Well I'm pleased to say that the car is back and tucked away in the garage for now. Picked the car up on Saturday morning and was straight over to Wheels in Motion to correct the alignment on the car which needed to be redone on all four corners due to the complete overhaul done on the car this year. Safe to say there were some hairy and slightly sideways moments on the way over there with every corner having its own idea of where it should be going. The good news was despite the monsoon weather and all of the standing water I was driving though on the way home the car felt completely planted and much more sure of itself and its even fair to say that the windscreen wipers performed valiantly getting me back in one piece.
The car has been away for a variety of reasons however the vibration we were suffering from was ultimately prop related and the installation of a new single piece custom prop which was uprated with larger greaseable joints which has completely removed the issues. With the suspension setup and solid diff mount there's still more feedback going through the chassis that originally however that seems to be expected. The upside is now with those issues resolved and drivetrain overhaul the car seems to be happy to shift up to around 6k rpm which is higher than I previously thought however it really needs a dry day to properly explore the current levels of performance both engine and suspension wise now. I'm even thinking that the very hard all season michelins may get scrapped in favour of some much stickier Yokohama AD08R's given they're availability in the perfect size which will hopefully step the handling up another notch again
Underneath the front of the car the new front anti roll bar mounts have been bolted in place and I must praise Iain as he really has outdone himself with the work on these, they are very subtle but have really beefed things up so that we don't have any concerns. At the same time the entire headlight wiring loom has been removed and used as a template to build a completely new and more weather proof wiring loom with the addition of the relay kit from the US to massively improve the reliability. While I was there we've dropped some Osram Night Breaker Lazer bulbs in which have massively improved the lighting and was very noticeable from my limited use coming home in the rain, there seems to be plenty more light upfront now
While in there sorting the wiring, Iain also noticed that our sidelights had previously had their wires cut to be removed from the system with the bulbs hijacked for our indicators in the past. That's since been rectified and the wiring reimplemented so we now have independently working side lights and wing lights working as well.
Some areas of the chassis have been treated from very minor surface rust that had developed and been covered in wax oil for protection however I seriously need to get the car professionally undersealed to protect the chassis for the UK climate. If anyone has any recommendations in the South of the UK I'm all ears for suggestions?
Minor tweaks have also been done to tidy up the engine bay wiring including the movement of the electronic ignition module to move things along, there's still plenty to be done though. The exhaust has been repainted in VHT paint to tidy it up but its really highlighted how restrictive the exhaust becomes by the silencer, I have no idea what the diameter is however I have high hopes for the full Z story system that's arriving for the car in the new year
I'm sure there's more however those seem to be the highlights, we're getting closer and closer to getting the car where I want it to be. Lots of little details and mods here and there to get her where she should be and I'm desperate for a dry day to have some fun but that's enough for now. On to the exciting bit now, the shiny bits
IMG_8147 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
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Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
My exhaust restrictions, no idea how much difference to expect with the shiny Story one going on...
IMG_8168 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Where we now stand
IMG_3531 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr