So here is a veritable shitload of updates. Once again, I'm sorry for the delay. I got a new computer and never put any web developing tools on it. So now I've moved to a blog-style format, and I hope it'll be easier to update from now on. The only catch is there won't be much more updating left to do! We've done so much in the past year to make the car more reliable and safer. We still need to do an alignment, and we're aiming to do that next week. We'll also get to painting it again - the green has gotten a little scuffed with all the work we've done on it, and we'd like to add some yellow stripes. Check out the improvements below!
John Kajowski, our Volvo guru, goes to work on the SU carbs. We haven't had them looked at since we got the valve job done. Oh yeah, these are a new pair of carbs, as well. They are rebuilt and in great shape and make the motor sing.
It's difficult to see, but we re-routed one of the lower structural tubes of the chassis. We replaced a square tube with a round tube that has a bend in it. We did this because we noticed that there were several places where the motor was touching the chassis. In this case, the stay that holds the clutch cable, and the clutch lever itself, were rubbing against a tube. Now they're not. Click on the picture to see a full sized image and you'll be able to see the round tube a little better. It's just to the left of the black steering column. Also, you can see our tremendous new master cylinder. It's a Wilwood and it's got lots of stopping power. More importantly, it's aluminum, which means it won't rust and leak like our last two did.
The end of the night: Aaron and Dano.
Our new, professionally made drive shaft. This one has been balanced and will not fail.
Here's our F1 radiator. The fan is from some other car. Ignore that part. Isn't this a beautiful radiator? The story goes like this: Dano has a friend who is an engineer for Renault Formula1. He went to visit this friend at his home outside of Oxford, and the friend gave him a quick tour of the factory. There was a bin of used radiators. Dan asked if he could have one, and his friend gave it to him. The radiator was from a 2006 car, the R26, driven by either Giancarlo Fisichella or Fernando Alonso (who won the championship that year!). It was definitely used, as there were tyre marbles embedded in the cooling fins. We don't know
when it was used (for testing, practice, in a race, etc...) but there is the chance that this radiator was in the car when Alonso won the championship. Can you say that about your radiator? I didn't think so.
We did have to make some modifications. The radiator was a little big, so we cut off about 30% of it. This is about our 5th or 6th generation cooling system. Our nose cone has really been limiting the radiators we can use - it's terribly small, so we've tried several car and motorcycle radiators, with no luck (it keeps overheating). But now we've got it squared away: if in doubt, go with F1 technology and it should work. We have the radiator mounted 90° from it's orientation in the F1 car. The radiator is probably worth more than, uh, anything else I own, but we picked it up for free!
when it was used (for testing, practice, in a race, etc...) but there is the chance that this radiator was in the car when Alonso won the championship. Can you say that about your radiator? I didn't think so.
We did have to make some modifications. The radiator was a little big, so we cut off about 30% of it. This is about our 5th or 6th generation cooling system. Our nose cone has really been limiting the radiators we can use - it's terribly small, so we've tried several car and motorcycle radiators, with no luck (it keeps overheating). But now we've got it squared away: if in doubt, go with F1 technology and it should work. We have the radiator mounted 90° from it's orientation in the F1 car. The radiator is probably worth more than, uh, anything else I own, but we picked it up for free!
A view from behind. We've installed a proper coolant filling valve. In this view you can also see some of the work we've done cleaning up the wiring harness (where is it? Exactly!).
Top view of our radiator etc. from the front. Lookin' pretty, no?
Just a pretty picture of the rear wheel in some nice evening lighting.
Dano driving my car, me driving the Votus.
Me driving the Votus, again. That's the Meisner 122 on the left.
