Track Preperation Part 1

General Meets + Track Day Reports
61

a 6 in the middle and a 6 at the end.

LOL!

62

looking good dude,

cant wait to be on track with you next year,

i’ll keep my mirrors clean to spot you coming

63

Don’t know how I missed this thread. Well done Sean, fasinating stuff. Reminds me of the Honda conversion thread on Seloc - except I’m watching this time! All the best with the build. I’ll be following it closely as I put mine through it’s ultimate test starting next week (driving across the States on my way back to NZ).

64

a 6 in the middle and a 6 at the end.

LOL!

LOL, I hope it doesn’t come out at that!! I will end up thinking its possessed or something!!!

Mind you, if whoever posses it is a good driver, then maybe it wont be so bad!!! It will be like Herbie!!

Sean…

65

iwilson - will you be coming anywhere near Chicago on your journey across the States?

66

Yesterday and today have been frustrating to be honest. After getting sooo much done on Monday it has taken me virtually two days to get the cage all bolted in correctly.

But first things first. I had to work on Tuesday so nothing got done.

Wednesday first thing, I loaded the car on the trailer and took it from my garage to the workshop to use the steam cleaner. The engine bay was seriously grubby after my gearbox had breathed oil all over it before I put the proper breather on. Plus the sound deadening had left a load of sticky goo on the lower back part of the engine bay, so a load of thinners later and a good steam clean and its looking like a new pin!!!

While I was at the workshop, the courier arrived with my box of goodies from Lotus.

Motorsport engine cover

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Msportenginecover.jpg[/image]

Motorsport roof

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/MsportRoof.jpg[/image]

Electric fire extinguisher system

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Extinguisher.jpg[/image]

Motorsport bulkhead

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Bulkhead.jpg[/image]

I also got a six point harness and a pair of fibreglass cups that will be mounted externally to take the electric cut off and fire extinguisher external switches.

Took the car back home and started on putting the cage in. As I said what a nightmare, basically the rollover hoop and rear stays bolt to the same places as the original roll bar, except that the holes don�t line up.

The cage must have come in and out about twenty gazillion times as I didn�t want to go to big on elongating the holes in the cage. So once the main roll over hoop and rear stays were in I moved to the front legs.

Each front leg has four holes in it that bolt around a box section that runs behind the dash. The picture below shows what I mean.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Cagefrontmount.jpg[/image]

This posed two problems that were pretty big.

The first was the vertical holes have to be drilled from the top. But there is only about 3� between the top of the cage and the underside of the dash. The top of the dash can�t be removed as it is bonded in and is one piece with the screen surround and half of the stuff under the front, so taking it out was just not an option. So the holes had to be drilled with the minimal space that I had, but I didn�t have anything that would fit in there. Even my mate�s 90 degree air drill was too tall and simply wouldn�t fit in. Many hours of head scratching and phone calls to all and sundry came up fruitless. Thankfully it was �Snap On� day and he just happened to have a miniature 90 degree drill that he let me borrow to drill the holes. It was still a hugely tight fit. I had to cut a drill bit down to about an inch and a half long and it took what seemed like forever to get the 4 holes drilled.

The two horizontal holes were dead easy.

The second problem now that I had my holes drilled and my bolts in, was how the hell do I get the reinforcing plates, washers and nuts on the back, and then hold them with a spanner to tighten them up!!!

There were two options here, firstly there is a cut out in the box section on each side where the steering column goes (even the LHD cut out is there). The problem here is that it is a good 8 � 10 inches from the bolts so would have been massively difficult, if possible at all to manoeuvre pliers and spanners and washers and stuff over such a long distance. Plus I would have had to have removed the steering column on the drivers side to get any access at all.

Secondly and the option I went for was to unbolt the door hinge from the car and drill a small access hole in the plate behind, just big enough to get some needle nose pliers and a 13mm spanner in. So off came the doors and in I went with a hole saw to cut through the ally plate and gain access to the box section. Once the hole was drilled, the bolts were right there and it proved pretty straight forward to get everything bolted up.

So that was it, cage in and bolted down. Thank God!!!

The only other thing I did was totally remove the wiring loom from the car, so that I could bring it home and strip it while I am watching the telly. It was a bit of a mission passing the fuse box and relay holder from under the front through to inside the car, then all of the dash wiring had to pass through a similar sized hole so that it all ended up in a pile in the footwell.

I have been clipping off the plugs from bits I don�t need anymore as I have been disconnecting things, but it still weighs an absolute tonne. Seriously it is a two handed job to pick it up and carry it.

So below is a picture of my home work

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Loom.jpg[/image]

That is basically every wire that is in the car. The only bits that aren�t there are the light looms that are on each of the front and the rear clams and the engine loom, which is still on my engine.

I know it doesn�t look like much, but believe me it is!!!

Tomorrow is only a half day for me, as I am going away for the weekend, but hopefully it will see the new fuel tank in place (thanks to Plans for supplying that for me in a timely manner and at a very reasonable cost!!!)

Sean…

67

Wow - great report - keep it up !!!

68

Quick question Sean, is there a reason other than the larger scoop and perhaps lighter weight without the padding for going for the motorsport roof ?

Best of luck with the wiring harness in front of the telly, best not get to engrossed in the programme you are watching

69

I also got a six point harness and a pair of fibreglass cups

Thought for a second there that you were building in cup holders


How many hours work has it taken you so far?

70

Just read your latest updates Sean, fascinating stuff!

Glad to read things are pretty much going according to plan.

Good luck.

71

iwilson - will you be coming anywhere near Chicago on your journey across the States?

Afraid not - way to cold for me this time of year! You can see a map of my route here.

72

Looks like a great trip. Are you are hitting “The Dragon” near Asheville/Knoxville? Going up to Monterey, CA? Vegas - Nice.

What are you going to be driving?

73

Looks like a great trip. Are you are hitting “The Dragon” near Asheville/Knoxville? Going up to Monterey, CA? Vegas - Nice.

What are you going to be driving?

Sorry for the little bit of thread drift Sean. Yes I’ll be driving the Dragons tail. I’m going to Monterey to do a two day track day event at Laguna Seca Also doing two AutoX’s and going Drag racing at the Mo-Kan drag strip in Missouri.

I’ll be driving my Honda powered S1 Elise.

74

Yea - sorry Sean.

Yikes - an S1 across the country? You will learn to like our crappy roads and that trip across Kansas!!

Laguna is a fun track, but lots of concrete close to the track - stay within yourself!

75

Thanks for all of the comments guys.

Friday saw the tank in, although final fitting will take a little longer. I have tried to type an explanation out in words a few times, but cant (tired) so will post some pics tomorrow.

To answer the few questions.

  1. The motorsport roof. To be honest I am a little disapointed with this. Yes it is lighter, but it doesn’t feel much lighter (haven’t weighed them both yet, but I will) I thought that the motorsport roof had the full length really big roof scoop, that extends right to the front edge of the roof. But as you can see in the pics, it doesn’t.

  2. Time spent so far. Well I started properly last Monday and I worked on it on Wednesday and Thursady and till lunch time on Friday. Before that I guess I had spent half a day taking the engine and box out and the clams off. So all in approx 24 hours I guess.

Oh plus about 5 hours so far working on the loom at home on the living room floor. Bloody wires!!!

I am planning to work on it as much as possible over the next week. So hopefully by the end of the week it will start to look like a car again!!

76

Sean

This is AWESOME… and then SOME MORE…

77

Bloody Hell, I was miles out with the weight. Called Plans today to see what it weighed last time they Geo’d it, as it was playing on my mind.

With no fuel in it weighed 751kg’s!!!

I am over the moon, God knows where I got 820kg’s from, perhaps that was with me in it???

Anyway, fingers crossed when I have finished all the striping and stuff, it will have a 6 at the front!!!

So your now a 69Kilo racing snake as well ehh…

78

Anyway, fingers crossed when I have finished all the striping and stuff, it will have a 6 at the front!!!

a 6 in the middle and a 6 at the end.

nah… then he’d have to paint it black…

79

So your now a 69Kilo racing snake as well ehh…

LOL, yeah my wish. I am 84Kg’s. I have been talking about getting fit and making an effort for years, but thats all its been, talk. I need to fire bomb my local kebab shop, cus they are too nice man!!!

80

iwilson - will you be coming anywhere near Chicago on your journey across the States?

Afraid not - way to cold for me this time of year! You can see a map of my route > here. >

Hi Ian

Any chance of posting up a seperate thread and keeping in touch with us ? or maybay setting up a Blog or something… looks like an excellent road trip and i’d be interested to know why you chose some parts like going north to Kansas instead of straight thru to Oklahoma (prolly shows my lack of good ol US of A knowledge… )