SB1403 got a younger sister

25/04-2008

Yesterday SB1408 got a younger sister, a 2007 Lotus Elise R. I'm looking forward to ride the same route in the two cars and see how far Lotus got in the last 45 years. I'll let you know and post a better picture... :-)

Video from Frijsenborg Hill Climb

17/04-2008

Here's a video from the Hill Climb in Frijsenborg last weekend. No fancy PIP or integration with vehicle data this time.

First Hill Climb in this season

12/04-2008

This was the day that all the work done during the winter would bee tested for real and I’m glad to say all worked out perfectly!

The car had done around 250km after the engine and clutch had been rebuild and it was a little less than I had preferred but everything was acting fine and so we took the change. In the first to test runs during the morning the road was wet and the grip was very poor but the weather cleared up and for the counting three stints the road was almost all dry except for the final bit that is kept in shadows of the trees.

As mentioned all was running perfectly and there was lots of speed in the car but I jumped the gun twice in the counting stints adding 10 sec. to my time. This killed every change of getting a good time as the final result is the added time of the two best stints. Here are my times;

Test stints:
01:05.242
01:02.081

Counting stints:
01:10.746
01:09.778
01:01.793

Here’s a couple of pictures from the event and I’ll add a video later.


It's cold in Denmark at 7am in April


The SB1403 pit


Lining up


Concentrating


Somewhere on the route

Ready for the first Hill Climb in 2008

09/04-2008


SB1403 is ready for the first stage of the Hill Climb series running this Saturday the 14th of April. Technical control are starting at 7am and the first two training parses will are driven before lunch. After lunch the three counting runs are preformed and the winnins will bee at the podium around 6pm.

39 cars are coming and the line up is as nice as usually with cars of all sorts ready to hit the 'hills' around Frijsenborg.


View Larger Map

All running after 'a few' problems

07/04-2008

Getting the engine back into the chassis went all smoothly but then the first problems showed up. The starter had a very hard time turning the engine over and lots of theories were brought on; Not enough juice on the battery, the bearings were tightened to fast, the piston rings were not fitting, the chain were to tight, the oil pump wasn't working, etc., etc.
After a lot of checking, re-torking and general troubleshooting we finally got oil pressure and the engine started easily with just a few turns of the starter. We weren't quite glad about the oil pressure though as it wasn't high enough and during right cornering it dropped completely. After consulting some old e-mails from the previous owner it turned out we needed a high pressure pump and the installed one was a standard. A new one were ordered at Burton, 'FP200A - HIGH PRESSURE/HIGH CAPACITY OIL PUMP: X/FLOW, PRE-X/FLOW, BDA, LOTUS TWIN CAM', amongst some other minor parts.

The trouble didn't end here... Next the clutch stopped working and a new round of troubleshooting started and during the process the clutch were on and off 7-8 times, new parts were produced and tested. Finally it turned out the clutch wasn't rebuild correctly from the repair shop. The problem were solved by adding some 2 mm. shims. This fixed the problem and everything was running fine.

After installing the new oil pump and the rest of the parts from Burton the oil pressure was also back up where it's supposed to be but more trouble showed up...

The shims fixing the clutch problem killed the starter, see the pics below. This time the solution were straight forward; Get a replacement starter and it turned out one was at hand from the other car in the garage. The Morris is using the same starter and due to the conditions of that project it will not bee missed right away, see pics below.

Now all is finally running perfectly - knock on wood :-)


Thermotec exhaust wrap added:


New fuel pump installled: