non-swept areas - do I know how to have fun or what! I also ordered the GD leccy water pump (the big jobbie) as I'm really  fed up with half strangling myself trying to switch the second pump on after I've done the harness up.

I had an extended session with my CAD package designing the necessary bracketry for the big leccy pump. Then I got creative and mapped out the whole engine bay and bunged in the steering column to see if the pump was fouled (I tell you, CAD is FAB).

I've also priced up (gulp) and will order in the next few days all the materials to make the full length carbon side pods - and will they look saucy or what! - Oh yes!

Found some rather discrete 75x5mm rear side and brake light repeater LED lamps... Going to fit them to the seat backs (yes, facing the back of the car) so tin-top drivers see 'em at eye height, (I get really twitchy when in traffic).

I also made some silicone/polyprop' bobbins, which turned out rather well... Much lighter than the equivalent rubber item and not quite so flexible, they should be much better for higher freq. vibrations, so I'll give 'em a go with the pump mounting.

Been for several blatts this month: One involved a sports bike which left me shaking and him behind me, (sedately getting to 70mph on a dual carriageway does that to a fellow you know)... and another was a 325hp 911 Carrera Cabriolet, gosh was he surprised - obviously he didn't realise how quickly my car can get to 50mph :-)

I caved in with the boot box lid vent and Dad™ is going to work his magic on the plug - I was really making a pigs ear out of it. Used up all of the spare PE resin and GRP/Carbon cloth I had and made another diffuser... The resin would have gone off over then winter anyway, so at least it's used. Hang on, that means I have to order even more CF and epoxy for the boot lid - Oh hell!

Had a looong read of a Megasquirt website.... Tempted I must say - Sensors & 929 TBs - Bob is indeed (as I've said before) my uncle :-)

A very good RBFYB™ run this morning, roads dry to slightly dark in places, but at 0630 they had the advantage of being empty. We had thirteen cars at the meeting point and made our way to a 'new' venue for brekkie... and very good it was too, £4.50 for a very naughty 'fried everything', tea and bread which we munched in the sunshine on the lawn... OK, so it was a bit trampled but it was a lawn once, in the not too distant past, probably - and the sun was out in a very blue sky.... Marvelous! Back home before noon.

The BEC Mini looks dead in the water.... I need to have wind/rearscreens made up if I use the Mini body shell I've located and at £2500 for a custom size jobbie....Oh yes, I'll have a dozen! To get standard items cut to size is going to work out rather pricey too, circa £200 - £350ea. and then they might not fit too well. 

The alternative was the Monte Carlo from Z-Cars  but that is costing out at 'rather a lot' for what it is... Oh well, I'm back to plotting a bank heist so I can build an Ultima :-) Still, on the up side we've found the next boat we want...Ah, so that'd be two bank heists then :-)

Well, three now - just ordered all the CF bits!

324Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)882 Hours total work time  -  120 Hours design time  -  (95)215 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Phoned to order the 3" strip LEDs for my high('ish) level rear brake lamps and was told "Um, got to get them from the USA, could take two weeks". Given I've got stuff from the US in two (working) days, this did not fill me with confidence. So, had a look on the web and found a waterproof 12V round multi red LED lamp (that looks very like the expensive ones in DTs). Ordered two and they arrived three days later. Result and I spent under half what I was going to spend, got a better product, (well, lots more LEDs any way) and in a more timely manner, just got to chop off the mounting lugs.

Now all I have to do is design and make some brackets and decide where to put them, as I think they're too big for the original plan and I'm really not going to start drilling holes in my roll-over bar!

Started out with a bracket that mounts on the roll-over bar top strut bracket and put the lamp above the level of the bar, had the advantage of putting it high but exposes the back of the brk/lamp to the weather (it also looked odd and would have been fiddly to make). So had a bit of a think and came up with one that puts the lamp behind the bar and will be much easier to make. B&G to the fore here again I feel. The anorak in me made me park my tin top behind the Westy just to check you can see the lamps (you can, but from a reasonable distance away/peering over the steering wheel - we've all seen that driver - you really can't see the standard jobbies... Which is worrying).

Popped over to B&Gs with the drawings and the Perspex prototype in the tin top, so I'll get a cost for the brackets and for my billet ali clutch pressure plate. While I was there they showed me the 'off cuts' of some Titanium turnbuckles they were making (for a sailing yacht), must have been 150x50x75mm of solid metal and it weighed not a lot. The finished items apparently are over 300mm, bet that 'aint cheap!

Club meeting and boy was it cold on the up. Apart from my teeth chattering there was another clue... The WI was popping on at very low load... Hehhehehe, it was jolly good fun though. Good turnout with sixteen cars, H.K.'s "redone" car was there and [understatement] very nice it is too [/understatement]. Blatt home was much warmer for some reason and with not so many cars. Very nice drive both ways though... Bad boy! Go to your room. Hehehe.

Last blatt of the year I think, it's just too dang cold, so that means.....*

Winter Modifications Time, yeah!

Took the twin coolant pump system off (anyone interested in either/both of these, drop me a mail) and popped the big EWP jobbie in - easy as that, well I've still got to make the bracket... Took off the top aluminium coolant pipe and marked where I want the two spigot pipes welded in for the thermostat/expansion tank overflow hoses, just got to drop it in to B&G when I collect the lamp brackets.

Cut and drilled the bracket, bending it was a bit of a trail - I bent the wrong bit first so I had to improvise. Turned out fine but kind of took the 'long way around' as it were and now my bench mounted sheet metal bender is 'shagged' - I need a new one :-)

Painted the bracket with some Hammerite satin black metal paint - should have sprayed it!

W&D smooth and painted it again + W&D and again + W&D.... and, you guessed it... again. I really should have sprayed it. While this was going on I removed the original twin pump wiring and made up the new harness... hmmmm, solder fumes.

Still can't believe that all the 'old' coolant pipes line up and the new pump misses everything in the bay... twitch, twitch. Using CAD to check fittings and dims is fantastic, saves quite a bit of time. New pump's all plumbed in and I've redone the wiring, just waiting to have the two spigots welded into the top pipe and I can refill the engine with coolant and set the controller up (again).

Decided that I'm not going have the spigots welded into the top hose... life was getting too short on an answer from B&G as to when!  I'll do it next time I take the engine out or drain the coolant, it's not really that important a jobbie.

So, Dad™ and I replumbed everything, refilled the system (using our tried and tested method in avoiding airlocks - and it really works!) and ran the pump full power for five minutes. Started the engine (first turn of the key) and low and behold, the new system holds the engine temp at 80°C without running the fan (mind you, boy was it a bit taters)...

...So, we were doing really well, up to the point I did a silly thing and fried the pump controller, (12V on the earth lead, (don't ask) - burned one or more of the ICs in the box). £80 later and I'll get a new one on Tuesday. Sometimes I really despair at my boundless stupidity, you know. On the up side, no leaks and when it was working the pump/controller seemed jolly good indeed, you could see the pump pulsing when it was altering the flow rate to maintain the temps.

When I was having my ECU problems earlier in the year (got a lovely working Blade 893cc ECU if anyone's interested) I spilt petrol on the W.I. mounting plate and me being me I wiped the mess up, taking the paint with it. So I took the opportunity to demount the pump and switch gear and respray the plate... looks so much better.

Got to tidy up the wiring in the controller bay and redo the cable ties in the engine compartment (and fit the new pump controller - damn it) and that's one of the 'big' jobs done for the winter. Picking up the LED lamp brackets on Tuesday from B&G, so should have the new lamps set and wired by next W/E. Then it's the carbon side pods, carbon vented boot lid and new disk rotors/pads and we're done for the year.

Dad™ has the vented boot lid drawings and has promised to 'have a go' at making the plug for me. I've worked out that what with the carbon material I've got, we have enough to make the three pod items needed and one boot lid vented centre. I've just got to get some CSM and surface tissue to make the mould for the lid.

The new pump controller arrived as promised and once fitted... gosh it all works again. So, back to where I was on Saturday morning. I'll have to do the temp sensor/graph thingy again to see if the cooling is now better/not as good/the same.

On a bright note, B&G finished the lamp brackets (the work being up to their usual standards), so a heavy duty paint spray session and some soldering finished off the items... Just got to wire in a waterproof plug/socket in each brake light line and the job is done. The great thing about designing all this was that I drew the item and the RAC bar in CAD and from that saw the bracket needed a tweak so it wouldn't foul the strut, re-did it, made a prototype out of Perspex to make sure it all fitted, (which it did - first time). Gave the drawings to B&G who did a fine job.... and the dang thing fits perfectly... Hooray for CAD!

Wired up the LED lamps to the brake lights... and they work. Much much better. Just got to route and cable tie the wiring back to the chassis and that's that.

Quick test blatt after putting it all back together and it seems fine... just need fiddle around with the waterpump setting a bit (and some nice weather to play in).

342Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)900 Hours total work time  -  132 Hours design time  -  (95)227 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

Had a 're-adjust' of the EWP controller and went for a blatt (as it wasn't actually raining)... At "Motorway" speeds the temp gets to just under 75°C and drops to under 70°C when the speed falls under 50mph. Last time out the temp was pulsing between 70 and 90°C as the pump went from 'Off' to 'On' , the slug of coolant in the rad was being overcooled and then pumped through the engine causing the undulations. So now even though it was jolly cold, the controller needs to be tuned up just a tad (full blatt should be 75 - 80°C, this is cool I know, but then the oil is running through a turbo and needs all the help it can get). The system works as expected - overkill is a good word to use here as I seem to have lots of meat to play with WRT the controller 'full-on' setting.

The blatt was rather good as the air was cold and damp, so turbo had 'fun fun fun', (as did the W/I - the noise when it switches on and the engine is under load is fantastic)... Used 2/3^rds of a tank of screen wash. The only 'blip' was hitting some unidentified roadkill, which broke the nearside front number plate placcy bracket and eventually pulled the plate off the Velcro mounts... I did wonder why the "Car Checkpoint"  Police chaps looked slightly askance at me as I drove by (makes you wonder what a car has to be like for them to stop it)... only realised what had happened when I slowed and heard the nasty sccccccraaaa-clunka-clunka-clunka-scccccraaaa noise as the plate bounced happily along on its tether under the car (installed for just this eventuality - Am I good or what?.... OK, probably not - should have missed the roadkill in the first place).

Pulling away from the lay-by after fixing the plate with string..., I'll never live it down..., string for goodness sake! (And not even Spectra™ - and I do have some, believe me!), was a four shiftlight event - in three gears no less. Ah, the smell of burning rubber pervading the tranquil Sussex countryside, stout yeomen in the fields..., bleeding from perforated ear drums - you know, I really like this car.

Philosophical point 101 - A strange thing is I'm so used to testing, adjusting and refining all of the many mods and alterations I've made to the car, yet I can't see the dang brake lights! Mirrors, that's the answer! Big, big mirrors..... Me, a 'Type A' personality? Surely not...  :-)

Dad™ has worked out how to do the boot box vent shape (CAD good, real world a right pain), so should be moving along with that as soon as I've done another GRP diffuser... Ordered all the bits for both the diffuser and the lid mould, so should have the first done in a week or two (end of term paperwork raises its ugly head) and the other just after Christmas (along with the full length CF side pods).

Another go with the EWP controller... a bit nearer 'ideal' but I think I'm going to make up a flying lead with the pot so I can adjust the controller from the cockpit (a solid 75/70°C). Once I'm happy I will do a "Winter/Summer" setting switch (with fixed resistors). Very nice blatt and used the rest of the fuel/screen wash that was in the tanks.

Had a peek at the 'new' boot lid vent plug that Dad™ is making... looks good to me!

Another quick blatt as the weather was rather good, bit too much traffic to make it super fun, but fun was had nevertheless, although you had to be very careful as the roads while not wet, were 'cold & greasy' and I found it all too easy to get the backs unstuck. Tried out my new MP3 player - you can almost nearly hear the music above the howl of the engine/turbo/exhaust, if you really concentrate - The Stranglers and a Westy go together surprisingly well.

I've just worked out 'rendering' with my CAD package, it don't 'arf thrash the PC :-)

Yet another blatt... This one was a test of some 'intermediate' clutch springs I had done: Took the standard items out and put in ones that are mid way between the big jobs and the Honda springs. The VHD ones when combined with the lock-up where a bit too much and the standard items just weren't doing it, (you could feel the lock-up doing its job when the engine was coming under high load). So I could either add a washer to the lock-up pawls or get some 'medium' weight springs done. Adding a washer would have easily done the job (and been cheaper), but I thought that the extra power from the lock-up would be overkill plus. Some IHD springs would also get the job done (and I can add a washer if I need to).

The result is that these new weight springs get the job done nicely... didn't feel the lock-up at all and the engine was coming under some high loads, with the added bonus of not getting cramp pushing the clutch in! It was blinkin' cold though but at least the W/I had fun. Still got to play with the temp controller, I'll make up the extension lead for the club meeting run tomorrow.

Ended up popping over to Steve & Jane's, It is amazing how much in the space of 30 Miles the road and air conditions change... I suppose it's the South Downs 'getting in the way' of the breeze from the sea... East of Brighton the roads were dry and the air clear, West the Tarmac was decidedly damp with mist rising from all the fields and drifting across the road (very 'Hammer House of Horror' - pretty though). Had a look at the winter jobs that Steve's done on the car and the progress of Adams kit - very nice.

Had an email from John in the USA who's done a turbo'd Superblade (Blackbird engined F27) and he says it's -15 degs at the moment... Kind of makes me moaning about it being 3 degs a tad wimpish :-)

Blatt to the club meeting this morning and we needed to get there early as we were having our Christmas munchies - and very nice they were too. We left home in glorious sunshine and an air temp that would have allowed shorts and Tee shirt only to find, yet again, the South Downs had other plans. Once West of Brighton the roads were a tad slippery and the fields were white with frost. We were also driving (ever so carefully) in freezing flippin' fog and it stayed that way until we were 1/4 Mile from the Pub, when the sun finally came back out again! Gosh it was cold. Pretty good turnout again and I now have some company as there are two more Fireblade BECs in the club - at last, safety in numbers - we can pick on the X-Flow chaps! :-)))

Think I've sorted out the temp controller as well, I put the variable shunt resistor on a flying lead so I could adjust it while on the move (so much easier): Motorway speeds now is just under 80°C and low/town speed is around 75°C... This will do me fine. As a note, with the pump full on you can get the temps down to under 50°C while at Motorway speeds (yes, I know, I twisted the pot the wrong way). Now just need to wait until the summer to make sure the temps remain at these levels, given the low ambient air temp at the moment.

Made up some temporary Gurney flaps for the sidepod trailing edge... Really needed to tuft up the car for a 'before and after', but hey... as I'm only playing. Made them out of plastic L section and bent them by gently heating on the stove. I need to do the same again but with deeper ones (and tuft the car - damn it) and see what, if any difference it makes. Once I've arrived at a good size I'll do some moulded carbon ones for the CF sidepods. What with all the reading and research I've done I can't see it not working, in that it will help air extraction from the bay - the question is does it really help air extraction. And given that a Westy has all the aerodynamic slinkiness of a medium sized warehouse (with loading dock), at least drag isn't a concern :-)))

The boot lid plug is coming along nicely, so with any luck should be able to make the GRP mould pretty soon and get the first CF centre panel off - MUST remember to get the weave in the same direction as the end panels!

Fitted the drilled and lightened disk rotors and new pads today, pretty straight forward as everything came off the car without a fight :-) Really surprising how much lighter the new rotors are compared to the old ones, looks about half to 2/3^rds the weight no less! Taking off the wings to get at the bolts for the calipers meant I could give them a jolly good brush up. Checked and re-greased the bearings/stb axle, all looked like new with even the 'old' grease looking fresh.

Going to 'paint' the sidepod mould with its epoxy resin gelcoat next..., I've also got to make three of the things - stress? Oh no. Big slow deep breaths, that's the ticket.

As yesterday was so warm and sunny (and Val™ was off to see latest Narnia film, and had promised me it would be even warmer today) I had planned to go for a bit of a blatt to bed in the disks and pads while the epoxy was curing... scrap that idea, the roadway was covered in ice! So just the sidepods today then:

All told, it went very well... the resin painted on to the mould and stuck pretty well, needing only a few touch-ups after it had gone off. Given the temperatures, I heated it with a hi-tech baking method which shortened the cure time to around two hours (down from around six). Used Corel to work out the cutting pattern for the cloth and found that I can easily get three layers for the pods. It leaves enough spare cloth to make the Gurney flaps and the boot lid ducted centre, again with three layers of carbon each. This leaves over two metres spare, so I may well make a carbon diffuser to use up all the resin.

Just got to lay the cloth up now... As I've painted more of the mould than I need I'll do a half and half jobbie, front half to be carbon and the back half in CSM or some of the 175 weight glass cloth. I can use this part to make up the mould for the full profile Gurney flaps. Must remember to get some ali L section from B&Q for the front pod mounts.

Gave the mould another coat and while I was waiting I cut all the carbon panels: Three front shapes and six back to give me a three layer lay-up, I really hate cutting this stuff as the weave tries to wander as you cut. Went back and checked the mould and thought "oh well, what's the worst that can happen?", So I did the front section lay-up. The cloth is ever so good to work with as it takes the (somewhat watery) resin very well and drapes to shape with no real fuss.

So three layers of carbon all wetted through and rollered (also did the GRP section so all the resin 'gelcoat' would pop off the mould), then a wait of seven hours cooking the item in my custom 'oven' to cure the carbon :-)  ... The heater actually holds the mould/lay-up at a constant 63°C which is whole 3°C more than the spec, not bad at all.

Popped the item out of the mould and it really is rather fine! No air bubbles, the weave lines are straight and once the wax residue is cleaned off it will polish up a treat! Two more to go.

Now all I've got to do is re-waxed the mould, wait a day then polish it back up and paint it with the epoxy gelcoat a couple of times before I can do the next one... going to take a bit of time I think. Hehehe, Using my hi-tech baking system I got a new wax coat and the gel done in one day! Number two should be off the mould late tomorrow!

Sorted out my insurance for next year... Same people as this year but now with a guaranteed agreed value at no extra cost - pretty dang good. The chap I spoke to was very helpful and put himself out to get the new service sorted out for me. A bit better than one of the conversations I had:-

Insurance Man : "Has the vehicle had any modifications or parts added to it to improve its performance?"

Me: "Er, all of it really, it's as a turbocharged bike engined Kit-Car, as I said..."

Insurance Man: "Yes, but what parts or modifications have you added to improve its performance?"

Me: "Well, it's a high performance Westfield Kit-Car, so all of the parts and modifications I've added are designed to improve its performance- I built it with that in mind, as I said."

Insurance Man: "So how is it different from the manufactures specification?"

I resisted the opportunity of cackling insanely at his question and gave a few (extreme) examples of 'parts that could improve the performance of the car', such as using aluminium bolts instead of steel in non-load bearing applications and  installing an RAC roll-over bar and plumbed in fire fighting system (from a safety rather than performance stand point, obviously)... I briefly talked about light weight limited slip differentials, shock absorbers and brake calipers, I even mentioned carbon fibre and magnesium...

Some frantic pen scritching minutes later... Insurance Man: "What's a roll-over bar?"

At this point I gave up and politely ended the call. The company involved is a Kit-Car insurance specialist, makes you think.....

Layed up the first main pod and rough cut the front pod item. I need to also lay-up another small section in GRP to make the offside Gurney flap mould as I only had enough 'off-cut' to do one side. Dad™ is coming on a pace with the boot lid vent bulge, so by the time the other main section is off its mould I can get on and do the lid mould - busy busy busy.

351Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (558)909 Hours total work time  -  133 Hours design time  -  (95)228 Hours total Design time

Back to top of page

End of another year... All told pretty dang good. The car is 'there' and I'm now just having some fun fiddling with it. Aims for next year are one or two trackdays (sailing days permitting) and some nice long early morning blatts... What with all the boating stuff this year the summer (for the car) really zipped by, so I need to budget better for next year, as it where.

The two main 'great things' this year are all the fiddling I've done with the water injection... You really can feel the engine characteristics change when it activates now (let alone the fantastic noise it makes)... and that all the soul destroying problems with the clutch are well and truly behind me. Telling that I tried weaker springs in it last time around :-) The amazing thing with the lock-up is you can only tell it's there now because the pedal gets progressively heavier as the revs rise - it actually pushes back at you. I also have a choice: Blinkin' BIG springs or 'medium' springs and the lock-up... Very nice.

Stuff on the "things to do" front for next year should be some widetrack front suspension and convert the rear calipers to some double pot Ali jobs. If my piggy bank is full enough I may well look at converting the engine over to injection and adding additional 'boost' injectors, but this would really be for the challenge rather than a specific need. It would allow for upping the boost with relative ease, as long as I can afford the pistons, crank, rods etc etc - and given the characteristics of the engine at the moment I'm damned if I can see why I'd need to, but, hey :-))

("Last blatt of the year I think, it's just too dang cold, so that means....." Don't know what happen here... The weather has been pretty good and I've got the car's winter mods done quicker than I thought I would have. In fact, I've probably used the car more in December than the whole of the summer... I really need to re-think this whole "open top sports car" thing, you know.)

(c) Copyright 2000 - 2005 - J.B.Cobb

Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo  Turbo  Westfield Megablade  Kit car  Turboblade Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot Turbo

Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing  Holeshot  Holeshot Racing