Sport 250 Review on Top Gear site

[Steve (sdh2903)]

I'm intreagued now .....

[Thrustyjust]

12 minutes ago, sdh2903 said:

I'm intreagued now .....

[Thrustyjust]

Wobbly gear nob and iffy rear suspension Mk2 ........................ or did he read the Top gear review?

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1706514&i=20

 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Surely not again. Maybe the test runs done at the same time as the TG one, just taken a while to publish?

Any progress on your gear knob "testing"?

[Thrustyjust]

5 minutes ago, sdh2903 said:

 

Any progress on your gear knob "testing"?

Not currently , although I have bolted mine on extra tight !! 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

I notice they've moved the air intake to the front now on the factory development car in the test photo. My gear knob has come lose again after another 300 miles! More fettling required I guess.

[jonjh1964]

Adge,

Might be worth heat shrinking the shifter before you fit the knob, it’s worked on my Type 9 quick shift.

 

Jon

[Steve (sdh2903)]

13 hours ago, AdgeC said:

I notice they've moved the air intake to the front now on the factory development car in the test photo. My gear knob has come lose again after another 300 miles! More fettling required I guess.

You can buy threaded gear knobs to suit the cranked gear lever supplied. Can't remember the thread off the top of my head but it was a honda fitment (it's not the standard mk3 mx5 fitment).

This is the one i ended up with. The weight of it did feel great for slick changes and comes with a lock nut so never budges. Not cheap tho but others are avail at lower cost.

http://www.tegiwaimports.com/skunk2-honda-6-speed-gear-knob-shift-10mm-x-1-5mm.html

I wonder what the idea in moving the intake is? I never suffered with high intake temps. Maybe water ingress? Wooshy Noise reduction?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

2 minutes ago, sdh2903 said:

You can buy threaded gear knobs to suit the cranked gear lever supplied. Can't remember the thread off the top of my head but it was a honda fitment (it's not the standard mk3 mx5 fitment).

This is the one i ended up with. The weight of it did feel great for slick changes and comes with a lock nut so never budges. Not cheap tho but others are avail at lower cost.

http://www.tegiwaimports.com/skunk2-honda-6-speed-gear-knob-shift-10mm-x-1-5mm.html

Yeah, i built my S2000 using one of those; so much better than the grub screw type i had on the last car.

As you say, it's quite a weighty thing though. (designed especially for the S2000 gearbox to improve shift quality).

The one thing I made sure of when I shortened my S2000 gear lever is that I could re-cut the threads for my Skunk knob!! (M12 std pitch IIRC, or if not M12, then M10).

[DonPeffers]

Sadly the Pistonheads article is missing a fair bit of data a potential customer might wish to read such as:-

1--which Cateringvan is the tester comparing against? is it narrow or widebody?

2--no mention of size of footwell comparisons

3--what is the steering rack ratio on the car tested?--what ratio rack on the opposition?

4--no data on 0-62 time/ top speed/ vehicle weight

5--no price comparison with the quoted opposition.

Finally, the one thing a short road test cannot find out is how the long term ownership experience and costs pan out.

Just as there is no ideal partner, there is no ideal car or kitcar---each to his or her own I say.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Yes they are a quality bit of kit. Felt hugely heavy in the hand but on the car felt superb. I just can't remember what pitch it was on the lever supplied for the westie. I'm pretty sure it was the m10 x1.5 but easy enough to test with an m10 nut if you were looking to swap.

[Terryathome]

Just to go back to the original post

I would not take Ollie Marriage write up as being the dogs danglers. In fact after Googling he just sounds like another Jeremy Clarkson, now would you take his write up seriously? 

Don't get me wrong I do read test drivers comments before test driving and potentially purchasing a car. However I find reports like Ollie Marriage lacking in the areas that I'm interested in and he doesn't know what I'm going to do with the car in the first place.

As for gear knobs falling off, it's a kit car. 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

1 hour ago, sdh2903 said:

You can buy threaded gear knobs to suit the cranked gear lever supplied. Can't remember the thread off the top of my head but it was a honda fitment (it's not the standard mk3 mx5 fitment).

This is the one i ended up with. The weight of it did feel great for slick changes and comes with a lock nut so never budges. Not cheap tho but others are avail at lower cost.

http://www.tegiwaimports.com/skunk2-honda-6-speed-gear-knob-shift-10mm-x-1-5mm.html

I wonder what the idea in moving the intake is? I never suffered with high intake temps. Maybe water ingress? Wooshy Noise reduction?

Thanks, food for thought, I'll have a measure up later when I have a look at tightening it up again. My lever is a plain shank, no thread currently,

I was talking to a guy at the Classic show the weekend, and he seemed to think it was to reduce intake temps. Not sure how that works unless they duct some air back through around the rad/intercooler. Reducing intake temp. is what the intercooler is there for surely!

After a wet trip to the show the weekend, checked under the bonnet, and the air filter didn't feel soggy, just oily.

The "retread teenager" bit of my brain says, why would you want to reduce wooshy noise, I like it, part of the cars character! Might not be to every bodies taste I guess.

[Thrustyjust]

4 minutes ago, Terryathome said:

Just to go back to the original post

I would not take Ollie Marriage write up as being the dogs danglers. In fact after Googling he just sounds like another Jeremy Clarkson, now would you take his write up seriously? 

Don't get me wrong I do read test drivers comments before test driving and potentially purchasing a car. However I find reports like Ollie Marriage lacking in the areas that I'm interested in and he doesn't know what I'm going to do with the car in the first place.

As for gear knobs falling off, it's a kit car. 

Well, i'll let the cat out the bag then. When I had a recent long chat with Ollie, when we met, who was a suspension engineer for Lotus, he basically said the same issues I was having with my car . He knew it wasnt doing what it should do. He said the car wasnt prepped , just dropped off to him in London. So, the defects that the car had , were that, just not sorted. As to who had the car first, Pistonheads or Top Gear, I dont know, but the article in Pistonheads looks very autumnal and the air filter has moved for the last review. The factory are going to do some changes to the car and let him have it back to try again. As for steering speed and the like, we are owning a much heavier car and using a rack with less turns will make it heavier . So, nimbleness in the Caterham may allow a quicker rack. I am happy with the rack in mine and its not fast, but touring the roads fast enough for me, with feedback and comfort. 

As for gear knobs falling off Terry, yes its a kit car, a 35 grand kit car !! and if they cant stop the gear knob falling off , then there's no hope for the rest of it.

As to his review of the car , he said its pointless being untrue with what he writes, there is no benefit in anyone writing like that. He advised the factory it was a bad review and if it was me at the factory, I'd be jumping through hoops to amend before it got published, but hey, some people dont seem to give a hoot. Its a shame the factory dont listen to people who have issues and manage to resolve themselves , than just stick to their guns and say the punter isnt worth listening to. 

We'll see where the factory make the mods for the car and let Ollie have another go and hope he will give me a call and we can see what its like . I have no doubts in the guy having a one to one chat about the report he did. 

[DonPeffers]

Currently reading your friend's Linkedin profile.