benedwards64 Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 So, what's new? Not a lot in all honesty, turns out moving house takes up a lot of spare time! :lol: Still, a bit of progress has been made with the little westie... First off, the entirely useless mirrors have been replaced with some lightly convex units: Before: After: It's hard to show through photos, but if you compare how big the rear wing is in each pic it should give you an idea as to how much more you can see with the new mirrors Couple more engine bay pics, just because: Other than that, I've just been driving it and compiling a list of what needs attention. The main issue is that it has clearly been set up for track use - the suspension is too low and too hard for road use, so I've got it booked into Northampton Motorsport in a couple of weeks time for full suspension setup, corner weighting and alignment which should make it far better behaved on the road. I've given myself the job this weekend of fitting the seat in a position that's comfortable for me - so it'll need raising slightly and moving forward slightly to accommodate my 'compact' frame :lol: I'm also getting a bit of sticking brakes which I think is the pedal mechanism - I'll investigate tomorrow as well. Other than that, the electrics will need looking at. The digidash in particular is in complete fantasy land (either that or my coolant temp really does fluctuate between 80 and 149 C on a seemingly random basis! Not to mention tho oil pressure shooting up when I turn the lights/fan/indicators on...) and I'm starting to think I need to fit an indicator/full-beam stalk in place of the current dash buttons which are pretty hard to find in the daytime, let alone when it's dark. If anyone has any recommendations as to suitable units I'm all ears! Still, didn't stop me enjoying a nice evening blat earlier on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Little update from today: Shower cap purchased! And, thanks to the British summer, tested: All dry inside! Today's achievements also include refitting the seat in such a way as I can actually reach the pedals. No more pillow/cushion combo for me! No pics of the during I'm afraid, was too busy swearing at it, but here's an 'after' shot: I now have some storage space! Hooray for being short! Also managed to sort out the sticking brake mechanism. It turned out the bias adjuster was too biased towards the rears, and the position of the mechanism meant it was twisted slightly and thus not moving freely. A quick adjustment (once I'd worked out what did what!) and I now have freely moving brakes again. And, now the bias is roughly where it should be, bl**** fantastic brakes as well! Seriously, the first time I used them in anger was like hitting a wall :shock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 Well, weather on Saturday is looking hopefully dry (famous last words!) for my trip up to NMS. I'll be heading up with a mate of mine, if anyone is about and fancies saying hello I'll be there from about 9am Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander72 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Ben, I was planning on joining you for a brew but will be at Thoresby sprint now... have a good time at NMS mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 No worries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander72 Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 i love that exhaust :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Share Posted September 15, 2014 Well, had a very constructive trip up to Northampton Motorsport on Saturday. As I sort of expected, it wasn’t going to be as simple as just setting up the existing dampers and doing the geo from there – there are a couple of issues with the existing set-up. First of all, while the fronts have the full 20-odd clicks of adjustment, the adjusters on the rears are FUBAR. On one side I have 5 clicks, and on the other none. Hmm. Being a Saturday we weren’t able to get any replacements there and then, so given that the geo was so far out (pics to follow this evening when I can get them off my phone) I opted to continue with the corner-weight and geo set-up. First off, to stop the rear tyre rubbing and the sump-guard dragging itself along the road quite so often, the ride-height was raised an inch at the rear and half an inch at the front. Following this a full alignment done based on track/fast road settings. These changes highlighted another issue with the shocks: they’re too short. They need to be about an inch longer all round to give me the suppleness and travel I need. This, coupled with the stiff springs and my sub-10st weight means that the back end can still feel quite skittish over bumps, as effectively it will easily lift the inside rear on bumpy corners. There’s barely any sag. Not ideal, but still the difference now that all the wheels are pointing in the right direction is still night-and-day – it’s far more driveable and controllable as long as the road is pretty smooth. The A43 roundabouts were a lot of fun on the way home I was also met there by Barny who had a lovely box of goodies for me – a complete set of analogue which will eventually make up my new dash layout. Barny will be having my digidash for his new build, which I’m very much looking forward to seeing! I also spent Sunday at the Javelin/TSS Sprint day at Croft, playing pit-crew for a friend of mine in his Toyota MR2. Had lots of fun watching a certain Duratec-powered SEIW blitzing almost everything else there – think I could be tempted to join in with this next year as it’s a good mix of cars, people and talent. So, jobs for winter: New dash set-up (argh, electrics!) New longer and softer shocks and springs all round, plus another set-up at NMS Purchase tow-hook (and possibly new tow-car) Get noise-tested somewhere… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander72 Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 great report - cheers Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Share Posted September 15, 2014 Going up! Geo before: ...and after: And the ride-height at the rear now (yes, that has been raised an inch!): In other news, here's the OH showing off her new helmet. She wasn't too impressed at being called Mrs Stg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander72 Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 LOL :-) i love that pic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 I was hoping Abingdon would be a good final hurrah before pulling the car off the road for winter to start working on her, so when I woke up to pouring rain on Friday morning I was more than a little gutted. The morning continued in a similar vein - the ten miles to Abingdon took over an hour thanks to the Oxford ring road - loads of fun sat there in traffic, in the rain, in a car which doesn't really idle very well Finally, after getting lost and employing the help of a friendly local, we arrived. And I promptly failed the noise test I had a chat with the guys doing the test and they said I was only just over the 100db limit, mostly because the engine was popping and banging a lot with no load on it - and perhaps I should have a word with the organisers and see if they could test me with their own equipment. A quiet chat later and a reading of 99.9db and I was through! Thanks to the chap in the Caterham who offered me a muffler, that was plan B. Plan C being 'drive home and get the Subaru.' Out onto a wet track we went. I know it was wet, but going sideways in third gear on the first corner of the sighting lap was a bit of a wake-up call! I quickly learnt the differences on surface type and their associated grip levels (or lack of) - one particular corner onto the main runway had a surface change at the apex which lead from wild understeer to hilarious oversteer. The sun came out and as the track started drying I had a lot of fun with this section - a couple of 'hero' moments at full opposite lock in third gear finally lead to my only spin of the day although there were a couple of other hairy moments (apologies to the respective passengers at the time!). Abingdon's great for exploring the limits Brilliant day overall though, the track was bone dry by early afternoon and I was really finding some speed with the little car. The earlier geo setup really came into its own and I was very pleased overall with how it handled. It felt astonishingly quick through the coned chicane sections, I'm sure I could have gone faster with some more brave pills! No vid from me sadly (my knock-off Go Pro was left at home) but I did find this video from another trackdayer. I feature from about 30 seconds in, and you get an idea of the noise from the little Fiat engine going through the chicanes: And a couple of pics: The day after, true to my original plans, work begun! Before: Out comes the dash... And, for good measure, off comes the nose! The wiring in there is mostly OK, but does appear to have been attacked bu a five-year-old in places. Plans are to mock up the new dash layout with MDF and tidy up the wiring loom as much as possible (hopefully I won't have to start again). I'll need to get hold of some back-lit switches along with a directional indicator switch - the ones in there at present are next to useless as I can't see which is which in the dark. Not ideal. Once the dash is in and working I'll then start looking at the Megajolt system - ideally both of these will be complete early 2015, but given that earlier this evening I was proud of myself for wiring a household plug (yes, really) I obviously have a lot to learn! The good news from Abingdon was the suspension - it's horrendously hard and too short for the road, but it works very well on track. The idea is to sort out a trailer and compete in the Javelin Sprint Series next year (the one that runs alongside the TSS). Fingers crossed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Not much has happened with this since the Abingdon trackday in November. I, er. ripped out the old dash, and kind of stalled...... ...anyway, meet the new tow-car The Westie is now booked into Northampton Motorsport at the end of Feb to have the new dash setup wired in and installed (thought about doing it myself, remembered I hate electricity). Depending on cost I might let them persuade me into an Omex ignition - it'll almost certainly be a better bet than the Megajolt kit I have sitting in a box somewhere and a rev-limiter would probably be a good idea! I'll be joining a friend of mine in 'competing' in the Javelin sprint series this year - it's a multi-manufacturer series which runs along the Toyota Sprint Series. Noise-wise I pulled 99.9dB at Abingdon (on a 100dB day), which is a little close to the 102dB limit for the sprint days for comfort. Ideally I'd like to avoid any changes to the existing exhaust system (it sounds lovely and I'm a hooligan at heart), I'll get hold of a bolt-on muffler and see if makes any difference first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Hi Ben Hopefully you can join us on some of our events through the year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benedwards64 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 I'm sure I can manage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 I'm sure I can manage Good man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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