November 2003
Friday 28th November 2003
Fitted the 450lb rear springs to the car. The ride height is the same as before, so they're the correct length. The back of the car is now rock hard, ready for next season. [Cheque's in the post Paul]
Set about taking excess metal from the car. Saved about 2lbs already, just by removing unnecessary [cosmetic] parts. And there's plenty more to come off before next Wednesday.
Thursday 27th November 2003
I'm off to Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome next Wednesday, to participate in a new article for Performance Ford magazine. I can't reveal what it is that we'll be doing as yet, but a clue is that I need to improve on my standing 1/4 mile time of 14.72s, and I'll be spending the next few days stripping all unnecessary weight off the car.
I've been shortlisted by MotorSport News, the weekly publication in the UK, in a quest to find the cheapest competition car in the country. Results are going to be published in Decembers Christmas issue, but I'm in with a chance as during the ten events this year, I only paid for my entry fees, petrol and insurance, I used the same set of tyres all year, with no breakages. So I think I qualify. Sprinting and Hillclimbing is a cheap form of motorsport!
I've ordered some brighter head lamp bulbs for the Audi. The lights on dip beam are dreadful, I can't see where I'm going in the dark, particularly on busy roads when there's traffic and I can't use main beam. So I've ordered a pair of Philips Vision Plus bulbs, H1 format, from www.speeding.co.uk. When they arrive I'll hopefully see an improvement, as they claim to be 50% brighter than standard, which has got to be an improvement over the standard bulbs.
I now receive over 500 spam messages a day to my .com address. Which is why I dont spend a lot of time replying to emails. If you send me one, be prepared for a wait before you get a reply.
Saturday 8th November 2003
Bought two Mk1 doors, and a Mk1 bonnet, all in A1 condition, as spares for the Fiesta. I'd still like to replace the bonnet with a carbon fibre one, and the bonnet on the Fiesta isn't good enough to take a mould from, but the new one is...
It's an excellent article on the Fiesta Thrash in the December Fast Ford magazine. I appear on page Pg.38 alongside Sunny Khalsa's awesome 178 MPH Fiesta. Kewl!
My new front suspension is hopefully being fabricated over the next 8 weeks. My contact has a few ideas, and will be making a start soon. Can't wait. Other mods to the car are to change the final drive ratio in the Quaife box, to increase my top speed, and replace the brake hydraulics with a new setup that will actually stop the car (essential if I'm increasing the top speed)
Wednesday 5th November 2003
Refined the suspension design after seeking advice, and reading some more books. Clevis pin looks a good solution to joining the two tubes together, allowing them to swivel as the length of the tie bar is adjusted. Drove a new Ford Fusion 2 yesterday. Only a 1400cc but it really flew. And it handled really well too. Made the journey to Crawley a little bit more enjoyable. I hope I get my Fiesta to turn in and handle as well!
Fast Ford magazine is out on Friday, and the write up on my Fiesta is pretty good. There's a preview over on www.fiestaturbo.com forums at the moment.
Sunday 2nd November 2003
I've made a rough sketch of how I'd like the replacement front suspension to hang together. I'm going to ditch the Fiesta Centre tie bars, and replace the whole assembly with 3/4" steel tubing with rod ends for adjustment. I need to measure whats on the car at the moment, and then translate the dimensions to my sketch. The spherical bearings I bought may not be used after all. It depends if I keep the existing TCA's or not. I'll be seeking advice on this soon.
