Lovers of all shiny and bling, look away now, don't say I didn't warn you.
...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/530880_403467213016564_100000598672197_1453358_250218542_n.jpg)
I WARNED YOU!
For those who are spraying bleach at their screen and rubbing furiously, have some shiny to restore the balance:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/AnodisedUprights.jpg)
AND I'm going to let you look at more shiny things to erase the earlier trauma inducing flying mud from your minds. I'm just too nice to you lot:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/YellowPassivate2.jpg)
Now I've given you some shiny bits, you can get dirty again!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SundayMud.jpg)
:D
Nice good clean fun there. What is the spec?
That's more than a spec of dirt it's filthy. ;D
Volunteering for cleaning it then? ;-)up
As it was in those pictures, spec wise (roughy, as it changed a lot through the years - when we first started it was a 2.1 VW on dellorto's and an 091 box):
Frame is T45 tube, approx 900kg inc fluids + driver.
268bhp Mazda RX-8 Renesis engine in the back, driving through an adapted VW 180mm chromoly flywheel + a Kennedy stage 4 PP
Renault UN5 transaxle, using 930 CV's + 300M shafts.
4 x 12" stroke Fox coilovers with canisters at the rear ~ 13" of wheel travel, ish.
2 x 10" Fox emulsions (but modified into non-emulsion with some old Bilstien canisters) up front ~ 10" of travel.
4 pot calipers at the rear, 2 pots up front, both on custom made disc setups, fiddle brakes for left/right braking split on the rears.
195/70 R16 Fedima Evoxtreme tyres up front on 6J rims, 235/70 R16's on the rear on 7J rims.
The shiny parts are because it's been in the workshop a while, being converted to a Honda S2000 engine, supercharged using the Eaton from a 5L jag V8, longer rear arms, longer shafts, new uprights and everything pushed forwards to try and stop the rear end hitting the floor quite so much, just doing all the finishing touches now, should be an easy 360bhp then ;)
Hope putting your tea donw on the bonnet didnt leave a mark
It did, there was a clean ring in the mud!
I remember reading about this on Detailing world a while ago. Looked awesome!
Interesting to see an s2000 engine go in, as if I were to do a conversion I'd go with that! The axis of evil.... Japan and German engineering together!
I've loads of pictures on the install, I'll put some up when I get in later.
Quote from: PhillipM on March 27, 2015, 04:33:24 PM
I've loads of pictures on the install, I'll put some up when I get in later.
Really looking forward to that ;-)up
Well, this was it originally getting pulled apart to convert to the renault transaxle:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/27-10-07_1257.jpg)
Then the conversion to the Mazda rotary engine:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/27-10-07_1255.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/manifold.jpg)
And radiators, etc:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/08-03-08_1614.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/18-02-08_2148.jpg)
Look, it's still clean!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/3300130440_99d4991535_b.jpg)
Anyway, we raced with that for a while, had some reliability issues with the engines (scrapyard sourced, then on having one rebuilt the guy doing it screwed up the housings), so it got parked up for a while and was going to be sold, after a year or so we did some research for a buyer into dropping a 4-pot motor into it, and decided if we were doing it anyway, may as well do it for ourselves!
Angle grinder came out (As you can see, it has had a LOT of work over the years of racing, compared to above!) :D:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00197.png)
Beam tube got chopped as we don't use torsion bars as the main springs any more anyway (having swapped to coilovers halfway through with the rotary) - that let us push the engine and 'box forwards:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00205.jpg)
Honda F20C got mounted:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20121125_124846.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/buggy201213/rears2k.jpg)
Which, after pushing the 'box forwards, resulted in it sitting almost exactly where the rotary did (the rotary engine being much more compact):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/buggy201213/sides2k.jpg)
This came up for peanuts on ebay:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/v8.jpg)
Seemed rude not to:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00229.jpg)
However, our new clutch setup was a lot shorter than the previous VW dished flywheel setup, and there was a lot of space in the bellhousing doing nothing, so, the angle grinder came out to play along with Mister TIG welder:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00237.jpg)
Which then required more frame surgery for new mountings:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20121224_195415.jpg)
And that left the engine much further forwards - this is the old rear cage from running the rotary engine!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20121226_193747.jpg)
Then we made the exhaust, rather tricky given the need for passing MSA noise regs and getting plenty of bottom end power out of the motor, especially when there's a 235 tyre swinging past it at the side....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00246.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/manifold2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Manifold-1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130130_183703.jpg)
More shortly, need coffee :D
Coffee ? :o
Somehow I had you down for something a little stronger ;D
Cool vehicle and great pics though ;-)up
Moonshine and banjo's at dawn? :D
Big advantage of the rotary, and to some extend the original flat four, is they have quite a lot of ground clearance. And inline 4 with a big sump does, so after a bit of thinking about it, some cash was saved up and a dry sump setup was fitted/made up:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00252.jpg)
and a shiny bit of billet ally magically made itself into a supercharger pulley...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/vvvvvvvvvvv.jpg)
Some plans were made for the new rear end:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/CarRearS2K2.png)
Of course, all that moving the engine/box forwards mean it ran into the original radiator mounts, so some alterations ensued there:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00266.jpg)
And things started to get rather tight in the engine bay:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00268.jpg)
Especially at the bottom:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130210_173042.jpg)
But, all was worth it when you look at it, the rear end has much better ground clearance and we've reduced the engine overhang massively, which should help when cornering:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00271.jpg)
Engine bay crowding meant a rather unorthodox airbox position:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130224_163700.jpg)
New dashboard
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130302_205957.jpg)
And then things got REALLY silly, and we started making new rear uprights that have the CV joint actually inside the bearings, so the driveshafts can be a lot longer:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00300.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00298.jpg)
:D
More later, my chinese has arrived...
Annnnnd, I really buggered up some of the spelling in that, sorry :D
I would presume the new motor will be better suited to the sport than the rotary. An interesting build so keep us posted ;-)up
The rotary was pretty good when it was on song to be honest, the RX8 motor has a really wide spread of torque, 3k to 9krpm is >80% of peak torque.
But it had got to the point where we were competing with the big boys with 4wd and V6/8/10's, and there were a few times you catch a car and just watch it drive away on the straights.
Anyway, after that lot, the inlet got twin injectors to cope with the extra power output (we've enough spare overhead in the fuel and inlet system for the right side of 500bhp, should we require it):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130326_200827.jpg)
Had to make a weird dry sump tank due to space constraints:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130421_174535.jpg)
Panelwork fairies made the airbox/radiator shrouding, etc.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130527_145450.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130603_184319.jpg)
You know I mentioned the engine bay was tight?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130605_140747.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130609_182149.jpg)
New rear bonnet started:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20130609_182107.jpg)
Caution, lovers of shiny, as you may have noticed, lots of welding, bashing, hammers and mud have been involved, if you have suffered through that, I shall reedeem thee.....bring tissues:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00379.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00377.jpg)
Shiny parts arrived to upgrade the suspension - although they didn't stay shiny for long as I had them under the pillar drill 10 seconds later ;D
Using them to build an interconnected suspension system.
Sat down and spent some long evenings working out where we wanted to take the rear geometry to help the rear traction and stability, so that got jigged up and the grinders came out:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/1538735_10152006568822935_1775350583_n.jpg)
Then started on with new arms to meet the new uprights:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RevisedArms1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RevisedArmComplete.jpg)
Then it started going back together:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Discsfittedrearthreeqtr.jpg)
Oh, and we fitted my shiny new discs:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Discsfitted.jpg)
Rear bonnet taking shape:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DSC00640.jpg)
And, as we do like a bit of the shiny stuff, remade some of the temporary inlets/adaptors, etc, for the manifold, etc:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewInlet.jpg)
Sealed belt cover made up to keep the dry sump belt free of debris:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Drysumpbeltcover1.jpg)
And just when you think you're nearly there, everything came back off again:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/BacktotheFloorboardsPart2.jpg)
:D ;-)up
Some nice work there, the rotary is an impressive compact motor and should make it fly along.
Oh it went okay with the rotary in, it had 268bhp the last time it was dyno'd with that in, it just wasn't very reliable, and when we did have one rebuilt instead of buying scrapyard engines, the builder screwed it up instead, so we gave up on it and the Honda went in instead.
And if you're changing engines it seems rude not to go for more power as well...
The s2000 motor spec is impressive 9000 rpm max and 237bhp normally aspirated means it is well designed and efficient for a production engine, i assume they were not cheap to produce or upgrade mechanically so you will concentrate on fueling /settings and perhaps a nitrous squirt for the exrtra power
Yep, very similar to the rotary engine, which also did 9krpm and put out similar, if not a touch more, power. Hence a good fit for the gearing, etc that was already in the car.
Nitrous is not allowed, but it's going on the same ECU we ran the rotary on (DTA S80), and has a honking great supercharger strapped to it, one advantage of the F20C coming with forged crank, rods and pistons from the factory....
There enough room to make a comfortable 500bhp out of the setup, but it will be running a very safe low boost level to give about 350-360ish, as traction issues makes it pointless putting all the extra stress and heat into the engine for power that's never going to get to the floor.
We have done a lot of work to improve the VW rear geometry for better traction mind, so if we can make a limited-slip diff as well and help it along, we might turn it up bit by bit in future.
Saying that, it's going to end up with ~400bhp/tonne even including drivers and fluids/fuel....so I don't think it'll be too sluggish.
It wasn't slow before, it was just slower than the competition (we're up against 4wd cars with 5L V8's/V10's, 400-600bhp+):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6jiFTUHxg
If yer wondering why there hasn't been any updates it's because after swearing that we'd done way too much and weren't doing anything to the front....I've spent all week machining parts for the front. ;D
A few of the updates, I'm a little behind with this thread now, nearly testing time!
Front cross got chopped out and lifted up so we could swap to a top-mount pedal box - hated the old CNC pedals that hinged on the floor.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewFrontCross.jpg)
Fitted some reinforcing bars under the seats, both to stiffen the inner bush mounting area on the trailing arms, and to prevent anal insertion of rocks on hard landings.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Newfloorbars.jpg)
Dash got a little more work - changed the fusebox since as wasn't keen on it, was a bit cheap and nasty, which mean shifting some of the wiring around:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DashWiring1.jpg)
New fusebox, just a little tidying and a mounting hole to cut for the connector (co-driver hand controls plug into that)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Dashnearlydone.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Rippthrough/media/Dashnearlydone.jpg.html)
The raised front cross required a new bonnet:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewFrontBonnet.jpg)
And that meant a new front bulkhead too - new floor (and new sectioned skidpan/armour underneath too) as well as the old one was pretty tired by now:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewFrontBulkheadFloor.jpg)
Rebuilt a lot of the front end with new bearings, etc, and whilst we were at it, decided to switch to mitsubishi alloys up front too - unfortunately using adaptor spacers with the wilwood hubs on there would have required about 3 inch wide spacers, so that went out of the window, so we decided to just make some hub that fitted the VW spindle but took the mitsi wheels to start with:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontHub.jpg)
Which got us to this on the lathe, scalloping out would have been nice but we don't have a mill, and doing with a pillar drill and a holesaw would mean having them balanced after, they do look a lot larger in the photo than real life mind - they're lighter than the wilwood ones.
Made a bearing cap that goes all the way through the wheel centre - keeps mud from building up in there and helps with fitting/changing wheels in a hurry:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/WheelSpigotCap.jpg)
And you might get a better sense of scale on this one, brake bells to hold the discs made and fitted - need to be on a bell otherwise you can't get the mitsi studs in from the rear - those are only 6mm bolts in the top for scale:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKT4tCuXAAAhwGW.jpg)
But, of course, you can't have all that shiny aluminium and then bolt the mucky old brake discs to them, can you?
So....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontDiscsSmallPic.jpg)
;D
For those wondering about the relative performance of the rotary vs the new engine install, these are ballpark figures (at the wheels, not flywheel)...it'll go as hard at 5000rpm as the rotary did flat chat at 9000 - and there's 4k more to go :D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/F20CvsRX8wheelpower.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Rippthrough/media/F20CvsRX8wheelpower.jpg.html)
To put it in a bit more perspective, it makes more torque from 2krpm than the old 2.1 A/C engine managed to make anywhere...
:Looks good the torque will mean a new way of driving as the roatrys are all about revs with little low down torque.
Well, they all say that, but if you look at the rotaries torque curve, it makes as much or more than most 2 litre petrol engines right from 2krpm up.
I couldn't edit the original post but I've dug out the original dyno chart for the 2.1 aircooled motor it had to originally last night, and added that too (still wheel horsepower, IIRC it was something like 110-115 at the crank, give or take the dyno accuracy):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/F20CvsRX8wheelpower_1.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Rippthrough/media/F20CvsRX8wheelpower_1.jpg.html)
I forgot to list THE MOST VITAL, GROUNDBREAKING PERFORMANCE MOD EVER!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/promomugs.jpg)
Knocks 10 seconds off the Zero-to-StrongEnoughToTarnishTheSpoon time for most good* teabags:
*Yorkshire tea, obviously
Anyway, hub got anodised, fitted, and the new calipers mounted after fabricating a new bracket:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontDiscsandHispecsfitted.jpg)
Engine loom got modified for a better main connector that has removable pins and is rated to work under 6ft of water:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/EngineLoomFinished.jpg)
Thousands of miles and plenty of trophies to it's name, but that abused old Peugeot 106 steering wheel is finally retiring from it's life of misery and pain (Ed's taking around the back and having it shot*).
Of course, that means an adaptor is required for the new one. The remains of my 306 got butchered for a column spline to use for spinning a new adaptor up in the lathe - thankfully it hasn't been disconnected to sell yet!
Lightening scallops courtesy of a Mr A.Grinder...
Due to having to TIG the old centre spline in it's all in steel, so no shiny anodised ally things today for you all. Terrible, I know - I'm sorry.
I think that's -5bhp for lack of anodising and -8bhp for not being able to say 'Billet Ally!' when talking about it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SteeringWheelMounted2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SteeringWheelMounted.jpg)
(*KIDS! I'm joking, the wheel has gone to a home for retired steering wheels, it's getting leather food every day and frollicking in fields with other wheels, it's in a caring, happy place - and definately hasn't been violently butchered by an angle grinder wielding maniac requiring the steel spline out of the centre.)
A barn door appeared:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/TriRearAoA.jpg)
And the spars are being 3d printed at the moment:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SparsPrintedRearWing.jpg)
Roughly what it should end up like when it gets made and mounted:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/CarTriplaneRearWing_1.jpg)
A very impressive build but tea cups! You have to go for coffee the extra caffine helps the long days.
I was following this on retro rides, there must be something about workshop madness and drinking tea, just look at project binky on YouTube for another example of motoring mayhem, fueled by tea.
Ttfn Glenn
Haha, yes, haven't updated on RR for a while, didn't seem to be anyone viewing the thread and it kept getting buried so I left it. Might update it later.
Tea is the fuel for thinking up and bodging things together. Coffee is for when you've stripped it down the night before and have a race the next day:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CI8NGtlWUAAJIAR.jpg)
Didn't get outside to see what she looks like in the sun yet, but the final parts are back from the zinc platers, so things are finally going together with proper seals, bearings and greased up ready to go! :D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/LaunchControlDecal.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontHubsCoatedComplete3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontHubsCoatedComplete2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontHubsCoatedComplete.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontHubsCoatedStubs.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/IMG_0912.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/IMG_0909.jpg)
1 step forwards and 96 steps back today with a load more issues discovered whilst reassembling - but working through them, and the front is finally together on shiny new alloys. We've even got a Christmas theme going as it looks like someone based the wheel/centre cap design on Rudolf...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontAlloysFitted1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/FrontAlloysFitted2.jpg)
Is your racing season in the winter? are you hoping to get it finished soon? There is some very professional work going on in your build ;-)up ;-)up
Rob
First race is generally early March, but we want plenty of testing and trackdays between now and then to iron out issues.
Well keep the build thread coming it is all very interesting ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up
Rob
Added more louvers than a louvery thing at a louver convention:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/louvers.jpg)
Skidpan's - 6mm thick aluminium plate for the transmission - goes forward under the beam/seats and is overlapped by the main floor so even thicker there. The transmission plate also overlaps the engine plate when that is fitted so there's no leading edges anywhere to dig in - making the underbody armour half an inch thick in some sections - it still takes a beating mind.
The front beam and front section of the floor gets it's own piece of 6mm plate too which wraps up around the front beam and up a few inches to prevent the beam digging in on a nose-hard landing/ditch crossing.
Unfortunately it doesn't look this shiny for long!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearSkidpans.jpg)
You'll have to excuse the rear of the floor, one of the helpers things a hammer is a good substitute* for a sheet metal folder....
*It is, but not how he uses it!
Putting the wrapping on now so nearing completion and some hard use.
Yep, getting close, amazing how many hours are disappearing into just checking things over and making sure all the bolts/nuts, etc are loctited and tight to be honest. I lost a whole weekend just clipping the rear half of the wiring loom up tidy out of the way of everything and making sure it ran up the rear bonnet with a nice loop of slack for the bonnet to open and close without the possibility of it getting trapped if it gets shut in a hurry!
Same with the throttle linkage - full evening just to make sure everything was routed, running smooth and adjusted right (and then we took it all off to add a backup closing spring to the linkages anyway....)
The front bonnet was warped more than it looked from the welding - looked okay from outside but once we fitted the seats and sat inside you could see the bow in the side panels, so that's getting some reshaping and some filler and hopefully I can find someone that takes on one off fibreglass/diolin parts and will knock us a lighter one up whilst we finish everything else.
Nice to see this progressing, seems to be the boring stage now, but all the finishing details are the difference between finishing or breaking down. Keep up the excellent work.
Ttfn Glenn
Afraid so, and after this much time, we're not taking any shortcuts, no matter how close it is ;D
Quote from: PhillipM on November 10, 2015, 12:52:55 AM
Added more louvers than a louvery thing at a louver convention:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/louvers.jpg)
They look louverly........ well someone had to. I'll get my coat. :D
Doors over there! ;D
Doors, on a rail; am I missing something?
Ttfn Glenn
Yes, you're probably missing the delights that would driving in Wales on a nice day without doors:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAlJx2DW8AAI07e.jpg)
Wales on a nice day looks similar to Scotland, just warmer and drier .
Ttfn Glenn
Been rerouting some piping, along with some other changes the eagle eyed might notice - basically the hoses were a little close to hot spots for comfort, even with heat shielding, mainly because they'd been made few mm long by the supplier but with such short, wide hoses getting rid of the extra length means you end up routing at quite an angle into some of the fittings, and it also meant the dry sump belt was difficult to access - not something you want in the field!
Anyway, chances are the hoses would have been fine but after this amount of time an oil fire is not the way you wish to discover that they weren't!
Anyway, that knocked on to shifting a few bits and pieces (exhaust relocated by removing the right support tube, and shuffling of the oil filter mainly) and then it meant remaking panels that were already done, doh - nearly there though, coming together at last:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewRearEnd2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewRearEnd.jpg)
A lot of the fuel pipe and wiring harness has been mounted properly and routed through padded clips and heatshielding too, time consuming but again, wearing a fuel hose or a chunky piece of loom against an edge or letting the vibrations fatigue fittings and crimps also bites you in the arse pretty hard for couple of days of tidying work....
Quick snapshot as was just ticking over for 20s at a time to find leaks - haven't even tried to dial n the timing or fuel yet, just on my base map, as the throttle pot is duff so couldn't see the point, will order another tommorow - found plenty of leaks mind, as you can hear from the various whistling noises. Anyway, it's alive!
https://youtu.be/0hbO0Kr1pdw
Always satisying doing the first start up and it running after many alterations, the fine tuning can then commence.
Yep, little better vid here after sorting the TPS out, still have the whisting vacuum leak mind, and for some reason the camera seems to pick up that and nothing else:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ku7sU_e-8mA
Happy New Year! ;-)(-;
Your dog seems to love it :D
He's checking the fuelling. Said it was running a bit ruff.
So we decided to fix it today.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/20160101_172544.jpg)
Might have gone overboard.
So you got a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas
Ttfn Glenn
Is the dog a lambada the way he performs with exhaust gas.
Perhaps you're dog is jumping for joy coz you're gonna WINALOT ;D
Oh god. First joke of 2016 and it was that.
How do I delete my account?
Quote from: PhillipM on January 02, 2016, 06:30:59 PM
Oh god. First joke of 2016 and it was that.
How do I delete my account?
We need to see the buggy in action before you leave, that's if you could tear yourself away ;)
Good point.....how do I delete Speedy's account? ;D
Anyhow - the old 5-piece riveted and glued roofskin is now a lighter, welded single piece effort. Much cursing and hammering was heard in the process. Sounded easier than it was, ripples all over the place to start with, got there in the end, needs a tickle to the right side is all.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RoofSinglePiece..jpg)
Quote from: PhillipM on January 04, 2016, 12:47:29 AM
Good point.....how do I delete Speedy's account? ;D
I think you may be Barking up the wrong tree with that request ;D
J Admin
:-)Geek
Hey PhillipM
Joking aside I know how much works involved building kit from scratch and then having to remake bespoke parts allover again coz you have bent it. Nobody sees all the work that goes in pre event.
Are James Webb and Chris Hammond still racing two guys I new from years back when I was stage rallying?
Hammond I haven't seen for a while, he won the awdc the year we blew the rotary at Kirton - after breaking his car and borrowing another, then wasn't interested after that, think he did a few bccc events codriving for Rochelle for a while.
Yes, the work in the car is fairly insane - a lot of the parts that have been redone this time have been deliberately made easier to service even if it's cost us more size/weight to get easy access, etc, because previously we were spending 20 hours in the garage for every hour of racing. And that was just wear and tear items, not including bumps and/or upgrades.
New bearings arrived for the engine, and instead of just fitting them, I've gone for the usual Overkill approach of making a simple job take much longer than it should, by coating them with molybdenum/graphite facing and deburring the whole thing:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Thrust%20Washer%20Coated%20Prepped.jpg)
Engine going back together today - didn't take any pictures at the end as was hurrying up to get back home since there was about 3 inches of snow on top of the sheet ice outside the workshop when I stuck my head out of the door!
Anyway, shiny new bits and all the uppy-downy bits are back in:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RebuildCrank.jpg)
Took twice as long to clean everything up as it did to actually check all the clearances and reassemble it!
Engine going back together today - didn't take any pictures at the end as was hurrying up to get back home since there was about 3 inches of snow on top of the sheet ice outside the workshop when I stuck my head out of the door!
Anyway, shiny new bits and all the uppy-downy bits are back in:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RebuildCrank.jpg)
Took twice as long to clean everything up as it did to actually check all the clearances and reassemble it!
Sorted:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/S2kEngineRebuilt.jpg)
Getting away from oily parts and back to terrible Paint skills, trying to break up the rear bonnet a bit as looks a bit bulky in one flat colour:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SmallRedandBlackLouveredRearBonnet.jpg)
If anyone is better at Paint than me (okay, everyone then) I have the original if you have some other ideas, or just a better incarnation of my effort :lol:
(http://bajaclub.co.uk/forum/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=103)
If Iron man was a car, he'd look something like that
A lot of fabrication going on there, looks good.
Quote from: apmaman on April 07, 2016, 01:25:06 PM
If Iron man was a car, he'd look something like that
Wouldn`t he just ! ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up
Now we've evolved from CAD (cardboard aided design) into PAD, it's almost structural.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearWingRibs3.jpg)
*Needs more duct tape.
Some nice work there, looks aeronautical fitting a large one either side you may get lift off.
Oh, they're getting larger....this isn't even 1/4 finished yet:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/WingRibsMock.jpg)
Good news, the CV joints are here!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/CVs.jpg)
Bad news, they're the undercut 'race' ones with undersized CV balls that we don't want, as per earlier in the thread, as they're crap for wear and distort where the bolt heads are undercut.
So yes, more waiting....
Got the right CV's now, finishing touches going on - heat sheilding/lagging, loom routed through bulkhead fittings, damper canisters mounted, new inlet on, new boost piping, etc:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/ChassisFinishingTouches.jpg)
That looks like a serious piece of kit mate! Love it! ;-)up
It is beautifully engineered peace of kit. ;-)up
Front wing skinned and foam filled in the leading edge for dent resistance, just needs the edges trimming ready for the sideplates fitting then it can be finished off:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/WingCovered.jpg)
More upgrades today after some testing - and a few teething issues (you know, the normal sheared bolts, oil all over the floor, nearly breaking wrists trying to hold steering wheel against the P/S going nuts) - but I forgot to take pictures, sorry.
The venerable old 106/Saxo pump unit for the power steering system is finally retiring from service, in favour of a more powerful new unit with a solid-state electronic controller.
We now have more fluid flow at full power - which is welcome as with a very short ratio steering rack (a single turn lock-to-lock) the old pump could sometimes lag behind the wheel input in tight corners.
In addition to that it can vary it's speed to hold a target pressure vs loading - so we use a lot less electrical power the rest of the time, including a low speed/low power automatic idle mode when the steering isn't in use such as queueing for a stage start. Might not sound like a big benefit but it's a little more horsepower from the engine due to the lower electrical load, and it eases the strain on the alternator as although we run a large 160amp unit to keep up with the various heavy loads, it still doesn't have much spare when everything is running.
We also have other niceties such as built in fluid filters/air removal chambers and baffled pump inlets to prevent any dirt or air getting sucked into the system whilst bouncing around over the rough.
Anyway, testing today showed everything worked well....eventually anyway...so now we just need to make a new tank for the PAS fluid to suit and perhaps some upgrades to allow a control knob to enable quick switches between various assistance settings (not so much for our car but might be fitting a few to other racers which require more/less pressure).
TL:DR - New P/S pump. Works better than old pump. Is shinier.
Also not mega happy with the throttle response off idle with the amount of charge piping to fill and the charger, despite making a few mapping changes to improve it, got a few more tricks to try but I might look at a bypass valve just to help things at low loadings.
An interesting write up. Long charge pipes do and can be a problem a twin turbo set up or a extra blower mean more problems. Looking forwards to seeing the finished item.
Yeah, I don't think it's much of an issue once it's actually under some load, but at very low rpm and blipping the throttle to shift gears it's too slow.
;D ;D ;D
Sorry mate, but just thinking of your very first sentence on this fantastic thread . . . .
And then you posted this . . . .
Quote from: PhillipM on July 10, 2016, 10:59:47 PM
Works better than old pump. Is shinier.
Seems our work here is done (http://www.dndservices.co.uk/smiley/bow.gif)
And you are now OFFICIALLY part of the Shiney Side ;D
;D
If it's any help I've just had the front bumper and side rails plated in shiny silver zinc too. ::)
Quote from: PhillipM on July 11, 2016, 11:56:49 AM
;D
If it's any help I've just had the front bumper and side rails plated in shiny silver zinc too. ::)
Stop it, think of all the polishing
I`m telling the Baja Club . . . . ;D
And just in case you hadn't had enough of half finished wing pictures yet....another rear element skeleton built up awaiting foam + skinning:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/TwinElementRearWingSkeletons1.jpg)
Also decided to draw 'em up properly in CAD rather than just a skin - means I can work out where best to put the slot gap spacers then. Hoping to get away with a single centre one just to keep things where they should be:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/CADrearwingskeleton1.jpg)
Miles away from an accurate model (or loading scenario, need to model endplates and the skins first, never mind the bonds, fillets and foam), but just a quick check on the skeleton (which is much less stiff than the built up wing) shows the overall deformation is acceptable as is. So probably loose the slot gap seperators and just have a few elements on the pressure side to stop spanwise flow instead. Should be enough by themselves to stiffen the thin trailing edge.
However, definately a picture for the shiny side ;D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/WingStrain.jpg)
Did some more simulation work on the rear wing overnight - I think a stiffer endplate may be required....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearWingEnplatesHFDP.jpg
Also. Wing may not be effective at speeds over 250mph. Must remember to back off a little in 5th....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearWingEnplatesSpread.jpg)
New PAS pump is finished and in, old relegated Peugeot pump sulking in the background...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewPASPump.jpg)
Mounting bracket - think Ed got a set of holesaws for Christmas...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewPASBracket.jpg)
Obviously Ed is conscious of the effect of carrying extra weight.
Maybe....some of us would have made in ally and triangulated it in that case though.... ;D
He does love his holesaws.
One for old Renault fans - the new drive system, soon to meet the lathe for some serious weight reduction and some aluminium centres - shouldn't have any issues with any mud/stones that get through the seals either with these!
They also run a lot quieter with less vibration/stress as an extra bonus.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpNewDrive.jpg)
And of course, can't go without more wings.....now they're red. Red cars are fastest, well known fact. You knew it was going to happen:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearWingRedSkin.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RearWingRedSkin2.jpg)
And no, your eyes aren't going, it really is fuzzy - it's the weave from the cloth.
...can't be leaving those pulleys like that can we? Where's the lathe gone...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyModified3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyModified.jpg)
And a bit more lightening and tarting up with a bit of yellow chromate and some of Homer Simpsons 'speed holes'
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyModified4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyModified7.jpg)
I reckon that's a winner without going silly on machining time. Best get it made.
More odds 'n' sods ticked off the list, this time it was the Magic Box of Ultimate Power!
Has those electrikery pixies inside. Aligns electrons in the wiring. Obviously that means it's worth at least 30bhp.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Fan%20Controller.jpg)
Alternatively, might just be a soft starter/fan speed controller to reduce the electrical load spikes when the fans fire up. Your choice. The pixies are more fun.
Also means they can be left on low speed just to dissipate engine bay heat in the pits instead of going flat out SO YOU CAN'T HEAR. CHECK WHAT? THE FANS ARE STILL ON, I CAN'T HEAR WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?!
Attention to detail appears paramount so will this machine also be used on long distance events abroad.
Far too high tech, always remember seeing pictures of Steve McQueen's Baja boot, the electronics consisted of a bank of knife switches
http://www.filnor.com/products/type-a-knife-switch.php
No fiddly contacts to fail, and you can really see what position It's in, Plus every time you throw a switch "its alive, my monster lives"
Yes I am having my medication looked at
Ttfn Glenn
We'll hopefully be doing some 3 day cross-county events in France and Spain, so I want to make sure everything is well sealed and durable so it's up to running for long periods without a check, especially on the loom and electrical side as usually you're in trouble trying to service those in a forest knee deep in mud.
We also were spending far too much time checking and servicing it between events so some things have been made overkill to reduce that and spend more time driving it.
93fxdl - the box is modular, sits between the fan connectors, so if the internals fail you just unplug the box and clip the plugs together and the fans run flat out as normal.
Bare pulleys all machined up today, awaiting brazing and plating:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyBareMachining.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPulleyBareMachining2.jpg)
Bit behind on here but only odds and sods so far:
Small pulley got brazed up - the heat required discoloured and burnt off the protective layer of oil on the surfaces - which mean the cast iron on the pulley rusted before my eyes where my fingerprints were - not much good even for mockup, so I raided my cocktails bar (Careful what you drink in my house ;) )....back in black and shiny again, crisis averted ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SmallPulleyBrazed2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SmallPulleyBrazed.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SmallPulleyHomebrew.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SmallPulleyCoated_1.jpg)
Anyway, enough pulleys for a while, they'll go off to plating later on as the front bumper and some other odds and sods need doing before paint.
The guy that was sorting the fibreglass bonnet out has vanished into the aether so we've put that bonnet to one side (as it's full of filler and sealing bits to take a mould from), really haven't got time to be knocking moulds up ourselves at the minute so out comes the ally sheet and another bonnet made just to tide us over so we're not taking another 6 months to get it moving.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/SecondBonnet.jpg)
Mainly been sorting a customer car out with some upgrades, so little work on ours really bar these odds and sods - anyway, the rest of the pipework has been measured up so any temporary bits can be replaced along with getting the proper brake lines in and machining for fitting bleeds to the fiddle brakes, etc.
Whilst they get made up to size everything else is coming out to weld some small lug washers around the pipe runs to secure them to, at the same time a pair of a-pillar support bars is going in to stiffen the cab and some gussets in the side and roof of the cab are going in to make it legal for French racing regs.
We'll crack on with the new front mudguard mounts at the same time and with those bits out of the way the frame is getting blasted and painted ready to go back together.
Due to ongoing lack of shiny pictures, found some from this time a few years ago when it was running at Kirton.
It looks like it was fun when it actually moved. Not sure if I remember that bit....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/KirtonWheelie.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Kirton1Wheel.jpg)
A while back there was a bit of a discussion about why we didn't use the Corsa electric power steering column or similar, the same as much of the rally guys use - and the reason we don't was the shock loadings that kind of system inflicts on not just the column joints but the rack and pinion itself too, along with a few other minor issues.
Unfortunately the owner of one of the 4wd cars listened to some of the hype about them whilst having his engine wound up a bit by a local firm, and had the conversion carried out. He liked it initially. Then the steering got vague. Then the car started wandering, and eventually it started making strange noises up front. So it along with many other parts are now up here for repair (yep, buggy got delayed again, sorry, been making uprights/rebuilding diffs, etc, and it looks like he's not happy with the engine anyway so the entire car is coming up over winter - along with another with the same engine for similar work.....we might get our own finished one day :hehe:)
Anyway here's the rack after 5 events with it fitted (compared to ~8 years previously with no issues) - check out the width of the teeth in the middle:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/MarkRackToothDamage.jpg)
I'm also pretty sure there shouldn't be a gap here - there wasn't when it came off the milling machine!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/MarkRackHousingDamage.jpg)
Anyway, repairs are at hand:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/MarkNewRackRender.jpg)
I keep pressing 'print' and all that happens is a picture comes out, not a nice steel rack. Must be something wrong with my printer. :(
Perspex steering rack cases, you saw 'em here first.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/RackBarCompleteV1.2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Rack_Bar_v1.4_Modified_Pads.png)
Soon to adorn every stanced showcar in the land!
I blame late night modelling sessions and lack of coffee.
Then the dry sump pump fell apart...that was careless ;)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPumpBearing.jpg)
However it's okay, I walked past it and it fell back together again. Better put it on the car before anything else happens to it...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/DrySumpPumpRebuilt.jpg)
(The endfloat issue we'd been having was that ball bearing there - there was a flat spot on the outer race and some spalling, possibly had a knock in storage/transit as it's been there since we got it)
Interesting stuff., as for the mud you will get there one day.
Eventually ;D
Anyone else missing the pics or is it just me?
Quote from: fugglededumm on November 04, 2016, 04:57:10 PM
Anyone else missing the pics or is it just me?
http://www.beachbuggy.info/index.php/topic,9243.msg95838.html#msg95838
;-)up
Should be back up now.
Some reinforcing to the cage to help stiffen things up and make it safer in a roll, just in case, gussets going underneath it in the cross to spread the load.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/apillarbars.jpg)
Downside - no mince pies this christmas!
Fiddle brake frame has been knocked up in some scrap steel using the plastic one as a template - as the laser cutters are packed from overspill over christmas - had to shift the levers a bit anyway as the new gearlever got a bit close, aside from that Ed's finished off those pesky hydraulics this weekend, brakes, steering, dampers, etc.
He's forbidden me from putting them on here as the damper interconnects are top secret and the hoses are neat and far too sexy (actually, I think he must just have a rubber fetish).
So here's the pre-watershed pixellated version - cor, look at them blue pixels!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/HydraulicsCompleteNewHoses.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/HydraulicsCompleteNewHoses2.jpg)
Made some new waterproof covers for the brake light switches and some other sundries that weren't well enough sealed for my liking, just need to alter the dashboard wiring for the new screen and then that's pretty much it, bolt more bits on and fill with fluids - getting closer...cue lots of swearing from yours truly to follow whilst trying to refill and bleed the interlinked dampers mind...
She's also been treated to a new dashboard since the last update:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewDash1.jpg/%5Bimg%5D%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3EAnd%20just%20finished%20putting%20together%20the%20prototype%20of%20the%20new%20fiddle/steering%20brakes:%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%5Bimg%5Dhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Fiddle%20Brakes%20Complete%202.png)
The dash photo cannot be seen. Take it the shocks have a common remote accumulator unit.
Should think you are itching to take the beast for a blast now then end is in sight.
They have remote valving too that changes the response based on pitch vs roll, as well as different stiffness for car pitch under braking vs pitch from a jump landing, etc.
Not sure what's gone on with the dash picture:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/NewDash1.jpg)
Also just finished making a prototype of the new fiddle brakes:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/Rippthrough/Fiddle%20Brakes%20Complete%202.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOVW0BTWDko
Working on the mapping this week so the next video should have a bit more noise :D
vtech goes bwaaaaaaahhh
Right, I've got it settled down a bit and responding to the throttle properly now - it needs some more fine tuning to really perk up the response but it's just on the safe side until it goes on a dyno.
I'll get some video next week.
Bad news is we can't use those rear CV/Aero boots - the driveshafts hit the casing - that's what you get for not checking things with the boots on!
Good news, found some boots that work.
Bad news. Might have cut the front beam, arms and uprights off the car... ;-)(-;
Good news, new ones are being made, already mocked up and ready to go:
(https://i.imgur.com/dZ25jBZ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ETTbPBh.jpg)
looks neat and a lot of work involved in those.
Yes, took a lot of planning and mockups since we're so tight on space up front, making sure the shocks/steering links, etc, clear everything and we can still get enough steering lock.
On the upside ditching the link pins and kingpins for spherical bearings mean that there's no longer any play required in anything like there is to allow linkpins to rotate, etc, so everything can be torqued up tight. Which means no geometery changes from play or as the clearances change through wear.
Took the opportunity at the same time to revise the front geometery a little more, reducing some of the castor gain, removed some of the mechanical trail and corrected a lot of the scrub offset issues the stock setup has.
Been chasing down an intermittent, annoying issue for the past month or so where the car would only fire up 50 percent of the time - and sometimes would cut out for no apparent reason, eventually traced it to a dicky cam sensor and some split wiring on the only original part of the cars loom we kept - the coil connectors, doh. Anyway, after taking allsorts off finally found them, repaired 'em and turned the key, boring video but god was I happy!
Sound is a bit funky as the phone clips hard on the audio that close and the exhaust's blowing from the elbow there 'cause it just got slapped on.
https://youtu.be/KJkYWytZyZQ
8) 8) 8)
Why is it that some people have the facilities\equipment and the skills for this sort of thing and I don`t ? :'( :'(
Quote from: Paul1953 on January 29, 2019, 01:45:27 PM
Why is it that some people have the facilities\equipment and the skills for this sort of thing and I don`t ? :'( :'(
Equipment is expensive so you need to be using it a lot to make it worthwhile and you may need three phase power.
We started making this in a shed we'd made out of some old tin sheeting and some gravel raked over from the floor, an angle grinder and 30 year old MIG set that was my grandads - and it stayed that way really up until the latest engine change.
Yes, we have room and some fancier gear now, but they're investments for work as much as anything - even this shed we built ourselves from shipping containers - nothing will stop you doing this even in a garage with hand tools and odds and sods, you just need to get into it ;-)up
Hell, my daily driver is getting a complete engine and gearbox change in the middle of the street at the minute!
Found another problem that was giving the intermittent weird noises and cutting the engine out - alternator is goosed and it was tripping the ECU, took it off and it's running like a dream now. I was going to get some video but it was 11pm by the time I was done, I've got hospital tommorow but maybe some better engine video Thursday :)
Quote from: snoopy on January 29, 2019, 03:38:49 PM
Quote from: Paul1953 on January 29, 2019, 01:45:27 PM
Why is it that some people have the facilities\equipment and the skills for this sort of thing and I don`t ? :'( :'(
Equipment is expensive so you need to be using it a lot to make it worthwhile and you may need three phase power.
Aghhh Keith... You have mentioned what was the bane of my working life,,,,, "3 Phase electrics". Had to keep huge axial fan motors, pumps etc running. Many originating from the 60`s and still in use. Almost a daily occurrance for one of the 3 phases to go down on one bit of kit or other.. Huge tubular fuses and contactors that clacked in and out with the contacts often fusing together with the heat. Don`t think I want to see any more. I can still smell the huge cabinet DB`s when I think about them. ;D
Nearly all of this in single phase to be honest, as we had poor electric where were used to have the tin shed (it was basically just a cable ran down from someone's stable block which itself fed down from the house). The only thing is a new welder we just bought and the lift in the front are 3-phase but they aren't for the buggy.
Well I spent two hours today fine tuning the idle fuelling and timing, and put the cold weather to good use to tune the cold tip-in settings (same as accelerator pump in a carb) - and got it blipping cleanly from cold with some beans. Also set up the camera to get some better video.
Then I spent 2 hours slithering home in the snow (it's only 10 miles) - including 30 minutes just getting up the 100m of farm track. I had to keep shoving my floor mats under the wheels, it was solid ice. I even put the car in drive at one point (tiptronic) and got out and pushed it as well :D
Then, when I got back, I downloaded the video to find....it's corrupted. I've got the first minute (cranking it over and tweaking the cold start) and the last minute (the engine ticking as it cools down 'cause it's off) and nothing in between ;D
Well, just as we thought we were sorted - the car ran fine when fired up - the intermittent starting reared it's head again, been tracking that down again over a couple of weekends - traced it down to what we thought was the alternator or the ballast, so I pulled the loom apart and added a larger ballast to the field coil, no difference, bought a new alternator - no difference. Take alternator off, starts fine.
Much head scratching.
Turns out the alternators we were getting from the local supplier (an electrical specialist, not just a factors) - were basically noisy as hell when they were trying to get to the right voltage at low rpms (i,e - startup only) - a cap in the line doesn't fix it, some shielding might but we've just sacked it off and got a different type of alternator instead, need to alter things to get that to fit properly again now, but after rigging it up today it's purring like a kitten. Need to retime it now though as not certain it was 100% before as it idles smoother now.
It never rains, it pours!
On the upside, I was rebuilding some other dampers* so I rebuilt/revalved the rears on ours to suit the new arms and bled them, so that's one more job off the list and ready to go - although I have just acquired some new go faster parts to machine and fit - I got told these were top secret so...there we go:
(https://i.imgur.com/sYwXazU.jpg)
It's all very well getting shiny adjustable parts for your dampers but then you have to spend hours modelling the damned things - nearly there, housings next.
These are high and low speed compression adjusters, that hopefully with a bit of work on my side will be adaptable enough to use both on the small fronts and large rear dampers...hopefully.
(https://i.imgur.com/0r6us92.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2GatkVJ.jpg)
A sign of the times modern alternators are not just simple charging devices they used to be because of the complexity of vehicles these days, annoying and frustrating but you got it sorted.
Yep, wasted quite a lot of time and effort just down to that >:(
Even if you don't get an ECU controlled or smart charge alternator you can still fall foul of 'em!
Anywya, done now, was a very happy chap yesterday, I've already built 95% of the map so just need to head to a dyno for running in and fine tweaking.
Surprised you run an alternator at all when you race, unless it's in the dark. Parasitic loads and all that.
50 amp load from the power steering, 30 amps for the cooling fans, 15amps for the fuel pump, 30 for the washers and wipers, 30 amps for the ECU, dash, coils, injectors, solonoids, running lights, etc - that's before you add 30/40 amps for a light pods if it's a dark race.
Soon adds up, you need a beefy alt to keep on top of it, even with some of it being intermittent.
I was thinking that the races were around half an hour, so with all of that lot on full time in the dark it's only 68Ah - Swap it out for the next race
5-15 minutes per stage, 5-10 stages per day. Some events are 2 days...
Thata a big range - 25mins to 150 mins. But even worst case it sounds like you could do that with swapping 3 or 4 small batteries round - charge up overnight if needed (from a big ole static battery in the van if no AC power) and during the day if you can. Depends on how much power the alternator takes if it's worth it.
Gets a bit tricky if you have to stop on stage though, or there's a delay while starting a stage and you're sat in a queue shunting - for the alt it's only 2bhp at most - better off running the alternator and a nice tiny 3kg battery instead of the usual 20kg lead-acid - power isn't an issue really any more with this engine, I deliberately limited this setup as we don't have enough traction for more (it will still be spinning the rear wheels at 100mph+ going by the sims) and I want to protect the gearbox - there's enough spare capacity in the intercooler, charger, etc, to wind it well north of 500bhp if the gearbox ever got some upgrades.
Shock canisters done - light and simple to make, and easy to swap fittings for the different hoses:
(https://i.imgur.com/AnNevdj.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/zMDlA18.jpg)
And they adapt with just a few fittings and some internals changes to work with the smaller front shocks, sorted :D
(https://i.imgur.com/v82U9f4.jpg)
some very nice work there.
Seems a shame to go back to the old front end when the new ones were finished mocked up and are mid fabrication for the actual ones, but screw it, back to the old we go - it can have an upgrade after the dyno instead...
(https://i.imgur.com/feOyR6R.jpg)
Thought I'd let you at least hear a couple of thousand revs:
https://youtu.be/EbZXmzDnYQQ
Throttle response is a little slow currently, but I think it's mainly down to the idle mapping running a bit lean - it stumbles a touch when you first touch the throttle from 1k.
I need to check my changes to the cold start settings I've been making today when she cools off enough, and then I can hopefully richen the idle area and lean the main map out a bit to perk it up.
Got the coils/injectors back up and running in sequential mode as I turned everything to dumb group fire when diagnosing, so timed in the cam trigger wheel and I've done a bit of work on the low-load transients so it picks up nice and cleanly everywhere bar around idle.
Need to get it to the dyno then to get it spot on - it's deliberately tuned on the rich side with a bit of timing pulled at the minute to protect it until then - but basically everything else is setup in the map ready to go.
I'm not sure it'll have any exhaust packing left by then though, it's covered the workshop in it...I got a bit more enthusiastic with the throttle later on as I got it a bit crisper
Exhaust packing slows the escaping gas down but the AWDC must have noise regulations, I seem to remember noise meters being out at some events a long time ago or it could be my imagination.
Yes, they do, 98db off to one side or 105db from behind the car.
I think we should be okay with the silencer - I built the internals myself - but not if all the packing is gone before the first race ;D
Timed it back in again today because, as I thought earlier, it was off a bit from the previous issues....times the above video by two for how rude it sounds now!
I got the vast majority of the low down fuelling and timing tweaked a lot closer too as the cold start settings yesterday turned out to be nigh-on perfect - so now there's no more stumbling - it certainly picks up on the throttle now!
My grin is getting bigger by the day :D
Yep, still sat here making it go 'brrrummm' - re-timed the engine in since the other day, perked it up a bit. Next stop, get the bloody thing moving again so we can have a more interesting video....
A few pops for good measure (I was testing whether it needed some more fuel cut when you lift the throttle slightly....yes, yes it does... :D )
https://youtu.be/kDKEK5Xz6oQ
I know, I said I wouldn't post another one, and that hopefully the next video would be it on it's wheels outside, but I just wanted to finish things off on the mapping side before we started dropping oil, taking bits off for a spanner check and loctite session, etc.....plus, I found this shiny red button - and, well, you've got to press a shiny red button - it's the rules. Everybody knows that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7IzaCFzJQU
And I treated you to a different camera angle for the first 20 seconds - see, now it's boring video 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 - so that's fine.
Colour coded driveshafts?
Yes, not content with being the fashion leaders with colour-coded brakepads, we're now forging the way for the Next Hot Thing™ of 2019 - colour coded driveshafts, you saw them here first:
(https://i.imgur.com/y7nK4kx.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7L7Ho8w.jpg)
And a quick picture to show how well the combination of the Spiralox circlips and the counterbored CV stars work - there's no way in hell it's knocking those circlips off!
(https://i.imgur.com/c3gFUku.jpg)
Shock adjuster housings roughed out, everything seems to work okay, needed a little fine tuning for o-ring clearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/XGgDObR.jpg)
Anyway, back on the lathe for a debur, tweak the clearances and make it slightly less clunky looking:
(https://i.imgur.com/D0K9UsH.jpg)
And the final article, I might shorten it slightly yet as I found some smaller fittings for the rear end:
(https://i.imgur.com/oftaMVu.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qWhK9tV.jpg)
Next stop, some new o-rings, reassemble and put them back on the car. Doesn't sit very well with only one set of rear dampers and springs on :D
Some neat work and very satisfying to say built not brought with the work content. ;-)up
Went overkill on the damper adjusters, and decided to fit them to the front as well, that removes the hydraulic interlink for the moment but that will go back on with the new front end later on instead.
In the meantime, I've been told that people who put close up photographs on the internet of their abnormally long, stiff shafts generally get quite lot of people looking at them.
So here it is, all 50-odd inches:
(https://i.imgur.com/S0IeW8S.jpg)
(Now, if we stopped messing around fixing competitors cars and got on with our own I might have more interesting posts to make...but Eddy's still finishing the clamps for the front dampers and I've got a couple of coil plugs to change, which are even more boring)
(https://i.postimg.cc/65qxRcnS/New-Rear-Shocks1.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/rscFMrHT/20220121-113323.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/5Y7Mm61K)
(https://i.postimg.cc/QMTX7mGs/Buggy-Dyno-Trailer1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/p9PbbDL1)
(https://i.postimg.cc/DyvyN1sd/buggysunset1small.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/gcNPnQX8/Car-Paintroof.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJwxsyPGyD0
Very nice and well done ;-)up
Yep, long time coming!
https://youtu.be/RlC271i-JWg
Oh yes, after fixing the exhaust leak:
https://youtu.be/26_9QP42Kfs (https://youtu.be/26_9QP42Kfs)
And look at the poor boost hoses ;D
https://youtu.be/Lz43pb_vmDA (https://youtu.be/Lz43pb_vmDA)
Had to upgrade the belt drive for most boosty noises - 8 rib belt, extra idler/tensioner, 8 rib crank pulley and bead blasted the supercharger and crank pulleys for grip:
(https://i.imgur.com/UttgELs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kdbEwy9.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/oW2QemD.jpg)
Always in awe of the quality of the engineering in this, keep up the good work
Ttfn Glenn
Thanks, glad someone's enjoying it too!
Had it up and down the lane yesterday and holy crap it moves, the LSD and geometry changes have given it so much more traction it's unbelievable. You can lift the front wheels in second just by rolling the throttle on.
Looks great fun, and definitely enjoying the read even if there's little I can comment on. :)
Time to upload a video of it in action.
Quote from: snoopy on March 08, 2022, 07:43:23 AM
Time to upload a video of it in action.
YES ! ;-)up
Soon, needs another roadtrip on the trailer yet.
Looks pretty good at night on trips actually:
(https://i.imgur.com/CQ2B92A.jpg)
https://youtu.be/QKck4tLnvyU
Keeping it out of boost as just swapped the stock injectors for some ID1050's so it needs dyno time for the fuelling and ignition, so nothing too fast yet, but you wanted to see it move.
;-)up ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up
So, had a small issue yesterday - the alternator suddenly decided to stop charging properly, it'd sit at 11.8v at idle and 13.7v if you revved the engine - then hold 12.1-12.2 after that.
Which makes you think the regulator is shot right?
Only downside, it's pretty much a brand new alternator, but it's been on the car so long it's out of warranty.
You know what it's like here, if I can unbolt it I'll try fixing it, after a lot of swearing and hammering splitting the casing open I found the fault - two dry solder joints, great quality control there! Seems like the regulator was okay it'd just gone into a failsafe mode.
(https://i.imgur.com/hXGW2Qk.jpg)
So, a bit of desoldering, cleaning and resoldering later, and a clean and check of the slip rings and brushes (and some grease in the rear bearing which was completely dry so I don't have to beat the casing for 2 hours to get it apart next time) and it was back together and holding a rock solid 14.1-14.2v even at idle.
Which is good considering it's underdriven to stop it going pop.
(https://i.imgur.com/rGf2r2w.jpg)
Way more stable than it was before so I guess it had the fault from day one and eventually just cracked out.
Windscreen is finished and nicely bonded in now, as is the GPS antenna and accelerometers for g-forces and inertial positioning (little black box on the roof)
(https://i.imgur.com/o8spacS.jpg)
Took it for a run and it's so much quieter with the windscreen bonded in, who'd have thought? :D
(https://i.imgur.com/vyBOAn5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/eZfOy8R.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7WK3bSu.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/EcP4mFm.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Jer6a5N.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qCVLDnD.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/nADtA4g.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/cPWzgRf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3MBj0Pz.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/K8NXfuR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Y7D0ILr.jpg)
Excellent fun way to check if all the nuts and bolts are correctly tightened.
Bet its quite tiring bouncing along a course like that.
Oh yes, 2 days of that my back and kidneys were killing me
https://youtu.be/OKccfW9y0Pw
https://youtu.be/_iTxwE2DVzE
https://youtu.be/kS77x0uF6BY
Nice on up against all the 4x4 entries.
(https://i.postimg.cc/R0Dqk8px/20220917-170506.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Y4QpgXwd)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7LY28Sx0/20220918-073626.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/QFwtc9Kd)
(https://i.postimg.cc/htKJTVQ6/306355305-460566162785846-3071052371745446326-n.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/hf3Pqzr1)
(https://i.postimg.cc/qMV6BPJk/307378768-10159847528290180-2068224181930387788-n.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/fkCRBgSF)
(https://i.postimg.cc/3rDDT8HS/307756441-10167329226370019-5768401881711582381-n.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Bt4v5GbH)
Trip to Tiverton after some mods to the front end, car feels far better now.
https://youtu.be/y7HSDjG7Lo8
Cows got a free show then.
Looking pretty clean and fired up.
Yes, nearly hit one!
Bit of frost on the morning runs saw us sailing down a steep field as passengers basically, which cost us 5-6 minutes, but with the mods it's had it's gained another 20-25s, we were putting times in that were top ten bar that, was 15th but had the pace for 8th.
Thought the car sounded a bit loud at scrutineering - got louder through the day, then started to get a ticky rasp like an exhaust leak. Checked the backbox and the ceramic wool had blown out, couldn't work out why, but I think we found it...
(https://i.imgur.com/s0fJNJg.jpg)
Few more pics too:
(https://i.imgur.com/1HVWiJn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/tfVmlTb.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/7zYcwbR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MJsdVeV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2meutt1.jpg)
Little bit more work tonight, gearbox oil change and a few plans to maybe change the breather system or put a pump and spray bar in there - the transaxle got a bit warm last event and slowly breathed out half a litre of oil - the breather is quite short and low so we'll shift it up to the top of the car and see if that helps, gearchange goes notchy when it gets too warm, doesn't want to go into second, which makes things tricky...
Also made some changes to get the rear suspension softer on the spring rate but still with a couple inches of stiffer bumpstop formed by the rear torsion bars, and lowered the car a bit front and rear along with some slightly stiffer compression settings on the dampers - it was a bit too high at the last event, made it skittish and tentative over some stuff that you'd expect to just hammer over usually, hopefully going back to the old lower spring rate and our little trick for more preload is a good balance.
Apart from that it was mainly servicing work and retensioning belts, etc, haven't had time to test it so it's gonna be on the trailer tommorow and just fingers crossed at the event!
Little clip from last time out:
https://youtu.be/ENN0_vkHFQk
Forgot to mention, the new pulley setup is ready, which should give the car another 50bhp and bring it back around the original target boost level - almost just slapped it on and ran it because Walters has a lot of Cat A rally tracks and 50 horsepower is probably worth 10-15 seconds here, but without chance to test it and check the temps and fuelling we decided not to risk it quite yet.
We're being sensible for a change, I know, weird right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8g1t3aJv9k
Okay so - it was a mixed weekend, incredibly slippery the first day - felt like the car was on ice, no grip anywhere - I bet anyone watching thought we were out for a Sunday drive from the outside, it was like driving on marbles, some of the downhill corners you just couldn't touch the brakes and it was a case of just letting the car slowly slide itself into a turn without doing a 180* and heading down the the hill backwards after the corner.
However I made some big changes overnight to the damping as the new spring rate on the rear seemed to be okay, so I kept that and then went far softer on the low speed and rebound to suit - no big hits to kick the rear end up here so felt fairly safe to do so in the name of finding some grip and feel, and cranked the cracking pressure up instead to still take out the bigger hits - car came alive on the second day on the other course, we put a few times in that were top ten which was pretty good on such a fast, slippery course.
Doesn't sound too much but there were a lot of quick cars here this weekend, to put it in perspective some of the 4wd Canam cars that are fairly consistent across courses were about 60-90 seconds faster than us at the start of the year on a similar course length, we'd dropped that to 30 seconds by the second event, were faster at the last event at Tiverton by a few seconds and now we're pulling 30-60 seconds on them at this one - and matching some of the guys who are usually contenders for the championship on odd runs, which was a surprise even to us :D
We're certainly not front running pace, not even close yet, but this kind of championship is as much about endurance as pace, if we can get there and keep it consistently at that pace, it's boding well for some fun at least.
It's still very situational so I've a lot of work to do on the damping once I get tools to strip these new Foxes, to make them more consistant across more terrain, and we could do with finding some of the soft compound race tyres in the right size for the rear - currently we're on standard road tyres whereas most teams are on either soft grass race compounds or Michelin forest rally compounds, I bet there's a chunk of time there to find. Also need a bit more front camber we're on the edges of the tyre all the time even with 3* static on there:
(https://i.imgur.com/KOr38tJh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/T2w8OLnh.jpg)
We had another issue which was we got 300m from the finish line on one run and lost all power - the car just cut out completely - turns out the connector for the electronic cutoff switch had somehow managed to work it's way out and cut the power to the car as a safety measure - doh!
Anyway, one session with tie wraps and the dashboard out overnight fixed that problem from coming back but that was a bit of a pain for a simple plastic plug. It's getting a session with some epoxy resin and hot glue before the next event, rather annoying that one.
Issue #2 was the last two runs of the event on day 2 - the torsion bar in the power steering snapped - so there was no feeling in the steering unless you were full lock left or full lock right - not the best thing on a race off road!
It's a standard part out of a Peugeot 405 but finding them these days is tricky, so it might be a redesign on that front, on the upside after we worked out what it was and that it wasn't going to cause any complete failures, Ed took the car back out anyway and somehow put the two fastest runs in we'd had. Apparently steering slows you down. Somehow.
On the upside, we've 100% sorted our breather issue with the engine we had before, the cars responding to suspension changes much better now which it wasn't doing too well before the work on the front arms and rear springs, the engine doesn't use a drop of oil or water, temperatures have been great at all events - if anything I'm going to play with blocking some cooling off over winter, maybe even drop the oil cooler and just add some fins to the dry sump tank - the oil barely gets warm, and the cooling fans only run at half speed most of the time.
Along with that the oil, belts and filters always look perfect, so it looks like we're doing well on the engine front.
Might also shrink the side intakes slightly, make them a little less draggy.
Along with that I think it's time to crank the engine up with that new pulley to give it some torque and horsepower - not for the next event, it'll be winter - but we've been also short shifting most of the time for grip, so I'll push the warning lights up and the limiter up in the ECU and wring it out a bit more next time around, there's another 1500rpm to play with yet which is a fair bit more power already and still be conservative, it only really gets run out to there when holding second gear for a corner so it's time to use it more in anger through the other gears.
(https://i.imgur.com/U0XTUenh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/y8Akrguh.jpg)
We ended up well down the results due to the run we had the car cut out on us on, but still 24th out of 42 entries, so nothing exciting but we're not too bothered about that, we got to have fun and it was looking promising. Upset a few people anyway on odd runs which is the main thing
Sounds like you are having plenty of fun mixed in with dashes of sest backs but all solvable and pointing the way to faster times.
Being mid field and nibbling at the leaders is a good place to be. Focus on closing in on those ahead rather than perhaps keeping ahead of the bottom gang who are spending their time trying to devise ways to beat you !
That just looks like so much fun ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up
It's definately a nice place to be, we've got some work to do as the car still doesn't really have the grip or handling we had before - but then it had a few years of damper work behind it back then, we're kinda starting from scratch again.
And yes, definately a lot of fun - back there next month as they're having another event at Walters.
(https://i.postimg.cc/W1ykZDYK/311131366-5292845370835010-3071241639994083093-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/cCdgWf6K/311241149-3324094957918234-2782775796463033701-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/qRV6mPTx/311433681-5292841420835405-5488915454745303419-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Kc53Npst/311568821-1315680675637228-2415484970316518522-n.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Wth4p8V4)
(https://i.postimg.cc/mDYzKmZf/311569553-5292841427502071-5050561375119602694-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Ghh8SPZV/Morning-Cloud.png) (https://postimg.cc/RqyZWtCL)
Wheel spin, mud bath and Buckaroo - looks like your rail is built for the wild !
;D
Definately built to take a beating!
With more use will come more changes and modifications just like a buggy.
Oh it's getting modified every single event atm.
https://youtu.be/E7lKrbhZnR4
https://youtu.be/ZCnvOT1XHtE
You certainly rip along and 'eat up' the dusty terrain with ease. Wish I had such smooth suspension.
The rear was too soft on that last run to the finish there, the course suddenly dried out a lot after lunch and there was more grip everywhere, needed stiffening back up but since it was the last run not much point :D
Whilst it is surely great fun I would struggle, even in what looks like open ground, to not find a tree or wall to bump into !
Oh there's plenty of walls and trees, it's only open as you come into the finish or start there where the pits are :D
The course was 8 miles long and drops down into the forest in the valley there.
Anyone want to play spot the difference?
(https://i.imgur.com/u2BjUzs.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6EF2hZo.jpg)
Also on the front albeit a little trickier...
(https://i.imgur.com/xWc6DDX.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/y5asbms.jpg)
Anyway, all the play taken out and things rebuilt, so hopefully we don't have all that positive camber that appeared at Walters.
The root cause of that was we bent all four link pins in the front arms and it mashed the bronze/teflon bushes in the front end as you can see from the pic - they're 18mm diameter and made from EN9 but it's evidently not quite strong enough (about the same strength as a bolt) - the old ones used to be made from EN36 but we couldn't get a small piece of material in that at the time. It's got the spares in for now but looks like it's time to hunt and get it back on the stronger pins...
The rear's have just taken impacts from a few rocks on the course unfortunately, nothing a bit of time with a hammer to straighten couldn't fix, just a pain to take off with the bent bolts.
(https://i.imgur.com/kVWviVl.jpg)
Done some fine tuning on the geometery too, still trying to dial out some understeer, so this time around a chunk less rear toe in and a touch more toe out on the front.
The stronger bolts are materials are the first step but the large forces will still be there and seek out the next weakest link...
Make sure you keep your seats padded !
Nah the old pins were stronger stuff before this and they coped fine, just need to get back on the right material.
So you know those bent bolts we only just fixed?
(https://i.imgur.com/A2DaenE.jpg)
Think we better get some more made. Whoops.
Bit of a slip up, overshot a turning a bit and got dragged towards a ditch, spun the car around on the fiddle brakes and found out at the wrong time that there was a big bloody rock in the ditch too, cracked the bottom arm, bent both link pin bolts again. Limped it back but put it on the trailer and came home as we didn't have spares made for those new bottom arms yet.
The good news, the geometery changes worked perfectly, the car was top 5 the first run and we were getting faster - we could have had 4th today easily I think without that, and I think if we pick up another 10-20s of pace in the car maybe have the occassional challenge for top 3.
Which, given the conditions for us with only 2wd, was amazing - it was torrential rain for two days, and some of the mud and puddles were so deep it washed over through the side doors and up the roof scoops - we had a lap full of 50 litres of cold water for 2 stages. That sort of pace on that course had a lot of people suddenly coming over to look at the car wondering what we'd done to it
Some tweaks I did to the mapping last week have fixed 90% the horrible flatspot it had right on a gearchange before vtec too so that helped a fair bit.
Overall, little sad about bending it - was a silly slip and it wasn't even really from pushing the pace just a lapse while trying to clear the windows (the washer jets blocked up) and losing out on a good result, on the other hand, it's an easy fix and the changes made to the car are really, really promising for next season.
large rocks always win as they have nothing that absorbs the impact and tend to dig into the earth rather than move lucky you got away relatively lightly
There's some new uprights for the front have been waiting to be welded up for about two years so I guess it's finally time.
(https://i.imgur.com/GxgCYeY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/CMQf0Sw.jpg)
I've had an upgrade planned for years for the front uprights, we just never got around to jigging and welding them up, which do away with those two link pin/pivot bolts completely:
(https://i.imgur.com/MNaLzqv.jpg)
With a complete new upright, revised front geometery and the advantage over the old VW style stuff of not needing to deliberately have a little play in all the links to let it cycle without massive friction:
(https://i.imgur.com/QgDYojE.jpg)
So, I think we'll get on with fitting that instead. It's a sign.
Got a couple more event pics too
(https://i.imgur.com/PF70lxah.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/mYtHoqjh.jpg)
Even with those attractive new uprights I think you'd be well advised to avoid ditches and rocks !
You don't get to avoid ditches in this sport :'( ;D
(https://i.imgur.com/P9CBl4zh.jpg)
Looking suspiciously close to rocks and ditches !
Yea that's a little bridge over a stream there.
Oh so they are going soft on giving you a bridge rather than having to go through the stream !
;D
https://youtu.be/qvUxn6Av1l4
Quick and sounds healthy ;-)up
I think it was fairly low revs there, maybe 4-5k, you can see it was a bit slippery for us ;D
Another one here:
https://youtu.be/Iqod-XADAco
(https://i.imgur.com/0MbyFOPh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/r6hE9NDh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3aWga2Wh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/EaIgQU0h.jpg)
Some beautiful proofs by Rob, hopefully get the actual ones through shortly.
That looks like such brill fun, slightly different but years ago we used to go off reading in an old land rover which was great fun. 👍
Okay yes, front end plan decided and steel on the way for making things - we're just gonna make the whole beam and arms on the bench, fit the new uprights to it and cut one off and weld the other on - that's because it lets us just use those old arms as spares (or sell on to pay towards the new ones), put the castor in the beam instead of the arms where it should have been to start with, and also go up slightly on the beam diameter to allow larger bushes with push in split bearing bushes - makes things more accurate and cheaper to replace when they wear then.
It's a little more work but also makes it easy to jig and make off the car on the bench instead.
(https://i.postimg.cc/dVgRD5Bm/JumpGood.png) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/bJpt2W2b/287292764-10159035118062833-3087596858579821286-n.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/p9cTw0CX)
One good, one whooooaashiiii
Stunning.
Impressive that bits don't bend or fall off doing stunts like this.
It can take some pretty impressive battering when it's used right.
Right, didn't have time to fit the new uprights so 2 sets of new front arms made instead to tide us over for a while - they've got a reinforcement around the weld area's to prevent cracking starting there now - but the pivots are still the same where they bent so they don't bend the beam still if they take a big impact:
(https://i.imgur.com/e9rYhB6h.jpg)
The front 15mm arb had bent in the hit so it's had to go back on an 18mm one as it's the only spare I have for now, so we're probably pushing a bit more mid-corner understeer, so to counter that I've shimmed out the rear hubs between them and the arms, so it's got an extra 2mm of rear toe out. Might make it too squirrelly now but we'll find out!
Also revalved the rear dampers as they didn't have anywhere near enough midrange damping and we were nearly out of adjustment range:
(https://i.imgur.com/3dkuscAh.jpg)
And finally have the new seats in, one year later:
(https://i.imgur.com/RToXBFsh.jpg)
These were the reason the front suspension didn't get done. They looked like they'd fit in with a little work. They didn't.
(https://i.imgur.com/Bawsyy2h.jpg)
one, they have a little more lean angle on than the old seats, that's a good thing for stopping your ass getting sore while bouncing along rough terrain, because it spreads the load more over your thighs and back - and they also have wider shoulders and some side impact padding for the helmets, also a good thing if your head is bouncing around, but... that's a bad thing if you're trying to fit it in a tiny cabin that was basically built around some smaller framed Corbeau's.
So the seat bases needed moving forwards, quite a bit, and the seats are a bit taller as they have a few inches more padding in the base and they're a stronger/safer seat overall, which means tilting them and shuffling forwards a little more just to make sure there's plenty of roof clearance.
By this point, your knees are on the dashboard, or your feet are through the bulkhead, and as I quite like my feet and really don't fancy extreme weight saving measures like taking my legs off below the kneecaps, some drastic surgery to the car comes in....
(https://i.imgur.com/ilFsuQfh.jpg)
Firstly, the co-drivers footrest (and windscreen washer tank), gets pushed forwards and now becomes part of the bulkhead itself:
(https://i.imgur.com/OnFAXHah.jpg)
Along with modifications to the bulkhead and pushing forwards the battery tray too.
And then the next trick is the drivers side, now here the pedals were right up against the bulkhead anyway, pushing them forward then required cutting and folding a few bulkhead that is a few inches further back, pushing the fuel tank and brake reservoirs forwards slightly so the hoses all reach the master cylinders - which are also getting pushed forwards a few inches (along with the pedals themselves) on an adaptor plate:
(https://i.imgur.com/VILeLDKh.jpg)
Continuing on with "PhillipM's First Law of Exponentially Cascading Knock On Effects From Changing One Simple Thing", that also then meant remounting the foot rest plate further forwards, and then the throttle cable was no longer long enough so that had to have an extender made for it too, along with remounting the brake sensor switch. Fun times. And the seats aren't in yet.
(https://i.imgur.com/wKIkHSyh.jpg)
Onto the next bit - remember I just mentioned about the seats being taller backed and the base foam being thicker? Both great things, but with a caveat. That means the seats need to be lower, as it's a short cab and your head would be far too close to hitting a rollbar tube otherwise.
And because we've just pushed the seats forwards, they hit that diagonal T45 tube we put under the old seats a year or two ago to give some rock protection...so angle grinder back out, and cut out that bar, lower the seats as far possible while still leaving a touch of clearance under them to the floor armour just in case...and then we had to forgo the nice diagonal protection tube (which also stiffened the floorpan) and pop two tubes at angles as close as we could to the seat bases instead, front and back.
Now this might seem a little silly but we've landed on big 1ft diameter stones and rocks before and twice they've punched a hole clean through the floor armour, so this is a little extra weight for peace of mind/protection.
(https://i.imgur.com/vxJP9Ych.jpg)
So now there's bars either side of your bum. Just in case. And some little stiffeners just so we don't loose the chassis stiffness benefits that the old bar gave.
I didn't take a picture but as you might guess from the cover being off in front of the gearbox, the gearlinkage has had to be remade and the gearlever shifted left an inch to clear the wider wings of the new seats too, along with 4 new seat mounting frames being made and the harness clip on points being moved to suit.
Don't believe your brain when it goes "They're not that much bigger, we'll get those in, easy"
So yes, a whole lot of time disappeared just to get comfier. But I think it'll be worth it those Motodrive seats were custom fitted/shaped for us and they're so, so much better to sit in.
;-)up ;-)up small dimension differences can have a major effect on work content but being comfortable helps with the driving and control.
As for the revalving, well that was fun - one of the dampers it turns out didn't have the backup washer the correct way around/torqued enough and caused a little wear - nothing on the important bits but you can see the debris on the ally bearing spacer here:
(https://i.imgur.com/dGw4o3D.jpg)
And it also looks like the bleed shims (the big shims on the left with the cutouts) were oriented wrongly - where you'd assume the tabs line up with the little raised bits on the piston, they were 45* rotated on that damper, which then leads to some odd effects as the initial compression pressure acts on the shim stacks behind those and the bleed shims themselves only start to lift in the high speed area.
Unfortunately, I've never been in these dampers before and Fox never used to run bleed shims (they ran holes in the piston for it instead - finally they've moved to the same system you see on most high end stuff with Ohlins/Penske/Reiger to make it easy to change bleed amounts) - so after spotting that I just assumed it was deliberate to soften initial response, and kept things that way around when I rebuilt it.
It was only when I opened the last damper that had the shims the way around I originally expected - and no wear, I realised I should have assembled those bleed shims as I originally intended!
Anyway just for this race I've put the bleed shims back together the way the initial one was setup, and then I'll turn them around for the next race after re-running some fluid sims - I just simply don't have time to correct it right now, and I wasn't expecting basically brand new dampers to be mis-assembled. Should have trusted my instincts there.
I have made quite a change though, there's much less low speed bleed now so that I don't have to rely on running the adjusters on max (that causes issues with sensitivity and the pressure balance inside the dampers).
The flutter stack is massively reduced on the compression side, which is referring to the small shims backing up the large washers on the bottom in the middle there - basically that makes a 2 stage stack so the low/mid speed damping is reduced a lot and the high speed is very stiff. That's fine for the UTV these were coming off where they need to get it suitable for everyone from comfy road use to people hammering them over dunes, but it's also softening the damping right where a race car like this needs it - jump landings, bottoming out from elevation changes, washboard stuff where it's dug out in the mud, etc.
It's almost the same for the rebound side (the top shims) - they've used a flutter stack to give the rebound adjuster more range and with a soft initial stack and then a stiffer high speed stack they can cope with a wide range of spring rates owners are likely to throw at a UTV, basically running a progressive damping curve but with the option to add a lot of low speed rebound control.
That unfortunately for us with quite a lot of spring preload and weight at the rear means that the damping is reduced right where it's controlling the rear kicking up over rolling jumps, as you can see on some of the jump pictures it lands nose heavy a lot of times if it's a steep take off.
The only way to really tame that was to wind the rebound adjuster to almost full hard (it adjusts the low speed mainly but also the mid speed damping somewhat) - but because that also winds up the low speed damping which is mainly body control and handling related, that would make the car very nervous and skitterish on the brakes or the way into a corner so I couldn't go too far.
Given we also don't need that range of adjustment I've pulled that stack completely and now it runs a more conventional tapered stack that gives slightly digressive rebound damping, that means we have a lot more midrange damping, and I can just use the adjuster for what it was designed for - tailoring the handling responses of the car rather than trying to patch up problems in the main valve stack.
I've left the high-speed damping somewhat similar at the moment just for reference but I suspect I'll end up reducing that somewhat anyway, we have quite a lot of unsprung weight, and our tyres are both quite a lot larger and run lower pressures than an UTV - so I think a softer setup there will benefit us more in terms of getting the tyre back in contact with the road sooner vs the sudden increase in contact patch pressure that might cause.
One for another time :D
Anyway, after all that rambling they're back together and re-gassed:
(https://i.imgur.com/ywFRrjY.jpg)
I also swapped the oil to some low-friction oil - the stock Fox red oil isn't too bad but it has some really bad issues with stiction I've noticed over the years - especially in dampers this size, not so much of an issue in smaller stuff, whereas the stuff I'm using now has some really fancy additive package to reduce friction and wear at the expense of needing changing a little more often.
...while I'm rambling about dampers I wasn't impressed by the pistons either - they're very low flow so they choke the valving on impacts and they have a lot of sharp edge entries into the ports too. I'll be swapping those out for either some higher flow alternatives when I can get hold of some (Fox sell them for racers in the US), or making a pair.
https://youtu.be/7dJ8jaljdgY
:-[
Have you been using your buggy off road and/or operating it outside the bearing manufacturers recommendations ?!
Nope, garage and gentle road use only.
Chineseum bearings v British countryside, bearings come in cheap standard, better and best quality according to online suppliers but there is no guarantee price = quality.
They're SKF's!
Design/machining/sealing issue with some of the parts we bought in that go either side of the custom upright, I think I can fix it, some remachining, gaskets and redesigned outer seals.
Oh, I do have some good news, for you guys anyway. We didn't have time to fit it yet but we do have an in-car GoPro now.... :D
Live streaming the action😀
Okay, a little progress after collecting more parts and a bit of machining fun all day today, trying to correct most of the problems with the hubs/bearings - a few of these I should really have spotted, I was wary about the seals these use from the very start but assumed a big racing firm that made them for a lot of £100k+ rally cars must have had things running well enough that I should just use them how they came (well, apart from our own uprights in the centres of them, anyway).
Bit of a mistake, obviously, and I've since learnt that other teams that used to or are still running these have all had similar problems with dirt and water ingress and damaged bearings.
Now as I said before, I found about 5-6 areas that had issues, either the seals themselves, machining stackup tolerances or just outright poor practice on picking fitup clearances generally. I'd normally go into more detail as you guys know on exactly what and why - but I'm going to keep it relatively sparse I'm afraid at the moment, as the firm that bought up the old business that originally made these doesn't seem to know how to fix them, doesn't really want to sell us spares as they want them for their ongoing customers who are having issues (so we can't even get one spare barrel and bearing housings to be able to make ourself a spare corner up with the extra upright we have already) and I know a few of the guys from the racing read here, or at least they often check through from the facebook page ;D
So there might be a bit of work on there fixing old sets and I don't really intend to give away my findings, apologies, but I will still show what's being done anyway, just without specifics of why ;)
First up the bearing casings got re-machined due to some design clearance issues:
(https://i.imgur.com/HtRf1sNh.jpg)
Some new bearing lock rings/seal retainers were made up, slightly thicker material, different sizing, and thoroughly chamfered, deburred, etc, which was quite a long job for 6 plates with all those holes to countersink from both sides on the drill press...
(https://i.imgur.com/Nz4toLjh.jpg)
And some pre-load rings for the bearings were made up to correct an issue there, originally they don't run any:
(https://i.imgur.com/Gyoxebsh.jpg)
I also knocked off the bearing face and outer sealing face from the hub barrels, so I could clean up and machine those due to some silly choices on tolerances there too - you can see just how much water made its way into the barrels here between the bearings just from the surface staining:
(https://i.imgur.com/igb6ZMVh.jpg)
While I was at it I filed and chamfered the threads on the barrels where the cutouts are for the lockring, as the partial threads where they were machined through had distorted and made getting the threaded preload rings off a nightmare. I've cleaned the barrels up with some abrasive nylon brushes since this but I'm half tempted to bead blast them back clean completely.
Speaking of those threaded rings:
(https://i.imgur.com/JcbR3YBh.jpg)
Even after a quick cleanup with emery on the old bottom one there you can see the damage from the debris caught in the seal. So newly machined ones instead are replacing them, which also have some modifications to sizing because the old ones also had some machining or tolerance errors - or perhaps deliberate choices to try to fix the water ingress issues - and appear to have melted the bigger inner seals in spots...
(https://i.imgur.com/TYD6izgh.jpg)
The inner rings I knocked off the barrels above got remachined too as you can see.
And finally some different sealing methods - the original seals they used in these were some machined down things that they'd clamped in a fixture and narrowed down to fit. That mean the seals twisted in the housings as they were no longer stable or round enough after machining. These new seals fit full width with no messing around machining them, meaning they're much stiffer axially and shouldn't suffer from that again. They should also be far more effective at keeping dirt out than the originals do to some changes in fitting, something I wish I'd changed when I saw the problem with the originals to start with.
I will explain this one though as I expect people will ask - the black ring is a modification made to prevent the spring that energises the lip seal (you can just see it on a standard seal in the background there) getting knocked out by debris. It's a form of sealant that actually foams into a sponge so it's very soft and doesn't affect things too much.
Not something you'd ever usually bother with as it changes the sealing effectiveness slightly - but it's necessary for all the dirt/mud/rocks things get exposed to in this type of racing.
(https://i.imgur.com/RnVCox2h.jpg)
Anyway, need to let that foam up and cure for a day and then start putting things back together with some redesigned gaskets, seals, grease, etc.
Life should be so simple and stuff like that carries a healthy price tag so you expect it to be fine to use as is, good job you have the machinery required to do these things.
And some time and patience for finding the issues to start with :-X
That's one together, after a little more machining work, also, a bearing with Pot Noodle for scale. Highly scientific units those:
(https://i.imgur.com/r7MOtPq.jpg)
And yes I was hand packing bearings with grease. No it's not advisable. Yes I still did it.
Here you can see where the barrel goes and the bearings and seals sit a bit easier:
(https://i.imgur.com/7Zdfioz.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JbHx1Dj.jpg)
And then torqued up, new modified lockplates fitted:
(https://i.imgur.com/45uV4HQ.jpg)
And all assembled and ready to go:
(https://i.imgur.com/BNT3DNl.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/u7YSCGz.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/aRlYjQ6.jpg)
And all back together, gotta put the floor and under armour back on the car before we can test it though. They feel much smoother and far less tight than initially, which is good, you needed a fair bit of strength just to spin them before given the size of the seals dragging, etc.
Well, the good news after a test run up and down the lane here, everything bedded in nicely, bearings are running much cooler than previously, noticably less drag too. Also the car rides much smoother from the damper work, and the turn in is a noticeable chunk better, whether it's a little too flighty remains to be seen but better that than another season of fighting understeer.
Bad news, it blew a front brake line out leading to squeaky bum time and a dent to the workshop wall...luckily the car is okay, and even better is at least it happened now. Not quite sure how it looks like it's split clean across, the theory at the moment is either a rogue stone strike or a faulty crimp that damaged the hose, every other line looks fine.
New brake lines, front circuit rebled and she's ready to go again, just needs a bit of testing, so hopefully this time we actually make it to the racing. It's up at the Parkwood Offroad Centre in Tong/Bradford this weekend if anyone is up that way!
(https://i.imgur.com/DN3kICLh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/we66gVch.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/0zZLFvqh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Q0AHpQTh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/btXEe7lh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qLXZPguh.jpg)
https://youtu.be/6k-c9iZauPg
Loving those pictures there ;-)up
Should be a lot more soon they were just some quick ones pulled off the phone/cam
Eddy got the engine back together in time to go to Minehead event this weekend - which it ended up 6th at!
Even better it was only 2 seconds off 4th place. And the first two runs he went steady while bedding the engine in which cost 30s-1m. Had enough pace for 3rd in the afternoon. Very happy, the revalve on the dampers and new rear springs went on to match for this event and it's definately improving.
Smashed a brake caliper off with a rock on the last run otherwise it would probably have been that 4th place anyway, but 6th is good going for a 2wd car there either way!
Was a small jump too...
https://youtu.be/t477YqiyavQ
Thats hooligan driving style😂😂👍🏻👍🏻
(https://i.imgur.com/IgWYInf.jpg)
Wow! That is awesome!!
;-)up
The landing was a bit more interesting...
(https://i.postimg.cc/0NyH8NGW/Jump7.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/21gxGrKh)
Seriously flamboyant.
Haven't you read the buggy guide book that says such driving is only meant to be done on sand dunes ?!
You guys read the instructions?!
Don't ask. This is completely normal and 100% not a scary lash up, honest. Machinists look away now. Health and Safety people should delete the entire bookmark.
(https://i.imgur.com/gwxBj9D.jpg)
But at least they're back flat now:
(https://i.imgur.com/KABzBr1.jpg)
So these discs warped when they were hot zinc plated, and the plan was originally to heat cycle them gently to get the stress out of them, then take them off the car and grind them flat before the car got used in anger.
That obviously never happened and because they were getting hot spots they got worse and worse lately - the things had more bow than a pringle in them.
Ground them back flat in a seriously Heath Robinson manner for now, just to get the brakes back, as it's been knocking the brake pads back and needing the pedal double pumping at higher speeds - they were half a mm out of true (discs should generally be under 0.05mm)
Obviously not good, so this is a temporary fix for now, and then we'll get some more cut either out of cast iron plate if we can manage it (which I originally wanted but our parts are so small you have to wait until somewhere has some spare offcuts basically) - or probably have them done out of 10mm thick plate next time, stress relieve them and then machine them back true to 8mm thick - I've already got a jig for it as we made one to do the discs originally before we got carried away and forgot :D
What's with the outer "scalloped" edge of the disc ?
I know from here it looks quite cool, but knowing you, it probably has a particular function - Just wondering what ? ???
Loving this thread by the way ;-)up
Dave I'd guess it increases air rotation across the disc surface and thereby cooling. But by the sound of it not enough !
It helps a little with cooling the pad interface as they pump air over the pad surface, but the main thing is they push out any mud, sand, dust, wet grinding paste, water etc, that gets on the disc surface and between the pads and the disc.
The edges digging in also give a bit more intial brake bite, but I usually make them much more aggressive for that, this is a set I used to run on my road car for example:
(https://i.postimg.cc/1zjVbNjg/2326-68264561150-7950-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
The downside is the discs themselves run hotter. But that's not really much of an issue with our race pads.
good for you fella ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up ;-)up jealous and envious in a good way
You can be a lot less jealous at least your discs are probably flat ;D
Gonna have to make a new set at some point, they'll do for now
Well after all that work, one of the wheel bearings appeared to have picked up, unscrewed the nut, then the hub slid off and the disc hit the caliper so now the disc is both bent and covered in melted aluminium. All that work sorting them out too...
I swear this car is cursed:
(https://i.imgur.com/uGeaRHD.jpg)
But we got a few decent pictures:
(https://i.imgur.com/4RpmrzE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8ppxbJk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/0vRd73T.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6A2oiaY.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/VRcQONW.jpg)
After some hours of work back at home, we've traced the problem, which is 90% of the battle - it's no good fixing something if it's just going to do it again - but it looks like the spindle cinch nut had fatigued, and managed to vibrate loose, despite the cinch bolt being tight and loctited - most probably from material fatigue on the aluminium.
Then it vibrated looser and looser until the locking/tabbed washer finally dropped out of it's slot and then that allowed the bearing to spin the nut off, which explains the whole lot suddenly falling off on the last 3-4 corners - and why the right side is fine, the right side would tighten itself while driving from the rotation, while the left loosens. And also why the thread is only damaged on the end of the spindle and was fine in the nut.
Which also means it's a fairly easy fix of switching them out for some stronger steel castellated nuts and roll pins to secure them, and not some sort of issue with the front hub/spindle/bearing assembly we'd previously got away with.
Unfortunately, because of the damage caused when it did come off, that means we need to machine and weld on a new spindle, sort new bearings, fettle a little bit of damage to the brake mounting bells and make new brake discs...so it's not all smooth sailing.
Onwards with the machine work I guess...
If you've got that much to do would it be possible to put a lh thread on and solve it permanently? Only risk then if it fails is tightening the bearing to destruction but hopefully that's something you'd notice in time and it's a risk you've already accepted on the other wheel
It would but I think a steel nut with a roll pin through it will solve that issue anyway without the hassle of trying to them make LH threaded nuts instead of just off the shelf driveshaft nuts.
Okay, since the last round didn't happen, this weekend, there were two rounds to catch up, one on Saturday, one on Sunday :o
I was at home with a very sick dog (in fact she's passed away unfortunately) so Eddy took his missus as a passenger for the weekend and headed down with some friends for support.
Car seemed pretty good and it ended up 7th in yesterdays event and 8th today - out of a LOT of cars as the event was booked solid to the limit - and 40-50 seconds per stage faster than the next nearest 2wd competitor.
Given the amount of 400 horsepower 4wd cars there, pretty happy.
(https://i.imgur.com/XKjdqIA.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ms1fPqx.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/3rtVETy.jpg)
Sad new about the dog but a good weekend with the buggy with the new modification fitted.
(https://i.imgur.com/RHvWC0r.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/1hpS343.jpg)
Oh, and it managed the 3rd fastest stage time of the event at the end there once he got up to speed, which is promising...
(https://i.imgur.com/ypY2RZO.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/87CYmQr.jpg)
I'm amazed you can see where your going or is that the secret to driving that fast in those conditions.
Zephod Beeblebrock's danger glasses come to mind
Anyone with no idea what I'm talking about give yourselves a treat and watch Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Bit of struggle with that one but it's mainly because I haven't coated the new windscreen, I usually run Gtechniq sealant which is amazing, mega old video on a potato camera but:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2NH48Vobs
(https://i.imgur.com/mD2vXg5.jpg)
More pictures:
(https://i.imgur.com/JX61NxIh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/z1BitaOh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xzaXdn2h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2lHXmCxh.jpg)
There's a decent round at Tong tommorow too but given the weather and flooding around here, I'll only be there to spectate for an hour :D
Did I mention I like photos?
(https://i.imgur.com/VTeVv1jh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/8tSNsgBh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fR56xVbh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/fkDmGRZh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RgDaBzxh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/w33VmY0h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JF6Y1Zgh.jpg)
Always entertaining, stimulating and frankly slightly gobsmacking to see your buggy being thrashed around.
Turning the engine up over winter ;D ;D
It's getting another 40 horsepower. See if we can fly a bit further...
I think Hugh is asking for a test ride with some flying involved ;D ;D
I mean, there's a lot of events not too far from him over there ;-)up
No I'm too old for such reckless speed and off roading.
I do see these battered cars on trailers around the lanes on weekends.
Yea there's a lot of events in southern wales.
I was flicking through the old thread and realised I didn't add the picture from when we went back to that same place for another event....
(https://i.postimg.cc/c1khK5Rz/Brakeson-Fire.png) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/QxRqm9nj/434167191-7069173053202224-8266162814883222954-n.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nLxGb8J6/Brakeson-Fire2.png) (https://postimages.org/)
Brakes got a good workout ;D
Bit of video of it in action at 1m in here too, and again at 4.30
;-)up ;-)up ;-)up
thats some glow!
does look fun.