May 2005
Monday 30th May 2005
Collected the trailer from storage. Spent the afternoon aligning the front suspension. I now have 2° camber on the fronts, with around 3.5° caster angle. Steering is now also set up with 0° toe-in.
I am car #37 next Sunday at Curborough, the only one in Sports Libre, and generally, its a very low turn out for what is normally a popular early summer sprint. Should mean we get plenty of goes in the afternoon though.
Here are the pictures of the dual mass flywheel, the mainshaft tube from inside the gearbox, and the 45mm diameter aluminium runners that I bought from the States, and which form the basis of my new inlet manifold. Just need to get some flanges made up and then get it all TIG welded.
Friday 27th May 2005
Collected the Audi A6 back from Luton today, and she drives great. Sweet gearchange, and the noise has gone too. I have a large cardboard box full of broken parts that I'll photograph and post on here later.
I'm going to try to get to Bruntingthorpe next Friday after noon to put some mileage on the Fiesta. I can run round the 4.5 mile circuit for a few hours to bed everything in.
Sunday 22nd May 2005
Drove the Fiesta today. Not far, just on the driveway, but at least I know that the clutch and gearbox appear to be working OK. Washed the car too, as 7 months of accumulated dust from the garage just had to be removed. If I get the repaired Audi back this week (fingers crossed) then I'll get her over to Donington Park for a Trackzone session, so I can shake her down properly before the 1st event on June 3rd.
Saturday 21st May 2005
Re-bled the front brakes. Setup the front suspension to give me a wider track and more camber. Aligned the steering to hopefully give me 0° toe. Ordered some stainless steel exhaust band clamps from www.jegs.com in the USA. Good price too. They come in different sizes, and the ones I've ordered are for 2.25" pipes, which means they'll give a really good seal where the pipes join together. Couldn't find a stockists in the UK.
Friday 20th May 2005
The repair bill for the Audi is ££2200, so I wasn't far off with my guess. The inlet manifold runners have arrived from the States. I'll get them welded up soon to make my new inlet manifold for the Fiesta. I need to angle the throttle bodies up at 40° to clear the front bulkhead and allow the engine to breath properly. More details to follow.
Here is a link to technical description of the Dual Mass Flywheel. Complex looking things aren't they?
Below is a video clip I found, taken at Shelsley Walsh a week ago. It shows both the MG Metro 6R4's that were entered in Sports Libre, which means I would have been up against them, had I been there... I've entered the Shelsley Walsh event on July 2nd, and also the Aintree Sprint on June 25th, so as long as I've got the Fiesta back together by the end of May, I have four events to look forwards to in June and July, with a few more select events in August and September.
Metro 6R4s at Shelsley Walsh (8MB)Saturday 14th May 2005
I won't be at Fiesta In The Park this year, as the tow car is still in bits at the gearbox repair centre. So far, they say it needs a new clutch and dual mass flywheel, new main shaft, bearing, and new clutch release bearing. Sounds like the oil broke down inside the box, and wasn't lubricating the box quite as well as it should have been. Total cost? Who knows? I reckon it'll set me back at least £2000.
Almost finished fitting the new silencer. I had some more 2.25" exhaust tubing cut, with 30° bends instead of 45°, which means the silencer now exits in the same spot as the original system. I've recorded the sound on my I-River H140, and uploaded it to the site. She has a very low burble at tickover, and a very crisp sound when I blip the trottle. Just need to support the box with some springs, and use a few more 58mm clamps from Halfords, and she's finished.
Drove a wonderful car this week. A new Vauxhall Vectra SRI. Fitted with a 150PS 16V Turbo Diesel engine, and a 6 speed gearbox. It returned over 50MPG and went like a rocket when the throttle was planted.
Engine ticking over 1200 rpm (20s 800KB MP3)Blipping the throttle 1200-4000 rpm (30s 1.3MB MP3)Sunday 8th May 2005
Filled the engine and the new filter with the new 5W30 synthetic oil, which I bought on-line from 76 Racing. Its actually cheaper than Mobil 1.
Saturday 7th May 2005
Last night I met my all time hero, Wing Commander Andy Green, the driver of Thrust SSC, the World Land Speed Record holder (763MPH), set in 1997. He gave a talk on how the team designed and built the car, and how Gt Britain beat the rest of the world to breaking the sound barrier. During the talk he gave an insight in to what it took to control the car at such high speeds, and watching the on board video, it looked like there really are very few people on the planet who could actually control such a vehicle whilst it covered the measured mile in 4.6 seconds. Awesome.
The next attempt on the WLSR will be by the North American Eagle team. Good luck!
Fitted the new Dynomax silencer, and removed the cherry bomb rear silencer. Ran the engine, and wow, it sounds so much better than the previous silencer. I'll have it fixed to the car for FITP next weekend. Drained the oil once the engine was up to temperature. I've bought some 5W30 synthetic oil from 76 Racing, and a new filter from Halfords, so I'll change the oil tomorrow. I switched off the Lambda closed loop too, and it was making the engine run far too rich. Some more tweaking required before I can turn that back on again.
I've been looking for a diagram that shows how the cooling system on the Zetec should be connected. I couldn't find one, so I've done the honours.
Tuesday 3rd May 2005
Bled the brakes on the Fiesta. I've used DOT 4 instead of DOT 5.1 as I couldn't find any 5.1 in the garage. Synthetic DOT 4 is supposed to be better than 5.1 anyway. Removed the rear silencer to replace it with the Dynomax silencer. Went to the kit car show yesterday, just to have a quick look round. Best car there was the spaceframed Z-Cars mini, powered by a motor bike engine. Looked awesome, nice quality kit, though there didn't appear to be much in the way of protection for the driver, should the car hit something solid if it came off the track.
I'm taking the Audi A6 down to Luton today to get the gearbox repaired.
